Disclaimer: I don't own "Doctor Who" or "Twilight", and the essential details of the original concept of this fic came from a video posted on YouTube by heroesdwtw- which has unfortunately now been taken off YouTube- and is used with their permission
Feedback: Much appreciated
The Future in the Past
Less than an hour later, the Doctor and I were standing in the console room once again, staring at the screen on the TARDIS console as an image of Earth rapidly revolved in front of us; according to the Doctor, the image was going backwards, but it was hard to make out as the speed that the globe was turning at made it difficult at best to recognise individual continents.
"Right then," the Doctor said, looking firmly over at me as he tapped a few controls on the console around the screen, "based on the DNA samples I acquired from that wound of yours, I'm pretty sure that I've identified the unique bio-vibrations of the particular breed of vampires we're dealing with here; all we need to do now is let the TARDIS run its search, and we can take it from there."
"It's that... simple?" I asked, looking between my currently-exposed wrist and the screen displaying the world that I had lived on until the Doctor showed me others; even after everything I'd seen the TARDIS accomplish, the idea that we were now essentially searching Earth's entire history was truly incredible...
"Actually, my peoples' old war is the only reason we can do this; TARDISes were programmed with the ability to track vampire DNA backwards through time in order to determine when they first appeared on particular planets," the Doctor explained, shrugging almost apologetically at me. "It's not much good at tracking individual vampires- even with a race as unique as this one apparently is, the adaptable nature of the virus means that they can blend in virtually everywhere without giving away just how different they are at long-range-, but at the same time, that venom's so distinctive that we should be able to... ah hah!"
"What?" I asked, looking at him curiously. "You've found something?"
"Naturally," the Doctor said, grinning over at me. "This particular sample of vampire venom can be first found on Earth in the area that would become Romania in your time, approximately the year you'd consider 2000 B.C.; just let me pinpoint the coordinates and we can get there a little bit in advance... how long does the turning process take?"
"Everything I heard suggested that it would take three days," I replied.
"Right now; make it four days before the first occurrence, and we should have enough time to find what we're looking for if we land in the general area," the Doctor said, smiling at me as he set the coordinates.
"Uh..." I said, looking uncertainly at him as I indicated my clothes. "If we're going to this kind of time... should I... well... change?"
"Oh, no need; given the circumstances of our arrival and what we're looking for, any natives we run into will probably just assume we're gods," the Doctor said with a shrug. "Easiest way to tackle the problem, really; show up, find what we're after, and-"
"Actually, could we just... keep it low-key?" I said, as another thought occurred to me. "You know... not make contact with anyone else here unless we have to?"
"What?" the Doctor asked, looking curiously at me. "Why not?"
"It's just that..." I began, thinking briefly about what had just occurred to me to be sure that I was phrasing it the right way, "well, the vampires I've met always said that they had a perfect memory once turned- anything they experienced would always be remembered-, but some of them can remember what happened to them while they were human under the right circumstances, so... well..."
"You'd prefer that we fly under the radar so that we can be reasonably sure nobody's going to remember you when we get back," the Doctor finished for me nodding in understanding before he looked more curiously at me. "Could these vampires live that long?"
"Uh... I don't know," I said, shrugging apologetically. "I known that Carlisle- he was like the 'father' of Edward's family- was around three and a half centuries old and he still looked the same way as he does now a couple of centuries ago, but apart from that..."
"Only three and a half?" the Doctor said, smiling slightly at the thought. "Good age for most, but that's still younger than me."
"Really?" I said, looking curiously at him. "Uh... how old are you?"
"Around thirteen hundred, give or take a few decades," the Doctor said with a casual shrug.
I had to hold on to the pillar nearest my current location to stop myself from falling over at that news.
I'd known that the Doctor old ever since he mentioned that the TARDIS had been stuck as a police box for centuries, but to know that he was that old...
H was probably older than the entire Cullen family combined- I didn't exactly know the specific dates that most of them had been turned, but I'd heard enough to make a few guesses-, and he still looked like that?
"You... uh... you aged well?" I said at last, smiling awkwardly at him; it wasn't entirely appropriate, but it was all that I could think of to say.
"Actually, it's not as straightforward as you think; I've actually sustained death-inducing injuries on at least nine occasions before now," the Doctor said, smiling casually at me even as a slight edge appeared in his eyes as he spoke.
"Pardon?" I said, looking at him in confusion.
"It's a... thing that my people can do when we're facing death," the Doctor explained as he looked at me; judging by the awkward expression on his face, he wasn't entirely comfortable about revealing this to me, but, just like when I had learned what Edward was, he was resolved to answer my questions. "If we're fatally injured, our bodies can completely regenerate; we literally become new people to recover from the damage. I actually died of old age in my first body after around four and a half centuries of age, but since then I've made it this far with only outside circumstances being responsible for my deaths; some nasty accidents, a few instances where I've received lethal doses of various types of radiation, that kind of thing..."
He shrugged slightly s he looked back at me. "It's not the most conventional kind of immortality, of course- it still feels a bit weird knowing that who and what I was isn't what I am-, but I like to think I cope well."
"Oh," was all that I could say to that new revelation about my friend.
The idea that the Doctor was an alien had been something I'd been able to accept relatively easily, but the idea that he had actually died...
I wasn't sure if I should consider it 'cool'- as much as I hated to use that word- or disturbing; it sounded like either could apply.
"Anyway," I said, shaking my head to force those thoughts aside as I looked back at the Doctor- as interesting as regeneration sounded, we had more immediate issues right now-, "the point of what I was saying is that, if we can avoid being seen by anyone, that might make it simpler later; there may be several centuries between my time and here, but I'd rather not run the risk of doing anything to create a millennia-old grudge."
"Always a wise precaution, really; I've known people dedicate their lives to revenge, and it never got them anywhere, but it was always inconvenient stopping them," the Doctor said, smiling briefly at me before he turned his attention back to the console as the central column stopped moving, our previous discussion apparently forgotten in the face of the new challenge that we were about to face. "Anyway, we're here now; just give me an hour or so to whip up a portable venom detector, and we're sorted."
With that, he turned around and headed towards the TARDIS's inner door, pausing only briefly as he turned to look back at me. "Just to check, what weaknesses do these vampires have?"
"Uh... their venom's very flammable," I said, looking at him with a sudden sense of uncertainty; as much as I trusted the Doctor, the thought of us having to kill a vampire like the Cullens without the Cullens there to help wasn't exactly comforting. "If we can crack their skin somehow and start a big enough fire by igniting their venom in some way, that should be enough to stop them..."
"It's something to go on, anyway," the Doctor said, nodding grimly at me. "I've got some everlasting matches somewhere in the wardrobe that might do the job; check the pockets of the dark coats in the Victorian section- that's what I wore when I used those things regularly-, and meet me back here in an hour."
As the Doctor hurried off deeper into the vast network of corridors that filled the interior of the TARDIS- I still found it hard to even find my way to the room that the TARDIS had set aside for me after I started looking for somewhere to sleep; sometimes it seemed like the TARDIS just put it behind the nearest door when I became tired of trying to find it-, I was left to make my way to the wardrobe room- fortunately one of the rooms that was always consistently near the door-, trying not to think too much about the implications of what we were about to do.
We were about to try and find out the origin of the vampires that had been my introduction to the idea that there was more to the world than what everyone else saw and believed was there, and the only thing the Doctor was apparently willing to bring in the way of weapons were these 'everlasting matches' that I might not even be able to find...
Even if I knew that the Doctor's plans hadn't let us down so far, given that we were going into this situation with only my knowledge to rely on regarding the capabilities of these vampires, I really had to wonder if he knew what he was doing...