Notes: I know, I'm in the middle of a story for my other series, but this wouldn't leave me alone. I had to get it written. I'll try to go back and forth between them for now because this will be way too long to wait until it's finished before I get back to the other one. I'm sorry if it slows me down a bit on each of them, but I felt like I wasn't doing my other story justice by forcing it while my mind was occupied with this one. I really hope you like it, please review!
Chapter One – The Brink of Disaster
After they had finally dropped off all of their friends from their week spent in New New York, Clara surprised them a little by asking to be taken home as well.
"It's just for a little bit. As usual, Doctor, I do have a job to get back to. Pick me up again in a few days, and thanks for the vacation," she said with a smile as she walked out of the TARDIS and into her room.
"Alright, Clara, we'll see you soon," Rose called after her. She turned to her husbands and asked, "So, boys, where are we off to now?"
"Not sure," Alex said as he threw the lever to put them into the vortex. "What do you feel like doing today, love?"
The TARDIS suddenly lurched to the side and groaned painfully, in a manner much like it used to do shortly after the war. Both Doctors gasped when they realized that their connection to their wife had become abruptly distant and weakened. They could feel that she was alive and uninjured, but afraid.
"Where is she? And how the hell did someone take her from inside the TARDIS?" Evander growled as he tried to scan for her.
"She must have been moved in time as well as space for our bonds to feel like this. I can't contact her," Alex replied incredulously.
An incoming transmission flashed on the screen and both Doctors gave each other a knowing look before setting it to play. This would be the cue for their adversary to announce the plan for their demise and gloat about it. As if the action itself weren't warning enough, the face on the screen was predictably that of the Mistress (formerly the Master, of course).
"Doctor! Or should I say, Doctors? Hmmm. Nice to see another familiar face. Are we teaming up again now?" Missy asked with an evil grin.
"Oh, so you weren't aware of their return? You seemed to know so much about what was going on the last time we met, so I suppose I'm a bit surprised you didn't know. I'm not surprised you didn't die. That never seems to stick with you, does it?" Evander snarked at her.
"I've been watching you for centuries, Doctor. But explain yourself, what do you mean, return?" Missy questioned.
"Not sure we really owe you a full out explanation of events, but... do you remember the trial? Maybe a few bits about the Rani and dinosaurs?" Alex prompted.
"The Valeyard? But you can't be! And why would you be working with the Doctor?" Missy exclaimed in shock. She was sure that the Valeyard had been trying to kill the Doctor during the trial.
Alex laughed at her ignorance. "Oh, that was all just an act! Not only to fulfill what I remembered happening, but I needed some information from the Matrix and how else could I get it, now?"
"Alright," she replied nervously, "but you said their return, Doctor. Who else has returned?" Missy wondered as she looked at them both suspiciously.
"Well, you're the one that made her disappear just now, I presume. Don't you even know who you're kidnapping?" Evander angrily glared at her.
"Really? Hmm. Must be a side effect of the device I was using. Oh! But that would mean..." she gasped and looked at him in shock. "You've bonded with her? Who is she?"
"What device? What have you done?" Alex shouted at Missy through the screen.
"Oh, I'm tracking back through your timeline, Doctor. Right back to the very first version of you. If I can destroy you in the past, then I could have succeeded in taking over the universe long ago, without you there to stop me," she answered as she absentmindedly checked her nails.
"What does that have to do with ... her?" Evander asked, not willing to reveal Rose's identity just yet.
"Well, the device I'm using, pulls me along your timeline. Since she is bonded to you, it will drag her along with it. An inconvenient side effect, since it will mean someone else will be there to interfere, but she'll hardly be a match for me," Missy told them confidently.
~'I wouldn't be too sure of that,'~ Alex thought to Evander who smirked at the idea of what Rose would do to protect them.
"In any case, enjoy dying. I'll just go have some fun with your past self and your little wife!" Missy sneered, then cut off the transmission.
"Can we track them, somehow? Follow her and help?" Alex asked and looked over Evander's shoulder as he tried desperately to find a way to track the device Missy was using.
"This might take a while," Evander groaned in frustration.
Rose opened her eyes from being thrown to the floor of the TARDIS, only to find three people staring at her in confusion. Her connections to Alex and Evander were distant and weak, which terrified her. But she knew instantly that the man lying on the floor next to her was the Doctor.
"Oh," Rose grumbled as she sat up and looked around the unfamiliar console room. "How did I get here? What's wrong with the Doctor?" she asked as she crawled closer to him.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" asked a young woman with short, dark hair. She was standing in the doorway that led from the console room into the rest of the ship. The girl held a small bag of water and a bandage.
"Susan!" Rose gasped. "I'm... well... I suppose I'm your step-grandmother? I'm from the Doctor's future and I honestly have no idea how I got here," she babbled in shock.
Susan stared at Rose suspiciously for a moment before noticing something else. "The doors! Well, they can't open on their own! They can't!" she shrieked fearfully.
"Calm down, Susan, it'll be alright," Rose told her and moved to take the panic-stricken girl into her arms.
"Perhaps he did it," the man that Rose recognized as Ian, from her husbands' memories, suggested.
"Grandfather?" Susan asked incredulously.
"Did it before he cut his head open," Ian clarified.
"Cut his head open?!" Rose shouted and took the water and bandage from Susan to tend to her unconscious husband on the floor.
"No, he wouldn't do that," Susan denied as she allowed the mysterious newcomer to take care of her grandfather.
"They must have been forced open when we crashed," Barbara interjected her own opinion.
"Crashed?" Ian and Rose asked at the same time.
"No, the ship can't crash. It's impossible. Grandfather? Grandfather!" Susan cried and joined Rose at his side on the floor.
"Susan, come on now. Of course the TARDIS can crash, but I've never known it to force the doors open," Rose told her, wishing that she would calm down and pull herself together.
"Susan, it's alright," Barbara said and placed her arm around Susan's shoulders in support.
"No. No, there's something here. Inside the ship," Susan denied.
"What?" Ian gasped.
"But that's not possible," Barbara told her.
"You feel it, don't you?" Susan questioned all of them.
"Susan, what is it you're feeling? Can you show me?" Rose asked her with a tap to the side of her head.
"I... I don't know. Something feels... wrong," she tried to explain and backed away from everyone with her arms wrapped around herself defensively.
"What kind of bandage is this?" Barbara asked as Rose finished treating the Doctor's wound.
"It has an ointment embedded in the fibres, that's the coloured stripes. As it goes into the wound, the colour disappears. When it's all white, it's healed and you can remove it," Rose explained.
While they were talking, Ian moved towards the doors. As he got closer, the doors began to close. "Did you do that?" he asked.
"We haven't moved," Susan told him, still shivering in fear.
He walked back towards the console, and the doors opened again.
"I'm going to try the controls," Susan announced and walked quickly towards the console herself.
"No. Wait, Susan," Rose called to her, but was too late to stop her.
As soon as Susan touched the control panel, she received a severe shock and collapsed on the floor. Rose quickly moved to check on her and shifted her into a more comfortable resting position.
"Why in the world did she do that? Didn't she hear the TARDIS warning her?" Rose mumbled.
"What do you mean?" Ian questioned Rose, having heard what she said.
"The TARDIS, is terribly upset about something. She warned Susan not to touch the controls. I can't imagine why she wouldn't listen," Rose explained.
"Are you trying to tell me that the ship is alive?" Ian asked, almost laughing at the ridiculousness of the idea.
"Of course she's alive," Rose replied and the Doctor began to stir.
"Ian, take Susan and put her to bed," Barbara ordered.
Ian picked up Susan over his shoulder and carried her deeper into the ship. "If anything happens, let me know," he called back to them.
The Doctor's eyes fluttered open and were met with the dark brown gaze of a woman he had never seen before. His jaw dropped open in shock when he recognized the bond connecting her to him. "What?" he gasped.
"How do you feel, Doctor?" Rose asked him.
"Oh, my head," he groaned and grasped the back of his head as he sat up.
"You cut your forehead, but you'll be alright," Barbara told him.
"It hurts here," he protested and rubbed the back of his head, far away from the bandage over the cut.
"That's from the TARDIS," Rose told them.
The Doctor gaped at her then. "What do you mean? Who are you? How did you get here?" he interrogated her.
"Calm down, love. I'm from the future, obviously since we aren't married yet. My name is Rose. And I mean that the pain in the back of your head is from the TARDIS. She's terribly upset about something and she's letting you know by shouting at you that way. Why don't you know this?" Rose explained while trying to ease his pain a little with soft mental caresses.
"You didn't tell me how you got here. What are you doing here, hmm?" the Doctor questioned, trying to glare at her, but failing as she could feel his giddy curiosity about her teasing the edges of their bond.
"I'm not sure really. Our TARDIS lurched about suddenly, I was thrown to the floor and woke up here," she admitted and looked around the different console room again.
They heard a sudden shout from deeper inside the ship and the three of them ran to see what the problem was. Ian was holding an unconscious Susan in his arms. It looked as though she had collapsed and she had a long pair of scissors held loosely in her hand.
"She went mad. Tried to stab me with those, then violently stabbed at the mattress before she passed out again," Ian explained.
"What in the world?" Rose gasped. She took hold of Susan's shoulders and pushed her back into a comfortable position on the bed, rather than where she was half kneeling and half in Ian's arms.
Barbara took the scissors and moved them into the next room. The rest of them followed her once Susan seemed comfortable. The Doctor sat on a bench by the wall and continued rubbing the back of his head.
"The ship must have stopped and put us down somewhere," the Doctor told them.
"But where? Where are we?" Barbara questioned the Doctor.
"Oh, all these questions, Miss Wright. Please," he dismissed her.
"You don't know, do you? You're just guessing aren't you?" Barbara accused.
"Just calm down, Barbara. We'll figure this out. Now, why would you say that the ship has landed somewhere, Doctor? It feels like we're in the vortex to me," Rose asked him and rubbed his shoulder gently to try and relieve some of the stress.
"What? How could you know that?" the Doctor questioned, staring at her in wonder.
"Do you really not listen to the TARDIS? She's trying to tell you all of this right now," Rose sighed in exasperation.
"What in the world are you talking about, young lady? The machine is not alive," he chastised her.
Rose looked at him in shock. "What do you mean she's not alive? Of course she is! Do you mean to tell me that you haven't even bonded with your own TARDIS?" Rose laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. "Dear lord, you stole her without even knowing that TARDISes were alive?"
The Doctor stood stiffly in front of the woman who was laughing at him hysterically. He grasped his lapels and glared at her as he said, "You are a most impertinent young woman. Come, Chatterton, we must check the fault locator."
The two men left the room then and Rose's laughter slowed to a light chuckle. She called after him, "It's Chesterton!"
Once Rose had calmed her laughter, she tried to consider all the possibilities of how she could have been pulled so far into the Doctor's past. Whatever it was, might be related to the trouble with the TARDIS. She decided to go have a chat with the ship as best she could and entered the console room. From there, she could hear the Doctor's argument with Ian in the room nearby where the two men checked the fault locator circuits. The Doctor was accusing Ian of messing with the controls and Rose shook her head at his antics.
Rose walked to the console and the TARDIS indicated to her where it was safe to touch her controls. She placed her hands on the flat surface near the time rotor, closed her eyes, and concentrated on what the TARDIS could convey. She couldn't use words, but feelings and images were possible. Rose got the impression that someone outside was trying to take over her controls. They were invading the space where she should be connected to her pilot and trying to force her destruction, taking her passengers along with her.
Rose gasped and opened her eyes. "Doctor! She's managed to tell me the problem," she called to her husband.
"What?" he gaped as he stuck his head into the room. "What on Earth are you doing, child?" he questioned her rudely.
"Child?! I'm your wife you rude..." Rose stopped herself from cursing at him with a growl. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing, "Look, you know that I'm from your future. You can feel it and you know I'm telling you the truth. Therefore, I must know certain things that you currently don't. Your TARDIS is alive, you should be telepathically bonded with her as her pilot, and she has informed me that there is currently someone from outside the ship trying to take over her controls."
The Doctor looked suitably chastised for his outburst and stared at the floor while shuffling his feet a bit.
"How could we possibly know to trust you? You appeared inside the ship right after whatever happened started. Maybe it was you that caused all this," Ian accused her.
"Yes, you claim to know so much, but the Doctor didn't even know your name when you got here," Barbara agreed.
"She is telling the truth," the Doctor interrupted in her defence. "My people are telepathic. At some point in the future, apparently, I will create a link between my mind and hers. Binding us together. I can feel it with her, even now."
"Exactly. And you should have something similar with your TARDIS, but you didn't even know that she was alive, let alone that you should be talking with her like that," Rose explained further.
The panel in front of Rose beeped that there was an incoming transmission and Rose flicked the switch to display it on the monitor. There was instantly an image that Rose only recognized from Evander's memory. It was Missy.
The Doctor moved to Rose's side to see what was happening and asked, "Who are you? What do you want?"
"Oh, Doctor! So young, my goodness, it's been ages," Missy sneered at him.
"Missy," Rose snarled. "Is it your fault that I was pulled here?"
"Hmm. Apparently. I didn't even realize that there was anyone that would be affected by the device when I activated it. Well, other than your beloved Doctor, of course," she replied and chuckled.
"Missy? I don't know any Missy," the Doctor responded confusedly.
"The Mistress... the Master... Koshei. Whatever you want to call her," Rose clarified and glared at the evil woman on the screen. "What precisely are you trying to achieve with all this?"
"Oh, but you have me at a disadvantage. Your Doctors have told you all about me, but I know nothing about you. Well, other than the obvious, that you're his wife," Missy replied and looked at Rose calculatingly while pursing her lips.
Rose chuckled a bit and smiled at leaving her in the dark. "Oh, but we have met. Your memory must be fading in your old age. Perhaps I can remind you of my part in the Doctor's trial? They liked to call me Sagacity, then," she informed her.
Missy looked at her in shock for a moment. "Who are you? How did you escape the war?" Missy demanded.
"Simple, I wasn't there. And you do know about me, but I don't think I'm going to tell you my real name. I rather like the idea of leaving you in the dark where you belong," Rose told her with a smug grin.
"Why are you doing this?" the Doctor interrupted. "We were friends, Kochei."
Missy laughed and threw her head back. "Friends? Is that why you left me to deal with those stuffy bureaucrats all on my own, while you ran off to explore the universe? We were going to start a revolution on Gallifrey! Instead, I'm just going to have to kill you," she told him sweetly. She was clearly insane and quite dangerous.
"Don't count on it, Missy," Rose scoffed at her as she flicked the communication closed.
"Why...?" the Doctor questioned, clearly heartbroken by the interaction.
Rose hugged him immediately and tried to soothe the pain of seeing how much his former friend would despise him in the future.
"We don't have much time. She's going to act quickly now to try and overpower the TARDIS. I'll have to connect with her more deeply to force Missy out. Then, we'll get you connected to her properly so that this can't happen again," Rose told him as she prepared to open up the heart of the TARDIS again. The ship reassured her that she would be safe connecting with her heart again and that it was the only way.
"What are you doing?! You can't open that! All of the power of the ship is beneath that column. You'll be killed instantly," the Doctor argued, obviously worried for her safety.
"Don't worry, Doctor. I've done this before," she reassured him. "All of you need to stand back, and whatever you do, don't look into the light."
"You can't do that!" Susan shouted from the doorway and ran towards Rose at the console.
"Susan, stop!" the Doctor shouted and moved to pull her back away from Rose.
"Trust me, Susan. Please. I was pulled here by someone trying to harm your grandfather. I'm bonded to him in the future, our lives tied together. I would never do anything to harm him," she told the young girl and pulled her bonding pendant out to show them.
The Doctor looked at her in awe, tears filling his eyes. Rose met his gaze and spoke the phrase of devotion that they shared during all of their special moments together. Susan gasped and clutched her hands to her mouth as she heard the Gallifreyan phrase spoken. She and the Doctor both nodded to her encouragingly to continue.
"Don't look into the light, any of you," Rose warned once again as she opened the panel to reveal the heart of the TARDIS.
Rose didn't remember what had happened the last time she connected to the TARDIS. The experience was too intense for her mind to contain it at the time. Now that she had changed, however, she could speak with the TARDIS completely. Together, they forced Missy's connection out of the controls, freeing the space for the Doctor to bond with the ship properly. Then, with a warm mental nudge, the TARDIS urged Rose back into the waking world.
The panel shut abruptly and Rose took several gasping breaths as the golden glow slowly faded from her eyes. The Doctor instantly ran to her side to help support her. He was in awe of this woman. How had she managed to do that?
Rose smiled at him and took his hands to place them on the time rotor. Rose placed one hand on the rotor and the other on his temple as she helped him to recognize the slight connection he had felt earlier as a pain in the back of his head. She then helped to push that connection between them to be stronger, creating a proper bond with his time-ship. He gasped at the feeling and when he pulled away, smiled at her brightly.
"Oh, my dear girl, this is marvellous!" the Doctor shouted and surprisingly picked her up in a spinning hug.
Rose squealed gleefully. "It was my pleasure, Doctor. I'm so glad I had the chance to meet this version of you. You'll have to suppress these memories, of course. I don't know what you thought happened during all of this. You haven't shared every moment of your two thousand years with me yet," she said with a sigh.
"Goodness me, do I have to wait that long to meet you?" the Doctor asked sadly.
"No, love. Not quite that long, but it's complicated. I'm sure you'll come up with some excuse for the trouble with the TARDIS to fill all of your memories with," Rose told him.
Ian and Barbara looked at each other nervously. They didn't know what all of that meant, but it didn't sound pleasant. Rose noticed their discomfort immediately.
"Don't worry. It's just that, with me being from the future, the Doctor can't know about this or it creates a paradox. So, he'll have to make himself forget all of these events. To prevent any of you from inadvertently saying something about it, he'll have to change the memories of the rest of you as well. It doesn't hurt you, he'll just fill in the blank space with, oh I don't know, one of the buttons got stuck or something and caused the ship to malfunction," Rose explained.
"So, how will we get you back to your proper time stream?" the Doctor questioned as he grasped his lapels again, his chin raised in thought.
"I suppose, I could have you drop me off somewhere. I'm not sure if I could contact you in the future..." Rose began but was suddenly cut off as she disappeared from the TARDIS entirely.
She gasped at the sudden swooping feeling in her stomach and took a moment to take in her surroundings. She appeared to be in some sort of space museum. She could hear some people arguing nearby, but they didn't appear to notice her arrival.
"I'm sorry, but I've got no alternative. Miss Kelly?" a rather severe sounding man said.
"Sir?" came the response from a blonde woman, apparently Miss Kelly.
"I want all technical personnel working on this. I want that rocket prepared for launching," the man ordered. Ooh, a rocket. Those were fun, she could definitely help with that.
"Yes, Commander," Kelly replied and left to fulfill her duties.
"We'd be grateful for your help," the Commander stated to an older man who was scowling.
Rose noticed the second incarnation of the Doctor standing nearby with two people who she recognized as Jamie and Zoe. She started moving to approach the group in discussion.
"If that rocket is going to reach the moon safely, you'll need more than help. You'll need a miracle," the scowling man replied.
"Well, it's a good thing I'm here then," Rose interjected with a smile.