SIGNAL ~ Doctor Who fanfiction

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 - One Step Closer to the Truth

The bell rang and students rushed out of class. The Doctor sat in the teacher's chair, swirling around as he fiddled with his sonic. The classroom was empty, leaving all but him and Olivia Watson in the room. She walked towards him, both of them staring into each other's eyes before she bursted into laughters.

"One minute you're a time-travelling alien in a little blue box, and the next minute you just walk in here and become my substitute teacher! How do you manage that?" She said between giggles.

He simply got up from his chair and put the sonic screwdriver back in his pocket. He went to lock the classroom door.

"Doctor...?" She asked as he walked around Olivia's spot without uttering a word, observing her as if she was on display under glass casing in a museum. His face hardened and he looked at her straight in the eye with a serious expression.

Her body stiffened as he continued staring at her. "Doctor...?" She asked again almost nervously while he continued staring at her with that hardened look. She really didn't understand him. One second he's all energetic and optimistic, an the next he becomes cold and serious. Talk about major mood swings.

"Yes, sorry." The Doctor snapped out of his daze and looked away from Olivia's eyes.

"Are you okay, Doctor? You seem a bit off -" She was cut off by him.

"Your eyes, Livia."

"... My eyes?"

"Don't you realise it? Something staring at you right in the face but you somehow don't realise it..." He said, but Olivia only gave him a confused glance. "... The history teacher." The Doctor said, hoping it will ring some bells.

She frowned for a while before horror filled her eyes. "Oh my God. This happened before, hasn't it? The history teacher in my dream... I dreamt that he stayed in the hospital for a month exactly. Holy shit!" She looked at him, petrified. "How... wait what —"

"You predicted the future," he said simply, frowning. "You said you knew I was coming, it happened in your dreams. In conclusion, all those dreams, Livia... they weren't just happening at random. They're the future."

"The mysterious woman..."

"You'll meet her, some point in your future." He pulled out his sonic screwdriver again, scanning her eyes. "There's some time energy stored inside you... Someone transferred time energy into you. I can see it through your eyes."

"So question. How did you manage to transport me and the Tardis to your house two days into the future?" He said.

"Well... I found a small device underneath some books in the library and then I pressed the button... then you got zapped there, in my bedroom, two days after the incident. I pressed it a few more times after that, but it didn't work. I kept the device, just in case you actually come back... And you did."

She thought it was the right time to give it to him. She pulled out the device from her pocket that had a very close resemblance to the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor took the device from her hand, and then pulled out his sonic screwdriver and examined it. Suddenly, as he held the two devices pointed towards each other, a small spark appeared with a soft zap.

"Ooh. There's quite a lot of time energy in here..." He observed the small device, twirling it between his fingers. "No, wait, hold on..." He knocked on the device as if he expected some reaction out of it, then typed a few words on the computer keyboard.

"What?" Olivia asked, moving closer to him.

The Doctor's eyes widen in shock and he stumbled backwards. The device slipped from his fingers and dropped to the ground with a clang. But he didn't care. "No, no it can't be..." He said, frowning. He glanced back up at the screen and checked the information again.

"What is it?" Olivia asked, her curiosity rising.

He drew in a deep breath. "This  isn't just time energy..." He replied, staring at the device that had rolled onto the Tardis floor. "It contains time itself." He ran fingers through his hair. "The future... the past..." He said. "All contained in that tiny little device that could be easily destroyed in a squash."

Olivia looked at him, not knowing what to say.

The Doctor reached down and picked up the device from the floor. "This device was created by a Time Lord called Joltea, a powerful Visionary. Only once in billions of years would a Time Lord of such power and wisdom be born. She was what humans would call a 'celebrity' back in Gallifrey, the stuff of legends."

"Joltea had the power of time itself — she knew the future and history of every person her eyes gazes upon. She's sort of like a living, breathing Tardis — which makes her even more powerful than ever. Before the Time War, she used her DNA and created the perfect device that held fragments of her power."

"It could transport people through time and space — sort of like a vortex manipulator, but much more precise and stable. And a few days ago, you found it in the library." He pointed at the label below button. "See those coordinates at the bottom? It's written in Gallifreyan, that's why the Tardis couldn't translate it for you."

"Someone must have known we were at the library right then at that exact time and helped with the coordinations, transporting me to your bedroom two days into the future." He paused, pacing around the Tardis.

He continued talking so fast as if it were a race. His words speed through hundred miles per hour, and she didn't even understand a single word he said. Nonetheless, she stood there and listened to his constant rambling.

He suddenly spun around and turned to Olivia. "But how did you know where to find it? There were millions of books in the library, but you knew exactly where to find this device, at the exact moment and at the exact time... You have some connection with the device somehow..."

She blinked a few times. She shrugged. "Maybe I just got lucky. Maybe it was a coincidence? You're overthinking it." She snorted.

"But it can't be a coincidence..." He said, trying to connect the dots. "I don't believe in such things as coincidences!"

Suddenly, almost as if on cue, the small device started beeping. The button started flashing blue, and a hologram appeared from the device. A hologram of the peculiar person in the empty abandoned classroom. "I suppose this is where I come in," The person's voice was clearly a woman's. "Hello, Doctor."

The mysterious woman.

"Hello...?" The Doctor replied, sounding unsure.

"And hello to you too, Olivia." The hologram stood there, waving a hand at the middle schooler. The hologram was wearing black from top to toe, from the black hat to the black shoes, with a shadow looming over her face. If they didn't know any better, it almost looked as if she was a kidnapper.

Olivia stood there, waving back awkwardly at the hologram. The hologram then turned back to the Doctor's spot. "I've been waiting for you, Doctor."

"Who are you?" He questioned, taking a step closer to her.

The hologram simply let out a sigh. "Do you I really have to spell everything out for you? Thought you were better than that. For a Time Lord who's over 900 years old, you're quite slow." She put her arms on her hip, shaking her head as she glanced down at him.

The Doctor knew the answer, but he had to hear it come out from her own mouth for him to actually believe it.

"I'm Joltea," She replied simply as a small smirk crept up her face.