We'll find out!

"So this is a time machine?"

"Of course it is! And if I just pull this lever here, I can prove it to you."

With a wink, the Doctor grabbed a control from the big hexagonal console in the center of the room and yanked it. A strange noise filled the room.

"But is time travel, you know, safe?" Ruby began to play with her fingernails, a nervous tick she had. Because if standing in a time machine wasn't a good time to be nervous, when was?

"Of course! It almost never changes the entire course of human history."

"A-almost never?"

"Practically 0% chance of it happening."

"So I'm not going to destroy the planet just by stepping on a butterfly or something?"

"Of course not! That whole thing about butterflies is just a myth. Time's much stronger than that, it can compensate."

"But earlier, when I lost my memory of what happened for a bit, you said the goblins went back in time and ate me."

"Oh, that's just personal history! Single lives can be affected, but in the grand scheme of things, you'd need power like an Osirian to actually change history by accident."

"What's an Osirian?"

Suddenly, the noise of the TARDIS stopped.

"Out there" said the Doctor, dodging her question "is a world you've never seen before."

"I don't believe you!"

"Oh, believe it, honey! Because it is real. Take a glance."

Ruby turned around, tentatively, hoping that wherever they had landed was safe. She stepped towards the doors, then stopped, glancing back at the Doctor, nervously. He just smiled and waved her on.

Ruby closed her eyes and pulled the doors towards her, suddenly feeling a warm breeze on her face as a bright light assaulted through her closed eyelids. Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked out. And couldn't believe what she saw.

Dinosaurs!

Real, actual dinosaurs! Right in front of her!

And the world was so vibrant and green and the air smelled so clean! It was the most wondrous thing she'd ever seen.

Ruby looked around in amazement, as she took a step forward, and felt something crunch beneath her boot.

"TARDIS!" Exclaimed the Doctor as he stepped out of the door. "Time And Relative Dimension In Space." He looked around at his surroundings while Catherine turned back to face him. "Time travel AND space travel. This isn't London. From the smell of the air I'd say this will be North America some-"

As the Doctor turned and looked at his companion, he stopped dead in his gleeful spiel. She looked back at him with her bright green eyes and cocked her head in confusion.

"What's wrong?"

As the Doctor continued to stare, Catherine looked down to see if something was on her. She saw her body, covered in her beautiful golden fur, and her smart black boots to protect her paws. Her tail was behind her, and as she reached up and patted the top of her head, she felt that her ears were still in place.

"Why are you staring, Doctor?"

"Ruby, did you do anything after stepping out?"

"Who's Ruby?"

The Doctor paused for a second, considering his options, before settling on "... you are?"

Catherine gave a short laugh. "Who in their right mind would call me Ruby? I'm Catherine Sunday! Some of my friends call me Cat, or Kitty, but I've never heard Ruby before!"

The Doctor looked down at the ground as Catherine took a step forward and noticed a wounded butterfly, trying hard to flap its wings, but unable to give itself any momentum. He carefully stepped over and gingerly cupped it in his hands, softly breathing the tiniest bit of Regeneration energy to help heal its wing, before watching it fly off and hearing a soft _thump _next to him.

Ruby was confused. She couldn't remember walking over here, and the Doctor was crouched down and staring at a butterfly. She didn't think he'd even left the box! And there, right next to him, was a pile of what looked suspiciously like her clothing.

Oh.

Ruby let out a soft squeal as she covered herself with her hands and the Doctor turned around.

"Oh, no."

"Well, I guess that answers my question about the goblins!"

"I wouldn't be so hasty. That Toymaker, who let the goblins into this world, he had an effect on the world around him, too. He was able to make the whole universe function like a game. And even after I banished him, the effect lingered. This could just be the lingering taint of the goblins' presence. Maybe it'll go away after a while."

"It bloody well better!" Shouted Ruby, desperately trying not to cry. The prospect of getting continuously stripped, over and over, for the rest of her life, did not sit well in her mind. "I don't even know what happened this time."

"Ah, well, turns out you were maybe a bit right to worry about butterflies."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you stepped on one, and it seems to have shifted the course of human evolution."

Ruby looked down at her still woefully uncovered body and said "But how? Everything looks the same. Why would that teleport my clothes?"

"Well, it didn't. When the timeline changed, you were happily walking around, bare fur in the breeze. When I healed the butterfly, your clothes came back where they disappeared, but you had moved."

"H-hang on. Fur? What did I evolve into?"

"A sort of cat girl."

"Huh. I've got a few friends who're probably wishing you hadn't fixed that."

Ruby edged over to her clothes. "Would you mind turning around?"

The Doctor was puzzled for a second. "Oh, right, human modesty. I always forget about that."

"Well you might have to be a bit more mindful of it if these goblins aren't gonna stop influencing my life." As she spoke, she began to pull her clothes on, forcefully reminding her of her current lack of underwear.

"The thing is" the Doctor said, barely listening to her and stuck in his own thoughts "it shouldn't have been that easy to change the timeline. I mean, one butterfly? That's nothing! Time should have more compensators. It shouldn't be able to break and bend that easily."

Ruby, now fully dressed, asked "What are you babbling about?"

The Doctor stood up, turned around, grabbed Ruby by the shoulders, and said "I might have broken something. And I don't know what it is. But the mavity of this situation might have further reaching effects than I could ever comprehend."

"Doctor, you're scaring me."

The Doctor suddenly broke into a smile "It's probably nothing. It usually is. I'll just check the TARDIS' settings and see if I can't jerry-rig a quick fix."

Ruby smiled uneasily and followed the Doctor in.

"So" she asked playfully "where are we going next?"