A/N: From here onwards, the story will now be in Present Tense. Anything I may reference from Nova's past will obviously be in Past Tense, so I hope the change between tenses doesn't confuse anyone.

Also, note that the Doctor didn't give Nova his sonic screwdriver, only an exact copy for her to temporarily use until she designs her own, which might happen toward the end of Part 1. Needless to say, Nova learns (by herself) to use it until she meets the Doctor.

Anyway, on with the story.

Chapter 10: The Life and Death of Sydney Elise

I can't believe this. I can't believe what had just happened…what I was just told. I can't believe my parents would do such a thing—to keep this secret from me for so long!

I guess that settles it now. The beans have finally been spilt. It's all true.

I am not human.

Of course, I've known this for a while, pretty much my whole life. Now that everything has been confirmed, it seems too absurd to be believable.

I don't know what to believe anymore. I don't even know my own identity anymore. I feel like my whole life has been a big, fat lie.

Only one thing is for certain, one thing that stands above all other absurdities:

I am an unearthly child. A freak. A nobody. An alien. An alien whose name was never the name that her human guardians gave her. An alien who always seems to stand out from a large crowd, simply because her IQ is way too advanced for her age. An alien who obviously has superpowers way beyond Planet Earth. An alien who doesn't have a clue where she truly comes from. An alien whose true name will haunt her for the rest of her days:

Nova Susan Song.

As much as I like the sound of the whole name put together, I don't want it to be mine. I don't want to possess the name of someone whom the entire universe seems to want dead. If I was born human—if I was normal—I wouldn't have to worry about such things. I could have normal rights, normal friends, a normal family…a normal life.

But my life was never normal, and it will never be normal again.

As I lay on my bed, tears staining my pillow, I try to think about my (Sydney's) entire childhood and every memorable event that happened that was normal, but I could only think of events in my life that were the exact opposite:

My first regeneration, along with growing in a second heart…

The school intruder that hunted for me back in Second Grade…

My guardians revealing that I was not their true daughter, and that they had, in fact, adopted me…

The entire world, except for me, transforming (temporarily) into the creepy blond guy on the worst Christmas ever…

Saving my best friend Hazel from being murdered by a psychotic armored dwarf (that was also hunting me) during what was once an innocent game of Laser Tag…

Revealing my secret to Hazel when I healed her arm with my regeneration energy not long after the Laser Tag incident…

Discovering the website on the Internet about the mysterious 'Doctor' and his many faces…

Having the recurring dream of the night of my adoption and the strange blue police box with its unearthly sounds and impossible interior…

Being "stalked" throughout my life by an unknown curly-haired woman, whose face looks almost exactly like my own…

And just now when I was told the terrible truth of my identity.

When all these things were happening at the time that they happened, I never understood why they were happening to me, or vice versa for some, when the entire world except for me was affected. Now that it has been confirmed that I am not human, it all makes sense. Certain events, such as the entire Human Race becoming the creepy blond guy that Christmas, happened to everyone else but me, because only those who were human were affected, and those who weren't (like me) were spared. That would explain why I never became the blond guy when everyone else did, or I wasn't possessed into standing at the edge of the highest building because I didn't have A-Positive blood. Then again, several other humans didn't have that blood-type either; but if, say, every human had that blood-type, I would've been the only one not affected. These types of events, being some of the biggest events in Earth history, proved that I was never human, and I now understand that perfectly.

Also, now that I know the truth, I feel like a large part of me has died. The part of me that defined me as 'Sydney Elise' has been destroyed and replaced with someone else…this complete stranger that is Nova Susan Song. It's like I regenerated again, but this time my whole identity has changed. It's like Sydney Elise never existed, that she had been completely erased from history. However, I can still remember being her, but I no longer sense her within me. For a normal regeneration, I would imagine Time Lords would still be able to sense their previous selves within their new, fresh body, but this doesn't seem to be the case for me. This could only mean one thing: Sydney Elise is gone, dead. Forever.

Because of this, I feel more alien than ever.

For the next several hours, I continue to sob uncontrollably in my pillow, long past sunset. I am so overwhelmed with emotion that it's hard to breathe, both hearts feeling like they're about to burst out of my chest. I suppose Mother Nature feels the same way as me (albeit about something completely different), as it begins to heavily rain outside, large droplets slamming against the window noisily. A funny coincidence that the worst possible weather would fall on the worst day ever, but it is nowhere close to humorous.

Why? I say in my head in anger to no one, but also everyone, particularly my bio-parents. Why did you make me become this? Why did you turn me into an alien, someone who's not human? What could you possibly hope to gain from doing this to me? Did you think turning me into this would make me hate you? If so, it worked; you got what you wanted. I do hate you. Because of you, I am nothing.

This was all my parents' fault, particularly my father's. Shortly after I was born, he gave me up to be raised as someone—something—I wasn't. He abandoned me, practically throwing me out on the streets and leaving me with nothing to tell me what and who I am. Because of him—that 'Doctor'—I am living this sick, bizarre, alien life, and I hate it. I hate him. Doctors are supposed to heal and make things better, but he has done the complete opposite with my life. I will never forgive him for this. I feel almost embarrassed to be the daughter of someone as cruel and careless as he.

I glance over at the small box that my guardians left for me that was originally from my bio-parents, and I greatly consider taking it, throwing it outside, and destroying it forever, as I want absolutely nothing to do with them, but my curiosity ultimately ends up getting the better of me. Wiping my eyes dry, I grab the box and untie the ribbon that keeps it sealed. I lift the lid to reveal what looks like a gold-colored flashlight of sorts, with large prongs surrounding a green crystal at its tip. Underneath that is a silver necklace with its front face inlaid with unusual circular symbols, like otherworldly hieroglyphs. There is also a small handwritten note along with the two objects. I take the note, unfold it, and read quietly:

My dear Nova,

If you are reading this, then you have finally come of age and have most likely been told the truth about what and who you really are (or you have likely found everything out for yourself, and if so, well done, you). I would imagine you are confused and a bit scared as well. And that's okay. Or, at least, I assume that's okay. It's been a long time since I thought of myself as "different"—twelve-hundred years to be exact, but that's a story for another time. This story is about you, my special daughter, whose heart(s) will forever be seared onto mine.

I say "heart(s)" because I'm not sure if, by now, you have gone through something called Regeneration. It is something that we Time Lords (yes, that is what you are as well) go through when it comes time for us to "pass on," in other words, change our physical bodies to look completely different from the previous one(s). Notice I used a "(s)" again; that will be important later. Not to worry, Nova. Regeneration is a difficult time for all of us (and if you think about it, humans can do this as well, with the way their bodies change as they grow older, but not really), and it can also be agonizingly painful, but on the plus side, it's not something you have to do on a daily basis. You may go through it at least once every few centuries or so. Trust me, I've had to go through the process at least ten times. Anyway, it is during your first regeneration that your new body will most likely contain a second heart, which is perfectly normal for us, I assure you. You will also keep that second heart in future regenerations (unfortunately, you can't retro-regenerate back into a past incarnation; trust me, I already tried), depending on how many you have, which you should have at least twelve of, so don't go wasting regenerations all willy-nilly. In fact, don't regenerate at all; better to keep them all so they last. I tried doing that during my last life, but I couldn't hold it back for long. Oh well. Better luck next time, I suppose.

Now, on to a new topic, which is probably the most important one of the lot and is also the main reason why I am writing this letter. You've probably been told long before you found out you were not as "normal" as you thought you were that your mother and I had to give you up for adoption to keep you safe, and I want to tell you that we did it for a good reason. Our enemies, the Silence, have been plotting to kidnap you and train you to kill me (your father), just as they have done with your mother long ago. Although she wasn't your mother back then. Not yet. At the time, she nearly succeeded in killing me with a poison from the Judas Tree (which is very lethal to Time Lords and is something that disables regeneration, so I would stay well away from it if I were you), but she broke free from her conditioning by the Silence and saved my life by sacrificing something very precious—her Time Lord abilities. Your mother, the love of my lives, River Song, is the bravest woman I have ever known (of course, long after she tried to kill me, and many times before that; it's complicated), and I hope you, my Nova, will grow to be just as brave and beautiful as she.

As a "coming of age" gift (or rather, two gifts, as you have a gift from each of us; although both are really from me), we are bestowing you with a locket from my home-world of Gallifrey. This was a gift I was given from my guardians when I came of age (again, a story for another time), but now I am giving it to you to keep with you always as a reminder of where you truly come from and the life you will lead. As another gift, I am giving you an exact copy of my sonic screwdriver, which is a handy tool to use in any situation (of course, not just for screwing in screws), whether you are stuck in a tight place and need to get out, or you're holding a terrifying monster at bay. The key to using it is to point and think, and it'll do whatever you want it to. Remember: POINT AND THINK, and always remember to keep it with you at all times, because it can save your life. I can't tell you how many times it has saved mine, because I have honestly lost count. That's what happens when you get to be over a thousand years old. You tend to lose track of everything, including your own birthday. You will eventually get there one day, most likely when I'm gone, as I don't have much time left to live. Spoilers.

Now, you are most likely wondering if you'll ever meet your true parents in person. Unfortunately, it is uncertain whether we'll meet again. It could be we might never meet again, or we might see each other again quite soon. Only time will tell.

Whatever happens, Nova, however long and however far we are in time and space from you, know that your mother and I love you more than you will ever know, and there is nothing in the entire universe, not even a Dalek, that will stop us from loving you. You are seared onto both of our hearts always.

Have a good and long life, my sweet, bright Nova.

The Doctor

After I finish reading the note, I can't help but feel even angrier. My father—who I now know is the mysterious 'Doctor'—abandoned me, and now he sent me this note as, what, an apology? Yeah right, I scoff in my head. He doesn't deserve to give an apology after what he did. Then again, he said in his letter that he gave me up "for a good reason" by protecting me from some enemy of theirs called the 'Silence,' whoever they are. Of course, when there is danger targeting one's family, his/her main goal is to protect them, no matter what, so the wisest thing to do is send whoever is most vulnerable as far away from the danger as possible so they don't get hurt, and this was exactly what my bio-parents did to me.

A sense of appreciation suddenly washes over me. My bio-parents sent me these things as a way to show me that they still care for me, even after they gave me up. The Doctor even admitted that he and my mother won't stop loving me, which is, ironically, something my guardians always told me. Maybe I don't have to hate him much for that, but a part of me still hates him for giving me up without an explanation. Then again, according to his letter, he did provide an explanation (as brief as it was), but he made me wait eighteen years to discover it.

However, despite everything, I also feel slight suspicion toward my bio-father. I hardly know anything about this guy, and yet he wants me to believe that he can be trusted, as well as loved, by everyone he touches, including myself. I'm not really sure what to think about him, or really anything about my true origins, but I know that just balling all my thoughts and feelings within myself isn't going to get me anywhere. The only way to better organize my thoughts and get my feelings under control (as well as my hearts, because they feel as if they're running a marathon) is to talk to someone, and who better than 'The Girl Who Always Knows What to Say to Make Humans and Non-Humans Happy.' She is now a part of my secret, after all; plus, she has a right to know my true identity, since we've been best friends since the First Grade.

Setting the box from my bio-parents aside, I immediately call Hazel on my phone. After she answers, I ask her if she's busy, to which she says 'no' and that she's actually home alone, with her parents out at a concert in Salina and her brother out with friends for the night. She then comments on how upset I sound, to which I respond by briefly explaining how I can't be at home right now because something happened between me and my guardians, and there is something important that I need to talk to her about, which involves my secret. I then ask if it's cool if I crash for the night at her house, and Hazel says 'yes.' I tell her I would have to wait for my guardians to go to bed, as I don't want them to know where I'm going. I convince her that I will explain everything to her later, and I hang up shortly after.

Three hours later, just before midnight, my guardians finally go to bed, and I quietly sneak out of the house with my overnight bag and into the stormy night. Before I left, something in my gut told me to put the locket with the strange circular symbols over my neck, which I did. I even bring my unusual flashlight-looking thing with me, as I figure Hazel might help me figure out how it works. Despite the bad weather, I don't take one of my guardians' cars, as I don't want to draw any suspicion to myself, as well as to not let them follow me. Not that it really matters, as even if they do discover that I am gone, the first place they'll go will be Hazel's house; but I'm not planning to be gone for long (just one night), although a small part of me wishes I'll be gone much longer.

"Wow! You walked all the way here in the rain?" Hazel says, shocked, after she lets me into her house.

"I couldn't drive here, knowing my parents would just follow me," I explain as I take off my rain jacket and hang it on the coat rack by the door. "Of course, it wouldn't matter, because even if they didn't know where I went, this would be the place they'd look first."

"You're not running away, are you?" Hazel asks suspiciously as we walk into her living room and collapse on the couch. "From what you just said, it sounds like you're running away."

"Yes…" I admit, but then think better. "No…" I sigh, not knowing how to explain the thoughts and feelings running around each other in my head like a vortex spinning out of control. "It's complicated. The truth is, I want to run away from everything. This secret…this life."

"Why?" Hazel asks, concerned. "Syd, please talk to me."

"That's not my name anymore," I can't help mumbling under my breath in anger.

"What?" Hazel frowns, puzzled.

"Sydney Elise is no longer my name," I confess. "In fact, it's never been my name. Sydney Elise, she's…" I pause, then admit regretfully, "She's dead. In fact, she never existed. Turns out that name was just a cover-up in place of my true name all along."

"So what is your true name then?" she asks curiously.

I glance at her. "I think you know. I've told you for years that I thought she was my sister, but she was never that… She was always me."

"Are you talking about Nova?" Hazel says in shock. "That's your real name?"

I nod with a heavy sigh. "Yeah. Nova Susan Song, to be exact. Although, I don't know where the names come from. 'Susan' might be someone I'm named after, but 'Nova,' I'm not sure. I read that a nova is the birth of a new star, or sometimes a star's explosion, which they call a 'supernova,' but I don't know which one I'm named after. And 'Song,' of course, is my birth mother's last name. I guess, now that that's cleared up, you'll have to start calling me 'Nova' now."

Hazel then shrugs seemingly carelessly. "That's fine."

"Really?" I frown, puzzled. How can she be so calm after a big revelation like this? I wondered. Surely, she'd get the sense that she lost a friend today—her old friend Sydney Elise, who's now been replaced with a total stranger still occupying her friend's body.

"Yeah!" Hazel admits. "To be honest, I think the name 'Nova' fits you much better than 'Sydney.' So what if you no longer go by 'Sydney Elise?' Just because you've changed names doesn't mean your whole identity has changed."

Wow! I can't believe the words that have left Hazel's mouth. Obviously she's still willing to be my friend, regardless of what's happened earlier today, but I still can't help but feel a great loss clinging tightly to me, refusing to let go.

"That's just it," I confess. "I feel like it has changed, but even more than a typical regeneration would. With regeneration, only my physical appearance and parts of my personality change; but this time I feel like everything has changed, including my name and identity. Now that I know my true name, and now that everything about my non-humanness has been confirmed, it's like a part of me—the part of me that defined me as 'Sydney Elise,' the part of me that was human—has died; it's like she no longer exists within me. It's like in Ghostbusters, 'There is no Dana, only Zuul,' except in my case it's 'There is no Sydney, only Nova;' but I don't even know who 'Nova' is, or who she's supposed to be. Apparently, Nova was never supposed to be human, but that's how I was raised; that was how Sydney was raised. Now that I am no longer Sydney, I don't know who I am anymore, or even what I am." I am suddenly overwhelmed with emotion again, and I sob uncontrollably, burying my face in my hands. "I'm scared, Haze. I'm really, really scared."

Hazel immediately wraps her arms around me in a tight hug. "I'm sorry, Syd—Nova," she says, catching herself saying the wrong name. In fact, everything about my life has never felt more wrong than this.

"What does this mean for my future?" I wonder aloud. "What am I supposed to do, now that everything's been confirmed?" Do I leave home and never return? Do I turn myself in to Area 51, or whoever deals with illegal aliens, and have them decide what to do with me? If I didn't know better, I'd suggest going back home and pretending like this is all just a dream, but there is absolutely no point, knowing this is all real.

"I don't know," Hazel says regretfully. "I guess…the only thing you can do is continue keeping this secret."

I look up at her incredulously. "Why? I can't just keep the secret forever; everyone's gonna find out about it at some point. Then what, I get captured and experimented on for the rest of my life? Or worse, hunted and killed? Would my bio-parents even come to rescue me…or will they leave me to suffer 'til I'm out of regenerations? If Earth is no longer our home, is there even another world to go back to? What if our home-world has been destroyed, and Earth is the only place we have left, but we can no longer live here, where else would we go?" I pause, fearing the worst. "Where else would I go?" I can't imagine being forcefully kicked out of a place I call home, just because I'm different…because I'm not human.

Hazel smiles. "No place where I won't be with you."

I frown. "Really?" Would she really come with me, even with the risk of getting caught being in cahoots with an alien?

She shrugs. "Yeah! Remember when I said, 'if you go down, I go down with you?' I still haven't changed my mind about that, and honestly, I don't think I ever will."

"But you said that to Sydney, not Nova," I say with a raised eyebrow.

"True," Hazel agrees, "but I said that to Nova as well. You may have gone by a different name your whole life, but one thing that's never changed is that you're still my friend. Friends always stick together, for better or worse."

I smile too, chuckling, "Even 'til death do us part?" I seriously doubt she'd agree to that.

"Uh…sure," she says hesitantly. "Why not?"

"Good!" I say excitedly. "How does London sound?"

Hazel scoffs. "You're serious? That's, like, the most invaded city on Earth. Why would we possibly want to live there?"

"Well…maybe not to live there, per se," I explain; although, the idea doesn't sound so bad. "More like go to school there. I've applied to pretty much every university there and have gotten accepted into…well, all of them. The only thing I have to do is pick one and enroll in it. Imagine us being roommates…going to school with Brits. I'll bet every boy will be fawning over us, just for being American girls. Won't that be so cool, having a British boyfriend?" Of course, getting a British boyfriend isn't ideal for me, given my non-humanness, but it could be ideal for Hazel. She always seems to be into all things foreign, but then again, so am I, but not in that case.

Hazel shrugs uncertainly. "Well…I do find the British accent to be kinda sexy, especially from the men."

"So you'll come with me then?" I ask hopefully.

"Sure," she says suspiciously, "but I'm getting the sense you don't want to go to London just for school. You want to go mainly because you think you'll find your parents there, don't you?"

"No, of course not!" I lie, but then I notice Hazel's doubtful look, and I think better. "Okay, fine, shoot me. Yes, I mainly want to go to London to find my bio-parents. But you need to understand how important this is to me. They gave me up to protect me from…something, and I need to know what that 'something' is; more than that, I need to find out who and what I am, and my bio-parents have those answers. In fact, they're the only ones with those answers." For some reason, I have the sense that my guardians weren't told the entire truth when my bio-parents gave me up to them that night.

"Okay, I get it," Hazel nods, then sighs. "I just…I don't want to just go to London blindly, not knowing what to expect there and run into whatever aliens will invade the place next."

"We won't," I assure her confidently. "I'll protect you with my martial arts skills. You obviously haven't seen them in action yet. Granted, they can get very violent…" I immediately pause, thinking back on the memory of one of my final tests when I was told that I wasn't going to pass unless I put at least one person in hospital, which greatly appalled me. I couldn't believe that my instructor, Master Kang, was telling me to hurt someone enough to put them in hospital; of course, the people I was fighting against were fighting as if they were trying to kill me, and I realized I had to fight back in the same way. Luckily, after that test, I hadn't had to fight like that again, and I hope to never fight like that in the future either. God, I hated that guy. "But I'll try to keep it PG," I add with a 'what could go wrong' smile.

But Hazel was still seeming hesitant about the idea of moving overseas. "Okay. That's kinda another thing. What if we're separated when something bad happens? How will you protect me then?"

Geez, I sigh, rolling my eyes, why is she acting like a total buzzkill? "Come on, Haze," I say out loud. "Where's your sense of adventure? It'll be fun; a whole new country to explore. It's mostly filled with English-speakers anyway, just with a different accent. What's the big deal?"

Hazel sighs in seeming defeat. "Alright, maybe it'll be interesting to go to school there, just as long as we don't run into crazy aliens along the way."

"Unless they're Time Lord," I say to add to her declaration, and also to make clear that my species isn't 'crazy' as in 'dangerous,' like the other aliens that have invaded our planet over the last eighteen years.

"Right," Hazel nods in agreement. Then she asks curiously, "What if you do actually find your bio-parents, what will you do?"

I suddenly pause, a feeling of uncertainty washing over me. "I…don't know. I mainly want to find them to get the information I want from them, but if after I find them, and they insist on taking me back to whatever and wherever our home-world is…" I sigh. "I'm not sure if I want to go back…if the world still exists. Maybe, like in the Sci-Fi movies, my bio-parents left their home-world because it was either being taken over or destroyed, and they came to Earth to hide out or claim the planet as their new home. But if their home-world still exists, and we as a family decide to return to it…I'm not sure if I want to go. I mean, Earth has been my home for…well, ever, and I don't want to leave this place. I don't want to leave you." I can't imagine never being able to return to Earth, never being able to see my best friend again. I wonder if this is something my father has dealt with over the centuries—twelve, to be exact, which is unbelievable. I wonder if I'll have to deal with it when I'm older.

Hazel raises an eyebrow. "If that ends up being the case, are you sure you want to find them?" It's like she senses that I have changed my mind about finding them, which I kinda have, but at the same time I haven't really.

"I don't know," I shrug, shaking my head. "I don't even know what I want anymore. I guess…instead of finding them, I'll just wait for them to find me. Although, I'm pretty sure my bio-mom knows where I am; she's probably been following me for years." Of course she has, hence why I've been seeing her throughout my life.

"So, if you see the curly-haired woman again, you'll just…run away?" Hazel asks skeptically.

"No," I say a little hesitantly, not knowing whether I'm lying or not. "More like I'll just…run in the opposite direction and hope she doesn't follow me."

"Uh…isn't that the same thing as running away?" She says, clearly not buying my half-lie.

I sigh in defeat. "Yeah, I guess it is. Fine, yes. If I see any curly-haired women, or dudes in tweed jackets and bow ties, or even blue police boxes, I'll run away." Suddenly thinking about the police box, I say, "Although, I'm still curious about that one blue box we saw that day at the arcade, as well as the one I'd seen in my dreams, which I'm pretty sure is the same box. I'm ninety-percent positive that box was bigger on the inside, which should be impossible, but maybe for that particular box, it's normal; which, I guess, makes sense, because it has to be that size in order to hold all those mysteries inside, right?"

"Right, I guess," Hazel says uncertainly, not quite understanding what I am saying, since she obviously hasn't been having the same dream as me. "What's that necklace you're wearing? I meant to ask about it earlier," she says, changing the subject, pointing to my locket that I had totally forgotten I was wearing around my neck.

Suddenly remembering, I say, fiddling with it in my hand, "Oh, it's from my bio-parents; they gave it to me as a 'coming of age' gift. Not in person, obviously; my guardians actually held onto it. It's actually a locket, but there're no pictures in it. See?" I unclick the locket to show the interior is empty. At the time I unclicked it before I left my house, I expected to see the smiling faces of my bio-parents inside, but there was nothing. I guess they wanted me to put my own pictures in it; of course, that's not going to happen for a while, since I haven't met them yet.

"It's got interesting circular symbols on it," Hazel points out with amazement. "What are those, hieroglyphs of some kind?"

"I think so," I shrug, tracing the symbols absentmindedly with my fingers. "I've never seen anything like them before. I've certainly never seen anything like them anywhere on Earth. It came with a letter written from my bio-dad. He said the locket was given to him by his guardians when he came of age as well, when he was still living on his home-world called Gallifrey. I'm assuming the symbols mean something in their language."

"That language being…what, Gallifreyan?" Hazel guesses with a raised eyebrow.

I shrug. "I guess, yeah. These symbols could translate as something like 'love,' 'peace,' 'hope,' or something else." I then reach in my bag and pull out the strange gold flashlight-looking object. "He also gave me this." I hand it to her, and she examines it in her hand.

"What is it?" she asks suspiciously. "Some kind of flashlight?"

"I don't know," I say as Hazel gives the object back to me. "In the letter, my bio-dad called it a 'sonic screwdriver;' he's got one of the same exact design. He said it can be used in any situation, not just for screwing in screws."

"What does that mean exactly?" Hazel asks, puzzled. "It can do more than just screw in screws?"

I shrug again. "I guess so. This could be something alien, made from Time Lord technology. I bet it can do a lot of really cool things. Here, let's test it on something. What's something that's got screws in it?"

Hazel suggests testing it out on a light switch, as it has screws that can be easily replaced and not screw anything up (pun intended). Remembering my bio-father's instruction to "point and think," I point the screwdriver's end with the green crystal to one of the screws holding the light switch plate to the wall and press the button, making it emit a loud buzzing sound and its crystal glow brightly. Ignoring the ear-piercing screeching, I give the command in my head: loosen. Sure enough, the screw literally unscrews on its own and falls to the floor with a small ping.

"Whoa!" Hazel exclaims as I pick up the fallen screw and replace it back on the light switch plate, this time giving the command to the otherworldly screwdriver: tighten. The screw then twists itself back into the wall with no harm done. Hazel exclaims again, "That's so cool! It can actually screw in and unscrew screws! What else can it do?"

"I don't know," I shrug. "That noise is incredibly loud though." I then glance up at the light overhead. Since we are messing with the lights, we might as well mess with them some more. "Let's see if it can turn off and on lights without using a switch." I then point the screwdriver at the light bulb and think the command: turn off. Instead of simply dimming itself, the bulb suddenly explodes in a shower of sparks and shards. "Fudgeknuckle!" I cry in shock as I shield myself from the broken shards that fly at us.

"Dude!" Hazel cries with equal shock. "You exploded the freaking light bulb!"

"Sorry!" I immediately apologize as I run into her kitchen to find the dustpan and broom. "I promise, I thought 'turn off' and not 'explode!'" I groan. "Clearly I need more practice with this thing!"

Hazel chuckled in an obvious manner. "Yeah, no kidding!" She volunteers to sweep the broken shards while I search for a new bulb to replace the one that exploded.

As Hazel cleans up the mess, and while I climb up the ladder to replace the light bulb, I ask jokingly, "Hey, Haze, how many Time Lords does it take to screw in a light bulb?"

She pauses her sweeping and looks up at me strangely, asking with a frown, "What kind of a question is that?"

I shake my head a little disappointedly. "Nothing. I just thought it sounded funny. Never mind."

Changing the subject while she resumes sweeping, Hazel asks curiously, "So what else did you get from your bio-parents? Or was that it?"

I shake my head and say, "No, I think that was it. Although, in the letter, my dad did explain, at least a bit, about why they gave me up."

Dumping the broken shards into the trash, Hazel asks, "Okay, what's their story?"

After I finish replacing the light bulb and climb down the ladder, I say, "I didn't quite fully understand it, but he said they had given me up to protect me from an enemy called the Silence. I'm not exactly sure what they are, but apparently, they wanted to kidnap me to train me to kill my father, which sounds completely crazy. A long time ago, before my parents fell in love and married, my mother was trained to kill him, and she succeeded at one point. She killed him with some poison that was very lethal to Time Lords that could stop one from regenerating, but she ultimately saved him by giving up all her Time Lord abilities, including regeneration."

"Wow!" Hazel says with a raised eyebrow. "That's some twisted relationship. So your father married his own assassin?"

"Apparently," I shrug. "I can't really believe it either. I mean, who knows whether my mother had totally gotten rid of the Silence's influence over her. If not, maybe she'll start coming after me next—her own daughter! How insane is that? Of course, that was what the Silence wanted—and possibly still want—to do to me." I thought this sounded ludicrous as a thought, but now it sounds even more so when said out loud. How could a parent want to kill her own child?

"You're no assassin!" Hazel says incredulously.

I shake my head with equal disbelief. "No, and I never want to be. Apparently, I come from a family of them; or rather, just one assassin, that being my mother. I don't want to be anything like her…what she was."

Just the very thought makes me suddenly fear for my guardians' life, as well as Hazel's. If the so-called 'Silence' are truly coming after me, I don't want them to go after my friends and family either. If it's true that now that I have come of age, that I'll start attracting more danger to myself even when I'm not using my powers, then maybe it's time to go solo.

Maybe it's time to leave my past life—Sydney's life—behind forever.

A/N: TO BE CONTINUED!

Just out of curiosity, for those who have not only followed Doctor Who but also this story, what are your thoughts on the character Madame Kovarian? Do you ever wonder what happened to her after Series 6, especially after the 5:02 timeline was corrected? Before Series 7 even came out, I always thought Kovarian would come back somehow as the main villain, and I was a bit disappointed that they didn't bring her back. I personally thought she was a great villain, pretty up there with The Master. Please share your thoughts and theories about her in the comments, because I am very curious about them.

My personal headcanon with Kovarian is that she had somehow survived 5:02 (when the Doctor and River had married and corrected the timeline) and had continued with her usual plots to kill the Doctor. Sometime between series 6 and 7, the Doctor faced off with Kovarian again (possibly with River), and Kovarian had tried using one of her new tactics to kill him, but somehow her tactic ended up backfiring, and she ended up being killed instead of the Doctor. Either that, or River was responsible for Kovarian's death as a way of getting back at Kovarian for how she treated River (kidnapping her from her parents, trained her as an assassin, etc.). In any case, it is unknown as to how Kovarian was ultimately killed, but the Doctor was at least a witness to her death. Obviously, Kovarian was never mentioned (at least in the Present Tense) in series 7, so my guess was that she had been killed sometime between the two seasons.

Since I was fascinated with Kovarian's story, I thought to include my head-canon of her in this story and have her be the main villain, because I felt like her character didn't have a whole lot of screen-time on the actual show, and I didn't really agree with how Steven Moffat suddenly ended her character.

EDIT

Okay, so I read recently that on the DW Wiki site, Madame Kovarian was imprisoned for a very long time by a group of people (including River Song) called Proto-Time Lords, all named after bodies of water like River. Even though this happened as part of canon in the show (I believe it was a Big Finish story), I'm still going to stick with my head-canon for this story.