Memories

"Hello, Ponds!" the Doctor cheered, having connected with the human couple while Adelaide wasn't in the console...otherwise he soundly wouldn't have been allowed anywhere near the phone. "Checking in. How are you? Not much to report. Surfed the fire falls of Florinall Nine. Not deliberately, just the easiest way out. Adelaide's idea, so it was brilliant. Met Mata Hari in a Paris hotel room. What an interesting woman. Thankfully, Adelaide wasn't there...laid down some backing vocals." He spun around the TARDIS, working on piloting it. "We should be with you any day now. Literally any day. Helmic regulator's playing up. Can't get the temporal steering right." An alarm, quite a worrying one, went off. "Oh dear, I appear to have collided with ancient Greece. Argh!"

"Doctor!" Adelaide shouted from one of the corridors, making the Doctor wince.

He desperately hoped she still liked strawberries, because he needed something to distract her from the fact he just slammed into a classical civilization.

|C-S|

The Doctor burst into Amy and Rory's bedroom with his hands over his eyes. "Argh! Stop everything."

Both humans sat up. "What's going on?" Rory asked.

"Doctor! Bedroom!"

"We have a rule about the bedroom."

Adelaide appeared in the doorway behind him, dragging the Doctor back by his shoulder. "Out, now!"

"No one on this planet is safe right now!" he tried to pull himself from her grip. "We have to solve this before it's too late." He glanced towards Rory and Amy but quickly looked away again. "Get your clothes on. If we move fast we at least stand a chance and...you have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

The humans shook their heads in unison. "No."

"We're too early, Doctor," Adelaide hissed. "Helmic regulator is still broken."

The Doctor nodded, pointing at them. "Wrong point. As you were."

Adelaide pulled him from the room and back to the TARDIS. "Doctor, Adelaide, you can't just go like that," Amy called after them. "What's happening? Don't we need to know?"

The Time Lady reappeared in the doorway. "Wrong order. Easy mistake for the Doctor to make. Nothing to alarm you."

The Doctor came around her side. "Forget we were ever here. We'll be back soon enough, I would have thought. Everything's fine...pretty much." He glanced at Adelaide. "Don't worry about the future. The future is really..."

"Safe," Adelaide cut in.

"Sleep well." They both left again and the humans just sighed.

|C-S|

That time, Adelaide was with the Doctor when he called back the Ponds, as she'd been the one to receive the message about them having an Ood in their home in the first place. The Time Lord was busy messing with the wires under the console, with Adelaide standing beside him holding out the phone, arms crossed. "Ood," he said, nodding. "Yes, I was wondering where he'd got to. I thought he'd just gone for a walk in the TARDIS. Must have wandered off when we popped in the other night." He paused. "If it was the other night."

"This is why you tell me when there's an Ood in the TARDIS," Adelaide told him.

He made a face. "You know, I rescued him from the middle of the Androvax conflict. I was taking him back to the Ood Sphere."

"And you decided to stop off at the Ponds on the way?"

"I got distracted!"

Adelaide sighed. "He's conditioned to serve. The best thing is to just let him do that. I'll make sure the Doctor comes to pick him up tonight."

There was a sound that had the both Time Lords' eyes widening. "Power drain's threatening to cause the TARDIS to implode. Oh no, that's bad!"

|C-S|

Adelaide leaned against the TARDIS as the Doctor worked to change the bulb on top of the TARDIS, fighting a bit of a wind storm. "Us again. Apologizes for the gaps in communications. The Doctor dropped your Ood back home and reconnected it to the hive mind."

"Helmic regulator's still not working," the Doctor added. "Got hit by an arrow in Hastings Hill."

"Rode horses through eleventh century Coventry."

"Also," the Doctor grinned, starting down his ladder, "I think I may have accidentally invented pasta. Adelaide doesn't believe so, but..." the Time Lady gave him a look. "We popped round but you were out."

"Which is fine."

The Doctor nodded. "Everything's alright, isn't it, with you two?" He shook his head. "Course it is. Ponds always fine. Just worrying unnecessarily. Anyway, just call us if you need us. Okay? Toodle pip."

Adelaide hung up the phone but didn't have a chance to put it away before the Doctor took out his sonic and deleted the message.

She knew why.

|C-S|

The Time Lords entered the room with care, both immediately noticing the woman who stood at the window, her back facing them. She was studying the destroyed world beyond, something both Time Lords recognized.

"First, there were the Daleks," the woman whispered, speaking to herself. "And then, there was a man who fought them. Soon, a woman joined him. And then, in time, she died and destroyed the man in the loss. There are a few, of course, who believe they somehow survived, and that one day they will return. For both our sakes, dearest Hannah, we must hope these stories are true."

"We got your message," the Doctor said, making the woman turn with a gasp. Her face was hidden beneath the hood of her cloak. "Not many people can do that, send us messages." They'd both received the psychic message and, though Adelaide had warned that it was likely a trap, she was honestly too curious to not listen. That characteristic was something that she'd never lost, regardless of regeneration or faulty chameleon arch.

"I have a daughter. Hannah. She's in a Dalek prison camp. They say you can help."

"Do they?" The Doctor grimaced. "I wish they'd stop." In order to maintain the illusion of Adelaide's death, they'd gone throughout the universe deleting themselves. Even if Adelaide had died because she wanted to, there had been a reason the Silence had targeted the Time Lords in the first place.

They had gotten too big, they needed to stay hidden.

And that wouldn't happen if people kept contacting them for help.

"I love your choice of meeting place."

The woman, Darla, shrugged. "They said I'd have to intrigue you."

"Skaro," Adelaide said, "the original planet of the Daleks."

The Doctor walked over to look out the window and the destruction beyond. "Look at the state of it." He turned to Darla. "Who told you about us?"

"Does it matter?"

"Maybe not, but you're very well informed."

Adelaide stepped forward. "If Hannah's in a Dalek prison camp, why aren't you?"

"I escaped."

The Doctor chuckled darkly at that. "No. Nobody escapes the Dalek camps." He touched her hand. "You're very cold."

"What's wrong?"

"It's a trap."

"What is?"

"You are, and you don't even know it." The Doctor backed away, Adelaide stopping beside him, as Darla's head opened to reveal a Dalek eyestalk. The woman raised her hand, a Dalek gun now, and shot them both.

|C-S|

Rory woke up on the floor of a white room, wincing. He sat up and saw Amy standing in the room as well, her arms crossed.

The last thing he remembered was...bringing Amy the divorce papers.

"Where are we?" He asked her, risking it given their current situation. She just nodded at the window, and Rory walked over to it. Given his time with the Time Lords, he could recognize a Dalek ship when he saw one and there were quite a few outside. "So how much trouble are we in?"

The door opened and a Dalek rolled inside.

"How much trouble, Mr. Pond?" The Doctor asked, him and Adelaide following the Dalek, with another one behind them. "Out of ten? Eleven."

The ceiling opened as the floor rose, lifting them up into a large room filled with Daleks. Off to the side, on a pedestal, was a Dalek without a case.

"Where are we?" Amy asked the Time Lords. "A spaceship, right?"

"Not just any spaceship...the Parliament of the Daleks. Be brave."

"What do we do?"

"Make them remember you." The Doctor glanced at Adelaide before spinning to the Daleks, spreading his arms. "Well, come on then. You've got me! What are you waiting for? At long last, it's Christmas! Here I am!" He closed his eyes, preparing for them to attack, but nothing happened.

"Save us!" The uncased Dalek said, making Adelaide frown. "You will save us."

"I'll what?"

"You will save the Daleks!"

"Save the Daleks!" The rest of the Daleks took up the chant. "Save the Daleks! Save the Daleks! Save the Daleks! Save the Daleks! Save the Daleks! Save the Daleks!"

"Well, this is new," the Doctor muttered, stepping back as Adelaide stepped up to join him.

|C-S|

By the time the Doctor started to pace, Adelaide just stood motionless, staring at some point in the distance as she thought. Amy and Rory stood a bit back from both of them, switching their gazes between the Time Lords and the Daleks that watched them.

"What're they doing?" Rory asked Amy.

"He's chosen the most defendable area in the room, she's counted all the Daleks and exits, and now he's calculating the exact distance we're standing apart and starting to worry. Oh, and look at him frowning now." Amy rolled her eyes. She couldn't see Adelaide's face, but she had no doubt the woman was keeping far better control over her expressions. "Something's wrong with Amy and Rory, and who's going to fix it?" He straightened his bow-tie. "And he straightens his bow-tie."

Rory raised his eyebrows at the Time Lords. "They're worried about us?"

The humans may not know exactly what had changed between the Time Lords, but they could recognize the fact that the Time Lords had yet to actually talk about their failing or failed relationship. Even they had noticed, in such a short time, what had changed with Adelaide's regeneration...which was still something they were both getting used to.

"We have arrived!" One of the Daleks shouted, making the Doctor stop and Adelaide look.

"Arrived where?"

"Doctor..."

Darla, who stood near the open-cased Dalek, stepped forward. "The Prime Minister will speak with you now." She nodded to Adelaide. "Both of you."

They stepped up, but the Doctor paused beside Darla first. "Do you remember who you were before they emptied you out and turned you into their puppet?"

"My memories are only reactivated if they are required to facilitate cover or disguise."

"You had a daughter."

"I know." Darla leaned forward. "I've read my file." She straightened again, holding out a hand to the Prime Minister.

The Time Lords stopped before the Dalek. "Well?" The Doctor asked it.

"What do you know of the Dalek Asylum?"

"According to legend, you have a dumping ground. A planet where you lock up all the Daleks that go wrong. The battle-scarred, the insane, the ones even you can't control." The Doctor shook his head. "It's never made any sense to me."

"Why not?"

"Because he expected you'd just kill them," Adelaide said.

"It is offensive to us to extinguish such divine hatred."

The Doctor made a disgusted noise. "Offensive?"

"Does it surprise you to know the Daleks have a concept of beauty?"

"I thought you'd run out of ways to make me sick." The Doctor leaned forward. "Hello again. You think hatred is beautiful." He pulled back, making to turn away.

"Perhaps that is why we have never been able to kill you." The Doctor stopped at that, taking a deep breath. Even Adelaide had to close her eyes momentarily.

They both moved when the floor next to Amy and Rory opened to reveal the planet they'd stopped above. It was clear the planet was surrounded by a thick forcefield.

"The Asylum," Darla explained. "It occupies the entire planet, right to the core."

"How many Daleks are there?" Adelaide asked.

"A count has not been made. Millions, certainly."

"All still alive?" The Doctor asked.

"It has to be assumed. The Asylum is fully automated, supervision is not required."

Amy nodded. "Armed?"

"The Daleks are always armed."

"What color?" Everyone looked at Rory. "Sorry, there weren't any good questions left."

Darla stepped back, hitting a button on a nearby control pillar. "This signal is being received from the very heart of the Asylum." Carmen started to echo throughout the room.

"What is the noise?" One of the Daleks asked. "Explain. Explain!"

The Doctor, however, only laughed. "Er, it's me."

Rory frowned. "Sorry, what?"

"It's me, playing the triangle," the Doctor mimed playing a triangle. "Okay, I got buried in the mix. Carmen, lovely show. Caroline and I..." but he trailed off because Caroline was not a subject he was comfortable with bringing up, especially now.

The moment he said the woman's name, Adelaide looked at him sharply, her jaw tightening.

The Doctor coughed. "Someone's transmitting this. Have you considered tracking back the signal and talking to them?"

"He asked the Daleks," Adelaide said, sighing.

He hurried over to the controls, sonicing them until the music turned to static. "Hello? Hello? Carmen? Hello?"

"Hello?" A voice called back, female and, it appeared, human.

"Come in! Come in! Come in, Carmen."

"Hello! Yes, yes, sorry. Do you read me?"

The Doctor nodded. "Yes, reading you loud and clear. Identify yourself and report your status."

"Hello...are you real? Are you actually properly real?"

He laughed. "Yes, confirmed. Actually properly real."

"Oswin Oswald, junior entertainment officer, Starship Alaska. Current status...crashed and shipwrecked somewhere...not nice. Been here a year, rest of the crew missing. Provisions good but keen to move on."

Adelaide stepped closer to the controls, not certain how long the range of the transmitter was. "A year? Are you under attack?"

"Some local lifeforms. Been keeping them out."

"Do you know what those lifeforms are?"

"I know a Dalek when I hear one, yeah."

"What have you been doing on your own against the Daleks for a year?"

"...making soufflés?"

"Souffles? Against the Daleks?" The Doctor laughed.

Adelaide looked at a point in the distance, thinking. "Where did you get the milk?"

"This conversation is irrelevant," the white Dalek informed them.

The Doctor, suddenly extremely defensive, spun to face it. "No, it isn't! Adelaide never says something irrelevant!"

"No!" Oswin cried, before the static started again, taking over. "Hello? Hello?" And then she was gone.

"A Starliner crashed into your Asylum," Adelaide informed the Daleks, "and someone has broken in. If someone can get in, everything can get out."

The Doctor nodded. "A tsunami of insane Daleks. Even you don't want that."

"The Asylum must be cleansed!"

"Then why is it still here? You've enough firepower on this ship to blast it out of the sky."

"The Asylum forcefield is impenetrable," Darla said.

"Turn it off."

"It can only be turned off from within the Asylum."

"A small taskforce could sneak through a forcefield. Send in a couple of Daleks...oh..." The Doctor looked around, realizing at the same moment as Adelaide, for once, and started clapping. "Oh, that's good. That's brilliant. You're all too scared to go down there. Not one of you will go, so tell me, what do the Daleks do when they're too scared?"

"The Predator of the Daleks will be deployed!"

The Doctor scoffed. "You don't have a Predator, and even if you did, why would they turn off a forcefield for you?"

"Because you will have no other means of escape," the Prime Minister told them.

Darla leaned forward, spotting the Doctor's confused expression and speaking before Adelaide could. "May I clarify? The Predator is the Dalek's word for you."

The Doctor gasped. "Me? Me?"

"You will need this. It will protect you from the nanocloud." Two humanoid Dalek puppets walked over to the group, one putting wristbands on the Time Lords while the other did the same to the humans.

"The what?" The Doctor asked, studying the band. "The nano what?"

"The gravity beam will convey you close to the source of the transmission," Darla said, a puppet dragging the Doctor and Adelaide closer to the humans. "You must find a way to deactivate the forcefield from there."

Adelaide looked at her incredulously. "You're going to fire us at a planet? That's your plan? You fire us at a planet and expect him to fix it?"

Rory shrugged. "In fairness, that is slightly his M.O.."

"Don't be fair to the Daleks when they're firing us at a planet!" He narrowed his eyes at Rory before spinning to the Daleks. "What do you want with them?"

"It is known the Doctor requires his protector and companions."

Rory scoffed. "Oh, brilliant, good."

"Don't worry. We'll get through this, I promise. Don't be scared."

Amy smirked. "Scared? Who's scared? Geronimo."

The Doctor had just started to grin when they were shoved into the beam, falling to the surface of the Asylum. Rory ended up falling head-first, but when the beam split into two...

It was Adelaide who fell with the human.

A/N: And welcome to the fifth story of the series! We have a new companion on the way, and a certain anniversary special...fun times ahead.

As a refresher, I picture Adelaide's current regeneration (recently regenerated) to resemble Julianne Moore. She tends to favor dark pants, dark green/black tank-tops, dark green/black sweaters, and black Oxfords. Clearly, Adelaide has a color scheme ;) If you don't mind spoilers for future stories, I have a set made for her on my Polyvore.