When Lyssa opened her eyes, she saw stars floating around her.
At first glance, it seemed like she was back in the Time Vortex, jumping to some other random place. The gold mist of the Vortex was swirling around her, and she could see nebulas and galaxies slowly passing her beyond that.
"Someone is interfering with the walls between universes."
The unexpected voice startled her, and she jerked back before swinging her head around until she saw the graceful form of Tirdis floating off to the side, staring out into the vast distance of space, looking worried.
Awkardly propelling herself to Tirdis' side - half floating, half walking - she tried to see what she was looking at, but saw only the usual expanse.
"What's wrong?" she asked uncertainly.
The woman pursed her lips, wings fluttering gently. "You are aware that there are other universes out there, correct? Universes where your Doctor and myself do not exist, universes where evil runs rampant without check, universes where time travel and heroes do not exist?"
Lyssa furrowed her brow. "Yeah," she said slowly. "I mean, didn't I come from one where humans were the only species that existed? And didn't the Time Lords used to visit them all the time before the Doctor Time Locked Gallifrey? And didn't he end up in one with Rose and Mickey at some point?"
"A parallel universe, yes," Tirdis affirmed, still not looking at her. "Universes that have a similar timeline to this universe, but a few key factors have been changed. Such as Rose's father still being alive. Others have larger differences. The Time Lords could easily cross to the smaller universes. But some of the larger universes, where things are fundamentally different, could not be accessed even at the height of their power. And nor should they have been!" she added strictly.
"There are some things out there that no one, mortal or immortal, should have access to. And others... there are some entities that must never learn of each other. For should they join together, their power would be so great that there is not a force in the universe - in any known universe - that could stop them."
Lyssa shifted uncomfortably. "I'm getting the feeling that one of said evil entities has learned about or teamed up with another evil entity?"
Tirdis inclined her head. "Our foe, the one responsible for so much of the evil in this universe, and who seeks to rewrite time itself, and who trapped myself and all my sisters, is himself physically trapped. He ever seeks to escape and carry out his heinous plan. Unfortunately, his influence did not end with his imprisonment. The age-old foe of my thief, the Master, is himself a servant of the Darkness, though perhaps he does not yet recognize it himself. It would seem the height of irony to our foe that a man who prides himself on fooling others is himself fooled."
"Okay, wait, wait, wait." Lyssa held up her hands, brain swimming with all the new information. "So - the Big Bad Guy is physically locked up, but can still somehow trick and influence people, like the Master? Does that mean that the Master is really a good guy who's been hypnotized or whatever into doing all this awful stuff?"
Tirdis shook her head. "The Master chose his path a long time ago. Yes, he was influenced by both the Time Lords and the Darkness, but his actions - and his love of evildoing - are his own. However, some of his actions are guided by our foe, some more subtly than others." She sighed. "I realize that this is a lot of information to understand at once, but time is running out, and you need to know."
She pursed her lips. "As I have already explained, the Darkness is not the only powerful entity out there in all the universes. This one in particular, has a good one, a female known as the Creator... and many wicked ones. Those who would devour all worlds and time itself if they could.
"Thanks to the Darkness, they now believe that they can use you and the Creator together to create a weapon so powerful that none can stand before them, and reality itself will crumble. As it stands now, they cannot enter our universe unless summoned. We can count ourselves blessed that they have not been summoned"
"But?" Lyssa said when she stopped speaking.
"But," Tirdis continued, "while they cannot enter our universe, they can pull you to theirs."
Lyssa froze, blood turning to ice in her veins. "Is that why I'm here now? I'm being pulled to this other universe to get turned into some sort of weapon?"
"No. You're dreaming. I pulled you here in your unconscious state," Tirdis hastened to assure her. "Our foe hopes that in their attempts to pull you through, they will weaken the walls between universes enough that he can escape his prison and be free once more. I do not believe that he will succeed. The others, however..."
Lyssa swallowed hard, hand instinctively going up to clutch at her snowflake necklace and grasping at air. She frowned, then let her hand fall to her side. "The others... what? Will likely be successful?"
Tirdis nodded somberly. "Thanks to our foe, I am too weak to keep you here. However, if I can, I may be able to send you through before they pull you, allowing you some time to prepare. If you can, try and find the Creator. You may be the other's only hope." She smiled suddenly, mischief lighting up her face. "She has an ally that I think you will both find very helpful, and that I will find very amusing. In fact, I will do my best to ensure that the Doctor is sent with you, to better ensure that you have all the help you need."
"Okay, but what do I do to stop them or save myself or whatever?" Lyssa asked nervously. "You were all gloom and doom, and now you're laughing at some cosmic joke that only you get, but I'm still apparently being hunted down. What do I do when they find me? And this... Creator person... what do they even look like? How will I even know when I've found them?"
Tirdis' lips twitched. Waving a hand out in front of her, the stars shimmered and faded until they were replaced by a snowy landscape, two figures slowly forming out of the snow. One was a tall man, with silver curls and a thin black coat, his face blurred by the snow. The other was a young woman in a thick coat, reaching up to cup his face. Long white hair escaped her hood, framing her youthful face and silvery-blue eyes.
The man ducked his head, further hiding his features, and the woman blushed before hiding herself in his chest as his arms wrapped around her. While they eventually - reluctantly - parted, it was only a slight distance, and the couple leaned into each other at the same time. But just as their lips were about to touch, they leapt apart as if burnt, their forms quickly dissolving into snow before the entire scene disappeared.
Lyssa blinked. "Okay... That was helpful. Look for a really cold lady and her boyfriend. I don't suppose you have any tips on how to stop these creatures who're hunting us as well?"
"You have to work together. That is your only hope. And remember: Sometimes it is when things look most wrong that they are going the most right," Tirdis said cryptically. She glanced up.
Lyssa did too, but saw nothing. She huffed. Stupid mysterious mentors and their cryptic words and actions.
"I think it's time for you to wake up," Tirdis announced. "I apologize in advance for how you're going to feel when you wake up. I can take away the pain here, but not in the physical world." She floated closer to Lyssa, taking her hands in her own, looking her in the eyes. "I know you're worried about what's to come, and rightfully so, but I will do my best to ensure that you have allies. But you're going to wake up in an entirely different situation that's just as dangerous. Please. Be careful, for both your and the Doctor's sake."
"Wait. Why is it gonna hurt -"
xXx
Lyssa forced her eyes open and almost immediately shut them again, the bright lights sending dots flying across her vision and making her head throb dully. She took a deep breath and counted to five before slowly opening them again, trying to get used to the bright lights. Blinking slowly, she was gradually able to make out her surroundings.
It seemed to be some sort of laboratory. White walls, white ceilings, syringes and beakers and other devices she didn't have a name for littered the shelves and tables in the room. A large window looked out into another area, apparently an underground area, as the walls and ceiling seemed to be made of dirt. There were signs of civilization in there as well, though, the lights glowing softly in a way that emulated the planet's sun, similar to Earth's.
She seemed to have been in one of the corners, although she wasn't entirely sure how she'd gotten there. The last thing she remembered was -
A bruising grip. The Eleventh Doctor's eyes narrowed in hatred, directed at her. A hand flying at her face almost too fast for her to even comprehend, let alone dodge.
She jerked, hand flying to her jaw. She flinched away almost immediately, pain radiating from the point of contact. It didn't stop there, though. The entire right side of her jaw ached, spreading up through her cheek. The whole area felt bruised, and possibly swollen. She'd have to have the Doctor take a look at it when -
She nearly groaned aloud before she realized that she should probably be quiet. Ten had most likely been captured by Eleven, and Jamie's whereabouts were currently unknown, but he was unlikely to be able to help out at this point in time. Donna had likely been captured, as she'd tried to distract Eleven, and Rory and Amelia were... also missing. As was Amy, come to think of it, which did not bode well...
Okay. First things first: Find out where she was, find out a possible escape route, and... escape. That seemed like a workable plan. She could figure everything else out from there.
Simple, right?
Pushing herself up from the ground, she winced again when she caught sight of the angry red marks on her arms, bruises clearly in the shape of fingers blossoming around her arms, and another bruise forming in the crook of her elbow, although she didn't know what that one was from.
Seriously, she was getting ridiculously bruised for being on a vacation planet that was all about skincare. She should file a complaint, or something.
Assuming, you know, that she survives this. But hey, gotta look on the bright side, right?
Taking care not to jostle anything, she began to take a closer look at her surroundings. It was a small room, two doors on opposite sides that were - of course - locked. A single window, made of what looked like thick glass and no way to open it. An air vent up in the corner above one of the shelves, a sink in another corner, and not much else.
Three thin folders lay on one of the tables, and multiple test tubes filled with different colored fluids lined the shelves, each with little labels and neat handwriting on them. Thanks to the TARDIS, she was able to read them; not that it really cleared up any of her questions.
Silurian: unknown lifespan. Conversion: Unsuccessful. Unable to merge safely. *SEE FILES* Discontinued.
Sontaran: unknown lifespan. Not viable for further study; infants mature in ten minutes or less, rendering the conversion useless. Discontinued.
X'ellian: Thirty year lifespan. Conversion: Successful. Easily merged. Continued.
Zygon: Four to five hundred year lifespan. Conversion: Successful. Easily merged, but risky to obtain and results can vary. More tests required. Continue with caution.
Haemogoth: Fifty year lifespan. Conversion: Successful. Unable to merge safely. *SEE FILES* Discontinued.
There were rows upon rows of test tubes, some empty, but most containing some sort of liquid. She only recognized a few of the names, but they were all clearly the names of different species. On the table next to a microscope, she found a few more filled with a dark red liquid that was clearly fresh, much to her growing horror as she realized what they contained.
Human: Ninety year lifespan. Conversion: Successful. Merge results: TBD. Subject Name: Amelia Pond Williams. *SEE FILES*
Time Lord: Potentially infinite lifespan. Conversion: Successful. Merge results: TBD. Subject Name: The Doctor. *SEE FILES*
Unknown Species: Lifespan unknown. Conversion: TBD. Merge results: TBD. Subject Name: Alyssa Devons. *SEE FILES*
She stared at the small tubes for a minute, face scrunching up in disgust. Those were filled with blood.
Her blood.
Blood they had taken without her consent or even knowledge, and she was willing to bet that they had done the same to the Doctor and Amy. She glanced down at the bruise by her elbow, suddenly aware how she had come by it. She'd gotten the same type of bruise when she'd had her blood drawn for testing as a child.
But why were they taking their blood? What were they doing with it? And what was this whole 'merging' business?
The conversion bit, she got. Eleven had referenced Amelia's conversion, and she could only assume that it meant conversion to childhood. And on that note, that they at least planned to do the same to her.
If they hadn't already started.
Suddenly nervous, she checked for any signs of shrinking or other hints of de-aging. Fortunately, she was no closer to the ground than she normally was, and appeared to be her usual self, if a bit more disheveled and bruised than usual.
Satisfied on that end, her mind returned to the quandary of the tubes. Obviously, she couldn't just leave them there. For one thing, the DNA of a Time Lord could be very dangerous in the wrong hands, or something like that, and there was no way that anyone involved with this had the right hands, so she tucked the Doctor's tube into her pocket, quickly followed by hers and Amy's, thanking the TARDIS once again for deep pockets.
And they didn't even ask first.
Rude.
The question now was what to do with the others. She could hardly fit them all in her pockets - there was easily several dozen tubes on the shelves, and her pockets weren't that deep.
Well.
She'd always wondered what it would be like to play mad scientist, apparently now was her time to shine.
Mentally practicing her insanely evil laughter in anticipation, she found a set of gloves on a nearby counter - a bit large and misshapen, but she wasn't going to be playing with alien blood with no protection on - and went to work.
Fifteen minutes later, she stepped back and looked at her work in satisfaction. Whoever these people were, they had obviously not liked the results of the Silurian or Sontarans, so she had been very careful to mix some of the liquid from those tubes into each of the other tubes as well, so that every tube now had some of the "unmerge-able" liquid in it. Again, whatever that meant.
Of course, she didn't stop there. She mixed a little bit of everything into everything before dumping each bottle down the drain and washing it out, idly hoping that the mixture would somehow clog the pipes and inconvenience them even more.
She'd grabbed the folders off the table, meaning to destroy them too, but stopped herself just in time. Flipping through the folders, she was only slightly surprised to find they contained information on her, Amy, and the Doctor.
Amy's was the most extensive, apparently gleaned from whatever memories the clone Amy got when she assumed her image. Hers was the least, and mainly consisted on brief tidbits that Amy and the Doctor apparently knew about her, although she stopped when she realized that some of the knowledge could be about things that hadn't happened to her yet.
The Doctor's was a flurry of notes, although it was mainly physical information about Time Lords that the clone had access to, and a few hastily scribbled addendums that mentioned that he hid almost all knowledge of her deep in his mind, and was very protective of his companions.
She winced, rubbing her still-aching jaw. Yeah, Jamie - or even Ten - would not be happy when he - they? - saw what she was sure was developing into a lovely bruise.
Moving on, she pulled all the papers out of the folders and prepared to rip them in half, pausing again when she saw another note on the Doctor's file fall out from in between the pages, catching her attention.
Lifespan could potentially last for millennia. Blood test suggests extreme adaptability. If the merge works, this could be enough to affect our entire population for years!
She furrowed her brow. The merge again. And something about the Doctor's lifespan would affect the entire planet's population for years if it worked. So... if something merged correctly, it could affect their lifespan.
She already knew the Atrellians could take on the characteristics of the people they impersonate. Maybe they hoped to clone a longer-lived race such as a Time Lord, and then pass on those genetics to their children, thus adding to everyone's lifespan in general? Ten had mentioned that they were - or at least used to be - a shorter lived race.
But then why did they need to turn the original people into children? And why did they pretend to be the Doctor and Amy? They clearly weren't interested in the TARDIS; or it at least wasn't at the top of their priorities list. So why all the deception?
A loud bang sounded from the room beyond the window and made her jump.
Right. Priorities.
Scurrying over to the window, she crouched down and then peered around the edge, hoping to see something that would... tell her something, at least.
It almost looked like a garden. A large, enclosed garden.
The floors were made of dirt as well, except for a concrete section that extended some fifteen feet from the two large metal doors that opened into the room, and one section led to the middle of the room, where it met a huge bush, easily at least twenty feet tall and ten feet wide, and dotted with small, blood-red flowers here and there. Leafy tendrils extended from the bush along the ground in all directions, twitching and curling slightly in some breeze that no doubt circulated through the room.
And if she ever had to pick a plant that felt evil, this'd be it.
Movement in the corner of the room caught her eye, and she craned her head until she could catch sight of them, and frowned when she saw three of the Atrellians, dressed in something resembling military garb and carrying some sort of weapon, push open the large metal doors and hold them open as Eleven strode through, followed by another two soldiers carrying an unconscious Tenth Doctor.
She gasped, then immediately crouched down, half afraid they'd somehow heard her. When she didn't hear any shouts, she carefully crept back up to her original position, heart trying to pound out of her chest.
Ten had literally been chained to the wall, his head falling limply to the side. Eleven stood off to the side, talking to one of the soldiers and occasionally sending menacing looks at the unconscious Doctor.
She took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart and think what to do. The Tenth Doctor was unconscious, and under Eleven's malevolent gaze. Jamie was too small to be of much help, assuming he could even operate the TARDIS at his current height, and there was no sign of Donna, Rory, or Amelia. Or her clone, come to think of it.
She wished she knew if that were good news or not.
Either way, it looked like this time, she was on her own.
Her friends were hurt or trapped. She was in a locked room with no key to the door, and a mad scientist had been experimenting on her blood. She felt sore and achy all over, and was scared to death of what she might find if she did manage to leave.
But she might very well be the Doctor's only hope, to say nothing of the others.
So when her eyes, searching the room for possible tools, fell on the air vent again - just big enough for a human on the small side to fit through - she smiled grimly and set to work.
It was time to be a hero.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Look at Lyssa, stepping up to the plate like that! My little girl's growing up so fast... *Sniff*
Lol, when I started this arc, I just meant for it to be something to be cute, fluffy, and short. Instead it's turned into this two month plus monstrosity that's quickly getting filled with angst and verging on horror (depends on the next chapter). What even is my life?????? But we're getting closer to the end now, just a little bit longer!
Thank you all so much for following, commenting, and voting (this story has now had over 30,000 views and 1600 votes, guys, holy crap that's amazing, thank you all so much!!!!!) Your support has been amazing, and I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate it!
Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! :)
General Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, just Lyssa.