It's the sound of the TARDIS coming back to get her.
It's the 3-D glasses on a smiling face.
It's the voice she trusts and will cover countries to hear.
It's the galaxies she still has to visit.
It's the sentence he still has to finish.
It's – a dream.
She wonders where he might be.
The lanterns float in the streets, anti-gravity devices attached to them. Rose heads down an alley, paved in glass. Underground mossy caverns are visible beneath her unnaturally loud footsteps. There was a long-winded explanation accompanying the glass streets, but she was too busy admiring the planet's emerald-colored sky.
There's a ceremony going on for the crowning of the emperor some streets away. Rose knows the Doctor would hate to have her run off. It's the first rule with him. But there's always something irresistibly exciting about breaking the rules.
"And in 1287, great year by the way, the galaxy was renamed "Serdd-Glan," after the conquering chief's daughter, who turned out to be a ruthless leader, nice girl before she decided to behead everyone who couldn't pronounce her name correctly, that was rather messy, but her granddaughter – oh, she did wonderful things. You can see her statue up there, floating over the city! Took a lot of power to keep the anti-gravity field in motion, and even now it's powered by the highly psychic dreams of the inhabitants –"
The clouds are beautiful – charged with electricity almost. A small boy abruptly turns yellow, is scolded by his mother; and then turns an appropriate shade of purple again. A girl looks shyly at him, and turns one of her magenta eyes mint green.
"- and he was one hell of a dictator, let me tell you, really, he would telepathically control his every subject's move! They were like puppets, but then he realized he couldn't do it on his own, control every single one of them, so he disconnected a few to control others, and they in turn disconnected assistants, and enough of them managed to regain their independence. Then his skin became a lovely dress for the queen, and she boasted about its magical properties, got her killed too-"
The houses, sunken in arid ground that blows around in the form of dust, have gilded tents above them made of a woven material that looks plantlike almost. It reminds Rose of seaweed accumulated on a ship. When the breeze picks up, the air wafting through the fibers turns cold. Rose supposes it's a cooling system.
"- oh, and Johnny the Great! He got teased because of his rather Earth-like name, though that is still a mystery these days, but no one dared laugh again when he became the next terrible leader of the planet! Luckily the United Galaxies came in and installed a properly-voted President, which caused an uproar because the president wasn't Serdd-Glanian-"
"Doctor?"
"And then – oh, I, yes."
"Can you shut up a bit?"
It's in comfortable silence that they watch mass destruction. No one dares break the silence first. A million questions burn on Rose's lips.
Can we stop the war?
Is it our fault they're fighting?
Will any of them survive?
She had always wondered what it was like for the Doctor to carry the guilt, of causing the death of a civilization. Rose wonders if she will be able to live with herself now.
One thing is sure. She doesn't have eternity to escape it.
"Doctor?"
"Yes?"
"Have you ever wanted to die?"
"Yes."
Rose left it at that.