CHRYSALIS

HUMAN NATURE

The central console of the Tardis is sparking crazily as we pick ourselves off the floor.

"Did they see either of you?!" The Doctor shouts.

"I don't know, I was too busy running!" I tell him.

"Girls, it's important... Did they see your face?"

Martha shakes her head, "No, they couldn't have!"
The Doctor runs around the console and starts playing with the controls, "Off we go!"

We stand next to him as he watches the time rotor intently.

A warning beep cuts in, symbols appearing on the console screen.

"Ahh!" He grabs the console screen and reads it, "They're following us." He goes back to the controls.

"How can they do that, you've got a time machine." Martha points out.

"Stolen technology, they've got a Time Agent's vortex manipulator. They can follow us wherever we go, right across the universe..." He pauses, "They're never going to stop." He runs a hand through his hair nervously, staring off before he speaks quietly, "Unless... I'll have to do it..." He stares at us, "Girls, you trust me don't you?"
"With my life." I say.

"Of course I do."

"Cause it all depends on you two." He dives below the console to retrieve something.

"What does? What are we supposed to do?" I ask.

He comes up, holding an ornate pocket watch, "Take this watch, 'cause my life depends on it. Girls, this watch is me."
I take it from his hands as he runs around the console.

"Those creatures are hunters, they can sniff out anyone - and me being a Time Lord; well, I'm unique. They can track me down across the whole of time and space. They can smell me, they haven't seen me. And their life's bound to be running out, so, we hide, wait for them to die."
"But they can track us down." I say.

He looks at me, "That's why I've got to do it. I have to stop being a Time Lord. I'm gonna become human." He looks up at a strange headset hanging from a cable, lowering it into his reach, "Never thought I'd use this. All the times I've wondered."
"What does it do?" I ask.

"Chameleon Arch. Re-writes my biology. Literally changes every single cell in my body. I've set it to human." He takes the pocket watch from my hands, fitting it into a section of the headset, "Now, the Tardis will take care of everything. Invent a life story for me, find me a setting, and integrate me. Can't do the same for you two... you'll just have to improvise. I should have just enough residual awareness to let you in."

"But... hold on, if you're going to rewrite every single cell, isn't it going to hurt?" Martha asks.

"Oh, yeah. It hurts."

Two months later...

Martha enters the Tardis, the console room is barely lit up.

I am sitting on the stairs, "Anything yet?"

She nods, "There was a meteor, a shooting star. Did the video say anything about that?"

I sigh, "No. Trust me, I've watched it what feels like a million times."

She frowns, "Are you okay?"
"As okay as I can be, it's been two months of him not knowing I exist."
She hesitates to respond, "I think that the Matron is interested in John."
I nod slowly, "Okay."
"Is it?"

"Yeah, of course it is. It's not like he knows who I am anymore." I wipe the tears from my eyes.

"I think he does though." She whispers.