The Lost Time Lord (A Doctor Who/Tenth Doctor Fanfiction)

Chapter Thirty-Two: The Satan Pit (Mary's Version)

~~~Mary~~~

~~~SEVERAL HOURS EARLIER~~~

My mind burned.

It felt as though my brain was physically burning in my skull, and it was a sensation that flared through my entire body like a wildfire. Though my mind is what I felt first...the sensations seemed to be stemming from my chest, spreading over the rest of my body as my genetic makeup was returned to its default state. One heart gave way to two...and the memories began.

It ripped through my mind so quickly that I could hardly keep up, and yet I perfectly understood everything that was laid out before me. Images flooded past of a small Time Lord child. She played in the fields of Gallifrey, surrounded by other Time Lord children. She sat in school, and learned the laws of the universe with wide, wonderous eyes. She peered through a crack in her bedroom door as her parents hatched a plan that would change her life forever.

"She's just so young." Her mother whispered. This regeneration had wild red hair that I had only ever seen in my dreams. It was piled on top of her head as she sat in a chair with a worried expression. "I mean, to take her away from her home...from her kind its..."

"But we agreed, dear. She can't just be around her own kind," Her father said, raking a hand through his dark hair, "We want her to understand the universe that she's a part of; to see it with her own eyes. There's only so much she can learn in books."

"But stealing Time And Relative Dimension In Space?" She asked. "I mean, I'm not sure if we could ever come back here. We'd be criminals; outlaws. Her home would no longer welcome her, do we really want to put her through that?"

"We are her home," He insisted, "We are her family."

"I want to go!"

Mother and Father looked up in shock as their young child burst through the door, standing defiantly across from them, her small arms crossed over her chest.

"You're meant to be in bed." Mother said pointedly.

"This affects me too," I had pointed out, "I want to see the universe, mother. I want to understand. I love Gallifrey, really I do, but...sitting in school day-after-day and reading about all the worlds beyond it...it hurts. There's so much we don't know, so much we could offer to all of those planets and races. What's the point of being able to go anywhere and do anything if we don't use that power for good."

My parents had shared a proud look before father crouched down in front of me.

"But you do understand what this would mean," He said, "We would never be able to come back here."

"I know," I agreed, "But its like you said. Home isn't a place. Its a family. As long as I'm with you, it doesn't matter where I am. I'm home."

He smiled, crushing his daughter into a tight hug.

"So we're doing this?" Mother had asked. Father laughed, wrapping an arm around me and turning to face her.

"We're doing this." He confirmed.

And do it, we did. As a family, we snuck into the TARDIS storage facility. We stole the ship and set off among the stars. My parents taught me how to fly it, and we went to so many incredible places and saw unfathomable things. We helped everyone we could, no matter how dangerous things got; My parents even went through all twelve of their regenerations in the process. Which is why...when the TARDIS experienced a fatal error, and we crashed...there was no hope in their survival.

"This is the best plan we've got." Mother cried, loading the Chameleon Arch into the TARDIS software. "Your body should survive, but just in case it doesn't, you'll be safely deposited within the arch."