Doctor And Assistant (Chap. 19)
Chapter 19: A Nightmare (Cont.)
/the Doctor\\
"Derpy, take those shelves please," the Doctor requested, walking to the middle of the library and checking each hardback for anything related to Hydran before dropping it to the ground.
"What're we looking for again?" Lilly asked flatly.
"Anything that could help," he answered. With his quickness he'd already checked 10 books.
"...'Kay," Derpy mumbled, walking to her shelf.
The Doctor sighed sadly at his assistant, his hearts breaking into three-million pieces. She hadn't been the same since Scarlet...
He shook his head, returning his attention to the books in the library.
Several minutes passed before Lilly gasped, tossing the subject of her shock to the Doctor while saying: "found one!"
The book hit his arm and he flinched, Derpy and Lilly giggling at his cowardliness. "Okay. Keep looking, though. We need every book that will work. Five minutes. Be right back," he rambled, taking the book and rushing to the control room.
/Derpy\\
It took about another three minutes before finding a second useful book. Derpy pulled out the novel "European Myths" as she saw a dragon like Hydran on the cover, except with five heads instead of three.
Lilly watched Derpy intently, the Equestrian turning to the psychic and flashing a weak smile. "Holding up okay?" Derpy asked.
Lilly shrugged, turning back to the shelf.
Derpy sighed. "You know you can talk to me, right?"
She nodded, wiping something off of her face.
The Equestrian walked over to Lilly and embraced her tightly. "Lilly, tell me what the problem is."
"How could you be so blind?! Scarlet is DEAD! That's the problem!" she sobbed, shaking her head.
Derpy frowned, trying to remember what the Doctor'd do when she'd cry. "It's alright, Lill', she's on a better place, right?"
"I don't know! That's why I'm crying! I can't feel her presence on the Other Side! Rachel is trying her best to communicate, but it isn't working!"
"Alright, alright, just calm down, okay? Just calm down," Derpy whispered. "Everything is going to fall into place soon."
Lilly nodded before murmuring: "I'm going to go into my room."
Derpy smiled weakly. "Okay. Be safe. I'll take care of your part of the shelf," she promised.
Her "thank you" wasn't even a whisper as she walked away.
Derpy frowned, returning to her search once more for the Doctor's book.
/Lilly\\
Lilly ran into her room, locked the door, and sat on her bed. She was crying no longer, reaching over to an opened drawer and grabbing a glass cup 3/4 full of water. "Think I'm ready for a step up?" she asked Rachel.
"Perhaps. Just don't hurt yourself," Rachel warned.
Lilly smiled weakly. "For some reason I want to say it, so: Geronimo."
Rachel laughed. "Good luck. And remember - it doesn't usually work on command."
Lilly emptied her mind of anything negative, holding her arms out in front of her like she was shoving something. She flipped her dominant hand (her right) over so the palm faced the ceiling, concentrating. When the cup didn't move she sighed sadly. All of the negative feedback she'd blocked out came back but in a flash the cup began shaking, picking up.
Lilly gasped, Rachel clapping. A knock echoed against her wooden door, however, and she lost her concentration. The cup smashed against the floor and smashed into a few large pieces.
"Yes?" Lilly asked tiredly. She could feel herself nodding off. Telekinesis sure took a lot out of her...
"You alright to come out now? The Doctor says he found something that we can use."
/the Doctor\\
Derpy walked back with Lilly, who's face was marked with tears. The Doctor furrowed his brow out of confusion, finally deciding to keep a straight face. He held up 2 novels, one in each hand. Surprisingly, although they had over 400 pages each, they were surprisingly light and he lifted them with ease.
"Which ones?" Lilly asked. "Like, titles?"
"Er, 'European Myths' and 'Spell Casting'," the Doctor answered.
"Ooo, 'Spell Casting', I might know something about that," Lilly joked.
"Speaking of, why did I hear glass shattering in your room?" Derpy asked.
Lilly kept a smile up, ignoring Derpy for the moment and walking to the Doctor. "What'd ya find?"
The Doctor flipped open "European Myths" to his first bookmark. "'Draconis Occidentalis are incredibly hostile. Most come to believe these creatures are friendly, but although these are just mythological creatures only seen by eye-witness accounts, I can assure you they are some of the fiercest beasts in the European world of mythology,'" he recited.
Lilly nodded. "Hostile. Makes sense."
"And then, in 'Spell Casting'...," he began, flipping the novel to a page in the early 200s, "it says, 'Chapter 73: Growth. Everyone wants to be as large as a towering giant height-wise. With this spell, it becomes possible.' Now, this is important, because on page 3 of 'European Myths' (he opened to the second bookmark in the corresponding book) it says: 'Most Draconis Occidentalis don't grow to a height larger than five-foot-seven. One eye-witness account states that the one she saw was roughly about five-five.' So, then," he rambled, slamming shut the book he was using, "how is Hydran 3x taller than me AT LEAST, if I am six-foot-one?"
"The spell?" Derpy suggested.
"Our best chance," the Time Lord agreed. "Now, there was also an antidote page..."
/(New!)?\\
It watched from afar as the dragon tossed Scarlet inside of the Doctor's TARDIS. It cringed, something it forgot it was capable of doing. The sick, twisted dragon'd killed IT's Scarlet.
Wait, "it's Scarlet"?
It held that thought.
It's brain pushed forwards one answer: it's time to take her back again.
/(New!)Hydran\\
Hydran chuckled deeply, watching with great humor the looks of fear on the civilian's faces.
"Yes, run," he laughed hysterically. "Fear— it'll be the bait!"
/the Doctor\\
The Doctor laughed triumphantly. "We've done it!" he grinned, embracing Derpy and Lilly.
Derpy squealed, Lilly turning to a fit of giggles. They wrapped their arms around him tightly and he was so joyful that he didn't mind he couldn't really breathe.
"We can take him down now!" Lilly laughed.
They all broke apart from the hug with large smiles on their faces. "Derpy, mon amour (Author's Note: How to say "mon amour"= mohn - ah - more. English translation= "my love". It's French, the language of love! So, Allons-Y!), soon your nightmares will be over," the Doctor grinned at his beautiful girlfriend.
Derpy smiled even larger, hugging him once more before kissing him softly. "Thank you," she said when they broke apart.
Lilly "Aw"'d, giggling. "You two are adorable."
The Doctor blushed, grabbing the lilac-colored liquid and placing it inside of the empty defabricator he was able to upgrade and fix in under an hour. He turned the safety on again, just to make sure.
'Mother of Rassilon, I hate guns...,' he mumbled to himself in his head.
He cleared his throat, walking back over to his assistant and companion. "I know we have the odds stacked in our favor, but I want you to remember: Hydran is something unlike anything we have ever seen, heard, or fought before. Safety is first. Yes, we will stick together, but there's always a what-if. Got me?"
Derpy and Lilly nodded.
"Right then," he smiled, "allons-y."
/Hydran\\
Hydran watched the TARDIS from the skies, but something tapped the top of his middle head. He spun around, the army of velociraptors he'd traveled back in time to get blocking his vision. But he heard a voice, loud and clear over the screeching. "I know you know I have them. I know you're willing to kill me for them."
Hydran growled, flying higher into the sky.
"I know you want revenge, too..."
"Show yourself!" Hydran commanded.
Everything froze. In a second's time he was tackled to the ground. A familiar shriek chilled him to the bone as soon as contact was made.
"Daddy!"
/the Doctor\\
"Daddy!" someone screamed from outside.
The Doctor froze, his hand resting against the door. He looked at Derpy, then at the door, then at Derpy, and then at the door again before finally pulling it open.
"Hydran!" another voice screamed.
Derpy and the Doctor looked left, right, up – anywhere and everywhere they could while in that spot – for the voices, but were soon found too caught up in the scene.
Men, women, and children were running to safety. Screams overtook all noises. The sky seemed too light, and velociraptors took to the skies. Some were even carrying victims in their mouths, whom were desperately fighting for freedom.
"Let my family go!" Hydran yelled.
"Never! They'll watch you die!"
Now it started becoming murky in the Doctor's mind. Two so-far-disembodied voices, both sounding female, yelling to Hydran who had yelled to "let [his] family go". A second dragon appeared pummeling the also now-visible Hydran and was about his size but with only one head, and cheeks that extended outwards like Chinese hand flags.
And, even more confusing (yet oddly compelling, in a way), was that Derpy said "help Hydran."
Both Lilly and the Doctor turned to her with an "are-you-seriously-kidding-me" expression. "Dear, that can't happen. Not after what he's done to you and Scarlet!" the Doctor reminded her.
Derpy stood in front of him so close they were touching, her small chin on his chest. Her head was tilted up to him so she could meet his gaze. "Doctor, imagine yourself as Hydran with two people who care about you trapped and somewhat invisible. Who are you going to fight for NOW?"
Lilly shut her eyes. "All 4 are related. A son, daughter, and mother. The mother is also Hydran's wife," she said bluntly.
Derpy gasped and he knew it was because, even after hearing the news on their relationships, his uncertainty hadn't vanished. "Doctor, I'm so sorry to say this but I think it's the only way to get through to you. What if it were your wife and children from Gallifrey who were trapped?"
The Doctor's breath stalled. His expression turned weak, his pursed lips curling downwards into a frown. "Fine."
He was pulled into a quick and sweet kiss which he recognized as her apology. "Come on," she said. "Let's go save some lives."
/Hydran\\
"Not if I have any part in this!" Hydran protested, kicking the equally-sized dragon off of him.
"Even if you did it'd still happen!"
For what seemed like a millennium Hydran and the Dragon Lord (Author's Note: Again, another OC by another good friend; also the creator of Hydran.) stares each other down.
A blue stream of energy slammed into the Dragon Lord and he staggered backwards.
Hydran looked down and saw none other than the Doctor, Ditzy, and the 12-year old. Her hair was long enough where it covered all of her right eye and some of her left on a slant.
Shocked and confused, Hydran ignored them and snarled at the Dragon Lord. He could feel his eyes turning into a fiery red and an intense electricity flashed through him, pricking his insides. "Let them go," Hydran ordered. When the Dragon Lord merely smirked in silence, he repeated himself. "I said: Let. Them. GO."
"I won't," he cackled.
"Very well, then," Hydran muttered. Red lasers shot from all 3 of his mouths on an angle where they combined into one large red energy. The Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver at Hydran's laser and fired, adding the Time Lord's energy to Hydran's and turning the laser into a purple color. The Dragon Lord barked out of anger.
"Is THAT how you want to play, Hydran?! So be it!" he screamed, taking off into the sky and coming back automatically.
In his grasp were 3 other dragons and Hydran's 6 eyes moistened at the sight of them.
/Lilly\\
The 3 dragons were 2 different heights; 1 was the Doctor's, and the other 2 were about Lilly's. They each had one head and were the same as their father/husband with dark purple eyes and scales, slight indentations which shown they had holes going right through them.
The other dragon (the one carrying the 3) laughed evilly. "Witness your daughter, well... you know," he said, drawing a sword out of thin air.
Hydran launched himself towards the dragon, Lilly and the other 2 time travelers watching from afar since they knew they had no point in trying. Hydran's wings flew so quickly she almost fell backwards.
The targeted daughter of Hydran's was thrown to the ground and that's when Rachel began sobbing. "He cut off their wings! They can't fly!" she cried out.
(Author's Note: Pretty much from here on out until the end of the chapter a lot of death targeting Hydran's family will occur. So, precautionary me being precautionary, those who don't think they can handle a few sob-stories should at least skim through the rest of the paragraphs until my next authors note saying it's good to read on.)
Hydran scooped his daughter into his grasp but wasn't quick enough for his son, who'd plummeted 40+ feet to his death. Hydran began shaking his head, placing his daughter on the ground and approaching the lifeless body of his son. Derpy covered Lilly's eyes.
/the Doctor\\
The Doctor pulled Derpy to him, Lilly being brought along. His assistant was obviously too frightened to watch what'd happen next, and Lilly was obviously in distress. The Time Lord watched Hydran closely.
His son in his arms lay lifeless and limp. Hydran craned his head to the second dragon (whom, might the Doctor inquire, still held Hydran's sobbing wife in his arms). His voice was rough. "W-W-Why?" he asked, heartbroken.
The other dragon laughed, the sword glinting in the sunlight as it rested against his wife's neck.
The Doctor stepped forwards, aiming his sonic screwdriver at dragon 2's head. Derpy and Lilly stayed rooted to their spot. "You don't have to do this," he warned dragon 2.
Hydran's breathing turned heavy as he laid his son on the ground. His daughter broke down crying. "You've ruined us. You've ruined my family," Hydran said. "I've been forced to do labor and do your dirty deeds while you sit there with my family – MY family that I love! – and a sincere grin on your God forsaken face! Let my wife GO!"
His wife began floating out of his grasp and quickly began gliding in Hydran's direction. She kept trying to fly, but her wings, like Rachel'd said, had been cut off. And then, an obvious action happened: dragon 2 flew faster and stopped in front of her. "Where are YOU going?!"
Hydran was frozen out of fear and shock. So frozen, that even when dragon 2 readied his sword to slice, he remained rooted.
The Doctor fired his sonic screwdriver automatically but somehow it only reflected off of the silver-colored platinum, hitting the Doctor in a nonfatal fashion against his chest. He fell to the floor just as dragon 2 slit Hydran's wife's throat. Derpy ran over to him as he sat there coughing.
/Hydran\\
His family, all but his daughter, dead. Killed right in front of him.
The Dragon Lord laughed. "Hydran, you should've known this'd happen."
Hydran growled, his heart hammering out of his chest. "You monster..." he snarled.
"So, about your daughter," the Dragon Lord chuckled. "Toodaloo!" He snapped, disappearing. Hydran ran to his little girl.
/Lilly\\
Lilly stood there watching the 4 dragons. "You tried to move her," Rachel said. "It isn't your fault."
"I could've stopped him, I could've used my telekinetic powers to glide her faster," Lilly exhaled shakily.
Her attention wandered over to the TARDIS and she quickly remembered the gun for Hydran.
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: READ ON!)
/the Doctor\\
"Doctor?!" Derpy asked, kneeling next to him.
"One of -ah!- my hearts," he managed to pant as he was on his hands and knees. "Derpy, I need you to start it back up!"
"How?" she asked, on the brink of tears over how much pain she saw him in.
He sat up, now on his knees. "Hit me in my chest!"
"What side?"
"Right side; the side farthest from you," he exhaled.
Derpy froze, a nervous gleam in his eyes.
"Derpy, love, you aren't going to -ah!- h... h-hurt me," he said, "I promise!"
Derpy hugged him quickly before hitting his right side. However, it still wasn't starting back up.
"Now my back, all the way to the right on a 45° angle," he instructed too-specifically, falling on this hands again.
His assistant nodded, doing as she was told.
The Doctor's second heart began beating again and he leaned backwards, his bones cracking in response. He pulled his assistant into a long and deep kiss before embracing her tightly. "Thank you," he murmured into her hair. A shadow moved away, becoming smaller.
/Lilly\\
Lilly shot Hydran, the dragon shrinking in response. He didn't seem to notice. After running the defabricator into the TARDIS she approached him, making sure she was slow and careful.
/Hydran\\
A small hand was on his shoulder, right under his left head. The velociraptors noticeably vanished, the screams ending. All of the surrounding scene turned silent. The people that still weren't off of the street at that time had gone.
Just like his family.
Hydran sobbed heavily by his daughter. She wasn't breathing; she had died too, most likely from a broken heart.
"Um," a quiet, mousy-and-matured-at-the-same-time voice asked from his left. "Sir... I... My name is Lilly. And... And I'm sorry for your loss."
Hydran continued to cry as he looked to the speaker and saw the same little girl as earlier. He also saw the Doctor and Ditzy began running to the scene as well.
"Hydran," Derpy said when they reached him, "I'd say something but I can tell you're not in the mood."
The Doctor watched Hydran intensely and in a judging manner but wrapped his arms around him instead. Hydran flinched, beginning to spit on his daughter using his middle head.
/Lilly\\
"Are you poisoning her?!" the Doctor asked, retreating from their hug.
"My 3 heads are different," Hydran mumbled. "The two outsides spit plasma. I use the middle to bring things back to life. But... It isn't working. It doesn't work anymore."
Rachel appeared pulling Lilly away. "What're you doing?" she asked the Spirit.
"Once they took a hiding spot behind some trees Rachel smiled. "They have a visitor; Derpy and the Doctor."
"Who is it?"
A ginger woman with black converse's, a light pink v-neck shirt, white jeans, and black jacket appeared. Her smile was warm and welcoming, yet her hazel eyes were pained.
"My name is Caraphernelia Michelle Jones. I was a good friend of Derpy and the Doctor," she smiled after a long silence.
(2 Minutes Later)
/the Doctor\\
Everyone'd calmed down. The Doctor related to Hydran in a way neither of them else had, and Hydran'd explained himself a tiny bit more once he'd found out he'd shrunk back down to his normal size of, in his words, "five-foot-six" (which was actually an inch taller then Scarlet and Derpy).
Apparently Hydran's small family was kidnapped in the middle of the night 1-2 years ago by the Dragon Lord, who's also a myth used to scare children into being good. Hydran found his hideout where he had to do as the Dragon Lord'd said for their return. He'd been put in charge of the Nightmares and devised a cunning plan to fight him for them. However, he needed FEAR to attract the Dragon Lord, explaining why he gained a velociraptor army and gave himself the growth potion.
"...Derpy, Doctor? I have something to show you. Well, Rachel does," Lilly said, jerking him from his thoughts.
Rachel appeared with a woman next to her. She was smiling, tears running down her face. Derpy was in shock and the Doctor placed a hand on her back, both of their eyes watering.
"Derpy?" the woman asked, "Doctor?"
"C... Caraphernelia?!" Derpy gasped.
Caraphernelia nodded. "Nice to see you guys," she laughed, her voice cracking. She disappeared, reappearing in front of the couple. She embraced them tightly.
Derpy and the Doctor hugged her back. The Equestrian was grinning, even larger than the Doctor's usual mad-man, I-have-an-idea-to-solve-our-problem-and-I-know-it-probably-won't-work-but-let's-do-it-anyway grin. "How are you doing this, Cara?!" Derpy asked.
"Spirits have range over almost everything. We can basically do anything," Cara said. She pulled away from the two time travelers. "What have I been missing?"
The Doctor laughed, pulling Derpy to him. "Cara, do you remember 'Derptor'? The ship is real," he smiled.
Caraphernelia giggled. "I knew it! I SO told you Derptor was a thing!"
"You think a name is awesome?" the Doctor asked, a sly smile now on his face as he turned to his girlfriend. "Watch this."
Before Derpy could ask the Doctor pulled her against him tightly, their lips crashing together. Caraphernelia gasped. "I believe you now! I SO believe you!"
Derpy blushed embarrassedly. "Also, we solved a murder mystery, Scarlet and Hydran are good, we met a psychic named Lilly, and we just travelled in and out of my nightmare."
"'Scarlet'?"
"The, um, the woman who... who killed you," the Doctor sighed, "and... she just died."
"That's weird. She isn't in the Afterlife," Cara muttered.
"Do you know where she is, then?" Derpy asked hopefully.
"...You can't revive her. I think she's in a sort of Limbo," she frowned.
Derpy shook her head, throwing her arms around the Spirit again. "I've missed you so much," she whispered.
"Me too," Cara agreed.
The Doctor wiped away a tear, looking over at Rachel, Lilly, and Hydran who wer busily chatting. He looked back at his assistant once Cara cleared her throat.
"I have to go help my medium. She's a psychic-in-training," Cara smiled weakly. "If you ever see Scarlet again, make sure to tell her I forgive her."
The Doctor nodded, hugging Cara one last time. "Cara, you'll always be my companion." he said. "I promise."
Caraphernelia laughed through her tears when he retreated from their hug. "Thank you."
/Derpy\\
Cara disappeared and the Doctor took her hand, wiping their tears away quickly. "TARDIS?"
"Yeah," she smiled weakly.
"Who was that?" Lilly asked.
"Caraphernelia Jones. She used to travel with us," the Doctor explained. "Hydran, come on, keep up!"
Derpy lagged back, now with Hydran. He looked at her with a confused expression. "Why does he want me to 'keep up'?"
She smiled. "He's forgiven you," she said. "And you'll travel with us from now on."
(1 Minute Later)
The Doctor shut the door once everyone'd walked in. Lilly looked at the Doctor.
"Yes?" he asked.
"I have a question. How did Derpy stay by your side when we travelled into the reality? If she fell asleep to get into the dream, wouldn't she have to wake up to be in the reality? If she wakes up she'd be in the same place she was asleep at."
The TARDIS, like it had forgotten that bit, started screaming at them and flickering the lights.
"Doctor?!" Derpy asked, running with him to the controls.
"Lilly's right! That was a fake reality, just another dream; we're traveling to the right one now!" he exclaimed.
/the Doctor\\
The Doctor sat up in the library, Scarlet's body missing from where it should have been. Mother of Rassilon, his head hurt...
All of the memories came back to him. Lilly woke up too, in the chair she was in when they had first travelled into Derpy's nightmare. She asked the exact though running through his mind: "where is Derpy?"
"I'll go look," the Doctor said.
"I'll find Hydran. See how he's coping. Rachel says she's looking for Scarlet," Lilly agreed.
The Doctor set off through the tortuous hallways, picking up on a steady jog as his pace. At that moment, as he was observing the doors, he saw that the entrance to his bedroom was opened.
Suddenly extremely self-conscious, the Doctor opened the door fully and took in the scene.
His sock drawer was opened, his lamp had been flicked on, the container that held his sleeping patches was on the floor, and his assistant was in his bed.
His eyes darted to Derpy, suddenly coming to realize what she'd did.
Derpy must have walked into his room, flicked on the lamp to see inside his drawer to find his sleeping patches, placed them onto her neck, and then fell asleep. That's when she came back after she disappeared into thin air. She traveled through the dimensions by just waking up and sleeping because it was HER nightmare in the first place.
It was brilliant!
The Doctor "aw"'d mentally at his peaceful assistant, deciding not to wake her. But if she was going to sleep for the first time without a nightmare for the first time in a month, it's better off if she was comfortable while she enjoyed her own personal landmark.
He peeled back part of his bed's blanket and picked Derpy up, carrying over to the other side of the bed and laying her back down. After tucking her in, his smile doubled at how adorable she looked.
The Doctor kissed Derpy's cheek and forehead, letting his hand stay lingering on her jawline before he laid in his bed too. He draped an arm over her stomach. She yawned, turning back to look at him.
Derpy put an arm around him too, pulling herself up to him so they were touching. A smile appeared on her lips and the Doctor couldn't not kiss her.
'I mean, she is awake already,' he thought to himself.
She giggled again when he leaned away, placing her head under his so his chin would be on the crown of her head.
"Goodnight, sweetie," he murmured into her hair.
"Goodnight, Doctor," she murmured back.
Derpy fell back asleep, going limp in his arms. He smiled, eventually dozing off too.
Author's Note:
Ah, a nice ending for our lovely couple.
I just want it known that, although some enemies you see aren't completely from 10's reign of the current incarnation of the Doctor on the show, Derpy being a FOURTH and entirely new companion opens up a lot of different ties between different episodes from other Doctors as well. Like the Silence for example.
— GothicPegasister