Hello sweeties! Sorry for the wait! I had exams this week so I didn't really have the time to write. Sorry if this chapter seems a bit rushed, it's late and I just wanted to get the idea for it out of my head. Hope you like it :D
*BBC owns Doctor Who and stuff*
River looked up from the cup of tea she was stirring as the doorbell rang, a confused expression crossing her face. Who could that be? Nobody ever visited her home, it was in the middle of nowhere. Thinking it was just someone trying to sell her something, River ignored it.
There was a moment of silence before the bell rang again and she heard a strange scratching sound. She turned to see Mouse pawing at the door, meowing insistently, and rolled her eyes. Then the doorbell rang again and this time an annoyed voice came from the other side.
"River I know you're home, I can see the lights on," the Doctor huffed, his forehead pressed against the wood of the door. "I was trying to be polite, but if you're just going to ignore me I'll just use my sonic-"
"I'm coming, I'm coming," she laughed as she made her way down the hallway, gently pushing a disgruntled Mouse aside as she opened the door to her husband's grinning face. "Good morning, sweetie."
"Good morning Proffessor Song," he said with a nod of his head and River pulled him in for a kiss. When they pulled apart he laughed, smirking down at her. "Has it been awhile?"
"Of course not, you only just left yesterday," she replied with a flirty smile. "Am I not allowed to kiss my husband hello?"
"You can kiss me whenever you want, dear."
"Good, I might just have too."
"Hey, stop that!" he laughed and danced away from her when she leant in again.
"Stop what?"
"Distracting me!" he grinned like he really didn't mind. "I didn't just come here to kiss you now did I?"
"I don't know, you tell me," she snorted as she made her way back down the hallway, Mouse mewing insistently at her heels. She crouched down and scratched him behind the ears. "Yes, I know my sweet, you're hungry. Give me a moment… and a can-opener."
The Doctor followed River into the kitchen bemusedly, absentmindedly pouring himself a cup of tea as River fetched the cat food from the cupboard. She looked over her shoulder and smiled at the impatient expression on his face, his foot tapping a ceaseless rhythm on the maroon tiles. Once the cat was attended to – his thick, fluffy tail flicking back and forth happily as he ate – she sat down at the table, placing a biscuit tin in front of her husband.
"I can see you're raring to be off on a new adventure, sweetie," River smirked as he took a jammie dodger out of the tin and dipped it in his tea. "So tell me, where are we going?"
"It's a surprise," he smirked and River raised an eyebrow. "I found a hypercube, or more it found me."
"A hypercube?"
"Timelord communication device. We wrap up our thoughts inside a box and send it through time and space to its destination."
River frowned at his excited grin, knowing what this meant. "So you think there's another surviving Timelord out there?"
He nodded excitedly.
"Sweetie, I hate to burst your bubble but… you do remember what happened last time, don't you?"
The Doctor's smile faltered as memories from the last time he rushed to the aid of a Timelord he thought was living came to mind. The TARDIS' face flashed across his mind and he sighed.
"I'll go find out what happened to the Timelord," he said sadly. "If they died at someone's hands other then mine… well, I'll try and stop that person from hurting others again. But if they're alive, River…"
"I guess I have no choice then," she smiled. He jumped up and moved to run out the front door, but River caught his arm and smiled. "You haven't even asked where I am yet, sweetie."
"Ah, right. Yes," he mumbled, scratching the back of his head. "Where are we?"
"Last I saw you was yesterday when you came at three in the morning and stayed the night."
He frowned slightly. "And before that?"
"You gave me a house."
"Same for me," he said, a smile breaking out on his face. "We're linear. That's new."
"Why? Why now?"
"We're moving from opposite ends of each others time-streams," he explained as they both made their way to the door. "I guess now we're meeting in the middle. We're halfway there."
"Halfway to the end," she said quietly, tears in her pretty, green eyes.
"Or to the beginning," he murmured. "Half empty or half full. It depends on your outlook on life." He looked over his shoulder at her then turned away, his eyes downcast. She didn't mean for him to hear.
"Well, I apologise for being a pessimist," River muttered as she shrugged on her coat and followed her husband out into the rain.
"Never apologise for who you are, River," the Doctor said quietly, staring up into the grey sky. "Rule Seventy-seven."
"What if who you are could get you killed?"
"I think you'll find the answer to that somewhere in Rule One."
"Well isn't someone just a beacon of hope today," she said under her breath. Of course he heard her – damn him and his inhuman hearing abilities – and he turned to kiss her on the cheek.
"I guess I'm just feeling rather hopeful," he grinned. River frowned as he opened the TARDIS door and walked in, her husband's good mood not rubbing off on her like usual.
"What exactly are we looking for, sweetie?" she asked as she took his jacket for him and hung it on the coat-rack by the door. "Do you know who the Timelord is?"
"I told you, I haven't listened to the message yet!" he huffed, picking up the little glowing cube that contained the thoughts of what River was starting to think was a long dead Timelord. He tossed it to her and she caught it, turning it over in her hands as she stared at the glowing, white surface. How such a small, seemingly unassuming thing could give someone so much hope, she had no idea. She handed it back to her husband and he bounced up the stairs to the console where he plugged the cube in. He turned his head to smile at her before flicking a switch.
"H-Hello?" a young girl's voice whispered from the console. "Can you hear me? I-I've never used one of these before… and nobody r-really taught me how." There was a pause as the girl took a deep breath as though she was holding back tears. "If you're reading… listening to this I'm guessing that you're a T-Timelord. Can you come get me? I-I'm alone… and scared. Please come get me. Please."
They both stood in silence for a moment, staring wide-eyed at the now silent cube sitting on the console. Before River could say anything the Doctor span into motion, pushing buttons, turning cranks and pulling levers, and the TARDIS took off.
"Where are we going?" she cried over the sound of the time-machine dematerialising. "She didn't say where she was!"
"She gave space co-ordinates," he replied, reaching around her to flick a switch on her left. "She didn't say them, they came up on the screen."
"Well, where are we going?"
"Nebula!" he cried, a familiar excited smile spreading across his face as the sound of lightning crackling around them once again assaulted River's ears.
"Again?" she laughed and joined him in his dance around the console. River's bad mood seemed to always just melt away when she was in the TARDIS. All it took was a cheeky grin from the Doctor and the flick of a switch, and she'd forget all her troubles and let her face split into a smile. That was the only thing that had made her imprisonment bearable, that kept away her doubts when he dropped her back to her cell after every visit. The fact that he would be back. Whether it was the next night or the next year, he would come back and whisk her away on another adventure. Her Doctor and his blue box. The only family she'd known for decades. They would always be back. He might have been getting younger – losing his memories of her – but she always knew that he was her Doctor and he would never leave her behind.
"We're here!" River said in a sing-song voice as the TARDIS landed soundlessly. The Doctor glared at her from behind the monitor, grumpy at the fact that he hadn't noticed her sneak the breaks off. He flicked a switch and the screen on the wall came on, showing the empty landscape outside. It was the same place that they'd landed in last time, only there were less flowers and the trees looked slightly shorter. "Exactly when are we?"
"8153. Roughly twenty-three years before our last visit when we dropped Hunter off," he jumped down the stairs and stuck his head out the door, taking in a deep breath of evening. "About… a quarter to five in the afternoon."
"I'm not seeing anyone, sweetie," River murmured, taking his hand and pulling him back into the TARDIS. "And I've got a bad feeling about this place."
"If I didn't go somewhere because you got a bad feeling, I never would have stolen a time-machine and ran away to see the universe," he smirked at her and River sighed, letting go of his arm and following him out the door.
They walked for a few minutes, intending to head towards the city glittering in the distance, but something made the Doctor stop and turn around.
"No," he hissed. His hand went straight to his jacket pocket and he pulled out his sonic screwdriver, spinning quickly as he scanned the area around them.
"What is it, Doctor?" River demanded. He shook his head slightly, raising the sonic in the air and pointing it at the sky above them. They both looked up and River swore under her breath at what she saw.
"Doctor, are those-"
"Cyberships," he spat, spinning around to see a group of twelve Cybermen materialise in front of them. River pressed her back against his so to keep an eye on the Cyberman behind him.
"You are here to stop us, Doctor," the Cyberman at the front stated.
"Yes. Yes I am."
"You are too late. We will take over the human settlement. We will remove all emotions. We will make them strong. They will be upgraded."
"I can't allow that," he growled. "We may not be on Earth but those are still humans."
"They are compatible. They will be upgraded to Cyberform."
"We appear to have reached the point in conversation where I give you a choice," he mused. "Deactivate yourselves or I deactivate you."
"We will not surrender. You will."
"And what makes you think that?" the Doctor asked quietly, a dangerous glint in his eyes.
"We know the whereabouts of the other."
They were pressed so close together River could feel the Doctor's hearts beating faster at the Cyberman's words.
"The other what?"
"The other of your kind. You think you are alone but you are not. We found the other Timelord before you did. We know where she is. You will die not knowing."
"Is that why you're here?" he questioned, his eyes darting back and forth between the Cybermen. He was just stalling now, trying to buy some more time so to think of a plan.
"We heard rumours that there was one of your kind here, among the human settlement. We have captured her. We will kill her if you do not surrender."
"How do you know she's a Timelord?"
"Her biological makeup is similar to yours. She has two hearts. She is a Timelord. She is the enemy."
"Sweetie," River whispered. "Have you got a plan yet?"
"No – well yes, but it's almost impossible to orchestrate at the moment," he muttered. "If I could get on their ship somehow, I could try to hack into their computers. See if I could find a way to send a signal to their heads or scramble their wires or… I could do loads! I just have to get on their ship!"
"Well, maybe now's the time to figure out how to set the ball rolling," River hissed. The Doctor huffed and turned his gaze back to the Cybermen.
"What will happen to the humans if I surrender?"
"No," River hissed. "You can't just surrender!"
"They are compatible. They will be upgraded to Cyberform."
"Yeah, you mentioned that-"
"You and your companion are not compatible. You will be deleted."
"NO!" River screamed as the Cyberman raised its arm and shot a red burst at the Doctor's chest from its wrist blaster. She spun around when she felt him fall away from her to see him kneeling on the ground, a blonde-haired woman lying in his arms, her sparkling grey eyes fluttering shut. River's shocked expression was mirrored on his face as he watched the life in the unfamiliar woman slowly fade away. She had jumped in front of him out of nowhere at the last moment, sacrificed her life for his, and he didn't even know who she was. She tried to say something but she was so quiet that the Doctor had to lean in.
"I snuck onto their ship and found their main computer," she murmured in his ear. "I found a way to disrupt the emotion-disabling implant in their heads. I had to escape before I could wire it to a remote or something though…"
The Doctor's face broke out into a grin and he kissed her quickly on the head. "I don't know how you did that but you are brilliant. You've done more than enough."
"Sweetie?" River asked, her gun pointed at the Cybermen before them. "Could you please do something about the planet's impending doom!"
Still holding the woman in his arms, the Doctor pulled out his sonic and once again pointed it at the sky. There was a flash of light and suddenly the Cybermen were screaming, clutching their heads.
"What is happening?"
"My friend here hacked into your computers," he grinned. "And I just turned your emotions back on."
"Emotional overload."
"Can not compute!"
"Aaaargh!"
Suddenly their heads were exploding and the Doctor was yelling to get out. He picked up the mystery woman and followed River as they ran towards the TARDIS. Before they reached the doors however, there was a great big flash of light and they turned to see the last headless cyber-body fall to the ground. As River stared at their still smoking bodies on the ground she felt the strangest urge to laugh. And she did. Relieved laughter that didn't match the tears forming in her eyes as she realised how close she'd been to losing her husband. And then she remembered why she didn't.
The Doctor was kneeling on the ground next to the woman, holding her hand as she tried to continue breathing. River joined them on the grass, gently lifting the woman's head and resting it on her knees.
"Why did you do that?" he whispered, his thumb brushing over the lady's shaking hand. "Why did you protect me? I don't even know you."
"It seemed like the right thing at the time," she said, laughing softly and then grimacing as pain shot through her chest. River reached down to brush a stray lock of golden hair off her face, tears still streaming down her cheeks.
"Thank you," River said, her voice barely a whisper. "Thank you for saving him."
The woman gave her a weak smile, the corners of her eyes crinkling with wrinkles that a person develops from years of laughter.
"What's your name?" the Doctor murmured as his wife pulled out her medscanner.
"Nebula."
"That's the name of the planet."
"I know," she smiled. "They named me after the planet."
"Who's they?"
"The humans. They've raised me since I was twelve years old. My first guardians are long gone now, but their children are still here. I looked after them and they looked after me."
"Well, I promise you Nebula, we'll get you back to your humans safe and sound," he assured her, his eyes darting back and forth between her's. "You just have to get better."
"I will," she laughed again, her face screwing up in pain as she did so. "Just give me a moment and a bit of space."
"Sweetie what is she talking about?" River questioned. She glanced at her medscanner and frowned. "She's dying."
The Doctor let go of her hand and stood, staring at Nebula with a confused expression on his face. He scanned her quickly with his screwdriver and his face split into the happiest grin River had ever seen..
"No she's not," he laughed and River raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Get back, River."
"What – why?"
Nebula laughed now as she sat up slowly, a hand flying to her chest as she winced. The Doctor grabbed River around the waist and pulled her back.
"What is wrong with you – Oh."
Nebula stood up slowly as her hands began to glow with a golden light, and smiled brilliantly at them both. "Someone finally got my message."
"That was you?" River asked. "You're the little girl from the hypercube?"
"We're obviously a bit late, dear," the Doctor frowned. "Uh, how late exactly?"
"521 years," Nebula smiled.
"Oh right. Sorry about that."
"Better late than never," she replied as her face began to glow too.
Regeneration energy suddenly exploded from her body in a wave, throwing her arms out and her head back. A painful scream tore from her throat as every cell in her body was ripped apart and replaced by new, completely different ones. Every part of her body was destroyed, a brand new part taking its place. The only thing that stayed the same were her memories, now being shoved unmercifully back into her new brain. She opened her eyes and they were seared into her memory too, the first faces her new face ever saw. The Doctor and River Song.
They both stared as Nebula fell onto her knees with a gasp, her once blonde hair now a thick curtain of waist-length brown waves. She looked up at them with a twenty-year-old face that was middle-aged just moments ago and looked at them both with warm, golden eyes the exact colour of the lingering regeneration energy that still danced around her.
"Alright, what do we have here," she muttered as she looked down at herself. She cleared her throat and frowned. "Deeper voice… hmmm. Not sure if I like that. Wait, no! Am I a… nope, nope definitely a female. Hair colour… yes! I was getting sick of blonde. Legs, arms… good. Toes…" she looked down at her silk slippers and frowned. "I'm just going to assume I've got ten. Oh, fingers! Wait, how many fingers are you supposed to have?"
"Ten," the Doctor replied happily as he moved forward to help her up.
"Good, that's how many I have," Nebula grinned at him and accepted his outstretched hand. She staggered slightly when she stood and the Doctor caught her. "Oops, sorry about that. Balance is a bit off still."
"I- you're a Timelord!" he blurted out, then slapped a hand over his mouth.
"Way to state the obvious, sweetie," River smirked at her childish husband as he tried to refrain from jumping up and down with excitement. Nebula simply grinned, the Doctor's joyful face mirrored in her's.
"And so are you!" she laughed.
Woohoo new character! Nebula's story gets explained a bit more in the next chapter, so don't worry. Please review if you liked it!
