Black Forest Nightmare

The sounds of rushing water met with Sonya's ears as she raced through the dark trees ahead of her, both hearts thundering in her chest as she tried to evade capture by whatever it was behind her that followed at an alarming pace. Glancing over her shoulder, she caught a glimpse of a tall figure with a flowing robe running after her. She was only a child, what had she done that was so terrible? Finally bursting through the edge of the trees, she came to a halt, her cloth shoes coming to a rest at the very edge of a cliff, high over the diamond-like waters below. This was it, she could run no farther, and even she knew at such a young age that she couldn't survive the fall, not even long enough to change... "Sonya, enough running." A male voice spoke from behind her, a gentle hand clasping over her shoulder as a sob finally broke free of her chest as it heaved. "Please... Please I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, please don't send me away!" Sonya finally cried out, spinning around to look up at the man. Lord President, the man that followed her after the disaster at school, the man that appeared seemingly out of nowhere whenever she made a mistake. "It won't happen again!"

"You're too dangerous to be around the other children, Sonya. We cannot allow you to enter the academy..." He continued in the same soothing voice, anger underlining every word he said and causing a chill to shiver down her spine. "You will be taken to another planet and found housing there. Eventually you will remember none of this and continue your life normally." His grip on her shoulder tightened slightly as he pulled on it to get her walking again, leading her back through the silver trees and back towards the way she came.


Sitting bolt upright, Sonya let out a gasp of air, her head jerking from left to right as he eyes darted all around the room. That dream, again? She hasn't had it since she was a little girl nearly four hundred years ago... Letting herself fall back against the pillows behind her, she flung a arm over her eyes and let out a shuddering sigh, soaked with sweat and wide awake, Sonya knew it would be impossible to go back to sleep now. Letting out a groan, she rolled over and got out of bed, heading to the bathroom to wash away the terrors from her dream.

A hour later, she was cleaned, clothed and heading out the door with her rucksack bouncing on her shoulders as the door shut behind her softly. Yet another hotel room she didn't pay for in London, it seemed she would never stop owing money to anyone that she put out from her little talent, but she still didn't complain, it beat sleeping under bridges like when she was a child. Ducking her head down slightly, she walked out the front doors and headed down the street, looking for a shop to stop in and grab something warm to drink to shake off the chill that settled around her in the brisk, night air.

It had been one of this typical days:
Everything failed from getting up in the morning to getting one of the probably least thankful tasks to work on to - finally - spending more time than she actually intended to here: A past version of her own so-called home planet, closing down a nasty bank account one of her (now ex-) colleagues opened to earn interest in the near future...
Of course someone else had the joy to arrest this guy, while Medwyn - as usually - had to do all that silly little remining paper work...
But then again she did not complain. She was - and there was no doubt about it - good at what she did.
After she did her historical paper-work she decided to stay a bit.
(Honestly, it did not matter how long she was puttering around - She always came back just in time. Even after two weeks of mind-expanding non-stop rave parties...)

Sitting in a little shop she stirred in her big mug of coffee - extra strong, extra sweet, and if the tone of her coffee's blackness would have been just one tone darker, it probably would have developed it's own gravity-field...
Putting random thoughts about black holes aside she took a look though the shop.
It was quite full for this time of the day - Obviousely lots of people preferred to have their breakfast here.
Medwyn was not too hungry at all, but there was something else she needed.
Drinking her black-hole-like coffee she ordered a second cup (hopefully the fist of many second ones...) and leaned back on her chair closing her eyes for a moment thinking about her day so far, as suddenly the bell of the entrance door forced her focus back into reality.

Sonya poked her head around the corner of the door and peered into the shop, her eyes blinking slightly in surprise at the sight of it being packed. Sliding past the door, she slowly made her way to the counter, her head tucked down slightly out of habit. She had spent years not making connections for the main reason being she didn't want ties to any certain place. Including alternate universes as well. Brushing her bangs from one side of her face, she looked up at the cashier with a slight smile. "I'll have a coke please." She said, one of her hands reaching into the bag on her shoulders and pulling out a small wallet to pay with.
Taking her drink in hand, she made her way to a back table, away from the other customers and settled herself down into one of the plush seats, leaning her head back with her eyes closed as her nails tapped on the side of the glass in front of her. Deep in thought, she tried to recall the fragments of her dream, try as she might, she could only remember colors and flashes of several images before they too vanished. Letting out a small groan, she leaned forward again and stared into the glass, watching as several of the bubbles floated to the top in slight interest. Lifting the glass to her lips, she took a sip and finally glanced up at the others around her, watching in amusement as they went along their days, ordering food or drinks and heading out the door again or sitting down with a friend or two to chat about unimportant things. As Sonya's eyes roamed over each face, one caught her attention, another young woman sitting alone at a table with a rather large mug of steaming coffee in front of her. Tilting her head to the side slightly, Sonya studied her for a moment. No one payed this woman any attention as they passed by her in the shop, she seemed to be deep in thought as well, not seeing anything around her at the moment.

As Medwyn sat there she again fell into thoughts.
Stirring her next cup of coffee she added some sugar and watched a tiny back-white swirl turning black again within some seconds.
Another black hole sucking in particles of sugar... It was actually beautiful!
...But what exactly would she do to enjoy her knocking-off time now? She probably could not sit here for the entire day and drink coffee - even though she had to admit that it tasted magnificent. (The coffee in Medwyn's era tasted horribly...) Releasing a little grin she took another sip, as she suddenly - in the corner of her eye - saw that someone was watching her.
Medwyn usually caught no attention at all (Which was pretty useful for her work, so she actually liked that state.) but this young woman seemed to find Medwyn either fascinating, remarkable, attractive, scary, mysterious or all at once.
Slowly turning her head towards her Medwyn raised an eyebrow and asked. "Is everything alright lady? Can I help you somehow?"

Sonya blinked and felt a slight smile cross her face at being caught. "Sorry, your interesting is all. Of all the people in this shop talking to one another, going along their way, your the only other person besides myself just sitting here alone, contemplating our thoughts." She shrugged slightly and looked back down at her glass, watching as a bead of sweat dripped down the side of it slowly before looking up at the woman again. "You don't look like you belong here either. That's why your interesting to me." She added suddenly, tilting her head to the side as she spoke, her thoughts racing around in her head as she tried to think of the right words to say to get her point across. "You look as if your watching all of this from a distance, almost like a spectator rather than someone participating in this life. So either your more like myself, or you just really don't care to live your life to it's fullest." Leaning back in her chair, she ran a hand over her eyes in an exhausted motion. In the past month she had hardly gotten any sleep at all, it was starting to catch up with her as well. "Anyway, excuse my ramblings, I tend to say whatever pops into my mind without thinking about it."

Medwyn gave the woman a surprised look.
No one actually identified her as a stranger in this environment before, especially no one who did not know her before.
"Don't worry - You're right, I'm from quite far away..." She started, but then stopped - Trying to avoid more questions than necessary, for she did not know anything about that woman at all, except - and that was probably most interesting to Medwyn - She claimed not to belong here as well...
She was already eager to find out what that meant.

Grabbing her cup of coffee Medwyn decided to join the woman at her table before she continued speaking - now lowering her voice and giving the woman a polite hailing nod.
"You think I'm a spectator? No one ever called me something like this before. But... Well, you're sorta right.
...Y'know, sometimes it's most important not to disturb what's happening around you so everything happens properly."
She smiled a little and took another sip of her coffee.
"...That probably sounds like I'm stoned... I'm very sorry. Hope, I don't waste your time, lady."

"Actually, you sound like a... Well I'm not sure if he's my friend at all, but he was a... A friend of a friend's. He said things like that a lot. Then he'd barge in and do something because one tiny little detail went wrong. Wrong colored curtains? He turned into a tailor and fixed it and whatnot." Sonya said with a chuckle, lifting her glass again to take another sip before fixing the woman with a stare, her blue eyes seeming to bore into hers. "The only reason I made that observation is because I"m the same way. I don't really live here either. Constantly trying to find a way home that's impossible to do." Shrugging once more, she glanced towards the front doors before looking back down at the table, watching as her fingers drew invisible patterns onto the wood. "I was meant to be someone's replacement, someone who died. But it didn't work out that way thankfully. But I'm still stuck here and I want to go home."

Medwyn gave the woman a sympathetic look.
"You mean you still search for a way home? I'm very sorry.
But I think I know how that feels - I usually search for every way to get away from my home and find something fitting, so It's more or less the same from another perspective...
Maybe I can help you. Y'know, I may look like a bummer, but I'm actually quite good at traveling around and finding hidden places."
She gave the woman a a friendly smile - Still releasing a silent sympathetic sigh.
"...If you want to, I can try my best to bring you home.
Y'know, because that's my Job - At least part of it. I keep things in order... And if you like, we can go and find our home and then you will be able to fulfill your own job as well."

"It's impossible for me to go home without ripping a hole in the fabric of space and time..." Sonya said quietly, her eyes still locked onto her fingers as they continued their invisible patterns on the table. "My home is very far away, you see. A whole universe over in fact." Finally looking up, she managed a weak smile at the woman before leaning back in her chair with a curious expression on her face. "I have my own form of travel, not exactly the best, but much better than some other forms, less... Bothersome. Easy as walking through a door in fact." She added with a laugh, enjoying her own private joke for a moment before growing serious again. "I appreciate the offer, but I cannot go home. I still search for a way back that wouldn't be harmful to this universe, but from what I've found so far, it won't be happening anytime soon."

"Never say never..." Medwyn answered - maybe a little bit too eagerly, for to her there was no thing like a unresolvable task at all.
"When you say ripping a hole in the fabric of the universe you're speaking of something which can be physically explained, right?
If something can be explained, it can be solved - Maybe it takes a little longer, but then again... I've nothing to do yet..."
She gave the woman a bright smile - More hoping to cheer her up than hoping to convince her.
"...However... you're way of traveling is not by bus I guess...
Don't worry, I've seen quite a lot things, I'm not easy to be shocked anymore..."

Sonya shrugged slightly and lifted her glass to finish the coke inside before standing up. "I have to go do some things in town... You can come with if you like. Then I'll just be on my way like usual." Turning around, she glanced at the door again, watching as another group of people wandered in, laughing about something as they made their way up to the counter together. "I can't stand crowded places, too many people, too many eyes and ears that can study me." She said quietly, shifting from one foot to the other as she waited for the woman's reply. "OH... I'm Sonya by the way. Just Sonya." She added suddenly, realizing she didn't introduce herself before and sheepishly held out a hand.

Medwyn nodded
"Why not - I don't have anything to do at the moment, and I'd be glad to be of any help..."
She grabbed for her coat put it on again and paid her coffee.
She did not ask why the woman gave no answer to her last question - Medwyn already had a few speculations about this herself, and most of them were starting to drive her almost insane by now.
After the woman introduced herself as Sonya, Medwyn did a polite hailing nod, and finally said.
"Nice to meet you - Feel free to call Me Medwyn. I'm non-hostile, Y'know."
She slowly took Sonya's hand and shook it - A gesture she almost every time when she visited earth's past tended to completely forgot.

Chuckling slightly at her expression, Sonya shook her head and stuffed her hands into her pants pockets, heading out the door and into the cool air outside. Taking a deep breath, she felt the tension in her shoulders melt away once she was away from the crowd inside the shop. "Ah... Much better, elbow room." Flashing a grin at Medwyn, she headed down the sidewalk, her pace at a steady speed as she made her way towards the center of town. "Come on, if you want. I just need to pick some things up from a store then I'll be off... Either that or you can go ahead and use your own mode of transportation. I'll stick with mine though, thanks."

"Well, yeah, alright." Medwyn answered politely, walking along next to Sonya.
"So, what stuff exactly do you need - I've been here some times before, maybe I can help you."
Medwyn gave Sonya thoughtful look.
This woman remained enigmatic - Medwyn liked this on a person.
Also it reminded her on her new won daily routine... Everyone, and everything that had ever gotten astray in this universe seemed to find Medwyn.
She remembered this chaotic paradox being who wanted her attention at any cost, the countless Daleks as well as all the Time Lords that crossed her way even though they should (from a historic point of view!) have been extinct.
Medwyn seemed to be appealing to impossible things...
Putting this thoughts aside, she finally looked back at Sonya again.
"What are you usually doing all the day?
Do you have a common job, a family and all that stuff, or are you aimlessly roaming around? Y'now - Not that this is something bad - I take every chance to do so myself - You just... Look like this special sort of person who... Well... Aimlessly roams around sometimes."

"My family is dead, I only have myself." Sonya finally replied after a long silence, her shoes scuffing against the sidewalk for a moment. "I was adopted as a child, I don't remember my family at all, my adoptive parents were dead when I came home from school one day while I was ten. From there I ran off, I refused to go back to the home, lived in empty houses, stole food until i managed to make a few dollars doing odd jobs here and there." Shrugging slightly, she looked over at Medwyn with a crooked grin. "Then one day while I was in the shower, I was yanked from my universe and into this one because apparently my alternate self had gone and gotten herself doused in acid. Seems with her death, the universe here tried to align itself by pulling me into it. She seemed to play a very important part in the whole of time and space here. Without her, perhaps it feared there would be nothing to keep it from imploding or something. I don't know, but what I do know is I'm stuck here, but at least I have my own way of getting around."

Medwyn thoughtfully looked at Sonya - Not exactly into her eyes but more aimlessly through her while being in thought.
This young woman appeared to have encountered more terrible things than one single person should be able to handle - But still she appeared to do so.
And then again, maybe Sonya indeed was of major relevance for the universe - Who knew? Medwyn would not have been surprised after all...
"I'm so sorry to hear this - I wish I could do something..." Medwyn said biting her lower lip and grabbing her hands into the pockets of her coat.
"So you're from an alternate universe? Well, this explain what you said about dangers bringing you back home.
I know about the problems with unpredictable multiversal cracks and so on. If you however would like me to, I still can do my best to find a way to send you back..."
Medwyn gave Sonya a warm smirk while still following her.
She had no idea where they were going after all, but that did not matter too much to Medwyn.
"So, what exactly is your mysterious way of traveling around?" She finally asked, and with a sneaky smile Medwyn finally added: "Challenge me."

"I quite literally walk through a door and end up in a different place. The doctor told me once that it was because of my energy, it connected with the metal in a door frame and created a wormhole for me to walk through to anywhere I picture in my head... Most of the time anyway sometime I end up somewhere completely different." Sonya said with a slight shrug. She had gotten so used to her little ability that it was natural for her to do it without thinking.

"That's probably one of the most original abilities I have heard of." Medwyn answered with a slight grin.
She mused what sort of energy Sonya might hold that could have caused such an effect.
She did not find an answer yet.
"I wonder - Can you completely control when this happens to you? I mean, do you only 'jump' when you want to?"

"As long as I keep a clear head about it and focus I can. When I first started doing it every time I opened a door, but now I have proper control I only create a portal when I want. " Sonya grinned over at hey then shrugged her shoulders slightly. "From what I've read is natural that i have some odd ability though, my... Well my fried had her own thing that was along the lines of what I can do, just her own version." flashing her another groin, Sonya soon her head, tossing the hair from her face as she did. "I'm not sure why I do it, but I'm glad I can."

While listening to Sonya Medwyn was still walking, and already almost had lost orientation - But then again, she assumed none of them would be able to really get lost...
"Natural? Well, I personally never heard about something like this - At least for humans abilities like this are... Pretty unusual.
And your friend - What is her special field?"
Medwyn grinned a little - Actually Sonya was right - It indeed was something very useful, as long as you did not use it for criminal purposes (Which Medwyn actually did not believe in this case.).

Sonya's pace faltered for a moment and frowned over at Medwyn as she thought to herself. "I'm... She's..." She tried to say only to stop again and stare down at her feet, unsure of how to say it before snapping her fingers and looking up at her again with a speculative expression. "The Doctor, like the Doctor, that's how we are. Not human at all." She reached up and patted at the right side of her chest with a slight smile. "Two hearts and all, for the longest time I thought I was human, but my... Friend, she left me a book before she died, her diary, explaining everything." Shrugging a shoulder, Sonya turned around and started walking again. "Anyway, no, I don't use it for criminal purposes, I use it to sleep and travel."

"I'm very glad to hear you don't abuse your power." said Medwin with a warm smile. "I have some sort of a personal problem with people abusing their power - Guess that's some job-related thing."
Still wondering where they were going to, Medwyn thought for some seconds about what Sonya said. About the Doctor and people like him.
She vaguely remembered her encounter with the Doctor back in the 1039s. Probably not the most pleasant memory of her life, but then again, he actually saved her life.
"I remeber the Doctor... People like him - I mean that species they were called Time Lords."
Trying to understand Sonya's unusual way of describing it, Medwyn finally added:
"No need to be ashamed for that - From everything I know in that Dalek-war-thing your people were the good ones."
She gave Sonya a bright - almost silly - smile.
Well okay, on the other hand, probably everyone was better than Daleks...
Medwyn knew practically nothing about Time Lords except some random stories, of which she not even knew whether they were true or not.
She however was not surprised that - yet another - Time Lord appeared to have found their way to Medwyn.
She felt like being a magnet for things like these...

(OOC: I really wonder when Medwyn will become sorta paranoid one day for she thinks to be visited by various people of extinct species XD)

(xD poor Medwyn)

Sonya nodded her head tightly, her lips pressed into a thin line as Medwyn spoke. "I spent nearly three hundred years thinking I was human, its hard to think your a completely different species after that long you know..." She said finally, looking over at the woman out of the corner of her eye with a weak smile. "I'm not ashamed to be a Time Lord, just confused is all, its difficult to think of things like that after so long of thinking your something completely different. I really just don't understand it... If I am a Time Lord, why was I left on Earth. That is what bothers me so much." She added quietly, her had looking back down at the sidewalk as she walked along, watching as her shoes kicked at the pebbles scattered across it. "It's just difficult to try and wrap your mind around it, I only recently came to terms with the fact that I'm not human and it still bothers me."

"Why does this bother you?"
Medwyn asked surprised.
"I mean, what does the species you are say about yourself? Merely nothing I personally think."
She looked at the skies for some seconds thinking about what the news being something different might mean to a person.
Medwyn had never been very attached to her planet of origin or her species, she actually never even saw earth as her beloved home or something like this. Only a pretty, but random world amongst billions.
She had never been the type of person who had been very emotional when it came to matters of own identity.
In fact she was not even sure whether she had an own identity herself after what The Daleks and The Doctor did to her, because she still was sure to have died on that one day back there...

She however of course knew that this way of seeing things was not normal - at least not on earth, so she respected other people's way of thinking and feeling about matters.
She even tried her best to empathise. Empatise with people around her, and for now - empatise with Sonya's situation.
"Would you prefer not to know what you are? I mean, everyone feels different about things like this.
I personally would prefer to know about things like this, for they often explain what's going wrong within an entire life-span. Ever heared of something called the 'Wrong planet syndrome'?.
- Anyway, do you consider knowing that you are not human as a burden? Would you actually prefer to be a human? If yes, I'd be interested in knowing why. Just as I said - To me it does not matter what species I am - if I was in your situation, this new knowledge maybe would not even change too much about my own world-view I guess, so I would like to understand this point of view."
She again put her hands into the pockets of her coat.
Was she too rude with her attempts to explain her curiosity? Medwyn was not the kind of person, who bugged people - She usually did not even ask so much to a single individual but preferred to either read about it, or simply and silently finding out herself, if the chance came.
She decided to put this worry aside and finally added:
"Maybe you were brought here so you could life in safety...
I mean, if I - For example - had family or something like this, I would make sure that they would not have to suffer in a war against Daleks..."

"I doubt it was for my saftey..." Sonya murmured, a flash from her earlier dream popping up into her head as she spoke. "I don't remember much, but what I do remember some things, and none of it has a happy feeling to it either, mostly fear..." Trailing off, she stopped at the corner of the street and looked around the area curiously before turning to the right and continuing on her way. "I don't know much about my past beyond when I was adopted, I might have blocked it, or I might just have been too little. Either way, I'm as much of a mystery to myself as I am to anyone else." Looking over her shoulder at Medwyn, she flashed her a bright smile. "Nothing too different than the others here... But either way."