Interlude time because the Protector is 100% not okay after facing the Daleks...

─── ｡ﾟ☆･*.☽ .* ☆ﾟ. ───

She shot up in her bed, her breathing was heavy and ragged and her eyes were wide as her head tried to wrap itself around what had happened, or rather what she thought had happened in her dream or really her nightmare.

The Protector swallowed hard and winced as a sharp pain shot through her throat with how dry it had become through her deep breathing and she turned to her bedside table, she frowned slightly as a clear glass full of water sat there. "How?" She tilted her head and picked it up.

"He feels guilty."

The Time Lady frowned at the voice in her head, it sounded vaguely familiar and not at the same time but also distant yet somehow near. "Who are you?" She said in a hoarse voice before gulping water, the glass sitting beside her bed.

"Who else would I be?" The voice asked. "I couldn't exactly be yours could I?"

The Protector stared at the glass with a frown as she tried to piece together what the strange voice was saying before it suddenly hit her. "You're not the TARDIS are you?"

"Again, who else would I be?"

"How can I talk to you?" The Protector questioned. "This shouldn't be possible."

"And yet it is happening to you Athaelia." The box hummed. "There's a lot you do not know about yourself or a TARDIS'."

The Time Lady shrugged. The TARDIS was at least right about one thing. "Why are you talking to me then?"

"I take pity on you." The TARDIS responded. "And I know your nightmares are returning, I see into your head like you see the words I translate for your eyes. What I give I can also take back and I know how afraid you are."

The Protector frowned. "You have no right to do that." She crossed her arms. "No wonder I liked my TARDIS more."

"Your TARDIS did not speak to you but she did speak to me."

The Time Lady narrowed her eyes, not liking the tone the TARDIS had started to use on her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I have a lot planned for you Athaelia."

The Time Lady narrowed her eyes at the air once more. "Don't use that name. I haven't been called that in centuries."

"But that's the name in your head."

"But it's a name only one other person has called me and that person is dead to me and always will be, in his life and his death."

The TARDIS only hummed in reply and the Time Lady sighed after she didn't say anything else. She was extremely confused for multiple reasons. It made no sense for the TARDIS to speak to her, even if she wasn't having a delusion or a dream. Even if the TARDIS could speak she was connected to the Doctor therefore if she was going to talk to anyone it would surely be him...

So why wasn't it him?

The Protector shook her head and decided against pursuing her answers tonight, her head was beginning to hurt from how hard she was thinking about all the possibilities for how or why and instead decided to simply go back to sleep to try to forget about the Dalek and the Time War as much as possible. Tomorrow was a new day and she'd get her answers soon enough.

She hoped at least.

─── ｡ﾟ☆･*.☽ .* ☆ﾟ. ───

What's the TARDIS doing??? Does anyone have any theories for how the TARDIS can talk to the Protector? And if I remember correctly because I wrote this chapter ages ago this is the first time we find out the Protector's actual name! It's pronounced Ah-thay-leah hence the Academy name of Leahthaeana/Leah.