Chapter One: We Meet Again

“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect but actually... ...it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff.” ~The Doctor in “Blink”

              Time seemed to stand still as Rebecca Sterling strolled the small forest behind their new home. The newly-grown trees swayed in the slight breeze while other, older trees stood still. Although she had never step foot in this forest before, she didn’t think about losing her way.  She may have used to give excuses concerning getting lost and being late home, but in reality, if she was there, they didn’t get lost. So instead she turned her thoughts to memorizing the faint pathways that her feet took her, determined not to think of anything else.

                The last time something strange had happened to her, or at least something strange to other people, was when she was ten, with the ‘banana’ that she wasn’t sure existed anymore. No one seemed to remember a banana except that queer man she had met not two minutes after it happened. Although it had been fourteen years since she met the man, she still remembered him clear as day. She even remembered his exact words. You will do well to forget about me. Most people do.

                Rebecca didn’t know why she remembered the man so clearly. He didn’t even give her his real name. If she could use this ability at whim, she wouldn’t be having any problems at school, especially with tests. But no, the only thing she could ever remember clearly were the stranger things in her life. Something about him made her want to learn more about him. He was an enigma, and she wanted to find out all of his secrets.

                Shaking her head, she started to move faster, hoping to leave behind these odd thoughts. Stop it! She chastised herself. That happened fourteen years ago! There’s no need to relive old memories. You’re in a new town, getting a new job and there is no need for this nonsense.

                But no matter how far or fast she travelled, her thoughts kept up with her easily. Rebecca was about to give up and find her way back home, which she knew exactly which way to go, of course, when she came across a clearing. The trees weren’t any bigger, and the sky wasn’t any more bluer, but something about this clearing made her sigh with relief. From curiosity more than anything else, she broke through the ring of trees surrounding the clearing to see what was there.

                For the first few seconds, Rebecca was blinded from the sudden sunlight that shined on her face. But even after her eyes recovered, there wasn’t much to see. There were no plants or animals in the clearing, nothing very interesting to look at except for what could possibly be the most intriguing thing that she had ever seen in her life. Sitting right there, in the middle of this remote clearing, was a blue, wooden box. It was about two heads taller than she was, with “Police Box” written at the top of it. It seemed to glow with its own light, and everything else seemed dark in comparison.

                Rebecca stared at the box for a few moments, wondering what such a peculiar box was doing in the middle of the forest behind her house.  When she did move, she started to circle the box, trying to find the video camera or the hosts of some stupid prank show about to jump out, yelling “You’ve just been busted”. After a few minutes, when no people jumped out or no video camera could be found, she took a chance and moved closer to it. As nothing happened to her or the box as she edged closer to it, she got braver and started to move quicker. She kept moving until the police box was right in front of her face.

                If anything else was right in front of her face, she would have heard the humming emanating from the blue box, reverberating in her skull. But the blue box intrigued her and she couldn’t think about anything else except about it. Rebecca tried looking through one of the windows and couldn’t see anything inside the box. She did all of this without touching it, as if for fear that if she touched it, it would vanish before she could find out what it was doing to it.

                At last, she could wait no more. It was as if the box was calling to her, communicating with her very soul. Come to me, it was saying. Come to me and find out my secrets. Rebecca reached out her hand and, surprisingly hesitant, made it hover an inch above the surface. Slowly, yet surely, she brought the slightly wavering hand closer to the box until it finally came in contact with the smooth surface.

                In seconds, the blue box and everything around it disappeared before her very eyes, and was replaced by an man old man whom she’d never seen before. The image was a little fuzzy, as if it was an hundred year old memory. Then the image changed, slowly at first, than faster into 10 other people, all men of about the same age. The images blurred together until Rebecca couldn’t distinguish one from another. Brilliant colours and weird creatures floated in and out of her vision, replaced by another just as quickly. Just as suddenly as the bizarre slide show began it ended, the last image was of a man with girlish brown hair, almost to the point of it being black. He was wearing a bow tie and suspenders, a weird combination.

                Rebecca felt slightly light headed, like too much information had been crammed into her brain in too short of a time. She felt like she should sit down, and she was about to when she heard a distinctly male voice behind her.

“Most people just walk by my blue box without even noticing it,” It said as Rebecca spun around, black hair flying all over the place. Right in front of her was the last image that she saw when she touched the blue box, slightly girlish brown hair with a bow tie and suspenders. Only he was more attractive than the man in the image. “But you just have to go right out and touch it. Why?” He continued, as if nothing happened. Which to him, of course, nothing did.

“It was there, and it was weird,” She replied, slightly annoyed by this man’s sudden inquisition. “So what if I touched it? I didn’t do anything to it.” Hopefully this wasn’t one of the weird people in her life, like the queer man those fourteen years ago. For some reason, he reminded her of that man.

“Still, you shouldn’t go around touching blue boxes. You don’t know where they may have been been,” He said as if that wasn’t the weirdest thing that someone had said to her. “Now go home and leave me alone. I’m doing something important.” For reasons unknown even to Rebecca, she didn’t do as the older man told her to, who had to be at least twice as strong as she was, and stayed.

“What are you doing that’s so important?” She asked instead, taking a step away from the blue box and toward the man.

“Nothing you would know of,” He said. “Important stuff.”

Rebecca didn’t give up, even though the chances of the man actually giving her some answers were slim. “Try me. I just might know.” When the man didn’t answer, she tried another tactic. “What’s your name anyway?”

This time he actually turned and looked at her, his intense, brown eyes staring into hers. “Didn’t I tell you to go home?” He asked, but Rebecca didn’t hear him. She didn’t hear anything except the sound of her own breathing, which was growing louder and faster as the seconds ticked by. Instead of hearing anything, she saw a sight that she had hoped that she would never see again. A sort of black mist with a greenish tint surrounded the man, identical to the mist around the similar man fourteen years ago. It swirled around him, creating a vortex where the man was the eye of it. Suddenly, doing something very different than what happened fourteen years ago, the mist turned to her.

It started coming towards her, while the man just stood there, his expression completely and totally vacant. It inched closer, taking its time, allowing fear set in its victim.  It swirled around her and she could feel the energy emanating out of the mist. Instead of circling around her, like it did to the man, leaving her untouched, it came closer and closer until it was suffocating her. It filled her lungs, her vision, and her very soul. Everything around her was black and green, and her vision was slowly going white. She gasped again, hoping that this time she would get a lungful of air instead of this powerful mist. She wasn’t that lucky and, her vision going completely white, and fell backwards.

She was faintly aware of strong arms holding her, green light, and the sound of a voice. But she couldn’t concentrate on it and fell into a restless sleep. When she woke up, the man’s face was mere inches from hers and she could smell his breath on her face. It smelled of… fish and custard? Before she could ponder on this strange scent, the man was saying something. “Hello? Are you OK?” He was saying, genuine concern filling his voice. She concentrated on the sound of his voice, letting it bring her fully back into consciousness.

“Huh?” She said, still not fully awake yet. “What happened?”

“I was hoping you could tell me,” He said when he took out a weird looking stick-thingy that glowed a green light when he pressed a button and held it to her face. “From what I could tell, you were just standing there when your eyes rolled back and fainted. Does that happen often?” His voice was so loud in her ringing ears; she almost felt the need to cover her ears from the loudness of it.

“No, that’s never happened to me before,” She replied, her voice sounding soft, even to her. The man didn’t say anything, instead he only held the stick-thingy that glowed a green light up to her face for a few more seconds and seemed to be checking something. “What’s that?” She asked, feeling a little bit better already. She didn’t even realize that he had put her down and she was on the ground now.

“This? This is a sonic screwdriver,” He said, examining Rebecca one last time before slowly standing up. He offered her his hand, which she ignored and she stood up herself, which only resulted in her being on the ground again. She gave a slight exclamation and the man was immediately by her side again. “You OK?” He asked again.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just fell, that’s all.” He gave her a peculiar look before standing up again. He offered her his hand again, which this time she took. Within a few seconds she was back on her feet and she didn’t let go of his hand before the wave of nausea passed. “See? I’m fine,” Rebecca said again and looked around. “What does a sonic screwdriver do?”

The question seemed to take him by surprise. “It does lots of things,” The man said. “Right then it was checking your vitals to make sure they were normal. It can also unlock doors, lock doors, track signals, and lots of other stuff. It’s quite handy, actually.” He started to walk back to the blue box, key in hand again.

She decided to try again with her interrogations, hoping she could take him by surprise again. “What’s your name?”

“I told you, my name’s not important. You will do well to forget about me. Most people do,” He said, looking into her eyes again. This time no black mist came out and choked her, but something else happened to her that reminded her of the man fourteen years ago. The words that queer man had spoken fourteen years ago had come out of this man’s mouth. You will do well to forget about me. Most people do. Rebecca gasped audibly, taking a step backward which made the man think that she was going to faint again. “You’ve got to stop doing that,” He said, his smile not reaching his eyes. “I worry for your health.”

“You… you’re…him!” She exclaimed, completely ignoring the fact that he said something. “You’re that man from fourteen years ago!”

The man gave me a look that clearly said ‘you’re crazy’. “Are you sure you’re ok? You hit your head pretty hard back there….”

Rebecca still ignored him, too caught up in her revelation to listen to him. “I still remember you, even after all of these years! You look different, but still… you have to be him. The same words, same black mist… hey! I even bet that you still remember what a banana is!”

It was this that got the man’s attention. “Banana?” He said, now seeing Rebecca in a new light. “You… remember bananas? No else in this world does!”

“Exactly! You must be him!” Rebecca said. “Don’t you remember me?” There was a little bit of disappointment in her voice, though she didn’t know why. Even though she remembered him clearly as if the day happened not fourteen years ago, but one night ago, doesn’t mean that this man, a complete stranger, would remember her with even remotely the same clarity.

“I don’t remember you,” He admitted a little sheepishly. “You’ve changed quite a bit from the little girl that I remember. But I do remember a little girl with long black hair and startling clear gray eyes  who remembers bananas even though the rest of the human race forgot about them. I don’t think I could ever forget that.” Despite herself, inwardly Rebecca sighed with relief. So he did remember her.

“Were you the cause of it?” She asked, hoping to find more information about him. She still wanted to know about him and his life.

“No,” He replied with no hesitation. “although I have no idea what did. The alteration in time happened too fast for me to track it, so I couldn’t explore the cause.” He paused for a second and tilted his head. “But I was my 10^th regeneration back then.”

Now it was Rebecca’s turn to be confused. “Your  what?” She asked, thinking she didn’t hear him exactly. In fact, she didn’t understand most of what he was saying but the last sentence was just absurd.

“My 10^th regeneration. I regenerate into a new form whenever I sustain a wound that would kill a human. Long story, not enough time to tell it. What I’m saying is that I’ve changed from when I first saw you. Every cell in my body’s different now. It isn’t possible that you remember me, much less recognize me.”

Suddenly Rebecca felt embarrassed about telling the man what she saw. She felt, deep down, that it might not be such a good thing. After all, it tried to choke her. “It was the black mist that gave you away.” She said quietly, secretly hoping that he wouldn’t hear her.

Unluckily for her, the man had perfect hearing and could hear her words quite well. But that didn’t stop him from saying “What?”

“The black mist,” Rebecca said, a little less embarrassed. “Sometimes, when I look into your eyes, I can see a… sort of blackish and greenish mist. Like right now, I can see it!” She exclaimed, pointing. He took a step back despite himself. “It follows you wherever you go. It’s like a residue and…” She stopped suddenly, once more embarrassed about what she had experienced. She didn’t understand why she was telling him all of this. After all, she didn’t need him to think she’s crazy too.

The man waited a moment before saying “And… what?” If he thought she was crazy, he didn’t say anything.

“And… it kind of… suffocated me,” She said, her head down. “That’s why I fainted. If you saw me choking, that’s because something was filling my lungs. The black mist. If it hadn’t released me when it did, I don’t know what would have happened.”

The man rushed up to her side, something in her words or the sound of her voice causing him to be concerned. “Are you sure of what you saw?” He asked solemnly, using a voice that was soft yet commanding. Even if she didn’t want to, she had no choice but to do as he asked.

“Of course I’m sure!” She exclaimed, caught by surprise at the question. With most people Rebecca told about the strange happenings in her life, they didn’t get this far. If they did get this far without thinking that she was crazy, this was where they usually told her some comforting words and called a therapist.

“We should come into the TARDIS. It’ll be safer there.” He said, taking her hand.

“The TARDIS?” Rebecca couldn’t help but asking. Everything was so strange to her, even more so than usual.

“The blue box. It’s my time and space ship. It stands for ‘Time And Relative Dimensions In Space’. Now will you just come with me? We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

Rebecca didn’t move with him as he moved forward, and he was forced to pull on her arm. “Hold on!” She yelled at him, knowing that if that didn’t work he would be able to force her into the box to do who-knows-what with her. The man stopped instantly and turned back at her. “I barely know you. I’ve only seen you twice, both in weird circumstances. What will people think if they found out I went into a blue box in the middle of a privately owned forest with a man at least twice her age, and a complete stranger at that?” She was huffing by the time she had finished yelled at him.

He took a moment to consider what Rebecca had just said. “Sorry. I didn’t even think about it. I’m just used to living on the run that those things often slip my mind. I swear on the life of my dead race that I mean you no harm in any way. I only wish to talk to you.”

                Although they were the words that any pervert would say to convince a young girl to come with them, there was something about the sincerity in his voice that made Rebecca believe him. Or, more correctly, she thought, you’re too blinded by curiosity to say no, despite the risks. Well, you know what they say. Curiosity kills the cat.

                With that being said, or rather thought, she had made her decision. “Alright,” She said, looking into his eyes again no without a little fear. When nothing happened, she moved on. “I’ll go with you. But just to talk. Try anything, and I’ll use my pepper spray against you.” Rebecca motioned to her bag and they both laughed.

                “Heaven forbid, pepper spray!” The Doctor said between laughs. She was glad to see the Doctor smile without any worry. It was truly a sight to see. When the moment had passed, he grabbed her by her hand, more gently this time, and said “Come on! We’re burning daylight!” And with that they ran to the TARDIS. While the Doctor fiddled with the key, Rebecca remembered something.

                “I don’t believe I told you my name,” She said to him suddenly, for no particular reason. “I’m Rebecca Sterling.”

                The Doctor turned momentarily from his work with the key. “Nice to meet you, Rebecca Sterling.” And without another word he went back to his work with the key.

Author's Note

The next chapter! It's extremely long, so bear with me. Constructed critisim would be great!

Reviews

[compositionc]

YAY FOR TARDIS.
11 rules.
EOS

[~goh~]

Don't be sorry for long chapters :3
At least it's not a 'Cheezit Chapter', wich is five billion pages long.
I loved the "Heaven forbid, pepper spray!" line from the Doctor; it's just the kind of thing he would say. No CC (constructive criticism) here, just good stuff.
Can't wait to read more! *clicks next chapter button*

[halflives]

AH! HOW IS IT YOU WRITE SUCH LONG, AMAZING CHAPTERS?!
Great addition. Already read it, but it's better the second time around. Which is hard to believe, because the first time around was EPIC. "Heaven forbid, pepper spray!" Love that line. And I disagree with Ella-Bella (sorry), but your Eleven is spectacular. Thank you, I taught Jos everything she knows. *bows* Just kidding ^^

[obvious pseudonym]

very good i liked it a lot. and bananas completly dissapearing i didn't expect that one, but still of course bananas. and i have to disagree with your discription of 11. it needs some improvment.

[DontBlink158]

This was awesome!!!!!! I loved every second of it, you pulled me in from the very begining to the very end! I was annoyed when i had to scroll down to read more, cause i didnt want to stop! I can not wait for the next chapter. As soon as u have it RR me, please!!!!!!!!!!