Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Olivia Smythe never expected for a day to turn out too badly for her. She always believed things could be worse. It’s not exactly what someone might call optimism, but Olivia wanted to believe it is. In a roundabout sort of way.

She sat at her part of the joined desks, right next to where the math’s teacher Mr. Connelly would sit. He’s always been kind enough, but even if he was only five years older than her, Olivia couldn’t help but feel intimidated by his presence every time he sat next to her or even tried to chat. Which did happen more often than she would expect, out of a balding angry ball of a fellow coworker.

As Olivia fingered her pearl earrings in a last-ditch effort to relax and try to lessen her focus on the massive heap of papers in front of her, she heard the staffroom’s door opening ever so slightly, almost as if someone was shocked to find anyone in there at all. And that does make sense. Somewhat. Olivia glanced to the window and saw how it was starting to get dark outside.

Before she could see who the mysterious door-opener could be, the man made his presence quite clear with his stinking stench of cologne, even from six meters away from her. She didn’t even need to look at who it was. It must be Joshua Paterson, the PE teacher.

He was what someone would call a total, unfiltered mess. Sure, he was sweet, but that was about the only kind characteristic Olivia could think of. He was single and made sure everyone knew that at every waking moment in between classes. Sometimes, Olivia was shocked that a frat boy could become a teacher at all…

Joshua opened the door more assuredly when he realised who was inside the staffroom at this hour and leaned against the doorframe, smiling at Olivia with those hooded eyes. He thought it made him look cool. Olivia thought it looked corny and like he needed a cup of coffee. “I thought you were coming home early. They’re going to close on us soon, Liv.“

Ooh how she hated that nickname. Especially when someone like him said it. He didn’t mean it to sound bad, Olivia was sure, but she couldn’t help but internally cringe. She straightened up in her chair and forced on a smile.

“I…I really can’t Josh,” Olivia said warily, not in the mood to talk to her forty-year-old man coworker who had a thing for her, “I still need to write this report. And mark these...“ Olivia pointed to those heaps of exams on her desk, that she hadn’t got around just yet. She really needed that cup of coffee.

Joshua, meanwhile, just grinned and waved his hands in the air dramatically, saying: “Surely... surely you can do that at home. Can’t you?“

That’s easy for him to say , Olivia thought. He doesn’t teach anything apart from PE. Climbing up on ropes, learning students how to play football, maybe the occasional match or two…

“WELL....you’d...,” she sighed heavily, “...you would think that. But I gotta go by bus tonight, and it’ll take like an hour till I go back home and–”

Before she could even finish her own sentence, Joshua butted in, rather quickly Olivia noticed, saying: “I can drive you home.”

Olivia wasn’t shocked by that response. She could just imagine what would happen if she said yes to that ‘noble’ offer. He would start talking in the car, gossiping about their coworkers, and the students, and everything that really didn’t interest her. Then he would try to make a move on her…and… yeah. That was definitely not her cup of tea. She just wanted to finish up these reports and go home to her cat Frizzle.

In response to Joshua’s attempt at ‘subtly’ insinuating something, Olivia just rolled her eyes and smiled at him. “You’re sweet, but...it’s a no. The work needs to be done. Now. “

Joshua raised his hands up in mock surrender, laughing at how intense she accidentally sounded just then. He said, giggling a little to himself: “Right. Right! I got it. I got it the first time. I’ll be going now. See you tomorrow, ‘ Mrs Smythe ’~” As he said this, Joshua waved at her slyly and walked back outside, jokingly closing the door as slowly as he could.

As the doors slowly closed, Olivia raised her eyebrow, unimpressed at the use of her last name. She called out to him, “God…you are like those students, sometimes! You know that? Off with you!” She said jokingly, before mumbling to the now empty staffroom, “Good night, Josh. See ya tomorrow…”

Olivia stared at her paperwork again in utter disgust. She always wanted to be a teacher, it wasn’t like her mum forced her to study biology. And chemistry. And– yes. There perhaps was some parental interference on her mother's part. But Olivia never complained. She took her studies seriously. Always. Like she should have been doing right now. You’ve got to focus, Olivia. You don’t want to stay in this school for longer than you want to , she thought.

And this was already scratching at her mental limits for tonight.

…

As the minutes stretched into dozens, Olivia started to notice just how empty and dark the staffroom really was. The only source of light was the little lamp that sat at the corner of her desk, her second cup of coffee already drunk dry.

“Come on… just the final two papers. Let’s see… Peter. That’s ‘fun’. I can’t read his handwriting at al–“ 

Olivia stopped talking to herself when she heard something heavy fall on the ground in the hall somewhere. “What… the hell?”

She stood up from her comfy seat, leaving the papers unattended, with a red line crossed over the whole answer in the first question. Weren’t the cleaners gone already? , Olivia thought.

“It must be like seven or something… Janice?” She sighed, calling out, “Janice? Margaret? Hello?”

Olivia walked further down the dark and empty hall, looking around intently and hesitantly. “…Why do I feel so weird? It’s just a corridor… Hello? HELLO? Come on… I wanna go home! I need to feed my cat! Serious business, mate!”

There was another clunk down the hall. Like a mop falling over onto the carpet tiles...or a couple of mops, mixed with the sound of school lockers opening and closing. Olivia flinched a little, no longer walking towards the sounds. “Okay… okay … not funny. Alright? Really not bloody funny, you git .” Olivia gasped, “UH! Look what you’ve done! You made me swear! I bet it’s you Josh!” Olivia’s voice grew quieter, more timid, and ever so slightly scared, “…I hope it’s just you…pranking me…”

Olivia felt like there was a pit in her throat, and she couldn’t swallow properly. Why did she feel so scared? It couldn’t be someone breaking in, right? Why rob a school? Who would rob a school?

“God… why is it so… cold?” Olivia breathed out, seeing a faint cloud of air come out of her mouth. “… what? But… it’s March…”

The sounds of something breaking continued, sounding like glass protecting the paintings upstairs breaking with a hair-raising crash. “Oh my god! What? It– It must be… thieves! I… Where’s my mobile? And the keys? Don’t panic… Olivia… don’t… panic.”

Olivia started to back away slowly towards the teacher’s staffroom, her eyes fixed on the staircase leading upstairs. “Slowly… slow but steady wins the race…”

Olivia’s ramblings were cut short when she heard the scurrying of feet hurrying downstairs. Olivia froze instantly, unsure what to do now. “…Hello? Uhm. Come out! I…guess… Oh god…that was a stupid idea, Olivia! Ugh…”

A sudden growl came from the stairs, now on her level. A short figure, shrouded in the dark of the night. It must have been up to Olivia’s waist. Like the kids she taught. Is it some kid messing about? Why?

“Uhm… Hiya. It’s me. Mrs Smythe, your biology teacher? If… you are from here that is. Uhm… you know the school is locked currently, right? So… whatcha doing here?”

For a split second, Olivia thought she saw the shadows themselves twitch, like something was peeling itself out of the dark. The mysterious figure by the stairs took a tiny step forward, its face more visible. It was hairy. Like a beast. Brown, like a bear. But its face… The creature had big bulbous yellow eyes, staring at Olivia, as if into her soul. It had great sharp teeth, unkept and animalistic. Its nose was crooked and odd too. “…W-wow… that’s some good costume…you’ve got there…” Olivia started to back away slowly, “…Uhm… It’s not Halloween yet, though. You gotta wait a little… for… that… Are those… Those… claws look… realistic too… hah…”

More footsteps from upstairs could be heard, which made Olivia shiver in fright. “O-oh… more… friends, eh? That’s… fun… You’re… not a kid. A-are ya? Oh. ”

There was a moment of silence in which Olivia contemplated whether she should run or stay put. So far, it hadn’t done anything dangerous. Just… looked dangerous. That was, until the other identical-looking creatures ran down to their ‘friend’. That was when the furry creature in the middle roared at Olivia.

She didn’t need to hear that twice! She started to run towards the teacher’s staffroom. “OH MY GOD! I’m getting chased by BLOODY gremlins or s-something!”

Olivia quickly entered the staffroom, shutting the doors with force. She frantically looked around the room, grabbing the nearest desk and trying to push it towards the doors with as much strength as she could muster. The adrenaline certainly helped in that regard.

“THERE! Oh… my god! Oh my god. Oh my god. THAT is not real… it’s not real… it’s– it’s… thieves! Dressed as monsters! Or... something… UGH! Where’s my mobile??” Olivia started to search her purse, looking for her blocky mobile that looked more like a brick than an advanced telephone. You would think they’d have gotten better since the last decade, but they really hadn’t, at least not in the price range Olivia bought that piece of junk.

“...Come on… come ON!” Her hands were shaking as she tried to dial 999. “What do I even say? I got chased by… gremlins? That’s not gonna work! WHY AREN’T YOU WORKING!?” She slapped the phone in anger and desperation.

The door shook under heavy pounding from the outside. Olivia could have sworn she heard their claws grazing against the wooden door.  

The door started to crack under the heavy pressure, then ripped off its hinges as if it were made of nothing but paper. The creatures started pouring in. There had to be like six of them! Olivia thought.

“OH NO! HELP!” Olivia was shouting at her mobile phone, even though it wasn’t working. “HELP ME!” She looked back at the creatures. “Please… please don’t hurt me. Hey… uhm…” She frantically looked around, trying to find anything to distract the ‘gremlins’ from attacking her.

Then she saw something. 

Several heavy atlas books that Mrs Hennegan used for her geography lessons caught her eye. She slowly moved towards them. “…Alright… gremlins… Uhm… CATCH!” She grabbed the heavy books all at once, pain shooting up her arms, and threw them at the creatures, then made a quick getaway from the staffroom.

She was breathing heavily now, running down the corridor, heading for the front doors, then stopped and cursed. “…I forgot the keys in there. Oh… COME ON!”

All six of the gremlins were gaining on her, and fast. Their fangs sharp, their forked tongues drooled onto the floor. Their claws scraped gouges into the walls. 

There was no escape…

Chapter Text

Just when she thought she’d die to these creatures…

A hand. A hand grabbing hers, abruptly. A human hand . Olivia quickly looked up at whoever just grabbed her. A man she didn’t recognise. It was as if whatever was happening behind them didn’t matter anymore.

The man looked a little younger than her and yet wore clothes she would never have the money for. Why were dried herbs in his beige coat lapel? What kind of fashion accessory was that? And what was with that crimson turtleneck? Who the hell was this guy?  

“Hold onto me and RUN! THIS WAY!”

Still in shock, Olivia ran with him down the corridor, glancing back to see the creatures advancing behind them. “But the gremlins–!“

“FORGET about them! Come on! This way, upstairs!” Olivia was now even more confused. She thought this guy would bring her to the front door, not upstairs! “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? Where are we going? Are you insane??”

The man just grinned at her, saying: “It’s been said by many. Uppity-up!”

Right, so a nutter then. Good to know. Olivia and the mysterious man ran upstairs and down the hall, the gremlins screeching as they chased after them. “So, you just… don’t have a plan, do you?? We’re just running down corridors and for what? Are we jumping out the window?”

“Oh, that’d be boring!” The man said grinning to himself, “No jumping out of windows! Can we keep the chat for later? We’re nearly there!”

Olivia frowned at him, getting more irritated than scared, “OH, nearly WHERE?? We’re on the second floor!”

The man stared at her, saying: “Well… yeah. Obviously. That’s where it’s parked. AHA! I think it’s in… this classroom.”

Olivia closed her eyes, trying to ignore the screeching behind them. “You still didn’t explain what. It. Is. And why don’t you know for sure??”

“Questions, questions and not the TIME for answers! Ladies first,” he smiled at her, while instinctively looking over his shoulder. Olivia sighed heavily and opened the door to classroom 4A. The students in that class would always shout over each other and never listen to what she said… Some students were easy to work with, and others were a nightmare. Not a literal nightmare, though, that was reserved for the creatures almost upon them.

As Olivia walked inside, the man quickly shut the doors and barricaded them with a student desk, saying: “Ikea, but should work for a couple seconds. Now, inside— “

Olivia stared at something that really should not have belonged to a classroom. A blue box, about ten feet tall, with lettering that said: ‘POLICE PUBLIC PHONE BOX’. She blinked at it.

That's it. I’ve officially snapped, Olivia thought. Next thing, I’ll be seeing pink elephants and Elvis.

“Inside THAT? Not a chance, mate! I'm not getting that close with a bloke I just met! Also, how the HELL did you get this thing here? It’s massive! And– and… retro. Like, very retro. That’s something my mum would have called on when she was little…"

The man said, “Listen, we need to get inside it! We’ll be safe there, I promise. ” Olivia stared at him, frowning again. Bad habit, she’d get wrinkles , Olivia thought. “Right, and why should I believe you??”

It was the man’s turn to frown at that moment, amazed at what she said. “Why? I just saved your life! WILL, save your life. Still.”

The creatures outside the barricaded door started pounding on it with all their might. “Like I said, debates and arguments can wait. NOW INSIDE!” The man was already running to the door of the police box and walking inside.

          Olivia stared at the blue box.
          Then at the door.
          Then at the blue box again.

“Oh my god… I’m going mental…” She sighed, “Oh alright. I’M COMING!”

…

Olivia ran inside carefully, so she wouldn’t bump into the stranger that supposedly ‘saved her’, but… she certainly wouldn't be bumping into him, not after seeing what was inside that blue box. Olivia felt on the verge of tears, the adrenaline still pumping through her and this was the last straw.

“…You… you’ve gotta be kidding me… this is ridiculous .”

Olivia stumbled to a halt the moment she crossed the threshold.

The inside… it wasn’t a cramped police box at all. It was vast, dimly lit, with arches of dark iron twisting overhead like the ribs of some ancient beast. The air smelled faintly of old paper, leather, and something electric.

Great pillars rose out of the misty floor, coiling up into the ceiling like twisted trees . In the centre stood a raised platform, a strange console that looked cobbled together from bronze, crystal, and clockwork , all ticking faintly like a heartbeat.

Wooden walls draped in heavy velvet curtains half-hid the deeper shadows, while lamps with soft golden light barely pushed back the gloom. The whole place felt alive . Humming, breathing, waiting.

Olivia turned around wildly, as if the door would still be there behind her. It was. But now it looked impossibly far away, swallowed by the vastness.

Meanwhile, the stranger was fiddling with the console, his fingers grazing past various buttons and levers, one hand preoccupied with typing something, the other frantically pressing things seemingly at random. “Like I said, you’re safe here. They can’t get inside. And yes, it is bigg–”

Olivia interrupted him with a panicked tone, “Is it a mirror trick? Like… uhm… like those on the telly? Wait… you wanna kidnap me!”

The man stopped working at the console, turning towards her. “Kidnap you? I’m saving you!”

Olivia rolls her eyes at that. “Right. And why shouldn’t I think it was YOU who would put those gremlins there in the first place? I mean, you grabbed me and dragged me here! I don’t even know your name!”, she rambled, getting increasingly more irritated.

The man facepalmed slightly, sighing. “Those aren’t gremlins. They certainly don’t have big enough ears for that. And no, I wouldn’t want to cause you any problems.”

Great. Now I’m locked in a giant magic box with a lunatic in a turtleneck. Brilliant, Olivia. Just brilliant.

Olivia groaned in anger, before closing her eyes and breathing in and out slowly . It’s alright, Olivia. You’ve been through worse. Well, no. The nearest thing she’d been through was that horrible voluntary military exercise with her students last summer. Her skirt had gotten covered in mud, and she wasn’t even participating.

“Alright…phew…alright. Three questions, and you’d better answer them! Where are we? WHAT are those things outside if they aren’t ‘gremlins’ and WHO the… bloody hell are you?”

The man gasped, saying in disapproval: “Tsk, tsk, tsk, no need for swearing! And those three questions are great! Where, what and who. Very valid questions!” He started to work at the console again, “And you’ll get the answers in a minute. After we dematerialise of course.”

Olivia raised her eyebrow, “Dematerialise? As in vanish? HA! Right. You’re bonkers , you are!”

The box’s interior started to rattle, with Olivia screaming a little before holding onto some railing. “WHAT is happening??” The man instantly ran back to the console, saying quickly: “They’re climbing on the TARDIS! We need to get out of here quick!”

“You said we’re safe inside!” Olivia shouted at him. The man pressed a lever which caused the whole interior boom with a loud screeching, whirring noise, before it slowly subsided.

“PHEW! There. Just in time. Heh… Are you alright?”

Olivia straightened up, dusting her cardigan, annoyed, out of breath. “If you call my heart in my neck and my stomach in my bum alright, then yeah ! I’m just fine and dandy!”

The man clapped to himself in delight, before leaning against the console, relaxing. He smiled at Olivia and said: “It’ll take some time before they catch up, so we can chat, meanwhile! Three questions, you said?”

Olivia stared at him in shock, her mouth agape. “CATCH UP? You mean those things aren’t done??”

The man closed his eyes, still smiling, before looking at Olivia again. “Ah. Well…yes. But we’ll get to that! Three questions. What is this place, you ask? It’s a ship. Of sorts. It’s called the TARDIS. Which stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. Neat, huh? Bigger on the inside, of course! That’s a little thing called ‘Transdimensional engineering‘, which–”

Olivia already started running toward the front doors, screaming: “GET ME OUT OF HERE! You…sir…are INSANE! I need to go back home! To feed my cat! He must be starving by now… I’m not gonna stay here, listening to gobbledegook!”

The man grinned and pointed at the doors. “By all means. Open the door. Go on.”

That wasn’t what she thought would happen. She could just walk out? But wouldn’t that mean she’d get back to the classroom swarmed with those ‘gremlins’? “…uhm…alright. Watch me!”

Olivia grabbed the door handle.

For a second, it felt like the door was pushing back against her. “OH, come on!“, she yelled.  She steeled herself and yanked it open.

The doors opened with a fast swoop, and Olivia stormed forward, intending to walk out, but stopped immediately when she saw what was outside.

A shiver ran down her spine. It felt like her soul had just tried to leave her body.

That’s space.

As in, ACTUAL space. Olivia stared in awe, looking at the endless, velvet-black space, stitched with swirling nebulas and a thousand shimmering stars. Colours she didn’t even have names for bled across the void. Purple and gold, silver and deep emerald-green.

Olivia staggered back a step, her hands flying instinctively to her mouth. This isn’t real. This can’t be real.

She gasped, realizing another thing.

“Oh my god! The air! Why can I breathe? Shouldn’t I have been… sucked out into…there?”

The mysterious man walked up to her and smiled, looking outside: "Popped out of the Time Vortex for a breather," the Doctor said with a grin. "Thought you might enjoy the view. And, no, it’s alright. The TARDIS is protected by an oxygen bubble. Care to get back and chat a little? I only answered one of your questions, after all.”

Olivia didn’t move. She couldn’t.

She was staring at something so big, so impossible, that her mind couldn’t even properly wrap around it.

Olivia still stared at the incredible view in front of her, feeling extremely overwhelmed. “…R-right… Uhm… that’s… Oh god…I was in a school and… now… I… What’s a Time Vortex? Why am I here?”

As she watched the man walk towards an armchair and sit down, she sighed and walked closer to him. The armchair was overlooking a large library shelf, reaching for meters upon meters in the air. Just how big was this ‘TARDIS’?

“The Time Vortex is where the TARDIS travels through. Like a wormhole.”

“Right. So… this is a ‘TARDIS’ which is a ship… a spaceship?”

The man smiled at her, nodding his head a tiny bit. “Got it in one! Gold star.”

She rolled her eyes, trying to relax, “Okay. Spaceship. And… you own it, I guess. Uhm… so… who are you, exactly?”

The man suddenly stood up from his armchair, almost with an intentional dramatic flair, and said proudly, “I… am the Doctor .”

“That’s it? Just the Doctor?” Olivia’s face was less than impressed. What kind of name is the Doctor? That’s not a name. That’s a job title. Absolutely ridiculous. She mockingly did a dramatic pose, similar to his and said, “I… am ‘the Teacher’. There. You’re not getting a name out of me, sunshine! Unless you’ll tell the truth.”

The Doctor laughed, relaxing his dramatic pose. “The Doctor and the Teacher! Now that’s fun! It’s just ‘the Doctor,’ thank you. You’d be surprised how many people don’t question it...”

Olivia scoffed. “Then those people are idiots.”

The Doctor tilted his head thoughtfully, tapping his chin. “Perhaps, perhaps... But what about you? Is it so bad to want the name of someone I just saved from doom?”

Olivia smirked; one eyebrow raised. “I could have saved myself.” She paused, muttering, “…In time. Probably. Josh certainly couldn’t. He’s incompetent.”

The Doctor’s curiosity lit up. “Josh? Your coworker? Another teacher? What do you teach?”

Olivia crossed her arms. “Oh, so now you’re interrogating me? Brilliant. I'm already stuck in a blue box floating in space, might as well. I teach biology. Primary school. The one you broke into, apparently.”

She sighed. “And... My name's Olivia. Olivia Smythe .”

The Doctor’s face lit up immediately, a grin stretching across his face.

“Olivia Smythe! That’s a lovely name. Rolls right off the tongue! Olivia Smythe... Olivia... Olivia... Liv! Liv !” He chuckled brightly. “I had a friend called Liv once. Ooh, that was a while ago. I should really visit her and Tania someday ... Can I call you Liv, Olivia?”

Olivia’s face dropped instantly. She pointed at him. “Don’t you dare .”

The Doctor raised both hands in surrender, saying: “Duly noted.”

Olivia smiled despite herself, starting to warm up to the strange man. "Listen, Doc…"

The Doctor immediately pulled a face, looking genuinely offended. "Doc?? Seriously?"

Olivia burst out laughing. "What? It suits you!" She waved a hand dismissively. "Look, I get that you want to stop those gremlins or whatever they are. I just want to go home. I need to feed my cat. And I’m serious. It’s not funny. He’s probably climbing the walls by now."

The Doctor frowned thoughtfully, murmuring, "You did mention feeding your cat before... Must be some very important cat. What’s its–"

"HIS," Olivia interrupted sharply.

The Doctor cleared his throat, recovering. "… his name, then?"

"Frizzle. And yes, he’s very important , thank you very much.", Olivia said.

The Doctor chuckled softly as he wandered back to the console, hands expertly flicking switches and tapping at controls while he spoke. "Don't worry, Olivia. We’ll get you home just in time for tea. Or, in your case, just in time to feed Frizzle. Today’s the 12th of March 1992, isn’t it? When Pakistan beat Britain in the Cricket World Cup?"

He paused, tapping his chin. "Or was that later? Hmm. Oops. Spoilers for the next couple weeks!"

Olivia’s eyes snapped wide open. "WHAT. What did you just say??"

The Doctor flinched, looking guilty. "That Pakistan won? Sorry! I really didn’t mean to spoil that!"

"Not THAT, you idiot!" Olivia said, half shouting. "You’re saying... This is a time machine ?!"

"Well of course it is. What else would it be?" the Doctor said brightly, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"It’s the ‘ TA -RDIS’. 'T' standing for Time, like I said. If this ship wasn’t a time machine, I’d just be flying around in the 'RDIS'." He paused, grimacing. "Which... now that I say it out loud, sounds like a slur. Huh. Am I talking too much?"

Olivia just stared at him, her mind spinning.

"...Yeah," she said slowly. "You really do. I hope you don’t do that often."

"Good thing I’m getting you home, then, Olivia Smythe!" the Doctor beamed. "I’ll just finish setting the coordinates... and you’ll be home in a jiffy! I’ll handle the Shards myself."

Olivia lifted her hand, waving it in front of his face to get his attention. "Hold up. The 'Shards'? Are those the gremlin things that attacked us?"

The Doctor glanced up from the console, and for the first time, his expression turned serious. "The very same."

Olivia leaned against the console, studying him properly now, her heart still racing. She exhaled heavily, feeling like she was about to step off a cliff. "What... were they?" she asked hesitantly. "Why attack a school? Why me? And how could they even get there? And-" She gestured around the console room. "We’re in space . How can they still be after us? Don’t tell me they’re some kind of aliens!"

She laughed, but it came out strained, almost desperate. "...Right?"

The Doctor sighed, and for a moment, he just looked at her, really looked, with a deep worry behind his eyes.

"The Shards are... dangerous," he said quietly. "They might not look it, but they’re entities that live between the fractures of time itself. Not the Vortex itself, though. Thank goodness for that. BUT, they can travel across time the way you and I walk across a room. And they have a taste for anything that moves. They feed off time energy, your future, your past, all of it. Suck you dry."

He let the words hang there for a beat, letting her feel the mavity of it all.

"They’re animalistic. Unpredictable. And now that they’ve found their way here... I have to stop them before they hunt again." The Doctor took a step closer, his voice low but steady. "Olivia Smythe... do you trust me ?"

Olivia stared at him, unsure how to feel. Every instinct screamed at her to run . This was insane. A time machine, monsters, a stranger with a funny smile and even weirder fashion sense... She folded her arms tight across her chest. “Do I trust you?” She raised her eyebrow, while the Doctor smiled at her again, trying to break the tension.

Olivia huffed out a breath, half a laugh, half surrender. "Honestly? I trust you about as far as I can throw you! But…” She pushed herself off the console, standing a little straighter. "...I don't really have a better option, do I? Just promise me this. You’ll definitely get me back home. You said yourself you’ll deal with these Shards… so I just need a lift. No heroics. No nonsense."

The Doctor turns his attention back to the console, flashing her a quick grin. “That I can most definitely do. Hold tight–!"

But something stopped him. His hand froze just inches from a large lever. His smile faltered, replaced by a deep frown. "...Oh. Wait."

He started patting down his beige coat, searching frantically through the pockets. The Doctor took out a strange-looking pen device, topped with what looked like a steampunk contraption, glowing a faint, eerie blue.

Olivia stared at it warily. “…What’s that gizmo? What are you doing? You said you’d take me home! I gotta teach genetics to my Year 6 class tomorrow! I hate explaining genetics…”

The Doctor shushed her with his finger over his lips. “Shh, shh, shh! This is a sonic screwdriver. Do you give me permission to scan you?”

Olivia frowned hard. “…Do… what now?”

“You know, scan you . Really important. Because if the Shards decided to focus on not just me but… you… too…then…”

She crossed her arms tighter, her foot tapping in growing irritation, hating the suspense. “THEN??”

The Doctor gave a sheepish, forced smile and flicked on the screwdriver, the device whirling with a high-pitched buzz as he passed it quickly over her. “No need to get all pessimistic! Perhaps they didn’t…” His voice trailed off. His smile dropped. “...Oh. Dear .”

Olivia glared at him, looking ready to smack him upside the head. “ WHAT. ”

The Doctor slowly tucked the sonic screwdriver back into his coat, stepping back a little. His face was serious now. “…Once the Shards hook onto your time stream, Olivia... they don't let go.”

He hesitated, like it physically hurt to say the next part. “They’re after you now too. I can’t get you home. I’m sorry.”

Chapter Text

Olivia didn’t know whether to be angry, shocked or just plain depressed at the news she’d just heard, from a man she didn’t even know. She backed away, closing her eyes, breathing in and out as best as she could.

Calm down, Olivia. Don’t panic.

Don’t tell me not to panic, me!

She stared at the Doctor, her expression getting angrier. “OH, right. Yeah, ta! You’re sorry , are ya?? Oh, I’m sure an apology is going to save me from being MAULED to death by some STUPID gremlins!”

Her voice shifted to a sharp, sarcastic tone, “Oh sorry, The Shards , how silly of me to forget~”

The Doctor raised his arms in the air in surrender, trying to calm her down. “Now… Olivia, I know you’re scared and stressed out–“

She cut him off, shouting, “ STRESSED OUT, he says! I’ll show ya stressed out, you–“

Suddenly, the TARDIS blared an alarm. The ambient golden glow of the TARDIS interior blinked out, replaced by pulsing crimson light that bathed every wall and console in urgent, flickering red.

A shrill beeping joined the chaos, coming from somewhere near where the Doctor stood.

The room seemed to lurch slightly beneath Olivia’s feet, not physically, but as if the ship itself had tensed in alarm. Panels on the console began to strobe. The lights above crackled faintly, and a strange vibration hummed underfoot, rising like static electricity on the skin.

“CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON???” Olivia screamed, completely overtaken by panic and anger.

The Doctor darted to the console, pressing buttons frantically as he checked the monitor. “They’re here! The Shards have caught up! We need to leave this part of the universe now! ”

As he spoke, the Doctor’s eyes flicked sideways toward the beeping sound, his face tightening. He moved quietly toward it, almost hoping Olivia wouldn’t notice. 

Under his breath, tapping his foot in frustration, he muttered, “ Not now… Narvin…”

Clearing his throat, the Doctor pushed a multitude of buttons, frantically pulling the lever at seemingly random intervals. The TARDIS blared in red, lights flashing in urgent bursts as the shrill beeping threatened to drill through Olivia’s skull.

It was chaos. Absolute, screaming chaos.

And Olivia wanted nothing to do with it.

Seething, Olivia watched the so-called ‘Doctor’ whirl around like a headless chicken. She breathed in and out again to try and calm down. Just think of it as a very annoying and loud class, Olivia. You don’t scream at them. (Most days.) You can handle this.

“Doctor? Before this idiotic ship nosedives into the moon or something, care to tell me where we’re actually going ? Because… that IS what you are doing, isn’t it? Running away from the Shards? So… where? Where are we running TO?”

The Doctor looked up sharply, his face an odd tangle of excitement, worry, and something that might’ve been glee. “… I don’t know yet. Anywhere! We can’t let them get a hold of you, or me for that matter… Let’s try… somewhere where they’ve been already!”

Olivia blinked, part horrified, part amused. “WHY? How does that make sense? Won’t that just mean they’ll be waiting for us? Or… are they like locusts? Moving on once the area is no longer useful for them?”

At that comment, the Doctor turned to Olivia and grinned, saying: “My, my… that’s very good. That’s exactly what I was thinking! I like the analogy. ANOTHER GOLD STAR, Liv!”

Olivia frowned at that. “No ‘Liv’, in the future, thanks. And don’t patronise me. Wait… does that mean you can locate where they were before? How?”

“ How ?”, the Doctor repeats, “The same way I found the ones at your school, of course! MASSIVE paradox readings! The Shards are basically walking paradox engines, after all. Sucking away the potential lives that were supposed to be… and all.”

Olivia scoffed at the last part. “ ’And all? ‘ Great explanation.”

The Doctor smiled, eyes closing briefly as if savouring a thought, before continuing, “What I mean is, we can trace similar paradox readings to find somewhere the Shards have already been. Easy!”

Olivia raised a sceptical brow. “And that helps us how , exactly? Aside from finding a halfway decent hiding place, that is.”

The Doctor didn’t look up from the console as he spun a dial and slapped a blinking button, which ended the monotonous alarms. “That’s better…Aside from hiding, we can study them. Learn. Isn’t that what biology’s about, Liv?- Sorry, Olivia .” He shot her a cheeky smirk. “Observe the creature, find the weaknesses, right?”

She sighed, folding her arms tightly again. “…I thought you already knew enough about those monsters. But… I suppose it makes sense. Still risky, though.” 

Then, under her breath, with just a trace of dry amusement, “Oh god, you know that already… You’re a proper adrenaline junkie, you are!”

The Doctor grinned like she’d given him a compliment. “That would be a disservice to the Drennies in the mountains of Phobos. Went there with Lucie once–”

He cut himself off mid-sentence, frowning thoughtfully. “There I go again… Rambling about old companions. This is becoming a worrying trait of this incarnation… Oh dear. ”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “Do you ever stop talking?”

The Doctor cleared his throat, looking sheepish. “Right! Focusing. I talk when I’m nervous, which admittedly, happens quite a lot…” 

He clapped his hands, spinning back to the console with renewed enthusiasm and yanking the materialisation lever. “NOW, we should be arriving somewhere the Shards won’t detect us for a while. Safe! Well… safer. We’ll be free to explore!”

Right on cue, the TARDIS let out a groaning, whirling moan that ended in a deep THUD. Olivia flinched slightly.

She looked toward the Doctor, arms still half-crossed. “And… where exactly have we landed? Please don’t say ‘ space ’ again.” 

The Doctor was already peering at the monitor, his face lit with curiosity. Olivia squinted at the strange symbols and rows of unreadable numbers flashing on the screen. “The coordinates say,” he began slowly, “that we’ve landed on an Earth colony, sometime in the 38th century. Wait… 3721 exactly. Still relatively fresh territory for humans. Colonisation is messy at this point, you haven’t quite figured out how to live on other planets beyond the solar system yet. So… scientific outpost in deep space. Probably cold. Possibly boring. Hopefully not both.”

He turned toward her with a cheeky grin. “Fancy a ‘looksie’ ?”

Olivia sighed, the corner of her mouth twitching. “You say that like I’ve got any real choice.” She moved to stand beside him, looking at the monitor again. “But yeah. I mean… I just time travelled. And you’re acting like it’s Tuesday!” She let out a breath. “I guess it is just another Tuesday for you, isn’t it? How long have you even been doing this? How old are you?”

He looked thoughtful for a second, then gave her a lopsided smile. “Old enough to have had a few midlife crises… and young enough to still think running from monsters counts as cardio.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s not an answer.”

“Exactly!” He winked. “You’re catching on.”

Olivia rolled her eyes at his attempt to make her laugh, then frowned as a thought struck her. “Wait a second. How do we even know it’s safe out there? You said we landed somewhere the Shards already attacked. What if there’s no air? I mean… this is a space colony. What if there’s been a breach in the… spaceship… shell… thing– whatever . You know what I mean!”

The Doctor beamed, nodding reassuringly. “I absolutely do. And no worries, perfectly safe. The readings show the atmosphere’s stable. Artificial, but holding.” He paused.

“…Mostly.”

Olivia blinked. She could’ve sworn her eye twitched. “ Mostly ??”

The Doctor glanced back at the monitor, his expression dimming. “Well… no life signs. At least, not according to these scans. Looks like the colony’s been abandoned for a while. The air’s stable, true, but who knows how long it’ll stay that way.”

Olivia crossed her arms tighter. “You really know how to reassure a girl, you know that?”

“It’s a talent.”

“Do we at least wear suits? Please tell me you have suits. You do have suits, right? Like actual spacesuits? God, I sound like I’m prepping for a NASA mission… I’m going mental . ”

While Olivia rattled off the logistics of going outside, the Doctor had already made his way to the TARDIS doors. “Come on, then! Like I said, the air’s fine. And we do need to find out as much as we can, can’t let the Shards continue their little killing spree. You coming, Olivia Smythe?”

Olivia stared at him for a moment before trailing after, unimpressed by his enthusiasm. “Coming… But if we suffocate–”

“We won’t!” the Doctor said brightly. “No need to worry so much. Look!”

He threw open the TARDIS doors with a creak , and a wall of musty air greeted them like a warning.

…

The corridor beyond was vast. The ceiling arched high into shadow, beyond the reach of the dim, flickering lights overhead. The fixtures buzzed erratically, a few sputtering in protest before dying with a soft pop . Others had already failed, leaving jagged sections of the hallway swallowed in darkness.

Panels hung loose from the walls, others completely free. Sharp claw marks scored the metal surfaces in wide, vicious arcs. The floor was covered with scattered papers, shattered equipment, and debris. The leftovers of something frantic and sudden.

Olivia’s breath caught. “When you said the place was abandoned, you didn’t say in a hurry…”

The Doctor stepped out next, his eyes scanning the damage with grim focus. “Looks like they tried to fight back. And badly. Stay close. Let’s look around, see if we can find anyone."

Olivia frowned, her voice lowering to a whisper. “ You said there weren’t any life signs! ”

The Doctor turned his head slightly, eyes unreadable. He spoke in a hushed tone. “And who said I meant we’d find anyone alive ?”

At that comment, Olivia’s eyes widened. This felt like a terrible idea. What the hell was this man even thinking? “…You mean you want to find dead scientists? That’s… Who the hell do you think you are? A time detective?”

“More like a traveller,” the Doctor replied. “…Who defeats monsters.”

“A vigilante then. Space Batman .” Olivia muttered, her voice still in a whisper.

“Uh… if you’d like. I prefer the term busybody tourist . But vigilante works too, if you want to be dramatic about it.” The Doctor glanced back at her. “Let’s explore the corridor. Unless you’d rather wait in the TARDIS while I do the dirty work.”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “Was that supposed to intimidate me? Because it’s not working. You dragged me into this mess. I might as well join it. Go on then, Space Batman.”

They walked down the dark, filthy corridor, Olivia resisting the urge to keep glancing over her shoulder. Every shadow seemed a little too deep, every creak a little too loud. She prayed nothing would lunge out from the black.

The further they got toward the living quarters, or what remained of them, the worse the air became: thick, musty, like mildew and copper. Doors were in various states of destruction, some torn open, others still sealed tight. The same claw marks lined the walls like twisted graffiti.

Olivia hesitated at one open door before stepping inside. The room had once been orderly, perhaps even sterile, like a lab. But now, ruined furniture lay scattered about, and the walls bore a strange contrast. Faint scribbles and doodles, a child's drawing here and there.

“Looks like someone here had a kid-” she began, then stopped cold. 

“Oh god!”

Olivia couldn’t believe she didn’t notice that when she first walked in. By the overturned bed pod was a body, a man , face-down on the floor. His back was mangled beyond recognition, torn to ribbons by something inhuman. His posture was limp, twisted, wrong .

She stumbled forward, then dropped to her knees beside him. The Doctor stepped into the doorway just in time to see her crouch. “Olivia! Don’t touch him. We don’t know what–”

“LET me check if he’s alive!” she snapped. “Even a little, just… no… no pulse. He’s cold. God, he’s cold…” Her voice faltered. “Oh god… this poor man… Did the Shards do this?!”

Olivia had never seen a dead person like this before.

Well… that wasn’t true. She’d seen dead people: open-casket funerals, clean and calm, makeup covering the stillness. Her dad, for instance, when she was a teen. At the wake. Peaceful. Dignified.

This wasn’t that. This was violence. Fear, frozen into posture.

She felt something crack inside her. Something wet behind her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Olivia,” the Doctor said gently. “I know. I know it’s a lot. But please… step away from him. Just in case.”

She ignored him. Not touching the body but observing. Her breath caught again. “His back… is torn… His upper vertebrae…” she whispered, “They’re bulging. Fractured. As if he had late-stage arthritis or severe osteoporosis. But…” She leaned closer, frowning. “…Why would that happen post-mortem?”

The Doctor’s brow furrowed as he joined her side, more serious now. “Good observation. That’s not ordinary decay. That’s… compression. Strain. As if something forced his body to age in seconds.”

Olivia looked at him. “Age? You mean like… accelerated?”

The Doctor gave a solemn nod, then leaned in closer. “I’m sorry, whoever you were.”

With a gentle but firm motion, he turned the man’s body just enough to reveal his face.

Olivia recoiled instantly, a strangled scream tearing from her throat. She stumbled backward, hand over her mouth.

She’d seen horrific things before, like infections that devoured flesh, parasitic worms burrowing through tissue, lab slides filled with deformity and decay. But this… this wasn’t a lesson. This was something unnatural .

The man’s face looked as though it had been stolen from a corpse, centuries older than the body it belonged to. His skin was dry, leathery, stretched taut over sharp bones, split with deep, jagged fissures like cracked porcelain. His lips had shrunk back to expose yellowing teeth in a frozen grimace, his jaw locked wide in the echo of a scream.

The eyes were the worst. Hollow, glassy, sunken so far into their sockets that they barely looked human anymore. 

Tufts of pure white hair clung to the scalp in patches, brittle and thin like ancient paper.

“His cells must have collapsed,” Olivia whispered, voice hoarse, “collapsed under… pressure. Like the body was forced to decay all at once… organs, muscles, even his skin…”

The Doctor didn’t look away. “This is what the Shards can do. You can’t rush a life through its natural end without consequences. The Shards didn’t just kill him, they fed …”

There was a pause, then the Doctor continued. “… They unmade his timeline.”

Chapter Text

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver, the soft blue glow washing over the broken body. The hum echoed in the silence. He examined the readings for only a moment before tucking the device back into his coat. “Just as I thought. This man only died about two weeks ago. There must be others… I wonder how many…” As he said this, he rose to his feet.

Olivia’s eyes snapped to him, her voice low and sharp. “…Don’t… do that. Don’t just treat him like another casualty. Another mystery.” 

She gestured around the room, jaw tight. “Look around! He… he had a kid , Doctor. Look at those drawings! He worked God knows how far from home, and still made space for his child’s scribbles…”

The Doctor frowned, a flicker of guilt in his expression. But his voice stayed firm. “And if we don’t stop them, imagine how many more will die exactly like him !”

Olivia shut her eyes, standing up and backing away, as if fighting with her emotions, trying to keep her voice from cracking as she stood. “And I am just asking you to… to bring him home! To his family! Don’t… move on like this doesn’t matter. Or are you just some… ‘detective’ that just solves the mystery out and leaves the mess for others to clean up? Do you?? Because… that’s cold. And…frankly…”

She looked at the Doctor again, truly looked at him, as if for the first time, and something in her expression shifted. “… Alien .”

“…You just look human,” she said quietly, “But you’re as alien as the Shards… aren’t you ?”

The Doctor didn’t answer. He didn’t argue. He just stood there, still. Listening. The silence that followed made Olivia’s skin crawl. She backed up further. “God… maybe I was wrong about you…”

Slowly, he stepped forward, hand half-raised in peace. His voice was gentle now, stripped of arrogance. “I want to help. You know that… But Olivia… we don’t know how many people worked here. A dozen? A few hundred ? If I tried to carry each of them home, I’d never be able to stop what’s happening. I’m not ignoring this. I’m choosing to finish it first.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Once we stop the Shards, I’ll contact whoever funded this colony. They’ll send recovery teams. The victims will be returned. I’ll take you home too.” He met her eyes, quietly, solemnly. 

“I promise .”

Olivia rubbed the ridge of her brow, her shoulders sagging under the weight of it all. “… I don’t know if I can do this ,” she muttered. “I’m not a nurse. I’m not someone who can just… walk this off. It’s too real. Too much. But… you’re right… We can’t let others die like he did. We don’t even know his name…”

The Doctor reached out and gently took her hand, waiting until she let him. He gave it a reassuring squeeze. “…We can do this, Olivia Smythe. We have to .”

He glanced around the room again. “We should check the rest of the colony. If others died the same way, we might spot a pattern, a clue.”

“As in… if we know how they fight, we’ll find a weakness?” Olivia asked.

The Doctor smiled faintly. “Exactly. Everyone has a weakness . Even creatures that feed on time itself.”

Just then–

CLANG.

A sudden, jarring thud echoed from deeper in the corridor, heavy and metallic, like steel slamming against steel.

Olivia jumped but tried not to show it. “…What now ?” she muttered, voice tight. “You said there were no life signs here.”

The Doctor tilted his head, already moving toward the door, curiosity gleaming in his eyes. “I said the TARDIS detected no life signs.”

“So what? A ghost?” Olivia said with a sarcastic tone.

“Could be a survivor,” the Doctor offered, already halfway out the door.

Olivia crossed her arms, following. “Or the Shards!”

“Impossible!” the Doctor called back. “The Shards don’t return to areas they’ve already ravaged. Like you said, locusts. Once the field’s empty, they move on.”

Another beat. Then–

CLANG .

Louder this time. Closer.

Olivia swallowed hard. “…Unless something’s changed.”

“ Or… ” the Doctor added, perking up, “…it’s the survivor. Or a scavenger team. No need for pessimism. Come on!” He bolted from the ruined living quarters, truly, a man on a mission. 

Olivia hurried after him. “I really don’t see how this is a good idea, Doctor! We’re practically sprinting into danger!”

“Or we’ll save a life! Think of it that way, Liv!- I mean Olivia…” He skidded to a slower pace, rubbing the back of his neck as if trying to remember the layout. “…This way. I think.”

The corridors grew darker and quieter as they pressed on. The air seemed a little less stale, though it still carried the faint scent of metal and dust. The Doctor sniffed. “…This way… leads somewhere bigger. Canteen, maybe. Or landing bay.”

Olivia raised an eyebrow, sceptically asking, “You knew that from a sniff?”

The Doctor flashed a grin. “Never underestimate a good schnoz!” He wiggled his nose for emphasis, his energy strangely light, too light maybe, given the circumstances. Olivia didn’t find it funny, not really. But she told herself it was his coping mechanism, same as her sarcasm.

“Schnoz, huh? Scientific term, is it?”

He shrugged. “You tell me… teacher .”

…

They turned a final corner… and found it.

The canteen.

Or what was left of it.

Tables overturned. Chairs flung aside. Personal belongings scattered across the floor: mugs, boots, a small handheld console…

And bodies. Dozens of them.

Scientists, engineers, station staff, all lying in unnatural positions, as if thrown by some invisible force and then forgotten by time. Limbs bent the wrong way. Skin was tight and grey. A few had expressions frozen in horror. All were lifeless.

The Doctor slowed to a stop. “Told you. Big area...” He exhaled. Then, grimly: “Ah… Olivia? You know how I said it was a good idea to check for a pattern in the victims?”

Olivia’s hand flew to her mouth as she scanned the room. “…Don’t tell me.” She stepped closer, already regretting it. “You want us to… to examine them…”

The Doctor nodded, his smile gone. He used the sonic screwdriver to lock the front doors of the canteen, before turning to Olivia. “You take the canteen part, I’ll check the kitchens… There might still be a survivor. Yell if you find anything! Or… anyone.” He vaulted over the serve counter with a fluidity that belied his smart-looking outfit which he wore.

Olivia groaned softly. Alright, Olivia. No, it’s not alright. But act like it is.
They’ll all go home eventually. Families. Funerals. Closure. You just have to examine them. That’s all.

She forced her feet to move toward one of the tables. A scientist lay slumped beside an upturned meal tray, arms limp at his sides. His body was that of a man in his prime, but his face… His face was hollowed and withered, ancient in ways that defied nature. The skin had sunken into sharp ridges, eyes wide in terror, lips drawn into a final, silent scream. Olivia’s stomach twisted.

Each body told the same grotesque story. Some with shattered vertebrae, like the first man. Others intact but locked in violent expressions of pain and age. Her voice shook, but she called out, “Doctor? They’ve all been… aged to death. Like the first one. Some have spinal fractures, some don’t. Doctor?”

A head popped up over the counter. “…Same here. The cook won’t be preparing any more meals, by the looks of it.”

Olivia scowled. “Not funny. It’s… horrible …all of it…” She sighed, “Come here, then. I didn’t find anyone alive…”

She trailed off.

THUD.

The sound echoed through the canteen. Low, metallic, and far too real.

THUD.

Heavy. Deliberate. Outside of the front doors to the canteen.

Like something trying to force its way in.

Both Olivia and the Doctor turned toward the main entrance at the same time, staring at the sealed double doors. A flicker of movement crossed the frosted glass, too fast to track, too vague to identify.

Olivia’s voice was barely a whisper. “…You sure the Shards can’t come back?”

The Doctor pulled out his sonic, aiming it at the doors. “They shouldn’t. ”

A beat.

“…Which makes me very curious about who, or what, just knocked…”

“That didn’t sound like knocking to me, Doctor! More like someone breaking in!”

THUD.

Olivia backed away instinctively, eyes scanning for somewhere to hide, anywhere, though part of her wasn’t even sure she wanted to hide. The canteen doors groaned under the strain. Something was slamming against them with brutal force, like a battering ram.

THUD.

Again.

THUD.

Each impact rang out like a war drum in the silence, shaking dust from the ceiling panels. The whole room felt like it was holding its breath. The Doctor’s stance was tense, his eyes locked on the doors.

“Do… we run?” Olivia asked, her voice tight.

The Doctor didn’t look at her. “…There aren’t any other exits to the canteen, Olivia. I checked.”

THUD!

THUD!

TH–

The doors burst open with a violent CRASH , slamming against the walls with a screech of torn metal. Sparks burst from a fractured overhead light.

Now with the doors open, anyone, or anything, could easily step inside …

Chapter Text

Through the blasted canteen doors stormed eight figures, troopers , clad in sleek navy-blue and black latex-like suits, their helmets lit from within. Faces were visible through reinforced visors: stern, focused, professional. Their boots thudded against the metal floor in practiced formation.

The Doctor beamed. “Ah! See, Olivia! I knew it! Oh, how I love being right.” He waved enthusiastically. “Scavenger team! Recon mission, I’d bet. Hello there, you lot! I’m the–”

In a blink, all eight troopers raised their weapons, sharp, gleaming blasters with humming cores, aimed directly at the Doctor and Olivia.

His smile died. “…Ah. I see.”

A woman stepped forward, clearly in command. She looked older, composed, her stance disciplined. Her blaster remained fixed on the Doctor. “And… who in Minerva are you ?”

The Doctor slowly raised his hands, keeping his voice calm. “Hello. You must be the captain. Excellent posture. Now, as I was saying before I was rather rudely interrupted, I’m the Doctor and this is–”

“Olivia,” she cut in, stepping forward herself. Her voice was steady, but her expression was drawn. “I’m Olivia. And he’s not going to talk in my place.”

The woman’s eyes flicked between them, her expression a careful balance of curiosity and command. “I didn’t ask for your names . I asked who you are .” 

One of the troopers, a hard-jawed man in his thirties, even more severe than the captain, stepped forward, weapon still trained on them. “They clearly killed the crew. Just look at the bodies. Let me finish this, ma’am. One shot each. Clean execution .”

“Stand down, Ibrahim,” the woman said sharply. “Back in formation. Now .” He hesitated, just for a moment, before snapping back into place, the air thick with distrust.

The Doctor kept his hands raised, glancing around the ruined canteen, then back at the line of weapons. “Of course. Happy to cooperate, Captain…?”

She said nothing.

“Right. Too personal. Fair enough.” He cleared his throat. “We landed maybe fifteen minutes before you. Twenty, tops. Through that corridor there.” He nodded subtly toward the direction of the TARDIS. 

Olivia, still pale but steady, stepped forward. “You seriously think we killed everyone here? Look at them! Look at their faces ! You think we aged them decades in seconds and clawed their backs open for fun?” She gestured sharply to the nearby corpses, fury bubbling past her fear. “And honestly, I don’t even know this guy! I met him today. If I were going on a murder spree, he’s not the partner I’d pick!”

The same man who had been silenced by the captain moments earlier snapped at Olivia, stepping forward with a stiff posture, his grip on the weapon tightening. “YOU WILL BE QUIET! The captain is interrogating this… ‘Doctor’. Not you!”

Olivia flinched, her shoulders tensing as she instinctively raised her hands halfway in a passive gesture. “Right… keep your hair on, mate…” she muttered, trying to mask her fear with sarcasm.

Ibrahim’s jaw clenched. His eye twitched behind the visor, and he raised the barrel of his weapon directly at her chest. “I am NOT your ‘mate’.”

Olivia’s breathing quickened. She stood frozen for a moment, then spoke through gritted teeth. “Well… I got that.” She didn’t dare move.

Next to her, the Doctor remained motionless, hands still raised, but his eyes flicked over to Olivia with a warning look. He whispered out of the corner of his mouth, voice light but urgent: “Perhaps now’s not the time to antagonise the trigger-happy trooper, Liv?”

Olivia turned her head slowly, giving him a glare that said, don’t call me that right now. The nickname clearly grated on her nerves.

The captain cleared her throat and stepped forward, lowering her own weapon but signalling with a slight motion for the others to remain alert. She kept her gaze locked on the Doctor. “Would you believe I’m not satisfied with that answer?” Her voice was steady but edged with suspicion. “You say you arrived only twenty minutes ago. Why should we take your word for it? We’re not here to start a fight, we just want the truth. That’s all. IF you haven’t done this, as you claim… who did?”

The Doctor lowered his hands slowly, carefully, and gave a tight-lipped, almost weary smile. “Well… I’ll just say it. The Shards .”

Ibrahim took a sharp step forward again, his boots slamming against the metal floor. He looked to the captain, his voice sharp and loaded.
“Permission to execute now, ma’am?”

The captain rolled her eyes, the tension between her brows softening slightly as she let out a slow breath. “Shut up.” 

Her eyes then returned to the Doctor, cold and unreadable. “What exactly are these ‘Shards’, Doctor? Because no alien lifeform should have had access to this colony. As far as we’re concerned, this facility was one hundred percent secure . And yet, here we are. Two strangers, dozens of corpses.” She gestured broadly to the room without turning. “You’re offering us a ghost story. Tell me, what makes more sense to you?”

The Doctor sighed deeply, his shoulders drooping ever so slightly. He looked at the captain with a kind of weariness that spoke of someone who’d had this exact argument too many times before. “…Well, captain. I know we look more than suspicious given the circumstances, but… one of your troopers can, surely , easily examine the corpses.” He gestured toward the lifeless bodies scattered across the canteen, his voice calm but insistent.

Olivia caught his drift and gave him a small, knowing smile. She stepped forward, standing shoulder to shoulder with him, even though her knees still felt like jelly. “Yeah. And they’d see that those people didn’t just age rapidly, they died about two weeks ago .” She looked around the room as she spoke, her voice growing steadier. “Now, I know we’re the ones getting interrogated here, but think about it: why would we hang around a dead colony for that long?”

She took a breath, raising an eyebrow at Ibrahim for just a second, then looked back to the captain. “Couldn’t we have just escaped in the… the…”

“Landing bay,” the Doctor interjected softly, glancing at her.

Olivia nodded, picking up the thread again. “Right. The landing bay. Why wouldn’t we just leave and never come back? What would be the point of staying here?” She folded her arms now, more confident. “To gloat? Who exactly would we be gloating to ?”

There was a long, charged silence as the captain mulled over their words.

Her eyes flicked from Olivia to the Doctor and then swept across the room. The room was so still, the gears turning in her visor could be heard. Finally, she turned to one of the troopers, a woman standing rigidly near the door, and gave a quiet, clipped command. “…Examine the crew, Nel.”

Nel gave a tight nod and stepped forward, the heavy sound of her boots echoing in the canteen as she moved toward the bodies.

The captain faced the Doctor and Olivia once more, her voice even but firm. “As for you… you’re still under suspicion. But lay down your weapons, everyone. We’ll continue this properly. In a calmer way.”

There was a shuffling of boots as the troopers slowly lowered their blasters, though a few kept their fingers close to the triggers. The shift in tension was subtle, but Olivia could feel it.

A loosening of pressure.

A breath being allowed.

She glanced toward Ibrahim just in time to catch the twitch in his jaw, his hands clenched just a little too tightly on his weapon before he obeyed. If looks could kill…

Olivia let out a long, shaky sigh she hadn’t realised she was holding. “Oh my god… Thank you. I’m… sure it’ll all be clear. Eventually.” Her voice was soft but carried a mixture of hope and raw exhaustion.

The Doctor, ever enigmatic, muttered just loud enough for her to hear, “ Hopefully not by an encounter …” He then ran a hand through his hair, scanning the room again with cautious eyes.

Nel had crouched by the nearest body now, her gloved hands carefully inspecting the damage, her face partially obscured by her helmet’s glow. There was no sound except the low hum of the ship’s systems and the soft rustle of movement.

The captain looked between the Doctor and Olivia. She pointed at her nearest trooper, her voice clipped. “Valiam. Search them. Carefully. I want to know if they’re carrying any lethal weapons. Then we can talk.”

The named trooper nodded and approached the Doctor first.

The Doctor gave a short laugh, stepping slightly to the side. “Sorry, Valiam, but before you go rummaging through my lovely coat, might I suggest starting with Olivia? My pockets… well, they’re a bit of a long-term storage solution.”

Olivia shot him a sharp look. “You what , mate? I just saved your backside with that monologue, and this is the thanks I get?”

The Doctor smiled, utterly unapologetic. “Which I appreciated deeply. If you're ready, Valiam?”

…

Several minutes later, a nearby canteen table had become a chaotic display of items fished out from the Doctor’s many pockets. Among the growing pile was a yo-yo, a monocle, mismatched spectacles, a well-loved teddy bear, a battered spoon, a black notebook titled ‘3000-Year-Old Diary’ , a penlight, a dusty recorder tied with a blue ribbon, a handful of interplanetary business cards as well as coins from various time periods, and somehow, a single cap from a black marker.

Valiam, no longer wearing his helmet, just like the rest of the troopers, was looking more exhausted than suspicious at this point. He pulled out one final item: a small white paper bag. He held it up, squinting. “And… what is this?”

The Doctor sighed theatrically, then brightened. “Why not open it and find out?”

Valiam did. It was candy. 

“…What are…?”

“ Jelly babies! Excellent for stress. Totally forgot I still had them in there. Hopefully they haven’t gone bad...”

Olivia stared at the table, blinking slowly at the mountain of nonsense. “You’re like a charity shop that fell into a black hole and spat you out.”

The Doctor gave her a wink. “And yet, I travel light.”

Valiam sighed in exhaustion and stood up, addressing the captain. “Apart from a device he called a ‘sonic screwdriver’, there’s nothing threatening. The woman didn’t have anything on her except a set of keys.”

“ Car keys! You’d better not have messed with them! Paid a fortune for that Ford!” Olivia snapped, deliberately avoiding looking toward the corpses.

Not because she was squeamish - she’d sat through enough graphic biology lectures to numb her to disturbing sights, but because it felt wrong. Like she’d be intruding on someone’s final silence. Disrespecting their peace.

The Doctor brushed off his coat, gently adjusting a small bouquet of dried herbs and flowers in his lapel. Then, with a more composed tone, he addressed the captain. “Surely this proves our innocence? We have no weapons. The sonic screwdriver is a tool, barely works on wood, let alone people. Like I said earlier… it was the Shards.”

The captain exhaled heavily and sat at the table cluttered with the Doctor’s peculiar belongings, some of which he was now casually returning to his coat. “Humour me, then, Doctor. What are these ‘Shards’ you keep blaming?”

The Doctor’s expression hardened. “…The Shards are death sentences, Captain. Yours. Mine. Olivia’s. They’re interdimensional predators. They slip between realities and feed on time itself. That’s what happened to the crew. It didn’t just kill them. It unwound them. Their lives devoured until there was nothing left but withered husks. I’m telling you the truth. I’m trying to help.”

From behind, Ibrahim scoffed loudly. “Captain Shima, you can’t seriously believe this nonsense ! This imbecile’s just spinning tales to cover his tracks. I don’t know how they did it, but they’re responsible. There’s no other explanation!”

Captain Shima held up a hand, weary but firm. “Calm down, Ibrahim. We need to think rationally.”

“ Rationally?! ” he barked, stepping forward. “These two are anything but rational! If I were in charge, their bodies would be lying right here , with the rest of the crew!”

Shima stood, voice cold and cutting. “Then it’s a damn good thing you’re not in charge. Stand. Down. Now. ”

Ibrahim visibly flinched. His jaw tightened. “You’re making a big mistake, Captain. I won’t call you incompetent, yet, but mark my words… those two will pay for what they’ve done!” 

With that, he turned sharply and stormed out of the canteen, the heavy thud of his boots echoing off the walls as he disappeared through the smashed-open doors.

Captain Shima sprang to her feet, her face flushed with fury. “TROOPER! IBRAHIM! That is a direct order! GET BACK HERE!”

The Doctor rose calmly, brushing off his coat. “No need. I’ll go after him.”

Olivia stared at him in disbelief, then stood up too, placing a hand on her hip. “You can’t be serious! He just threatened to kill us! You think he’s going to suddenly play nice?”

The Doctor gave her a reassuring glance, though his eyes betrayed tension. “Once he realises how dangerous this really is, he’ll have no choice but to listen. Whether he likes it… or not.”

He paused at the door. “ Don’t follow me, Olivia .”

Chapter Text

As the Doctor disappeared through the busted doors, Olivia let out a sharp scoff, but her folded arms and bouncing leg betrayed genuine worry. “‘ Don’t follow me, Olivia .’ Who does he think he is?!” she muttered, then threw her hands in the air.  “But sure, go right ahead! My only ride off this idiotic wreck is chasing after a soldier who might shoot him dead ! It’s FINE! Just brilliant! ” She plopped down into one of the chairs with a frustrated huff.

Captain Shima remained standing; her arms now crossed as she watched the door the Doctor had gone through. “He’s stressed. I’ve never seen Ibrahim act that rashly before… I’m going after him too.” She turned to Olivia. “And no, don’t argue with me, Mrs. Olivia. This is still my mission. My rules. Stay here.”

And with that, she followed the Doctor out of the canteen.

Olivia groaned loudly and slumped in her seat, throwing her head back. “Fine and dandy, my butt… Ugh!” She rubbed her temples, muttering, “ Should’ve gone for that professor job, instead of being a stupid elementary teacher… At least then I wouldn’t get called ‘Mrs.’ like I’m someone’s ancient aunt… ”

***

The Doctor sprinted down the corridor, his coat flaring behind him, boots echoing on the metal floor. Up ahead, Trooper Ibrahim stalked forward, gripping his blaster tightly as he scanned the dark, desolate hallways of the colony. “Ibrahim!” the Doctor called out, breathless. “Trooper Ibrahim, please ! You need to listen before it’s too late! The Shards are unpredictable! We can’t afford to lose anyone else! We have to work together! Don’t you see that?!”

Ibrahim came to an abrupt halt, shoulders stiff. He turned on his heel, eyes blazing behind his visor. “You’re a joke. An embarrassment, ” he spat. “How DARE you talk to me about teamwork! I’ve served in more wars than you could name. I’ve fought monsters you couldn’t even comprehend. ”

He raised his weapon slightly, finger hovering dangerously close to the trigger.

“So don’t tell me to ‘work together,’ murderer. I should execute you right here, orders or not.”

The Doctor stopped in his tracks, throwing up his hands but keeping his expression exasperated rather than afraid. “Oh, for– honestly, Ibrahim!” he groaned. “Why are you so obsessed with me being the killer? Ever heard of ‘ innocent until proven guilty’ ? Or is that not part of your military training?”

Ibrahim’s grip on the gun tightened. His voice dropped to a harsh growl. “Innocent until proven guilty? Don’t throw your moral slogans at me, Doctor. I’ve seen too many good people butchered while we waited for proof. I’ve buried friends who trusted the wrong stranger.” He took a step closer, the barrel of his weapon now pointed just to the side of the Doctor’s chest, a warning, not yet a shot.  “You show up at a slaughterhouse, with no ID, no orders, no explanation beyond some fairy tale about ‘interdimensional monsters’, and you’re smug about it. What do you expect me to think?” 

His voice cracked slightly, just for a moment, beneath the fury. “I’ve been the one who hesitated. I’ve lived with what that cost. So don’t you dare lecture me.”

The Doctor didn’t flinch. He met Ibrahim’s glare with quiet intensity, his voice low but firm. “I’ve fought in a war too, Ibrahim. A war so devastating… and yet it was wiped from the memory of the universe. Officially… it never happened. But I remember . Every… second of it.” 

He took a breath. No dramatics. Just the weight of truth. “All my people died. Every. Single. One. All of them… gone. Man, woman, child. I watched a civilisation burn. I lost . And now that they’re back, I’m meant to pretend it’s a blessing.” He looked away for a moment. “It’s not. It’s a waking hell. So no, I don’t care if you don’t believe me. We are similar, you and I. Same scars. Same ghosts.” The Doctor slowly looked down to the barrel pointed at his chest. “But the difference between us is…”

He looked at Ibrahim dead in the eyes. “ I would never kill again .”

***

Olivia sat near where Nel was working, watching the trooper sift through data on the canteen table. Nel’s expression was calm but intensely focused, her hands methodical as she tapped at her scanner and cross-checked notes. Olivia cleared her throat, trying not to sound as awkward as she felt. “Uhm… hiya. Nel, right? How’s it going? Found anything… useful?”

Nel didn’t look up, but her voice came out cool and even. “I’ve run full diagnostics. Checked the readouts. Scanned the bodies. Did a proper post-mortem analysis on two. And… you’re right. They’ve been dead for two weeks.” She paused, frowning. “But I don’t get it. They… aged to death. Fast. It’s like they collapsed in on themselves. I’ve seen bioweapons, radiation decay, even accelerated cell collapse… but this? This is something else. It’s impossible.”

Olivia let out a breath and looked away from the bodies. “Yeah… it feels like my whole day’s been impossible.” She fiddled with a loose thread on her sleeve. “I checked the bodies too. Me and the Doctor. Some of them had late-stage osteoporosis. Brittle bones. Muscle loss. It’s not just aging, it’s like they lived through the final decades of life in minutes. That’s… not just strange. It’s horrifying.”

Nel finally looked at her. “You’re taking this rather well, considering.”

Olivia laughed, more out of nerves than humour. “Oh god, really? Am I that good an actor? I feel like I’m going to faint or throw up, maybe both, but everything’s happening so fast I don’t even have time to freak out.” She looked down at the floor, then back at Nel with a small, tired smile. “I’m exhausted. But… I still want to help. Is that weird?”

Nel opened up just a bit, intrigued by Olivia’s attitude. “You’re a teacher, right? You talk like someone who’s used to dealing with chaos in controlled doses.” She glanced at her. “What do you teach? Because right now, you’re sounding more like a field medic than a schoolteacher.”

Olivia looked at her, somewhat in shock. “Am I? I dunno… I just… I teach biology. I love it. Always have. It’s been a passion of mine.” She hesitated, her smile faltering. “And yet… I don’t feel happy being a teacher. I mean, I’ve been doing it for years, but sometimes I just feel… empty.” She glanced away. “I don’t wanna be mean and say I hate the kids. I don’t. Sometimes…” She gave a small smile, “But not really.”

Olivia let out a slow sigh. “This is all so much right now… and yet, I feel like I can do it. I don’t even know why I’m saying this to you… I don’t even know you like that…”

“We all end up in places we didn’t plan for.” Nel began, folding up her medical scanner. “I wanted to be an astroengineer, not a medtech, or soldier. Now I examine corpses in abandoned colonies.”

A small shrug . “Life’s funny like that.”

***

The Doctor waited for a response, hoping to get through the angry trooper. He didn’t move a muscle, while the ray’s barrel was pointing into his chest.

Ibrahim narrowed his eyes. “You think your sad little story excuses what happened here? I saw those bodies. You call yourself ‘the Doctor’, like you heal people… All I see are corpses behind you.” His finger hovered over the trigger. “I’m not buying it. Not a word of it.”

The Doctor sighed a tiny bit. “Then don’t believe me. Death follows me, that is the truth. Whether I’m the one who caused those deaths is another matter altogether. I was called the Oncoming Storm … And if you truly don’t think my life is not worth living, then that storm… will come. One day. Perhaps sooner than later.”

A pause.

“Do you truly want other people to die? Because if you pull that trigger, that WILL happen. One hundred percent certain of it.”

Another pause.

“Your choice.”

Ibrahim didn’t move the weapon. “You’re gambling with lives, Doctor. If you’re wrong, IF you are lying…” He leaned in. “You’ll wish you had died here.”

But he didn’t shoot. Something in his eyes -  fear, doubt, or maybe just exhaustion - was holding him back.

There were quick, heavy footsteps pounding toward them. It was Captain Shima. Her voice was steady, she wasn’t even out of breath. She spoke sternly, but with care, as soon as she saw Ibrahim still holding the gun. 

“Troope– Ibrahim. You need to stop. The Doctor might actually help us. I don’t know why, but I trust him. I’ve spent years dealing with liars and monsters… with truly horrible people. And still, I choose to trust him. Don’t do this.”

Ibrahim stared at her in disbelief. “Captain? You… can’t be serious. After all these years under your command, this is what you say to me? It’s betrayal! Complete betrayal! Don’t tell me you actually believe those stories he spewed!”

Shima sighed. “I don’t know why I believe him either. Maybe… I just want to believe in a miracle. Maybe I want to believe someone out there is still good.”

Ibrahim scoffed. “Then maybe, Captain, you’re getting too old for this job.”

Shima’s face flashed with betrayal and anger, but she shut her eyes, resisting the urge to lash out. “…And you’re reckless, Ibrahim. Too young, and that’s the truth.” She opened her eyes again, voice low but firm. “I had to fight for everything I am now. I joined the force when I was fourteen! I fought! Every day. Every night. I’ve killed, more than I care to count, in the name of Earth. In the name of humanity, wherever we choose to plant our flags.” Her gaze sharpened. “But what do you fight for? The thrill of it? The rush? Because that’s how it looks… trooper .”

THUD.

There was a sudden, echoing bang from somewhere deep within the ship’s structure. The Doctor’s eyes widened. He gasped. “No… No. That’s impossible…”

Ibrahim shoved the Doctor toward Shima, quickly swinging his weapon in the direction of the noise. “What was that?”

The Doctor grimaced. “Take a guess. UGH! I’ve been so STUPID!” He smacked his forehead. “Stupid! Stupid old… Doctor!”

Turning to Shima, his expression shifted to one of deep regret. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think. Too many people…” He spoke quickly now, urgency rising in his voice. “The Shards never revisit a place they've already ravaged, but it doesn't matter if new people come swarming in! Me, Olivia… and your troops, Captain!”

Then, suddenly, he froze. His breath caught.
“ Olivia.”

***

Olivia whipped her head toward the sound echoing through the canteen.
“Did you hear that, Nel? Or was it just me?”

The trooper glanced up from her work, puzzled. “Hear what? Could’ve been the ship. Probably nothing serious.”

But Olivia’s instincts said otherwise. She stood up abruptly and shouted to the six troopers scattered across the room. “Did ANYONE else hear that? That... that–”

THUD.

THUD.

“…THAT!” Olivia pointed at the canteen walls.

Instantly, the troopers sprang into action, blasters raised and humming to life. Valiam stepped between Olivia and the wall, his stance firm. “I’d step back if I were you, Mrs. Olivia.”

She frowned at him for more reasons than one, but now wasn’t the time for a lecture on gendered titles and getting angry at men. Not when something was slamming the canteen walls from the inside.

THUD.

THUD.

THUD!

THUD!

“You don’t understand!” she yelled. “From what I’ve seen, the Shards are kinda strong! I don’t think shooting will do anything!”

CRASH!

The metal wall buckled and tore open with a deafening screech. 

Through the jagged opening, ten grotesque, brown-furred creatures slithered and scrambled into view - each with jagged, dripping teeth and glowing yellow eyes, grinning with cruel anticipation .

Chapter Text

Olivia stared at the creatures in utter shock. “Okay… they weren’t that strong last time I met them… I chucked a bloody book at them!”

The troopers immediately opened fire, and Olivia instinctively cupped her ears, squeezing her eyes shut. Bright orange laser blasts lit up the room, each one roaring toward the advancing Shards.

What followed was chaos.

The creatures scattered in every direction, dozens of them tearing across the canteen like wild animals. One leapt directly onto a trooper, completely unfazed by the barrage of fire. Either the lasers didn’t affect them… or they were simply too fast for the recon crew to land a hit.

Shouted commands filled the room, orders barked about forming up and holding ground. But it didn’t matter. Their formation crumbled in seconds.

Screams echoed through the room.

A male trooper, Olivia didn’t even know his name, let out a strangled cry as a Shard’s claws plunged into his back. Deep. He staggered, blood pouring down his uniform, but no one could get to him. The others were too busy fighting for their lives.

Then… the Shard twisted around and faced its victim. Its jagged mouth slowly opened, revealing rows upon rows of needle-like teeth.

What Olivia saw next would haunt her forever. A harsh beam of light radiated from the Shard’s gaping maw and the trooper began to scream. His skin tightened. His cheeks hollowed. His body convulsed as his face withered in fast motion, bones pushing through skin like paper, hair bleaching, eyes rolling back.

His jaw snapped with a sickening crack, forced open far too wide under the pressure. Within seconds, his head and spine looked five centuries old, mummified by time, while the rest of his body remained that of a healthy thirty-year-old. When the creature was finished, it flung him across the room like a ragdoll. He hit the wall hard . His limbs shattered on impact.

Olivia screamed in fear, stumbling backward. She didn’t know what to do. More screams echoed from across the canteen and she couldn’t bring herself to look.

Then… the Doctor, Ibrahim, and Captain Shima rushed in through the blasted doors. The Doctor’s face went pale at the sight before him .

“Oh Minerva...” Shima breathed. “It’s all real…”

“No… NO! Olivia! Get over here!” the Doctor shouted, his voice trembling. “Ibrahim, don’t engage! Please, just–!”

“I said shut up! ” Ibrahim snarled, his face contorted in rage. “Those monsters just killed my friend! I won’t let them forget this! COME HERE, YOU BASTARDS! YOU MURDERED TARAK!” With a furious roar, Ibrahim charged at the creatures, unloading his weapon with reckless fury.

Olivia bolted toward the Doctor, her eyes wide, brimming with tears. “WHERE WERE YOU?!” she screamed. “They’re killing them! I saw it! They aged in front of me!”

The Doctor’s expression hardened. His voice dropped to a quiet, commanding tone. “To the TARDIS. Now .”

“What?!” Olivia blinked. “We have to SAVE them! LOOK at them!” She shoved him in desperation, hitting his arms with trembling fists.

He suddenly grabbed her wrists, his grip tight. “They were DEAD the second they fired a shot,” he growled. “Ugh! You pathetic humans ! Always so quick to blast first and think later! This could have been prevented!”

***

Valiam stood frozen in place, his blaster raised. He had shoved Olivia behind him minutes ago, more instinct than order, but now the line between instinct and panic blurred. He watched Ibrahim charge, yelling Tarak’s name like a war cry.

Valiam gritted his teeth. “Idiot…” he whispered. Not out of anger, but helplessness. He knew Ibrahim wouldn't last thirty seconds in that mess. Every soldier here was trained for death by bullet, claw, or blade… not time itself .

***

Nel crouched behind a steel panel torn from the wall, her scanner forgotten by her side. She hadn't even fired. She couldn't . What was the point?

She had watched one of the Shards drain Corporal Drey like a sponge. One second, he was pulling her behind cover, the next he was skin and bones . She could hear his screaming and the Shards’ screeching, echoing, overlapping.

Was this what war was like?

No. This wasn’t war. This was annihilation .

***

Valiam, still shielding Olivia even as she argued with the Doctor, turned to the others. “Form a fallback line! Cover the civvies! I SAID FALL BACK!” No one listened. Maybe they didn’t hear. Maybe they were already dead.

His voice broke. He tried again, quieter this time, just for himself. “…We need to think. Not die like fools!”

***

Nel ducked her head again. Her breath was shallow. Then she heard it - the Doctor’s voice. “To the TARDIS. Now.” 

She didn’t know what a TARDIS was. But she knew what that tone meant. 

A plan . A way out.

She grabbed her scanner and whispered to herself, “Okay, Nel. This is happening. Get up. You’re a scientist. Not a corpse.” She stood.

Ibrahim charged toward a pair of Shards attacking the youngest trooper - Kinna. She was screaming, frozen in place as one of the Shards dug its claws into her back, pinning her like prey for what was about to come. “GET AWAY FROM HER! KINNA! KINN!”

He fired repeatedly at the creatures, especially at the one beginning to open its glowing maw. One of the orange laser bolts hit its mark, blasting straight through the creature’s mouth and out the back of its skull. The Shard collapsed with a thud, its yellow eyes fading.

Kinna sobbed from the floor, shaking from the pain but alive. Ibrahim grinned like a madman and turned to the Doctor, full of adrenaline, proud and defiant. “SEE?! Nothing can survive a good shot!”

The Doctor, mid-argument with Olivia, spun around at the sound of Ibrahim’s voice. He saw the creature on the floor and the look on Ibrahim’s face. “You absolute idiot! ” the Doctor shouted. “Those things feed on time , Ibrahim! They’re interdimensional! You think shooting one solves anything?! They don’t stay dead!”

As he spoke, the downed Shard twitched and then rose again. Its body glitched unnaturally, flickering between its dead, crumpled state and a fully restored form.

It let out a snarling growl, its jaw still glowing with hungry light.

“W-what… what is it doing?” Olivia whispered, clutching the Doctor’s arm tightly. 

He stared at the flickering Shard, his expression grim. “…Paradox, Liv. The Shards can travel through their own twisted timelines, and now the universe doesn’t know whether that one is dead or alive…” He looked at her with desperation in his eyes. “Please. Olivia. There’s nothing we can do. We must run!”

The flickering Shard lunged at Ibrahim.

Laser blasts phased through its shifting form, passing clean through one second, then hitting its dead shell the next. Time no longer applied. The creature reached him, slamming into his chest with a sickening force. Its claws tore into his flesh as it opened its glowing maw.

.

.

.

Last time Ibrahim cried was in his teens, when his older sister died in his arms. He was seventeen then, still training in a military camp. There’d been a mine hidden in the grass…

Now, as the light from the Shard's mouth engulfed him… He saw her face again.

He reached for it, eyes wide, tears falling. He aged in seconds. Skin shrivelling, hair whitening, bones cracking beneath the weight of years that were never lived…

The flickering Shard loomed above Ibrahim’s shrivelled corpse. Its body convulsed for a moment, torn between timelines. Dead in one second, alive and victorious in the next, before it let out a bone-rattling screech . The sound echoed through the metal walls like nails dragged across the universe itself.

Kinna, still bleeding and gasping for breath, cried out as another Shard moved toward her. The creature dragged its claws slowly along the ground, savouring the fear in her eyes.

Olivia couldn’t take it anymore.

She backed away, her breaths shallow and fast. Her eyes darted from body to body: Tarak, Kinna, Ibrahim, the other unnamed troopers. It was too much. Her knees buckled slightly.

You’re just a teacher, Olivia… not a soldier… You teach kids how to label cell diagrams, not how to survive time-eating monsters…

Her hands trembled. Her stomach lurched.

So much death… So much suffering… I want to go home.

The Doctor turned sharply, his coat flaring, to face Captain Shima and her two surviving troopers: Nel and Valiam. Their faces were pale, armour scraped, weapons trembling in hand. “I know a way out,” the Doctor said, voice cutting through the chaos. “And I will get you home. I promise. But we must run NOW. ”

For a second, no one moved. Then Shima gave a curt nod. “Fall back!” she barked, her voice regaining its authority despite the carnage. “Move! Go with the Doctor!”

Valiam grabbed Kinna and threw her over his shoulder, teeth clenched as she groaned in pain.

Nel pulled Olivia by the arm, guiding her away from the wreckage that was once a canteen. “Don’t look back,” she said, almost pleading. “Just keep going.”

Behind them, the Shards let out another unnatural screech, and the shadows seemed to grow longer.

As the Doctor, Olivia, Nel, and Captain Shima sprinted out of the canteen, Valiam lagged behind, Kinna’s broken body heavy in his arms, her blood soaking through his uniform. Every step was a struggle. Every breath felt like dragging fire into his lungs. He quickly realised there wasn’t enough time to run from the creatures.

The shrieking of the Shards grew louder behind him. Claws scraped metal. Jaws snapped at the air. Time itself felt like it was warping in their presence.

He turned.

The soldier's eyes locked with the jagged yellow gaze of the nearest Shard. Fear twisted in his gut, but he didn’t run. He was scared, yes, but more than that… he was a protector.

A soldier.

He gently set Kinna down behind a half-collapsed bulkhead. She whimpered in pain, curling slightly, barely conscious. Valiam knelt beside her, brushing blood-matted hair from her face. He gave her the softest smile he could muster, his voice shaking. “…I’m sorry, Kinna. We’ll be in a better place soon enough…” Then he stood, squaring his shoulders.

He drew his blaster again, fully knowing it was useless, and screamed back to the retreating figures ahead: “GO! I’LL KEEP THEM BUSY! JUST RUN!”

And then he turned to face death.

***

Olivia didn’t listen to the screams behind them. She ran, heart pounding, lungs burning, alongside Shima and Nel. The Doctor was already ahead, his coat flapping behind him as he tore through the corridors like he couldn’t get away fast enough from the massacre.

She didn’t know what was going through his head. Maybe she didn’t want to.

Her legs screamed with pain. Her chest ached. She felt like she might collapse, but she kept moving. Just make it to the magic box, she told herself. The magic box will save us.

“It’s just down this way!” the Doctor called over his shoulder. “Its looks may be deceiving, but I know for a FACT it’s our best chance of survival!” 

Shima shouted back, breathless but focused. “This isn’t the way to the landing bay! Where in Iovis are you taking us, Doctor?!” The Shards' screeches echoed through the corridor like glass breaking across space and time.

“Think of it as a teleport pod, ma’am! ” the Doctor yelled, voice tight with urgency.

Olivia suddenly noticed that Nel wasn’t beside her anymore. She skidded to a stop and turned, just in time to see the young trooper hunched over, hands on her knees, gasping for breath. Her shoulders shook. “Nel?” Olivia’s voice cracked with fear. “We need to go! The Shards—”

“I can’t!” Nel shouted, her voice rising to a panicked pitch. She collapsed to her knees, tears streaming down her face. “I’m just a MEDTECH! I’m not a soldier! I wasn’t even supposed to be here! They sent me because no one else volunteered! I- I can’t do this… I can’t fire a gun, I can’t outrun monsters! I should’ve stayed in the lab on Earth!” Her cries echoed in the narrow corridor: raw and desperate.

Olivia didn’t move closer, afraid even a step might break the fragile will keeping Nel together, but she smiled, warm and shaky, trying to anchor them both. “And I’m just a teacher from Earth, Nel. I’ve never fired a gun in my life. I can’t run a marathon, and honestly? I’m not even qualified enough to be a nurse. I know the textbooks, sure, but in practice?” She gave a dry, nervous laugh. “It’s terrifying.” She leaned forward slightly, voice gentler now. “We’re almost there. We can do this. You believe me… don’t you?”

THUD.

THUD.

The metal beneath their feet trembled. The screeches were closer now, closer than they should’ve been. It was like time itself was convulsing , rejecting what was coming.

Olivia flinched but shouted: “Come on! Get up! We have to move!”

Nel’s breath was ragged. But she forced her legs to move, stumbling upright, every muscle fighting against her terror. 

Then came the skittering, and the shadows behind them twisted. Three Shards rounded the corner, jaws wide, yellow eyes glowing with hunger, as they charged straight for Nel.

***

A hand grabbed Olivia’s - tight, urgent. She looked up. It was the Doctor.

Before she could react, he yanked her away from the scene, forcing her to run. Away from Nel. “No!” she screamed, thrashing against him. “NO! Nel! NEL! LET ME GO!” She kicked and fought, but the Doctor didn’t stop. His grip was iron.

Behind them, Nel’s screams rose - raw, primal, human . A sound no one should ever have to hear… or remember.

By the time the TARDIS doors slammed shut behind her, Olivia was sobbing, shaking with fury and heartbreak, as the sound of death got drowned in the sound of the ship dematerialising.

Chapter Text

Shima looked around the TARDIS console room in stunned silence, her eyes wide, her voice barely above a whisper. “…What… is this? How… how can this… be?”

But Olivia wasn’t looking at the room. She was staring at the Doctor, her voice shaking with rage. “YOU LET HER DIE! We could… we could have saved her!”

The Doctor didn’t face her at first. His shoulders were still. Heavy. Then his voice echoed through the console room, quiet but cutting. “ Needless . Needless deaths. All of them…” 

He suddenly lashed out - kicking the console . He winced, but kept going, now turning to Shima with fury blazing in his eyes. “All thanks to YOUR troops shooting first!” he shouted, pointing at her. “We could’ve saved them all! All of them! But no…” His voice cracked with bitterness. “Nooo, that’s not how the human race works, does it? You see something you don’t understand, and what do you do? You shoot first! ” 

He scoffed, harsh, disbelieving, and his face twisted into a deep scowl. “PATHETIC APES! That’s what you lot are. I don’t know why I’m so infatuated by you! You never change. Doesn’t matter which century, which planet, which damn solar system ! Humanity will always be the same idiotic , trigger-happy race it’s always been!”

Shima faced the Doctor, fury simmering in her exhausted eyes. Even for a seasoned military captain, she looked utterly worn down. “Those things would’ve attacked us anyway!” she snapped. Her voice faltered as her grief slipped through. “Even if my crew… my…” She took a breath, steadied herself. “Even if they didn’t fire first.”

The Doctor let out a bitter, mocking laugh, turning away to stare at the glowing time rotor as it pulsed up and down. “…But that’s just it! They wouldn’t have.”

Olivia stepped forward, frowning. “What do you mean?”

The Doctor turned back to face them. He was still angry, his jaw clenched, his eyes cold, but at least he wasn’t shouting anymore. “The Shards were after mine and Olivia’s time signatures from the start. If your lot hadn’t attacked, they wouldn’t have cared about the rest of you. Not yet.” He paused, shaking his head. “All we had to do, all ten of us, was run. Into the TARDIS. That’s it. We could’ve made it.”

“No. No, you don’t get to say that,” Olivia spat. “You knew. You knew the signs, the rules, what these Shards were. You’re the one with the time machine, the knowledge, the plan . So where was it, Doctor? Where was your plan before they started dying?” Her hands shook. “You don’t get to act like we failed you. You failed us .”

The Doctor sighed, leaning against his hexagonal console panel. “You’re right. I’m not here to act like it’s not my fault. It is. I didn’t know the Shards could come back to a place they once ravaged. I thought… I thought we were safe. And I was so… so wrong. I know an apology won’t work…” He looked at the captain. “Shima? What were all their names?”

She looked defeated. She was involved with the military and the war since she was a child, but this… this took it out of her. “…Corporal Drey. Medtech Nel. Troopers Ibrahim, Valiam, Kinna, Tarak and… Sky. All seven.”

The Doctor moved around the console slowly, reverently, like the TARDIS itself had quieted out of respect. “Then they’ll be remembered,” he said. “In my ship, in my memory. They mattered.” He turned back to the console, typing and flicking switches, the tension in his shoulders still visible. “Is your base of operations located on Earth or a remote space colony?”

Shima blinked at the question, still reeling from everything that had happened. “Why does that matter?”

“Please?” he asked again, gently this time. A faint smile touched his face, but his eyes were hollow.

She hesitated, then let out a slow breath. “EO-14 Ajax.”

Olivia looked at her, puzzled. “What’s… what’s that, then?”

Shima’s head snapped toward her, an edge in her voice. “Didn’t you say you live on Earth? How do you not know that?”

Olivia looked taken aback. Shima seemed to register her own tone and sighed, rubbing a hand down her face.

“I lived on Earth too. Oceania Confederation. When I was very little.” Her voice was quieter now, wearier. “But after the wars started… EO-14 became home. The military was... it was the only option left for some of us. I was barely a teenager when I joined the program. Got trained. Got sent out.” She glanced away, voice tightening. “So yeah. The base is in orbit. That’s my ‘home’.”

The Doctor typed numbers into the monitor above the console, muttering to himself. “EO-14 Ajax. Let’s say… I don’t know the date exactly, but… approximately the 4th Ittelium, year stays 3721. There. That should be it…”

Shima rose from her seat slowly, her eyes narrowing. “You’re not taking me home, Doctor. Not yet.”

He looked over, confused. “What?”

“You think I’ll let the deaths of my crew mean nothing?” Her voice was firm, unwavering. “No chance. I’m staying. I will fight . Against the Shards. You want to stop them for good?” She stepped closer. “Then I’m coming with you.”

The Doctor stared at her, stunned for a moment. Then his expression hardened. “Absolutely not. I don’t want anyone else to die a needless—”

“You don’t get to make that call,” she snapped, cutting him off. “And even if you did, who said my death would be needless?” She took a breath, voice rough but steady. “If it comes to that, I’ll make it count. I’ll fight. For Drey, Nel, Valiam, Tarak… for all of them. For the scientists too. Everyone the Shards took from us.” She stared him down. “ That’s final. ”

A moment of silence.

The Doctor sighed. “Very… well. Welcome aboard, I suppose.”

Olivia crossed her arms. She was still grieving for the people she’d seen die but realized that wouldn’t help right now. “Well, that’s all well and good, but how do you think the three of us are going to take down an interdimensional gang of gremlins?”

The Doctor paused. “…Not sure yet. I like to figure out plans as I go. I’m currently on plan D. Or E. Doesn’t matter.”

Shima frowned at his explanation, then seemed lost in thought. “Did you ever explain why you two landed on the colony where I was stationed for that recon mission?”

The Doctor looked over quickly. “Well, of course I did! I think. We were already running from the Shards. That colony had been ravaged by them before, so I figured it would be safe. Our timelines are hooked into theirs, like fish on a... well... hook. All they have to do is pull. Why do you ask?”

Shima shifted uncomfortably. “But what was the trigger?”

Olivia jumped in. “Oh! That was me. Yeah. Wait… Doctor?” She tilted her head. “I just realized. Why did the Shards go after me in the first place? I’m a teacher from the ‘90s. I doubt I’m important to some space gremlins.”

Shima mumbled to herself, frowning, "90's?"

The Doctor’s eyes widened. “Ah! Because… Oh, sneaky! I didn’t think of that!” He started pacing. “The Shards that attacked you were from their own future timeline. Must have been. I think. They tried to get rid of you early, so they wouldn’t have to deal with you later!” He paused dramatically. “And I only met you because of their readings. Meaning… our meeting is a nice little bootstrap paradox. Oh dear… I hate those.”

Olivia grinned. “Doesn’t that mean they’re trying to get rid of me because… we might win in the future?”

The Doctor frowned. “Hate spoilers too. It’s still a theory, though.”

“...What in Minerva are you two talking about?” Shima looked at the two of them like they were utterly insane.

He stopped at the monitor again and began typing in new coordinates. “I’ll explain later, it’s a long story. Then it’s decided. We’re going back. Back to another ravaged world, or whatever’s left of one. Somewhere the Shards had their murderous fun. We still need to figure out their weaknesses, after all.”

Olivia leaned against the wall, looking at the console with a tired gaze.

She could still hear Nel’s screams in her mind. She pushed the memory aside. Now wasn’t the time to fall apart. Not yet.

She said, her voice hoarse. “You really think we’re just going to walk into another death trap? They tore through a reinforced wall like it was cardboard.” She shook her head. “Blasters didn’t even slow them down.”

Shima sighed, wearily, but with a core of steel. “Everyone has weaknesses. Especially the enemy. We have to believe we can defeat them… for everyone who died.”

Just then, the TARDIS let out a long groan as it began to materialise.

The Doctor sprang into action. “Ah! Here we are, then! The ship followed the Shards’ paradox readings and brought us…” He checked the monitor and frowned. “…What? WHAT??”

Olivia glanced at the screen, as if she might somehow decipher the numbers. “What? Where are we, then?”

The Doctor’s brow furrowed as he turned to them both. “…We’re still in the vortex. But we clearly landed...Which means… something was built inside the Time Vortex. But… what?”

Shima was already moving toward the TARDIS’s grand front doors, her blaster resting at her side. “Not sure what a ‘Time Vortex’ even is… but there’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?” 

She glanced back at them. “We walk out .”

Chapter Text

The Doctor, Olivia, and Captain Shima stepped cautiously out of the TARDIS. The doors creaked shut with a faint echo that lingered far too long.

They had materialised in a narrow corridor, sterile and unnatural, as though carved out of the void itself. The walls were curved and plated with smooth, gunmetal alloy, veins of glowing circuitry pulsing faintly beneath the surface like arteries under translucent skin.

Overhead, strips of harsh white lighting flickered intermittently, humming in an arrhythmic pulse that seemed to sync up with Olivia’s rising anxiety. The floor underfoot was metallic too, but with a strange, rubbery give to it, like the place couldn’t decide if it was organic or artificial. A low, distant vibration coursed through the corridor, like the structure itself was alive, or remembering something painful.

Olivia groaned, her voice flat. “God… not another corridor…”

The Doctor exhaled sharply, a cloud of pale breath misting in front of him. “…Cold,” he muttered, eyes scanning the dim corridor. “There was definitely a Shard presence here. Recent .” He mumbled, more to himself than to the others, “But who builds a station inside the Time Vortex? Why? How ?”

A soft hum vibrated through the walls, an irregular thrum beneath their feet. From deeper within the corridor, a metallic creak echoed faintly, like a groan of strained steel under invisible pressure.

Captain Shima took the leading position, weapon raised and alert. Her steps echoed in the enclosed space with a dull, metallic clank , her boots striking the floor as if she was stepping through a mausoleum. She reached out and ran a gloved hand lightly along the corridor’s wall. The metal was icy to the touch. Too smooth, too clean. “You’re saying there was an attack here,” she said. “So… where are the bodies?”

The Doctor’s expression darkened. “We’ll find them. Soon enough.” He glanced warily at the flickering ceiling lights, which gave off the occasional sharp pop of unstable wiring. “This place… it’s odd. Familiar. But… wrong, somehow. Like remembering a dream you’re not sure you actually had.”

Olivia, keeping close to him, furrowed her brow. “What do you even mean by that?”

The Doctor hesitated, his voice quieter now, almost drowned by the low drone of the ship's systems. “…I’m not sure. That’s what worries me.”

Olivia’s legs ached with each step, her muscles burning from exhaustion. It hit her all at once just how little time she’d had to breathe since this all began. Keep running. Keep moving. Don’t stop. Was this what it meant to travel with the Doctor? No rest, no safety, just constant motion and chaos wrapped in a bigger mystery every hour. 

She realised, grimly, that the last time she’d properly sat down, not collapsed out of necessity, was back on the colony. With Nel. Before the Shards came. Before the screaming. Before the people she barely even knew all died in front of her…

Now even the act of remembering made her chest tighten.

She lagged slightly behind, her breath fogging in the cold air. The Doctor and Shima pressed on ahead with barely a falter in their pace. Like soldiers. Not just the captain… him too , she thought. His coat flared with each stride, but his eyes were locked forward, already scanning each and every minute detail.

The corridor widened subtly into a less liminal passageway lined with sealed doors: sleek, white-metal panels set into the walls like vaults. Above each door blinked a faint red light, pulsing steadily in time with some distant, slow mechanical heartbeat. The Doctor approached the nearest one. He slipped a hand into his coat pocket and retrieved the sonic screwdriver. Its familiar whirrr cut through the silence, layered with high-pitched pulses and modulating beeps. Olivia instinctively flinched at the sound. It felt too loud here.

But nothing happened. The door remained shut, its red light blinking calmly back at them.

The Doctor’s brow furrowed. He stepped forward and placed his palm flat against the door’s surface. “Deadlocked,” he muttered, voice taut with frustration. “Can’t override it. Let’s try another.”

A distant clang echoed through the corridor, subtle, but there. Shima raised her weapon without hesitation.

Olivia glanced over her shoulder, instinctively tightening her grip on her cardigan. Why did it suddenly feel like they weren’t alone?

It seemed the Doctor hadn’t registered the distant clang at all, his focus remained locked on the sealed door in front of him. “Ugh! Deadlocked too!” he snapped, stepping back in frustration. “How annoying … This must be a very secret space if they’re going to these lengths to keep us out. Which, granted, makes some sense, given we’re inside the Time Vortex…”

Olivia’s voice wavered slightly as she stepped closer. The silence after that noise gnawed at her. “…Any idea who would even do that? Build a… what, a base? A research centre? Something … inside the time tunnel your ship travels through? Another time traveller?”

The Doctor didn’t answer right away. His brow was furrowed deeply now, eyes narrowing as he stared at the uncooperative door. The flickering lights played across his face, casting sharp shadows under his eyes. “…I have ideas,” he finally said, voice low and edged. “Which I won’t disclose. Because, for now, they’re just that. Ideas. ” He turned away before Olivia could press further, already moving toward the next door. 

Behind them, the corridor settled again, but the weight in the air hadn’t lifted. The clang hadn’t returned. And maybe that was worse. 

Shima stood at the far end of the corridor, her blaster trained steadily on a set of tall double doors: sleek, seamless, and just as securely locked as the rest. “What about these?” she called back. “They look promising. Could be a command centre, a cockpit… or an observation deck.”

The Doctor jogged up beside her, glancing over the frame. “Not a cockpit,” he said, squinting at the edges. “Doesn’t feel like a ship. More like a fixed station, anchored somehow.” He reached into his coat and pulled out the sonic screwdriver, aiming it at the access panel. A sharp whirring hum filled the air once more–

Click .

The door locks disengaged with a gentle hiss.

“ Voila! ” The Doctor grinned, clearly pleased with himself. “Finally, some cooperation. And here I thought the whole station was in a mood.” He stepped back with a theatrical gesture. “Ladies first.”

The doors slid open with a groan, revealing a wide chamber beyond, clearly an observation deck, though it now bore the aftermath of chaos. The room was wrecked. Console panels sparking occasionally, wall panels scorched and torn, deep gouges raking through metal as if clawed by something with impossible strength. Yet… there were no bodies. No remains. Just devastation and silence. Unlike the colony, this place felt emptied , not abandoned. 

The centrepiece of the room loomed ahead: a vast, reinforced window stretching from floor to ceiling, its thick glass miraculously unbroken. Beyond it swirled the Time Vortex , alive in its kaleidoscopic, chaotic beauty. Colours shifted unnaturally. Violet clashing with gold, turquoise writhing into crimson, like oil on water and lightning in fog. It was beautiful… and wrong. As if merely looking at it trespassed some higher law of the universe. As if it saw you back.

Olivia stepped forward instinctively, then stopped, uneasy. The vortex pulsed faintly, like something alive. Something waiting.

Shima stared out through the enormous window, eyes wide with awe. “…I’ve seen nations burn in blinding light. I’ve seen nebulas roll past my shuttle… But this…” She exhaled slowly. “These lights are something else entirely…”

The Doctor had drifted toward a bank of smashed consoles, his expression tightening into a grim frown. Sparks popped softly from damaged panels as his fingers brushed fragments of twisted metal. “…This is…” he murmured, leaning closer, eyes narrowing behind his glasses. “This is incredibly advanced…”

He stopped. His breath hitched. Then, quietly mumbling to himself, “… Time Lord technology…”

Olivia stepped toward him, confused. “The… what-Lord?”

The Doctor waved a hand absently, already lost in thought. “I’ll… uh… explain later. Or sooner. Probably later.”

Olivia blinked. “Later??”

“Time Lords,” he muttered, rather annoyed. Was he pressured by Olivia or did he force himself to answer? “Just… people I used to know.”

She folded her arms. “That’s not what you said. You said it like… like you recognised it. Like you know exactly what it is.”

The Doctor hesitated, just for a moment. And that was all it took.

“…Doctor?” Olivia’s voice was quieter now, but sharper. “You never told me who you are. Not properly… How do you… know all this? Who exactly are you?”

A long silence.

The only sound was the faint crackle of dying circuitry and the distant, pulsing thrum of the Time Vortex beyond the glass.

“I think,” Olivia said slowly, “it’s time you started explaining things. No more ‘ later. ’”

The Doctor didn’t answer her. Instead, he backed away from the console, gripping his hair with both hands. “…But how?” he muttered. “How could the Shards have attacked a Time Lord station? Sure, they can step through time like it’s nothing but a door, but this is a Time Lord observation station in the Time Vortex we’re talking about. Nothing gets in here! Not without help.” He spun in place, gesturing wildly. “There would have been defences. Massive ones! No way they’d leave this place unguarded. The Shards can’t have gotten in! Unless…”

He stopped.

His face fell still. His eyes hardened. “Oh.”

Before Olivia or the captain could argue with him any further, the Doctor bolted out of the observation room, sprinting down the corridor.

He muttered to himself as he ran, words spilling in a half-frantic rhythm: “Of course… Time Lord tech inside the Vortex. They could’ve been investigating a fissure, like the one on Deeptime Frontier, but… but the Shards couldn’t get inside. Not without a breach, a failure, a– UGH, there must be a broken-down door somewhere!”

***

Olivia threw her hands up in exasperation. “Oh, come on ! I met him today, and he’s already running off and keeping secrets! Is this just… what he does? Do we follow him or what?”

Shima shifted in position, her blaster now on her side. “He’s hiding something. And I don’t like being used as someone’s backup. We follow. Carefully .”

***

The Doctor sprinted through the corridor, boots echoing against cold metal as his eyes flicked from one sealed door to the next, until he skidded to a stop.

A door, half-shattered.

Its mechanical hinges twisted and torn , as if something had forced its way out. Scratches scored the floor. And from within the room: an ominous green glow, pulsing faintly. “Bingo…” The Doctor stepped inside.

His face immediately darkened the second his eyes registered what happened.

“…You lied to me, Narvin ,” he muttered. “You said you didn’t know where they came from…” He moved closer. Cracked containment pods lined the walls, glass shattered across the floor like ice. The green light came from within the ruined chambers. “…They didn’t break into the station,” he whispered.

“ They escaped from it .”

Chapter Text

Captain Shima and Olivia walked briskly down the corridor, searching for the Doctor. Shima held her weapon tightly, her eyes sharp and alert. “I looked through the consoles in the observation deck,” she said. “I’ve got a few questions for him.”

Olivia scoffed, arms folded as she followed. “You and I both. I mean, why bother being so secretive? Isn’t the whole point of surviving and solving a mystery to be, y’know, cooperative? Like, a team?”

Shima slowed as she scanned ahead. “I meant the consoles themselves. What they were for. I… I’m intrigued. Just in case.”

Olivia glanced sideways, her brow furrowed. “In case of what?”

Shima’s grip on her blaster tightened. Her voice was cold. “…In case the Shards come back. Like they did in the colony.”

“But the Doctor said–”

Shima rolled her eyes. “I don’t know him, but he says a lot of things. Things even he doesn’t truly believe. He said it was impossible for the Shards to return to a place they’ve already attacked. And look what happened to my crew. Between you and me… I think he doesn’t know anything about the Shards. Not really. Just their basic hunting strategy.”

Olivia stayed quiet, turning that over. It was true, he had insisted they wouldn't come back, and yet they did. She remembered comparing the Shards to locusts, and how he'd liked the analogy. But had that been real insight… or just reassurance? A polite lie to calm her down? 

If that was the case, she realised, then she knew even less about the Doctor than she thought.

The further they walked, the dimmer the corridor lights became, casting long shadows that danced around them.

Shima broke the silence. “Let me ask you something, Olivia. What do you actually know about him? You said you met him today, so why follow his words like they’re religious texts? Is he really that charismatic?”

Olivia gave a nervous laugh. “God, no. He’s mental. But… do I have a choice? He can’t just take me home, the Shards would still come after me. On Earth. Imagine that. Billions of people attacked because of me…” She paused, voice quieter now. “I don’t believe everything he says. Not really. But he looks like a man with a plan. Is that weird to say?”

Shima considered it, her gaze still sweeping the corridor, alert for any movement. “…It is odd. Back in the observation room, I felt this strange flicker of trust in him. But now? I’m not so sure. We don’t even know what species he is. He did say he’s not human…”

Olivia cut in, dryly: “Right. Called us pathetic apes. How could I forget.”

Shima chuckled. The first time in what felt like hours. “Heh. Precisely. So, who is he?”

Suddenly, a series of heavy thuds echoed from farther down the corridor. Fast. Urgent. Someone was running. 

Towards them .

As the footsteps thundered closer, Shima tensed, raising her blaster, finger brushing the trigger. She nearly fired. A figure was ever approaching, before suddenly stopping.

The figure burst around the corner, hands shooting up. “It’s me! The Doctor! Don’t shoot, Captain!” He stumbled to a stop, panting. “I have a plan. You’re not going to like it.”

Olivia exhaled in relief, after realising it was the Doctor and not the Shards. She recovered and scowled at him. “Why am I not surprised? Go on. What now?”

The Doctor straightened, catching his breath. “We… need the Shards to come here.”

He paused, just long enough for the weight of the idea to settle. “I’ve had enough. We can’t let them keep tearing through the universe, killing indiscriminately. I won’t allow it. But first… we need them to come here.”

Another pause. Longer, heavier.

Beyond the walls, the Vortex pulsed. A kaleidoscope of light and pressure, as if time was breathing just out of sight.

“Because… this is where it started.”

A beat. His expression flickered.

“…I think,” he added, eyes darting away. “The paradox readings were extremely high here. That’s what I was detecting.” 

He chose to lie.

Shima looked annoyed, a sense of tension forming between the two. “You ' think '? You don’t stake a plan on a hunch when lives are on the line. What aren’t you telling us?”

Olivia didn’t say anything. She just watched him. That flicker of doubt in his voice… it didn’t sound like the man with a plan anymore.

The Doctor groaned, pacing the corridor with his hands buried deep in his coat pockets, fingers twitching restlessly. “We really don’t have time for this, Captain! You want to stop the Shards as much as I do, right? For everyone who’s died. So, let’s fix this! Come on, both of you. Back to the observation room.”

As they walked, the Doctor gestured animatedly to various corners and junctions of the corridor. “I had a look around the station, tried to find any strategic spots where we could take cover if things went sideways. A lot of the doors are deadlocked, unfortunately, but some aren’t. And here’s the useful bit: they can be sealed from the inside. You just need to press the panel inside the room. I think there’s one in the observation room, too. I saw a control panel at least! Might be the override, might not. We’ll see.”

He quickened his pace, his voice rising with each thought. “And no weapons. Not just because I’m not a fan, though I’m really not, it’s because they’re useless against the Shards. Worse, actually. They could destabilise their own timeline and cause another paradox, like what happened when one got hit during the Ibrahim incident.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Are you with me so far?”

Olivia blinked hard, trying to force the fog of exhaustion from her mind. Her limbs felt like sandbags. But… she felt like the Doctor finally started having a plan. A weird one, but a plan. “…Kinda,” she muttered.

Shima nodded briskly, her tone sharper. “I’ve got more questions, but I’ll save them for the observation room. Like you said.”

***

The heavy doors hissed open with a sluggish, mechanical groan, not quite stuck, but clearly struggling. The observation room looked even more ruinous than before, now that they had the time to focus on their surroundings. Loose wires dangled like tendrils from the ceiling. A soft static hum buzzed from cracked monitors.

The Time Vortex still pulsed beyond the great viewing window, no longer simply awe-inspiring, but somehow… oppressive. Watching .

Olivia instinctively rubbed her arms as though trying to shake off a cold she couldn’t name.

The Doctor was the first to move, brushing dust off the nearest console embedded in a wall near the double-doors to the room, and kneeling beside it. “Right… this one. This has to be the deadlock circuit.”

Shima’s eyes narrowed. “Looks like it was tampered with. Burn marks. Someone disabled it.”

The Doctor's jaw tightened. “Of course they did… Someone wanted this place open.”

Olivia stepped closer to the glass, watching the impossible storm of the Vortex swirl. “So… this is bait?”

The Doctor didn’t look up. “I think whoever was here was trying to escape from the Shards. But…if we’re not careful, it’ll be a tomb.”

A low rumble echoed from somewhere deep in the station.

Not thunder.

Not machinery.

A warning.

The Doctor glanced around the ruined observation room, muttering to himself as he rifled through a scattered toolkit, a cracked panel, and an old emergency locker. Then, with his sonic screwdriver in hand, he knelt beside the fractured deadlock seal and began working, its high-pitched whirr echoing faintly in the air. “I’ll try to fix this,” he said, eyes never leaving the sparking wires.

The sonic screwdriver's pitch rose and fell, clashing with the distant, whisper-like hum of the Vortex.

“While I do this… you said you had questions, Captain?”

Shima straightened, arms folded, her gaze sharp. Her stance spoke of military discipline, but her expression remained unreadable. Calculating. Watching. “…The Shards can cross through time like it’s nothing. Easy,” she said. “But what about the Vortex itself? Not a time stream. Not a planet. The place outside this one. We’re inside it, sure, but we’re not moving. So, I’m asking… what would happen if the Shards entered the Time Vortex ? Directly. Would it kill them?”

There was a beat of silence. The only sound in the room came from the high-pitched, repetitive whirr of the sonic screwdriver. Sharp, needling, and maybe even annoying.

The Doctor exhaled slowly, eyes still locked on the deadlock circuit. “...Perhaps. The Time Vortex is a raw force of unfiltered time, compressed, surging endlessly. It’s not a place… it’s more like a pressure system. A storm of causality. Only very, very extremophilic lifeforms like the Vortisaurs can survive it. And even they’re nearly extinct… if not already gone.”

Shima narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“I said perhaps ,” he repeated, more pointedly this time. “That is the answer.”

Olivia’s voice cut through the room, edged with frustration. She stood by the dust-choked console monitors, wiping her hands on her cardigan. “Can you both not? We’re supposed to survive this, not kill each other with attitude. I can’t believe I’m the reasonable one here. Jesus…”

Shima exhaled through her nose, tension releasing, just a little, as she nodded in agreement. “Fair enough.” She turned back toward the Doctor. “Doctor, may I ask something else?”

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, still kneeling by the circuit, though his attention shifted. “You may.”

Shima gestured to the vast observation window overlooking the storm of colour outside. “Can that window be opened?”

He stood up slightly straighter at that, a visible flicker of concern flashing in his eyes. “Why?”

Shima's expression remained unreadable. “In case of emergency.”

Olivia turned to face Shima fully, arms crossed. “Hold on. ‘ In case of emergency ?’ What kind of emergency needs you to open a window into a void of literal time and space?” She gave a nervous laugh, but there was no real humour in it. “Because that doesn’t sound like a backup plan. That sounds like a death wish.”

Shima’s expression didn’t waver. Her voice remained calm and measured. “It was mere curiosity. Back on the vessel with my crew, the cockpit could be opened - manual override. I was wondering if this was a similar design. Similar engineering.”

The Doctor stood, sonic screwdriver still humming lightly in his grip. “I highly doubt it’s the same engineering , Captain. But…” he paused, eyeing her cautiously, “it might be possible to open it.” 

He crossed the room, gesturing toward one of the cracked, dust-covered consoles. “If any of these still work, it should be this panel. Don’t press it.” He shot her a look, more puzzled than accusatory, then turned back to the deadlock mechanism. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish this. I think I’ve almost got it. Just… give me five minutes.”

***

While the Doctor worked quietly, kneeling beside the panel, the ever-annoying whir of his screwdriver filled the room.

Olivia slowly paced through the observation deck, her brow furrowed as she rested a hand on a desk, only to pull it back immediately. “UGH!” she grimaced, wiping her hand on her cardigan. “I can’t believe this… How long’s this place been abandoned? Gross. Did I forget to mention my eyes get watery when it’s too dusty?” 

She peered at the cracked monitors nearby. “Ew… Okay, this one’s not totally broken… I wonder if it still works. Then again, it’s not like it’s a computer from my time…” She paused, muttering to herself. “ God… it’s weird to think about…”

She looked up at Shima and called out with a playful grin: “Oi, ‘ma’am’! Can you check if this thing can turn on?”

Shima sighed and walked over, mild frustration in her stride. “Why didn’t you ask your Doctor?”

Olivia frowned, folding her arms tightly. “Mine? Excuse you ? Fat chance. And as you can see, ‘my Doctor’ is busy. So… can you?”

“Well… let’s see. I’m not familiar with this specific model,” Shima muttered, crouching beside the console. “But… I can try…” She pressed her fingers into the thick layer of dust covering the desk, brushing it aside before inspecting the panel. “This model reminds me of the ones back at the EO-14 base… so while I’m no expert with this era’s tech… ah!”

The screen flickered to life, glowing a deep navy blue. It buzzed faintly, the image unstable, but the letters were legible.

Olivia gasped, eyes wide. “Oh my god… it’s in… English? What? How can that be?”

From across the room, the Doctor called out without looking up from his work. “Exposure to the TARDIS reconfigures your brain’s language centre, i.e., lets you understand and read most languages. Unless it’s too old or obscure to translate.”

Olivia stared at him in disbelief. “You what ?? Your ship… manipulated my brain without even asking?! You really didn’t think that was worth mentioning? What else have you wired into my head, huh? Are my dreams sponsored by space now?”

The Doctor muttered to himself, but loud enough to hear. “It’s not wiring…” he continued, “It’s more… osmotic translation. Nothing permanent, promise.”

Olivia snapped back at him. “Oh, well that’s comforting. Mind magic with a disclaimer.”

She masked it with a grimace and a joke, but deep down, a chill ran along her spine. What else had changed while she wasn’t looking?

Shima joined, her tone cool. “And you didn’t consent to that? Curious. Makes me wonder if anything he tells us is real.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes, now looking at the both of them, still kneeling. “Oh, please. Olivia, you didn’t seriously think Shima here, from the 38th century no less, spoke and wrote in flawless 20th century West Germanic English, did you? If anything, the ‘mind magic’ is more convenient than not. Unless you’d rather I be your translator every five minutes.”

Olivia turned back to the monitor. “Right, genius. Whatever! I still didn’t consent to that. We’ll have a talk later. But for now… Shima? Can you check what’s inside this computer, or console, or whatever you call it?”

Shima nodded. “I see… You want to find out what happened to the crew of this station?”

Olivia’s expression turned sombre. “It’s just weird. The last colony at least had corpses. But here? Nothing. It looks like there was an attack, but I seriously doubt people just… survived and walked away. No matter how ‘advanced’ they were.”

Shima leaned closer to the screen, fingers grazing its dusty surface.

Olivia stared in awe. “…What? You can just… use your fingers? Oh my god! Whoa! That’s proper tech right there…”

Shima scoffed lightly. “I forgot. ‘Time travel’. Heh… now that’s something. Ugh, if only I had the tech expertise Nel had…”

Olivia looked away.

She didn’t want to hear that name again. Nel.

She didn’t even fully understand why it struck a chord, but it did. A sharp, inexplicable sadness lingered.

Shima’s fingers slid across the screen, navigating layers of faded menus and corrupted data feeds. Each attempt brought up the same result. Garbled symbols, static-filled headers, or blank screens. “File unreadable. File unreadable. File…” She sighed through her nose, her jaw tightening. “These are all degraded. Too much decay…”

Olivia hovered behind her, shifting nervously. “Nothing? Not even a blurry picture or–”

Suddenly, a flicker.

A new thumbnail pulsed faintly on the edge of the display. Shima tapped it.

Click.

The screen jolted. A faint image formed. Grainy, but coherent.

A video.

Shima leaned in. “…This one’s intact.”

The Doctor suddenly let out a shout of joy, clapping his hands together. “Aha! Finally! The deadlock circuit should work, just press this console here. So don’t , unless you want to be sealed in.” He stood, brushing the dust off his coat, and strode over to where Olivia and Shima were gathered around the glowing monitor. “What did you find? What’s intact?”

Shima didn’t look at him at first. Her eyes stayed fixed on the screen as she spoke, a subtle smirk tugging at her lips. “A video. The most recent one. The others are corrupted. I’d say someone forgot to delete this one… either just before, or right after, the attack.”

The Doctor frowned and stepped closer, his gaze locking onto the monitor. His expression shifted the moment he saw the freeze frame.

A logo.

To Olivia and Shima, it was just a strange symbol of interlocking curves inside a fractured ring.

But the Doctor knew it well. Too well.

Ancient Gallifreyan . The seal of the Celestial Intervention Agency .

He leaned in, suddenly still. His voice dropped to a whisper but carried a quiet urgency. “ Play it .”

Chapter Text

The screen crackled to life, the logo fading. 

A male figure stood at the centre, a surgical-style table behind him. Though the image was grainy at first, the setup was unmistakably improvised. 

He wore a structured coat of deep crimson, tailored sharply across the shoulders, with intricate golden trim along each seam. On his chest was a discreet, spiralling emblem. Not the sprawling crest of the High Council, but the sharper, more clandestine symbol of the Celestial Intervention Agency. His sleeves were rigid, cuffed in black. A silver utility belt crossed diagonally over his torso. No ceremonial collars, no flowing robes. Only clean lines, hard fabric, and the unmistakable presence of someone built to command, not to debate.

The visual and audio slowly stabilised as the figure began to speak in a clear, clipped tone. “This is Commander Raclan speaking. I must state that this is a Code Zero recording, strictly restricted only to the highest levels of CIA personnel, and to the Madame President herself: Romanadvoratrelundar.”

There was a pause. Then he continued.

“As previously reported, we have recovered ten unknown aliens orbiting the station within the Time Vortex. All remain unconscious. The subjects are sedated and secured in individual pods. We are now ready to begin identification procedures and preliminary biological analysis.” He turned briefly toward the far end of the sterile room. “If these beings are what some of our scientists suspect, if they are the creatures referred to as ‘the Shards’, then this facility will serve as our first attempt to understand their nature. Their biology. Their potential threat.” The Commander took a sharp breath, “If the subject is ready… bring it in .”

The footage flickered again , lines of digital distortion rolled down the screen, briefly warping the colours into a sickly green hue before stabilizing.

A secondary figure entered the frame, wheeling in a reinforced mavity cart. Strapped to it with thick magnetic clamps was a creature, unmistakably alien. Its heavy, matted fur bristled under the laboratory lights, a deep earthen brown like weathered wood. The body slumped limply, unconscious but somehow still tense, as if resisting even in sedation.

The Time Lord, dressed in a less ornate uniform than Commander Raclan, struggled to shift the creature’s bulk. With effort, he rolled it onto the metal examination table, where automated clamps hissed and snapped shut around its limbs and midsection. The beast’s oversized claws twitched once as it was strapped down tighter. “Here you are, Commander,” the junior officer said stiffly, his voice slightly garbled through the distorted audio.

A faint static hum rose in the background, as though the recording system was barely keeping up.

Commander Raclan stepped back into full view, the edges of his figure slightly blurred by a failing lens. He looked directly into the camera. “As you can see, subject one is secured,” he said coldly. “Estimated height: approximately one metre thirty. Physical morphology: heavily muscled forelimbs, oversized dentition, forward-facing predatory eyes that are yellow, bulbous. Primitive in form, but abnormally resistant to temporal dislocation. Preliminary scans suggest minor regenerative factors.” He glanced to his left. “Junior Monitor? Begin sedation override protocols. We need full biometric feedback before cortical mapping begins.”

The screen twitched again, for a brief moment, there was a flicker of movement from the Shard’s hand. A claw flexed slightly, unseen by anyone in the room.

The junior Time Lord shifted uneasily under the camera’s gaze, avoiding eye contact as he fumbled with the equipment. “Our crew’s mostly technicians, sir… I’m not sure if this is… the right procedure…”

Raclan waved him off without a glance, eyes fixed on the recording lens. “The subject remains fully sedated, along with the others. Extraction to Gallifrey would be logistically impractical, so all procedures will occur on-site. Systems are stable. We begin.”

***

“Record all biometric responses,” Raclan continued. “Neural latency. Any… non-standard time signatures.” He looked toward the camera again. “Given the creature’s apparent temporal instability, we may learn the source of its vortex traversal. Begin cortical stimulation at three percent. We don’t want to fry it… yet. Prepare the scan, Junior Monitor.”

The younger Time Lord nodded quickly, hauling a bulky scanning array into position, its sensors aimed squarely at the creature’s head. Raclan, with the cold efficiency of someone long desensitized to discomfort, inserted twin interface needles into the Shard’s forearms. The skin gave way with a low, wet sound.

The Shard’s arm jerked.

“Wh–what happened? I thought it was sedated, Commander!”

Raclan barely looked up, his voice flat as he addressed the recording again. “Simply neuromuscular reflexes post-stasis, Coordinator. Nothing to worry about.” His words weren’t meant to reassure his colleague. They were for the record. Clinical, detached, and absolute.

A low rumble echoed through the recording as the scanner powered on. The Shard remained unmoving on the table, but an unnatural quiet settled over the room.

“Initiating subdermal spectral imaging,” Raclan said, his voice clipped. “…Now. Let’s see what the Vortex left behind.” The machine began to emit slow, deliberate beeps… then faster. And faster still. Raclan’s expression tightened, his posture still composed, but his eyes betrayed a flicker of unease.

The younger Time Lord flinched. “W–What is that sound? Is it the scanner? Or– or the subject?”

Raclan stared at the screen. “Its vitals are rising… no, wait. They’re… fluctuating. Backwards. That…” He paused, recalibrated his tone. “It must be a scanner fault. Call a guard. The one overseeing the pods.”

***

Static hissed across the footage, distorting the image and sound, then clearing just as abruptly. A guard in a mauve-red uniform with gold trimming and a white-domed helmet burst into frame. He was visibly panicked. “The pods, sir! Coolant’s leaking! I called a technician, but it’s– it’s not holding!”

“Then why are you standing here?!” Raclan barked. “Fix it! If the subjects wake up–” He didn’t finish, his face twisting in horror just at the mental imagery alone. 

“Sir!” the Junior Monitor shouted, pointing at the table. “It’s warm ! The surface! It was frozen minutes ago! ”

Raclan clenched his jaw, rubbing his forehead with visible frustration. “Increase sedation. No… double it . I don’t care if it’s over protocol. Do it now .”

An alarm blared in the background, shrill, insistent. Raclan whipped toward the open doorway, barking, “WHAT is happening out there?!”

A guard’s voice filtered through the intercom, rattled and unsteady. “Commander Raclan… it’s— it’s the pods. They’ve…”

A long pause.

“They’ve escaped . The others are en route to subdue them.”

Raclan turned, face taut with fury, and roared at the Junior Monitor, “WHY HAVEN’T YOU INCREASED THE SEDATION?!”

The young Time Lord stumbled backward in panic, nearly tripping over himself. “I-I'm trying, sir! Right away, sir! I just need—”

CRACK.

The metal restraints screamed as a claw, jagged and stained, tore upward from the table. In one violent motion, the Shard’s talons slashed through the Junior Monitor’s forearm. The man’s scream cut through the room, raw and blood-choked, as he collapsed, clutching his ruined arm.

The Shard reared up, metal clamps snapping off like twigs, its bulbous yellow eyes wide and twitching. Saliva hissed between jagged teeth as it let out a low, guttural growl.

The Commander spun toward the intercom, slamming the panel with his fist. “GET IN HERE! NOW! SHOOT THAT THING! SHOOT IT!” Heavy boots could be heard thundering down the corridor, but it was already too late.

The Shard lunged.

Its claws, long, jagged, and soaked in blood, dug into Raclan’s back with an audible rip , the sound wet and final. He arched in pain, choking on a cry, stumbling forward with the creature still attached to him like a parasite. 

Then, the creature’s face loomed over his shoulder. Yellow eyes pulsed with a sick intelligence. Its teeth gnashed open in a wide, ghoulish grin, and deep within its throat, something glowed. A pulsing, cold light .

Raclan turned, trying to fight, trying to wrestle it off him. But his limbs were already trembling. The Shard’s maw opened fully. The light intensified, and a thin stream of golden regeneration energy flowed out from the Commander’s body into the creature’s core. Raclan screamed. A raw, guttural sound that twisted into something hoarse. His skin paled, his hair turned white and brittle in seconds. Wrinkles folded across his face, his spine bent, his voice hollowed into silence.

Within moments, he was little more than bone wrapped in skin. Then even that crumbled, until all that remained was a cloud of dust in a red and gold uniform.

The Shard stood taller now, a humming energy in its chest, blood-slick claws twitching. It let out a shriek, shrill and metallic, a sound like tearing metal and time itself screaming. With one last lunge, it slashed at the camera.

The screen crackled, glitched… then went black.

Chapter Text

The screen snapped to black. Static flickered once, then silence.

The Doctor, Olivia, and Shima sat frozen in place, caught in the eerie afterglow of what they had just witnessed.

Olivia couldn’t speak. Her breath caught in her throat. The image of Raclan aging, collapsing into nothing, played on a loop behind her eyes like a cursed echo. She gripped the edge of the console, knuckles pale, hand trembling.

The Doctor finally exhaled, sharply, and shoved himself away from the desk. He kicked back the chair, sending a cloud of disturbed dust swirling into the stale air. “Idiots…” he muttered. Then louder, angrier: “Careless idiots! What were they thinking?! CIA operatives, tampering with raw vortex anomalies, experimenting on unknown aliens! That’s way above their pay grade… if they get paid at all.”

Shima’s voice cut in, brittle but composed. “It was a massacre. These… ‘Time Lords’ caused all of this.” Olivia turned toward her, only now noticing how tightly the captain’s arms were crossed, her face pale beneath the professional front.

Shima stepped back, thinking aloud. “…But there’s something I don’t understand.”

The Doctor blinked at her. “What?”

“That commander, Raclan, he turned to dust. But… when the Shards attacked… my crew, they died of rapid aging too. Yet bodies remained. Corpses. Not… that .”

The Doctor nodded slowly. His tone grew thoughtful. “You’re right. The Shards in the video were different. Hungrier. Wilder. Like they weren’t just feeding to survive…” He glanced at the blank screen again. “…They were gorging on the Time Lords. Maybe their biology, or the regeneration energy, was more… delicious, somehow. Addictive.”

Olivia didn’t speak. She couldn’t. Her brain was putting pieces together faster than she wanted. 

Dust. Too much dust. Dust on her hands. Dust in the air…

And then the realization hit her. “He turned to dust…” she whispered. Her eyes drifted downward, to her palms. Pale. Caked in fine grey. The same dust that coated the desk. The same she had swept from her face moments ago without thinking. “All of them… turned to dust…” she said again, quieter, as the breath drained from her lungs.

Then her voice cracked. High, panicked, breaking through the silence like a knife: “ OH MY GOD! I’ve been inhaling DEAD BODIES! ”

Her knees wobbled as she stumbled back, coughing, gagging. She rubbed her hands furiously on her cardigan, shaking her head. “I-I can’t– I touched it, I breathed it –!” 

The Doctor was already beside her, placing a hand gently on her shoulder. “Olivia. It’s okay. It’s okay. Just breathe. Don’t think about it.”

“ Don’t think about it?! ” she snapped, eyes wet. “I’ve got Time Lords in my lungs! ”

“Now, I know that may seem upsetting…” The Doctor’s attempt at gentle reassurance landed like a rock.

Olivia turned on him, her face twisted with grief and fury. “God, you’re impossibly dense sometimes!”

Her voice cracked as the adrenaline gave way to something deeper. “I– I can’t. It’s too much death. Too much. I can’t do this. I really can’t… I didn’t even ask for all of this!” She stepped back, hugging her arms tightly to her chest. “I didn’t ask for you to ‘rescue me’ in your bloody TARDIS!”

The Doctor looked genuinely hurt. “But I did rescue you…” His voice faltered. “You would have died.”

“That doesn’t mean I wanted to be dropped into this!”

A thick pause followed, weighted with things unsaid. Shima broke the silence. “You knew them.”

The Doctor turned to her, brow furrowed.

“Those Time Lords,” Shima said quietly. “This isn’t just ancient history to you. It’s like it’s personal. You didn’t just ‘ used to know them. ’”

The Doctor didn’t answer. His jaw clenched, and he cast his eyes downward. “Do we really have to do this now?” he muttered. “Look at Olivia!”

“Oh, I’ll be fine,” Olivia interrupted, biting back tears. She rubbed at her eyes with a dusty sleeve. “In time. Just… don’t patronise me.”

She didn’t sound fine. She sounded like someone just barely holding herself together.

Shima cleared her throat. The shift in her posture signalled she was forcing herself into captain-mode again. “Well. Then let’s at least try to work with what we know.” She walked to the observation window, pointing at the swirling, kaleidoscopic storm of the Time Vortex beyond the glass. “The Commander in the video said they found those creatures drifting unconscious in the Vortex. It seems safe to assume the Time Vortex is lethal, or at least highly disruptive, to them.”

“So,” she added, “if they come here again… could that be our weapon?”

The Doctor sighed and leaned against the dusty desk, his eyes on the shattered monitors. “I don’t know anymore… Maybe. But it’s a dangerous idea. Opening the observation window would expose the room to the Vortex. Someone would have to trigger it manually and run . One mistake and they'd be gone too. It's too risky.”

Olivia didn’t respond at first, just sobbed softly, her hands covering her face. “We’re not going to make it out of here…” she finally whispered. “We’re going to die like the others… Just like them…”

Her voice broke.

The hopelessness clung to her like the dust on her skin.

Shima stepped forward, quietly at first, then closed the distance. She placed her arms around Olivia, tentative, almost awkward, but she held firm.

She really wasn’t used to this. Comfort wasn’t in her skill set. Orders, tactics, discipline, yes. But not this. Not grieving civilians from a forgotten century. But Olivia wasn’t a soldier. She was someone who shouldn’t have been in this war. “We will get through this,” Shima said, steady and low. “I promise you.”

Olivia shook in her arms, but didn’t pull away.

Shima continued, firmer now. “We will beat them. I’ve fought worse. This?” She looked toward the window, to the swirling chaos of the Vortex. “This isn’t just about weapons. It’s about being clever. They’re strong, but they’re not invincible. We just have to think smarter. And we will. ”

The Doctor stood abruptly, dust scattering from his coat as he moved. “I’ll check the rest of the station. Strategic points. Escape routes. Somewhere to hide, or plan, or… whatever we’ll end up needing when they come.” He didn’t wait for Olivia or Shima to agree. The double doors hissed open, the faint hum of failing power systems echoing beyond.

The Doctor strode into the corridor, the further he went, the dimmer it became. The sound of his footsteps fading into the thick silence. The corridor was cold and unnaturally still, lit only by a flickering wall panel and the slow pulse of red emergency lights. He thumbed the sonic screwdriver, its gentle warble a small comfort. “…Come on…” he muttered to himself, “…There was a non-deadlocked door somewhere near here…”

He turned a corner, only to stop suddenly. The corridor continued, but the lights at the far end were out. Pitch black. No flicker. No hum.

He paused, sensing it. Not movement. Not sound. But presence. “Power supplies fading? Oh… I really hate when it gets quiet…” he whispered. And he moved forward anyway.

***

Back in the observation room, the silence returned like a fog. Olivia sat on the edge of the desk, knuckles white on her knees. Her tears had dried, but her chest still trembled with each breath.

Shima hadn’t sat down. She stood at the viewport, arms crossed, staring out into the Time Vortex as if she was trying to stare it into submission.

“I don’t like when he does that,” Olivia said eventually. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “Goes off on his own. Like we’re just… left here to wait.”

Shima didn’t respond right away. “It’s like he’s used to carrying burdens by himself,” she said finally. “That’s not always bravery. Sometimes it’s avoidance.”

Olivia rubbed her arms, trying to ward off the chill in the air. “And what are we supposed to do? Sit tight? Until something claws through the wall?”

Shima turned to her. “We prepare. Quietly. Calmly.” She handed Olivia a small metal tool, something simple, like a plasma cutter. “Start with this. I found it near the deadlock circuit. If they breach, this can give you enough time to run. No heroics.”

Olivia looked at it unnerved like it might burn her fingers. “…They don’t deserve to win,” she muttered. “After all this death…”

Shima gave a rare, tight smile. “Then let’s make sure they don’t.”

***

The Doctor slipped into a narrow maintenance room, the kind of space meant for engineers and automated drones, not for high ranking Time Lords. The walls were lined with racks of humming equipment, dimly flickering, like dying stars. In the corner, a stack of Baseplate repetition filaments glowed faintly, their once-golden light now dull and uneven. “Ah… power supply,” he muttered, stepping toward the filaments. “Come on… just a little cooperation.”

He knelt beside the panels and opened the casing. A sickly squelch followed as a translucent, sticky substance clung to his gloves like resin, but wet, almost like it was alive. The filaments were embedded in the ooze, pulsing dimly. “Artron energy… must’ve burned out ages ago. And you lot are still running this place? Either stubborn, or desperate.” He carefully extracted the glowing plates, smearing the substance as he worked. His fingers trembled slightly. From the cold, he told himself. Just the cold.

Click. One filament back in place.

Click. Another.

A sharp hiss escaped one of the side vents. No steam, no movement, just… sound.

The Doctor exhaled and saw his breath. “…It’s getting colder again…” He glanced at the corner of the room, half-expecting something to be watching. Nothing. “…Too soon,” he said under his breath, panic carefully folded into his tone. “No, no, no, not yet…” He snatched his sonic screwdriver and quickly sealed the filament ports. The sticky residue smeared along the surface of the control panel as he backed away.

The lights in the room flickered once. Then again. Then—

A low, rhythmic thump echoed outside, through the corridor beyond. Like something moving in the far distance. “…Please,” he whispered. “Not yet…”

He raised his sonic screwdriver, its tip glowing an urgent blue as it scanned the air. The display flickered erratically, throwing up results that made his brow furrow deeper. “…Paradoxical readings,” he muttered. “No… that shouldn’t be possible. Not here .”

THUD.

A tremor rolled faintly through the floor.

THUD.

Closer now.

He turned sharply toward the corridor. The air felt wrong, like the station itself was holding its breath. “I should really go after Olivia and Shima…” he whispered, and broke into a hurried stride, coat flaring as he vanished into the gloom.

***

The observation room was heavy with silence.
No one spoke. The air felt stale, like the room itself forbid anyone from speaking.

Olivia sat hunched in a stiff chair, arms wrapped around herself, rubbing the sleeves of her cardigan as if she could scrub away the cold. But it wasn’t just temperature, it was the kind of cold that seeped in from horror, from understanding too much. Her eyes traced the dust on the floor, the desks, the forgotten consoles. All of it had once been touched by living hands. Now, it was nothing but ash and ghosts.

Across the room, Shima paced slowly in front of the observation window. She wasn’t watching the outside as much as avoiding the stillness inside. One hand gripped her blaster tightly, not out of readiness, but routine. It wouldn’t help against the Shards. She knew that. But holding it made her feel less powerless.

Eventually, she stopped and turned. “Hey.”

Olivia looked up slowly, her expression hollow. “…What?”

Shima hesitated, shifting her weight. “When I was still a cadet… They sent us into the field. No real training. We were just kids, but Command didn’t care. They needed bodies to fill trenches.”

Olivia’s gaze sharpened. Why was Shima saying this?

“There was this one mission,” she continued, voice low. “Middle of winter. We had to hide in these collapsed tunnels overnight, while the enemy shelled the surface above. We couldn’t light fires. Couldn’t talk. All we could do was… huddle together in the dark. Waiting to die.”

She let out a breath, eyes distant. “I remember thinking, if I survive this, I’ll never be afraid of anything again. And I did survive. Not everyone did, but I came out of that mud and rubble knowing I could do anything. Endure anything. At first it was for my nation. Later, it became for humanity. Now…” She glanced at Olivia, softer this time. “Now maybe it’s for people like you.”

Shima stepped closer to Olivia, her voice quieter now, but firmer. “What I mean by all this is… I just want you to know that whatever happens next, whatever we do, it’s not just for humanity. It’s for everyone who deserves a chance to live. Even if they’re from different stars.”

Olivia looked up at her, frowning in confusion. Her chest tightened, like her body had figured something out before her mind could catch up.

Why did Shima’s words sound… final?

Why did it feel like a goodbye?

“Shima… I…” Olivia tried to speak, but her words caught in her throat as she noticed a faint puff of white breath leave her mouth. She instinctively hugged her cardigan tighter, rubbing her arms. “Is it just me… or is it getting colder than before?”

Shima’s eyes narrowed as she scanned the room. The brief calm they’d carved out was gone, cut like thread. “…Didn’t the Doctor say the cold was connected to…”

“…The Shards?” Olivia finished, her voice trembling. “Yeah. But…”

A brittle crackling sound interrupted her. The large observation window began to fog, then slowly ice over, delicate frost spreading like veins across glass.

Shima moved fast, stepping in front of Olivia and raising her blaster. “Get back,” she ordered, her voice low, urgent. Her stance was solid, but Olivia could see the tension in her shoulders.

No sound yet from the corridor. But the silence was worse. Too deliberate, too still. Shima stared at the double doors, every muscle poised. “They’re here .”

The silence was suffocating. Every second dragged like wet cloth over skin. Heavy, clinging, impossible to shake.

Then it came.

A deep, shrill sound, like metal shrieking underwater, echoed faintly from somewhere at the far end of the corridor.

Olivia’s spine went rigid. It didn’t sound like a scream, but like something trying to be one, something predatory, forcing itself through the architecture of the base.

The lights beyond the double doors began to flicker in uneven pulses. Not in a rhythmic warning, but as though each bulb was reacting independently to some unseen presence, shorting out in fear. With each burst of light, shadows stretched and warped along the floor, lurching like grasping hands.

Then came the dull thuds. Reverberating. Heavy. Deliberate. THUD… THUD…

Olivia’s breath caught. Her heartbeat hammered inside her ears so loudly she thought she might scream just to drown it out.

Shima didn’t move. Her blaster was aimed at the sealed doors, her stance firm, controlled. But Olivia saw it, feeling the slight tremble in her fingers. Even a hardened soldier could sense when a threat was too far beyond muscle and metal.

“…But…” Olivia’s voice was barely a whisper, cracking from tension. “…there are no other exits from here… how will we run from it?”

THUD.

This one was closer.

THUD.

Even closer. The vibrations quivered under their feet like a heartbeat echoing through the steel. A sound of something scraping came, long and drawn out, metal on metal. A rasping drag, as if long claws were testing the walls, peeling back the surface as it crept nearer.

Olivia clamped her hands over her ears, but it didn’t help. The sound was inside her, setting off every survival instinct in her body.

The lights outside the doors flared… then died .

For a moment, only darkness.

The flicker of failing fluorescents sparked again, just enough to catch a glimmer of yellow in the dark. Two enormous eyes, glowing faintly, suspended like lanterns in pitch black. A set of snarling teeth, crooked and shining with viscous saliva. A tongue, forked and coiled like a serpent between those jagged fangs.

One Shard stood at the far end of the corridor, shrouded in pulsing shadows, its monstrous body half-seen through the failing light. It didn’t move forward. Not yet. It just stood there. Watching. Breathing. Feeding on the panic thick in the air.

Olivia stumbled back, colliding with the edge of the desk. Her legs felt hollow. Her throat burned with the effort not to scream.

And still, the Shard did not attack. It simply waited.

As if it wanted them to run .

Chapter Text

Just as the Shard began to enter, it moved with unnerving calm, almost like it was savouring their fear. Its long, jagged claws stretched out and scraped along the edges of the doorway, carving deep gouges into the metal. Its glowing eyes fixed on its prey like twin lanterns of death.  

Then—

BOOM!

The fluorescent tube above the door exploded , showering the corridor in sparks and shards of broken glass. The Shard reared back with a deafening screech, shielding its face as hot fragments rained down on its messy ruffled fur.

From the far end of the corridor, a sharp voice rang out.

“ OI! BRUTE SHARD!” The Doctor stood beneath another flickering light, sonic screwdriver raised and sparking with residual energy. He had that look again. Half-mad, half-brilliant. Entirely dangerous. “Ya know, I’ve been thinking about names!” he shouted, striding forward a few paces with theatrical bravado. “And you? I reckon you look like a Bruce ! Big teeth, bad breath, horrible attitude. Very Bruce-y! ”

The Shard’s attention whipped toward him in an instant. Its eyes narrowed, tongue flicking the air like it tasted the time energy clinging to him. “Ohhh, I know what you want,” the Doctor said, already turning on his heel. “You’re starving! Hungry for something ancient , full of paradoxes. Someone so lip-smackingly good ! Well, lucky you!” 

He sprinted deeper into the corridors. “Come and get it, Bruce!”

With a guttural roar, the Shard lunged after him.

Olivia remained frozen in place, blinking, unsure if her mind had finally snapped. The tension drained from her limbs too quickly, leaving only confusion.

“ Olivia! ” Shima barked, grabbing her arm. “Don’t just stand there! We follow him. Not too close!”

The two of them burst into motion, boots clattering on the metal floor as they chased after the Doctor’s echoing footsteps. The hallway ahead was long, its lights dying one by one behind them as the Shard followed, howling like something from the end of time.

***

The Doctor sprinted through the maze-like corridors, coat billowing behind him, never once daring to glance back. He didn’t need to, as he could feel the weight of the Shard’s presence pounding behind him, claws skittering, breathing like steam on his heels.

Sharp turn—left. Then another—right.

Lights buzzed and died overhead in a ripple of flickering decay. Then… there. The door. A mechanical chamber tucked into the wall, its thick metal door half open. He skidded to a halt at the threshold. “Here! COME ON! I’m waiting, Brucey!” he shouted, arms wide like a madman hosting a party.

Farther behind, Olivia pushed herself harder than she thought possible, chest burning, lungs seizing with each gasp of recycled air. She wasn’t built for this. Not just running from monsters, but towards them ? This was something from a nightmare or one of those late-night sci-fi films she’d watch with Frizzle curled up on her lap. 

She could see the Doctor now, framed in the doorway like bait on a hook. ‘ Is he insane? Or... is this the plan?’

The Shard tore through the corridor on all fours, its matted brown fur dragging a wet sheen along the walls as it moved like an unchained predator. Every step was a bone-rattling thud. Its forked tongue slithered with anticipation. Its yellow eyes locked on the Doctor like a fixed targeting system.

The Doctor grinned wildly. “COME ON! Aren’t you just salivating at the thought of eating my delicious time? COME GET IT!”

The Shard lunged.

The Doctor threw himself sideways, landing with a harsh crash onto the metal floor. He grunted, breath knocked out of him, pain screaming up his back. But he didn’t stop. His hand shot out with the sonic screwdriver and—

HISS-CLUNK.

The mechanical doors slammed shut with a pressurized thud just as the Shard crashed into the room. The chamber: sealed . 

The Doctor lay there for a moment, blinking up at the flickering ceiling light. “ Phew… I can’t believe that worked, ” he muttered, catching his breath.

Olivia and Shima finally reached him. Olivia doubled over, gasping, one hand on her side, sweat streaming down her face. Shima, more composed but clearly winded, glared down at the man. Olivia was too breathless to shout, so she just smacked his arm with a surprising amount of strength. “WHAT was that?!” she wheezed. “Why would you— you absolute lunatic! ”

“OW!” The Doctor rubbed his arm indignantly, sitting up. “That hurt! Look, it’s deadlocked now. Just in time. Bruce is having a proper tantrum in there.”

From behind the sealed door, they could already hear the creature howling , scraping its claws against metal.

The Doctor stood, face serious now. “We’ve got maybe a couple minutes before it rips the circuits out. If Bruce is here… the others are coming.” He looked at them both, then down the corridor ahead. “Run and hide now, lecture later?”

***

The corridors were quieter now, but definitely not peaceful.  Dust floated lazily in the stale air, disturbed only by the soft crunch of boots on the grimy floor. Every flicker of the overhead lights cast tall, twitching shadows along the metallic walls.

The Doctor moved ahead in long, careful strides, his coat swaying behind him. He kept his voice low, just above a whisper. “This way,” he said, glancing briefly back at the others. “Should be an auxiliary corridor. Possibly leading to accommodation rooms, maybe even stasis chambers. Could be some kind of medical wing too. Either way… secluded. Quiet. We can hole up there and have ample time to, well, think things through.”

Behind him, Shima’s boots made clipped steps against the flooring. “Meaning,” she said dryly, “you still haven’t prepared a solid plan on how to get rid of the Shards.”

The Doctor cleared his throat and stared at the wall ahead of him, refusing eye contact. “… Meaning ,” he repeated, “we’ll think things through. Together.”

Olivia followed behind them both, her hand on the cold metal wall for balance. Her body was still trembling faintly from the adrenaline rush. With every flicker of the failing lights, she felt like something might leap from the shadows. Her eyes darted to the side whenever a shape didn’t look quite right. Just a pipe. Just some wiring. But still…

This place is like a tomb , she thought.

They reached a side passage with a narrow offshoot branching left. The Doctor turned into it and motioned them to follow. “We’re close,” he said quietly, “Could be a good hideout up ahead. But we have to be cautious. They could be anywhere.”

And for a moment, no one moved.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder, voice softer now, but firm. “Let’s just not breathe too loud, yeah?”

The trio entered one of the opened, or better said, ripped open, mechanical doors in the depths of the branching corridors. The Doctor entered first and cursed under his breath when he realised what the room was. He had been here before, not too long ago. Deep scratches littered the flooring and the only light source emanating from the room was a dark, foreboding green glow. The torn apart containment pods.

“Oh my… god…” Olivia said under her breath, clutching her sleeves. “What is this? It’s… creepy...”

“They escaped from here.” Shima said coldly, her face sternly lit at the green light coming from the pods. “This is where the Time Lords must’ve… experimented. Or tested. The Shards. Am I right?”

The Doctor’s face was unreadable, but it seemed like he was contemplating his next move. He frowned and turned to Shima. “I suppose. Could be. Definitely looks like a chamber of some sort. A pod. But we shouldn’t assume it was for experiments, I mean…“

“Yeah right.”, Shima scoffed, “Definitely experiments. You saw the tape.”

The Doctor cleared his throat and rubbed his hands on his thighs nervously. “Uhm… we should… try and think about what to do, shouldn’t we? How to stop them and everything. Good starting off point?”

Shima’s frown deepened, as if staring him down. Unimpressed. “It’s almost as if we should have done that from the beginning, when you waited for the Shards to come here. But no! What did you do? Oh, that’s right. You split from us to explore.”

“That’s a good strategy, isn’t it? Know your surroundings… That’s what I was doing!”

“And what exactly did you accomplish? Apart from being mysterious for the sake of being mysterious.”

Olivia raised her hands and waved them in front of Shima and the Doctor. “Hey! Stop it, both of you! Team , remember? We’re trying to survive here, not bicker like idiots. Again…”

The Doctor sighed and raised his arms in exaggerated surrender. “Very well, Mrs Smythe. …I do have an idea, actually, regarding our current safety. Olivia and I will come up with a distraction. You, Captain, stand guard outside. Shout if they get near. That’s military enough for you lot, isn’t it?”

Shima scoffed at him, glaring. “I am a Captain, not a mere soldier.”

“And I don’t like your plans, ‘Cap’n.’ So, what will it be?” The Doctor added with a hint of a smirk forming.

Shima closed her eyes in quiet frustration, muttering something under her breath as she took her position outside the broken doors.

Afterwards, the Doctor gently pulled Olivia aside, casting a glance toward the door before leaning in to whisper, “She wants to kill them. That’s not a plan I’m willing to follow.”

Olivia raised her eyebrows in curiosity after hearing that statement. “But… that’s all we can do, isn’t it? The Shards are literally indestructible, we saw that! What else can we do?”

The Doctor shook his head. “Anything. Anything but kill. How does that make us any better than them? They’re ravenous, time-eating creatures, Olivia. But they’re still alive . If we just blast them into the Vortex, what does that make us?”

Olivia frowned slightly, arms folded. “So, this is about your moral high ground.”

The Doctor’s face fell. “Oh… not you too, Liv.”

She winced at the nickname but ignored it again, her tone sharp. “No, seriously. Do you have a better plan?”

A beat of silence.

That definitely didn’t make Olivia feel any better.

If he didn’t start talking soon, she’d smack him so hard he’d–

“I… I just can’t let them die,” the Doctor finally said. “I can’t explain why. Not yet. But you have to trust me on this. If the Shards die, this whole ‘mission,’ or whatever you want to call it, will fail.”

“Mission?” Olivia echoed, her brow furrowing.

“What I mean is…” He stumbled over his words. “There has to be another way. A way to immobilise them, trap them, teleport them… anything ! Killing them… that should be the very last resort.”

Olivia stared at him. “But it’s still an option?”

The Doctor sighed. “...Yes.”

Olivia thought for a few seconds, her gaze wandering around the green-lit, ravaged room, occasionally drifting to the focused figure of Captain Shima outside. “...Teleport…” she murmured. “Could we do that? If the Shards can move through time like it’s nothing, maybe they could be teleported somewhere where…”

“They could be contained?” the Doctor finished, nodding. “Maybe… I’m just not sure if this station still has that kind of tech left. Even for a Time Lord base…”

Olivia began chewing on her cuticle in thought, which made the Doctor grimace slightly, but she didn’t care about his opinion.

She was a grown woman, after all. She wouldn’t let some alien tell her what to do with her own body while stressed.

“How did the Time Lords get the Shards from the Vortex into the station in the first place?” she asked. “They must’ve teleported them in, right?”

The Doctor blinked, then stood a little straighter. A grin spread across his face. “Ah! Liv! I think you’re a genius!” Without warning, he pulled her into a tight hug.

Olivia pushed him away with an embarrassed smile. “Oh, put a sock in it! Critical thinking is kinda my job?”

THUD.

THUD.

Shima’s shout broke the moment. “THEY’RE HERE!”

The Doctor was already moving toward her, but froze when he saw her raise her blaster at them. “Captain? What are you doing?” 

Even Olivia stumbled back, her voice uncertain. “Shima?”

“STAY BACK! I mean it.” Shima’s voice was sharp, commanding, but laced with something more desperate. “You can have your own little ‘Kumbaya’ plan, but I’m not going along with it.” She raised her weapon toward the corridor and fired, not at the Shards, but at the overhead lights.

A sharp pop echoed as the bulbs burst, raining hot glass. From the shadows, the Shards roared: louder, angrier, hungrier.

The Doctor’s eyes widened. “CAPTAIN! Whatever you think you’re doing, you will STOP NOW!”

“YOU WILL BE QUIET!” she snapped at him, “I’m doing my duty , Doctor. And you can’t stop me.” Without another word, she turned and ran away from the Shards, blaster raised, still firing toward the advancing creatures.

The Doctor and Olivia could only watch as the Shards tore down the corridor after Captain Shima, completely ignoring the two of them. 

Once the coast was somewhat clear, Olivia threw her hands up, astonished. “What the HELL does she think she’s doing?? We know the Shards won’t get hurt like that!” 

But the Doctor was already on the move, darting out of the containment pod room.

Olivia stared after him. “It’s… almost like I’m talking to myself… WAIT UP!”

***

The Doctor was running as fast as he could, desperately hoping to catch up to both the Shards and Shima. He shouted, “CAPTAIN! Whatever you’re doing, it's not RIGHT! We shouldn't kill them!” He skidded slightly to a stop, catching his breath. His eyes widened in alarm as he recognized where the corridor was heading. “...Observation Room… No… SHIMA! Don’t!” And he ran again, faster this time.

Olivia followed behind, trying to keep up, but was too tired to pick up the same pace as the alien. Her lungs wheezed, legs burning as if they might snap off at the knees.

Hours… it’s been hours of this…

“Ah… ah… I gotta jog there, don’t I?” she muttered between gasps, half-laughing, half-despairing.

The Doctor neared the end of the corridor, where the massive double doors to the Observation Room loomed. He saw Shima, dashing through the threshold, four Shards tearing after her.

She didn’t hesitate. Just as he reached the doors—

SLAM.

Shima’s hand struck the repaired deadlock circuit. The doors hissed closed with mechanical finality.

The Doctor slammed his fists against the sealed surface. His hearts pounded. He pressed his face to the thick glass of the now closed doors, eyes wide with horror. “CAPTAIN!”

Shima stood in the centre of the Observation Room, her blaster trained on the four Shards now encircling her like predators around wounded prey. Slowly, she turned to a side panel, fingers gliding over various switches, hesitating only for a moment before pressing one. 

A low click echoed through the sealed doors. “Hope you can hear me now, Doctor,” her voice crackled faintly through the external comm line. “I won’t be able to hear you, of course, the doors are sealed shut. Deadlocked, thanks to you repairing it.”

The Doctor leaned forward, eyes locked on her through the thick glass, jaw clenched tight.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you my plan,” Shima continued. “Because… I know you wouldn’t have agreed.”

Olivia finally stumbled into view, breathless, sweat beading on her forehead. She stared in confusion at the Doctor’s expression. “What… what’s happening?” she asked, voice strained. “Is she— Is she okay in there?”

The Doctor said nothing. He didn’t blink. He didn’t move. His silence spoke volumes. Olivia followed his gaze, then gasped as she saw Shima in the chamber. Alone, surrounded, defiant.

Shima's fingers hovered over the controls again. “And thanks to you, Doctor… I now know which button opens the observation window. The one that lets in the raw Time Vortex.” She smiled bitterly. “Lethal to the Shards, or just… enough to knock them out? You still didn’t give me a proper answer to that one. Maybe… you don’t know.”

Olivia’s face twisted in horror. “Wait. No, no no no! she wouldn’t... she can’t !”

“And yes,” Shima continued coolly, “I know it’s lethal to humans too. I kind of figured that.” She gave a breathy, tired sigh. “I did hope all ten of them would be here. But oh well.” 

Suddenly, she raised her blaster and shot the lights overhead. The glass burst, raining sparks down near the Shards. They roared in fury, flinching back. “Ah-ah-ah~” she taunted softly, not looking away. “Not. Closer. You may be animals… but I think you understand what I’m implying.”

Olivia broke down, pounding the heavy doors with her fists until pain shot up her arms like fire. “YOU CAN’T! You can’t let her! Don’t let her do that!!” She lashed out blindly and accidentally kicked the Doctor, not even realizing she had.

“…It’s deadlocked.” The Doctor simply said, still staring through the glass. He took his sonic screwdriver out and aimed it at the doors. The whirling sound reverberated through the corridor…

Nothing happened.

Captain Shima continued, now glancing at the sealed double doors. “…I heard you. Talking. You want them alive? Why? I don’t think it’s just because you’re a pacifist, you know. I think… I think it’s because your employer needs them alive.”

The Doctor froze. His eyes widened, breath caught in his throat.

“Gotcha,” Shima said with a faint smile. “I’m not doing this just to save a couple of humans. Or to avenge my crew. I’m doing it for the sake of, not just humanity, but all life… beyond.” She sighed heavily, not facing them anymore. “The remaining Shards have to be stopped. No more hiding. No more games, Doctor. Get to work. Sometimes… the enemy’s biggest strength is its weakness.”

She turned back one last time and smiled at Olivia. “…And you… live a fantastic life after all this. Promise me that.”

Captain Shima pressed the same switch on the dusty panel, the one the Doctor had shown her. As she did, a blaring red light flooded the Observation Room, followed by a rising alarm that pierced the tension. A slow hiss echoed through the space as the thick observation window began to open, revealing the colour-saturated chaos of the Time Vortex beyond.

The four Shards shrieked in terror, scrambling to escape the pull, but it was no use. The overwhelming, violent rush of raw time tore through the room, sucking out everything in its path: panels, chairs, machinery… the four Shards… and at last, Shima herself.

Captain Shima closed her eyes as the force pulled her into the swirling kaleidoscope of unimaginable power. Beyond the sealed doors, the Doctor and Olivia screamed her name - horrified, desperate.

But their voices never reached her.

The doors stayed shut.

The screaming went unheard.

Chapter Text

The 13th of Denmarqum 3683 - Oceania Confederation, Torinai District

A young girl walked alone under the orange sky, the clouds above her a stained dark grey like they always were. The wind tugged at her tunic as she stepped over cracked pavement, counting the marks near Erik’s house. Twelve yesterday. Thirteen today.

She hadn't seen Erik at school. She wanted to ask, but last time she asked why someone stopped coming, her teacher told her asking questions like that was unhelpful . That night, she’d gone home with a bruise that wasn’t her fault.

The air smelled sharp, electrical, like burned wires and dust. It clung to her tongue, but the grown-ups stopped noticing it long ago. While she didn’t like the smell, she acted as if she didn’t mind it at all. The streets themselves looked almost deserted, with most adults opting to work from home. There was always one group outside, however. The O.S.P.G. - Oceania’s Safety and Protection Guards.

A billboard flickered above her, just outside the O.S.P.G. Checkpoint, where her friend Nina’s house once was. That was before…

The girl looked up at the hologram. A cartoon soldier was smiling as he held a child close, while explosions danced quietly behind them. A slogan read:

‘Oceania Loves Your Children! For Safety and Protection!’

She stared at it. She didn’t smile.

The school made them pray to Minerva under their desks when the sirens blared. She didn’t know what Minerva looked like, but she whispered anyway. The soldiers didn’t whisper. She never saw them smile either.

The girl never liked watching Holovision. There was never anything fun - just the same group of grown-ups arguing, or saying the same things again and again and again… But she didn’t want to think about boring grown-up stuff. Not now. Just one more corner and she’d be home. Home with mummy and daddy. She couldn’t wait to tell them how Herak got caught making faces behind the teacher’s back, or how she got a good grade for staying quiet during the raid drill. Not like Herak. He got the worst grade.

She knew they wouldn’t be happy she was walking home so late. But it wasn’t her fault, she’d just gotten distracted! The sky was already turning purpley-dark. They’d definitely be cross.

Her stomach tightened when she saw one of the O.S.P. Guards headed her way. Heavy boots thudded like drums on the broken concrete. His uniform was the same black-grey as the clouds, but it was the mask that scared her most. Sleek silver, with black, blank lenses instead of eyes. They always said the Guards worked for Minerva. But she didn’t believe that. Minerva wouldn’t wear something so scary.

“Hey there, little girl…” the man said, kneeling slowly in front of her. “You know what time it is? It’s curfew. Where’s your mum, huh?”

The girl looked away, her voice small. “…Home.”

“Home?” the Guard echoed, almost sing-song. “That’s not good. Not good for your mum. Might cost her a few credits. What’s your name?”

She hesitated, then mumbled: “Lolla. Lolla Shima.”

“Lolla Shima…?”

“…sir.” she finished, just like they taught her at school.

Suddenly, a long, rising siren screamed through the neighbourhood.

Another raid.

Lolla backed away from the Guard, eyes wide. She had never been outside during a raid. She wasn’t even supposed to peek out the windows when it happened.

The Guard grabbed her arm, his gloved hand like ice. She flinched. “Hey! Get off me, sir! Please! ” she cried, kicking at his shin.

“Shut up, you little brat!” he barked, yanking her closer. “I said it’s curfew! You didn’t listen! You’re coming with me to the Checkpoint!”

She screamed for help, her voice high and cracking, but the street was empty. No one came. No one even looked. Maybe they didn’t hear. Maybe they didn’t want to.

Just as she kicked again… A warcraft streaked overhead like a banshee, its engines shrieking against the sky. It dove fast, heading down the street.

Her street.

“That’s home…” Her stomach dropped. “MOMMY! DADDY! LET ME GO!” she shrieked, struggling wildly. The Guard clamped a cold hand over her mouth. She wanted to bite him.

A deafening explosion knocked the air out of her lungs and something inside her snapped. Shima kicked the Guard with everything she had, then bit down hard on his gloved hand. He swore and let go. “You little b—!”

She didn’t hear the rest. Didn’t care.

She ran. Faster than ever. Straight toward the smoke, the fire, the screaming sky, praying her house wasn’t the one.

Please not our house, not our house, please…

But as she turned the final corner, her heart stopped.

The place where her mum brushed her hair.

The table where her dad taught her chess.

The couch where they laughed together on cold nights. 

Gone.

Ash. Rubble. Fire. A hole in the world. Just like Nina’s house, a few months ago.

Shima dropped to the ground, her legs giving way. A sound tore out of her. Raw and wordless and wrong. The Guard caught up behind her. He didn’t shout this time. He grabbed her and covered her mouth. She tried to fight, but he slid something cold into her neck.

The world faded to black.

***

Grey clouds hung low the next morning. 

Shima stood silently by the road, her small fists clenched. The O.S.P. Guards moved two stretchers out of the wreckage.

Two bodies.

Covered in white.

Chapter Text

The Doctor and Olivia stood for a few seconds in stunned silence, staring into the now utterly empty Observation Room, its thick window panels pulled open to the chaotic swirl of the Time Vortex beyond. 

The Doctor finally stepped back from the locked doors and let out a long sigh, dragging a hand through his flowy hair. “...We need to think. Four are gone. So, what do we do about the remaining Shards…”

“You can’t be serious.” Olivia snapped her attention to him, eyes still watery with shock. “Don’t–! Just– shut up for a second, will you?!” She scoffed bitterly, the comment replaying in her head on loop.  “I can’t believe this! You... you disgust me! You’re just gonna ignore what just happened?!”

The Doctor turned to her. His expression was stern, but not unkind. “You realise we’re still in danger, don’t you?”

“Oh, spare me . At least say something about it… about her ! Don’t just treat her like another victim, like those on the colony! She was with us! She saved us! ”

“And I’m very grateful. Now come on, Olivia. We’ll mourn her later. Can we get on with this?” He turned, scanning the dim corridor behind them. “Six Shards left. You’d think we’d have run into them by now...”

Olivia scoffed again, arms folded tight across her chest. ‘ He really is just ignoring her, isn’t he’, she thought. “Isn’t that a good thing?” she muttered, “That we haven’t seen them yet? I think it’s lucky anyway…”

“Is it?” the Doctor asked with a hint of sarcasm, while he was already creeping down the dim corridor. “You call it luck, I call it the calm before the storm. Question is... who’ll be doing the storming , hmm?” As he said this – oh so enigmatically – he flicked a finger across his lapel with a touch of theatrical flair, not once looking back.

Olivia followed, catching up to him. She kept glancing over her shoulder every few seconds. “Any plans, then?” she asked. “You said you didn’t want to kill them, but... the Vortex seemed to work pretty well. Even if…” She trailed off, eyes shutting tight for a moment as the weight of what had happened hung heavy in the air. Seeing her body flailing out uselessly as the Observation window opened … She shuddered at the memory, forcing it into the back of her mind. At least for now. “...It worked, though,” she finished quietly.

“Not really,” the Doctor replied. “The Time Lords found the Shards unconscious in the Vortex. We know that. So... they’re not dead. Just ‘decommissioned’, so to speak.” He paused, glancing around a corner. “Unfortunately, I doubt the rest of the ‘brood’, or however you’d like to describe a family of Shards, will be foolish enough to make the same mistake as their brothers and sisters.” He sighed. “No... Even if we could trick them, we don’t have any good exits left like that. Not anymore. Shame.”

A quiet pause hung between them as the duo weighed their options.

“I thought you liked my ‘teleport-the-Shards-away’ plan,” Olivia said, rubbing her neck. It was starting to get chilly again… not a good sign, and she knew that already.

“Yes, very good plan! I even called you a genius, remember?” the Doctor replied, waving a hand vaguely. “But… I don’t know if we have the time to find a teleportation pod, or… any similar tech. We just don’t have the time… not before the rest of the Shards tear our timelines to pieces.”

Olivia stopped walking, forcing the Doctor to do the same. He turned, curious. She met his eyes. “But we can still try, can’t we? It’s worth a shot, surely? It’s not like we’ve got… much to lose.”

“Apart from all of reality getting eaten alive, you mean?” he said with a grin, or what passed for one.

Olivia lightly punched his arm. “Oh, shush.” She glanced around the corridor. “I don’t hear them yet. So… we’re safe. For now. Right? So, let’s search.”

***

Olivia didn’t walk too close to the Doctor. Part of it was to let him know she was still angry, which she was, but another part just… didn’t want comfort yet. Not from him. Not now. 

Still, he was her only ride home. ‘ So don’t get on his bad side’, she reminded herself.

The Doctor halted in front of another set of mechanical doors and pulled out his screwdriver. “Let’s try these. At least they’re not deadlocked like the others.”

Olivia kept her eyes on the corridor behind them, nerves still frayed. “You think we’ll find anything useful there?” 

The device buzzed and glowed, casting pale blue light over his hands and the door panel. “We’ll just have to wait and see, eh?” he murmured. With a loud hiss , the doors yawned open. “Ugh! shut up ,” the Doctor groaned, flinching at the sound. He muttered a curse or two under his breath. “Well… come on. Hopefully they didn’t hear.”

Inside was a darkened chamber lined with storage units filled with sturdy metal boxes encrusted with faded Gallifreyan insignia. Dust coated every surface in thick, untouched layers. Olivia now knew what the dust really meant. She didn’t want to think about it. Desks lay cluttered and forgotten, papers half-curled from age, and tall cupboards loomed along the walls, sealed and silent. The air felt close, like it hadn’t been disturbed in centuries.

“...A storage room. Jackpot! ” the Doctor grinned, already stepping forward with excitement in his voice. “Let’s get snooping, then. Proper amateur sleuths! I’ll close the door, just in case.”

“Oh god. Like Sherlock and Watson?” Olivia muttered, squinting around in the dim light. “We can’t even see anything properly like this. I bet that dumb magic stick won’t do us any good.”

“Oi! Don’t insult my sonic,” he replied with mock offense, lifting the device and giving it a purposeful flick. “And don’t insult Sherlock and John either. Lovely fellows. I should really visit them again someday…”

Olivia blinked in disbelief, then furrowed her brow, before rolling her eyes and smiling at him. “Yeah, right. Hardy-har. Very funny.” She knew he was just trying to cheer her up at this time, but still.

The Doctor gave her a puzzled look. “What’s funny?”

She waved him off quickly. “Uhh… never mind. Let’s just search. Like you said.” 

***

Books littered the floor of the dark room as Olivia held up the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, using its dim blue light to see better. Her expression was anything but thrilled. She thought she’d be ecstatic, seeing the alien literature, alien culture, right here in front of her. But they weren’t here to appreciate culture. They were here to find a weapon. And besides, she couldn’t even read the damn symbols. “Why bring so many books to... some outpost in the middle of nowhere?” she muttered.

Across the room, the Doctor was rummaging through metallic crates, his coat swishing behind him. “Boredom, perhaps?” he called back. “But you're right. From what we saw in the video, this place had military personnel and a few technicians. Not scholars.”

“Well, I wouldn’t know,” Olivia replied, frowning as she thumbed through one of the dusty volumes. “I can’t read any of this! I thought the TARDIS was supposed to translate?”

“Ancient Gallifreyan,” the Doctor replied casually. “The stuff you saw on the Observation Room screens? That was Contemporary Gallifreyan. The TARDIS can handle modern dialects. But this…” He glanced over at her. “This is basically Latin crossed with code. It predates most translation matrices.”

Olivia looked up sharply. “How do you even know that?”

The Doctor gave a brief, evasive shrug. “I know a lot of languages,” he said, almost offhand. “Thousands. Maybe millions. I don’t always need the TARDIS to translate.”

Olivia stood up and put one of the dusty books down, her eyes fixed on the Doctor. Her face was unreadable, but the tension behind her gaze was unmistakable. “… She said something about an employer. That your ‘employer’ needs the Shards alive. What did she mean?”

The Doctor didn’t look at her. Instead, he focused on the floor, hands buried in his pockets. “Not now,” he muttered. “Now’s really not a good time for this.”

“Then when?” Olivia pressed, voice rising. “When is the right time, Doctor? After someone else dies?”

He exhaled, still not facing her. “…After the Shards are dealt with, I’ll explain. But it’s not important now.”

“Not important?” Olivia’s voice cracked. “She saved us. And you–” She wanted to slap herself so she would calm down, before sighing and continuing, “...you act like it’s just another part of the game you’re playing! Who is your employer, Doctor? And why do they care so much about the Shards?”

The Doctor finally turned to her. There was a tightness in his expression. Strained, but not broken. “The Shards are dangerous, yes. But that doesn’t mean they deserve to die. It’s immoral.”

Olivia stepped closer, her words sharper now, trembling. “You know what’s immoral? Letting her die… and pretending like you couldn’t have done something!”

The Doctor’s voice hardened. “She chose to sacrifice herself! I tried to stop her!”

“YOU COULD HAVE SAVED HER!” Olivia shouted. Her eyes welled with tears, her inner protests working against her. “You’ve got your bloody time machine, and you just let her die! How is that right?!”

“I… I can’t do that!” the Doctor finally said, exasperated. “We saw her die. There are rules , Olivia. Time rules. You can’t just rewrite–”

“I couldn’t give a toss about your rules!” Olivia snapped. Her voice cracked. “We could save her!”

Thud. 

A faint sound echoed in the background. Soft, but not natural. “We should really focus on finding something, anything , to use against the Shards,” the Doctor said, turning back to the boxes, his voice flat and distant.

“No!” Olivia shouted. “There’s nothing here, and you know it! You’re just changing the subject again! You always do this! What, do you think I’m stupid?”

Thud. 

Louder this time. Closer . “Of course not,” the Doctor muttered. “You came up with the teleport trap. That was your idea. I’m doing your idea now. I just—” he faltered. “I don’t want to talk about Shima.”

“Ha!” Olivia barked out a bitter laugh, tears streaming now. “I knew it! You didn’t care about her, did you? Is it because she was a soldier? Just another casualty to add to the pile?”

Thud. Heavier. It rattled the shelves slightly.

“No!” the Doctor snapped. “Of course I… I cared . But that’s not the point! Just—” He stopped talking, as if his ears perked up like a dog. “...can you please be quiet?”

Olivia reeled, stunned. Her jaw tightened. “WHAT did you just say to me??”

The Doctor pressed his fingers to his forehead, dragging them down his face with a frustrated groan. “No, I mean, really , can you be quiet for a second?”

THUD.

Olivia flinched at the words, but didn’t stop. “You’re telling me to shut up? Me?! Do you have any idea who you’re talking to? I’m a teacher , sunshine! I’ve handled toddlers with sticks who were more polite than you! I thought the future would’ve moved past men yelling ‘shut up’ at women, but apparently not!”

The Doctor spun toward her, eyes wide. He tugged at his hair in a panic. “ No! That’s not what I—just— listen! I need you to be quiet.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “Please. Olivia. Just… shhh…”

Olivia squinted at him, arms still folded. “What are you on about? This is just insulting!”

THUD.

THUD.

A metallic clang vibrated through the wall. The floor trembled. Olivia’s mouth snapped shut. She turned her head toward the sound. “…oh.”

The Doctor grabbed Olivia by the arm and yanked her deeper into the shadows between towering shelves. His breath was shallow. He pressed a finger to his lips. “Shhh… They’re here,” he whispered. “They’ve probably surrounded the entire entrance.”

Olivia crouched beside him, clutching the sonic. “What do we do? We can’t just hide… they’ll find us.”

The Doctor managed a tight smile. “Good thing I locked the doors, then!”

A violent clang shook the room. The mechanical doors groaned, hissing and buckling inward as something slammed into them. The echo rang off the walls. From outside, the guttural screech of a Shard split the air: high-pitched, animalistic, vibrating through the very walls of the bunker. Olivia’s eyes went wide. She instinctively pressed herself back against the shelves.

The Doctor muttered, just loud enough for her to hear, “...Alright. Remind me to shut up next time.”

A screech of tearing metal split the air.

The doors bent inward with a horrible CRACK , one of the hinges snapping loose. Cold air spilled into the room, accompanied by the glint of something sharp: long twitching claws, ready to strike.

Then—

WHAM.

The doors exploded open. Six Shards all poured in like liquid shadow, their furry limbs clicking, their eyes glowing with a deep orange animalistic fury. They moved like spiders, like predators that could smell fear, hear distress in every breath.

The Doctor shoved Olivia further behind the shelving units. “When I say run,” he hissed.

“But—”

“Oh, you’re right. They’re in the doorway. Stupid idea.” 

The hungry time predators began to stalk forward.

Chapter Text

The Shards clanked their teeth together, their long, forked tongues swirling around their massive maws. Though small in stature, their footsteps thudded against the metal floor as they crept closer to where the Doctor and Olivia were hiding.

The Doctor’s hand covered Olivia’s mouth, which she hated. She didn’t need help to stay quiet. But that didn’t matter now. Olivia’s heart pounded like a war drum in her chest, hoping, praying, that the six monsters wouldn't tear her open there and then. Her mind flashed back to what she’d seen the Shards do to the crew: skin flaking with age, eyes hollowed, hair a tattered white mess.

The Doctor remained utterly still, statue-like. He could have used his respiratory bypass trick, but didn’t want to frighten Olivia further. She was scared enough already.

The Shards came to a sudden halt. Their bulbous, glowing eyes turned toward one another, as if sensing something new. Something… exciting . They hissed in delight. And before either the Doctor or Olivia could react…

The six Shards vanished , light flashing across the walls as the air twisted around their forms. With a crackle of warped reality, they were gone.

The Doctor stood up fast, eyes wide, brows raised. “Okay. I wasn’t expecting that…”

Olivia slowly got to her feet, still shaken, her breath uneven. “What just happened? I thought we were done for!” She laughed breathlessly, the kind of laughter that happens when fear drains away too quickly, like stepping off a roller coaster with shaky legs.

The Doctor scanned the air with his sonic screwdriver, his eyes narrowing as it buzzed. “…Teleported away. Back in time, most likely.” He checked the readings. “Yep, paradoxical energy spikes. Definitely time travel.”

Olivia leaned against a crate, still breathing hard, scratching anxiously at the back of her hand. “But why?” she asked. “Why leave when they had two people right here… basically on a platter? It’s not like we were going to outrun them!”

The Doctor began pacing in a quick circle, murmuring to himself. “Six Shards… six… Six of them… Hmm…Ah!”

Olivia watched him, frowning. “What? Did you figure something out?”

“Ha!” the Doctor exclaimed, spinning on his heel. “I knew it! I think I know exactly where they went, which means… my theory was correct~!” He leapt into the air with a grin. “Oooh, I love being right!”

Olivia crossed her arms, not sure whether to be annoyed or impressed. His excitement grated on her nerves a little, after all, they had nearly died, but it was strangely infectious. “Ugh,” she muttered. “What do you mean ? Come on, spill already!”

The Doctor turned to her, eyes gleaming with excitement. “Twelfth of March 1992!”

Olivia blinked. “What? But that’s when I—” She stopped, her breath catching. “Oh. You mean–?”

The Doctor pointed dramatically at her. “That’s exactly what I mean! HAH! Bootstrap paradox! I called it! I can’t believe I called it!” And with that, he spun on his heel and bolted out of the storage room. Olivia hurried after him. “Wait, how many Shards were chasing you at the school?” he called back.

“You can’t seriously expect me to remember that!” she snapped. “That was hours ago! And frankly, I was a little busy not dying to do a headcount!”

“But it wasn’t ten,” the Doctor pressed, grinning as he sped ahead. “Just six, right? Six , Olivia!”

She frowned, jogging beside him now. “Yeah… I guess? Why?”

“They didn’t just appear randomly,” the Doctor said, still half-laughing in amazement. “They followed you because they wanted revenge. Revenge for something you haven’t even done yet, not in your timeline, anyway. Revenge for their brethren! The ones that Shima expelled into the Vortex!”

Olivia walked in silence for a while, chewing over the implications. Then: “Wait. Why would they go back at all? They know I survived. Wouldn’t killing me before I ever got involved just… break everything?”

The Doctor didn’t slow down. “And you think hungry time monsters care about the rules?” 

Her eyes widened. “Then we have to go back! We have to save… me!” Her voice cracked slightly as the stress returned.

“Oh, no no no! ” The Doctor waved both hands frantically. “Way too risky. And besides, you’ve already got me!” He paused, then added with a wince, “Well, not me now , but past me. Still me, just… earlier. Oh, you know what I mean. Shush!”

Olivia blinked. “…I didn’t say anything.”

“But this means…” the Doctor began, eyes lighting up, “…we’ve got plenty of time! Finally, a bit of relative peace to figure out how to stop them properly! Uhm… ten minutes, give or take?”

Olivia frowned, trying to recall the timeline. “Yeah… I guess right now I’d be trying to find Janice and Margaret…”

“Who?” the Doctor blinked. “What?”

“The, uh, cleaners,” she said. “I heard a bunch of stuff breaking upstairs and thought it was them at first.”

The Doctor stared at her. “…You thought the noise of the Shards wrecking your school was a couple of… cleaners?”

Olivia blushed, defensive. “ Oi! Don’t test me! How was I supposed to know it was space gremlins? I thought it was a burglar or something later, alright? So shut up!”

The Doctor chuckled, holding up his hands. “Fair enough. Robber beats ‘eldritch time beast’ in most people’s books in regards of probability.”

***

Olivia sighed heavily as they jogged down yet another identical corridor, metallic walls blurring into one another. Time was slowly running out. “Where are we even going? This place is a bloody maze…”

The Doctor darted his eyes between each door, quickly checking for deadlocks with his screwdriver. “Big room. Somewhere spacious. Like the Observation Room, but… not that one. For obvious reasons.”

“Does that really matter right now?” Olivia asked, her patience thinning by the second.

“Yes, actually,” the Doctor said, puffing up slightly, his posture straightening like a proud Frigatebird, Olivia noticed with mild disbelief. “Because…” he added, gesturing theatrically, “I want a big room to prance around in and be clever.”

Olivia blinked. “…Uhm. That’s… honest of you, at least.”

“And because,” the Doctor added, “I need a big enough room for my plan to work.”

Olivia shot him a sharp look. “Wait. Plan ? You never mentioned a plan. You only said my teleport idea wouldn’t work.”

“Well…” the Doctor exhaled, hesitating. “Because my plan is risky. And… likely deadly.”

“ WHAT? ” Olivia barked.

“I said likely , not definitely! Just… something Shima said before she… before she died. ‘ Sometimes the enemy’s greatest strength is its weakness. ’ And she was right! With animals, that’s often the case. But what about the Shards?”

Olivia blinked. “I’m… not following.”

“Think about it,” the Doctor said, picking up speed again. “The Shards feed on time: on timelines, possibilities, paradoxes. We know all this. BUT what if they get too much of it? What happens when there’s more time than they can stomach? Do they stop? Collapse? Fall asleep? Maybe even die?” He paused, then added, “Hopefully not the last one.”

Olivia gaped at him. “You’re right. That is extremely dangerous. Are you an idiot ??”

“Maybe,” the Doctor replied without missing a beat. “And maybe I’m a genius. Maybe I’m both. Doesn’t matter. Listen, Olivia, we don’t have time for a grand master plan. We take the risk. That’s it.”

“You could die! They could kill you like the rest!” Olivia cried, her voice cracking. “What are you even talking about?! I can’t let you die! You…” she hesitated, “...you’re my only ride home…”

“Ah… and here I was hoping it was because you’d miss me,” the Doctor said with a wry grin.

“Ugh, that too! But seriously, what then? What’ll happen to me? I can’t just stand by and watch you die…”

The Doctor stopped walking. Something in his posture changed. When he turned to face her, the teasing was gone. His expression was colder. Controlled. Almost… frightening. 

“ Tough ,” he said quietly. Then he turned away again, scanning the corridor for the right door. “We’ve got about three minutes. Let’s move.”

***

The double doors hissed open as the Doctor stepped inside, Olivia trailing behind in silence. She didn’t say anything– couldn’t, really. Not after that shift in him. The way his voice dropped. The steel in his tone. What if he really does die here? His plan sounded like it barely existed. She wanted to help. She really did . But she didn’t know how anymore.

The room was vast, probably a communal space, with clean branching corridors leading to locked doors. It was sparsely decorated, save for a wide circular couch and a few scattered tables. “Lounge area,” the Doctor said, giving the space a once-over. “Linked to accommodation rooms. Not bad…” His tone turned more bitter as he muttered to himself. “… For the CIA .” He cleared his throat, snapping back into focus. “Definitely big enough. Now to just… wait.”

“For the Shards?” Olivia asked, still facing away.

“Yes.” A pause. “You don’t have to be here, you know. You could go back. Get inside the TARDIS. Lock the doors. I can show you how to activate the emergency take-off protocols.”

“Fat chance.”

“I mean it,” the Doctor said, turning toward her. “This is going to be dangerous. I want the Shards to focus on me, not you. I’m trying to keep you safe.”

“You didn’t keep Shima safe, evidently,” Olivia muttered under her breath.

The Doctor twitched. “Olivia… it was her choice.”

“I know it was her choice,” Olivia cut in, her voice tight. “But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t have persuaded her. Shown her a better plan…”

“We didn’t know.” The Doctor stepped closer, his voice softening. “We didn’t know. It’s not your fault. It’s not mine. Not even hers. She did what she believed in, and… that was enough for her.” He paused, eyes searching hers. “I am sorry, you know. I don’t dismiss her. Just… so you know. But this is important now. I don’t want you ending up like her.”

Olivia blinked, her expression caught somewhere between anger and heartbreak. “But you might.”

The Doctor hesitated… then offered the faintest of smirks. “I’ll walk it off.”

Olivia spun around, breathing hard. “…How much time?”

The Doctor closed his eyes, as if sensing the countdown. “…Under a minute. I suggest you go now, Olivia. Uhm… take this. Wait.” He reached into his coat and pulled out a black marker cap, handing it to her. She stared at the plastic object, puzzled.

“What?”

“It’s not what it looks like. Press it.”

Without thinking about it any further, Olivia pressed the tip of the marker, and - to her amazement - a faint glow appeared.

“TARDIS Locator.” The Doctor began explaining, sensing her confusion, “So you wouldn’t get lost in the corridors. Sneaky, isn’t it?” the Doctor grinned. “Now go. GO!”

Olivia clutched the pen cap tightly in her fist as she ran out of the room, turning right– Then stopped. She ducked to the side of the double doors, crouching low, not moving a muscle. “I’ll wait. I have to. If anything happens… I’ll save him.”

Was it really just because he was her only ride home?

He had said the TARDIS could take her back without him, but… had she grown attached?

Why would she risk herself for him?

She’d figure that out when the time came.

Inside, the Doctor stood tall in the centre of the lounge, counting seconds in his head, eyes sweeping the room. “Come on… come on… any second now…”

The air shimmered with flickering light. A low clicking slowly built into a chorus of screeches as the atmosphere twisted, space folding in on itself. Six furry shapes burst into form.

The Shards had arrived.
Claws gleamed.
Eyes burned with hunger.

“Hello there~” the Doctor cooed mockingly, waving. “Thought you’d never come! Sorry about your brothers and sisters, especially Bruce! I will miss his smelly breath. Tragic loss, truly.”

The Shards stalked forward, low and deliberate. The Doctor raised his sonic screwdriver and aimed at the lights overhead—

CRACK!

A bulb exploded between him and the creatures, spraying sparks all over the furniture. “Don’t think so!” he barked. “Had fun on Earth, did you? Must be livid your little plan didn’t pan out. Wanted to go after Olivia?” He stepped forward, defiant. “Unfortunately, I can’t allow that.” He smirked, “You’ll just have to go through me~”

Olivia crouched, listening intently, every nerve on high alert. Her knees throbbed, her back ached, and her pulse pounded in her ears. She could definitely do this. She had to. 

“I swear,” she muttered under her breath, “I’m taking the world’s longest nap after this.” She pushed the discomfort aside and refocused on the voice coming from the room.

“You know,” the Doctor was saying, “the Time Lords are a bunch of aristocratic, bureaucratic, pompous, self-centred, sedentary blowhards. Hah… but not me! ” He stepped back slowly, keeping a careful distance from the Shards. “Just because you think you can feast on the timelines of Time Lords doesn’t mean much. Sure, they’ve got hundreds, thousands , of years of experience but… doing what , exactly? Sitting around? Talking politics? Shuffling data? Repeating the same meaningless tasks for eternity?”

“Well then…”, the Doctor sneered, “… why don’t you get a big taste of this Time Lord?~”

***

Olivia nearly choked. What?

Her heart skipped a beat. He was a Time Lord? This whole time? ‘ Why didn’t he tell me?’ ‘Why hide something like that?’

She swallowed hard, suddenly seeing him in a different light: his odd comments, his endless energy, his strange knowledge of the Gallifreyan language and this ‘CIA’, how secretive he was… It all made sense now.

***

The Shards licked their jagged teeth, maws yawning open as they crept forward. Their throats began to glow with a sickly, pulsing light. This time, they didn’t even need to touch him like their other victims. No claws, no grapples. Just hunger. Pure, insatiable hunger.

“Oh, you must be r-r-r-avenous ~,” the Doctor purred, exaggerating his rolled ‘R’s’ as he paced backward. “Devoured the Colony, the recon crew… and who could forget the entire CIA station? And still you’re not full? Hah! Well then…” He threw his arms wide. “I won’t stop you. TAKE IT! TAKE IT ALL—!”

His voice caught.

A brutal force yanked at him.

The Shards stared him down, mouths glowing like furnaces, their snarls deep and guttural.

The Doctor screamed a primal screech.

A radiant orange light flared from his body. His face twisted in agony as glowing regeneration energy began to trace across his skin and body.

***

Olivia clutched her cardigan, her fingers feeling numb, as she listened to those horrifying cries. She couldn’t even imagine what was happening to the Doctor inside those doors. Was he aging? Slowly turning into dust? She wouldn’t allow that. He wasn’t just her chauffeur, someone to bring her home. No. He saved her multiple times… Perhaps… Now was the time.

Olivia burst into the room, skidding to a halt. Her heart froze at the sight: six monsters, feeding, not on flesh, but on him . His essence. His soul? Her only way home, her guide, her maddening, brilliant… friend? Crumbling.

  He said he had a plan.
  This didn’t look like a plan.

Panic surged through her chest. She couldn’t just run at them. She’d be vaporised in seconds. Aged into nothing but a husk. A shell of a life. But she had to do something . “DOCTOR!” she screamed.

The Doctor tried to look at Olivia, but the sheer force of the Shard energy twisted his body, keeping him locked in place. Still, worry flashed across his face as he shouted through clenched teeth: “Get… out… GET OUT! OUT! NOW!”

“But I can’t leave you like this!” Olivia shouted back, tears stinging her eyes. “They’re killing you! You’ll turn to dust like the rest of the Time Lords here!”

Some of the Shards began to turn their attention toward her.

“No!” the Doctor roared, voice cracking with desperation. “Don’t go after her! She’s useless to you! TAKE ME! ARE YOU DEAF?! TAKE ME! ME!! AHH— !” A fresh wave of regeneration energy burst from him, curling into the air like golden fire, wrapping around his convulsing form.

“LISTEN!” he barked through the pain. “I’m not like the other Time Lords! I’m barely even one of them! My— AH! My whole timeline is a mess! You want paradoxes?! You want raw time? FEAST! But you leave her ALONE!”

Olivia watched as the Doctor screamed in pain, orange light pouring from his body, shimmering through the air. She was terrified, of course she was, but knew she had to help. Even in the smallest way.

“LIV!” the Doctor screamed, face twisted, “Just run! I have a plan—just run and hide!”

Instead of running and despite his protests, Olivia stepped closer, grabbing his shoulders and anchoring him upright . “Shut up,” she muttered through gritted teeth. “Just stay still. I don’t know what the hell you’re playing at, Doctor, but it’d better be good.”

The Doctor grimaced, steadying himself with her support. Then he turned toward the Shards, not broken now, but defiant. “Like I said…” he panted, “I’m no ordinary Time Lord… Or am I?” He grinned suddenly, wild with a surge of inspiration.

“Was I loomed on Gallifrey? Or found as the Timeless Child? Or did I have a human parent? Oh… so many questions.” He tilted his head, mockingly. “They’re all in here…” he tapped his skull, “… buried deep. Which is true? All of them? None of them? Can you tell?” 

He laughed mockingly, still in pain, and flicked a glance toward Olivia, whose confusion only seemed to fuel his momentum. “What about the time I was half-human? Then wasn’t? Then was again? And again? Who are my parents? Am I half-human or not then? Gallifreyan or something else? Do I have a granddaughter named Susan? Are we related at all? Or are my grandchildren John and Gillian? Or—” he snarled, “—were they never real to begin with?”

The Doctor took a step forward, burning with paradox energy, voice rising. “WHO AM I?! TELL ME! WHICH VERSION OF ME ARE YOU EVEN EATING?!”

Olivia stayed close to the Time Lord, still not understanding a word he was saying, but when she looked at the Shards… she froze.

The six monsters were laughing. Not wildly, not like humans, but with a low, grinding growl that echoed in her bones. Their teeth were lengthening. Their bodies bulking up, growing stronger. They were feeding on him. Thriving.

“Aha!” the Doctor yelled, eyes wide and bright. “And I haven’t even STARTED talking about my adventures!” He was pacing now, even through the agony, his voice rising. “I’ll unlock them for you… out of my mind… Millennia upon millennia of worlds! Enemies! Wars! Friends! I REMEMBER THEM ALL! From Susan, Barbara, and Ian… all the way to… Sheena…”

His voice caught. Just a flicker. But he didn’t stop. “There were multiple Time Wars, did you know that? But not here! Not in this universe. No War Daleks. No Faction Paradox. No retro-engineered monstrosities of anti-time. But they’re here…” He tapped his temple, once, twice… hard. “Right here. In my head.” The Doctor’s grin faltered, shifting to a grimace. “...And GOD, it hurts!”

He trembled. Olivia reached for him instinctively. “So many forgotten memories springing back. But not just for me. Oh no. You’re chewing on everything I’ve seen, everything I am. And if this hurts so much for the man who lived it all …” He faced the Shards directly, voice turning low and poisonous. “…I wonder what it must feel like to you .”

The Shards kept growing, unnaturally, grotesquely. Their bodies swelled in size, muscles bulging, skin stretching until it looked ready to tear. Their maws opened and snapped shut in frantic rhythm, like they were gasping for air, choking on the very energy they were devouring. One of them staggered, its neck twitching as it tried to keep feeding.

Olivia’s breath caught in her throat. They’re not stopping, she realized. They were getting too much.

The Doctor’s expression shifted — no longer defiant but deeply alarmed. His voice cracked with urgency.  “They’re not letting go… Wait! No… Didn’t you have enough??”

The Shards expanded further. Their forms flickered violently, warping between their original sleek, predatory shapes and bloated, turning into grotesque silhouettes: distended limbs, gaping ribs, skin stretched translucent with light. Paradox energy sparked and crawled across their bodies like veins of lightning.

Then—

One tried to teleport away. A shimmer of distortion. But it screamed, or something akin to a scream , as if caught in an invisible hook. It couldn’t escape. None of them could.

Olivia flinched back, pressing herself instinctively against the wall. “Oh God,” she whispered, trembling.

Just then—

One burst!

A wet, blinding explosion of light and gore filled the room. Olivia screamed, not just in fear, but in revulsion too. The heat, the stink of burning air and something far worse, something temporal and wrong, hit her like a wave. She threw her arm over her face, gagging.

Another Shard detonated — then another.

When the final Shard imploded, the Lounge Room fell into a suffocating silence. Olivia let out a shaky breath, her legs giving out as she collapsed to her knees. Her whole body ached, screaming from the strain of the last few hours, or had it been longer? It didn’t matter. It was over.

THUD.

Her head snapped toward the noise. The Doctor. He had collapsed, crumpled onto the ground like a discarded puppet.

“Doctor!” Olivia pushed past her own exhaustion, forcing herself upright and stumbling toward him. He was curled in on himself, hands clenched, face twisted with pain. She dropped beside him, reaching out to his head instinctively, brushing his hair back.

“Hey… Doctor? Are you– are you alright?” she asked, barely able to catch her breath.

The Doctor groaned brokenly. There was a whimper in his throat as he stirred.

“No, no, don’t move– don’t!” Olivia panicked as he tried to sit up.

“Of… course I am…all right…” He muttered, struggling to stay upright. “Ow. My head… So many memories…”

Olivia froze as her eyes locked on his face. “Oh my God. You… you changed .”

The Doctor's eyes flew open wide in alarm. His hands darted to his face. “NO! No no no! I can’t have regenerated! That face was still new! A couple years at most! That’s not fair!”

Olivia blinked, then let out a half-laugh, half-groan. “No, you look the same, idiot. I mean… you look older.”

The Doctor sighed with visible relief… and then immediately recoiled again, horrified. “OLDER!?? How much older!?”

Olivia let out a tired laugh, the absurdity of the situation finally catching up to her. “Not bad... I mean, you don’t look that much older.”

“A specific number would help,” the Doctor groaned, rubbing his temples like the age might fall off with pressure. “As in, human years?”

“Oh, right.” Olivia squinted at him, half-joking, half-sincere. “You look like you're in your… mid to... late thirties?”

The Doctor looked at her for a couple moments, his eyes widening once more. “WHAT.” 

“Yeah, you know, little stubble here, slight eye bags there...” She motioned vaguely at his face, smiling. “You don’t look like a lost uni student anymore. More like a peer. A… cool teacher. Maybe?”

The Doctor let out an anguished grunt, dropping his head into his hands. “Not helping! I just aged the equivalent of… of… a hundred years? Fifty at least! Brilliant. Absolutely ‘ fantastic’ .”

***

The Doctor and Olivia sat side by side on a narrow bed in the Accommodation Room, the Lounge was far too messy now, littered with scorched marks and the memory of what happened. Olivia winced as she rubbed her aching calves, back hunched from exhaustion. "Ow… So… we did it. I mean, you did it. You saved my life. Almost died trying… like Shima.”

“I was trying to save the whole world,” the Doctor murmured, gaze low. “…Not just you.” He paused, realising that it must have sounded callous. “But… yeah. I wouldn’t have let you die. That’s for sure.”

Olivia glanced over at him, picking up on the heaviness in his tone. “I know a lot of people died. I know that. But… you look even sadder now than when we found all those scientists back in the Colony. Why?”

There was a long moment of silence. The hum of the damaged facility filled the space between them. 

Then the Doctor mumbled, barely audible: “…I failed.”

“What?” Olivia blinked.

“I failed my mission, Olivia.” He exhaled sharply through his nose. “I killed them. I overloaded what they could take… I didn’t mean to kill them.”

Olivia looked down at her hands, then back at him. “…I…I know, but… If you hadn’t, they might have escaped. They could’ve hurt more people. And… aren’t there still four Shards trapped in the Vortex? Unconscious? So… they’re still alive. That’s something, isn’t it?”

The Doctor didn’t answer right away. His expression remained drawn, jaw tense. “…I…” he sighed, long and deep. “I suppose.”

He stood slowly, brushing off his coat in a half-hearted gesture. “We should head back to the TARDIS. You need rest. Maybe a calming bath. Or ten. You still have that locator I gave you?”

Olivia fumbled through the pocket of her yellow cardigan, patting each side until her fingers closed around the small pen cap. “Uhh… yes. Right here.” She held it up, the tiny device gleaming softly.

The Doctor took the pen cap from Olivia’s hand and turned, limping a little as he made his way down the corridor. “I’ll be fine. Come on then, follow me. Phew… this is going to take a while.”

***

Olivia walked alongside him, the corridor around them endlessly repeating itself, sterile walls, flickering lights, the same groaning pipes overhead. “I’ve got so many questions… like… why didn’t you tell me you’re a Time Lord?”

The Doctor didn’t answer right away. His expression tightened slightly as he walked. “It’s complicated …I was embarrassed, quite frankly.” He kept his eyes forward. “After we found out this Station belonged to the Time Lords… that they were behind all of this… I just…” He hesitated. “You know I’m not like them. If I could, I wouldn’t even consider myself a Time Lord! I’m embarrassed, that’s all.”

It was only half the truth. But it would do, for now.

Olivia didn’t press. She gave a small nod, wincing from her aching feet. “I see… And… what about what you said to the Shards? That you lived for thousands of years… Do you really remember all of it? Everything that ever happened to you? How’s that even possible?”

The Doctor stopped walking, hands in his coat pockets, staring down the corridor. “…No. Not everything.” His voice was quieter now. “I remember my companions. My friends. My adventures… Those memories stick. But the rest… not so much. I don’t know how I remembered all those fragmented timelines or paradoxes…” He tapped his temple lightly. “The Shards must have pulled something loose in here. Unlocked something. Maybe an after-effect from the attack? But it’s fading already. Like a dream you forget the moment you wake up.” 

He sighed, a half-smile creeping onto his face. “Probably for the better, no?” He turned to Olivia and gave her a wink before carrying on.

They reached another corridor junction, the same as all the rest, but this time, the Doctor stopped dead in his tracks. “Ah… AH! I can’t believe it!” Without another word, he sprinted forward. There, at the end of the hallway, was the TARDIS: safe, untouched, glowing softly beneath the dull overhead lights.

He ran a hand across the blue doors reverently, then kissed them with a dramatic flourish. “Old girl! You’re safe and sound! I was worried the Shards had cracked your shell open like a tin can…” Grinning wide, he looked back at Olivia. “Come on then! Let’s go. I’ll give you the grand tour! Bedrooms, corridors, swimming pools, libraries, kitchens— everything!”

Olivia caught up to him, raising an eyebrow with a sceptical smirk. “Listen, I know it’s bigger on the inside and all, but… a swimming pool? Really? Yeah, right.”

The Doctor only smirked in return, pulling open the doors with a theatrical creak. “I suppose I’ll just have to prove you wrong, Mrs. Smythe . Ladies first~”

Olivia rolled her eyes and gave his shoulder a playful punch. “Less of the ‘Mrs. Smythe,’ I told you!”

And just like that, she stepped inside.

The doors of the blue box closed behind them with a soft thunk , leaving the corridor silent once more.

Chapter Text

Olivia stepped into the Console Room through the secondary doors, still wearing the same clothes she'd had on since the Doctor saved her life. Her only change was the way her damp hair was now pinned up, still air-drying from a much-needed bubble bath. “I… can’t believe this,” she said, grinning with wide-eyed wonder. “The corridors are all white, the rooms are completely different from each other… and this bloody thing,” she gestured around her, “what did you call it? Console Room? It looks like some moody Gothic nightmare!”

The Doctor rolled his eyes, flicking a few switches without looking at her. “I like it. It’s atmospheric. Not a nightmare… It's cool.”

Olivia wandered over to the console, squinting at the array of blinking lights and knobs. “So… what have you been tinkering with while I was napping?”

The Doctor finally paused his adjustments and leaned against the brass-rimmed edge of the console. “The heavy lifting,” he said dryly, but his tone quickly shifted. He moved around to the other side, checking a monitor with quiet focus. “I contacted EO-14 Ajax. Told them where to find the recon crew… and the scientists. They’ll recover the bodies and get them back to their families. For a proper burial. As it should be.”

Olivia’s smile faded. She leaned against the railing, eyes dimming with the memory. “And… Shima?”

The Doctor hesitated. “They won’t find her. She’s in the Vortex. Floating… probably forever. Not even the TARDIS could track her down. I… I’m sorry. Really.”

Olivia shifted, suddenly uneasy. “And the Shards? The ones still in the Vortex? Are we just going to leave them out there, like Shima?”

The Doctor let out a long breath, forcing a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Not exactly. Since they have paradoxical time signatures, I’ll find them. On my own. You don’t need to worry about that. It’ll be hard. Messy. And I don’t want you getting tangled in it again.” He hesitated, his gaze drifting to the slow rise and fall of the glowing blue time rotor. “Which reminds me… I sort of, well, kidnapped you. Technically saved you, but still. So… I suppose you want to go… home?”

Olivia blinked, caught off guard by the question. “…I guess… yeah. You did kidnap me, if you look at it from a certain angle.” She scratched her head. “And… I’ve got a pile of exams to grade. A presentation about insects to finish. Oh my god— Frizzle! I totally forgot about Frizzle!” She stared in horror. “My poor kitty, he must be starving! I’ve been gone for hours!”

The Doctor smiled, soft and amused. “Time machine, remember?”

“Oh… right.” Olivia exhaled, embarrassed. “I keep forgetting that.”

The Doctor’s smile faded slightly. “I understand. Well… 12th of March, 1992 it is. I’ll take you home.”

“You’d better,” Olivia smirked. “I need more clothes. You don’t expect me to run around space and time with just one cardigan and pair of jeans, do you?”

“…What?” The Doctor tilted his head in confusion.

She burst out laughing. “You big space idiot… If this is a time machine, we’ve got time for a ride or two before I go back to grading homework. But yes, you are taking me home first. Frizzle and fresh clothes. Priorities!”

The Doctor started to smile, “You mean… you’d want to travel? With me? After all… that?”

Olivia giggled, saying, “It’s true that…you are insufferable sometimes and borderline hyperactive, but…” She paused to look at him, with a more calm expression. “...you look like you’d need company at the moment. So do I, to be honest.  And… I would love a holiday.” She mumbled to herself: “ Free holiday in March… how lucky am I? ” 

She continued, “but…NO Monsters, alright?”

The Doctor raised his hands in mock surrender, “Got it! I can already think of… hundreds of holiday planets off the top of my head! But, you’d never know. It could get dangerous. Maybe even more than this. Space is a very dangerous beast. Do you understand?”

Olivia thought about it, tapping her foot, before… “Yep. I got it, mate. So… taking me home then? I can’t wait to see Frizzle again… You wouldn’t… wanna… ya know…”

The Doctor frowned. “No animals on board! I had enough bad experiences… with cats especially.” he shivered and mumbled, “ Antranak …”

***

After retrieving her purse, Olivia stood by the TARDIS doors, ready to leave. The time machine was parked behind her flat, disguised as it always was. “I’ll be goin’, then!” she called over her shoulder. “You gonna wait here?”

The Doctor barely looked up from the console. He seemed preoccupied. “Hm? Oh, uh… no. I’m off to deal with the Shards. I’ll be back in a tick!”

“…Right.” Olivia lingered a moment, her hand on the doorknob. “And how exactly will I know you’ll come back?”

The Doctor gave her a faint smile. “Don’t worry. You’ll hear the TARDIS.”

She smiled at that and gave a wave. “See ya, then.”

The Doctor watched her go, his voice softer now. “Goodbye… Olivia Smythe.”

The doors shut behind her with a thump, and the familiar grinding roar of dematerialisation echoed into the empty lot.

Olivia stood at a parking lot, watching as the oblong blue shape dematerialised in front of her eyes. It was a lot to take in. All of it. Everything that had happened in the past couple of hours. “...I’ll just… come back home like nothing happened, eh?” she mumbled to herself, feeling the cool air hit her damp hair like seaweed tossed in a storm. She shivered and looked back toward the familiar block of flats.

It hadn’t been that long since she moved out from her mother’s place. Only a couple of years ago, her mindset would’ve been different. She’d told herself she wasn’t ready yet. That she had to look after her mum — that’s why she stayed. Then she said it was because she couldn’t get into the right school. Excuses. All of it, she thought. Maybe she had felt dependent on her. But her mother had helped her so much over the years.

Olivia walked up the stairs to the top floor of the complex. It was late, so she tried to be careful not to wake anyone, especially the neighbours below her: a lovely elderly couple, Jim and Frank. Well, lovely when they weren’t banging on her floor with a broom. The type to play classical music on their vintage record player, sip tea, and gossip about anyone they’d seen that day. Any noise, upstairs or down, was treated like an invasion. She was the only one who knew they actually were a couple, as well. To everyone else, they were just… roommates. Old friends since the War. Yeah, right.

Olivia chuckled to herself as she reached for her keys… from the very purse she’d been so desperate to find back at the school. If she’d found it sooner, she probably wouldn’t have been rescued by the Doctor at all, she realised.

Her hand twisted the key in the lock and—

Click.

Home at last. Olivia felt her shoulders ease as she pushed the door open, greeted by a burst of needy meowing from the other side. “Frizzle…” she murmured, smiling. Of course he was fine. To him, she’d only been gone a few hours: just like any other workday.

She kicked off her boots and gave the orange cat a well-deserved bowl of food. “Here ya go, sweetie… missed Mum, did you? Phew… I need to dry my hair, ASAP.”

***

Olivia sat on her bed, prepared for whenever the Doctor would arrive. Arrive how , exactly? Outside? In her flat? Jim and Frank wouldn’t like that. Not one bit.

Her thoughts drifted again. To everything that had happened. All that suffering. All that death. She’d made new friends, and they all died. Nel, Valiam, Shima… and the others. Except the Doctor. If he even counted as a friend. She barely knew him. All those things he said… all those lives? Millennia, did he say? How could anyone live that long and not regret it?

A sudden sound cut through the night: the loud, grinding groan of the TARDIS. It landed in the same spot it had before. She could see it out her window. “Oh well… here goes nothing.” She grabbed her suitcases and headed down the stairs.

***

Olivia stopped in front of the blue doors. She could feel it now — its presence. Its hum. She placed a hand gently on the blue door, feeling it vibrate beneath her fingers. It’s alive, she thought.

She shut her eyes and put on an earnest-looking smile. She didn’t want to worry him. And maybe… a holiday really was what she needed. A way to bury the pain. At least for a while.

The doors opened .

Olivia stood in the doorway, radiant in a full denim outfit, hair styled to soft, flowy perfection, and a wide smile on her face. “You’re back! Right on time, too. Wanna help me with my bags?”

     The Doctor blinked. Then stared.
    Two massive suitcases flanked her like tiny companions of her own.

He let out a long, theatrical sigh. “…Oh dear…”

She smirked, “What? You did say it was a holiday~”

Chapter Text

BONUS Content!

Since I'm quite a visual person (even though I mostly consume Doctor Who content through books and Big Finish audios nowadays), I still want to share with you this tiny piece of OC art.

This basically helped me visualise my version of the Doctor, whether that would be through his clothing or his mannerism and so on.

Here is his 'young form' as he is throughout most of the fic:

This snippet from Chapter One describes his attire:

'The man looked a little younger than her and yet wore clothes she would never have the money for.

Why were dried herbs in his beige coat lapel? What kind of fashion accessory was that?

And what was with that crimson turtleneck? Who the hell was this guy?'

***

AND here's his 'older form', after getting attacked by the Shards in Chapter 16:

This snippet from Chapter 16 and describes his sudden change:

'Olivia froze as her eyes locked on his face. “Oh my God. You… you changed .”

The Doctor's eyes flew open wide in alarm. His hands darted to his face. “NO! No no no! I can’t have regenerated! That face was still new! A couple years at most! That’s not fair!”

Olivia blinked, then let out a half-laugh, half-groan. “No, you look the same, idiot. I mean… you look older.”

The Doctor sighed with visible relief… and then immediately recoiled again, horrified. “OLDER!?? How much older!?”

Olivia let out a tired laugh, the absurdity of the situation finally catching up to her. “Not bad... I mean, you don’t look that much older.”

“A specific number would help,” the Doctor groaned, rubbing his temples like the age might fall off with pressure. “As in, human years?”

“Oh, right.” Olivia squinted at him, half-joking, half-sincere. “You look like you're in your… mid to... late thirties?”

The Doctor looked at her for a couple moments, his eyes widening once more. “WHAT.” 

“Yeah, you know, little stubble here, slight eye bags there...” She motioned vaguely at his face, smiling. “You don’t look like a lost uni student anymore. More like a peer. A… cool teacher. Maybe?”

***

So, yeah, there you go! As for how Olivia would look... I haven't had the time to draw HER yet, but... I kinda fan-cast Niky Wardley as Olivia. So now you know!

(And if you don't know who Niky Wardley is then, how. very. dare. you.)

Just kidding! 

That's basically it for me now, so I'll just take a little break, and slowly get back to writing my second fanfic! 

See ya~!