Once Upon a Tardis

  Once upon a time there was a mighty kingdom of Gallifrey. Its inhabitants carried a special kind of magic: they could watch every existing world and make sure there was nothing wrong going on. And the rulers of this world were an unusual dynasty. There were many descendants, but there never was any trouble because every single being of Gallifrey could live as long as it wanted, and also because the heirs shared their roles and were glad with it.

  "That sounds really boring. There can't be a world where everything is so fine." The little girl with curly dark hair - you can rarely meet a person whose hair is naturally in such an amount of little loops - crossed her arms, not believing what she was told.
  "Belle, you're as impatient as your dad. I haven't even begun yet," her mother replied.
  "Sorry," Belle apologized and prepared to listen on.

  The princes and princesses, who all were the descendants of King Omega, were all calm and obedient, and they all took part in getting rid of wars and conflicts throughout the Universe, despite their young age. But there was one princess who was different from all of them. She didn't look like her silver-haired and pale-eyed siblings, for her hair was long and was of the bluest shade of blue you could imagine, and her eyes were of steel grey color. Her name was Tardis, the fortieth princess from the Gallifrey dynasty.
  Unlike her brothers and sisters, who did things only when told, Tardis didn't enjoy that. Sometimes, when there was a chance, she sneaked away from the castle - which wasn't easy, for King Rassilon did his best to prevent such tricks, and he was a man who always kept his word, which was about punishments as well - and watched the children of Gallifrey who were free to do what they wanted. During one of such escapes she met a boy named Thete, with whom she quickly made friends.

  "Thete? Timothy?" Belle interfered again. She couldn't help asking it again: once she had asked her mum 'why Mr. Shakespeare didn't give his characters ordinary names', and not only that. Each and every book found at home and not there made her ask questions.
  "No. Theta Sigma," her mother corrected. "Like two Greek letters. Remember?"
  "Greek is odd," Belle confessed and rubbed her chocolate brown eyes. "And why didn't King Rassilon let them go free, Mama?"
  "Wait and you'll know. Okay, Belle?"
  "Okay."

  Thete and Tardis used every spare minute to spend it together. They appeared to share a dream: both wanted to get to another worlds. Not to see, like the rest of the Gallifreyans, but to step on another land and breathe another air.
  But Tardis wasn't the only differing princess from her family. There happened to be another black sheep - Princess Sidrat, but King Rassilon had no idea about her being as different as Tardis. There were reasons. Sidrat liked using the ability that all her siblings had. They all could change their appearance at will, but most of the time stayed silver-haired and pale-eyed, remember? They changed only when they were told. And Sidrat did that at will, and she could change her clothes at will as well, so King Rassilon never spotted her among the crowd of non-royal Gallifrey children. When he saw her, Sidrat wasn't any special, but as soon as he turned away, there was high time to run away for her. What to say, Sidrat had a dark side, and no wonder that she found a friend among non-royals as well. Strange, but Koschei, this friend of hers, was a friend of Thete as well. But Sidrat and Tardis, when they met, never fought - just pretended they didn't exist for each other.
  This was going on for not so long. King Rassilon learned that there were two descendants wasting their time, and he suspected there could be more. And, as all the princes and princesses were supposed to be identical and reliable, he decided that the punishment for the guilty two was not enough. So he turned all of them into machines.

  "Machines?"
  "I think it's better than rocks or statues, eh?"
  This didn't help. Belle wrapped into her blanket so that only the tip of her nose was sticking out and cuddled up to her mother.
  "That's unfair. Why did everybody suffer because of Tardis and Sidrat?"
  "They didn't suffer, Belle. Do you want to know what happened next?"
  "Mm-hmm." Belle nodded.

  But even when Tardis was locked in the groove of a silver cylinder, like all of her siblings, including Sidrat, she didn't worry. Her outside was small now, but her inside - oh, it was spacious! She just had to wait for the one who would get on her board and get away, and she secretly hoped it would be her childhood friend.
  But time passed, and many Gallifreyans attempted to drive Tardis, and she didn't move an inch. She didn't like them. They were all so boring that it would be a waste of time to let them in.
  And one day Tardis saw a girl approaching to her. That girl was short, dressed in red, and had eyes like no one on Gallifrey. Those eyes stopped on her, and the girl gave out a little smile.
  Not a long time after an elderly man appeared in the place where all the ex-descendants of Gallifrey dynasty were kept. Tardis had never felt so worried. Her heart was ready to rip from under the metal cover. Why? Because she didn't doubt it was her old friend, Thete! And he was going to go somewhere, and not with her... Didn't he remember her?
  The girl walked up to Thete.
  "I'm sorry..."
  "Yes, my dear?"
  "You really need to take this one," she said, pointing at Tardis. "You do. This one's better."
  Tardis would've danced if she had feet. And she did it when Thete entered her doors.

  "And what then?" Belle wondered, her head popping from under the blanket. "How did this girl know that they were old friends?"
  "If I tell it to you now, it won't be interesting anymore, and you may be confused. Very very confused."

  At first Tardis liked changing. When they landed, she turned into something. Into a tree, into a car or something. But then Tardis recalled what she had looked like when she had been a creature with hands, feet and the rest, and chose the groove of a blue police box when there was an opportunity.
  Tardis knew that Thete understood her perfectly well. Even now she could use her own language. She could connect ones she carried in their dreams or thoughts, and every time when she took off or landed, she deeply breathed. Loudly, oddly, but it was the best sign for her to see that she was alive.
  And Thete was not alone. There were others. Earthlings and aliens, humans and robots, ancient and new, shy and cheeky, but all special in their own way. Many ways. Sometimes Tardis liked them, sometimes not, but she always let them know that she was alive. There were many ways. Lulling to sleep, answering questions, showing the correct ways through her endless corridors were some of the main ways of contacting them.
  Once Thete tried to convince her to change her groove again. But Tardis didn't like this idea at all, and as a revenge she turned into something not fitting the landscape at all. Twice. Once into an organ and once into a china column, which left Thete very unsatisfied, but he abandoned the trials to change her habits.
  There even was a case when Tardis turned into a being with blood in the heart. Sadly it didn't last long, but there was enough time for Tardis to show Thete that she still cared for him. Very very deeply.
  But one day Tardis couldn't believe her sight. After hundreds and hundreds of years since they two had escaped Gallifrey, there was the girl who had hinted Thete about Tardis around here! Tardis never forgot faces, and it couldn't be a mistake! But soon enough it was clear that it wasn't her - Tardis made sure of that when reading her mind.

  "Was it her twin?" Belle asked.
  "No."
  "Or maybe her... her daughter?"
  "No, Belle."
  "Then who was it? Did Thete know her?.."

  Thete was puzzled too. And you can imagine how many lives he saved and how many victories he gained after so many years! But there was a moment when Tardis was forceless and couldn't do anything for her best friend. Yes, there had been moments when she had felt useless, but this was a special one. Her friend's attempts threatened all to be wasted and turned to dust.
  And then this girl, Oswin, jumped into the heart of the storm and was gone. There was only a million copies of her helping Thete along his way. This is how she had helped him to find Tardis and hinted the correct way for him all along. But Thete managed to save her, and they went along their way again, and still do.

  "And what happened to Sidrat? She became Koschei's?" Belle asked.
  "Yes, you guessed. But, alas, Koschei became Thete's worst enemy."
  "Why?"
  "That's a whole another story, Belle."
  Belle pouted, but then beamed, a wee bit. Her mother always did like that. Every evening - when she wasn't too tired - there was a tale, one more interesting than the other.
  "What?"
  Suddenly there was a strangest sound in the air. Most of all it sounded like breathing of a monster, for Belle at least. And mother's face turned worried.
  "Did he do it on purpose, I wonder?" she murmured.
  "Do what, Mama?"
  The woman stood up from her daughter's bed and made her way to the exit from their flat. Belle, whose 'sleep beginnings' were gone for good, slid off her bed as well, got wrapped into her blanket (for her nightgown wasn't a good protection from evening coolness) and followed her Mama.
  There was a blue police box on the street, right in front of their doors. Just like in the tale she had just heard. As if called, its doors opened, and a tall dark figure walked out.
  "You couldn't find better time to come?" mother asked, hands on her hips.
  "I could come later, you know I don't care about time," a deep voice replied, and Belle saw the whole image of the incomer. He had bulging blue eyes and a really really sly grin (for some reason Belle thought about the Jolly Roger, having seen it), and his hair was silvery grey, as if powdered with snow. "Maybe Diamond Waterfalls this time? Or Scarlet Union beginning? We could make it Indigo Union, it sounds better... Oh-ha..."
  Belle backed away - the man saw her.
  "Who's here?" the man asked.
  "You've forgotten about family ties, Doctor, have you? This is my daughter Belle."
  The 'Doctor's' eyes darted from the smaller one to the taller two or three times, and he showed his teeth in a wide grin (this made him look like a pirate skull even more):
  "Ahhhh, Clara, could've guessed. Short, round face, et cetera... And who's the other?"
  "What the other?"
  "A typical hybrid child," the Doctor noticed, having eyed Belle from curly top to curled toes. "Not totally you, not totally..."
  "Danny. I guess you still remember I used to have a boyfriend."
  "Ah."
  Belle unwillingly compared her caramel-shaded skin with his pale. They seemed even more contrasting now.
  "You're Thete?" she asked, unexpectedly for everyone (including herself). "Thete, a friend of Tardis?"
  Clara sighed.
  "Sorry Doctor. There was no better tale for her."