~~OO~~II~~OO~~

((No Such Thing as a Paradox: Part II))

~~OO~~II~~OO~~

Alright, I thought as I checked the bag I had packed. Got some stuff to drink so I didn't keel over from dehydration while running? Check. My phone? Check. Sketchbook and pencils? Check. That weird keychain that the TARDIS was making me take? Check. The fez that she was making me take? Check. Instructions of where to go in my head? Check. Clave? Check. I was ready to go.

"Okay, old girl," I told the TARDIS, using the Doctor's affectionate name for her. I patted her console reassuringly. "I want you to keep the Doctor distracted. Don't move for him while I'm out so he doesn't leave me. Don't let him know I'm gone, either, okay?"

She hummed in response, remaining silent within my mind. She was exhausted now, and I couldn't blame her. She'd worked hard to create the keychain that was connected to my bag.

I huffed, snapping it off to inspect it one more time. It had a button on it, I noticed. Curiosity got a hold on me as I examined the small metal object and I pressed the button. A buzzing sound came from it and a grin spread across my face. Oh, the TARDIS was amazing! "Thanks!" I said cheerfully, replacing the sonic keychain, which was in the form of a miniature version of the TARDIS, back where it belonged. I headed for the doors, allowing Clave to curl around my shoulders. He would help me find bowtie man, hopefully before the Doctor came back from his own adventure.

Hopefully.

I set off straight from the doors, as the TARDIS had ordered. There was another village that belonged to the other side straight ahead, at least a mile away. The Doctor had gone west rather than north, so I should be safe, she had reassured. Thank goodness she'd been able to speak with me before getting too tired. Bowtie man should be in that village.

This walking thing was quickly getting old, I thought not even ten minutes into the journey. Back in high school in Texas, I could run a mile in ten minutes. But I couldn't exactly run with Clave around my shoulders, and I was really out of shape for that kind of stuff despite my time with the Doctor.

Clave sniffed the air, his long neck lifting into the air as he sniffed intently at the air. I shoved my heavy black braid over my shoulder, shaking my head. This was getting ridiculous, maybe I would get it cut sometime. Clave's talons suddenly dug into my shoulder and he gave a warning hiss moments before something was pointed at my face. I gasped, going cross eyed as I tried to see the tip of the short sword.

The man wielding it glared at me. Unlike the last group the Doctor and I had spotted, he was on foot and alone. "State your purpose with my people, stranger."

I swallowed, then cleared my throat, stepping back and crossing my arms. These people were more modernized, I realized. He was in jeans. Maybe there had been two groups that had crossed through space…? "I'm here to see a man known as Doctor John Smith. Has he been here or possibly still is if he has been seen?"

He held the sword for a few more moments. Finally, he lowered it. I sighed in relief, straightening, and Clave stopped baring his teeth in favor of watching the man with piercing amber eyes. "Mr. Smith is here, yes. He and two others came here together. What do you want with them?"

I locked gazes with him. "I'm a friend of his. The person I travel with and I stopped here and were sort of kidnapped by that other group. We heard that Mr. Smith had been seen, and when we got away, I wanted to come make sure he was alright. My companion that I travel with did some scans on our ship and said he was here."

He paused, contemplating. And then he nodded with a sigh. "Fine, but you will be subject to a search upon reaching our home village. We do not welcome just anyone into our village, woman."

I nodded in response to this. "I can understand that," I replied, pursing my lips. More than understandable. A war torn country in two parts, each part wary of each other. They wanted to make sure I wasn't planning a killing on an important village. As impatient as I was, I was willing to wait because of that. "Thank you."

Clave relaxed fully as I began to follow the man in the direction of the village he lived in. I could see smoke columns rising from the different buildings, and I gave a nervous sigh. Hopefully I wasn't messing anything up by going to see bowtie man. He thought that the last time we'd seen each other would be the last time he saw me. Obviously, he'd been wrong. But that time would come eventually, and I wouldn't come back.

We reached the outskirts of the village and the man who had been leading me held his hand out. I set Clave on the ground to be inspected, murmuring, "Hold still, Clave, and don't attack." I handed my bag over, and the man immediately dumped everything out, examining it all piece by piece while a woman was brought over. She smiled reassuringly and apologetically while beginning to pat me down.

As they made sure I was safe, my gaze scanned the area, studying the buildings. They looked like simple wooden huts, not even ten feet wide at the most. Despite the modern clothes, these people had no idea how to build proper homes. And somehow, it matched how they lived. I smiled slightly and fixed my jacket when Clave had crawled back up. "Thank you," the woman said, nodding with a kind smile. I took my bag back and returned it. "I will take you to see Mr. Smith now. That is who you wished to see, yes?"

"Yep," I replied cheerfully, my gray eyes turning onto her. "I was told he has friends with him. Is one of them a woman with red hair?" I received a nod of response and nodded slightly myself. Alright, so Amy was with him. The other would either be that girl that Amy had complained of last time or some other person with them.

The woman guided me through the village, and I cheerfully followed her, my knuckles white as I clenched the strap of my bag. I was going to see the regenerated Doctor again. I bit my lip. I really hoped this didn't mess anything up. Finally, we stopped at the entrance to a larger building and she said, "Hold on a second, please." She stepped through the door, and said with a warm tone, "Mr. Smith? Mr. and Mrs. Pond? You have a visitor that claims to know you."

Hm…so Amy had a husband? Had that been mentioned the last time?

"Well that's interesting," I heard bowtie man say curiously. "I don't know who could possibly be here, we dropped Skylar off a few weeks ago…let 'em in, would you, Marie?"

Marie ducked back out, holding the thatch wood covering open. She smiled at me broadly. "In you go, miss."

"Thank you for your help," I told her gratefully, and then ducked inside. Immediately, I was blinded by a light that was in the middle of a table that stood in the center of the room. My eyes watering, I blinked a few times as Clave hid his face in my hair. "Jeez, do ya mind not blinding me with whatever you're working on?"

All sound stopped for a moment as I grew used to the light, which was merely lighting up the darkened hut. I gave a hint of a smile as bowtie man stared at me in surprise, along with Amy. The man beside her looked curiously at me. I cocked an eyebrow, crossing my arms. "You guys are incredibly rude, you know. I walked a whole mile to get here and all I get is stares."

In a flash, bowtie man had shot to his feet. "Ali. Why are you here?"

I snorted. "If you're the regeneration of the Doctor I'm with, shouldn't you remember what he did? Currently, you're running around looking for yourself in the wrong area while I'm here talking to you. I suspect I'll be in a ton of trouble for it later, too. Oh, well. The TARDIS is willing to take the blame. Again. You can be kind of mean, you know—oof!"

He grinned, crushing me against him in a hug. "Well this is a surprise, I didn't think we'd get to meet again."

I rolled my eyes, but warmly patted his back before stepping back, smiling in greeting to the other two. "Hello, Amy. And I don't know your name, but hello to you, too."

The man smiled slightly. "Rory, my name is Rory Williams. Amy, is this—?"

"The girl that I told you about and the Doctor refused to say anything about?" Amy asked. "Yes, yes she is. Oy! Bowtie! Back to work! Nice to see your friend and everything, but you've gotta fix this thing, remember?"

"Right!" the Doctor clasped his hands together. And then he suddenly snatched my bag from my grasp, darting over to the table and dumping my possessions out.

My jaw dropped. "Hey, that's my stuff!"

He grinned, snatching up an expensive pen I had within my bag. "Just what I needed! Thank you, Ali, nice of you to bring this to us." He practically danced back to what he had been doing, continuing to work and I shifted uneasily from where I stood. I hesitated, then stepped forward. Clave slid onto the table as I began to gather my possessions back together. Rory eyed Clave warily and, playful, Clave hissed at him, showing his teeth.

"None of that, Clave," I scolded. I glanced warily at the Doctor as he worked diligently on whatever it was. "Err, can I ask what you're doing?"

"Making something to expel the other species from those humans so everyone can get along," Amy explained kindly, her sharp eyes amused as the Doctor muttered to himself. "We've become useless at the moment."

"Rory is useless," the Doctor corrected, to which Rory scowled irritably.

I giggled, reaching over to pat Rory's arm reassuringly. "Don't worry. It's better to be useless then in trouble, which I'm no doubt going to be in when I get back. I should probably get going now, I just came to make sure that idiot was alright. The other side mentioned him when we were there, so…" I trailed off with a quiet sigh before murmuring, "He better not kick me out when I get back, he needs me…"

The Doctor paused in his work, his eyes darkening. "You've seen the Face of Boh."

I squared my shoulders and gave a curt nod, my eyes flashing with a hint of sadness. "Yes. I know what happens to me in the end now."

Curiosity appeared in Rory's gaze. "What happens? What do you mean?"

"Not all stories end with a good ending," I said softly, turning my gaze onto him and Amy as the Doctor fell into a sad silence. "My story is one of those. I don't know how your story with the Doctor will end, but I have no doubt. It will end better than mine." I glanced at the Doctor. "So you didn't tell 'em after last time?"

"Of course not," he huffed, "I was busy."

"No you weren't, you went and hid for hours after moving the TARDIS," Amy retorted.

I snorted. "Sounds like you," I muttered, then stated bluntly, "The TARDIS you travel around in. That's me in your timeline. I die eventually and my soul takes over the TARDIS. I don't know when and I doubt he'll say when, but it's a set point in time."

Amy gasped and she cried, "Doctor! You should've told us that when we asked, you idiot!"

Rory gave me an apologetic look. "I'm sorry," he told me honestly. I decided then and there that he was a good person. I liked him.

I shrugged. "Whatever. I've gotten over it, just gotta enjoy what I have left. Judging by Mr. Grumpy over there, nobody can change what happens. Anyways, I need to get going. C'mon, Clave, the Doctor's going to kill us for this." I glanced at bowtie man with a slight smile, taking the fez out with a smirk and waving it at him. "I would return this, but I don't think you're ready to have it back just yet." I plopped it on my head, then turned to walk out the door.

"Ali."

I paused, glancing over my shoulder. The Doctor had stopped his work and was looking at me, his gaze serious. I smiled gently at him. "Hey, you thought the last two times would be the last time we saw each other," I told him. "Maybe, with some luck, we'll meet again."

He pursed his lips unhappily and I merely winked. "Good luck, Doctor, we'll see each other at least one more time, I'm certain. Bye Amy, Rory."

And with that, I had slipped out of the hut, intent on getting back to the TARDIS, already knowing that the Doctor would be there when I returned.

~~OO~~II~~OO~~

I grimaced the second I stepped into the TARDIS, knowing immediately what was to come. The TARDIS spoke quietly in my mind. "Good luck, my Girl."

So not good, that meant something very, very bad was about to happen. Wonderful. I scanned the control room and finally found an irritate Doctor, sitting in the captain's seat with his arms crossed and his feet crossed at the ankles. His dark eyes studied me almost emotionlessly and I fought back a shudder, pretending not to notice as I dumped my back off to the side silently. Even as I turned to face him and Clave hopped from my shoulders, fleeing, I could feel his stare.

I turned to face him again, smiling sheepishly and apologetically. "Err, sorry?"

He finally moved, pinching the bridge of his nose angrily. I cringed. "Doctor—"

"Do you know," he hissed, and I flinched. "That when I came back, I expected you to be waiting in at least a bad mood, perhaps a temper. I would have understood the bad mood or the sulking or something. I should have known better than to leave you here alone. I should've known that the stupid human I let aboard would run off, just like everyone else does, despite the danger of death."

I bit my lip, then said hesitantly, "You went the wrong way, I—"

"For all I know," he continued, "You could have just messed up all of time and space because you wouldn't stay inside."

"I didn't," I insisted. "Doctor, I—"

"Ali!" he said sharply, "You don't know what you did or didn't do because I don't know where you went or what you did when you got there! I don't know who this person we were looking for is or what they could've been doing! You might have just destroyed the universe for all I know!"

"I didn't!" I repeated in a cry, my eyes flashing angrily. I had done nothing wrong! Maybe I hadn't stayed when he'd told me to, and maybe I had found another version of him on the same planet again, but that had nothing to do with this! Sort of. Alright, maybe more than sort of. "I know I didn't, because if I had, you'd be running around yelling instructions rather than yelling at me for doing something."

"You don't know that!"

"And neither do you!" I snapped back, my temper flaring. I snatched up my bag again, furious as I stormed past him, heading for my room, then paused and spat furiously, "You might as well get the TARDIS out of here, because my 'friend' is already taking care of what's going on here, Doctor." I glowered at him angrily, then slammed the door to my room behind me.

I was going to get kicked off of the damn time machine. I had no doubt that it would happen eventually.

I dropped my stuff to the bed and climbed on, pulling my sketchbook out along with my pencils. Like a child, I realized. I was sulking and pouting in my room like a child. Like when I was little, and James had taken my pencils. I had yelled and screamed at him for breaking them, even though I knew he was two and didn't understand. My eight year old sister had scolded me for it before my mother had shown up and I had cried as any four year old would at getting in trouble.

My eyes softened at the memory of my family.

My kind father, who'd always brought me gifts. My mother, who'd taught me how to draw, who'd replaced those broken pencils and allowed me to crawl into her lap as I'd used them. My older sister Ryss, who'd played tag with me and my two year old brother, James.

I rested my pencil on my paper, and then began to sketch, picking as best as I could through my memories.

For the first time since their death, I would draw them. Something that needed to be done. The TARDIS hummed quietly, reassuringly to me, and I patted the wall behind me with a shaky sigh. "It's alright, girl, I've got this. I'm fine now." I went back to drawing.

I had completed James and Ryss when I heard the knocking on my door, which had been locked by the TARDIS for me. I glanced up silently, my anger returning as I refused to respond. "Ali, I'm going to be right back," the Doctor said, his tone tired. "Something popped up on the scanners again." A moment of hesitation, and then he murmured, "I'd appreciate it if you stayed here this time, alright?"

"Whatever," I muttered under my breath. I ignored him, going back to my drawing. Let him do what he wanted. Bastard. Time Lord or not, he was as invincible as I was, which wasn't invincible at all. Let him get himself into trouble with no assistance from me. It was his turn to get yelled at for it.

Silence fell over the TARDIS after a while. It must have been hours, but I eventually finished the picture. I skimmed my fingers over my father and mother's faces, my eyes gleaming with a hint of tears. I wanted so desperately for them to be alive again. But, I remembered the time the Doctor had mentioned a story of paradoxes. I couldn't save them, never. They would forever be dead, just like now.

I tilted my head, setting the sketch book aside and cocking my head thoughtfully as I undid the braid my hair was in. Clave shifted with a happy sigh from his position and I glanced at him as I began to redo my hair so that it was neatly braided. Would my family have approved of me traveling with the Doctor? My adopted mother had. She hadn't minded at all. And now she was dead, too.

Great, the only three people I had left were Bre, Drevan, and the Doctor, who was probably going to leave me on Earth soon. That would be a supposedly fun adventure to have.

I gave the sketchbook a final pat before climbing to my feet. "He still gone?"

"My Thief will be gone for another hour or so," the TARDIS answered in a hushed voice. I knew immediately that she was planning something from her tone. She was never distracted when I spoke to her, never. I narrowed my eyes.

"You better not be planning anything out of the ordinary, I'm tired of getting into trouble with the Doctor," I warned, then scooped up Clave. Clave slid around my shoulders and nuzzled my face with gently blinking eyes. I patted his head as I made my way out of my room and into the never ending halls. I glanced to my right, where they continued. Hm… "What would happen if I went down them, I wonder? I bet I'd starve before I found the end.

Clave hissed, tugging on my hair with a fanged mouth, accidentally snipping off a few hairs. I raised an eyebrow, turning and heading into the control room instead. The lights flickered and the console gave a hum as I gently brushed my fingers over the controls. My gaze shifted up to the screen that held an image. My eyes narrowed and I muttered, "Get rid of that damn thing, would you?"

The TARDIS erased the image from the screen and I settled into the captain's seat to curl up and nap. Okay, so being alone, even with Clave, was lonely. I didn't like it. And if what the TARDIS had said was true about him being gone another hour…

I curled up in a ball.

Jeez, he was a pain, I'd have to smack him the next time I saw him. But for now, a sense of peace washed over me…and was quickly interrupted by a sharp piercing sound. I shot up in time to witness an image pop up onto the screen in the circular Gallifreyan language. I recognized it immediately. Coordinates. Knobs turned and levers moved. "No," I muttered, "No, no, no! Don't you do it!" I cried as I shot up. Clave hissed.

A button was pressed down.

The sound of the TARDIS moving filled my ears and I cried, "Stop! Go back!" I reached over to jam random buttons, but the TARDIS tipped slightly, sending me slamming into the ground, my head connecting with the hard grated floor. My vision swirled for a moment before I shook off the daze. I climbed to my hands and knees, crawling back to the console, but was sent rolling away again. "Stop!" I demanded. "What do you think you're doing?"

The TARDIS didn't answer, merely finally came to a halt.

I crawled back up to my hands and knees, staring at the floor. I was dead. I was so, so dead. He was going to kill me when he found me. I shakily climbed to my feet, touching the keychain at my belt loop for reassurance before shooting the TARDIS a dark look. Might as well see what was going on outside, see where I was before the TARDIS moved again.

I smacked the doors before I unlocked them. I pulled the double doors open, peeking outside warily. The sight before me was like a smack to my face and I immediately took a step outside. I knew this place. I had always known this place, even if it was something I didn't like to remember.

Before I could realize what I'd done, the doors slammed shut behind me. I whirled around with a cry, my face paling as before my eyes, the TARDIS dematerialized.

I was stuck in a time years and years ago with nobody and nothing but a sonic keychain for defense. And not only that, but the TARDIS had left me stranded in a time that made me scream every time I remembered it.

"C'mon, catch me if you can!"

The words rang out in my head and I slowly turned to face the direction from where they'd came.

A giggling toddler struggled to keep up with two older children that scampered away from his grasp. The eldest of the trio was a lovely girl with brown hair and eyes that were golden brown in color. And the younger one?

Pft, it's the easiest thing in the world, recognizing yourself.

Damn the TARDIS. The Doctor was so going to kill me when he found out what had happened.

~~OO~~II~~OO~~

A/N: Hope you enjoyed! :3 Thanks to the reviewers…

BrainStormer: Thank you for your review! Made me seriously happy. You'll just have to wait and see what happens, won't ya? ;)