Chapter Text
"I can't go back. Don't make me go back. Doctor... please. Please, don't make me go back!"
Donna woke with a gasp. The sharp edges of memory knifed into her consciousness and tears welled in her eyes. She blinked them away and swallowed hard. When the ache in her chest had eased somewhat, she took in her surroundings. The room was unfamiliar She lay, breathing hard, in muted darkness. In her clothes on a bed… again.
She remembered.
All those things she and the Doctor had done together; the things he had taken from her mind, had caused her to forget… wonderful, terrifying things that she now recalled. Memories he had said would kill her, that would burn her alive, yet she didn't feel like she was about to combust.
At least, not any more she didn't; she thought back to the alley behind the Bradford Arms and the dark-haired alien. Her last memory was of him catching her and then… then what? She didn't remember, didn't know where she was.
Donna sat up. Though she was still in her clothing the rain-soaked coat had been removed, along with her boots, and a sort of fur blanket was draped over her. She looked around. The room was sparse, with little in it other than the bed and a desk. Her eyes locked on the window, at the stars she could see beyond it.
"Oh my God," she murmured.
She slipped out of the bed and padded over to the window. Looking out, she saw the Earth spinning slowly beneath her. A thrill fizzed through her; she was in space. She touched the wall. What she'd thought of as metal didn't feel like that, it was warm and pulsed with life. She blinked and stroked her hand over the wall.
"His name is Talyn."
The announcement made her jump and she whirled. He was tall, as tall as the Doctor, but certainly not as skinny. The black sleeveless top he wore revealed arms that were well-muscled and he had them folded across his broad chest as he leant against the doorway.
"Right," she said, not entirely sure what to do with that information. "And you are?"
"Bialar Crais."
He had a name, an actual name. That would make things easier.
"Donna Noble," she told him. He nodded.
"Yes, I know who you are." He looked her up and down. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," she said. "Which I guess I have you to thank for."
"You asked me to help you," Bialar said. He pushed up from the doorway and looked around. "I did promise to try."
"So you just… what?"
He glanced at her. "How is your neck?"
"My neck?"
It did ache, actually. She put a hand to it. Her palm came away bloody. She stared at her hand and then at Bialar.
"What the hell did you do?" she yelled at him. He winced.
"Would you sit down?" he asked and motioned at the bed. His tone indicated that she wasn't going to like what she heard.
"No," she replied flatly. She held out her blood-covered hand. "Tell me."
Bialar sank onto the bed, braced his hands on his knees. Donna went to fold her arms, then saw her palm and thought better of it. She looked at him and tapped a foot. He sighed.
"Talyn… my ship is sentient. He's a living ship, Donna. He can connect to a being through something called a neural transponder. Here…"
He turned away from her then and moved the ponytail to one side. At the back of his neck was an evil looking device that made Donna gasp.
"What is that?"
"My connection to Talyn." He turned back to her. "I used a second, less-intrusive device to connect him to you and… he took certain aspects of the information in your mind."
"Like a download?"
"Yes. It allowed you to regain the memories that were blocked without whatever was killing you from doing so."
"The Time Lord Consciousness," Donna supplied. She glanced at her hand again. "I don't suppose you have something I can clean this off with?"
Bialar rose and went to the wall, pressing a button she'd failed to notice. A door slid open to reveal an approximation of a bathroom. She slid past him and rinsed the hand under the tap, then dried her hands.
"I would like to know more about the thing that was killing you," he said then. "Given there was considerable risk to what I did."
She looked at him and allowed a small smile to curve her lips.
"Would you sit down?"
Sat back on his bed, Bialar watched Donna sit next to him. Her reaction to the extreme but very necessary measure it had taken to save her life had been as explosive as he'd feared. However she seemed to have come to terms with it. She glanced at him. There was no reticence in her eyes, no hint of terror. She accepted him with an aplomb that he'd never experienced before and he found it rather refreshing.
She threaded her fingers together and focused on her hands. Talyn's joining with her had allowed him to see into her mind. It had been a brief glimpse, but enough to know this was not going to be easy for her. He held himself very still.
"You're… you're not the first alien I've met." Her voice was soft, low. "Two years ago, I was getting married and… and I was transported. I found myself in this strange place with arching supports and a central column and a man... well, he looked like a man, but he wasn't. His name was - is - the Doctor. He is a Time Lord, from a planet called Gallifrey, in the system of Kasterborous." She looked up then. "Do you… do you know where that is?"
"I have heard of it," he replied quietly. "There are… myths about such a place."
Donna gave him a weak smile. "It's gone now; the Doctor was the only survivor of a war. He had this ship. Not like this one, not like Talyn, but it travelled in time and space, and I travelled with him."
Her voice went husky. Bialar saw her eyes glisten in the microt before she turned her head away. He reached out, uncertain as whether she would accept a gesture of support but unable to watch her cry alone. He rested a hand on her shoulder. She gave a deep sigh.
"He showed me so much," she whispered. "So many worlds, past and future. I saw so many wonderful things, but terrible ones as well. I witnessed the birth of a new civilisation and the death of another. It was incredible, and I thought that it was going to last forever."
"What happened?" he asked softly.
"Something called a metacrisis. I absorbed some of his DNA and I… changed. I became a human Time Lord but… that shouldn't have been possible." She looked at him then. "It was killing me, but that was okay cos I was with him. Then he said that he was sorry and he… he took everything away from me."
She struggled visibly with her grief. Bialar tightened his hand on her shoulder. She gave a muted sob and then, much to his surprise, threw herself at him. Her arms went around his neck and she cried. He sat there, frozen and eyes wide, and tried to decide what he ought to do. He opted for patting her back rather awkwardly.
After some time, her sobs reduced to sniffles. She pulled back, her expression aghast. She wiped her face and smoothed her hair back.
"Sorry," she muttered.
"I don't mind," he said, finding even as he said the words that it was true. "I had some indication that the subject was… something of a sore point." She gave him a curious glance, so he expanded; "Connecting you to Talyn meant we were… connected, of sorts. Not in the same way, but I did get images, emotions."
Donna stared at him for a microt, and then shrugged.
"The TARDIS was slightly psychic. It got in my head and translated alien languages. That's how I can understand you." She frowned. "How do you understand me?"
"Translator microbes injected when I… when I was younger."
"Oh." She seemed lost for words. She looked at him. "So what are you, then?"
It was a question he'd known would come eventually. He still hadn't decided how to answer it though.
"Nothing anymore," he told her. "But I was a Peacekeeper."
"Is that like an army or something?"
How could he tell her? He looked away. "Something like that."
"Ah," Donna said. "You know, when I first met the Doctor there was this alien from a really old race. I mean, really old; they'd existed before my planet did and they'd hidden themselves in the core. This alien, she wanted to free the offspring, but if she'd done that, the babies would have eaten everyone on Earth. So the Doctor stopped her. He killed them. All of them."
Bialar met her eyes. "I see."
"Do you?" she asked. "I mean, you don't have to tell me, not if you don't feel comfortable, but don't think you're going to shock me."
He harrumphed. She poked his leg with a finger.
"If we're going to spend any amount of time together-"
"We are?" he interrupted. "Why?"
A hurt look crossed Donna's face, then she slumped.
"Oh," she said in a small voice. "I thought… well, you'd saved my life, so I thought that… but obviously not. Anyway, my mother will be worried so…" She stopped and gave him a plaintive look. "This isn't fair."
He was confused. "I'm sorry, what did you want?"
"Let me come with you." She sat round and took his hands. Her eyes pleaded with him. "Please, Bialar. I can't go back to a normal life, not again."
"But…" He hadn't expected to pick up a passenger, especially not a human one. "I… I'm rather used to being alone. I expected that you would wish to return home."
"Well I don't," she huffed and folded her arms.
He opened his mouth. Closed it again. He looked at her and wondered what he did now. Refusing her was the obvious answer, but he remembered the flicker of memories that had raided his mind whilst she'd been joined to Talyn. Though that had been only for mere macrons, it had been enough to know she would never be happy left on Earth. It shouldn't matter. For some reason, it did.
"Before you decide, I shall tell you something of myself," he told her. She unwound her arms and watched him, waiting. He heaved a sigh. "The Peacekeepers are the military force in the sector of space that I come from. I was a captain and… I did a lot of things of which I am no longer proud. I killed someone and that forced me out in order to survive. I then stole this ship. There is more but this you should know: my own people believe that I am dead. If they discover otherwise, then this ship and all within it would be in danger."
Donna's eyes were wide but she nodded slowly, clearly not discouraged by what he'd said.
"Okay."
He lifted his eyebrows at her.
"Donna…"
"It's not like I've never been in danger before. It was a regular occurrence." She gave him a sudden grin. "It was all about the running."
Bialar shook his head. "Talyn can only travel through space, Donna. If you came with me…"
"I'm not thick, Bialar," she said tartly. "I had figured out there'd be no going back."
"And you are still… willing?"
"Yes."
It was obvious she would not be swayed. All that remained was for him to decide whether he wanted someone else.
"And you need me," she added.
He arched an eyebrow at her. "I need you?"
"Yes, you do. You've been on your own for too long."
Loneliness was something he had spent most of his life trying to ignore; just another weak emotion that left one vulnerable. He looked at her, at the way she returned that look with no semblance of fear, and he thought that she might actually be right.
"If I offered…" He trailed off, uncertain of the etiquette.
Donna's lips twitched. "I need to check one thing." She reached out and placed her hand flat against the left side of his chest, then shifted it to the right. "Okay, so not that alien then."
He was bewildered by this action. "Whatever were you checking?"
"Whether you have one heart or two," she told him cheerfully. "The Doctor had two. You have one, so you're not that different from me."
"I believe our species are very similar," he said. "Compatible."
She jerked her hand off his chest, her cheeks colouring.
"Not that compatible, Spaceman!"
The nickname startled him but then the humour of her reaction made him chuckle. She glared at him, but after a microt her composure crack and she smiled slightly.
"So?" she asked.
"If you will not listen to reason and stay on Earth, then it is pointless arguing with you about the matter," he said.
"Is that a 'yes'?"
She sat forward, hope blooming on her face. There was no way he could refuse that. He sighed, wondering at which point he would regret this decision, fairly sure that he would, eventually.
"Alright," he said and was immediately engulfed in a tight hug.
"Thank you!" she squealed, nearly deafening him. "Oh, thank you."
Bialar rolled his eyes and returned Donna's hug awkwardly, trying to ignore the silent laughter that echoed in the back of his mind. At least Talyn was accepting the change to their circumstances.
"In that case, would you care for a tour of your new home?" he asked her.
Donna pulled back, her eyes shining.
"Oh yes please."