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Chapter Text

Part One

            Miya felt like she was a kid parading around in their dad’s clothes. It had been just a couple of days since she regenerated into her new body – an athletic, blond Japanese-American girl of twenty-something years of age. It was a heavy contrast to her previous incarnation, Skeeta Jenkins, who was a bald middle-aged African-American man with a rather brawny physique. As such, his clothes were practically draped on Miya’s petite figure. His ‘Size 15’ shoes might as well have been clown shoes on her ‘Size 7’ feet, so she decided to go barefoot, once inside her TARDIS.

            Unfortunately, that didn’t take care of the problem she faced with the pants, which she fought to keep up several times. She even tried tightening the belt, but it went way beyond the last notch.

            She needed new clothes – ones that suited this third incarnation.

            After saying goodbye to Sonia, Alan, and the companions they made in their journey within one of the Gotham Cities, she was now alone in her orb-shaped Type-X TARDIS, a ship of her own design. The first place she went was the wardrobe room; there, she got a good look at herself in the cheval mirror. Her eyes focused mainly on her new hair – and she had a lot of hair. It had been so long since she had so much; she wondered if this regeneration somehow knew that she missed having it.

            Then there was the most striking aspect of this new body – it was female.

            Aznavorian knew of certain possibilities of Time Lords changing gender via regeneration, for reasons that varied on the individual. In the case of this second regeneration, she had difficulty determining what reason she had to regenerate as a woman.

            “Oh, well,” she said aloud with her new voice, which carried a slight Californian accent. “Let’s see what suits you, young lady.”

            She removed Skeeta’s clothes, though most of it just slipped off of her, including the stretched-out white boxers. Seeing the body completely naked gave another perspective – the delicate curvature of the hips and spine, the impressive muscle definition, and the notable size of the breasts. It was no wonder that it had so much trouble keeping on Skeeta’s clothes.

            The wardrobe room inside her TARDIS still had a lot of women’s clothes left from when Kristin traveled with her, and a few from other female companions. First, she figured a black top hat and matching tuxedo would be the one…

            No, this is way too much for travel.

            …then she put on some makeup, a red nose, and a dress with puffy sleeves…

            Yeesh! This is enough to scare a Sontaran!

            …then she tried something from a bygone era…

            No, no! I’m not a Viking, I’m a Tinkerer.

            …then she remembered an outfit worn by a character in Kristin’s favorite video game…

            I don’t know how any woman can wear something this breezy!

            After multiple other wardrobe changes, she thought there would be nothing to satisfy the new body…until she put together a black buttoned shirt, a white suit jacket, white pressed pants, and a pair of white Nike brand shoes. She took one look at herself in the mirror, wearing the ensemble, and a gratified smile manifested on her face.

            Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!

            It was vibrant attire for a vibrant young woman, though she anticipated people on Earth to suspect that she was a businesswoman.

            Satisfied with this choice, she returned to the console room to land her TARDIS.

            The place where she landed appeared to be a museum, judging from the white walls, floors, and ceiling – as well as the art pieces displayed in the room; her Type-X perfectly blended with the scene. I’ve always thought it to be a work of art…coming from the artist…and that’s me!

            The only witnesses to her arrival were a father and his five-year-old son, both of whom wore matching blue polo shirts and jeans – contemporary Earth apparel. They stared at Miya and the TARDIS, but mostly at the former.

            Noting their mouth-gaping bafflement, she gestured to her ship and told them, “New method of travel…it’s really gonna take off.” They didn’t seem quite so amused of the TARDIS or her dad joke.

            She continued along the halls of the art museum and recognized it more specifically as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. By this recognition, she was able to further narrow her current location. Undoubtedly, it was New York City – the hometown of Kristin Curtsinger, her wife from a previous life. Aznavorian hung around the city long enough to know it like the back of their hand – an idiom that would’ve made more sense with their original hand.

            And yet, just like her new hands, there were things about this world that were foreign to Miya. That much was clear with the painting she passed by, on her way out of the museum, depicting a naked Jesus Christ standing in the Garden of Eden. Whoever the artist was certainly had a creative (if not sacrilegious) imagination.

            Another peculiarity that she noticed was the number of men and boys she passed, all of them wearing various styles of clothing that were blue, just like the father and son. There was even an entire class of boys with a male teacher on a field trip, led by a male tour guide.

            Every single one of them gazed on Miya all the same way: mouth agape, confused, shocked, and disgusted.

            She stuck out like a sore thumb in her white suit, standing in a sea of blue-dressed men and boys.

            It got much worse once she made it outside.

            Men of all ages, shapes, sizes, and races throughout the city.

            And not a single woman or girl among them.

            “Oh, boy,” Miya muttered as it dawned on her how different this Earth was from the usual ones she landed in. She felt more alien, being the only female on a planet inhabited by males. A couple of days ago, she would’ve fit in well in such a fascinating society; but now, she was the target of a multitude of curious and revolted male gazes.

            Among them, she saw a little boy standing at the middle of a crosswalk. He wasn’t accompanied by an adult, which she found more than alarming…but no more so than the blue taxicab that was speeding directly towards him. The cab driver’s attention wasn’t on the road but on Miya – the alien – instead.

            “HEY!” She yelled, her instinct to react flaring to the impending danger.

            She found out how fast Miya’s legs moved the second she ran from the museum entrance to the crosswalk, which was a good nine yards. Skeeta’s physical age, height, and girth wouldn’t have allowed him to move as swiftly as the younger, shorter, and slimmer Miya. This may very well have been the factor that decided this little boy’s fate. She reached him just in time to scoop him off the street and onto the sidewalk, clear of the taxicab’s path. The driver swerved in a delayed reaction, t-boning into another vehicle at the intersection.

            Both her hearts beating like bongos in her chest, Miya took a moment to breathe before checking on the boy she saved. “You O.K., lil’ fella?” she asked him, but he was too much in shock to speak; whether it was from the near-death experience or from being face-to-face with an alien, it was hard to tell. He was breathing and responsive, which was all that mattered to her.

            CLANG! Something struck Miya in the back of her head, clattering to the ground afterwards. She saw that it was a half-full soda can. “GET AWAY, FREAK!” she heard one of the men say. She soon realized that all the men on the block had surrounded her and the boy, hurling both insults and objects in her general direction.

            One of the items happened to have been a brick.

            It nearly would have struck the boy instead of Miya, had she not caught it.

            “THAT’S ENOUGH!!” she screamed in rage, her tone making the mob recoil in fear. It wasn’t her intention to escalate the scene with her anger, but seeing how close the boy came to having his face bashed by a brick infuriated her. It was that reason she urged him in a whisper, “Get outta here, lil’ dude. It’s dangerous.” He acknowledged her warning with a nod and dashed off, leaving her to face the mob alone.

            Soon, the police arrived – literal boys in blue.

            Of course, rather than diffuse the situation, they made it worse by focusing all their aggression strictly on Miya, pointing their guns and waving their batons. Miya wisely chose to surrender, holding up her hands in peaceful protest. Unfortunately, this didn’t inspire any sympathy from the male authorities, one of whom came in from behind and clocked his baton right on her head.

            Miya dropped immediately, losing all sense of consciousness.

            Dr. Derek Sands couldn’t have imagined his day to have gone any better. When news broke of the alien lifeform that appeared that morning in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he expected a direct call from the White House to come at any moment. As the most renowned scientist of the Unified Region, in addition to being the founder and CEO of Sands Corp, he and his company were responsible for some of the most technological and biological developments in the six territories. There was no one more capable of handling the alien situation than Sands Corp.

            Its unconscious body was wheeled in through the rear entrance of the Sands Corp building in Manhattan, only accessible by security. Dr. Sands and his assistant, Richard Chambers, waited in one of the labs that made up the sublevels of the building. It was where the most top-secret research was conducted, away from prying eyes and possible leakers. Sands had his competitors, and they would do anything to get in on Sands Corp’s latest innovations.

            Sands was elated the second that the alien creature was delivered to the lab by National Security, laid right onto the examination table. “Such a fascinating humanoid,” he grinned beneath his surgical mask.

            Chambers, by contrast, was mortified. “Look at its clothes,” he gripped the creature’s shirt and jacket. “I’ve never seen clothing made in these colors.”

            “Never mind its apparel, Chambers. I’m more interested in its biology.”

            Sands proceeded to open the creature’s shirt, exposing its chest and abdomen.

            Chambers gagged under his mask. “Oh, god…it has…some sort of tear-shaped growth in both pectorals.” He indicated the areas of the creature’s chest muscles, which looked abnormally swollen from his perspective.

            “It’d appear so,” examined the intrigued Sands, who palmed one of the creature’s enflamed pectorals. He smiled at how much it felt like a fleshy, water-filled balloon. “Quite fascinating indeed. I wonder what purpose the growth serves to its overall physiology.”

            Curiously and delicately, Chambers gripped the other pectoral on the creature’s left side. In doing so, he detected a heartbeat. “Its heart is on the same side as ours,” he noted, sounding somewhat relieved.

            Sands gave his assistant a skeptical glance. “Uh, no, its heart is on the right side. I can feel it throbbing from here.”

            Chambers began to sweat. “So can I from here!”

            Sands’ eyes lit with excitement of yet another discovery. “A binary vascular system?!” To verify this, he carted a portable, multi-purpose machine over to the table. Among its multiple functions was an x-ray screen that swiveled on an industrial arm mount. He positioned it over the creature’s exposed chest and switched it on, providing the two examiners a look inside the alien.

            Sure enough, two hearts – highlighted in red on the display – were beating.

            Sands giggled with glee, while Chambers wheezed in anxiety. Both men exhibited polarizing viewpoints on the alien humanoid with the unnatural biology. “If the upper half is this fascinating, I can only imagine what the lower half looks like!” Sands beamed. “Help me remove its pants, so we can find out.”

            Chambers dreaded this venture, but he had no choice in the matter.

            “Dr. Sands!” A gruff, elderly voice bellowed from outside. Chambers was relieved when the President of the Unified Regions himself stormed in, flanked by his personal security, a group of tall, aggressive-looking men in blue militia suits. “Please tell me you boys have something to give me.” He caught a glimpse of the alien and its exposed chest, grimacing in disgust. “Good god! What is this thing?! Where the hell did it come from?!”

            “Other than outer space, we don’t rightly know, Mr. President,” Sands said.

            “You sound like the tabloids,” the President scoffed. “They think it’s alien, too.”

            “W-What do you t-think it is, s-sir?” Chambers stammered.

            Glaring at the creature, the President hissed, “A mutant…a freak of nature! And it needs to be destroyed…incinerated!”

            “I…I don’t think that’s wise, s-sir.”

            Chambers became the recipient of the President’s icy stare with that remark.

            Thankfully, Sands stepped in and supported his assistant, “Dr. Chambers is right, Mr. President. There’s so much that we have yet to explore in this creature. I believe, once it has regained cognizance, we can communicate with it and find out its true purpose…where it came from…why it’s here.”

            The President was very hesitant to approve this proposal.

            “Fine, Sands! Conduct whatever research you need!” He ultimately permitted. “But, when all is said and done, I want you to get rid of this thing by any means necessary!”

            Sands greedily smirked. “You have my word, Mr. President.”

Chapter Text

Part Two

            “Ohhhhhhhhhhh, man…”

            Miya felt like she had been run over by a stampede of patrolling Judoon, after regaining consciousness. Her head throbbed, specifically from where she was clocked by the police baton. Even as a blond Japanese girl, there’s no avoiding police brutality. Of course, as her memory recovered as well, she realized what happened to her was more than typical racial profiling.

            She was the only woman on an Earth full of men.

            Remembering that tidbit didn’t do much to ease the bump on the back of her head – a head that she had just got from her regeneration. Had she been in the first fifteen hours of the cycle, the bump would’ve healed instantaneously. Unfortunately, it would have to heal entirely on its own, with two days having passed since the initial regeneration.

            Sitting up, she noticed that she was on an examination table inside of a well-sanitized examination room. She expected to find herself in worse shape, considering that she was an alien to this world and, per usual, its government couldn’t resist dissection. However, her torso was still intact – not a single surgical incision made. Her shirt, on the other hand, was barely buttoned up, exposing a majority of her breasts.

            Whoever examined me didn’t have the courtesy of properly redressing me!

            Thankfully, there was no one around to find her in such a degrading state.

            Or so she believed, before spotting a curly-haired 8-year-old African-American boy looking directly at her through the only window in the room. Something about him seemed very familiar to Miya; and then she remembered…The lil’ fella I saved at the crosswalk!

            She wasn’t sure why he was there…or where ‘there’ even was.

            “Hey there!” She sweetly greeted him. “Funny seein’ you again, lil’ man.” She removed herself from the examination table, fidgeting with the buttons on her shirt to hide her exposed bosom from the small child. She noticed his little eyes enlarge from seeing portions of her breasts. “It’s O.K.,” she reassured him. “They’re nothin’ to be scared of. They’re completely…” The child ran out of sight before she could finish. “…normal.”

            She tried to call him back, hoping he could tell her where she was.

            She went for the door in an attempt to exit the room, but she didn’t see a handle. There was only a keypad to the left of the door frame, accessible only by the personnel that ran this mysterious facility.

            “Automatic lock,” she groaned. Makes sense…they wouldn’t want their extraterrestrial guest to have too much freedom!

            Fortunately, she had her own key to freedom – her sonic cuffs.

            A wearable variant of the traditional sonic screwdriver, the Tinkerer invented the sonic cuffs sometime during their original incarnation, Steven Curtsinger. Due to the large size of Skeeta’s wrists, they wouldn’t be properly worn again until the current ‘Miya’ incarnation; though her wrists were a lot smaller than Steven’s, causing the cuffs to gradually slide back and forth, every now and then.

            She was just about to use them to unlock the automatic door until she heard footsteps resonating from outside. They sounded heavy, which ruled out the possibility of the crosswalk boy returning. Instead, it was an African-American man in his mid-thirties, donned in a suit, tie, and lab coat – all of which were blue.

            “H-Hello,” he timidly greeted. He then enunciated his words, speaking slowly and carefully to Miya. “My…name…is…Richard…Chambers. Can…you…understand?”

            “Yes…I…can,” Miya mimicked mockingly. “I’m…not…a…dumbass.”

            Her capability of speaking perfect English caught him off-guard, but not as much as her wit did. “How do you know our language?” he inquired. “Are you a telepath?”

            Miya smirked. “I am, but that’s not how I know your language. I’ve traveled to many worlds but the universal language is always English…at least, in most cases.”

            “Where are you from?” Chambers asked.

            “A planet called Gallifrey,” Miya replied. “My people are known as ‘Time Lords’…or ‘Time Ladies,’ if you’re old-fashioned.”

            “Time Lords?” Chambers mulled with interest. “Do all of them look like you?”

            “You mean do they all look like a woman?”

            “Wo…man?” Chambers again enunciated, frowning over the term that he had just learned for the first time in his entire life. “I don’t understand your species. Are they ‘Time Lords’ or ‘Wo-man’?”

            Miya huffed, feeling overwhelmed yet intrigued by Chambers’ ignorance.

            “God, you dudes do live in quite the testosterone-friendly utopia, don’t ya?” After the critical remark, she attempted to explain, “Time Lords are a complex race. We’re both man and woman, but we can swap between the two when we regenerate. For example, I wasn’t always a woman. Two days ago, I was a man like you and every other on this planet.”

            Chambers gave a gentle chuckle. “Ridiculous, even for your species.”

            “I figured you’d say that,” Miya smiled. She proceeded to remove her suit jacket, throwing it on the examination table, and adjust her sonic cuffs while facing Chambers. With a simple tap on each cuff, blue lights projected off of them, creating life-sized holographic images of Miya’s two previous incarnations, Steven and Skeeta.

            Chambers recoiled from the holograms of the two men. “W-Who are they?!”

            “They’re me…or who I used to be,” Miya said.

            Chambers gazed explicitly on the mountainous hologram of Skeeta. “Even him?”

            Miya held back a giggle. “Yes, even him.”

            An amused grin formed on Chambers’ face. “Remarkable! A man who can change his entire appearance…even into something so foreign.” He looked up and down at Miya whilst uttering that last part.

            “Gee, thanks,” Miya hissed, feeling insulted. She switched off the holograms and did a bit of her own prying on Chambers. “So, tell me more about this ‘Man World’ that I’ve stumbled upon. ‘Cause I have so many questions.”

            “Like what?” Chambers queried.

            “Like how y’all can procreate?!” She didn’t mean for her question to be delivered so harshly, but it was something that had been nagging at the back of her head (aside from the throbbing bump) from the moment she saved that boy at the crosswalk.

            “Procreate?” Chambers parroted with a frown; another term he had just learned.

            “You know…breeding? Reproduction?” Miya couldn’t believe she even had to elaborate on such a simple concept.

            It was only when she said ‘reproduction’ did he finally understand.

            “Ah, yes!” he exclaimed. “You’re referring to the reproductive biofluid extraction.”

            “Reproductive biofluid extraction?” Now it was Miya’s turn to parrot and frown, more so with disgust. “I don’t think I like the sound of that.” Driven by curiosity, she pressed, “What does it involve exactly?”

            “It’s a process only conducted with a man of able body,” Chambers elucidated. “He consents to the extraction of his reproductive biofluids by a machine that produces his offspring in a ten-minute cycle.”

            Miya wasn’t sure whether to be mortified or intrigued.

            And yet, there was something about this whole process that sounded vaguely familiar to her.

            “May I see this machine of yours?” she requested.

            Chambers’ tentative nature resurfaced on that request. “I, uh…I don’t think…”

            “Let it see the machine, Richard,” an assertive voice said over the intercoms.

            “Whoa! Who’s that?” Miya jolted in alarm, her dark hazel eyes searching upwards, only seeing the tiled, metallic ceiling of the examination room. “I don’t mean to quote Rockwell, but I feel like somebody’s watching me.”

            “My name is Doctor Derek Sands. And, yes, I have been watching you.”

            “Pleasure to hear you,” Miya quipped. “I have a friend whose first name is ‘Doctor,’ too. But I assume you prefer to go by ‘Derek’ instead.”

            Sands cackled over the intercom. “For an alien, you have quite the sense of humor. Let me know what you think of our extraction machine.” On that note, the automatic door to Miya’s room opened on its own, allowing her to finally walk out. “Enjoy the tour.”

            “Thanks,” Miya said to her unseen host.

            With granted permission from his superior, Chambers led Miya down a long, dimly lit corridor. There were other rooms in what looked like the sublevel of the facility; Miya caught fleeting glimpses of their interiors through their observation windows, noting the different purposes each served, from testing to disposal. “So…what is it that you fellas do here?”

            “We help the world progress,” Chambers said, sounding as if he were in a TV ad.

            “One helluva slogan there, Rich,” Miya teased, just as she spotted the crosswalk boy standing in the middle of the hall, unsupervised. Smiling when she saw him, Miya sweetly greeted, “Well, look who’s back. You aren’t gonna run away from me again, are ya?” The little boy shook his head in response, still spellbound by her. “Good…‘cause I wanna make sure you’re okay after that lil’ episode we had at the crosswalk.” She crouched down to his level, which wasn’t that very far for her petite height.

            “This is my son – Geoffrey,” Chambers introduced the boy. “He’s supposed to be upstairs in the educational unit.” Noting his son’s exchange with Miya, he asked him, “Geoffrey, you’ve encountered this alien before?”

            Geoffrey nodded. “It saved my life,” he spoke with a small, squeaky voice.

            “You’re welcome,” Miya smiled. “So, Geoff? Right? You wanna come see how your daddy made you?”

            Geoffrey gave an overeager nod.

            Chambers didn’t approve of his son ditching his education in favor of being around the alien; nonetheless, he understood his excitement, especially knowing that he was the first to make physical contact.

            Together, they went to a room that was marked ‘Reproduction Unit’.

            Through its observation window, they watched a tall, well-built black man with dreadlocks have his blue medical gown removed, leaving him standing stark naked in front of a pair of lab coats. From this moment alone, Miya regretted asking Geoffrey to come along, having no idea that nudity would be involved in this unusual process.

            It only got more disturbing from there, as the man was laid onto an examination table, much like the one Miya awoke upon earlier. He appeared comfortable as one of the lab coats injected his upper left bicep with something.

            “What’re they injecting him with?” Miya asked Chambers.

            “A stimulant to help produce the precise amount of fluid necessary for the procedure,” Chambers explained. “It also helps keep his appendage firm enough for the machine to properly grasp.”

            “His ‘appendage’,” Miya snickered. “Don’t tell me you fellas don’t have the word…” She covered Geoffrey’s ears before she continued, “…‘penis’ in your dictionary.” The baffled look that he gave her afterwards was enough to verify what she initially perceived as a joke.

            The other lab coat in the Reproduction Unit carted in a large, translucent tank filled with blue liquid – the ‘machine’ itself. On one side of the tank was a suction pump attached to a long black hose. Miya noticed the look on the man’s face as the cold steel clamped on his rigid ‘appendage’; it was a strange mixture of satisfaction and discomfort. What happened next, when the lab coat switched the machine on, could only be equated to milking a cow in the eyes of Miya. The man’s reproductive biofluid was pumped out through the hose and into the liquid-filled tank.

            On the flip of another switch, the pumped biofluid and the blue liquid was mixed in centrifugal force until a fetus was gestated. Within approximately ten minutes, the fetus grew into a perfectly healthy nine-month-old baby boy that was ‘pushed’ out through a black rubber grommet on the opposite side of the tank. The lab coat manning the machine caught the newborn and cleaned him before handing him over to his father, who expressed zero emotion, seeing his new son. If anything, his reaction was akin to having a tooth extracted.

            The whole bizarre procedure sparked an intense sense of recognition in Miya.

            She had seen it done before…in another reality…on another planet…by another race of male-exclusive beings.

            Their name still rang through the Tinkerer’s mind all these years.

            Prometheans.

Chapter Text

Part Three

            Two weeks passed in the Man World.

            Miya was allowed to spend much of it in the living quarters of Richard and his son. Located on the twentieth floor of the Sands Corp building, it was a suitable penthouse with a beautiful view of New York City, but it was also rather bland with its lack of décor. There were no paintings on the walls and everything was blue, from the kitchen sink to the flatscreen TV. There were only eight distinct rooms: the foyer, kitchen, two bedrooms, a study room, a den, and a laboratory with the only bathroom in the whole place. Miya spent most of her time in the study.

            There, she shut off the security cameras, so that Sands or whoever kept up with surveillance wouldn’t see her hacking the Sands Corp database to research the reproduction machine. She had a little help from Geoff, whose login was required for the personal computer, supplied by Sands Corp’s educational unit for home studies. It also required Geoff to be the sole operator, as the keyboard and mouse were DNA-sensitive; this left Miya to hover over him and direct him through the intricate hack.

            She was impressed by how much hacking Geoff already knew to do, barely needing to say anything at all. “You are such a smart lil’ dude,” she complimented him. “Where did you learn all this?”

            “From my game,” Geoff handed her the box for an Xbox game sitting on his desk.

            Miya looked over the box cover, which featured a boy wearing a blue cap, t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers. He was jumping across a digital computer grid, grinning. “Mack the Hack,” she read aloud the game’s title, along with its rating, “E for Everyone?” She snickered. “I guess hacking’s for all ages in this world.”

            Bypassing the database went as smoothly as she hoped, until a red ‘Restricted’ message flashed onscreen. Geoff got a bit worried when he saw it. “Did I do something wrong?” he quivered.

            “No, sweetheart, you’re doing just fine,” Miya scowled at the screen. “It’s a dang firewall that’s the problem. But we’re not gonna let that stop us.” She leaned further over Geoff’s shoulders, guiding his fingers along specific keys for him to circumvent the firewall that prevented them from accessing the classified info.

            All the while, Richard sat nearby and pretended not to be engrossed in what Miya was getting his son involved in. He kept his nose buried in one of the books from the shelf, not so much as bothering to see what its title was. The way he figured it, if he didn’t see what they were up to, he wouldn’t have to worry about giving anything away to Sands. It was still a mystery to him why his superior allowed Miya to know about the reproduction machine.

            Of course, like any man, curiosity got the better of Richard.

            He peeped over the book that he pretended to read to see what his son and Miya were doing at the computer. His gaze, however, inadvertently landed on Miya’s backside. From her leaned posture, her white pressed pants constricted around the curves and crevice of her buttocks. The tail ends of her shirt and jacket had risen up, exposing a hint of her well-defined lower back.

            Richard couldn’t look away. It was like seeing a magnificent sculpture.

            The past weeks Miya had been there in his living quarters made him feel in ways that he hadn’t before. Her unique floral scent, her kind voice, her captivating charm and sense of humor…if all women were like this where she came from, Richard imagined it to be a place as wonderful as her.

            Staring at Miya’s rearend for two whole minutes, Richard was struck with a familiar sensation in his groin. Last time he felt such a sensation was the day of Geoffrey’s conception. The only difference being that he hadn’t been injected with a stimulant. This reaction was triggered organically…involuntarily. He felt his phallus becoming rigid within his pants and undergarments, creating an experience that was as pleasuring as it was discomforting. It was only when some biofluid was released that he panicked.

            He shot up from his chair, dropping the book and letting it land on the hardwood floor with a loud SLAM!

            Miya and Geoff impulsively turned when they heard it.

            They saw Richard with his back facing their direction.

            “You O.K., Rich?” Miya asked him in concern.

            “Yes, I’m alright,” he responded in a shaky tone. “I have to run to the bathroom.” He wasted no time in doing so, leaving the study with his lab coat completely buttoned up. Miya noticed much haste in his pace.

            Something was up with the senior Chambers, but she was too close in the hack to let it distract her. She and Geoff had successfully broken through the final firewall, granting her access to all the hidden files on the reproduction machine – its design, origins, etc. While most of the files were redacted, they pretty much confirmed what Miya had suspected all along.

            “That machine is Promethean tech!” She snapped her fingers with glee.

            “What’s a ‘Promethean’?” Geoff asked. “Are they aliens like you?”

            Miya nodded. “They are, only they look more like goblins with pointy ears and grey skin. They claim to be the creators of the multiverse, having lived in it for so long. I’d bet they even created your world, Geoff…given its twisted version of Earth history.” Struck with determination, she declared, “I can’t be here any more than I already have. The Prometheans prey on time-sensitive beings like myself and especially my TARDIS!”

            “Your spaceship?” Geoff beamed with excitement. The stories that Miya told him, about her exploits across the Infinite DC, were better than any video game he played or movie that he watched.

            Seeing him so excited made Miya smile. “Yes, sweetie. And I need to get back to it. It should still be there in the museum where I left it. That means I’m gonna need your daddy’s help to get back to it.” She immediately rushed into the lab and knocked on the bathroom door. “Rich? You all good in there, man?”

            She could hear him clear his throat before he stammered a reply, “Y-Yes! Just…I just need a little more time…please.”

            He sounds so nervous. Something’s definitely wrong.

            Before she could look into Chambers’ situation, the doorbell rang.

            Geoff answered the door and a middle-aged Caucasian man in a blue suit brisked his way into the Chambers residence. He carried a blue duffel bag in with him. “Is your father at home, boy?” he assertively asked Geoff, barely looking his way. “I have a problem that he needs to fix.”

            Miya heard his loud, haughty voice all the way from the lab.

            Looking in, she saw the man enter the foyer. At first glance, he looked much like a lawyer with perfectly combed brown hair and a chiseled jawline. He was certainly the yuppie type – a dead ringer for Patrick Bateman. He cared a great deal about his physical appearance, checking himself in the nearest available mirror. As he checked, he caught Miya reflecting over his shoulder.

            Sharply, he turned to her and cried, “What in the name of Christ is that?!”

            “It’s the alien, Mr. Stanson,” Geoff told him.

            Stanson looked incredulously at him. “The one that the tabloids made such a fuss about, weeks ago? I thought that was just all fabrication.” He returned his gaze on Miya with intrigue. “Well, this is quite the surprise, I must say.” He slammed his duffel bag down on the floor. Miya could’ve sworn she heard wailing coming from inside it, but the noise was too muffled to be certain. She watched as Stanson circled around her, examining her as if she were a model on display. “I’ve never seen such a remarkable creature. Does it speak?”

            “Yes, she does,” Miya derided, disgusted by the abrasive man.

            Stanson frowned. “She? You must be alien to pick up such a lackluster variant of our pronouns.”

            Miya rolled her eyes. “Oh, brother.”

            “Ah, now there’s a word I know,” Stanson said. “You can be taught after all.”

            Miya never wanted to slug a man in the face more than the one standing in front of her. She only restrained herself because Geoff was in the room, and she was not only a guest in the Chambers’ residence but also on their planet. Not to mention, eliciting violence towards one of the ‘Earthmen’ would be sure to stir up trouble that she couldn’t afford to attract – not after what she learned about this realm.

            “Much as I’d love to dissect our visitor here, I need to see your father, Geoffrey,” Stanson reattended, picking his duffel bag back off the floor.

            Again, Miya heard that muffled wailing. “What do you have in there anyway?”

            “Not any business of yours, alien,” Stanson refuted. The wailing in his bag got louder, prompting him to punch at whatever was inside. “SHUT UP!” he shouted to it.

            It was then that Miya saw the bag squirming.

            He’s got a living being in there!

            Without warning or permission, she snatched the bag out from Stanson’s grasp, much to the yuppie’s vexation. “HEY!” he howled. “What in the name of Christ do you think you’re doing?!”

            Ignoring him, Miya brought the bag into the kitchen and gently set it on the table.

            The wailing she had been hearing was clearer and even louder once she unzipped the bag. “Oh, god…” she shuddered at the crying infant that she found inside. He was no more than a month old. There were inflamed contusions all over his face, hands, legs, and torso. He was coughing out blood that trickled down from the corner of his mouth. The agony in his cries shattered Miya’s hearts and made her blood boil in her veins. “This child’s been abused!” She shot Stanson the fieriest of glares. “What the hell’s wrong with you, man?!”

            “He won’t stop that incessant crying!” Stanson griped. “I can’t even sleep with him going on and on like that! So, I simply do this to shut him up!” He raised his fist to strike the baby again…

            …only for Miya to intervene, grabbing Stanson’s arm before it reached the child.

            Stanson was in disbelief and revolted rage. “HOW DARE YOU TOUCH ME!!”

            Miya couldn’t hold back any longer. Seeing that battered, bloodied child was too much. Fueled by vengeful aggression, she gripped Stanson by the collar with her other hand and threw him to the floor. “Get outta here now, before I do something I just might regret, you sick bastard!” She didn’t want to curse in front of Geoff, but she was too far in her anger to bother censoring herself.

            Shocked and offended, Stanson struggled to stand back up. His daunted blue eyes were fixed on Miya, stumbling towards the exit as he declared, “You’ll regret this, creature! The President will hear about this! He’ll make sure Sands and his lab coats cut you into pieces!”

            “Tell whoever you want!” Miya challenged him. “You’re never getting near this baby again!”

            It took a minute after Stanson left for her to calm down.

            The continuous wails of his abused offspring helped her to focus on doing whatever she could to nurse the infant back to health. Geoff watched her as she went to the kitchen sink and wetted a hand towel. “Can I help?” he asked, feeling just as sickened by the child’s agonized cries.

            “Yes, you can, honey,” Miya permitted as she cleaned the blood from the baby’s mouth. “Go get your father out of that bathroom, will ya?”

            Geoff followed through with the command right away, running into the lab and knocking frenetically on the door. “Daddy! Daddy, you got to come quick! Something’s wrong with Mr. Stanson’s baby!”

            “Mr. Stanson?!” Richard bellowed from inside the bathroom. There was a quick flush before he bolted out in a rush. “The Vice President was here?! In our home?! Why didn’t you come and tell me sooner, son?!”

            “The baby’s in the kitchen,” Geoff pointed towards the room.

            Richard could hear the child’s wailing from there, until it stopped suddenly. He and Geoff hurried to see what had happened, and all they found was Miya swaddling the baby’s stilled body up in blue cloth. Relieved, Richard approached with a smile. “You calmed him down, thank Christ,” he breathed. “At first, I thought…”

            He stopped when he saw Miya’s shaky hands wrap up the baby’s face, which was as blue as the cloth itself. The child had stopped breathing – for however long, Richard wasn’t certain – but it was long enough to declared the infant dead.

            Richard could feel his face going numb in anxiety.

            The Vice President’s son was dead.

            And there Miya stood, overcome with so many emotions.

            Grief, anger, helplessness, disgust…too many for this regeneration to handle.

            Is this who I am now? This helpless little girl shedding tears over a dead baby who did nothing to deserve such a gruesome fate, before he could even learn to walk? All this empathy I feel…all this compassion. Is this what it means to be a woman? To be human?

            Oh, Kristin…I thought I knew how you felt…but only now do I truly understand.

            It’s beautiful. But, in the case of this poor little soul, it’s unbearable.

Chapter Text

Part Four

            Urgent footsteps rang through the halls of the twentieth floor.

            Derek did his best to keep in pace with the furious President and his equally furious Vice President. This wasn’t a cordial visit. Apparently, an incident occurred earlier that day, in which the Vice President was physically abused…shortly before his son was killed.

            The culprit of both incidents being the alien visitor.

            “I’m certain this is all a misunderstanding, Mr. President,” Sands reassured.

            “There’s no misunderstanding about what happened, Sands!” Stanson stormed. “That creature you’re harboring in this building assaulted me and killed my boy! And I demand restitution!”

            “Calm down, Stanson,” the President ordered. “We’re all on the same page here.”

            They were flanked by armed National Security guards – imposing men who stood over six feet tall, clad head-to-toe in black body armor. A total of nine arrived with the President and his VP on their command. It was a bit excessive to Sands – all for one feeble, little alien that Stanson was too weak against.

            Arriving at the door to the living quarters of Richard and Geoffrey Chambers, Sands was forced by the President to forgo knocking and bypass the automatic lock with his executive keycard. Their unannounced entrance surprised Richard, who had been pacing around in his study while Geoffrey was at his computer. Both father and son rushed to the foyer to meet with their guests.

            Richard sweated bullets, standing face-to-face with the President again. “Mr. P-President,” he stammered. “H-How can I h-help you, s-sir?”

            “WHERE IS IT?!” Stanson rushed at Richard, grabbing him by the lapels of his lab coat. “WHERE IS THAT MURDERER?!?!”

            “Stanson! Enough! Let me handle this!” The President motioned for a couple of his guards to pry the frantic VP from Richard. Once he was able to get control over the scene, he calmly (and sternly) addressed Richard, “Where is the alien, son?”

            “I’m right here,” a voice called from the kitchen.

            All the men turned to see Miya emerge. There was a heavy scowl on her face as she surveyed Sands, Stanson, the President, and the National Security guards. Her eyes were red from crying for several minutes.

            “There you are!” Stanson struggled under the restraint of the guards. “You killed my son, you monster!”

            Miya merely scoffed at the accusation, stuffing her balled-up fists into her pockets.

            “Last warning, Stanson – compose yourself!” The President demanded. He then switched his attention over to Miya, showing more self-control than his VP. “I’ve tried to be patient with your presence on our planet, but your actions have left me with no other choice. You are hereby an extraterrestrial threat and will be terminated immediately.”

            “But she didn’t—!” Geoff began to say, only for his father to shush him.

            Following his declaration, the President consulted with Derek, “How soon can it be done, Sands?”

            “It’ll be done immediately, Mr. President,” Sands verified, showing little remorse.

            Satisfied, the President regarded Miya one last time and asked, “Is there anything you have to say for yourself, creature?”

            Miya just solemnly looked down towards the floor.

            The President considered her silence to be a definite answer and was about to depart with Stanson and the guards until Miya tactlessly spoke up…

            “Ya know, my wife once wondered if a world like this existed – a world without women. She figured it wouldn’t be much different from the regular Earth. Crime would still be high, world governments would still be run by maniacs in suits, and the rich would still be high and mighty white pricks. After what I’ve seen in this twisted world you men run, I wish I could tell her that she was right…only it’s much worse than she imagined.”

            It wasn’t exactly an ideal statement of defense, but she didn’t care.

            A baby had died, and she was the only one who shed tears for him.

            Stanson, the President, and the National Security guards left thereafter, leaving Sands alone with Miya, Richard, and Geoff. As soon as the government officials were out of earshot, he urgently changed his tone and told Richard, “We don’t have much time, Chambers. We need to get the alien out of this building.”

            His defiance of the President’s orders caught Richard by surprise. “What?!”

            Miya was admittedly surprised herself, and a bit distrusting of the rebellious CEO. “Seriously?” she smirked with a hint of amusement. “What’s your game, Derek? Why the change of heart, all of the sudden?”

            “You’ve been a fascinating case, and I feel as if I’ve only scratched the surface,” Sands professed. His earnestness seemed genuine to Miya – his eyes filled with a passion and desperation to protect his most prized project – a stark contrast to the callous façade he put on in the President’s presence just a while ago.

            “Alright,” Miya agreed. “What’s your plan for getting me from here to the Metropolitan Museum of Art?”

            Sands frowned. “The art museum? Why there?”

            “That’s where I landed my TARDIS – my ship.”

            Provided with these vital details, Sands relayed his plan to Miya, as well as Richard and Geoffrey, who would also have important parts to play in it. First off, Miya would have to be concealed in a blue cloak. Fortunately, Sands Corp funded a local monastery, which meant there was available access to monk wear, including blue hooded robes; Miya was supplied with one before leaving the building with Sands, Richard, and Geoffrey, without any complication.

            They arrived at the museum after closing hours, only able to get inside with Sands’ executive keycard. “Lemme guess,” Miya smirked at the second convenience of the night. “Sands Corp funds for the museum’s security?”

            “That and I own the museum,” Sands smirked right back at her.

            “Of course you do,” Miya nodded.

            Once inside, Miya led the rest of the way to the precise room where her TARDIS first materialized. Richard, Geoffrey, and Sands mistook it for one of the displays at first glance – a white, orb-shaped ship that was twenty feet in diameter with a circumference of sixty-three feet. “That’s your ship?!” Richard gasped.

            “Ain’t she a beaut?” Miya grinned from ear-to-ear, removing her monk robe. “Three weeks is too long to have been away from her.”

            “You refer to it by the same pronouns you use for yourself,” Richard noticed. “Are the inanimate objects of your world ‘women’ as well?”

            Miya chuckled at his naiveté. “It’s merely terms of endearment, hon.”

            “Well, ‘she’ is magnificent,” Derek basked in the radiance of the white orb. “Chambers, you and Geoffrey stay outside on lookout, while we go inside.”

            “We?” Miya singled out Sands’ pronoun usage, skeptically.

            “Surely you don’t intend on leaving our world without allowing me a proper glance inside your ship?” Sands implored.

            Miya was hesitant to permit his request, simply wishing to leave the Man World as soon as possible, before the President learned of her escape from Sands Corp. Of course, if it weren’t for Sands himself, she wouldn’t have even escaped in the first place. Allowing him a brief tour of the console room was the least she could’ve done for him.

            So, as Richard and Geoffrey maintained lookout outside, Sands got an eyeful of the interior of the Type-X TARDIS. “Wow!” he gasped. “It’s dimensionally disproportionate!”

            “Usually people use the phrase ‘bigger on the inside,’ but that works, too.” Miya watched him as he took in the technological wonder of the Gallifreyan ship. It felt nice to have someone new come aboard after so many lonesome journeys in her previous ‘Skeeta Jenkins’ incarnation – someone to marvel over her ship and soak in the majesty of its baffling secrets. But the console room would be as far as she could allow Sands to explore. She gave him at least three minutes before she would have to usher him out.

            And then he said something that confused her: “I’ve waited centuries to find this.”

            “I’m sorry?” she frowned. “Did you say that you’ve waited centuries? Is that some sort of hyperbole or…?”

            “I’m afraid it’s not, Time Lord.” Sands faced her with a look on his face that chilled Miya down to her core. There was something ominous about it, as if Sands had been hiding a dark secret for the longest time from the entire world, and he was only now exposing it to the one person he could without repercussion.

            Suddenly, right before her very eyes, Miya saw Sands’ biological features contort and shift from human to something entirely alien. His salt-and-pepper hair shed from his scalp, which had changed pigmentation along with the rest of his body, rapidly losing melanin until it was a pale shade of grey. His ears elongated to an elfish point, his cheeks sunk in, his forehead became more pronounced, and his entire eyeballs changed size and color, from white with brown irises to whole blue – twinkling like large marbles in his skull.

            Miya gulped, recognizing the species that the ‘human’ Derek Sands had transformed into. “You’re a…Promethean?! The whole time?!?!”

            “I prefer ‘God’,” Sands said, his voice sounding the same, just hollower. “Thank you for bringing your ship to me, Miya. It was fun to learn as much I have about your people – it’s more than my people have ever studied with as little resource as we had, not since we once collaborated with Zeda Delta.”

            Miya stiffened; her face amassed with horror. “You’ve worked with my father?!”

            Sands smiled. “So, you do remember him. He assumed that you would. It’s been his hope that you’d return to Gallifrey one day and reclaim your place as prince…or would it be princess now?”

            “I’m never going back to my father’s kingdom! And you’re leaving my ship now!”

            “No, you are. I’ll be taking your TARDIS to my people, right after I end my experiment of this world.”

            Miya lunged at the Promethean.

            Unfortunately, Sands was prepared for such retaliation. From out of his suit jacket, he retrieved a ray gun that he fired on Miya, emitting a blue, translucent beam that struck her body and instantly rendered her unconscious. She hit the grated floor with a hard thud. Sands wasted no time in picking up her body and dumping it out of the TARDIS, allowing himself complete control of the ship.

            Effortlessly, he operated the central console and dematerialized out of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Chapter Text

Part Five

            Geoff was beyond excited to be involved in this super-secret mission. He pretended to be his favorite movie hero, James Bond, and his dad to be like his sidekick – though he didn’t recall Bond ever having one. The night would’ve been even cooler if he was allowed to peek inside Miya’s awesome spaceship. He briefly pried himself away from his lookout position to get another glimpse at it, but he was met with the disconcerting sight of Miya lying face-down down on the floor outside of her ship.

            “Daddy, lookit!” He alerted his father.

            “Geoff, stay focused – we’re supposed to…” Richard intended to turn for only a second to mind his son, but in following his gaze, he also saw the inert Miya. Sands was nowhere to be seen, which was only more unusual. Chambers and his son rushed to her aid, and as they had done so, Miya’s ship made some bizarre sounds before it suddenly vanished from thin air.

            “What the hell was that?!” They heard what had to be the night security guard.

            “I dunno – let’s check it out.” The other guard on duty suggested.

            Richard and Geoff heard their footsteps hastily coming their way. “Quick! Let’s get out of sight!” The senior Chambers instructed the junior, gesturing to a nearby storage closet for them all to hide in. They worked together to carry Miya in with them.

            Once inside, Richard shut the door, enclosing the three of them in the dark, cramped space. They heard the guards outside, searching through the area and hypothesizing where the loud noises came from. Richard’s anxiety skyrocketed the entire time, silently praying that the guards wouldn’t bother looking into the closet and seeing him, Geoff, and Miya in there.

            Miya’s body hugged up close to Richard’s, her ample buttocks caressing his groin. He didn’t intend for their positions to end up that way; it was just the restricted space. But the sensation from the caress once again triggered his stimulation. “Oh, no,” he rasped. “Not again!”

            In that moment, Miya regained consciousness.

            As soon as she was able to get over the grogginess from being cataleptic for more than a few minutes, she was a little unsettled by the darkness around her. “Oh, God! I’m blind!” She exclaimed, prompting Richard to muffle her shouting by placing his hand over her mouth.

            “Shh!” He shushed her. “It’s O.K. You’re not blind. You’re just inside a closet.”

            “Mmmph mmfph muh moset!” She muffled underneath his hand.

            Richard moved it away. “What did you say?”

            “I said, why are we inside a closet?” Miya asked, receiving her answer not a second thereafter when she heard the guards moving around outside. “Ah, I see. Follow-up question: what is that poking my butt right now?”

            Richard felt the beads of sweat forming on his forehead. “It’s me,” he confessed.

            “You?!” Miya frowned with confusion. “What is it you’re poking me with?! Don’t tell me it’s a gun!”

            “No, no, of course not!” Richard denied.

            “Well, what else could it…?” She stopped once she was struck with realization. “Ohhhhh.”

            “Yes,” Richard verified in shame.

            “Oh, Richard, you poor fella,” Miya sympathized with an amused smirk. “I had no idea you felt that way about me.”

            “I-I don’t! I mean…I just…This has never happened to me before. I’m so sorry.”

            “Sweetheart, it’s fine,” Miya reassured. “It’s a normal reaction that all men experience, especially when meeting a woman for the first time.”

            “Did it happen to you? Back when you were…one of us?”

            “Only when I first met the woman who became my wife, and we ‘reproduced’ in a way that didn’t require a machine. It was the best experience I ever felt…and it gave me the greatest miracle of life – children of my own.” Miya glimpsed down and smiled at Geoff, who looked up at the two adults, perplexed by their exchange.

            They heard the guards outside depart, abandoning their search.

            After waiting a few extra minutes, they clambered out of the closet.

            “Sands has my TARDIS,” Miya urgently informed. “Not only that, it turns out that he’s been a Promethean the whole time.”

            “A what?!” Richard grimaced.

            “A goblin with pointy ears and grey skin, Daddy,” Geoff described.

            Miya was touched that the junior Chambers remembered her description. “That’s right,” she confirmed. “More specifically, it’s an alien race that Derek Sands apparently is a member of.”

            Richard doubled over, wheezing. “I don’t believe it. My boss is a damn alien!”

            Miya could see how this news overloaded his anxiety. Much as she wanted to comfort him, there was no time. “Rich, I know this news is a lot to take in, but we need to get back to Sands Corp right now. In the company database, I found out the Sands Corp building itself is an emitter that will wipe out all life on this planet at the single press of a button – which I can only figure to be in Derek’s office. Can you take us there?”

            Richard could hardly respond, unable to calm his nerves.

            That was until he felt Miya’s steady hand rest on his shoulder. One look at her kind, beautiful reassuring face and his anxiety melted away. Standing upright, he took a breath and told her, “I can.”

            Returning to the Sands Corp building, Miya and Geoff followed Richard into the elevator and all the way up to the topmost floor, which was reserved solely for Derek Sands’ office. The waiting area – a quaint room with blue marbled floors, a ceiling, and walls and a leather couch – adjacent to the office was empty. Usually, the secretary – Mr. Caden – sat at his desk, assisting the CEO from there at all times. But, after hours, he was at his living quarters on the twentieth floor.

            This allowed them clear access to Sands’ office; however, there was a problem.

            “The door can only be opened by the executive passkey, and Sands had the only one,” Richard said.

            “We don’t need it.” Miya stepped towards the scanner to the left of the blue, chrome double doors that led into Sands’ office. With the tap of her left sonic cuff, she bypassed the automatic lock that opened the doors.

            Sands’ office looked like any ordinary CEO’s office. It was roomy, had a breathtaking view of New York from behind his desk, kept a bar with the most expensive alcoholic beverages, and had shelves that stored various artifacts, most of which were all Promethean in origin. Among the artifacts Richard saw there was an alien handgun very high tech in design but looked to function as any normal handgun with a trigger.

            Curiously, Richard grabbed it from the shelf. Reacting to his touch, the handgun suddenly transformed in his hand. Its alien design shifted to a more familiar semi-automatic, which was his preferred choice. Did this thing just read my mind and changed itself into the gun I would’ve wanted it to be?

            “Over here!” Miya called, prompting Richard to pocket the gun away into his lab coat. He joined Geoff and Miya at Sands’ desk, which didn’t have very many items sitting on it, like a desktop computer or even a coffee cup. There was only a control panel with a network of keys, each and every one labeled in the language of the Prometheans.

            Seeing it made Richard’s head ache. “What does it all do?”

            “I dunno,” Miya admitted. “But, if I were to put money on one of these keys leading us right to Sands, I’d go with this one.” Taking a massive risk, she randomly pressed one of the keys.

            Anything could have happened.

            The entire building could’ve imploded.

            They all could’ve teleported to a different dimension.

            Or they could’ve been vaporized, along with the rest of the planet.

            Thankfully, it was none of the above. Miya’s fortune blessed them with a secret passage, hidden behind one of the shelves that split apart horizontally. “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!” She clapped her hands with approval. Wasting no time, she darted through the secret passage, with Richard and Geoff following close behind.

            The passage led them to a stairwell that went straight up to the rooftop.

            The high-altitude winds whipped at Miya’s long golden locks, with quite a few strands blocking her vision. “Dammit!” She griped. “All this hair’s really making me miss being bald!” Struggling to comb the wild strands from her line of sight, she heard Geoff suddenly cry out.

            “GEOFFREY!!” She also heard Richard yelp.

            Miya straightened her hair just in time to see Derek Sands holding little Geoff hostage near her Type-X TARDIS, with a Promethean dagger at the boy’s throat. “Let him go, Derek!” She demanded. “That lil’ fella’s done nothing to you!”

            “This isn’t a matter of what they’ve done to me, Time Lord,” Sands refuted. “It’s a matter of what I’m going to do to them.”

            “You’re gonna erase an entire reality that you created!” Miya disdainfully reviewed. “That’s how you end an ‘experiment’?!”

            “A failed experiment!” Sands hissed. “I tried to create a flawless utopia, removing the one variable that always holds back human production: the female sex.”

            Miya scowled in disgust. “You really believe that?!”

            “Their compassion and empathy block the natural flow of evolution,” Sands argued. “You’ve seen how much the men of this world were able to achieve without their influence, until you arrived and tainted everything!”

            “You’re blamin’ me for your experiment’s failure?!” Miya could hardly comprehend the hubris of this one Promethean. “How ‘bout givin’ the poor guys another chance! Yeah, this world’s got assholes like Stanson, but it also has wonderful men like this one right here.” She gestured to Richard, who stood petrified with fear in the presence of the alien Sands. “All they need is the right man to steer them in the right direction of progress – and I believe that man to be Rich.”

            “Chambers?” Sands scoffed. “You’re willing to gamble the future of this realm on this weakling?”

            “I am, and he’s not a weakling,” Miya defended. “He’s more human than your sorry ass looks right now.”

            Sands grinned. “You know something? I’ll see you and raise you, as the humans say. I’ll bet Richard Chambers won’t so much as lift a finger, as I slit his son’s throat!”

            Miya’s eyes flared, watching helplessly as Sands was about to commit the deed.

            BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

            Before the dagger could have sliced Geoffrey’s throat open, Sands was shot four times – three to the chest and one to the head. Purple blood sprayed out of his chest and blue grey matter exploded from the back of his skull. The dagger fell out of his hand before Sands himself collapsed, dead.

            Miya could hardly believe how fast it all happened.

            There Richard stood with the smoking gun in his hand and a hardened expression on his face.

            Definitely not a weakling.

            Miya spent another few weeks in the Man World to curiously observe, from the safety of her TARDIS, the events that would transpire from Sands’ true identity exposed to the world. Of course, she left the duty of the exposure to Richard, who would be the one to contact National Security, as well as the President and Vice President Stanson. Questions were asked about Miya and her whereabouts, but Richard played dumb.

            The news that their entire society was fabricated by an alien shook the world.

            There were conflicting opinions on Sands Corp and the technology that the company provided for their entire way of life, with some opting to forgo using it and taking up more luddite lifestyles. Those who continued to rely on the tech received good news when the President promoted Richard Chambers as the new CEO of Sands Corp, renamed to Chambers Enterprises. This promotion was done in honor of Richard’s bravery in uncovering the alien conspiracy.

            None of it felt right to Richard, who consulted his reservations with Miya in her TARDIS, which took up residence in Richard’s new office for those last few weeks. “You’re the real hero, not me,” he told her.

            “You pulled the trigger that saved your son, Rich,” Miya rationalized.

            Geoff had joined them in the TARDIS, tempted to play with the control console the entire time he was there. Richard had to pull him away from it several times as he talked with Miya. “I know that,” he acknowledged. “I…I just never wanted all this responsibility. Last month, I was just a nobody researcher in the sublevels. Now, I’m head of the entire company! Half of the world’s expecting me to help usher them into a future that I know nothing about!”

            “Hey, hey, you’re gonna do just fine, man,” Miya soothed him with a calm demeanor and a warm smile. “With the Promethean tech Sands left, you have everything you need to create something better for your fellow men…something to start a legacy you could be proud of.”

            Her encouraging words were as welcoming as her beautiful visage.

            Richard couldn’t ignore how radiant she looked on her last day there, adorned in her white suit jacket and matching pressed pants, but switching the attire up with a white shirt that she mostly kept unbuttoned and tucked in the jacket; this gave the illusion that she wasn’t wearing any shirt at all underneath the jacket.

            “Oh! Before I forget, I got ya a lil’ somethin’ to remember me by!” She reached underneath the console to access a secret compartment from which she retrieved a long, blue gift box that she gave to Richard.

            Opening it, he saw that it was a white suit jacket of his own to wear.

            After putting it on, he was overcome with emotion, unable to stop himself from crying. Confused and a bit frightened, he wondered, “Why am I so sentimental over this? It’s…It’s just a gift.”

            Miya smiled. “Because you know in your heart that you’ll miss me.” Shedding tears herself, she confessed, “And I’m gonna miss you guys, too.”

            Geoff clung to her hip, also crying. “Don’t go,” he begged.

            “Oh, honey.” Miya knelt to embrace him. “I have to. I’ve caused enough trouble to this mixed-up world of yours. But you always remember me and listen to your daddy, O.K.? Fathers know best, and their kids know better.” She gave little Geoffrey a peck on the cheek.

            Richard anticipated he would receive such a quick and gentle peck himself when Miya approached him. However, she surprised him with a long, passionate kiss. Her soft, wet lips locking onto his was like nothing he had ever experienced before. The scent of her mint-fresh breath and the feel of her clean pearly whites on his tongue added to the euphoria.

            When she was done, she looked at him with her twinkling hazel-brown eyes, smiling in satisfaction. “You’re the first man I ever kissed, Richard Chambers.”

            Richard shuddered. “And you’re the first woman I ever kissed, Miya.”

            He and Geoff exited afterwards and watched her depart in the TARDIS, the ship itself blinking in and out of sight until it finally faded out of existence.

            The kiss stimulated him in the same way as all the times before when he was around Miya. Making use of it, he began walking out of his office, all while telling Geoff, “I’ll see you at home, son.”

            “Where you going, Daddy?”

            “To the Reproduction Unit. You’re getting a new brother.”

And now, a sneak peek at the next Tinkerer Chronicle...

            Awakened by a cool breeze, Rania opened her eyes to a familiar twilight sky that was half-blue and half-orange. She was lying in a field of tall, red grass. Wait a sec…there’s only one place I know where grass looks like this. Sitting up, she got an eyeful of snow-capped mountains along the horizon. They glowed from one of the two suns in the sky – this specific one rising in the East. The main star was large and golden red.

            “This can’t possibly be where I think it is,” she gasped in a hushed tone.

            Neas once warned her of the Anti-Angel and the power it possessed to be different from the common Weeping Angel. It didn’t send people through time; it sent them across dimensions.

            So how possible could it have been that the Anti-Angel sent her there?

            “Oh, my god! CRAIG!!!” She suddenly remembered.

            Could the Anti-Angel have sent him there as well? She really hoped so.

            “Rania?!” She heard his voice just over the ridge. Immediately, she ran up to the peak. There, she found Craig – safe and sound, albeit a bit shaken. She engulfed him in her protective embrace. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re here! And you’re not hurt!”

            Craig could barely breathe. Rania was a lot stronger than she looked.

            “I…can’t…!” He rasped.

            Hearing his gasps for air, Rania let him go. “Sorry, sorry! I’m just…Craig, do you have any idea how scared I was when that Anti-Angel touched you?”

            “I know,” Craig concurred. “I was really scared, too.” He looked around at the alien planet they were on, taking in its rust-colored atmosphere, which was mostly barren, save for a few buildings. “Where are we?”

            Rania perched herself on a nearby rock with a huge smile on her face. “We’re on the one planet I never thought I’d be back on, not after Neas and I were last here.”

            “What its name?”

            “Gallifrey. We’re on Gallifrey, Craig.”

            Craig’s jaw dropped, surveying on the landscape with newfound interest. His gaze stopped on a nearby city encased in a huge glass dome. “Is that where you lived?”

            Rania noticed him looking towards the domed city. “Sorta. That’s the Capitol.” She snapped her fingers with recognition. “Of course! These surrounding mountains are the Solace and Solitude! Which means we’re on the continent Wild Endeavour!”

            Craig scratched his head. “Is that…a good thing?”

            “I’m not sure just yet,” Rania shrugged, “but at least it’s nowhere near the kingdom.”

            “What kingdom?”

            Rania paused and stiffened for a fleeting moment. She removed herself from the rock, standing beside her best friend and pointing towards the Capitol. “Let’s see if there’s anyone home.”

            Craig beamed at her suggestion.

            Finally, he was going to see the homeworld of the Time Lords.