Doctor Who 1. Ice in the Park

AN: The first part of this chapter is set when Amy and Rory were travelling with the Doctor, but after that it's set when Clara was travelling with him. It starts after "The Crimson Horror" but before Clara goes home to discover that Artie and Angie know she's a time traveller.  
>Also, I have very little idea where this is going, so it might take me a little while to get new chapters up.<br>Anyway, enjoy, and any reviews would be welcome. I'm trying to improve my writing, so I'm fine with constructive criticism, and feel free to point it out if I make a mistake.

**1 – Ice in the Park**

The block of ice stood in the park, stubbornly refusing to melt despite the warm sun shining down on it. The ice was surprisingly clear, and inside it was easy to see a teenage boy frozen solid. He was skinny, with brown hair that stuck up all over the place. His clothes hung off him, and he was barefoot. He was holding a oval shaped object. It was red and about a foot long, with thing yellow and orange lines criss-crossing its surface.

The block of ice stood on a small stone step, and it was enclosed in a metal cage to stop people stealing it. In front of the block of ice there was sign that read:

_The first person to cause this block of ice some kind of damage (melting, knocking pieces off, etc.) is entitled to a reward of $100 pounds.  
><em>_Contact the British Museum for more information._

Over its life, the block of ice had been subjected to bonfires, explosions, gunfire, a wide variety of hammers and had even been dropped off the roof of a three-story building. All of this had had no effect at all on the block of ice, so the British Museum, who claimed they owned it even though it had been found in a field in the English countryside, had placed it inside its cage in the park, and opened it up for the general public to give it all they could. They didn't expect it last long after that, considering the reward, but even the public couldn't damage it. Over time it became an impressive attraction, with people coming impressive distances just to see if they could melt the ice. No one could, but its popularity remained. Today was the middle of the week however, so instead of a group of sightseers attacking it with hammers, a man and a woman stood side by side just looking at it.

'How long has it been here?' asked the man. He was young, with brown hair, and he was wearing a tweed jacket and a bow tie.

'Out here? A few years,' said the woman. She was dressed all in black, with a veil covering her face. 'I'm not sure exactly how long.'

'And how old is it?'

The woman shrugged. 'Experts say it dates back to the Middle Ages, but that's just a guess based on what the boy is wearing. The reality is they have no clue.'

The young man walked forward and jumped up onto the step with the block of ice. He pulled something out of his jacket and pointed it at the ice. It made a buzzing sound, and a after a few seconds the man turned it off and looked at it.

'What does it say?' asked the woman.

'Nothing,' said the man. 'Well, nothing useful. The readings are confused. I've never seen anything like it.' He got down off the step and walked towards a blue box standing nearby. 'Still,' he said, 'it's not hurting anyone, so it's probably fine to leave it here.'

'Probably? You don't want to investigate more?'

'It's almost definitely safe. Even if it does melt, it's from the Middle Ages. The chance that the boy's still alive after being frozen for several hundred years is pretty small.' He opened the door of the blue box. 'Anyway, I'm meant to be picking Amy up in a couple of centuries, so I'd better get going.'

The woman tilted her head. 'Alright Doctor. Goodbye.'

'Goodbye, Vastra,' said the man. He vanished into the box, and a few seconds later it began to disappear, making a wheezing _vrwoorrp, vrwoorrp, vrwoorrp_ sound as it went.

. . .

So the block of ice sat on its step for another couple of years. People had accepted it as part of the scenery, and all but the most determined had given it up as unbreakable. But one night in middle of Autumn, with no one around to see, the ice began to melt…

. . .

'Ma'am,' called Jenny as she ran into the house, shutting the door behind her. 'Ma'am, have you heard the news?'

Madame Vastra looked up from her breakfast. 'What news, Jenny?'

'The block of ice in the park, Ma'am. The one with the boy in it. It melted last night.'

'It what?!'

'It melted. Someone was walking past this morning, and it just wasn't there, so they went up and looked, and there was just this puddle of water.'

'What about the boy? Was he there?'

'No, Ma'am.'

'How did he get out? What about the cage?'

'No idea, Ma'am. It was still locked shut.'

'Interesting. The bars were far too close for anyone to get through,' said Vastra. She stood up. 'I think it would be best if we found this boy before the authorities. Get Strax and tell him to start looking. You go too. Try and cover as much of the city as you can. He'll probably be hiding somewhere. And tell Strax we're not trying to kill the boy, we're trying to help him.'

'Of course, Ma'am. What are you going to do?'

'I'll join the search shortly. First, I am going to try and contact the Doctor. This is something he should hear.'

. . .

Jaxon ran through the streets of London wishing he had shoes. The pavement was cold underneath his feet, but at least the running was helping him warm up. Waking up sitting in a puddle of freezing water in the middle of the night could not have been good for his health. It had been even worse when he'd realised that for some inexplicable reason his block of ice had been inside a cage, leaving him trapped. Then, as if he hadn't had enough problems already, the egg he'd been holding had hatched. Admittedly, he had been frozen so that he'd wake up when it was ready to hatch, but a newborn dragon really wasn't something he wanted to be dealing with while locked in a cage sitting in a puddle of water in the middle of the night. He could feel the little dragon on top of his head, and he smiled at the thought of it.

Jaxon turned a corner and slowed to a walk, panting. The wizards had cast spells on him so that his mind would absorb knowledge of the world around him while he slept, so he had a vague idea of where he was, and how to get out of the city, but running around barefoot dressed in clothes that were fashionable centuries ago was making him a little conspicuous. He cursed himself. He should have left in the night, but it had taken ages and a lot of focus to get out of the cage.

'Boy!' Jaxon jumped as a voice rang out behind him. He turned to see a man driving a horse and cart coming up behind him. At least, Jaxon supposed it must have been a man, even if the new information in his head didn't tell him anything about short, bald men with only three fingers.

'Boy,' said the sort-of-man again. 'Were you until recently frozen in a block of ice?'

'Yes,' said Jaxon.

'Good,' said the man. He picked something up from the seat next to him and pointed it at Jaxon. 'Come with me.'

Jaxon had no idea what the thing was, but in his experience having something pointed at you was rarely a good sign. 'What's that?' said Jaxon.

The man grunted. 'You primitive apes can't recognise decent weaponry if it's pointing you in the face. Come with me or I will melt your brain with acid. We want to _talk_.' He put emphasis on the last word as though it displeased him.

'Er…' said Jaxon, trying to focus his mind, which still felt fairly frozen.

'Strax!' yelled someone from behind Jaxon. 'What are you doing? Put the gun down.'

Jaxon turned to see a young woman running towards the two of them.

The man, Strax, put the gun back onto the cart next to him. 'I found the prisoner,' he said.

'He's not a prisoner,' said the woman, coming to a stop nearby. 'He's a guest.'

'Alright,' said Strax, sounding unsure.

The woman turned to Jaxon. 'You're the boy in the ice?' she asked.

'Not anymore,' said Jaxon. 'I've defrosted, so I guess now I'm just Jaxon, with an 'x', like in xylophone.'

'I'm Jenny,' said the woman. 'I think you should come with us.'

'OK,' said Jaxon.

'Because… wait, what?' said Jenny.

Jaxon shrugged. 'I said I'll come.' He pointed at the gun. 'I wanna know what that is. It looks dangerous. Do you have lots of dangerous things?'

'Strax has a few,' said Jenny. She frowned and narrowed her eyes. 'What's on your head?' she said.

'My dragon,' said Jaxon. 'Touch him and I'll flatten you.'

Strax smiled. 'He will do nicely,' he said.

Jenny and Jaxon climbed onto the cart next to Strax, and off they went.


	2. The Doctor is In

AN: Credit to Christopher Paolini and his Inheritance Cycle for pretty much everything about dragons, and the other language I use.

**2 – The Doctor is In**

Jenny and Strax led Jaxon into an average looking house on an average looking street. The inside of the house is considerably less average. There was a mixture of normal Victorian household items and a wide variety of futuristic looking things Jaxon couldn't even begin to guess the use of, including a large blue box.

'What's that?' said Jaxon, pointing at it.

'A police box from the 1960s,' said Jenny.

'Right,' said Jaxon. 'What year is it?'

'1894.'

'OK. Why do have a police box from a time that hasn't happened yet in your living room?'

At that moment the door of the police box opened and three people stepped out, which seemed like a lot of people for such a small space. The first one was a woman (at least Jaxon thought she was a woman) who wore all black and a veil over her face. Next was a young man with a weird haircut wearing a black coat and a bow tie. Third came a young woman wearing what seemed to Jaxon with his recently updated 1890s mind to be far too few clothes.

'Hello,' said the man in the bow tie. 'I'm the Doctor, and this is Clara Oswald.' He gestured to the young woman not wearing enough clothes.

'I'm Madame Vastra,' said the woman. She raised her veil.

'She's a lizard,' said Jaxon. 'Why is she a lizard? Who are you people? Why is one of you a lizard and another one a potato? And I still don't know why you have a police box in your living room.'

'You alright, mate?' asked Jenny.

'Fine. I'll be fine.' He spun around. 'You. Strax. I don't think we've met properly. Nice to meet you.' Jaxon extended his hand. Strax looked at him. 'Don't worry,' said Jaxon, and patted him on the head.

'Do not patronise me, boy,' said Strax, but Jaxon wasn't listening. As soon as he'd touched Strax, information had flooded his mind. He was used to that happening with humans, but apparently Strax wasn't human and that was making his head spin.

He closed his eyes, flicking through things in his head. DNA, age, voice patterns, and so on. His eyes snapped open.

'You're an alien,' he said. 'The baked potato is an alien.' He turned to face Madame Vastra. 'Are you an alien?' he asked. He pointed at the man in the bow tie. 'What about you? You've got a weird haircut, and what's up with your name? Doctor who? Are you an alien?'

'Just the Doctor,' said the man.

'Alright, just the Doctor,' said Jaxon. 'Are you an alien? Wait, don't worry. Lizard first.' He marched across the room. 'Hi,' he said. 'I'm Jaxon.' He extended his hand again. Madame Vastra looked at him with a slightly concerned expression, but she shook his hand. She was wearing gloves, so Jaxon slid his hand up and gripped her wrist. More information.

He let go and closed his eyes again, trying to comprehend. The information would be a lot easier to understand if he could shape shift into them, but he thought that was probably something he should keep secret, at least for now.

'Alien,' he said. 'No, not alien. But definitely not human. Old. Wow. Really old.' He opened his eyes. 'You're even weirder than the police box. It's only out by about 60 years. You're out by about 60 million. What are you doing here?'

'Living with my wife.'

'O-Kaayy. What does the potato do?'

Vastra smiled. 'I think the potato would prefer to be called Strax, and he just helps us out.'

'Alright. Interspecies lesbian couple with a pet potato. Moving on.' Jaxon turned to face the Doctor. 'Are you an alien? You've got the haircut for it.'

'Oi,' said the Doctor. 'There's nothing wrong with my haircut. It's cool.' The girl, Clara Oswald, snorted with laughter. The Doctor pointedly ignored her. 'Yes, I'm an alien.'

'Cool,' said Jaxon. 'Nice to meet you.' The Doctor looked at his outstretched hand suspiciously, but shook it anyway.

Jaxon jerked away, spikes of pain shooting through his head. 'What?' he muttered. The sheer amount of information was enormous, and it all seemed to be contradicting itself. 'What the hell?' said Jaxon. The man in front of him clearly had straight brown hair, but the information was saying grey hair, curly blond hair, curly brown hair, straight blond hair and several other things all at once. And it was the same for everything. There were multiple sets of every single piece of information, and it was all different. Jaxon sat on the floor with a loud _thump_, closed his eyes and groaned. He could vaguely hear the other people in the room talking and asking questions, but the stuff inside his head was yammering too loudly for him too care. He put his head between his knees and tried to focus. There seemed to be about ten different sets of information for everything. No. He corrected himself. Not ten. Twelve. And they seemed to fit together. Gradually, his shattered brain began to put the pieces together. One man, twelve different bodies. And there was something weird happening with the eleventh one, almost like it was two bodies at once, but he ignored it for now. His focus was just getting it all in order.

Eventually he had everything in order in his head. The Doctor in the room was the twelfth body of the same man, though each body had a different set of speech patterns, just to make everything even more confusing. As his mind settled be became aware of the conversation around him and an annoying buzzing noise.

'Are you sure you don't want me to hit him?' he heard Strax say. 'That'll fix him right up.'

'Thank you, Strax,' said Vastra, 'but hitting him is unnecessary. Just let the Doctor handle it.'

Jaxon put his head up and opened his eyes. Right in front of them was a glowing green light, which seemed to be the source of the buzzing noise, and behind the green light was the Doctor, who was crouching down shining the green thing into his eyes.

'Stop that,' said Jaxon. 'What is that?'

'Sonic screwdriver,' said the Doctor. 'I'm getting some weird readings off you.'

'That's great,' said Jaxon, standing up.

The Doctor turned off his buzzing thing and came to his feet as well, slipping the screwdriver into an inside pocket of his jacket.

'That,' said Jaxon, 'was severely not cool.'

'What?' said the Doctor.

'Just… you. I don't know. I mean, you said you were an alien, and that's harder than I'm used to, but it's not really that different from finding a new species, it's just a bit more complicated, but you're not just you, you're eleven other people as well. How the hell was I supposed to cope with that?' Jaxon could feel the lines between the twelve different parts of the Doctor beginning to blur again in his head. He needed to lock them in. He shifted into the version of the Doctor standing in front of him. Everyone in the room jerked as the boy flickered and reappeared as a perfect replica of the Doctor, right down to the bow tie. The real Doctor got out his sonic screwdriver and started scanning. Clara and Jenny just stared. Vastra started trying to ask a question. Luckily, Strax had left the room to check his grenades, or he probably would have attacked Jaxon.

Jaxon continued talking like nothing had happened, which just freaked everyone out even more. His voice was the same as the Doctor's as well. 'I mean,' he said, 'just this would be OK. That's just one body, and that's all fine. Except it's not just this. There's also this.'

He shifted again, becoming a tall man with spiky brown hair and a long coat. 'I don't even know what's up with this version of you,' said Jaxon. 'It's like there's two different versions that are exactly the same, which is really weird. And then there's this one.'

He shifted into a man with short brown hair and a leather jacket.

'And this one.' This time he was an older man with grey hair and a lined face.

'This.' A man with long, wavy brown hair, wearing a cravat.

'This.' A man wearing a vest covered with question marks and an umbrella with a question mark shaped handle.

'This.' A man with curly blond hair wearing rainbow clothes.

'Honestly, it's just ridiculous.' A man with straight blond hair in cricketer's clothes.

'Still going.' A man with curly brown hair wearing the longest scarf Jaxon had ever seen.

'And again.' A man with white hair wearing an impressive-looking cape.

'And another one.' A man with straight, dark hair holding a recorder.

'And finally.' A man with grey hair wearing a black coat.

Jaxon shifted back into himself. 'Seriously, how is anyone meant to cope with that much information?' he said. He looked around, noticing the looks on their faces. 'What?'

'How'd you do that?' asked Jenny.

'I dunno,' said Jaxon. 'I just can. My brothers can do it to. Or they could. Or they will be able to. Or something. I was best at it, though.'

The Doctor still had his sonic screwdriver pointed at Jaxon. He turned it off and looked at it. 'The readings make no sense,' he muttered.

'So are you the twelfth Doctor?' said Clara.

'No. I'm the eleventh Doctor. We're all the same person, just different faces. I'm the eleventh.'

'Look,' said Jaxon, 'I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I can count to twelve.'

'One of those wasn't the Doctor,' said the Doctor. 'He was me, but he wasn't the Doctor. It's complicated.'

'Well, that makes zero sense, but my whole day's made pretty much no sense, so that's fine,' said Jaxon.

'The real question is,' said Vastra, 'what do we do with him?'

'I don't know,' said the Doctor. 'He's almost as impossible as Clara.'

'What?' said Clara.

'Nothing,' said the Doctor.

'You know,' said Jaxon, 'I feel like this is a discussion I should have some input in.'

Vastra and the Doctor ignored him. 'Why did he even wake up now?' said the Doctor. 'This day isn't special. This year isn't even special. Why now? What happened? Vastra, has anything changed?'

Vastra shook her head. 'Nothing, Doctor.'

'I woke up because the dragon egg was ready to hatch,' said Jaxon matter-of-factly.

'What?' said the Doctor.

'My life's kind of weird,' said Jaxon. 'Basically, there were these three wizards, and one had three dragon eggs, and one had three magic items, and one had found three magic boys, and they came together, except the dragon eggs weren't ready to hatch, so they froze me and my two big brothers blocks of ice until they were, and now I'm here.' He reached up and extracted the small red dragon from where it was hiding in his hair. 'This is my dragon. His breed is a Skulblaka. I haven't named him yet.'

'Wizards don't exist,' said Clara.

Jaxon shrugged. 'They might not anymore, but they did then, and I'm standing here holding dragon. Is this really a point you want to argue?'

The Doctor took a couple of steps towards Jaxon. 'Can I see?' he asked, pointing at the dragon.

'You can't hold him,' said Jaxon. 'He's fragile and if you squish him then I'm screwed, but you can look.'

The Doctor bent over the little dragon. He was only about as long as Jaxon's hand, and bright red. The Doctor examined it from every angle, muttering quietly to himself. After a couple of minutes he straightened and Jaxon put the dragon back on his head where it burrowed into his hair.

'Where are your brothers?' asked Vastra.

'Dunno,' said Jaxon. 'Could be anywhere. Could be anywhen, as well. The wizards said the dragon eggs'd all be ready to hatch at different times.' Jaxon looked at the Doctor. 'OK, I answered your question about the melting ice, and then I showed you a dragon, so now you have to answer my question. Why do you have a police box from the 1960s in 1894?'

The Doctor grinned. 'It's called the TARDIS. It can go anywhere in time and space. And it's mine.'

'If you're from a different planet and that's a time machine, why does it look like an Earth police box?'

'It's a disguise,' said the Doctor. 'Whenever the TARDIS lands, within the first millisecond, it scans everything within a hundred mile radius, calculates what would best blend in with the surroundings, and then it becomes an Earth 1960s police box.'

'What, every time?' said Jaxon.

'Yep,' said the Doctor. He walked over and unlocked the door. 'Do you want to see?'

Jaxon followed him over and looked through the doorway. 'No way,' he said. He did a lap around the outside. Yep, definitely just a normal square box. He looked back through the doorway, and at the impossibly large room that on the other side. He stepped inside to have a proper look, but he didn't get to appreciate it for long. His vision flashed and a stabbing pain appeared from every single part of his brain. Then he felt his legs go soft and everything went dark.

**AN: Jaxon isn't the world's best storyteller. If anyone wants to know how he ended up frozen in a block of ice with a dragon egg, check out Chapter 8 – The Story of my Harry Potter FanFic, "The Boy, the Dragon and the Tournament", and if you want to know what happened to Jaxon's oldest brother, Nickolas, that's what the whole FanFic is about.**


	3. Bigger on the Inside

**3 – Bigger on the Inside**

Clara looked at Jaxon, who was lying face-down on the floor of the TARDIS.

'Doctor,' she said, 'why are we here? Who is he?'

'I don't know who he is,' said the Doctor. 'And I really don't like not knowing. That's why we're here. Come on, help me roll him over.' They rolled Jaxon onto his back.

'I don't understand how you can be twelve people, though,' said Clara.

'It's a Time Lord thing,' said the Doctor. 'When a Time Lord dies, they can choose to regenerate. Same memories, but a different face and personality.'

Clara started to say something else, but at that moment Jaxon groaned loudly. 'He makes that sound a lot, doesn't he?' said Clara.

'Why does my nose hurt?' said Jaxon, raising a hand and poking it curiously.

'You landed on it,' said Clara.

The Doctor grinned. 'I must admit, that's the best reaction to it being bigger on the inside that I've ever seen.'

'Course it's bigger on the inside,' said Jaxon, like it was obvious. 'It's a TARDIS.' He sat up. 'Have you actually tried to fix the Chameleon Circuit? Maybe it's just stuck or something.'

The Doctor looked at him suspiciously. 'How do you know that it's called a Chameleon Circuit?'

'I dunno,' said Jaxon. 'I just do.' He grinned. 'Hey, yeah, that's weird. I didn't know that before, when my nose wasn't hurting.'

The Doctor walked over to the console, Clara and Jaxon trailing after him. He pointed to a round spiky thing on the console. 'What's this?'

'Atom accelerator,' said Jaxon.

The Doctor continued, pointing to controls at random. 'This?'

'Fault locator.'

'This?'

'Helmic regulator.'

'This?'

'Randomiser.'

'This?'

'Gravitic anomaliser.'

'This?'

'Tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator.'

'Do you think you could fly the TARDIS?'

Jaxon frowned. 'I'm not sure. I could probably fly it badly. I know what most of this stuff is, and sorta what it does, but it's another thing to actually do it.'

'And you didn't know before?'

'Nope.'

'What happened when you passed out?' asked Clara.

'My head really hurt, and then nothing.'

The Doctor began scanning Jaxon with his sonic screwdriver again. They were silent for a minute, except for the buzzing of the screwdriver.

'Wait,' said Jaxon. 'I know what it is. When the wizards froze us, they put spells on our blocks of ice so that while we were frozen our brains would absorb what was happening around us, so that when we woke up we'd know what the time we were in was like. The spell must still be functioning, and stepping into the TARDIS meant I absorbed information about it, but it's so complex that it probably overloaded my brain.'

'Will the spell wear off?' said Clara.

'Probably,' said Jaxon.

'I think it is,' said the Doctor. 'I'm not sure about spells, but your body's giving off a lot of weird readings, and at least one of them is deteriorating.'

'Makes sense,' said Jaxon. 'There was no need to make the spell permanent, so now that I've woken up it's slowly winding down. To be fair, I don't think the wizards thought I'd be stepping into a time machine a few hours after waking up.'

'Right,' said the Doctor. 'OK. Why don't you go and talk to Vastra and Jenny for a minute?'

Jaxon looked between the Doctor and Clara and grinned. 'Sure thing.'

He left and the Doctor shut the door after him. 'What do you think?' he said.

'I think he knows a lot more about the snog box than I do,' said Clara.

'Oi, I've told you to stop calling it that.'

Clara shrugged.

'And you wonder why she doesn't like you,' said the Doctor. 'Anyway, I mean, what do you think we should do with him?'

'I don't know,' said Clara. 'We could leave him here.'

'We could,' said the Doctor. 'But he knows about TARDIS's now, and I'm not sure I want someone with that much information wandering around Victorian London. Anyway, I want to know about his dragon, and how he can change his shape.'

'Then bring him,' said Clara.

'You don't mind?'

'No. He seems nice enough, even if most of what he says makes no sense, but the same could be said for you, so no, I don't mind. Maybe you should ask the snog box.'

'Don't be mean,' said the Doctor.

'Well we don't want her upset about him as well as me.'

'I'll tell him he can come,' said the Doctor, heading for the door. Clara followed him, grinning.

'Jaxon,' said the Doctor, stepping outside, 'do you want to come with us?'

'Where?' said Jaxon.

'Anywhere,' said the Doctor.

'That's not helpful.'

'Well, first Clara wants to go home for a little while. After, that, who knows?'

'Where does she live? And when?'

'Earth in a couple of hundred years.'

'What do you actually do when you go places?'

'I observe the universe and try not to interfere.'

'He's awful at it,' said Clara. 'What he really does is defeat evil aliens and save people.'

'Sounds good,' said Jaxon. 'I'd like to meet more aliens. Aliens are cool.'

The Doctor smiled and adjusted his bow tie. 'Yes we are,' he said.

'Let's go,' said Clara. 'All aboard the snog box.'

'The what?' said Jaxon.

'TARDIS,' said the Doctor. 'She said all aboard the TARDIS.'

'Riiiiiight,' said Jaxon. 'Whatever you say.' He followed Clara into the TARDIS.

'Goodbye Doctor,' said Vastra.

'Until the next time, Vastra. Bye Jenny.'

'Bye Doctor.'

The Doctor entered the TARDIS, the door swing shut behind him, and it faded with a familiar _vrwoorrp, vrwoorrp, vrwoorrp_.


	4. The Kids Can't Come

AN: If anyone has any ideas, I have very little idea where this is going, and I'm open to suggestions, so if you want something to happen, let me know and I'll try to put it in at some point. At the moment I'm steering clear of actual episodes (Nightmare in Silver, The Name of the Doctor) because it'll take a lot of effort to write those in, so I'll probably just send the Doctor, Clara and Jaxon on a fairly random journey through space and time, so any ideas welcome.

**4 – The Kids Can't Come**

'See you tomorrow,' said Clara. 'And don't be late.' She left and the TARDIS doors swung shut behind her.

'Where're we going now?' asked Jaxon, as the Doctor began flicking switches.

'To pick Clara up,' said the Doctor.

'Cool.'

The TARDIS made its wheezing _vrwoorrp, vrwoorrp, vrwoorrp_ sound and landed again. Jaxon headed for the door.

'Wait,' said the Doctor. 'Are you going to pass out again?'

Jaxon paused with his hand on the doorknob. 'I don't know,' he said. 'I guess there's only one way to find out.' He grinned, opened the door and stepped outside.

The Doctor followed him. 'Still conscious?'

'Yeah,' said Jaxon. 'Hurt for a second, but I'm fine now. I don't really fell any different.'

'A couple of hundred years wouldn't be much compared to absorbing everything inside the TARDIS,' said the Doctor.

'True.'

At that moment, Clara came out of the house, followed by Angie and Artie. 'Doctor,' she said, 'Artie and Angie know we've been time travelling.'

'What? How?'

'They found picture of us from the 1970s and one from during the Cold War. Also, they found a picture of me from Victorian London, which can't have been me, because we were in Victorian Yorkshire.'

'That's…strange,' said the Doctor.

'You hesitated,' said Clara. 'Why did you hesitate?'

'Er,' said the Doctor. 'I'm just used to the strangeness of time travel. Maybe we just haven't been to Victorian London yet.' He didn't sound very convincing.

'What Clara's trying to say,' said Angie, 'is that we want to have a go.'

'Have a go at what?'

'Time travelling.'

'Oh. What did Clara say?'

'She said yes.'

'I did not,' said Clara.

'Hey, who's he?' said Artie, pointing at Jaxon. 'He wasn't in any of the photos.'

'I'm Jaxon,' said Jaxon. 'With an 'x' like in xylophone. The Doctor and Clara just picked me up a few hours ago by my timeline.'

'See?' said Angie. 'If you're picking up strays then we can come too.'

'No,' said Clara. 'Jaxon is coming for a good reason. You two need to stay here, where you're safe.'

'What reason?'

'Um,' said Clara.

'I'm really good at impressions,' said Jaxon.

'What?' said Angie.

'What?' said Clara. 'I mean, that's right.'

'I'm really good at impersonating people,' said Jaxon. 'It's a very important skill to have time travelling. That's why I can come.'

'I'm good at impressions too,' said Artie.

'Bet you're not as good as me,' said Jaxon.

'Fine. Bet. If I win, we get to come,' said Artie.

'Sure. If I win, you have to make me a sandwich.'

'Hang on,' said the Doctor, but they ignored him.

'A sandwich?' said Artie.

'You heard me. I haven't eaten in at least five hundred years. I'm hungry. Deal?'

'Deal.'

'Shake on it,' said Jaxon, extending a hand. Artie shook it. 'You go first,' said Jaxon.

Artie cleared his throat and stood up a little straighter. 'Hello,' he said in a reasonable impression of Jaxon's voice. 'I'm Jaxon. I'm only allowed to come time travelling because my haircut's even weirder than the Doctor's and because Clara's fallen for my amazing eyes.'

Jaxon ran a hand distractedly through his hair, which looked like an electrocuted porcupine.

'I thought you said the Doctor was my boyfriend?' said Clara. 'Which is _not_ true, by the way.'

'Someone gets around,' muttered Angie.

'Can I see your eyes?' asked the Doctor.

'What, didn't notice when you were waving your screwdriver in my face?' said Jaxon, turning to face him.

'Interesting,' said the Doctor. 'Yellow eyes. The last person I saw with eyes like that was Genghis Khan when he was trying to break into my TARDIS. Are you descended from him?'

'I don't even know my last name,' said Jaxon. 'How would I know that?'

'Fair point,' said the Doctor.

'Anyway,' said Jaxon, grinning at Artie, 'not bad, but you're still no match for me.' He closed his eyes, focusing, then opened them. 'Hey, I'm Artie, probably,' said Jaxon, mimicking Artie's voice perfectly. 'It's hard to tell since I'm too lazy to introduce myself when I meet new people. Anyway, my name's not important. What is important is my sandwich-making ability, because I owe Jaxon a sandwich.'

Artie stared at Jaxon with his mouth open. 'How do you _do_ that?' he asked.

'What can I say?' said Jaxon, shrugging. 'I just can.'

'Can you do Clara?'

'Sure,' said Jaxon. While they were in the TARDIS he'd been relieved to discover that Clara was human. 'It's your bed time,' he said in Clara's voice. 'Go to your room.'

'What about him?' said Artie, pointing at the Doctor.

'Yep.' Jaxon focused, trying to find the right voice for the Doctor's current body. It was much harder without actually shifting. 'I'm the Doctor,' he said in a northern accent. 'Wait, hang on,' he said in his normal voice, 'that's not it. Just a sec.' He closed his eyes, frowning. 'I'm the Doctor,' he said, this time in the right voice. He kept his eyes closed, concentrating. 'I fly around time in a magic blue snog box.' He opened his eyes. 'Sorry, he's difficult,' he said, back to his normal voice.

'It's not called the snog box,' said the Doctor.

'Can you do Angie?' said Artie.

'Don't you dare,' said Angie.

Jaxon shrugged. 'I guess not. I've been banned.' In truth, he was glad Angie wouldn't let him. He hadn't touched her yet, so there was no way he could do her voice. 'Anyway,' he said, 'you owe me a sandwich.'

'He can make it later,' said Angie. 'Let's go time travelling.'

'No,' said Clara. 'Absolutely not. It's dangerous. You have to stay here.'

Ten minutes later, the five of them were standing in the TARDIS.

'So,' said the Doctor, 'where are we going to go?'


	5. Duck, Duck, Goose

**AN: Sorry for my prolonged absence. Schoolwork got really heavy all of a sudden. My next update shouldn't take anywhere near as long. Also, I've just discovered the button that puts those line things in, which I'm excited about, because I am easily amused.**

**5 – Duck, Duck, Goose**

'I wanna see aliens,' said Artie.

'Let's go to the future,' said Angie. 'I want to see some decent technology.'

'Aliens and technology,' said the Doctor. 'And somewhere fun for kids.'

'And safe,' said Clara.

'Right, of course, and safe.' He grinned. 'I know a great place.'

* * *

><p>'Where are we?' asked Angie as the TARDIS landed.<p>

'The Andromeda galaxy,' said the Doctor. 'We're about ten thousand years in your future, and since the Andromeda galaxy is the largest in the Milky Way's local group, it was the first to be colonised by humans. It's only about 2.5 million light years from Earth. We've just landed on the planet Pan. Before humans arrived, it was inhabitable, but thanks to terra forming, it's one of the greenest planets in the current human empire.'

'Pan?' said Angie. 'Isn't that a Greek…someone?'

The Doctor grinned. 'Pan is the Greek god of the wild. Apparently naming half the planets in your own solar system after Roman gods wasn't enough for you. You get to a whole new galaxy and off you go again.' He shook his head. 'Humans. Still, at least you picked the right god.' He walked over to the doors and threw them open. Sunlight poured into the TARDIS.

'Welcome to Pan,' said the Doctor. 'The biggest wildlife reserve in this cluster of galaxies.'

'We're at a zoo?' said Angie. 'You took us to a _zoo_?'

'Zoos are cool. And this is a wildlife reserve, so instead of animals in cages, you get to see them in their natural habitats.'

'Seriously? A zoo?'

'Is at an alien zoo?' asked Artie.

'No. The animals are from Earth,' said the Doctor.

Angie and Artie groaned.

'Lots of aliens come here though. Earth has some pretty cool animals.'

'Earth doesn't have interesting animals,' said Angie.

'That's just because you take them for granted,' said the Doctor.

'Let's go see aliens,' said Artie.

'Amen to that,' said Jaxon. 'Come on, let's go.'

The pair of them dashed for the doorway.

'Artie, wait!' yelled Clara. They came to a stop just outside the TARDIS.

'What?' said Artie.

'We're all going to stick together,' said Clara. 'The last thing I want to tell George is I lost one of his children on a distant planet ten thousand years in the future.'

'Hey,' said Jaxon, 'my head doesn't hurt. I think the spell's worn off.'

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and started scanning.

'Seriously?' said Jaxon. 'Haven't we had enough of that yet?'

The Doctor turned the screwdriver off. 'One of the signals has virtually disappeared.'

'Good for it. Come on, let's go look at animals.'

'Typical,' muttered Angie, as she followed Clara and the Doctor out of the TARDIS. 'We never do anything I ask for.'

'Don't worry, Angie,' said the Doctor, taking the lead after the two boys stopped to gape at aliens passing by. 'There's plenty of cool technology here.'

Clara gave Artie and Jaxon a push. 'Don't stare.'

Suddenly, something shot overhead only a couple of metres in the air. Everyone except the Doctor flinched.

'What _was_ that?' asked Angie.

'I told you there was technology,' said the Doctor. 'This wildlife reserve's the size of a planet. That's how people get places. It's a small platform called a Woosher. You fly around on it looking at the animals.'

'Cool,' said Jaxon, grinning. 'Let's get one.' He did a quick head count. 'I mean five. Let's get five.'

* * *

><p>Jaxon looked at the Woosher carefully as the zoo employee strapped it to his feet. It was a round metal disk with rubber edges, a bit under a metre in diameter. There were a lot of complicated straps on it used to secure the rider, and at the front there was a metal pole with a rubber grip sticking up. It came almost up to Jaxon's chest. He assumed that that was how you steered it.<p>

'Right,' said the employee, standing up once Jaxon was secure. 'All of you listen carefully.'

Jaxon, Artie, Angie and Clara stopped what they were doing and looked at them. The Doctor was scanning his Woosher with his sonic screwdriver and ignored the employee, who didn't seem to care that one of them wasn't listening.

He began rattling off instructions. 'To go up, pull up on the driveshaft. To go down, push down on it. To steer forwards, backwards, left or right push the driveshaft in the appropriate direction. Do not attempt to undo any safety gear. Do not attempt to turn the Woosher off. Any questions?'

Nobody said anything.

'Good,' said the employee. He reached into a pocket and pulled out something that looked like a see-through electronic clipboard. 'You all need to fill this out and sign it. It states that any injury is your own responsibility, and that Pan Wildlife Reserve is not responsible.'

Jaxon watched as the clipboard was passed down the line until it reached him. He grabbed the stylus that went with it and began to fill it out.

_Full name: __Jaxon_

_Age: __17_

_Species: __Human_

_Number of legs: __2_

Jaxon signed it and passed it the employee. He flicked quickly through the forms, checking them. 'The Doctor and…Jaxon,' he said, after a pause. Jaxon silently wished he had legible handwriting. 'You have to put your full names.'

'I'm the Doctor,' said the Doctor. 'That is my name.'

'I don't have a last name,' said Jaxon.

'Fine,' said the employee. 'I'm just required to check.' He walked over to a panel covered in buttons. 'When I turn your Woosher on, rise straight up into the air until you are above the level of the buildings and trees. Then do whatever you want.' He pressed five buttons and flicked a switch and Jaxon felt his Woosher start humming gently. On his left, Artie jerked upwards on the driveshaft and shot upwards with a terrified yell.

'Mr Maitland is going to kill me,' said Clara, pulling up on her driveshaft, and ascending in a much more controlled fashion.

'I'll get him,' said Jaxon, and he shot into the air after Artie. He watched the ground recede beneath him, then looked up and gave a yell of fright as he almost ran into Arite, who was jerking backwards and forwards.

'What are you doing?' asked Jaxon.

'I can't figure out how to drive it,' said Artie. He pushed forward on the driveshaft and the whole platform flipped so that his head was pointing towards the ground. 'Uh oh.'

Jaxon grinned at him. 'Having fun?'

'Shut up,' said Artie. 'Hey, what's on your head?'

'My dragon,' said Jaxon. 'Could short little Artie not see him on the ground?'

'Whatever,' said Artie. 'You're older than me. Of course you're taller.'

Jaxon nudged his driveshaft upwards. 'Well, have fun admiring the trees. I think I'll go look at some animals.'

'I can see into the duck enclosure,' said Arite.

'Good for you,' said Jaxon. He pushed forward on the driveshaft, and next second he was upside down next to Artie, who started laughing. Jaxon grinned. 'Whoops. Well, we at least we can watch the ducks.'

'Yeah,' said Artie. They stared towards the duck enclosure for a while. The enclosure consisted of a massive pond with a park around the edges. Jaxon couldn't see the far edge, but in the distance he could see the glimmering of sunlight on another lake. There were ducks everywhere. White ducks, brown ducks, brown and white ducks, and for some reason, a goose.

'Hey, look,' he said. 'There's a goose in the duck enclosure.'

'Where?' asked Artie.

'There,' said Jaxon. 'Near the group of brown ducks fighting.'

'That's weird,' said Artie. Then he pointed. 'There's a whole group of them over there.'

Jaxon and Artie watched as the lone goose wandered over to the group of geese. They stood in a group and appeared to be talking to each other.

'What are you two doing?' asked Angie, appearing next to them on her Woosher.

'Observing the scenery from a brand new perspective,' said Jaxon. 'Yourself?'

'The geese have disappeared,' said Artie.

'What?' said Jaxon.

'They're gone,' said Artie. 'They were there a second ago.'

Jaxon looked over to where the geese had been seconds before. Instead of the white geese there was a group of brown and white ducks.

'That's a duck enclosure,' said Angie in a "how dumb are you" tone. 'There aren't _meant_ to be geese in it.'

'I know,' said Jaxon. 'That's why we were looking at them.' He looked closer at the brand new group of ducks. 'Artie, I think they turned _into_ the ducks.'

'Don't be stupid,' said Angie. 'Geese don't turn into ducks.'

'Well, no,' said Jaxon. 'But in a couple of seconds, a large group of geese disappeared, and has been replaced by a group of ducks. Maybe the geese weren't geese to start with.'

Suddenly Jaxon felt his Woosher vibrate, and he flipped right way up. He looked towards the ground to see Clara and the Doctor approaching. The Doctor was tucking his sonic screwdriver back inside his jacket.

'So, where do you want to go?' asked the Doctor as he came level with the three of them.

'Let's go look at the ducks,' said Jaxon.

Angie groaned.

'The ducks?' said Clara, disbelief in her voice.

'Well, at least ten of them were geese a minute ago,' said Jaxon.

'Really?' said the Doctor. 'Let's go look.'

'I am _not_ going to look at the ducks,' said Angie. 'I'm going to go find something more interesting to do.' She pushed the driveshaft of her Woosher forward sharply, and promptly flipped upside down, causing Jaxon and Artie to erupt in gales of laughter.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and, suppressing a grin, flipped her the right way up. 'I've fixed it,' he said. 'For some reason, they've all been set on "sensitive". I've changed it to 'insensitive', so none of yours should flip themselves over now.'

Angie flicked her head and pushed forward again, but less sharply this time. Her Woosher set off at a slow walking pace. Clara sighed.

'I'll go with her,' she said. 'Artie?'

'I'm going with Jaxon,' said Artie. 'There were definitely geese there before.'

Five minutes later, the Doctor, Jaxon and Artie were inside the duck enclosure.

'What's that paper you showed the guard?' asked Jaxon.

'Psychic paper,' said the Doctor. 'It shows people whatever I want them to see.'

'Cool,' said Artie.

'Let's go round up some ducks,' said Jaxon.


	6. The Duck Hunt

**6 – The Duck Hunt**

The Doctor, Jaxon and Artie looked at field of ducks.

'Dammit,' said Jaxon. 'They've moved.'

'They won't have gone far,' said Artie.

'Yeah, but when we last saw them, they were brown and white ducks, and there are a lot of brown and white ducks here.'

'We could throw some food and see if there's some ducks who aren't interested,' said Artie.

'I think I've got some bread in here somewhere,' said the Doctor, rummaging through his coat pockets before pulling out an entire loaf of bread.

Artie and Jaxon stared at him in astonishment. 'How do you do that?' asked Artie.

'My pockets are bigger on the inside,' answered the Doctor. He scattered some bread, and all the ducks immediately clustered around it.

'If we caught any duck, I could try talking to it,' said Jaxon. 'But ducks aren't the world's brightest creatures, so I'm not sure if that would get us anywhere.'

'I have an idea,' said Artie. 'Look out for any ducks that don't react to _this_.' Artie jerked down on the driveshaft. As he shot towards the ground, he let out an ear-splitting yell. The ducks scattered, flying in any direction so long as it took them away from Artie, but Jaxon noticed a few ducks that took a few seconds to get going. They continued to waddle around before looking up, noticing all the other ducks flying away, and taking to the air themselves.

'Did you see those ones?' asked the Doctor, pointing after them.

'Yep,' said Jaxon, grinning. 'Let's get them.' He pushed forward on the driveshaft. The Doctor must have stabilised it with his sonic because instead of flipping him upside down, the Woosher shot forwards after the ducks. He kept his eyes fixed on one of the ducks that had hesitated before flying away. He followed it as it flew along close to the ground, weaving through trees and around other ducks. Luckily the Woosher seemed to be able to move faster than a duck in flight. He gained on it slowly until he was skimming over the ground just above it. He made a grab for it, but it noticed him and peeled away to the left, flying upwards as it did so. Jaxon cursed to himself and followed it, battling with the driveshaft to try and get the Woosher to go forwards and up at the same time. He caught up to it again, and again he tried to grab it, but with one hand on the driveshaft he couldn't get a proper grip. The duck flapped and slipped out of his grasp. Jaxon ignored the information that entered his head as soon as he touched the duck and focused on catching it. Keeping his eyes fixed on the duck, and wishing that his dragon was big enough to catch the dragon for him, Jaxon focused. A long, scaly tail grew, and he wrapped it around the driveshaft, giving him two hands to try and catch the duck. He pushed forward with his tail. He was right behind the duck. He reached forward and gripped its body with both hands. The duck immediately went nuts, flapping and twisting like crazy. It was all he could do to hold on. He brought it towards his body, trying to constrict its movement. After an intense battle, during which he inhaled a lot of feathers and almost crashed the Woosher twice, he had the duck secured under one arm, with the other arm holding its head to stop it pecking him. Sneezing violently, he used his tail to steer the Woosher back towards the lake they'd started at.

The Doctor and Artie were waiting at the lake. The Doctor was holding an unconscious duck.

'What the hell?' said Artie before Jaxon could say anything.

'What?' said Jaxon.

'You have a _tail_,' said Artie.

'Oh,' said Jaxon. He'd forgotten that Artie didn't know about his shapeshifting. 'Yes. Well, as you can see, I'm a shapeshifter.'

Artie made a sound like he was trying to gargle peanut butter.

'Just think of him as an alien,' said the Doctor, slapping him on the back.

'Is he an alien?'

'Nope, not really. But think of him that way if it helps.'

'Well, apart from growing a tail, I also caught a duck that isn't a duck,' said Jaxon.

'Why are you covered in feathers?' asked the Doctor.

Jaxon looked down at himself. There did seem to be an unusually large number of duck feathers on his clothes. 'Because I was wrestling with a duck in mid air,' he said. 'How'd you get the duck?'

'I found the right frequency on the sonic and knocked it unconscious,' said the Doctor. Saying that, he pulled out his sonic and pointed at Jaxon's duck, which immediately passed out.

'Oh,' said Jaxon. He put the duck under one arm and got rid of the tail, using his unhampered arm to grip the driveshaft.

'So,' said Artie, 'if the duck isn't a duck, what is it? Is it a goose?'

'No,' said Jaxon. 'Here, hold my duck. I'll show you what it is.' He passed the duck to Artie and shifted, turning into a large red creature. The creature was covered in suckers and had no neck. Instead, its head sloped straight onto its shoulders. Jaxon shifted back into himself. 'It's another creature that can shapeshift,' he said. 'I wonder why it's pretending to be a duck.'

'It's a Zygon,' said the Doctor. 'And whatever it's up to, it won't be good. With Zygons, it never is.'


	7. Terror of the Zygons

**7 – Terror of the Zygons**

The Doctor, Jaxon and Artie were standing outside the TARDIS, having removed their Wooshers.

'How long do you think Clara and Angie will be?' asked Jaxon.

'I don't know,' said the Doctor. 'But I don't like the idea of them wandering around with Zygons on the loose.'

'They could be a while,' said Artie. 'Angie doesn't like doing anything she's told, so she'll probably disobey Clara's instructions to come back for as long as possible.'

'Doesn't Clara have a phone or something you can contact her on?' said Jaxon.

'Angie does,' said Artie, 'but it only works on Earth.'

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and turned it on. It started making a regular beeping noise. He turned slowly in a circle, stopping when the beeping became more frequent. 'I sonicked Angie and Clara's Wooshers. I can track them down with this. You two go into the TARDIS and guard the Zygons.' He put the sonic back in his jacket. 'Here, I'll show you somewhere you can keep them until I get back with Clara and Angie.' He unlocked the TARDIS and led them inside.

The Doctor took them through the control room, down a corridor, around several corners and into a bare room.

'You two stay in here with the two ducks,' he said. 'I'll be back soon with the others.' He left and the door slid shut behind him.

* * *

><p>Angie and Clara followed the Doctor through the TARDIS.<p>

'They're just through here,' said the Doctor, pushing the "Open" button next to a door and leading them inside.

'What is going on?' said Clara as the door swung shut behind them.

Inside the room, Artie was staring at an unconscious duck, and two Jaxons were arguing with each other.

'Look,' said the Jaxon on the right, 'how about I be Jaxon One, and you be Jaxon Two.'

'No,' said the Jaxon on the left. 'I'll be Jaxon One and you be Jaxon Two.'

'I'm not being Jaxon Two.'

'Well, we can't both be Jaxon One. That's just as confusing as if we were both just Jaxon.'

'Oh, hi,' said Artie, glancing up at the Doctor, Clara and Angie before continuing to stare at the duck. 'Well, while you were gone, one of the ducks woke up, and I looked at the other duck to see if it it had woken up, and when I looked back, there were two versions of Jaxon. I hit the duck over the head again, and then I told those two that if there was going to be two Jaxons, they couldn't both have the same name. They've been arguing for the last ten minutes or so.'

'I know,' said the Jaxon on the right. 'How about I be Jaxon One, and you be Jaxon Omega?'

'No,' said the other Jaxon. 'You can be Jaxon One if I can be Jaxon Alpha.'

The Jaxon on the right considered this for a moment. 'OK, deal.'

The two of them turned to face the newcomers.

'Hi,' said the Jaxon on the right. 'I'm Jaxon One, as in the one and only Jaxon.'

'And I'm Jaxon Alpha,' said the one on the left, 'as in the most superior Jaxon.'

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and sonicked the still-unconscious duck. 'Don't worry. He won't be waking up for a while.' He turned to face the two Jaxons. 'Which one of you is a Zygon?'

The two Jaxon's pointed at each other.

'Whichever one of you is the Zygon, turn back into your normal form,' said the Doctor. 'There's no use playing this game.'

'It's easy,' said Jaxon One. 'Jaxon Alpha doesn't have a dragon on his head. That makes me the real Jaxon.'

'You took him off me,' said Jaxon Alpha.

'I would never allow anyone to take my dragon,' said Jaxon One. 'If you'd tried it, you'd be dead, prisoner or not.'

'You took him off my head when I wasn't looking,' said Jaxon Alpha. 'Then you threatened to crush him if I tried to get him back. I couldn't do anything.'

'A real Jaxon doesn't give up that easily.'

'Stop,' said the Doctor. 'There's a simple test we can do to figure this out. Jaxon One, shift into Strax. Jaxon Alpha, shift into Vastra.'

Jaxon One was immediately replaced by a potato in a suit. Jaxon Alpha scowled and turned into a Zygon. The potato in a suit turned back into Jaxon.

'O-Kaaayyyy,' said Angie. 'Does someone want to tell me what the hell's going on?'

While Artie told Angie about Zygons, Jaxon's dragon, and Jaxon's ability to shape shift, the Doctor started interrogating the Zygon.

'Why are you here?' he asked.

The Zygon smiled. 'Leave, Doctor. There's nothing you can do.'

'If I don't like what you're doing, I will stop you.'

'You can't. You don't know how many of us there are, or what form we're in. Face it Doctor - this planet's just too big to search, even if your friend can tell a Zygon from a duck. You're too late.'

* * *

><p>Half an hour later, the Doctor, Jaxon, Clara, Artie and Angie were standing in the console room trying to figure out what on Earth the Zygons were doing on Pan. The Zygon had refused to elaborate beyond insisting that the Doctor was doomed to failure, so they'd left, leaving him with his unconscious friend for company.<p>

'What advantage to you get out of coming to a planet and disguising yourselves as animals?' said the Doctor. 'The human empire spans galaxies at the moment. Why choose this planet?'

'There are heaps of aliens here,' said Artie. 'Maybe they're spying or something.'

'There must be better places to spy than here,' said Angie. 'As if they're going to discover much at a _zoo_.'

'True,' said the Doctor. 'But Artie's right too. This has got to be the most popular planet for alien species in the current human empire.'

'How interactive is this place?' asked Jaxon. 'Can people get right up close to the animals?'

'Yes,' said the Doctor. 'For the more dangerous or untamed animals you have to get a pass, but for the most part you can get very close.'

They thought for a while.

'So you could visit wild tigers and lions?' said Clara.

'Yep,' said the Doctor.

'Well, are there ever accidents?'

'Sometimes,' said the Doctor. He grabbed the scanner and brought up the Pan records. 'Here we go. These are the records for the last year. An Ood ripped apart by a tiger, a Zocci strangled by a boa constrictor, a Hath that suffered from a particularly poisonous snakebite. The list goes on.' He scrolled down the screen. 'For quite a while.'

'Check the records,' said Clara. 'Have any aliens being coming less since an attack?'

'Depends,' said the Doctor. 'The Ood that got killed had no effect on ticket sales. Let's see. Hmmm. Haven't been many Zocci lately. The Sycorax got hit several times in the same week and haven't been since. A couple of Raxacoricofallapatorians were killed, but that didn't have much of an impact. No wonder. They were both Slitheen.'

'What?' said Artie.

'The Slitheen are a family of Raxacoricofallapatorians, but they've been disgraced and exiled. No one else from Raxacoricofallapotorius would care if a few of them got killed in an accident.'

'Maybe it's the Zygons,' said Artie. 'Not all of them, but some. It's like how you're watching a movie and a few people die and you're like "well, there's clearly something going on here", but if they're killed by animals you're just like "oh, how unfortunate".'

'That's it!' said Clara. 'Killing the right people at the right time, and some aliens stop coming, but it's such a big planet that no one really notices, especially if they've always been a few deaths.'

'Yes!' said the Doctor. 'And look at the species that have been hit hardest and aren't coming. After that unfortunate event in the early 21st century was sorted out, the Sycorax became allies with humanity.'

'What unfortunate event?' said Jaxon.

'I killed their leader when he tried to stab me in the back, then Harriet Jones blew their spaceship up.'

'Oh. Yeah, I can see why that might need to be explained.'

'Catkind. They've been hit hard. They operate hospitals on some of Earth's planets.'

'So the Zygons are trying to get the humans by themselves,' said Clara. 'Then what?'

'Who knows?' said the Doctor. 'Invasion, probably, though whether it'll be invasion of Pan or another planet occupied by humans I'm not sure.'

'Why would they want to invade?' said Artie.

'Their home planet, Zygor, burnt long ago, in the first days of the Last Great Time War. I've uprooted them a few times when they've tried to invade planets. Maybe they're still looking for somewhere permanent to live.'

'So what are we going to do?' said Clara.

'We could go somewhere else,' said Angie. Everyone ignored her.

'I don't know,' said the Doctor. 'It depends on how long they've been here. If we knew that, and how many of them there are, then maybe we could make a start.'

'Let's go ask the animals,' said Jaxon.

'What?'

'Well, the animals probably noticed when the Zygons arrived. They won't know that they're Zygons, but they'll notice a difference between themselves and the Zygons.'

'Right,' said the Doctor. 'Let's go chat with the local wildlife.'

Jaxon grinned. 'I'll get the Wooshers.'


	8. Call the Reinforcements

**AN: Sorry it's taken me so long to get this chapter up. My end-of-high-school exams are coming up fairly soon, and I've been pretty flat out working. I probably won't be doing much writing until the end of October, but after that I'll be free to do heaps of writing, and in the meantime I'll try to do a bit.**

**Also, once again, any suggestions are welcome.**

**8 – Call the Reinforcements**

Artie and Jaxon zoomed towards the lion enclosure on their Wooshers. Since the Doctor and Jaxon were the only ones who could actually talk to the animals, they'd split into two groups. Clara opted to go with the Doctor, and Angie had refused to go in the same group as either Jaxon or Artie, so she went with Clara and the Doctor. They were checking out enclosures where they'd been deaths recently. The Zygons might still be hanging around in the same place.

As they got close to the lion enclosure, Jaxon took his small dragon off his head and slipped it into a pocket, then shifted, becoming what looked like an older version of Artie. Kids weren't allowed in wild animal enclosures by themselves, so Jaxon and Artie had decided that Jaxon could pretend to be Artie's father.

Jaxon and Artie arrived at the lion enclosure. They got off their Wooshers as an employee came out of a nearby hut and approached. His name tag read "Doug".

'Hello,' said Jaxon. 'My son and I would like to see the lions.'

Doug smiled and nodded. He gave them some quick instructions on what to do if a lion attacked, and then made them put on bright blue t-shirts.

'What's the shirt for?' asked Artie as he pulled it over his head.

'Well,' said Doug, 'lions see best in blues and greens, so we've trained these lions not to hurt anyone wearing this shade of blue.'

'How many lions are there?' said Artie.

'In this enclosure, there's one male and four females. Out in the savannah area of the wilderness reserve, there are several prides of lions, but these ones are kept here so that guests can see them. The ones on the savannah are almost completely wild.'

Artie nodded, and Doug opened the gate for them. Artie and Jaxon stepped through the fence, and Doug swung the gate shut after them, then went back into his hut. The enclosure wasn't very big - about the size of a soccer field. In the middle of it was a large rock outcrop, and surrounding the rocks was grassland and several clumps of trees.

'Cool,' said Artie.'It's like something out of _The Lion King_.'

'The what?' said Jaxon.

'You've never seen _The Lion King_?'

'I've never even heard of _The Lion King_,' said Jaxon. 'Is it a movie or something?'

'Yeah, a movie. There's three of them, actually, but the third one's not as good. How have you never heard of it?'

'Well, I was born in the 1400s.'

Artie nodded. 'Fair point. When we go home, you have to watch it. It's awesome.'

'Sounds good. First, lets deal with the Zygon invasion.' Jaxon shifted back into himself, keeping the blue shirt.

'What are you doing? What if Doug sees you?'

'I have to be in my normal form to tell if one of the lions is a Zygon. It'll probably be fine. Come on.' Jaxon led the way towards the rocks, where a large male lion was sunbathing. Jaxon walked right up to him and started making strange noises. He growled, snarled, purred and made deep rumbling noises. The lion made similar noises in response.

Artie glanced around, and noticed five lionesses approaching slowly. 'What are you saying?' asked Artie.

'Well, I asked him how many female lions there were, and he said five, and I asked him how long there had been five, and he said not long.'

'Is that all?'

Jaxon shrugged. 'Well, first I had to convince him to talk to me, and my questions were a bit more round about than that. Animals see the world differently. For one thing, they don't count, so figuring out there were five took a bit of time.'

'Well, here they come,' said Artie, gesturing at the approaching lionesses.

Jaxon raised an eyebrow. 'There _are_ five. Interesting.' Jaxon stepped towards the lionesses, making a soft sound that was halfway between a purr and a growl. The lionesses approached him cautiously, and Jaxon reached forward and began to scratch one of them behind the ear.

'Artie, come over,' said Jaxon, beckoning. 'You can pat them too. They won't hurt you.'

_One of them might_ Artie thought, thinking of the disguised Zygon, but he went over anyway. Jaxon moved onto the next lioness, and Artie began rubbing the one he had just abandoned behind the ears, figuring that it wasn't the Zygon.

Jaxon moved quickly through the lionesses, rubbing them on the head then walking over to the next one. While he was patting the fourth lioness, he had a coughing fit. Artie looked at him curiously, and Jaxon nodded meaningfully at the lioness before moving on to pat the last one.

'We should go,' said Jaxon, as he finished patting the last lioness. Artie nodded, and Jaxon made a deep rumbling noise before leading Artie towards the gate. Artie rang a bell to tell Doug they wanted to come out, and Jaxon shifted quickly back into Artie's "father". Doug unlocked the gate and let them out.

As they were pulling the blue shirts off to give back, Artie said, 'There are five lionesses.'

'What?' said Doug.

'Well, you said that there was one male lion and four females, but there's five. We saw them all.'

Doug shook his head. 'There's only four.'

'He's right,' said Jaxon. 'There were definitely five lionesses.'

Doug frowned. 'No. That can't be right.'

Just then, the Doctor, Clara and Angie walked over, back from checking out the snake enclosure.

'What's going on?' asked Clara.

'We were just telling Doug here that he has one too many lionesses in there,' said Jaxon, gesturing at the enclosure.

'It's impossible,' said Doug.

'Interesting,' said the Doctor. 'There were extra snakes in the snake enclosure as well.'

'Maybe people a smuggling snakes in or something,' said Doug.

'That doesn't sound particularly likely,' said Angie.

'Anyway,' said Artie, 'there's no way anyone could smuggle a lion in.'

'I guess…' said Doug.

'Look,' said Jaxon, 'we're clearly waiting for him to figure this out or something, but he's not as smart as we are—'

'Hey!'

'So let's just tell him.' Jaxon turned to Doug. 'You've been invaded by Zygons.'

'What?'

'Zygons. Big red rubbery things covered in suckers. They're shapeshifters, and they've invaded.'

Doug frowned. 'Are you sure?'

'Yes. That's why two of your lionesses are the same. One of them's a Zygon.'

Doug frowned. 'I need to call my supervisor.' He walked into a little hut.

'There,' said Jaxon. 'How easy was that?'

'Was it really necessary to insult his intelligence?' asked Clara.

Jaxon shrugged. 'He's smarter than I am. He's just not as smart as you lot. If we'd waited for him to figure it out we would have been here all day.'

Doug came out of the hut and seconds later another man arrived on a Woosher. His name tag said Steve.

'Now,' said Steve, walking over, 'what seems to be the problem?'

* * *

><p>An hour later and with more than a little help from the psychic paper, they'd managed to convince Steve that they were telling the truth and that there was a Zygon invasion in progress, and Steve had started the long process of evacuating the planet so that they could find the individual Zygons without public interference.<p>

Half an hour after that, they were back at the TARDIS with Steve and two of the zoo guards. The Doctor brought out the two Zygons they'd already caught and handed them over, and the guards dragged them away to lock them up. Steve said a quick goodbye and hurried off to make sure the evacuation of his area of Pan was going smoothly.

The Doctor, Clara, Angie, Artie and Jaxon stepped back into the TARDIS. Jaxon shifted back into himself and the Doctor threw several levers, putting the TARDIS in motion, and they disappeared from Pan with a familiar _vrwoorrp, vrwoorrp, vrwoorrp_.


End file.

Doctor Who, Adventure, Sci-Fi