InsaneJournal

Who: Dr. John Smith and Jean Grey
What: A very odd dream.
When: 2am, Sat night/Sun morning
Where: In his bunk in the Montana cabin
Rating: PG
Status: Incomplete



For Emma's sake, they'd chosen a cabin over roughing it in a proper tent. But that didn't mean the cabin came with all the appointments of a fine hotel room. Maybe Emma's room did, but for John, his sleeping arrangements included his sleeping back set over the thin mattress that came set upon his bunk. And while he had the small room to himself, he took the top bunk. A bed, with a ladder—how couldn't you take the top bunk?!

A long arm hung limply off the side of his bed, John's face pressed to the small pillow he'd brought along. Beneath closed lids, his eyes moved wildly, attempting to keep up with the surprisingly vivid dream playing out through his mind...

He checked back over his shoulder for the ginger and the nurse before he reached the cold, metal door that swung open with the solid push he gave it. Striding out onto the hospital rooftop, he walked fearlessly towards the giant eye hovering in the air, encircled in a star-like construction of ice. Electricity crackled around it, still he didn't feel at all afraid.

"Come on then!" He shouted up at the eye. "The Doctor will see you now!"

The eyeball swooped down, leaving its icy enclosure, just an arm's length from John, the pupil moving as it appeared to look him over. A beam of bright, concentrated light swept over the doctor, scanning him from head to toe. With the information this scan acquired, a disembodied voice boomed around them. "You are not of this this world."

"No," he slid his braces up over his shoulders, "but I've put a lot of work into it." He hemmed and hawed then, not over the massive eye staring directly into him, but over the selection of undone neckties that were draped over his shoulders. He held one up to the inquisitive eye. "I don't know, what do you think?"

The eye did not play along, sticking to it's own agenda. "Is this world important?"

"Important?" John replied incredulously. "What's that mean? Important? Six billion people live here, is that important? Here's a better question, is this world a threat a threat to the Atraxi?" He tossed an unwanted tie behind him and the nurse fumbled to catch it. "Well, come on, you're monitoring the whole planet—is this world a threat?"

The beam of light that had scanned John now formed a holographic like projection of the Earth. Images flashed, images of people from all over the globe. War, peace, heroes, vilains—the best and worst of humanity played out between the doctor and the Atraxi. The eye replied with a booming, "No."

"Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?"

Again, images flashed, but despite the death and destruction, the eye answered the same. "No."

"Okay! One more, just one." Doctor Smith appeared to have settled upon a tie at this time, and worked on tying it as he continued. "Is this world protected? Because you're not the first lot to have come here, no there have been so many." An array of monsters, robots and creatures flashed by now, one after another. "And what you've got to ask is, what happened to them?"

Faces now moved through the projection, starting with an old man and then nine more different men, almost appearing to grow younger, but it wasn't a reverse aging process. Each one was different, but John felt some kind of familiarity towards them. As the last projected faced appeared, John stepped through it. "Hello, I'm The Doctor. " His tie, his bow tie, was perfectly knotted around his neck as he stared down the eye. "Basically, run."

The eye retreated back to it's icy surrounding and quickly disappeared into the grey, English sky.



John woke up with a start, his skin slick with sweat as his chest heaved as though he'd just run a mile. Fumbling to unzip his sleeping bag, he swung his legs over the side of his bed and ignored the ladder as he jumped the short distance to the cabin floor. His whole body felt wibbly, as though something wasn't right—as though he'd had a dream about facing down an giant, alien eye. But it didn't feel like a normal dream. He never really pondered his dreams before anyway. But this one, it shook him to the core.

Pulling an old jumper on over the tshirt he'd chosen to sleep in, John then slid his feet into the tattered pair of slippers he'd brought along and left his room for a bit of fresh air. He rubbed his palms down along his face as he stepped outside onto the small, rustic porch of the cabin. "Bloody hell, ol' boy." He muttered to himself. What had brought all that on?