Authors note: The story now has cover art work. Go check it out. I'm quite proud of it. :D

I've altered the way Raven agrees to accompany the Doctor in the previous chapter. The original I felt clashes with Raven's personality at the time. So I've introduced some subtle alterations that change the feel of that moment. Basically making her into the 'reluctant companion' again who tags along with the Doctor like a sister indulging a brother.

Cheers and enjoy the new story

-TimeLordParadox

BOOK 4

The Blue Ghost of Whitby

Plot:

Raven's first trip in the TARDIS takes her to the town of Whitby, England, 1890. But a simple site-seeing trip turns into the epilogue of an eternity long struggle between two mighty species. Raven, however, is unable to help the Doctor, because she's been twisted against her will against the Time Lord.

Chapter 22

Footprints in History.

Thunder clapped in the dark sky as the waves roared and smashed against the rocks. Lightening flashed down from the cloudy sky, and heavy rain fell.

Over the roar of this thunderous example of natures power, an artificial noise was being produced. A wheezing, groaning as a small, blue box appeared as if from nowhere at the base of the cliff near the roaring water. Its wheezing came to a crescendo and… the box suddenly vanished again. The wheeze and groan started again as the TARDIS now materialised half way up the face of the cliff. But just before the landing 'ka-chud' sound the TARDIS made when it stopped, it was as if the TARDIS changed its mind, vanished and tried landing again.

This time near the ruins of an old Abbey close to the cliff face, but still too close to the edge. The materialising box rocked from side to side as it was buffeted by the wind. The TARDIS vanished again, changing its mind about where it'd be safe to set down.

Finally, it found a good place and time to land. A few hours later, and across a small valley, over a fishing village and right outside a small hotel. The TARDIS at last landed and the noise came to a stop with a 'ka-chud'.

Inside the TARDIS, Raven watched the Time Rotor move up and down as the Doctor adjusted dials and controls.

"Come on, old girl. You've never been this fussed about where to land before." The Doctor said, whacking the base of the Time Rotor in case that was the problem.

The Time Rotor finally stopped, a thudding a 'ka-chud' noise which echoed around the room and the floor bobbed up and down. They had finally landed.

"Text book landing!" the Doctor announced.

"Text book?" Raven questioned.

"Considering I wrote the text book on how to fly this ship." The Doctor said, adjusting some controls.

I've seen it, and I can't read it. Not with your hand writing. Raven thought.

"Whitby, England, October 2000, ten thirty A.M." He announced.

Since she was now going to join the Doctor on his adventures he'd asked Raven where she'd want to go. But since Raven didn't know of anywhere at all the Doctor had instantly suggested a place called the Eye of Orion. Which was flat, dull and silent. It was like a misty Moore with ruins of a long dead civilisation littered the place. But the place had an eerie atmosphere about it. Like the feeling you get after a thunder storm.

It was a perfect place for meditations, and indeed, Raven had spent a good few hours there just in the peace. Her mind was totally quiet, the Doctor had explored the ruins; 'safely' exploring the ruins she added. All was well to Raven. Nothing very interesting had happened there, it was just rest and relaxation after those unsettling Cybermen creatures.

Now the Doctor wanted to take Raven to a place she might enjoy, and had an idea to go to something called the 'Whitby Goth weekend'. She got the feeling the Doctor was trying to get her to become more sociable, so he was taking her to a place where she wouldn't look out of place.

The Doctor had explained that Whitby was a small fishing village in a place called England, but in the early 21st century it began hosting a myriad of events. The Doctor had described the 'Whitby Folk week' (She hated the sound of it), Whitby Steam Punk Weekend, and so on. Raven rolled her eyes as he went into lecture mode.

He had asked Raven to get changed out of her current attire and put on something more 'suitable'.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" She'd asked him, her brow falling. She honestly didn't care about her attire and she certainly didn't care what other people thought of it. So she kind of took it as an affront that the Doctor wanted her to change it.

"Its a tad eccentric even for the event we're going to." He'd said. "I just like to blend in while I'm on Earth."

"Blend in? Looking like that?" Raven challenged, looking at the Doctors usual attire of a velvet frock coat.

"I choose clothes which blend in wherever I go." The Doctor said.

Yeah, to a fancy dress party, maybe. Raven knew she wasn't wrong with that statement because as she'd worn the coat she'd found a label for it which said 'Doug's Costume store, San-Francisco.' Above that was a label which identified it as a 'Wild Bill Hickok' costume. She'd guessed he must've ransacked and stolen the clothes from somewhere after he regenerated... and he'd not worn anything else in those long months. Did he never change? Do you? Came a voice challenging her for wearing the same thing day in day out.

Fine, she told her mind.

She decided not to argue with the Doctor further on the clothes point and just retired back to her room as the Doctor had set the controls.

As she walked back into her room she'd found on the bed a black dress of a very goth kind of design and looked a tad old fashioned with a bell skirt that went all the way down to the floor. She'd held it up by its arms and rested it across her chest as she looked at it in a mirror. It was a very pretty dress, she had to admit, and she hated it. It was goth alright, but not to her tastes. It looked more like it'd be worn by someone who saw 'goth' as a fashion statement only.

Sighing, she used her powers to pluck the dress from her fingers, and standing still with a blank expression on her face she used her powers to force it down the nearby waste disposal chute. Tiny shreds of black material erupted back out of the chute as it was torn to pieces and they all rained down around Raven.

"Whoops..." Raven said deadpan.

Raven went to the TARDIS wardrobe to find something more to her liking since her usual outfit was out. She had found a velvet coat in blue and a waist coat, but decided against mimicking the Doctor's attire. The pleased attitude he'd give her would be unbearable. Instead she picked something opposite to what the Doctor was expecting, but was still something she'd like.

Which is why she was dressed the way she was, in a dark blue, short, womans leather jacket, with the sleeves pulled up past her elbows. A small, blue corset around her waist with a shorter, manageable skirt; fingerless, leather gloves; big, platform boots that made her look a few inches taller, a pair of dark pants, and she'd threaded a chain through her cloaks broach to make it into a necklace.

When the Doctor had seen her, he'd looked at her up and down and said, "You look nice." There was a subtle surprise to his voice and he probably wondered what had happened to the dress. But he didn't seem to really care. Raven was kind of disappointed he wasn't more annoyed. She guessed she'd have to redouble her efforts.

The Doctor operated the TARDIS doors and they swung open silently by themselves.

"Come on." He said as he strolled out of the TARDIS with Raven following. The Doctor had such enthusiasm about everywhere he went, where did he get the energy from?

As they stepped from the Police Box, Raven recoiled as she came face to face with a creature that snorted at her. She didn't react quickly enough to activate her powers and rather embarrassingly for her she had hid around behind the Doctor. Thankfully though he didn't notice this. As her heart settled she realised she was looking at a horse. Two of them in fact, pulling a wooden stage coach.

"Here, watch it. Don't spook Dorris." Said a man up on the coach.

"Oh, I do beg your pardon." the Doctor said, turning and closing the doors of the Police Box and locking them.

Raven had never actually seen a horse before, not in person and she stared at it, it was such an unusual animal to her. She moved around it warily as if she were a cat would a new object in its territory. She didn't know what to make of it. What do humans usually make of it? What do monsters make of it? She didn't know and she just wanted to get away from it.

For some reason the man was staring down at her, and looked her up and down as if she wasn't anything he'd ever seen before.

"What?!" she fired at him. He was dressed in really old fashioned clothes. Was he part of the festivities too?

The man didn't say anything as Raven moved away from the coach and looked around. So this was her home planet?

They were outside a large building of some kind. Across the other side of the road she could see where the ground vanished off the edge of a cliff, before rising back up again on the other side of a valley. Sitting on the opposite side was a church and some kind of ruin structure.

As Raven looked at it she got some kind of unnerved feeling in her stomach. She didn't know what it was but she felt like she was drawn towards it. Pulled towards it. For some reason her mind went blank as her eyes refused to look away from that ruin.

A rumble of thunder snapped her out of this daze. From the dampness on the ground Raven guessed a storm had just past. She didn't know what had just happened to her but she guessed it was just an odd turn.

There was also something else unusual. It was pitch dark. Raven thought this was weird. Hadn't the Doctor said it was 10:30 A.M. not P.M. Also the road they were on was dotted with what looked like gas lights to her. She thought by 2000 the place would use electric lights. Raven thought this as the Doctor tried to convince the coach driver to let him have his news paper.

She was about to voice her thoughts to him when he said. "Oh..."

"Oh... what?" Raven asked flatly.

"I think the TARDIS got the destination wrong." He said.

"This isn't Whitby?" Raven asked.

"Oh, it's Whitby alright, I can't forget the place." He said, looking around. "But it's not October 2000." He held up the News paper, "It's July 1890."

That was a difference of 110 years, how could the TARDIS be off by that much?

"So, we go back into the TARDIS and try again." She announced and turned around.

"No, No. Wait, wait, wait, wait." The Doctor said stopping her. "But Whitby 1890. I've never been here before!" He sounded like an excited school boy. "Don't you want to explore?"

"Can't we always come back later?" She asked, and the Doctors face fell.

"That might be difficult." He said sheepishly. For some reason Raven got the impression that the Doctor couldn't always control the TARDIS. But surely that wasn't true. Right? Right?

"Fine, we'll stay here." Raven said, giving in.

"Excellent. First things first, you'll need to change into something suitable for the period." Raven instantly raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest.

"You twisted my arm to change once already today, Doctor. There is no way you're getting me to do it again." and she waved her hand over herself to cast herself in another cloak of perception.

"Are you going to do that every single time we land somewhere you'll stand out?" the Doctor asked.

"I don't know. Aren't you tired of constantly standing out and getting shot at for it?" she argued back. She got the sense the Doctor wanted to argue, but he just sighed, shrugged and walked away.

Raven smiled. Raven, one: Doctor, nothing. She thought.

Far away within the ruins of the abbey something peered out through one of the stone windows. It had watched as the machine attempted to land, nearly crashing against the rocks before making several other attempts to land. It cursed itself as the machine instead leapt across the river and landed outside the guesthouse.

Across the river its eyes met with the girls. Ah, this girl was unusual. She was special. So much buried turmoil, so much power, so prideful and yet delicate. She was delicious.

But the man. Now there was something to behold. The amount of rage which built up in the creature was enormous. If it could, it would reach out and snap that mans neck, but it must bide its time and find a way to lead him to it.

When the Coach driver had moved on, Raven raised her arms in front of the TARDIS to cast a spell. But the Doctor grabbed her arms and interrupted her as she began to say her chimes.

"What are you doing?" he questioned.

"I'm going to shrink it again, so we can carry it around." Raven said.

"No, no, no! Leave her alone." The Doctor said firmly. "We're not going through all that again. Do you know how embarrassing it is for her?" He asked patting the box, and he walked off. He was trying to get her to empathise with a machine, that's stupid.

Raven looked at the TARDIS again, and a dull, blue glow came from within the windows and she got a feeling the TARDIS was trying to say to her, Don't-you-dare!

Shrugging she turned and walked quickly to catch up to the Doctor. She had her hands deep in her jacket pockets and she walked along side the Doctor. The place was deserted, a rumble of thunder from the distance told her why. She guessed with storm clouds in the air most people had found shelter until it had stopped.

"You know, the last time I was in Whitby it must've been a few hundred years ago and quite a few bodies back." The Doctor said. "I remember, I met a boy here and I pointed out into the sea and I told him. 'There is a big wide world out there just waiting to be discovered.' He was just a merchant navy apprentice. Did well in the end though. Name of James Cook." He'd said as if this should mean anything to her.

The place had a cool air to it. It was dark, and the wind carried the scent of wood and coal burning fires from the surrounding buildings. She sensed that over the cliff there was a village, a fishing village by the smell of it. The place certainly had an old fashioned atmosphere to it.

So this is what it felt like to step into the pages of history.

"Remember," the Doctor suddenly said, "We're treading in your planets history. What is established here has, and always will have happened." Raven started to understand where the Time Lords weird grammar probably came from. The Doctor sounded entirely serious. "We're just observers only, we're not the actors on this stage. We're just footprints on the beach that'll be washed away with the tides of time; and that's all we should remain as."

A rather poetic way of putting it, Raven thought. She was well aware of the consequences of travelling back into established events. She'd brushed up on the concept recently by reading books like the Time Machine and a book called the 101 Tangles of Time Travel.

You liar! Her mind said. You got it from 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'! She was getting a little tired with her own argumentative mind. The Time Machine isn't even about changing history. Raven gently ground her teeth a little trying to refocus her mind.

As they came to the front of the building a business sign said. 6 Royal Crescent, Mrs Veazey's Guesthouse.

The Doctor clapped his hands together. "Come on. Lets see what a late 19th century guest house is like!" and he bounded up the steps to the front doors.

Raven just watched him rather bewildered. For someone over nine hundred years old he really acted like a little kid at times. Raven would be embarrassed to be seen with him, if anybody could actually notice her.

She followed him up into the guest house and went through the front doors. The Doctor tried to book a room as Raven joined him. The woman could tell someone was there but at the same time she looked confused. She didn't press it further.

"Well, I'm sorry. We're fully booked." The woman had said. But the Doctor then began some verbal banter and seemed to convince the woman to give up a key just for one night. How did he do that?

The front door opened again and a man walked in. He was dressed in a big top hat, a long black coat buttoned up. He had dark hair and a full face beard. As he walked a man behind him carried his bags.

The Doctor thanked the woman and was fishing in his pockets for something to pay with as the man announced at the desk.

"Mr. Bram Stoker" he announced, and the Doctor came to a complete stop. He looked up and stared at the man.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stoker. But we're fully booked." The woman said.

"What do you mean, woman?" the man said, he had an Irish twang to his accent, "I booked a room not five days ago."

The woman looked down at her register. "Oh dear, we seemed to have had a clash I'm afraid."

"Dash it all!" Stoker said and seemed to be getting annoyed. Raven sighed, in her mind there was no point in getting emotional. A mistake was made, try to resolve it or go somewhere else, it was that simple.

But the Doctor seemed to disagree as he leapt forward to the mans rescue. "Hello, I'm the Doctor. I'm terribly sorry, but I couldn't help over hearing your plight. I can see you're a man with much burden and I feel you require this room more than me." The Doctor said, stepping aside. "I shall look for alternative accommodations."

The man was flustered clearly taken aback by the Doctors generosity. "Well... um..." he coughed "Why thank you, sir... umm... Doctor... that is most gracious of you."

"Too kind, sir." The Doctor said and stepped away.

"What the heck is that all about?" Raven asked. The Doctor had been so excited to stay here and yet he gave it up for a complete stranger? That was very angelic of him but as he spoke she realised there was more too it.

"Raven," he said in a hushed voice, he almost sounded giddy with excitement. "That's Bram Stoker!"

"So?" Raven asked, the name did sound familiar to her, but she couldn't place it.

"And it's July 1890!" He insisted as if this should make sense to her.

"Get to the point!" she finally sighed.

"During his stay here, he'll look upon Whitby Abbey during a thunderstorm, and from that he'll be inspired to write one of the greatest works of horror." The Doctor said like an excited fan boy. "A story which gives me the willies even to this day." He turned to look at Stoker. "The story of Count Dracula."

Raven looked around the Doctor at the author. He didn't look like the kind of person who could dream up such a dark tale. But then, the Doctor didn't look like he could be scary.

Almost dancing, the Doctor went back to Bram Stoker like some excited fan-boy and struck up a conversation. Raven put her hands on her hips and shot the Doctor a disapproving look.

What was that you said about leaving a foot print? Raven sent to him telepathically.

But it's 'thee' Bram Stoker! Came the Doctors reply.

Raven just groaned.

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: James Cook, more commonly known as Captain James Cook, is a famous English explorer credited for the discovery of Australia, the Hawaiian islands and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. He is famous for much more than just discovering those locations but I want to leave the Authors notes concise for once.

Whitby is a real place, and the Whitby Goth Weekend, Folk week, and Steampunk weekend are all real events that take place annually in Whitby.

I'm currently reading up on Bram Stoker so I get this historic characters character as correct as possible. Originally I wasn't going to have him in this portion of the story. It was supposed to take place actually at the Whitby Goth week, but when I decided to shift it back in time, I thought I just had to get him involved somehow, even if its just for a few chapters. Whether Stoker will be involved in the plot or if it's just quick visit I'm not sure. Part of me wants to make it a quick visit, because the Doctor seems to get too many historical figures involved in his adventures, and I don't know if I can justify having Bram Stoker in it for than just window dressing, because part of me wants him to have an character arc of his own, but I've limited myself because this story is all happening from Raven's perspective. But I'll try my best. We all grow when we take on something difficult after all. Lets see if I can't work something out.:P

As I write this I am aiming for the story to have some kind of character development, whether it's Raven's or how Raven sees the Doctor.

Raven's attire is based off a picture a friend showed me some months back. Unfortunately though she still had the picture neither I, nor she, couldn't track down the original artist who made it to ask permission to use it. So I've altered it somewhat to include things I've seen people wear at the Whitby Goth week but the overall design I was aiming for was that of a modern look but with a rebellious teenage design to it.

The TARDIS actually picked out that dress for her, the one she destroyed; not the Doctor. So I guess shes annoyed the TARDIS again now.

There is no special significance to the year 2000. I just thought the Doctor would go for a nice, round number instead of a precise date.

The way the TARDIS lands is inspired by the way it landed in Curse of Peladon where the TARDIS seems to have trouble landing while its halfway up a cliff face.

People might have spotted the subtle jab at Raven's character in Teen Titans Go in this chapter. :P