Ticking Clocks (Doctor Who Fanfic)

Night On A Cloud

The Doctor squeezed his eyes shut. "No... no... no..." 

He'd promised Rory's father. 

"Never them." 

He'd failed. Failed to keep his promise. 

River touched his shoulder. "Back in the TARDIS, Doctor." 

He stumbled into the TARDIS. Slumped into a chair. "So many regrets." he mumbled. 

Two more companions lost... he truly was a horrible person. 

Then when River went... he retired to his cloud in the sky. Refused to talk to anyone. Preferred solitude. 

There he met Nyxie Wing. 

The black-haired girl, with pale skin and startling green eyes, stared at him from the other side of the TARDIS. 

"How did you get up here? Who are you?" accused the Doctor. 

"I'm Nyxie. Nyxie Wing." the girl announced. 

"How did you get up here?" he demanded. 

"Someone told me about you. They told me a story." Nyxie explained. 

"Out." he ordered abruptly. He didn't have time for excuses. 

"No!" Nyxie protested when he crossed the TARDIS in two long strides and made to push her out. "I need your help!" 

"Why didn't my friends give you the test?" glared the Doctor. 

"What test? What friends? I need your help! Please!" Nyxie pleaded. 

He froze, his hands on her shoulders, and looked into her beautiful, bright green eyes. He hadn't looked at anyone like that since... 

"No." He shook his head. He mustn't. He had to stay here, on his cloud, or else he'd lose someone. Hurt them. 

"Please." A tear dripped out of Nyxie's eye. 

Why does she want my help so much? He stared at her. The crying was incredibly genuine. 

Nyxie looked down. "All right. I understand. I'm leaving." Her voice cracked, and she turned to leave. 

He watched her go, almost wistfully. He would have wanted her to stay, to travel with him. But no, he had to stay isolated. He would end up hurting her... 

Nyxie stepped out, onto the cloud. She tentatively took a few more steps, one by one, almost shielding herself. 

He saw her take a deep breath and take one more step... 

The storm came before he could cry out a warning. 

It was a blur. He couldn't see what the attacker was. Nor could he see Nyxie. He could only hear her, screaming in pain. 

Sprinting out onto the cloud, he wrenched what he thought was Nyxie from the attacker's long, thin, deadly claws. It was Nyxie. But she was dreadfully hurt... 

Her hair, in a long, curly black braid down her back, was disheveled and messy. Blood dripped from a long gash on her arm. She whimpered. 

He dropped her and made for her attacker. It was a black sort of alien, a cross between a giant salamander and a humongous monkey. But before he could get more than two steps toward it, the creature disappeared. 

He picked Nyxie up, who was very nearly unconscious, and carried her gingerly into the TARDIS.

"Nyxie? What was that?" He asked softly, laying her gently on the ground. 

"It's what I came to ask you for help for." She coughed up blood. 

He desperately racked his brain for anything, anything that would help. Unfortunately, "Doctor" in Gallifreyian didn't quite mean the same thing as it did on Earth. 

"Nyxie, what is it?" He frantically pressed his hand to the wound on her arm, which was gushing blood. 

"I don't know." she gasped. "I don't know. But it comes out everywhere. It follows me." 

He hesitated. "Are you going to live?" 

"It heals with time." She choked on a clot of blood, coughing it up. 

"How much?" 

"Usually a day." 

"A day for this?!" He gestured at the sickened state she was in. 

"It picks me off day after day. It heals me at night so it can come back the next day and... and hurt me again." whimpered Nyxie. 

It was then, almost unconsciously, that he made the decision to help her. 

"We'll find this monster, Nyxie Wing. We'll defeat this enemy." promised the Doctor. And he meant it. The Eleventh Doctor always stayed true to his word. 

Almost.