A Stolen Earth/Journey's End Rewrite
^ I can never remember exactly when one ended and the other began, and I'd like to point out that since I haven't seen either since their original airing (due to admittedly childish boycotting since I was FURIOUS with the writers {and Billie Piper, who made it necessary} for doing that to the Drose, it wasn't fair to ANYONE) that some facts/lines will be a little (or possibly a lot) off. Also, I don't feature Mickey or Jackie, so we'll go with the assumption of they weren't there either/or they're just being quiet and withdrawn at the idea of Rose leaving and not wanting to make a scene.
So, to set the scene, we join our heroes after the Tardis has been dropped, Davros has been introduced, force-field prisons are in place, and Jack, Martha, Sarah-Jane are all present along with the obvious Doctor and Rose. :)
PS: I use "Tardis" to mean the living entity, and "TARDIS" to mean the physical machine/shell/policebox/whatever, but in some circumstances either would work so forgive me if it's a little confusing – I tried my best! And please forgive the grammar, in some areas it's rather difficult to pinpoint which of are/were etc it should be as you'll see.
Hope you enjoy the product of my holiday boredom.
Rose Tyler should've been ecstatic. She was in the right universe, the Dimension Cannon had worked and finally brought her back where she belonged! But being home and the satisfaction of success were minuscule compared to the pure bliss that should have arisen from being by the Doctor's side again.
Emphasis on should have.
The reason being that although Rose stood in the correct universe, by a pinstriped Time Lord's side, her home was gone, fallen into an inferno at the heart of a Dalek ship, and the Doctor was gone, lost into a dark abyss much like she'd met his leather-jacketed self in.
Except with one major difference, Rose now truly understood his pain, his grief, his loss – she felt it herself. Yet the levels of each were not as they should have been either, the sadness, and guilt, and sorrow were nothing compared to the sensation burning through her soul.
Pain.
Burning, searing, fiery pain. An excruciating agony flaming through her nerves and igniting her synapses. A screaming, shrieking, crying wail of "Help me!"
Rose had tears rising to her eyes within moments of the empathic connection's beginning, she held back a whimper of distress as she miserably observed the Doctor on his hands and knees, talking despondently with some pitiful creature below being worthy of her attention.
"Doctor…" she murmured weakly, "Doctor, she's—" her voice broke off on a quickly muffled sob of anguish – not that the Doctor would have noticed in his current state – then continued in a collection of gaspy breaths as she grabbed at her hair, trying to quell her rapidly-growing headache before it evolved into something beyond even a migraine. "Doctor!" she exclaimed sharply through the pain "Oh she's screaming! She wants us to help Her, She needs us! We can't just do nothing!"
The Doctor broke from his discussion with 'Davros', surging to his feet inside his force-field cell as he turned his black glare upon Rose "'Nothing'?!" he demanded "The last Tardis in the whole of existence and you think I'm doing nothing if there was anything I could do?!" he turned on his heel, ignoring Rose so blatantly, yet she felt little at the slight, it was nothing she hadn't seen before in some form or another – not to mention she had more pressing matters to attend to than a Time Lord tantrum.
But on the off-chance he was still listening for the sound of her voice, she repeated "She's calling us Doctor. She wants us to help. We're needed Doctor." even though the word-choice was unusual, they felt right in her mouth, like she was reading from a well-thought-out script that would later elaborate their deeper meaning.
Just as the blackness of her aching head began to pervade her vision, Rose's ears detected – to her complete disgust and indignation – Davros cackle with glee and declare "Behold Doctor! Behold your Children of Time, descended into darkness in your name!"
In that moment, Jack felt a gasp ripple through him, body suddenly ill-fitting as a strange energy surged through it, both alien and so completely familiar it nearly made him tremble in anticipation. It was what he felt every time he gasped back into life – he was sure of it – that call-to-arms which could reach even beyond death's grip to command he follow orders.
And follow he did, his gaze upon instruction turning away from the Doctor and Davros' stand-off… to Rose.
"Doctor…" the hesitant yet urgent voice of Jack Harkness was exactly what was needed for Rose to make the final leap.
Gold consumed her, the waning, failing light swamping the blackness, latching on and clinging tightly to any form of life it could. The soul and essence of the Tardis attached wholly to her own, but not as a parasite, or even a symbiote. It was more that they were bonded, fused seamlessly like conjoined twins, or, if Rose were feeling particularly romantic, she'd go so far as to say soulmates.
"Oh!" was Rose's first thought, a shudder of pleasant pulsing energy shot through her "Tardis…" she murmured, "I've missed you."
"As have I." the Tardis sang in response "My dear Wolf, our sweet Rose – as has our Thief."
Objectively, Rose knew that time was of the essence – quite literally in her case – yet she couldn't prevent her curiosity "'Our Thief'?"
The Tardis chuckled within Rose, a loving wave of affection flowing through to her extremities "He stole you, just as surely as he stole me," that lilting mental voice turned faintly reprimanding. "But surely you know by now that such technicalities are nothing when we are together? When last we were joined I spent many relative Earth 'hours' training and teaching you what to do and say, and when. What is a few minutes to us, really?"
Rose grinned inwardly, aware that in the physical world none would see the movement "You always were the smart one." she joked, to which the Tardis giggled then grew serious – halting Rose's slightly hysterical silly mood brought on by the pressure of so many simultaneous events on a mind not designed for such numerous happenings.
"Shh, my Wolf, calm yourself or we're all doomed. With my shell rapidly decaying we cannot sustain the stasis surrounding us, we must be faster than would be preferable. I'm afraid we've not the time for words, mental or otherwise, I must download the information straight into your body."
Rose, ever trusting of her friend, sister and bondmate, immediately gave the affirmative, though cringed with the sheer mass of knowledge and memory flooding through her. Higher and higher rose the data tsunami, scouring Rose's consciousness and pushing its limits to breaking point, until finally, no longer able to stand the ruthless expansion of her psyche, she sobbed aloud "My head!" begging the Tardis to stop before she herself was shattered – consequently drawing everyone's attention as she inadvertently broke both the Time-lock and the silence in one gasp.
Now, all of this had occurred in the same relative second as Davros' declaration, so Rose's attention snapped instantly to the mutant before her. Herself and the Tardis, upon hearing his words, instinctively burned with rage.
"'Children'?!" they both exclaimed as one, giving Rose's normally soft London drawl a double-edged ethereal authority, the human voice box's equivalent of the Tardis' hums and songs. They stood tall together, knowing all eyes: Time Lord, human, Dalek, and miscellaneous, were upon them – they didn't care. "There are no children here," they scoffed. "This is an old game we play after all, as ancient as prey versus predator can be. Davros, we are Bad Wolf, and your kind were our first blood." The Tardis gave a nudge to Rose's mind, informing her of their next words "You are laughable! You are tiny. You are as a queen ant, with a colony of workers behind you, but you'll burn just as easily underneath our magnifying glass!"
Jack stared at Rose throughout her speech, gaping as her eyes lit up with gold at the word 'burn', the light spiralling outwards into nothingness. As she spoke, he searched for the signs of whatever it was about Bad Wolf that so unnerved the Doctor back then, and again now if his expression of fear, awe, concern and despair was anything to go by.
Yes, Jack saw there was room for the second two, Rose – or Bad Wolf as she had called herself – glowed in a ghostly light, and had given their tormentor a verbal bitch-slap (nothing new there then), but Rose quite clearly wasn't alone, given the dual-voice (which he actually thought was a neat trick, one that he'd like to try one day), golden eyes and aura of light (again, a cool trick, not to mention, it made her beauty shine ever brighter), but mostly it was the familiar feel of her that gave Jack cause for concern. This entity had made him immortal, nearly cost Rose her life, and had killed the Doctor's previous incarnation – so what was to stop that happening again?
Her powerful voice drew him from his thoughts, and again it had that haughty, mocking tone which, if coming from Rose, came from fury and desperation, she really must've detested the ugly Dalek-human-cyborg thing before her.
"If anyone's the child here, it's you!" she scoffed "Look at yourself Davros, a tiny, tiny thing, playing with power far beyond your capabilities, let alone deserving. Now look around you at the people your closed eyes call children whilst mine? I can see, I can see, I…"
Rose inhaled sharply in pain which had Jack seething over whatever creature had done this to her, but the Doctor? Oh the Doctor was pressed against his force-field prison and staring at her like his life depended on it, and knowing what he did about the Doc's feelings for Rose, Jack suspected it might've.
Rose gave a whimper as the Tardis' defensive barriers between their psyches weakened, unleashing upon Rose another mind-stretching pulse of inhuman intellect, once the pain subsided she smiled about her, studying each face and knowing exactly what to say about each one, settling first upon her wide-brown-eyed Doctor himself.
"We," she grinned at the strength of their joint voices, perfectly combined once more "can see our Lord of Time, our Thief, who stole our Heart and turned it to his wondrous purpose. The Oncoming Storm who so often was caught in the Eye and forced to watch his surroundings burn around him, out of his control, sickened by the meaningless destruction." she turn next to the one Tardis called 'Martha', but stopped, lifting her gaze to stare physically at nothing, but in her expansive mind's-eye, she observed a fiery, loudmouthed woman "Now, Donna, Friend of Time, who carried our Lord through the Golden Hour safely, as a best friend should," she let her eyes settle on Martha and continued "to the Doctor of Time, halting the bleeding of his hearts and stitching the wounds, teaching them to heal." her gaze turned fondly to Jack where he stood beside Sarah-Jane "Thank you Detective of Time, for solving the mystery of him and delivering the answers to us." Rose's eyes remained on Jack for quite a while, even in her timeless state "There is no one title for you, both Brother and Captain, protector of your family under the instruction of our Lord." her gaze snapped to Davros, and her tone took on an aggressive edge "So you see now as we do. None here is worthless but you! You are nothing but a speck in our vision! And so shall you be removed!"
Davros sat in his chair for a moment, stunned, then, began to laugh, if such a joyless sound can be called laughter. "If you wish to correct me and the prophecies, you should start with yourself. What is one pink and yellow human to the might of the Daleks?"
Rose, Tardis, Jack and the Doctor all bristled at the phrase, but the boys remained silent, leaving the double-voice of Bad Wolf to declare indignantly "We are Time itself. The aeons bleed through our bodies, ages course through our mind and so nothing can touch us." she gave the Doctor a cheeky grin "Engage Emergency Programme Theta."
The Doctor blinked at the name, stunned, but his surprise at that was nothing compared to his reaction upon hearing some very familiar engines – yet, there was something different, weaker, less alive somehow… Oh.
"Rose," he swallowed. "What have you done?" he asked finally upon the TARDIS' arrival.
"Saved our home, I did try to tell you." came Rose's solitary voice, promptly followed by a moan of abrupt pain as the gold light with and surrounding her body began to shift in the police box's direction. "Not yet!" she gasped out, weakened and starting to sound it instead of divine, she dizzily glanced about her before hissing "Go! Go! Get in now! I can't hold it much longer, the TARDIS needs it's soul back!"
"But—!" Martha started to object, but she was cut off by an unexpected – except to Rose and Tardis – female voice.
"Sorry Martha, but shut it, just move, she's handlin' it." Donna glowered from the doorway, gesturing everyone in.
Rose, Tardis and the Doctor watched the evacuation into the lifeless box, the Doctor staring suspiciously at Davros and the Daleks, unsure as to why they hadn't stopped this.
"Stasis," Rose supplied, trembling whilst trying to hold onto the Tardis' presence long enough to do what needed doing "We froze them, but before we take action…" Rose's legs failed as the energy inside her cut out the force-field prisons, making the Doctor – who was still pressed against it – fall toward her.
"Rose!" he exclaimed in panic as he crouched beside her, not yet daring to touch her ethereal figure.
Her body shook terribly as the light within it shifted yet again, agonised hazel eyes staring mournfully at him "Doctor! Please, you need to tell me what you want us to do so we can do it."
"What I want…?" he trailed off in confusion, and very distantly Rose and Tardis were amused at the sight, but had more pressing matters than mocking the Doctor.
"Daleks, Davros, ships, stars, planets." Rose summed up quickly, and the Tardis prompted her to add, though her own doubts made her say it shyly "Me…" the Doctor stared gobsmacked for a few moments more before Rose could not longer wait and had to urge him "Doctor! Please! I can't take it much longer!"
His shocked look softened "I don't understand how you've withstood it even this long." he murmured sadly.
"Doctor!" Rose snapped, hating how angry she sounded, but pain was creeping further and further through her body, setting fire to her nerves and making her muscles shiver and shake, but shiver moreso, because she was Shiver. She smiled momentarily at the thought, then got back on topic, the pain retreating as the bond fused once more "Ironic as it is, given our capabilities we don't have the Time for you to study this! We'll explain later, now: What. Would. You. Have. Us. Do?!"
The Doctor glanced around, a variety of emotions flitting across his demeanour: regret, grief, anger, hatred, fear, and so many variations of them all that even the omniscient Bad Wolf were a little taken aback by the sheer outrage rising within his frankly fantastic— oops bluntly brilliant body.
"Get rid of them." he finally spoke, his voice so soft that Rose's human ears could barely discern it "Good riddance to 'em – I need you all safe…" his voice dropped lower, so as to be almost telepathy, not sound "I need you safe Rose."
She smiled weakly at the sentiment, but the Tardis quickly told her to get a grip, they did not have time to go gooey, so her next words were serious and thanks to the Tardis' ability for mechanical detachment, completely unashamed "How long would you want me Doctor?"
The Doctor's eyes widened at what she seemed to be getting at, and so whispered hurriedly, not stopping to let his clever brain think of the million consequences and billion timelines stretching out from this moment "Forever, Rose, I'll always want you by my side."
"Then it's done." Bad Wolf's voice answered with a benevolent smirk "After all, 'life's easy' isn't it?" she she quoted cheekily, voice briefly more Rose-y "Just chemical reactions and molecular equations. 'A quirk of matter' and what's that to— Ahh!"s she slipped from consciousness, her mind no longer able to cope.
The Doctor stared, dumbfounded as Rose stood up, immediately after he was sure she'd fainted.
"Hello Theta." she murmured, her voice echoing inside his head "Don't panic, Rose is just sleeping, she'll be perfect again in no time at all." The Tardis giggled, adding that peculiar mental echo to the sound "But in all seriousness get inside my shell whilst I deal with this, neither Rose nor I will be in much of a state to help after this." she frowned "We deserve a good long rest, me without you fiddling, and her with you to give her some long-awaited TLC. Now go."
And he did, the Oncoming Storm was so shellshocked by the events that he simply did as the Tardis-in-Rose told him to, and joined the others in the soulless TARDIS' console room. He mutely took in the faces that turned expectantly towards him.
"She's dealing with it." he told them, still a little out of it with all the things he'd had to take in at once.
"What is she Doctor?" Sarah Jane asked hesitantly "What happened to Rose?"
"She is Rose." Jack answered for him, clearly noticing the Doctor's distant expression.
"And the Tardis." The Doctor added, shaking himself from his stupor "Fused together as one entity, one existence: Bad Wolf."
"Bit like a psychograft, but, better." Jack put in by way of explaining "The two of 'em made me immortal last time, dissolved an army of Daleks, including the Emperor , into dust. Isn't that right Doc?"
"Yes, and it's what they're doing now." he trailed off sadly, thinking how much he'd liked this body, and how much Rose had too.
Jack took in the Doctor's expression, and his eyes widened "Wait a minute Doc, you said—"
"Yes Jack," the Doctor cut him off. "And now I have to do it all over again." he choked a little on the words, he didn't want to regenerate, didn't want to change, didn't want to risk losing Rose again.
"You don't have to." came Rose-Tardis' shaky voice from the doors "I can rewrite your biology, like I am with hers, to retain the rejuvenative effects, but fuse your cells in your current shapes, keep you both the same for the forevers you promised, so, so long ago…"
"Stop." the Doctor interjected miserably upon taking in the way she leant wearily against a coral strut, subconsciously straining toward the colourless time rotor. "You're killing yourself!"
She smiled, borrowing Rose's tongue-in-teeth grin "I want you happy, my Wolf and my Thief, running together again, as it should be, should've been, and should be in the future." with that she stepped toward him, laid a hand over each heart, letting her golden glow consume them both in pin-pricks for a moment before stumbling back a step "Now, I think it's time to go." she grinned again, a cheeky, knowing, yet slightly melancholic smile before she muttered meaningfully "Geronimo!"
Just as Jack yelled "Wait!" but he was too late, the golden glow had already flooded out of Rose's pores and into the Heart of the TARDIS, returning life to the machine and already starting the engines, symbols flew across the monitor, equations, co-ordinates and unheeded instructions.
The Tardis for once didn't mind being ignored, as she had plenty to occupy herself with now that the threat had been neutralised – namely, returning the planets to their original positions, and observing the Doctor's companions' reactions.
The Tardis hummed happily as her Thief caught her Wolf's unconscious form and tenderly lowered himself to the floor, cradling Rose's body against his own.
"She can give you your forever now Theta, make your choices wisely." she sang into his mind before returning to her calculations.
"So…" Martha hedged, trying to break the stunned silence inside the TARDIS "This is Rose." she gestured to the girl in the Doctor's arms.
The Doctor looked up at Martha, down at Rose, the up again, thoughtful frown growing into an ecstatic grin that startled both Martha and Donna who'd still not grown used to the sight of happy-Doctor. "Yeah…" he answered, feigning casual, completely unsuccessfully.
"She gonna be okay?" Donna enquired, still thrown by the extreme gentleness with which the Doctor held Rose against him, the aww-worthy sight of him subconsciously stroking that blonde hair like it was angel's feathers.
"Yep." he popped the 'P' and beamed at Donna, then everyone else "Tardis said so, with a bit of, I quote 'TLC'. I'll make her explain later." his voice still held that reigned in quality, much like before an Oncoming Storm moment, but everyone could see a surge of anger or despair were the last things on the cards right now.
"So Spaceman, when you gonna start dancing and yelling it to the world, hell, the galaxy too." Donna asked with completely fake innocence.
"Time Lords do not dance." he replied with automatic indignation.
"Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember that you danced with Rose when we first met – Glenn Miller." Jack contradicted smugly.
The Doctor didn't have a clever answer to that, so he simply replied "Shut up Jack."
"The world…" the Doctor's attention fled from Jack to the stirring form of Rose in his arms.
"Shh…" he murmured softly, stroking the hair from her face as her eyelids weakly fluttered their way open.
"The world didn't end." she whispered happily, causing the Doctor to beam yet again.
"Everybody lives, Rose." he replied, remembering that brilliant day when nobody died and he met a wonderful future-friend.
Rose nodded at the acknowledgement of her reference, wriggling a little in discomfort "Ow." was all she said.
"You 'kay Rosie?" Jack asked, crouching beside her to study his long-lost almost-sister, just as the Doctor tensed with worry.
"Headache," she shrugged, brushing off their concern "Stop panicking Doctor. 'N' the floor's not comfy."
"I think that can be fixed, and I'll have you know I was not panicking, more… quietly concerned." the Doctor grinned again, a huge sunny smile that had Martha feeling bad for ever disliking Rose if her simple presence made him this happy.
Once Rose had been deposited safely on the jumpseat, with her adamant promise that she wouldn't fall, the Doctor set everyone else to work, each on some doodad at the TARDIS console, but the Time Lord himself dancing between two sections. Rose was vaguely aware of conversation flowing around her, discussion on the planets, the number 6 for whatever reason, and general aftermath info, but her focus drifted easily away as her eyelids drooped to the hum of the Tardis in her head.
"Sleep well Wolf, we both need it." followed by the soothing wordless song that had been the soundtrack of Rose's dreams for so many years.
The Doctor didn't try to wake Rose while everyone else made their goodbyes, including – to the complete confusion and petite amount of sadness of the Doctor – Donna, with the only reason being that she thought he needed "some time with Rose" before she would consent to returning, but he better not make her wait too long.
Despite the vast difference between his departing companions' personalities, they all seemed to share a common thought in that they all politely – excepting Jack of course – suggested he tell Rose how her felt about her, or if he could not, find some way to show her that made it absolutely clear – Jack's idea of course being too inappropriate for the Time Lord to even consider except in his naughtiest daydreams.
Now, I wrote this a while ago as I said, but thought it might need some more before posting it as a oneshot – since I still haven't thought of any real addition, I decided to just post it, and add more if it then comes to me.
(Someone if bound to ask me this, and the reason why Bad Wolf didn't harm Rose was because the Tardis' soul/spirit/essence fled into Rose's body to escape dying in the fire, therefore not being forced away – can you see what I'm trying to say? If it's still not clear just ask and I'll try to explain further)