Important Note: After this chapter I am putting this story on a brief hiatus and then resuming on May 9th, to update every day until it's completion. Just a word of advice for college students, NEVER take more than 20 credits during a semester.

Journey to the Center of the Tardis- Part 1

I walked into the counsel room that morning and saw The Doctor already at work on the counsel, Clara standing next to him. It was two months since the creepy house visit and we had many more adventures that we barely managed to survive on. Every single adventure, Clara would do something to piss me off even more than I was already. At this point I barely acknowledged her presence. The Doctor didn't seem to notice or, if he did, to care.

It seemed like The Doctor and Clara were in the process of arguing about something. "You said-" The Doctor started when Clara cut him off.

"I know what I said. I was the one who said it."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, "You said it was looking at you funny."

"I was tired, overwrought. I didn't mean it. It's an appliance. It does a job." Clara said.

"It's a pretty cool appliance. We're not talking cheese grater here." The Doctor said.

"You're not getting me to talk to your ship. That's properly bonkers." Clara replied, rolling her eyes.

The Doctor patted the console, whispering, "It's okay, it's okay." as I approached. I had learned never to get in the middle of one of their 'spats' because I would end up having to choose a side. The Doctor was correct, of course. The Tardis and i would talk sometimes. She was a full sentient being. Though I did not want to get into another argument with Clara. It seemed like we were at war with each other every time we saw one another since the adventure in that creepy house.

"You're like one of those guys who can't go out with a girl unless his mother approves." Clara snorted.

"It's important to me you get along. I could leave you two alone together."

Clara stepped back, "Now you're creeping me out."

"Take the wheel. Not the wheel. I'll make it easy. Shut it down to basic mode for you." The Doctor said.

I blinked. Was he seriously going to teach Clara how to fly the Tardis before me? A human before me? At least I was part Time Lord. I leaned up against the railing and crossed my arms, wondering when the two of them would notice I was in the room.

Clara folded her arms, "Basic? Because I'm a girl?"

"No." The Doctor said and turned a Key that was labeled, Smiths.

The power goes out as soon as Clara operates a control. "What have I done?"

"Er, okay." The Doctor said, in a slightly panicked voice, running around the console.

"Doctor?"

"All the electrical impulses are jammed. I can't get the shields back up. She's completely vulnerable." The Doctor was still checking the systems on the console.

Clara had her hands up and was away from the console. "I swear I just touched it."

The Doctor manages to push up a breaker lever and there is a big bang that rattled the ship. I had to hold onto the railing in order to continue standing. "What the hell did you press, Clara?" I snapped at her, from my position at the railing. This was not how I wanted this day to go.

Startled, Clara whipped her head around and finally noticed me. "Amelia, I-"

"Magnetic hobble-field." The Doctor interrupted Clara. "We're flying right into it. Clara, Amelia, stay by me." The farthest I got was next to Clara, who was next to The Doctor, before I had to grab onto the console to keep from falling over.

"Please tell me there's a button you can press to fix this." Clara pleaded.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, "Oh, yes. Big friendly button."

"You're lying."

"Yep."

"To stop me freaking out?"

"Is it working?"

Clara huffed, "Not so much."

Suddenly a small silver ball rolls along the floor. Clara picks it up and yelps as it burns her hands and she drops it.

A huge BANG follows and huge sparks flew up from around the console, sending Clara and I flying over the railing. There was a burst of pain followed by darkness.

I groaned as I felt someone shaking me as I slowly came to. "Amelia? Lia?" It was Clara. I groaned again, but this time not because of the pain, and opened my eyes, "What happened?"

"I have no idea." Clara responded as she helped me sit up. I looked at my right ankle and winced. It wasn't supposed to look that twisted. "Yeah. You're ankle is twisted."

I gritted my teeth, "Thank you, Sherlock."

Clara narrowed her eyes at me, "Ever since the Witch in the Well adventure, you've hated me for some reason. Why?"

I was half listening to her and half listening to the Cloister bell which was going off, meaning we were in danger. "Clara, now's not the time to discus weather I hate you or not. The Cloister bells going off which means-"

Clara's eyes widened, finally understanding their current situation, "We're in danger."

"Most importantly, we have no way of contacting The Doctor. And the Tardis is infinite and most definitely alive." Clara opened her mouth to protest. Before she could, I continued, "She is sentient. I can feel her emotions and, at times, communicate directly with her through telepathy." I closed my eyes and reached out with my thoughts, as The Doctor had taught me only yesterday, and tried to reach the Tardis, "Right now, she's in pain." I gasped, clenching my fists together, "So much pain." I snapped out of it, breathing hard.

Clara was staring at me in concern.

"We have to find The Doctor." I breathed out.

"You're hurt!" Clara exclaimed, "You shouldn't walk on that."

"The help me." I snapped, "The sooner we get to The Doctor, the better chance we have of surviving. The Tardis is… unpredictable when she is hurting." I said, remembering my mother's stories of the Year that Never Was and the time the Tardis was pushed into a human and Amy and Rory were trapped inside her.

"If you insist." Clara said, eyeing me warily. She knelt down next to me and allowed me to swing my left hand over her shoulders. I used the wall to help me stand up. I winced as I accidently put pressure on my right ankle, immediately lifting it off the floor.

We made our way, slowly, along the Tardis corridors. Clara and I would take turns calling, "Doctor!" and trying to make our voices carry over the Tardis's Cloister bell. We stopped for a second so that Clara could blow on her burnt palms. I was resting against the wall while Clara stood in the middle of the hall.

"We should try to find Medical." I suggested.

Clara straightened and put her hands down, "I'm fine."

I raised my eyebrows, "If you insist."

We walked a bit more until we came to a door with red flashing lights over the top of it. "Red flashing light means something bad." Clara thought to herself.

"Duh." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Get out of here fast?" Clara continued, "Or possibly, whatever you do, don't open this door." Clara stretched out her hand to the door.

"Clara, what the hell do you think you are-" I yelped as Clara opened the door and there is an explosion within the room, "Red flashing lights always, always, mean BAD!" I yelled.

Clara blinked, "Bad decision."

Clara and I ran, well, painfully ran from from a fireball and I slammed my hand on the button that closes the next bulkhead door that we came across. I let go of clara and leaned up against the wall and slid down it, massaging my ankle. A tiny moan escaped me as my ankle felt as if it were on fire. Clara was bent over, hands on her knees, breathing hard.

My eyes widened as I spotted something on the far wall, "Clara." I said in a warning tone, pointing at the far wall. Clara turned to me looked at my hand and turned to where I was pointing. There, on the wall, were deep claw markings.

"We're in trouble, aren't we." Clara breathed.

Something growls loudly nearby and we both froze and stared at each other, wide eyed.

After we heard that growl, Clara had quickly helped me up and we started moving, hopefully away from whatever that creature was. We made it to a, rather large, storeroom with a large stone arched doorway. A wooden cradle with stars hanging over the opening and blue circular gallifreyan writing on the side. The Doctor still hadn't taught me the writing yet.

Clara and I looked around the room and Clara picks up a small model of the Tardis from a shelf.

"Clara, something else is in here with us." I hissed as I spotted… something.

Clara was about to pick up a black umbrella when she herself sees the creature, "Oh!"

Clara ran and I staggered out of the room after her.

"It's still following us!" I yelled to Clara, who was a few paces in front of me.

"Don't you think I know that?!" Clara yelled back.

We passed an observatory with a big victorian telescope, which I had no clue existed, and an open air swimming pool and we ran into the Library. The library has both shelves of books and completely separate shelves of a range of bottles. There are Six stories of this.

"Wow." Clara says, staring around, "Now that's just showing off."

I looked at her, "You've never seen the library before?"

"No. Never had the time."

I snorted, "There's always time when traveling in a time machine, Clara."

We started to wonder around the library. My ankle continued to feel like it was on fire, which made sense because I hadn't stopped walking or running yet, and I was using Clara like a crutch.

"Amelia?" Clara asked.

I looked at her, "Yes?"

"Why do you hate me? You were fine on our first meeting then on my first proper adventure. After that you've been… well, distantly hostile." Clara said.

I sighed, "You wouldn't understand."

Clara snorted, "I'm on a time machine slash spaceship and that apparently is sentient and we are running from an unknown enemy. I think I can make due."

"Alright." I closed my eyes for a second then opened them, "Right before the trip to Akhaten The Doctor came and asked me if I wanted to become an Apprentice."

"What's an Apprentice?" Clara asked.

"It's like taking up a trade during medieval Europe on Earth. Though, it's The Doctor's job to teach me how to become a proper Time Lord. I haven't officially began my apprenticeship, I'm doing a… trial run first, to make my parent's happy. I get to see them every once and awhile. A true apprenticeship would mean that I would be away from my parents for at least until I come of age, which would be in five hundred years or so."

Clara's mouth hung open. "Five hundred years?"

I nodded. "At five hundred, I become of age or a Time-Five or just Five for short. At a seven hundred I become a full Time Lady and would attend The Academy but…." I trailed off.

"What?" Clara asked and I realized The Doctor had told Clara nothing about his history with the Time Lords.

I took a breath, "There was a war. A BIG war between the Time Lords and The Daleks. Gallifrey was destroyed in the process."

Clara's eyes were wide. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

"It's alright. I'm only part Time Lord. I grew up on Drax Three, but a part of me wishes I grew up on Gallifrey."

"Ok. History lesson, check. But why do you hate me so much?"

Clara said that in a tone that made me snap, "Because The Doctor's supposed to be training ME! It's Clara this and Clara that! All the bloody time! And he was going to teach you how to fly the Tardis! That's the right of passage that all Time Lords have to make and he showed a Human before me!" I practically yelled at Clara. At this point I had leaned against the wall, not being helped along by her. I was shaking, my ankle throbbed in pain from standing on it but at that moment, I didn't care.

Clara had her arms by her sides and was staring at me in realization, "Amelia, I'm-"

"It's Lia!" I snapped.

"Lia-" Clara started, her eyes watering.

I heard something clang so softly that I could barely hear it. But it sounded close. My eyes widened in fear, "Shh." I whispered, "The thing's followed us in here." I pushed myself out of a leaning position to a more upright one. We moved around the library to another position, this time we found a large bound book on its own special stand: The History of the Time War. I looked at Clara, both our eyes were wide.

Clara flipped open the book to the middle and, surprisingly it was English, "So that's who-" Clara started.

"Clara, we shouldn't be reading this." I said, quickly closing the book.

A clang and growl sounded somewhere deep in the library. We ran to a shelf that had a rack of books to hide from the creature. I heard muffled voices speaking but couldn't make it out properly. We pressed our backs against the rack as a creature passes our isle. One of the bottles from the shelf we were pressed up against tips over, and the words tumble out over our head. Clara and I wafted them away so the creature could not hear.

The creature turns into our isle and makes its way toward is. Clara and I glanced at each other and together we ran for the entrance of the library.

I was about out of breath when we ran into the console room. I staggered to the railing and sat on the second bar, lifting my right foot off the ground to massage my ankle.

Clara runs to the console, "Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you" She kisses the Tardis.

"You're acting like The Doctor." I pointed out.

Clara turns around and in the process her eyes widened and ran back where… the doors were supposed to be? "No! The door. Where's the door gone? No. You can't do this!"

I stood up, leaning heavily on my left leg, "Clara, look down here." I said, staring at another hallway that had appeared, and into another console room.

Clara joins me and we looked at each other, "Oh, why are you doing this?" Clara asked the Tardis. As usually, there was no response.

Seeing an door, one that did not lead to outside the Tardis, Clara went and opened it, trying to figure out what was going on. A creature from earlier is behind it, Clara screams.

"Clara!" I yelled, rushing forward and pulling her back from the creature and around the console, so the console was between us and the creature.

"Who are you?" Clara breathlessly asked the creature, who was shadowlake, but looked like a humanoid.

The creature advanced and I quickly pulled Clara behind me while she screamed. Suddenly Clara's weight on my arm's gone. I glanced behind me and saw a shimmering mirror looking thing. Because of the distraction, I could now feel the creature breathing on the back of my neck and I stiffened. The next thing I knew, I'm pulled through... something and into The Doctor.

"Lia." The Doctor breathed, hugging me.

Surprised, I tensed but awkwardly hugged The Doctor back, "What happened, Doctor?" I asked as The Doctor pulled back, out of the hug.

The Doctor didn't answer but stared at my twisted ankle, "I can fix that."

My eyes widened, "Doctor, don't you dare. We'll take care of it after we figure out what the hell is going on."

Clara walks up and slaps The Doctor. "Ow!" The Doctor exclaims, rubbing his face, "Okay, so we're not doing hugging. I get that now."

"What do you keep in here? Why have you got zombie creatures? Good guys do not have zombie creatures. Rule one basic storytelling." Clara scolded.

"Not in front of the guests." The Doctor whispered.

"Who are they?" I asked, glancing at two, dark skinned, male humanoids. Both had, what looked to be, some sort of uniform, which was a brown jumpsuit and ear devices.

"Friends. Well, people who aren't trying to kill us, so I don't need punching again."

"All right, all right. Look, a deal's a deal. You got your friend's back. Now cancel the self-destruct." One of two men said.

"Ah. Ah. You know, I've got to tell you, I won't be needing you in my quiz team." The Doctor said, just about laughing.

"What?" The same man said.

"There is no self-destruct. Hey? Hey? Hey? Had you going though, boys, didn't I? I just wiggled a few buttons. Yeah, the old wiggly button trick. And the face. You've got to do the face. Save them or we all die. I thought I rushed it a bit, but-"

"So you're telling us we're safe?" The other man said. Boy, I had to learn their names.

The Doctor winced, "Ish. Apart from the monsters and the Tardis reinventing the architecture every five minutes. Guys, don't worry. The countdown's a fake. Look, just give me a second. I'll turn it off. I only made it look as though the engine was actually exploding." The doctor said, checking the console, "Ah. That's not good. Okay, don't panic. Or maybe panic."

"Something you want to share with the rest of us?" Clara asked, crossing her arms.

"It appears the engine is damaged. We're in trouble. Proper trouble. It needs fixing or we're toast."

"So now would be a good time to use that big friendly button, right?" Clara asked.

"Yes. Sorry, I should have had one built in." The Doctor said and started walking to the door and Clara and I followed.

"Where are we going?"

The Doctor glanced back over his shoulder. "Detour."