Quick note: for the record I've kind of given up trying to find accurate UK terms for stuff because it was taking too long. Also introducing a new companion, Rowan!

Alex Timeus waited three months before the Doctor came by again. She came in the evening, after the sun was behind the buildings and the light was too dim to read by. His mother answered the door and shrieked, and Alex sprinted down the hallway to see what was going on. "Is it da- Doctor!"

The Doctor looked almost exactly the same as he remembered, with an untucked shirt, lace-up boots, and pants that were more pocket than anything else. Her jacket was over one arm, and- "You dyed your hair," he said, looking at it. The Doctor had not only pulled her hair into a large puff at the back of her head, but dyed it sky blue.

Beaming, she answered, "Isn't it brilliant? It looks like candyfloss. I love candyfloss. I wanted to make it pink but I couldn't find any pink that would work. Now, what was I here for? I'm afraid this isn't just a social visit, I need to borrow Alex for a bit. Natalie, don't glare at me like that," she continued, letting herself into the flat, "I need to investigate a carnival. And they look at you weird if you don't have a kid."

"But," Alex's mother said as she hurried around the kitchen, "It's October. People don't do things like that in October, not around here. Tea?"

"It's not a normal carnival, that's why I'm investigating. Something's going on."

AUTUMN CARNIVAL

(by Gakorogirl)

The Doctor dropped sugar cubes into her tea with a mechanical motion. "There's something up, the question's what. People get sick afterwards, and some of them have died. They're on the right track, that there's something wrong with the functions of the mitochondria- but they don't know the cause, and a subcellular sickness couldn't possibly be linked to a carnival ride, could it?"

"So what do you need Alex for? You're not letting him get sick," Natalie said sternly, her brow furrowing slightly as she stepped towards Alex. The Doctor shook her head. "Of course not- from the reports I've managed to gather, there's only a few places that cause the problem."

Shaking her head, Natalie said, "Can't you just fly in with the TARDIS?"

"Too suspicious. You can come too, if you want."

"All right. I'm coming along, and Alex, you are not going on any rides."

"Brilliant!" Alex and the Doctor exclaimed at the same time, and Natalie turned away to hide a chuckle. "Are you ready to go now?" she asked. "It's a weekend and there's no meetings I have to record today, and if we get back by tomorrow morning I can get the rest of my work done. Alex, have you done your homework?"

"Yeah!"

"Oh," the Doctor added, "I have a new TARDIS, too. The whole deal with the star dragons overheated the engines and she had a bit of trouble. So I redecorated."

She led the way out onto the street and clicked her fingers to open the doors. "It's pretty!" Alex said as he entered. "You made the middle bit all gold and glowy! And the floors are shiny," he said, kneeling down and tracing the patterns engraved in the reflective surface. "This is your language, right? I saw bits of it from the star dragon."

"Gallifreyan. Yeah."

"The ceiling is full of stars," Alex gasped as he looked up. "Or is that even a ceiling?"

The Doctor beamed. "It's a ceiling, and I can change the way it looks!" She flicked a couple of switches on the console and the ceiling brightened to a brilliant blue sky.

"Natalie, would you mind closing the doors? I've got the coordinates plugged in already," the Doctor said as she hurried around the console, "so all I have to do is this!" She pulled a lever as the doors closed and the familiar engine screech began to sound.

The sun was bright, but there was a cold wind blowing over the carnival as they walked up to the gate. Distant music played as children laughed on the carousel. "It doesn't seem threatening," Natalie said, peering around. "Cool! The Palace of Mirrors," Alex read from a sign. The Doctor rummaged through her many pockets until coming up with the money to buy tickets. "Brilliant, there's some left over," she said happily. "I can buy candyfloss."

She immediately went over to a snack wagon and bought three clouds of pink sugar, giving one to Alex. Natalie refused one.

"You're going to get hyper if you eat all that," she warned. Shrugging, the Doctor mumbled through a mouthful of sugar, "Let's take a look at the mirrors." With her sonic screwdriver held in front of her, she approached the entrance. Alex chuckled. "You look all puffy! And I'm so tall-let's go in more-"

He broke off suddenly, walking slowly into the maze. Mirrors loomed on either side of him. "Careful, Alex!" Natalie warned. "People get lost in there."

"But there's a little girl. She must've just come from outside, see, she's got a balloon."

The Doctor froze, looking over. "A red balloon?" "Yes."

"She's not real, then. Or rather, she used to be. She lives in mirrors now." "What happened to her?" Natalie asked.

"She and her family thought they could fight me. They wanted to live forever. And now she does."

"...oh."

"Natalie? Where's the exit?" the Doctor asked quietly. Her voice echoed through the mirrors. "Alex, come back. This way." She put her hand on Alex's shoulder and turned him around, then bumped into a mirror.

"Doctor? I can't see you anymore, I can't see anyone!" Natalie said frantically.

"Don't move! Don't go into the maze!" the Doctor called back. "Doctor... I think something's coming," Alex whispered. A darkness was starting to creep around the corners of the mirrors, and the reflections of the Doctor were going out one by one.

There was a very quiet voice around them. "Doctor... I think there's something here. People go into the mirror maze and they never come out. I've been waiting for you to come." "What're you playing at?" the Doctor said cautiously. A bitter wind whistled through the maze.

"Follow me, Doctor," the little girl whispered, running across the surface of the mirror. "The exit's this way. There's a mirror in front of you," she said as the Doctor led Alex cautiously through the maze. "See the sunlight? It's right ahead. No tricks."

"Why are you doing this?" Alex asked. He thought the little girl smiled. "Thank you for visiting me, Doctor. There's something in the mirrors, I can't make it go away. If it gets enough energy it might spread all the way into my world. You have to stop it. Goodbye, Doctor."

Natalie was at the exit, waving frantically. "Alex, go to your mother," the Doctor said, shoving him forwards. Someone on the other side of the closest mirror was pounding. Raising her sonic, the Doctor shouted, "Stand back!"

The mirror cracked, and then crumbled neatly to the ground. The figure on the other side of it staggered forwards. "Thank- you-"

Behind them, the mirror shards began to flow back together.

"What day is it?" the dark figure asked, approaching the Doctor. Narrowing her eyes, the Doctor scanned the figure. "Human, it looks like," she told Alex out of the corner of her mouth. More clearly, she said, "It's April 17th. Friday."

"Oh god," the figure whispered, "I've been in here a day." They dropped to the ground, holding their head. The Doctor ran forwards, jumping over the piles of shattered glass where the mirror had been. "Do you have family around here? And, sorry, are you a boy or a girl?"

"Uh- no. And no."

"Let's get you out of here, get some food. Did you see anything in the mirrors, right before they broke?" the Doctor asked, helping them to the exit.

"What's your name?" the Doctor asked as she came back loaded with food and drinks. She saw that the person couldn't have been more than nineteen or so, skinny, with short black hair in an oversized rust-orange sweater and jeans. "Rowan."

"Where's your family at, Rowan?"

They shrugged, grabbing the food and wolfing it down. "My dad's in London. He's the only family I've got- I came down here on an off day from work, and there was someone stuck in the maze. A little boy. Did you see him anywhere?"

"No, I'm sorry- wait. Didn't I- break that mirror?"

There was no broken glass left in the maze- through the entrance of the tent, the mirrors glittered innocently. Whole. "Something's going on, and the core of it is in that maze," the Doctor said as she scanned the entrance. "It doesn't read quite like normal glass would."

"Is it an alien?" Alex asked. Rowan looked up from their food. "An alien?" they asked warily. "Like the- the Cybermen? And the things that invaded on Christmas ten years ago?"

The Doctor glanced back. "Yeah, an alien. Your planet gets invaded a lot, but not all of you notice. It's covered up."

"You talk like- like you aren't from here."

Before the Doctor could answer, Alex said, "She's not. She's nice, though. From the planet Gall- Galle- Gallifrey." he proclaimed triumphantly as he remembered the name.

"Gallifrey, yeah. Rowan, are you feeling all right? Weak?"

"I haven't had food or sleep for days, of course I'm tired," Rowan said as they wiped traces of sugar off of their mouth. "But come to think of it, I am awfully cold. Maybe I'll just lay down- here-"

Their voice trailed off and they flopped over on the grass, eyes fluttering. The Doctor raced over and took their pulse. "Rowan, don't go to sleep, you're very weak." she said urgently. "Natalie- watch them, make sure they don't fall asleep. Get some more food."

"What about you?" Natalie asked.

"I'm going back into the maze. If I don't come out by nightfall leave the park and get back to the TARDIS, and I'll meet you in the morning." Spinning on her heels, she ran into the maze.

The maze was dimly lit, and the reflections of the Doctor were distorted. She felt her way around a few corners, the mirrors closing in right behind her, until she found herself in a mirrored dome a few meters across. The warped reflections separated into twelve figures stretching out around the dome, which had completely sealed itself. The reflections began to bulge, distancing themselves from the glass, until the Doctor stood in a circle of twelve crystalline figures- old eyes in young faces and old eyes in young faces, trenchcoat, scarf, bowtie. All stiff and shimmering.

"I suppose that's how you made the carnival workers, then," the Doctor said evenly as she looked for a way out. "Made of glass, all of them, to bring in more faces for you to use, more energy to suck in to make yourself bigger, more active?"

The glass reflection of the eleventh spoke.

"You've got lots of faces, Doctor. I could work years, just on these. Twelve of them! And you make thirteen." It moved naturally, bouncing on its heels. "You're trapped, Doctor. The mirrors will reform as soon as you break them, and eventually the oxygen's running out." It spun around, spreading its arms, and then went stiff again. The voice moved to the reflection of the seventh- "Doctor, your time's almost up-" and then jumped to the tenth, behind her. Laughing a laugh she remembered.

The Doctor didn't bother to address herself to the voice jumping between the reflections- she spoke to the ceiling. "But you know," she said mildly, "It's too bad you only have my faces and not their memories, because I always seem to have... a way out."

Raising her sonic screwdriver over her head, she smiled, "New screwdriver, I changed it when I redid the TARDIS. And it's got a new function-"

A high-pitched musical tone began to sound from the spinning tip, and cracks started to spread across the dome.

"What are you doing?" snarled the reflected twelfth, as the other reflections began to burst. The voice changed back to a monotone rendering of the eleventh and said, "Look out, Doctor. Something's coming, and it's big. Bigger than you've ever known. Camazotz."

The Doctor covered her head as glass rained down, and the eleventh and twelfth exploded behind her.

There was a pause, and silence. The sun was shining. "Doctor!" Alex screamed, running towards her. Rowan and Natalie were sitting down, staring wide-eyed at the destruction. All of the carnival workers and several rides had exploded, and the glass shards were turning into steam and drifting away.

"What happened? Are you hurt?" Natalie asked as she stood. "I killed it," the Doctor replied as she brushed glass shards off of her jacket, "and only a little. I'll fix myself up once we get back to the TARDIS. Rowan, d'you want to come? And are you feeling all right now?"

Rowan shrugged. "I feel loads better now- maybe killing the mirrors gave back my energy. What d'you mean, come? Where are you going?"

"It's- bigger. On the inside." Rowan said in shock as they looked into the TARDIS.

"Everybody says that," the Doctor beamed. Alex added, "She just redecorated. It used to be all blue and red."

"We'd better get home- it's getting late," Natalie said. The Doctor nodded, then turned to Rowan. "After I take them back, are you up for going anywhere?"

"What does it do, fly?"

"Sort of. Mostly it travels through time." Alex and Natalie were already inside, waiting next to the console. Rowan shook their head. "Not up for any more aliens right now. And I'd better get some sleep."

As the TARDIS disappeared behind them, Rowan rubbed their eyes and started off down the road.

Loosely inspired by one of my favorite books, Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. I'm still looking for some new episode/companion/character ideas~ throw me a time period to set an episode in?

Also if you like this fic I strongly suggest that you check out the Foreman fan project!