Trapped in Time (Doctor Who Fanfiction)

Chapter 9: Alice

Here is Chapter 9, like I promised! I hope you all like it and enjoy it! I hope you enjoy seeing a different side of the Doctor, and really just everything that goes on. Please vote and comment! Tell me what you think! The Doctor wants you to vote xD! For the sake of all that's good and for the sake of Gallifrey, please vote. Haha, no pressure! :P
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Alice

I never had seen the Doctor look more pale than he was at this moment. He was dead silent as he stared at the gravestone for what seemed like hours.

"Doctor! Please, you have to listen to me. I don't think it's what it looks like. I think it's some sort of message. She said something to me, she wanted me to remember something." I said nodding my head with certainty.

He slowly walked over to the gravestone and let his fingers graze against the smoothed out top. Each step he took looked like it was a struggle, he practically had to pull himself to even move the slightest.

I shook my head in denial. "Doctor, don't give up, not just yet. This isn't Rose, you have to believe that."

The Doctor's eyes flared up in anger. "She sacrificed herself for you, she knew it all along, what could you possibly say to convince me that this isn't the truth? How could you possibly convince me that she isn't gone?" He glared at me in anger as he turned to look at the blonde-haired woman with the black veil.

I wasn't going to lie, it scared me to see the Doctor angry like this. All I had seen of him before was sadness, and his warm demeanor, but this didn't seem like it could possibly be him. It hurt me when he spoke to me with fury in his eyes. I know he was only upset, but he didn't have the right to take it out on me.

"Think Doctor, just think for a moment. It's what you always do." I sighed softly looking down at the gravestone carefully.

The Doctor didn't stop once to look down at me, instead he seemed mesmerized by Rose and his deep thoughts.

It looked like I would just have to figure this out on my own.

"Look to the roses." I whispered to myself.

What could that possibly mean? I looked and followed the roses, and they led me to Rose, but what else is there to be done? What was Rose trying to show me?

I pondered the thought curiously as my eyes scanned over Rose's tombstone once more.

Rose Tyler.
1986-2001.
Brave above all, warrior till the end. She spoke the words of a Braveheart.

"Doctor, did she say anything to you before she left? Any messages? Any warnings?" I murmured as I glanced back up at the Doctor.

The Doctor spoke slowly, he was still slightly in a trance.

"She just said that she had sacrificed herself for you to protect me and that-" He began to pace suddenly as he ran his hands through his hair nervously.

"And that, there was a message. A message hidden in plain sight, trapped in time. Lost, save them, save them all." He spoke slowly and suddenly his eyes lit up in excitement. The anger was erased from his eyes and filled with joy instead.

"The message, this must be it then!" My eyes shone brightly as I smiled back up at the Doctor.

The Doctor grinned in response as he crouched down next to me and analyzed the text. He murmured quite lowly to himself as his eyes scrunched up in thought.

"It doesn't make any sense though, she can't be here. She never was in my history, she never came here."

The Doctor shook his head slowly.

"Time doesn't exactly work like that, it's more like a ball of timey wimey wibbly wobbly stuff." He gestured with his hands as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and moved it back and forth between his left and right hand.

"What does that mean?" I raised my eyes puzzled.

"Time can be rewritten, time is now, it's always at the moment you're in. So, Rose may never have been in your past, but now she is due to the Shifting Shadows. They have corrupted part of time and created a gap with Rose, just like with you. Except, this isn't Rose, this is her physical form." He swiveled slightly as he scanned Rose with his sonic screwdriver.

"Shifting Shadows?"

"Yes, they're a non-corporeal creature, you might recall them as being some sort of shadow or darkness, but they are in fact what has been stealing your memories all of these years. They shift into the prey that they are hunting down or have scanned by creating gaps in certain time streams. They can only survive through shifting into another form other than their own.

"Shifting Shadows." I repeated with a teasing smile on my face.

"Yes, that's what I said." The Doctor repeated before raising his eyes curiously.

"You're not-" He paused shaking his head with a small sigh.

He didn't realize that I was mocking him until only several moments later.

"That doesn't sound exactly like a proper name. What kind of name is Shifting Shadows? I thought it would be slightly more intimidating, I've got to hand it to you. I guess some creatures just don't play the name game very well." I chuckled lightly as I smirked at the Doctor.

"You sound exactly like her! And, what exactly is wrong with that name? I came up with it myself. It's quite catchy, if I do say so myself."

"Just about everything. It's missing that ring that is in all of those scary monster names you read in a book. Like, Dracula or Frankenstein, it just isn't that terrifying. Sorry, I've got to hand it to you Doctor, you are not good at naming things."

I grinned in delight as I caught sight of the small pout he wore on his face in his frustration, he acted like such a child sometimes.

The Doctor flicked his sonic screwdriver up and stared down at it for several moments before speaking once more.

"Alright, alright! Let's get back to more important matters-"

"Shifting Shadows!" I interrupted him with a big goofy smile.

"Jessie!" He raised his voice in frustration.

I knew he wasn't angry at me, he was more angry with himself and that his monster name was just not up to par.

"Okay, okay, I'm stopping now. I just had to say it once more." I raised my hands up slightly as if I was surrendering, but really I knew that I had won.

The Doctor had already moved on by now and glanced down at the message inscribed on the tombstone almost as if he were perplexed about something.

"It's so strange though. I remember her, well the woman in particular, I didn't know it was her until now. And yet here she is."

"Like I said, time can act quite strange, at times it can be altered to change history itself."

"It can't be just that, there must be more. I still remembered that one moment above everything, I forgot you, I forgot my Mom and Dad and yet I remember her." I stood up slowly as I turned to look at the blonde woman.

"Memory works in strange ways sometimes, she may just in fact be a trigger or some sort of thing that stuck with you, anomalies are often possible, it doesn't mean anything. In fact, all of your memories stuck with you, they were just hidden. You unlocked them, only you can ever do that."

"But you said-" A wave of confusion rolled over my face as I turned to the Doctor.

A small smile grew on the Doctor's face as he exchanged a glance with me.

"I know what I said, the Tardis held all of your memories and had them restored, it's what you needed to hear. The Tardis had nothing to do with it, it was you. All you. You and only you have the power to believe in yourself and remember anything that was lost. You just needed the slight push to believe in yourself."

"But I just believed in it! I don't know what the heck a Tardis is and I just accepted it?" My eyes widened in shock as my voice jerked slightly.

The Doctor laughed in response to my reaction.

"Exactly! Now you're getting it." He smirked lightly.

"Braveheart? So, she spoke the words of a Braveheart, but what could possibly be that important about being a Braveheart?" My suspicions arose as I read over the text.

"I don't think it's about the text, if she is indeed trapped then maybe it is some subliminal message. It might mean something, but is written in code." The Doctor scanned the gravestone once more with his sonic screwdriver.

"Something is not adding up, there is still a gap here in time, a hole."

"Couldn't that be from me, my time stream?"

"No, it's more than that." His brow furrowed as he glanced down at the tombstone deep in thought.

"She said that we had to save them, save all of them, right?"

"Right." The Doctor seemed to pay no thought to my comment.

"Well what if she isn't the only one in danger? Trapped in time. What if there are more people physically trapped in a certain point in time? Is that possible, Doctor?"

"Well.." The Doctor's face scrunched slightly.

"She told me that everyone was losing time, what if she meant it literally? What if everyone is stuck, and trapped in time itself? She must've known, she knew all along, she knew it and she couldn't stop it! That's why she told me, she needed me, this gravestone. It can't mean anything! It has to be more simple than this!" I sighed in frustration as I ran my hands through my hair.

"I've never seen something like this occur before, to be physically stuck in a loop of some sort, yes that is a possibility, but in time itself. That would indeed be very tricky."

"Maybe, it's more than that. They could be stuck in a certain point of time maybe in their life itself. No, but it wouldn't be just their life, this would have to be made, predetermined! Hidden in plain sight." I pondered over my thoughts as I paced back and forth abruptly.

Something kept occurring again and again, only I couldn't put my finger on it. She must have placed it in my life at different points, and through it all, I had no idea at all. It held a hidden meaning.

"Why blue flowers, Doctor? Why were they there? All this time! I've never even thought twice about them, not even once."

"I don't know, I always quite liked the color, I found them in the Tardis, it reminded me of her." He smiled fondly as he thought about the Tardis.

I turned to Rose and yanked the blue flowers out of her hands suddenly. She screamed in response as her eyes turned a hell blazing red and the ground began to shake around the grave.

The blonde-haired woman removed the veil slowly before speaking in a monotonous icy voice. It was Rose's and yet it sounded nothing like hers at all, it was purely robotic-like.

Her red eyes flicked up quickly and stared at me.

I backed up suddenly as I stumbled trying to catch myself from falling. The Doctor reached for my hand and I grabbed it quickly, my eyes full of fear.

What have I done?

"Test complete. You have earned your reward. One glimpse of knowledge, and nothing more. Congratulations Jessie, you have satisfied all of us. We look forward to more."

She slowly pulled her veil down and covered her eyes once more, I still could feel the heat of them staring at me. Those dark eyes, they didn't belong to Rose.

Whatever was happening right now, it couldn't exactly have been good in the least. Though I was being showered with rewards, I couldn't ignore this nervous feeling that I kept on feeling.

Who exactly was watching me? Was it those shadows or something far worse?

"Doctor!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

The roar of the ground shaking beneath my feet grew louder.

It was hard to even hear myself think.

The Doctor turned to me holding onto my hand as a small smile grew across his lips.

"What's going on? Why are you smiling? The ground is shaking and we're all probably going to die in several minutes, and you're grinning like some sort of idiot!" I raised my voice in slight annoyance.

"This is slightly exhilarating, couldn't you say that in the least? The imminent danger, the rush of adventure, it does have its charms." He winked at me as the grin on his face grew exponentially.

I huffed in slight anger before looking back at the Doctor. I couldn't stay angry at this man.

"You're so..so--right." I chuckled lightly as I held the Doctor's hand tighter.

Long cracks grew on the ground around the gravestone and soon the stone itself cracked down the center breaking and falling into an increasing hole in the ground.

I closed my eyes nervously not wanting to picture being consumed by the growing gap.

I remembered the Tardis being devoured by that hole and all I could picture was falling and losing control, losing myself in the darkness. That's really what I was afraid of, I didn't want to be lost again.

"Jessie?"

"Yeah?" I raised my eyes slowly to meet his. My voice quivered slightly.

"Trust me."

"Don't let go, d-don't leave me again." I whispered feeling like a child again. I feared being abandoned the most.

"Never again. Trust me." His eyes lingered over the growing hole in the ground.

I followed his eyes to the hole understanding him instantly.

"One." I whispered softly.

"Two." He turned to me with a grin on his face.

"Three!"

We both jumped into the hole in the earth and fell down, down till I couldn't remember any longer.

The last thing I could think of was Alice, I felt just like her in that moment. I was Alice falling down a hole, only this time I wasn't falling into a magical world full of rabbits and mysterious creatures, I was jumping head first, two feet forward into my destiny with a mysterious man known as the Doctor.