A/N: Welcome back to a new chapter! Prepare for a slight cliffhanger but an even bigger plot twist! I hope you enjoy :)

SPOILERS, of course, if you haven't read "Part 1: Becoming" yet. If you haven't, stop reading this and read Part 1, or you will be very confused, especially with the plot twist that will be revealed in this chapter. You have been warned :)

Chapter 2: Laser Tag 2.0

"Get down!" I cry as I instinctively tackle Hazel to the floor behind the pinball machine. We manage to duck just in time as bright red laser beams sail right over our heads, burning holes through the wall and arcade machines behind us and sending sparks flying.

"Die, human scum!" the armored Sontaran screams and cackles maniacally as he shoots at and chases the other people as they duck for cover and/or flee in terror.

"I can't believe it!" I exclaim, not out of fear but rather out of excitement, as I watch the Sontaran pass us by and head toward the back of the building. "I can't believe it's actually here! In real life! That means it wasn't a dream, after all! It's all real! That Sontaran is real!"

"Yea! It's real; that's so awesome!" Hazel says in a sarcastic tone instead of a joyous one. "Maybe we should celebrate after we manage to get out of here in one piece! If we manage to get out of here in one piece. I think I see a way out without getting shot. Let's go!" At this, I immediately hear her move away from me, using the other arcade machines as cover, but pause again about ten feet away.

However, I pay her no mind, keeping my focus on the Sontaran. "But wait!" I ponder aloud. "If the Sontaran is real, then that means that everything else is real! The Doctor, River, the Silence—they're all real too! Even the TARDIS is real!" None of it was all a dream like I previously thought. Every single part of what used to be just a dream is real!

But the question now is: how is it all real? More than that, how can I seem to remember two lives at once—my current life as well as my former life as Nova? How is this even possible?

As I am thinking all of this, Hazel groans, saying, "Great! Can we talk about this after we get out of here? I'm not sticking around to have an arm shot off for no reason!"

However, I speak to myself again like Hazel isn't even here. "The last time this happened, the Sontaran was a bounty hunter sent out by the Silence to find and apprehend me, but I'm not Time Lord anymore, so therefore he's not after me again. Or maybe he is still after me, maybe because I know too much, because I know of his true intentions and everything that happened in my dream—a dream that's not actually a dream."

Hazel groans again, this time tugging on my arm in seeming desperation. "Syd, wake up from this delusion! You're not in a dream! You are in reality! If you die here, you will not wake up! Come on, we need to go!"

"You can go if you want," I shrug back at her, pulling my arm away. "I'm staying here. I have to see what happens next!" From what I remember of my former life, my biological parents showed up not long after Hazel and I fled from the scene. Because we left, I didn't get to meet my bio-parents until a few years later, and I was filled with much regret as a result. Perhaps if I stay here, that could change. I could meet them properly this time, like I was supposed to last time.

"What?" Hazel exclaims incredulously. "Are you crazy? You'll get yourself killed! That's what's gonna happen next; I guarantee it!"

"I left last time, and that took away my opportunity to meet my parents," I point out. "I could've met them much sooner had I stayed. In this world I might not get another chance to meet them. This could be my only opportunity. I'm staying."

"You are crazy!" she confirms her previous rhetorical question, this time shaking her head and throwing her hands up in exasperation.

"Plus, I'd be doing them a favor by taking out the Sontaran again to make it easier for them to subdue him and send him to Space-Jail," I add to my previous statement as if Hazel hadn't said anything at all. "Rather, 'the Shadow Proclamation,' as my parents called it. Perhaps they'll hire me as a companion once they see how knowledgeable I am in handling Sontarans."

"Syd, stop!" Hazel groans for the third time in under a minute. "You're talking absolute insanity! You're gonna get yourself killed! Please, don't do this! Let the real police handle it!"

"The police won't be able to handle this," I say, shaking my head confidently. "They will never understand. But my parents will. So will I. I already understand; I've lived through this once before and survived. I can do it again."

Hazel groans yet again (no surprise). "Syd, how many times do I have to tell you? That. Was. Just. A. Dream!"

"Yeah, a dream that is now happening in real life!" I point out. "Maybe that wasn't really a dream but rather a vision. I saw a vision of the future, and since it's happening now, I'm supposed to carry it through 'til the end, exactly like how I went about it last time. Only this time I'm not going to let you be involved. Your involvement almost got you killed last time, and I'm not going to let that happen again."

"What?! Uh-uh! No way!" Hazel shakes her head vigorously. "If you must stay, I'm not letting you do this by yourself! I'm staying with you, for better or worse!"

"Even 'til death do us part?" I ask with a chuckle, remembering us saying that to each other several times in my dream.

"I don't want to die, period!" she scoffs, evidently thinking my joke to not be so funny. "I'd rather we just get the hell out of here and live another eight decades! I'm not sacrificing my life over a dream! I don't live in dreams; I live in reality, and this is reality!"

I sigh, not wishing to argue. "Like I said, you can leave if you want, but I'm not gonna waste an opportunity to meet my parents—or who should be my parents. And an opportunity that should've been the first one all along."

I pause, suddenly seeing the Sontaran entering the Laser Tag arena. "Look!" I say, pointing. "He entered the Laser Tag arena, just like last time! Are you coming?" I say this as I rise to my feet and prepare to go after the Sontaran.

"No!" Hazel scoffs in a 'in what universe would I do such an outrageous thing?' tone before changing it to a nervous-sounding one, "But at the same time I don't want to leave you."

"You can't do both," I say as I grab a lone laser gun from an unused vest hanging on the wall outside the arena to use like a club again. "You either come with me or go home. In fact, I recommend you go home, since you got hurt last time, and I don't have the ability to heal you this time." Needless to say, if Hazel gets hurt again, the damage will be permanent this time without my Regeneration Energy.

"I'm going with you," she says as she grabs her own laser gun from another unused vest. "You can't stop me." Despite her fear, she holds the gun like a typical soldier would when ready to take out the approaching enemy army.

Against my better judgement, I sigh in agreement. "Fine. Let's go. Be careful. The minute you see my parents—the Doctor and River, I mean—leave."

Hazel scoffs at this. "Uh-huh, and miss the chance to travel through Time and Space in a blue box that's bigger on the inside, no matter how ridiculous that sounds? Not happening!" She then adds in a murmur, despite there being no more people around since they fled the scene minutes ago, "Plus, I'm curious to see how good-looking your 'Doctor' dad really is…if he actually does exist."

I snort at this before sighing again and rolling my eyes, "Come on." With that, we enter the arena.

As we enter, we are met with a very disturbing sight. Various teenagers push past us, running for their lives, but several others were, unfortunately, not so lucky. These other teenagers lay sprawled across the floor with several holes having been burnt through their bodies that could only have been from a proper laser gun and not the plastic ones that Hazel and I wield.

However, it's not until our eyes fall on the body of a familiar young boy that our hearts go into overdrive. The body is none other than the narcissistic peacock that, much like in my other life, I couldn't shake for years because he always insisted on me going to practically every school event with him, and it was incredibly hard to say 'no' because he seemed to always refuse to take 'no' for an answer: Sam Davies.

"Oh my god!" Hazel gasps in fright upon seeing his limp body and cold eyes staring lifelessly in the distance, right through us. "That's Sam Davies from our school! Is he dead?"

I kneel down and place my fingertips on the side of Sam's neck, which feels cold as ice to the touch—as to be expected when touching a dead body—and that's when I see a pea-sized hole burnt right into the back of his neck, right through to his Spinal Column, and I realize from this sight that checking his pulse is no longer needed. Instead, I nod, sighing sadly, "Yeah. Looks like he was shot in the back of the neck; see the laser hole there? No one could've survived a shot like that."

"How could that thing do this to him?" Hazel says angrily. "I mean, I know everyone hated him coz he annoyed everyone with his narcissism, but…yeah."

"Because that's what Sontarans do," I say as I rise back to my feet from Sam's body, seething in my own anger. "They kill for no other reason than for simple pleasure. Much like the Silence. I guarantee this sicko was sent out by the Silence to attack this place. But why? Why here and why now? Like I said, last time it was sent out to look for me, but I'm not Time Lord this time; I'm just me—human and powerless and boring." Why would a Sontaran care to target a lame, Podunk town like ours? Why would anyone?

"Are you saying all humans are powerless and boring?" Hazel scoffs, evidently offended by my previous comment.

"No, I don't mean it like that," I say with a slight groan. "I'm just saying, in my dream I had 'powers,' specifically the ability to conjure up golden energy from my hands to heal any injury. If only I had that ability now…" I then shake my head, knowing this to be the real world; therefore I can't save Sam. "But like I said, I'm not Time Lord anymore, so I can't save him. But we can save everybody else by stopping this Sontaran, and you are going to help me." Perhaps Hazel could be useful again, after all; granted, she doesn't get shot in the arm again, or worse in a much more fatal place.

"Me?" Hazel asks, puzzled. "I thought you said you didn't want me involved."

"I changed my mind," I shrug in reply. "I'm going to distract him while you sneak up behind him and use your gun to whack him on the Probic Vent on the back of his neck." I say this as I raise my laser gun and mimic using it like a club. "It'll knock him right out, just as long as you hit the vent hard enough."

The more I speak, the more nervous Hazel seems to become. "You want me to do this?" she asks, still seeming in total disbelief. "I'll die! Also, what the heck's a Probic Vent?"

"A Probic Vent is a little hole on the back of the Sontaran's armor on the collar," I explain. "You'll know it when you see it. That's its weak spot—like an Achilles' Heel but on the neck instead. And no, you won't die. I trust you. You can do this. Do you trust me?" This exact thing worked last time; granted, our roles were swopped. Surely it'll work again, right?

"Is this what you had me do last time?" she asks, still seeming hesitant about the whole thing.

I shrug again. "Sort of, except it was the other way around. I was the one who whacked him on the back of his neck while you did the distracting. Actually he was distracted by you being shot by him, but that's beside the point. This time I'm going to be the one doing the distracting so you don't get shot this time."

Hearing this makes Hazel's nervousness reach peek point (yeah, maybe I should've left out the part about her getting shot last time). "How do you know I won't be shot this time?"

I sigh, feeling unsure, but I don't admit it. Instead, I say, "Like I said, you're just gonna have to trust me. Do you trust me?"

"I'm still not sure about this," she says as she grips her laser gun like how a scared child would to his/her stuffed toy.

"You can do this," I say in an attempt to muster more confidence between us. "I'll give you a signal, and that'll be your que to whack him."

"What signal?" Hazel asks curiously.

"You'll see," I say before sighing, "Let's do this."

Ignoring any and all further protests from my childhood best friend, I sneak around the luminescent walls until I am in the Sontaran's direct line of vision.

"Hey, Strax!" I scream once I'm out in the open, hiding my own laser gun behind my back. "Long time no see!" I decide to call the Sontaran 'Strax,' even though I know it isn't Strax but rather a clone of him. "Long way from home, aren't you? About…what, 420 years or so? Madame Vastra and Jenny must be wondering where their butler disappeared to. Clearly you decided to 'disappear' to here. Gee, I wonder why." I say this last phrase with a bit of sarcasm, remembering the real Strax having had a mega-crush on me in my dream (yeah, that wasn't creepy at all). "Come to visit your crush, I imagine. Sorry, she's seeing someone else." I say this as I suddenly think of that cloaked boy that was a member of the Silence, but despite this he helped me and my friends around the base in search of my kidnapped family. I remember his astonishingly attractive eyes, and I found myself absolutely mesmerized by them the moment our eyes locked with one another. I even remember the odd yet satisfying warmth I felt when our eyes locked—that so-called 'spark' that reeled us together. What I would give to feel that again…

I shake my head. No. This isn't a time to be thinking about boys, especially ones that don't exist. It's time to focus.

Not-Strax frowns at me, pointing his gun at me, and says, "You are mistaken, puny human scum! I am Commander Stinx of the Twenty-Sixth Sontaran Fleet and honorary member of the Church of Silence! Surrender, or I will destroy you for the glory of Sontar and of Madame Nova!"

I immediately chortle with laughter at the ridiculous name. "'Stinx?' That's your name? Wow! That is absolutely hilarious! Yeah, I was wondering what that awful smell was; glad to know it's not me. Also, you say you're a member of the Silence? That's interesting. Never thought I'd see a Sontaran work for them."

I suddenly pause. That name… No… It couldn't have been… That's impossible…

"Wait!" I say, feeling more disturbed by the second. He did… He did use that name… "You said a name. Nova? As in, Nova Susan Song, the Doctor's daughter? She is your madam? How is that possible? What happened to Madame Kovarian?" Perhaps she got reduced to mashed potatoes again like last time, and a large part of me regrets having not seen that a second time.

However, I am also shocked to know that my other self, Nova, is real in this world, but with a cruel twist far worse than Death itself: she seems to have taken over Madame Kovarian's position as the new leader of the Silence organization. I dread to find out what exactly happened there, and I can feel my palms sweating and a massive shiver run down my spine just thinking about it.

How could this have happened? This wasn't supposed to happen…

I have no time to think any further on the subject as the Sontaran says, frowning in confusion, "How do you know my former madam's name? Explain this absurd—HALT!" He is suddenly interrupted as he catches Hazel sneaking up from behind him in preparation to swing the plastic laser gun down on the Probic Vent on the back of its armored neck. He catches her right as she attempts to slip back behind the luminescent wall she was hiding behind and awaiting my signal, but she was too early, hence how she got caught. If only I'd given her the signal when I was supposed to… If only I wasn't distracted…

"Hazel!" I cry in horror as the Sontaran grabs her by the shoulder and throws her to the floor beside me. The laser gun she was wielding is knocked out of her hand upon impact with the floor.

"How dare you attempt to defeat me!" the Sontaran screams at Hazel. "I shall destroy you for this injustice!" He then raises his gun and immediately shoots Hazel in the forearm again, but the beam only hit her in the arm because she lifted it to shield herself from the shot, and the shot hit her arm instead of her heart where the Sontaran was initially intending to shoot. Hazel screams in pain, clutching her burnt arm.

"NO!" I scream, the horror having been immediately replaced with anger.

"Prepare to die in agony for the glory of Sontar!" the Sontaran shouts as he raises his gun again.

Before he has a chance to shoot again, I immediately rush at him and tackle him to the floor with the speed of a striking cobra. The force knocks the bald-headed alien over and makes him lose his grip on his gun. I immediately kick it away with my foot before sitting on the alien's back, the Probic Vent completely exposed. "Sontar-SUCK IT, SHIT-HEAD!" I bellow before swinging my plastic laser gun down on the Vent with all my strength, knocking the Vent clean off of its armor. Even after that, I continue hammering down on the Sontaran's neck and head until he stops moving altogether.

Once I'm satisfied that the Sontaran is completely motionless, I slowly rise from his back, tossing the plastic laser gun aside, out of breath.

"Damn, girl!" Hazel exclaims in absolute shock and seeming to have totally forgotten about her injury. "Remind me never to piss you off!"

I shrug. "Meh, it was easy. Did the same thing I did last time, just slightly differently. Sontarans are tough warriors, but they got shit for brains, hence the nickname 'shit-head.' I guess that's what you get for cloning a clone over and over."

This statement makes me think back on what my father (the Doctor) said about Sontaran clones and how they can sometimes become defective the more clones are cloned, hence why Sontarans in general are not as intelligent as one thinks them to be. This fact makes me think about how easy it was to take down this Sontaran; he went down like a sack of baked potatoes, and not just because he looks like a baked potato. I am also impressed that I still possess the knowledge from my Aikido classes in my dream, and I was able to use them just as skillfully in the real world.

My thoughts are suddenly interrupted when I hear an all-too-familiar British female voice say from behind in a very impressed tone, "You sure got that right, which is very surprising."

I immediately look up, shocked, to see the familiar face of none other than my own mother, River Song.

A/N: TO BE CONTINUED!

How about that plot twist, huh? What happened to Nova? Read on and find out :)

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