Disclaimer

While it may alienate some part of the "audience", I assume that the reader is familiar with the Doctor Who concepts used in this story. In particular, I'm not going to answer questions like "What is the TARDIS?", "Who is Martha Jones?" or "What is a sonic screwdriver?"

It is intended to take place during the 2007 (third) season, with the Tenth Doctor and Martha. Assume that it takes place between "Evolution of the Daleks" and "The Lazarus Experiment".

Rose lovers and Martha haters, piss off and don't read, you're disgusting.

It is intended to be an imaginary Doctor Who "two-parter" showcasing the setting of Mai-Otome to a potentially unfamiliar viewer, so there will be some redundant descriptions of characters and things that Mai-Otome fans are already familiar with. Despite being a two-parter (in the new series sense), it is split into four chapters for your convenience, hence the unusual numbering.

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Chapter 0.5

A woman with long, flowing black hair stood in an arms-behind-back pose looking into a large picture window, which revealed an immense cityscape beyond it. The woman was wearing a knee-long blue coat with an ornate white-and-yellow collar, which she kept unbuttoned, as well as skin-tight black breeches and a somewhat revealing white shirt.

She was standing behind a metal desk, almost devoid of any items except for an iron, a clay figurine of a maid, a remote control, and an empty cup, in what appeared to be an office room. A flat TV set was mounted on the opposite wall.

The door opened, and two more women came in. One of them had short, wavy dark brown hair and wore a lab coat, and was holding a notebook and pencil. The other had light brown shoulder-length hair and wore a knee-long light blue dress, with a white tabard bearing the same yellow insignia as the black-haired woman's collar; she was holding a teapot.

"Thanks for the tea, Shizuru," said the woman looking into the window without turning her head.

"How did you know, Natsuki?" asked Shizuru, approaching the table and pouring tea into the cup.

"I have yet to see you coming in without bringing tea; and it couldn't be Yohko alone, you wouldn't let her."

"This time, it was Yohko's initiative," smiled Shizuru. She insisted that I would come with her and relieve you of your illness."

"I'm fine," asserted Natsuki defensively.

"Well, Headmaster..." started Yohko. "You have all symptoms of physical and emotional weariness, and we have wondered if — "

"I'm fine," repeated Natsuki. "It is not so much me as this... show that is still going on, despite my best efforts. The child-queen is realizing the extent of the power she has, but she and her child-Meisters are still idealists at heart; and with such attitudes, the entire SOLT program may derail."

She sat down turned the TV on; the other two came closer and turned to the screen."

"...And at this moment, the citizens of Windbloom rejoice as their beloved Queen, Mashiro Blan de Windbloom, returns from her visit to Florince. This is a live transmission from Sandport; we can now see the nobles watching in awe as Her Highness descends in glory from the royal sandcleaver, accompanied by her Meister Otome, Arika Sayers and Nina Wáng..."

The feed, with an obligatory "LIVE" in the corner and shaking camera, showed a teenage queen, with her hair dyed lavender, in over-the-top fancy clothing, pompously walking down a ladder, accompanied by two girls of her age in dresses similar to Shizuru's in design.

Natsuki grimaced. "Tastes like diabetes."

A phone rang; with the words "Oh, not again..." and an expression of annoyance, Natsuki bashed the desk with a fist and took an old-fashioned, early 90s style, mobile phone out of a pocket.

"Garderobe Academy. Natsuki Kruger speaking. Can I help you?" she said in a put-on polite tone. "Yes. What?" Her expression changed instantly to a mix of surprise and horror. "What doctor?"

---

DOCTOR WHO
"The Forgotten Colony"

"...and now..." continued the Doctor, heading for the exit from the TARDIS, "as I promised, Paris, the 27th century, the era of unity, prosperity and light-heartedness! And you'll witness it with your own eyes, just behind this door..." He opened one of the TARDIS doors without looking outside. "Voila!"

Martha smiled. "Doctor... it doesn't look like Paris at all."

The Doctor turned around. His eyes opened wide... He ran out of the TARDIS, then, in about five seconds, ran back in, grabbed Martha's arm and pulled her out.

The TARDIS was standing on a rough rocky road passing through a conifer forest. Not very far away, they could see a large Byzantine castle rising above a cityscape behind it, with three towers visible from their location.

"Definitely not..." added Martha.

"A-ha, but that's exactly what wonders me!" exclaimed the Doctor. "The year is twenty-six seventy, there can be no doubt about that. But by this time, no Earth city looked like this. Unless we are on a different planet..."

"Or in a parallel universe?" conjectured Martha. "I remember, you told me about the other universe, where Rose is trapped... with the Cybermen... zeppelins in the sky..."

The Doctor shook his head. "The Void has been closed. The TARDIS can no longer leave this universe, even by chance — and if it did, it would be dead and motionless. No, no, there's something else here. It's another planet... Look at the moon!"

Martha looked up. It was daylight, but the moon was clearly visible; it looked exactly like Earth's moon, except for a dark blue star to the bottom-left of it.

"Blue star..." said Martha.

"Exactly!" The Doctor clapped excitedly. "Artificial satellite. Of the moon. But on Earth of this time period, there are supposed to be seven of them, encircling the moon. But there's only one. And the moon, even the surface pattern is identical to Earth's moon. So..."

"So?"

"Well, it seems this planet is inhabited..." continued the Doctor, "So, instead of wasting time on taking probes of air, soil and whatnot, we can simply ask the inhabitants. Blimey, first thing I want to do is to find out how they look like!"

"They... well, judging by the buildings and..." Martha looked around; suddenly, something caught her attention, and she ran in the direction opposite to the one the Doctor was looking in. "Doctor!" she shouted.

"Well, the bark looks like..." mumbled the Doctor, touching a tree. "What?" he asked, turning in Martha's direction, and as he did, his expression changed to that of wild amazement, which his tenth incarnation displayed oh-so-often.

Martha was standing on her knees over the body of a girl about her own age; she had a round head, chin-length straight brown hair, and eyes of the same color, and had a short white skirt with a tabard similar to Shizuru's, long white gloves, and grey tights. She had a jewel-earring on her left ear, like Natsuki and Shizuru, except her gemstone was missing. Her right hand was clenched in a fist.

"They look like us, Doctor," stated Martha. "And... and she's dead."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Oh, no, no, no!"

"What?"

"We're on an unknown planet, and the last thing I want is the TARDIS parked at a murder scene." explained the Doctor. "But before we leave this place, I'm absolutely bound to do this..."

He crouched and unclenched the dead girl's fist. She was holding two small, identical blue gemstones, not unlike those found in Natsuki's and Shizuru's earrings. The Doctor tried to bite one, then licked it, then drew out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the gems with it. Finally, he handed them to Martha, who put them in a pocket.

"What are they?" asked Martha.

"Transmitters. Communication devices. A strong signal between themselves, and a very weak one that I couldn't trace. Also a holographic memory module... But this kind of technology became obsolete on Earth in the twenty-fourth century, what is it doing here and now? Unless it's straight out of a museum..."

"Well, everything around here looks horribly outdated..." noted Martha. "Like... like this van."

A military van appeared at a road turn, rapidly approaching them. The Doctor and Martha jumped out of the way. The van stopped by the TARDIS, a squad of soldiers jumped out and, shouting something unintelligible, surrounded the Doctor and Martha, separating them from the TARDIS.

"Uhm, hello!.." The Doctor stared at one soldier, then at another, then at the van, then at the TARDIS; finally, he reached Martha's ear and whispered. "Psychic paper. Show it." Martha obeyed.

"As you can see," said the Doctor loudly, "this is Martha Jones, a private detective. I'm the Doctor, and I'm just an eyewitness Miss Jones happened to be questioning. She is now on her way to the city," he winked to Martha, "to report the information she gathered. Meanwhile, you can question me."

"What's the meaning of this?" whispered Martha.

"I can't bluff the way out for both of us, so while I'm captured, it's you who'll have to do the research. Find out anything you can about her and this place."

"All right," decided Martha, turning to the soldiers. "Tell me more about the victim," she added, advancing towards the dead body with the soldiers making way for her; after approaching the body, she looked back to see the Doctor being dragged away into the woods.

"You must be kidding, right?" responded the squad's medic inspecting the body. "How can you not know Meister Akane Soir?"

"Meister?" repeated Martha.

This question, apparently, got everyone around puzzled.

"Show your identification again, please," asked the commander, who had the distinction of being the only one to wear insignia of any sort. Martha opened the psychic paper.

"Ah! Good old Zipang, I should have guessed." He forcibly shook her hand, leaving her confused. "I admit, I imagined you people less black and more narrow-eyed... Maybe you could stay here and tell us more about your country?"

Martha stepped back. "I'm sorry, but I... it's an urgent case, so I shouldn't really be here. I should get to the... hotel in the city and... look at the data I gathered here. So..."

"Guys!" exclaimed the commander, pointing at the van. "Give the lady a ride. Then return here. We still have some special guests to greet."

---

"So, what's a Meister?" inquired Martha, adjusting her earrings while looking in the rear-view mirror.

"Well..." the driver laughed. "I knew the Zipangians were clueless about Otome, but to such an extent... Just whose murder did you think you were investigating, exactly?"

"I wasn't sure," answered Martha. "I just stumbled upon the body by accident, and I had no idea who she was..."

"Well, basically, Meisters are how we call graduate Otome, the best Garderobe can offer — warriors who fight at the side of country rulers. Poor Meister Soir, may she rest in peace, served His Majesty, Kazuya Krau-xeku, since... oh, what a time it was..."

"You mentioned Garderobe, what is it?" asked Martha innocently.

"Just what kind of desert island you came from? It's an academy, a training ground for Otome — "

"How far away?"

"Well, it's in Windbloom, so... I'd say an hour by sandcleaver, though it depends — "

"Is that a train station?" suddenly interrupted him Martha. "I — I think I'll get to the hotel from here. Thanks for the lift."

"What a strange lady..." murmured the driver, as she got out of the van and closed the door without looking back.

Martha waited for the van to drive away, took out her cellphone and ensured it had reception, and started firmly climbing the stairs leading to the train station.

"Otome, he said?.."

---

"...And then I said, 'I'm still within the first 15 hours of my regeneration cycle, which means I have just enough residual cellular energy to do this!' And I grew my hand back," narrated the Doctor as the soldiers laughed in unison, "and the Sycorax leader was caught off-guard, and in shock, he said, 'Witchcraft!' and I said, 'Time Lord!' and she threw me another sword, and we resumed fight, until — "

His speech was suddenly interrupted as Natsuki and Shizuru walked into the tent. "Hey, who invited them to the party?" he asked, irritated.

"It's a law," explained the commander. "All Otome-related matters must be resolved in the presence of official representatives of Garderobe."

"Oh, really?" questioned the Doctor sarcastically. "What's Garderobe, another shadowy men-in-black agency? Like Torchwood?" He eyed Natsuki, as Shizuru walked quietly out of his view. "Or, I guess, women-in-blue agency. "Who are you, anyway?"

The commander cowered. "This is Natsuki Kruger, Headmaster of Garderobe."

"Headmaster?" The Doctor put his hands in pockets. "Since when do secret agencies have headmasters? Since when do headmasters have secret agencies? It sounds more like a school title."

Natsuki coughed with an obvious expression of annoyance, but regained control over herself. "Please listen, Doctor no-name, if you really want to cooperate on the murder of Meister Akane, you can start by stating your name."

The Doctor searched his pockets for something, then, with an expression of concern, took his hands out. "I prefer to be referred to as the Doctor... but if I absolutely must state a name, let it be... John Smith."

This name had the effect of an exploded bomb. The soldiers suddenly stopped chatting between themselves, got up and pointed their rifles at the Doctor. Natsuki made a gesture telling them to lower the weapons, which they did; then she made one step in the Doctor's direction and combed back the hair covering her left ear. The gem in her earring began to glow, and then she spoke a single word.

"Materialise."

To be continued.