Chapter Text
Right outside the edge of the universe, there sits a tiny planet. It glows a soft sickly green and looks like it's just a giant compilation of trash. Inside one of the tunnels, an old woman with worn clothes that looks like they've been sown together haphazardly, leads a smaller, much younger woman to the central area of the tunnel. The sides of the tunnel are full of clutter and glow the same green as the rest of the planet. Smoke rises from some pipes sticking out of the wall at odd angles.
They stop in a large cavern where a man is waiting. He looks strange, hunched over, with eyes that look much younger than he seems to be. "Will it be me, Samchon?" the young woman asks is a shaky voice, clutching at the skirts of her torn black funeral dress. Her once bright brown eyes are worn and scared as she looks between the man and woman. Her long pink hair is tied up in a pile on her head, knotted and twisted with beads and twigs and bits of metal.
The man nods, his lips pulled back into a permanent sneer. "Yes, it's going to be you. I only with I could go in your place, Hana." He tilts his head to the side, pretending to think for a second. "Nah, I don't, cause it's really going to hurt."
An alien looking creature steps out from the shadows. It is an Ood, a bipedal humanoid with a squid-like face, tentacles where a mouth should be. The talking device, attached under the tentacles through a dirty umbilical cord glows the same sickly green as the planet. The Ood has strange glowing green eyes, unlike a normal Ood. It does not speak, only grips Hana's arm tightly. How Hana knows this, she has no idea. She's never been anywhere but this planet. Doesn't remember anything else. Hana has no idea how she even knows the species name of the alien holding her arm.
"It's starting," Hana whispers, her voice cracking with fear. The Ood takes Hana and leads her up the two steps to a small platform. Underneath the platform is a vent, where a glowing green light is emanating. "What will happen?"
The raggedy woman's uneven eyebrows scrunch together as she tries to figure out how to say it. "Oh. Um, er," she mouths words a few times before she speaks again, "Nephew will drain your mind and your soul from your body and leave your body empty."
The strange Ood places a hand on either side of her head, looking like he's about to telepathically communicate with her. Or do as Sungmo says and completely erase her from her own body.
"I'm scared!" Hana cries, her eyes fluttering closed at the slight pressure. Smoke begins to rise from the grate and the pink haired woman falls to her knees, her breathing becoming harder and harder.
"I expect so, dear," the raggedy woman nods. "But soon you'll have a new soul." She smiles in an extremely creepy way. "There'll be a Time Lord coming!"
A few hours later, Hana feels a new kind of energy fill her. It makes her mind burn but, since there's no other entity inside the empty shell of her body except a few particles that remember who she used to be, it doesn't hurt as much as it should. The young woman sits up with a gasp, her eyes going wide. They glow a soft golden color and golden particles stream out of her open mouth. Each time Hana breathes, a strange grating or whooshing noise comes out of her mouth.
The pathetic beings that have made her this way watch in fear as she raises her hands, watching as they light up the interior room with a golden glow. Never has she felt more powerful in all of her life.
Hana gasps, her eyes fluttering open when she feels the presence of something akin to warmth caressing her mind. She feels as if a lost loved one has come back to her. Her mind has melded with the other inside her, the one that is much more powerful than the lowly beings that guard her.
When she tries to stand, she wobbles a few times before she gets her bearings. Sungmo and Samchon follow behind her as she breaks out into a run, her mind bursting with so much happiness that she feels like humming. But she keeps the humming inside, at least for now.
She follows the pull forward, legs unsteady and trembling under the skirt of her black funeral dress. The other presence in her mind, the being that feels older than the universe, continues to hum in her chest. Golden energy flows through her veins— it burns through her veins, through her skin, but feels warm at the same time— and she moves forward as if something else is piloting her nervous system but in a way that feels kind instead of puppeteering. She takes a deep breath— listening to the wheezing mechanical sound her breath makes as it exits her body— and follows the thread through the maze of tunnels, trusting the ancient being guiding her.
"Thief!" Hana cries when she enters the largest room on the desolate planet. She notices two people, both with black hair, a taller man and shorter woman— siblings, her brain supplies, although she has no idea how she knows that but the being in her brain does— but she feels only a soft thread of connection to them. Like the ancient being knows and cares for them like a babysitter might care for their charge. Neither of them are her Thief.
No, that tittle is for the woman standing in the middle of them, looking around in what she might call concern. The Dæmonian-on-the-outside woman, who's patterns pulse softly in the dim lighting of the planet, who's one golden eye glows when she looks around. "Thief!" Hana calls again, the being in her mind beginning to hum happily, reaching out for the other woman. The one with long purple hair tied back in a braid and a ratty-looking tartan jacket in muted colors. "You're my Thief!"
Hana can feel the presence of Sungmo and Samchon behind her, calling out for her to stop. They cannot halt her, however, because she is much stronger now. They have given her the power over the knowledge of the universe, of space and time. Hana remembers a time when she had another body, a blond with hazel eyes. The human her heart called Bad Wolf is gone now, but the shadow of her presence remains forever within her circuits, her center.
"She's dangerous," Sungmo warns, making the Doctor step back. Hana disregards the words, the hands grabbing for her, and throws herself at the Doctor. "Guard yourself!" The tall man and the shorter woman step back, but the Thief stands her ground. Just like Hana would expect from her. Because she's was hers… she stolen him—her—them. Her, at the current moment.
"Look at you!" Hana beams, reminding herself of a kid in a candy store or, more accurately, her Doctor when she discovers something new within Hana's infinite walls. "Goodbye!" She frowns. "No, not goodbye," she purses her lips, "what's the other one?" Her mind surges forward, wishing to be as close to her Thief as possible. She's seen her— him—close to other girls, like Bad Wolf, when the blonde pressed her lips to his, in a different form. So she did just that. The Doctor flails and waves her arms around in patterns she could trace in her mind and Hana smiled. Even with her eyes closed, Hana can see the flashing of the Doctor's patterns, iridescent and in a certain way that Dæmonians might read as a mix of confusion and arousal mixed together.
"Watch out!" Samchon halfheartedly says, chuckling. "Careful, keep back from her!" His warning a little late seeing as the woman's already attached to the Doctor by the mouth. The woman in tartan pushes Hana off of her, even as she struggles, waving her arms like a madwoman. Her patterns light up in a red warning before they settle back into dormant lilac.
Too soon, what she knows is a kiss ends when hands pull her back from her Thief. Samchon smirks and she wants to smash him into little bits for keeping her away from her Doctor. She pouts and struggles to reach for the Thief again. Sungmo and Samchon each keep a tight grip on her arms, but she continues to wiggle in their grasp.
"Welcome, strangers, lovely," Samchon bows from his place holding Hana from going after the Thief again. "Sorry about the mad person." He gestures with his head back at the young woman.
"Why am I a thief?" the Doctor asked, looking contemplative. Her eyebrows furrow and one fang pokes out as she bites her lip. Her patterns pulse orange for a second "What have I stolen?"
Hana giggles, her eyes lighting up like a firecracker. But the gold stays below, knowing she cannot show the Thief yet what is inside her. "Me," Hana pressed a hand to her chest. "You're going to steal me." She blinks, looking confused again. "No," she shakes her head, "you have stolen me." She shakes her head again, hating these tenses and strange speech. "You are stealing me." She smiles at the Doctor's confusion and even her current companions' confusion. She moves her mouth for a few seconds before she smiles at the Doctor. "Tenses are difficult, aren't they?"
"Oh, we are sorry, my dove," Sungmo apologizes. "She's off her head. They call me Sungmo." She vigorous shakes the Doctor's hand, making her arm wobble up and down, her braid sway behind her like a tail. Hana wonders, along with the being in her head, where her tail is because she sees flashes of it, along with glowing golden eyes and horns. But that may be in the past… present… future. There's so many different flashes in her head and the being doesn't seem to think in linear time.
"I'm Samchon," the short strange man smiles, but in a creepy way. "I'm everybody's samchon." He roughly grips Hana's arm tightly. "Just keep back from this one;" he points at Hana, "she bites."
Hana's eyes widen and she giggles insanely. "I do?" She finally gets out of Sungmo and Samchon's hold and runs over to the Doctor. "Excellent." She reaches the woman in tartan and bites into her neck. She has to lean down just a bit to reach it, but the golden haze in her mind and the magical energy flowing through her body helps her reach out to her Thief. She feels the Doctor's braid knock against her side.
"Ow!" the Doctor cries, struggling against Hana. "No, ow, ow!" Sungmo and Samchon manage to pull Hana off of the struggling woman. Her patterns pulse a soft purple for a moment before they settle back into steady.
The siblings-but-not-twins shrink back from her and she grins. "Oh, biting's excellent!" Hana cries happily, spinning around. "It's like kissing," Samchon pulls her away but she reaches out for her Thief, "only there's a winner!" The shorter woman laughs at her joke, even though she's completely serious. The Doctor slaps a hand against the bite mark; it's not deep and there's only the slight indent of teeth. Now, if the Doctor had bitten her back…
"Sorry," Samchon apologizes again. "She's michyeosseo."
Hana shakes her head, glaring at Samchon. "No, I'm not michyeosseo," she shakes her head. "I'm... I'm...It's on the tip of my tongue." She sticks her tongue out before she turns her confused frown into a smile. "And and I've just had a new idea about kissing." She opens her arms and races after her thief, her Doctor. "Come here, you!" She chases after her Doctor.
"Hana!" Sungmo cried. "No, no!"
The Doctor hides behind her companions, short and tall. Her Thief looks scared and she stops, watching the other woman with worried eyes. "Oh, but now you're angry." Her eyes turns sad. "No, you're not." She shakes her head. "You will be angry. The little boxes will make you angry." She smiles at the Doctor, although her mind is still jumping from place to place.
"Sorry?" the Doctor blinks. "The little what?" She tries to understand her. "Boxes?"
Hana cackles madly. "Your braid is hilarious!" She yanks the Doctor's braid, making her yelp and stumble back. Suddenly, she starts and looks at the tall man, who she realizes has a name... Jinu, the being inside her supplies. "It means the smell of dust after rain," she tells him before she turns back to the Doctor.
"What does?" Jinu asks, looking at her in confusion. She watches him and smiles.
"Petrichor," she replies.
"But I didn't ask."
"Not yet," Hana replies, "but you will."
Jinu, Zoey, and the Doctor share a look before Sungmo cries out, "No, Hana, I think you should have a rest." She takes a step to hold onto Hana's arm.
"Yes, yes, good idea!" Her eyes light up before she spins around. "I'll just see if there's an off switch," she mumbles to herself before she falls into a chair and everything goes dark.
Blackness is all she knows.
