**The inspiration for this chapter came from the movie, "Lilo and Stitch", and its song, "He Mele No Lilo" by Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu. Feel free to listen to it while you read. Oh, and I surprised even myself with the amount of Doctor, Clara, and Theta introspection in this chapter, so there's that. Enjoy!**
Several moments of thrashing later, the TARDIS landed on Theta's first location. Clara glanced at the door from her position at the railing. "So where are we, then? End of the universe?"
"Nope. Just Barcelona."
Clara turned back to the Doctor, who was watching the TARDIS monitor intensely. Naturally, he looked completely at ease, his tense eyebrows daring the universe to try and faze him. Not fair, not fair at all. She raised her own eyebrow in response. "Seriously? Theta came to Earth?"
This time she caught the Doctor's mouth twitching slightly. "Not quite." He nodded towards the doors. "See for yourself."
She bit her lip, but strode over to the doors and threw them open without hesitation.
Outside, Clara gasped, barely hearing the Doctor close the doors behind them. They were in the middle of a patch of palm trees, steps away from a beach that sparkled in the sun. There couldn't be a single uncomfortable pebble in such sand. Tourists off all species dotted the surf, though it was clear many of them were humanoid in appearance. But what really caught the eye was the sea: a beautiful blue expanse of water that stretched past the horizon. Huge waves crashed into the shore regularly, providing the surfers with the perfect surfing conditions.
"Barcelona," the Doctor said. His voice sounded rough and harsh, but also uncommonly quiet, like he had just stepped onto sacred ground. "The planet Barcelona, not the city. Once the earth burns up, humans want a place to relax. And where better than a provincial paradise? If there was a record for how quickly a planet could be colonized, the humans beat it."
"Oh my god, it's beautiful here!" Clara shouted, ecstatic they didn't end up in a black hole but feeling very out of place in her black jacket, white top, black leggings, and combat boots. She glanced up and smiled. Yep, there wasn't even a cloud in the sky. "Hot but with a cooling breeze, sunny beaches, tourists on the sand, and…" A creature who looked human except for the large, drooping ears passed by them with a dog on a leash. "And nose-less dogs! Doctor, why haven't we been here before?"
The Doctor was silent so long Clara had to turn to make sure he was still there. He was staring at the beach with longing in his eyes, similar to a boy gazing at an amusement park he couldn't go to, but much deeper. It was unbearably sad, and more wistful than any look Clara had ever seen. But then the Doctor realized his companion was staring at him, and he schooled his features once more. "It's…boring." He finally said. The cheerful mask was back in place. "Yes, that's it. Quite dull. Nothing to see here, unless you want to be lazy."
Clara was still staring at him, so the Doctor diverted her attention by pointing at a point above the water. "There's our little friend, right there."
She refused to drop the topic indefinitely, but she consented to following his finger with her eyes for the moment. There, riding above the crest of a wave on golden wings, was Theta. His feathers caught the sunlight like a mirror, and as soon as the wave hit the surface of the water he flapped higher and through the spray unharmed. Clara could imagine him screeching in delight even from this distance. "No wonder he came here first," she mused out loud. "He just wanted to play in the ocean."
"I'm not saving him if he drowns."
Clara rolled her eyes. "You probably don't have to. He's not quite a 'rat with pigeon wings', you know." Though she could only see him out of the corner of her right eye, she'd bet money that grunt meant the Doctor had just rolled his eyes.
"He's having so much fun…" she whispered. If the Doctor had heard her, he didn't show it.
She sighed and smiled, nostalgia tugging at her imagination. How long's it been since she'd been as carefree as Theta? There must have had some period of time in her childhood when there wasn't school to stress over, boys to entice, parents to please, and a world that expected her to be extraordinary and live an ordinary life day after day at the same time. Clara knew she'd be lying if she said she didn't miss those moments every now and then. But she had acquired responsibilities, and now…Clara didn't think she'd be able to go back to those times. Despite the loss of her youth, her innocence, and (most recently) her sense of constant safety, she wouldn't trade her life for anything. It was worth it. Right?
As all of her mistakes in life flashed across her eyes, Clara had to admit to herself that maybe a second chance wouldn't hurt.
She lightly shook her head to rid herself of her bleak musings and looked to at the Doctor. This was a good a time to ask him as any. "Doctor, what are you thinking?"
He turned towards her and frowned. "I'm sorry?"
"What. Are. You. Thinking?" There was no way he was sneaking out of an explanation this time. "When you stepped out of the TARDIS you were looking at this place like…I don't know, like it was a gravestone of a long-dead lover or something."
"That's rather specific," the Doctor answered, but his tone was blunt and clipped. In his eyes Clara could see that this was a topic he did not want to talk about.
Not that she'd ever headed his subtle warnings before. "Doctor, I'm just trying to understand. What's so special about this place?"
He glanced at his feet for a moment, before looking at the trees, the sand, the ocean…anything but her. "There's nothing special about it."
"You've never been here?"
"No."
"You know a lot about it."
Though he was staring at a rock a few paces away from them, Clara could see the Doctor rolling his eyes. "I know a lot about a lot of things. Just because you haven't been somewhere doesn't mean you can't know about it. That's what books are for."
Clara crossed her arms and blew out a puff of air. In the corner of her eye she could make out the glint of Theta's wings as the griffin danced along the tops of double and triple waves. Why must a two thousand year old Time Lord be so difficult? "But that look, on your face," she began. "What was it for? Or who?"
The Doctor flinched slightly, and it dawned on her. Who. Not what, but who. Clara nibbled at her lower lip and uncrossed her arms, now uncertain whether it was wise to push him any further. But…she had to know.
"Doctor," Clara asked. "Who was it?"
He closed his eyes and looked out to sea. A slight wind picked up then, and its surprisingly chilling feel to it made the Doctor look like the wind-swept sailor he was: old and wise, but troubled and deprived of his home. "It was a she," he finally muttered.
Oh. Clara nodded and clasped her hands in front of her. She'd never suspected the Doctor of having a lover, or any variation thereof. His current regeneration was too old, and his younger, too childlike. But she'd seen the rest of the Doctor's forms during her telepathic conversation with the female griffin leader. He'd been young and good-looking a time or two, and there was the fact that almost every one of his companions had been young, beautiful, and female. One of those women must have caught his eye, but which one?
Their faces came to her mind's eye, and Clara reasoned with herself that she didn't really want to know. It wasn't her business, she didn't want to risk getting jealous of the Doctor's feelings for someone else (even different a different kind of feeling) being greater than what he felt for her…the list went on and on.
She finally turned back to the beach, where she saw Theta dodging surfers as he flew through the next wave. "Is this the part where you tell me we have to find some way to tag him?" She asked, deciding to step back to safer conversation ground.
He was silent for a moment longer. Then the Doctor turned back towards her, the wry grin back in its usual position, and answered, "Not necessarily. Let him have his fun for once. Besides, by the time we make it out there, Theta will have long disappeared back into the time vortex."
The Doctor giving up? Clara didn't think she'd live to see the day. She could have sworn she saw something flicker behind his eyes, and Clara wondered if the Doctor was thinking of "her", and if that was affecting his words. But she popped that thought bubble before it could develop into more prying questions. Play it safe, Clara, she told herself.
"Really?" Clara asked. "I'd figured he'd have to touch the TARDIS or something for it to work."
"Not anymore. Once the initial contact has been established, Theta can feel the pull of the time vortex at all times, so long as he stays within the range of the TARDIS. He can slip away whenever he wants."
"And in order for us to win, we have to catch Theta. Without letting him see or sense us in any way."
"Yes." The Doctor swallowed quickly. "Or Theta gives up. Or the TARDIS separates Her connection with him. Or the universe implodes. Whichever comes first."
"Great," Clara mumbled. This day just got better and better. She frowned and glanced towards the Doctor again. "Can Time Lords do that?"
The gray-haired Time Lord took a moment to think, but then quickly shook his head. "No. 'M afraid that ability belongs to gryphes de stelli alone."
"Why's that?" When the Doctor gave her a questioning glance, she sighed and elaborated. "How's it done?"
He shrugged. "Oh, some complicated process that works in tandem with the mind, body, and a creature's time sense. Which is a very large sense in a Time Lord, not so for a human. Probably passed down through generations of star griffins, since the end of time—"
"You don't know, do you?" Clara blurted out.
The Doctor glared at a nearby palm tree, miffed to be interrupted. "Shut up."
They stayed like that for a while, palm trees and shade forming an imaginary bubble between them and the Barcelonan beach. "How long should we stay here?" She asked.
"Until Theta decides to leave." He grinned. "Seems a shame to disturb him while he's having fun."
Clara could only agree, and they sat back on their heels to watch Theta in companionable silence as the griffin danced above the sea.
Theta was having fun. With a flap of his wings he was cresting ocean waves mere inches above the water. The sun and the wind combined to create the perfect tropical temperature, and every view of the sea and the beach was more breathtaking than the last. He quickly found out that the sun's heat was great enough that it dried his wings relatively quickly, and he saw this as the perfect opportunity to fly through the water's foamy spray without worrying about his wings getting soaked.
The wave underneath him crashed harder than normal and created a slight updraft in the wind, and Theta rode it with a screech of glee. How could the rest of his species not know this place existed? All it needed was a never-ending supply of horse meat and it'd be paradise.
Theta opened his mouth to see what he could scent from the ocean breeze, but then he scrunched up his face and spat out the offending substance in disgust. Instead of a breeze, water had blown into his mouth instead. Not that this was any kind of water he'd want to drink. Salt! Who was the rat-brained fool to blame for creating an ocean with undrinkable water? Some paradise indeed!
The sound of laughter came from nearby, and Theta turned his head towards the source, fully prepared to screech at the creature in irritation. But it wasn't a mean spirited creature after all. Just behind him was that human, the one with blond fur on his head, red cloth on his legs, and flesh so sun-touched it was almost bronze. One benefit of a society well into the space age: the natives were never surprised to see unfamiliar species crawling, walking, or flying on their planet. This human was a surfer, and he'd treated Theta as his best friend ever since he'd first seen the griffin dance above the waves.
Now Theta croaked amiably, and banked sharply to the left so he could fly back to the human.
The man smiled and waved, calling out, "Hey, little buddy! How's the waves?"
Theta landed on the front tip of the surfer's board and twitched his ear. Normally, he would have bit anyone who commented on his size, but this man seemed to call everyone that. Maybe it was a human-surfer thing. The griffin couldn't talk back to the human, but he managed to get his point across with cheerful squawks and a couple flaps of his wings.
"Now that sounds like a good time," the human said, grinning. He pointed to a large swell coming in to shore. "Big one coming! You up for a race?"
The griffin looked at where he was pointing, and chortled. He was always up for a little competition.
With a screech, Theta jumped off the board and headed for where he knew the swell would rise up and become a proper wave. He could hear the man behind him, his arms working hard to catch up to the flying griffin.
And then the wave appeared in front of him as suddenly as a thunderclap, and Theta flew in without hesitating. From its outside appearance, the wave appeared quite large, but on the inside it was a quick tunnel ride to freedom. Flights like these were especially dangerous for him, since the water next to him was moving with such power it could sweep him up in its wake in seconds. Theta silently thanked his father, who'd insisted on training the young griffin to fly through jungles, caves, and storms without crashing. He could remember practicing for days, weeks, even months, and having nothing to show for most practice runs except for large bruises, multiple cuts, and deeply rooted shame.
Theta emerged from the tunnel of water and flapped quickly to dry his wings, which had been doused in condensation. He could hear the human cheering and congratulating him from afar, but Theta couldn't share the man's enthusiasm. He'd gone pretty long without thinking about his childhood, or any other part of his past life. "Before the Asteroid Transporter" he called it. He'd loved his parents, but has soon as they'd died it became clear that no one was willing to stand up for the runt of the flock. While others his age became fine, strapping young griffins, with wingspans they compared daily, Theta stayed the size of an overgrown kit. Of course, he was the first to admit that he hadn't acted very mature around that time anyway, but the end result was the same: no one was willing to deal with him.
He'd heard tales of griffins who'd become outcasts one way or another, and what happened to them in the end. Theta remembered the day he stared at an Asteroid Transporter, one of the many such capsules saved since the Age of Gallifrey, and made his choice. It was a lifetime of adventure, or nothing.
As the surfer with golden fur paddled back out to sea to catch another wave, Theta found himself hovering in the air uncertainly. He'd jumped into that capsule without thinking twice, assuming that anywhere was better than New Gallifrey and his disapproving flock. But it was lonely in space…to this day he had no way of knowing how long he'd spent in that transporter. Days? Months? Years? He'd lost track.
And then he'd crashed into a planet (he still didn't know the name of it) and boom, adventure! A Time Lord, even, a native from Gallifrey! Theta had never considered the possibility that there could be survivors of the Time War his father told him about, but here a survivor was, living and breathing. Sure, Theta might have been a little enthusiastic upon greeting the Time Lord. But it was pretty exciting!
But when he cut the wires in that ship, something he did instinctively, his mind went blank. Once the Time Lord and the human had left, Theta explored the ship's console and realized that he didn't have a clue as to what to do. The ship, which Theta discovered was telepathic, had informed him that She could repair the damage to the Herself immediately, but She was willing to give him one trip. But where to go? He didn't know any other planet besides New Gallifrey.
In the end, that's where Theta programmed the ship to go.
The flock hadn't cared that he'd left! Some had even screamed at him, telling him that he should have stayed gone. How dare they! Why, if he wasn't so small…Theta shook at the memory even now. Thank goodness for the griffin leaders, who'd been open-minded to give the Time Lord and the human a chance.
And then, the Time Lord had returned the favor for him.
Theta glanced up and, with his keen eyes, picked out the Time Lord, the human, and the bigger-on-the-inside ship in the center of a cluster of palm trees. They'd followed him alright, but were making no move to rush him. How thoughtful, Theta mused.
As he stared at the blue box, the griffin felt a sharp tug in his mind, like something was pulling at him from the inside. Theta recognized it, because he'd felt it before; the traveling ship had filled him with it ever since he'd touched the ceiling of the machine. In the back of his mind, something supplied him with its name: the time vortex.
Time to go, he thought. The griffin grinned and poked his tongue out at the duo. Catch me if you can!
And Theta closed his eyes, called upon the unseen rope dangling from the time vortex, and pulled. He was gone in the blink of an eye.
