Chapter Text
The seminar room was utterly quiet when I sat down to finally write my essay, on which I had procrastinated for hours. The only thing that could be heard across the room was my pen writing on the thin paper and the radiator rumbling. My migraine started to rise since I came, but I chose to ignore it, because I need to have it done by tomorrow. Why do I always wait until the last possible second? Why am I like this! My frustration is increasing, but I am still not giving up. It should not be hard. Everything we do in school is easy for me, so it should not be any different now. The worst is always the beginning. Even though I am not a big fan of doing midnight essays, I must say that the sky is gorgeous, the stars making me company as always. I was nearly at the end of the essay when my eye caught a tiny glow coming from behind me. Then I saw it. A shimmer on the wall, faint at first, like starlight caught in plaster.
The wall was wrong. Not visibly, not at first. But something in me recognised it before my eyes did. It should not look like this. Maybe I should tell somebody about it. Oh, no, I am doing it again! I can't procrastinate anymore. I have a deadline to fulfil. I should focus. So, I turned around and continued writing my essay. But I did not resist it long. I had the feeling that I had to turn to face the wall, so I did. I am hallucinating, is my first thought when I saw a huge glowing crack across the wall. Something about it kept me wondering. I had to figure it out. I had to know what was wrong with it. I leaned close to it so I could examine it better. I was surprised when I could smell the scent of ozone, similar to the one that precedes a storm. It was weird. Not even talking about the bright light that was coming from it.
Okay, either I need more coffee, or the wall is about to crack open.
Even though my brain was telling me to stay away from it, I felt like I could not. My curiosity rolled over me. I leaned closer to it, and I tried to touch it. The moment I did that, I already knew it was the stupidest thing to do, and I should have known better. But it was too late for my own good. The light poured into me, and I thought that these were my last moments before a strange cosmic rift killed me. The stars stretched into rivers of light, folding around me. My stomach lurched as if gravity had forgotten me. It was something you could have seen in the Doctor Who show, a show I have loved to watch with my sisters at home. Unfortunately, the Doctor is not real, and neither is the show. I was falling for so long. Everything looked blurry and different. It almost looked like I was falling through time and space itself. It was indeed a strange experience.
When I finally fell to solid ground, I felt relieved, but then the realisation came. Where the fuck am I right now? But even earlier than I could compose myself from the ground, a man started to talk to me.
"Careful, Amy. Stray humans don't just drop in like this. What's your name?" asked the madman with such a familiar voice.
I looked up.
No. No way.
Standing over me was a man who looked exactly like Matt Smith.
"My... my name is Cassiopeia," I managed. "And yours?"
He grinned. Ridiculous bowtie. Wild eyes.
"I'm the Doctor. And that's Amy."
Amy Pond. Standing beside the TARDIS.
The real TARDIS.
My stomach dropped.
"Okay," I whispered. "Can I ask something completely reasonable? Where am I and what day, month, and year is now?"
"Earth," he said joyfully. "Twentieth of November. Year: 2025."
I swallowed.
"Okay. Thank you."
And internally: Holy shit.
"What are you doing here? Nobody falls through a crack in time and space. Not unless..."
(his smile disappears)
"Oh. That's impossible."
"What?!" Amy and I yell in unison.
"Doctor, you can't just say things like this and not continue in your thoughts!" She raised her voice a little and threatened him with her index finger.
"I was finishing my thought! In my head! Important thought!" The Doctor spun, bowtie askew, panic in his eyes.
His voice was interrupted by an electronic sound. "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
My eyes widen. No, I did not want to die today. Daleks would not ruin my mood. Maybe I could make a friend just like Rose did. Rose changed one Dalek, so presumably I can too. It is not much to ask, right?
"No time, let's go!" The Doctor grasped my hand into his and dragged me as far as possible from the Dalek. Amy ran ahead, and I stumbled to keep up. My heart hammered. I was not running for fun. This was survival. Daleks did not negotiate. This is not a playful run you take with a buddy. That is regular training for a marathon. If you do not want to run, you do not have to, but the Dalek will surely exterminate you with his plumber's stick. So, it is your choice, but I do not want to die, so I had better run faster.
"Hey, did you listen to what I was saying?" The Doctor asks, slightly displeased.
"Ehm, no, sorry," I muttered, glancing at my shoelaces, considering them the most interesting thing right now.
"Okay, so as I was saying, we had to figure out how to outsmart them."
"You still don't have a plan?" I asked, baffled.
But then I noticed a duct, and I started to piece out my plan in my head. I sneaked out to find something useful before we die here. On my way, Amy joined me, and we found an old lab. Fortunately, I was taking a chemistry course in school, so I know how to do some stuff. Amy wrinkled her nose.
"Looks abandoned. Creepily abandoned."
Dust coated every surface, but the equipment was unmistakably a lab. Just not one meant for humans. Tubes curled like vines, glass chambers pulsed faintly with leftover energy, and a console hummed as though it had been waiting centuries to be used.
My heart kicked.
"Okay. Chemistry. I can do chemistry. Probably."
Amy gestured at a jar of shimmering blue powder. "Any idea what that is?"
I squinted at the label.
"Erm... 'Volatile Xenon–Reactive Polymer Compound.'"
Amy blinked.
"So... explosive?"
"Not exactly. More like... dramatically energetic if it meets the wrong molecular structure."
Amy stared at me.
"So yes. Explosive."
I nodded with the grim authority of someone praying they were right.
I found a cracked datapad and skimmed its symbols.
"Okay, if I combine it with this stuff" I tapped a container of pale gel that glowed softly, "with about two millilitres of that xenon polymer, we might be able to trigger a chain reaction. Not lethal, hopefully, but enough to short‑circuit their scanners and scare them."
Amy raised an eyebrow.
"And if the measurements are wrong?"
I swallowed.
"Well... then we will see fireworks," I tried to joke, but it didn't sit quite right.
"Should I be impressed or deeply concerned?"
"Both," I answered.
I prepared it carefully so it would not blow up in my hands, and then when I was done, Amy helped me to place it around the base. I even made a controller which, when I press it, will destroy the entire base.
When we returned to the Doctor hour later, he was still scanning around with his sonic screwdriver. I must be as far as possible from that thing. I didn't like the sound it does.
"Where were you for so long?" The Doctor asked.
"We were just wandering around, and we found an old lab, nothing interesting," I blurted out, before Amy could say the truth. She gave me a confused look but didn't say a word.
"If we go this way, the Dalek can't follow us, right?" I asked nervously.
"Oi! Brilliant. Lead the way, genius," said Amy with excitement.
"Clever human!" The Doctor hesitated at first, but then he cheerfully patted my head.
That was weird, I thought, but I let it be.
I hurried toward the duct and tugged at the metal grate. It didn't budge.
"Oh, brilliant," I muttered. "Of course it's screwed shut."
"Everything is screwed shut until I unscrew it," the Doctor announced proudly, already whipping out his sonic screwdriver.
The grate popped free with a metallic clank.
Amy peered inside first. "It's small."
I swallowed. "Yeah. But we fit. Hopefully."
Behind us, there was a metallic grinding sound. The Dalek was rolling closer. "MOVE NOW!" the Doctor yelled.
The whole duct vibrated.
My breath shook in my chest.
"That's... fine," I whispered to myself. "Just a genocidal pepper shaker trying to kill us. Totally manageable."
Amy snorted. "You're oddly calm."
"No," I answered honestly. "I'm panicking. Internally. Very loudly."
The Doctor hummed, as if evaluating me. "You're handling this unusually well. Most humans scream, faint, or start asking philosophical questions about existence and socks."
"...Socks?" I repeated.
"It's a long story," Amy muttered.
The duct split ahead, left and right.
Amy paused. "Uh, Doctor?"
He leaned past me to look, face uncomfortably close, eyebrows knitted. "Right or left... Right or left..."
But something clicked in my mind like memory and instinct fused.
"Left," I said without hesitating.
The Doctor blinked. "Why left?"
"Because Daleks take the direct route. Right leads back toward the sound. Left goes behind them. We'll meet an exit vent near a stairwell."
Amy stared at me. "How do you know that?"
I froze.
Good question.
I couldn't say I saw similar things in a TV show.
So instead, I shrugged.
"I don't know. It just... feels right."
"Left it is!" he chirped, and off we crawled.
After a long stretch of ductwork and two turns, Amy pushed open another grate, and we dropped down into a dim hallway. My legs wobbled beneath me. The adrenaline was fading into shaky confusion.
Amy helped steady me with a gentle hand on my arm.
"You did well," she said quietly. "Not everyone walks through a time crack and immediately outruns a Dalek."
"Thanks," I whispered, unsure whether to laugh or collapse. It was a hard day, and I didn't even finish my essay. New way of procrastinating. I had to laugh.
The Doctor spun on his heels, pointing dramatically forward.
"TARDIS. That way."
I was so excited to finally meet the TARDIS itself, but I was a little bit worried too. What if she wouldn't like me like Clara? I would be devastated if that were the case. While we were approaching the TARDIS. Something strange had happened. The doors cracked open, inviting us indoors, but the Doctor didn't use the key, nor did he snap his fingers. The TARDIS opened by herself. I didn't remember that happening in the show. Perhaps it is different from what I expected.
The Doctor stopped in his trajectory, amused by what had just happened.
I blinked. "Idris... why did you do that?"
Amy and the Doctor both froze.
"You... called her Idris?" the Doctor asked carefully.
"Well, yeah? That's her name, isn't it?" I said before I could stop myself.
The Doctor's expression shifted from curiosity to alarm to mild offence.
"You could say that, but I didn't mention it before. How did you know?" He crossed his arms, looking thoughtfully. "And I definitely didn't tell you."
The console glowed. She was laughing. I didn't know how it was even possible that I could sense it, but in the moment, I simply could.
The Doctor pointed accusingly at the ceiling.
"Oh, don't you start. Yes, yes, you're 'mysterious' and 'beyond comprehension', blah blah."
He sighed. "Alright, Sexy. Explain."
Amy stared between us.
"Right. So, the time machine has a pet name and a personality. Sure. Why not. We'll skip the part where any of that sounds normal."
I just smiled and hoped I didn't fuck it up by my carelessness. When I stepped in, a warmth hummed through my fingertips. The console lights flickered in rhythm with my heartbeat, almost... welcoming me. I felt something entering my head. It was strangely comfy. Almost likee a hug from an old friend.
"It's... nice," I whispered.
The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "Nice? Humans never say, TARDIS is nice, they always commented that she is bigger on the inside. This is... remarkable."
"Yeah, sorry, I am not a normal human, but nice designs. You are beautiful, Idris," I complimented, and the TARDIS hums in response.
The Doctor paced around me like a confused golden retriever with a PhD.
"Well, this is interesting," he muttered. "Humans don't just... sync with the TARDIS. Takes time. Ages. Or special circumstances. Or..." he snapped his fingers, pointing straight at me, "paradox."
Amy folded her arms. "Are you saying she's a paradox or that you like the word?"
"Yes."
Amy groaned. "Brilliant."
The Doctor spun back toward the console, flicking switches that made no sense in any known language.
On the screen, Dalek signatures lit up bright and furious.
"Oh, that's not good," he whispered.
My stomach twisted. "Please tell me that means they gave up and went home?"
The Doctor stared.
Amy snorted. "Yeah, no. If Daleks are still breathing, they're plotting murder."
The Doctor cleared his throat. "They've locked onto the TARDIS. They think you're... interesting."
"Me? Why me?"
He pointed at the screen. "Because something impossible fell through time and the Daleks hate impossible."
The TARDIS hummed low, almost defensive.
Amy gave me a look curious, protective, and just slightly "what the hell are you?"
"Well then," I said, trying not to sound terrified, "we should probably not sit here like snacks."
Amy clapped once. "I like her."
The Doctor stopped pacing. His expression shifted not panic, but that intense sharpness he got right before being brilliant or doing something catastrophically stupid.
"Right." He straightened his bow tie. "We confront them."
I blinked. "Confront. As in... talk?"
"Talk first," he said. "Run second, panic third. Explode things only if we absolutely"
"I built something," I blurted.
Both of them stared.
The Doctor blinked. "I'm sorry, you built what?"
I swallowed, pulling the small controller from my pocket. It is not bigger than a car key, marked with faint glowing circuitry.
"The lab we found... I made a countermeasure. Not a weapon," I added quickly, because the Doctor already looked offended. "More like... a system disruptor. If I trigger it, it should overload their scanners and neural targeting. Maybe even shut down their hive coordination link."
Amy raised her brows. "And if it doesn't?"
I winced. "...Fireworks."
The Doctor stared at me, then at the controller, then at me again.
"...You built a Dalek failsafe in under an hour?"
I shrugged weakly. "I didn't want to die."
Amy elbowed me gently. "Honestly? Valid."
The Doctor paced toward me slowly not suspicious, but cautious, like someone approaching a wild animal that might recite quantum theory or bite.
"That is either the most reckless, brilliant, idiotic, life-saving thing I've ever seen." He paused. "I approve. Mostly."
The TARDIS lights pulsed twice agreement.
Amy grinned. "She likes you."
I blushed. "Yeah, I sort of noticed."
The Doctor snapped his fingers dramatic, unnecessary, completely on brand.
"Alright, team. New plan: we go out there. We talk. We stall. If the Daleks try to exterminate us"
Amy grinned. "We use your shiny invention."
"No!" the Doctor barked. "We run first. THEN maybe use the invention. I do NOT want to explode anything unless we absolutely must. Explosions mean trouble. Smoke. Debris. And sometimes angry space-lawsuits."
Amy smirked. "So... plan A: talk. Plan B: run. Plan C: possibly explode."
The Doctor sighed. "Why does no one ever listen to plan A?"
I lifted the controller.
"Because plan C feels safer."
Amy high-fived me.
The Doctor pointed at the doors dramatically.
"Right then. Cassiopeia, Amy Pond... let's go stop a Dalek invasion."
The doors swung open with a metallic groan.
Cold air. Echoing metal. The unmistakable whirr of something alien waiting.
I took a shaky breath.
Amy whispered, "Ready?"
"No," I said honestly. "But let's do it anyway."
And the three of us stepped out to face the Daleks.
"We are here to negotiate," said the Doctor.
Their leader spoke first, voice razor sharp:
DALEK PRIME: "SCAN COMPLETE. UNKNOWN FORM OF LIFE DETECTED. WE WILL NOT NEGOTIATE. WE WILL EXTERMINATE."
"Beautiful! They have invented a whole new insult for you, "she whispered to my ear. I swallowed.
The Doctor forced a smile. "Hello! Yes! Brilliant. Lovely to see you again. Well, not lovely, but you know what I mean. Shall we talk?"
The Dalek's voice shrieked like metal tearing:
DALEK PRIME: "NEGOTIATION IS NOT REQUIRED."
"See," the Doctor said brightly, "I disagree entirely."
Another Dalek scanned me again, its eye stalk twitching.
DALEK SCOUT: "SUBJECT IS NOT HUMAN. SUBJECT IS NOT HUMAN. SUBJECT IS... ERROR. ERROR. ERROR."
"I am starting to feel out of place. What did he mean? I am human and always was, " I said to Amy.
The Doctor raised both hands higher. "No exterminating today, thank you. We can solve this with words."
DALEK PRIME: "YOU HAVE BROUGHT A PARADOX INTO DALEK TERRITORY."
"I didn't bring her," he snapped. "She's a person, not luggage."
DALEK PRIME: "THE FEMALE IS A TEMPORAL THREAT. SHE WILL BE EX-TER-MIN-A-TED."
"Leave her alone, she is under my protection." The Doctor yelled at them.
I am crushing the detonator in my hand, but still not pressing the button.
"I think I have something, you want," I yell at the Dalek.
"This can destroy your hive forever!" I said and showed them my innovation.
DALEK PRIME: "WHAT IS THAT? WHAT IS THE PARADOX SAYING?"
„Excuse me, I am a human, not a paradox! "
DALEK SCOUT: "LIE. LIE. SUBJECT IS NOT HUMAN. SUBJECT IS NOT HUMAN."
DALEK PRIME: "WE HAVE NO NEED FOR PARADOX. ONLY SURVIVAL."
The Dalek aimed.
Amy swore under her breath.
The Doctor dragged me to the ground and saved me. I gave Doctor a look, and when he nodded, I pressed the button.
Explosion of the light.
Not fire.
Not smoke.
A blast of pulsing blue energy rippled outward.
The Daleks jerked violently, lights flickering, servos screaming.
DALEK SCOUT: "MALFUNCTION— MALFUNC— INCOHERENT— ERROR—"
DALEK PRIME: "SYSTEM FAILURE— SYSTEM FAILURE—"
Their movements became jerky, sloppy, scanners offline, targeting disabled.
The Doctor stared wide eyes.
"Wow, that was brilliant! "
"Now, let's go to TARDIS! "
When we finally managed to enter the TARDIS, we were exhausted.
The doors shut with a heavy thud final, definite, safe.
For a moment, none of us spoke. The hum of the TARDIS filled the silence like a heartbeat.
Amy collapsed onto the nearest railing, breathless and grinning.
"Okay," she gasped, "I know nearly dying is sort of the job description now, but that was, that was something."
My legs finally gave up, and I sat on the grated floor. My hands were still shaking. Not from fear, but from pure adrenaline.
The Doctor stood at the console, back turned, fingers frozen mid-hover over a lever.
Not moving. Not speaking. Just thinking.
Amy noticed too. Her voice softened.
"Doctor?"
He didn't answer.
I swallowed. "Hey... are you okay?"
Slowly, very slowly, he turned.
His expression wasn't angry. It wasn't scared. It was... curious. Dangerously curious. The kind where he wasn't sure if you were a miracle or a bomb.
"Cassiopeia," he said quietly, "tell me again how you built something capable of disabling a Dalek network system in less than an hour."
"I don't know, I just know that I didn't want us to die and that I want to have something if it went badly. It was something like an instinct." I told him truthfully.
"Yes," he said gently. "But you shouldn't know how any of that works. Not logically. Not instinctively. Not at all."
Amy frowned. "Doctor, she said she's human."
The Doctor met her eyes.
"Amy... humans don't sync with the TARDIS the first time they touch her. Humans don't predict Dalek route paths blindly. Humans don't walk through cracks in time without disintegrating."
He turned to look at me fully now.
"And humans don't get scanned by Daleks and come up as an error."
My mouth was dry.
"...so what are you saying?"
He stepped closer slowly, carefully as if approaching a living paradox.
"I'm saying," he whispered, "that there's something impossible about you."
He raised the sonic slowly.
"May I scan you?"
My heart hammered.
Amy stepped between us suddenly.
"Oh, hold on! You can't just go poking around in someone's biology because you're curious."
The Doctor blinked offended.
"I poke respectfully."
Amy crossed her arms.
"No."
The Doctor pointed at her. "Bossy."
She pointed back. "Suspicious alien."
The TARDIS lights flickered like laughter.
I looked between them and exhaled shakily.
"...it's okay. He can scan me."
Amy gave me a searching look, then nodded and stepped aside.
The Doctor lifted the sonic, its green glow reflecting in his eyes.
The sound was sharp, rising. it filled the air.
My skin tingled.
Then the sonic sputtered sparks, flickering off the tip.
The Doctor yelped and dropped it.
"Ow! She overloaded it!" he exclaimed, staring at me with baffled excitement. "That shouldn't be possible!"
"Sorry?" I squeaked.
"No! Don't apologise!" He grinned wildly. "This is brilliant!"
Amy rubbed her face. "Why do I feel like this is the beginning of a headache?"
The Doctor ignored her, pacing.
"She's not human. She's not a Dalek. She's not, ohhh that's interesting."
He stopped, suddenly staring at me.
"Cassiopeia... what's the earliest memory you have?"
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came.
Not childhood.
Not faces.
Not even my own birthday.
It was like... fog.
"...I I don't know." I stuttered.
Amy's expression softened, sympathy replacing caution.
The Doctor's voice dropped to a whisper.
"So, someone wanted you hidden. Someone wanted you lost. And something or someone let you fall through time to us."
"But why? Why now? What is different? I am missing something."
The TARDIS hummed like she was talking, agreeing with what was said.
"So... what do I do now?" I whispered.
The Doctor straightened, adjusting his bowtie with a confident snap.
"Well," he said with a grin, "now you travel with us."
Amy gave a bright, mischievous smile.
"And we find out who you really are."
"Thanks, that would be nice," I said, but still felt a little bit out of place.