Aria

Aria pointed her lance at the man who was on the floor. He raised his hands in surrender, his eyes fearful. He looked like some form of soldier, and his accent was of the English. Why he was in France, Aria couldn’t know. But she did know that she wanted the red jewel that he had around his neck.

“I know you,” he said. “I’m the Doctor. You’re going to try to steal this jewel around my neck, yes?”

“You’re the Doctor? I knew a Doctor once. Well, let’s cut to the chase. Yes, I want that jewel. It’ll fit in my collection rather well.”

“Andif I told you it was cursed, would that change your mind?” said the Doctor. “What if I told you that this jewel leaves ruin in its wake?”

Aria thrusted the lance to his neck. “I’d say hand it over.”

The Doctor’s face stayed blank. He nodded at Aria, and handed her the jewel. There wasn’t that much resistance, more resignation to his fate.

“Is that all?” he asked.

“Tempted as I am to ask you to give me your clothes as well, I have to dash,” said Aria, giving him a flirty smile. The man was rather handsome, if a bit strange. She quietly walked out the door, keeping her eyes in his direction as she left the room.



The chaos of the French Revolution had enveloped her, hiding her crimes from the police. Many people were dying now, some of them less deserving than others. She had assumed that she had escaped her fate, that she had somehow thwarted heaven’s judgment.

Then the fever ran through her body, wracking her mind. All the jewelry in the world had done nothing for her, as mucus filled her nose, and sweating and convulsions became her day-to-day turmoil. The doctors could do little for her, and she knew that she was going to die.

Then a mild-mannered man in a green bowtie appeared. He was a stoutly fellow, with hair that looked slightly messy. He claimed to be the Doctor, and said he was here to help her. However, he seemed more interested in snooping around her room, and Aria suspected that he was a rival thief, here to steal her riches.

Useless of him, of course. She had sold all her misbegotten wares already. All of her wares, except the red jewel. It was clenched in her hand, as if it compeled her to keep it.

The Doctor stopped looking under her bed, and finally began to look at her. “Um, miss, not to be rude, but I do think you aren’t doing well.”

She coughed up bloody phlegm, and said “How astute of you.”

Then he noticed the jewel in her hand, and his eyes went wide. She immediately clenched her jewel even tighter, as he reached for it.

“Where did you get that?” asked the Doctor.

“A Doctor gave it to me,” she said.

“A Doctor? Really? But that’s an alien artifact, illegal in 76 star systems! What sort of Doctor would have...unless...” said the Doctor. His face crumbled, and he placed it in his hands, shaking it.

“What’s wrong?” asked Aria.

“I’ve made a mistake. A terrible mistake. The silver woman was right, oh she was...”

The Doctor shook his head, and said “No matter. I’ll do the best I can for you.”

And he never mentioned it again. All things told, he was a nice Doctor, if a bit befuddled.

Eventually, Aria went into the blackness of death, and didn’t wake up.

Until nearly a century later.


The Doctor walked up the stairs of the Silos church, ignoring the stares from the people surrounding him. This place is meant for only women, and so a person of his physical appearance looks out of place. He has been here before, of course, back in his body not 3 regenerations or so ago. At that point, the Doctor appeared like a woman. He cringes at the memory of his (her?) overly scrupulous body back then...far too precocious. That version had dressed in white, a pithy story about heroism at her lips all the time. He now preferred to simply do things, and not talk about them. Much more efficient.


Sister Anna saw him, and smiled. She had aged a bit, but she was still as bubbly as ever. It almost made him sad for what would be needed soon.

“Doctor, hello. You look different,” said Anna.

The Doctor sniffed. “It’s the graying hair, I think.”

“Yes, among other things. You do understand that us bringing in a man is a technical violation of our Order’s rules?”

“That’s where you’re mistaken. I was not a woman before, nor am I a man now,” said the Doctor. (Anna seemed unconvinced.) “And some things are more important than the rules of your faith. Where is the girl?”

Anna led him down the hallway that winded down. It was later in the day, and he could feel the blinding rays of sunlight that was the last attempt by the sun to give the planet light, before the sunset arrived. She opened the door to a room in the back of the church. It revealed a sparse place, filled with writings on the wall. The Doctor immediately noted that all the writing was in French, combined with sparse English.

A black-skinned girl was writing in a book. She ignored Anna and the Doctor, and it took Anna clearing her throat before the girl turned around. Immediately, the Doctor noticed the red jewel around the girl’s neck.
“You’re the Doctor,” said the girl.

“Yes. Were you expecting me?” he asked.

“No. But Aria recognizes you. All your bodies have the same demonic gaze.”

“Do we?” said the Doctor.

“Doctor, this is Beth. She is someone the missionaries found, who was taken to our church to save her immortal soul,” said Anna. “She is possessed by some spirit called Aria, writing in some odd tongue.”

“Ah yes, the demonic tongue of the Napoleon-era French,” said the Doctor. “Anna, you are extremely useless on every level I could imagine. If you don’t want to cause any more damage than you already have, I suggest you leave me to my business.”

“Doctor, I--”

“Go.”

She walked away. The Doctor hoped that she would survive the coming days.

Turning to Beth, he crouched down to her eye level. Her posture drew back, and he could tell she was afraid.

“Hello. Do you know what the jewel around your neck signifies?” asked the Doctor, pointing a black-gloved finger at the glinting object.

“It’s given me Aria. She says that the jewel has made her immortal. That it’ll make me immortal,” said Beth.

“Do you believe her?” asked the Doctor.

Beth opens her mouth, and then stops. At first he thinks it’s indecision, but then he realizes she’s listening to Aria.

“Because if you believe her, then you’re an idiot,” continued the Doctor. “Aria’s nothing but a career criminal beyond her expiration date. Her time is over. You’re listening to a corpse that doesn’t know she’s rotting, and doesn’t have the sense to die with dignity.”

Beth’s eye color changed from brown to bright blue, and she said, in a French accent, “You made me this way. You made me a corpse.”

“You chose to steal from me. You chose to take the red jewel of the Osirans. Do not blame me for your vicissitude,” the Doctor said calmly.

“You think I blame you for—oh dear. You are the clueless one, Doctor,” said Beth.

“Enough. You’re coming with me,” said the Doctor. He reached for her, but Beth ran out the door, as he knew she would.
He checked his pocket watch. It was time.

“Beth!” he called out. “Did Aria tell you the price of being immortal?”

He followed the girl, who stopped. Her blue eyes stared at him with anger, and he knew it was Aria listening to him.

“You can feel the hunger, can’t you? You can feel the hunger gnawing at you like a worm?” said the Doctor. “Ressurections require a cost.”

“GET OUT!” screamed Aria.

From her body released a haze of red dust. It exploded through the church, zapping the life force of whoever was around. Nuns throughout the building began to age by several years, their vitality having been drawn into the Osiran jewel. Some of them died, their bodies ground into bone. Beth’s eyes rolled to the back of her head, as the energy wrapped itself around her.

The Doctor felt the drain as well. For him, it was only a couple of decades worth of loss. He simply stood there, knowing that he could not interfere. Not yet.

And then it was over. Beth’s eyes returned to brown coloring, and her eyes slowly focused.

“What happenned?” she asked.

“You murdered people,” said the Doctor. “What happens next is up to you. Either you face justice by giving up the jewel, or you run.”

Beth hesitated, and for a moment the Doctor thought this might be over. Then Aria took over, and she ran out the door.

The Doctor sighed loudly, and followed. He ignored the calls for help within the church, and kept on running till he left outside. Beth was rather nimble, and he could barely keep up with her. And then he was stopped. A strong grip caught his arm, and he turned to see his younger self of several regenerations ago. The one with the white hat, and white coat, with long black hair, and sharp elfin eyes, the one in the body of a woman.

The self-righteous one. He found her silly, but he needed her right now.

“I felt an energy surge happen inside there. What happened?” said Ms. White Hat.

“The Osiran Jewel used their life-force to recharge,” said the Doctor.

“Why didn’t you stop it? Those people are innocent bystanders,” said White Hat.

“For one, because I’m your future, and I can’t change time. Do what you’re good at. Help the injured,” said the Doctor. He didn’t have time for her replies, and kept to the pace.

Tracking her through the forest was a long journey. He wondered if he had been right to leave his earlier self to deal with the aftermath of the journey. In the end, it didn’t matter if it was wrong or right, he had to find Aria. He had to end this madness.

He found her near the ocean’s edge. She stared at him, with several fragments of thought running through her facial expressions.

“Give me the jewel,” he says.

She breathed in and ut, and then handed it over. “I didn’t know I’d...”

“Yes, you didn’t know. And you’ll have to live with that. That’s not my job to deal with,” said the Doctor. He walked off, the sounds of her tears in his hindsight.


“Where is it!” screamed the stowaway on the pirate ship.  His matted grey hair smelled of the sea, and the Captain had to hold his nose to stop the stench of dirt from reaching him.

“Where is what, matey?” asked the Captain.

“The jewel...oh god, I’ve lost it. I’ve had it with me for years, and I’ve lost it in the sea,” he said. “Oh, I’m a horrible Doctor. A horrible one.”

“What sort of jewel?”

“A jewel that trapped the wearer’s soul forever. It has Aria,...I wonder who it will get next.”


Veronica Marseilles looked out the window at the city she owned underneath. It taken years of experience setting up this plan. Getting people to sign off on selling their life’s work, manipulating the current people in charge, promising a politician here, blackmailing a person there. And if anyone was absolutely determined to get in her way, she could take their life, literally.

Her hands fondled the red jewel at her neck. It held the souls of her “advisors”, the previous wielders of the jewel. Each one of them had taught her the skills she had used to climb the ranks. They had been her mentors since childhood, people to ease the loneliness of her growing years.

As she watched over her city, she wondered to herself whether it had been worth it, now that it was aflame.

“Ya feel proud, eh?” said a voice behind her.

She looked in the window glass’s reflection. A man was there, dressed in a disgruntled red suit and tie. His gaze was like a judge, with a rough look about him. His face was slightly unshaven, but his hair was cut rather well. Veronica knew the face was just a mask, of course.

“Proud of what?” she asked.

“Of escaping from me. Of ruling an entire city. Must feel pretty good, even with the blood on ya hands,” said the Doctor.

“If you mean the people I drained to power my jewel, then I hope you know I don’t regret killing them. They were all murderers, thieves, leeches on the poor and downtrodden. I did a world a service by killing them,” she said. Outside, she could see cinders rising. Most people had been evacuated from the city, but that didn’t mean their possessions wouldn’t be lost. The Doctor had caused a lot of destruction in order to find her.

Kill him.

She could hear Max the second host, screaming in her ear. She ignored him. His suggestions always got her into trouble. She could feel the others simply waiting in her mind, watching through her eyes.  Aria was in the background, withholding her thoughts.

“Maybe ya did. I’m not here to judge ya. I’ve done worse. But,” said the Doctor, “I still can’t let ya go.”

Veronica sighed deeply, and then turned around. What she was planning required an utmost amount of focus.

“I like your new form, Doctor. Haven’t seen you look so rugged before,” said Veronica with a smile. It was meant to distract him, but he had no reaction to her charm. “How long has it been since Aria took that jewel from you?”

“It’s been a while. That’s why I want to finish this here and now,” said the Doctor.

“And then what happens to Aria? And to all the other lives saved in that gem?”

“Not my business,” said the Doctor.

“Then whose business is it? Because my city is burning, and all because you were on a crusade to find me. What crime was I committing? Spending a few lives, to save hundreds?”

“It’s not just your life. Every single person who uses that jewel takes countless lives, across time. If I let that jewel stay with you, that’s countless lives on my consciensce. I lost that jewel, and it’s my job to keep it out of evil hands.”

“’Evil hands’? I thought you weren’t judging,” snarled Veronica. Out the side of her eyes, she saw the ship with Erica flying out safely. Grinning inwardly, she felt the previous hosts leave her mind. It had worked.

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll give in. Just let my city go.”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. After a long pause, he said “Sure. Give me the jewel, and we’ll talk about it.”

Veronica nodded, and passed the fake jewel to his hand. By the time he would realize it was a fake, Erica, her daughter and inheritor of the voices that used to be in Veronica’s head, would be in another galaxy.


The Sygnas only noted the problem with the Silver Goddess when it was too late.

The Goddess had offerred the Sygnas constant good fortune and power. The cosmos of the 61st century was unforgiving of late, but the Goddess had helped organize the defenses, create an economy, and ensured peace throughout the planet. Her benevolence was known by every Sygna, and many of them would pray to the silver-skinned humanoid, who could often be recognized by the red jewel embedded in her chest.

It was said that the Goddess had the consciousnesses of 50 people, each one a life she had lived. Often a priest had found the Goddess speaking to herself in conversation, as if she was in argument. It was said that those who were sacrificed might be added to the Goddess’s mind, being cleansed by her holy light of sin as their life left them. Some criminals even prayed to be killed on the altar of the Goddess.

And then the Goddess began to go mad.

She began to complain of “hidden actors”, and started to accuse the priests of plotting against her. When they disagreed, she tried to drain them of life. Something went wrong, though, and she began to become hysterical.

“The Doctor has subverted my power!” screamed out the Goddess.

Her wrath could not find this Doctor, and so it turned on the Sygnas. The entire society went into chaos, as she began to disrupt the very foundation of the world. Ultimately, the Sygnas had to trap the Goddess in an unescapable prison, which was constructed by a mysterious mustachaed man known as John Smith. No one knew who he was, or where he came from. The Sygnas only knew that after being in the prison, no one heard from the Goddess.

Except. One priest said he saw a conversation between 2 individuals. The aforementioned John Smith, and a white-hat wearing woman humanoid with a white coat, called the Doctor.


The Doctor stared at the dark-skinned mustached man in front of her. That man had completely disrupted her plans. After having seen the effects of the Osiran jewel on the Silos Church, the Doctor had been determined to track down the jewel’s whereabouts. Having located it in this part of space, it had only taken a bit of planning to disrupt the signal between the jewel and the host. The “Goddess”’s powers had begun to fail her, and the Doctor had been prepared to apprehend her.

And then this man showed up. He had a hungry glare to his eyes, and his robes looked dusty and mismatched, like he had stolen them from a rack. A small beard covered his lightly tanned face, and a cane was in his left hand, though he didn’t seem to need it.

“Who are you?” asked the Doctor.

“Do you know why you lose so many times? Because you ask the wrong questions,” said the man.

“Why are you here?”

“Fixing a mistake,” said the man. “A mistake that I made a while ago.”

“The Goddess?”

“Again, wrong question,” he said, turning to walk away.

“You’re me from the future, right?” asked the Doctor.

He turned back around, and smirked. “If I was, would it matter?”

“Well, it might be important,” said the Doctor.

“You don’t even know what the word ‘important’ means. The Osiran jewel was a side-problem I had to handle, before going onto bigger things. There is a shatterpoint brewing in the fabric of reality, darker things spouting in the world-tree. Important? Ha!”

“What happens to the Goddess?”

“She will stay alone, forevermore. It’s the only way to keep the jewel from spreading further.”

“Will I remember this?”

“No. You won’t.”

Then he walked away.

The Doctor blinked her eyes, and then began looking wildly around. Why was she here again?


Aria, even lost in this void, locked in the mind of the Goddess, could still recall when she was a young girl in France. And she could still remember her mentor, the Doctor.

He was a tanned man, with a wiry mustache and a sharp gaze. He often walked with a cane, as a way to complete the illusion that he was infirmed. She learned from him how to steal, exactly how to act so as to avoid suspicion. He taught her how to mimic those of the upper classes, how to blend in with them perfectly, so they would let down their guard, and reveal their things.

And he would fence with her every night. Despite his apparent age, he was spry, and she often found herself out of breath as they clashed blades. She rarely ever won, but toward the end of her apprenticeship, she often got close.

She loved him as a father, and wanted him to stay forever. But one day he told her that she no longer needed him, and that it was time for him to leave.

“I can do no more. History must take care of you now.”

As she cried herself to sleep that night, she had no idea what he meant. But now she knew.

She still didn’t know quite who the Doctor was. She knew that they time travelled, and that they were one consciousness in several bodies. She now knew that she and them had met in asychronous order, so she couldn’t be sure how much of her history her mentor had known. But he must have known something.

Had he wanted to change her life? Had he hoped that perhaps, he could change her fate? Was she fated to always have this Osiran jewel, lost in a countless symphony of minds, crowded in a new body each time? Did it matter?

As she pondered these thoughts, while sitting in the garden that was now her prison, a wheezing, grinding sound echoed through the air. She felt the host mind become curious, and walk to the source.

Ah. There was the unmistakable blue box of the TARDIS. A blonde-haired man stepped out slowly, looking around. He wore a blue coat, with a yellow-spotted shirt underneath. Blue pants covered what looked like slightly hairy legs. Overall, she sensed an easygoing air about him, supported by the way he whistled while he walked through the garden, unaware of being watched.

She pushed the host consciousness to approach him, who, after a moment of thought, obliged. The man noticed the silver-skinned woman approaching, and waved.

“Hello, I’m the Doctor. Just passing through randomly. I do like to wander,” said the Doctor.

She realized he neither recognized her, nor the jewel. He must be early in the cycle of lives. Perhaps this was the first time they ever met.

“I am the Goddess. Or I once was. I’ve been imprisoned,” said the Goddess.

“Why?” he asked.

She, the Goddess, Erica, and all the other consciousnesses thought quickly, but intensely. Should they lie?

No. The time for tricks had past.

“I possess a jewel from the Osirans. It keeps all the wearers of it alive in the minds  of the current wearrr, but at the expense of other lives. I cannot exist in the universe with other humans, so I must be banished here, as was the jewel.”

The Doctor frowned. He took out his silver wand, and waved it around. “Intriguing. There’s a barrier to the rest of the universe here. Meant to keep signals in and out. Probably meant to keep your jewel from accessing anyone else’s life force.”

“Perhaps. I have seen no one for years.”

“Yes, you have a universe to yourself. Rather lonely existence though. What sort of person would design such a thing?”
“I deserve it, I think. I killed many people. I tried to make sure it was only bad people.”

The Doctor focused on her intensely. Was he judging her? She couldn’t tell.

She continued “It is best if I stay here. If I escape, the jewel will just find another. It always does.”

He placed a finger to his lips, and hummed to himself. “How many lives have you lived?”

“Hundreds,” said the Goddess. “And you, Doctor?”

“Not as many as you, but I’ve been around,” said the Doctor. He stretched, and said “Do you want to share stories? I’ve got some time to spend.”

“I think that’d be nice. I miss company,” said the Goddess.

And so they swapped stories. The Goddess told him about stealing as Aria, about her time as a pirate queen on the seas, about her life as Max, a soldier in the WWII, and her life as Jill, a nurse on the German side of WW1, about her life as a Silurian explorer to Mars, and then back in Earth in time to be a venture capitalist. She talked about being both a husband and a wife, about having time-traveled, about battling against space worms, about surviving a shark attack, and about saving a rainforest. She avoided details that his future self would recognize, of course.

The Doctor had his own stories to tell, and occasionally he did. But he mostly listened. When she slept, he would occasionally go off into the garden, deep into the forest, and tinker with something. When he slept, she would watch him, wondering what exactly he dreamed about.

They played games, they danced, they sang. But mostly they told stories.

“Doctor,” she said one day to him. They were both resting on the grass. “Will you promise me something?”

“What?” asked the Doctor. His eyes were closed, but she knew him well-enough to know he was listening.

“One day, in the past, there is a girl named Aria. She is dying of a fever, and carries the Osiran jewel. If you get there in time, perhaps you can stop her from using it.”

“I may not have the power to change that. As long as the jewel is in this universe, it can find a host.”

“I see. Yes, I figured. But if you do happen to get there too late, at least take good care of her. Make her comfortable in her dying days, please.”

The Doctor opened his eyes, and looked straight at her. “I promise I will do what I can. It may take me some time to get to it, but I promise I will do it.”

The Goddess leaned over and kissed his cheek softly. She felt his cheek heat with a bashful embarassment.

“Thank you, Doctor.”

And so they rested. Until finally, he left her alone. He simply walked to the TARDIS, and went on his way.

But.

In her hands, he left her a key, and a map.

The Goddess pushed the key into the lock, and opened it. The Doctor had, while she slept, been building a door into the garden. As she walked through it, she felt a searing pain in her mind, and she heard the Osiran jewel break into pieces. Then she fell into darkness.



“Doctor!” said Illithica. “There’s someone in the void.”

“Really?” said the Doctor, her bright brown eyes opening widely. “Then let’s let them in.”

“Are they even alive?” asked Miaki. The furry winged creature crawled up Illithica’s shoulder, and raised his eyebrows. Although, he didn’t have any eyebrows, but still tried for the equivalent.

The Doctor quickly yanked the doors open, and pulled the person in. She was a silver-skinned woman, wearing a golden headdress. Splinters of red crystals were all over her body.

“Is she alive?” asked Miaki.

The Doctor reached down, and felt for a pulse. She nodded.

The silver-skinned woman opened her eyes, and said “Where am I? Am I in the garden still?”

“No, you’re in the TARDIS,” said Illithica.

The woman shot up. She touched the red crystal fragments, and said “It’s over. Oh my god, it’s over.”

“What is?”

“The jewel. I think he brought me to a new universe. He stopped the signal.”

“Who did?”

“The Doctor.”

“I’m the Doctor. Who are you?”

The woman with countless names smiled. “What a question. I’ve been kings and queens and thieves. But today, you can call me Aria.”