𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧
𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐬
𝐣𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓

from the eyes of
— 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐒 𝐉𝐀𝐃𝐄 —

I was thoroughly confused. I expected a lot of reaction out of the Doctor catching me parading around his TARDIS—primarily anger and suspicion.

Not whatever the fuck this was... is he happy? He looks fucking happy!

"What?" I raised a single brow, my face twisted in confusion.

The Doctor rubbed his hands together, but he was so excited that his words came out in chopped syllables. "You—I—We... 2 years, 7 months, 8 days, 11 hours, and 2 minutes 45 seconds!"

"What are you? A clock man?" I could not stop the snide remark from leaving my mouth.

Thankfully, the Doctor did not seem offended and rather grinned.

"A TimeLord is more adequate! Clocks and time don't apply to me!"

I was officially at a loss for words.

What the fuck is happening?

Maybe I wasn't as prepared to handle this as I thought.

Time to swivel back to square one and just run with what I have, I guess.

I took a deep break before speaking.

"So, back to the point, I heard you do space adventures. I'm looking for a journey through the great beyond of the cosmos, time, and the multiverse!" I said dramatically, bringing out the hand that was not holding the Red Bull while pretending to make a rainbow with it. It was silent for a few moments as I stared off at an imaginary picture before snapping my head back to face the Doctor with raised brows. "You're hiring, right?"

Amy was still standing by the console gaping in a confused manner. The Doctor also gaped at my speech but more in a bemused way.

He rubbed his hands together before speaking, flapping them everywhere with each word. He sure did like to speak with his hands. "Well, I certainly don't travel the multiverse, while it is very fun and sounds fantastic to travel on the regular, it is incredibly dangerous..." He rambled only for Amy to cut him.

"You can travel the multiverse? It's real?" Amy asked.

The Doctor looked at her with gleaming eyes, although there was the smallest twinge of sadness in them as he spoke of it. "Of course, I can, Pond. I'm the Doctor! But it's very dangerous, incredibly hard, and rare to do. That's not even mentioning that there's a 75% chance of dying while trying to cross or the 62.5% chance of one of the universes collapsing..." He explained. "It's really only reasonable to do on the rare instance of a multiversal tear appearing... but those typically sew itself up soon after it appears..."

I did not bother listening to him spit facts that I already knew. Not to mention, some of his 'facts' were wrong, but I definitely did not bother to correct him lest I want questions that I could not answer thrown at me.

Instead, my curiosity got the better of me at the sight of an opening leading to the corridor that I had not gone down. I wondered what was down that way.

As soon as I started making my way toward it, my movement seemed to catch the Doctor's attention for he stopped rambling about the dangers of the multiverse and instead leaped over the console railing.

"Oi! Where do you think you're going?!"

"To explore your ship some more! A moving pocket dimension that takes the form of a ship? Incredible!" I could not stop myself from geeking over this amazing technology out loud.

The Doctor was suddenly in front of me. Closer than he had been to me this entire time, the man not even hesitating to get up close and personal as he brought out a sonic screwdriver and started to sonic me.

"How do you already know that? I was looking forward to 'it's bigger on the inside' I always look forward to that bit! What version of this is you? Is this not our first time meeting? Our timestreams don't crisscross that much—we should mostly be flowing in the same direction!" He was talking as he brought the screwdriver between my eyes.

The thing started to give me a headache and made me feel... odd.

"Ouch! Don't sonic me!"

"Deary, first of all, stop being dramatic, this doesn't hurt! Second, you broke into my TARDIS! I haven't seen you in over 2 years—"

"Back up, buddy, we have never ever met. Now, I don't know just how many bitches you have, but I assume you have me mixed up with one of them—"

"PJ!" The Doctor gasped, suddenly stretching forward and covering my mouth with his hand while holding my body close to his own. "That is quite enough, sweetheart, you know I don't like swearing."

How the fuck did he know my name?!

I yelled, but his hand caused it to sound muffled.

Everything he was saying suddenly caught up to me.

You've got to be kidding me! Nothing could be easy anymore, could it? Everything just had to be so complicated!

For fuck's sake, our timestreams crossed already? That meant, based on his reaction, that while this was my first time meeting him, it was definitely not his first time meeting me.

What else had he said?

Our timestreams are mostly moving in the same direction. If I'm lucky that meant that this was the only thing that was criss-crossed and backward. My first time meeting him was not his first time meeting me and vice versa.

But holy fuck this made it ten times harder.

I have no clue what the "future" version of myself had disclosed to the guy!

I had no clue what he did and didn't already know! Was it even worth it to try and lie to him at this point?

My mind screamed and my vision briefly filled with blood as memories surged through.

Trust nobody!

No—he can't be trusted. No one can.

His grip was surprisingly strong, much stronger than a human's. It was an easy reminder that while he looked human, he most definitely was not.

I did not bother trying to get out of his grip. I wanted him to think that I was a normal human, so I needed to display the strength of a normal human.

"Release me, you Space Lord!" My words were extremely muffled but just barely discernible.

The Doctor did not acknowledge me, simply keeping me pinned to him as he covered my mouth. It was almost like an odd hug, in a fucked up sorta way.

"Doctor? What's happening, who is she?" Amy questioned, running down the steps of the console and looking at the Doctor expectantly.

She was smart; however, and kept her distance. I was still thrashing around in the Doctor's hold.

"She..." The Doctor huffed out, his breath right next to my ear causing me to scrunch my brows in disgust. "...Is a very long and complicated story, Pond. In simple terms, she's a companion!"

Long and complicated story?

No, there is no way that he knows! Absolutely no way I would ever divulge such information!

"What's the complicated version then, Doctor? I really think you should elaborate!" Amy said right back, and I agreed with her.

The Doctor groaned but answered. "I've already said the majority of it—she's my... uhm... companion! Yes, my companion, sorta, but our meetings are backward. My first time meeting her was over three years ago, we traveled together for a few months before she ultimately had to leave to join up with a future version of me so that our timestreams could put themselves back in the correct order! But my first time meeting her was not her first time meeting me, at the time she had already been traveling with a future version of myself—which is now me!" He finally released me and I stumbled away from him. "Therefore this is her first time meeting me! How fun—I finally get to teach her the ropes! My lovely and strange American space human, my PJ!"

Was that meant to be offensive? What the fuck did the future version of myself tell him?

Okay, first and foremost, according to his words, the dude believes that I'm fully human, so that's a good sign.

Technically speaking, with the oddities and lenient rules of time travel in this universe, rather than linear everything is mostly a ball of shit.

The future version of me would only copy whatever I choose to say and divulge now. Essentially whatever I choose to say now is fine. It'll always be correct because in the future I'll make sure to say exactly as I said now.

Timey-wimey mumbo jumbo, in a nutshell, whatever I say (as long as it's not the truth) will be fine. It's hard to break the past.

My racing heart relaxed just slightly, and as I went to take a sip of my drink, I noticed that my Red Bull was missing. Turning to the Doctor—it was in his grasp, he was examining it with wide green eyes curiously.

"Give me that back!" I cried out with a gasp.

"Winter Edition? Do you know how bad this stuff is for you, PJ?" He scolded before proceeding to take the biggest drink of it I had ever seen. His practically hairless eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Actually, this flavor is quite good! Much better than that pink one you always used to drink!"

"It's mine!" I marched back up to him, tugging it out of his hands. "Do you know how hard it's been to get ahold of this? It's sold out everywhere!"

"With a taste like that, no wonder! But it doesn't stop it from causing heart issues!" The Doctor put his hands on his hips, staring down at me while clicking his tongue.

We are face-to-face in a short stand off. I looked at him almost offended while he stared back with a smile and annoying twinkle in his eye.

Seriously, fuck this guy. Who did he think he was to be able to scold me for drinking a Red Bull? This English alien-dude with virtually no eyebrows.

And this is why I will not be telling him any part of the truth! A perfect reason, if you ask me!

Amy was blinking in bafflement while watching the scene.

"What is happening?" She muttered to herself while shaking her head.

I tilted my head toward her, but never took my eyes off the Doctor. He was smirking at me in a weird and coy all-knowing manner... it was fucking annoying.

"I'd like to know the same thing," I lazily called.

Sadly—I did not realize that comment would open the flood gates for the Doctor.

"Me as well... how did you get into my TARDIS?" The Doctor suddenly scowled. "I can't believe you did this—I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, this is so typical of you!" He complained, rubbing a hand down his face in a stressed-out manner. "American Redbull space woman! Always stressing me out, always stealing my thunder, I swear!" He then proceeded to point at me, waggling a finger in my face. My mouth fell open at his audacity, eyes crossing. The Doctor continued rambling. "And wasn't I supposed to come find you? From your perspective, we've never met before, so why did you break into my TARDIS?!" He worked himself up toward the end, his words coming faster and more jumbled as his mind worked quicker than his mouth. "I was waiting to go find you! But you came to me instead?! You were very explicit in me needing to wait 2 years, 7 months, 8 days, and 11 hours! I didn't realize you meant that's when you apparently break into my home! That would've been a good head's up, deary!" He pause, brows furrowing. "In all fairness, I suppose you did say that you would find me but I thought that was you being all sweet and metaphorical, I didn't realize you were being literal!"

It seemed his previous excitement over seeing me was starting to wane, now there was a suspicious glance in his eye. Suspicion I was more familiar with, I could work with that.

Although, a small part of me wished he had just stayed happy and excited and didn't question my new presence.

That was not realistic whatsoever though, especially not for someone like the Doctor.

He had started asking hard-hitting questions, he was recognizing that something was not quite right about this whole situation. Even though had apparently met me before.

According to his words of me "traveling with him for a few months", it stands to reason that he had become decently close to the future version of me.

Bitch, think fast!

My left hand—the hand that was not holding the Red Bull—flew upward and stopped centimeters from the Doctor's face. My head turned away from him and I almost snobbishly stuck my nose in the air.

It was now his turn to go cross-eyed, he scowled at the hand that was stuck in his face. My lips were tilted downward in a pout.

Irritatingly, he was taller than me. Like a five-inches taller, to be exact.

I am not a short person either, average height for a woman. Well, for a human woman, I guess. Incredibly small for the half of me that was not human though.

"First of all, whatever future me does or says isn't my problem yet. Secondly, don't wag your finger at me, TimeLord..." I sniffed.

"Oi, how do you—?"

I cut him off by swinging my backpack around, ripping it open, and haphazardly snatching a single paper out of it. In the next moment, my backpack was back in its rightful place and I was shoving the paper to the Doctor.

He took it in confusion.

Amy was watching the exchange silently.

"Is this a resume?" He sounded highly amused. "And your only experience is being a bartender in Miami? That's all you decided to list?"

Crossing my arms, I stuck out a hip. "Well, it's my favorite experience on Earth..." I deadpanned. "But off-world I've been a bartender on Nyxis, Raveron 9, Zyntarion, Stellaria, and Fluxphere. I told you, I'm here applying for a job. You tend to hear things as a bartender around the cosmos, you happen to be kind of famous." He perked up at me calling him 'famous'. "I figured why the hell not give being your companion a try? Heard you frequent Earth, so I came back to my homelands with the hope of running into you... looks like I succeeded. Although I feel as though I may be too overqualified for this position now..."

He scoffed, his entire persona suddenly becoming serious. Almost dark. "Overqualifed? Maybe the version of you that left two years ago, but you right now? I don't think so..." The Doctor spoke the words factually, but hidden deep within his voice... it almost sounded like sadness. "Now, out of all of time and space and you came here thinking you would just 'run into me'? No, I don't buy it. It's too convenient—now, tell me the truth. And don't lie to me, don't ever ever think you're capable. Especially when I already know bits and pieces of the truth from our previous travels. But now you don't have the excuse of 'spoilers' or potentially causing a 'paradox' as you used to say—or will say. So out with it now, deary, the truth and nothing but. You did promise it to me last time I saw you, after all..."

He wasn't necessarily mad or mean when he said it, the guy just sounded fed-up and called it how it was.

But, oh. He was good. Like really damn good.

Using the; my future, his past card too? Extremely good.

But I expected nothing else. This was the legendary Doctor, after all.

The real question was who the hell he was though. Doctor fucking Who?

My mind was reeling after his entire speech. And, of course, my future self just had to promise some bullshit truth. Like hell I was giving that away—this guy would need to pry verity from my cold dead lips.

Like hell I wasn't capable of lying, this guy had no clue who he was dealing with.

And I have no doubt that if he did one of two things would happen.

He'd either kick me out or lock me up.

Amy was sitting on the sides, but after many moments of silence, it seemed that she could no longer keep her questions to herself.

"Space? But you're human, how can you have traveled the cosmos?" She questioned, eyes wide with untapped curiosity.

I looked away from the Doctor, meeting her gaze. As I opened my mouth to speak, the Doctor surged forward and grabbed my hand lifting it for Amy to see. In his grasp was my wrist, my wrist with the broken Time Vortex Manipulator.

"Time Vortex Manipulator, Pond." The Doctor begins, still holding up my wrist for Amy to see. His grip was tight. "Time travel and teleportation device from the future. Cheap and nasty compared to the TARDIS, but it does the job. Think of it as a wristwatch that cheats. Dangerous if you're not careful—and downright illegal in most places—but clever little humans do love to tinker, don't they?" He shoots me a pointed look, half amused, half something else I could not discern. "You never told me where you got this? So I'll take my explanation for that as well."

The future version of me really just chose to keep the timeline and continuously screw me over. At least I have that to look forward to.

"Whatever," I ripped my wrist out of hand. "If you're so suspicious then why did you choose to travel with me in the first place if I am such a shady and untrustworthy person?"

The Doctor opened his mouth but closed it in the next second. It seemed I had him at a loss for words finally. But there was something far off in his gaze—I must've triggered a memory.

It was my opening, the shot I had to take. Luck and lies, be on my side.

"I told you the truth." I spat out. "I have been a bartender around the cosmos for the past few years. But before that, I was a Ravager."

In this universe, the Ravagers are an interstellar criminal syndicate that specializes in thievery, trafficking, and piracy. There were hundreds of factions and no real way to track who was a part of it or the histories of it. The Doctor was no doubt familiar with them.

But not familiar enough to prove that I wasn't part of it.

They weren't a huge threat. Criminals; yes, but not the kind of criminals that destroy planets.

Not big enough to catch the attention of the Doctor unless he was somehow directly involved.

Which to my knowledge, he really has never had to deal with them. They were the kind of pesky criminals that he left the interstellar police to deal with.

Besides—it wasn't a complete lie. When I first came to this reality, I had joined them for a few years.

It was fun!

"They kidnapped me when I was a kid, from the cornfields of Kentucky, raised me alongside them in space. This came in the stolen booty one day," I waved my wrist around, showing I meant the Vortex Manipulator. "I took it, put it on, and left when I was sixteen. Never batted an eyelash and never looked back—I've traveled around and been on my own ever since..."

That was like so far from the whole story. And, the part about being kidnapped as a kid and leaving when I was sixteen was an outright fib.

In actuality, when I first got to this universe 70 or 80 something years ago; for me it's been that long, but when you're constantly bouncing around time, the calendar doesn't really have purpose. But I first arrived by slamming straight through the multiversal wall and into the 51st century.

After fixing the accidental hole I caused by coming in so roughly, the first thing I did was run around the streets and learn all the dirty secrets I could about this universe. The ins and outs—its histories.

People who I had to watch out for. The Doctor used to be on that list, but look at me now!

That led me to joining the Time Agency where I acquired this nifty little device.

I worked and did missions with them for some years before eventually hacking the Vortex Manipulator and going AWOL.

In the Time Agency systems, I was dead. Killed in action (considering I faked my death because I didn't need them on my tail too).

I ran around time and space by myself for another decade before I got bored and chose to join the Ravagers.

From 1989 until 2015 I was fucking shit up as a Ravager. A long 26 years indeed, and despite everything, despite the bad rep that Ravagers had—I was never cruel. Not unfairly cruel, at least.

Just kind of... naughty.

And then, once the other Ravagers started harassing me on always looking 20-something-years-old despite supposedly being in my 50s, I figured my time with them was up.

Cue deciding to have a fun time and hopping around party planet to party planet bartending and doing everything in between.

And then one trip to Miami in 2020 turns out to be my fun little Vortex Manipulator's last hurrah and I'm stranded.

That's when I figured that my time in this universe was soon to be finished anyway—the greater good is on the horizon.

But I'm not about to be caught in my final stretch of running... and that's what waiting it out on Earth in the 2020s would ultimately lead to.

So bam, I think about all the bullshit I've heard about the legend and savior of this universe over the years.

Doctor fucking Who?

As it would turn out, he's a TimeLord who goes by that title. No one knows his real name.

The TimeLord in the TARDIS who travels all of time and space and saves this universe time and time again.

So hey—he seems like good fun and great protection. After all, it's the Time Vortex that provides me the ultimate hiding spot.

It's much harder to track down someone running through time.

And I'm decently old myself, not as old as him, but old enough; certainly smart enough, and a good damn teller of tall tales.

I'm near the final stretch too? The Doctor and his TARDIS seemed like the best option to end my time here with a bang.

Literally.

But I didn't bother saying that part.

I told him like... 2% of the truth? Okay, I'll be generous, I told him like 4%. That seems good enough.

Twisted truths.

It was the way the Doctor's eyes softened around the edges and he relaxed. The gleam of sympathy and gentleness that he wordlessly expressed.

I almost felt guilty.

But I fucking got him! He believes me.

"So after hearing countless stories from the people I served on various planets; all stories about a space and time-traveling hippie TimeLord who takes human women with him on his journeys, I figured why the fuck not? I think I am a great candidate!" I finished, puffing my chest out at the end. "I'm technically from Earth, and I'm a woman! Just cause I'm not British doesn't mean I can't keep up!"

The Doctor cringed while Amy guffawed.

"Oh, oh, Doctor... that sounds so bad—is that actually what you're known for?" She was giggling, now leaning against the console railings. "A time-traveling, space-hopping hippie who takes human women?"

He turned to her almost embarrassed. "What? No, absolutely not! You've seen enough of me to know that's not the case, Pond!" He cried furiously. "A ridiculous and horrible misconstruction of me! God, how many beings have heard of me that way? I don't even want to know!"

With that, he turned back to me. My resume was still in his grasp.

Okay, yep, I just did that. I definitely just lied straight to the face of the last TimeLord in existence. This is totally going to be fine—it'll all be good!

There was a long moment of silence.

"Did you ever go home?" He finally asked, his voice softer than before.

I tilted my head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You said you ran away from the Ravagers at sixteen, did you go home, afterward?"

Oh.

"No," I stated, looking to the ground. "They might have kidnapped me, but they didn't take me away from anything important, anyone who cared. I was an orphan—I just happened to be sneaking out and exploring the cornfields that night. I wasn't important, I wasn't loved, and the Ravagers did me a favor by taking me with them. At least I got to see the stars..." My voice was far away, and so was my mind.

It may have not been the truth, but it felt too real and brought back an onslaught of memories. Horrible memories that I wished to forget. Memories of a little unloved girl.

A little unloved girl who was stolen multiple times from the second she was born.

"That's sad..." I vaguely heard Amy whisper to herself. "That's properly heartbreaking..."

I almost wanted to laugh at her quiet words. As I looked up, ready to turn to her with eyes full of amusement—two hands suddenly gripped the sides of my face.

The Doctor's hands were firm yet surprisingly gentle as they cradled my face, tilting it upward so I had no choice but to meet his eyes. They were burning with intensity, and filled with a depth of sadness that caught me off guard. For a moment, the weight of the universe itself seemed to settle in those deep, stormy irises.

"In over 900 years of traveling through time and space," he said, his voice soft but carrying a gravity that made it feel like the most significant fact in the universe, "I have never—never—met anyone who wasn't important." His gaze bore into me as if daring me to contradict him. "And you, my dear, are no exception."

I froze under his stare, the words sinking into my chest like stones dropped into deep water. My usual defenses—the ones I'd used for so long to protect myself from memories I wanted to forget—cracked under the weight of his conviction.

What the fuck?

"I don't know what you've been told," he continued, his thumbs lightly brushing my cheeks as though he could wipe away something far deeper than tears. "But you are important. So important. And while it might be hard to understand right now, you are especially important to me. Don't you dare let anyone—including yourself—convince you otherwise."

"Doctor..." Amy's voice broke the tension, soft and uncertain, as though she wasn't quite sure if she should interrupt.

The Doctor pulled his hands away, but his eyes remained locked on mine for another heartbeat before he finally stepped back, his usual manic energy already returning as if the moment had never happened. "Right then!" he said, clapping his hands together. "I guess I finally got my answers—I've never employed someone before though! I guess you'll be the first employee companion of mine! Now that's something spectacular, indeed! Working for the Doctor in the TARDIS!" He laughed, whirling around and racing up the steps to the console.

He was spinning around, pushing and pulling levers like nothing I had ever seen before. "Let's see—it's Tuesday afternoon for us... what should we do for the rest of the day? Your first trip in the TARDIS! I have been waiting for this moment for what's felt like forever!" The Doctor was rambling to himself again.

My eyes widened as the place shook and the sound of wheezing overcame everything. Was it supposed to make that noise?

Amy stepped closer suddenly, offering me a small, tentative smile. "He's right, you know," she said like she wanted to make sure I really believed it. "He always is, annoyingly enough."

"I bet..." My voice cracked.

What have I got myself into? What have I just done?

I looked away, not trusting my voice any further, and instead focused on the whirring sounds of the TARDIS. Somehow, amid all that noise, a seed of warmth settled in my chest.

Interesting—so very interesting.