Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
"Are you sure you don't want help?" The Guardian asked, crossing her arms and leaning against the metal bar surrounding the console area.
"I don't need help." The Doctor replied, pressing a bunch of random buttons.
The Guardian shook her head at his attempts to look like he knew what he was doing. They had spent the last three months actually getting where they wanted to, but only because she was piloting without his interfering, courtesy of their bet. This was his first time piloting again.
It seemed like he wanted to make up for lost time.
The TARDIS landed with a wheezing thud, and the Guardian moved over to the console. The Doctor took her hand and dragged her over to the doors.
"My Lady Guardian, I give you…" He pulled both doors open dramatically. "Poosh!"
The Guardian stepped out the doors and into a courtyard on what was clearly 21st Century Earth. She smirked when the Doctor continued, not noticing where they were.
"… let me tell you, these people really know how to throw a party. I was once here for a party that had been going for twelve years!"
"Doctor." She said.
He finally looked around. His smile dropped. "Oh."
The Guardian was about to comment when they heard a cry of "Doctor!" The couple turned to see a familiar blonde running towards them.
"Oh, for the love of Clom, it's the blonde pudding brain again." The Guardian muttered.
The Doctor sent her a disapproving look, to which she rolled her eyes. The Doctor turned to the human—Lily? Violet? Chrysanthemum? One of those Earth flower names.
"You're back." She said, panting slightly from her run.
The Guardian eyes the short distance with a trace of disbelief. How could a human get so out of breath from such a short run? "Clearly." She chose to say to the girl. Humans tended to get offended if she mentioned their lack of stamina.
"Yes, but—but, you're back here."
The Doctor frowned. "How long has it been for you?"
"A year." Rose replied, just as an older blonde woman hurried out of one of the buildings.
"Rose?" She called. "Who is that?" As she drew nearer, her eyes widened with fury. "You?!"
The Guardian turned to the Doctor with one eyebrow raised. "What did you do to her?"
He frowned at her, clearly offended. "Why do you—"
"Last time he was here, everything goes mental, shop dummies try to kill me, one of my best mates dies, and my daughter becomes severely depressed!"
The Doctor squirmed as the woman stood on her toes to get in his face. "Sorry..." he muttered.
"The hours I've watched her waste away—days and weeks and months! Losing one job after another. She won't tell me why. Just spends all day on the internet, writing things down in a notebook that she won't let me see."
The Guardian glanced at the blonde. She did seem paler, thinner than she had the last time they met.
"A whole year!" Rose's mum continued, still in the Doctor's face. "And then, the first sign of any interest I see in her other than that notebook, and she's running outside to meet you."
She shoved a blue notebook at the Doctor's chest. Rose lunged forward, but the Guardian grabbed her.
"What did you do to my daughter?!"
"Ah, well..." The Doctor stammered, glancing at the Guardian for help. She just nodded her head at the younger human, whom she was still restraining.
He turned his attention back to the fuming older blonde. "You see, we travel a lot, and I met Rose quite by accident last time I was here. She helped us solve a bit of a problem that we had, then expressed an interest in joining us. I turned her down, and I haven't seen her since. Actually, meeting her today was an accident."
"Oh, I bet it was." The woman scoffed. "How old are you? Forty? Forty-five? Did you find her on the Internet? Do you go online and pretend that you're a doctor so you can lure away innocent young girls?"
The Guardian cast a glance at the girl she was holding back. 'Innocent' was not a word she would apply to the human. If that notebook held what she suspected it might, then 'obsessed' was probably a better word.
"I am a doctor!"
"Then prove it!" The woman spat and she suddenly slapped him. "Stitch this, mate!"
The Guardian released Rose, who darted for the blue notebook, and grabbed the older human's wrist. "Don't touch him again."
The fury in the woman's eyes didn't dim. "And who are you then?"
"His fiancee." The Guardian roughly released the woman's wrist when her eyes widened in shock.
Behind her, she heard Rose sputter. "His what?!"
The Guardian stepped back a little to stand beside the Doctor and take his hand. "Allegra Shannon." She continued, giving the name that she had finally decided on. She had rather quickly figured out that most of the Universe tended to get rather confused when she introduced herself as "the Guardian". And since most species, humans especially, were annoying when they were confused, she dug around until she found a name that she could give on their travels.
She also realized that having a different name was a good idea because those who had heard of the Guardian were not known to be friendly once they realized who she was.
Or what she was.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
Nearly an hour later, the Doctor and the Guardian had gotten free of Jackie Tyler. Much to the Guardian's frustration, Rose had insisted on following them. The TARDIS had all but thrown the girl out, forcing them to go to the roof of one of the buildings to talk.
The Guardian sighed in exasperation as Rose asked yet another question about where they had been. "Your mother is quite the piece of work, isn't she?" She interrupted.
"She slapped me!" The Doctor added. "Nine hundred years of time and space, and I've never been slapped by someone's mother."
"Your face." Rose laughed.
"It hurt!" The Doctor touched his cheek again, as though it still hurt.
The Guardian rolled her eyes. "Doctor, stop being an idiot."
Rose's laughter died. "When you nine hundred years..."
"That's my age."
The Guardian raised an eyebrow. Hardly. Last she had heard, he was 315 years older than her, making him 1909 years old. When had he begun lying about his age?
"You're nine hundred years old?" Rose stated incredulously.
The Doctor nodded. "The Guardian here is 585."
The Guardian rolled her eyes again, though her expression softened a little. They had been newly in love when she was 585, before the High Council had realized and forbidden them to continue their relationship. They had been happy when she was 585.
"Every conversation with you just goes mental." Rose sighed and stood. "There's no one else I can talk to. I saw that thing, the Nestene Consciousness, I know what really happened, but the news just said it was terrorism. I'm the only person on planet Earth who knows the truth, that aliens really do exist."
Suddenly, they heard what sounded like a horn behind them. The Guardian jumped behind the wall that they had been sitting on, dragging the Doctor down with her.
The trio watched as a small spaceship passed only about fifteen feet over them, heading for the city, black smoke trailing behind it. They watched as it flew all over the city.
"That's not right," the Guardian murmured, standing. That was not a crash pattern. It was weaving around too much. That was more like… she stilled. It looked more like someone was trying to get London's attention.
Her suspicions were further confirmed when it happened to tear into the side of the massive clock tower the Doctor had once called Big Ben, before crashing in the river.
She glanced back as the Doctor and Rose stood. The Doctor had a ridiculous grin on his face.
"Oh, that's just not fair." Rose murmured.
The Doctor just laughed and grabbed the Guardian's hand, dragging her with him as they ran to the stairs.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
The military had already closed down the streets, much to the thousands of drivers' frustration.
"It's blocked off." The Doctor said, disappointed. He noticed the Guardian toss him an annoyed look, which he grinned at.
"We're miles from the centre." Rose added. "The city must be gridlocked. The whole of London must be closing down."
"I know!" The Doctor grinned even bigger. He took the Guardian's hand. "I can't believe we're here to see this. This is fantastic!"
He saw a bit of hesitation in her smile, which only over a thousand years of studying her expressions help him see, and he squeezed her hand reassuringly. They had tried to avoid races that she had personally wronged, but far too many of the higher species knew who she was. And if they had been involved in the Time War in any way at all, she ad probably done something to them.
"Did you know this was going to happen?" Rose interrupted.
The Guardian snorted. "If he had tried to get here for this we would have ended up in a swamp on Metabelis Four."
"Oi!" He protested, even though he couldn't deny the truth of her statement. Granted, he didn't really want to. That was her way of teasing him, and he'd let her do it if she remained happy.
"You were the one who tried to take me to Poosh."
"Can you just focus?" Rose snapped, clearly annoyed at being ignored. "Do you recognize the ship?"
The Doctor shook his head. "Nope."
"Do you know why it crashed?"
The Doctor started to shake his head, but the Guardian responded, "It didn't."
He looked at her in surprise. "It didn't?"
She nodded. "The flight path was wrong. The pilot was trying to get the attention of London, not keep his ship in the air."
That did not sound good.
"Oh," Rose said. "I'm so glad we've got you."
Why did it feel like she was saying that only to him? He cleared his throat, to distract both women. "I bet you are. This is what we travel for, Rose. To see history happening right in front of us. Did you know that the two of us pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party? And the Trojan War! Believe me, history got that one wrong, because it wasn't Helen they were fighting over." He winked at the Guardian, who glared at him.
"I thought we promised never to speak of that again." She crossed her arms.
He shrugged. "It's not every man that can claim ancient kings started a war over his fiancee."
"Never mind that!" Rose cut in. "Let's go and see it. Never mind the traffic. We've got the TARDIS."
Had Rose forgotten that the TARDIS seemed to not like her at all? The Doctor frowned at the girl's attitude. "Better not. They've already got one spaceship in the middle of London. I don't want to shove another one on top."
"Yeah, so? Yours looks like a big blue box. No one's going to notice."
"Surprisingly enough, all kinds of people start watching during an emergency like this." The Guardian responded, not taking her eyes off the soldiers who were waving people away. "They even start to notice things. Which is why the TARDIS is staying where it is."
Rose glared at her. "So history's happening and we're stuck here."
"Yes, we are." The Doctor stated.
"We could always do what everybody else does."
The Doctor looked at Rose, confused.
"We could watch it on TV."
The Doctor and the Guardian exchanged horrified glances.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
Back at Rose's mother's flat, the Doctor and the Guardian sat close to the TV, while Jackie and her friend, a Ru Chan, chattered away.
'Humans,' the Guardian spoke to the Doctor telepathically. 'One ship crash lands, and they are panicking. How would they handle an invasion?'
The Doctor smiled at hearing her voice in his head. They had recently realized that having only their voices in their heads made it easier to communicate telepathically. 'I thought you said it didn't crash.'
'They don't know that.'
The Doctor chuckled at the same time that Jackie walked back into the room carrying a couple of tea mugs, which she gave to the Guardian and her friend, completely ignoring the Doctor. The Guardian smiled a little when she noticed that her request for hot water and lemon had been fulfilled. She sipped the steaming liquid, letting her mind drift to Gwyneth for a moment. This future existed because of her.
"Oi! I'm trying to listen." The Doctor said to the two women, who were talking very loudly to Rose.
"They've found a body." The TV reporter said. The Guardian stiffened.
"It's unconfirmed." He continued. "But I'm being told a body has been found in the wreckage. A body of non-terrestrial origins. It's being brought ashore."
The Doctor and the Guardian exchanged a concerned look. This could change the fate of the human race.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
The Doctor and the Guardian walked hand-in-hand through the halls of Albion Hospital, the Doctor respecting the Guardian's need for silence as she shifted through all of the information that she had heard at the Tyler flat. During her hundreds of years of training, the Time Lords had taught her how to "delete" information. With sixteen hundred years of memories, it was now the only way that she remained sane.
She deleted nearly every word that had been spoken, except for one comment that Jackie had made, about her friend Ellie's daughter. For some reason, the Guardian felt the need to remember the girl who had lost her mother a year ago. She had been just a child when her mother died also.
The Doctor sonicked a door and opened it to reveal a room filled with soldiers. While the Doctor and the soldiers stared at each other in silent surprise, the Guardian pulled two of her guns out of the black leather jacket she had added to her wardrobe the month before. The Doctor had made the pockets bigger on the inside, so she could carry all of her guns at once.
When the soldiers saw her guns, they scrambled for their own guns and pointed them at the intruders. Lights flashed in the Doctor and the Guardian's eyes, giving the Guardian a slight headache.
The Doctor smiled and nodded once at the soldiers, a motion similar to if he had just said "ah."
They heard a scream.
"Defense plan delta!" The Doctor grabbed the Guardian's wrist and pulled her through the room, towards the screams.
"Come on." The Guardian added, pulling her wrist free. "Move! Move!" She shouted at the soldiers. The group ran down the corridor to the mortuary, the Guardian now leading them. She heard a small noise and turned into a room to see a young Asian woman cowering against the wall.
"It's alive!" She cried.
The Doctor moved over to the woman, while the Guardian turned back to the soldiers. "Spread out. Put the perimeter on lockdown. Now."
When the soldiers didn't move, the Guardian forced herself to use a voice that she hadn't used since she was the Weapon. "Do it!"
The men ran away to do as she ordered, clearly frightened by the darkness in her voice.
She took a deep breath, fighting to rein in everything—the hatred and bitterness—that came with using that tone of voice. Once she felt normal again, she joined the Doctor at the woman's side.
"I swear it was dead," she breathed. Her eyes were wide with panic and shock.
"Coma, shock, hibernation, anything." The Doctor replied. "What does it look like?"
They heard a clatter behind them and the two Gallifreyans spun around.
"It's still here." The Doctor said.
They both stood and the Guardian gestured to the one soldier who had remained outside the door. He took the Guardian's place at the woman's side.
'Stay there,' she ordered the Doctor.
'But, Amadahy, it could be a brand new life!'
'I won't kill it unless I have to in order to protect you. But I'm far better at this than you are.'
The Doctor frowned, then nodded. The Guardian slipped over to the cabinet, putting one of her guns back in her jacket. There was another clatter, and she bent down so whatever it was couldn't see her over the table. Slowly and without her gun before her as the Doctor would have wanted, she peered around the cabinet.
A moment later, the creature peered around its side of the cabinet.
It was a pig.
What in the name of Rassilon?
The pig screamed and ran for the door on its hind legs, wearing a spacesuit.
"Don't shoot!" The Doctor shouted at the soldier, who had raised his gun.
"It's harmless!" The Guardian added, putting her gun in her jacket and running after it. The creature ran through the corridor, screaming. The Guardian had nearly caught it when another soldier fired.
The pig fell to the ground. She knelt beside it.
"What did you do that for?" The Doctor shouted at the soldier, who had the decency to look a little ashamed. "It was scared!" He joined the Guardian beside the pig. "It was scared." He murmured, stroking the animal's cheek as it cried in pain before dying.
'This wasn't your fault,' she told the Doctor. 'I could have yelled ahead. Or run a bit faster.'
The Doctor smiled weakly, recognizing what she was doing. She didn't feel guilty for the death of the pig. Death was a part of war, a side effect of invasion.
But that didn't mean that she was going to let him feel guilty.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
They had the soldiers move the pig back to the mortuary, now that it truly was dead. The young woman, Toshiko Sato, as they discovered her name was, explained everything that she had discovered during her examination.
"I just assumed that's what aliens look like, but you're saying it's an ordinary pig from Earth?" She asked the Guardian, who had been the one to make the observation.
"More like a mermaid," the Doctor responded. At the Guardian and Toshiko's blank looks, he continued. "Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid."
"That certainly sounds like Victorian values to me," the Guardian muttered.
The Doctor smiled faintly, before his expression hardened. "Now someone's taken a pig, opened up its brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb. It must've been terrified. They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke," he finished bitterly.
Toshiko moved closer to the table, glancing at her clipboard. "So it's a fake, a pretend, like the mermaid. But the technology augmenting its brain—it's like nothing on Earth."
The Guardian glanced at the Doctor. That's exactly what they need to know to confirm her suspicions. Time to go save the Earth.
They left Toshiko while she was still speaking and ran to the TARDIS. When she saw the destination that the Doctor had set, she sighed. "Do we have to pick up the pink and yellow human?"
"Why not?" The Doctor asked.
"The TARDIS hates her."
"It's her planet that we're going to save."
"So? We've saved the planet lots of times without any representatives of the species in question present."
"Are you jealous?" The Doctor asked suddenly.
The Guardian snorted. "Jealous? Of a human?" She moved over to the Doctor and pulled him closer by the lapels of his jacket. She kissed him once, then pulled away. "You've been mine for over a thousand years. I'm not concerned about a human coming between us."
"Then why don't you like her?"
"She's repetitive, states the obvious, and seems to hate me."
He sighed. "Please, Amadahy. I see potential in her. Just give her a chance."
The Guardian searched his expression for a moment, then nodded. "Fine. If anything, she could work as a distraction."
The Doctor frowned a bit, but pulled the lever to materialize outside of Rose Tyler's flat. A minute later, Rose burst in. She hurried over to the console where the Doctor was standing. She tried touching the unit, but the time machine shocked her.
"All right, so I lied." The Doctor said to her. "We went and had a look. But the Guardian was right. The crash landing was a fake."
"My mum's here." Rose said as the other two humans walked in.
The Doctor gave a frustrated sigh. 'Okay, I get why you didn't like the idea," he said to the Guardian.
"You ruined my life, Doctor!" Rose's boyfriend shouted from Jackie Tyler's side.
The Doctor spun around, his aggravation clear on his face.
The young man continued. "We were doing great. We were happy. And then you came along, and suddenly, she was obsessed with you. I rarely saw her anymore, except when I went to her flat. And even then, she spent the whole time on the internet, searching for you!"
"Seriously? You're blaming me?" The Doctor turned back to the screen.
"I bet you don't even remember my name." The boy accused, moving towards the Doctor.
"Ricky." The Doctor turned to him again.
"It's Mickey." The boy and the Guardian spoke at the same time. Everyone turned to look at her in shock, even the Doctor.
The Guardian pretended to ignore their questioning looks. She had no idea of why she would remember the boy's name, when she hadn't bothered to remember anyone else on their travels. Something about him touched the edges of her mind, now far too quiet without the trillions of her people all chattering away in it. The boy was important, probably like Gwyneth had been.
Rose suddenly ran out after her mother, then reappeared a moment later. She resumed her place by the Doctor's side, much to the Guardian's displeasure. She may not be jealous, but that wouldn't stop her from disliking the girl's attempts to insert herself at the Doctor's side. She moved over to the Doctor's other side, resting one hand on his back. He grinned at her.
"That was a real spaceship." Rose said to the Doctor.
"Yep," the Doctor and the Guardian replied at the same time.
She looked taken aback for a moment. "So it's all a pack of lies? What is it, then? Are they invading?"
Mickey looked over their shoulders at the monitor. "Funny way to invade—putting the world on red alert."
The Doctor looked back at Mickey in surprise, while the Guardian smiled at him.
"Good point!" The Doctor said, shaking himself out of his surprise and turning back to the monitor, where a picture of the crash sight. "So, what're they up to?"
GD~GD~GD~GD~
Several minutes later, the Doctor and the Guardian were under the console, working to rewire the radar. Well, the Guardian was. The Doctor was just fiddling with wires and hoping it worked.
"So, what're you doing down there?" Mickey stood over them.
"Rickey," the Doctor began.
"Mickey," the Guardian corrected at the same time as the young man.
The Doctor started slightly beside her, then continued. "If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even being to understand?"
"I suppose not," Mickey conceded.
"Well, shut it, then," the Doctor snapped with a fake smile.
Mickey sent him a hateful look, then moved over to where Rose was standing away from the console. The time machine had begun to spark whenever she got within two feet of the console unit, so she was trying to stay away.
'Are you jealous, Eltanin?' The Guardian asked in his mind. She held out her hand and he passed her the sonic screwdriver.
'Me?' He snorted. 'Of course not. The boy's just an idiot, and I don't really care to explain this all right now.'
The Guardian rolled her eyes, but smiled, her smile growing when a wire sparked and they heard something start up. The Doctor crawled out from the hole in the grating and helped her out.
"Got it!" He laughed and they moved over to the monitor. Rose joined them at the monitor, once again on the Doctor's other side. The TARDIS sparked unhappily, forcing Rose to take a step back.
"Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship." The Guardian typed something in and the monitor pulled up an advance radar image of Earth. It further confirmed her suspicions.
The Doctor explained it to Rose. "That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see? Except. Hold on. See?" He gesture to the monitor as the image revealed the full path of the ship. "The spaceship did a sling-shot 'round the Earth before it landed."
"What does that mean?" Rose asked.
The Guardian glanced at Mickey to see that his eyes were wide. He understood. She smirked a little. The human that the Doctor saw potential in couldn't understand, but the one he deemed an idiot got it on the first try.
"Whoever those aliens are," the Guardian said when the Doctor had explained it to Rose. "they have been here for a while. So what are they doing?" She pushed the Doctor aside and began scanning the channels for anything that could tell them what was going on.
Behind her, Mickey asked the Doctor about what type of channels they got.
"Hold on," he said suddenly, putting his arm around the Guardian's waist. "I know that lot."
The screen showed a group of uniformed men and women walking through a corridor. The female reporter explained. "It is looking likely that the Government's bringing in alien specialists—those people who have devoted their lives to studying outer space."
"UNIT," the Doctor confirmed. "United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people. I used to work for them." He glanced down at the Guardian.
She nodded. "I remember you mentioning them. Wasn't there a general or something among them that was a friend of yours?"
"Brigadier Lethridge-Stewart. A good man. We should drop in on him when this is all over."
"Why don't you just go and help now?" Rose asked.
"They wouldn't recognize me." The Doctor moved to the other side of the console, his arm still around the Guardian's waist so she moved with him. They flipped the switches needed to shield the TARDIS, make it undetectable with nearly every kind of technology.
The Doctor continued, "I've changed a lot since the old days. Besides, the world's on a knife-edge. There's aliens out there, and fake aliens. We want to keep these aliens out of the mix."
He rang the completely useless bell that he only kept there as a sound effect, and the Guardian pushed the last lever to make the TARDIS shift down to low power, making it easier to shield.
"We're going undercover," the Doctor pulled her towards the doors, his arm still around her waist. "And, er, we'd better keep the TARDIS out of sight."
"Mickey, you've got a car. You can do some driving."
"Where to?" Mickey and Rose hurried after them.
"The roads are clearing. Let's go and have a look at that spaceship."
The Doctor opened the door, and the Guardian stiffened as she heard the sound of a heavy helicopter. They had encountered a few since she began traveling with the Doctor, and they always brought trouble.
They walked out of the TARDIS and directly into a helicopter spotlight.
"Do not move!" Someone shouted down at them, their voice amplified to be heard over the approaching sirens and rapid thumping of the blades. "Step away from the box and raise you hands above your heads."
Police cars and armored vehicles surrounded them. Soldiers ran towards them. Mickey made a run for it, several soldiers chasing him. Jackie ran out of her building, shouting for her daughter, but was grabbed by a couple of soldiers while Rose looked in the opposite direction.
The screams. The lights.
The Guardian grabbed her head and fell to her knees. She could see it all over again.
The naturally orange sky blood-red from dust, to match the ground painted red from Gallifreyan blood. The screams. The fire. Cried of "exterminate" on all sides. She could stop it. She could save the survivors.
Strong hands grabbed her wrists before she could pull out her guns, and a gentle voice spoke quietly in Gallifreyan. "Amadahy, no. This is not the War. We're safe."
The Guardian looked up into the Doctor's blue-gray eyes. Focusing on them, she was able to pull herself back to the present. She stood up and held her hands above her head, ignoring Rose's questioning looks.
The Doctor followed her example. "Take me to your leader." He said with a grin.
The Guardian rolled her eyes. He had almost followed her example.
They were rather shortly escorted to a police car. The Guardian found herself being pulled onto the Doctor's lap so that there would be enough room for Rose in the back of the car. The Doctor was still grinning like an idiot.
"This is a bit posh." Rose said as she sat down and the door was slammed shut behind her. "If I knew it was going to be like this—being arrested—I would have done it years ago."
"We're not being arrested, we're being escorted." The Guardian corrected.
"Where to?"
"Where'd you think? Downing Street." The Doctor laughed with glee, Rose joining in.
The Guardian frowned a little, confused. A moment of sifting through her memory later and she recalled the location being mentioned on the television.
"Ten Downing Street?" Rose confirmed, her eyes widening as the information registered.
"That's the one."
Rose laughed again. "I'm going to 10 Downing Street? How come?"
"Over the years, I've visited this planet a lot of times, and I've been—er—noticed."
"Now they need you?"
"You heard the news. They're gathering experts in alien knowledge." The Guardian responded.
The Doctor jumped in. "And who's the biggest expert of the lot?"
"Patrick Moore?" Rose guessed with complete seriousness.
The Guardian didn't have to see the Doctor's face to imagine his offense. "Apart from him."
Rose figured it out. "Oh, don't you just love it." She laughed as the Doctor began reminiscing.
"I'm telling you! Lloyd George—he used to drink me under the table."
The Guardian shook her head. "Who's the Prime Minister now?"
Rose shrugged. "I haven't really paid attention to those things."
They arrived at Number 10 much quicker than the Guardian expected. Reporters were held back by the police line, but cameras flashed everywhere.
The door on the Doctor and the Guardian's side was opened, and the Guardian stepped out first, followed by the Doctor. He wrapped an arm around her waist and smiled and waved at the cameras. A few reporters waved back hesitantly before he pulled the Guardian towards the door, his arm at her waist the whole time.
The Guardian forced a smile, but she knew exactly what the Doctor was doing. By pinning her jacket between them, he made it harder for her to pull out one of her guns. She could still get free easily, in case there was a threat, but he seemed determined to make sure that she didn't point her gun at any innocent bystanders.
Once inside the door, they were taken to a waiting room, filled with military men and the other experts. The Guardian noticed an older woman walk in, her face tense and fearful as she looked around the room.
A young Indian man walked into the room. "Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene?" He moved through the room. "Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right, and can I remind you: ID cards are to be worn at all times."
He moved over to the Doctor and the Guardian, handing the ID card in his hand to the Doctor. "Here's your ID card. I'm sorry, but neither of your companions have clearance."
The Doctor smiled tensely and his hold on the Guardian's waist tightened. "I don't go anywhere without her."
The Guardian noticed Rose frown at being left out, but then her glance was drawn over to the older woman again.
"You're the code nine, not her. I'm sorry, Doctor—it is the Doctor, isn't it? They will both have to stay outside.
"She's staying with me." The Doctor's voice was darkening.
"Look—"
"It's all right, Doctor." The Guardian interrupted. "Rose and I will remain out here." She gave the young man the same smile she had given to thousands of dignitaries that she had disliked, but couldn't show it to.
'I think that the brown haired woman might know something.' She told him.
He glanced at the woman in question, who had joined them. 'Rose can handle it.'
She gave him a doubtful look.
'I need you with me,' he insisted. 'You know weapons tech far better than I do. And, if anyone can keep everyone in that room alive, it's you.'
The Guardian smiled slightly, then nodded.
The Doctor turned back to the young man, who looked at them with confusion. "She stays with me."
"I can't!" The man insisted.
"Look," the Doctor leaned down to speak quietly in his ear. "You have the foremost alien experts in the world all in one room. Now, if someone was trying to attack the Earth, this is where and when they would strike first."
The man's eyes widened in shock and horror.
The Doctor pulled back, grinning. "Now, you want me because I'm an expert on aliens. But if you want to keep everyone in that room alive, then you want her. She's kept me out of trouble for years, and she's better trained than all your armies combined."
The man glanced at the Guardian once more, then nodded. "Let her through. She's an official bodyguard of this man."
The soldiers at the door hesitated, then moved back.
"Rose," the Guardian said. "How about you go with Miss Jones?"
"And don't get into any trouble." The Doctor called over his shoulder as they moved into the briefing room.
The Doctor, being the last one, shut the door behind them and he led the Guardian over to the last available seat, in the back beside another man. He sat down and pulled the Guardian onto his lap, handing her the information pamphlet that had been on the chair.
She flipped through it, reading rapidly, then handed it back to him. He also read it.
'Did you memorize it?' He asked her.
'Of course.' She raised one eyebrow. 'Eidetic memory, remember?'
'I forget.' The Doctor winked at her. 'I may need you to recite it for me.'
The general, a man named Asquith according to the briefing pamphlet, took the front and spoke. "Now, ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention, please. As you can see from the summaries in front of you, the ship had one porcine occupant."
The Guardian felt the Doctor stiffen at the mention of the pig. So he still blamed himself for the animal's death. She stood.
"Actually, that's not even the most interesting part. That is found on the last page, in the small print under "Any Other Business". It's the sort of thing that they only planned to talk about if they ran out of any other things to natter on about."
She didn't miss how nervous Asquith and the acting Prime Minister suddenly looked. "Turn to it, ladies and gentlemen. See for yourselves." A rustle of pages filled the room.
The Doctor stood and slowly moved up the short aisle. "Three days ago. The North Sea. A satellite detected a signal, a little blip of radiation, at one hundred fathoms, like there's something down there. You were just about to investigate and the next thing you know, this happens. Spaceships, pigs, massive diversion. From what? If aliens fake an alien crash and an alien pilot, what do they get?" He looked around the room, waiting for someone to speak.
"You. They get you." The Guardian's eyes widened as she realized what Asquith and Green's nervousness meant. "Doctor, it's not a prime chance for targeting. It's a trap."
The Doctor stopped when he realized what she meant. "This is all about is. Alien experts."
Everyone began looking around, realizing their situation.
The Guardian kept her eyes on Asquith and Green. "The only people on Earth with the knowledge needed to fight them. Gathered together in one room."
Green farted. The Guardian winced when she noticed a smell like bad breath.
The Doctor turned to Green, his offense clear. "Excuse me, do you mind not farting while my fiancee and I are saving the world?"
"Would you rather silent but deadly?" Green leaned forward on a chair slightly, smirking. He and Asquith exchanged a look, then Asquith removed his cap.
A bright blue light filled the room as Asquith began unzipping his forehead while Green chuckled darkly. When the zipper was completely undone, he began pulling the skin suit off, revealing a green creature with huge black eyes set in a baby-like face.
Everyone in the room watched in shock as the creature pulled the rest of the suit off, revealing itself to be more than eight feet tall with claws what were a foot long. The light died away as the alien stepped free of its suit.
"We are the Slitheen." It said.
The Guardian blinked, immediately recognizing the name.
Green pulled a small remote out of his jacket pocket. "Thank you for wearing your ID cards." He smirked. "They'll help to identify the bodies."
He pressed the switch, and suddenly everyone in the room except the Slitheen and the Guardian were covered by a blue light, including the Doctor.
The Slitheen were going to electrocute them.
GD~GD~GD~GD~
So, did everyone like the Guardian's alias? There's a meaning to it. Points to anyone who can figure it out.
Plus, we have now learned where 12 got the term "pudding brain"! And why there is a discrepancy in his age between the old series and the new series.
Did anyone catch the tiny reference to a future companion?
Thank you to everyone who has reviewed! It is so amazing to have people that I don't even know (as opposed to family and friends) reviewing my writing!
And now for my first review note! Poisoned Ivy Adler, thank you SO MUCH! You have no idea (or maybe you do) how awesome it was to read your reviews. I was a bit hesitant with the Guardian's lack of guilt (because, well, most people WOULD feel guilty if they had literally destroyed multiple planets and races), but I honestly couldn't imagine her any other away. Granted, that makes her a good balance for the Doctor—he regrets EVERYTHING.
To clarify (unless I missed what you meant), Eltanin and Amadahy are their real names. I imagine 'Theta Sigma' was sort of a precursor to being called the Doctor, since calling someone by their real name is considered extremely intimate in my version of Gallifrey, and only done by your family or your lover. The Guardian never went to the Academy, so she doesn't have an Academy name.
Next time: How will the Guardian's presence change things when the Slitheen are trying to destroy the planet? Why is the name familiar to the Guardian? And what sort of mark have the Doctor and the Guardian left on ancient mythology?