Midnight ⋆ Doctor Who²

16. The TARDISes

AURORA AND THE DOCTOR MAKE THEIR WAY BACK TO THE TARDIS — THE HUMAN TARDIS. Aurora is walking faster than him for once, for once. She stomps on the ground like an angry mom, frustrated. Stupid planet. Stupid inhabitants. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

She almost jumps Auntie and Uncle when they reach the storage room. If the Doctor hadn't been here, she would've punched one of them.

"It's gone!" she cries out at the TARDIS.

"Eaten?" she asks, sitting criss-crossed.

"No, it left," the Doctor corrects, pacing. "Not eaten, hi-jacked. But why?" Aurora has no idea, but if House had a human body, she would punch him too.

"It's time for us both to go, and keep together," Auntie says, collecting her stuff, totally oblivious.

Aurora steps in front of her before she goes anywhere. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where do you think you're going? You're not leaving this place on my watch."

She walks past her. "Well, we're dying, my love." She stares at her, hard. "It's time for Auntie and Uncle to pop off."

Aurora smiles. "Call me my love again and I'll make you die quicker."

Uncle looks at her. "I'm against it."

She tilts her head to the side. "Yes, that's kind of the whole point."

"It's your fault, isn't it, sweets?" Auntie accuses them, which sends Aurora down a very violent spiral. "Because you told House it was the last TARDIS. House can't feed on them if there's none more coming, can he?"

"So now he's off to your universe to find more TARDISes," Uncle tells them.

"It won't," the Doctor says, crossing his arms, smug.

"Oh, it'll think of something," Auntie sighs.

Aurora is about to say something — it may or may not involve swear words — when Auntie suddenly collapses. They run to her, trying to check her pulse, as Uncle rises to his feet.

"Actually, I feel fine." Then he drops too.

And both are dead.

"Not dead. You can't just die!" the Doctor cries out. But they can, and they just did.

Aurora stares coldly at them. All of this for nothing. Hurting them only to die like that.

"Pain," the TARDIS says. "Remember, be mindful, dearest, or you'll end up in the sand." She jumps on her feet and grabs her hand. "We need to go to where I landed, Dawn, quickly."

Aurora takes a moment to realize that 'Dawn' is her. She turns around, confused. "Why?"

"Because we are there in three minutes." She stands up. "We need to go now."

Aurora follows her as she starts running. "Doctor!"

He runs behind them. "Coming!"

The TARDIS abruptly stops, holding her side. "Ow!"

"What is it?" the Doctor asks, worried.

She turns to them. "Roughly how long do these bodies last?"

Aurora, who still has the screwdriver, sonics her. She feels the blood leave her face. "You're dying." Of course she is, it's a TARDIS matrix trapped in flesh and blood.

She snatches the sonic. "Yes, of course I'm dying. I don't belong in a flesh body. I could blow the casing in no time." Aurora feels her heart drop, and the Doctor gets closer to her, their shoulders touching, to bring himself some sort of comfort. "No, stop it. Don't get emotional, you two." She stops. "Hmm. That's what the orangey girl says. You're the Doctor, she is the Dawn. Focus."