A/N: Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated and will also keep me motivated to post more. Even if you don't have anything to say about it besides "great story," I'm totally okay with that. It'd at least let me know you're enjoying the story.

Chapter 2: School Intruder

I thought changing bodies, along with growing in a second heart, was weird. Little did I know things were going to get weirder as I grew up, even through my school years.

Surprisingly, my first couple of years of school were pretty normal. Well…at least as "normal" as school could ever be. I received my typical education in a normal schooling environment. I studied the normal subjects as every other elementary school student, such as basic literature, science, mathematics, and world history (the last three being ones I had a particular knack for, especially world history), as well as the "extra" subjects, like PE and arts and crafts. I participated in other normal activities, like school assemblies and holiday celebrations. I even was able to make a few normal human friends, despite my obvious—at least ones that were obvious to me—non-human aspects.

Not knowing I would experience these normal few years, I was a bit nervous to go to school, especially as a non-human (not that I knew I was non-human back then, which I didn't). Even after my parents urged me to keep my regenerative powers and two hearts a secret, I wasn't sure if leaving their watchful eyes was a good idea. Before this, my parents greatly considered homeschooling me, but then my dad suggested going to a proper school would be better for me, as it would help me become more familiar with the world and feel more encouraged to ask for help, especially from those who weren't my parents. He said that at some point I would need to feel comfortable to live my life as normally as I could possibly live it and not let my non-human superpowers keep me in the dark since I wasn't allowed to reveal them.

"Be like Clark Kent," he said to me on my first day of Kindergarten. "Live your life like a regular human, but don't show your superpowers to anyone. Do that, and you'll be the greatest non-human human on Earth."

"'Non-human human?'" I remembered asking him, puzzled at such an unusual phrase. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that despite your seemingly non-human abilities, that should never stop you from living your life like everyone else," he explained. "Just be your normal human self, even if you don't see yourself as 'normal' because of your abilities. Be strong, be brave…but further most, be smart. Your strengths and your knowledge are what make you invincible. You can do anything, so long as you follow those three rules."

If I knew better, I would've realized that my father had actually admitted that I wasn't human by saying those words; but, of course, me being the five-year-old kid I was at the time, I had no realization of this whatsoever. The only thing I got out of this discussion was that I was to pretend to be like Superman, but as his human alias Clark Kent. Clark lived a normal life working as a journalist in the city, but he never showed off his superpowers in the workplace that made him…well…Superman. As my dad was escorting me to school, I realized that he wanted me to do the exact same thing as Clark Kent, but as a regular school student and whatever other profession I may pursue in my later life.

So, that was exactly what I did in my first two years of school. I worked hard and received top marks in my lessons, and my teachers were most impressed with my level of intelligence, which was way beyond the Kindergarten/First-Grade level. Of course, all I could really say about that was that the comprehension of the topics came naturally to me and had absolutely nothing to do with possible superpowers way beyond Planet Earth (the latter being a total lie, of course). I never let my fear of accidentally showing off my superpowers come to the surface. I just stayed my normal human self, just as my dad had said.

It all worked out in my favor, because I was able to make a couple of new friends. In Kindergarten, I met a girl named Samantha Owens. Samantha and I became fast friends and did everything together until Samantha had started to become highly centered on only herself, which I hadn't realized was happening until I met another girl in our same grade named Hazel McAdams, who had transferred to our school in First Grade. When Hazel helped me see Samantha for what she truly was, I immediately ended my friendship with her and directed it all toward Hazel, who became my new best friend.

Through Hazel, I quickly learned that Samantha was one of those manipulative brats that would pretend to be your friend and then would stab you in the back once you were deep enough in her grasp. Hazel, on the other hand, was the exact opposite of Samantha. Unlike Samantha, Hazel was very selfless and caring about those closest to her, though her pretty looks failed to prevent her from being viewed as being from the "popular crowd" (she was never really into that). Despite her pretty looks, she always strived to help others and put smiles on everyone's faces, and she was never afraid to make her opinion known. When we first met, Hazel admitted that she never thought Samantha was the right friend for me, and she helped me see that. As thanks, I insisted that Hazel be my friend, since she was struggling to fit into our school anyway, and she graciously accepted. Hazel and I were thick as thieves from then onward.

We did everything together, from partnering up with each other when we'd have class activities to swinging side by side on the swing set during recess. On most weekends, we would even find time to go to each other's houses for sleepovers and the usual "play dates," especially when I'd found out Hazel moved into my neighborhood, but she had moved into a house on the other side of the small creek that sliced our neighborhood in half (Hazel moved into the front section, and I lived in the back). To make life easier for us to visit each other, we made a bridge out of rocks in the creek, which other kids in our neighborhood started using as well to get across. Throughout those years, Hazel seemed like my one and only friend, which was fine with me, because if there was ever a time I would've had to share my big secret to anyone, better to reveal it to one person rather than a whole bunch of people, as it would prevent my secret from spreading so quickly. If I was going to reveal my big secret to anyone, it would be to my best friend, especially when she was really good at keeping secrets.

After almost a full year of knowing each other, I often thought about actually sharing my secret to Hazel, but every time I thought about it, I was always nervous about how she would react to my superpowers. Would she feel overjoyed of the prospect of being close friends with a real-life superhero? Or would she feel weirded out that I might be a psychotic alien from Outer Space that may attempt to control her mind with my own, or perform some sick experiments on her, when she least expects it, like you see in those old sci-fi horror movies? I hated the thought of losing the one friend I may ever have for the rest of my non-human life, should I tell her the truth of my strange abilities, even when I knew next to nothing about their origins myself.

Because the very thought often scared me, I ultimately decided not to tell Hazel anything about my powers unless there came a time I would have to use them while she was in the same room with me; like, for example, I felt like I was going to regenerate again (this thought made me wonder how Hazel would react to seeing me change bodies in front of her—not good, was the first thought that came to mind). Often times when people are born different, they would have the fear of not being accepted into a family or group, and I often felt this exact fear when thinking about Hazel. It was only a matter of time before she—or anyone—would find out about my superpowers, despite my promise to my parents that I would never tell anyone, including Hazel, and I was afraid about whether or not she'd still accept me as a friend if she did find out. Only time would tell.

Apparently time did tell of when my secret would be revealed, but unfortunately it happened in a very bad and unexpected way. Surprisingly, it wasn't me who'd revealed my secret but rather a complete stranger, and a dangerous one at that. Luckily no one—except for me—was even aware that it was my secret that had been revealed to the entire school, but it sure brought a lot of fear and confusion into everyone's heads (including mine, as I had absolutely no idea how the stranger could've possibly known my secret in the first place), regardless of the situation.

It was a normal, boring Monday morning, just a handful of weeks after I started Second Grade. My class and I were watching one of those educational videos that was based on a book we were reading; but rather than watch the video like we were supposed to, Hazel and I were talking instead, although I was ninety-eight percent positive that we weren't the only ones. Hazel was telling me a story of a genius prank she played on her older brother over the weekend when it happened. First, the sense came before any other action—the sense that something bad was about to happen. When the sense first hit me, I wasn't immediately sure why I was sensing it, or even how I was sensing it—maybe this was another of my strange superpowers, I thought, like a Spider Sense, but not a 'Spider' Sense—so I didn't think much of it. But then, the intruder alarm suddenly went off, nearly scaring everyone out of their seats. A second after, the principal's panicked voice on the PA system told everyone this was not a drill and to lock all doors and windows immediately; we were going into lockdown. The teacher, Mrs. Besel, ordered everyone to huddle behind her desk as she ran to lock the classroom door, close the blinds of our large window, and shut off the lights. Hazel and I, being faster than everyone else, were the first to huddle in the corner opposite the door with our backs against the wall, and the rest of the class huddled around us.

At first, everyone seemed confused as to what was going on, not knowing what to think of the situation. It was very rare to have 'drills' that weren't practice ones, and usually when a proper drill happened, it meant there was something very wrong happening in or around the building, and the sense of danger, now stronger than it was before, told me as much.

The sense had reached its peak when I started hearing screams of a grown man coming from the other side of the building. I glanced around at my peers, including Hazel and the teacher, but none of them seemed to hear him. I immediately added 'super-hearing' as another of my non-human abilities.

"I know you're here, Time Lord!" the intruder yelled at the top of his lungs. "Come out and show yourself, and none of your peers will be harmed!"

Time Lord? I thought to myself. What on earth is a Time Lord? It was an unusual name and was one I had never heard before. I briefly wondered if the name came out of a Star Trek episode I missed, or one that I had watched but didn't pay enough attention to.

"What?" Hazel murmured in my ear. I then realized I must've said my thought out loud, and she heard me, but luckily no one else did.

"The man in the school is looking for someone," I murmured back, "a 'Time Lord,' whatever that is."

"A Lord of Time, probably," Hazel clarified, and I couldn't help but think her definition to be the most unhelpful in the universe. She then paused in shock. "Wait, there's a man in the school?"

Apparently Hazel had said that a bit too loudly, because several of my other peers started panicking even more than they were when the lockdown drill had started.

"What? A man broke into the school? Are you serious?"

"What is he doing here? What does he want?"

"He's not here to kill us, is he?"

"I don't want to die!"

While everyone else was worrying about their lives, Hazel whispered with a frown, "How do you know there's a man in the school? Can you hear him?"

I whispered back with a light nod, "Yeah, he's on the other side of the building. He sounds homicidal."

Hazel frowned again. "Homicidal? What does that mean?"

I sighed, not wanting to terrify my best friend and other peers further. "Okay," I said, leaning closer to Hazel's ear, "don't freak out, but it means that he is here to kill anyone and everyone who gets in the way of his prize…whoever this 'Time Lord' person is. He threatened to harm everyone in the school if the 'Time Lord' didn't show his or herself, and he's probably not going to leave until the person is handed over to him."

After I finished speaking, I was suddenly astounded at how calm I was feeling, despite the terrifying situation and the possible fact that some of us in the school—if not all of us—could very well die today if this 'Time Lord' person didn't hand his or herself over to the maniac. For some reason, I couldn't help but think this guy was after me, knowing of my superpowers. Maybe he wanted them for himself or for someone, or some group, he was working for, I thought.

My teacher abruptly spoke up, taking notice of our obvious fear. "Settle down, children. Everyone stop talking now. If it's true there is an intruder in the school, we can't let him hear us."

There was silence for another minute until the man's voice could be heard across the hall again, but this time, everyone else could hear him too, based on the panicked looks on their faces.

"Come on out, little Time Tot," the man said in a sing-song voice, sounding ever closer to our classroom door. He was so close now, I could hear him, clear as crystal, through the wall. "Surely you don't want anyone of your friends or teachers to die? I'll tear this place apart brick-by-brick, even if it means killing everyone inside. In fact, I might just do that; it'd be the only way to know how to find you."

Most of the other kids in the class gasped at this statement. A handful of them even started sobbing, thick tears streaming down their faces.

"Don't worry, you'll still have plenty of lives left over," the man continued, "depending on how many you really have. I know about your little healing ability…your so-called 'regeneration.' There's only one person in this entire building that can do something like that, and that's you…Nova Susan Song."

This time, it was my turn to gasp, and I didn't feel so calm anymore. How in the world did he know about my regeneration ability, and how did he know that was what I called it? As far as I knew, I never told anyone about this secret; my parents always urged me to tell absolutely no one about it, not even Hazel. Did he somehow overhear me talking about it with my parents at home? Was this creep stalking me and my family? Or did someone else tell him I lived in this town, and that I would be in school today? Maybe he didn't come here alone; maybe he wasn't the only stalker…

And that name he used—Nova Susan Song. Somehow, it rang a bell in my mind, like I recognized the name. More than that, I felt like the name somehow belonged to me…as if 'Sydney' wasn't actually my real name.

"I can sense the fear in you," the man chuckled softly, and it was true; I was scared. Scared of my secret being revealed…scared of being treated like an outcast because of my secret…scared of putting everyone near me, including my parents and Hazel, in terrible danger if they'd discovered my secret. Basically, I was scared of everything to do with my secret in general, and obviously—though I had absolutely no idea how—this guy seemed to know everything about it, and he had revealed it to the whole school. Of course, no one in the school seemed to know the secret pertained to me, but they were seemingly about to find out.

Although, the identity of Nova Susan Song, who, apparently, was the so-called 'Time Lord' this guy was sent out to apprehend, was still a mystery to me. According to the intruder, Nova and I seemed to share the same regeneration ability, however that was possible. I couldn't help but think we could be related. Did my parents have another daughter they didn't tell me about? When she was first born, did they send her off elsewhere to be protected from creeps like this guy? I guess it's better if the guy captured one of us rather than both of us, I thought. Why did it have to be me?

Well, if it was true that I may have had an older, or even twin, sister, and he was after at least one of us—particularly Nova—I supposed I may as well show myself. I could at least try to convince him that even though Nova and I shared the same abilities, I wasn't the one he was looking for. If I told him I wasn't Nova, maybe he would leave and let everyone live.

At this point, I shifted my legs in a way I was going to rise up from my spot behind the desk and confront the intruder before he started breaking into other classrooms and killing innocent children.

Hazel caught on to what I was thinking of doing. She asked me quietly with a confused frown, "Syd, what are you doing?"

I was about to answer when I heard the man chuckle again on the other side of the wall, and I immediately paused. "Aw, how cute. You wish to save everyone here. Typical, just like your father…and I don't mean your human father."

Whoa, can he read my mind? I wondered, or was he able to hear my stirring from inside the classroom? How did he know I wanted to save everyone by revealing myself to him, even though I may not have been the one he was looking for?

Also, what did he mean I was just like my father, but not my 'human' father? In other words, I had more than one father, but one of them—the one I lived with—was not, in fact, my real father? More than that, one of my fathers wasn't human, and that was the one I was truly related to?

"That's right," the intruder said as if he sensed my confusion. "The 'parents' that you currently live with are not your real parents. Your real parents gave you to these primitive humans to hide you from us. If you didn't already know that, you should ask them sometime."

I glanced around at my other peers, and many of them exchanged confused looks with one another. No one had any inkling of what this crazy psycho was talking about, and honestly nor did I. Apparently this guy knew a lot about my parents—if they were even my real parents—that I never knew about, and it made me start to question where I was truly from, whose parents I truly belonged to.

"You can't hide anymore, Nova," the psycho said, sounding much closer to our classroom door. Even from the opposite side of the corner, I could see his shadow underneath the door. "Ever since your first regeneration, there have been beings out there that can smell your time energy across all of time and space…" At this point, he inhaled deeply, like he could smell anyone that was inside that gave off a strong scent. The intake of breath sounded unnatural, like something otherworldly. "And we can protect you from them. In fact, we can teach you how to fight them off. You've probably been told since then to keep your 'powers' in the dark, but we can teach you how to use them. We can teach you how to use your 'powers' for the greater good…to rid the universe of a great evil—your father."

What? My voice screamed inside my head. Was he saying my father was evil? No way! I shook my head. My father was the most caring person I had ever known, beside my mom and Hazel. There was absolutely no way he would secretly be some sort of criminal behind our backs…

Then again, maybe the intruder wasn't talking about the father I currently lived with, but rather my other father—my biological non-human father, whoever he was.

"There are many stories about your father," the intruder continued. "He has many names and many more secrets. 'The Oncoming Storm,' 'The Beast,' and 'The Valeyard' are only a small handful of titles, which don't even begin to explain all the dark deeds he has done. Legend says your father wiped out his entire species, the Time Lords, to stop a war that was ravaging all of existence. Legend also says his worst enemies trapped him in a cage that was specifically built to imprison him for the rest of Time, but he got out anyway, and no one knows how. And now there has been talk that he has escaped death once again at Lake Silencio, Utah and is now hiding in the shadows, just waiting to be reunited with his loved ones…with his long-lost daughter—you."

He paused as if to allow the information to sink into my head. For some reason, almost all of what the man had said about my biological father sounded true to me. Apparently my father had destroyed his—our—entire home, and the man said that as if my father hadn't even thought about the safety of his people; he just destroyed them anyway without allowing them a say in the matter. Then, I guessed as a result of what he did in that war, my father's enemies trapped him in a prison that was believed to be impossible to escape from, but he had somehow broken out, using his wits and who knows what else. Then he escaped death—again, apparently—at some lake in Utah that I had never heard of before, and is now supposedly hunting me down, possibly to recruit me, or kill me. And along the way, he had taken on a few terrifying titles as trophies. If my biological father truly was evil, and he was truly coming after me, I wondered what would happen to me if he did find me.

Was this 'intruder' here not to kill me but to protect me from my own father? Did he know who, and even where, my father was, and had been sent here to warn me how dangerous he was and to protect me from him?

At this point, I had no idea who to trust anymore, including the people who raised me. I was even starting to question whether my life was really real or a complete lie. Was I really born on Earth? Were my parents really my parents? Was I really seven years old at the time? Was my real name even 'Sydney Elise?'

"All this just proves how dangerous your father truly is," the man said after a few moments. "Who knows what he would do to you if he seeks you out. That is why you must come with us. We can protect you from him. More than that, we can rid him of the universe…together."

I was speechless. Together? Like, 'together' together; as in, I team up with him and his band of crazies, and we work as one to take down my bio-dad? How insane was this? I didn't even know these people, and yet this guy decided that my bio-dad was evil, and I was supposed to believe all of this. My life had just become incredibly odd, and I had the feeling the oddness was only going to become much worse from here onwards. The pressure in my head from a growing migraine didn't really help my comprehension of the situation any better.

Right when the intruder had finished speaking, just when I thought for sure he was going to break down the classroom door and blow me and my entire class into next week, a woman's voice called from further down the hall, as if to finish his last sentence, "Which is never going to happen!"

There was a brief pause before the man shouted, "You!" as if he knew the woman. For some reason, in that moment, I got the feeling I knew the woman too. There was something about her voice that I found strangely familiar, but I couldn't place where or when I had heard it. The only thing that was obvious about her voice was that it sounded British, like she was from The United Kingdom.

"You must be insane to think that you would ever take advantage of my daughter!" The woman exclaimed as she neared the intruder. I heard the charge of some sort of futuristic weapon, like a phaser, before she continued in a growl, "Step away from that door, or I'll burn a hole right through your chest! And you better not have signaled to your other friends, or I'll do something much worse!"

I had to pause at her first statement. She called me—Nova—her 'daughter.' Was she, possibly, my—our—biological mother? Was she in cahoots my biological father? Was she evil too? Or was she here to save us from this crazy intruder, because she knew the intruder was here for a much worse reason, and she was here to prevent him from committing this act?

We heard the intruder scoff loudly, "Oh yeah? What could be worse than a burnt hole in the chest, 'mummy dearest?' The Vokanari are many; one less makes no difference. We will continue to grow and thrive, and soon there will be enough of us on every planet, every star system, in all of time and space, to take your hubby down before he ever reaches Trenzalore. And your daughter will be the face of our cause."

"Over my dead body!" the woman immediately replied, and there was a clicking noise, like the cock of a gun before it is ready to fire.

"That can be arranged!" the psycho said with an evil grin—at least, that was how I pictured him. Immediately after, there was the sound of rushing footsteps away from the classroom door, and the abrupt sound of a gunshot was heard a second later. The man was heard screaming in pain from the gunshot wound, and I couldn't help but wonder where exactly the woman had shot him—the shoulder, the leg…maybe right through the chest, like she promised.

"Damn you, River Song!" the man growled in anger. "She will be ours! One day!"

Once he finished speaking, strange electrical sounds were heard before everything but the lockdown alarm was quiet. This went on for another few minutes before police sirens could be heard outside the school, and everyone sighed in relief. Everything was going to be okay; we were saved.

Even though the police had finally shown up—although I had briefly wondered if that woman who saved us from the crazy man was a cop—the drill wasn't over yet, not until the principal gave the "all clear" over the PA system and shut off the alarm; who knew whether the man, or even the woman, had actually left the premises for good. Maybe he was still out there, waiting for school to be over so he could catch me as I left school for the day. I just hoped the woman was close by to stop the man before he could get his hands on me.

A/N: TO BE CONTINUED!

Obviously Nova/Sydney hasn't properly met River here, but she will in chapter 13 (or chapter 12 if you don't count the prologue). I apologize if these first few chapters have been seemingly slow and boring, but trust me, things get better by about chapter 8. Just bear with me here. Feel free to skip ahead, but BEWARE OF SPOILERS. You have been warned :)