az: Slightly inspired by a certain Dark-Ten RPer. Would be doing a small muse over this plot. Any similarities are coincidental.

Nightmares

Written by Izzu alias honou-no-izumi

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Dårlig Ulv-Stranden. Bad Wolf Bay. This place would always be significant to him. Since this was where he had been dropped off. Alongside Rose and Jackie.

For a while he had been unable to revisit this place without feeling as if he was coming towards a place full of despair. It had been hard for him to forget, the harsh words he had received at this place and the heartbreak that he felt then.

Yet right now, he pushed all that behind him. Because there was something more important was at stake. He did not know why, yet he knew. Something bad was happening, even as he was thinking of it right now. Despite that, he wanted to face this by himself.

Pete and Rose and the rest of the Torchwood squad they brought along were investigating another part of the bay as he tweaked their equipments to steer away from the actual rift disturbance. He had slipped away from them just as they were preoccupied with their findings. He hoped that stayed a few moments longer until he managed to figure things out by himself.

Those lots could certainly take care of themselves well but still he wanted them to stay out of this danger...

True enough, he saw his suspicions proved correct as he found what or who it was at the centre of the disturbance. He gritted his teeth.

"You're not supposed to be here."

xxx

The man turned as he caught sight of him, just a few meters from away. He seemed surprised to see him, what stupidity was he thinking right now?

"You're in the wrong universe!" John repeated. "You don't belong here! Get back to your rightful place!"

The man smiled... in that wicked way he never thought the man could do. The TARDIS kept moaning and groaning but the man paid not heed to it.

"Why not?" the man finally spoke. "If I don't belong here there were also some other people that also do not belong here!"

John felt an icy cold touch towards the core of his heart as he was struck by intense fear. This is wrong. This is really wrong!

"What are you doing here? You can't be here! You're not supposed to! Forcing your way into another universe like this will tearthis world apart!"

The Doctor smiled his eerie smile. "On whose authority are you making that claim? I am the last of the Time Lords! The rule of time are mine to control! If I want to come here by my own choice, then so be it."

John shook his head. "No, this isn't right! You're tearing this world apart, I can't let you do what you liked. I'll stop you!"

The Doctor laughed. "You? Stop me? On what grounds? You're not even a full Time Lord!"

John glared at him. "I may only be just half a Time Lord compared to you but right now I feel that I'm more of a Time Lord than you could ever be. What happened to you? What changed? You're not like this in the past, you know the rules! You're notsupposed to do something like this!"

The Doctor stared straight towards him. "I was wrong. I'm not a survivor, I'm the winner! Everyone else is dead but not me. Who else would be watching over the rules; there's no one left—I'll be making the rules now, the laws of time shall bend to my will!"

He lost it..., John thought. Much worse than he could even thought himself was capable of. Yet who was the one that went crazy?

"What do you want anyway... coming here?"

The Doctor looked at him as if he had just asked a stupid question.

"What did you think I wanted here? I came back for Rose!"

John gritted his teeth.

"All of this, just to get Rose? Do you not care what happens to all of the threads of reality? Do you not care if doing this would destroy this world?" His heart clenched as he thought of his next word.

"Did you not care if this was not what Rose would have wanted?"

"Why do you think Rose would not have wanted this?" The Doctor answered back. "How can you be sure that this is not what Rose would have wanted? Getting back to me? And leaving you behind?"

John felt another stab of pain in his heart as he kept his stand.

"This is still wrong. You should not be allowed to continue with this foolishness!"

"And how would you stop me?"

John stared at his other self as he pulled out his gun. He pointed it towards the Doctor as the man laughed.

"Are you sure you're even capable of killing me?"

"I'm not. But at this range I should be able to hurt you enough to force you to regenerate. Maybe after that you'll finally regain some sense into that head of yours! And even if you still won't change your mind, there's enough bullets in this gun to kill you before you even manage to regenerate yourself!"

The Doctor seemed to start taking him seriously.

"No, you won't. You won't have the courage to do that. Do that, and Rose would hate you for it,"

John bit his lips.

"If that was the price I have to take, so be it. I did not hesitate when I killed all those Daleks last time, why should I hesitate now? If that was all that I needed to do to protect the balance of the world?" He shook his head. "No... I shall not hesitate if everything that matters depended on the choice that I have to do. No matter the toll that it would take from me."

John smiled. "Wasn't that why you sent me to Pete's world anyway? Because I was born out of war and fire and rage? Because I was too dangerous?"

The Doctor stared towards him calmly. "Why don't I just dispense with all of that and kill you? You're after all, just a copy of me."

John's lips tightened into a grim smile. "Try if you can. If you do, you just proved to me that you're no longer the man who—!"

Without warning, John felt a strong force pushing him aback towards the rocky cove behind him. Somewhere inside him he felt something broke. For a moment, John felt numb all over. Who knows how much of an internal injury he had just received. He spat out some blood as he tried to recover his gun.

The Doctor got to it first.

John let out an involuntary snicker. "Didn't expect that coming. You really have changed!" he said. Contrary to what he said earlier, all John felt now towards the Doctor was an immeasurable sadness. He swallowed the lump inside his throat as the Doctor aimed the gun towards him.

"Go on, shoot me. You win."

All that he heard afterwards was the deafening sound of gun filling his ears and a lone bullet pierced his heart...

xxx

John immediately sat up on his bed as he stared blankly towards the night stand in front of him. His single heart had started racing very fast and he was bathed in sweat. Yet he could not remember what was it that alarmed him so much.

He looked around his bedroom, seeing that nothing was amidst. Yet his heart refused to calm down. And just as he tried to make sense of the situation, he thought he was hearing a distant sound of someone laughing. Someone familiar... yet so far away.

His bedroom door suddenly opened with a bang; and before he realized who was it that suddenly barged in, he felt the familiar presence... embracing his body very tightly. John blinked.

"Rose? I'm still in my pants."

Rose didn't answer, yet tightened the embrace. Puzzled over this gesture, yet welcoming it... John closed his eyes and returned the embrace.

"I think I had a nightmare,"