The Doctor hears a muted thump behind him and whips around. Annalise is lying on the ground, unconscious. "No!" He drops to her side. "Let her go!" he shouts at Prisoner Zero. Soon it will take her form, and he will not be able to break her out of this sleep. Snow falls around them as he touches her beautiful face tenderly. Something inside him whispers to look up. He does so and sees himself, exactly as he is, standing where the form of Geoffrey had been just a moment ago.
Who is that? he wonders briefly. He realizes a second later that he is touching Annalise and understands. Is that really what I look like? "Why have you taken my form?" he demands of the alien, brushing off the uncomfortable fact that this is the first time he has seen himself from the outside.
I'm not unconscious, he tells himself. It can't use my shape.
"Not you," a young female voice says. The Doctor watches as the first face he saw with his new one steps out from behind the Other-Doctor. She is just barely six years old, her light brown hair long and curly and her eyes bright enough to illuminate the entire street, and yet this is not the girl he knew so many years ago. The real one is lying completely still at his side. This little girl before him is simply a cheap imitation, but somewhere in his chest it hurts to see her again. With an innocent smile, she takes the hand of the other Doctor.
"Poor wittle Annie Song," the Multiform mocks in her naturally high-pitched, sweet, and quiet voice, "waiting for her magic Doctor to return and save her from all the abuse, the sadness, and the loneliness. But he let her down. He never came back when she needed him."
The Doctor glances down at the real Annalise, pain enveloping his hearts. He hopes this is just a ploy to rouse action from him. He prays she does not really feel that way.
"Why do you have me there?" he asks again, nodding at the imitation Doctor. The latter doesn't respond, but the other Annalise gets a very familiar look on her face. The Doctor recognizes it as one she used to wear when she was uncomfortable or when she was hiding something. His brilliant mind understands the situation now, and he chances a smile. "I'll tell you why. Because she can hear me, that's why."
He leans over her and whispers furtively, "Annalise, don't just hear my voice—listen to it. You told me that the woman you saw, the Seer that disappeared, showed you an alien. Think about what it looked like. Remember what the alien looked like, Annalise. Come on. I know you can hear me. Remember."
YOU ARE READING
The Time of Change
FanfictionThere are some people who seem destined for greatness. There are others who seem stuck on the path of failure. For most of her life, Annalise Song felt as if she was the unhappy median between the two: bound to be nothing more than mediocre and soli...
