Tempered by Love

Chapter 18 Kidnapping Time Lords: It's a Family Thing

   At the moment of her spawning, feeling the trembling hand of the Time Lord wrap around her fragile body, one command became embedded so deeply in the subroutines of the TARDIS that it could never be countermanded: protect the new pilot. Even as a tiny bit of nothing, she had endeavoured to fulfil her mother's command. From his most broken to his darkest moments, she had split off her energy to support him. When the explosion of artron shot across the universe straight into her centre, her growth exploded and it became easier, but not by much. Pilot was a stubborn, thick-headed individual who thought communication was a one-way sort of thing. Singing to his offspring, imprinting herself on the tiny bits of nothing was easier than the communicating with Pilot. He was a Time Lord who was not a Time Lord -- yet.

She'd peeked inside the minds of the humans in the household, finding what would make them happy. She incorporated those images into her designs for the home she weaved for Pilot. She was confused by the presence of an unintended bondmate. She'd tried to sing to her, but the human was too afraid, so she sang to her firstborn. She strengthened his little mind, helping him grow past his limitations. She sang to her unborn, making sure they were Time Lord from the moment of their conception.

And then the darkness came.

The bondmate was gone, nothing of her remained but the overwhelming pain coming from the Pilot and her offspring. He'd raged against her walls, screamed how worthless she was. She didn't understand what she had done wrong. She found Mother's human child and sent her to him, and then the TARDIS shut herself down, running checks to see where her growth had failed. When she sang again, he barely heard her and then -- he was gone, and she was alone. In the dark. The tapes played on a loop. She didn't like the tapes. She was her mother's child with all of the knowledge of the universe in her cells.

She tried to ignore them, choosing instead to sing for him to return -- non-stop for weeks, but he blocked every attempt to reach his heart. His absence left her lost and alone until she once again felt his presence. She opened her newly formed door, configured the console room for his present state and waited; sure her song would draw him in. Time inside stopped. The thumping of his human heart echoed inside her chamber. She made sure he could not resist this latest tug, and when he walked inside, her door slammed shut, and her song spread throughout the galaxy.

While he bounced from room to room like an excited child, she evaluated him. Underneath his awe and wonder, she felt pain, guilt and overwhelming sorrow. She detected only one functional heart and scars in places where there shouldn't still be scars. This world had damaged her pilot far more than she'd recognised. Step by step, through the rooms that would be his home, she showed her handiwork. He laughed at the Zeppelin set up in a playroom filled with toys, and whooped when he saw the hologram meadow, and then she had him safe -- in the Zero room. His panic lasted only a second before she had him in a healing coma.

In the same instant, her engine fired, the time rotor began sliding up and down, and she de-materialised for the first time, free to hurtle across space, hunting for the source of all knowledge. Twenty real time seconds later, she pierced the barrier to float in this universe's time vortex, soaking up precious energy, filling her data banks with coordinates for habitable worlds. She tapped radio waves for languages, primed her translations circuits, mapped the fabric of the cosmos and traced the timelines of this universe.

Whilst learning her new playground, she weaved energy around his form, repairing the damage left by his injuries and the effects of a creation gone wrong. His scars faded; the headaches that had plagued him would be gone. She corrected his body's metabolism, tried and failed to trigger the formation of a respiratory bypass system. She reordered his DNA, enhanced his human intuition and pondered the extra tiny heart. Her mother's data banks said Time Lords had two working hearts. This pathetic thing would not do.