A/N: Sorry for the delay in getting this up. Life, y'know?
All quotes are from the show.
Waking was like swimming upwards through thick jelly. Eyes opened, eyeballs dry and gritty, roaming unfocused around the room, seeing but not registering.
"Noble?"
A name. Who? The answer appeared but skittered away before it could be grasped.
"Noble, can you hear me?"
And the shadow was leaning over, small and wiry and concerned, shining light into the itching eyes. "Focus on the light for me."
The burning eyes slipped past the scorching light and onto the diminutive figure beyond. Everything instantly snapped into focus, everything too bright and sharp, fragments whirling, memories as insubstantial as ghosts and as solid as stone.
-mutant, genetic anomaly, brother of monsters-
"Donna?"
New shadow. New darkness. The angular blonde creature was peering over the little doctor's shoulder. Eyes followed, memory echoed.
-smart, resourceful, beautiful, killer-
"I don't like this." Brother of Monsters said bitterly. "The human brain was never meant to be jerry-rigged this way."
"What do you suggest?" A new voice, as cold as the Void itself. "Perhaps we should just kill her."
Brother of Monsters bristled angrily. "I never suggested such a thing, you miserable bastard." He growled. "This is not supposed to be done! We could leave her entirely brain dead!"
"Or we could save her life."
Dry eyes sought out the last shadow. He was standing at the foot of the medical stretcher, arms folded across his torso like the Prydonian Guards of old, standing sentry over a fallen comrade, guarding the dying.
Memories, as sharp and cutting as broken glass, slicing through those that tried in vain to grasp them. Memories of so long ago. Memories dried and withered to dust.
-irrational idiot, warrior, companion, friend, drinking, gambling, carousing, two soldiers, one old and grizzled and jaded, the other young and headstrong and idealistic-
"Donna, focus." Irrational Idiot's voice was low and growly. He unfurled himself and snapped his fingers sharply.
"Focus."
Something behind the dry eyes twisted and whirled and itched, reacting to those cold, blunt words with irritation and annoyance.
Why?
The memories fell like tears.
-irrational idiot, stubborn bastard, suicidal maniac-
"Donna, Zaphod has installed a Cyberdrive in your brain, freeing up virtually limitless space for your Time Lord mind." Green eyes flashed, showing blood and death and fire and
i'm coming back foryou i sweari'm comingbackfor you-
"Loooki,"
While Brother of Monsters looked suddenly hopeful, Irrational Idiot's frown deepened.
"That seems promising."
"No." Irrational Idiot looked grave. "It's happening."
It's happening.
It's happening.
What?
I don't –
"This was a bad idea!" Beautiful Killer insisted. "We should have put her in stasis and found a better way!"
"There is no better way," Brother of Monsters snapped. "While a modern Earther would have been able to smoothly adapt to the cybernetic implant, Noble is quite literally a throwback of hundreds of thousands of years ago!"
"Enough." The voice that came from behind the dry eyes was slurred, tongue deadened and weighted. "You will cease... your inane prattling."
The words are not right... not right... not the right words...
The three just stared dumbly.
"Donna." Irrational Idiot said again. Why does he keep saying that? "The core problem of... two presences in the same mind is that... they will fight for dominance."
The air was heavy with impending doom.
Knew. Knew that. Then, now, later, all relative, all mixed up, future was then, past is now, present is somewhere else altogether...
"And right now the Time Lord is trying to push you out of your own head."
-fighting, explosions, death, so much death, death stalks the forever dying, never living, the Time Lord Victorious!-
"Push back! You didn't come this far to give up now, did you?"
Did?
I?
-round and round and round we go-
"You ran from the Time Lord because he was going to take away what made you, you! He's going to do that again, and lock you away in your own head." He reached out, gloved long-fingered hands closing around smaller ones, nails bitten down almost to the quick. "Come on Donna. You're the best damn temp in Chiswick, remember?"
-where she stops, nobody knows!-
Fragments. So many fragments, so many faces, so many voices. But all the same.
If you could see the alien sand and hear the cries of strange birds and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?
The events will happen, just as they are written. I'm afraid we can't stem the tide. But at least we can stop being carried away with the flood!
Every great decision creates ripples, like a huge boulder dropped in a lake. The ripples merge, rebound off the banks in unforeseeable ways. The heavier the decision, the larger the waves, the more uncertain the consequences.
A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting.
"Donna?"
Destiny. Isn't that just a fancy name for blind chance?
"Donna!"
Donna!
A child with long swinging red hair running after a grizzled, dark-haired man.
Coming, daddy! Wait for me. Wait for me!
Disappearing into the darkness, leaving the girl alone. Always alone. Protect yourself. Don't let anyone in-
It's sort of complicated. I ended up on a spaceship on my wedding day-
Listen, I don't know what sort of kinds you've been flying around with in outer space, but you're not telling me to shut up.
-'cause I understand now. You said I was gonna die, but you mean this whole word is gonna blink out of existence. But that's not dying! Cause a better world takes its place, the Doctor's world! And I'm still alive! That's right, isn't it? I don't die. If I change things, I don't die. That's... that's right, isn't it?-
Donna!
And you go with him, that wonderful Doctor. You go and see the stars, and then bring a bit of them back for your old Gramps.
A dark shadow, a mournful face and a speech never heard.
I just want you to know there are worlds out there, safe in the sky because of her. That there are people living in the light and singing songs of Donna Noble, a thousand million light years away. They will never forget her.
You're not telling me to shut up!
Silence. Defeat. This was a battle that Irrational Idiot could not fight, and the frustration plainly shone on his face.
-irrational idiot, bloody bastard, mouthy asshole, annoyingly sexyandmysterious-
Captain Skytreader's face was grave, his big green eyes belying his hard countenance. Dry eyes raked over his face, memorising every freckle, line, and scar. The idealistic young man, so sure that he could lead his people to the teeth of hell and back.
When did that young man become so old? When did all that hope fade into the dark?
My people called it the Void. The Eternals call it the Howling. But some people call it Hell.
Big sad eyes that had seen too much.
Right then he looked so much like the Doctor that it hurt.
It hurt.
The hurt made it real.
You're not telling me to shut up!
"If... you keep hangin' over me like that... 'M gonna bite your nose."
Loki smiled, and it took Donna longer than it should have to realise that he was still holding her hands, but snatching them back seemed to require too much effort. She rolled her head from side to side slowly, seeing Lily and Zaphod staring wordlessly at her.
Beautiful Killer. Brother of Monsters. Irrational Idiot. They were all there, in her head.
In the Doctor's head.
She needed to pee.
"Does someone have any aspirin or somethin'?" Donna pulled one of her hands out of Loki's grip and wearily rubbed at her eyes as the room spun around her crazily, groaning. "Someone stop the universe, I want to get off."
Lightning cracked through the still night, striking the ground viciously and throwing dirt and debris into the air. Rain suddenly slammed down, roaring in sheets. Lightning struck once more, screaming through the valley, howling with all the rage of a dying planet.
And the next moment there was the voice of a child screaming into the storm.
In the centre of the circle of destruction lay a small, quivering body, huddled in on itself. Thin, shaking hands were pressed firmly against small ears as the child rocked back and forth in the mud, forehead pressed against the ground.
After so long in silence and darkness, the explosion of light and noise was unbearable.
Absolutely unbearable.
It was unknown how long the Child remained there, in misery. It may have been moments or centuries. The mortal grasp of time had no meaning where she had been imprisoned.
The storm quieted.
Eventually the Child unfurled, hands pressed flat to the ground, pushing up to stand on unsteady legs. Moonlight shone through the thin form, the Child as insubstantial as a ghost.
It worked. After time uncharted, it worked.
The Nightmare Child had broken through the walls of her prison and into this reality.
A smile curved the Child's translucent lips. It would take time to reconstitute herself on this side of the Void, but in the meantime, there were things to do.
People to see.
...
..
.
..
...
End of Part 1.
Next, Wilf and the Doctor return.