All translations, explanations, advertisements, polls, and thought processes are at the end of the chapter.
Disclaimer: All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them.
I ran down the long hallway and past the numerous doors. I opened some, looking in quickly, before closing them and running again, looking for a place to hide, a good one where no one could ever find me. My places that I usually chose to hide are dim, quiet, and impossible to find. There were bedrooms, ballrooms, offices, bathrooms, supply closets, gardens, a library, storage rooms, a med bay, all different kinds of rooms. None of them felt right, so I continued to run.
I grew tired, stumbling down the hallways now, wandering and crying, scared and lost. Finally, the same nudging sensation from before guided me to a room. Wheezing slightly, I opened it as I put a tired hands against the wall to support me and let out a weak laugh as I saw what the room contained. It was a perfect mimicry of the set in the movie 'Narnia.' A blank, non-descript room with a giant wardrobe smack-dab in the middle of it and I was suddenly filled the inane urge to climb inside.
It was perfect.
I had the insane idea that if I climbed through this exact wardrobe, I would end up in some old man's castle in England. I wanted to see if I would actually leave this messed up Narnia, if I went into this wardrobe, hoping beyond hope that this was false or some undeniable proof that this was all true would present itself. I sounded crazier with each passing second, I know, but the impulse to do it was so strong, that it overrode any rational thoughts.
I opened the wardrobe and hid inside, amongst the closet of furs. I yanked them from hangers until I had a pile and then burrowed into it. I curled up, making myself smaller, trying to disappear entirely, wrapped in the silence of the place. No one would be able to find me without any help, especially not in this new hiding spot. It was gloomy and quiet, the only light provided by the small crack of the barely open wardrobe door and the only sound being my wheezing breath and pounding heart.
Swathed in the fur, I felt like a small and fluffy animal hibernating for winter. I had always supposed that to be a peaceful way of life, curled up into a warm cocoon of fur, asleep. I lied there for a long time, stroking the fur, pretending that it was a living animal that was sleeping and curled up around me and for a moment, I felt content…happy. What must've been hours passed by, I felt more and more relaxed, and at some point, I dropped off to sleep…
The sound of raindrops.
"Huh, I guess Heaven decided to do some spring cleaning, eh?" Two small children looked up at me, upset.
"But why now? Why does it have to be today?" They chorused, disappointed.
"If not now, when?" I quipped, smiling. "Besides, you can still go outside when it rains, I most certainly do."
"Mom, all you is ignore it when you go running," the little girl on my right, sighed.
"Yeah, 'cause you let nothing stop you…not even when you're sick," the other girl agreed.
"That where you're wrong," I countered. "I run because it's raining, I prefer to run then, there's nothing like it." I start to put on my shoes and a light raincoat. "Do you want to see why?" There was a small pause and the girls looked at each other, unsure, before copying my movements, putting on rain boots and rain coats.
A metallic tang in the air.
I looked up from my gardening, the smell of freshly dug soil mixing with the smell of rain. I close my eyes, glorifying God, thanking Him for the rain, and reveling in the scents around me. I breathed in and out, a smile stretching across my mouth.
Coolness dotted on my face.
I watched my dogs race past me as we ran through the backyard and over to the woods. Exhilarated, I let out a "Wheeeeew!" The dogs started barking like crazy in response and I laughed, whipping my head back and forth as I ran, trying to shake off the rain.
Wind blowing through my hair.
A breeze gusted around me and my hair whipped around madly. Regretfully, I looked at the sky as I entered the work place, unable to go running at the moment. "So, how about that weather? Isn't it lovely?" The looks I got from my co-workers were priceless.
Thunder rumbling in the distance.
"All thunder and lighting is, is God and his angels going bowling…" I assured the two girls huddling under the blankets. They didn't seem too convinced. I tried again, "Really, the lightning is when the bowling ball strikes the pins and the thunder is when the pins fall down."
"But Mom, don't you know?" One girl piped up.
"What?"
"That lightning is the cracks," the other continued.
"The cracks, how do you mean?" I asked, confused by both the phrasing and the strange jolt of dread I felt.
"The cracks, the cracks in the whole of the Universe," they chorused. "Don't you know, Mom, don't you know? There are tears in the fabric of space and time, and they are spreading everywhere. They are erasing everything, Mom, you're forgetting!"
"I think I would remember something like that," I remarked, tittering nervously. "Maybe you watched too much 'Doctor Who.'"
"You'll only remember Him, Mom, you're forgetting Us," one girl said sadly.
"I would never forget you, not my own daughters!" I exclaimed, shocked. "What is going on with you two?"
"Not just us, Mom, everyone, the whole dimension. You went into the other one, the Main Universe. The splinter isn't as important as the trunk."
"Every splinter is important, because together they make the whole trunk," I retorted.
"You're missing the point, Mom. You won't remember anything, not even yourself when the time comes. You'll be something else entirely, it's taking over everything."
"Wh-what is?" I choked out.
"It has no name, it just is."
"A nameless danger?" I asked, fear was taking root inside of me.
"Run, Mom, you need to run!" They screamed, and I did, my house falling apart around me.
Lightning flashing across the sky.
I ran, farther, faster, harder. Afraid, so afraid, of what was chasing me, of what was right behind me. Thunder rumbled ominously, but not a drop of rain fell. There was a perpetual gray color that covered the canvas-like night sky. The storm clouds loomed overhead with a menacing feel to it. The heavens almost seemed to hold onto their water and were probably brewing a big storm. The very Earth gave the impression of holding its breath, waiting for the clouds to release their rage out upon it.
Lightning flashed overhead, but instead of going away, it seemed to spread, like I was watching it through a high-speed camera. The lightning spread, growing longer and more scattered, like fireworks, like roots, like…cracks. The lightning… the lightning was actually cracks.
Cracks in the Universe.
There was no way that I would be able to out-run it, but I had to try, I tried so very hard. I could hear it all shattering behind me, the whole of the Universe falling to pieces behind me, the whiteness nipping at my heels. I saw in my peripheral vision the blankness starting to go past me, I started to lose my footing as the ground crumbled away into nothingness. Desperately, I reached forward, my hand grasping at what still remained, but it was futile, air does not make a good hand-hold, and so, I fell.
And I fell, and I fell, and I fell.
Down, down, down, I went with no end in sight.
Then I landed in a heap, lying on what seemed to be nothing, whiteness, blankness, surrounding me. Painfully, I pushed myself up and held my head with one hand while my other arm supported myself. My eyes started to tear up and my face smarted from meeting the floor head on.
Footsteps.
I slowly looked up, trying to see who else was in the featureless landscape. I soon wished that I hadn't.
A blurred form of a person cloaked in shadows, sometimes one and sometimes several, none of them were alike and only one stayed constant. Goosebumps covered my arms and the hairs on the back of my neck started to rise. It continued to walk forward at a leisurely pace, a non-threatening one, but somehow that made it seem all the more dangerous.
Somehow, I knew that this was my pursuer that I had been running from in my dreams all these years, and he had finally caught up.
Terrified beyond belief, I moved to get up, to flee once again, only to find, to my eternal horror that I couldn't. I couldn't move, I had no control over my body whatsoever. I couldn't even look away from it and the darkness that trailed behind it like an obedient pet.
A smile.
A grin appeared on the featureless head where the mouth would be, and, somehow, it was familiar. I had seen that smile somewhere before. It was meant to reassure, it certainly would've been interpreted as a friendly one under any other circumstances, but it was a parody of one, a fake, not natural.
Not natural.
A predator.
The grin shifted from being an amicable beam to a shark-like leer in a split-second, like a switch had been flipped. It advanced upon me, its hands reaching out towards me. 'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!' I mentally cried in protest, unable to utter even a whimper. Still, it approached and its hands lightly alighted on my temples, almost as if in a caress. Then it violated my mind by violently shoving its presence through.
I screamed.
The argument wasn't over, the Doctor could see it in Donna's eyes, but she was uncertain now of her view on how Penny's medication should be handled. The Doctor was certain he could win her over, persuade her that his view was the correct one, if a bit unsavory for both sides. They had reached an impasse, the Doctor realized, he would stand down for now, but in the end, this was his TARDIS, his decisions were final. He sighed, "Just think on it, Donna. She won't need another dose for close to six hours or so, since Dr. Dogers was so kind to inform me when she had her last one."
She stiffed slightly, "And what'll you do?"
He looked at her flatly, "Nothing, you can make your final decision then. Penny's care and well-being in your hands." He turned away from her startled expression. "For now, we should make her comfortable, the trance should've been..." The Doctor trailed off.
"She's gone," Donna exclaimed, hurrying over to where Penny was once sitting. "Where could she go? You don't think that she-" Donna gestured to the door that led outside. "-went out there, do you?"
"Impossible, she would've had to slip past the both of us...and the TARDIS doors don't open in the Time Vortex."
"Well, she can't have gotten too far. Come on, Space-man," Donna offered a small smile before going down the hallway. The Doctor merely watched her for the moment, hoping that his companion would make the right decision and trying not to think about the consequences if she didn't...
I thrashed, trapped and suffocated by the furry bindings that had slowly tightened and constricted around me as I slept. I cried out in fear and terror and pain, my skull throbbing in agony, the pressure inside it unbelievable. When the Doctor and Donna finally located me, I was writhing on the floor of the wardrobe, tangled in fur, screaming my head off.
I fought them at first, so sure that they were the figures from my nightmare, until they convinced me that they were trying to help, peeled away the choking garments, and carried me into the sick-bay. It was then that Donna had made her decision for me to continue to be put on my medication. The Doctor assured her, once again, that she made the right choice.
I wasn't all that aware, but the Doctor talked about some of the scans he was doing in the sick bay. I couldn't tell whether he was talking to me, to Donna, or to himself, but I don't think it really mattered at that point. "All her organs are larger than normal, in comparison to her overall body size, but that might just be the dimensional differences between her reality and ours. Her brain is fairly large too, now that I look at it… Anyway, her brain activity is back to its normal level under the influence of her medication. That's good, very good, I was a bit worried that I might've had to intervene…
"She doesn't seem to have any illness, perfectly healthy, except for being an asthmatic, see, her airways are a bit inflamed, looks like she adapting though, not much of a concern. She is sleep deprived, however, probably caused by those persistent nightmares. I can fix that with the neural dampener, thankfully. Penny, you can hear me, I bet, so don't worry, this won't hurt. You will just be asleep for a while, no nightmares." He reached above me as he said this, fiddling with something.
And I drifted.
When I awoke, I wasn't alone. I turned my head to see the Doctor watching me evenly. "How long?" I asked, wondering if he just sat there and stared at me the whole time I was asleep. The idea was unnerving.
"I've only been here a couple of minutes, but you've been sleeping for close to twelve hours. I'm guessing that you binge sleep whenever you can, when you readily deplete yourself, to keep your nightmares at bay," he leaned forward. I adverted my eyes, saying nothing, but that seemed to be answer enough for him. "Penelope," he said patiently.
I looked at him once again, he continued, "You still don't believe any of this is real, do you?"
"No…" I answered quietly, hoping that he wouldn't get upset with my answer.
"And that's fine, it's helped you to cope all this time, and it's what everyone else has been telling you all those years. However, you can't use that as your crutch anymore, it could cost you your life if you don't take things seriously. It's dangerous traveling with me if you believe none of it is real. I don't want to trap you in the TARDIS, but if it will ensure your safety, I will."
I looked at him, shocked and slightly scared. Seeing my expression, he hurried to add, "But while it can be dangerous, it's one of the best things out there, traveling through time and space, seeing things long past and yet to come. It's brilliant and it's beautiful and I want to be able to share it with you, Penelope. You don't have to worry about anything, you just need to get better, I-"
"Wh-what's wrong with me, then?"
"There's nothing wrong with you exactly, you just need to be weaned off the medication your psychiatrists put you on… If I could, I would use a method that would stabilize your body to the correct chemical levels it was at before you started taking the neuroleptics within a day. However with the looming threat that your mind could burn as a result, I'll be going the much safer but slower route."
He leaned back in his chair, "What that means for you, Penelope, is that you'll have to remain in the safety of the TARDIS for the next few weeks, taking a steadily decreasing amount of your regular prescription and this pill that I made specifically for you. It's loaded with the chemicals you are currently lacking in comparison to the compound that the regular medicine is providing you." He slid a cup of water and two pills over to me. Noticing my hesitant expression, he gave a reassuring smile, purposefully making eye contact. "Trust me," he requested simply.
His eyes held much warm and kindness. There was a sharpness that I haven't noticed before that showed though the warmth, like a parent giving a look to their child, telling them to listen. I took the pills with the water and the sharpness in his eyes faded. He nodded, "Good." Moving the tray-table on wheels away from me, he scooted his chair closer. "I've been doing some scans, some tests while you've been sleeping."
I frowned, 'Tests?' Out loud, I asked, "What, like the st-stereotypical aliens from Mars type of tests?" I tried to give a smile, to show that I was joking, trying to lighten the mood, make myself more comfortable. The Doctor's face turned to a worried and slightly offended expression and I quickly back-pedaled. "Or like your n-namesake, Doctor-like tests, m-medical ones?"
The expression remained but he continued, voice light, "Medical ones, of course. You humans certainly have a wild imagination when it comes to aliens, little green men, honestly…" He sighed, "Either way, they came out mostly normal, but you're absolutely covered in void stuff, the little floating green things, see?"
I grinned a bit when he took out the 3-D glasses, I had such an attention to detail. He stuck them on my face and I looked at the floating greenish-yellow particles. I snuck a look at the Doctor and confirmed that he had some too. The amount on him was much smaller though, did it fade away over time? Probably. It was also likely the only reason why I was on the TARDIS in the first place in my delusional mindscape.
A thought occurred to me. If I could find a way to be dropped off the TARDIS by the Doctor, the apparition himself, maybe I would be alright. Maybe this was a momentary loss of my senses that would soon return the moment the void stuff disappeared and faded completely away like the Doctor's was. I said out loud, "I h-have a lot of it, it must fade away over t-t-time then, since you have so little. Once it's all gone, c-can I leave and go back to the home?"
He winced and I hurriedly added, "I'm sure traveling with you would be l-lovely, but I…I've already seen so much, I just…I just want to settle down, live a normal life. I want to be m-mediocre, average, just be a normal, apparently clueless human wandering around, doing n-nothing too extraordinary. I want to forget." My confession of my desires seemed to make things worse as the Doctor then refused to look at me. Tentatively, I asked, "How long does it take for it to f-fade, the void stuff? When can I leave this dream, Doctor?"
"…You went through the void unprotected. I was in my TARDIS, which is why I have so much less compared to you… You're naturally exuding large amounts of it."
"So a long time, then? L-longer than it's going to take me to get off the m-medicine?" I deflated slightly. "That's a long time."
"Much longer than you think, Penelope," the Doctor said sadly. He moved to say more, but I shook my head.
"D-don't tell me, I don't want to know anymore…too depressing. Wh-what else did you find out?"
"You're from a different dimension, too different internally to be anything else and just traveling back in time wouldn't explain all you know and the void stuff."
"Well, you're supposed to be a f-fictional character. I mean, being slightly obsessed over fictional characters isn't w-weird, is it? They don't exist. I can't help that I f-fell in love with escaping my own story and living somebody else's t-t-tale. I was a big fan, you know. I didn't watch much of the show, the new series, because of school and…and family issues. I researched a lot though, internet sites like 'Rassilon, Omega, and that Other guy' or…or the 'TARDIS Wiki.' Th-then there were Trock bands like the 'Chameleon Circuit' and 'Time Children.'" I smiled, remembering. "You were very p-p-popular, Doctor, especially this regeneration."
"Penelope," the Doctor said, looking pained. "It would be best if you refrained from revealing the information you know so freely."
I blinked, surprised, "But e-everyone knows those things and the information is easy to access. N-nothing I said is something that can't be found easily-"
"Penelope, please, for your sake as well as mine, don't."
"Nothing, 'Doctor Who' related?" I asked incredulous.
"Nothing unless it was already brought up in conversation and even then, try not to."
"…'Kay," I said, frowning slightly.
The Doctor closed his eyes, letting out an exhale of relief, "Good." There was a short silence until the Doctor straightened and clapped his hands together. "Alright, now, Penelope, you have free rein of the TARDIS. Only rules are that you can't leave it, don't touch the console, and you have to return to the sickbay to receive your medicine. The TARDIS will nudge you in the right direction when the time comes."
"…'Kay." I nodded hesitantly as the Doctor got up to leave, but before he did, I asked. "Doctor?" He turned to look at me expectantly. "Could I… Would you… May I hear your heartsbeat?"He looked surprised and a bit speechless at my strange request.
I felt the need to explain, so I clarified, "I know you have two h-hearts, but the show, as far as I seen, never showed what your hearts sounded like. I never looked it up and n-never heard what two hearts sounded like beating together… If you are just an apparition… I mean…" Frustrated, my hands fluttered in a random manner impatiently, as I tried to search for the right words in my mind to describe what I was trying to say. "It'll sound like I'm just listening to…to just one heart, I won't hear an echo of another."
His expression became one of understanding and slight bemusement. "Ah, right, let's see if I have a stethoscope in here…"He dug around in one of his coat pockets and I had to bite back a laugh at the comical sight of him digging around up to his elbow before finding what he was looking for. Secretly, just between you and me, I think he knew exactly where it was in his pocket, he just wanted to lighten the mood. He did this a lot, act a bit silly to make people feel more at ease, he was kind like that.
Gently, he inserted the earplugs of the stethoscope into my ears and put the flat metal part into my hand, before taking my hand into his own. He guided it to the middle of his chest, almost as if he knew that listening to one heart at a time wouldn't cut it, that I believed my imagination would just insert the sound of a heart beating when needed. Closing my eyes, I concentrated hard, listening intently.
At first I could only hear the sound of his breathing, each inhale and exhale he did. But there, softly, in the background, I could hear them beating.
Ba-ba-bump-bump.
Ba-ba-bump-bump.
Ba-ba-bump-bump.
I remembered my Human Anatomy class and learning about the heart. Heck, I had dissected both a deer and sheep heart before too, learning about the heart and its functions. I knew what I was hearing, how I was hearing it, and why. 'A cardic cycle consists of the events occurring during one heartbeat. During early diastole, the ventricles are relaxed while the atria are contracting and the pulmonary and aortic valves close while the atrioventicular valves open, creating the "ba" sound in the heart beat. During the mid-to-late diastole, the atria are relaxed while the ventricles contract and the atrioventicular valves close while the pulmonary and aortic valves open, creating the "bump" sound in the heartbeat.'
Without a doubt, I was hearing this process happening at two different times, the hearts were in tandem with each other, it was just that one was half a beat behind the other. Shaken, and a little bit in awe, I pulled away. The Doctor took back his stethoscope and said something, but I was too rattled to respond. Possibly knowing that he wouldn't be able to get another word out of me, the Doctor left with another comment, possibly telling me to take it easy for the next few weeks, but I couldn't be certain.
There were many places to hide in the TARDIS, I soon found out. Sinks, cupboards, dryers, trunks, and boxes, the options were endless. My giant wardrobe was my favorite, it was unfortunate that I had that nightmare in it, but the Narnian wardrobe had nothing to do with it.
Not that it mattered, I didn't sleep much these days anyway.
I lost track how long I had been here in the TARDIS, time had no meaning. The fog remained constant, thoughts hard to form, memories hard to gather, words hard to vocalize. The hum never left either, the subtle vibration always underfoot and could be both heard and felt always. I wasn't bothered by it, though, it was comforting in its tone and pitch. I never gained the feeling that I was alone here, even though I was left to my own devices for the most part.
It was in my wandering, that I had found a room to call my own. Well, I say I found it, because I did, in a way, but it already had my name painted in my handwriting with a forest green paint on the royal blue door. When I opened it, I was not disappointed with what I found.
Gravity globes, made in miniature, about the size of my fist provided the light in the room. They were a light blue in color and benignly floated above me. I later found out when I wanted to sleep, the gravity globes dimmed, the small lights on the ceiling could be seen. The lights on the dark ceiling could be interpreted as stars in the night sky. There were fogged stained-glass jars that hung in my room which flickered and shined like they had fireflies inside them and would come on with the stars.
Plants made their home in this room, but were not trying to take over like in natural settings that they otherwise seemed wont to do. There were metal insects and birds flittering and fluttering around in the room: dragonflies, butterflies, and songbirds. The floor felt like soft grass without the dirt and mess, safe to walk on without fear of stepping on something sharp or getting grubby.
My bed hung from the ceiling with sheer curtains added for the option of privacy, covered in fluffy, furry blankets and, to my delight, all the stuffed animals from my room at home. The shelves and desks in the room were empty at first, waiting for me to fill them, and I did, finding something new all the time in my exploration of the TARDIS. Baubles, trinkets, paperweights, alien musical instruments, shiny and glowing rocks, drawings, sketches of ideas, maps, small wood carvings of creatures, machinery, coils of wiring, and many books and scrolls all started making their respective homes in my room.
I grew to love the room, it becoming my Fortress of Solitude, which was so named in honor of Grandpa who jokingly called the cabin by Lake Superior that title. I missed him, my grandpa, he was the only one who really understood my irritation when others couldn't understand my thought processes or my trouble with certain sociological rules and codes of conduct. He understood my trouble with interpreting people correctly. He understood how sometimes the world seemed slow and couldn't catch up with me while others it seemed to spiral so fast out of control that it left me dazed and confused and behind in the dust. There was no one quite like him, he could've been anything, the world at his fingertips…
But life never quite works out the way it should.
The loss hit me hard, I've never had the time to mourn, it never quite hit me that everything that I ever cared for and loved was really, truly gone.
I was all alone, and it killed me.
The first time the TARDIS went through its flight, I wasn't aware enough to register it. Now I was, and was terrified every minute of it, not having a clue of what was happening. The moment the shaking stopped, I searched for the console room, shaken and hoping for some answers. I found it and with it the Doctor, but he was alone. There was no Donna.
But the Doctor seemed happy, gleeful even, so I knew that she hadn't left yet.
"D-Doctor?" I asked and he froze, slowly turning to face me, brown eyes wide and startled. "Wh-what was that? Did the T-TARDIS land?"
"What?!" He exclaimed, looking slightly alarmed. "They didn't say he had another companion, and he always takes them with him! Who're you supposed to be?" He squinted and stepped closer. "You look familiar, what's your relation to the Doctor?"
"Doctor, y-you're scaring me," I whimpered, stepping back. Something was off, his eyes were off, something was missing, what was it?
"What's your name, sweetheart?" He asked. The voice was the same, exactly the same, but the words were wrong, the accent was right but the wrong words were being used.
"Y-you don't remember me? I'm Penelope Elaine Carter."
His eyes flashed in recognition. "Oh, yes! I remember now, you're his ward! There wasn't much data on you, the Doctor did too good of a job keeping the spotlight off of you for the most part. It was almost as if you appeared out of thin air. I'm Baris by the way, the Doctor's number one fan. I've even had Mega Plastic Surgery to look like him, see? Even my insides are the same," he gushed.
"Your eyes," I said, realizing what was missing. "They're wrong, the age, that's what was m-missing." I shook my head. "You need to go, the Doctor…he wouldn't like this."
Baris looked apologetic, "Sorry, Sweetheart, can't help you there. Sebastiene and I made a deal, I need to take the TARDIS, it's almost time for the hunt." He frowned. "I'd rather you not get hurt, but Sebastiene's orders were clear. You're my hostage now." A surprised look crossed his face. "Ooh, a hostage, never thought I'd ever be in the position of having one, least of all the Doctor's kid."
"H-he's going to be upset with you," I said nervously. "You seem like a n-nice man, you should leave before he gets back."
"I can't do that. Both you and Donna Noble are my hostages, as soon as I get her."
"But-" I tried to protest but was interrupted by the Doctor's look alike.
"No, I'm sorry." He gestured behind him. "Now sit down on the jump-seat while I fly the TARDIS, so you don't get hurt. It reportedly gets heavy turbulence, but you probably already knew that." I shook my head, scared, and fled from the console room. I heard Baris call after me, but he didn't give chase, knowing just as well as I did that there was no other way out except through him.
My all-consuming relief when I saw Donna wandering around the halls was immense. When I worriedly went and told her about the imposter Doctor, it turned out that she already knew. She led me away to the kitchen and we sat down, with her telling me exactly what had happened.
The Doctor had been hunted by Sabastiene, a megalomaniac from the supposedly mythical Planet One, the first planet in the universe. Which almost made me laugh, because I remembered reading somewhere that Professor River Song from the Library had supposedly graffiti-ed a cliff on it with the "oldest message in the universe," which was purportedly, 'Hello, Sweetie.'
Anyway, Sebastiene enlisted the help of the Endangered Dangerous Species Society, a group of the most ruthless hunters in the galaxy, to help him hunt the most dangerous being in the universe: the Doctor, the last of the Time Lords.
Sebastiene used a genetic copy of the Doctor, the fan named Baris, to steal the TARDIS and kidnap Donna and me to use us as bait. Baris lured the Doctor to Planet One, but it didn't take long for the Doctor to turn the tables on his twin. He managed to switch places with Baris, which only complicated matters. The Doctor had to save Donna, recover the TARDIS (with me still inside it, since I hid within the maze the whole time), and keep the hunters from killing Baris, all at the same time.
There were explosive robots and trains and alien bounty hunters, and Donna made it all sound so exciting, like a block buster movie! I didn't envy her one bit though at being a hostage and almost suffocating to death. The last part wasn't Baris's fault, in fact, Donna went so far as to say that he was a "nice bloke" but for the fact he kidnapped her, absconding away with her in the Doctor's TARDIS. When I asked though, she didn't know what happened to him, as he left with Sebastiene, loyal to the end.
I eagerly asked her about her other adventures and relished listening to her and the Doctor's escapades through her point of view. Seeing Gandhi and "ghosts" in India, the Planet of the Ood, and rock-men-posing-as-transformers in Rome. I was in awe of her, she had always been one of my favorite companions next to Leela, Jo Grant, Ace, and Sarah Jane Smith. Seeing her in person, however, turned my fondness into something of a hero worship.
I liked her a lot, took to following her around the TARDIS. She made me feel safe, reminded me a lot of my grandma and a bit of Mama. She was a self-assured and passionate individual, a character of strength, so much more lively and spirited than what was shown in the show. Donna didn't seem to mind me shadowing her, probably found it a little humorous, never commented on it, which for that I was thankful.
I saw the Doctor too sometimes when I wandered around the TARDIS, trailing after where Donna went to be. He would always ask how I was feeling, if I got enough sleep (frowning disapprovingly when I gave the negative), and how I was adjusting. He didn't press me into believing that this was real after our conversation in the sick-bay, but I had a feeling that it was merely the calm before the storm, that he would start on me about that soon enough. I had felt uncomfortable with that idea since Donna had been trying to convince me about it for ages by telling me stories about herself from her past…things that were never mentioned in Doctor Who lore.
For one thing, she was allergic to peanuts.
"Hell," she said, "When I was in my third year of school, I used to watch my mates eat their mum's peanut brittle and their peanut butter and jam sandwiches, and I just couldn't take it anymore. I had to try it. So, I stuck myself with the epipen and ate as much peanut butter food as I could get my hands on before going up to the teacher and telling 'im to call an ambulance. Had to get my stomach pumped and never dared to do it again, but was so worth it. Never regretted it for a second."
Really, she was always an independent and dauntless woman, who I distinctly remembered was portrayed as one of the best companions the Doctor ever had, even when she was in elementary school, apparently. I didn't mind talking to her, even if she was just a hallucination that I was for certain that my mind came up with so I wouldn't be so…lonely. They, the Doctor and Donna, were great company and ever so kind.
I secretly wished that they were real, that I was kidnapped from the hospital to be flown away in the TARDIS with them. I wanted to pretend, even for just a second, that I was going to fly with them and see the stars. I wanted to have something to call my own, something familiar. No matter how long I stayed at the hospital, I never got used to it. All the things there weren't mine, just the drawings and stories and memories. Things of fiction that could never, ever be real.
I wasn't Penelope Elaine Carter.
I was just used her name, took it as my own, and stole her whole life and identity. I was thief, a cuckoo bird pushing the other fledgling off the nest and trying to take her place, a leech. Everything I was, was all just a lie, a fabricated life, a fairy's tale.
It was all I had.
I was all alone with only my fake life and dreams for company.
Alone.
I hated that word, alone, and I hated that it stuck with me so persistently. Just this once, I wanted something to call my own, and I was getting desperate enough that I would be willing to just let go, to let go and hope for the best. If I just went along with the situation, just accepted it, things would be so much easier. Maybe I was crazy and had finally snapped. I had finally broke and started to imagine this fantastic dream and believe it was real. I had finally made up some imaginary friends that were the characters I wrote about in my books. I was going to go off on adventures with them and see new worlds that my mind came up with. I had finally fallen asleep, never to wake up again in my hazy fog of awareness that was 'Reality.' I had finally lost it, and all I had to say about that was:
What took so long?
To Be Continued...
Explanations:
* No, Penny did not have children in her universe before she got 'eaten' by the crack. Her nightmarish dream is just a vision of what could've been and also a warning to what will happen.
* Yes, there was a point to this nightmare. Any guesses to what the mysterious figure might be and why Penny's organs are bigger than normal?
* The sound of a Time Lord's heartsbeat is super cool! If you want to listen to the same thing Penny listened to, go onto Youtube and type in the keywords: The Heartbeat of a Timelord by Monketron. That was the best one I found, the video is a bit quiet, I would recommend turning up the volume after the advertisement to listen to it.
* And yes, that partially italicized paragraph about why a heart beat makes the sound it does, is true. I learned about it in my Human Anatomy class, so there was a use for that brutal course after all! *Chuckles*
* Baris is a real person, not in real life, but real in Doctor Who cannon. He features in the book, 'The Doctor Trap.' I gave the short summary in the chapter, but it's not as good as reading the book itself.
* Same thing applies with Gandhi and the ghosts. There's a Doctor Who book you should read called, 'The Ghosts of India.'
* As far as I know, cannon!Donna isn't actually allergic to peanuts. I just wanted to add something more to my characters, make them come a bit more alive. Besides, you have to admit the peanut story does sound like something Donna would do.
* Yes, Penny is actually Penelope Elaine Carter, she's just been told otherwise for years now and is under the impression that her whole life is a lie. This will eventually be resolved in a few chapter or so for the most part, but remember, she is under the impression that everything is all in her mind, that she finally went crazy. It will take a long while before she'll be convinced otherwise.
Advertisements:
TITLE: Imaginary Friend
AUTHOR: thatgirlinredandgold
ID: 9946709
SUMMARY: There were times throughout Anna's lonely childhood that she wished for an imaginary friend, and he came crashing into her life in a wonderful blue box.
OPINION: This will probably be one of the few crossovers I'll ever suggest to you guys, since I ususally dislike mixing fandoms, but this one wasn't half-bad. It's a Doctor Who and Frozen crossover with the main character being someone other than Elsa. I mean, I've got nothing against her, it's just, finally, Anna gets some action. :) It's well worth the read and the advertisement.
Thought Process:
Well, hey, hello there. I'm alive and have returned. *Throws confetti* So, it's summer, and I've graduated from high school. I have until August before I'm a freshman at college, so my goal is to write as much as I possibly can this summer. With Emptyvoices helping me, this shouldn't be too hard for the most part.
Speaking of my lovely beta, we're starting and AU crossover for this story and hers, the 'Lost in Time' one. We'll post it sometime after the next chapter, most likely, probably, hopefully, we'll see.
I don't have too much to say, so this make for a rather lacking author's note, but, eh, what can you do?
Have a lovely summer everyone.
Happy Monday,
FFA, the Fan Fictional Authoress
Date Submitted: Monday, June 9, 2014.