Started for the angst meme on tumblr. Prompt: "Please come get me" requested by anon.
Please come get me.
No light, no dark. Every color and none at all. Solid white and solid black at the same time. No time. No sound. No sensation. No beginning, no end. The Void was the Void. Nothing more.
She didn't know how long it had been since she'd fallen. There was no time in the void so it could've just happened, could've happened eons ago, or maybe it was still happening. Maybe she was still falling and would continue to do so forever. There was no wind, no ground, no anything. She couldn't feel her own heart beating.
The last thing she'd seen was the Doctor clinging to the clamp in that horrible white room. Then things had shimmered and everything had hurt and she'd shut her eyes. She hadn't opened them since. She retained enough self-awareness to know she hadn't moved those muscles since then. She knew, somehow, that if she opened her eyes the startling reality of where she was would hit and she would go mad. As long as she kept her eyes shut she would keep herself.
Speaking was impossible. All she had was thought.
Please, please, she begged, wishing, hoping, praying that the Doctor—anyone—would hear. Please come get me. Please find me.
There were others in the Void. She could sense them. Beings of reality did not belong in the Void. Like could sense like. Some of them she knew were evil—Cybermen, Daleks—and her desire to never meet with them kept them at bay—most, she could tell were different from her in ways she could not explain. Not of her universe. Some were.
Find me, Doctor. Find me. Oh, God, someone, anyone, please, find me.
She just wanted out of this. She didn't care if she couldn't go back to her own universe and the Doctor again. She just wanted to be in a universe. Any universe. A universe where humans never came to be would be better than this. Anything would be better than this.
She wondered if she was slowly going mad in the emptiness. She clung to her memories with all her might because they were all she had. Reliving them was her only relief. Would her memories eventually fade? Would she forget her mum? The Doctor? What would become of her then?
At the end of time and the universes, would she finally end as well?
You know there's really no point.
That was not her voice. She knew her voice and that was not it. She had not thought that. That was not her thought. It had originated elsewhere. There was…another. Another trapped in the Void was near her. Relatively speaking since the voice was infinite and yet smaller than an atom. This other was one of the few from her own universe. Perhaps that was what drew them together.
What? she thought.
Calling out.
How else is he going to find me?
We're in the Void. No one can find us.
He can. I know he can. He'll find a way in. He'll find me.
The voice sighed patiently. Time may seem to pass for us but if someone from reality were to gain access to the Void, all they would hear are the screams of everyone who's ever been and will ever be here, all a once, never ending. That is why the Eternals call it the Howling…or so the legend said. Whoever you're shouting for, they'll never hear you.
She would've sobbed if she could've. She'd known, of course, on some level, that finding her wouldn't be a walk in the park. But if he couldn't hear her, how could he find her?
I'm sorry. I know hope is precious but I don't want to listen to you beg for something that won't ever come. …Believe me, I screamed for years.
There's no time here, Rose thought glumly.
Not in the literal sense. But our minds track the duration of their existence, creating an individual, artificial sense of time. I screamed for years and years before I gave up.
H-how long have I been screaming?
…You're human, right? You feel human.
Yeah.
I first heard you about…five of your months ago.
Five months?! God, had it really been that long? …Had it really only been that long? Five months in and she was beyond desperate. She couldn't handle eternity like this. She wanted to die. Death, even if it really was the absolute end of her existence, was better than this.
I have been searching for you since. You're not the only one screaming, you know. I can hear all of them. I try to block them out but certain minds are stronger than others. Yours is unusually strong for a human's. Did you have regular contact with a telepathic being?
Two, actually.
Well, that certainly explains it.
What are you? What species?
Gallifreyan.
…Get out. She nearly opened her eyes in shock. Maybe if she did she'd see this other Gallifreyan. Or maybe she'd go mad. But a Gallifreyan!
You've heard of us, then?
Heard of you! I live—lived with a Time Lord. We traveled all over the universe saving people and planets. That's how I ended up here. All 'cos I couldn't hold on tight enough. God, he watched me fall in…he looked so scared…
The Time Lady's voice was silent for a few moments. What's your name?
It came as a sickening realization that she actually had to think about it. Her name should've been instinctual, something she knew better than anything. Rose Tyler.
Rose… what's the Time Lord's name?
The Doctor. …I know he wouldn't just let me go. He's gotta be looking for a way to get to me. I know he is.
Silence. Stretching on for the span of several minutes. Eventually, Rose became panicked, wondering if her only source of companionship had gone. Eternity would be bearable if she had another to spend it with but alone, the thought was terrifying.
Where are you?
I'm here, the Time Lady assured her.
Don't leave me…
I won't leave you, I promise. I was just thinking. He wouldn't know to come looking for me. He doesn't know I'm here. Probably thinks I'm dead, you know. But if he knows you're here then he'll come looking for you. It's just a matter of whether or not he can gather the correct resources and tools for such a venture. I don't know of many Time Lords that would assist him in a trip into the Void for a human but if I stay and he finds you, then he finds us.
You know him?
You could say that. There was a hint of tiredness in the Time Lady's voice. My name is Susan. I'm his granddaughter.