Lost In Time: A Doctor Who Fanfiction

Chapter 93 - Journey to the Center of the TARDIS, Part 2

AN: The content warning for darker events starts in this chapter, and will probably continue for the next several adventures.

Lyssa blinked up at the Ninth Doctor through teary eyes, wondering if her eyes were deceiving her. She had been with Eleven, Clara, and the Ranger, right? Had she jumped without knowing it? Maybe she'd hit her head harder than she'd thought...

She slowly turned her aching head around until she could see the hallway she'd just come through, which was the same cool gray it had always been. Turning back to the silent Doctor, she could see that her current surroundings were the dull metallic gold of Nine and Ten, although this seemed even darker than normal. Examining the Doctor, she realized that real or not, he was definitely in a bad state, with dried tear-stains visible on his cheeks and red, swollen eyes. His clothes were dirty and torn, as if he'd either just come from some adventure or no longer cared about his physical appearance.

"D-Doctor?" she asked hesitantly when he still didn't say anything, just stared at her. "What's going on?"

He flinched at the sound of her voice, tears filling his blue eyes as he staggered back a step, eyes never leaving her crouched form. "Lyssa?" he finally spoke in a voice thick from tears and lack of use. "Are you real?"

She would have snorted if she hadn't been sure that it would have hurt. "I almost wish I wasn't if it meant it'd stop hurting. And I could ask you the same question. How did you get here? Or how did I get here? Whichever. Both." She pressed her hands to her temples with a groan, trying to relieve the awful ache. 

He slowly knelt across from her, being careful not to touch her. "Are... are you all right?" he asked in concern, somehow looking both right at her and through her at the same time. As if she were a ghost to him.

"That depends. Does 'all right' mean alive, or not in pain? Because that will change my answer," she muttered. Another wave of pain came, so sharp it almost took her breath away. She closed her eyes before the swimming colors around her could make her stomach start swimming with it. "Why does it hurt so much?" 

She couldn't even sense the TARDIS anymore, the connection buried under the all-consuming pain. She drew a shaky breath as the stabbing sensation finally started to ebb, cracking her eyes back open to see him just watching her with a heartbroken expression. "Doctor?" she asked nervously, wincing when her voice cracked. "Doctor, why are you looking at me like that? Do you know what's happening?"

His eyes darted away from hers in a manner just as telling as words. "Yes," he admitted at last. "I've seen this before."

She didn't bother to ask him for details. "What's going to happen to me?" At first she'd thought it was just from her bond with the TARDIS, but the Doctor was acting as though it was something else entirely - and something serious.

He swallowed hard. "I can't - I can't do anythin' to help you, Lyssa," he confessed. "Just like I couldn't before. I can never save you, no matter how hard I try. I'm sorry." His voice broke on the last word.

She weakly shook her head at him, trying not to grow frightened at his words. "Doctor, what are you talking about? What's going on?" She reached a hand out to him, only for him to back away with another flinch. She withdrew her hand, now definitely feeling afraid of whatever it was he wasn't saying. 

He cast her a compassionate look, but still maintained his distance. "I'm sorry, fairy-girl, but... not right now. Please. Just a little more time before this has to end."

She was almost ready to cry with frustration. "Doctor! What's going on? What's happening to me?"

He sighed, leaning backward slightly and watching her carefully as he spoke. "You're dyin'. And if I touch you, I'll kill you faster."