Chapter Two: Inside the Box

“Amy Pond, there's something you better understand about me, 'cause it's important and one day your life may depend on it. I am definitely a madman with a box!” ~The Doctor in “The Eleventh Hour”

                With a faint click the door to the TARDIS opened and the Doctor ushered Rebecca inside before she could change her mind. He shut the door behind her but was sure to leave it unlocked for Rebecca’s piece of mind. For some reason, when the Doctor told her that this blue box was her space ship, she didn’t even think about the size of the box. It wasn’t that she ignored it; everything happened so fast that she didn’t have the time to think of how much room was in the box. Only when she had entered the box and saw that it was bigger on the inside did she stare at disbelief. How could it be bigger on the inside than on the outside? But there was another part of her that accepted this fact and it was almost like it was to be expected. It was very faint, however, and Rebecca gave it no heed.

                She was about to open her mouth and let the Doctor know what she saw when he spoke. “Yes, I know, it’s bigger on the inside than on the outside. Without spending hours explaining, it’s basically a separate dimension.” Or at least, that was what he was going to say when Rebecca said “a separate dimension” at the same time as the Doctor.

                They both looked at each other for a second when she looked away, curiosity drawing her eyes away from his. He didn’t look away, but instead stared directly at her intently. “How did you know that?”

                There was a second delay as Rebecca debated whether or not to tell the Doctor the truth. She decided against it, but in that time he had already figured out that she was lying before she even spoke. “Know about what?”

                “How did you know about the TARDIS is basically another dimension?” He said again, continuing to stare at her until she felt quite uncomfortable. “No one knows about that until I tell them.” Rebecca shook her head, hoping that would communicate the fact that she didn’t know. “How did you know?” He insisted.

                “You sure are insistent,” She said, trying to buy time to find the right thing to say. She decided that the truth would be the best. “I… I don’t know. I just… did, that’s all. I just knew.” She looked back at the Doctor. “Is this a bad thing?”

                He immediately shook his head, though he wasn’t really sure himself. Right now he was still trying to figure everything out. “No, it isn’t. You must have read it somewhere. There are tons of theories out there, and that particular one must be right.” He continued his brief tour of the TARDIS by showing her the controls. “This,” He explained, motioning to the controls, “Is how I travel through time. This tube contains…” He was about to finish when Rebecca cut in.

                “The tube contains huon energy, which the TARDIS uses to teleport anywhere through space and time.” She stopped there, prepared to go on, but was terrified at her own knowledge. She was scared of the unknown, and this definitely goes under that category. “How did I know that?” She whispered.

                “I don’t know,” The Doctor replied with a peculiar sort of voice. “What’s that?” He asked, pointing to some sort of lever in the control panel.

                “That’s a vortex loop,” Rebecca answered without hesitation. “It…” she stopped when she realized what she was doing, but continued eventually in a much softer voice. “It keeps the TARDIS stable as it goes through vortexes. Without it, it might fall down and never be able to stop.”

                “How did you know that?” He repeated, more to himself than to anyone else. He went on before she even had the chance to reply. “You can’t have known that. It’s impossible for a human to know all of that… not even Rory knew all of that…”

                It was hard for Rebecca to keep up with him because he was speaking so fast, but she did hear “human” and “Rory”. “A human? You say that as if you’re not one! And who’s Rory?”

                “Shush. I’m talking,” He said, cutting her off. “Now, humans can’t know all of that unless they’ve encountered me before and have been in the TARDIS, and plus you could see some greenish blackish mist surrounding me, which that in itself may not be so good. So that all means you must not be human really.” She was about to protest when the Doctor lifted a hand to stop her again. “Hold on a second.” He pulled out a box from underneath the control panel. He started pulling out things, muttering things like “severed hand” and “intergalactic cell phone” and other nonsense that Rebecca had no idea what he was talking about. She didn’t even bother to ask how everything fit in there, for fear of another piece of information that she didn’t even know she knew would be released from her mind.

                This continued for about a minute, the box seemingly endless until a big machine with a bunch of mirrors attached was in his hands. “There we are! If you’ll be so kind as to look in this mirror….” Rebecca sighed and decided that if this was going to end this nonsense, she would do it. So she took a step toward the Doctor and looked into the mirror. Once she saw what was there, she gasped audibly. Or, rather, when she saw what wasn’t there. Because when she looked into the mirror, all she saw was the TARDIS behind her. Nothing more, nothing less.

                “Doctor….” She said slowly. “Is this some kind of trick? If it is, this isn’t funny?” She took a step back from the mirror, than a step forward. She waved her hand in front of this and made all kind of movement but nothing changed. Her reflection wasn’t showing.

                In an instant he was right beside her, right out of the way of the mirrors but so that he could still see what was there. “That can’t be right. No, no, no that can’t be right.” He wacked it with his spare hand. “It must be broken, though I just used it awhile ago….” Getting an idea, he turned the machine around to face him and looked in it.

                A mechanical voice came out of the machine, saying “Time Lord of Gallifrey.” It was about to say more when the Doctor turned it back and faced it towards Rebecca again. “Well, at least we know it’s working… but why can’t it see you?”

                “What’s the big deal? Is this some kind of ‘welcome to Cardiff’ joke? Am I supposed to believe that this is a space ship and you’re a ‘Time Lord of Gallifrey’ or something like that?” When he didn’t answer, she stormed off, not aware of the immense work that was going on that brilliant man’s head. “Gah! I can’t believe I’m this stupid to fall for such an idiotic trick! I’m going home!”

                She started to head for the door when the Doctor looked up from his work to look at her. “Believe what you like, but this is my spaceship and I am a Time Lord of Gallifrey. This is as serious as it gets, and if you leave now I might never discover why you know so much. Basically, if you go now I won’t be able to help you.” For the second time, Rebecca heard something, some sort of passion in his words that caused her to believe in him. Without a word, she walked back to him with his machine.      She watched intently him thinking and muttering quietly, turning the machine this way and that.

                Finally she could contain it no longer and said “What does that thing do anyway? Is it some kind of encyclopaedia or something?”

                “Kind of,” The Doctor said as he tinkered with the internal mechanics of the machine. “It was given to me by my two headed aunt when she didn’t know what else to give me.” He shivered, although it wasn’t cold. “You don’t get her mad, because both of her heads start to yell at you. Not a pretty sight.”

                It took a second before Rebecca realized that he wasn’t joking, and had to hold back her laughter. “So it it’s ‘kind of’ an encyclopaedia, how does it work? And why doesn’t my reflection show?”

                “Well, to put it in simple terms, this machine takes an image, namely your reflection, and looks it up on its massive database. If there’s any chance of identifying what something is, this is your best bet. But it’s not that simple. Not only does it take your physical appearance, it is also what you would call an x-ray and takes a reading of what’s inside of you so it will also identify changelings for what they are. It isn’t an ordinary mirror, so if something doesn’t exist it doesn’t show up.

                “I thought it was broken at first, even though it was unlikely since I had used it mere days ago.” He paused here a second as if recollecting the instance when he last used it. “But when I turned it upon myself and it identified me, I was certain that there wasn’t anything wrong with the machine. Of course, I haven’t used it against humans before and that could be the source of the problem. No offence, but I don’t think that something as simple as a human could mess it up. So, basically, I have no idea why you didn’t show up. The only answer I’ve got is that you don’t exist.” Even though Rebecca couldn’t have understood most of what the Doctor told her if he had been talking at a regular speed, she heard the very last sentence and the look on her face told him that he made a mistake telling her exactly what he thought.

                It still took a few minutes before she had absorbed enough of the information so she could speak. When she did she said this: “So, what you’re saying is that I don’t exist. All twenty-four years of my life, I wasn’t meant to exist. I’m a fake.” Even though she said the words herself, she still didn’t realize the enormity of the words. As it was, she decided that it was best if she sat down.

                “No, no, that’s not what I’m saying,” The Doctor assured her without hesitation, putting down the machine to look her in the eye. “I’m saying that’s the only answer I’ve got. Believe it or not, I’m not omniscient. I don’t know everything. I’m sure that I can find the real answer, something that makes sense. There’s always a logical answer to everything.” It sounded reassuring to Rebecca, but she still didn’t believe him. Something in his words rang true.

                While the human was musing over his words, he got right back to work trying to figure out what was wrong with the machine. Even though all of his instincts told him Rebecca didn’t exist, the Time Lord didn’t think that it was possible that someone who had a substantial body could not exist. It just didn’t make sense. Intrigued by the alien machine, Rebecca reached out to touch it. But as soon as it came in contact with her skin it started to produce sparks and the screen went blank. Terrified that she had broken it, she flung her hand that was touching the metal to her mouth to cover the gasp. The Doctor was in action immediately, spinning the machine towards him again. “What did you do?” He demanded of her. He fingered the spot where she had touched it, now scared with a burn mark.

                “I didn’t do anything!” Rebecca yelled back. She glared at the machine. “It shocked me. It should be the one you ask the question. Not me.” She was tempted to hit the machine with her hand, but recalling her previous experience with touching it, she decided against it.

                Almost as soon as she was done speaking the Doctor was shaking his head. “Maybe human technology shocks people, but this is alien technology. It’s way too advanced to shock people. What exactly did you do?”

                “I touched the thing, right there,” Rebecca said in a much softer tone, pointing to the point that she touched it. “And then sparks flew. Literally. Then I pulled my hand away, and we had the argument that we’re having now. Do you want me to quote the whole thing?”

                The Doctor ignored the last statement, too occupied with the mystery that continued to unfold right in front of him to pay attention to such insignificant things. He looked in the circuitry, fingering each of the wires in the mechanics of the machine. They all looked fine, and if he didn’t know better than he would assume that it was working properly. The only thing that seemed wrong with it was the burn marks on the metallic surface.

                Rebecca was wondering much the same thing. First sharing memories with a box, than fainting in front of a stranger, and now breaking a machine with a touch! The truth in her thoughts stung her to the bone. You thought that the strange things would go away upon moving. Not get even more weird!

                “You know when something happens and you can’t really explain it?” He said suddenly, interrupting her thoughts. Even though his eyes never left the machine, she could tell that he was gauging her reactions. “Something so weird that it couldn’t possibly happen, but it did anyway?” It was almost like he was reading her mind, saying the exact same things that she thought. For moment she wondered if that was one of his alien powers. “Like when someone just disappears, and no one seems to remember them? Or when you see something in the sky, bright and big yet everyone looks like you’re mad? People acting strange, inanimate objects moving, parents punishing you for things you didn’t do? Has those things happened to you?” Now he looked up at her to gauge her reaction to his words.

                It looked like Rebecca was about to answer the Doctor’s question when her face lit up. “My Dad! He’s probably wondering where the hell I am! Blimey, the first day here and he’s already going to think I got lost. What time is it?” He sighed a deep sigh and headed for the door. He almost unlocked an important piece of information, but didn’t come close enough. He had only met this girl, this older self of the little girl he met today, fourteen years ago for her, and he was already ravelling himself in a mystery. When he reached the door he opened it with a curious Rebecca following.

                “You know, I just need to know what time it is. I can find out when I get home,” She said, thinking he was going to roam the woods until he found a clock. She wouldn’t put it past him to do that.

                “Shush. I’m doing something,” Was his reply. He sniffed at the air a few times, and said “It’s five o’clock, about.” He sniffed again, and corrected himself. “It’s five-o-six, exactly.”

                Rebecca had seen a lot of strange things that day, yet this amazed her more than most of them. “You can tell the time just by sniffing the air?” She asked incredulously. Before the alien could reply, she shook her head and said: “You know what, don’t answer that. I need to go home before my Dad sends out the police. See you tomorrow?” She didn’t know why she wanted to see this madman tomorrow, or any other day for that matter. Any other person would be running away right now, and she was asking if she could come over again the next day.

                The Doctor had different thoughts entirely. For the first time he saw Rebecca for what she really was, a twenty-four year-old girl that had just started living her life. No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, she was just a young, frightened girl, not the puzzle he saw her as. He knew that if she came back tomorrow, she would eventually get hurt because of him. So in that instant he made a decision that would affect everything. “I’ll be right here. Are you sure you won’t get lost? You said this was your first day here. I could give you a lift…” He patted the TARDIS with his hand.

                The offer tempted her but in the end she decided against it. “No. I mean no thank you. It would be too weird. See you tomorrow.” With that the Doctor moved away from the door and Rebecca walked out, looking back at the blue box more than a few times. When she was a safe distance away from the TARDIS, he went back inside. He walked about the control panel for a few minutes, making small adjustments and keeping an eye on the radar. If the fact that he didn’t see Rebecca on the radar bugged him, he didn’t let it show. Finally when he knew that she had no chance of seeing him, the Doctor set the controls, pulled a few levers, and held on tight. Within a few moments the blue box was gone.

Author's Note

Review?

Reviews

[compositionc]

That was gnarly.
IS SHE A VAMP?

[~goh~]

Yes, more amazingness :D
I can't wait to find out why Rebecca doesn't show up in the mirror thing...

[halflives]

You skipped my favorite part :( "How the hell did you do that?" "How the hell indeed..." Great chapter, still!

[obvious pseudonym]

that was really really good it's weird that she doesn't show up in the mirror im gonna read more now so bye

[DontBlink158]

Yes review. This was great again. I loved it and i want to read even more. the only thing is... When the Doctor first met her she was 10, and she said 14 years later she met him again, so shouldnt she b 24 and not 16??? That was the only thing. Cant wait to read more.