The Girl of Colours (Book TWO)

I Choose to Stay

One moment dad was struggling to fight the Shansheeth death ray or whatever the bloody hell it was, and the next moment, it was Clyde stood there, dazed and confused. "But I was on a planet."

"Never mind that. Run!" Sarah Jane shouted, starting to herd us down the corridor, and we both paused to make sure everyone got through, before dad ran in, not Clyde. what the hell was he doing?!

"Come along, Smiths." He took both our hands, before getting everyone inside the dorms again. "In, in, in."

"I'm sorry, is there a problem?" Karim asked, following us to the door.

Before dad slammed it in her face, anyway, before turning back and looking at her. "Sorry, I was slamming it." And then slammed it in her face again, brilliant. "Right. Now we need to lock it. Come on, Callie, you're the walking sonic." 

I rolled my eyes, typing on my phone. "Have you not noticed the fact that I'm talking through my phone, dad? I have Laryngitis, if I sing, I won't hit any of the right notes. Sarah Jane, can use the sonic lipstick."

"Haven't you got the screwdriver?" She asked, doing as she was asked. 

He made a face. "They took it."

Jo looked like she couldn't believe what was going on. "They do sonic lipsticks now."

"We're running out of time. I need you, Sarah, and you, Jo, and you, Calliope." He told us, and we all went to stand near him.

This wasn't going to go well. "Need us for what?"

He took mine and Sarah Jane's hands, and Jo took Sarah's. "Remember the old days when we'd go zooming off to faraway worlds?" And then we were gone again, being transported to a far away planet, red and barren. Where there was a machine bleeping out of control. "No, no, no, no. Let's get you working properly. Stop."

"Where are we?" I asked him through my phone, getting right back into the swing of things. 

"The Wasteland of the Crimson Heart. Planet Earth's that way." He pointed to the distance, where I saw a long stretch of red. Oh, I missed this, being on other worlds, the different colours of the universe... "Bit of a long walk. Sonic, please."

Sarah Jane just stared into the distance after handing it over, looking right into the view. "It's so many years since I was on another planet."

"Me too." Sarah agreed, but then she came back and started to help us, and unfortunately dad had to take apart my phone to be able to fix his little gizmo, and handed me a whiteboard and pen out of his strangely spacious pockets.

"There, and there." Dad pointed, and she used the sonic on it as I started to write in dark blue on the board, before the ink changed colour. I was keeping this pen, a colour changing marker.

Did it hurt, daddy? I mean, the regeneration. That last body of yours, was he okay in the end? I was so scared for you, but I couldn't do anything, you left me there.

He didn't look at me, only the board. "It always hurts. The more it happens, the more you'll learn that, my Callie. And there."

Sarah Jane smiled a little, putting a hand on my shoulder as she zapped the machine again. "So how did you end up in this place?"

"The Shansheeth lured me. A mighty old battlefield, just begging to be explored. Because I'm travelling with Amy now. And Rory." He replaced me then. "They got married. I dropped them off at a honeymoon planet, which isn't what you'd think. It's not a planet for a honeymoon, it's a planet on a honeymoon. It married an asteroid. Then they nicked the TARDIS. The Shansheeth, not Amy and er. Fortunately, I had all this wreckage to build a space swapping doo-dah thingummy wotsit." Dad, please learn official and recognised technical terms.