Rose felt her body's pressure and her head felt so heavy for what was a millisecond before she landed perfectly on her feet, gun in her hand. She remembered the Doctor's policy of "no guns" but this was an exception. They had no idea what they were fighting.
She frowned when she felt everything so different. She thought, being back in her universe, that that small empty feeling in her stomach would disappear, but it just felt bigger. Her eyes scanned the street she had landed in, and quickly noticed how everyone was looking up, so she decided to do so too.
"Well now we're in trouble," she said, taking sight of the stars and constellations and planets in the dark, night sky. "And it's only just beginning," she muttered as she loaded her gun.
She walked around the streets, not even surprised by seeing everyone run around, some crying, some laughing, some searching for their loved ones. She stopped for a second and closed her eyes, a gold burning light appearing in them as soon as she opened them.
I can't feel the TARDIS, she thought. This means they're not here yet. Oh Doctor, where are you?
She was eager, eager to finally see him after all this years. She had changed, was slightly more mature, she was. All those years without him had made her grew up, showed her that life wasn't as fun and easy as it seemed.
And oh, how she missed him. She longed to be in his arms, hugging him. She missed the laughter and inside jokes, being able to have a soulmate like him was something she missed with all her heart. And now she was finally here, but, where was he? And how could she look for him?
"The end of the world darling," a man said, holding a glass of beer. "The end of the stinking world." Rose smiled slightly.
"Have one on me mate," he raised his glass to her and she moved on, smile wiping of her face.
She stopped dead as she heard glass breaking and turned around. Of course. It was the end of the world and there was people stealing computers. She frowned for a second. Well... she could use one of those to locate the Doctor. Slowly, she approached the building, holding her gun close to her as she did.
"Right! You two!" she said bravely, and they both turned around to look at her. "You put that stuff down, or run for your lives," she ordered, loading her gun loudly. "Do you like my gun?" she added. The two young boys looked at each other in fear and ran away, forgetting completely about the computers. Rose smiled triunfally and sat down in front of one of the laptops, quickly looking for a scanner of where they were and what kind of spaceships were near them. As soon as she noticed that there was no sign of the TADIS, her face fell, sadness all over her features. Although there was no sign of the TARDIS, a big fleet of spaceships could be seen around the Earth. A few seconds later, a transmission came through. A recording.
"EXTERMINATE. EXTERMINATE. EXTERMINATE."
Rose's eyes widened as they filled with tears. She stood up quickly, leaving the store as fast as she could. She stared up at the sky, mouth shut with fear. The dalek's spaceship soared through the sky, shooting randomly at people with lasers. She turned around and walked away, not turning back even when she heard a loud explosion right behind her. She had to find the Doctor, or most importantly, the Doctor had to find her.
She walked around, thinking about a plan. She had to get settled first, couldn't risk just going around the streets with a gun and millions of daleks knowing who she was, but, where?
"I warned you dad!"
"HOSTILITY WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. EXTERMINATE. EXTERMINATE. "
Rose's eyes widened as she turned around quickly. A dalek was pointing at an old man and a woman who had tried to be brave and sneak past them.
"EXTERMIN-" she raised her gun and shot as best as she could from where she was, managing to blow its head off. She smiled proudly at herself and made her way to the people she had just saved.
"You wanna swap?" the old man said, raising his paintball gun. She quickly recognised him and the woman beside him. Oh, this was brilliant!
"You're Donna Noble's family right?" she asked, though she knew she needed not to. It was them, obviously. They nodded. "I'm Rose Tyler, and I need you."
"I tried calling her, but I can't get through," Wilfred said, taking his jacket off. Rose frowned. "She's still with the Doctor, I know that much and- and the last time she phoned, it was from a planet called Midnight, made of diamonds."
"What the hell are you two on about?" Donna's mother bellowed, confused. Wilfred and Donna's mother started talking, apparenlty her mother didn't know that Donna was travelling with the Doctor. Rose sighed.
"You were my last hope. If we can't find Donna, we can't find the Doctor," she said, her voice shaky and stressed. "Where is he?"
Donna's mother looked at his father, eyes teary. It was a shock for her, knowing where her daughter was, so Rose decided to go to the other room to give them a moment. Eventually she started crying, the dalek's command as their background.
Minutes later though, a loud beep started ringing through the house. Rose's head perked up, looking for the source of that sound.
"Can anyone hear me?" came a very familiar voice. "The subwave network is opened, you should be able to hear my voice." It was the laptop, a video in it, a transmission. Rose quickly stood up and ran through it, trying to get a cleared image. "Is there anyone there?"
"I know that voice," Rose said, eyes wide.
"Captain Jack Harkness, shame on you!"
"Jack!" Rose said, trying to fix the computer.
"Harriet Jones, former prime minister," the image finally became clear. She could hear Jack's voice in the background.
"Harriet it's me! It's me! Oh she can't hear me, have you got a webcam?" Rose said, turning around to Wilfred.
"No, she wouldn't let me. She said they're naughty," Wilfred said, and Rose turned around.
"I can't speak to them can I," she said, paying attention to the transmition. Rose saw how she summoned Sarah Jane, and quickly heard her voice in the background, too. A moment later she could see all of them in little squares. There was one though, that wasn't working.
"The fourth contact seems to be some trouble getting through," Harriet said, clicking some buttons.
"That's me! Harriet it's me!" Rose said, biting her lip.
"I'll just boost the signal," Harriet said, and the four image became clearer.
"Hello!" a tanned woman said, smiling slightly. Jack laughed.
"Martha Jones!" he said gleefully.
"Who's she? I wanna get through," Rose said, frowning. Who was this girl?
Jack started talking to Martha, and she started explaining about some Project Indigo being a go.
"Torchwood, this is Sarah Jane Smith," she said, motoning to Sarah. Jack made a comment about her, and Rose rolled her eyes. Typical Jack. "And Martha Jones, former companion to the Doctor." Rose's eyes widened.
"Oi, so was I!" she said, jealousy in her voice. She sighed, and listened as Harriet started explaining what the network they were talking through was. After that, they starting arguing about the Osterhagen key, which Martha had been gaven to.
"I can't find him," Martha said. "The Doctor's got my phone in the TARDIS and I can't get through."
"Nor me," Rose said. "And I was there first."
"That's why we need the subwave," Harriet explained. "To bring us all together, combine forces. The Doctor's secret army."
"Wait a minute," Jack said, "we boost the signal, that's it!" he quickly explained his plan, to which everyone agreed.
"My life doesn't matter," Harriet said bravely. "Not if it saves the Earth."
"Harriet Jones..." Rose whispered, her eyes sad but proud.
"Now enough of words, let's get to it." Rose sighed softly, and took out her phone, scanning for the Doctor's number. Oh, how many times she had tried dialing, she knew it by heart now. She raised her phone up to the sky, as if that would help.
"Find me, Doctor," she whispered, closing her eyes. "Find me." She stood there for a few mintues, eyes closed and maximum concentration.
And then she felt it.
The empty feeling in her brain, her connection to the TARDIS, quickly being filled up. They were here. She turned around to the laptop, and there he was. The Doctor.
Her heart stopped and hey eyes became teary. He was here, so close to Earth. She could feel the TARDIS. She could almost feel him.
"Where the hell have you been?" Jack bellowed. "Doctor, it's the daleks."
"He's a bit nice, I thought he'd be older," the girl behind Jack said, grinning.
"Hmm," Rose groaned.
"He's not that young," a guy next to her said, a trace of jealousy in his voice.
Everyone started explaining about the daleks at the same time, Sarah Jane bringing up her son, while the Doctor smiled widely.
"Sarah Jane! Who's that boy? That must be Torchwood," the Doctor explained to Donna happily. "Aren't they brilliant? Look at you all you clever people."
"That's Martha," Donna said. "And who is... he?"
"Captain Jack. Don't! Just... don't." the Doctor said quickly.
"Doctor it's me," Rose said gloomly. "I came back."
"It's like an... outer space Facebook!" Donna said excitedly.
"Everyone except Rose," he said sadly, and a tear slipped down Rose's cheek. Donna looked at the Doctor, sadness in her eyes. The transmission then broke, though she could still hear the Doctor's voice.
"No there's another signal coming through! Hello? Can you hear me? Rose," he said, his voice loaded with emotion. Rose's heart skipped a bit.
"I wish, Doctor," she said sadly. But then, someone came into view. An alien Rose had never seen. He and the Doctor started arguing, until the Doctor childishly left the conversation with a "Bye!" and she knew he was landing in Earth. This is where she came in. She stood up, holding her communicator close to her ear.
"Control!" she said, walking out of the living room. "Lock me on into the TARDIS. Now." She hung up. "Alright, I'm gonna find them," she said to Wilfred and Donna's mother. "Wish me luck!"
They both said their farewells and "Good Luck!"s and she quickly dissapeared.
She felt the usual pressure, the dizzyness, and then there she was.
She had been transported into a dimly light street, though the TARDIS was nowhere to be seen. But she felt it, oh she was so close. She felt her warmth and her singing in her head, and in that moment she felt so, so strong.
She started walking toward the TARDIS' song, her legs a bit shaky. The Doctor was here, he could be just around the corner. She was going to finally see him.
She walked for a good two minutes, when she saw him.
He was facing Donna, who was listening intently to what he said. Her heart raised inside her chest and her mouth went dry. What was she supposed to do now? Scream his name? Walk up to him and touch his shoulder? Her mind went blank and she blinked, unsure of what to do.
Then she caught Donna's eyes, and saw her smile knowingly. She said something to the Doctor and he didn't move for a second, then he slowly turned around.
Everything was silent for a few seconds. They stared at each other's eyes, the happiness and sadness and loneliness glowing through each of them. For a second no one could move or breath, because they both wondered, was this really happening? Was she really there? Was he really there?
And then they realized, they were there. And they were wasting precious time. A smile spread slowly through Rose's face and the Doctor blinked, and started running to her.
She ran to him too, though she was slightly more slow thanks to her heavy gun, which she started to take off, and yeah, he had always been the faster runner.
As soon as they were close enough to see each other properly, she thew her gun and jumped at him. He catched her easily, picking her up from the ground and pressed her to him into a hug none of them could believe.
Her warmth was something he had missed to death for those long years. She fit into him as no one else did. Her smell was something incomparable, something he'd never forget. They were both shaking slightly as they twirled for a few seconds thanks to the force they had been running with. They stopped suddenly, not moving for what could've been minutes. He lowered Rose to the ground but didn't pull away. They were hugging as hard as they could, and the Doctor could feel his suit jacket getting wet.
"Rose," he said softly, his voice quavery.
"Doctor," she choked a sob, pulling away just the right amount to look at him.
"Hello," he said softly, and she gave a watery chuckled.
"Hello," she whispered back.
"Long time no see."
"Yeah, been busy you know," she said and he grinned.
His eyes were dark, filled with emotion and pain and happiness all at the same time, and she couldn't help herself as she moved her right hand to his hair and pulled him to a kiss.
He wasn't even surprised, his hands moved to her waist as he pressed her to him while kissing her back. It was heaven. Her lips were soft and sweet as he remembered them from the last time they had kissed. She was warm and nice and they fit perfectly, and he wanted that kiss to never end.
"Rose! Doctor!" the heard a voice behind them. "Watch out!" They broke their kiss quickly but reluctantly, and saw a Dalek near them.
"IT IS THE DOCTOR. EXTERMINATE. EXTER-" Jack prepared his gun and shot him, breaking him into small pieces. The Doctor smiled at him thankfully and turned back to Rose.
"Um, we should- get into the TARDIS," he said, slightly dazed. "We'll be more safe there." She looked at him, her eyes shinning and nodded.
"Yes, of course," she said distractedly. He bit his lip, wishing to be able to kiss her one more time, but they knew each second was precious right now.
"Can I just say- it's good to see you," he said, not being able to put into words how much he had missed her. She chuckled.
"It's good to see you too," she said as they, hand in hand, hurried into the TARDIS.
"Well then," the Doctor said, entering the TARDIS. "Let's-"
"Wait a minute," Rose said, frowning. "Is that your hand? Like, your old hand?"
"Oh yeah!" the Doctor said, grinning. "That's my hand! Remember that hand?"
"'Course I do!" Rose smiled. She then turned around to Jack, her eyes shiny. "Jack."
"Rose," he said happily and hugged her tightly.
"Oh, I've missed you! Where have you been? Have you been travelling with him again?" she nodded to the Doctor.
"Me and him? Nah," he said, releasing Rose. "It's a... long story. We can talk about it later."
"Yeah," Rose said. "So, you were saying?" she nodded to the Doctor.
"Oh, yes," he nodded. "Okay, so-"
"TARDIS HAS BEEN LOCATED." he was quickly interrupted.
Everyone looked at each other, eyes wide.
"Get us out of here!" Jack said to the Doctor. He started moving around, fiddling with the controls.
"TEMPORAL PRISION INICIATED."
"Agh!" Rose groaned as she sat down on the ground, holding her head.
"Rose! What's wrong?" the Doctor asked, sitting down with her.
"The TARDIS. Something's been done to it." The Doctor frowned.
"But what does that have to do with-"
"I'll explain later," she said. "But please- please fix it." The Doctor nodded and stood up, moving some buttons. Suddenly though, the lights in the TARDIS went out.
"I can't," he said. "They've got us. Power's gone! Some kind of... chronon loop!" he moaned frustratedly. The TARDIS then started moving, sucked into space. They all held on to something as the TARDIS wooshed furiously, even Rose, who had managed to control the pain in her head.
"There's a massive dalek ship in the center of the planet," Jack informed. "They're calling it The Crucible. Guess that's our destination."
"You said this planets were like an engine," Donna said to the Doctor. "But, what for?" The Doctor frowned but then looked over to Rose, an idea in marked in his features.
"Rose! You've been in that parallel world, that world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future, what was it?"
"Just the darkness," she said seriously.
"The stars were going out," Donna remembered.
"One by one," Rose concluded. "We looked at the sky and they were just- dying." she sighed. "Basically we've been building this um- this travel machine- this um, dimension cannon so I could- well, so I could-"
"What?" the Doctor asked, curiously.
"So I could come back," Rose said, obvious tone in her voice. The Doctor smiled sheepishly and chuckled, his eyes shinning. "Shut up." He laughed softly. "Anyway, suddenly it started to work, and the dimmensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, not just in yours but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is... destroying everything."
"In that parallel world... you said something about me," Donna asked, worry in her eyes.
"The dimension canon could measure time lines and... it's weird Donna but they all seem to convert on you," Rose explained.
"But, why me?" Donna asked, frowning. "I mean, what have I ever done. I'm a temp. From Chiswick!" The Doctor frowned, still lingering on the subject of Donna's weird Time Line fiasco, when an alarm started ringing through the TARDIS.
He hurried to the screen, and saw a map of where they were heading.
"The Dalek Crucible." he said. "All aboard." They all looked at each other, worry in their eyes. They all heard a crash that meant they had landed, though it wasn't necessary, as they heard a voice that assured it.
"THE TARDIS IS SECURED. DOCTOR, YOU WILL STEP FORWARD OR DIE." The Doctor sighed and walked forward to the door, and so did everyone else. Rose shuddered for a second and so did Donna. They felt a strange electric current running through them, as if they were pulled backwards.
"We have to go out," the Doctor said, his voice emotionless. "'Cause if it not they'll get in."
"You told me nothing could get through those doors," Rose said, forgetting for a second of that strange feeling inside of her.
"You've got extrapolator shielding," Jack frowned.
"Last time we fought they daleks they were scavengers, and hybrids and mad, but this is a fully ready dalek empire, at the height of it's power," he explained. "Experts in fighting TARDISes, they could do anything. Right now that wooden door, is just wood." Donna blinked, trying to snap out of that feeling that pulled her in.
"What about your dimension jump?" Jack asked Rose.
"It needs another twenty minutes but still I'm not leaving," Rose protested, and then stopped. There it was, that feeling again. She gulped, shaking her head.
"Well then, all of us together. Yeah," the Doctor said, looking briefly at the door. "Donna, Rose?" he asked, when he saw them staring into nothing, eyes filled with fear and confusion.
"Hey," the Doctor said a bit more loudly, and they both snapped out of it.
"Yeah," they both said at the same time, looking up.
"I'm sorry, there's nothing else we can do," the Doctor said.
"No yeah," Donna said, shaking her head.
"We know," Rose nodded.
"SURRENDER DOCTOR, AND FACE YOUR DALEK MASTERS."
"So, daleks," Rose said, laughing softly.
"Woah god," Jack laughed.
"It's been good though, hasn't it?" the Doctor asked, smiling softly. "All of us, all of it, everything we did," they all smiled at him. "You were brilliant," he said to Donna, and she blushed, smiling at him. "And you were brilliant," he said to Jack, who grinned. "And you were brilliant," he said to Rose, his voice full of emotion. Their eyes connected for a second and they both thought about leaning in for a kiss, but then the Doctor sighed. "Blimey," he said, turning around and opening the door. Jack followed suit, but Donna and Rose stood there for a second, feeling that overwhelimg feeling rushing inside of them.
"Can you feel it?" Donna whispered, clutching the door.
"I can," Rose gasped. "It's like- like the TARDIS doesn't want us to go."
"But why just us? Why not them too?" Donna asked, looking at Rose.
"I don't know," Rose sighed. They both heard a lot of daleks outside.
"Donna, Rose!" the Doctor called.
"We better get out there," Rose said, sadly. Donna nodded and they turned around to the door, which closed itself quickly. Rose's eyes widened.
"Doctor!" she said. "What have you done?" she asked loudly, trying to open the door.
"It wasn't me I didn't do anything!" he bellowed, pushing the door.
"Oi, we're not staying behind!" Donna complained.
"What did you do?" the Doctor asked to a dalek, furiously.
"THIS IS NOT OF DALEK ORIGIN," one of them said.
"Doctor!" Rose and Donna shouted.
"Stop it! Those are my friends, open the door and let her out," he demanded.
"THIS IS TIME LORD TREASON."
"Please, the door just closed on it's own!"
"NEVERTHELESS, THE TARDIS IS A WEAPON. AND IT WILL BE DESTROYED." In that second, the TARDIS fell through the floor.
"Oh my god!" Donna shouted.
"Crap," Rose muttered. "Don't panic, Donna! I know how to fly this. We just have to get out of here without them noticing." Rose said, grabbing into the rails. She set coordinates to just be flying in the Vortex so they could plan something. "When I pull this we'll be outta here." They arrived to this place that sort of looked like lava, and the TARDIS was full of fire.
"I think it's a good time to pull the thing!" Donna shouted.
"Just a bit more!" Rose said, closing her eyes. She waited for the TARDIS to signal her when to do it, and when she did, she pulled the lever. The TARDIS started to dematerialize.
Rose stood up, fiddling with more buttons and controls until, eventually, they were soaring silently through space. The fire had been extinguished thanks to Rose knowing what to do and click when things like this happened.
"Why did you wait so long to leave?" Donna asked, catching her breath.
"Because they now think we're dead. The daleks and- and the Doctor and Jack," she said, gulping. "But this means the daleks won't expect us when we attack."
"Attack?! The daleks?!" Donna asked, her eyes widening. "And how exactly do you plan to do that?"
"Just give me a minute," Rose whispered, clutching the TARDIS. "Tell me what to do?" she asked kindly, closing her eyes. She slowly felt the hum of the TARDIS in her mind, information running through her.
"What are you-" Donna started asking, but then stopped. "Wait a minute. Are you- can you speak to the TARDIS?" she asked, confused.
"Yeah," Rose muttered, her eyes closed.
"How?"
"Long story. Will tell later though, when we get out of this," she said nicely, and then for a few minutes it was all just silence. Then Rose opened her eyes, a glint of gold sparkling in her eyes, but it was too quick for Donna to catch it. "Okay, the TARDIS helped me. I know exactly what to do now."
"Care to share?" Donna smiled tiredly. Rose nodded.
"Okay so right now we're just outside Earth. I have the shields on, and no one knows we're here, so we need to be careful," she walked over to Donna. "We're gonna go to the Crucible. I'm going to deal with Davros-"
"Davros... that's the, um, deformed dalek, right?" Rose nodded. "But, how?"
"Don't worry about that right now. The thing is, Donna, that while I do that, I won't be myself," Rose grimaced. "Or well, kind of. But I could be dangerous, so I need you to keep everyone away from me while I do this. If they touch me, I might burn them. I can't remember how strong I am, but I'm pretty sure I can hurt people, so they can't touch me until I'm myself again."
"How will we know when you're back to yourself?"
"My eyes will go gold while I do all of this. As soon as they become normal again, I'll be back, though I'll probably be unconcious by then- please tell the Doctor not to worry when that happens. What I'm going to do is going to require a lot of energy, so it'll practically be like a healing comma. He'll undertand. I hope," Donna nodded.
"Alright... what do I do while you do all of this?"
"Okay, here's the difficult part. I need you to keep the daleks busy, because I need extreme concentration while I talk to Davros."
"And how am I going to do that?!" Donna bellowed.
"Have you ever seen the Doctor do this thing where he places his fingers on someone's temple and he can either read their mind of pass information?" Donna nodded. "Well, I can do that too now. I can give you information on how to keep the daleks occupied without anyone getting hurt, but this might cause you a little pain."
"Oh? Why?"
"Well, the information I'm giving you is really complex and it is a lot, too much for your brain. But it won't affect you for that long, because I will expand your mind. But that can take some energy, so I'd rather do it after we finish all of this, is that okay with you?"
"Yeah," Donna nodded.
"Okay," Rose said. "I'll land us on the Crucible."
"Wait!" Donna stopped her. "Won't they see us if we land there, though?"
"Nope," Rose said, popping the 'P' as the Doctor sometimes did. "The shields are on, and I activated this defense mechanism, which practically means that we're invisible. They won't see us unless we make a lot of noise or open the TARDIS' doors." Rose explained, grinning.
"You're so much like him," Donna shook her head, smiling.
"Thanks," Rose's smiled widened as she moved some levers and landed them in the Crucible. She then turned to Donna. "Okay, ready?" Donna nodded.
"Yeah," she said. Rose walked up to her and placed her fingers on Donna's temple. "Relax," she said softly. "The pain won't be too strong, don't worry," she whispered, and then closed her eyes shut.
Donna felt a strong link between them as she felt information being forwarded to her mind. In a few moments, her mind started throbbing softly, but it was easy to ignore. Rose opened her eyes and placed her hands down.
"You okay?" she asked as Donna opened her eyes.
"Yeah," she said, rubbing her head. "Bit dizzy. Not as much as to stop me, though. Let's kick some robotic ass."
"That's the spirit," Rose smiled. "Ready?"
"Oh yes!" Donna grinned, and Rose pushed the doors open.