Muses of Time (Doctor Who/Muse fanfiction)

Chapter Four: City of Delusion (switching POVs throughout the chapter)

Again, I don't fully understand the title either. :/

-Lonely

--------------Martha--------------

"Wow, Doctor. You scared him out of his mind."

He stared at the doorway, which Matt had just left. "I didn't mean to," he said, half-regrettedly, half whinily.

"Oh, shush," I said, looking out the window.

The yard was full, full of kids. Somewhere out there, I had a feeling Matt was hiding from everyone else, scared of us and the Daleks and all the other kids, who bullied him for being smart.

"You're just upset because I scared the lead singer of your favorite band," the Doctor teased.

I didn't move from the window. "Yeah," I said evenly. "Yeah, I am."

---------------Dom---------------

I hurt.

I'd try to describe all the places I hurt, but it would pretty much be every spot in my body. I had bit off the tip of my tounge, been cut and scraped pretty much everywhere, and where I hadn't been bleeding there were bruises. At least my arm was relocated; it had been worse yesterday, before I was found.

Usually I was surrounded by friends, but today I was alone. I just wanted some time to breathe, after getting beat up by aliens. They wore dark blue suits, and had huge heads that looked like that of a rhinoceros. They had asked me if I had seen something called a "dalek," or a "time lord," and shone a blue light on me. When I ran, they found me, and tried to take me somewhere. When I escaped again, they decided I was dangerous and beat me up.

I noticed a skinny, black-haired boy running, as quickly as he could, out of the building. Normally I would have dismissed it as bullying, but something about the look of terror in his silver-blue eyes sent shivers down my spine. He looked like he had just seen the apocalypse.

I remembered the aliens. Who knew their power; maybe he had.

--------------Martha--------------

Three days later and it was a saturday.

A very boring saturday, as it turned out, until Matt found us.

We were wasting time in the TARDIS. The Doctor was fooling around with the monitor, trying to see if there were any dalek ships in orbit, or if the traces of dalek he had found were, as a matter of fact, old. So far, by the sound of it, the results were negative.

"I just don't get it!" he kept saying, staring at the screen. "If I could just find them, it would all make sense! The Daleks have come to kill the child that could easily start another race of Timelords, even if less powerful, and the Sontarans are here to stop them! But no, all I see are Sontaran ships! And those traces weren't just small, there was tons of it! The daleks are here, I can almost smell it! But where are they?"

"Would shielding protect them from the TARDIS's scanners?" I asked, trying to help.

"No, the TARDIS is smarter than that. Besides, shielding only protects from attacks, not scans..."

He soniced the screen, and his expression changed. "Oooh, yes, see, the TARDIS is picking up traces of daleks as well. Everywhere, all over the town, date marks ranging from- Martha, did you ever pick up a date?"

"We started working at the school on September 23, 1992," I said, getting up and walking over. "So today would be the 28th."

"Well then, there's signs of Dalek life as recent as ten minutes ago," he said, moving so I could see the scanner. Dominating the screen were a bunch of red blobs. "See? The more vivid the red, the more recent it is, and the more of it there is. I'm getting hotspots all over the town, particularly at the school, the alleyways, and a few select houses, though whose I can't tell. It just doesn't make sense though, because I can't find any dalek ships, on the ground or above it." He pressed a button, and suddenly the screen went blank. "All those daleks and that's how many of their ships I'm picking up. I just don't get it. I have a feeling it's hanging right in front of me, and yet I still don't get it."

At this there was a knock at the door of the TARDIS.

Let me explain something to you: While the Doctor and I had blended in with early 90s life pretty well, as we usually do with the places we visit, there are never knocks at the TARDIS. And when there are, something bad is probably about to happen. So, at that moment, both of us froze, and the room fell silent except for the soft alien hum of the TARDIS interior.

Whoever- or, really, whatever- was outside knocked again. It wasn't a hard, let-me-in-this-is-the-government knock, or a scared, help-me-I'm-being-chased-by-daleks knock, but more of a soft, I-don't-really-know-what-I'm-doing knock. It was the kind of knock you'd make on a neighbor's door when you're eight years old and selling Girl Scout cookies. To a neighbor who just moved in and you don't know well.

"Do you think it's the Sontarans?" I asked, when whoever's outside calls, "Hello?"

I relaxed. It sounded exactly like Matt. But the Doctor stayed stiff. "Maybe not the Sontarans, but someone with mimicing abilities..."

He walked over to the door normally, trying not to startle him (or whoever may have been mimicing him.) He put his hand lightly on the door handle, and opened it slowly to reveal...

just as I suspected, Matt. I relaxed. The Doctor didn't exactly relax, but he wasn't worried, so that was a good thing.

"Hello, Matt!" he said cheerfully. "How may I help you?"

"Sir... I think you left this on your desk."

He held out his hand to reveal the sonic. For a second, the Doctor just stared at it as if it were glowing hot. Then he took it, slowly and carefully. He examined it for a second, then slipped it into his jacket pocket. "Thank you, Matt. Come inside."

"Umm, sir, I wasn't asking to co-"

"We need your help," I call, motioning to the monitor.

"Oh, Martha, he won't be able to read that-"

Before the Doctor could finish his sentence, Matt stood beside me, staring at the blank screen. "I... don't see what you need help with."

The Doctor rolled his eyes and joined us. "Oh, all right, here." He pressed a button, and the red blobs reappeared. "This graph shows all the Daleks in the area. The redder the blob, the more recent the samples and the more there are." He pressed the button again, and the screen went blank. "This is how many dalek ships the TARDIS is picking up, on the surface or in orbit. Which is to say, none."

Matt stared at the screen for a second. He pressed the button, and the red blobs appeared again. He stared at one hotspot in particular. "If this gwaph is correct, and aligned the way I think it is... that's my house."

The Doctor nodded. "As I said, they're after you."

"But why didn't they just kill me? If they know that's where I live, and they want to kill me, then what purpouse could they have there besides killing me?"

Something clicked in my head. "The Daleks... what if they didn't want you at all? What if they wanted you to lead them to something?"

The Doctor shook his head. "It couldn't have been us. The TARDIS took us here. It locked onto his DNA. It led us to him."

"Oh, I see a Dalek plot forming here," I realized softly.

The Doctor and Matt looked at me expectantly, and I started. "The TARDIS picks up on a hybrid Timelord, bringing us there. The Daleks have their eye on this hybrid Timelord, knowing we'll find him eventually. But they don't attack at first sight of us. Why? Because they want the TARDIS. So they wait for the hybrid to have a reason to visit us, watch as he follows us, then, at the very right moment, when we're all trapped in here, thinking we're safe and sound..."

The two boys just stared at me. Then Matt pointed out, "If you're wight, we are all twapped in here. Which means-"

The ground shook. The windows on the doors glowed bright blue, and outside I could hear the whir of the Daleks, the mechanical sound of their voices, the buzz of their death rays. "EXTERMINATE!!!" they chanted, lengthening the word, emphasizing every syllable.

"Well, Matt, I do hope you're in the mood for an adventure," the Doctor said, a maniac light glowing in his eyes.

He frowned, confused. "What?"

And with that, we were off, flying through space and time; Me, Matt and the Doctor.