Hello everyone! Hope you like it so far!
So this is chapter 3, it's way longer than the two previous ones and will give you a better idea of the story. Please let me know if you like it or if you don't, if you want me to continue or not, either by posting a review or PMing me, I don't mind :) You can also ask me questions or whatever crosses your mind :)
Thank you to Smuzzie and Windfee01 for the following :)
Enjoy!
Melody :) - x
Chapter 3
"You've got to be kidding me!" exclaimed Jenna.
"Nope! I'm not! This is perfectly real - though it's insane, I give you that Jen'..." he said. "Anyway, phone, now!" he continued, stretching out his hand.
Jenna took her phone out of her pocket and handed it to him as he pulled a lever.
They were inside the TARDIS, a proper, real TARDIS. With the console identical to seasons 5 and 6 and it was actually bigger on the inside.
Melody and Jenna were looking around, amazed, hardly believing it was real, but actually, it was.
He, either The Doctor or Matt, not yet knowing how to designate him, was dialling a number and waiting for his correspondent to pick up the phone.
"Yeah! Steven it's me! I had to go, you know, important thing to do. Call him to replace me, no worries he knows exactly what to do. And I took Jenna with me, I will give her back to you soon, promise! Yeah, without a scratch, 'course."
He hung out and threw the phone to Jenna who caught it.
"Ok, now, explain. Everything. I don't have the faintest idea of what is bloody going on, so you explain to us! Now!" said Jenna, quite anxious.
He pulled back a lever and the room shook a little before stabilizing. He then turned to face the girls: Jenna was obviously anxious, though she seemed lost, Melody was in awe looking at the TARDIS. He straightened his bow tie and he started to talk:
"I'm The Doctor."
"No, you're Matt Smith." Jenna interrupted him.
"No I'm not, you asked for an explanation, I'm giving it to you, now shut up."
Jenna's jaw dropped open but she shut it up, listening.
"Good. I am The Doctor. I'm real, I've always existed, but not in this universe. You usually are with Matt - great guy by the way - but sometimes, very rarely, I come here to… investigate, like today at the Comic-Con. I speak to Steven about my adventures in the meantime so he can turn it into a scenario. He's brilliant."
"But that's impossible, as said in the show it's impossible to jump between universes since there are no Time Lords anymore, except The Doctor." Jenna said.
"It is indeed impossible in theory. But that's the theory. I've found this parallel universe and it appeared to be open. I didn't know why or how, so I came and I investigated. It revealed that this parallel universe is on every point similar to the other except… for the aliens. There are no aliens in your universe, well at least when I'm not there. Explaining why I do not exist in any other way than a TV show."
"Then why keep coming? There's no point for you since there's no alien threat." Jenna asked, slowly admitting that all this thing was real.
"Because one day, another alien showed up there too. And it wasn't me. This universe was perfectly hidden as a black hole, but it wasn't a black hole, merely a perception filter. I fell into it by accident, but nobody could have said it was the entry of a parallel universe. So first, I searched for reasons to hide it, and how a non-alien universe could hide behind alien technology. I've found nothing. The only explanation was that some alien discovered it and decided to... protect it."
"And then another alien found out" Jenna stated.
The Doctor pointed a finger at her.
"Yep! One day I came back and the TARDIS detected another alien presence. I tried to scan it, wanting to know where it was, what it was and if it was dangerous, but it gave me nothing. Just that it was somewhere in the United Kingdom. I pursued my research, and after a while a conclusion came up saying it wasn't dangerous: it didn't even know it was alien itself, like a genetic lock, waiting for the right moment to unlock, disguised as a human. I know some species who do that, but this one was unknown, brand new." he said.
"How long has it been there?"
"Nearly twenty one years."
"Do you think it was taken here as a… baby? And then was raised by human people?" Jenna asked.
"Possibly. Probably." he nodded.
Melody, who was silent until now, chuckled a bit before mumbling:
"Reminds me of someone…"
The Doctor walked to her:
"Who?"
"River Song." she shrugged.
"Good point, though it's not her, the TARDIS would've known."
"Ok, all this is good but what does it have to do with you at the Comic-Con, bringing myself and Melody here?" Jenna asked.
"I never told you to come, you just followed us. I asked Melody to come, not you." he said.
"Oi! That's rude!"
The Doctor looked a bit embarrassed. He turned to Melody:
"Is it?"
Melody nodded, a bit amused: that was so him.
"Sorry then." he said to Jenna. "To answer your question, recently the scanner showed me a more precise point of where it was: East London, and the Convention was taking place there, so I thought I'd have a look. I thought that maybe it would show up itself, unconsciously attracted by the sci-fi universe. But there was nothing. Then Melody came in. Melody Williams." he said, facing the red-haired girl.
She looked up at him, waiting for his explanation because honestly, she was kind of lost. Although she was happy that The Doctor was real and took her away, like in her dreams, Jenna was right: what does it have to do with her?
"You are unusual. And I love an unusual girl me, but I had to find out. You look so much like Amelia Pond, you have the same name as her daughter, but you are definitely none of them. I was hoping for a version of them in this world but you're not. Still, you're special, this is not a coincidence, it can't be. You trust me. You've never met me in the past but you trust me. Then you are the only one in this universe that I was able to access your psychic self and interact with it."
"You think she's the alien?" said Jenna.
Still facing Melody, scrutinizing her, he answered:
"No… I don't think so. Maybe she's the only psychic this universe has, that's all. If she were the alien the TARDIS would have told me."
He stepped back, returning to the console.
"Take your coat off Melody and come over here." he ordered.
She did as she was told and when she stood next to him, he took her hand, holding a strange instrument in the other.
He pulled her sleeve up, revealing the white bare skin of her arm and then held up an instrument of some sort.
"It won't hurt a bit." he said.
"You're lying." she said back.
The Doctor looked up at her, staring at her eyes.
K-Tchunk!
She let out a little noise as the pain ran into her arm, but The Doctor quickly pulled her in for a hug.
"Sorry…" he said, kissing her forehead. "Are you ok?" he asked, stepping back, looking at her arm: it was ok, it was the pain caused by the needle.
She noticed he seemed rather protective.
"What was that for?" Jenna asked, coming closer to the girl. "You've hurt her!"
"It's ok Jenna…" said Melody, reassuring her.
"Just a blood analysis, nothing much don't worry." said The Doctor.
"I thought you didn't think she was the alien." stated the brunette, not understanding why he did that.
"But maybe she is. Come on, she is the only one I can make a psychic link with! Isn't it weird enough?"
Melody sat down on a seat nearby, rubbing her arm.
"But why did you say that to her then?" asked Jenna.
The Doctor sighed.
"Because if I am the alien and he says to me 'I'm going to analyse your blood and find out' the genetic lock would unlock and I'd transform and certainly protect myself by attacking you. That's what most of the aliens do, not all, but most of them, that's why: he couldn't risk it and while I realise this he can have the result of the analysis and find out if I am dangerous or not and if I have a weakness… To fight me off." Melody quickly said before looking up at The Doctor who was holding the screen. "Rule number 1: The Doctor lies."
He looked down at her with a soft look on his face.
She didn't say that out of anger. She said it as it was the most logical thing, the most normal. She saw through his plan as if it were as clear as water.
He looked back at the screen. The analysis was complete.
"So? What does it say? She obviously didn't transform into, I don't know, a giant wasp or attacked us so I suppose at least she's not dangerous." asked Jenna.
He didn't answer.
"Do you feel something new?" he slowly asked Melody.
"No…"
"Have you ever had surgery?"
"Yes, on my sixteenth birthday for an appendicitis."
"How old are you?"
"Nearly twenty one."
He turned a button on the screen, scanning her body and waiting a second before sighing.
"Doctor… Please tell me…" Melody pleaded, a worried look on her face.
The Doctor came towards her and knelt down to her height. He took her hands holding them in his and with his soft voice, said:
"Melody… I'm sorry, this is going to be hard… The blood analysis says that you… you're not human. I'm sorry. I scanned your body and it appears human, but I believe that the gen-lock is acting as a perception filter and makes it appear human, it even scrambles the TARDIS, so it was made to resist high quality rays. Your blood is made in the same way: a human analysis would see it as a normal human blood, but it is less hidden since your blood seems pretty close to human blood and analysed by the TARDIS it reveals that you are not human."
Melody was becoming pale as the information came through her mind.
The Doctor held up his hand, stroking her cheek.
"Breath." he said softly.
And she had indeed stopped breathing, so she took a deep breath, did as she was told.
"What am I then…?" she asked faintly, her eyes locked into The Doctor's.
"I don't know... The TARDIS searched in all her data but she couldn't find anything. The only thing she could find was the two closest species."
"What are they?" she asked.
"Oh my God…" they heard Jenna whisper near them as she looked at the screen.
Still holding his gaze, The Doctor said:
"One is human, the other is… it's…" he stammered out. It was obviously hard for him to say it, as if he couldn't believe it. "...It's Time Lord…" he finally managed to say.
Melody finally looked up to see the screen showing the two species.
"But… But that's not possible, I'm not a Time Lord, definitely not."
"No I don't believe you are. But you are not human either."
"Maybe she's part human part Time Lord, you know, like Donna." proposed Jenna.
"No, impossible, Donna became The DoctorDonna after the metacrisis: Melody is born this way, she hasn't been transformed." he said standing up and facing the console. "She's not both Human and Time Lord, she's none of them, she's something… in between, and I don't know what. As long as the gen-lock is, well, locked, I can't access her real DNA." The Doctor said.
They heard a sob behind them. They turned around to see Melody crying:
"So that's what I am then, isn't it? A thing? You're saying that I am an alien, born in another universe, brought and raised here as a human? So what about my parents? My family? They're not really my parents right? What am I? What am I then?! Am I just… just a story? Is that it?!" she cried.
They rushed to her, The Doctor holding her tight against him and Jenna patting her back gently.
"We're all stories in the end…" he said softly to her. "I wish I could tell you what you are but I can't. You're not a thing, you're an amazing girl and I promise you that we will find out what you are, together. I know it's hard, and I'm sorry, but it's the only thing we can do: we have to wait…ok?"
She took a deep breath and nodded.
He held her for a few minutes more, giving her time to calm down.
She closed her eyes as she could hear the beating of the Time Lord's two hearts in his chest. It was reassuring. His hugs felt good.
Within a minute she calmed down but she didn't move, appreciating the moment and clearing her thoughts: The Doctor was real, he was really an alien, the TARDIS was real too, everything was real. And he was hugging her. This made her heart jump, the Whovian inside her not knowing where to put all the feels.
But in a counterpart she was an alien too, and they didn't know what kind of alien. All her life was made up: her parents were not her true parents, same for the rest of her family.
"Hum...Doctor? Doctor?" whispered Jenna, trying to get his attention as he seemed to be lost in his thoughts as well.
"Mh?"
Melody could feel his head turning to where Jenna might have been and his hot breath leaving her neck.
"What shall we do now?" the brunette asked.
He turned his head back and he lifted a hand to Melody's head, placing it on her red hair.
Suddenly a voice filled her head, The Doctor's voice, making her blench a little in surprise.
That was feeling weird.
"Are you ok? Just think."
"Hum… Yeah, better thanks, you can let go if that's what you're asking."
She heard him let out a small chuckle as he released her.
He went back to the console and looked at the scan one last time before clearing it.
"I can't do anything until her gen-lock is unlocked. I'm taking you back home, both of you. Phone!." he said to Jenna. He took it as she handed it to him and dialled a number. "I'm bringing Jenna back, all clear?"
He waited a moment, listening, before saying:
"Ok, coming." and he hung up. He pulled a lever and the TARDIS shook as she was taking off with a whirring sound. Soon she stabilized and he pulled the lever back.
They all stepped out of the TARDIS to walk in the room of the Convention, empty except for the man standing in front of them: he was wearing the outfit with the purple coat.
Matt Smith, the real one.
He smiled a bit and turned to Jenna:
"So, where did he take you?"
"Actually nowhere, not really, but we didn't leave the TARDIS." The Doctor cut in. "Had an important thing to do. Anyway, good job Matt, thanks, always a pleasure! Nice outfit by the way, I might take it someday."
"No problem Doctor, see you soon then. And look after her." Matt said pointing at Melody.
"He's taking me home too." she said, a bit of sadness in her voice.
The Doctor smiled bitterly. He didn't really want to leave her: she was a mystery and he would have liked to keep an eye on her.
They headed back to the TARDIS, but as she was going to step inside, Matt called her:
"Hey! What's your name?"
"Melody." she said, giving him a smile.
"Nice to meet you" he said, smiling back. "Take care ok?"
Melody nodded and waved to Matt and Jenna before closing the door behind her.
The TARDIS landed in a street between a park and a row of houses.
"Yeah, that fits with the signal I had before…" The Doctor said before turning the screen off. "So this is where you live?"
"Yeah. With my foster family…" Melody answered with a sad chuckle.
"Hey…" he said, putting his hands on her shoulders and seeking for eye contact. "They'll always be your family, you may not have the same DNA but they're your parents, they raised you, they gave you everything you needed, and most of all they love you, don't they?"
She nodded. He was right: they loved her and she loved them as well and that was what mattered.
She looked around at the console room, a twinge in her heart: she discovered it was all real, she was expecting to see the whole of time and space, but he was taking her home. She couldn't help but ask herself why.
"Am I ever to see you again?" she asked with a trembling voice, not ready to give it up.
Hearing that, his eyes widened.
"Of course! It's just that I can't keep you here in the TARDIS while the gen-lock is locked. I think that it might unlock soon but it won't if you stay near me: I'd be detected as a threat and it'll try to protect you. But as soon as it unlocks, I'll come back, I have a sample of your blood, the TARDIS will track you and bring me to you, I promise." he said, smiling.
She sighed in relief and smiled back. They then stepped outside and he gave her one last hug, kissing her forehead one last time before letting her go.
Hope you liked it, let me know! :)