"What is this place, where am I?" The Doctor asked, walking fast down the street with Amy and I on either side of him.
"Leadworth." Amy responded.
"Where's the rest of it?"
"This is it."
"Is there an airport?"
"No."
"A nuclear power station?"
Amy scoffed. "No."
"Even a little one?"
"No."
"Nearest city?"
"Gloucester, half an hour by car."
"We don't have half an hour. Do we have a car?"
"Does it look like we have a car?" I asked him. I was still wearing some nice boots with a little heel in it from 51, and they were just starting to hurt.
"Well, that's good! Fantastic, that is. We've got 20 minutes to save the world, and I've got a post office." He remarked angrily, motioning to the building behind him. "And it's shut! WHAT is that?" He ran to the small patch of water.
"It's a duck pond." Amy responded, following the Doctor towards the small pond.
The Doctor stopped and peered over it before turning back to Amy. "Why aren't there any ducks?"
"I don't know, there's never any ducks!"
"Then how do you know it's a duck pond?" he asked her.
"It just is! Is it important, the duck pond?"
"I don't know," the Doctor began stumbling backwards, clutching his chest. "Why would I know?" he stammered, falling to the grass, still clutching at his hearts. "This is too soon," He grunted. "I'm not ready, I'm not done yet."
I wasn't completely sure while watching the show, but now that I was really here, I knew he was talking about his regeneration cycle. He was the last of the Time Lords, a human-looking alien species that regenerates every cell in their body to stay alive for thousands of years on end. I could only imagine how much pain that was, and how it must feel— but unfortunately, I didn't have time to imagine, because the sky grew darker.
Amy looked up. "What's happening? Why's it going dark?"
We stood there, staring at the sun, which was now turning grey-ish, until the light returned to normal and the sun became an orange that looked like it was just a colored part of the clouds. Instead of a bright star, it just looked like smoke.
"Nothing, you're looking at it through a force-field. They've sealed off your upper atmosphere, now they're getting ready to boil the planet." He stood up, while Amy gaped at him, her eyes popping open in shock.
I tilted my head at the sun, wondering. "How do you seal off an upper atmosphere with a plasma field if it's, like, four percent water vapor?"
Amy was frustrated. "They're going to burn the planet, and you're concerned about how?"
"It's not plasma," the Doctor answered me, before I could respond to Amy.
In front of us, the villagers began walking out into the green with their cell phones and cameras, speculating the transformed sun. "Oh, and here they come, the human race! The end comes, as it was always going to— down to a video phone!" The Doctor snapped.
But unlike the Doctor, I knew this was coming in more ways than one. Not only did I know the exact events that were about to unravel due to having seen it on a TV screen— I knew that they were going to take out their phones even if I hadn't watched the show.
At Area 51, I was partnered with Dylan, who worked in the field to retrieve artifacts while I tested them, and Meredith, who worked with him live and hacked things so he could break in easier. The only case where I found an artifact myself was the orb that may or may not have gotten me here. During that mission by myself, the most important thing I did was make sure no one saw. Out of the three of us, Meredith was the techie, it being her job and all, but I convinced her to teach me things until I became good enough with technology to prepare myself for my lone mission. Now I have hacks to wipe all data around me from a 5-mile radius, because that's what humans of the 21st century do: we trap our memories in objects that we trust more than ourselves, so people believe us. Even though I didn't do that much spying around, I've learned how to translate my shock into adrenaline. I learned how to tune everything out and focus on the matter at hand.
Amy, though, hasn't had any training. Not even police training, contrary to her outfit. She shook her head in disbelief. "This isn't real, is it? This is some kind of big wind-up." She fumbled with her hands nervously, trying not to bite away at her perfect red nail polish.
"Why would I wind you up?" The Doctor asked her, probably not understanding what she meant.
"You told me you had a time machine." She said anxiously.
"Well... you believed him," I told her.
"Then I grew up." She replied, looking down.
The Doctor groaned. "Oh, you never want to do that— no hang on, shut up, wait! I missed it." He smacked himself right in the forehead, causing both Amy and I to jump. "I saw it and I missed it!" he smacked himself again. "What did I see? I saw... what did I see?" He looked straight ahead and seemed to be lost in a calculating trance. He glanced to Rory, who just took a picture of a man on his phone, and then to a clock, before turning back to us.
"20 minutes. I can do it. 20 minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help me." He looked at us expectantly, but I only raised my eyebrows and turned to Amy, while she glinted at him.
Amy furrowed her brows. "No."
The Doctor looked bemused. "I'm sorry?"
"NO!" Amy yelled, grabbing the Doctor by his tie, and grabbing me by my locket. She dragged us both over to the car of a man who was getting out of the driver's seat.
"Amy! No! No! What are you doing?" The Doctor yelled, at the same time I shouted "Hey!" She pushed us against the car while the driver just stepped out, slamming his tie and my locket stuck in the door. She took the driver's keys and locked the door.
Immediately, I felt weak. As soon as my long chain was caught in the door, I felt dizzy and fought to stay standing.
"Are you out of your mind?!" The Doctor asked.
Thankfully, she disregarded me at the moment and moved closer to the Doctor. "Who are you?"
"You know who I am," he hissed.
"No, really, who are you?"
"Look at the sky! End of the world, 20 minutes."
"Better talk quickly then!" Amy commanded, backing off of him.
"Stop... yelling," I groaned, feeling weaker, collapsing in the Doctor's arms. I couldn't make out what was happening, but I knew it had something to do with the locket. The sense of belonging was gone, and I felt empty in both the mental and medical sense. Lonely, and light-headed.
The Doctor held me tightly in his arms, while Amy unlocked the car and handed the keys back to the driver.
"Hey, stay with me," the Doctor pleaded, as he opened the door and his tie and my necklace were free. When the necklace was free, I was able to stand up and I grabbed it. Somehow, it didn't break— it only dented a little. The Doctor was still holding me from around my waist, and our proximity was so close I could feel his breath. I closed my eyes to try and focus on what I meant to say. I knew there was something that had to happen that was missing, but the pain was distracting.
Suddenly, I remembered, and shot my eyes open. "Apple!" I exclaimed.
"What?" The Doctor and Amy both said. I only smiled and awkwardly reached into the Doctor's pocket, taking out the apple that little Amelia had given him 12 years ago, or 10 minutes ago.
I put the apple in Amy's hand, and she turned it over to see the fresh carved-in smiley face. "It's real," I explained, both for Amy's sake and my own. "Him. He's the Doctor, he really is, and he needs your help whether or not he wants to admit it, and I do. I need your help too."
Amy shook her head. "What do you need my help for? Who are you?"
"I'm lost, Amy," I admitted, wanting to cry on top of the weakness I was still recovering from. This was it. She had to trust me, because I already trusted her, and she knew me in the future. The Doctor still had no idea who I was, but I was one hundred percent certain she would know me. "I know it's hard to understand, but 10 minutes ago, he was in your past, I was in your future. I don't know why I'm here but you did, or you will. You have to help me." I begged, conveniently leaving out the part where her future self was mad at me for some reason I didn't think I wanted to find out anymore.
She still stared at me with bewilderment, and I felt the Doctor's burning gaze also. "How do I help you?" she asked.
"Believe him. Just for 20 minutes. The apple, it's fresh. Time travel. 20 minutes." I whispered, before collapsing in the Doctor's arms again.
My eyes were closed, but I was still conscious. I was just too weak to hold myself up. I was leaning against the Doctor, who had his arms around me, but he removed one of his arms. I couldn't see, but I knew that this was the moment where he was grabbing Amy's wrist. She was glancing at the apple, and back at him. She believed. In my mind, a symphony played in the background− Amy's theme. This was the real beginning.
"What do we do?" She asked, getting her game face on.
"Finally!" I breathed, exhausted. I felt the Doctor kiss me on the forehead, and my energy returned while my headache left.
I stood firmly on my feet, but before I realized that he had probably given me some of his regeneration energy, he was already moving.
"Stop that nurse!" he yelled, running over to the nurse Amy and I knew to be Rory and checking his cell phone before giving it back to him. "The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog. Why?"
Amy and I ran up to either side of Rory, but Amy clung to his arm.
"Amy!" he noticed.
"Rory!" I exclaimed.
"Do I know you?" he asked.
I wanted to scream. Theory: what number was I even on, 7? False, again! Where was the logic behind anything? Rory didn't know me, Amy didn't know me, the Doctor definitely didn't know me— and with everything happening so fast, I felt like I barely knew myself anymore.
Still, stupid me yelled his name, and now I had to come up with an excuse fast, because I really didn't feel like going through the whole I was in your future thing with him. He wasn't really mad at me back then, or back... forward, anyway. "Uh, yeah. Scientist, hospital?" I tried, knowing Rory probably met lots of people throughout the day.
"Umm, oh! Right, yeah, you're..." He stuttered, pretending he knew me out of politeness.
Close enough. I nodded. "Yeah!"
"This is Rory," Amy introduced to the Doctor. "He's a... friend."
Rory smiled sheepishly. "Boyfriend."
"Kind of my boyfriend."
"Amy!"
The Doctor didn't seem to care for any of our relationship statuses at the moment. "Man and dog, why?"
Rory looked him up and down. "Oh, my god, it's him."
"Just, answer his question, please." Amy ordered impatiently.
Rory couldn't stop pointing and gaping at him. "It's him, though. The Doctor, The Raggedy Doctor."
"Yeah, he came back..."
"But he was a story. He was a game−"
Thankfully, the Doctor was having none of it either and grabbed Rory by his shirt. "Man and dog− why? Tell me. Now!"
"Sorry! Because he can't be here, because he's−"
"In a hospital, in a coma." Rory and the Doctor chanted at the same time.
"Yeah," Rory nodded frantically.
"Knew it. Multi-form, you see? Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a live feed, a psychic link with a living," the Doctor poked Rory's forehead, "But dormant mind."
The multi-form alien still disguised as the man and his dog barked and growled, causing us to snap our heads around. The Doctor walked to it, standing directly across the lawn. "Prisoner Zero."
I walked to stand right next to him, while Amy and Rory stayed back.
"What, there's a Prisoner Zero too?" Rory asked Amy.
"Yes!" She snapped.
The big police-eye hovered above us in its spaceship that looked like it was made of electric crystal. The blue eye swiveled back and forth, casting what looked like a searchlight. The Doctor took his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and held it out to his side.
"See, that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology. And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver." He smiled and held his sonic up and turned it on, the familiar whirring sound causing victorious chaos. Street lamps around us were bursting with electricity, car windshield wipers were swiping back and forth, and even shopping carts and fire trucks were moving by themselves. I couldn't help but give a little laugh, and the Doctor smirked at me in response.
"I think someone's going to notice, don't you?"
The Doctor lowered his screwdriver to point at a nearby telephone box, causing it to explode, but backfiring and causing the screwdriver to fry itself. "No, no, no, don't do that!" The Doctor ranted, dropping his burnt screwdriver to the ground. The big eye-police spaceship wasn't distracted enough.
"Look, it's going." Rory pointed out.
"No, come back, he's here! Come back!" The Doctor shouted, flinging his arms around. "He's here! Prisoner Zero is here! Come back!"
Prisoner Zero, however, wasn't here for very long and glowed before turning into a mist and melting down the drain below them.
"Doctor! The drain, it just... sort of, melted and went down the drain." Amy said, all three of us noticing the drain now.
"Well of course it did." The Doctor shrugged.
"How does it even do that?" I muttered to myself. Rory gave me a strange look, and shrugged.
"What do we do now?" Amy asked the Doctor.
"It's hiding in human form. We need to drive it into the open. No TARDIS, no screwdriver, seventeen minutes, come on... Think. Think!" The Doctor yelled to himself. Of course, I knew the solution, but I wasn't sure if I should bring it up, and I was kind of scared to, so instead I stepped back.
I couldn't tell them, but that didn't mean I couldn't do anything. Every single one of my already useless theories were debunked, and I was sick of following around these people I didn't even actually know waiting for answers to show up, because obviously that wasn't going to happen. It looked like if I was going to figure out anything, I would have to do it myself. Now there were no other scientists around to scoff at me and tell me I was way off, or ignore me when I had a question. For once, I had no other choice than to conduct and trust my own research.
"You know what, I'm still feeling a little dizzy... I'm gonna go." I announced, lying just enough to turn and make my way back to the last house we were at, where the elderly lady and Jeff live.
The Doctor grabbed my wrist and turned me back around, stopping me in my tracks. "No no no, I need you here."
I almost let out a laugh. "Why would you need me?"
The Doctor frowned, probably detecting my insecurity, thinking that was the main reason for my lie. "Why wouldn't I?"
I had already seen the Doctor's life without me in it, and although there was pain and suffering, it was okay in the end. His companions were amazing and beautiful people with ridiculously correct moral compasses, and although I desperately wanted to, I wasn't sure if I could be that. I wasn't even meant to be in this world. I was from a world where no one needed me, and they probably never will. How could he possibly think he needed me when he didn't even really know who I was?
I stared at the Doctor a moment longer, realizing something I probably should have thought of before opening the door from Amy's room. He didn't know who I really was, and... he shouldn't.
"Because," I said, taking my arm from his grasp. "You don't even know my name."
I turned and ran away quickly, slowing down once I was on a sidewalk far enough away.
I knew that the Doctor knew I was lying about still feeling dizzy. He gave me his regeneration energy through a forehead kiss so I could feel better. He's only known me for about, maybe an hour at the most, and he was already feeling compelled to save me. I couldn't tell whether or not that was a good thing. Normally, I'm perfectly capable of saving myself, but medical problems are different story. I guess since he's still fresh from his new regeneration, he didn't think it would matter, since he wasn't giving me years of his life. Either way, I knew that since he'd given me some of his energy, he had to feel different towards me now.
I knew that there was nothing I could do but shake off the thought and continue walking, so I did. I guess when you live in a small town, you don't really have to worry about the little things— like locking your doors, for instance. Or at least that's what I concluded as I strolled right into the house and into Jeff's room, where he was lying on his bed with his laptop.
He seemed startled as he looked at me with wide eyes, gripping his laptop. I raised my eyebrows, knowing what he was watching, but plastered a smile on my face anyway. "Hi... Jeff, can I borrow that?" I asked, going to sit at the edge of his bed.
"Uh, yeah, hold on." he clicked some things before giving it to me. I sat crisscrossed next to Jeff and set the laptop in front of me, opening the Internet first.
"God, Jeff. If you're not going to get a girlfriend, at least delete your history!" I grimaced, as Jeff stumbled to apologize for his... habits.
"Um, that's just... I don't- wait, what are you doing?" he asked, noticing my matrix of code on the screen.
"Well," I began, my fingers expertly flying all over the keyboard. "All governments around the world are probably panicking, and if this is anything like it is back home, all the big scientists are doing what they always do in a crisis."
"What are they doing?"
"Having a meeting," I answered nonchalantly. "Don't worry, I do this all the time. It's how I'm always the first to get new Hubble Telescope pictures. Hopefully these codes are the same..." I typed one last string of code before slamming the enter key victoriously. "Ha! They are!" I exclaimed, as the new faces on my screen talked on.
"Can't they see you?" Jeff wondered.
I smiled at him. "Not unless I want them to."
Jeff was about to react when the bedroom door slammed open, revealing the Doctor still looking disheveled. "Hello! Laptop..." he stopped himself short as he recognized me already sitting there.
I turned the laptop to face him as he stared at me with a bewildered look yet again, and an awkward silence filled the air. "Umm... Scientist," I told him, trying to come up with a quick explanation for how I was able to break into a classified meeting.
It was kind of easy to learn how to get into them, because while there are many science nerds in the world, the ones who are crazy enough to actually hack into these conferences just so they can get one of the first glimpses at a new discovered galaxy end up working for them soon enough, once the companies realize there was someone capable of bypassing their firewall. Hacking is one of the only crimes you may not get arrested for. I like to think that I would be working for them too if the US Government didn't forbid me. I also liked to think that even though the government is the reason why I was capable of doing such things, I would still find a way. So needless to say, there aren't very many people trying to get into these, so it's not that impressive. It's nothing compared to the stuff Meredith could do, anyway.
The Doctor spun the laptop back around and sat next to me, making Jeff move to sit behind us. "What kind of scientist?"
I shrugged. "What kind of Doctor?"
He squinted at me a moment before turning back and bringing the laptop onto his lap. "Ah, and here they all are. All the big boys: NASA, Jordell Bank, Tokyo Space Centre, Patrick Moore."
"You can't just hack in on a call like that!" Jeff argued, trying to look over our shoulders.
I shrugged, forgetting that half the things I learned how to do at 51 were kind of illegal for the rest of the population. "I just did."
Jeff gave a smirk and moved right behind me, "That's hot."
I was so caught off-guard by the comment I barely reacted. But somehow, this caught the Doctor's attention and he turned back to Jeff and flicked him on the forehead. Jeff rubbed his forehead in pain. "Oi! Sorry, didn't know you two were..."
My eyes widened as I realized what the Doctor had started. Why he started it, I had no idea. "Oh, we're not really−"
"HELLO!" the Doctor yelled to the screen, interrupting us.
I raised my eyebrows. I am so in a different universe.
I guess he figured out how to get off my 'spy mode', because when I peered over his shoulder to fit myself in the camera, he was holding his psychic paper up to it.
"Who are you?" One of the experts asked.
"This is a secure call! What are you doing?" another one panicked.
"Hello. I know. You should switch me off. But before you do, watch this." The Doctor went on to type while the experts continued babbling on in confusion.
"It's here too, I'm getting it." One of them complained.
"Fermat's Theorem, the proof, and I mean the real one, never seen before. Poor old Fermat, got killed in a duel before he could write it down." The Doctor looked at me solemnly. "My fault, I slept in. Oh! and here's an oldie but a goodie- why electrons have mass. And a personal favorite of mine, faster-than-light travel with two diagrams and a joke." I leaned closer the screen in awe as different diagrams showed up. "Look at your screens. Whoever I am, I'm a genius. Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get. Fellas, pay attention." I let out a bewildered giggle at his clever madness. The Doctor turned to me and handed me Rory's phone.
"Do you know the basic CSS reset code?" he asked me. I nodded at him. "Great, I need you to type it in here," he handed me Rory's phone, which was already on some sort of command prompt he set up.
I snatched the phone and began typing the code furiously. Despite knowing the code, I felt like I was cheating. I didn't necessarily have to figure out that I needed to hack onto the call, and put the virus on the phone. I already knew that it would all happen anyway without me here from watching the show. But when the Doctor got up and moved to the desk, negotiating with the scientists, the show felt like it was from an entirely different lifetime. Right here, right now, this felt real.
I sat next to him at the desk and continued typing away on the small mobile. The code was pretty basic-- any 12-year-old in a robotics club would know how to do it (or at least according to Meredith who taught it to me), but the program I was typing it into looked beyond anything I knew. It was definitely some futuristic-alien thing the Doctor had set up. "Sir, what is she doing?" A scientist asked. I couldn't bother to respond, I was too concentrated on the code and afraid I would mess up if I turned somewhere else for even a second.
Thankfully, the Doctor spoke for me. "She's writing a basic computer virus on a program I created. Very clever, super-fast, and a tiny bit alive, but don't let on. Why is she writing it on a phone?"
"Done!" I interrupted, slapping the phone in his outstretched hand with glee.
The Doctor began typing again. "Never mind, you'll find out. Okay, I'm sending this to all your computers. Get everyone who works for you sending this everywhere. Email, text, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, radar dish— whatever you've got. Any questions?"
"Uh," I muttered, filling in the silence. Great question. Way to go, Scarlette!
"What does this virus do?" Someone else asked.
"It's a reset command, that's all. It resets counters, it gets in the Wi-Fi and resets every counter it can find. Clocks, calendars, anything with a chip will default at zero at exactly the same time. But, yeah, I could be lying, why should you trust me? I'll let my best man explain." The Doctor finished, and everyone went silent, waiting for the best man.
The Doctor leaned over to Jeff, who was sitting next to him on the other side. "Jeff, you're my best man," he whispered.
"Your what?" Jeff whispered back.
The Doctor pulled the laptop monitor down for some privacy and put a hand on Jeff's shoulder. "Listen to me. In ten minutes, you're going to be a legend. In ten minutes, everyone on that screen is going to be offering you any job you want. But first, you have to be magnificent. You have to make them trust you and get them working. This is it, Jeff. Right here, right now. This is when you fly. Today's the day you save the world."
The Doctor gave him a little slap on the shoulder, and Jeff just stared at him like he was a lunatic. "Why don't you just let me do it? I know how," I reminded the Doctor. Being the youngest at 51 meant there were a lot of things the head scientists didn't let me do, so over the years I've gotten better at convincing them.
The Doctor turned around and grabbed my hand. "Not you, I need you."
I let out a distressed laugh. "For what!" I asked, frustrated. No one has ever needed me before back in 51, or at least I've never felt like it. This entire situation was completely ridiculous. Almost nothing made sense to me, and I wasn't used to that.
"Why me?" Jeff asked, too busy with his own problems to hear what we said.
"Because it's your bedroom, now go go go!" The Doctor responded, getting up and leaving. I followed him out, before he turned and opened Jeff's door again. "Oh, and delete your Internet history."
I laughed. "That's what I said!"