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Chapter Text

Not for the first time that day, Amara felt like creating a vacuum dimension that was detached from time and just screaming in there for three hours at a minimum, and it was only seven forty in the morning. Her family had exceeded her expectations yet again when it came to being late.

She'd been prepared for anything- she'd made sure Arya had packed all of her stuff earlier the previous day, quadruple-checked if Arya had put in her laptop and her tablet, packed all the chapatis along with the pickle (including her mom's extra chapatis because "You'll say you're not hungry, but then you'll buy all that kandravi outside food and get sick!"), changed all their alarm clocks to wake them up at 5AM instead of 6AM because she knew they'd procrastinate on waking up for at least an hour before they decided that missing their flight was probably going to be a lot more disastrous than missing some sleep. She'd even stolen Arya's phone and every single electronic device she owned so that she wouldn't scroll through some random story on Wattpad till 4AM and become a functional zombie and become slower than anything when she was supposed to be hurrying up and getting ready.

What she didn't anticipate was Arya tripping over practically nothing in the bathroom because she decided to pretend to be Taylor Swift at the worst time ever and mildly hurting her ankle. This obviously led to Arya collapsing on the couch and pretending like she was going to die if she wasn't taken to the bloody ICU, before realising that she'd forgotten to take her science textbook to study for her exam and she had to unpack everything to put it inside her suitcase. Amara had taken care of that by shoving the book into her bag, but Arya still wouldn't budge.

"It's because you're always on that stupid phone." Her mother scolded, while she answered with her usual protest, "I didn't even have my phone at that time, Amara stole it! And I tripped! What does my phone have to do with that?!"

Her mother snarked back at her before yelling at her to not answer back, which led to Arya's usual response when people told her to do something she didn't agree with: start arguing back angrily. This obviously didn't sit well with her mother, and they got into their famous mother-daughter arguments, which obviously drowned out all of Amara's constant cries of "We're gonna be late, stop arguing and hurry!". In the midst of all that, her father was on the phone with her grandmother, who had decided to call them and ask them when they were arriving, in spite of Amara sending out clear instructions to everyone the previous week and repeatedly sending them in the family Whatsapp group. That obviously didn't stop her grandmother from disobeying rule number one: Don't call unless we call you. As expected, that just increased Amara's frustration, which she was trying her best to contain by standing completely still while having her fists clenched tightly and deeply breathing in and out repeatedly.

She stared at the clock in the living room, clenching her fists tightly. She'd gotten out all their suitcases and bags, and even had a random sweatshirt for Arya to wear over her tank top. They were running out of time as usual, so she wasn't really bothered about her sister walking around an airport in My Little Pony sweatpants and a TARDIS sweatshirt.

She walked over to her father to at least get him outside on time before dealing with her mother and Arya. He was still on the phone as he paced around the kitchen, trying to calm his mother down, by the looks of it. "No Ma, we'll have lunch after we get there, we'll-"

His sentence was cut short as Amara had snatched the phone away and put it on her ear. "Patti-"

"Amara! How are you?"

"Everything's fine Patti, we're getting late now, we'll have to talk later." She snapped and hung up before anyone could say anything before putting her dad's phone in flight mode and handing it back to him.

"Seven forty five. Seven forty five! We're gonna miss the bloody plane!" She exclaimed in response to his look. "This is what happens when people don't listen to me!" She threw her hands up and walked towards the living room, where her mother and sister were still going strong. Her frustration had reached its breaking point by then, which resulted in her losing all her will to stay in control.

"Will you both stop arguing and look at the time!?" She screamed once she reached there. Her mother and Arya quieted for a moment before her mother said, "What have I told you about-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, no yelling in the house and no interrupting you, but that flew outside the window half an hour ago! We were supposed to be leaving forty five minutes ago!" She chucked the sweatshirt at Arya, who winced as it hit her face. "Wear that over your tank top and get here. You can take bath after we go to Chennai. No protests."

"But I'm wearing My Little Pony sweatpants, I can't walk in an airport wearing these!"

"Yeah? Well you should have thought about that before you decided to dance while singing 'Look What You Made Me Do' at the top of your lungs in the bathroom when you were supposed to be getting ready!" She rolled her eyes and turned to the kitchen. "Appa, where are you?!"

She got no response. She threw her hands up again before balling them into fists and trying to contain her scream of frustration. Of course. Her father always- always went to the bathroom before leaving the house. And not just before- like right before they left the house. She'd been over the rules with all of them the previous night, and they were still late. Fucking typical. She turned back to Arya, who was sitting on the sofa with her hands folded. "What part of 'wear the sweatshirt' do you not understand?"

She shrugged, "I'm not gonna wear it. I'm staying here. I'd rather die than be caught dead wearing my pyjamas in public."

She rolled her eyes. "I really don't have the time for your nonsense right now-"

"Yeah? Well you should've thought about that before you made me wear something I don't like!" She imitated Amara poorly, and Amara took a deep breath as the familiar rise of irritation swept through her body. Once more, she contemplated running into her room and screaming for the next hour and a half.

"Arya, listen to your sister." Her mother said, and for once, Amara was slightly relieved. However, she knew that Arya would protest again, which she did. Thankfully, Amara had the perfect form of blackmail, which, other than complete yelling, was the only way to convince Arya to budge- and Amara knew that going full-Amara, as Arya liked to call it, would majorly backtrack them.

"Arya, remember that story you were reading yesterday?" She turned to her sister, pretending to look innocent. "Some book about the mafia, right?"

Her sister's eyes widened as she turned to her mother, who's eyebrows were raised. "Amma, it was for a school project, they asked us to write a report on the mafia!" She turned to Amara and scowled. "I'll wear the bloody sweatshirt. Whatever." She slipped it over her head and walked towards the suitcases, muttering about all the things she'd rather be doing, which included skydiving off a plane in the middle of a thunderstorm. Amara rolled her eyes, looking at the clock once more. Judging by the time, her sister being dramatic was the least of her concerns.

"Just get all the suitcases outside the house and put them in front of the lift before Appa comes." She shook her head, exasperated, "And hold the first lift that comes here." She pulled out two of the suitcases as Arya opened the door. She wheeled them towards the lifts and placed them in front of one of them, pressing the button. She went back to the house to see if everything was outside, where Arya was pulling out the last of the suitcases while her mother held the door open. Her father came running towards the door, muttering apologies in response to Amara's annoyed glare.

Arya handed over the suitcases to Amara before running towards the lifts and waiting for them to arrive. She held the doors open after pushing the suitcases inside, helping Amara as she approached it. Once everyone got inside the lift, Amara pulled out her phone and glanced at the time again, sighing. Looks like she was gonna have to drive exactly at the speed limit if they wanted to reach the airport on time. Well, barely on time, anyway. If Amara had her way, they would've already been there by then. This was why she never booked morning flights, and wouldn't have done it this time either, if it wasn't for her father convincing her to do so and assuring her that everyone would be prepared on time. Joke of the bloody century.

----

They'd reached her grandmother's house in Chennai about four hours later, only to be welcomed with the usual "Oh my God, you've grown so tall, Arya!" and the "Are you on a diet, Amara, you've grown so thin!" from her grandmother. Turns out they weren't the first people there, and her father's sister's family had arrived as well, which explained the clingy eight-year old rushing to greet Arya, who was flattered by the attention. Although that wouldn't last long- Amara estimated that she'd come running to her and start complaining about having no time alone in about two hours.

And she was right- two hours later, when Amara was sitting down and trying to remember the English language, which had betrayed her the moment she opened her document, the door of the room burst open, bringing in a very irritated fifteen year old.

"Eight year olds are the most annoying things in the entire planet!" She threw her hands up, pacing around the room as Amara looked up from her laptop, eyebrow raised, "You think I don't know that? I had to deal with one when I was sixteen."

Arya stopped her pacing and stared at her in disbelief. "I wasn't that bad!" She stopped when she saw Amara's other eyebrow raise, and asked in a high-pitched voice, "Was I?"

Amara shrugged, turning back to her document, "I don't know, were you?"

Her hands hovered over the keyboard for a moment before she pulled them back again, shaking her head. She felt the bed bounce as her sister jumped on beside her. "What part are you in right now?"

"The one where Ray tells Mia about the night Talia died. Or at least, I should be, but I'm still trying to write down the scene of her going all the way to meet him." She'd told Arya the exact details of what she was writing, knowing that her sister was good at keeping secrets. Plus, she needed a second opinion, and her sister was probably her best shot.

"That's right after she gets into an argument with Mayra and Elena about how that's dangerous, right?"

She nodded, placing the laptop in front of her and stretching her hands out. "It's like my brain decided to temporarily shut down." She groaned, and Arya shrugged. "Writer's block can be a bitch. We've all had it at many points."

Amara turned and scowled at Arya. "I have a comprehensive outline and scene cards, and at this point all I need to do is write. I shouldn't be having writer's block." She buried her face in her hands and slid them down. "This was not supposed to be happening." She groaned in frustration before turning to the screen and scowling at it. "I had a plan, and this," She gestured to the laptop, "Was not part of it!"

"Come on, you're overreacting. We all get writer's block at some point or another."

She turned to her sister, scowling, "Yeah, you get writer's block at some point or another. I have everything set- this can't be- this shouldn't be happening!" She turned back to the laptop and glared at it, knowing full well that it wouldn't do anything even if she did so. It made her feel a little better, though.

Arya shook her head and placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. "You need a break. I need a break. We both need a break."

Amara shook her head, pulling her laptop towards her again. "No, I just need to power through and just write. It'll come back to me then."

"Believe me, I tried the brute force approach and it doesn't work." Arya tugged onto Amara's arm. "Even you tried it and ended up spending three whole days editing."

"But that's not how it's-" Amara protested, trying to stay on the bed as her sister pulled her off it.

"Supposed to go, I know, you already told me." She successfully managed to pull Amara off the bed and started pulling her towards the door. "But you need a break, you've been at this ever since we had lunch. You need to go off the plan and compensate."

"Paithiyam pudichudutha?!" She exclaimed, as she got dragged outside the door and into the hallway. "That's not me, that's you!"

Arya turned around, flipping her hair dramatically. "Exactly. And that approach is awesome. Like me."

Amara rolled her eyes as her sister led her to the main staircase that led downstairs. "That approach is bullshit. Remember the day before your bio exam when you had a meltdown because you were going to fail because you spent all day working on that new story idea?"

"That was a tactical boo boo, people make those, also, I'm sorry for feeling like Doctor Who is more interesting than classification of organisms." She turned around, stopping in the middle of the staircase for a moment. "And I will take no criticism. If you say classification is more interesting, you're wrong."

She turned back around and skipped down the stairs, pulling a very reluctant Amara with her. "I never said anything of the sort..." She mumbled as Arya reached the bottom of the stairs and jumped onto the swing in the living room. She sat on top of it when a little girl jumped on it too. "Akka!"

"Navya!" Arya ruffled her hair and pinched her cheeks. Amara shook her head, going to sit next to them on the swing. For all of Arya's complaining, she was completely attached to the little eight year old. She never stopped talking about her when they were back home. She was even up really late the previous night talking about everything she was gonna do with Navya and only went to sleep when Amara threatened to leak her search history to their mother.

About three seconds after Amara sat down, Arya turned to her. "We need a change of environment."

"No we don't." Amara frowned.

"You need writing inspo, and we're banned from screens because, according to Ranjani Atthai, family togetherness doesn't involve two people watching YouTube together, and there's literally nothing else to do here." She gestured to herself and Navya, who was nodding along. "So we need a change of environment."

"Can't you just talk or something?" Amara leaned against the side of the swing, pulling her legs onto it and folding them. "You do that every single time we video call them and never let anyone get the phone back till it's time for Navya to go back to sleep."

"We can talk in the car!"

"Car?" Amara raised an eyebrow. "What car, I'm not taking you both anywhere!" She got off the swing and started going back upstairs. "I'm supposed to be writing my draft and try to get as much done as possible before Sahana and Amritha come tomorrow."

"You have writer's block, you can't write when you have writer's block, it's literally called writer's block!" Arya protested, getting off the swing.

"I'm not supposed to be having writer's block, and it's not part of the plan anyway! I have to finish this chapter, I'm working a deadline!" She called out as she walked up the stairs and entered the hallway, making towards her room.

----

Well, turns out her plan was ruined anyway, because that evening, everybody decided to pile into the car and go to the beach because it was the first time they were together after a year and they needed to celebrate or something. And her mother, as usual, did not take no for an answer, and went on her usual tangent about how her family was more important than her job and that her document will still be waiting for her after she comes back. Well, looks like Amara was gonna have to pull another all-nighter. No issues, it wasn't like she had a sleep schedule anyway- getting ahead of her other schedules was a lot higher on her priority list.

The beach was crowded, as usual, but she was glad to get out and get there as it was miles better than sitting in a car full of people who were all in close proximity. She got out after Navya jumped off her and ran to Arya, who was holding out her hand.

They were all in front of the water- well, most of them were, the mothers and their grandparents decided to sit on the sand a little way away from the water while the fathers decided to take everyone to the water and hold onto their hands so that they didn't fall in. Although Amara was old enough to handle herself, so she didn't explicitly need to be there. However, Arya had dragged her and made her stand next to them because "If you get drenched in the water, it'll wash off your writer's block". She didn't even give Amara a chance to respond to this ludicrous statement.

Amara gave in and went to stand with them- half an hour in the water wouldn't be the worst thing to happen to her, except for the sand sticking to her all over- but thank the Lord she brought towels with her to prevent this exact thing from happening.

She rolled her jeans up as the first wave started to come towards them. She grabbed onto Arya's hand before it hit them- she knew her sister was old enough, but old habits die hard. Navya screamed with joy as the cool water hit them and jumped up, splashing Arya with water. "Don't do that, I'll get wet!" Arya winced as the next wave hit them. Amara shook her head. "We're at the beach, Arya, the whole point is for you to get wet."

"Yeah, but we're not even in the major wet zone at this point!"

"And there's no way we're going there." Her father said from Navya's other side. Arya started protesting again, but her father shut down any hopes of them going further in, which Amara was perfectly fine with. Sure, it didn't look dangerous, and there were many people literally bathing in the ocean, but she didn't want to risk it.

"Amara, tell him!" Arya turned to her, and she turned to their father. "Appa, I agree with you."

Arya scowled at her. "Ey, I was telling you to tell him to take us further di, loosu!"

"No, you said, 'Amara, tell him'." Amara shrugged. "You didn't specify exactly what I was supposed to tell him."

Arya rolled her eyes and turned towards the water, "Ellarum eppa pathalum emmala than ippadi pannuvenga." (Everyone always keeps targeting me)

"Nee ippadi loosu madhiri irundha vera enna pannaradhu nu neeye sollu." Amara said, and she scowled and turned to Navya. (What else should I do if you keep acting like an idiot?)

"Anyway," Amara said, pulling her hand out of Arya's grasp, "I've had enough of the water, and I don't want to get too wet and accidentally catch a cold, so I'm gonna go and sit with them or something." As she turned back and started walking away, Arya yelled back, "You're gonna open Google Docs and continue writing, aren't you?"

Amara didn't answer- however both of them knew the answer was yes, so why bother answering anyway? She walked towards the rest of her family, when she tripped over something and fell face-first into the sand.

She slowly peeled herself off it, running her hands across her face to try and get all the sand off it. She scowled as she managed to shake off the majority of it. Her face itched because of the sand, but thankfully, it hadn't gotten into her eyes. She opened her eyes and frowned. The space in front of her was empty- an open expanse of sand throughout, with no people in it.

"What the-" She whirled around to look at the ocean and double took at the sight in front of her. There was nobody there either, and the ocean was a lot choppier than it had been before. The waves were a lot higher, and one of them was making its way towards her. Her eyes widened as she screamed and ran towards the mainland, missing the wave by an inch.

She stopped, bending down and breathing heavily. The wave crashed a little ways in front of her, splashing her with water. She blinked, gasping at how cold it was. She then backed away, gasping for breath. She stumbled and fell back as another wave started forming.

She scrambled backwards, trying to get up, but failing. She wasn't even able to move her legs properly. She felt something heavy on her feet and felt something tickling her hands.

She looked down, her heart dropping when she saw what was happening. The sand was alive. And it was encasing her limbs. And it was slowly sliding around the rest of her body.

She screamed and tried to pull her hands out of the sand. That was useless, though. All that happened was the load of sand pushing back and slamming her hands into the ground, covering her with more sand.

A huge shadow over her made her look up. A huge wave had formed, and was making its way towards her. She struggled against the sand, but was unsuccessful. The wall of water was in front of her, and a huge part of it was above her. Her heart was hammering in her chest. She was stuck. There was nothing she could do. There was no way she could've even known what to do. This was not supposed to be happening. This shouldn't have been happening.

She closed her eyes tightly, bracing herself for the impact of the wave as the sand trailed around her skin, encasing her in even more. As if she wasn't trapped enough. The impact was like someone had dropped a huge weight on her entire body. It knocked her out the moment it hit.

----

Chapter Text

A/N: Trigger warning- there will be an explicit description of a person having somewhat of a panic attack. I will be formatting it so that it's in bold text, so if it triggers you, you can skip over it. Anyway, now that that's out of the way, happy reading!

She woke up to light. A soft, yellow light. It was the perfect kind of light. It was bright, but didn't make her want to gouge her eyes out by being too bright. She felt like she'd run all day and was sinking into something soft. Well, sinking wouldn't be the right word. More like- staying stuck but feeling like something was pulling you down.

The moment she opened her eyes, she was engulfed in a sort of warmth. One that made her feel fuzzy and comfy inside. Like she was safe. However, none of that cushioned the fact that she did not know where in the name of God she was.

She sat up, blinking and trying to adjust to her new environment, which was fairly easy, actually. The whole place was white and pristine. It was a circular room with a domed ceiling, which was a light blue and had paintings of different people on clouds. She couldn't recognise most of them, but she did notice Dhanvantri and Asclepius among them- so if the pattern upholded, she was in some sort of a hospital. If that wasn't a giveaway, the huge monitor beside her that seemed to have been some sort of an x-ray should've given her a huge clue.

She slowly placed a hand on her hair, attempting to smooth it out as her brain slowly started to catch up and process what was going on. Which was not an easy task, since her brain felt like it was made of wool. But, it caught up. And, well, after it did, she kinda wished it didn't.

Because that was when she realised that she was alone in a hospital ward that did not look like any hospital wards she'd ever seen. Even if it weren't for the three-headed purple snake holding what looked like metal bike handles that was painted on the ceiling, among many other creatures that didn't look like they would ever be found on Earth, the scanner having an option for a tetra vascular system would've been a dead giveaway.

Was this some sort of an alien hospital? Although- why the hell would she be in an alien hospital? Wait- no wait- no. A million thoughts ran through her head and she couldn't even keep track of them. Her breathing slowly quickened as more possibilities started forming in her head. What if she was in some sort of a shady lab that studied aliens? Or worse- performed experiments on humans and tried to use all sorts of weird stuff on them? Or if she actually was in an alien hospital because she got abducted by them and was now probably gonna be dissected or caged or something? Or maybe she was dead and this was some sort of a twisted afterlife. Or maybe she was just dreaming and she was just overreacting. Right? But who overreacted in a dream?! What was even happening?!

She suddenly did not feel good. She felt hot, despite the fact that there was cool air blowing through the room for some reason. Her heart rate mirrored her breathing- they were both extremely fast. She started playing with her hands- or more like attempting to crush each with the other- to keep herself occupied, but she hardly paid attention to that. She felt slightly nauseous and there was an ache in her chest. The room was significantly cooler than it was before, but Amara was sweating. She felt overwhelmingly hot, and detached, and scared. A part of her wanted to just break down in tears, and that part was slowly taking over. In fact, it would've probably fully taken over if it weren't for the door to the room opening.

"Gah!" She jumped, startled. Her senses were on high alert, and she was prone to jumpiness every time she was freaked out about something, which proved to be a terrible thing sometimes.

The man who had entered jumped as well, before staring at her for a moment. "You alright?"

She just stared at him, blinking. He was tall and almost bald, his hair a small layer of black right above his head. He was wearing a leather jacket and a red jumper underneath. However, his most distinguishing feature was probably his ears. Or, well, how conspicuous they were.

Amara's eyes widened and she pointed at him, a high pitched noise escaping her throat. He frowned, looking down at himself. "What? Is there something wrong with me? Or my clothes? I just chose them!"

"It's- oh my God- what- where-" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to string together a bunch of words into a proper sentence. She opened her eyes again. He was still there, looking a little concerned. "How am I even here?" She exclaimed. "How are you here?!" She pointed to him. "You're not even supposed to exist!"

His eyebrows furrowed. "What?"

She took another breath, before leaning back. "Oh my God, I knew it." She looked up at the Ninth Doctor. "I'm dead, aren't I? I'm dead and somehow landed here. Wherever here is."

"Why would you think you're dead?" He shook his head.

"I'm in a random hospital that has a scanner with an option for a tetra vascular system." She nodded towards the scanner. "And I'm here with a literal alien who isn't supposed to exist."

He shook his head. "Typical human. Sees one alien and automatically assumes she's dead because they can't exist." He paused for a moment, as if he realised something, and frowned. "Wait a minute, how'd you know I'm an alien?"

"You're the Doctor! It's common knowledge that you're an alien!"

"I'm not-" He shook his head, before frowning again. "How do you know who I am? Did she tell you?"

"Did who tell me?"

"You know, the girl!" He gestured in front of his chest. "The short one!" Amara frowned. "What?!"

The Doctor opened his mouth to say something, but closed it, shaking his head, before frowning again. "There was a girl in the space station. A short girl. She died, but before she did, she asked me to go to Seelia. Said I'd meet someone important there. That's where you were, by the way. She said something else too." He frowned. "I don't remember what it was. It sounded important, but I don't remember." He looked at her. "Why don't I remember?"

"Why are you asking me?" Amara sat up. "And what the hell is Seelia? Last I remember, I was in Chennai."

"Because you know the girl!" He stared at her for a moment, before realisation dawned on his face. "You don't know her, do you?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" She exclaimed, sitting up straighter. "I don't know anything! I don't know how I got here- I don't even know where here is, I don't know why I'm here- hell, I don't even know if this is even real!"

"It is real!" He folded his hands. "Why do you keep not believing that? And how do you know me?"

"Because-" Amara took a deep breath. She had to be really careful about everything she said, especially judging by the fact that she was with one of the least trusting incarnations of the Doctor (not that any incarnation was overly trusting, but they weren't fresh out of the Time War like he was). "Because you're a TV show."

"I'm a what?" He deadpanned, an eyebrow raised.

She suddenly felt the blood rush up to her cheeks. She folded her hands and shrunk into the bed. This was gonna sound so stupid to him. "There's a, um, TV show called Doctor Who, and, well," She gestured to him, "It's about you."

The Doctor burst into laughter before turning to her again. "There's a TV show? About me? Well, that's why everyone on Earth knows me. They know me so much they always lock me up while claiming to not know me." The sarcasm was evident in his tone. She bit her lip, pulling the blankets closer to her. He frowned at her. "You weren't lying, were you?"

She shook her head.

"So you know all about me." His eyes narrowed slightly.

"Not all about you, strictly speaking, there's obviously stuff that hasn't been revealed yet and stuff that definitely won't be revealed-"

"Do you know about the Time War?" His face was unreadable, and his voice was almost a murmur. Amara could see that he was trying his best to stay calm, but she also noticed the slight fear in his voice.

She knew she couldn't lie to him- he'd probably know if she did, and there was also a part of her that didn't want to. But then again, she didn't know how he's react if she told him that she knew. This seemed to be extremely early for him- judging by the fact that there was no sign of Rose or Jack anywhere. And she vaguely remembered him mentioning that he'd just chosen his clothes, meaning this was mostly before Rose. Meaning- he could've just escaped Gallifrey and regenerated recently. And she wasn't sure if an early Nine would react well to someone knowing everything about what he did. Or well, what he thought he did. She could slowly feel the fear creeping up again.

"You know." She immediately looked up at the sound of his voice, which was barely a whisper. "You know about it, don't you?"

The fear was becoming a lot more pronounced as it started to take over her heart rate. "Yes." She whispered almost inaudibly, but he heard it. Still expressionless, he ran a hand on his head, staring down at his hand after he did so. It was shaking slightly. He let out a breath, involuntarily sitting down at the edge of the bed. His hand fell to his lap and gripped onto his trousers, his knuckles slowly becoming white.

Amara bit her lip, slowly letting go of her blankets, which she'd bunched up in her hands while telling him about the war. She wanted to help him- but she didn't know how. The man was clearly in pain and looked like he needed a hug, but she also wasn't sure how he'd react if she hugged him. She couldn't just sit there and watch him, but she also couldn't get too close.

She swallowed, slowly leaning forward and awkwardly placing a hand on his shoulder. He snapped his head towards her as if burned, and she slightly jumped at the sudden movement, but didn't take her hand off. He frowned at it and looked up at her, the deep frown still etched into his face. He stared at her for a couple of moments. "How?"

She frowned. "How what?"

"How are you-" He shook his head. "You're trying to comfort me. You're not scared."

"No."

"Why? I destroyed my entire planet. I killed my whole species, and here I am, unscathed. And you knew this, but you're not scared. Why aren't you scared?"

"Because you had no other choice." She said slowly, choosing her words carefully. "It was Gallifrey or the universe, and you picked the right option. It was difficult, but it was for the greater good."

He shrugged her hand off and shook his head. "That doesn't mean I didn't kill them." He turned to the wall, gripping his hands together. "There should've been another way. I was too scared to find it like the coward I am."

She shook her head. "You're not a coward." He turned to her. "You're extremely brave. Because you had to make that decision. The decision that had no good outcome but had to be made. The war had to be stopped, and you were the only person who was brave enough to make that choice."

He stared at her as if she'd dropped down from space- which might have been the case, but Amara wasn't bothered about that. Well, she was, but she could ask him her questions later. Right now, he was in pain, and she had to fix that. She never liked seeing people sad, and always made it her goal to make them happy again.

"You really believe that, don't you?"

She shook her head again. "I know it. You did it to save the rest of the universe. It was hard, I know, but you saved the rest of the universe by stopping the war. Did you ever stop and think about what would've happened if you didn't?"

He frowned. "No, actually." He shook his head, before turning to her, a grin on his face. Amara double took at the complete 180, frowning slightly. "Anyways, that's enough about me brooding about something I definitely can't change. What's your name?"

Amara opened her mouth, realising that they hadn't even introduced themselves to each other properly. "Amara. Amara Kashyap." She was sure he definitely wasn't okay despite looking that way, but she didn't want to press on further about the war either, since he seemed like he wanted to be done with that subject. "How am I here? Scratch that- where am I?"

He nodded slowly. "TARDIS med bay. I'm assuming you know what the TARDIS is, right?" She nodded, and he continued as the TARDIS hummed. "And about how you got here, well, I'm not that sure either." He shrugged. "I came to Seelia, that's an abandoned planet in case you were wondering, and sat at the beach for a while since I was supposed to be meeting someone there, and then you washed up out of nowhere, half drowned, so I brought you here to check on you."

She frowned at that. "How did I even end up on an alien planet in another dimension?" She saw his expression and shrugged. "I'm in a world where a TV show character is real. The most obvious explanation, I'm in a different dimension."

He nodded slowly. "Makes sense. All universes have something unique about them. This could be the one with me in it."

She shrugged. "Yeah, maybe." Another part of what happened before she got there came into her mind. She straightened up. "Wait- before I got here, I was at the beach with my family. And then, everyone disappeared and the sea suddenly became violent and I drowned."

"And you came here." He murmured, frowning. "That makes no sense. How can drowning even bring someone to a parallel world?" He turned to her. "And how did you go to the place with the violent ocean?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. One moment I was walking away from the ocean, and the next- everyone disappeared." She looked up at him, another thought forming in her head. "My family."

The Doctor frowned, confused by the change in subject. "What about them?

"They're back in the universe I'm from." He nodded. "Yeah, that's where they should be. It's obvious."

"No- I mean, yeah, they're there, but I'm not. And I don't think I'll-" She swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat. "I don't think I'll ever see them again, right?" She blinked, trying to avoid the tears.

"Oh." The Doctor looked down, playing with a loose thread on Amara's blanket.

She didn't need to know the answer to her question. It was rhetorical anyway. But she did have another question in the family front. "Is there a chance you might know what's going on in their end? Like- do they know I'm gone or do I not exist there anymore?"

He shook his head. "The only way to know that is to go all the way there. And dimensional travel-"

"Can destroy the fabric of reality." Amara shook her head, swallowing hard. "I'd rather that doesn't happen." She closed her eyes and opened them again, plastering a neutral look on her face. "Anyways, enough of brooding about stuff I can do absolutely nothing about." She pretended to not notice the very conspicuous frown on the Doctor's face. "You were talking about a girl who seemed to know I would be in Seelia."

He blinked and shrugged. "Neither of us know her now, meaning we could meet her in the future. But I don't think we'll even know it's her." He pointed to his head. "She's already fading from my memory. Ever since I entered the TARDIS. It's like she wants me to forget." He frowned.

The TARDIS hummed and he gestured towards the ceiling. "There you have it. She says I can't know because it'll destroy my timeline or something and that I should give up because she knows when I'll find out and that's not any time soon."

"She said all of that in that one hum?"

He shrugged. "She's the TARDIS. She exists in all planes of time and can basically control time. My theory is that she slows down time around me while humming or speeds it up only for me so that she doesn't waste any linear time by saying a really long sentence."

Amara blinked. "What?"

He shrugged. "Rule number one: Never apply logic to the TARDIS, or me, or time in general. It defies all of it."

"One, there's always a logic to everything and two, isn't rule number one 'Don't wander off'?"

He shrugged. "Maybe it is- I don't keep track of rules."

"How can you not- you really need to keep track of rules. So much more helpful if everything is organised in a comprehensive manner instead of having seventy six rules titled 'Rule number one'."

"You really think I care about rules?" He scoffed, and she exclaimed. "I do!"

He stared at her for a moment before sighing. "Well then, you can create a 'comprehensive set of rules' and tell them to everyone," Amara opened her mouth, but he wasn't done yet, "But not now. You," He pointed at her, "Haven't had your first trip on the TARDIS yet, and I'm gonna fix that." He stood up and held out a hand.

She smiled and pushed off her blankets. She took his hand and stood up. "Only after I shower and change, though." She was still wearing what she was on the beach before she'd gotten there. "And I need to know where to do that since I've seen a grand total of one room in the entire TARDIS."

He nodded and started walking towards the door. "It'll be around here somewhere, most probably right outside. Your name will be written on a nameplate on a door." He headed off in the corridor. "I'll be in the console room! Just ask the TARDIS and she'll show you the way!" He called out.

After he left the room, Amara turned back to the bed to go and fold the blankets, but was surprised to see that they were already folded. She looked up at the ceiling. "You did that, right?"

The TARDIS hummed. Amara didn't understand exactly what the hum meant, but she felt like it was a yes. She didn't know why and yes, it was cliche, but she just did. "Thank you." She smiled at the ceiling before getting out of the room.

----

"So," The Doctor stood by the console as she walked into the semi dark console room with coral pillars in its perimeter twenty minutes later. "All of time and space. Where do you want to go? What do you want to see?"

"Everything?" She shrugged as she walked down the stairs towards him. "Or, well, everything that's safe and doesn't involve anybody dying in a particularly gruesome way. Or dying at all, preferably."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that helps!" He walked towards the console and started fiddling with a few buttons. Amara skipped towards him and leaned towards the console beside him, her hands on its edge. "Yeah. forgive me for not knowing anything about all of time and space when I've literally never stepped out of India in my entire life. Is there some sort of a bucket list to follow or something?"

The Doctor stared at her, his expression blank. "Bucket list."

She nodded. "Yeah, bucket list! I dunno, like maybe ten best places to visit in all of time and space or something!"

"Yeah! Because time and space has a finite number of places one can visit!"

"Fine, maybe top hundred!" He scowled at her. "Top thousand, then!" She tried again, and he shook his head. "You do know that all those lists are nonsense, right? And even if they weren't nonsense, I wouldn't know because I don't follow them!"

"Well, looks like that's another list I'll have to make," She muttered, before turning to him. He was staring at her, eyes wide. "What is your obsession with lists?!"

She shrugged. "I'm not obsessed with them- I just like them because they keep things organised and comprehensive. Anyway, regarding the 'where we should go' thing, what do you suggest?"

He shrugged, folding his hands before he pulled a lever beside him. The ground shook and Amara screamed, holding onto the edge of the console as the Doctor ran to the other side in glee. "Set the coordinates to random! Even I don't know where we're going!"

"Oh, that's brilliant!" Amara yelled, spreading her hands across the console and holding on tight as the TARDIS increased speed.

The Doctor flicked a few levers beside him, making the TARDIS seemingly tip to the left, causing Amara to scream again as her legs slid below the console. Her heart rate started to increase and she closed her eyes tightly. She knew that nobody in the history of Doctor Who had died because of the Doctor's driving, but she also hated the fact that it felt like a rollercoaster ride with no seatbelts.

She tightened her grip on the console as the TARDIS increased speed yet again. "Why are we moving so erratically!"

"Because we are! And why are you keeping your eyes closed?" He shouted from the other end.

"Because I am!"

"Oh, fantastic!"

The TARDIS lurched again, almost throwing Amara to the side if it weren't for her one handed grip on an edge of the console (the other one had slipped in the process of the almost throwing). She was then almost thrown across the other direction when the TARDIS stopped with a thud.

After a couple of moments, she opened her eyes and straightened up, breathing heavily. She turned to see the Doctor groaning and getting up on the other side. She stumbled towards where he was and frowned at him. "What happened to you?"

"I fell down." He muttered, placing a hand on his forehead, before turning to her and grinning. "No bumps. That's good, isn't it?"

She nodded, frowning slightly in amusement. He grinned at her and stood up, running towards the door. She slowly followed, taking a deep breath as her heart rate started to increase slightly again. Outside those doors, there could be anything. Anything in all of time and space.

She was walking down the stairs of the console room when the Doctor popped his head out and popped it back in. "Safe for humans, nothing related to death in sight."

He stepped aside and gestured outside. "After you."

She turned away from him and took a deep breath, before closing her eyes and stepping outside.

She gasped as she felt herself step on something soft- like a bed or cotton. Her hand immediately grasped the doorway of the TARDIS behind her.

"Go ahead, it's not gonna suck you in!" The Doctor encouraged from behind her.

She slowly put her other foot onto the soft ground and gasped, her fear slowly disappearing as she found herself steady on wherever she was. She slowly walked forward. The ground was covered with something soft, but there seemed to be something solid underneath that was holding her from falling through completely. Cool air blew past her, blowing her slightly wet hair across her face.

She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She looked around and gasped, turning around towards the TARDIS, against whose doorway the Doctor was leaning, smiling expectantly. He raised his eyebrows before stepping out and walking towards her. "What do you think?"

"It's beautiful!" She exclaimed, her voice hardly a whisper. And it was beautiful. She was standing on ground that looked like cotton candy- the pink colour included. In the distance, there were needle-like structures protruding out of the ground. There weren't many of them, though. Just a few scattered around the endless expanse of soft pink.

Above her was empty space all around- a dark inky background that hosted thousands of millions of stars. The stars were in several clusters, each having its own colour- yellow, silver, a light pink, red- even blue. Right on top of her, though, was the most wonderful spiral-shaped galaxy Amara had ever seen. It had a bright yellow centre and arms that alternated between silver and brown spiralling around it, slowly fading into blue at the ends.

As Amara stared up at the stars, she felt the Doctor come and stand next to her. "Where are we?" She asked him, not taking her eyes off the stars above her.

"In the Mindrean system, about seventy million light years away from Earth. We're on one of their planets- Colchea. Well, not on the planet exactly, erm- on a scale of one to ten, how afraid of heights are you?"

Amara turned to him and frowned. "What?"

"Just a question whose answer is extremely important."

She knew she'd never get a straight answer from him unless she answered herself, so she answered him. "Maybe a 3.5? I don't know, I've never been afraid of them before."

He nodded slowly. "Alright. We're standing on a cloud in the planet's atmosphere."

"What?!"

He grinned at her. "Fantastic, right?"

"We- we're on a cloud." He nodded as she took a deep breath. "Like, a cloud cloud. Like the ones made of water vapour. Those clouds."

He nodded. She let out a breath, hugging herself. "How are we not falling through?"

"The bottom of the cloud layer is made of sugar dense water vapour. Meaning we won't be able to fall through." He frowned at her. "You scared?"

She let out another breath. "No, It's just- we're on a cloud. An actual cloud." She nodded downwards, gesturing to the ground below all the clouds. Of course, there was a lot more going on in her head as a reaction to the new information, but they weren't actual thoughts. More like feelings. Or ideas. Like her wanting to see into the planet all the way to the ground. Or her wondering how long it would take to fall. Basically, the same feelings one got when standing on an extremely high building's roof.

"I know, right?" His grin returned and he started walking around. "The whole planet's covered in clouds during this time of the year. Like an extended winter for them. The entire population of the planet goes into hibernation during this time- sort of like polar bears-" He paused for a moment before shaking his head. "Actually no, forget the polar bear, they're nothing like polar bears except for the hibernation aspect."

Amara walked towards him, trying to see if she could find whatever the Doctor appeared to be looking for. "What are they like?"

"They have a- sort of a lion-y face and a human body. Sort of like a sphinx-" Amara opened her mouth to say something, but the Doctor paused and shook his head again. "Except the face is of a lion and the body is of a human instead of vice versa. And they don't have wings."

She nodded. "Yeah, I was about to say that. Regarding the sphinx."

"There's actual sphinxes, did you know that?" She turned to him, her eyebrows raised. He nodded. "Yeah- not in Egypt- well, Egypt in the twenty first century, which I'm assuming is when you're from-"

"Yup."

He grinned, before continuing, "Anyway, like I was saying, they're from another planet and they sort of came to Earth- well, Egypt, and settled there for a bit before leaving. Well, I say leaving, there's no telling what happened to them. Always blanked out on that part of history- been meaning to go there but something always kept coming up." He continued walking around as if looking for something.

"Looks like I'll have to put that on the list, then. Which reminds me," Amara murmured, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small blue notebook that was covered in pictures of blue cats. She opened it and pulled her pen from inside the spiral binding of the book. The Doctor turned around and frowned at the notebook. "You're making the list now?"

Amara looked up from her notebook, having written something in the latest page. She shook her head. "No, I'm writing down a reminder. My entire schedule just freed up thanks to being dimensionally transported, so I'm just replacing one of the things with 'list making'."

"Now?"

She shrugged. "Better schedule it before you forget, right?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Has anyone told you that you're weird?"

"I could ask you the exact same question, Mr Box That's Bigger on the Inside."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Why, Amara Kashyap, you are hilarious."

"Your sarcasm is most appreciated." Amara grinned as walked towards him, "By the way, what are you looking for?"

"A thing." He murmured, walking around the cloud before stopping beside a huge needle-like structure which Amara thought was a lightning rod on top of a building. "Right. Seven six, not six seven." Amara frowned as he turned around. "Right, you've got to see this!"

She walked to stand next to him and gasped at what she saw. In the distance was a huge nebula that looked like an explosion of blue, purple and pink. Around it were small dark silhouettes of circular or oval shapes orbiting it. Asteroids, probably.

"It's beautiful!"

The Doctor laughed a bit at that and pointed to the nebula. "That's the Alaksi Nebula. It can only be seen from this particular point of the planet. Nobody knows why. The Colcheans believe that the nebula is like a God- and standing here and making a wish to the nebula would make their wish come true." He turned to her, his hands folded. "Rubbish, if you ask me."

Amara rolled her eyes. "Wow. Way to dismiss someone's belief."

"What belief?" He gestured to the nebula, "It's a nebula, not some sort of an omniscient, omnipresent entity that looks over you!"

"To you, maybe. To them, it's a God." She turned back to the nebula, folding her hands as well.

"What do you think, then? What do you think it is? Nebula or God?"

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks. It's what people see it as. You see it as a nebula, they," She gestured to the ground below them, "See it as a God. Everything's just a matter of perspective."

The Doctor whistled softly. "That turned deep very fast."

Amara shrugged. "It happens sometimes."

They spent another hour over there, sitting and talking about nothing in particular. Amara never thought she'd actually sit on a cloud, but the experience wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. It was cold, but apparently the TARDIS warmed it up enough for the two of them to not freeze to death, which increased Amara's appreciation for the blue spaceship.

----

Chapter Text

“Right,” The Doctor tossed Amara a blue coloured cap with a yellow banana on it. “You’re gonna need this.”

“For what?” She frowned, catching the cap and putting it on her head. 

“To pretend to act like a human being.” He said before turning back to the console and punching in some coordinates. 

“I am a human being!” She walked down the steps to the console as he pulled down an orange lever. “Also, shouldn’t you be doing that after using the stabilisers?” 

He turned to her and frowned. “How do you know that?”

She shrugged. “The instruction manual?” 

“I thought I threw that into a supernova!” 

“There’s a backup copy in the library. There’s actually multiple copies.” 

“And you read it? In three days?” He looked at her skeptically and she shook her head. “I memorised a few basic flight controls. Still not that sure, though.”

“Do you know what the round things are, then?” He flipped down a few switches onto the other side, before turning to her again. “See? Stabilised. Anyway, round things, what are they?”

Amara shrugged. “Haven’t reached that part yet.” Actually, she did know what they were for, but owing to the fact that the Doctor did find out what they were for about nine seasons later, it was best if she didn’t tell him. “Where are we going?” Quick subject change. Perfect. 

He pulled the TARDIS screen towards him. “London, 2005. There’s an extraterrestrial signal there that’s too familiar to be ignored.” 

Amara’s eyes widened slightly at that. She knew exactly what was gonna happen, and she couldn’t be more excited. And nervous. There was gonna be a huge change after this particular adventure, and she didn’t know whether things would be good or bad for her after that. She knew the Doctor would be extremely happy, but what would happen to her? Would he still be the same towards her after-

She was brought out of her thoughts when someone snapped their fingers in front of her face. She recoiled and blinked, turning towards the Doctor, who was frowning at her. “I’m sorry, were you saying something?” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, trying her best to ignore the heat rushing to her cheeks.

“Yes, I was. And I’m assuming this extraterrestrial thing happened in your TV show, didn’t it?” 

She frowned at his remark. “How did you know that?” 

He shrugged. “You zoned out right after I said that.”

“So you automatically assumed that we’re going into an episode.” 

“Are we?” He raised an eyebrow. Amara nodded, “We are, but that’s not-”

“See? I was right!” He grinned and pulled another lever. “Hold tight!” 

The TARDIS lurched forward and she screamed, grabbing onto the edge of the console as the Doctor ran around pressing buttons, laughing maniacally. 

----

They thankfully landed in the right place and time. They’d parked the TARDIS right outside the shop called Henricks, where the Doctor had gotten the signal. The two of them snuck in through the back, the Doctor unlocking the door with his screwdriver. 

“We’re breaking and entering,” Amara let out a breath and took a deep breath again, trying to calm her racing heart. “My mom said she’d kill me if I committed a crime.”

“ Sonicing and entering.” The Doctor scowled at her. “Two totally different things. Also, yeah, she totally would. Because saving the planet of the Apes for the billionth time is considered a crime.” 

Amara rolled her eyes as the Doctor opened the door. “That’s rude. Also, are you sure we won’t get caught?”

He shook his head. “You do know that I’m not forcing you into doing this, right?”

“I never said you were.” Amara walked inside as he came inside as well, “I was just concerned. This is the first time I’ve ever snuck into a place other than my kitchen.”

“What, you’ve never snuck back into your house after spending the night somewhere else or something?” The Doctor buzzed his screwdriver around, pointing it at the walls. Amara turned to him. “Do you think I want to get hit with a chappal?” 

“Good call, it’s extremely painful.” He put the screwdriver back in his pocket and walked into the corridor. Amara’s eyes widened and she skipped slightly to keep pace with him. “You got hit with a chappal?!” 

“It was a very weird day.” He continued walking forward, pretending like nothing happened. 

“So someone hit you with a chappal?” 

“Weird day. All I’m saying.” He threw his hands up and continued walking forward. Amara chuckled softly as she followed him. 

They entered the store basement properly, into the dimly lit corridors that had faded blue doors lining the walls occasionally. Their footsteps echoed, and the Doctor’s screwdriver buzzing was one of the only sounds there- and was the loudest. Amara took a deep breath, feeling the heat come back even though it was cold in there. She subconsciously walked closer to the Doctor, taking a few deep breaths. She shouldn’t be feeling scared. She was supposed to be brave, especially since she knew what was gonna happen. She clasped both her hands in each other tightly. 

The Doctor stopped in front of a door, frowning. The door had a sign that said, ‘HP Wilson, CEO’. He placed a hand on the handle and attempted to pull the door open, frowning hard as the door wouldn’t budge. He turned his screwdriver on and pointed it at the keyhole of the door, pushing it open when a click was heard.

He entered the room, Amara following slowly. The room was small and smelled musty. There was a small desk and a black chair behind it. The table had all sorts of stuff on it- magazines, a pen stand with extremely weird looking pens, and a camera and notebook in the front. 

Amara walked around slowly and cautiously, her heart positively hammering in her chest and her mind on overdrive. She felt like something was following her every move, and looked back every few moments despite only seeing the Doctor poking around Wilson’s broom cupboard. She did remember something about Wilson being dead. She knew the Doctor knew that, and there was only one way he could possibly- 

She made the mistake of going to look behind Wilson’s desk. She gasped and jumped back, her breaths quickening and her chest hurting from all the hammering. The feeling of heat and nausea slowly returned. She wanted to look away and close her eyes- but she couldn’t. It was almost like her brain wanted to see the corpse in front of her despite the rest of her body protesting. 

On the ground was the corpse of a blonde haired man, staring at the ceiling, brown eyes open with somewhat dried out pupils. His face had a slightly blue tinge. The colour was most prominent on the lips. He lay there open-mouthed, like he was about to take his last breath, or like he was struggling to scream. And around his neck was a plastic arm- one that looked similar to that of a mannequin. Just the hand. Amara had a nasty feeling that the rest of it was nearby.

Something brushed against her. She yelped and jumped, slightly relaxing when she saw that it was just the Doctor. He pointed his screwdriver at the body and at the hand before pulling it back and reading something o a small screen on one side of the screwdriver. “Dead, obviously. Happened about three hours ago. The signal’s active, though. From the plastic arm. Obviously.” 

He looked up from the screwdriver and skipped towards the door. “The sonic’s found the signal- it’s a couple of rooms away from here.” He turned around to Amara, who was rooted at her spot. “Are you alright?” 

She blinked twice before taking a deep breath. “He’s dead.” She breathed, placing a hand on the desk. “He’s actually dead . Like dead dead. Not an actor pretending to be dead. This is an actual dead body, I-” She took a deep breath, closing her eyes before opening them immediately. 

She jumped when someone placed their hand on her shoulder. She whirled around, trying to calm her breaths when she saw that it was just the Doctor again. He put his hands up. “Just me, yeah? Not some creepy Auton.” 

She nodded slowly and he gave her a weak smile before holding out a hand. “It’ll wear off in a while, yeah? And don’t worry, nothing’s gonna happen to you. I’ll make sure of it.” He smiled again as she slowly took his hand. 

Just as the two of them walked out of the room into the corridor, they heard someone from one of the rooms and Amara knew exactly what was gonna happen next. “...Right, I've got the joke! Who's idea was this? Is it Derek's? Is it? Derek, is this you?!” 

The Doctor and Amara entered the room from another entrance. The room was dimly lit like the others. It was some sort of a storage room that was full of plastic mannequins, all of which were walking towards a blonde woman who was backing away from them. 

The Doctor and Amara slowly edged towards the woman, their backs against the wall as she neared the door. The mannequins walked towards the blonde woman and slowly started extending their hands towards her. She cowered against the wall, whimpering softly. 

The Doctor slipped his other hand inside hers, making her turn around in shock. He had a maniacal grin on his face, which was wiped immediately when Amara tugged onto his other hand. “Run!” She yelled, already pulling the two of them behind her as mannequins averted their attention to her and the Doctor. 

The three of them dashed through one of the doors on the side of the basement as the mannequins followed them. Amara had fully let go of the Doctor’s hand at that point and was running as fast as she could down the corridor, trying her best to block out the sound of the footsteps of dozens of plastic Autons that would possibly strangle her like they had done to Wilson. 

She narrowly avoided an Auton which snapped at her from the side and ran towards a pair of blue doors. “Lift’s through there!” The Doctor shouted from behind her. She burst through the doors and ran towards the elevator, which was thankfully not that far away from the door. 

Amara vaguely heard the sonic screwdriver buzzing as the elevator doors opened. She ran inside and pressed a button, attempting to hold the doors open as the Doctor and the blonde woman (who Amara knew was Rose Tyler) ran inside. 

Amara leaned against the wall, about to let out a breath as the Autons managed to catch up and attempt to attack the trio from outside as the elevator doors closed. One of them extended its arms in, and the Doctor wrestled with it for a few moments, ducking as it tried to grab his face, before he pulled its arm off, making the elevator doors shut on its face. 

Amara let out a huge breath, bending down as she attempted to catch her breath. She felt dizzy and her legs hurt. It had been a while since she’d run that fast, and she was tremendously out of shape. All she wanted to do was sit down, but prior experience stated that if she did sit down, getting up would be nearly impossible. 

“You pulled his arm off!” Rose exclaimed from beside Amara. 

The Doctor stared at the arm before throwing it to Rose. “Yup. Plastic.” Rose caught the arm, but Amara edged away from her, breathing heavily. “Keep that thing away from me.” She panted as Rose stared at her, confused. 

Amara shook her head as Rose turned to the Doctor. “Very clever. Nice trick! Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?”

The Doctor turned around, frowning. Amara shook her head again. “No, not students.”

“How do you know that? Anyway, whoever they are, when Wilson finds out, he’s gonna call the police.” Rose remarked.

Amara bit her lip and swallowed hard, flashbacks of Wilson’s body coming back. She leaned her head back against the wall, closing her eyes tightly as she attempted to take some deep breaths to calm herself down. Unsurprisingly, it was fucking painful. 

“Who’s Wilson?” 

“Chief electrician.” 

“Wilson’s dead.” The Doctor said as the doors of the elevator opened. Amara pulled herself up and followed him as Rose ran behind the two of them. 

“That’s not funny, that’s sick!” Rose exited the elevator as the Doctor pointed his screwdriver at the elevator buttons. Amara edged away from Rose, seeing that she was still holding the plastic hand. 

“Mind your eyes.” The Doctor casually said as he soniced the lift buttons before walking towards another set of doors. 

“Who are you both, then? And who’s that lot down there?!” Rose demanded, following the Doctor. 

“I’m Amara, he’s the Doctor, the things down there are aliens that take the form of living plastic.” Amara said as she followed the Doctor. “I know it’s hard to believe, but that’s the truth. And they’re gonna be after you unless you listen to us.”

“Aliens? The hell do you mean by aliens?!” Rose asked as Amara pushed her outside the doors. “And do you mean they’re gonna be after me?!”

“Go home. We’ll take care of it.” Amara tried to smile reassuringly at Rose.

“And don’t tell anyone about this, because if you do, you’ll get them killed.” The Doctor slammed the doors shut and turned to Amara, who was scowling at him. “What?” He asked, his brows furrowed. 

“You could’ve been a little nicer! Poor girl’s extremely confused and probably traumatised!” 

The Doctor rolled his eyes at her before sighing at the look on her face. “Fine, I’ll be nice or whatever.” He opened the door and poked his head out while Amara gave Rose a slight wave. “What’s your name?” 

“Rose.” She said, staring at the pair of them. 

“Nice to meet you, Rose.” The Doctor grinned, before pulling out a red rectangular object with antennae on top and holding it up to her. “Now run for your life.” 

“Bye!” Amara smiled as the Doctor slammed the door shut again. He turned to her and grinned smugly. “See? I can be nice!” 

Amara folded her hands and rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Anyway, how are we gonna get out of here?” 

He frowned. “What do you mean?” 

She gestured to the bomb the Doctor was holding. “You’re gonna blow this place up, how are we gonna get out of here while this place is getting blown up?!” 

He shrugged, walking back towards the elevator. “I dunno, I’ll figure it out.”

“You’ll figure it out.” Amara followed him, “You’ll figure it out! We’re possibly about to get blown up and you didn’t plan an escape route?!” 

They entered a staircase on the other side of the elevator in the same room. “Relax, Mara, I’ll come up with a plan as we go along. Remember Genghis Khan?” 

Amara breathed in deeply, climbing up two steps at a time as she tried to keep up with the Doctor, who was dashing up the stairs. “If I recall correctly,” She managed to say between heavy breaths. She breathed in and out deeply before continuing her sentence. “We were this close to being killed when you figured out that the TARDIS keys could be used as a homing beacon.”

“But I saved us, didn’t I?” 

“That’s not the point!” She grabbed onto the railing and let out a huge breath as they finally reached the top of the building. The Doctor soniced the door open and ran outside. Amara sighed, pulling herself off the railing with great difficulty. “I really should’ve added running to my schedule back home,” She muttered, before taking off after him. 

The Doctor was standing right in the middle of the terrace, holding his screwdriver in one hand and the bomb in the other. He turned around to see where she was. “Hurry up, we haven’t got much time!” 

She ran as fast as she could and stood next to him, bending down and placing her hands on her knees, breathing heavily. The Doctor pointed his screwdriver at the bomb. A few moments later, the bomb started beeping at regular intervals. Amara turned to the Doctor, who placed it on the ground and shoved his hands into his pockets. “It’s got to be in here somewhere…” He muttered. He pulled out a recorder and shook his head. “Of all times! Seriously!” He gave it to Amara, who took it and frowned. 

“What are you doing?” He pulled out a red fez and placed it on her head, patting it before putting his hands into his pockets yet again. “You asked for an escape route, I’m looking for it.” 

“What?!” 

“Don’t freak out, but I think there’s a teleport somewhere in my pockets,” He handed her an old button phone that had three antennae sprouting from it and a spring at the bottom, “And I can’t find it!” 

“You think there’s a teleport in your pockets, meaning you didn’t even check to see if it was there! What kind of a person doesn’t check to see if an important thing they need is with them?!” Amara’s voice was bordering on the edge of ultrasonicness. The Doctor handed her a TARDIS-blue card that said ‘Get Well Soon, Doctor. Love, Sexy’, and she looked up at him as he rummaged through his pockets again. “And what the hell do you even have in your pockets?!” 

“I dunno, random bits and pieces I put in there always end up in here- ah!” He pulled out a translucent blue disc that had a silver border. “Fantastic! I found it!” He grinned at her. “Give me your hand!” 

She did so and he held it in his other hand before using it to press the disc. Amara saw her surroundings disappear, only to be replaced with a room with dim green light lined with coral pillars. Amara sighed in relief as the Doctor ran towards the console. She leaned against the railing as he pulled a screen and pointed his screwdriver at it. 

He stared at it intently, his hands gripping the console edge tightly. He closed his eyes tightly and stayed like that for a couple of seconds. Amara frowned, walking towards him and tentatively placing a hand on his shoulder. The screen had an image of the shop exploding.

He jumped and turned around, startling Amara, who backed away a little to give him some space. He looked around frantically before he seemed to figure out where he was. His gaze moved to Amara, who was looking at him with a concerned expression. “Are you alright?” 

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, before opening them again and shaking his head. “Yeah. Of course I’m alright. I was just thinking about something.” Amara frowned at him, so he gave her a small smile. “I’m alright, Mara. Really.” 

Amara nodded slowly. She knew he definitely was not alright, but she didn’t want to push him. “Okay, um, I’m going to take a shower now and lie down for the next four and a half hours.” She probably was going to do that. The tiredness had finally set in after the adrenaline wore off, and she felt like she was going to collapse at any moment. 

The Doctor nodded at that. “Yeah. Alright. I’ll probably be here repairing the broken thermo couplings.” 

“Good night.” She smiled at him before she walked into the corridor to her room. 

----

She wasn’t able to sleep at all that night. She was extremely tired and felt like her limbs were being pulled down by an invisible force that made moving extremely difficult, and her eyes stung if she opened them for too long, but she couldn’t sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she was being plagued by images of Wilson’s body, the Autons, and the possible feeling of a mannequin hand closed around her neck. 

She kept having the disturbing feeling that someone else was in the room with her. Like someone was creeping toward her. She’d left the lights on for the sole purpose of looking around everywhere to see if she actually was alone. She’d gotten that assurance multiple times, but she still couldn’t shake the feeling off. 

Every time she closed her eyes, she was under the immediate impression that someone was watching her, was creeping towards her to strangle her as she was sleeping. It was sometimes an Auton, and it was Wilson’s blue corpse the other times. 

She felt hot despite the A/C being on in her room, and had to swallow and breathe deeply multiple times to avoid a full-on breakdown. She clutched her sheets tightly, making sure every part of her was covered despite the fact that she was mildly sweating. She kept twisting and turning, changing positions every once in a while, alternating between closing and opening her eyes. Her body preferred it when they were closed and was practically on shut down mode, but her brain was fully alert and awake, trying to fill her up with terrifying and extremely irrational thoughts that she couldn’t help but listen to for God knows what reason. It was like she knew what she was feeling was impossible, but still had to keep checking to make sure she knew right. And that too, repeatedly.

Eventually, she gave up on trying to sleep and sat up on her bed as the TARDIS hummed sympathetically. She reached for the laptop on her bedside table (somehow, the TARDIS had all of her possessions from the other world here- the Doctor had said something about a psychic thing, but Amara didn’t really understand much of it) and reached for her headphones in the top drawer of the wooden bedside table. She opened Google Docs and connected her headphones to the laptop. If she couldn’t sleep, she might as well do something productive. 

She’d been writing even though she knew she’d probably never have her book published owing to the circumstances, but the fact that she’d just left something incomplete had kept nagging her, so she gave up and decided to just continue writing it for her own sake. 

However, to her extreme annoyance, she wasn’t able to concentrate properly at all to type anything in, and even when she did, it was just the result of a sleep deprived brain that attempted to string a few words to make a sentence. She groaned in frustration before staring at the blank document for the next few hours and eventually falling asleep. But even that was disturbed. 

Which was why she told the Doctor that she’d probably have to spend the next morning in the TARDIS when he said that he’d picked up a stray signal. He didn’t seem to mind, thankfully, and had told her that he’d be back as soon as possible. 

Amara lay back down after he left, attempting to sleep again. Thankfully, she was tired to the point where even her thoughts were sluggy, so she managed to drift off quite easily. 

She didn’t know how long she slept, but when she woke up and decided to go into the console room after changing her clothes, the Doctor casually entered the TARDIS with a dark coloured thing in his hand. Amara blinked twice as he came close and figured out what it was. It was a plastic head. 

The Doctor looked up to see her and grinned. “Ah, you’re awake! Just as things are about to get interesting!” He went to the other side of the console, while Amara ran towards the doors. 

She opened the door and poked her head out. There was a loud banging noise coming from one side- like someone was beating on a metal door. Rose was outside, pulling at the chains of a locked door a little ways away from the TARDIS. “Rose, get in here!” Amara yelled, getting the blonde’s attention. 

Rose turned around, her eyes slightly wide. “How are you in there?!” 

The banging on the other side increased and Amara held out a hand to Rose. “I’ll tell you in a minute- you need to get in here or it’ll catch you!” 

“But- that’s a box!” Rose tugged onto the chains harder. “What good’s hiding in a box gonna do?!” 

“A lot of good! Trust me!” Rose stared at Amara for a moment and shifted her gaze to the banging. The metal door was getting huge dents protruding outward, and the banging was getting louder. Rose turned back to Amara and ran towards her. Amara held the doors open, stepping back as Rose ran inside. She closed the doors and turned to Rose, who had stopped moving. 

She turned around, her eyes wide, and pushed past Amara to get outside the TARDIS. Amara walked out behind her. She knew that it wasn’t safe outside, but she also knew that Rose needed some time to process everything. She entered the TARDIS again after Rose did and closed and locked the doors behind her. 

“It’s going to follow us, what’s locking the doors gonna do?!” Rose demanded, turning to Amara, who shrugged. “Locking’s just a precaution.”

“A stupid precaution!” The Doctor called out as he walked towards the console. “The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn’t get through those doors. Believe me, they tried.” He pointed at Amara, “She’s just paranoid.”

“Well, judging by the amount of bullshit you get yourself into, someone has to be paranoid.” Amara went to stand next to Rose and placed an arm around her.

“Safety freak.” He muttered, rolling his eyes, before he turned back to the console, connecting the plastic head to a bunch of wires. “Anyway, the arm was too simple, but the head's perfect. I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source.” He turned to Rose, “Right. Where do you want to start?”

“The inside’s bigger than the outside?” 

“Yes.” The Doctor nodded, smiling slightly. He remembered that Amara hadn’t said that, and that annoyed him to no end. And he had a small feeling she knew he liked hearing people say that, which was why she specifically didn’t tell him that. Oh well, Rose Tyler did, so that was good enough. 

“It’s alien.”

“Yup.”

Rose turned to Amara. “Are you both aliens?”

Amara shook her head. “No, I’m human.” She nodded towards the Doctor. “He isn’t, though.” 

“Is that alright?” 

“Yeah.” Rose nodded, her voice cracking at the end. Amara turned to her sympathetically as the Doctor continued. “It's called the Tardis, this thing. T A R D I S. That's Time And Relative Dimension In Space.”

Rose suddenly started crying and Amara pulled her into a hug, rubbing her back as Rose slowly wrapped her arms around Amara, burying her face in her chest. 

The Doctor suddenly looked startled, his eyes widening slightly. “That’s okay. Culture shock. Happens to the best of us.” The Doctor tried to assure her, but Amara shook her head at him. “I really don’t think that’s the case.”

“Did they kill him?” Rose pulled away from Amara, but still stood close to her. “Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?” 

“Oh.” The Doctor frowned. “I didn’t think about that.” Amara shook her head, closing her eyes and facepalming. She looked up and turned to Rose. She knew that she couldn’t tell her that Mickey was still alive because of plot purposes, but she could see that the girl was clearly upset, so she gave in. “The creatures copying him most probably need him alive, so I’m hoping there’s a high chance he’s alive.” Good. Give out an answer to comfort her, but not something definitive. Technically, that wasn’t a spoiler. Technically . So she wasn’t accidentally playing a hand in the accidental destruction of the timeline because of revealing information she wasn’t supposed to. 

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and shaking her head. Alright, maybe ‘destruction of the timeline’ was stretching it, but she did reveal information a lot before she was supposed to. Well, she was never even supposed to reveal information in the first place, and her intervening made Rose have hope that Mickey was alive, unlike what happened in the actual show. She caused a ripple because of telling Rose this, and she didn’t know the consequences of that. A large part of her believed that it wouldn’t be a big deal. But what if it is? Remember the last time you were confident about something going right? Remember how that blew up in your face? A small nagging part of her mind disagreed. She tried to quash it down by repeating the rational thoughts, but it still stayed. She knew she shouldn’t worry about it, but every time she tried to assure herself, that small voice started to grow louder. 

She was pulled out of her thoughts as the TARDIS lurched, almost pushing her back. She gripped onto the railing tightly, gasping for breaths through her mouth as her heart gave a particularly painful jolt at the shock. She looked in front of her to see Rose gripping onto the railing tightly as well. Her eyes were wide and her jaw was open, like she was trying to gasp, but there was no sound. 

Amara turned to see what the Doctor was doing. He was running around the console, screaming the word ‘no’ repeatedly and pressing buttons and flicking switches. He pulled the monitor towards him before grinning triumphantly. “Here we go!” 

The TARDIS landed with a thud. Amara let out a huge breath, straightening up and pushing a few stray strands of her hair back while Rose stared at the Doctor in shock. The man in question dashed outside the TARDIS, paying no mind to either woman. Rose turned around as he ran out. “You can’t go out there, it’s not safe!” 

Amara shook her head as she followed him. “Well, technically, it’s relatively safer, considering…” She opened the doors as the Doctor had accidentally shut them while running outside. 

“Considering what?” Rose raised an eyebrow. Amara moved aside, gesturing to the door. “Why don’t you see for yourself?” 

Rose frowned at her, but walked outside anyway. Amara followed her and shut the door behind her as Rose walked around. “We’ve moved!” She looked at the TARDIS. “Does it fly?”

Amara shook her head, about to say something, when the Doctor said, “It disappears there and reappears here. You wouldn't understand.” He was leaning against a railing, looking down at the Thames.

“If we’re somewhere else, what about that headless thing? It’s still on the loose?”

“Nah, it melted with the head.” Amara shook her head as the Doctor walked towards the TARDIS. “Look, are you gonna witter on all night?”

“Hey, that’s rude!” Amara scowled at the Doctor. “She asked you a legitimate question!” 

He turned around. “Yeah, well, I need to save this stupid planet full of stupid apes, not answer questions!” 

“One, we’re not stupid, and two, if you’re an alien, how come you sound like you’re from the North?” Rose asked, interrupting the two of them. 

“Lots of planets have a North!” The Doctor folded his hands tightly, shrugging. Amara shook her head. “Actually, there’s another reason as to why he sounds like that but that’s a whole topic for another day.” And also, it meant she had to reveal stuff a lot earlier than they were supposed to be revealed, and that would definitely cause a disaster. 

The Doctor and Rose frowned at her, and she shrugged. “Topic for another day, we’re in the middle of a crisis, remember?” She raised an eyebrow at the Doctor, who cleared his throat. “Right. Crisis. Living plastic. Nestene Consciousness. Totally didn’t just forget that.” He patted his pockets as Amara rolled her eyes at him. 

“Right, so this living plastic, what’s it got against us?” Rose asked, walking towards them. 

“Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. It's food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!” He imitated someone eating. 

“Environmental pollution’s finally started to kick our asses.” Amara sighed, leaning against the TARDIS. The Doctor grinned at her. “Just you wait till 2067.”

Amara nodded slowly. “I will not.” She murmured as the Doctor continued talking to Rose. 

“But I’ve got the perfect way of stopping them!” He reached into his pockets and pulled out a test tube full of a dark blue liquid. “Anti-plastic!” He grinned at the two of them expectantly. 

“Anti-plastic.” Rose repeated monotonously. 

“Anti-plastic!” He gestured to the tube before walking away. “But first, we’ve got to find it. How can you find something that big in a city this small?” 

“Hold on.” Rose said, “Hide what?” 

The Doctor turned around. “The transmitter. The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal.” He started walking in the opposite direction. 

“What does it look like?”

“Like a transmitter. Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London.” He stopped walking just as he was in front of a huge Ferris Wheel with blue and silver lights all over it. “A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Radial. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible!” 

Amara placed her hand on her face to stop herself from laughing as Rose nodded towards the wheel behind him. He frowned and looked behind him, before looking back at her again. “What?”

Rose nodded towards it again. He turned back and forth again and frowned. “What?” He turned to Amara, who was pressing her lips together. “What?!” He scowled at her.

“Round, massive, slap bang in the middle of London, close to where we’re standing?” Amara said.

“Yeah, thanks for repeating exactly what I sa- oh !” He turned around and turned back again, grinning widely this time. “Fantastic!” 

He started running towards the Ferris Wheel. Amara sighed and took off after him, Rose grabbing her hand as she started running too. 

----

Rose had stopped the Nestene Consciousness and saved the Doctor and Amara by making the Autons accidentally kill the Nestene themselves using the Anti-Plastic. They’d now dropped Rose and Mickey off on an alley. He’d asked Rose if she wanted to travel with him, but she declined, saying that she had a life on Earth and had to take care of her mother and Mickey. 

The two of them left Rose and Mickey and were currently floating around in space somewhere near the Sombrero Galaxy. The Doctor was staring at a point on the console while Amara stood at the doorway, looking down at the massive spiral galaxy below her. 

“Wait, how did I not think of this before?!” She jumped, turning around as the Doctor ran around the console. She stared at him for a moment and he blinked at her before shaking his head. “Right. You don’t know what I’m talking about. Remember how Rose said she couldn’t travel with us through space because she has to take care of her mum and that Ricky bloke?”

Amara closed the doors behind her and nodded. “Yeah? And also it’s Mickey.” 

He shook his head. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, what if we told her that we can travel through time as well? Will she come with us?”

Amara shrugged as she walked towards the console. “I don’t know. You’ll have to find out yourself.” 

He pouted. “You know what happens in the future, why can’t you tell me?”

“Because if I do, you might change some things and cause a paradox or something.” 

He nodded slowly. “Fair point. Anyway,” He pulled a lever. “Let’s go and meet Rose Tyler! Again!” 

He grinned at her and she smiled back, grabbing onto the edge of the console to stay balanced. However, she frowned as she felt a surge of warmth pass through her, making her heart jolt and feel dithery. She looked down at the console, and her eyes widened. There was gold light leaking from the edges of the console. “Um, Doctor?”

He didn’t seem to hear her as he pulled down another lever. In the meantime, the light started increasing and slowly made its way towards her, making warmth flood her every time it came in contact with her body. “Doctor?” She called out, a little louder. Her heart rate was slowly increasing and her breathing was becoming shallower. 

The Doctor turned towards her and his eyes widened. “Mara, what’s happening?” He ran towards her, but skidded backwards, like there was an invisible barrier between him and Amara.

“I don’t know! This isn’t supposed to be happening!” The light was becoming brighter and the console was slowly opening up. It slowly started to engulf Amara in gold. She tried to move away, but her hands seemed to be fused to the console. Her heart started beating faster and she swallowed. Her breaths became quicker. There was a lump in her throat, threatening to burst through. 

A huge beam of light burst out, hitting her face. She felt dizzy and her head fell back. She vaguely heard the Doctor shout out her name as she felt a tugging sensation in her stomach- like there was a hook inside and it was pulling her. The light became brighter and brighter as the pulling sensation increased. She started to become dizzier, and soon, everything went black.

Chapter Text

Amara blinked repeatedly when the light faded away, trying to adjust to the brighter lighting wherever she was and trying to get rid of all the dark spots she was seeing. Her heart was still beating extremely fast, and her head was spinning, making her vision worse than ever. 

“Doctor?” She murmured, hoping the man was nearby and knew what the hell was going on with her. She didn’t want to have accidentally encountered a symptom of having the TARDIS literally open up and flood inside her and die from it. Or something like that. She expected that she’d have accidentally turned into Bad Wolf and was finally coming to, but that would lead to some disastrous consequences- and time would fall apart, which was definitely not what was supposed to happen. 

Oh no- what if that was exactly what happened? That would mean Rose could possibly figure out what happened when someone absorbed the heart of the TARDIS long before she was supposed to in case they landed where she was, or in case the TARDIS had possessed her and made her do it- or even worse- the Doctor attempted to extract it from her by absorbing it himself- and that would obviously lead him to regenerate. Meaning Ten would come sooner. And time would be rewritten and things won’t go according to plan and cause the entire universe to implode in itself. Well, something that extreme probably wouldn’t happen, but the key word was probably. Meaning there was still a chance for things to go completely whack. And anyway, anything that went off plan would lead to a disaster eventually- all of Amara’s experiences suggested that, which was why she almost always preferred to do whatever she could to stick to the damn plan.

“Amara?” A deep voice murmured beside her, and she could vaguely feel someone wrapping their arm around her. “Are you alright?” 

“What the- where did she come from?” Another person said- their voice was lower in volume, they were probably further from Amara than the other person. “Does she just randomly appear out of gold light? Is this supposed to be some sort of a weird initiation thing for me or something? How did she even do that?”

“She, erm, I don’t know. But she does that quite often, so that’s another thing for you to keep in mind.” The person talking rubbed her back. “What happened, where did you come from?”

There was something weirdly familiar about the voice, she just couldn’t place where she’d heard it. She blinked a couple more times, her head slowly stabilising and her vision slowly clearing, to reveal a white haired man with sharp features- especially the eyebrows, which were scrunched together.

Her eyes widened and she backed away from the Twelfth Doctor, who frowned before looking at her again. “Amara?”

“What- where- how -” She sputtered, the English language having conveniently left her brain. Her breaths quickened and her eyes widened even more. She pointed at him, “You’re- You’re Twelve!” Her voice was extremely high pitched and the sentence was spoken between gasps. 

“Yes?” The Doctor frowned again, trying to reach for her, but she backed away, breathing heavily. She hit something as she did so, and she groaned, clutching her head, which was in incredible pain. She closed her eyes tightly, trying her best to hold in her scream when someone- the Doctor, presumably, wrapped an arm around her again. 

“Why is she so shocked? Aren’t you both-” The other voice said. She assumed it was Bill, since there was no way Clara sounded like that.

“Our timelines aren’t in the right order. For all we know, this version of Amara could be a lot younger than the one we saw before.” The Doctor told her and turned back to Amara again. “Amara?”

She blinked, straightening up from her slouching position and taking her hands off her face and head, groaning softly. She turned to the Doctor, who was frowning at her in concern. “I’m assuming this is right after the whole Nestene Consciousness thing.”

“No, wait, shut up.” Amara whispered, slowly getting up by taking support of the thing she banged her head on. She looked around the room, her eyes widening. She was in a huge room with electric blue lighting. There was a balcony around the ceiling, having bookshelves and boards at the wall, and a desk facing the side that had the door with a huge comfy chair on it. She turned around, frowning at a young woman with curly hair and a denim jacket, who gave her a nervous smile and a wave. “Hi!”

She turned to the Doctor, who was staring at her expectantly, holding a blue journal and a pen in his hands. She frowned at him. “What the hell is that? And how am I even here?! Do I just keep doing this?!”

The Doctor nodded, and she threw her hands up, turning towards the console, shaking her head. “Great. Brilliant. I’m in a fanfic. I’m dead and the afterlife is a fucking Doctor Who fanfic.” Her hands dropped onto the cool metal edge, when she felt a familiar warmth course through her. She pulled her hands off it before they could probably get fused again, backing away as if she’d been electrocuted. 

“What was that?!” She turned to the Doctor, who was nervously staring between her and the console. “What happened to me? Why-” She pointed to the TARDIS, “What even-”

“Long story short, it’s her way of saying hello.” The Doctor walked towards the console. “Long story long,” He opened his journal and turned to her after turning a few pages. “You’ll find out later.” He raised an eyebrow as he stared down at the journal. “Pretty soon, actually.” He looked up at her. “That is, if this isn’t a prank or something. Which is why I’ll need to know where you just came from.”

“Nestene Consciousness.” She nodded, and gestured to the journal, “What’s that?” 

He looked down at the journal and looked back at her. “Oh, this? It’s how I keep track of, er,” He gestured to her and the console, “Everything. So that I don’t accidentally reveal things you don’t know yet. Don’t wanna accidentally disintegrate the already fragile timeline we both share. You have one too. It’s, erm-” He absently gestured to one of the walls of the TARDIS as he clicked his pen and wrote something down on the journal. He closed it and put it back in his coat pocket before turning to the console. “Anyway,” He gestured to Bill, who was staring at the interaction with great interest, “Miss Potts here hasn’t had a proper first trip in the TARDIS, so we’ll have to take care of that now.” He placed his hands on the console and leaned towards one of the monitors.

Amara turned to Bill, suddenly overcome with embarrassment. “Hey Bill,”

“Hi. Again, I guess.” She waved again before turning to the Doctor. “So, where are we going?” 

At that moment, someone knocked on the door. Bill frowned and turned to the Doctor, who sighed, placing a hand over his face. “Who’s that?” She asked him as he turned around to walk towards the door when the person outside knocked again. 

“Mum,” He muttered, exasperated, as he walked away. Bill frowned at him and turned to Amara, who shrugged. “It’s just Nardole.” Bill nodded as the Doctor opened the door, bringing in a very annoyed and suspicious bald man with glasses. “Excuse me?” He asked the Doctor, “What is the TARDIS doing down here?” He seemed to notice Amara and nodded towards her. “Hello ma’am.” She waved at him, smiling. 

The Doctor turned to him. “I’m over 2000 years old. I don’t always want to take the stairs.” 

Amara smiled softly at that. She’d always loved Twelve’s interactions with Bill and Nardole- especially his dynamic with Nardole. There was a reason series 10 was in her list of top 5 series. 

“Your oath, sir! You’re not supposed to go off-world unless it’s an emergency!” Nardole exclaimed.

“I’m not off-world!” The Doctor threw his hands up. 

“Are you going off-world?”

“I’m going back to my office. Could you put the kettle on, please?” 

Nardole stared at him, still not convinced. The Doctor sighed. “Alright, you know what?” He turned to Amara, “Amara, we’re not going off-world, are we?” 

Amara pursed her lips together to prevent herself from laughing and shook her head. “Nope. We definitely don’t plan to do it.”

He turned back to Nardole, who sighed, before turning to Bill. “Why’s she here?”

“Educational purposes.” Amara cleared her throat. “The Doctor thought it would be a good idea to teach her how the TARDIS works ‘for physics reasons’, as he put it fifteen minutes ago.” 

Nardole frowned for a moment before turning to the Doctor, who nodded. “Exactly! Do you really have that little trust in me, Nardole?” He didn’t even let the man answer his question as he said, “Kettle. Now.”

Nardole sighed and turned around, walking towards the door, muttering some nonsense about how Bill could make her own cup of tea. Once he left, the Doctor turned to the other two. “So, back to your office for a cuppa, then?” 

The Doctor walked towards the two of them and leaned in front of Bill. “Between here and my office, before the kettle boils, is everything that ever happened or ever will.” He walked towards the console, “Make your choice.”

“What choice?” Bill asked. 

“Past or future.” 

Bill stared at him for a few moments before saying, “Future.” 

The Doctor turned to Amara, who frowned but nodded. “Future sounds good, yeah.” And also it was an episode which was supposed to happen and if it didn’t happen, it would disrupt their already fragile timeline, as the Doctor so kindly put it, so she had to go with it. Not that she minded, though. The future was always an interesting time to be in, no matter how terrifying or depressing it was. Well, would be. 

The Doctor nodded and went towards the console, pressing a button. He walked towards a lever and turned to Bill. “Why?” 

“Why do you think? I want to see if it’s happy.”

----

The Twelfth Doctor was definitely a lot better at driving the TARDIS than the Ninth Doctor was. He still wasn’t as safe of a driver as she would’ve liked, but mild to medium tremors were definitely an improvement from literally flying across the ship while holding onto dear life. When she’d remarked this to the Doctor, all he did was shrug and say that she’d made him read the instruction manual and follow it for once. Although, he’d compromised with her to have a little freedom. Well, that was a good thing, then. She didn’t have to worry about dying or getting majorly injured whenever the Doctor decided to go somewhere. For the most part. 

Once the TARDIS landed, the Doctor made Bill exit the TARDIS first. Before the Doctor could exit the TARDIS behind her, Amara cleared her throat behind him. He turned around, frowning. “You alright?”

“What are the rules?” She asked him. “Like, I know I’m not supposed to be telling you anything if I know something about the future, but I’m sure I would’ve come up with more rules if I’ve been jumping around your timeline for quite a while. That is, if I actually have been doing that.”

“You have, and that’s rule number 1a, by the way. No spoilers.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Although, you usually give me a hint on what I’m supposed to be doing. Something that doesn’t reveal much, but something that helps me. And rule 1b is that you don’t change any established events.” He paused, before shaking his head. “Well, you do change a couple of events, but that’s mostly unintentional. Can’t tell you which ones, though. That would violate rule 1a and God forbid someone breaks a rule in front of you.” 

She scoffed at his amused expression, preparing to give her usual response to that. “Rules are-”

“Made for a reason, yeah, it's not like you always keep saying that. Those are the most important rules, I’ll probably tell you the rest later. Or you’ll formulate them before that- we can’t really tell with the whole timeline confusion.” He shook his head, before his hand went to the doorknob. “Anyway, we better get out before Bill ends up breaking rule number one of travelling with me.”

“So I do make the list. Good to know.” Amara murmured as she walked outside as he opened the door. She went to stand next to Bill, who was staring at the place in amazement. They were on a sunny planet that was covered in wheat fields. The wind that blew across was cool and pleasant, balancing the heat of the sun. They were in one of the gaps between the rows of the wheat crops, in front of one of the entrances to what looked like a city that was full of white buildings. 

“So,” The Doctor walked towards Bill with his hands in his pockets. “Any passing comments?”

“We’re on another planet.” Bill gasped, looking around the place. “Which way is Earth?” 

“Ah, space is bent. Earth is any way you choose to look.” He walked in front of the two of them before turning back. “Why, are you thinking about leaving?” 

“Thinking?” Bill scoffed. “I’m not thinking, my brain’s overloaded.” She muttered, before turning back and facing the TARDIS. “Why a phone box?”

“I told you.”

“Yeah, well I know it’s a cloaking device, but why keep it in that shape?”

“Well, apparently the cloaking device’s circuit broke and he doesn’t know how to fix it-” Amara started, but the Doctor shook his head. “No, the manual gives a way to fix it. I just didn’t because, well-” He turned around to see both Bill and Amara raising an eyebrow at him. He turned around again and started walking towards the city. “Anyway, never mind that, come on.”

Amara and Bill turned to each other, both of them suppressing their grins before they followed the Doctor again. “Why do you like it?” Bill asked, skipping towards him. 

“Who said I like it?”

Amara shrugged. “You figured out how to fix it and you didn’t. If it weren’t for the symbolism of the TARDIS and rule 1b, I would’ve been super pissed.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes and ignored them as he walked towards the city. “Come along!” 

Amara skipped towards the Doctor. “You didn’t answer her question.”

He shrugged, pushing his sonic sunglasses up his nose. “I did.”

“You asked her a question. That’s not an answer.” Amara shrugged. “But seriously, why?”

“If I say ‘spoilers’, will you leave me alone?”

She shrugged. “I mean, I’ll have to because of rule 1-”

“Well then, spoilers.”

Amara rolled her eyes. “You just don’t want to answer the question, do you?”

“Spoilers.”

Amara sighed before looking back up at him again. “Has anyone told you that you’re extremely annoying?”

“One person has. Many times.” He walked off, leaving Amara behind, shaking her head. 

----

“This is one of Earth’s first colonies.” The Doctor said as they entered the city. They were in a fully white corridor that had translucent blue windows on one side. There were white pillars on both sides that arched into triangles. The place was beautiful- in a clean and isolated way. “They say the settlers have cracked the secret to human happiness.” The Doctor gestured around the place as Bill took out her phone and took a picture of the corridor behind them. 

“One question.” Bill stopped behind him. He turned around, eyebrows raised. “Little fella said you made an oath? You’re not supposed to leave the planet.”

Amara shrugged. “He’s terrible with rules and orders. Uses the time machine excuse way too much.”

“I don’t see you complaining.” He said, and she shrugged. “Complaining about that would clash with rule 1b. Which, I’m assuming, is the more important rule.” She stared straight ahead. “I’m breaking a rule.” She mused. 

“Is it really counted as breaking a rule if you’ll have to follow a more important rule?” Bill frowned. “Isn’t it like sacrificing something for the greater good?”

Amara shrugged. “You’re right, but it’s a rule! I’m, I’m breaking a rule , I-” She took a deep breath and scowled at the Doctor, who was staring at her with an amused expression. “You won’t understand.” She huffed, and he shook his head. “That’s because I don’t obsess over nonsense like rules.”

“They're not nonsensical, they’re actually pretty helpful!” She shook her head and continued walking forward. She turned to Bill and the Doctor. “And to answer your question about his oath, he did a thing and that resulted in him having to guard the vault in the basement. I can’t say much because it’ll be a violation of rule 1a.” She shrugged, turning around. 

“But he’s not guarding the vault now!” Bill said. 

“Yes I am.” The Doctor exclaimed. “I have a time machine, I can go back to before we left.”

“You can’t, that’ll cause a paradox.” Amara shook her head, and the Doctor rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’ve thought about it.”

“Hang on- wouldn’t causing a paradox cause a lot of problems?” Bill asked, coming to stand next to them. 

The Doctor nodded. “Yes.” 

Bill raised her eyebrows at him while Amara sighed. The Doctor blinked at them. “What?”

“What exactly did you think about?” Bill said slowly, as if explaining something to a little child. 

“It’ll cause a temporal blast that could possibly destroy the timeline.” He ignored the wide-eyed expression Bill had. Amara rolled her eyes. “What’s your plan in case that happens?”

He stared at her for a moment before shrugging. “I dunno, I’ll come up with it when it happens. I’m too busy to do silly things like make plans. And anyway, making plans is her job.” He gestured to Amara, who shook her head. “What if I decide I don’t want to do that?”

The Doctor gave her a disbelieving look. “Well, that’ll mean someone kidnapped you and sent an impostor instead. Anyway, enough talking about boring things.” 

He turned away from them and pointed in front of them. “Look at that building.” He gestured to a huge white building lined with blue glass a little way in front of them. “You know what I like about humanity? The optimism.” He pointed to the sky. “Do you know what this building is made of?” A bunch of tiny black figures that looked and sounded like bees flew across the sky, looking like a fast moving dark cloud. “Optimism.” He said.

Amara looked up at the flying cloud. She knew what they actually were- microbots called Vardies. She’d always found the idea of a whole city built by robots extremely amazing, and seeing it in real life was wonderful. 

“What are they? Alien birds?” Bill asked. 

The Doctor looked up and murmured. “Vardies. Tiny robots.” They walked towards the proper entrance to the city, which was a huge glass door at the bottom of a dome-like structure lined with white walls and clear glass. “They work in flocks. They’re versatile, hard working, good at learning skills. The worker bees of the Third Industrial Revolution.” 

The Vardies buzzed directly above them, moving around in a helix-like pattern, slowly coming close to them. Amara looked up at them and frowned, stepping towards the Doctor and Bill. She felt someone take her hand and squeeze it, and frowned when she saw that it was the Doctor. The most surprising part, he didn’t even seem to notice he did that. 

“Probably just checking us out for security.” He said, tilting his head towards Amara slightly. “They’re perfectly safe.” 

“These are robots?” Bill asked skeptically. “These are disappointing robots.” 

The Doctor stopped in his tracks and turned to her, gaping. “That’s a very offensive remark. Don’t make personal remarks like that.”

“Why do you sound so offended?” Amara smiled slightly, walking towards him. “Are you secretly one of them?” She gasped, pretending to be shocked. “Have you been lying to us about your species the whole time?”

The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Why, Amara Kashyap, you are hilarious.” 

At that moment, a loud, piercing sound hit her ear. She flinched, placing a hand on her ear, closing her eyes tightly as Bill yelled. “Ow, what was that?!” 

Her voice was directly heard in Amara’s ear, which made her close her ears and groan in pain. She felt someone place a hand on her shoulder. “Amara-”

“What’s happening?!” Bill yelled, and Amara flinched hard. She never did like loud noises. “They’ve upgraded our ears, I think.” Amara muttered, and the Doctor said, “I think it’s a communication device that is using our own nervous system as hardware.” 

Amara opened her eyes and blinked. She was slowly getting used to the whole voice-directly-inside-her-ear thing. It was still loud, but she wasn’t completely shocked or paralysed by the loud noise. 

“I’ll never lose my phone again!” Bill exclaimed, walking towards them. “I’ll never run out of battery again!” 

Amara frowned, staring at Bill. “What the hell are you talking about?” 

“Close your eyes and think about something you wanna see!” She grinned at her. “It’s like I have a whole piece of software in my head, like a phone!” 

Amara’s eyes widened. “What?!” She knew about another type of technology that did the exact same thing, and she did not want those two to be connected in any way possible. She turned to the Doctor, who shook his head. “No, it’s not like Cybus, don’t worry.” He walked in front of them, before turning back. “I think. If it is, then, well,” He shook his head. “Eh, I’ll figure it out if that’s the case.” He continued walking forward, leaving Amara standing there, eyes wide and mouth agape. Bill raised an eyebrow at her. “What’s Cybus?” 

Amara shuddered, shaking her head. “Company from a parallel world. They create robots using advanced earphones.” She walked towards the Doctor, her hands folded, a realisation slowly coming to her. She couldn’t say more. Not when- not when Bill was going to have more , erm, interactions with people similar to them in the future, so that might technically count as a spoiler. All of a sudden, she didn’t feel so good anymore. She felt hot- and scared. And nauseous. A small chill passed through her, making her shiver.

“What’s wrong?” She snapped her head up towards the Doctor, who was frowning at her in concern. She shook her head and gestured towards one of the triangular doors, which slowly opened to reveal a small white robot at the doorway.

“What’s that?” Bill placed a hand on Amara’s arm, having walked towards the pair of them. She stared at the robot before smiling. “Now that is a robot. That is not a disappointing robot.” 

She walked towards it, leaving the Doctor looking scandalised. Amara smiled weakly at his reaction as she walked towards Bill and the robot. The Doctor pointed at the small white robot, which was staring at them with smiley faces for eyes. “Technically, this isn’t a robot at all. The tiny little things- those are the robots. This is just an interface for them.”

“Does it speak?” Bill asked the Doctor. “Will we understand it?” The robot looked at the Doctor, its eyes in the form of question marks. 

The Doctor bent to the robot’s level. “Depends on what aspect of your language has survived over many thousands of years.” 

The yellow screen on the robot’s face flashed again, changing its eyes to smiley faces once more. “Emoji!” Bill exclaimed, “It speaks emoji!” 

The Doctor stared at her and back at the robot, the disappointment evident in his face. “Of course it does.” He muttered as the robot’s face flashed again, replacing the smiley faces with thumbs-ups. 

“Aw, it’s cute!” Bill tilted her face and showed it a thumbs-up as it looked up at her. Amara took a deep breath and nodded, forcing a smile. Unknown to her, this did not go unnoticed by the Doctor. In all the years of his life, he’d developed the practice of taking note of her reactions- especially those of her early versions- to everything to get somewhat of a hint about things, especially since she was extremely secretive about her spoilers. 

The robot held out its hands, three blank yellow circles on them. Amara took one and placed it on her chest, feeling it slide down her back as the Doctor showed his to Bill. “Blank patches.” He muttered as Bill shook her head and pointed at the frowny face on his. “Yours isn’t blank.” He flipped it around as Bill did the exact same thing to hers. “It’s never on the side you’re looking at.”

The Doctor turned to Amara, whose hands were folded tightly across her chest. He frowned slightly. “Where’s your patch?” 

“I put it on.” She murmured, pointing to her back. 

“You put it on your back?” Bill frowned. Amara shook her head. “No, I put it on, and then it slid down my back.” 

“Why?” 

The Doctor stared at his patch. “I think this is some sort of a mood indicator. That’s why we can’t see our own.” He turned to Bill, “You know, since knowing your mood affects it.” 

Bill nodded, before putting the badge on her chest. It slid back and she turned around as the Doctor did the same. She turned back again. “That means everyone you walk past can see what you’re thinking.”

“What you’re feeling.” Amara murmured. The two of them turned to her, frowning. She shook her head. “It shows a face that represents what you’re feeling- it doesn’t have your exact thoughts written down on it, so it can’t show what you’re thinking.” 

The Doctor smiled slightly at that, glad that she was at least a little similar to her usual self. He’d managed to sneak a glance at her mood patch before she put it on, and he did not like what she was feeling. He had a small idea as to what caused it, but he could never tell when it was early Amara. She was always a lot more reserved and cautious around him when compared to the later versions of her. 

Bill nodded, before turning to the Doctor. “What if you fancy someone? Wouldn’t they know what you’re feeling?” 

The Doctor gulped. He hadn’t thought about that. Well, looks like he had to be extremely careful from that point on. He turned to Bill. “Well, I suppose you’ll have to maintain eye contact with them.” He walked towards Amara nonchalantly.

“Oh, that’s brilliant!” Bill whispered as the robot turned around and started to toddle away. If it weren’t for the fact that the robots were actually murderous, Amara would’ve agreed about how cute they were. 

“Welcome to the future.” The Doctor said, following the robot into a huge white corridor. “Emojis. Wearable communications. We’re in the utopia of vacuous teens.” He complained. 

“Dei, my sister’s a teen.” Amara said, folding her hands and staring up at him. “Tread lightly.” 

He threw his hands up and raised his eyebrows, walking forward. “Yes ma’am.” 

They walked into a huge balcony-like place that was right underneath a dome made of clear glass. The railings of the balcony were also made of blue glass and the whole place was white in colour. There was a table with three chairs, and in front of each chair was a plate. Two of the plates had a blue cube each in them and one of them had two. 

Bill ran towards the table. “It knew I was starving!” She sat in front of the table. “Food from another planet!” She looked up at the Doctor and Amara, who were standing a little ways away from the table. “What? You’ve got to eat, haven’t you?” She bent down to smell the cube. “Smells like fish.”

“All the reason for me to not eat it.” Amara muttered, backing away slightly. 

“Should we eat, though?” Bill asked, pointing her fork at the robot. “What if they’re not like us?” 

“Well, the cutlery is human cutlery, and no other species uses emojis. Everything here is human. Except-”

Bill placed her fork and knife on the table, having cut out a small part of the cube. “But no humans.” 

The Doctor spread his arms out, walking backwards. “This is the perfect colony- but where are the colonists?” He turned to Amara, who shrugged. “Rule 1a. No spoilers, remember?”

He shook his head. “No, no, this isn’t a spoiler, this is background information.” He walked towards her. “Unless it’s an important plot point. Then it’s a spoiler.”

“Which would mean I would’ve accidentally revealed something without actually saying anything.” Amara muttered, her eyes widening slightly. “And I’d violate rule 1a anyway. Or waste my one hint.” 

The Doctor nodded slowly. Amara frowned, turning away from the two of them. She didn’t know if her rules specified lying as an option- although if they did, that would probably ruin the whole point in a way. Plus, she had a feeling the Doctor knew when she was lying. Maybe because he was notorious for lying himself. Unless- 

She turned around. “The colony has just been built. This is just the skeleton team. They’re preparing the place for the actual colonists.” She gestured to the smiley- well, now frowning- robot. Technically, she wasn’t lying, and if the Doctor came to any conclusions, that was all on him and not her in a way, so she didn’t have to worry about that either. Plus, it wasn’t a spoiler- hopefully. 

The Doctor nodded slowly. “That’s it.” He ran towards Bill, Amara following along. “This whole place. It’s waiting.” 

Bill nodded, and then frowned at the plate with two cubes. “So, they’re all still in bed? Also, why two portions?” 

“That would be mine.” The Doctor said, and Bill frowned. “Is there gonna be food sexism even in the future? Is this bloke utopia?”

“It's probably reading me as two people.” He gestured to his hearts. “Two heartbeats.” The Doctor walked away from her, going on a tangent while Bill’s eyes widened a little bit. Amara shrugged. “Yeah, two hearts. He’s an alien, expects everyone to just go along with it. And yes, he has really high blood pressure.” Bill slowly took a bite of her cube.

“... You send a rocket load of intelligent robots up ahead of you.” The Doctor continued walking around, spreading his hands out, oblivious to the exchange. “They build you a place to live, so that, when you arrive, it's all waiting. This is brilliant!” He ran away from the robot towards the window, continuing to talk.

“Why does he have two hearts?” Bill asked Amara, and she shrugged. “Different physiology. Different number of hearts. I’m not even sure he knows the answer to that.” 

“...send data back, so you know whether to bring your waterproofs or not. Work in huge robot flocks. You just send them up ahead and you leave them to it!” He leaned against the window railing thing, looking outside. He turned around, running towards the two of them. “This is brilliant! We don’t have to deal with a bunch of nosy pudding brains!” 

“I’m sorry, what?” Bill turned to him, an eyebrow raised. “Pudding brains?” 

The Doctor rolled his eyes at her. “Have you met another human? Of course they’re pudding brains.” He gestured towards the two of them. “No offense to you two- you’re a few of the only exceptions.”

“Wow, that’s a comfort.” Bill stood up, shoving the entire cube in her mouth and flinching as she swallowed it. “Too salty.” She muttered. 

Amara giggled while the Doctor rolled his eyes. “Like I said, pudding brains.” 

“Hey, that’s rude!” Amara grinned, shaking her head. The Doctor smiled back, “I’m not ginger. When I’m ginger, I’ll stop being rude.” 

“One of the numerous rule number ones- the Doctor lies.” She shrugged. She really had to make that list when she had the time. 

He rolled his eyes at her. “ You’re the one who’s insane about following rules. I’m,” He gestured to himself. “Unpredictable.” He waved his hands around, before turning towards another corridor. “Anyway, come along!”

----

The three of them then followed the robot into a greenhouse inside the complex. It had a huge transparent dome covering it, lined with white arches. There were different rows of plants and herbs like rosemary, cabbage, and potato. Each row was separated by a bunch of grey stone paths. There were sprinklers leaning down from the dome, spraying the plants with a white powder at regular intervals. 

The robot went to stand by one of the plants- probably to take care of it- while the Doctor, Bill and Amara walked around on the stone paths. Amara stood close to the Doctor and as far away from the robot as possible. Her breathing became shallower as her sense of dread increased slowly. She knew what they were gonna see, and she was not looking forward to it. However, she tried her best to look as calm as possible- she had the mood patch on and didn’t want to take any risks. 

The Doctor frowned at her, placing his hands behind his back. “So,” He started, making her jerk her head towards him. He closed his eyes, internally reprimanding himself for startling her like that, “What do you think?” He gestured to the garden, “Lovely place, isn’t it?”

“I guess,” She said, her voice extremely low, but slightly high-pitched. The Doctor frowned at her again. “You sure you’re alright?”

She looked up at him and forced a smile. “Yeah, of course.” She nodded, lifting her hands, which had two thumbs-up gestures, “Why wouldn’t I be?” 

“So, since people aren’t here, what do we do?” Bill, who was walking a little ways in front of them, asked, “Put a kettle on?” The Doctor stopped, frowning at something on the ground. He bent down and picked it up, flashing it to Amara before hiding it behind his back. It was a blue pendant on a metal chain. Amara shrugged slightly, clasping her hands together. 

Bill, who hadn’t noticed any of this, turned around. “Or are we gonna leave before they arrive? Is that what you’re worried about?” 

The Doctor smiled at her and started walking forward, Amara following him. Bill frowned at the two of them. “I can see you’re both worried.”

Amara shrugged, widening her fake smile while the Doctor shrugged, leading the two of them forward. “Well, you never know what’s around the next corner.”

They walked into another section of the greenhouse, which was strictly just rows of plants. The ceiling was a lot lower, and the pumping of the white powder was a lot more often than it had been in the previous section. The smell of rosemary hit Amara’s nose, mixed with a little bit of mint.

 “Ah, of course, wheat fields outside, now something else to eat when they get here. This is their crops. Look, they're going to have orchards, olive groves. This is their nursery.” The Doctor pointed to the robot, which was standing in front of a plant, its arms outstretched. Small golden light particles started forming around the plant. Amara frowned at them, before turning to the Doctor, who shrugged. “I know it looks like, well, can’t say because rule 1a, but it’s not that. The little robots are doing pollination-” He straightened up, his face hardening in realisation. “Work.”

He turned to Amara questioningly, and she shrugged. “I can’t read your thoughts, man. And even if I could, I don’t think I’m supposed to answer whatever you’re gonna ask me.” She muttered, as Bill let out an exclamation. 

“Oh, this plant!” She was standing in front of a rosemary bush. “There's one of these growing outside the Student Union. It smells amazing.” 

“Rosemary.” The Doctor said absently before walking towards Bill. 

“I'm smelling home twenty light years from home. Thanks for bringing me. This is a great day out.” She walked forward before turning to the Doctor again. “I mean, come on, admit it. You love it.”

The Doctor faked a smile. “ Did I say I didn't love it? Yes, I do. It's very lovable. You asked me where all the people were, and I theorised that they hadn't got here yet. Did I sound convincing?”

“Yes?” Bill said. The Doctor turned around. “And did I convince myself?” His mood patch had a frowny face on it. “No.” Bill shook her head. 

“No.” The Doctor repeated. He turned back to Amara. “And I'll tell you why. Because there should be somebody here. There should be some kind of set-up team, a skeleton crew.” He turned to Amara, his eyebrows raised, and she nodded slowly, her hands folded tightly. 

He turned around and started walking slowly. Bill pointed at his mood patch. “You’re thinking. Tell me what you’re thinking about.”

“A magic haddock.” Amara closed her eyes and shook her head. Bill frowned. “Obviously.” She muttered, as Amara walked over to her and whispered, “It’s an analogy.”

“For what?” She raised an eyebrow and Amara shrugged. “All I can tell you. I’m just attempting to convince you that he’s not completely batshit.” 

The Doctor whirled around and pointed at Amara. “Language.” She frowned at him before folding her hands, closing her eyes, and shaking her head. 

Bill placed her hand underneath one of the streams of the white powder. “What is this stuff? Is it snow?” 

The Doctor placed his hand underneath as well. “This is fertiliser. Mineral fertiliser, calcium-based. Now, Bill and I don't have answers, so let's put together two questions.” He walked towards the end of the greenhouse, placing a hand on one of the numerous white panels. “What is the source of this mineral fertiliser?” 

He pulled out his screwdriver and used it on the panel, opening it up to reveal a grinder that was producing the white powder. Amara slowly backed away, knowing what was coming next, while the Doctor soniced a lower part of the panel. “And where are all the people?” He mused as the lower panel popped open, a bunch of human bones and skulls spilling out of it. 

Chapter Text

Amara stepped back and away from the bones, trying to look at anything but them. Bill jumped and backed away. “Oh my God!” 

The Doctor bent down and picked up a skull, holding his hands to the sides of its temples. He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. Amara placed a hand on his arm tentatively. She knew he’d somehow telepathically connected with the skull and seen how it died, and that must’ve been a horrible experience, irrespective of how much death he’d seen. He looked down at her for a moment before turning back to the skull. “Despite appearances, they haven’t been dead very long.” He murmured. 

“What, those are the colonists?” Bill asked in an extremely high-pitched voice. 

“The colonists aren't here yet. This is the set-up team, the skeleton crew. Literally.” 

“Why did the robots feed them to the garden?” Bill’s voice cracked as she slowly moved towards the Doctor and Amara. 

“I dunno, maybe they ran out of fertiliser.” The Doctor turned around, grabbing Amara’s hand in the process. “Let’s not ask them!” They all ran towards the exit of the greenhouse when they ran into the small robot. Amara forced a grin, letting out a huge breath through her nose and taking one in, trying her best to maintain the smile. 

“Hello!” The Doctor wheezed, Bill waving weakly at the robot. “We were just admiring your garden.”

The robot turned to Amara, it's eyes now in the form of teary faces. She widened her grin, her cheeks starting to hurt as she nodded. “Mmhmm!” Her voice was high pitched and breathy and she pressed her lips together tightly. The robot turned back to the Doctor. “Moving on now because there's nothing of particular interest here. Cheerio!” 

They ran past the robot outside the greenhouse and ended up in front of a white staircase, down which they started running. 

“If he's chasing us, he's moving very slowly!” Bill exclaimed between breaths. 

“Makes you wonder why it’s doing that, doesn’t it?” Amara exclaimed, struggling to maintain her smile. She knew they were under complete surveillance, and even though she knew they were going to be safe for the time being, she didn’t want to take any chances. Especially not when there were a bunch of murderous emoji robots spying on them.

“What?!”

“It means they don’t have a reason to run!” The Doctor yelled, running behind both of them. 

“Great, we’re going to die!” Bill yelled as they ran into a building. 

“Not if we escape first!” The Doctor yelled back. The three of them ran into the middle of a corridor which then split into three other paths. All of which had a bunch of robots slowly dawdling towards them. 

“Okay, they're slow, but the city is full of them, so they catch you in the end.” The Doctor said. 

“What do we do?” Bill turned to Amara, “And why are you smiling? How is any of this funny?”

Amara shook her head. “It’s not, but I suggest you both do the same.”

“ Why?! ” 

“Well, because of this!” She turned around, showing off her mood patch, hoping it was a smiley face and not the poster child for anxiety. 

“Yeah, they show what you’re feeling, what’s the point?” 

“Smiles aren't just smiles. Psychologically, they have a measurable effect on your mood states. Yes. These robots, they built this place, they grew those trees. Something went wrong, but they were designed to make you happy.”

“How would massacring hundreds of people make me happy?” Bill frowned. Amara gritted her teeth and shook her head, slowly moving closer towards the two of them. 

“‘How would massacring hundreds of people make me happy’, smiley face!” The Doctor shook his head and forced a grin. Bill forced one too. “Smiley face!” She said in a singsong voice. Amara slowly diverted her gaze towards the robots, frowning as she saw their faces were now crying emojis. She continued to keep an eye on them, though. In case they decided that they didn’t want to be standing still anymore. Which was extremely probable. 

“The magic haddock.” The Doctor said intensely. Amara placed a hand on his arm as the robots’ expressions slowly went from sad to doubtful. “Smiley face!” She hissed, and he inhaled sharply, smiling. 

“What magic haddock, she said it was an analogy.” She nodded towards Amara. “For what?”

“The robots want you to be happy but they got the wrong end of the stick. I think we should give them what they want. Don’t even try without smiling.” He turned towards the robots in one of the corridors and started walking towards them, a huge smile on his face. “What a lovely place you have here. Thank you so much for your hospitality.”

“We will come again. Doctor, I was thinking maybe next time we might go to Wiltshire, perhaps, or Aberdeen.” Bill said, in an equally false cheery tone. 

“Or somewhere with snow.” Amara said in the same tone, trying to keep her smile level. She was serious about the snow thing, though. Having grown up in South India, she’d never actually seen snow before and was planning on doing so. In fact, it was at the top of her ongoing bucket list she’d started making before the whole time-jumping mania started. That and Apalapucia. Well, Apalapucia when there were no epidemics there. Alright, she’d put Apalapucia after getting vaccinated for every possible disease that could be prevented with a vaccine. 

“Ah, yes. Two thumbs up for Wiltshire slash Aberdeen slash somewhere with snow.” The Doctor said, listing his hands into two thumbs up as he and Bill slid past the robots against the walls, while Amara carefully stepped through between the two of them. 

The moment they knew that the robots couldn’t see them, the three of them took off towards the exit of the building. They’d managed to escape the city, even though they hit two not-so-tiny problems: Bill getting caught by a robot, which the sonic took care of, and them being chased by a huge chunk of the Vardies which were part of a wall. But, they finally reached the TARDIS. Which was the good part. 

Bill ran towards the doorway of the TARDIS and turned around. “Are they coming after us?” Amara shook her head, placing a hand on one of the TARDIS’s walls, breathing heavily as her chest constricted. She really had to find a way to get used to all the running. 

“I'm guessing that once we're out, we're not their problem.” The Doctor answered as he reached the TARDIS. “Right. You'll be perfectly safe in the Tardis. She'll look after you until we get back.” The Doctor started running back towards the city again. Amara, however, stood by the wall, knowing that Bill was going to ask the Doctor a bunch of questions, causing him to run back and forth- and if she was going to be facing a bunch of killer robots she possibly needed to run away from, she’d rather save her energy whenever she possibly could. 

“Where are you going?!” Bill exclaimed, causing him to run back again. 

“There's a giant smiley abattoir over there and I'm having this really childish impulse to blow it up! Be right back!” He was about to turn away and run, but turned back again, pointing towards Amara. “Why are you still standing there?”

Amara shrugged. “Why can’t I? I want to stand here.”

The Doctor shook his head. “No, no, no, no, no. You always do stuff for a reason. I’ll have to figure out the reason.” 

“You might also want to de-confuse your already confused student, which should be your bigger priority at this moment…” She nodded towards Bill, leaning against the wall. The Doctor turned towards Bill. 

“Yeah, de-confuse me! Why do you want to go back in? We've only just escaped! I thought we were going home.”

“Home? Why would we be going home? That place is a living deathtrap. We can't just leave it with its mouth wide open!”

“But they're all dead. We saw them. It's too late.”

“We have to assume that there is a colony ship on the way. What do you think's going to happen when all those people arrive? They're expecting the new garden of Eden. What they are not expecting is to be the fertiliser.” He pointed towards the TARDIS, “There's broadband in there.” It was when he said this that Amara finally pulled away from the TARDIS and walked towards him. He slightly turned his head towards her and then turned back to Bill. “Go! Go and watch some movies or something!” 

He held out a hand for Amara, which she took, and the two of them started running back towards the city, leaving Bill shouting behind them. “I get that someone has to do something but why is it you? Can't you phone the police? Isn't there a helpline or something?”

Amara turned around briefly. “Read the sign!” 

“And stay away from my browser history!” The Doctor turned towards Amara, who had a disapproving frown on her face. “What, I can’t scar another human with it! You lot faint too easily!”

She shook her head and continued running. “I don’t even know if I want to know at this point.” 

----

They’d eventually stopped running once they reached the city because they didn’t want to attract suspicion from the robots. The two of them entered a pristine white corridor with grey floors, and were walking through it. There were no robots in sight, which Amara was extremely grateful for. 

“How are you feeling?” The Doctor suddenly asked her out of the blue. She turned towards him and frowned. “You know, after the whole jumping through the timeline shock and the emoji robots and the skulls.” 

She shrugged. “It all feels like I’m in a weird fever dream even though I know this is real.” She folded her hands and rubbed her arms, taking a deep breath before forcing another smile. She had to be careful, he could see her mood patch. 

“You don’t have to pretend to not be worried, you know.” She turned up to him, frowning slightly. He gestured to her mood patch. “That thing might fool a bunch of robots, but not your best friend.”

“Bold of you to assume you’re my best friend.” Amara scoffed, attempting to change the subject, which he thankfully seemed to accept. 

“Bold of you to assume I’m not, because last I checked, we’ve known each other and worked together for almost a thousand years.” 

Amara nodded slowly, before a realisation hit her. “Wait, what? Was I there for the whole thousand years?! Or have you known me for a thousand years while I just randomly jump in and out in short intervals?” 

He shrugged casually. “Like I said, last I checked, we’ve known each other and worked together for almost a thousand years.” They walked around a turning, only to come face to face with a robot, snuffing out the question Amara was going to ask. Or, well, scream. 

“Ah! Good morning! I'm happy! Good morning. Look at me, I'm happy, happy, happy, happy! What a lovely, beautiful morning, it makes me so happy. I'm happy. I hope that you are happy, too.”

“Your subtlety makes me extremely happy.” Amara grinned, trying to ignore the pain in her cheeks. “You see, it’s totally not obvious that you’re lying at all.”

“And your sarcasm utterly overjoys me.” He turned to the robot and turned around, Amara doing the same. “See? We’re both happy.” 

They turned around, and to Amara’s relief, the robot’s frowny face became a smiley one. It slowly toddled away and the two of them walked in the other direction. The Doctor stared at the locket he was holding before he placed a hand on one of the sloping white walls. He turned to Amara, his eyebrows raised. “I was right and Bill was wrong, these definitely are the superior robots.” 

----

The two of them were walking down a spiral staircase with railings that looked like the sloped walls when the Doctor grabbed Amara’s arm, preventing her from going forward. He placed his other hand on his ear. “Hello? Is someone there? I can hear you breathing.”

“Why are you Scottish?” The Doctor and Amara turned around, the former relieved that it was just Bill and the latter grinning at her. The Doctor grabbed Bill’s arm and started walking down the stairs behind Amara, who giggled. 

“I’m not Scottish, I’m just cross.” 

“Is there a Scotland in space?”

“They're all over the place, demanding independence from every planet that they land on. Why are you here?” 

“Because I figured out why you keep your box as a phone box.”

“I told you, it was stuck.” 

“You also said that there was a way to fix it in the instruction manual.” Amara turned around and told him. He rolled his eyes. “That’s my way of rebelling against an established set of rules that I’m bound to follow to keep the timeline intact.”

“No it’s not. See, you don't call the helpline because you are the helpline.” Bill said. 

The Doctor stopped, scowling. “Don’t sentimentalise me right now. I don’t just fly around helping people out.” 

Amara shook her head while Bill threw her hands up. “What are you doing now?” 

“I just happen to be passing by, so I’m mucking in.” 

Bill frowned. “You’ve never passed by in your life! You didn’t even leave me serving chips, so I’m not going to leave you.” She grinned at him. The Doctor turned to Amara, who shrugged. “She has a point.”

He stepped down onto the landing and went to stand in front of Bill. He pointed to the wall beside them and muttered, “Look at the wall.” 

“The wall?”

“Closely.” 

Bill walked towards the wall and placed her hand on the railing in front of it. “Before, when the Vardy, the little microbots, were going to attack you, you asked me where they came from. Well, they didn't come from anywhere. They were here all the time.”

“Wha- in the wall?”

“No. Not in the wall.” He pulled Bill back. He pulled out his screwdriver and pointed it at the wall, pressing a button that caused the portion he was focusing on to magnify. It was still the wall, except it looked a lot like a white-silver mass of buzzing maggots. Amara stepped back, scrunching up her nose a little. 

The Doctor swept the screwdriver along the wall, magnifying different parts of it, everywhere having the same result. “They are the walls. They're all the walls. These little robots, they didn't build this place, they became it. They can be a part of a wall one minute, flying around the next. This whole structure is built from interlocking microbots.” He turned to Bill, who was staring at him, dumbfounded. “Smile! You’re in the belly of the beast.” 

Bill smiled back. “So, what do we do?” 

“Well, the obvious. We find a real wall.” He looked at Bill, who was grinning. “Oh, you really are smiling, aren't you?”

“Do you know why? You’re an awesome tutor.” 

“When am I not awesome?” 

Amara shrugged. “I could name at least three instances from the last adventure we had with the Nestene Consciousness.” 

“If any of them involve me not formulating an escape plan before we went into Henriks, I’d like to point out that you wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for my genius last minute epiphany.”

Amara scoffed. “Whatever.” 

----

They’d finished going down the rest of the stairs and were now in a passageway that had white walls which appeared to be more cracked and patterned than the smooth ones they’d seen before. “When the Vikings invaded, they used to pull their longboats out of the water, turn them upside down and live in them as houses until they'd pillaged and looted enough to build new ones.” The Doctor said. 

“So?” 

“You didn't see a space ship outside, did you? When the settlers first landed, they must have lived in it and built out from it, so it's still here, somewhere inside this building.” 

As if he’d conjured it up, they reached a turning where the pristine white wall slowly faded into a metal wall with patches of crimson-brown rust coating it, growing bigger as they got closer to the door. “Ah. Bits of meteor damage. Flecks of rust. Rivets. Oh, I love rivets. A wall. A real, honest wall. Not made of tiny robots but made of any old iron.” He ran his hand across it as Bill grinned. 

She walked towards the handle. “Every spacecraft needs a door!” She pulled onto the handle, and seeing that that didn’t give any satisfactory results, she attempted to push it. As she was struggling with the door, the Doctor casually placed his hand on a square-shaped screen, which lit up, making the door open. 

“It’s not even locked.” The Doctor said incredulously as the opened doors now revealed a huge corridor made completely of metal with red lights all over the place and tubes hanging from the ceiling. The corridor lit up in sections, a loud clicking noise sounding every time a part lit up. 

“They really were expecting to live in peace.” The Doctor mused as the three of them entered the spaceship. Bill walked forward, looking around, her eyes wide, while Amara looked at her surroundings while also glancing back a few times to see if there were any robots that had followed them there or something. Once the Doctor got in, he pointed his screwdriver at the door. “We’ll lock it after us, shall we?” 

“That would be great.” Amara smiled. “Unless we need to make a quick escape and the locked door will just prove to be an inconvenience because it’ll take us a while to open it. But also we’d be safe from anything outside if we do lock the doors-” Her voice trailed off as she saw the two of them staring at her. Bill’s eyes were wide and the Doctor looked like he seemed to be expecting it in a way. Shit. She closed her eyes and shook her head before opening them again. “You know what? Just- just lock it. Or not. Do whatever, I don’t care.”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows at her. “You sure?”

She shook her head. “Yeah, yeah, completely, whatever you think is right.” 

He shrugged and turned towards the door. “Right.” He pointed the screwdriver at it again, and the door slowly started to close. “Locked the door.” He turned around and grinned at the two of them. “Shall we?” 

They walked down one of the corridors as the ship continued to light up and start cooling down. “The ship’s life support systems are starting up, it knows we’re here.”

“Whoever did the interior decoration in here needs to take lessons from whoever did it out there.” Bill said, gesturing to all the metal pipes and tubes and cylinders. 

“Ah, this was built by humans, that was built by Vardy. Wet brains, dry brains.”

They walked for a little longer when the Doctor turned around and grinned at the two of them. “Ah! Good, old, universally compatible, incorruptible maps.” He pointed to a huge metal sign that had a map of the entire ship on it. It was also covered with rust and dents and some other things Amara really didn’t want to know about. Among those things, there was a bright red pin at the top left corner of the map. 

The Doctor ran his hands across it, making Amara recoil a little. “You are here. This is the engine room. That's the target. That's where we’re going.” He gestured to himself and Amara. 

“Where am I going to go?”

“You're staying here and you will be guiding me to here, using this map. I'll hear you through the thingamabob.” He tapped his ear and walked away, Amara following him. Bill muttered something about her being in a real live spaceship, when the Doctor said, “Right or left?” 

Amara flinched, shaking her head at him. “Don’t scare her!” 

“Yeah, don't scare me! Thanks Amara!” The Doctor rolled his eyes at Bill’s reply and was about to say something again, when Bill said, “Oh, and go right.” 

They went right and entered a room full of all sorts of things. There were random Egyptian artefacts and paintings, a few computers ranging from primitive to modern, and Amara even thought she saw the stuffed head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex in there. It was probably there because of time travel. 

“Well, they were certainly planning to make themselves at home here.” The Doctor picked up a statue of the head of who Amara thought was Nefretiti, and walked around with it. “They brought all their favourite knick-knacks.”

“There should be a door that leads into a corridor.” Amara jumped slightly when she heard Bill say that. It really was unsettling to hear Bill even though she was far away, but Amara pretended that they were all on a bluetooth call. That’d probably normalise things. “I really am on a spaceship.” Bill murmured. 

“Yes. Which we’re about to blow up.” The Doctor grinned. 

“How are you allowed to do that? Like, how are you allowed to blow something up and not get into trouble? I mean, blow something up, get into trouble. That is a standard sequence.”

“Keep in mind that this is the Doctor.” Amara said. “Blowing up stuff is how he communicates. But seriously, you might not want to do that.” 

The Doctor rolled his eyes again. “What do you mean, allowed? It's a moral imperative. This is a murder machine.” 

“Beautiful, though, I mean, the whole place. You should be able to see a staircase.” 

They went towards said staircase in a dimly lit corridor. What was it with Doctor Who and its dimly lit corridors? Amara knew that they had to set up some sort of an ambience, but would it kill people to make the places brighter? 

“All traps are beautiful, that's how they work. Up or down?” The Doctor asked as they reached the front of the staircase. 

“Down.” They started walking down the stairs when they heard Bill’s voice again. “What? What's this big bit in the middle? There's a big empty space in the middle. The engine is right in the middle of a big empty space. What's that for?” 

“Attention. Attention.” Amara jumped, grabbing onto the railing as a voice was heard all around them. She let out a huge breath when she realised that it was just the PA systems. “Erehwon systems initiated.”

“The ship's systems are set to respond to human presence. It was sleeping. We walked in, now it's waking up.” Once they got down the stairs, the two of them walked straight towards what looked like a dead end that just led down. 

“There should be a ladder.” Bill said, and the Doctor confirmed it. They went down the ladder, and once they reached the bottom, the Doctor pulled open a trapdoor, releasing a lot of white steam. Amara looked down and saw that the place downstairs seemed to be a lot brighter than where they were. 

The two of them walked down the ladder and ended up in a huge room that was basically just a chasm with four railing less balcony-like paths that led to a circular centre, which was where the engine was. It was a huge rectangular shaped object with dials all over it. 

“Beautiful. Fleishman Cold Fusion Engine. All I've got to do is back the flow into the calorimeter and run. It's like it wants to get blown up.” The Doctor got down and started walking towards the engine. Amara, on the other hand, was a lot slower than he was. She hugged herself and started walking forward, trying her best to stay at the centre of the path and not look down. She wasn’t afraid of heights, but the prospect of someone falling down thousands of feet wouldn’t be appealing for anyone. And Amara was the type of person who would look down from a huge height and wonder what it would be like to jump off, so she wasn’t willing to take any chances. 

“Hold on, I’m being thick.” Bill’s voice sounded in her ear. “I can come with you.” There was a soft clicking sound from her side, and the Doctor chuckled. “Took that long to think of photographing it?”

“You’ve already memorised it, haven’t you?” 

“Yup.”

“Stop trying to keep me out of trouble!” She exclaimed and Amara shook her head. She was extremely close to reaching the Doctor, who was close to the engine. “There’s no trouble!” The ground shook, and Amara screamed as she stumbled, falling onto the Doctor, who grabbed onto the engine for support. “This is gonna be a stroll in the park.”

Once the ground somewhat stabilised, Amara straightened herself, muttering an apology to the Doctor, who shook his head. He inched his way to another side of the engine as she walked forward and grabbed hold onto the side she was in front of. The ground was definitely vibrating more than it was before. Amara grabbed onto the engine tightly even though there was a path behind her. 

The Doctor was sonicing different parts of the engine while asking Amara to press a few buttons at times when Bill’s voice suddenly came through. “Doctor, why did people come here? Did something terrible happen?”

“I can’t hear you!” He lied as he pulled out a wire, only for a gust of steam to hit his hand and make him drop the wire. 

“Are you alright?!” Amara exclaimed and he shrugged. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry- seriously, I was overreacting.” She frowned and turned back to the engine when Bill said, “I’ve got to know!” Her voice cracked and Amara closed her eyes tightly. “The people who came here- were they the last people?”

“Humans live for a really long time, Bill, don’t worry- we make it to the end of the universe…” Amara whispered. 

“She’s right. Earth was evacuated because of a bunch of solar storms.” The Doctor pulled out a metal grate on the floor. “But there were a number of ships. I've bumped into a few of them over the years. Right, I've re-routed the flow.”

Amara raised an eyebrow as a wheel on the engine continued turning, making a creaking noise. The Doctor noticed as well and went towards the wheel. “No, no, no, no. That's not right. Bad noise. That's not right, no, no!”

“Maybe the universe is giving you a sign to not blow up the place!” Amara exclaimed and he frowned. “Is that a hint?”

“Yes!” 

“I’m gonna need your help here, the engine’s malfunctioning. And Bill’s as well!” 

Amara tried to step towards him, but recoiled again as her foot slipped. She breathed out shakily, tightening her grip on the engine. She turned to the Doctor, who was holding out a hand. “It’s alright, you won’t fall down! Just concentrate on the engine and not what’s below us!” 

She pursed her lips together, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath in and out. She opened her eyes again, slowly moving her foot towards the other part, her grip still tight on the engine. She looked at one part of the engine and concentrated on it, humming the first thing that came into her head as she slowly made her way to the Doctor. When she was going to shift her handholds, she hummed louder and tried not to look anywhere else as her heart rate slowly started to increase and the lump in her throat started to become painful. 

The Doctor placed his hand on hers and gripped onto it as she stepped off the platform and onto the path he was on, breathing shakily. He was smiling at her. “See? I told you.” 

She nodded. “You did. Anyway, what do I do?” 

“I need you to pull those levers over there.” He pointed to a bunch of levers as he grabbed onto a wheel and started to turn it. 

“Doctor, there’s something you need to know.” Bill’s voice sounded in their ears. 

“I’m too busy!” The Doctor attempted to pull back the wheel, which was continually spinning in the opposite direction to what they needed it to be. Amara made the mistake of looking to her side, where she saw an emoji robot standing there, two skulls for its face. “Doctor!” She exclaimed, when she suddenly felt a rush of blood in her head, making her vision blurry. “Doctor!” She yelled a little louder, feeling something tug at her in her stomach. Her head started spinning and she felt a warmth in her chest and her hands, her grip on the levers slowly beginning to slacken. 

“It’s alright, don’t panic!” His voice seemed like he was talking to her from a mile away, even though his voice was directly heard in her ear. 

“Doctor, what’s wrong?!” Bill exclaimed. “Is everything alright?” 

“Yeah, well, mostly, anyway.” His voice started to become more distorted and distant as the tugging in her stomach increased, making her feel mildly queasy. “Amara-” Was all she heard before everything went black.

Chapter Text

When she opened her eyes again, she was in a room that was a lot brighter than the engine room she was in. She groaned, placing a hand on her head and sitting up, waiting for the blood to flow back down and for her vision to clear up.

When it did, she slowly stood up, blinking as she adjusted to where she was. It didn’t take long for her to figure out she’d jumped again, but as she looked around, she noticed that she was alone. 

She was in a TARDIS console room with bluish green lighting, a meshed floor, and coral pillars. She was either with Nine or Ten, then. And the Doctor appeared to not be there. She took a deep breath and placed her hands on the console, feeling a familiar warmth surge through her. Thanks to Twelve, she already knew that it was just her way of saying hello, but she still pulled her hands away the moment after it surged through her. 

“Sorry,” She said to the TARDIS, “Still trying to, er, get used to all this.” She gestured to herself and the console. The TARDIS hummed at her, sending a feeling of warmth throughout the room. She smiled and walked towards the console and tried to make sense out of which point in the Doctor’s timeline she was in. If that was even possible. 

She really hoped that she didn’t end up landing directly after she first jumped in the Doctor’s perspective. She’d have absolutely no idea on how to even explain that to him. Or even how he’d react. He’d taken the TV show explanation pretty well- which reminded her- she had to ask him how he did that. 

She pulled the monitor towards her to see if there was any indicator on when she was. The sides of the monitor were covered in pink and yellow sticky notes. Some of them had random Gallifreyan symbols on them, while others- she couldn’t see them. Well, more like she could see them but every time she tried to read what was written on them, her eyes skirted onto a note with a Gallifreyan message on it. Like her eyes didn’t want to read the note. Which was stupid, because she controlled her eyes, not the other way round. 

She did manage to be able to read one note, though. It was a long piece of ruled white notebook paper taped onto the monitor that had “Grocery List” as its heading, and had a bunch of items written on it in two different sets of handwriting- a round cursive she recognised as her own and a slanted, thin cursive that was neat and elegant at some places and looked like a seismograph reading at others. At the bottom of the list, there was a note written in capital letters, reading “Only buy what’s on the list”. 

She turned to see what was on the monitor, directing her gaze away from the sticky notes, which seemed to be insistent on making sure she didn’t read them. It showed a set of blueprints of what looked like a plane-shaped spaceship, and had a yellow squiggly line going through a path to a place that was labelled as the engine room. 

She looked up as the door to the TARDIS opened with a bang, steam coming in. Through the steam came the silhouette of a tall and skinny man with extremely spiky hair. Amara exhaled softly, placing a hand on her chest. In came a man wearing a brown pinstripe suit. He had extremely messy brown hair that was sticking up everywhere, and was covered with black stains all over his face and clothes. He closed the doors behind him and turned towards the console when he noticed Amara. 

A huge smile made its way onto his face. “Mara! Hello!” He walked towards the console. She smiled back at him, waving slightly. “Hi! Um- what happened?” She gestured to him and he shrugged. “The usual. Got bored, decided to go have lunch with Marie Antoinette, wanted to do something fun so I swept the local system for distress calls, found one, saved a bunch of people, and now-” He pulled down a lever, causing the TARDIS to jolt. Amara grabbed onto the edge of the console as the hourglass inside the column in the middle of the console started to move up and down. “I topped off their amazement by disappearing!” He turned to her and grinned, pulling another lever, making the TARDIS stop oscillating. 

“Anyway, enough about my brilliance,” He then reached into his pocket and pulled out the same blue book and a pen before turning to her. “What have you been upto? Where’d you come from?” 

“I don’t think I can tell that to you.”

He frowned. “Why not? It’s what you’re supposed to be doing, you enforced that rule, that’s what happens every time- you appear, you tell me where you are in the- oh.” His high-pitched bullet-train speed tangent ending with a soft ‘oh’ concerned Amara. “What?”

“You were in my future before this, weren’t you?” She nodded slowly. “And before that, you and I first met Rose.” She nodded again. 

He stared down at his book, flipping through a bunch of pages before marking something with his pen. He looked up again, a smile plastered on his face. “Is this your first time meeting this me?”

“Am I supposed to be saying that? Because the you in the place I was in before said that the most important rule was for me to not tell you anything.”

He tilted his chin and scratched the back of his neck, “Well, not anything , per se, you still give me a few hints from time to time and may have accidentally told me a major event-”

“ What?! ” Amara was one hundred percent sure her ‘what’ surpassed the intensity of all of Ten’s ‘whats’ and she would’ve been ready to fight anyone who disagreed. 

The Doctor shook his head, laughing slightly. “I’m joking, I’m joking, you really think you of all people would accidentally let something slip?” 

“At this point, I’m ready to believe anything because I honestly can’t tell whether you’re joking or not since we have a spoiler rule and you’re known for being textbook enigmatic at times.” She shrugged, making his smile widen. “Oh, that’s perfect, then! I get to annoy you!” 

“How is that supposed to be a good thing?!” 

“It’s fun.” He shrugged, and she rolled her eyes. “Moonji.” 

----

“Okay, so when do I find out what the hell is happening to me?” Amara was sitting on the captain’s chair in the console room, watching the Doctor dry off his hair with a fluffy blue towel a while later. He turned to her and shrugged. 

“Future you said that I will learn about everything ‘pretty soon’. When’s that?” 

“Usually, that means the next place you jump to.” He threw the towel behind him, ignoring Amara’s sigh of disapproval. It landed perfectly on the railing. Amara turned to him, eyebrows raised. “So?”

“So what?” 

“Aren’t you gonna tell me why I’m doing this?” 

He stared at her for a moment. “Oh, yeah! Right. At this point, the closest thing I can come up with to an actual explanation is that this is a side effect of you looking into the heart of the TARDIS. Or, well, the TARDIS opening up in front of you.” 

“Didn’t Rose do the exact same thing?” 

“Ah, you see? That’s where I’ve hit a sitch as well. But there’s no other explanation that makes sense.” He tilted his chin, “Well, ‘trapped in a fanfiction world’ was close, but we both ended up deciding that one was bogus, anyway,” He looked at her, “It could be arbitrary as well since, you know, the TARDIS is sentient and all, and looking at her heart has different effects on people, like Blon turned back into an egg, Rose became Bad Wolf, and you,” He pointed at her, “Started jumping around my timeline.”

Amara shook her head. “No, no, that doesn’t make sense.” She stood up and started walking around. “Blon turned into an egg again because she wanted a fresh start and Rose became Bad Wolf because she wanted to save you.” She stopped walking and threw her hands up, facing the Doctor. “I never wanted to be thrown into an unpredictable loop in an already unpredictable roller coaster!” 

“I think need is a more accurate term than want when it comes to what the TARDIS does when you look into her heart.” 

“ Why would I need this?! ” Amara exclaimed in a high-pitched voice. “Why would anybody need this? This- this- this doesn’t make sense, I don’t need this, I can’t need this! There is nothing that I’ve needed less than being stuck in a fanfiction trope!” 

The Doctor shrugged, smiling slightly. “You’re confusing ‘want’ and ‘need’ again.” 

She scowled at him. “Oh yeah! Because jumping around someone’s timeline will end up fixing everything whether I like it or not.” 

“We almost never want what we need, Mara, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s something we need and that we need it for a reason.” 

Amara opened her mouth to say something before shaking her head. “Do you find out why I need it? Don’t tell me why I do, but tell me if you know.”

“I don’t,” He shrugged. “That’s a question only you’ll be able to answer. Anyway,” He reached behind him and threw something at her. “This appeared on the console some time ago when you were taking a shower.” 

Amara caught the notebook and looked at it. It was a dark brown- almost black- hardcover journal that had golden flowers painted all over it, all of them connected by golden vines with leaves and swirls. Her name was written in an elegant cursive at the bottom of the cover and there were two ribbon bookmarks sticking out- one that was a dark orange and another that was a golden silver. So this was the notebook Twelve had mentioned earlier. 

She opened it and flipped through. The first few pages were blank and had small hexagon shaped boxes in them, all connected by a line and all moving in somewhat of a straight line. The later pages, which were the majority, were all ruled. She looked up at the Doctor, who was staring at her expectantly. 

“This is how we keep track of our timelines, right?” She looked up at him. He nodded. “The boxes in the first few pages are for you to write down the name of the episode you experience whenever you jump, and then you write down everything that happened during that time in the later pages.”

“What if I jump to a non-episode point?”

He shrugged. “I think you end up making up a name then, I dunno. We never show each other our journals. Oh- and also- you’re supposed to fill in the box only after you jump away from somewhere.”

She nodded. “Is that all or is there anything else I need to know?”

He shrugged. “Not that I remember anything else. At least, these are the rules you insisted on as far as I know.” 

“Right.” She nodded, placing the book in her pocket (the TARDIS was kind enough to provide her with bigger on the inside pockets ever since she started travelling with the Doctor), and the two of them sat in silence for a few moments before Amara cleared her throat. “So, um, what do we do now?”

The Doctor looked at her and shrugged. “I dunno, erm, do you want to go somewhere? How far are you on your bucket list?”

“I wrote down like, ten places? I don’t know, it’s far from being complete.” She shrugged, getting up. 

“I mean, how many places have you visited in it so far? Your bucket list always has new places added to it.” 

“None yet.” She walked towards the console and placed her hands on the edges, feeling the same warmth again. It startled her, but she didn’t pull her hands away. “I’ve only been doing this for a week, and most of my trips so far were either near death experiences or heart attack inducing ones, which, now that I think about it, practically mean the same thing when I’m with you.” 

The Doctor pouted. “Come on! What’ll your life be like if you don’t have a few of those?”

“Filled with less anxiety?”

“More fun, Kashyap. I meant more fun.” He pulled a lever down, making the TARDIS start vibrating softly. 

“I do not understand the way your mind works. Anyway,” She looked up at him from the other side of the console (he’d managed to skip there to start up the TARDIS), “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

“Yeah?”

“Do I need to be vaccinated or anything? You know, there’s all sorts of alien viruses out there and I’ll be travelling around, and, well, I don’t want to die of some random alien plague that turns you purple before blocking off all of your major blood vessels and/or respiratory pathways and making your head explode or something like that.” The Doctor frowned and she rolled her eyes. “It was just an example!”

“An extremely unlikely one.” He reached into his pockets and pulled out a white bottle and threw it at her. She caught it and opened it, frowning at the purple gummy-bears inside. She looked up at him. “Are these multivitamins or something?”

“Immunity boosters. They improve your disease resistance by altering your genes slightly, and before you ask, they’re perfectly safe. Been tested on multiple humans and they’ve all remained the same, except they led healthier lives. And it is one hundred percent vegetarian, and is completely cruelty free. I was there when they were manufactured.” 

Amara smiled at him. “Good. Do I need to take these only once or is this like a regular thing?”

“Just take one now and you’ll be good.”

She took out one of the mauve bears and popped it into her mouth, waiting for it to dissolve. It tasted a lot like strawberries and oranges, making her screw up her face at the sourness. She shook her head and shuddered after swallowing the booster. She closed the lid of the bottle tightly and threw it to the Doctor again. “Thanks, by the way.”

“Come on, Amara, you’re my best friend. You don’t have to thank me for anything.” He placed the bottle in his pocket and turned to her again. “Now, first thing on your bucket list.”

She shrugged sheepishly, the blood rushing to her cheeks. “Didn’t really specify a place. It’s just somewhere with snow.”

The Doctor grinned at her. “Oh, I’ve got the perfect place in mind. Allonsy, Amara Kashyap!” He yelled, pulling down another lever, making the TARDIS lurch. 

----

“Are you sure this is warm enough?” Amara asked, zipping up her grey jacket. She was wearing a huge, fluffy grey jacket with red patterns on it and a huge padded hood, thick black pants, a beanie in case it got extra cold, a scarf, mittens, snow boots, and thick socks.

“I already told you that I am.” The Doctor stood at the console, wearing the exact same thing he was wearing before, except for the addition of his classic brown trench coat. He was playing with his screwdriver, leaning against the edge of the console. 

“Are you sure it’ll be warm enough for me, though?”

“Yes, I am.” He said in an exasperated tone. Amara felt slightly bad about repeatedly asking him the same question, but, in her defence, she was prone to getting really cold really easily and would be extremely unpleasant to be around if that was the case. 

“The amount of trust you have in me is astonishing.” 

She rolled her eyes and walked down the stairs when he walked towards the doors. He opened them and waited for her to step through. 

When she stepped out, she felt cool air hit her face, but thankfully, it wasn’t horrible because of all the layers she was wearing, and the hood of the jacket worked surprisingly well against the cold wind. 

She felt the ground crunch under her shoes as she slowly walked outside the TARDIS. They were in what looked like the clearing of a forest full of pine trees that had snow bunched up in the junctions of the trunk and branches. In front of her was a pond with a waterfall in it, both of them frozen and in a very light shade of blue. The waterfall came from a small cliff made completely of grey rocks, all of which were topped with snow. 

Amara gasped, mist coming out of her mouth as she did so. A smile slowly formed on her face as she continued to look around where they were, being as close to the TARDIS as possible. Danger or no danger, she did not want to get lost. 

She heard the crunching of someone else’s footsteps behind her and she turned around to see the Doctor walking towards her, his hands in his pockets and a yellow and red scarf around his neck. She didn’t know where he got it from, but judging by the fact that this was a man who managed to somehow produce a glass of water from his pocket, she wasn’t that surprised. 

“So?” He asked her as he came to stand next to her. “What do you think?” 

“It’s beautiful.” She said, slowly walking towards the frozen pond. “Where are we?” 

“Not that far from Earth, we’re in the local system. Still in the Mutter’s Spiral- that’s the Milky Way, if you were wondering. This planet’s called Parusala. Completely uninhabited. Too cold for the creatures that live in the local system, at least. It’s the furthest from the star all the planets here revolve around, and it’s really far from the planet before this one. There’s no other planets nearby for ages. Isolated and quiet, just the way I like it.” The Doctor tried to ignore Amara’s intent gaze on him as he told her everything. He’d gotten used to it- she’d always listened intently to anything he said, whether it was some random tangent about banana pancake dispensers or all his plans for the cursed toaster that never seemed to work unless Amara hit it at least 4 times or something deeply philosophical, but he couldn’t deny that he’d get extremely self-conscious whenever it happened. 

He turned to her and she smiled, making him smile back at her. “Right, then, enough of me infodumping on you,” He bent down and picked up some snow. When he stood up, he saw that Amara was backing away from him really fast. He shook his head and threw the snowball at her anyway. She screamed and swerved to the right, narrowly missing it. He made more snowballs and threw them in her general direction as she ran towards the TARDIS to hide. “You do know that hiding’s useless, right?” He called out to her, receiving no response. He shook his head and slowly walked towards the TARDIS. 

Amara leaned against the cool surface of the TARDIS, standing perfectly still and screwing her ears to hear if the Doctor was close or not. She could hear his footsteps crunching towards her, becoming closer each time. She slowly edged her way to the other side of the TARDIS, trying to be as quiet as possible. She soon reached the TARDIS’s doorway, the ‘Pull to open’ sign gleaming at her. She attempted to open the doors, but they didn’t budge. “What the-'' She murmured, turning around, only to be pelted with a large snowball on her shoulder. She couldn’t really feel anything since the jacket shielded her from most of the snow, but she scowled at the Doctor, who was doubling over laughing, holding an armful of snowballs. 

His laughter, however, was short lived as Amara threw a snowball at him, where it hit him square in the stomach. He looked up at her, his eyes narrowed and a playful smirk on his face. “Oh, it is on.”

She ran behind the TARDIS as he aimed another snowball at her, hearing it hit the doors with a thwack. “Oi, that’s not fair!” She heard him protest. “No hiding behind the TARDIS!” 

She smirked and made her way to the other side, throwing a snowball at him the moment she was in his line of sight. “I was making a plan of attack. That doesn’t count as hiding.” She swerved to avoid a snowball of his, only to get hit by another one. She threw three of her own in response, one of them hitting the Doctor. 

“Fine, no going behind the TARDIS for any reason whatsoever!” He threw a snowball at her and she ducked, narrowly missing it. 

About an hour later, the two of them sat by the pond, a huge snowman between the two of them. Amara suggested it halfway through the snowball fight since the two of them had come up with a billion random rules and quite frankly, it got old very quickly. 

The snowman had eyes made of stones and a stick for a nose (the Doctor refused to sacrifice his carrots for the snowman even though he stated that he hated them- when she questioned it, he just shrugged and responded with “I’m the Doctor.”). Amara had gone in and got out the Fourth Doctor’s scarf and hat and placed them on the snowman. The Doctor was obviously not happy with the choice of clothing, but Amara jokingly telling him that Parusala would always have a guardian looking after it, he seemed to calm down a bit. Before telling her that a snowman couldn’t possibly protect a planet from an alien invasion. 

“Why do you keep doing that?” Amara looked up from her hands towards the Doctor, who was frowning at her questioningly. 

“Doing what?”

“Staring down at your hands like that.” He nodded towards them. She shrugged. “I dunno- they seem to be the part that glows first when I’m about to, well-”

“Leave?” She nodded slowly at him. “Yeah. I don’t want to be surprised with an exit again. Trying to find a pattern, or a sign, or-”

“It’s completely random, both where you jump and how long you stay.”

“Why?” She groaned, looking up at the frost-blue sky. 

“Maybe a side effect of it being my timeline? You know, since I’m mysterious and unpredictable.”

“And annoying.” She muttered, crossing her legs. She turned to him, “Am I gone a lot?” That had been another question nagging her.

He shook his head. “No, you’re not. You usually stay from hours to months, I can never really tell, but you always come back as soon as possible. The longest you’ve been gone was about a week, I think.” 

Amara smiled slightly at that. “That’s good, then.” She had another question regarding something Twelve had told her, but she knew she couldn’t ask him the answer to that one. Or at least, this version of him. Not without accidentally spoiling something. So she was ready to wait for the answer to that later. 

“Yeah, it is.” The Doctor smiled back at her.

----

Chapter Text

Amara stepped out of the TARDIS onto a beach. The water was the perfect oceanic blue, and the sand was almost white. The wind that hit her face was pleasant and slightly salty, and the sun was shining brightly down on her. 

“This isn’t where we’re supposed to be,” The Doctor stepped out from behind her, frowning. “I’ve been to Nohadon at least seven times, and I don’t remember there being an ocean that’s blue in colour.”

“What colour is the ocean there?” 

“Purple.” He walked forward, stuffing his hands in his pockets. 

“Where are we, then?”

He placed a finger in his mouth and brought it out, making Amara recoil in disgust. “Do you have to do that?”

He held up his finger and turned to her. “You asked me where we were, I’m answering your question.”

“By licking your finger?”

“It helps me to determine the contents of the atmosphere here and narrow down our location!” 

“And it gives you germs and will probably make you sick!” 

“I’m a Time Lord, I don’t get sick!” He rolled his eyes. “And anyway, I think I might know where we are.” 

She raised her eyebrows and he said, “The atmosphere is mostly nitrogenous but also has a decent amount of oxygen- the rays aren’t ultraviolet, or, well, the rays we feel here aren’t, and,” He jumped, making Amara back away slightly, frowning, “The gravity’s middling- I’d say we’re somewhere on Earth.” 

“But there’s nobody here.” She walked towards him, gesturing to the empty beach. “Earth’s got almost 8 billion people living in it, and we’re on a beach. Why are there no people here?”

“Maybe it’s Sunday.” He shrugged. “Sundays are boring, although, beaches are boring too, and people do boring things on boring days, so there should be people here, but even that depends on what timezone we’re in, and that’ll take a while to figure out.” 

“Do you think it’s safe?”

He turned to her, gesturing around. “Safe? We’re in a beach ! Name one place that’s safer than a beach!” 

“A fortified castle that’s also underground and can never be found unless someone wants to, has excellent security, and has discreet escape routes that can only be accessed by the people living in it. Ooh, and has enough food and water to last at least five years.” 

The Doctor blinked at her. “You’ve really thought about this.”

“I always get plagued with dreams about a serial killer or a bunch of terrorists coming into my house and killing me or me having to escape undetected. That really prompts people to design the ultimate defence bunker.” 

He shrugged and tilted his chin. “Makes sense. Anyway, do you want to explore around a bit?”

She shrugged, folding her hands. “I don’t know- we don’t know where we are and what’s here. What if we get lost? Or killed? Or injured? Or what if something happens to the TARDIS? Or-”

“Or what if nothing happens at all and we just have a fun day at a random beach?”

“You can’t guarantee that.”

“Neither can you guarantee that something bad will happen.” He held out a hand. “Come on, Mara, we could either get back into the TARDIS and miss out on something fun, or we could explore for a bit and have the time of our lives.”

Seeing that she was still hesitant, he added, “Alright, then. The first sign of danger, we come back immediately. Whenever you want to. Yeah?”

She took his hand and nodded slowly. “Okay.” 

----

“Do you have to note down every distinct looking landmark in your notebook?” The Doctor asked Amara as she wrote about a pair of trees growing out of a sand-coloured rock that was distinctly square shaped. There had been a bunch of rocks facing the beach, which they’d climbed up and landed up in some woods. Amara had her timeline journal with her, but had seen that there was a section specifically called “Places you visit”, and she decided to use that one to note down everything she saw. 

After she finished writing, she looked up at him. “Judging by your wonderful record of getting lost and not knowing where the TARDIS is, courtesy to the Genghis Khan incident-”

“Oh, for the love of all things bright and beautiful, please stop mentioning the Genghis Khan incident.”

“I will not, because I remember you pissed him off and were about to get us killed and that would’ve been prevented a lot sooner if you’d known the way back.” He scowled at her and she rolled her eyes. “Believe me, you’ll thank me later when I have a comprehensive path that’ll lead us back to the TARDIS when we see the first sign of danger.”

“ If we see the first sign of danger, anyway, are you done?”

She nodded and stepped over a few spherical rocks to go and join him. “Any idea on where we are?”

He shrugged, holding up a huge leaf. “Still nothing clear, but we’re definitely on Earth. Feels Atlanticky, but I can’t be sure- oh my God!”

He let go of the leaf, disappearing from view as it fell back behind him. Amara climbed over a few roots faster. “Oh my God what?” 

He didn’t answer, making her heart rate increase a little bit. “Oh my God what ?!”

She almost tripped over a root as she tried to reach him as soon as possible. Her carelessness was so rampant that she actually ended up bumping into the Doctor by accident, almost pushing him off what she would later find out was a cliff. 

He turned around and managed to grab her arms and steady her, after which she muttered out an embarrassed, “Sorry,”

“It’s alright.” He murmured as she went to stand next to him, before gasping. “Oh my God!” 

They were on a cliff that had a sand-covered path that looked like sandstone that led down to a valley- if it could’ve even been called a valley, that is. The ground was entirely covered in sandstone-like rock paths. There were mountains all around said valley, and the perimeter of the valley was full of sandstone statues. Amara couldn’t make out what they were exactly as they were high up. The valley itself had a very cracked ground, vines sprouting through them and running unevenly across. The very middle of the ground had a ruined fountain that was circular in shape, but had a lot of cracks in its perimeter, the same vines growing out of it and into the fountain, covering the statue in it with vines. 

“Remember how I said we were on Earth?” The Doctor said a few moments later. “I take that back. No place on Earth’s ever been like this, and I’ve been almost everywhere.”

Amara nodded slowly. “I deduced that much.” 

The Doctor turned to her, holding out a hand. She raised an eyebrow and he shrugged. “No signs of danger yet.” 

She sighed. “I guess.” The Doctor grinned as she took it, and the two of them started walking down the sandstone path. 

----

“Definitely worshipped the sea gods,” The Doctor murmured, inspecting one of the statues closely. It had the head of a lion, the body of a human, and a mermaid tail. Its hands were clad with stone wristbands, and it was holding a stone spear, whose tip was nearing blunt what with all the crumbling stone. “Seem to be Pan Cromated.” He turned away from the statue to Amara, who was noting down every detail of the statue. He tilted his head and pouted. “Come on, we’re on a mysterious island with the mysterious remains of a city even I don’t know about, and all you can think of is taking notes like this is a class you need to pass?”

Amara continued writing, looking at the statue occasionally. “Thank me later.” 

“I’m telling you, with my excellent sense of direction, there’s no chance we’ll get lost.” He came to stand next to her, looking down at what she was writing. “And don’t even mention the Genghis Khan incident,” He said as she opened her mouth to say something. “We all have bad days.” 

“I was gonna tell you that irrespective of whether you have a good sense of direction or not, it's always better to have a backup plan.” 

The Doctor shook his head as she closed her book, muttering something in a language she didn’t understand. “You said something about a Pan something?” 

He turned around, stopping his tangent. “Yeah, Pan Cromated. In galactic terms, that’s some time after the Silurians and Sea Devils went into hibernation due to the whole asteroid threat. Looks very Earthy, if you ask me.”

“But you said that there was no way a place like this was on Earth.” 

The Doctor’s grin became borderline maniacal and there was a gleam in his eyes when she said that. “Exactly! That means there was a civilization nobody knew about, and we’re probably the first outsiders to see it!” 

Amara, however, was a lot less enthused. She folded her hands, shrugging. “What if there was a reason nobody knew about it? What if they wanted to be hidden?” She hugged herself tightly as a gust of wind blew past them. Amara thought that it was a lot colder than before. “What if there’s something really sinister here?”

The Doctor stared at her for a moment before bursting into laughter. “You really think something’s gonna happen in a city that’s been abandoned for so long?”

“What if it was never abandoned?” She whispered, moving closer to the Doctor, feeling the familiar fast heartbeat start up again. 

“Ghosts don’t exist, Amara.” The Doctor said softly. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Amara took a deep breath and shook her head. She was travelling with the Doctor, of all people, and was jumping through his timeline. She was gonna be doing this for a while- she couldn’t be a walking ball of anxiety all the time. “No, yeah, you’re right.” She forced a smile at him, hoping it would become real soon. “There isn’t anything to be afraid of. I was just overthinking things. Let’s go look at the rest of the place. Unknown civilization, there’s probably a lot to see.” 

The Doctor looked at her for a moment and raised his eyebrow. “You sure?”

She nodded, the grin still on her face. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be sure?”

“I dunno, you seemed pretty not-so-sure earlier.”

She shrugged. “I changed my mind. People do that all the time.”

“Come on, Mara, in what angle are you ‘people’?” 

“In all of them?” 

He stared at her for a moment before tilting his chin and shrugging. He held out a hand and she took it. “So, what do you wanna see first?” She asked him as they started walking, and he frowned. “You don’t wanna choose?”

“I said I changed my mind about being scared, that doesn’t mean I’m still not indecisive as fuck.” 

“I wouldn’t really word it that way, but you make a good point.” 

“When do I not?” She said, taking a deep breath as she tried to quash down that tiny voice in her head that was objecting to her current decision. She knew it would get louder as time went on, but that was a problem to take care of then. Unless it actually meant well and she was being an idiot. 

She took a deep breath. She was with the Doctor. And everything looked safe. Oh, yeah, of course, venture into the unknown and what could be a possible death scenario because it looks safe! Maybe it was safe and she was just overthinking it. Or maybe it wasn’t and she was underthinking it. 

She felt the Doctor’s grip on her hand tighten, which brought her out of her overthinking tangent. She blinked and looked at him, surprised but relieved that he was just casually walking towards one of the statues that looked like half a horse and half a mermaid with human hands and a trident, green vines looping around it, not seeming to notice that he’d tightened his grip on her hand.

He then stopped dead in his tracks, making Amara frowned. “What’s wrong?” 

“Shh- hold on.” She stared at him as he closed his eyes for a few moments before opening them again. “Someone’s here. Someone else. I can feel the vibrations of their footsteps.”

“Really?” She murmured, turning to the other side and narrowing her eyes. “And the fact that they literally just walked out of the bushes there didn’t give it away?” 

“Wha-” He turned to the direction Amara was looking. True to what she said, there was a young man and a young woman walking out of the bushes, both of them dark-haired and carrying backpacks. They couldn’t see their features properly as the two of them were quite far away, but Amara thought they looked quite similar. The two of them also didn’t seem to notice the two of them as they talked amongst themselves about something. 

However, that was short-lived as the woman noticed them a few moments later and started walking towards them with long strides and her head held up high while the man followed her, trying to keep up with her. His strides were a lot shorter and he was running, sputtering out something that Amara couldn’t make out, but the woman seemed to be ignoring him. Once she came close enough, Amara saw that she was scowling at them. 

“Who are you, and what, ” The woman demanded, coming to stand in front of the two of them, “Are you doing here?” 

“Hello! I’m the Doctor, and this is my friend Amara!” The Doctor grinned, seemingly completely oblivious to the woman’s clear displeasure. “It’s nice to meet you!”

“How did you get here? How did you even know about this place?” She narrowed her eyes, placing her hands on her hips. “Are you both from NACDAS? They sent you here, didn’t they?”

“NAC- what?” The Doctor frowned, clearly confused. 

“As if you don’t know-”

“I really don’t.” 

The woman scoffed. “Oh, please, stop with the lying.”

The man had finally caught up with them at that point. He grabbed onto the woman’s arm to stop himself from falling over. He straightened up and adjusted his gold rimmed glasses and pushed back his floppy dark hair. He turned to the two of them and smiled. “Hello!”

Amara nervously waved at him, an uncertain smile on her face. “Hi?”

“Oi!” The woman smacked his shoulder, making his head snap towards her. “Don’t fraternise with the enemy!” She turned back to the two of them. “Right. How did you even get here? NACDAS doesn’t even know the vague location of this place! Unless, wait, hold on,” Her eyes widened. “Have you been spying on us?!”

Amara closed her eyes and shook her head. “No, um, I’m sorry, I don’t think I follow. You know where we are?”

“And what the hell is NACDAS?” The Doctor interjected. 

The woman scoffed again while the man stared at the two of them, wide eyed. He wiped his brow and adjusted his glasses. “Wait, you actually don’t know?”

“Come on, El,” The woman interrupted, gesturing to the two of them, “They clearly don’t know.”

El shook his head. “No, they don’t look like they’re lying, and there don’t appear to be signs of them lying,” He murmured, squinting at the two of them before he straightened up, shaking his head. “But that can’t be possible…”

“What can’t be possible?” Amara asked, suddenly not feeling so good anymore. The familiar heartbeat increase started and she thought she felt slightly nauseous. 

“Don’t mind him, he’s just gonna keep theorising for a while, now tell me, how the hell did you two get here? How do you even know about this place?”

“Do you know about this place?” Amara asked, frowning. The woman frowned back at her. “I’m sorry, I thought I was asking the questions here.”

“Well, we don’t know the answers to your questions, but you seem to know where we are, so that would be a helpful piece of information. That and the danger levels of this place because if I discover there’s Drashigs here or something-”

“Mara, if there were Drashigs here, believe me, we’d all be dead by now.” The Doctor said, and she stared at him. “Thank you for that valuable piece of information.” She turned to the woman. “Anyway, where the hell are we?”

“How can somebody possibly go to a place without knowing where they are?” The woman frowned, placing her hands on her hips. “And least of all, here!” 

“We just, erm, stumbled in here.” The Doctor shrugged, placing his hands into his pockets. 

“And we’d like to know where ‘here’ is as soon as possible, and now would be a great time to tell us, thanks.” Amara forced a grin, exhaling out sharply.

“Oh my God!” The man stared at the two of them, eyes wide, “What if this is a side effect of being here? You slowly start to forget everything! Shockingly meta, if you ask me.”

“I’m sorry, what ?!” 

The man turned to her, “You know, judging by the fact that everyone kinda forgot about this island for years.”

“ What island?!” Amara almost shrieked. “We’ve been talking for about three minutes, in the span of which I’ve asked you where we are at least three times, and I’ve gotten nothing but a vague reply and a hint that this place could possibly be altering our memories-”

“It’s not, I would’ve noticed if that’s the case.” The Doctor interrupted her, giving her hand a small squeeze. 

“But it would still help if we knew where we were, and I won’t ask again. Where the hell are we?!”

“Well, we don’t really know what the island’s called, but judging by it’s patterns and the fact that evidence of its existence appeared after the massive flood in the East Coast of the United States, we suspect that it’s an island that’s been buried underwater and has just resurfaced.” The man adjusted his glasses again as they were slipping down his nose, “So we’ve just dubbed it as Atlantis because of some of the washed up architecture, but hopefully the evidence we find here would hint at it’s real name.” 

Amara blinked a couple of times. “I’m sorry, we’re where ?”

“No, no, that’s not possible, this can’t be Atlantis . I’ve been to Atlantis, it got destroyed because of a friend of mine and his shenanigans. And the Atlantis I was in didn’t even look like this.” The Doctor said, making the man and the woman look at him incredulously. 

“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” The woman blinked. 

“Are you an Atlantean?!” The man shrieked, his voice becoming dangerously high-pitched. “Oh my God, I’ve always wanted to meet one of you!” 

The Doctor shook his head. “No, no, I’ve just met them.”

“What the hell are you talking about?!” The woman turned to him, “You couldn’t have met them, it’s estimated that Atlantis has been gone for at least five thousand years!” 

“I’m a time traveller.” He shrugged casually, and both the woman’s and man’s eyes widened. 

“ Time traveller?!” El exclaimed, “Oh my God, when are you from? What kind of a time machine do you even have- no, wait, hang on- how did you even achieve that? Time travel is basically just science fiction, isn’t it? Well, more on the fiction part- how can you travel through time ? Is it like a road or something to travel through?”

“More like a vortex.” The Doctor tilted his chin. “And, well, time travel will end up coming in the fiftieth century-”

Amara cleared her throat, making both of them turn to her. “There’s a time and a place.” She interjected, gesturing around them. “We’re in Atlantis! Or, well, a place called Atlantis!” 

The Doctor turned to the others. “Right. Yeah, sorry. I’m the Doctor, by the way, and this is Amara, my best friend. And you are?”

“Elend Calamari, and this is my sister Althea. We’re explorers.”

“We’re on a mission.” Althea corrected, giving Elend a pointed glance. “We’re here to look into this mysterious island so that we can learn more about their history and how the island somehow sank and resurfaced. There’s not many artefacts from here back home, so we came here to find more things that could help with the research. We obviously assumed we’d be the only ones here since everyone else who came to find this island ended up having their ships sunk.” 

“What?!” Amara exclaimed, her eyes widening slightly. 

“You know, since we’re in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle and such. Thankfully, our ship didn’t get completely damaged.” Elend said, and Amara blinked. 

“People kept coming here even though whoever came here never came back?” Amara raised an eyebrow. “How stupid can people get?”

“It’s a place shrouded in mystery, Mara, people were just curious.” The Doctor said.

Amara frowned. “Hold on, did you just say that everyone who tried to come here got shipwrecked?”

“Or plane wrecked.” 

Amara swallowed, “Yeah. If it’s so hard to get here- and there’s nobody here- and it just appeared out of nowhere- what if there’s a reason all this happened? There’s a reason as to why it’s so hard to get here? Like it doesn’t want to be discovered?” She hugged herself, rubbing her arms as she did so.

“You think the island’s sentient?” Elend asked in disbelief. 

“It happened in Roshar.” She muttered, and when she got two extremely confused frowns from Elend and Althea, she said, “It’s the world in The Stormlight Archive.”

“The what?” 

“Doesn't matter. Like I was saying, this all seems very adventure slash horror movie plot to me. There has to be a catch somewhere.”

“Or you're just being paranoid.” Althea suggested, and Amara shrugged. “Better to be paranoid than not. At least you’ll be able to anticipate the worst.”

Elend shrugged. “Makes sense logically, you know, better to expect the worst so that everything else is better.”

“Exactly!” Amara nodded. 

“Right, enough chit chat,” Althea heaved her backpack and started walking towards the statue behind them. “We’re here on a mission, and I completely intend to be successful in that one. You both can do whatever you like, but Elend, you’re coming with me.” 

The Doctor followed her as well, and Amara rolled her eyes and followed the two of them, Elend walking beside her. “Are you a time traveller too?” Elend asked her, and she shrugged. “I drop by at times, but, yeah, you can count me as one.” 

“What’s it like? Time travel?” His eyes were shining with curiosity.

Amara shrugged. “I dunno, I’ve only just started. It’s been about a, um, week? Not enough time to actually form an opinion.” 

The two of them reached the horse-mermaid statue, which the Doctor was investigating thoroughly while Althea was bent over her backpack, which was on the ground. She was looking inside it and pulling out random things, including a grappling hook and a magnifying glass. 

Amara went to stand by the Doctor, who was now wearing his glasses, frowning at the statue as he ran a hand across its mane. “Well, that’s weird.” He remarked as Amara approached him, her notebook open now and her pen in hand.

“What is?” She frowned, starting to write a description of the statue. 

“The statute, it- it looks old-”

“It is old.” Althea resurfaced, a brush and a small plate-like thing in her hands, which were covered with milky white gloves. “This entire island is estimated to be thousands of years old.” 

“You see, that’s the thing. It looks old, it’s supposed to be old, but it- it doesn’t feel old.”

Althea scoffed out a laugh. “Come on, don’t be ridiculous, how could you possibly gather that?”

The Doctor looked up at her. “Believe me, I know.”

Amara frowned at his statement, looking up from her notes. “What do you mean, it doesn’t feel old?”

He turned to her. “Well, you see, people like me, we can sense time in objects and make a rough estimate of how old they are, in a way.”

“I’m sorry, people like you?” Elend walked around the statue, holding something that looked like a measuring tape and his brown leather bound notebook. 

He shrugged. “Yeah, people like me.”

“Do you mean to say you’re not like us?”

The Doctor nodded before turning back to the statue. “This doesn’t make sense. An island that’s resurfaced from the bottom of the ocean after years, and everything’s-” He walked around the statue, his hand still on the statue. “Everything’s perfect.”

“I know, right?” Althea grinned, looking up at the Doctor. “This is going to be perfect for the research study. Imagine it, the first people to study Atlantis!”

Amara, however, frowned at him. “What the hell are you talking about?” 

The Doctor shrugged. “I dunno, it just- there’s something a little-”

He was cut off when the ground started to shake. Amara’s pen slid across the page, making an extremely unappealing half-line, half-curve made of blue ink that stretched from the last word she wrote till the edge of the page. She gasped and grabbed onto the statue for support, pushing her book under her armpit as her pen clattered to the ground. 

“What the hell is happening?!” Elend yelled, grabbing onto the statue for support.

Althea screamed in surprise, grabbing onto the statue as well, accidentally knocking into the Doctor in the process as the ground started to shake more. And move . Amara could feel it move in a specific direction- one away from the Doctor, who was yelling at her to hold on. However, his yells were slightly muffled tanks to everyone else yelling. 

“Doctor!” She yelled, “We’re moving!” She looked up at him, her heart rate starting to increase as she saw that he was moving as well- in the exact opposite direction. 

“Mara, hold on!” He yelled, attempting to reach her hand as it was slowly slipping away from the statue. Amara attempted to do so, but that only led to her losing balance and screaming as she stumbled backward due to the force of the ground moving- no, sliding in the other direction. Elend managed to prevent her from falling, but by then, the damage had already been done. 

Thanks to the fact that she wasn’t holding onto the statue anymore, it felt like she was getting whisked away faster. She screamed for the Doctor again- however, her call was muffled by Althea and Elend yelling to each other- and of course, the Doctor calling out her name. 

----

Chapter Text

Once the ground stopped moving, Amara and Elend found themselves in front of a circle. It looked identical to the one they’d just been in before, but Amara knew it wasn’t the same one. The statue in front of them had the head of a cobra, and not a horse. She straightened up, her notebook falling to the ground. 

She picked it up, turning to see where Elend was. He was holding his leather-bound book, flipping through the games, his backpack on the ground beside him. “What are you doing?”

“Hmm?” He looked up from it. He gestured towards the book and his eyes widened in realisation. “Oh, yeah. I’m looking to see if there’s anything about what just happened here.”

“What is that?” 

“It’s a compilation of all the research I’ve done about the island. Well, one of the volumes, anyway. There’s quite a lot of speculation as to what the island is and what happened to it. Surprisingly, no two sources agree on everything.” He went back to looking inside the book while Amara turned around, scanning their surroundings. She opened her journal as well, trying to see if there were any familiar landmarks she’d written about. 

“We need to find out if there’s some sort of a pattern or something with the movement.” Elend announced from behind her. She turned around, her book half open. “If we try and find out how much we’ve moved, and how much the others moved relative to that, then we’d have some sort of a chance at finding them.”

Amara nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.” She pointed towards her left- the direction they came in. “We’ll have to go that way.” Elend nodded and picked up his bag when Amara frowned. 

“What’s wrong?”

She shook her head. “It’s just that- well, what if they-” She looked down at her notebook, before shrugging. “Probably the only thing that’ll be recognizable.” She went to the last page of the book and tore it off carefully before writing something on it, crumpling it, and placing it on the ground in front of her. She hated the fact that she had to technically litter, but she hadn’t really brought anything with her that she could use for the same purpose, as the Doctor had initially told her they were going to a museum. She really should’ve brought something for backup in case he’d pulled bullshit like that. Which he had. She then opened her book and scrawled a ‘Cobra head statue’ on it.

She straightened up and turned to Elend, who was frowning. “Yeah, we can go now.” 

“What were you doing?”

“I left a note in case the Doctor and Althea come looking for us too. And then I just made a note of where we were so that we don’t really get lost.” She shrugged. “Well, ish.” 

Elend shrugged and said, “Right, anyway, let’s try and backtrack to see if they’re there.”

She nodded and they started walking in the direction they came in. 

----

Once the ground stopped moving, the Doctor immediately reached into his pockets, pulling out a smartphone with a phone cover that looked like the TARDIS doors. He turned it on, only to groan and put it back inside his pocket. No signal. He frowned. “No signal,” He murmured, pulling out his screwdriver. He remembered boosting it up clearly- Amara and Rose had gotten lost while him and Jack Harkness had gone in the exact opposite direction in a Granthian marketplace, and when they finally found each other, Amara insisted they all had phones in case something like this had happened again since neither Jack not himself really used phones till then. So, he picked up two random phones he found inside one of the console panels- he strongly suspected that the TARDIS had put them in there for that very purpose- and boosted them up, before tossing one of them to Jack. So if there was no signal… something had to be disrupting it. 

“What is that?” He turned around to see Althea, who was frowning at the phone in his hand. She had her hands on her hips and was pointing at it.

“It’s a phone, it’s used to communicate with people when they’re not here.”

Althea laughed, “Hang on, I think I’ve seen one of those in a museum. You really use one of those to communicate, and not something more modern?” 

He shrugged. “I’m a time traveller. Modern doesn’t really apply to me. Well, time in a regular sense doesn’t generally apply to me, but Mara uses a smartphone, so I thought it would be convenient for me to use one too.” 

Althea frowned, but shrugged and turned around, taking a deep breath. “So, moving ground… was that there when you came here?”

“That’s a recent addition, I’m afraid...” The Doctor turned on the scanner in his screwdriver, frowning when it buzzed twice before shutting off. “What the-” He hit the screwdriver a couple of times before trying again, only for the same thing to happen again. His frown deepened as he narrowed his eyes at the screwdriver, bringing it closer to see if there was something wrong with it. 

“What are you doing?” Althea asked from behind him. 

“Trying to figure out what’s wrong with my screwdriver,” He muttered through gritted teeth, hitting the sonic again before having another unsuccessful result. 

“ That’s a screwdriver?” Althea scoffed, and he turned around, scowling. “It’s a very good one!”

“What good would a screwdriver do anyway?”

“I’m scanning around, it’s a multipurpose device!” 

“Then why is it called a screwdriver?” 

The Doctor turned around, a frown on his face. He stared at her for a moment before shaking his head. “What good would knowing that do?” 

She shrugged, her hands on her waist. “I dunno, you were the one who called it a screwdriver and I got curious. Anyway, what’s going on here?”

“That’s a question whose answer I’d very much like to find out.” The Doctor put his screwdriver back into his pocket and looked around. They were in a place that was similar to the one they’d been in before, except, it wasn’t the same place. There was nothing wrong with the place- it was a typical deserted island in every way possible- well, except for the whole moving ground thing- but maybe that was what was the problem. “Right after we find Amara and Elend.” 

He turned around to see what Althea was doing. She’d taken out a scanner from her bag and placed it on the ground, diving her hand back into her backpack, pulling out a notebook. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to find out if there’s something wrong with the ground. It moved, remember?” She replied, not looking up at him as she looked away from the scanner and wrote something in her notebook. What was it with people and their notebooks and their constant noting down of things anyway? 

“What’s the notebook for?” He nodded at the leatherbound object in her hand. 

“A log of everything I’ve found out here. It would help the research.” 

“Can’t that wait?” The Doctor placed his hands into the pockets of his overcoat. “We just got separated from the others, shouldn’t finding them be our biggest priority?” 

“I’m sure they’re both perfectly fine, Doctor.” Althea placed the book beside her and picked up the scanner again. “Plus, if I figure out the angular velocity of the island and the approximate radius from the centre till here, we might be able to pin down their location with a few calculations. And I’m sure Elend would be trying to figure that out right now.” She looked up at him. “There’s nothing to be worried about.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed. You know, between the moving ground and the separation, I really did think there were things to be worried about.” He said sarcastically, tilting his head to the side.

Althea looked up and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, and I’m positive the sarcasm would help them more than anything.” He scowled at her and she sighed. “Listen, your friend will be fine, Elend isn’t the type of bloke who would run into danger the first chance he gets.”

“Even if he was, I doubt he’d stand a chance against Amara. She’d pull him in the exact opposite direction.” He murmured. He knew Amara was more than capable of handling herself, but he couldn’t help feeling overprotective. Especially since she was so early in her timeline at that point. He knew she’d be able to do some navigation given the fact that she’d been diligently noting down every single landmark they saw ever since they stepped out of the TARDIS, but the whole moving island thing would prove to be a challenge. He just hoped she was safe and would find him soon. 

“Like I said,” Althea stood up, looking at the scanner, “They’ll be alright.” She frowned. “Hang on- it’s not giving out any proper readings.” 

The Doctor frowned and held out his hand for the scanner. Althea handed it over. The screen was flickering, showing fluctuating reading the whole time, listing at least seven different compositions of the soil on the ground before buzzing out into a blank screen. 

“That’s weird.” He murmured, turning the scanner over. “That battery seems to be full.” He turned it over again and tried using the sonic on it, but all the sonic gave was a weak buzz before seemingly shutting off. The Doctor frowned and turned to Althea, handing her scanner back to her. “There’s something interfering with electrical or sonic impulses.” He concluded, putting his sonic back into his pocket again. “That’s what’s interfering with the mobile signal, your scanner, and the sonic.”

Althea took in a deep breath and sighed. “Well I’ll be.” She put the scanner back in her backpack and slung it over her shoulders. She started walking towards the centre of the circle. 

“What are you doing?” 

She turned around. “Well, we’re in a new circle. New research potential, especially if there’s something here that’ll help me figure out what the hell is happening.” She continued to walk towards the centre. The Doctor shrugged and started doing the same thing. 

He walked towards one of the statues when Althea called out, “Doctor, I think there’s something you might want to see here!” 

He frowned and walked towards where she was. She was standing in the middle of the circle, close to another fountain, which had a sculpture of dancing dolphins in the middle. The ground in front of her was cracked, and… 

The Doctor frowned and squatted in front of the ground beside Althea, dipping his finger into the water inside the crack. He put his finger into his mouth, ignoring Althea’s scrunched up face at that. He frowned, bringing his finger in front of him. “It’s salty.” He murmured, sticking his tongue out. “Still got that Atlanticky taste to it-”

“What do you mean? Like the ocean?” Althea pointed to the water in the crack. 

“Yeah. And not just some inland water body or something. That is the proper ocean seeping through. I can taste it.”

“You figured all that out by licking the water once ?” Althea raised an eyebrow, and the Doctor shrugged. “I have heightened senses. Compared to humans, at least. Also, it’s taken me years of practice.” 

“Hang on- did you say that it’s the ocean seeping through?” Althea said as the Doctor placed his hand into the water again. 

“Yeah,” He murmured, “Pretty interesting phenomenon, if you ask me, it’s almost like- oh no.” He looked up at Althea, who was looking slightly alarmed. “The island’s sinking.” She finished his sentence for him, and he nodded, standing up. “We need to find the others and get out of here.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets and started walking towards the horse statue. 

“But- how can that even happen?” Althea called out behind him, pacing as fast as she could behind him. 

“How can an island that was geographically nonexistent end up coming into existence out of the blue?” The Doctor countered, not turning around. 

“It wasn’t nonexistent, it was just not noticed by us!” Althea said, and muttered, “Probably. Anyway, it can’t be sinking into the ocean again , we just found out about it two years ago! We haven’t even scratched the surface with all the research!” 

“As far as I’m aware, islands don’t really care about the extent of research that’s been put into them by humans, and research or no research, the island’s sinking and unless you want to drown here with it, I’d suggest you come with me.” 

“Of course I don’t want to drown, but Elend and I are the first people here! Apart from you and your friend. But still! Why did it have to decide to sink now, couldn’t it wait for a few years, maybe?”

The Doctor rolled his eyes and turned to her and she shook her head. “I know, I know, it’s an island, it doesn’t decide to sink by itself or whatever, but that doesn’t rule out the fact that this is completely unexpected and makes no sense!”

The Doctor shrugged. “You’re the first people here, meaning it could’ve had the whole sinking thing coming a long time ago.”

”That does make sense,” Althea muttered, but looked up at the Doctor with the same frown on her face. “But that doesn’t explain how this wasn’t the case before. As far as I remember, the circle we’d been in before didn’t have water seeping in at all.”

“That is a valid suspicion…” The Doctor murmured, scratching his head. He was then knocked off balance as the ground started to move again. Althea screamed and grabbed onto the Doctor as the ground started moving faster. However, both of them ended up falling down and had to just sit there uncomfortably until they’d finished moving past a bunch of forests and random buildings until they came to a stop in another circle, which had a huge ruined archway at the other end of it. 

The Doctor scrambled to his feet immediately after they stopped and ran towards the cracked centre of the circle and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw that the water level had increased, confirming the nagging suspicion that had lingered at the back of his head ever since Althea pointed out that the first circle didn’t have water in its cracks. 

“What’s- oh my God,” Althea said when she caught up with him. “The spinning- that’s what’s causing it to sink.” 

The Doctor turned around, a determined expression replacing his previously shocked one. “We need to try and find Amara and Elend and get out of here. Immediately.” 

----

When the ground started to spin again, Amara had almost figured out the extent of spinning they’d done. So, one could imagine her annoyance when everything was ruined because the island decided to become its own merry-go-round. 

“-Well, according to the beliefs I was raised on,” She was saying to Elend after she’d noticed a familiar landmark and noted it down on her new “map” of the place so far when he’d asked her about her opinion on the whole thing. “Atlantis is called Dwaraka, which was basically an island city ruled by the an incarnation of the lord Vishnu- he’s basically one of the three powerful gods in our culture and he took human form multiple times to protect justice and righteousness, in case you were wondering, but judging by the fact that this is an island in the Atlantic and the fact that this place looks more like a Minecraft world than a prosperous city, I’m assuming this isn’t it.”

Elend had asked her what the hell Minecraft was, which she should’ve really expected as a follow up question, so she explained the basics of the game to him- or well, what she picked up while watching Arya play the game, at least. That tangent ended up leaving tears slowly start to prickle her eyes, but she swallowed them and held them back. Thinking about how she was never going to see her family again while she was stranded on an island with her only means of transport and the only person she knew away from her was miles away from ideal. 

She was, however, ironically saved by the ground starting its moving routine again. Thankfully, her and Elend were moving on the same slab of ground, but that didn't make it any less annoying. She’d let out a colourful string of words when they stopped and huffed as she opened her notebook again and looked around to see if there was anything familiar around so she could attempt to calculate the extent of deviation from their original path. 

“So soon?” Elend wondered aloud, looking around. “It didn’t happen so soon when we’d come here. I don’t even think half an hour’s passed since the last time it happened.” 

Amara shrugged. “Maybe the pattern’s such that the time intervals keep reducing?” She turned around, only to be met with more trees, all of which looked the same. She flipped back a few pages of her notebook to see if any of the trees matched the description of something she’d written. “The real question is, how long do we keep spinning each time? And how much do we move as a result?”

“I would reckon that the angular speed’s the same throughout every piece of moving land, judging by the fact that the island appears to move in concentric circles, so they’d all have moved by the same angular distance, but the distance each one’s moved would depend both on the time we’ve spun and the radius of the island. The time can be easily calculated, but for the radius- we’d need to find the centre of the island.” Elend murmured, rubbing his chin, “Or walk around the entire perimeter of the circle once and roughly calculate the radius through that. Assuming it’s a uniform annular disc, that is. And that we don’t move again- that would probably mess up everything.”

“That would take a lot of time and require a calculator, I don’t think dividing a huge number with six point two eight would be a walk in the park.” Amara murmured, turning around again. She’d never really been one for calculations. She’d always been the idiot who’d done well in the examination but always lost a pesky half mark because she’d done a multiplication error. The day she’d given up maths to take a course in literature was probably the best day of her life. 

“I’d probably be able to do it, speed calculation was a huge requirement for university for me.” Elend said, making Amara’s eyes widen appreciatively. “I’ve just gained a whole new level of respect for you.” She chuckled, before turning and narrowing her eyes. “Hold on, I don’t think I’ve seen that before.” She pointed to a stone cabin-like structure in front of her. It was covered in moss and vines, almost covering the entire outer structure of the hut such that only a few small bits of the original grey stone peeked out. 

Elend walked past her towards it. “It must be some sort of a checkpoint in the woods or something.” He walked towards the doors of the cabin, which were on the side. 

Amara, however, stayed back. “Are you sure you want to go in there?” It was irrational, but every single horror movie Amara had ever seen (well, if watching one from behind the pillow while looking at pictures of golden retrievers every five minutes to calm herself down counted), all the ghost problems usually seemed to stem from the fact that some idiot decided to get inside a place that looked intimidating for good reason. And judging by the fact that she was stuck inside a fictional universe, taking a chase was probably the last thing she wanted to do. 

Elend, however, didn’t have any such reservations. “Well, for all we know, it could have something we could use to get in contact with the others!”

“Or it could have freaking Kanchana inside.” Amara muttered, folding her hands. 

“What was that?”

“Nothing, I just said that I’ll stay here and keep a watch in case the others come by!” She yelled back, clearing her throat. “Tell me if you find anything!”

Elend gave her a thumbs up before he produced what looked like a pocket knife from his pocket and used it to pry open the door, which creaked as it did so. Amara backed away a little, gasping as her feet almost got stuck in the wet, clayey mud behind her. 

She shivered, tightening her arms around herself. She took a deep breath, looking around once again. She pulled her phone from her pocket and turned it on, her expression falling as she still saw the ‘no signal’ message on the top right. She’d tried to contact the Doctor once they’d started walking, but was met with no signal, which she found suspicious judging by the fact that she’s gotten her phone boosted up long back when she was with Nine. Another part of her said that it was normal for it to happen at times- Rose lost signal when her and Ten were stuck in that spaceship with the devil- but they had the devil disrupting the signal then. 

Her eyes slightly widened as another possibility hit her brain. What if something like the devil was the reason her signal was getting disrupted? And what if that was the thing that was initiating the whole spinning island thing? It was heavily unlikely- well, so was ending up inside a universe where the Doctor existed. Her grip around herself started to tighten even more as her breathing started to become faster again. 

It had been a while since she’d seen the Doctor. What if something had happened to him? What if he and Althea were hurt, or trapped, or captured, or… dead? A small part of her reprimanded her for thinking irrationally and that the odds of that were near impossible judging by the fact that she’d literally met a Doctor from the future and also because there seemed to be nobody else on the island, but that part was drowned out by the fearful one that kept repeating itself inside her head and making her heart rate start to build up more and more. She felt the familiar heat start to form around her and the lump in her throat come into being. She swallowed, trying to keep the slight nausea inside as she gripped her arms tightly with her hands. 

She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard a scream from inside the cabin. She jumped, her heart rate at an all time high, before she shook her head, realised where she was and what was going on and ran towards the doorway. 

She was immediately hit with the smell of something rotting. She coughed and placed a hand over her nose as she looked for Elend. He was standing and staring at something in the corner of the room. She frowned and stepped in, looking down for a moment as her foot seemed to have touched water. True to her suspicions, the stone floor was covered with a small layer of water. 

“Elend?” She called out. “What’s wrong?”

He slowly moved aside, still not looking at her, and she walked forward to see what he was looking at. When she did, she gasped and backed away, her heart rate starting to increase yet again. Leaned against the wall was the bloated and half decomposed body of a man who had his skull bashed in and his eyes open, his lips swollen and slightly blue like the rest of his pale body. 

Chapter Text

Amara backed away, her heart starting to beat faster again. She closed her eyes, immediately opening them again as all she could see was the bloated body of the man, whom she saw when she opened her eyes. There really was no way out, was there? 

“But- that’s not-” Elend sputtered as Amara clenched her fists, digging her nails into her palms to feel something other than the gripping pain she felt in her chest and the adrenaline rush that she knew would make her more dizzy and nauseous than alert. She slowly backed out of the cabin, just as Elend turned around.

“He- he died here. He drowned!”

“And I have a feeling we would too unless we get out of here,” Amara said, turning around and running out of the cabin, panting for breath when she got out. She took a deep breath, trying her best to ignore the pain in her chest as all it seemed to want to do was exhale. She tried to even out her breaths as Elend came out, his hands folded close to his chest. 

“He came here before us.” He murmured as Amara turned to him, her eyebrows furrowed. “ That’s your biggest concern? This man drowned in the cabin for God knows what reasons, and you’re talking about how he got here before you?” 

Elend shook his head. “No, that’s not what I- Thea and I, we’re supposed to be the first ones here, every single ship that went through to this place always got destroyed in the Bermuda Triangle and the remains of everything would wash up ashore.” 

“But what if that’s not the case? What if the island’s what’s killed them? Didn’t you check how many bodies were there in the ships?”

Elend shrugged. “Everyone would always return, either drowned and dead or they’d be too delirious. And some of them would’ve forgotten, everyone dismissed that as a side effect of the water or something. But he died here. What if he wasn’t the only one?”

Amara, who was already flipping through the pages of her notebook, looked up at him. “I don’t know, and I don’t care at this point. We need to get out of here as soon as possible before the same thing happens to us.”

“But how could he drown in an island? That’s above the ocean?” Elend wondered aloud, and Amara breathed out a sigh of relief. She pointed at one of the trees, whose roots were wrapped around a rock. “Oh Thank God, that tree, I saw it when we were pretty close to the beach.”

She started walking towards it, Elend following her. “What’s the beach got to do with all this?” 

“That’s where the Doctor’s spaceship is. If we manage to find it, I think I’ll be able to drive her all the way to him and we can get out of here once and for all. And then I’ll definitely stay away from beaches for the rest of my life.” 

“Shouldn’t we be concerned about what’s happening here? You know, all the island shaking and the whole spinny thing, and the body we found there?”

“We could do that, or we could get out of here alive. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss and other times, it’s what’ll keep you safe eventually.” She climbed up a few rocks onto the muddy path, her feet squelching in the wet, clayey ground. 

“And you know exactly where your ship is on the beach? After the whole island spinning thing?”

“Not really, but once we’re on the beach, it’ll be easier to find. Plus, the Doctor taught me how to summon it with the key when we’re at close proximity, so that’ll be extremely helpful.”

“Summon the- what the hell are you talking about?” Elend stopped Amara, who was looking at her book and at the scenery in front of her. She smiled as she recognised something else from her book. “Looks like things weren’t that displaced… or I just got lucky.” She murmured as she started walking forward. “Oh, and about the summoning thing, you can basically have the TARDIS materialise around you if you do a thing to the key.”

“TARDIS?”

“That’s what the ship is called, it’ll make more sense once we go in there.” She looked back at Elend, who was climbing up the rocky and muddy path behind her. “It stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space, by the way.”

----

“The island spun around clockwise, right?” Amara asked as the two of them walked down the last rock and stood at the beach. 

“Yeah, why?”

Amara smiled. “Because I know which way the TARDIS is.” She started walking towards the right. 

“How are you so sure?”

“Because those rocks out there, I recognise them. This is literally why I took notes about the whole place.” 

“What, you knew we were going to get lost?”

Amara shrugged, shaking her head. “Not really, but I expected something along the lines of that would happen, especially judging by the fact that this is the Doctor we’re talking about.” 

“What, stuff like this happens with him all the time?”

“I wouldn’t say all the time, but mostly, yeah. Although, to be fair to him, it's not like he consciously seeks trouble. Mostly.” 

They walked around a corner, and Amara’s eyes widened as she spotted two familiar figures walking in front of them, their backs facing towards her and Elend. A relieved smile started to form on her face when she called out, “Doctor!”

The taller figure wearing a brown trench coat swivelled around, his trench coat billowing around him as he did so. The two of them ran towards each other, and before she knew it, Amara found herself engulfed in a hug by the Doctor. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he picked her up and spun her around, pulling her close. He put her down soon after that, his hands on her face as he turned it around, possibly checking for injuries. “Are you alright, are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine, but we need to get out of here.” She said, “We saw the dead body of a drowned person and I really don’t want to imagine or experience what happened to him.” 

The Doctor frowned, his hand seemingly subconsciously wrapping itself around hers. “What are you talking about?”

“That means someone was here before us?” Amara turned to her left to see Althea and Elend there, the former having asked the question. “That makes no sense, every single ship that came here ended up crashing and washing up ashore somewhere nearby.” 

“Well, I’m sure not everyone was on the ship when that happened, though.” The Doctor said, but Elend shook his head. “No, you don’t get it, every ship that washed ashore, it had the entire crew’s bodies in it.”

“And that didn’t strike anyone as strange?” The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “Anyway, whatever the situation is, that would mean this isn’t the first time the island’s sinking.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Amara’s eyes widened, her voice rising by an octave. 

“Yeah, Althea and I found out that the island’s slowly sinking. We don’t know how exactly, but the whole spinning around thing is just accelerating the process.” 

“But that doesn’t make sense- how can an island sink?” Elend asked.

“And how can we not be the first?” Althea frowned at him.

“The bigger and more important question right now probably is, ‘Where is the TARDIS and how can we find it and get out of here as soon as possible?’,” Amara said, starting to walk in the direction they came in. 

“Not really, you already claimed to know where you ship wasn, didn’t you?” Elend raised an eyebrow, and Amara shook her head. “Yeah, well, that’s the biggest question that’s gonna be answered now. We need to get out of here, and we need to do it fast.” 

“But what if we find out there’s something sinister underneath and is probably preventing us from getting to the TARDIS? Then we’ll have to find out what’s going on here one way or another.” Elend countered, and Amara rolled her eyes. 

“Well, that would just mean we need to be faster and get out of here as soon as possible.” She shrugged, and turned to the Doctor. “Right, Doctor?”

He shrugged. “I hate to say it, but she’s right.” He turned back to Amara. “Do you happen to know which way the TARDIS is?”

She pointed to the direction he came from. “If my calculations are right, that way. Plus, those rocks over there are identical to the ones I saw when we started climbing the cliffs when we came here.” 

The four of them started to walk towards the TARDIS, and everything seemed to be going alright until Elend gasped, tripped, and fell. Amara and the Doctor, who were taking the lead, ran back to see what had happened to him. He was sitting in the sand, clutching his ankle and complaining. 

“Are you alright?” Amara asked, kneeling down beside him. Elend scowled at her. “No, I’m not, this is the most pain I’ve ever been in in my entire life!”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Elend, stop being so bloody dramatic!” Althea rolled her eyes. “You tripped over a rock, you didn’t get impaled by a sword or something.” 

“Ah, whatever he tripped over isn’t a rock.” The Doctor murmured, and Amara looked past Elend at him. He was squatting over behind Elend, digging the ground with his screwdriver. He really seemed to have found other uses for it.

Elend turned around, still holding onto his ankle gingerly while Althea walked over to him and bent down to see what he was scanning. “What is it, then?”

“There’s an electrical impulse coming from here,” The Doctor murmured, placing his screwdriver into the patch of sand Elend had tripped over. He pulled his screwdriver up again, letting out a satisfied “Aha!” as the sand slipped off the screwdriver and whatever it was pulling to reveal-

“Wires.” Elend said, “Why are there wires in the soil?”

“They could’ve been dropped by the people who came here?” Altea guessed. 

The Doctor fiddled with the wires before shaking his head. “No, then they wouldn't have an active electrical impulse.” He turned to them. “The wires are connected to the island.”

“What, like it's automated or something?” Elend frowned. “So the spinning part was just someone controlling everything? Or part of a code or something?”

The Doctor shrugged. “Could be, yeah. Can’t be completely sure, though.” 

“Does this mean the island’s still sinking?” Amara interrupted their conversation, and they all turned to her.

“Well, seeing that we’ve just discovered the wires and changed close to nothing, I’d say yeah.” The Doctor tilted his chin and shrugged. 

“So this changes absolutely nothing about our situation, then.” Amara stood up, dusting the sand off her clothes. She turned around and started walking when the Doctor called her. “Wait- where are you going?”

She turned around and raised her eyebrows. “The TARDIS. Obviously.”

“What, after all this?” He gestured to the wires. “The island’s automated, don’t you want to find out why? Or how?”

“Why would I want to do that?” She frowned. “None of that changes the fact that the island’s gonna sink, and I want to be as far away from it at that time.” 

“But- a robotic island!” Elend said, and the Doctor pointed to him, giving her an ‘I told you so’ expression. “One disguised as Atlantis, that too! And it's been attracting researchers and giving itself a mysterious persona! An island nobody returns from!”

“The research potential that could be here, an automated island, that would be a technological marvel, all underneath the ocean…” Althea said excitedly, and Amara rolled her eyes. 

“Did I fail to mention that the island is sinking ? Like actually going into the water? Where we can’t breathe? And most definitely will die?”

“If we find what’s causing all this, we could stop that from happening.” The Doctor shrugged. 

“ If you find it, that’s a big ‘if’.” Amara put her hands on her hips. “I’d rather take the route that’s more certain.”

At that moment, the ground started to shake and Amara stumbled to the side. She tried to regain balance, when she saw the Doctor stand up and try to reach her, his hand outstretched. She tried to grab onto him as it started again, but unfortunately, she was too late. 

----

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair after he kicked a rock on the side of the sloping hills at the end of the beach (he was also in incredible pain because of that, but he tried his best to keep that specific fact away from Althea and Elend). The second time. He’d lost her for the second time. On the same day. And she was alone. On an island that was going to sink any minute. He really was the most useless kind-of-but-not-yet boyfriend a person could ever have.

However, the rock pushed through into the ground, and the hill in front of him split. And revealed a bloody passage that was extremely dark. 

“Bloody hell…” Elend murmured as Althea set her backpack down and started digging through it again. The Doctor frowned and leaned his head into it, blinking as he tried to adjust to the darker environment. However, he didn’t need to do that for long because of Althea shining down an extremely bright torch inside, the white light illuminating a set of dusty stairs in a room full of walls that looked like they were made of metal. 

“That is wicked.” Elend murmured, leaning against the doorway, his left foot suspended upwards thanks to the whole ankle-twisting incident that had happened earlier. 

“I know, right?” Althea grinned at him, and turned to the Doctor. He scratched his head and stared into the passage and turned to them, shrugging. Despite the fact that Amara was gone , again, and could possibly be in danger of drowning, again , he had to admit- a secret passage inside a hill on an island that was sinking because of it possibly being automated really made his itch to know the answer become worse. And, there was a tiny chance he could control the island from inside if there happened to be a control room of some sort and save everyone. 

“Has potential.” He said, and Althea rolled her eyes. “You’re just downplaying your excitement, like come on ,” She gestured to the inside of the passage, “That’s got to make you excited.”

He shrugged again, “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not. Anyway, there’s a chance we can control the island from here, so I say there’s a chance of finding something useful inside.” 

----

Out of all the horrible things that had happened so far, the most shocking thing to Amara was the fact that she hadn’t died of an anxiety attack yet. Her heart was pounding, the lump in her throat was becoming more pronounced, and she was positive her nails were going to cause some sort of damage to her arms. She really should’ve cut them earlier at some point. 

She breathed heavily, trying to keep the tears at bay as she bent over, trying to ignore the fact that the waves were definitely higher than they had been before. The island was going to sink. Fast . It was probably one spin away from going under. Or not. Or maybe it was, who could tell? She knew better than to assume that it wasn’t, because then at least she could be prepared for the worst.

She was alone, on an island she had no idea about which was sinking , she was separated from the Doctor again, and she was scared. Really scared. And the fact that her mind constantly kept reminding her of the fact didn’t help matters at all. She knew it didn’t help matters, but it was almost like her mind had a mind of its own. Which raised an interesting question. One that poked at the corners of her mind but one that was overshadowed by the huge red alert that was blaring through her. 

Her vision started to become a little blurry, and she knew exactly what was happening. She groaned and blinked the tears away, feeling them trailing down her cheeks. She straightened up, closed her eyes, and shook her head. She was travelling with the bloody Doctor , of all people. And completely losing hope when being separated from him wasn’t something any companion would do. And she wasn’t going to either. Despite the fact that her brain was convinced she was going to drown unless she somehow miraculously jumped away. Which was unlikely but also likely in a way. She really didn’t know the logistics of the whole thing, and she knew she wasn’t going to figure it out in one day. No matter how much she wanted to. What she had to do was focus on the task at hand and not panic in the middle of it. 

She took a deep breath, trying to reduce the pain the lump in her throat was inducing in her. She turned towards the side she was initially going towards before everything happened. And the solution started to come back to her. One that had always been there, but one she’d completely forgotten about because her brain decided to choose fear instead of logic. Again. She really had to work on that at some point. 

She wiped off the slowly drying tears from her cheeks and continued to take deep breaths, forcing herself to think happy thoughts as she walked towards where she thought the TARDIS was. 

----

Turns out the Doctor had been right about the whole passage thing. After a while of seemingly aimless walking through the metal walled corridors (and always turning left at every crossroad- or, well, crosspassage- a strategy Amara had quite literally drilled into his head), they entered a room. A control room, of sorts. 

It had a huge console that was facing a metal wall. It was covered with buttons, levers, and other things of the sort- it was almost as insane as the TARDIS console room, but he knew for a fact that the TARDIS surpassed everything this island could ever be. There was a chair in front of the console, and on the wall the console was against were a multitude of huge screens. 

“Is this the island’s control room?” Althea wondered as she walked towards the console. Elend ran towards it and started inspecting the buttons immediately. “Oh my God, this is brilliant! The island actually has a control room! That means we could control the sinking from here.”

“And save Amara.” The Doctor murmured, walking towards the console and trying to figure out what each of the controls could mean. His eyes scanned over the console, his brain attempting to figure out how to stop the island from sinking. And every second he wasted meant a second closer to the horrible event. He hoped that Amara would find the TARDIS as well and do something. She was bloody brilliant, and he knew for a fact that she’d memorised the TARDIS instruction handbook pretty early on. He just didn’t know when. 

“Hold on- what does this red button do?” Althea called out from the side of the room. Elend and the Doctor turned to her as she pointed to a huge red button on the wall. It didn’t have anything that indicated what it would do, but the Doctor assumed that it was quite important. In his experience, most red buttons did something important. He just hoped that this one did the right important thing. 

“It could be the one that would stop the island from sinking.” The Doctor shrugged. 

“Or it could just speed the whole process up.” Elend said, and the Doctor nodded. “That’s a very likely possibility.”

“So do we press it?” Althea raised an eyebrow. 

The Doctor and Elend looked at one another. On one hand, it could be the command they were looking for. His initial survey of the console didn’t really provide anything that could help, and the red button looked promising. But on the other hand, Elend could be right. It could very well lead to their doom. One could never tell with red buttons. They really needed to put signs about whether a specific red button was harmful or not. 

“It could be helpful…” The Doctor said, and Elend continued. “It could also not be,”

“But we’ll never know unless we press it.” Althea said, “I've had enough of indecision today, and I say we press it.” She slammed her hand onto it. 

----

When Amara saw the TARDIS in the distance, she almost cried in relief. Her pace quickened, and she ran towards the doors that had the words ‘Pull to Open’ printed on them. 

She pulled out her necklace from underneath her shirt, separating the locket shaped like an ‘A’ from the TARDIS key, which she inserted into the keyhole, smiling as the doors opened with a wonderful creak, revealing the warm and inviting console room. 

She ran inside and up the stairs towards the console, barely hearing the doors close behind her. She ran around the console, frantically pulling the monitor towards her and then looking around for the instruction manual, her fear slowly increasing as she couldn’t find it. 

She looked up at the time rotors, hoping that the TARDIS would help her. “I need the manual,” She said, looking around in case it would magically appear out of nowhere. She placed her hands on the console, feeling the familiar warmth course through her. She ran her hand across it, when she noticed something. Something that could help her big-time.

----

The moment Althea pressed the button, the biggest screen in front of the console lit up, the desktop being blue in colour, and the word ‘Congratulations!’ written on it in yellow. 

“Congratulations, Doctor, Althea, and Elend!” An automated voice sounded from the room. The Doctor’s head snapped up immediately, a frown etching itself on his face. 

“What the-”

“How does it know our names?”

“You’ve cleared the main challenges this island has posed on you. You display the qualities of an ideal solver of these puzzles. Brave, clever, and willing to take risks. I’m Gus, the person in charge of this challenge.”

“Challenge?!” Althea exclaimed. “Like this whole thing was a bloody game?”

“You’ve managed to pass all the tests put in your way and have done so exceedingly well.”

“Hold on- what about Amara? Where is she?” The Doctor demanded, his eyes narrowing. “What have you done to her?”

Gus, however, ignored the Doctor and continued with their speech. “However, it is my deepest regret to inform you that only one of you gets out of this alive.”

“I’m sorry- what?” Althea asked, and the Doctor turned to the screen, which had shut down. 

“What did he mean, only one of us is gonna survive?!” Elend exclaimed, walking around the room and running a hand through his hair. 

“And what happened to Amara?” The Doctor murmured, going towards the screen. He pulled out his sonic, but put it back again. Damn thing didn’t work on the island. Stupid Gus and his stupid challenges. 

“And how do we get out?” Althea rushed towards the doorway, only for the doors to slam shut right in front of her. “That’s it. We’re doomed.” She concluded, coming inside the room as the ground shook again. 

“Oh my God-'' Elend pointed to the doorway. The Doctor turned around, his eyes widening as he saw that water was seeping inside underneath the door. Fast. 

“The island’s sinking.” He realised in horror, as the water quickly covered the floor and started increasing in level. 

“We should’ve just gone to your ship and not cared about the wires.” Althea said, climbing onto the chair as Elend did the same with the console. “I am regretting the whole curiosity thing.”

“Don’t, it would’ve never led to us finding this, would it?” The Doctor murmured, looking around the room to see if there was any escape route of some sort. The water level was slowly rising, and they had to get out of there. Fast. 

He could hear the water crashing against the door outside, and it was quickly flooding inside. He could also hear something that made him want to whoop in relief. She’d done it. She was alive. And she had the TARDIS.

----

They’d dropped off Althea and Elend back in Florida, where they both said they had to go to tell everyone what they’d found out. And after that, the Doctor had taken the two of them to a random place in the middle of deep space, and suggested they both go and take a shower- a suggestion Amara immediately agreed with. 

She’d come back to the console room, donning fresh clothes that were much more comfortable, when the Doctor looked up from his monitor and pulled her into a long hug that she gladly returned. 

“I’m sorry.” He said after he pulled away. He turned to the monitor and ran a hand through his hair, avoiding her gaze. “I put you in danger, I broke my promise, and almost lost you. Twice.”

She frowned and walked towards him, wrapping him in another hug. “Yeah, you did all of that stupid stuff, but to be fair, things go wrong about ninety per cent of the time.” 

He wrapped his arms around her, burying his head in her neck. “But I could’ve lost you.”

“You didn’t.”

“And I insisted that we go look for clues about the whole wire thing when I should’ve just listened to you.”

“Can’t argue with that.” She said, pulling away and shrugging. “But you had a hunch. And probably didn’t have much choice after that anyway.” She hated holding grudges against people, and she wasn’t going to hold one against the Doctor. Especially about something that was the most him and something she wasn’t even angry about in the first place. However, she was curious about one thing. 

“What happened down there?” She asked him. He looked at her and shrugged. “The whole island thing was just a test. Or a challenge, or something.”

Amara frowned. “I’m sorry?”

He nodded. “Yeah. We got hit with an automated voice there. Called itself ‘Gus’, and said that we’d passed the test. Well, by ‘we’, it meant Althea, Elend, and myself. And then it said that only one of us could survive and started flooding the room with water.”

Amara’s frown deepened. “Did you say ‘Gus’?” 

He nodded, and she blinked. ‘Gus’. That was familiar, she remembered there was someone called Gus in the show. A villain the Doctor hadn’t really “defeated”. She shook her head and tried to remember it, when it came to her. Mummy on the Orient Express. That was when Gus had made an appearance. 

“Mara?” She jumped and turned to the Doctor, who was looking at her, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. “You just, sort of zoned out for a moment.” 

She shook her head. “No, yeah, I’m fine. It’s just that, well, Gus is a bit familiar?”

“Familiar how?”

“Familiar as in you meet them some time in the future.”

He frowned at her. “Why did I face him now, then?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure how the timeline works, but I don’t think it’ll affect what happens then. Or at least, I hope not. Unless- well,” She shrugged, “Logically, I don’t think there’ll be much of a difference since Gus makes an appearance only at the end and you don’t seem to know much about them-”

“Mara-” She felt a hand squeeze hers, and turned to the Doctor, who was giving her a reassuring smile. “It’s going to be alright.”

“You don’t know that.” 

“On the contrary, I’ve seen versions of you from the future, which is enough evidence that I do know that and I know that everything turns out okay in some way or another. Trust me?”

She swallowed, staring into his eyes for a few moments before turning her hand and holding onto his. “Yeah.” She whispered, and he grinned. She found it hard not to smile back. 

Chapter Text

Amara pushed the box of Chocos cereal (which was appropriately shaped like moons and stars) across the table in the TARDIS kitchen to the Doctor, who placed his blue bowl on the table. He smiled at her, sitting down. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” She shrugged, shoving a spoonful of the chocolate cereal into her mouth. 

It had been a month since the fake Atlantis incident and two months since she landed in the Tenth Doctor’s time. The two of them had settled into a comfortable routine of having chocolate cereal for breakfast- the Doctor adding milk in it and Amara just eating them dry. They’d then go to the console room and go somewhere to explore, or the Doctor would receive a distress call and they’d have to go and help some people. However, the latter case was pretty rare. They’d mostly just go on fun trips to different parts of the universe. The troubling bits were actually pretty uncommon, to Amara’s surprise. They’d then come back, shower, have lunch (or, well, a random meal, according to the Doctor, since they lived in a time machine and there was no concept of time in there), after which they’d either just go and relax or go somewhere else, depending on their moods. They’d then have “dinner” (Amara dubbed it as that because the term ‘random meal’ being used twice irked her for some reason), and relax for a while before writing in their journals and going to sleep. In Amara’s case, at least. According to the Doctor, Time Lords needed sleep only once a week, so he’d either be reading in the library or fix the TARDIS or go on an adventure of his own. Things were starting to properly settle, but Amara always had the uneasy feeling that she would jump away soon since it already hadn’t happened yet. 

“So, I was just looking at some stuff on the TARDIS monitor when you were sleeping,” The Doctor said, after swallowing a spoonful of cereal. “And discovered something interesting in London.”

Amara raised her eyebrows, chewing on her cereal. 

“There’s this company, Adipose Industries. They sell diet pills, and there’s been some suspicious activity around them lately- it’s an episode, isn’t it?” He said, noticing Amara’s wide eyes. 

She nodded, swallowing her food. “What gave it away?”

“You’re really not good at hiding things, Mara. Especially from me.”

“Really?” She raised her eyebrows. “How do you know I’m not lying to you right now?”

“You have a very obvious tell.” He shrugged. “And, well, you’re my best friend.”

She smiled at that. “You’re my best friend too.” And he really was. The two of them had become quite close, and she came to enjoy his company a lot. As danger prone as he was, she found that one could never have a dull moment when he was around. 

He smiled back at her, before looking back into his bowl and putting another spoonful of cereal into his mouth. “Anyway, I’m assuming you know exactly what’s going on, so here’s the plan. We pose as health and safety inspectors, snoop around a bit, and fight whatever alien is going to almost kill us since this is an episode, and well, every single episode I’ve experienced so far involves that aspect.”

“This is a more low-key one, though, thankfully.” She said after swallowing her last spoon of cereal. Partners in Crime had always been one of her favourite episodes, and Donna was probably one of the companions she wanted to meet the most. Plus, it was one of the more chill episodes, excluding the one death at the end. It was also the peak of comedy, which she appreciated. 

“Oh, then that’s good. We can probably stop for ice cream after we go and investigate today, if you want.”

She nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

----

“Would it kill you to enter a building like a normal person?” Amara hissed, turning back to the fire exit door the Doctor had opened with his screwdriver. He opened the door and gestured for her to get in. He followed her inside and closed the door again, grinning at her. 

“Since when have I ever done anything like a normal person?” 

She shrugged. “Fair enough.” 

He grinned at her as they walked towards another door. He opened it with the screwdriver and gestured forward, a playful grin on his face. “After you, my lady.”

She shook her head and chuckled. “Why are you doing this?”

“Why can’t I?” He shrugged, placing the screwdriver back in his pocket and pulling out his psychic paper. 

They walked into the basement of the building. It had metal walls and pipes running across the sides of the walls. 

A man wearing a black suit and a mic passed them. The Doctor showed him his psychic paper. “John Smith, Health and Safety.” He secretly passed the paper to Amara, who showed it to him, thinking about what she wanted him to see. “Amara Kashyap, Health and Safety.”

“We’re partners.” The Doctor shrugged, when the man, who seemed to be part of the security, raised his eyebrow. 

----

The two of them snuck into the projector room behind the lecture hall in Adipose Industries (“I’m telling you, Mara, nobody would ever find us there, it’s the best hiding place!”) and were standing there, looking through the glass window to see what was going on. 

“Adipose Industries,” A blonde woman wearing glasses was standing at the podium, lecturing a group of news reporters and health and safety officers. “The twenty-first century way to lose weight. No exercise, no diet, no pain. Just lifelong freedom from fat. The Holy Grail of the modern age.” Amara rolled her eyes at the joke. “And here it is. You just take one capsule. One capsule, once a day for three weeks, and the fat, as they say,” She turned on the presentation, where the narrator said, “The fat just walks away.” Along with the words appearing on the screen.

“You might want to pay attention to that particular detail.” Amara leaned towards the Doctor and whispered. He nodded absently, murmuring, “Will do, Mara.”

“Excuse me, Miss Foster. If I could?” A woman from the audience asked. “I'm Penny Carter, science correspondent for The Observer. There are a thousand diet pills on the market, a thousand con men stealing people's money. How do we know the fat isn't going straight into your bank account?”

Amara knew that it would be mean to smile, but the slowly declining smile on Miss Foster’s face was just too much for her. She pursed her lips together, trying to prevent a massive grin from forming on her face. 

Miss Foster plastered a fake smile on her face. “Oh, Penny, if cynicism burnt up calories, we'd all be as thin as rakes. But if you want the science, I can oblige.” She removed her glasses and gave her a stare that Amara was sure looked like something a serial killer would give. Honestly, she wondered if Penny felt the same or if she was just overthinking. 

The projector turned on again, this time showing the anatomical image of a human body. “Adipose Industries. The Adipose capsule is composed of a synthesised mobilising lipase, bound to a large protein molecule.” 

As the presentation continued, Amara noticed someone coming into the projector room. She nudged the Doctor, who looked at her for a moment before flashing the psychic paper at the man. “Health and Safety. Film department.” He added at the end, making Amara want to internally smack her forehead against a table. However, the man seemed to believe him, so that was a good thing, probably. 

After the presentation got over, Penny asked Miss Foster how many people had taken the pill, to which she responded that there were a million customers in London alone. She also mentioned that they were going nationwide the next week.

“We need to get that customer list.” The Doctor murmured, to which Amara nodded.

  ----

The two of them got the customer list and went to visit the first person on it- a Mr Roger Davey. He stated that he’d lost about fourteen kilograms after starting to use the pills, and mentioned a particularly interesting detail about how his burglar alarm always went off at the same time every night. Amara seriously wondered how he was so casual about that- something happening on a daily basis at the exact same time unprecedented- that was some serious Conjuring shit if you asked her. 

After that, just as they were leaving, the Doctor’s machine that went ding when there was stuff went ding. They ran towards the signal, which was in a sketchy black van, but before they could do anything, it sped off. The two of them returned to the TARDIS< Amara looking behind her for a moment at the street she knew Donna was in for a few moments before she turned away and ran behind the Doctor. 

After the two of them went back to the TARDIS, the Doctor immediately punched in the flight coordinates for Kramebia, a planet that was just outside the Solar System. It had the Doctor’s favourite ice cream shop in all of time and space, and the two of them stopped there for ice cream and some sandwiches as they made a game plan for exactly what they were going to do the next day. Hide out all day and then start investigating after hours. Which completely baffled Amara, because they had a bloody time machine and they could just go in and out any time they wanted. But, of course, the Doctor being the Doctor hyped up hiding in the closet so much even she was slowly warming up to the idea of it. That didn’t stop her from making sure she was completely prepared, though. 

“Well, good to know you started abusing the whole ‘bigger on the inside pockets’ privilege so quickly. I always wondered when you started doing that.” The Doctor murmured as Amara pulled out a foldable table and chair from the pocket of her brown trench coat (the TARDIS was kind enough to have ones that fit inside the pocket, bless her). 

Amara scowled at him as she laid out the table and sat down on the chair. “Well, if you’ve forgotten,” She laid out her coat on the table and reached into an inside pocket, “We’re going to be stuck here for the next,” She looked at a digital clock she pulled out, “Eight hours.” She pulled out a few books from inside. “So it wouldn’t kill to be a little prepared.”

“A little prepared.” The Doctor deadpanned, looking at the assorted collection of items she pulled out from her pockets. Her books, her journal, her laptop, a portable charger, and a board game were a few such items. “This could be enough entertainment for us for about three years.”

However, the Doctor was proven wrong a few hours later as he finally caved in and started playing Snakes and Ladders with her. She was so close to winning, when the digital clock she’d placed on the table began to beep. The two of them turned to the clock, the Doctor's hand hovering over the board as he was about to move his piece down a snake. It was six ten in the evening. 

The two of them turned towards each other again, staring at each other for a moment with wide-eyed gazes before hastily packing the game back into Amara’s coat and heading out of the storage closet. 

----

The two of them ran up to the roof and lowered themselves next to Miss Foster’s office window using a window cleaner’s cradle and the Doctor’s screwdriver. 

The two of them ducked as Miss Foster and her bodyguards dragged in the reporter from the previous day- Penny Carter, and tied her up to a chair. The Doctor handed Amara a stethoscope and pulled one of his own. The two of them put the stethoscopes on and pressed them onto the window to hear whatever was going on without being seen. Which was debatable, since Amara thought that stethoscopes on the window was something literally anybody could notice. Which was why she kept peeking into the room occasionally, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. 

“So come on then, Miss Foster,” Penny demanded, “Those pills, what are they?”

“Well, you might as well have a scoop, since you’ll never see it printed.” Said Miss Foster, presumably picking up one of the pills. “This is the spark of life.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Officially, the capsule attracts all the fat cells and flushes them away.” She explained, “Well, it certainly attracts them. That part's true. But it binds the fat together and galvanises it to form a body.”

“A body? What do you mean, a body?” 

“I am surprised you never asked about my name. I chose it well. Foster. As in, foster mother. And these are my children.” Amara heard her open a drawer. And then, a gurgling sound came- one that sounded similar to a baby cooing. 

The Doctor turned to Amara, his eyes wide. She looked up, trying to indicate that they both had to straighten up to look inside the room. The two of them did so, and Amara turned towards the door to the room, spotting a redhead woman staring at the Adipose baby in shock. 

The baby, in question, was a rectangle-shaped mass of a whitish cream substance with arms, two stubby legs, eyes, and one tooth. 

“Are you kidding me? What the hell is that?” Penny gasped. 

Miss Foster got up from her chair and started walking around the room. “Adipose. It's called an Adipose. Made out of living fat.”

“But I don’t understand!” 

Miss Foster continued explaining what it was to Penny, but the conversation was completely blocked out for the Doctor and partially to Amara, who had both noticed the red haired woman who was now gaping at them in shock. Donna Noble. The one and only. 

“Doctor!” Donna mouthed, her eyes wide. 

The Doctor mouthed back, frowning, “But- what? What? ” 

“Oh. My. God!”

“But how?”

“It’s me!” Donna pointed to herself. 

Amara looked past the Doctor to see what Miss Foster was doing. She knew they’d get noticed later, but she didn’t want her to accidentally notice them sooner than she should. 

She turned back to Donna, who was waving at her. “Amara!”

“Hi!” Amara waved to her, a smile forming on her face. Looks like she was going to be there when The Runaway Bride happened. 

The Doctor then mouthed, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I came here to find you!”

The Doctor blinked, pointing at himself. “What for?”

Donna started miming something about how she was looking up the place on the internet to look for trouble because trouble equaled the Doctor, but Amara didn’t catch most of it.

She looked to the side, her eyes widening as Miss Foster had noticed the two of them and was staring at them back and forth. She gently nudged the Doctor, who was too preoccupied in Donna’s mime to notice her. 

She nudged him again, pretending to ignore Miss Foster, who had locked eyes with her more than once. However, neither the Doctor nor Donna noticed until Donna was pointing to Miss Foster with her thumb, her tongue sticking out. The Doctor and Donna stared at Miss Foster, who was looking at the two of them. “Are we interrupting you?”

Amara smacked her forehead with her hand, closing her eyes. This eerily reminded her of her school days, where her friends would be communicating with each other from different ends of the classroom and she was usually tasked with checking if the teacher was looking at them or not. However, it almost always ended in the teacher noticing them despite Amara warning them because they’d be too preoccupied with their long-distance conversation and eventually be moved to the first bench of the classroom. 

The Doctor tilted his head to the side and mouthed, “Run!” 

Donna ran towards the right, and Miss Foster pointed to the door behind which she was. “Get her.”

The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver and pointed it at the door handle, locking it. Miss Foster then pointed at him and Amara, “And them.”

“Mara, I am so sorry about this,” The Doctor said, grabbing onto her hand. He pointed his screwdriver upward and pulled the cradle up at what seemed to be rocket speed. Amara felt like she was being uprooted from the ground and that she would fly away and fall off any minute as the wind blew through her hair and on her face. She shut her eyes tightly, burying her face in the Doctor’s arm until it stopped. 

She opened her eyes and saw that they were both back on the roof again. The two of them ran outside the cradle and down the ladder, back into the building. 

They ran down the stairs, and made it down only a few floors before they ran into Donna, who pulled the Doctor into a hug. Amara looked down, grabbing onto the Doctor’s hand as she saw Miss Foster and her bodyguards running up the stairs, gund pointed forward. 

The Doctor and Donna were bantering when Amara interrupted the two of them, grabbing onto Donna’s hand as well and pulling them both up the stairs. “There’s a time and a place and this is neither!” She said between deep breaths as they made it to the roof. The Doctor slammed the door open and the three of them ran into the roof, Donna starting to talk about how she found Adipose while the Doctor ran underneath the top part of the roof, working his sonic on one of the electric panels. 

“Because I thought, how do you find the Doctor and Amara? And then I just thought, look for trouble and then they'll turn up. So I looked everywhere. You name it. UFOs, sightings, crop circles, sea monsters. I looked, I found them all. Like that stuff about the bees disappearing, I thought, I bet they’re connected. Because the thing is, Doctor, I believe it all now. You opened my eyes. All those amazing things out there, I believe them all. Well, apart from that replica of the Titanic flying over Buckingham Palace on Christmas Day. I mean, that's got to be a hoax.”

Amara giggled at that, some of her anxiety disappearing, as the Doctor turned around, frowning. “What do you mean, the bees are disappearing?”

“Not the biggest of our priorities, especially judging by the fact that there’s people with guns following us!” She nodded towards the roof door the Doctor had soniced earlier. 

The three of them ran towards the ladder, the Doctor and Amara jumping into the cradle. The Doctor soniced the cradle as Amara called out to Donna. “Get in here!”

“What, in that thing?”

“ Yes, in that thing!” The Doctor leaned forward. 

“But if we go down in that thing they’ll just call us up again!” 

“No, no, no, because I've locked the controls with a sonic cage.” Donna started climbing up and climbed into the cage. “I'm the only one that can control it. Not unless she's got a sonic device of her own, which is very unlikely.”

“Don’t say things like that, it’s just an open invitation for some daridram to happen.” Amara said as the Doctor soniced the cradle to go down. He turned to her and rolled his eyes. “There’s no proof something like that has ever happened in the history of time and space. And I should know that, I’m very well versed in it.” 

At that moment, the cradle started to fall down at jet speed. Amara screamed and grabbed onto one of the railings on one side of the cradle, and felt someone wrap an arm around her tightly. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the painful swooping feeling in her stomach as the cradle came to a sudden stop. She opened her eyes, standing up as the Doctor removed his arm from around her waist and started sonicing the window they were in front of. When that didn’t work, Donna picked up a spanner and yelled, “Smash it!”

She started hitting the window with the spanner, and the Doctor held out a hand. “Mara, I’m going to need your baseball bat!”

Amara automatically put her hand in to get it, when a thought struck her. There was a chance the baseball bat thing would work, which would mean that there would be a part of the episode that wouldn’t happen. And that would violate rule 1b in a way. But, if she did give the bat, then Donna wouldn’t have to fall down and almost die, and that would definitely be a relief for her-

“Mara, baseball bat! Now!” She was jerked out of her thoughts by the Doctor, and pulled out the bat without thinking. She handed it to him and Donna exclaimed. “How the hell did you fit that in your pocket?” 

“The TARDIS has clothes that have pockets that are bigger on the inside.” Amara shrugged as the Doctor backed away. She gasped and grabbed onto the railing as he disturbed the cradle a bit while doing so. 

“Right then, you both might want to duck.” He murmured, and the two of them thankfully obeyed him as he swung the bat and hit the glass, shattering it. Amara shut her eyes tightly and covered her head with her hands. However, the glass particles thankfully seemed to fall inside and not outside, so they were safe. For the time being. 

She slowly got up as the Doctor yelled at the two of them to get inside. She looked up and saw Miss Foster point her sonic pen at the wire holding the cradle. “Doctor!” She pointed upwards. He looked up, pointed his sonic screwdriver at her hand, making her drop her sonic pen, which he caught. 

In the meantime, Amara got into the office, careful to avoid stepping on any of the glass. She stepped over all the glass shards and powder and looked up, only to notice Penny Carter, who was still tied up to the chair. “Hello,” He smiled and gave her an awkward wave just as the Doctor got into the office, thankfully not injuring himself on any glass. 

“Is anyone gonna tell me what the hell is going on?” Penny demanded as Donna started talking to the Doctor. The two of them ignored her, but Amara shrugged. “Well, Miss Foster almost killed us, but we escaped because of a sonic screwdriver and a baseball bat.”

“What?” Penny looked at her like she’d gone completely insane. 

“You’re a journalist, aren’t you?” The Doctor said, handing Amara the baseball bat, which she was grateful to have brought along with her despite her thinking it would be unnecessary ( But what if you need it for self defence? Her mind had protested, and as usual, she gave in). 

“Yeah?”

“Make it up!” The Doctor shrugged, and grabbed onto Amara’s hand after she finished putting her bat back into one of the numerous inside pockets of the coat. The three of them ran outside the room, only for the Doctor to come back in and free Penny of her restraints and yell at her to run before running back outside. 

----

The three of them ran down a corridor, only to come face to face with Miss Foster and her bodyguards. Amara backed away, glancing at their guns nervously as the Doctor and Donna said hello to her. 

“I see, Partners in Crime. And evidently off-worlders, judging by your sonic technology.” He nodded at the screwdriver the Doctor was holding. 

The Doctor pulled out her sonic pen. “Oh, yes, I've still got your sonic pen. Nice. I like it. Sleek. It's kind of sleek.” He showed it to Donna, who nodded. 

“Oh, it’s definitely sleek.” She turned to Amara and offered her a smile, “What do you think?”

Amara shrugged, looking at the pen for a moment before turning to the bodyguards again, “I guess.” She knew they weren’t really going to do anything, but the fact that they were pointing the guns at her and her friends really unsettled her. 

“And if you were to sign your real name, that would be?” The Doctor asked, holding up the pen after casting a quick glance at Amara. 

“Matron Cofelia of the Five Straighten Classabindi Nursery Fleet. Intergalactic Class.”

“A wet nurse.” The Doctor nodded slowly, “And you’re using humans as surrogates.” 

“I've been employed by the Adiposian First Family to foster a new generation after their breeding planet was lost.”

“What do you mean ‘lost’?” The Doctor frowned. “How do you lose a planet?”

“Oh, politics are none of my concern. I'm just here to take care of the children on behalf of the parents.” 

“So what, you’re like an outer space super nanny?”

“Yes, if you like.” She nodded. 

“So. So those little things, they're, they're made out of fat, yeah, but that woman, Stacy Campbell, there was nothing left of her.” 

“Oh, in a crisis the Adipose can convert bone and hair and internal organs. Makes them a little bit sick, poor things.”

It also made Amara slightly sick. She automatically put a hand on her stomach, swallowing slowly. 

“Well, what about poor Stacy?” Donna demanded. 

“Seeding a level five planet is against galactic law.” The Doctor said seriously.

“Are you threatening me?” 

“I'm trying to help you, Matron. This is your one chance, because if you don't call this off, then I'll have to stop you.”

“I hardly think you can stop bullets.” Matron Cofelia shrugged, and the bodyguards cocked their guns. Amara jumped and closed her eyes, her heart giving a painful jolt. 

“No, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. One more thing, before dying.” The Doctor said, moving towards Amara. “Do you know what happens if you hold two identical sonic devices against each other?”

“No.” 

“Well, neither do I!” The Doctor held the pen and the screwdriver together, and Amara quickly slammed her hands over her ears. But even that wasn’t enough to stop the ear-piercing noise from reaching her ears. She only wondered how bad it would’ve been for the people who had no warning at all. 

Just as the Matron and her guards were distracted by the noise, the Doctor grabbed onto Amara’s hand and the three of them ran towards the corridor exit. 

----

They ran down to the basement and managed to stop the Matron from formulating her backup plan which she decided to do because of the Doctor. However, quite a few Adipose babies were created and the Adiposian first family was called. They picked up all the Adipose babies and took them into their ship. However, they killed Matron Cofelia as they knew that she had committed a crime and wanted to eliminate their accomplice as soon as possible. 

After this, the Doctor, Amara and Donna left the building and a few roundabout conversations and misunderstandings later, came to an agreement that Donna was going to come with them. 

After they surprised Donna’s grandfather by flying across the sky above her house, Amara decided that they’d all had a pretty hectic day and that she was going to give Donna a short tour of the TARDIS before going to sleep, and the Doctor decided to tag along because he felt like he had nothing better to do. 

“So, basically, the rooms of the TARDIS keep changing places every day, and it’s completely random,” Amara said as they were walking down one of the coral corridors, “I’ve tried mapping out every single possible pattern there is-”

“Something you should never do, the TARDIS thrives on unpredictability and making her predictable by doing some boring nonsense like making a map would just make her cross.” The Doctor finished Amara’s sentence. 

“If you don’t remember, the ‘boring nonsense like making a map’ was what saved your ass in faux Atlantis.”

The Doctor pouted at her as Donna snickered into her hand. “Oi, stop laughing.” The Doctor scowled at her, but that just made her laugh more. Amara giggled as well, and he rolled his eyes. “Is that why you like my companions so much? So that you all can laugh at me?”

Donna laughed harder at that, but Amara shook her head, placing her hand on the wall. “Sorry, it’s just- it’s just that you’re always hilarious when people laugh at you.”

“I’m sorry for not liking when people gang up on me.” 

“We’re not-” Amara took a deep breath, trying to prevent the laughter, “We’re not laughing at you.”

“Oh really, because it looked like you were.”

“Well, can you blame us, Spaceman?” The Doctor turned to Donna, frowning at her new nickname for him. “It’s not our fault you always end up doing something completely stupid and laugh-worthy all the time, is it?”

“Stupid and laugh-worthy?!” He turned to Amara, who shrugged, pursing her lips together tightly. 

He groaned. “Oh, this is brilliant. Fantastic.” He shook his head. 

Amara shook her head, laughing, just as she felt the familiar warmth start to flood her fingers. She opened her eyes immediately and stared at her hand, which had started to glow. “Oh no…”

“What’s happening to her?” Donna pointed at Amara, her eyes widening. The Doctor turned to her and blinked, a glimmer of sadness in his eyes. 

“I’m gonna miss you.” Amara tried to smile at him, and he smiled back. “Don’t. You’re gonna see me soon, I promise.”

“What do you mean, what’s happening to her?!” 

She patted his arm and turned to Donna, waving weakly as the gold light bega to take over her vision. “Bye, Donna.”

“Doctor, what the hell is going on?!” She heard Donna demanding as everything went black. 

----

Chapter Text

Amara blinked, grabbing the sides of the console to break her fall as she attempted to steady herself and wait for the blood to rush out of her head. When she felt the familiar feeling of relative emptiness in her head, she opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times, straightening up. 

She looked around the room. The console was covered in metal panels and there was a soft yellowish light all around the room. The perimeter of the circular room had a huge balcony that spanned it on top. The balcony was filled with bookshelves, chairs, desks, and even a black board. 

It didn’t take long for Amara to put together that she was in the Twelfth Doctor’s TARDIS again. However, other than that, she had no clue where she was. It didn’t look like the Doctor was there, either. 

She walked down the stairs and looked into the corridor that led to the console room. “Hello?” She called out, frowning. “Doctor? Are you there?” 

She received no response, so she shrugged and decided that he was probably on an adventure. She walked back to the console and pulled the monitor towards her to see if she knew where the TARDIS was and if the Doctor was in any danger or anything. Because, of course, her mind had defaulted to the the possibility of him being brutally murdered outside when she saw that he wasn’t in the TARDIS despite the fact that it was logically impossible. 

At that moment, the doors opened and she looked up, her hand still on the monitor. In came two people- the Doctor, carrying a stack of notebooks each covered in glossy orange paper, and a short, brown-haired young woman with her hair done up in a ponytail. She was holding a black handbag and talking to the Doctor, who kicked the door shut behind him when the two of them entered.

“...And then Courtney decides that it would be fun to start an all-out paper plane war in the middle of class when I’m teaching them about Sense and Sensibility, which is important for their grade, and then they all just start throwing things at me when I ask them to stop!” 

“Why would you ask them to stop?” The Doctor asked her incredulously, before rolling his eyes. “See, Clara, this is why they all hate you, you’re a humongous killjoy.” 

“Humongous killjoy?!” Clara exclaimed loudly. “How is wanting to be on track being a humongous killjoy?”

“They were having fun, you told them to stop having fun.” The Doctor shrugged, putting the books down on a table near the door. He turned to her, putting his hands out and gesturing. “Ergo, you are a humongous killjoy.”

Clara folded her hands and scowled at him. “Well, you’re a humongous moody stick insect.” She then noticed Amara and grinned. “Mara!” 

The Doctor immediately turned towards her as Clara ran towards her and gave her a hug. Amara hugged back, grinning. She’d always loved Clara, and was glad to see that Clara seemed to like her as well. 

“Clara Oswald!” She grinned as Clara pulled away. “I’ve been waiting to meet you!”

Clara frowned for a moment. “Have you never met me before?”

“Where did you come from?” The Doctor, who had walked up the stairs by then, asked her, holding his journal in one hand and his pen in the other. 

“Adipose Industries.” She said, and the Doctor nodded. “Right, Clara, meet Early Amara.” He gestured to her before turning to Amara again. “Early Amara, well, you’ve already met Clara, no point in introducing you again, anyway,” He turned to the console and back to them again, “Where do you both want to go next?”

“You’re making us choose?” Clara raised an eyebrow at him, and he stared at her. “No, I asked you to do it so that I know which places to avoid.”

Clara raised her eyebrows and Amara blinked. “I cannot tell if you’re being sarcastic or not right now.”

“Oh, believe me, it's an ongoing problem.” Clara nodded. “Can’t even take him seriously anymore, especially with the whole moody Scotsman aesthetic he has going on here.”

The Doctor blinked at her, seemingly offended, and turned to Amara. “I was being sarcastic, it is your choice. Figured I owed at least that much after the whole Venus Flytrap wedding incident.”

“I don’t follow.” Amara folded her hands, frowning. 

“Oh, that’s a long story, but to sum it up, he married the king of a planet that was inhabited by humanoid venus flytraps. He wouldn’t have made it out if I didn’t save his arse.” Clara chuckled, walking around the console. “Anyway, are you sure it’s our choice?”

“Do I really have to repeat myself the third time?” The Doctor rolled his eyes, and Clara shook her head. 

“The last time you said this, you shut down my Robin Hood idea.” She stared at him accusatorily, her expression very much making up for her short stature. The Doctor turned back to the console, rolling his eyes again. 

“But I ended up taking you there, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, after Mara and I basically threatened you about it.” Clara scoffed, and he turned to the two of them, sighing exasperatedly. “Alright then, wherever the two of you want. No protests from me.”

“Say that again.”

“What, for the fourth time?” He threw his hands up and turned to the console, “You really are pudding brains if you need to hear a single sentence five times!”

Clara rolled her eyes. “See? This is the idiocy I have to deal with every day.”

“What about the idiocy I have to deal with every day?” The Doctor protested, gesturing to Clara. “She expects me to tell her something five times. Five times, Amara!” 

Amara shrugged. “I mean, I think she meant it as a figure of speech? You know, like how people ask other people to repeat themselves when the other person says something that’s normally out of character. You know, rhetorically.”

“That’s just stupid human logic.” The Doctor huffed, turning to the console. “Why do I even put up with the human race, that’s the big question.”

Clara rolled her eyes affectionately at him before pulling Amara along with her towards the balcony. 

----

The two of them had settled on the fifth place on the second page of Amara’s bucket list, which had been coming together nicely. It was a planet called Pantagruelia, where the people had been celebrating New Year for two centuries. Amara had heard the description in an episode with Clara, and she was intrigued about it. Plus, maintaining canon while also going to a place that she was curious about was basically killing two birds with one stone. Clara was also intrigued by the planet, and also added that after the hectic day she’d had with Courtney and her paper plane fights, a party was exactly what she needed. 

The three of them stepped out of the TARDIS after a mostly okay ride onto a place full of different spaceships and futuristic cars. Apparently, it was the official parking spot for everyone, and the Doctor managed to register the TARDIS into a counter that had a computer screen instead of a person inside it. 

“Since when do you park in designated parking spots?” Amara asked him as the three of them exited the parking lot. “What happened to fighting the system and parking anywhere?”

He shrugged, “Eh, I was a young idiot back then. Too much effort.” 

She raised an eyebrow as Clara shook her head from behind the Doctor. He turned around to see what was going on and scowled at Clara. “Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

He turned towards her and scowled, before turning back again walking forward. Amara grinned at him, shaking her head as Clara walked beside her. “He just doesn’t want to admit that he actually listens to some of the things you tell him to do.” She whispered. 

Amara raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

Clara shrugged. “He did say he’s known you for a long time, and, well, even I know that spending so much time with someone would end in you picking up a few habits.”

Amara smiled. “Well, he did mention I was his best friend, so that probably makes sense.”

“How long have you been doing this whole timeline jumping thing, anyway?”

“Two months and two weeks.” Amara shrugged. “Well, that’s how long I’ve known the Doctor, anyway. I’ve only, well, ‘jumped’ to two places till now- the future, and the time we met Donna again. Stayed there for two months, and apparently that was the case, according to the Doctor I met there.”

“Similar to here, then.” Clara shrugged, grabbing Amara’s hand and pulling her along as the Doctor turned around and started calling them and asking if they were talking about “human stuff” and if they could hurry up. 

----

“Why two hundred years?” Amara asked the Doctor as the three of them walked up the stairs into the planet with the festivities. 

“Yeah, they’ve been celebrating ‘New Year’ for two hundred years.” Clara said from beside the Doctor. “Sort of defeats the purpose of ‘new year ’ doesn’t it?”

“The Pantagruelians are huge lovers of beginnings. You see, they believe that everything is as good as its beginning, so every time something new happens, like a birthday, or a new year, or a new tattoo, whatever, they celebrate. And they don’t just celebrate. They celebrate. ” He waved his hands with a flourish, “Like their lives depend on it. And now, they’ve just gained independence from a horde of colonisers, so they marked the anniversary as their new year, and-”

“So they’ve been celebrating their new independence for the past two hundred years?” Clara skipped up the stairs, trying to keep up with the two taller people she was travelling with. 

“But what if someone died or something during the festivities?” Amara frowned as the Doctor started sonicing a panel in front of a large metal door. “Like, two hundred years, that’s a long time, what if someone just spent their entire life partying?”

“Sounds like a good life, that one.” Clara muttered, folding her hands as the Doctor turned to her from the door, the screwdriver still in hand. 

“They live for hundreds of years.”

“Yeah, but what if some of them were already-”

“We’re at a festival of beginnings, not endings, Amara.” The Doctor said, turning back to the panel again. “Plus, Pantagruelians have this interesting ability where they can control when they die, so you don’t have to worry about there being dampers to the party.” He added as what seemed to be an afterthought, but unbeknownst to a somewhat relieved Amara, the Doctor smiled softly when she was looking away, a smile on her face as well. However, Clara did notice, and smirked at him, only for him to give her a pointed stare before buzzing his screwdriver at the panel one last time, the metal door opening. 

“After you,” The Doctor gestured forward to Clara and Amara, who walked outside onto the place where the main festivities were being held. 

Amara felt warm air hit her face and blow through her hair as she walked onto the sidewalk of the street. It seemed to be nighttime, as the sky was completely dark, a purple and a blue moon staring down at them, both on different sides of the sky. And if one stared at the sky for a while, their eyes acclimatising to it, they would be able to see a huge amount of stars peppering the dark abyss above them. 

The street itself was lit with colourful lights that were hung from streetlamp to streetlamp. The streetlamps themselves were curious-looking. They were shaped like transparent spheres, and they seemed to be filled with some sort of a colourful luminous liquid that had huge spherical bubbles slowly moving up and down them. 

The streets were full of different kinds of people who seemed to be from everywhere. There were people with long necks with striations all over them and a streamlined face, walking around wearing yellow or orange clothes to contrast their dark purple complexions, and there were others who had done-shaped heads that were covered with colourful spikes wearing long, flowing robes. 

There were stalls on the sides of the main road, the call of different peddlers overlapping about the place. There was music playing in the background- something that reminded Amara of the music played in one of the episodes of Doctor Who- the one with the Scottish and the Romans. The Eaters of Light, if she remembered correctly.

Amara looked around, observing every single detail around her, like a flower-shaped pin on one of the passersby, or the fact that the streetlamps followed a specific pattern. The whole place reminded Amara of one of those annual exhibitions in her city that her mother and aunt always loved going to, and always insisted on dragging Amara, Arya, and their cousin Amritha with them. When they were younger, the three girls would wait as their mothers looked at a random shawl or a vase or something. Amara would remind them to behave at least two times every ten minutes because if they behaved, then they would be lucky enough to ride together on the ferris wheel in the exhibition and have their picture taken with a primitive Nokia camera phone as they would wave from the top, their shadowy silhouettes being the only proof that they’d ridden on the ferris wheel. 

Amara took a deep breath as she thought about how simple those times were- her biggest worries were her grades and the prospect of her becoming a prefect in school as opposed to all the nonsense she had to worry about now. Paradoxes and monsters and the next time she jumped away to another Doctor as opposed to Arya’s latest mistake she had to cover up to avoid both of them being killed by their parents. The smile on her face slowly faltered as her thoughts strayed to her family. What they would be doing then. How they’d react to her sudden disappearance. Or if they’d react to it, because there was a fair chance that they could’ve completely forgotten about her. She didn’t know what was worse- her family being worried and said that she wasn’t there, or her family not even acknowledging it. 

She was brought out of her thoughts by someone squeezing her hand, and another person putting their hand on her shoulder. She jumped and turned towards whoever it was, realising that the former was the Doctor and the latter was a very concerned Clara.

“You alright?” Clara asked. “You sort of… zoned out for a moment.” 

Amara shook her head. “No, no, yeah, I’m fine. I was just… thinking.” She said, looking at Clara with what she hoped was a passable smile. 

“About what?” Clara frowned. 

Amara shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. Not now, at least. Anyway, I think we should get going now, right?” She turned to the Doctor briefly, hoping he noticed that she didn’t really want to talk about the subject. Not at that point in time, at least. 

“Yeah, she’s right.” The Doctor said, furrowing his eyebrows at Clara when she was about to spout out a retort. She sighed and took Amara’s other hand. “Alright, then. Let’s get going.” 

The Doctor dragged them through the crowd, advising them to keep a tight hold on each other’s hands as he didn’t want anyone getting lost anywhere. He led them to an outdoor amphitheatre which was completely made of a smooth stone that was light blue in colour with dark spots splattered around occasionally. 

They edged through the rows of people sitting down, Amara apologising softly every time one of them stepped on someone’s foot,  before squeezing in between an alien with a huge frill-neck, and another alien that had a long neck and a streamlined face. 

A few moments after the theatre was full and everyone seemed to have settled down, a play started in the middle of the stage. It was about the creation of the universe according to the Pantagruelians and the other creatures in the local star system. 

They believed that everything came out of a small vial that supposedly contained life itself. The vial had been balanced in space, but had gotten tipped over by a summer wind, causing it to spill into the dark abyss of nothingness, bringing the seven planets in the system into being and spreading across the universe, creating it as it was known as of now. The legend even stated that the liquid was still drifting about, expanding the universe as time went on. 

The play had stories of gods and goddesses and tricksters and wise old people, all of them brought to life by wonderful actors. Amara was so enraptured that she didn’t even hear the Doctor’s softly muttered comment about how all their legends were illogical (Clara, however, did, and subtly stomped on his foot and shot him a glare to let him know that he had to shut up).

----

“Right, so how much longer should we go again?” Amara asked, stopping to stretch her leg, which was hurting thanks to all the climbing. Right after the play had gotten over, the Doctor dragged Clara and Amara with him and led them outside the festival onto a few dark hills, claiming that they had to climb one of them, and they had to do it fast. Clara and the Doctor seemed to be doing fine, but about five minutes after Amara started climbing, her legs started to ache. 

She decided against telling anyone because, well, that would be embarrassing and also because she was a companion of the Doctor and that meant she had to act like one. And that meant she had to get used to the ridiculous amount of physical activity. 

“We’re halfway up the hill, so I’d reckon another twenty minutes!” The Doctor called back, well ahead of her and Clara. “Why, are you tired or something?”

Amara sucked in a deep breath, trying to ignore the fact that her chest felt like it was about to explode. She let out a huge breath, trying to avoid the urge to breathe in and out as she called out to him. “Not really, I was just curious!” She tried to hide the fact that she was panting because her heart was practically racing and the urge for her to breathe in and out as fast as possible. 

The Doctor stopped for a brief moment and turned around, looking at something past her. He turned to her and Clara again, “Well, good news, we have a lot of time before it happens.”

“Before what happens?” Clara asked him. “You’ve refused to tell me every time I asked!”

“You’ll find out.” He was far away from her and it was dark, but Amara felt like he rolled his eyes at them. 

“You do know that your behaviour is creepily similar to that of someone who lures people into the woods to kill them, right?” Clara shot back and Amara sniggered. 

“Yeah, Clara. I’ve known you for almost six years and Amara for a thousand, and of all the times to kill you, I conveniently decide to pick the day we go to a festival as opposed to letting you die and making it look like an accident during one of the dangerous adventures we’ve had.” 

“Well, can you blame me?” Clara retorted. “Ever since you regenerated and went all Scottish, there’s no way to know exactly what you’ll do!” 

“Why do you always bring up the fact that I’m Scottish?”

“Because it's surprisingly relevant to the conversation!” 

“Oh, it's always the same with you, isn’t it? Basing my personality traits on a bloody accent my body subconsciously picked.” He placed a hand on his chest. “I’m offended, Clara Oswald.”

“Will you two stop being so dramatic?” Amara laughed, making the two of them turn towards her. Their argument had given her time to get ahead and stand next to Clara, and also catch her breath, which was perfect in a way. 

“Oi, watch who you’re calling dramatic!” The Doctor protested, and Clara rolled her eyes. “She’s right, you are being dramatic. Which shouldn't come as a surprise, to be honest.”

“ You can talk!” 

Amara cleared her throat as Clara was about to retort to him again. “Don’t we have a mountain to climb? You know, to actually see the thing he’s so desperate for us to look at?” 

The two of them sighed dramatically and decided it would be best if they just continued walking up the hill instead of continuing their banter because 1) the Doctor was against it and 2) Clara wanted to finish climbing the seemingly endless hill as soon as possible. Amara shook her head at the two of them and continued climbing the hill, completely missing the grin Clara and the Doctor shared, glad that their plan had worked.

Once the three of them reached the top of the hill twenty minutes later, they sat down on a few rocks on top of the hill, Amara sitting in between the Doctor and Clara. The Doctor looked at his watch and counted down from five. The moment he finished counting, a bang was heard in the sky, emitted from a small spark that exploded into a shower of sparks shaped like a flower. 

The fireworks continued exploding in the air, each forming different shapes in different colours. Some of them looked like the ones from Earth, but others looked so otherworldly that it was almost unbelievable for one to think that they were actually looking at fireworks. They took the shape of different beings, which moved about and interacted with creatures made by other fireworks, before fading into the sky, only to be replaced with new fireworks. 

The three of them sat there watching the fireworks until they stopped, half listening to the Doctor tell them about how they had a fireworks show like this once a month. 

After the firework show, the three of them climbed down the hill, which was a lot easier than climbing up, and went back down to join in the festivities. They had some street food which tasted different, but was still amazing, and then started to dance along with everyone else. 

They’d had a lot of fun during that part. Amara had successfully dragged the Doctor and made him dance with her for a few minutes before he decided to go off to talk to one of the long-necked aliens, and Clara had gotten acquainted with a few aliens, which had led to her getting so drunk that she had to be carried to the TARDIS by both the Doctor and Amara, which was a task that proved to be harder than Amara thought it would be. However, complications aside, Amara still had a smile on her face as she was writing down the events of that day in her journal. 

Chapter Text

When the TARDIS landed wherever they were, the Doctor frowned at the controls and walked out immediately. Amara frowned and walked out behind him, the door slamming shut behind her. 

She stepped out and frowned, finding her surroundings familiar. They were in an intersection of tunnels of sorts, the walls completely made of metal, specks of rust in the corners. The atmosphere was cool- no, cool wasn’t the right word. Damp seemed a little more appropriate. Amara knew she’d seen this before at some point, making it an episode, but she didn't remember which episode. She really had to see if there was a way to rewatch the show even though she was in a different universe. 

“What happened?” Amara turned towards the Doctor, who was talking to the TARDIS. “You’re not happy. Why aren’t you happy?” He turned to Amara, who was looking around, still trying to remember where they were. 

“Come on!” Clara called out from inside. “We’re on a roll! Monsters, things blowing up!” She opened the doors, and Amara muttered, “Unfortunately.” 

The last few places they had gone to were… less than ideal, to say the least. They answered a distress call where the antigravity system had taken a life of its own and turned against the crew- Amara still had a bump on her head from that experience, and then they accidentally landed on a planet full of swamp monsters that were hell bent on killing them. To make matters worse, the TARDIS had broken down, which meant they were stuck there for three days.

“Hey, can we go back to that planet where they were celebrating New Year for the last two centuries?” Clara asked the Doctor, who ignored her, still inspecting the TARDIS. 

“I left my sunglasses there!” Clara protested, and went back into the TARDIS. “And most of my dignity,” She muttered. 

The Doctor walked towards one of the walls, and murmured, “Why have you brought us here?” 

Clara walked out again, closing the doors behind her. “Here being?”

“Underwater. Some sort of a base. The technology's twenty second century. Maybe military, maybe scientific.” 

And that was when Amara realised where they were. It was the episode with the electromagnetic ghosts and the Fisher King. She didn’t really remember the name of it and hadn’t watched that one in a while (which was another reason she had to somehow rewatch the show), but she remembered the gist of it, which was hopefully enough. 

“Is there a crew?” Clara asked, looking in front of them. 

“Must be, somewhere, if there’s oxygen.” The Doctor shrugged, walking forward. 

“There is,” Amara said, following him. 

“Episode?” The Doctor turned around and raised his eyebrows. She nodded. 

They walked past a couple of corridors with circular doorways and yellowish walls, as Clara continued talking. “I want another adventure! Come on, I know you feel the same!” Clara passed them and turned to the Doctor and pointed to him. “You’re itching to save a planet and show off, I know it!”

She turned around and walked forward. “I’m a Time Lord, I don’t need to show off.” The Doctor muttered. “ Don’t - I know what you're gonna say.” He held up a finger when he saw Amara’s raised eyebrows. 

“No you don't,” She smiled and walked towards Clara. The Doctor folded his hands and shook his head behind her, smiling, before he went to follow them. 

----

“Doctor, look at this.” Clara said as they entered a completely white room that looked like a cafeteria of sorts. However, it was a very… messy one, to say the least. The tables were full of plates that still contained half-eaten meals. The chairs were arranged haphazardly and a few of them were even overturned. The cupboards and cabinets had been opened and had their contents raided out, a few things having fallen on the floor as well. There was nobody there, and even if somebody had been there, they’d left in a hurry. 

“Well, looks like you got your wish.” The Doctor remarked as the three of them walked inside and looked around. 

“Food fight?” Clara asked, and a twanging sound came from where she was. Amara spun around and sighed in relief when she saw that it was just Clara, who had been playing around with a knife that had been embedded in the wall. Amara shuddered and turned away from it. She had a tiny idea of how it was there in the first place, and she did not want to dwell on it. 

“I think there was more to it than that.” The Doctor stood in front of one of the tables. “Whatever it was, it happened pretty recently.” 

Amara recoiled in disgust as he dipped his finger into a metal tumbler that had what looked like orange juice inside it. The Doctor raised his eyebrows at her and she shook her head, folding her hands. “Someone drank from that.” 

The Doctor pulled his hand outside it and shook the excess liquid off it. “Yeah, Sue me for getting information in a unique and unconventional way. Anyway, whatever happened here happened about seven or eight hours ago. There’s no bodies, though.”

Amara walked towards one of the windows and looked at the landscape outside. They were inside a water body, which made everything look dark, murky-blue, and eerie. There were ruined buildings outside, weeds and kelps growing out of them and swaying in the soft currents of the water. 

Amara heard someone open one of the cabinets behind her. “They took provisions. So something forced the crew to abandon their base. Maybe they went for a swim.”

“Yeah, the scenery outside looks like a horror movie setting. Super attractive for tourists.” Amara murmured as Clara went to stand next to her. 

“Oh yeah,” Clara grinned and walked towards the Doctor. “You see, this is more like it.” She held up a hand for a high-five, but the Doctor just stared at her. 

“Come on, don’t leave me hanging!” 

He left her hanging. However, Amara went over to her and high-fived her anyway, which made the shorter woman grin at her. “You know, there's a reason you’re the one people get along with better.”

The two of them walked into another metal corridor, where the Doctor was standing, his back faced towards them. 

As they got closer, they could see past the curve of the corridor. There were two people- a tall black man wearing camouflage shorts and a tank top, and a white haired man dressed in black Victorian clothing and a top hat. They were both squatting on the floor, looking at something, their backs facing Amara, Clara and the Doctor. 

“Look. Told you.” The Doctor gestured to the two people. “Crew. Hello sailors!” He called out to them, walking forward. Clara followed him, but Amara stepped back, keeping her distance from them. 

The two people turned around, making the Doctor and Clara stop in their tracks. The men had some sort of a misty air towards them, like the ends of their bodies were slowly fading. They seemed to be semi-translucent, and their eye sockets were hollow, a dark void filling the place where their eyes were supposed to be. The man in the Victorian clothes, however, had a weird face. It was distinguished and a little bit shrivelled. Didn't look too human. Although, neither of them looked human anyway.

“Right, I did not expect that.” The Doctor and Clara backed away as the ghost people started walking towards them. “Amara? Did you expect that?”

Amara swallowed, trying to counter the dryness in her mouth. “Yes?”

“Right, it's an episode, how could I forget, anyway,” He grabbed onto Clara’s arm as she backed away further. “No no no no no. I don't think they’re going to hurt us. I think they're just curious.”

The ghosts went to stand in front of the Doctor and Clara, muttering something unintelligible. They stared at the two of them as if inspecting them. Amara swallowed and backed away further, moving closer to the wall. She knew that the ghosts weren’t going to do anything to them just yet, but she also knew that getting inspected by a ghost was the last thing she wanted.

The two of them turned around and walked back in the direction they came from. The Doctor looked behind him, looking for Amara, who went to stand next to them. He raised his eyebrows at her, a concerned expression on his face. “Alright?”

“Yup.” She nodded, letting out a breath. “We should really follow them, as much as I hate it.” 

The Doctor nodded. “Yeah, they seem to be leading us towards something.”

“What are they?” Clara leaned towards them and muttered. 

“I haven’t got a clue. Isn’t that exciting?” The Doctor grinned, and Amara stared at him for a moment before looking away. “I don't see how that's exciting in any way.”

“That's because you already know what they are! Although, as much as I’d like to find out what they are, don't spoil it for me.”

“I know, rule 1b.”

“I was gonna say it would ruin my opportunity to deduce and learn on my own, but sure, that works too.”

“What he means is that he’s gonna act all clever and hope we’re impressed.” Clara whispered, and the Doctor turned to her and scowled. “First of all, I heard that and second of all, you're supposed to be impressed, it's in your job description.”

“Not my job, remember?” Clara grinned. “Plus, even if it was a job, I’d be the boss so I can do whatever I want. Right, Amara?”

Amara shook her head. “Well, you did say you were the boss that one time in the show and he didn’t object to it- actually, I think he was the one who said it-”

“That was when I was young and stupid, don’t compare me to Chinny bowtie man.”

“What is it with you insulting every incarnation of yourself that isn’t this one?” Amara asked, and Clara nodded. “Yeah, I quite liked Chinny.”

“Because he said you were the boss?” The Doctor raised his eyebrows at her before turning to Amara. “Also, I don’t insult every incarnation that isn’t this one, I enjoyed being the one you like to call Three. Anyway, we’re here.” 

The three of them were in front of a doorway that led into a room which looked like a repair room of sorts. The walls were full of display cases and shelves that had tools of all kinds. In the middle of the room was a huge white vehicle that looked like a cross between a submarine and a plane. There was white smoke coming from around it. 

“Where did they go?” Clara murmured. “And what is this, some form of a submarine?”

Amara shook her head. “Spaceship.”

“She's right.” The Doctor said, turning to the two of them and grinning. “It's alien.”

Clara and the Doctor ran up the stairs that led to the completely white interior of the spaceship, which was empty except for a raised platform that looked like a table and a single lit torch on it. 

“Mara, you coming?” Clara asked from the top, and Amara shook her head. “I’m good, just thought I’d keep watch or something.” The Doctor, who was looking at one of the walls, turned to her and frowned. She shrugged. “Plus, I already know what's in there and don't think there's any point in me seeing it again.”

She knew that the Doctor had been looking at the writing that had been carved into the wall, and she knew that Clara was going to do so as well. She also knew that everyone who read the writing was a target for the ghosts and it would definitely be useful if she wasn't one. Plus, it would also be less heart attack inducing and that was always an advantage in Amara’s eyes. 

Clara shrugged and turned back to the Doctor, who pointed the writing to her. She picked up the torch from the table and pointed it at the wall, frowning. “Any hints to throw about, Mara? You know, since things are finally getting interesting?” Clara called out. 

Amara, who had turned towards the doorway and frozen up at the sight of the two ghosts being back, folded her hands tightly across her chest. “They're back! The crew. Or, well, the ‘crew’.” She weakly threw around some open quotes as the ghosts looked away from her and up at the Doctor and Clara, seemingly muttering something. 

“Hello!” The Doctor grinned. “Did you want to show us this? It's very nice!” 

The ghosts turned towards the tool cabinet and Amara started backing away, only to accidentally bump into the Doctor. He grabbed her hand and pushed her behind him, doing the same with Clara. 

“Was it something she said? She does that. She once had an argument with Gandhi!” The Doctor said as the ghost wearing khaki swung his axe towards the Doctor. Amara pulled him back, making the Doctor narrowly miss getting cut in half like Jarasandha, the emperor in Hindu mythology who could only be killed if he was split in half along the middle thanks to the way he was born. 

“It wasn't Clara, it was something you guys did and we need to get out of here!” Amara pulled the two of them outside the room as Clara yelled, “Thank you!” 

The Doctor and Clara leaned against the wall, panting, and Amara’s eyes widened as she remembered another tiny detail. “Guys, they can walk through the walls!” 

Just as she said that, the ghost wearing khaki’s hand started coming out of the wall from behind Clara. She jumped away and screamed. 

Amara grabbed both Clara’s and the Doctor’s hands and pulled them along with her as the Victorian ghost started to surface from the floor in front of the place they’d been in. She let go of their hands when they’d started running as well. 

The three of them ran across a corridor, when a door at the end opened and a woman gestured to them. “In here, quick!” 

The three of them ran inside and the woman closed the door right before the ghosts could get in. Amara sighed, bending down and grabbing her knees, before she straightened up and turned around. There were five other people in the circular room- three men and two women. The room had a bunch of canned food, water bottles and sleeping bags on the floor.

A woman who was wearing a khaki jacket and shorts signed something with her hands, and a man standing next to her said, “Who the hell are you?” 

The Doctor turned away from the door and pulled out his psychic paper from his pocket, showing it around. “These are Clara and Amara, I’m the Doctor.”

Another man wearing a blue-grey t-shirt with the words ‘Vector Petroleum’ written on it frowned. “You’re from UNIT.” 

“If that's what it says.” The Doctor muttered, and Amara shook her head. 

“I’m Pritchard,” said the man in the blue shirt, “This is Bennett,” He gestured to another man wearing khaki and glasses.

The woman who had let them in earlier went to shake the Doctor’s hand. She was wearing a cap and a tank top, and she said. “O’Donnell, are you really the Doctor? I’m a huge fan,” She chuckled, before catching herself and clearing her throat. “I mean, nice work.” She gave him a thumbs up and went back to stand in front of Bennett. The Doctor grinned at her. 

“I’m Lunn, I sign for Cass.” The man who had translated the other woman’s signs said. 

The Doctor nodded, before asking, “Tell me, what about those things out there? What are they? Why are they trying to kill us?”

“Well, obviously,” Bennet said, “They’re- they’re ghosts.” He sounded out of breath, like he was scared and exasperated at the same time. Amara shot him a sympathetic smile, knowing how that feeling felt. 

“They’re not ghosts.” The Doctor scoffed. Amara opened her mouth, about to say something, before she closed it shaking her head. Better if he found out himself, she really didn’t know what the consequences of her making a comment at that time were going to be. He’d probably find out earlier, but who knew? 

Cass started signing and Lunn translated for her. “Cass is saying that one of the ghosts is our previous commanding officer. The other, um moley guy, we don't know what he is.”

He’s from the planet Tivoli.” 

“See? I told you it was an alien.” Bennet started walking around. “Didn't I say that?”

“Weird thing is, they're not violent.” The Doctor said. “They're too cowardly. They wouldn't say boo to a goose. They're more likely to give the goose their car keys and bank details.” 

“What the hell would a goose do with their bank details?” Clara frowned, and the Doctor shrugged. “Big universe, anything could happen.” He turned to the crew again. “When did they first appear?”

“Oh, did you see that spaceship in the hangar?” O’Donnell asked. “Yeah, we found that on the lake bed and we'd just got it on board and one of the engines started up and then Moran got-” She swallowed and took a deep breath. “Moran was killed.”

Cass started signing, Lunn translating for her. “Then they appeared and pretty much straight away started trying to kill us. So we grabbed what we could and we were looking for somewhere to hide, and that's when we realised the ghosts couldn't come in here.”

“What is this place?” Clara looked around the dimly lit circular room that seemed to have a ceiling that reached the surface of the water. 

“It's a Faraday Cage.” Amara said, remembering what the Doctor had said in the episode. 

“It’s completely impenetrable to radio waves.” The Doctor nodded. “Right, so who’s in charge here? I need to know who to ignore.”

Cass started signing, and Lunn said, “That would be me.” He pointed to himself, before shaking his head and pointing at an amused Cass. “Her.”

“Actually, that would be me.” Pritchard handed over a business card to the Doctor with the exact same Vector Petroleum logo his shirt had. Amara leaned over to take a look at it. It had his name, Richard Pritchard printed on it with a neat font. “I represent Vector Petroleum. We've obtained the mining rights to the oil.”

“The oil? Where are we?” The Doctor frowned, handing over the card to Amara, who pocketed it. 

“This used to be a military training site.” Said Bennett, “There was a dam overlooking it, but the dam burst and the valley was submerged.”

“Then twenty years ago, we discovered a massive oil reservoir underneath it.” Pritchard continued. 

At that moment, the lights went off and came on again, brighter than they were before. “Good morning. Entering Day Mode.” An automated computer voice sound across the submarine. Everyone who was a part of the crew started murmuring statements of relief and O'Donnell opened the door. 

When Clara asked them about it, they said that the ship demarcated artificial days and nights as they were too far below the surface to get any sunlight, and the ghosts only came out during what was called Night Mode. 

“Weird how that's not comforting.” Clara murmured to Amara and the Doctor as they left the Faraday Cage. 

“This is why I never do horror movie settings.” Amara muttered. “I swear, if this wasn't an episode, we would've never even been here in the first place.” 

----

The Doctor burst open the door to the hangar. “If whatever they are-”

“They’re ghosts-” Pritchard started, but Amara shook her head. “Don’t- you’ll just tire yourself,” She murmured as the Doctor said, “They’re not ghosts.”

She rolled her eyes as he continued talking. “If they’ve been trying to kill you, then why haven't you abandoned the base?”

“That was my call.” Pritchard said. |We've got about a trillion dollars worth of mining equipment here. We're not just going to abandon it.” Amara raised her eyebrows at him. “What? If it all goes pear-shaped, it's not them that lose a bonus.”

The Doctor nodded and leaned towards him, patting his arm. “It’s okay, I understand. You're an idiot.” He walked towards the spaceship, Clara following behind.

“Hey! That's rude!” Amara shook her head at him before turning to Pritchard. “But seriously, though, you should’ve left when you had the chance.” 

The Doctor rolled his eyes at her before turning to Bennett. “Come to think of it, why is there a Faraday Cage in the base?”

“It's the mining equipment. It runs on nuclear fission. The Faraday cage has been lined with lead to act as a shelter in the event of a radiation leak.”

“So, we are fighting an unknown homicidal force that has taken the form of your commanding officer and a cowardly alien, underwater, in a nuclear reactor. Anything else I should know? Someone got a peanut allergy, or something?” Amara was about to raise her hand, when he said, “Other than Amara. That one hospital trip was more than enough evidence about that.”

Amara’s eyes widened. “ What hospital trip?!” 

“Spoilers.” The Doctor said as he climbed up the stairs to the spaceship. He turned around. “Don't worry about it.” 

“Wh-” Clara patted her arm. “Just try to forget about it?”

“How-” She threw her hands up as Clara climbed onto the spaceship as well. She shook her head and turned around. “I hate it when he does that.”

Everyone in the crew stared at her as if she’d dropped down from space and she shrugged, smiling nervously. “It’s a long story. And I don't know most of it. Anyway,” She gestured to the spaceship. “More important things to worry about.”

“What's happened to the stuff you’ve removed?” The Doctor had walked to the entrance of the spaceship. 

Everyone in the crew turned to each other, frowning, before O’Donnell turned to the Doctor. “We haven't taken anything, what are you talking about?”

“This is for long-haul flights. There should be a suspended-animation chamber for the pilot right here.” He pointed to a massive rectangle bounded by black lines on the floor of the spaceship. “Plus, one of the power cells is missing.”

“Power cell?” Pritchard ran up the stairs, suddenly interested. The rest of the crew followed him as the Doctor showed them the place where the power cell was supposed to be. 

Lunn attempted to follow Cass up the stairs as well but she stopped him, signing something vigorously. Amara, who had also decided to stay down because she didn't want to accidentally end up looking at the writing and becoming ghost real estate. 

“It's not safe out here either!” Lunn exclaimed, and Amara shook her head. “No, Cass is right.”

“How can it be safer over here?!”

Amara shrugged. “I dunno, it just feels safer.” She said quickly. Telling him she knew the future was not the best way to go with things. 

Cass nodded, going up to the spaceship before gesturing for Lunn to stay back. 

----

The Doctor had come to the conclusion that the things they'd been running away from were actually ghosts. About fifteen seconds after he denied the existence of ghosts in the first place in a typical Doctor fashion. But, before anyone could do anything about his epiphany slash fangirl tangent about ghosts and death, the lights went off and the computer voice announced that they were entering Night Mode. 

O’Donnell scrambled towards a few computers inside the room they were in as she tried to go back into Day Mode, when the TARDIS Cloister Bells started ringing and Amara clutched her head in pain. 

She closed her eyes, inhaling sharply as she tried to ignore the splitting pain in her head. She could vaguely hear a couple of people asking if she was alright and barely registered someone grabbing onto her shoulders and gently setting her down on a chair. 

“You, focus on changing the settings. You, stay here. I’ll be back soon, I know what's happening to you.” The Doctor murmured, before leaving. 

She took a couple of deep breaths, trying to think about something other than the periodic pain shooting through her skull. It felt like someone had shoved a hot rod into her eye and was swishing around her brain from in there or something. 

And then it stopped. 

Amara frowned, opening her eyes slowly, her head still reeling. Bennett was sitting beside her, eyebrows furrowed in concern. “Are you alright?”

She shrugged, sagging as she felt a lot more tired than usual. “Tired. Don't know what happened.”

“An allergic reaction to submarines.” The Doctor walked in, kneeling down in front of her and taking her face in one hand and checking her over as if looking for injuries. 

“An allergic reaction to submarines .” She repeated, frowning. 

He shrugged, standing up. “Eh, submarines, sonic screwdrivers, soup, same thing.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” 

He turned around and shrugged again. “I dunno. I'm becoming old. Apparently that's not good for one’s brain. Anyway, don't we have more important things to worry about?”

Amara frowned at him for a moment before sighing and turning top Bennett. Even though this was suspicious, her headache had gone away and she didn’t feel overly funny- plus, the whole Day Mode, Night Mode situation was more urgent. She got up. “Come on, I'll help you pick up the provisions we need.” 

----

Amara grabbed some canned fruit from inside one of the shelves in the kitchen as O’Donnell called for Pritchard again on the PA. 

“I'd love to work for UNIT, Earth's first line of defence, and all. I'm probably not suited, though. Not much of a fighter. More of a bleeder.” Bennett said casually. 

Amara smiled, putting the fruit in the bag he was holding. “Sometimes, all the world really needs is a bleeder. Or at least, that's what I’m told.” She turned to get some more things from the pantry. “The Doctor can get extremely weird when sleep deprived.” 

“Weirder than normal?” Bennett chuckled, and she turned to him and grinned. “Yeah. Something about the melatonin battling with his instinct to stay awake or something.”

She put some tins of beans into the bag. 

“What about you, then?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he’s an adventurer and Clara seems to be one too, but you- you’re different.”

She turned around from the pantry and frowned. “Different how?”

“More… careful, for lack of a better word.”

She chuckled. “Well, with a friend like the Doctor, someone needs to be the voice of reason.”

He smiled. “I agree. O’Donnell is exactly like him in some ways. Always blundering into danger. And I can’t just let her do it so I get into danger as well. Even though I’d rather be doing literally anything else.”

She chuckled, before looking past him and frowning. “Pritchard.” She murmured, her eyes widening. Bennett turned around to look at what she'd seen.

There was a figure in front of them wearing a wetsuit, it's back facing them. 

“Where have you been? Everyone's been looking for you. What's with the wet suit?” Bennett walked towards him, while Amara stood rooted to her spot. She turned towards the window, clutching onto a tin can as her breathing started to quicken. 

Bennett contacted O’Donnell and she started yelling at Pritchard to get into the Faraday Cage. 

Amara’s breath caught in her throat as something started to float outside the window. It was a man in a wetsuit with a thin face. The helmet was off and he had drowned. Pritchard. 

“Bennett…” She said, going to stand next to him. He turned around, frowning, and she pointed to the window. “That's Pritchard.” She turned to the communicator Bennett was holding. “He’s outside. He drowned.” 

The figure turned around, revealing Pritchard- except his eyes were black and empty. Like the other ghosts. 

The others came running in, except for O’Donnell. Pritchard went to go pick up a fallen chair. Amara took a deep breath. She could do this. 

She went to stand in front of all of them. “Get behind me.”

“Amara-” The Doctor started as Pritchard lifted the chair above his head and walked towards them. She felt someone grab her arm as he walked towards them. She pulled her arm out of the Doctor’s grasp and stood in front of everyone. 

“Amara!” The Doctor exclaimed, just as the lights went off and came on again, the chair falling to the ground as Pritchard disappeared. 

Just as everyone ran outside back to the room O’Donnell was in, the Doctor grabbed Amara’s shoulders. “Don’t do that- why would you do that in the first place?”

She blinked. “I dunno. It felt, erm, right.” And she wasn't even in any real danger in the first place, Pritchard wasn’t after her. 

The Doctor shook his head. “Don’t- just don't do that again. I can't lose you. Not yet.”

She frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“Time.” He murmured. “Or more precisely, the lack thereof.”

“I don't understand.” 

“That's because you've only just started.” He brushed a bit of hair off her face and tucked it behind her ear. “Look at you and your eyes- you’re so young , I-” He swallowed, taking a deep breath. “Right. Come on. Bigger things to worry about.”

Amara furrowed her eyebrows, staring at him sceptically. 

“I’m alright, you don't have to worry about me now. We have a ghost problem to solve. Again.” He added, and she smiled slightly at the reference he’d made.

“Yeah, we do.” She said, holding out a hand. He took it and the two of them started walking towards the room O’Donnell and the others were in. She knew that the Doctor was lying, but she also knew there was nothing she could do about it. The Doctor was, after all, a very private man and when he kept something hidden, it was nearly impossible to actually get it out, and she didn't want to invade his privacy, no matter the fact that it concerned her in a way. She knew that she’d eventually find out with time, since that's what the Doctor had hinted. Plus, he was right about one thing- they did have more important things to worry about. 

Chapter Text

When they all went back to the room O'Donnell was in, they (aka, the Doctor) decided that they needed to switch back to night mode so that they could find out what was up with the ghosts and what they needed. So, they all came together and made a plan, and all seemed well. Until Amara was violently thrown into a dizzy fit that ended in her jumping away. The Doctor, however, didn’t sound too surprised when he said his goodbyes. In fact, ever since the TARDIS decided to throw a temper tantrum, he kept looking at her as if he expected her to disappear. To jump away. 

When Amara landed and grabbed onto the nearest solid thing to keep balance while the blood rushed back to the rest of her body from her head, she hoped that she’d ended up landing with a version of the Doctor that had already faced her previous adventure because she had questions. 

When she finally regained her balance, she blinked and straightened up, looking around to see where she was. She was inside a room with pale pink walls and white cabinets. There was a refrigerator in front of her, which was full of magnets. A few of them were random things from planets she’d recalled going to, and the others… well, she didn’t exactly know what they were because her eyes kept sliding over them and missing them every time she tried to look at them thanks to the perception filter the TARDIS had put on them. The Doctor had told her that the TARDIS did that for her to avoid spoilers, which she appreciated. She even saw a few pictures that were on the fridge. She recognised the ones she’d taken with Ten in all the different planets he’d taken her to. There were more pictures as well, but like with the magnets, she couldn’t see them at all. 

It didn’t take her too long to realise that she’d jumped into the kitchen. Now all she needed to do was find out where the hell the Doctor was, and which point in his timeline she’d landed in. She knew it was before her previous adventure with Twelve, because she distinctly recalled adding another fridge magnet from the new year celebrations in Pantagruelia. 

She walked out of the kitchen, placing a hand on the wall that was nearest to her, only to receive a warm hum from the ship. “Hello, old girl.” She smiled, “Can you tell me where I am?”

She got a hum in return, which she did not understand in any way whatsoever. Which she should’ve expected. The Doctor was the only one who could speak TARDIS. 

However, she did end up finding out where she was soon after that. The TARDIS was kind enough to make her take the closest path to the console room, which was a lot brighter than any of the previous console rooms she’d been to. The floor was made of glass, and there were many orange decorations on the ceiling and the walls. The console itself had many things on top of it, including a typewriter, a ketchup and mustard dispenser, and even a jukebox. 

The Doctor was underneath the console, fixing something as loudly as he could. She could hear the metal clanging with more metal and the buzz of the sonic screwdriver. It was all very loud- either the Doctor was extremely frustrated about something, or he was too oblivious to all the noise he was making. Knowing the Doctor, Amara knew this could go both ways. 

“Doctor?” She called out as she walked down the stairs that led inside. She got no response, which she should’ve expected- he was being really loud. “Doctor!” 

That did it. The clanging and the buzzing stopped for a moment, before there was a louder clang from the far side of the console. And then, there was a thudding sound, followed by an “ouch!” 

Amara’s eyes widened and she ran towards the source of the sound. The Eleventh Doctor was kneeling down in front of the console, rubbing his head. She knelt down in front of him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright?!”

“Well, on one hand, a hit to the head is exactly what I needed given the circumstances, but on the other hand, ow!” He groaned, slapping his forehead. “OW!”

Amara shook her head. “Why would you hit your head again ?”

“I dunno, I just-” He shook his head, turning towards her for the first time. He then threw his arms around her and pulled her down, burying his face into her shoulder. She wrapped her arms around him- a little more awkwardly than she’d like to have admitted. He then pulled away from her, his arms still around her waist. “Where did you come from?”

“Your future, but before that, it was when we went to Adipose Industries.” He sighed in relief and she frowned. “Doctor, are you-”

He pulled her against him again, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Oh, that’s good. Very good.” He buried his face in her shoulder again, tightening his grip around her. Amara hugged him back, dipping her face into his hair and sighing. Hugs from the Doctor were always the best hugs in the universe, for some reason. Even from Twelve, who actively hated them. 

Amara pulled away and the Doctor looked up. “What’s wrong?” She asked him as the two of them stood up. 

The Doctor shrugged. “Nothing, why would you think anything’s wrong?” He ran a hand through his hair, and she folded her hands, raising her eyebrows. “You expect me to believe nothing is wrong after that ? You acted like I almost died or something.”

He shook his head. “No, no, that’s not-” He took a deep breath and smiled at her. “Everything’s fine, Mara, cross my hearts.” He drew two cross marks in the air in front of his chest, and she laughed, shaking her head. She couldn’t deny that he looked extremely adorable doing that. “I just missed you.” He shrugged. 

Amara smiled back at him. “You must’ve missed me a lot, by the looks of it.” She knew he was hiding something, but she also knew that it would’ve had a lot to do with her future, and that was a can of worms that shouldn’t be opened unless someone wanted a repeat of the Pandora’s Box incident. She took deep breaths to attempt to calm herself down, while also making sure the Doctor didn’t notice. The last thing she needed was him worrying about her. 

He nodded. “I did.”

“So,” She let out a breath, before taking one in again, “How long was I gone for?”

“ Way too long.” The Doctor grinned, kissing her forehead again before reaching into the inside pocket of his tweed jacket. He pulled out his notebook and flipped to the page where they tracked their timelines. “Is this your first time meeting this version of me?”

Amara shrugged, placing a hand on top of the console, smiling at the shot of warmth the TARDIS sent to her. “I dunno, is it?”

He turned to her and pouted. “Oi, that’s not fair!” 

“Really? Because to my knowledge, I’m not supposed to be telling you anything that could be a potential spoiler.” She grinned at him, and he shook his head before pointing his pen at her. “You’re already getting cheeky, that’s for sure.” He booped her nose and walked to the other side of the console, pressing a button. “And I’ll take that as a yes.”

Amara raised her eyebrows at him. “You do know that you could be terribly wrong, right?”

He shrugged. “Well, I know when you are and aren’t lying as well, and that can’t amount to nothing.” He turned to her again. “Anyway, where to?”

She shrugged, before noticing something else. “Where are Amy and Rory?”

“Oh, they decided they wanted to spend a weekend in the Gardens of Glaxon to do, erm, coupley stuff, probably, not important right now,” He walked around, gesturing about and pressing buttons and flicking switches, before he stood right in front of her. “What is important, however, is our next destination. Speaking of which, what is our next destination?”

Amara reached into the front pocket of her trench coat and pulled out her blue notebook. “Let’s see…” She opened it and ran a finger down the names of all the places she’d listed on her bucket list. “There’s New Earth in the year seventy billion, the Sun Festival in Heliad, or Nohadon.” She looked at the Doctor, who was absently flicking a switch back and forth while looking into her notebook from beside her. “You can choose from them.”

He turned to her and smiled, about to say something, when the shrill ringing of a telephone startled the two of them. Amara blinked, turning around and looking at the console to find where the phone was, before locating it in between the ketchup and mustard dispensers and the typewriter. “Should I get it?”

“Go for it.” The Doctor frowned, scratching his head. “Although, the number of possible callers is a very small list…”

Amara picked it up. “Hello?

“Ah, hello sweetie, you’re here too! That’s just perfect!”

“Oh my God,” Amara’s eyes widened and she gaped. The Doctor raised an almost nonexistent eyebrow at her, mouthing, “You alright?”

“Oh my God what? Sweetie, is everything alright?” 

Amara shook her head. “Yeah, no, everything’s fine. It’s just… River Song. You’re River Song .”

The Doctor nodded slowly, seemingly understanding the situation. He folded his hands and leaned against the console, fiddling with the controls again. 

“Last I checked.” River chuckled from the other end of the receiver. “Why do you sound so surprised?”

She blinked. “I’m guessing you do this a lot? Also, erm, I’m really sorry.” She knew that River had always said that her greatest fear was seeing the Doctor one day and having him not know who she was because of all the messed up timeline stuff. And she also knew how the Doctor had reacted when he realised how early this was in her timeline. Well, Ten, at least. Twelve had been pretty relaxed about it. 

“What are you sorry about? You know you don’t have to apologise to me about anything. Anyway, is this a bad time?”

“Not at all, um, I just landed here and the Doctor doesn’t seem to be busy.” She locked eyes with the Doctor, and he shrugged. “Are you in trouble or something?” 

“No. Well, not yet, at least. Although, I trust you’ll try your best to keep me out of it.” 

“Do I ever succeed?” Amara asked cautiously. The Doctor bit his lip, before shaking his head. 

“Well, not really, but it’s adorable to see you attempt to do it every time.” She chuckled. “Anyway, I need your help. It’s something the Doctor would want to look into.” 

----

The two of them had landed in the Stormcage Containment Facility, right outside River’s cell, where she was waiting for the two of them. She was standing outside her cell, her hands folded and smirking at the two of them as they got out of the TARDIS. 

“You’re late.” She remarked, walking towards the TARDIS. 

The Doctor shrugged. “The time settings probably need a look over.”

Amara frowned. This was not what would normally happen in the show. Every time River would say he was late, he’d end up making some sort of flirtatious comment, which definitely wasn’t the case this time. He probably didn’t know her too well, then. She didn’t exactly know which part of his timeline she’d landed in, except for the fact that it was the Pond Era and before the end of series six. 

“Right, and I assume you forgot to look over them after the last time you were here? Or the time before that?” River raised her eyebrows as she placed her hands on the console, smiling, before she turned to the Doctor. “You’re getting distracted.” She winked at him, and he blinked. 

“Wh- no. Shut up, it’s not like that.” He scowled, folding his hands. 

River rolled her eyes and turned to Amara, smiling. “Hello Sweetie, I’ve missed you.” She then stared at Amara’s face for a moment before asking, “Early days?” 

“ Very early days, actually.” The Doctor slid beside Amara. “I think this is the first time she’s meeting you, right? And don’t go all cryptic again.”

Amara rolled her eyes at him and turned to River. “This is my first time meeting you. In person, at least.”

“Was that why you apologised?” River asked, her face becoming serious. 

Amara shrugged. “I mean, I don’t think being faced with someone you know at a time when they don’t know you is a pleasant experience.”

“Well…” River tilted her head to the side and shrugged, “It was bound to happen some time. And it’s not like you don’t know me at all, unlike him,” She nodded towards the Doctor. “Wonder what that would be like.”

Amara swallowed, knowing very well what that particular meeting was like. The Doctor slipped his hand through Amara’s and squeezed it, before clearing his throat. “Right. Timelines. Where are we now?”

River pulled out her diary and flipped through the pages. “Right. I’m assuming we’ve both done 1969.”

“Yup. Went to have tea with Canton last week. Erm- have you done Labyrinth yet?”

“The what now?” Amara looked up at him, frowning. 

“Spoilers.” River said, before looking into her book again. “And no. Although, I imagine I’d be quite excited for that. Have you both met Jim the Fish yet?”

“Nope.” The Doctor said, and at the same time, Amara said, “I want to.” 

River smiled at the two of them and shook her head, before flipping through the pages again. “Right, so it’s earlier than Jim the Fish… have you done the Hamster Incident?”

The Doctor chuckled and nodded. “It only feels like yesterday.”

River laughed as well. “That really was an interesting day. Amy loved the hamster.”

“Yeah, she really did. Although, who couldn’t love the hamster?” The Doctor stopped laughing, and cleared his throat. “Anyway, you needed help with something?”

River nodded. “Yeah, I did. But first, I’ll have to go to my room for a bit. Take a shower, change,” She gestured to her grey tank top and sweatpants. “Stormcage really needs a better atmosphere that actually helps my hair.” She grumbled, walking towards the corridor. She turned around and blew the two of them a kiss. “I’ll be back soon, sweeties.”

----

“Right, so this is the Ryloden Ruby.” River had come back from her shower, and was drying her hair while also using the TARDIS monitor to display what looked like the biggest gemstone Amara had ever seen. “It’s currently in the Cornithian Manor. They’re one of the most powerful families in the Ravalian System.” She added, for Amara’s benefit. “What most people don’t know is that the ruby can also act as a powerful power core.”

“It’s overflowing with time energy and can power an entire planet.” The Doctor said. “The Rylodens used it to power their time machines before their planet got destroyed. The ruby was found floating around in space by a space trader in the system. He sold it, and it’s been in private hands ever since.”

Amara blinked, before turning to River. “We’re stealing it, aren’t we?”

River grinned at her. “You know me too well, sweetie.” She placed a hand on Amara’s shoulder after looking at her horrified expression. “And I know you as well, which is why I’m going to tell you that we’re completely justified to steal it.”

“Completely justified.” Amara deadpanned. “To break the law.” She swallowed.

“Not really, stealing isn’t considered a crime in the Aldovar Galaxy.” The Doctor said. “It’s actually like some sort of a, erm, mating call. Or, well, display of affection.”

“So, if someone steals your stuff, that means they have a crush on you.”

“Basically.” The Doctor shrugged. 

“Why would stealing be considered- never mind that, I’ll just end up getting triggered about the wrong thing,” Amara took a deep breath, folding her hands. “Is it against the law in the Ravalian System, or whatever the place we’re going is called?”

“It is, but-” She raised a finger as Amara opened her mouth to protest, “The other alternative is letting an entire star system blow up because of some idiot.”

Amara raised an eyebrow, and River said, “Lord Bertram Corinthian wants to use the gemstone for his own needs. He wants to develop time travel in the Ravalian System using the gemstone. But, the problem is, only the Rylodens know how to use it properly.”

“Why’s that?”

“Their planet is made of a type of stone that can conduct the energy inside the ruby in a safe way, which is why the Rylodens could use it.” The Doctor explained. “However, the energy in the ruby destroys everything it touches except for the stone, and obviously, the ruby itself.”

“But, Bertram being a complete idiot who is incapable of a single common sense filled thought, decided he wanted to use it despite all the dangers it poses.”

Amara stared at the two of them for a few seconds, blinking. She then cleared her throat. “So, couldn't we just ask him to not do it? And you know, tell him the consequences? Instead of stealing it?”

River shrugged. “I told you. He’s incapable of having a single common sense filled thought. You don’t think people warned him about it?” She shook her head. “He decided to experimentally create a rock similar to the one found in Ryloden, but I’m pretty sure that’s not gonna work.”

“But what if it does ?” Amara asked, and River and the Doctor frowned at her. 

“Since when do you take the optimistic road on things like this?” River asked, and Amara shrugged. “Since I agreed to steal a ruby from a random star system where stealing is completely illegal?”

River grinned at her. “So you’re in.”

“I mean… I still think we should go with the negotiating route, but I couldn’t let you get into trouble, now, could I?” 

“That’s my girl.” The Doctor grinned, high fiving her. 

----

Chapter Text

The two of them picked up Amy and Rory a couple of days after the attempted heist, which all but ended in disaster. Amara got displaced through time because of the ruby, River got arrested, and the Doctor had to use the TARDIS multiple times to solve the problem. Amy and Rory were the best- they seemed to be good friends with Amara in the future, which was a relief. Amara found herself relating a lot to Rory, which didn’t come as a surprise to her, since the two of them had pretty similar views about all the time travel antics they got up to on a regular basis. 

Amara walked towards the Doctor, who was staring intently at a screen on the console. He turned to look at Amy for a moment, before turning back to the screen again. She was playing darts with Rory and didn’t notice the Doctor’s worried glance. Amara, however, did. 

She stood next to him and folded her hands. “Everything alright?”

He turned to her, a smile forming on his face. “Top notch. Why do you ask?”

She shrugged and nodded towards the screen. “Because you’ve been staring at that for the last twenty minutes?”

The Doctor blinked, before saying, “How do you know that? Have you been staring at me for the last twenty minutes?” He wiggled his eyebrows, and she scoffed. “Please. You wish.” She had, in fact, been staring at him for the past twenty minutes- because she was worried about him. Obviously. Why else would she be staring at him?

She turned back to the screen, which showed a body scan. Or more precisely, a pregnancy scan. The weird thing was, the results kept flashing back and forth between positive and negative. And the even weirder thing was that the scan was Amy’s. The good thing was, Amara knew exactly what was up. And the bad thing was that she couldn’t tell the Doctor because that would cause a domino effect that could ruin the entire timeline, and that was the last thing anyone needed. 

She settled for comforting him. She placed a hand on his arm. He turned back to her from the screen, frowning. She looked at him for a moment and said, “She'll be alright. Sure, things end up going the way they always do, but everything turns out to be not so bad in the end.” 

He smiled at her before turning back to the screen. “She’s not the only one I’m worried about.” He murmured, and Amara frowned slightly. 

“What do you mean?”

The Doctor closed his eyes for a moment and leaned his forehead on the monitor, before turning to her again, an unreadable expression on his face. “It’s just… that’s not Amy, is it?”

Amara stared at him for a moment. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to be answering that right now.”

The Doctor shook his head. “No, I know she’s some sort of a duplicate, I’ve known for a while now, it’s just… she’s connected to someone else as well. And-”

Amara’s eyes widened in realisation. “You’re concerned about the baby? Don’t worry about that either, the baby turns out fine as well.” She paused, before swallowing. “For the most part, anyway. Spoilers.” She added in response to his raised eyebrows. 

He still seemed to be on edge. Which she didn’t blame him for- finding out your best friend is actually a clone isn’t really news that one would handle well, and in the Doctor’s defence, he was handling it very well. 

She squeezed his arm and gave him a reassuring look. “Seriously, Doctor, everything will be okay. I promise.” She offered him a smile, and he smiled back, patting her hand. “I know. I just… worry sometimes.” 

Amara chuckled softly. “We all do.” She shrugged. “Some more than others.” 

His smile widened. He turned back to the monitor and turned off the music, making Amy and Rory turn towards him mid dart game. 

“Who wants fish and chips?” He announced. Rory raised his hand almost immediately. Amara couldn’t help but smile at that. 

The Doctor immediately walked towards the other side of the console. “I’ll drop you both off, take your time,” He flicked a couple of switches before turning back to them, “Don’t rush!” 

“Erm- and what about you two?” Rory asked. The Doctor slid to the other side of the console where Amara was standing. “Things to do. Things involving… other things.”

Amy raised her eyebrows before jumping onto the raised platform with the console. “Well, we'll stay with you. We'll do the other things.”

“Nope.” The Doctor said, and Amy frowned. “Well, judging by everything, I know that the things are safe enough for me and Rory to be there for-”

“I wouldn’t say they’re safe , per se, you know, since you’re travelling with someone who’s arrival into your life was synonymous to the world almost ending-”

“You mean Tuesday.” Amy said, and Amara shook her head. “That’s Saturday. Tuesdays are boring.” She nodded towards the Doctor. “According to him, at least. Tuesdays, Thursday afternoons, Sundays, and August.”

The Doctor grinned and pointed at her. “Spot on! Anyway, you’re both going for fish and chips while Amara and I do the thing we’re supposed to do.” He pointed at Amy and Rory. 

“Whatever you're up to, I'd personally like to be a part of it. This time.” Amy said, and the Doctor stared at her. “What?” She frowned. 

At that moment, a klaxon bell rang, making the TARDIS lurch forward. Amara and Rory screamed, and Amara grabbed onto the console, trying to stay balanced as the TARDIS hurtled. 

“Solar tsunami!” The Doctor exclaimed, attempting to stabilise the ship. “Came directly from your sun. A tidal wave of radiation. Big, big, big!”

Amara flicked the nearest blue switches, knowing they were the stabilisers. They didn’t seem to work, as the TARDIS continued to assume the role of a rollercoaster. “Seriously?! Of all the times to stop working?! The manual said they were the last resort option!”

“This is why I don’t trust the manual!” The Doctor yelled, flicking a few switches himself. “Always unreliable during specific situations!” 

“For God’s sake, this is neither the time nor place for that argument!” Amara yelled, tightening her grip on the console. The Doctor seemed to have some sort of rivalry with the instruction manual, and Amara had been trying to talk him out of it for the past few days. However, she discovered that he could be extremely stubborn when it came to that one topic, and was always looking to prove her wrong. 

“I beg to differ! This is the perfect time to discuss it!”

“We’re potentially about to die and you want to have this debate now ?!”

“We’re not gonna be able to have it when we’re dead, are we?”

Amara huffed, shaking her head. “Has anyone told you that you're extremely annoying?!” 

“Multiple times!” He winked at her, and she scowled at him. 

“Doctor, my tummy’s feeling funny!” Rory yelled from the other side of the room, gripping onto the railing with a pained expression on his face. 

Amara and the Doctor turned to him for a moment. “Don’t worry, Rory, it’ll be alright soon!”

“Didn’t you just say we were potentially about to die?” The Doctor raised his eyebrows at her. She rolled her eyes. “It was a figure of speech!” 

“ How was that a figure of speech?! ”

“Can the two of you continue your argument somewhere else?” Amy yelled. “Preferably after we deal with whatever this is?”

Amara turned towards the monitor for a moment. “Okay, we’re fucked.” Her voice had become high-pitched, and she was gripping onto the console so tightly that her hands started to hurt. 

The Doctor was behind her almost immediately. “The gyrator’s not working, everybody assume the position!” 

Amara immediately dropped down to the floor and shielded her head with her arms. She tried to get underneath the console as much as possible. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to ignore her almost painful heartbeat when the TARDIS thudded to a stop. 

She looked up for a moment, trying to calm her shaky breaths as she slowly got up and held onto the console for support. The Doctor looked around, a smile forming on his face. “Textbook landing.”

She scowled at him, breathing heavily. “Seruppala adippen.” (I’m going to hit you with a shoe)

----

“Behold!” The Doctor poked his head outside the TARDIS door and stepped out. “A cockerel. Love a cockerel.”

They all walked out behind him. The first thing Amara felt was the cold air that hit her the moment she stepped out. She tightened her coat around her and rubbed her palms together. They were in a grassy area in front of a huge stone building that looked like it was from the mediaeval era. True to the Doctor’s words, there was a yellow cockerel on top of it. There was some music playing from inside the monastery. Some very non-mediaeval music. 

“And underneath, a monastery. Thirteenth century.” The Doctor finished. 

“Oh, we’ve gone all mediaeval.” Amy said. 

“We have not, actually.” Amara folded her hands tightly, rubbing her arms to help with the cold. 

“She’s right.” Rory said, and Amy raised her eyebrows at him. “Mediaeval expert, now, are you?”

“No, it's just that I can hear Dusty Springfield.” He said, and Amara nodded. “And you’re right.”

“You listen to Dusty Springfield?” Rory asked her, his eyebrows raised, and she shook her head. 

“We’re in an episode. I didn’t even know who Dusty Springfield was until this episode.” She shrugged. “I thought she was that animated plane from that Pixar movie.”

“That’s Dusty Crophopper.” The Doctor said, inspecting a hole in the ground. Amara went to stand next to him and bent down. Inside the hole was a white pipe with the word ‘Danger’ written on it. “Please don’t do your usual thing when it comes to inspecting things.”

He turned to her, an unamused expression on his face. “Thanks for the suggestion. I wasn’t gonna do it anyway.” He straightened up. “That thing’s labelled corrosive. Even I’m not that stupid. Anyway, these fissures are new. Solar tsunami sent out a huge wave of gamma particles. This is caused by a magnetic quake that occurs just before the wave hits.”

“The monastery’s still standing.” Amy said, and Amara shrugged. “For now, yeah.”

“Do you have to be so pessimistic?”

Amara shrugged, straightening up. “It’s not pessimistic if it’s the truth.”

“No, she’s right, the monastery’s definitely going to be affected badly.” The Doctor pulled a snow globe from his pocket and shook it. 

“What’s the globe for?” Amara asked him. He turned towards her and said, “It’s not a snow globe. It’s a solar storm detector thingy. It’s like a seismograph for solar storms.”

She nodded. “Why does it look like a globe, though?”

He shrugged. “First thing I found.”

“I think it looks cool.” She said, and he smiled at her. 

“Doctor, look.” Rory pointed to the pipe. “That can’t be mediaeval, can it?”

“Yeah. It's a supply pipe. Ceramic inner lining.” The Doctor buzzed his screwdriver at the pipe and looked at it. “Something corrosive. They're pumping something nasty off this island to the mainland.”

“My mum’s a massive fan of Dusty Springfield.” Rory remarked. 

“Who isn’t?” The Doctor said, and Amara raised her hand. He turned around and started running towards the entrance to the monastery. “Right, let's go. Satisfy our rabid curiosity.”

Amy was right behind him, but Rory turned to Amara. “Am I the only one who doesn’t have a rabid curiosity here or can I rely on you?”

Amara shrugged. “I already know everything that’s gonna happen, so yeah. You can rely on me.” She ran up the stairs. 

“So, where are these Dusty Springfield loving monks, then?” Amy asked as the four of them walked into the ruined courtyard of the monastery. 

The Doctor scanned the surroundings with his screwdriver and looked at it. “I think we're here. This is it.”

Amara cleared her throat softly, folding her hands. 

“ Doctor, what are you talking about? We've never been here before.” Rory said as the Doctor climbed a flight of stairs.

The Doctor turned around, frowning. Amara nodded towards Amy and Rory, mouthing, “You fucked up.”

“We came here by accident?” Amy said.

“Yes, I know, accident.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Amara said to Rory, who was about to touch one of the pipes beside the stairs they were climbing. 

The Doctor scanned the pipes and said, “She’s right, that’s ccid. They're pumping acid off this island.”

Rory withdrew his hand, placing it into his pockets as the Doctor walked towards the entrance to the main building. Amara lifted a hand up. “Um, I wouldn’t do that if I were-”

An alarm sounded, the words ‘Intruder Alert’ being said repeatedly. 

“And there it is.” Amara murmured, folding her hands tightly. “The stupid loud noise.”

The Doctor walked back, throwing his screwdriver up and catching it. “There are people coming.” He shrugged. “Well, almost.”

Amy frowned, “Almost coming?”

The Doctor looked at his screwdriver. “Almost people.”

Amara rolled her eyes as the Doctor walked back inside. “You can’t just say that and expect people to not be afraid.”

Amy, on the other hand, ran behind him and Amara shrugged. “Or maybe you can. Come on, Rory.” She turned to him, and he pointed to the exit. “I really think we should get going.”

“Come on!” Amy ran towards them and pulled him along, Amara following close behind. 

“I’m telling you, when something runs towards you, it’s never for a nice reason!” Rory exclaimed, before turning to Amara. “Why do we have to be in the middle of an episode, it’s the only time you’re not the only other voice of sanity!” 

Amara sighed. “Believe me, if it weren’t for the whole timeline collapsing, I would’ve prevented this nonsense a long time ago.”

----

The four of them entered a room inside the monastery. It was full of stone alcoves, each with a harness in it. And on the harnesses, were a group of people who were lying down in a spread-eagled position, their eyes closed. Amara stepped right into the centre of the room, standing as far away from the harnesses as possible. People or almost people or whatever, they still kinda gave her the creeps. She folded her hands tightly, taking a deep breath. 

“What are all these harnesses for?” Amy asked as the Doctor walked towards them to scan them.

“The almost people?” Rory asked, and Amara shook her head. “No, they’re for the real people.”

Rory turned towards her, his eyes slightly wide. 

“What are they?” Amy asked, “Prisoners, or meditating, or what?”

The Doctor walked towards the three of them, standing next to Amara. “Well, at the moment they fall into the ‘or what’ category.”

“More like something that’s a mix of the last two.” Amara murmured, edging closer to the Doctor. He looked down at her for a moment before he was jerked out of his thoughts by a voice sounding through the tannoy. 

“Halt and remain calm.”

The Doctor moved slightly in front of Amara, who had folded her hands even more tightly. She bit her lip and gripped onto her forearms, taking a deep breath.

“Well, we've halted. How are we all doing on the calm front?”

“Don’t move!” A bunch of people wearing orange jumpsuits- two men and a woman who looked exactly like the ones in the harnesses- walked in, two of them holding long metal things that looked a lot like tridents. Amara blinked at them. Remain calm, they said. 

The woman moved forward, but one of the men- the older one- said, “Stay back, Jen. We don’t know who they are.”

“Then let’s ask them.” Jen said, before turning to them. “Who the hell are you?”

“Well, I'm the Doctor and this is Amara, and this is Amy and Rory, and it's all very nice, isn't it?” He smiled at them. Amara managed a small smile as well. 

Amy, on the other hand, looked back and forth between the harnesses and the people in front of them. “Hold up. You're all- what are you all? Like identical twins?”

“Almost.” Amara murmured, her voice drowned out by another woman, who was just entering the room with a man, both of them wearing acid suits. 

“This is an Alpha Grade industrial facility. Unless you work for the military or for Morpeth Jetson, you are in big trouble.” She said.

The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out his psychic paper. “Actually, you’re in big trouble.” He held it out to her, and she frowned. 

“Meteorological Department?” She snatched the paper from him to get a good look at it. “Since when?”

“Since you were hit by a solar wave.”

“Which we survived.” 

“Just, by the looks of it. And there’s a bigger one on the way.”

“Which we’ll also survive.” She turned to the man beside her. “Dicken, scan for bugs.” 

Dicken pulled out a rectangular device and pointed it at them. “Backs against the wall. Now.”

Amara backed away slowly along with the rest of them, pressing her back against the cool stone wall and letting out a breath. 

“You're not a monastery, you're a factory.” The Doctor said. “Twenty second century army-owned factory.” 

“You’re army ?” Amy frowned, and the woman said, “No, love, we’re contractors, and you’re trespassing.”

Dicken stood in front of them and started waving his scanner around. Amara stared at it warily, pressing herself against the wall even harder. 

“They’re clear, boss.” He announced, stepping away from them. Amara relaxed a little, glad that the beeping device was gone. For now, at least. 

“All right, weatherman, your ID checks out. If there's another solar storm, what are you going to do about it? Hand out sunblock?”

Amy laughed uneasily as the Doctor took the psychic paper away from the woman. “I need to see your critical systems.”

“Which one?”

“You know which one.” The Doctor said, and the woman sighed. “Alright then.” 

As they all followed her, the people with the tridents taking the rear, Amy leaned towards Amara and whispered. “We didn’t land here by accident, did we?”

Amara took a deep breath and let it out. “Spoilers.”

Amy frowned at her. “We came here on purpose. Why?”

“I never said that.” Amara shrugged. 

“You implied it.” Amy shrugged. “That’s your implication face.”

Amara frowned. “I-” She shook her head. “I wasn’t implying anything, the Doctor said we landed here by accident-”

“But rule number one, the Doctor lies. Right?”

“Wasn’t rule number one ‘Don’t wander off’?” 

“Don’t change the subject.”

“I wasn’t-”

“Amy, she said ‘spoilers’.” Amara sighed in relief as the Doctor came to walk next to the two of them. “That means ‘don’t ask questions because she’s just gonna keep looping around until we get the answer ourselves’. Bit annoying, I know, but the timeline unfortunately depends on us not knowing her spoilers beforehand. And we did land here by accident. The solar storm caught us and threw us in here, you think I could fake all that?” He said, in response to her raised eyebrow. “I’m not that diabolical.”

Amy turned to Amara, who shrugged. “He has a point.” 

----

Chapter Text

They walked into a dimly lit room that had a bunch of massive tubs in it. Something was bubbling inside the tubs. Loudly. They walked towards a huge tub, which was connected to a small empty chamber in front of it. Inside the tub was a thick white liquid. The Doctor leaned in front of it. “There you are.” He murmured. 

“Meet the government’s worst kept secret.” The bossy woman (who’s name Amara had learned was Cleaves), said. “The Flesh. It's fully programmable matter. In fact, it's even learning to replicate itself at the cellular level.”

“Right.” Amy nodded. “Brilliant.” She frowned. “Lost?” 

“Okay,” Cleaves frowned. “Once a reading's been taken, we can manipulate its molecular structure into anything. Replicate a living organism down to the hairs on its chinny chin chin. Even clothes. And everything's identical. Eyes, voice-”

“Mind, soul?” The Doctor said, not looking up from the Flesh. 

“Don't be fooled, Doctor. It acts like life but it still needs to be controlled by us, from those harnesses you saw.”

“Has no one learned anything from sci fi horror movies?” Amara murmured, resting her hands on the edge of the vat. The Doctor was the only one who seemed to have heard her, and he flashed her a grin. 

“Wait, whoa. Hold it.” Rory pointed at them. “So, you're Flesh now?”

Cleaves nodded. “I'm lying in a harness back in that chamber. We all are, except Jennifer here.” She gestured to the other woman in a ponytail. Amy and Rory’s eyes widened. 

“Don't be scared.” Cleaves added. “This thing, just like operating a forklift truck.”

“You said it could grow.” The Doctor shook his head. “Only living things grow.” 

“Moss grows.” Cleaves shrugged. “It’s no more than that.”

“I mean, moss is technically a living thing, at least according to every single biology textbook I’ve ever had to study, so I wouldn’t be that dismissive if I were you.” Amara said, and the Doctor nodded. “She’s right.”

Cleaves ignored them. “This acid is so dangerous we were losing a worker every week. So now we mine the acid using these doppelgangers. Or Gangers. If these bodies get burnt or fall in the acid-”

“Then who the hell cares?” The young, dark haired man called Buzzer said. “Right, Jen?” He turned to the other woman. 

“Nerve endings automatically cut off like airbags being discharged. We wake up and get a new Ganger.” Jennifer said. 

“It’s weird, but you get used to it.” The other man called Jimmy said. 

Amara shuddered. “Still a bit creepy.”

“It’s not all that bad.” Jennifer said. “It just takes a little time to get used to.”

“Jennifer, I want you in your Ganger.” Cleaves ordered. “Get back to the harness.”

Jennifer stared at Cleaves for a moment before walking outside. Amara forward slightly. Looks like the Gangers made Jen uncomfortable. That did explain quite a bit of the episode. 

The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver and started scanning the Flesh, which was bubbling even more intensely. The Doctor's eyes widened. 

“Hang on, what's he up to? What are you up to, pal?” Buzzer frowned.

The Doctor pulled the screwdriver away from the Flesh and put it into his pocket. “Strange. It was like- for a moment there it was scanning me!”

He placed his hand onto the surface of the Flesh. It started to cover his hand and started bubbling even more, bits of the Flesh starting to fly out of the vat, before the Doctor jerked his hand back. “I understand.” He murmured.

Amara placed a hand on his arm. “Are you alright?”

“Incredible.” He said, still staring at the Flesh. “You have no idea. No idea. I mean, I felt it in my mind. I reached out to it, and it to me.”

“Don’t fiddle with the money, Doctor.” Cleaves said. 

“How can you be so blinkered? It's alive. So alive. You're piling your lives, your personalities directly into it.”

The solar storm hit once again, and the Doctor asked them to get out again. However, all Cleaves did was make Jennifer demonstrate the process of becoming a Ganger.

The woman in question went and strapped herself onto one of the cross-like pedestals they saw while entering the monastery. As she lay down and commanded all the systems to go online, the Flesh from the vat drained into the smaller tub in front of it. Once the small tub was full, the semi transparent white liquid started to become thicker and more opaque. Slowly, red nerves started to form on the white liquid, and a pair of eyelids formed at the very top. The liquid then started to form itself into the shape of a human. Jennifer’s clothes started to form around it, and it opened its eyes. Amara stepped back a bit, not waiting to take her eyes off the Ganger that was being formed. It reminded her of Voldemort, for some reason. It then sat up, gasping, its features now defined and more human-like. 

The Doctor asked them to get off the island again , when Buzzer mentioned that their comms weren’t working and that they couldn’t get out soon enough to avoid the solar storm. Cleaves was still stubborn, so Amara took the Doctor’s arm and turned to Jennifer. “Can you please tell us where the monitoring station is? We need to check the progress of the storm.”

Jennifer stared at them for a moment, before she sighed. “Three lefts, a right and a left. Third door on your left.”

“Thank you.” The Doctor said, and Amara smiled at her before they exited the room. 

“You’re never gonna convince them till it’s too late.” Amara said, and the Doctor nodded. “That’s the problem with humans.” He turned to Amy and Rory. “You lot, always ignoring common sense.”

“Not everyone does that.” Amara said, and he raised an eyebrow at her. “Then I suppose most of you just have a strong inclination towards the path with the most danger, is that right?” 

At that moment, the ground started to shake again as something seemingly hit the building. Amara grabbed onto the Doctor’s arm to steady herself. They ran- well, stumbled- into the monitoring room, which was just a small circular room that had a pillar like structure supporting a few monitors around it. 

“Waves disturbing the Earth's magnetic field. There is going to be the mother and father of all power surges.” He gestured to one of the monitors. Amara leaned towards him to see what he was talking about, trying to ignore the loud alarms trilling about the place. “See this weathervane, the cock-a-doodle-do? It's a solar router feeding the whole factory with solar power. When that wave hits,” He took a deep breath. “Ka-boom.” He walked towards one of the exits. “I've got to get to that cockerel before all hell breaks loose. I never thought I'd have to say that again.” He turned around and smiled for a moment, before sobering up again. “Amy, breathe. Mara, with me.”

She frowned, but went to him anyway. He took her hand and the two of them started running towards the courtyard that had the tower with the cockerel on it. 

The Doctor opened the wooden door and the two of them stepped out. Amara was hit with a burst of hot air and had to close her eyes immediately to avoid the blinding light. She blinked a couple of times, minorly adjusting to the conditions outside. 

The two of them ran towards the tower, the Doctor pulling out his screwdriver. He started to climb the ladder, but stopped Amara when she went to follow him. “Stay down there.”

She frowned. “Why did you even ask me to come with you if you’re just gonna make me stand down here?”

“Just stay down there, don’t move, don’t get out of my sight.” He said quickly, turning around and starting to climb the ladder. 

“What was the point in this?” She yelled, but he either ignored her or he couldn’t hear her. Knowing the Doctor, it was probably the former. She was going to have to ask him what the hell he was doing once all this was over. “You owe me an explanation, Mister!”

The Doctor opened up a hatch that had a bunch of controls in it, and started fiddling with them. Suddenly, there was a stroke of lightning that knocked him off the ladder. Amara ran towards where he fell. “Doctor!” 

She knelt down in front of him when another strike hit the place, making the ground shake. 

----

Amara blinked, her eyelids feeling like they’d been lifting weights. She closed her eyes immediately when they burned as the air hit them. She felt a cool hand on her forehead. “Mara, you need to wake up.” 

She scrunched up her eyes before opening them again. The Doctor was sitting next to her. She slowly sat up, flinching as a sharp pain hit her head. “Ow.”

The Doctor stared at her, a concerned look on his face. She shook her head. “Nothing to worry about. We’ve been out for an hour.” She stood up slowly, holding out her hands for the Doctor. He took them and stood up.

“Now that , on the other hand, is something to worry about.” He said, and she nodded. “A lot can happen in an hour.”

“You’re right. You sure you’re alright, though?” 

She smiled. “Why wouldn’t I be?” 

He stared at her for a moment, before shaking his head. “No reason,” He murmured, before looking at the monastery. He held out a hand. “Come on, then.” 

She took it and the two of them walked towards it. 

They ran into Cleaves on the way inside, and once they went into the main room with the harnesses, they ran into Amy and Rory helping the rest of the team out of their harnesses. “Doctor, these are all real people, so where are their Gangers?” Amy asked. 

“Don't worry. When the link shuts down the Gangers return to pure Flesh. Now, the storm's left us with acid leaks all over, so we need to contact the mainland. They can have a rescue shuttle out here in no time.” Cleaves said.

At that exact moment, the Dusty Springfield record they heard when they entered started to play again. Amara sighed as the others had expressions displaying varying degrees of apprehension. 

Jimmy stood up slowly. “That’s my record. Who’s playing my record?” 

“Your Ganger.” Amara said.

“No, it's impossible. They're not active. Cars don't fly themselves, cranes don't lift themselves and Gangers don't-”

“It was the solar storm.” Amara folded her hands. “I don’t exactly know what it did, but it prevented your Gangers from becoming Flesh again.”

Cleaves scoffed. “That’s impossible.”

“Look around you.” Amara gestured. “Everything here should be impossible.” She shrugged. “Anyway, we should really go and check out what’s causing the noise.” 

They walked into a huge hall that had a bunch of tables and a microwave in it. The record playing the Dusty Springfield was in one corner. 

The Doctor sat down on one of the chairs as Cleaves said, “They’ve ransacked everything.”

The Doctor shook his head. “Not ransacked. Searched.”

“Through our stuff!” Cleaves exclaimed. 

Amara shook her head. “They’re you . So technically, they went through their stuff.”

“Searching for what?” Jimmy asked.

“ Confirmation. They need to know their memories are real.” The Doctor said.

“They’ve got flipping memories now?” Buzzer asked. 

“They feel compelled to connect to their lives.” The Doctor shrugged.

“Their stolen lives.”

“Technically you did create them.” Amara shrugged. “So more like the lives they were given.”

“I'll say it again. Isle of Sheppey. Ganger got an electric shock, toddled off, killed his operator right there in his harness. I've seen the photos. This bloke's ear was all hanging-”

“Please don’t-” Amara said quickly, just as Jennifer groaned. “I feel funny.” she murmured. “I need the washroom.” She ran outside the room.

“I’ll come with you!” Rory ran behind her. Amy stared at the place Rory had been standing in. Amara caught her eye, gave her a small smile. “Wait for me!” She ran behind Rory and Jennifer, not noticing the Doctor’s mildly fearful look.

----

Jennifer was staring at herself in the mirror in the washroom. Amara patted her shoulder awkwardly. “You’ll be okay.”

“The Doctor’s always saying don’t wander off.” Rory said from the entrance. “First rule with him, really. Don’t wander off.”

“I just need a minute.” Jennifer said, and Amara backed away. “Sure, erm, I’ll be over there with Rory,” She gestured to where he was standing. 

Jennifer nodded. Amara and Rory turned around, when Jennifer made a retching noise. Rory was about to turn around, but Amara grabbed onto his arm before he could. She shook her head at his quizzical look, when they heard the door slam.

“Jennifer?” Rory called out. “Are you alright?” He turned to Amara. “Should we go in there?” He said, a little more softly.

Amara glanced inside, before turning back to him. “Yeah, it’s just…”

The mirror shattered. Rory and Amara’s heads snapped towards the washroom, where a long hand was going back into the stall. 

“She’s Flesh.” Amara murmured, as Jennifer’s elongated neck and head popped out, yelling, “Just let us live!” 

Rory turned to Amara, eyes wide. “Run?” He grabbed her forearm.

“Yeah!” She said, pulling him along as the two of them ran into the corridor. 

----

“So, erm, how lost are we?” Rory asked, as the two of them turned into another corridor. 

Amara pointed her torch towards another turning, before turning back to him. “I can’t find anything remotely familiar.” 

“Is going back an option?” He asked. Somehow, Rory had caught on to her ‘when lost, just keep turning left repeatedly till you find something familiar’ philosophy, and had been unconsciously following it even when they were running.

“It’s slowly becoming one.” Amara said.

“Rory?” The two of them turned towards the source of the call. “Amara?”

Rory turned to her. “We should go to her. Right?” 

Amara sighed, pointing her torch in the direction of Jennifer’s call. “Yes we do. Come along, Williams.”

----

“Are you alright?” The Doctor placed his hands on Amara’s shoulders, inspecting her face. “Hurt anywhere?”

They’d gone to find Ganger Jennifer, who had insisted that she was still.. well, Jennifer, and they’d promised to protect her, after which everyone had reunited in a rather dreadful fashion- Cleaves decided to kill a Ganger about three seconds after she joined everyone and incite a war between the humans and Gangers, which was… less than ideal. 

“I’m fine.” Amara said. “What about you, though? You literally stepped in acid.” 

He pulled his screwdriver out of his pocket and scanned her with it. He seemed to be satisfied with the results as he gave her a smile. “Oh, I’m fine, Time Lord, remember?” He then clapped his feet together. “And look! New shoes!”

She shook her head, smiling. “We need to leave this place. Soon.” She said, sobering up. “They’re not going to sit idle for long.”

The Doctor nodded. “The most fortified place in the monastery?” He called out. “Cleaves? The most fortified and defendable room in the monastery.”

“The chapel.” She called out. 

“Thank you.”

“Only one way in. Stone walls two feet thick.”

“We need to go there now.” Amara said, stepping in front of the Doctor. “Stay defended in case they attack. Which I’m sure they will.”

Cleaves nodded, walking towards the entrance. “Everyone, behind me.” 

As they reached the Chapel, they heard a scream. Amara turned to Rory, who raised his eyebrow. “Jen?”

She nodded. “We need to go find Jen.”

“Well, if she’s got any sense, she’s hiding.” The Doctor said, holding a hand out. “Come on.”

“We can’t just leave her!” Rory said, and Amara nodded. Unlike the others, Rory was going to be alone for most of the operation, and she didn’t want him to. Especially since there were about three Jens and two betrayals he had to deal with. As far as she remembered. 

“Rory!” Amy exclaimed. 

“I know you understand that.” Rory told the Doctor. 

“Both of you, get in here-”

Amara turned towards the entrance, before grabbing Rory’s arm. “We’ll be fine. Be careful.” She gave the Doctor a pointed glance before taking off. She could vaguely hear the door shut as they ran.

----

The Doctor was not the most pleased when Amara decided she’d go with Rory, but he trusted she’d be fine. Hopefully. It was too early in her timeline, which was good. 

 “Doctor, we are trapped in here and Rory and Amara are out there with them. Hello? We can't get to the Tardis and we can't even leave the island.” Amy snapped.

“Correct in every respect, Pond.” The Doctor snapped his head towards the direction of his voice. His voice. Coming from somewhere that wasn’t him. Looks like his hunch was right, then. “It's frightening, unexpected, frankly a total, utter splattering mess on the carpet, but I am certain, one hundred percent certain, that we can work this out. Right, darling?”

“We can and we will.” 

The Doctor’s eyes widened. 

“Doctor-” Amy gasped, as two figures walked into the light. 

As expected, he was there- well, with a very Flesh-y face that was still developing. Next to him, however, was Amara. Well, a Flesh version of her. 

“We always do.” She smiled at the Ganger version of him. He smiled back at her, and the Doctor’s eyes widened. It worked, then. Well, ish. 

“Doctor, what the hell is going on?” Amy asked him. “How did she-”

Amy was interrupted by a scream. “Doctor!” Amara grabbed onto his Ganger’s shoulders. “What's happening? I wonder if we'll get back. Yes, one day. Argh. I've reversed the polarity of the neutron flow!”

Amara then recoiled, letting go of his Ganger and holding her head. “I’m sorry- Gallifrey ?! Like from Doctor Who?!” 

The Doctor frowned. What the hell was she going on about? 

“Doctor, what’s happening?”

“The Flesh is struggling to cope with our past regenerations. And whatever spoilers are in Amara’s head. Hold on!” He called out to his Ganger. 

“Doctor, listen to me!” Amara yelled.

He ran towards Amara, who grabbed his forearms. She looked up at him, her expression grave. “They’re after me . You need to leave me!” 

“ Who are?!” 

His Ganger version stumbled, and Amara seemed to stabilise. Well, she didn’t look like she was in pain anymore. “Go to him.” She murmured, using him as a support to straighten up. 

“I can’t-”

“ Go! ” 

The Doctor went towards his Ganger, still keeping an eye on her. She folded her hands, looking around the place. His Ganger smiled as he stretched his hand towards the Doctor. “Would you like a jelly baby?”

Now that was a voice he hadn’t heard in a long time. 

“Hello. I'm the Doctor.” That one too.

“No, let it go, we've moved on!” The Ganger grabbed onto his jacket. The Doctor tried to stabilise him as Amara started to move towards them. “Don’t!” The Doctor said. 

She stopped in her tracks, giving him a pointed stare. 

“I've reversed the jelly baby of the neutron flow.” His Ganger sputtered. He stumbled and pushed both of them back.

“Hold on, you can stabilise!” The Doctor exclaimed. 

“Would you like a Doctor, Doctor, I'm, I'm the. I-”

“Oh no.” Her voice was extremely soft, almost a murmur, but he heard it. 

The Doctor snapped his head towards Amara for a second, and his hearts nearly stopped. Her hands were glowing, and the golden particles were slowly enveloping her. No. 

At that moment, his Ganger let out a painful shout and pushed him away. 

“Doctor!” He could vaguely hear Amelia yell. 

His peripheral vision caught the Ganger straightening up, screaming, his face alternating between the half formed Flesh face and his own. 

The Doctor stared at Amara, his eyes wide. His hearts were beating extremely fast, and the blood was rushing through his head. He felt strangely cold. He could vaguely hear Amelia screaming Amara’s name as well. 

“Doctor!” Amara exclaimed, as the particles enveloped her completely before dissipating. When they were gone, so was she. 

“No,” The Doctor breathed heavily, running a hand through his hair. He stumbled back, his hands gripping onto his hair tightly. His hearts were beating so fast his chest nearly hurt. “No!” 

----

The Doctor vaguely registered his Ganger stabilising. And the other Gangers stopping their incessant noise. Well, Amelia and the others had that under control for now anyway. Which left the Doctor ample room to register what had just happened. 

“You don’t think-” His Ganger said, looking at where she had just been a few moments ago. 

“I don’t.” The Doctor shook his head. “It’s never that easy. Ever.”

“Doctor, we need you!” Amelia turned towards them. “Get over here.” 

The Ganger sighed. The Doctor shook his head. “Cybermats.”

“Really? Now ?” 

“Well, what else can we do?” The Doctor turned towards his Ganger, his hands clenched into tight fists. He didn’t mean to snap. “It’s not like we can bring her back, might as well have more proof that you’re me. Cybermats.”

“Created by the Cybermen.” His Ganger answered. “They kill by feeding off brainwaves.”

The Doctor nodded slowly. They were like this in their early stages. He could only imagine what they’d be like when they were fully developed. Or not. 

Amy and the others were going on about the Flesh getting in through acid, and everyone raised their weapons in front of the door. His Ganger walked to stand beside him. “Rory and Amy, they may not trust both of us. Or Mara. Well, my Amara.”

“Since when have we established that she’s your Amara?” The Doctor scowled at him. His Ganger shrugged. “We’re both made of the same stuff, and she’s more in sync with me. And it’s not like we can number them.” He shrugged. “Anyway, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Well, he did have a point. “Inevitably.” The Doctor said, staring at Amelia and the others, who were scrambling about. 

“So, what’s the plan?” Right. He had to focus on the problem at hand. Amara would come back to him. Like she always did. She had to. 

“Save all of them. Humans and Gangers. And Amara. Both of them.”

“Of course.” His Ganger nodded. “Tall order. Sounds wonderful.” 

“Is that what you were thinking?” The Doctor smiled in spite of himself. “It’s just so inspiring to hear me say it.”

“Doctor, come on!” Amelia exclaimed. 

The two Doctors walked towards the others. “Hello. Sorry, but we had to establish a few ground rules.” The two of them said at the same time. Amelia’s gaze flicked between both of their shoes. He was going to have to do something about that. Just for testing purposes.

“Formulate a protocol.” The Doctor said, ignoring her confused stare. He tended to do that a lot. 

“Protocol?” His Ganger frowned. 

“Between us.” The Doctor nodded. “Otherwise it tends to get a bit embarrassing.” 

“And confusing.” His Ganger said. 

“I’m glad you’ve solved the problem of confusing.” She gritted her teeth. 

“That’s sarcasm.” His Ganger said, and the Doctor nodded. “She’s very good at sarcasm.”

The two of them turned to Amelia. “Breathe.” 

“What?” She frowned. 

“We have to get you off this island.” The Doctor turned to the others. “And the Gangers too.” 

Cleaves, who was pointing her weapon at the door, turned towards him incredulously. “Sorry, would you like a memo from the last meeting? They are trying to kill us!”

“They’re scared.” The Doctor said. 

“Doctor, we’re trapped in here.” Amelia scowled at the two of them. 

The Doctor shook his head. “Right. See, I don't think so. The Flesh Bowl is fed by cabling from above.”

“But where are the earthing conduits?” His Ganger said. It really was nice to have someone else who was on the same wavelength as him. Saved him a lot of explaining to do. 

“All this piping must go down into a tunnel or a shaft or something, yes?” He looked around the room, “With us?” Ah, there it was. 

He walked towards the grate in the corner of the room and pulled it out. “Yowzah!” Alright, maybe he shouldn’t have said Yowzah, that sounded weird. Even for him. “An escape route.” 

He led the way into the grate, and they all managed to get out before the Gangers could get them. It was a close call, though. Really close call. They decided to go to the evac tower, as the corridors were full of choking gas, and the tower was above all the chaos. 

He was the first one in, and if it weren’t for his Ganger, he would’ve thought it was a hallucination. 

“Amara!” His Ganger went towards her, grabbing her shoulders as she stumbled. 

He briefly turned to Amelia, who seemed to be in pain. “Oh. I think I coughed so hard, I pulled a muscle or something.” She took a deep breath. “It's okay, it's better. It's easing off. Amara!” 

The Doctor turned back to her, walking towards her as his Ganger wrapped an arm around her. She leaned against him, breathing heavily. “It feels-” She took a deep breath, grabbing onto his Ganger’s arm. He tightened his grip around her. 

She turned to the Doctor. “It feels like it did the first time.” His Ganger’s head snapped up. “You were right. That is what you were trying to find out, right?” She raised an eyebrow. 

She always knew. His eyes widened. He nodded slowly. “Mara, I-”

She shook her head, pulling away from his Ganger’s grip. However, his arm was still loosely wrapped around her. “That’s something to deal with later, love. We have bigger things to worry about now.” 

“What the hell is going on? What were you right about?” Amelia demanded. 

“Spoilers.” Amara said, straightening up. Amelia scowled at her, clearly about to go on another tangent about how she hated hearing the word ‘spoilers’, but was interrupted.

The church bell started to ring. 

“It's midnight. It's Adam's birthday.” Jimmy murmured. “My son's five. Happy birthday, bud.” He smiled. 

----

“You know, you didn’t have to come with me.” Rory said, pointing the torch into another dark corridor. The usual. Flying specks of dust, cobwebs, and no Jen. 

“No,” Amara turned towards the exit and walked into the next corridor. “But I didn’t want you to be alone while looking for her.” She turned back to him. “Plus, we need the sane ones together once in a while, get a much needed break from all the,” She gestured around, and he nodded. “We do. Yes.”

Rory stopped and pointed the torch at her. “Anyway, erm, thanks.” There was a small smile on his face. Amara smiled back at him, before pointing at the corridor entrance on their left. “How about we try there?”

He nodded, and the two of them walked towards the entrance. 

----

“Can you really get the power back?” Cleaves asked, looking between the Doctors, a sceptical expression on her face. 

“We’d be able to do it much faster if you stopped breathing down our necks.” Amara muttered, pulling out one of the wires and handing it over to the Doctor. He couldn’t help but smile. She smiled back at him- it didn’t quite reach her eyes, though. She turned back to the console they’d been pulling apart. The Doctor frowned slightly, but got back to work.

“Hang on.” Amelia pointed at the two of them. “You said that the TARDIS was stuck in acid, so won't she be damaged?”

Amara straightened up. “Well, in that case, I hope for all our sakes that Human Me is alright.” 

The Doctor popped up to look at Amelia, who was staring at Amara with wide eyes. “Now now, dear, we both know that you’re perfectly alright right now.” He patted her shoulder. 

“Unless-” His Ganger popped up and pointed at her. “You’re very good at hiding things.” He narrowed his eyes at her. 

“I’m fine .” She popped back down again, going to work on something. “She’s with Rory, nothing can go wrong there.”

The Doctor couldn’t help the scowl that automatically formed on his face. He turned to his Ganger, who seemed to have felt the same way. Of course he did. They were practically the same person. 

The mention of Rory, however, made Amelia perk up. “Speaking of Rory, will he be alright?” She looked in Amara’s general direction, since the Ganger in question was behind the console. “Is he in any danger?”

“He’s gonna be alright.” Amara called out, and the Doctor bent down to help her after registering Amelia’s expression. She didn’t seem to trust Amara, either. He saw his Ganger do the same, the scowl not having left his face. 

“You sure about that? And one more thing, how can you both be real?” Her tone was accusatory. Oh, Amelia Pond. If only you knew. 

He exchanged a look with his Ganger, who appeared to be thinking the same thing, but popped back up. “Well, because we are. I’m the Doctor.”

The Doctor popped up after him. “Yeah, and so am I. We both contain the knowledge of over nine hundred years of memory and experience.”

“We both wear the same bow tie, which is cool.”

“Because bowties are ,” He pointed to Amelia. 

“And always will be.” His Ganger said. 

“But how did the Flesh read you? Because you weren't linked up to it.”

Amara resurfaced. “He touched it. It scanned him and replicated him.”

“Thus, a new, genuine Doctor was created. “The Doctor topped it off with a small flair. 

“Ta da!” His Ganger said. 

“Amara didn’t touch it, though.” Amy frowned. “And here she is.” She gestured at Amara’s Ganger, who shrugged, waving a hand. “He was probably holding her hand or something at the time, it must’ve copied in her genetic material.”

The Doctor turned to her, his eyebrows raised. She shrugged, going back to her wires. 

“No getting away from it, though. Two of you were here first.” The Doctor frowned at the wires as she said that. He expected some backlash from Amelia… he should’ve known she’d be extremely direct with it. He looked at his Ganger for a moment, the two of them sharing a similar expression. They had to do it. Just to be sure. 

“Well, okay.” He took a deep breath. “After the Flesh scanned me, I had an accident with a puddle of acid. Now, new shoes. A situation which did not confront my learned self here.”

“That satisfy you, Pond?” His Ganger asked. Amara instinctively cringed, edging closer to him. 

“Don’t call me Pond, please.” Amelia said, before frowning at the Ganger Doctor. “What?”

His Ganger had a slight frown on his face. “Interesting. You definitely feel more affection for him than me.”

“No, no, I- Look, you're fine and everything, but he's the Doctor. No offence. Being almost the Doctor is pretty damn impressive.” 

“Almost the Doctor?” His Ganger demanded. “Being almost the Doctor's like being no Doctor at all!” 

“Don’t overreact-” Amelia started. 

“You might as well call me Smith!” 

“Smith?” She frowned. 

“John Smith!”

“Okay, the power’s back on again!” Amara resurfaced, a huge grin on her face. Thank God for that- she’d always had the best timing. Well, for the most part. Forty percent of the time. “Communication’s a go!” 

That made Amelia seemingly forget about the whole Ganger- no Ganger thing. She ran towards the monitor Amara was standing in front of. 

----

After Cleaves had communicated with the mainland, everyone else was preparing to leave the base and go back. In the midst of all the hubbub, the Doctor and his Ganger decided to go on with their plan. The Doctor was observing his Ganger, who was sitting in front of one of the monitors. Amelia was walking around him. Good, the plan seemed to be working, then. 

“How are you?” The Doctor towards Amara, who had come to stand next to him. “You’re the Doctor, aren’t you? The non Ganger one.” 

He looked at the floor and smiled, before turning to her. “You knew.”

She smiled back, shrugging. “I always know.” She bumped her shoulder against his. “You didn’t answer my question.”

He shrugged. “I’m fine.”

“You’re lying.” 

He sighed, looking down again. She placed a hand on his arm. “Tell me.” 

He turned to her. She had that look on her face- the determined one. He almost smiled at that. Even though she was supposedly a Flesh duplicate, the resemblance was uncanny. Of course, he should’ve known. 

He closed his eyes. “Terrified. Angry. Worried.” He took a deep breath and turned to her. She was in front of him now, and her hands were resting on his shoulders. 

“She’ll be alright.” She squeezed his shoulders. 

He placed his hands on hers and pulled them to his hearts. She smiled at the gesture. His Ganger, however, did not. The Doctor was pleased to note that when he glanced at him for a brief second. 

“I still can’t help but worry.” 

“Don’t. And worrying’s my job anyway.”

He chuckled, pressing a kiss onto her forehead. “Now that you’re right about.”

Her smile automatically made him smile. However, it was cut short when she looked past him and at Amelia, who was walking towards a wall. She gasped and jumped back. Amara flinched involuntarily, and the Doctor squeezed her hand. 

“Amy? What happened?” His Ganger called from the other side of the room.

“It’s her again.” She said. 

“It’s who again?”

“There's a woman I keep seeing. A woman with an eyepatch, and she has this habit of sliding walls open and staring at me.” The Doctor turned to Amara, who was staring at Amelia. She looked slightly pale. He turned to his Ganger, who was giving him a pointed stare. A woman with an eyepatch. Who could that possibly be? And what the hell did she want?

He glanced at Amara. She swallowed, looking directly at the spot Amelia had been looking at. She then shook her head and turned towards Amelia. The Doctor involuntarily stepped closer to her. 

“Doctor?” Amelia turned towards his Ganger. Her fear was a lot more obvious than Amara’s. She walked back towards where she was sitting. 

His Ganger turned away from him and towards Amelia. “It’s nothing.” He turned back towards the monitors.

Amelia looked at the two of them and at Amara, who was doing a very good job at hiding her emotions. “Doesn’t seem like nothing.”

“It’s a time memory.” 

“A hallucination.” Amara interjected. Amelia turned towards her, frowning. “Side effect of Utah and the Silence. Trust me. I know what’s gonna happen. Just like she does. Same memories, remember?” 

Why? The Doctor flinched slightly and blinked. Why? 

He turned to his Ganger, who gave him a subtle nod. 

“It’s in my head.” He murmured, and everyone turned towards him. Amara briefly looked at him before looking at his Ganger. 

He shook his head and walked out of the room.

----

"No, don't go that way, go the other way." Amara called out from behind Rory. She finished noting down the fifteenth grooved stone she'd seen on their way. 

"You sure you know the way here?" He turned around. 

Amara flinched at the bright flashlight being pointed at her. "No, but I'm trying to make sure we don't get lost." She nodded towards the wall. "We've been following the left wall all the way till now, so all we need to do is keep turning right to end up where we were." 

"Then what are all the drawings for?" He nodded at her notebook. 

"Insurance in case things inevitably go wrong." She shrugged, before closing her notebook. "Anyway, let's get a move on."

She led the way and nearly jumped a foot in the air when Rory tapped her shoulder.  After she apologised and the two of them got over the embarrassment, Rory handed her a huge metal crowbar. He was holding another in his hand. 

"Um- thanks?" She took it from him. 

"Saw that you didn't have your baseball bat, and, erm- I think a bit of self defence would be helpful in a situation like this."

“Thanks.” She smiled at him. “I would’ve brought my coat, but the TARDIS hid it somewhere.”

“Yeah, she does that sometimes.” He walked forward before turning around, eyes slightly wide. “Oh. Don’t think I was supposed to say that, I’m sorry.”

Amara shook her head. “Don’t worry about it, it wasn’t a major spoiler or anything. And it’s already happened a couple of times.” She smiled at him, and he seemed to relax a bit. “Why would she do that, though?”

He shrugged. “Why does the TARDIS do anything?” 

“Now that ,” She pointed at him. “is a very good question.”  

“She once made the Doctor and I go on a complete wild goose chase in the TARDIS one day.” He shook his head. “We were supposed to be meeting Amy in the console room, but we somehow ended up in the attic. And then the squash courts. It’s like she made us get lost on purpose. And when we finally reached the console room, you were there with Amy and apparently the two of you had managed to squeeze in a whole trip when we were lost.” He paused for a moment and turned to her. “I’m bad at the whole secret hiding thing, aren’t I?” 

She laughed. “You are, yes, but most of it was harmless information anyway. And I’d really like to see both yours and the Doctor’s faces that day.”

“The two of you seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.” They turned to walk into another corridor. 

They then heard someone shout for help. Rory turned to Amara, who nodded. “It’s her.”

“Jen?” Rory called out as the two of them stepped into a flight of steep stairs. “Jen!” Amara shouted. 

Amara grabbed onto the railing as the two of them ran down the stairs to find Jen. She was standing in the courtyard, and sighed in relief when she saw the two of them. “Rory! Amara!”

At that moment, from behind a pillar, another Jennifer stepped out. Rory backed away slightly. “I’m sorry, she found me.” 

“Both of you, listen to me.” The first Jennifer said, limping towards them.

“Don’t listen to her.” The second Jennifer pointed at her Ganger. 

“I’m Jennifer Lucas.” The first one insisted. “This woman is Flesh.” 

Rory stared at the two of them before turning to Amara. “So then, which one is it?” 

“Why are you asking her, I told you, I’m Jennifer Lucas!” The first one exclaimed.

Amara swallowed. “I-”

“Don’t listen to her, Rory! Don’t listen to any of them! I’m Jennifer Lucas!”

“That’s what she said as well.” He pointed to the other Jennifer. “It’s extremely confusing.”

He turned to Amara again. She cleared her throat softly. “You don’t have to lie to us. The Doctor wants you to live, and we both agree.” She turned to Rory. “Right, Rory?”

“That’s a lovely idea, Rory, but the Flesh want to kill us now.” The first Jennifer said. 

“Probably because you want to kill them as well.” Amara said, following Rory into the courtyard and trying to avoid the small pools of acid on the floor. 

“Jennifer, please, just tell us who’s who. We’ll still protect the two of you, no matter what.” Rory said. 

“He’s right.” Amara said.

“I told you, I’m the human and she’s the Ganger!” One of them exclaimed, stepping towards Rory. 

Rory turned to Amara. “Is she?” He turned towards the Jennifers. “Hang on, you’re limping.” He pointed at one of the Jennifers. “You’re not.” He pointed at the other. 

“So what?” The other Jennifer retorted. “You think a Ganger can’t put on a limp?”

Rory ignored her. “Show me your leg.” He told the injured Jennifer. She smiled at him and pulled up the hem of her pants. There was a large burn mark there. 

“It got burnt while I was in the harness.”

“She’s lying. She's telling you what you want to hear.” 

“Amara, am I right?” He turned to her. “Is she Flesh?” 

Amara swallowed, before nodding slowly. “She’s Flesh.” 

And then, Ganger Jennifer attacked her. She screamed as she was pushed against a wall. She pressed herself against the wall to avoid the massive pool of acid nearby as Jennifer dragged her into a corridor, ignoring Rory and the other Jennifer’s shouts. 

“You don’t have to-” She was cut off as Jennifer pushed her against another wall, her face slowly becoming white. 

“No more!” Jennifer yelled, pulling Amara away from the wall and pushing her into it again. “I am Jennifer Lucas!” 

“I never said you weren’t- look out!” She yelled as the two of them were making towards another pool of acid. Jennifer stepped into it first, screaming as the acid started to burn her. 

Amara tried to pull away from her, but Jennifer’s grip was tight. “Jennifer, I can get us out if you-”

Jennifer stumbled, falling backwards. Amara was pulled back at the exact moment Jennifer fell in completely and dissolved into pure Flesh. Amara stumbled back, breathing heavily. Her chest hurt from all the adrenaline and shock. 

She nearly fell back, but her rescuer steadied her. “It’s ok, you’re gonna be fine. Deep breaths.”

That voice was familiar. She turned towards the person, and gasped, stumbling into the wall behind her. They gave her a sheepish smile. “Hello, Amara.”

“But- you can’t- how-” She took a deep breath, slowly standing back up. “You’re- you’re me! ” 

“In a manner of speaking.” She shrugged, before holding out a hand. Amara looked at it before looking at her doppelganger’s face. The doppelganger gave her a look. “Come on. You and I both know you need this. You’re still in the processing stage. Or, well, the brain goes absolutely blank stage, now that I think about it.”

Amara reluctantly took her hand and stood up, dusting her clothes. “Are you my Ganger?” 

She stared at her for a moment, before shrugging. “Technically.” 

“ Technically .” Amara raised an eyebrow as her Ganger gave her her flashlight back. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?  And how are you here, I didn’t even touch the Flesh.” 

Her Ganger shrugged. “That’s a story for another time.” She looked ahead. “We have more important things to do. Come on.” She started walking forward. 

“What about Rory and Jen?” Amara called out. “And what things?”

“They’re on their way into the thermostatic room, if I’m not mistaken.” She didn’t look back at her and continued going forward. 

“Where are we going?”

She turned around. “The crypt. The long way round.” 

Amara stopped in front of her. “Why?”

Her Ganger shrugged. “Stuff to do, remember?”

Amara swallowed. “In the crypt.” 

Her Ganger’s eyes softened for a moment. She took her hand. “Listen, I know you’re scared. I was also scared when I was you.” She frowned and shook her head. “Right, we can’t get into Ganger technicalities right now, we don’t have all day.” 

Amara took a deep breath, clutching tightly onto her Ganger’s hand. “When you were me.” She whispered. 

“Right. We need to keep moving.” Her Ganger said, taking her hand. 

“You’re from my future.” Amara gasped, regaining her footing after she stumbled because her Ganger was pulling her. “How are you a Ganger from my future?”

“Spoilers.” 

“Are you kidding me?!” 

“It’s annoying to be on the receiving end of that, isn’t it?”

“Is there a point to this?”

“Yes, and it’s that you’re not going to find out why all this is happening from me. Or the Doctor. Or anybody, until all this actually happens.”

Amara inhaled sharply. “That’s not freaky at all.” 

“It is how it is.” Her Ganger self shrugged. “But, as always, everything ends up fine. I’m not telling you how, I know that’s one of your multiple greatest fears because you think you’ll end up changing everything by accident since you know everything will end up fine- but I remember this incident and I know for a fact that it all ends up fine.”

Amara exhaled. “Wow. I’m finally living the fantasy where my future self comes and confirms that everything will be alright. And she also took everything into consideration.”

The Ganger scoffed. “Of course I took it into consideration, I know how paranoid you were during this time.”

“Still confused as to why and how you’re here, though.” Amara shrugged. “I can’t just dismiss it as guardian angel shenanigans because if I had a guardian angel, I wouldn’t be panicking all the time.”

“That’s not what guardian angels do. And in a way, one of them did bring me here. Just not for guardian angeli-ing.” 

“What?”

“Spoilers.” 

“I really hate that word.”

Her Ganger turned around and grinned at her. “I know.” 

“You’re seriously using it to annoy me.” Amara rolled her eyes. “And in extension, yourself.” 

Her Ganger backed towards the wall and gestured for Amara to do the same. “Shh, we’re almost there.”

“At the crypt?” Amara whispered. Her Ganger lifted a finger as she leaned towards the entrance of the crypt, her back still pressed onto the wall. “ Listen .” 

Amara stayed quiet for a few moments, after which she could hear them. 

“You killed her. You killed our Jen.” That sounded like Buzzer. 

“And I’m stronger now, Buzz.” Amara’s eyes widened. Jen was about to kill him. She took a deep breath and swallowed as her Ganger took her hand and started to go forward. 

“What are you-” 

Her Ganger entered the crypt before she could even finish her sentence. “Wh- Amara!” She called out, entering the crypt when her Ganger burst out, grabbing her hand and pulling her up the stairs. Buzzer was right behind her. There were high pitched screams coming from inside the crypt, and Amara briefly caught a glimpse of Jennifer’s Ganger screaming with an abnormally large mouth before she started to run. 

They ran past about five corridors before her Ganger stopped. Amara placed a hand on the cold wall, bending down as she struggled to breathe. “What in the name of-”

“Where the hell did you go?” Buzzer demanded, turning towards the two of them. “Whichever one you are.”

“I was with Rory, you saw me go with him.”

“He’s talking about me, darling.” Her Ganger had no trouble recovering from the run she’d just had, unlike Amara, who sounded like her seven year old self with asthma. 

“I made the Doctor cause a distraction so I could escape to save this one.” She nodded towards Amara, who had just realised something. Her eyes widened and her breaths started to become quicker, which when added to the post run thing she was going through caused her to start coughing. 

She felt her Ganger put a hand on her back and start patting it. “Deep breaths. Remember. It’s gonna take a while for you to process it but take deep breaths while doing it.”

“You saved me.” Buzzer gasped. “Even though I didn’t trust you.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I didn’t want you to die.” Ganger Amara shrugged. “And because you’re not the only one who doesn’t trust me.” She took a deep breath. “Now, we need to get to the dining hall as soon as possible.”

“Why?”

Amara straightened up as her Ganger said, “Because the Doctor’s there. Both of them are. And they can get us out of here before Jennifer goes batshit and destroys the entire place.” 

“She was never like that even when she was a human.”

“You’d be surprised at what fear and anger can do to a person- Ganger or not.” She pointed towards the corridor. “Now, dining hall. Fast as you can. I’ll be tagging behind, I have a few words to say to her. Me. Whatever.”

“Don’t be too far behind, though. Jen might catch up.” Buzzer nodded and pointed his torch in the way they were supposed to go. He started walking into the corridor. 

----

“Why did you save him?” Amara asked, as the two of them walked behind Buzzer. They were far enough from him for him not to hear their conversation, but close enough that he wasn’t completely out of sight. 

“I saw a death that could be prevented, and took my chance.” Ganger Amara shrugged. 

“That’s not how it works, though.” Amara said. “You just changed something from the actual timeline.”

“So?” 

“Rule 1B, remember? Don’t change anything from the original timeline.” 

“That’s not how it works.” Her Ganger shrugged. 

“That’s literally what the Doctor said, though.”

“The Doctor lies. And you were pretty shaken up back then, you needed something concrete.”

“That makes no sense.” 

“Time is in flux everywhere, Amara. Everything we do is extremely important to how the timeline goes.”

“Which is why we do a minimal amount of nonsense to keep it the way it’s supposed to be.”

“It’s not supposed to be anything, Amara. And it’s alright to cause changes sometimes.”

“No it’s not, that’ll just cause mayhem!” Amara was practically whisper-shouting at that point. “Who are you and what have you done to me?”

“I’m you.” She shrugged. “And it won’t. Not unless you change a fixed point or something, and we both know you’re too careful to do that.”

“And this wasn’t a fixed point?” When her Ganger shook her head, she continued. “How can you know that? How can you possibly know that? You’re not even supposed to be here, by the way, I wasn’t supposed to have a Ganger!”

“Neither are you!” Her Ganger was glaring at her. “You’re not supposed to be in this universe either, Amara, and you being here is the time travel equivalent of a tidal wave!”

Amara swallowed and looked forward at Buzzer, who was about to turn corridors. “You think I don’t know that? I know I don’t belong here, that’s why I try my best to stay out of it and not cause any major changes.”

Her Ganger sighed. “I didn’t mean it that way.” She shook her head. “You being here is a massive change to the entire timeline and you can’t keep denying that. There’s going to be changes regardless of what you do, so you might as well cause a few minor ripples here and there to help others.”

“But what if I accidentally trigger a domino effect that ends in a fixed point being changed and end the universe?”

“You won’t.”

“How will I know what to change and what not to change?”

Her Ganger shrugged. “I don’t know how to explain it. You’re going to have to trust your instincts.”

Amara took a deep breath, trying to ignore the uneasiness that statement had given her. “You can just give me a list of things. Actually, you know what, that would be spoilers… maybe hint stuff? I don’t know.”

“This isn’t something that can be solved by making a list. And before you ask me, I am you, I’ve just changed.” She said, as Amara opened her mouth. “And regarding the changing of events, you’re just gonna have to go with your gut.”

“My gut says that any change will inevitably lead to disaster.”

“That’s not your gut, that’s your dumb brain.” 

“Hey, this dumb brain has done a great job of keeping me out of trouble all my life!”

“Sometimes, a little trouble is just what you need.” She started walking faster. “Buzzer, wait up!” 

“But-” Amara stood there as her Ganger pressed forward. “Amara!” She received no response. She ran behind her. 

----

“Buzzer!”

“Amara!”

“Why are there two of you?” 

The Doctor spun around as he heard everyone exclaim different things. Well… Ganger Doctor . Amara noted, as she looked at his shoes. 

“Long story.” Her Ganger told Rory, as the Ganger Doctor made his way towards Amara and threw his arms around her. She hugged him back as he murmured. “I was worried.” 

“You always are,” Her Ganger said from the other side of the room, pulling away from the Doctor. 

The Ganger Doctor smiled at her, before turning to Amara. He put his hands on her shoulders and studied her. “Hurt anywhere?”

“I don’t think so?” She shrugged, turning around and turning back to him again. “We need to make a move, though. I think we may have seen Jen in her complete Ganger form.”

“We did.” Ganger Amara confirmed, walking towards the exit. “We need to get out of here.”

----

“What was that for?” Amara asked the Doctor after he let go of her. They were about to drop off Jimmy, Buzzer, Dicken and Cleaves at the headquarters of the company they worked for to negotiate better terms about Ganger rights and stuff. Everyone else had left the TARDIS, but the Doctor had asked Amara to stay for a minute and pulled her into a big hug. “I mean, not that I’m complaining, but- don’t look at me like that?”

“Like what?” The Doctor asked her. He had a smug smile on his face.

“You know, the- you know what, you’ll just tell me it’s your normal face or some nonsense.”

“This is my normal face.” The grin got wider. “Anyway, it was because I couldn't hug you before. You know, with the whole Ganger thing and all.” He shrugged. 

She smiled. “Like I said. I’m not complaining. You both give great hugs. Speaking of Gangers, though,” She sobered up. “How did mine come to be? I didn’t touch the Flesh. And why was she from the future?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Well, I might have a couple of theories bouncing about my head, but right now they’re fighting about which one I should expand on first.” He shuddered. “It’s bad.”

She smiled, shaking her head. “Seriously, though, however she came to be, that was-” A familiar warmth took over, and she glanced at her hands. They were glowing. She looked back at the Doctor, who swallowed. “Till the next time, then, Mara.” He smiled at her, but it was one of those sad smiles. 

“Good luck, Doctor.” She said, “And I’m so sorry.” After all, he had to go through melting Ganger Amy and had to go and find her in Demon’s Run. Only for her to lose her daughter. 

He said something else to her, but the light had engulfed her fully by then, and before she could try to figure out whatever he’d just said, he was gone. 

----

Chapter Text

She landed in a dark alley. She had to blink a few times to adjust to the dusty yellow lights coming from outside the alley, and cross her arms around herself. It was colder than inside the TARDIS she’d just jumped away from. A chill ran down her spine and she shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself. 

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It’s just a dark alley, Amara. We’re in the Whoniverse. There’s no ‘just’ anything. Go into the street full of light and everything will be fine. Mostly. 

She opened her eyes and turned around, putting her pen in her pocket- wait. She hadn’t had her pen out before. She frowned and inspected it up close. There were two lines on the inner side of her wrist. What the-

It was probably just a mistake . A very small part of her said in an attempt to reassure herself. But, well, she knew that probably wasn’t the case. Another chill ran down her spine. She turned around to look back. 

There was nothing there. Well, that’s what it felt like. She reached into her pocket and felt around for her pen. It was inside. She looked down at her hand again. Her chest hurt because of the jolt her heart made, and she involuntarily let out a whimper. Her breaths were quick and uneven, and her lungs felt like they were about to burst.

There were two sets of tally marks on her wrist. 

She knew that looking behind would just make things worse. So she ran. The best she could. Her legs were heavy, and she stumbled a bit as she began to run. She turned left the moment she left the alley and entered a semi dark street. The street lamps cast a dim yellow light over, but it wasn’t as bright as she would’ve preferred. There was nobody in the street either. Perfect. Just perfect. This was how people died. 

She ran faster, hoping to find a place that was at least semi populated so she could call the Doctor and ask him why the hell she landed in an alley with the Silence. And then, she collided with something. Well, someone. 

At first, she thought it was a Silent, but when the person steadied her and asked her if she was alright, she almost cried in relief. 

“Doctor!” She exclaimed, placing her hand on his shoulders. 

“Mara!” There was a small smile on his face, but it disappeared the moment he looked at her properly. “What happened? Why were you running?” He pulled away from her for a moment, his hands on her shoulders, and inspected her for injuries. “Are you hurt?”

“Why are there tally marks on your arm?” Amara snapped her head in the direction of the voice. “Martha Jones! Hi!” She grinned. 

“Mara, tally marks,” The Doctor said, now having taken her arm and inspecting it. 

She turned towards him. “It’s nothing.” She tried her best to control her breaths, which were going out of control thanks to the running and the consecutive heart attacks. “We need to get out of here.”

“Because of nothing .” Martha said slowly. 

Amara blinked. “Okay, it’s not nothing , but it’s also not something you should worry about.”

“Then why should we get out of here?” The Doctor asked her.

“Because we should- because spoilers!” She threw her hands up. “Yeah. Spoilers. Us. Out of here.” She gestured behind him. 

“What the hell happened out there?” The Doctor asked her as they all started to walk. A little too slowly, in Amara’s opinion. 

“Walk faster.” She murmured. “And also I thought saying ‘spoilers’ meant you’d do what I said, no questions asked.”

“Not when you could be in possible danger.” They picked up the pace, which relieved her a little bit. 

“I wasn’t in danger!” 

“You looked like you were running for your life.” Martha shrugged. 

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t really matter anymore right now because we’re getting back to the TARDIS and going away from here and that’s what’s important.” Martha gave her a sheepish look. She turned to the Doctor, who looked annoyed, at best. “Oh no, what happened?”

“The TARDIS isn’t here.” Martha said, and Amara’s eyes widened. “1969! Are we in 1969? And the TARDIS isn’t here because of the Weeping Angels?” 

The Doctor let out a small laugh. “Course this had to be an episode.”

“It was a very good one, actually.” She said, “Anyway, I’m assuming you guys are staying somewhere?”

“Yeah, it’s a flat down the street, why?”

“Do many people live there?”

Martha shrugged. “More or less, we have a few neighbours.”

Amara sighed. “Okay, good.”

“Why, is it important that we have neighbours?” The Doctor asked her and she shook her head. “Well, not really, but it’s comforting that you didn’t pick a random place in the middle of nowhere.”

“Mara, you aren’t reducing my concerns right now, what the hell happened in that alley?”

She shrugged. “I thought I saw something that I wasn’t supposed to be seeing this early in your timeline.”

“Was this ‘something’ dangerous?”