The swirling vortex was finally visible, and Rose felt herself drowning in its endless depths. Distantly, the voices of Mickey and her mother were screaming, yelling, but only one thing mattered to Rose. Reaching out tentatively with her mind, she felt a presence brush against her, one so familiar that no fear could be felt. The heart of the TARDIS entered her, and Rose was no more.

Or maybe she was more, Bad Wolf couldn't quite tell. Her body remained, host to the golden goddess, but her mind, her soul... a part of her perhaps? Yes, a part of her. The TARDIS and Rose Tyler, working as one to protect the last of the Time Lords.

But there was no time to ponder such questions. The human body would burn out soon, and there was so much to do. Bad Wolf stood. The TARDIS doors closed once more. And together, they flew to Their Doctor.

The TARDIS lands. Smoothly, much more gentle than her Thief ever managed. He's being sarcastic, she can hear. Despite his heritage, he's always acted more human than Time Lord. A faint smile grows on her face at the thought, as she throws out her arms and the doors fly wide open.

All attention is diverted to her as she steps out. It's not hard to understand why. Her body, so familiar to some, glows with a blinding golden light, and she can she by the look on his face that he knows. How could he not? He, too, had looked into the Void as a mere child, seen it's glorious golden power. Still, she sees his mouth form words to which he knows the answer already.

"What've you done?" His voice is horrified, and this Bad Wolf cannot understand. She did this for him. To save her Doctor.

At the sound of his voice, Rose Tyler clawed her way to the forefront of their sentience. Bad Wolf let her, willingly. The human girl would know what to do, and the TARDIS would aid in her quest. What would happen would still happen. "I looked into the Tardis, and the Tardis looked into me."

"You looked into the Time Vortex. Rose, no one's meant to see that." Could he not see? They did this for him. For them. The Oncoming Storm and the Bad Wolf, the Stuff of Legends. For eternity. Forever.

A Dalek gives her a new title. Abomination. It's fitting, she supposes. The power of time in a human form. It's against nature, but Bad Wolf had never really gotten along with regulations. Even those of death, she discovers as another Dalek tries to shoot her. Tries to exterminate her host. She stops it, and watches as the offender crumbles to dust. This body is under her protection.

"I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself," she realises, with an almost childlike wonder. And she knows what she must do, that she must lead herself to this revelation. "I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here."

Their Doctor refuses to accept her truth, persisting, pleading with the human to let go of the vortex. "Rose, you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now. You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're going to burn." Internally, she laughs. The human is now one with the vortex. The vortex is now one with the human. And Bad Wolf cannot be uncreated.

"I want you safe, My Doctor. Protected from the false god." She was well aware of the creature's claims of power, and derided them. He did not know the pure, unadulterated feeling of time itself flowing through you. He was mortal and puny and weak.

Still, the False God's delusions continued. "You cannot hurt me; I am immortal!"

"You are tiny," the Bad Wolf corrected, as gently as she could. "I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence, and I divide them. Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends."

The Daleks crumble as she speaks and their shock ripples across space. Such arrogant beings, to presume their own authority above hers, their Emperor crying out in disbelief, in claims of immortality even as he disintegrates.

"Rose, you've done it. Now stop. Just let go," Their Doctor pleads again, and Bad Wolf finds it amusing that this is the most she's heard him beg in hundreds of years, and it's all for a human girl.

Still, she lets Rose Tyler take control over the power for a time, watching in the background as the human girl acts in such a human way with such a powerful emotion that it ripples throughout time. "How can I let go of this? I bring life."

She took Jack Harkness and she renewed his soul, giving him lives beyond measure, though the human thought only of the one life. Bad Wolf knew better. She looked at the timelines and smiled, the immortal man would fulfil her needs of plotting the future. He would protect Her Doctor.

He felt it too, as a living fixed point was set, and he grimaced. "But this is wrong! You can't control life and death." It was unfortunate, his extreme biological response to immortality, yet The Doctor could not control her. She did it for him, but not under his authority.

"But I can. The sun and the moon, the day and night," Bad Wolf explained. She couldn't blame her Thief for not knowing. How could he know? He was still a child to the universe, a mere thousand years in a cycle of hundred trillions. "But why do they hurt?" It was odd, the feeling of pain. The human girl had felt it before, many times, but this was different. More powerful.

Her Doctor blamed himself, as was his way. Too stubborn to understand that the Bad Wolf would not allow her Rose to die, not before her time. He spoke of her burning as though she didn't know, and deem it worth it. Worth a new face. The old one had had its time, had served its purpose. It was time for a new Doctor, one more open to recovery from the war. But it was still not his fault.

"I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be." And yet... something was wrong. One timeline was distorted, warped as though to change it. Somebody wanted to change the fate of Rose Tyler. Wanted to take the Wolf away from the Storm. Bad Wolf frowned, and bent it back into place. The golden thread could never be back onto its original course, not perfectly at least, but it would get there. The Rose would stay with Their Doctor.

The Doctor smiled sadly, and she could see the agony for his people hidden behind his eyes, feel the longing thst perhaps Bad Wolf would understand his struggle, before he quashed those thoughts. "That's what I see. All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?"

The human girl blinked tearfully. The power of time was too much for her body, and Bad Wolf knew that if she didn't go soon then the Rose would perish, so she allowed herself to loosen her grip on her host, ready to leave as soon as Their Doctor played his part. "My head."

"Come here."

"It's killing me."

"I think you need a Doctor."

And Their Doctor gathered up Rose Tyler in his arms and kissed her, draining her of as many huon particles as he believed there to be. So the Bad Wolf, her job done for now, receded back to the innermost corners of Her Rose's mind to hibernate until such a time as she was once again called upon.