Chapter 3

The Doctor

The floor trembled as the TARDIS landed somewhere new. It had been a week since she stowed on board the TARDIS and from her shelter she had begun observing this strange Time Lord who unknowingly shared the ship with her. He seemed to spend most of his time outside the TARDIS instead of inside it. She could always tell if he was out because his hat, coat and umbrella would be missing from the console room.

Curiosity always got the better of her and she investigated where the controls said they were. Avulia IV, Ormellia, Telos, Skaro, Coruscant. She didn't set foot outside the TARDIS but she did activate the scanner so she could see the world outside. Each world was one more different than the last and all destined to be destroyed by her father.

She wondered exactly what this Doctor did, because he's been everywhere except Gallifrey, the Time Lords home planet. To Raven that didn't make sense. Surely he worked for the Time Lords unless they communicated to him through some other means. One time she saw him run into the TARDIS as shots were being fired at him, so his job is probably very dangerous.

As she rounded the console she saw something lying across the controls. Something called a 900 year diary. The Doctors diary perhaps? Being the suspicious sort that Raven is, she picked it up and began flipping through the pages. It was written in a strange language that as she read began to form into words she could understand. Scratch that, she still couldn't understand it because the handwriting was just awful!

She flipped through more pages and she must've gone through 300 before she realised something strange. This small book should only hold 200 pages max. She'd reached 300 and wasn't even halfway through it. Raven pressed her fingers against the edge of the remaining pages and flipped through them like a flipbook. Page after page after page passed through her fingers and she was standing there for nearly a minute before she reached the end on page 50,000. The book must be like the TARDIS, the dimensions of it were all over the place.

She closed the book and opened it again on the first page. There was a drawing of an old man on it with quite a stern-looking face and long white hair, an almost perfect depiction of a grandfather kind of figure.

She flipped through pages coming across all kinds of weird drawings of things called Daleks, Sensorites, Monoids, War Machines, Cybermen, notes and information were scrawled along the sides of the artistic drawings but the handwriting was a contrast to the quality of the sketches. Then there was another portrait. This was of a scruffier looking man with a mop-top hair cut, a craggy face and he looked like a cheeky uncle. Again followed by more drawings and notes, then another portrait, this time of a man with curly white hair and a hooked nose who looked very strange in a ruffled shirt and smoking jacket. There was a note under this portrait but it can't be translating well because it simply read "Me, model 3" She looked back at the past 2 and they said "Me, original" and "Me, model 2."

Skipping ahead she found "Me, model 4" a man with big, wide eyes, a mop of curly hair, a grin like a lunatic and wrapped around his neck was a long scarf.

This conjured up a memory in her mind. She must've only been two or three years old at the time as this man, this very man looked down at her, trying to play games and giving her some kind of jelly candy. "Ah now," said the man with a deep, yet with a playful voice, "You're not going to destroy the universe are you, ay little Rae-Rae?"

"Don't talk to it, don't feed it! Stop playing with it!" said a man behind him who was wearing Azarathian robes. She wasn't sure but she thought she recognised this robed man from somewhere.

"'it' happens to be a living creature, and what you're suggesting is utterly barbaric!" the scarf man said.

"It's the only way we can save the universe, if we destroy her now!" the robed man said.

"Is that your philosophy?" scarf man said "If its born and I don't like it, kill it!"

"Surely the Time Lords want this baby more than we do, it also threatens their power as it does every creature in existence." robed man said.

"Really? Are you a little threat?" scarf man said adopting a baby voice as he talked to her.

"Stop talking to it!"

"Well Juris, if you really want to kill her, go right ahead" and he held baby Raven out to the robed man called Juris.

"Not like this, it must be done by magic!" Juris insisted.

"No!" scarf man said "If you want to kill this child look into her eyes as you do it, put your hands around her neck and do it yourself, none of this 'magic' nonsense as you call it that desensitises you to the deed!"

"What can we do with her? Lock her in limbo? Can't you lock her in a Time Loop?" Juris suggested.

"What?" scarf man was just as outraged "and let her go insane without anyone to talk to till the end of time? Listen!" the scarf man shouted the last word as if to interrupt himself "have you considered that by trying that, you might create the very monster you want to avoid? If this Trigon demon could break her out of limbo or the Time Loop you'll have someone who deeply resents you and will want revenge. Ever read Harry Potter? Bellatrix LeStrange anyone? No? Might be too early."

"Then what can we do?" Juris asked.

"Ah, here's a thought" the scarf man said sarcastically as if was obvious. "Why not try nurture? No one is born inherently evil, they are taught it. I'm sure giving different circumstances Davros could've become a great heart surgeon, or Hitler famous for his paintings, maybe Ringo could've been a really good drummer."

"You are suggesting we keep her?!" Juris said aghast.

"Yes" scarf man said brightly.

"But can't you take her?" Juris asked.

"Not enough room in the TARDIS I'm afraid." scarf man said. TARDIS? Did he say TARDIS? "I already have a savage and a dog to feed, my schedule is rather fully booked for the next two centuries. But any time after that."

"Doctor, this creature will doom us all!" Doctor? This man was the Doctor? Juris continued, "If you won't help us, I'll take action myself and cast her into limbo."

"I really wouldn't advise that, Juris" the Doctor said his tone serious and level "I may not be familiar with your ways but I doubt one of the most powerful and evil creatures in the universe would let such a valuable piece of his game be so vulnerable, especially at this early age."

Juris, Raven remembered the person, he had tried to cast her into limbo while she was an infant, and he was destroyed for attempting it. Clearly he didn't take this Doctors warning seriously.

Raven was back in the real world again holding the 900 year diary in her hands still on the page of the man with curly hair and large teeth. She skipped ahead to see "Me, model 5" a young man with fair hair in some kind of Cricket garb, "Me, model 6" a round-faced man with a stern look and curly blond hair wearing something that hurt her eyes to look at and probably would look worse if the sketch was in colour; and "Me, model 7" a younger version of her Doctor. The hair was darker, and the face was less craggy.

'Doctor' must be a title passed down from person to person, Raven reasoned. But what did this Doctor actually do for a living? That's what she didn't understand. Going by this diary she guessed he was some kind of researcher, cataloguing what he found. She flipped forward until she saw blank pages and decided to flip back. That's when she found another drawing of another man. It was between Doctors 6 and 7, it was of a slimy-looking character, pale, slicked-back dark hair and he wore a robe and collar that gave him an air of evil. Under it was scrawled "The Valeyard" under that was written "Between 12 and Final? The Last? A Projection? A Watcher? An incarnation? Destiny?" and as if in madness there was also written "No regenerations left" and "Avoid at all costs!"

Raven didn't know who this "Valeyard" was, but clearly these Doctors hated him and wanted to avoid him as much as she wanted to avoid Trigon. She placed the book back down again and moved to the chair where the Doctor usually sat under his reading lamp. On a small table there was a glass bowl and in that bowl were jelly babies. Wait, jelly babies? The sweets that scarf man Doctor had given her as an infant. Experimentally she picked one up, an orange one and bit into it, the taste was very familiar. Next to the bowl was a book, one the Doctor was currently reading. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells.

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: If it wasn't clear, that Easter Egg should be a clue that the next time Raven sees the Doctor, he's going to be quite different.

I'm realising the story is more exploring how Raven is finding out about the TARDIS and the Doctors world so I hope to change gears in the next chapter.

I originally wrote the first 3 chapters back to back, but decided it was better if I split them up into separate chapters because it just seemed to go on for too long and each chapter dealt with a different part of the story. Raven's escape, her exploring the TARDIS, and wondering about the Doctor.