As the World Shatters

Chapter 1: an old acquaintance

When Peri woke it was with a strangled cry, her dreams fitful and brimming with the horrors and heartbreak of the last few days. However bad her nightmares had been though; she knew that the reality surrounding her was even worse. The Doctor was dead and she was trapped here in space alone. The Doctor was dead: it made everything else seem insignificant in comparison. As she felt herself being pulled back to full consciousness she wanted to resist, to have just a while longer before everything must be faced, but suddenly she realised with a start that there was nothing beside her. She could still feel the TARDIS's cold floor beneath her, hear its rhythmical hum in the air but the Doctor himself was gone. She sat bolt upright, looking around in confusion, but there was no sign of him or anyone else in sight. The control room was completely empty.

At that moment she heard a sound in the corridor outside, like footsteps coming towards her, and she froze. For a split second she wondered if everything had just been a part of her dream and she wanted so desperately for that to be true but somehow, dep down, a part of her knew it had been real. As the footsteps approached, she lost any shadow of hope. It was not the bounding, energetic, self-assured step of the Doctor she had come to know so well but a lighter gentler footfall she did not recognize. She wondered if the Master or the Rani had somehow broken into the TARDIS, taken the Doctors body and then come back for her. She felt too numb to experience real terror at the prospect, just a mild, abstract sense of fear, but when the door swung open and a figure finally entered it was neither the Master or the Rani. Instead, it was someone she had never expected to see again.

The doctor looked down at her in surprise, confusion and mild concern fighting for position on his face. At least, it may have been the Doctor but not, her Doctor. It was the Doctor she had first met when she joined the TARDIS what seemed like a lifetime ago, his boyish face, blond hair and cricket uniform seemingly unchanged, down to the stick of celery pinned to his lapel. In her wearied state Peri could hardly comprehend what was in front of her.

''Peri, whatever's the matter?'' he asked, noting her shocked expression and the red rims round her eyes from the bitter crying of only hours before.

''D... Doctor?'' Peri stammered in total confusion ''h... how can you be here.'' It felt strange using that name again and so soon after what had happened. It just didn't feel .... right.

The Doctor frowned, bewildered. ''Why, where should I be?'' 

''Dead'' she told him but quickly changed that when she realized how it sounded. ''I.... I mean You died'' Peri tried her best to explain but it was hard, as the situation made no sense to her either. ''O... or at least, you regenerated.''

Now the Doctor looked totally lost. ''I did what?'' 

''Regenerated'' Peri repeated ''on Androzani Minor. D... don't you remember?'' 

The Doctor nodded slowly, thinking back to the ill-fated adventure. ''I remember the Spectrox, yes. We nearly died but I got the bats milk just in time to save us both.''

Peri shook her head in disbelief. ''No, that's not right, tha... that's not what happened!'' she objected. ''There was only enough bats milk for me, and you...'' she trailed off then, remembering the Doctors last promise to her. 'Don't worry, you won't be alone' he had told her and she felt the prick of tears once again at the memory. ''But that never happened'' she realized as things started to fall into place. ''He ... he promised I wouldn't be alone and this is what he meant, isn't it?'' 

The Doctors frown depend. ''Are you sure you're all, right?'' he queried, perplexed by her unfathomable behaviour. 

''No'' Peri admitted, her mind numbed from grief and mental exhaustion. ''I... I... I don't think I'm all right at all.''