The Moment likes him, the proud old man and his whining TARDIS.

As he heaves it across a gritty desert, it picks through his mind and probes quietly at his soul. What a curious Timelord this one is, it thinks, for it has never seen quite so many humans in one spot. Past and present and –

No more.

Ian. The Moment tries the name on its tongue. Polly. Jamie Jo Sarah Jane Adric Tegan Peri Ace –

Rose.

The memory sings somehow and the Moment enjoys the melody. Rose Tyler, the human shop girl, with her Mickey and her smile and her bravery. Strong and quick and brave to the point of – oh. Oh.

The ripple.

In the span of the Moment's timeless sleep, it recalled an echo. A nudge from the past or future of such cosmic significance that for a split second the Moment had stirred. Recognized it – this wave, this power – as kin. The Bad Wolf.

Carefully, warily, the Moment sinks into a new memory far less harmonic - for everything, even the future, is a memory for the Moment.

Fire. Dalek hatred approaching from all sides and a man who chose coward over murderer and stood to take death by the hand. The wheeze of a TARDIS that sounds all wrong and the fire of twin hearts – machine, human – spiraling from inside to save him. Daleks to dust and life rekindled. A power that burns and a kiss that saves –

Bad Wolf, the Moment sighs softly to itself. It has found its form.

Trapped in the cell with a Past, Present, Future, the Moment feels a twinge of something that shouldn't be there at all. Leaning against a pillar, presiding over the madness, its chest does a daft fluttery thing that makes no sense.

The thin one, the streak of nothing in pinstripe, paces beside it and the Moment can't help but watch his process all too carefully.

Doctor!

Not a flutter; a pounding inside its chest.

I want you safe. My Doctor.

The Moment forces its gaze away. Odd.

All it takes to create a form is an imprint – no memories, no heart, no soul. Just a face to make them cooperate, maybe a mannerism or two. So why is Rose Tyler so very present? It gives the Moment a headache, the pressure of two minds pounding at it.

Mine, insists the Moment. My mission.

Doctor! the other voice calls to the men assembled before her. My Doctor.

"You clever boys," smiles Rose, bleeding through the barriers of everything possible. The Moment lets her through. It understands.

The Moment slips back into an eons-long sleep – and dreams.

It dreams of a girl named Rose from a tiny blue speck called Earth. Of the Timelord she loved and who loved her in return. A resistant romance that spiraled through time and space in a waltz that led them to the darkness. A lie to save a life and the unwillingness of a girl all yellow and pink. The merge of two hearts, two souls to save a man who deemed himself worth neither.

The Bad Wolf. Forged from a love so fierce that its very essence became tied to the human child. It only made sense that when the Moment had adopted a form created from such a bond that the feelings might follow.

In its slumber, the Moment smiles. Its only equal – with the power to restore life and tear apart the universe – was a human's love.

Rose Tyler shudders against the bitter cold and dreams of three Doctors in a barren desert. She dreams of her Doctor's smile and the dusty TARDIS and the grit of sand beneath her hands.

"You clever boys," she sighs and smiles into her pillow.