Melody's POV

"So, where do you want to go?" Dad asked me. I shrugged. "I dunno. It's so strange, being in a new...body."

"I know where we need to go," Ella said. "Home."

"How do you handle staying home all the time?" Dad asked her. "Don't you get bored with the same-old-same-old stuff?"

"Uh, no, not really," Ella seemed a bit surprised. "I find ways to entertain myself. I don't really need a time machine to entertain myself?"

"Yeah, but don't you find it lame, staring at the same surroundings?" I had to smile. Ella wasn't getting that Dad did not like staying still, and Dad wasn't getting that Ella didn't get that. Nor was he getting that not everyone moved around as often as he did.

"What are you smiling about?" River muttered to me. I quickly explained, and she said, "That's your father."

"Oh, but isn't it?" I stifled a yawn. I had a horrible night sleep the night before-only about a few hours-and checking my watch, it was about nine in the morning. Huh.

"Alright, here's the plan-I'm going to take Ella home, then maybe River, then I'll take you somewhere fun. How's that?" Dad leaned against the console.

"Sounds like a plan," I said with a grin. "Introduce River to Grandma Piper, too, while you're at it."

"Not in a million gazillion years" was his reply as he turned around. I had to sit down in the jump seat as the TARDIS flew us back home. Not only that, but I was still recovering a bit from regenerating, and I had just stood on my feet for a rather long time, so my legs were extremely shaky. "Let's not go somewhere where there's not much walking, though; I can't really stay on my feet for long."

"Got it," Dad said as the TARDIS shuddered to a stop. Ella opened the TARDIS door and turned around, saying, "Be careful, you too; I don't want to find out that you've being dealing with Sontarans or whatever."

"We make no promises," I called back. She rolled her eyes and left the TARDIS, letting the door bang behind her. Dad called, "Oi! Be careful with the doors; she's a living being, not a cupboard!"

I felt something building up inside me, and I swallowed. River noticed and said soothingly, "That's just the excess regeneration energy, you need to let it out."

"That's weird," I opened my mouth to say, but the thing that was building up had forced itself out, and I watched as the golden gas-regeneration energy-floated away. "Okay, that's weird. That's just plain weird."

"You'll get used to it," Dad called from the console. "Now, where do you want to go?"

"I don't know. I honestly do not know. It's strange-I'm still getting used to it. It's like...my mind wants to go to somewhere like the Winchester Mansion, because I wanted to earlier, but yet, it doesn't really interest me, like I want to go, but not as badly as before...oh, just surprise me, alright?"

"Alrighty, then! River, do you want to come?" Dad glanced at River. She shrugged. "Oh, what the hell. Why not?"

Dad grinned and ran around the console. "I'm allowing the TARDIS to pick the place this time. I trust her opinion."

So naturally the minute we open the TARDIS doors we hear a flashing siren and a voice over the loudspeaker, "Red Alert. We have intruder. Red Alert."

"Well, that's not good, is it?" I muttered.

"No, that's not. Let's hope that the people-"

"-or something," I muttered.

"-are nice," Dad said cheerfully. Of course. Almost nothing could bring him down.

Almost.

"I'm not thinking so," River said as a bunch of men in camouflage came running out, holding guns. "Put your hands in the air!" one of the men shouted.

We practically threw our hands in the air. Normally, after someone yelling at me to stick my hands in the air, I would've thought, And wave them like you just don't care! But I didn't think that. I thought it was too childish.

Dad stepped forward. "Ah, hello! We are so very sorry about our intrusion. We were never intending to do that. I'm the Doctor, by the way; this is Melody, my daughter-" he gestured at me, and I made a small incline of my head- "and my wife, River Song."

"Doctor what?" one of the men demanded.

"Just the Doctor. Nothing else," Dad said smoothly. "Where are we, anyways?"

"The Inter-Stellar Alien Signal Detector base. The ISASD for short. And you are intruding, sir," one of the men lifted his gun.

"And you do-what, exactly?" I asked in a honey-sweet voice.

"Uh...we use alien signals to find them and ca-bring them here. To interrogate," he said. He seemed memorized by me.

"Well, today's your lucky day," I said pleasantly. I turned to the TARDIS with a glare. "How do you know you're not picking up signals from Earth?" 

"Too far away," said another man. "And, plus, every signal we picked up, there's always an alien."

"Wait, wait. Is your security that lax that you're answering an eighteen-year old?" River asked.

The men all seemed to snap back to their senses. "You're right, ma'am. Now, unless you get out of here, we will put you and your family into cells. Is that clear?"

"You almost said capture," I said with realization.

"What?" one of the men snapped.

"Before. When you were explaining what you were doing, you started to say captured. Then you changed your mind. Why did you do that?" I raised an eyebrow. "Are you hiding something?"

"No, not at all, ma'am," the man said.

"Don't lie to me." My voice came out harsh. "What are you hiding?"

To see a group of full-grown men be intimidated by one single eighteen-year old is a once-in-a-lifetime event. I tucked that away in my mind-I was intimidating. Manipulative. And I found that to be good.

Dad stared at me, and I smiled. It took a lot for me to shock him, and I had just done it.

"I think you should all come with us," said another man. I gave a short nod. "Can we put our hands down? My arms are getting tired."

They looked surprised at such a question, and one gave us a nod. "But no funny business, understood?"

I nodded. "Understood."

"We'll be taking you to our captain. Is that understood?"

"Understood," River said.

The Doctor's POV

I leaned over to Melody and whispered, "How did you do that?"

"Do what?" Melody whispered back.

"Change their minds," I said softly, looking at the guards in front of us.

"Intimidate them? I dunno. I did it without thinking." She stared off in the distance. "And I like it, believe it or not."

"You're starting to scare me," I said.

She smiled. "Good."

I wasn't liking this Melody. She scared me. Her sweet-as-honey stance, her manipulation, her harshness when someone disagrees with her-there was something about the new Melody that crept me out.

I was just about to whisper something about that into River's ear when one of the guards-there were three, the others had gone off to do other business- pushed open a door. A woman came running to us. "Ah, good. Our...guests."

"I'm the Doctor," I said. "This is my daughter, Melody, and my wife, River."

"Pleasure to meet you," the woman inclined her head to us and turned to one of the guards. "How did they come aboard?"

"We found a signal like no other. We pulled the signaller towards us-it offered little resistance-and we found their ship. Naturally, it was interpreted as an intruder, madam, since it came in the ship like no other, and we followed protocol. It was quite surprising to find human-like beings on the ship." He gestured to us. 

"That's because we're part-or in his case, full-Time Lords," River said, jabbing her thumb at me.

The woman laughed. "An amusing joke! But aren't the Time Lords...dead?" she lowered her voice while saying the last word.

"She's only part because she was conceived while the TARDIS was in flight," Melody said. I wondered how she knew that.

"And I assume you're part because your father and your mother have Time Lord DNA?" the woman asked.

"No, she's my step-mum. My mum's dead, and she was a were-cat," Melody jutted out her chin, daring the woman to say more. "What is your name, anyways?"

The woman laughed again. "How silly of me! I'm Captain Taylor. Am I right to assume that the ship that you arrived on is the TARDIS you spoke about earlier?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Is she normally like this?" Captain Taylor turned to us. I noted how Scottish her accent was.

"No, just recently," I admitted.

"Are you normally Scottish?" Melody asked. She was being daring, I knew that. Melody was almost never daring.

No. The old Melody was almost never daring.

"Excuse me?" Captain Taylor said.

"Nothing," Melody muttered, but she had a smirk on her face. I elbowed her side, and the smirk slid off her face. "What'd you do that for?" 

"You'll get us kicked out if you keep up," I hissed. 

"Keep what-oh. Sorry." 

"Interesting place," River said to get the captain's attention.

"Hm? Oh, yes, yes indeed. Built with the finest materials," she nodded.

"To get aliens and interrogate them," I said. "No, wait, sorry-you capture them. My mistake." 

"No, Doctor. You're wrong. We provide a shelter while we extract their knowledge for the benefit of human kind," Captain Taylor corrected.

"Like that's any better!" Melody scoffed. "You're sick, you are! How do you get their knowledge, huh? Taking apart their ships? Torture? I know aliens-I am one, for God's sake-and if they're intelligent enough for this inhumanity, they're intelligent enough not to give out information easily! And then what do you do? Release them so that they'll tell all their friends that the humans are evil? No wonder you need their intelligence-you haven't got any of your own."

"And what's more, you're using it for your own benefit," River snapped. "That's selfish, you know."

"Enough!" Captain Taylor snapped. "I am in control here. You do not have any right to decide what's right and what's wrong. I will assign you bunks and you will not create any trouble, or you will find out what happens to the captives who do not give in! Now, good night."

Melody opened her mouth, but River leaned over and muttered, "Don't make things worse, Melody."

Melody ignored her. "Captives? Captives? What kind of level has humanity-have you-stooped to? First you deny capturing them, and then you call them 'captives.' Are you stupid, or what?"

"That's enough!" Captain Taylor's voice rose to a shrill. "You go too far!"

"Don't you lay a hand on her," River snarled. "Don't you dare."

Captain Taylor opened her mouth, but just then, one of the guards came back. "Your bunks are ready."

"Go," Captain Taylor's eyes flashed. "But I will stick to my word."

"Con-flipping'-grats," Melody snapped as the guards prepared to herd us from the room.

"Wait. I'd like to have a word with Melody," Captain Taylor called.

"Don't you hurt her, or I'll hurt you," River snapped.

"It's just a word," Captain Taylor said calmly. River tensed, but Melody gave her a small squeeze on the arm. "I'll be fine, River, don't worry. If she hurts me, I promise I'll give as much hell as possible."

River smiled faintly, but I could tell she did not trust Melody to be alone with Captain Taylor.

And come to think of it, nor did I.

Melody's POV

I stared at the woman for a few seconds, then said, "What? Are you going to lecture me?"

Captain Taylor was rummaging in her drawers. "No, I'm just sticking to my word."

It took me a second to figure out what she was saying. "Don't touch me. Don't you dare."

Captain Taylor stood up, holding a syringe in her hand. All I could think was That's a huge needle.

"Stay still. I don't want to hurt you," she said calmly. I backed up away from her. "What is that?"

"Just a tranquilizer. Stop moving away from me," Captain Taylor's voice came out harsher. I took a step back and hit the wall. I pressed up against it and said, "Don't you come near me. You're evil, you are."

"But am I?" she smiled, approaching me. "Aliens are nothing but a threat to humankind. Why should I care about them?"

"Because they're not all a harm, that's why," I said.

"Oh? Is that so? Name one," she said. I felt a sting in my neck. "Oops. Guess you'll be too tired to answer that, now won't you." 

"Go-burn-in-hell," I mumbled, sliding down the wall, my eyelids feeling heavy.

 "Nighty-night..." I heard Captain Taylor say, but it was too far away. Slowly, I drifted off.