The monsters were destroyed. Finished. The Doctor had gone up the north road to the old warehouse and Rose went around the way to the south to the condos to corner it in some magnetic field or something that Rose didn't exactly understand, but she knew she had to hold this device and press a button when she got to a certain place and the spaceship would go back into space. That was all, well, not really easy, but not impossible and now it was over. But then there was the fact that Rose's sense of direction wasn't all that good and she could never figure out all these streets. She ran down the road, swearing she must have been down this road at least 20 times already with no luck.
"Doctor!" she called as she ran.
"Rose?" a voice finally responded.
"Finally," she muttered to herself, and followed the source of the voice to the Doctor, who was clearly looking for her too. He was, strangely enough, dressed in a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt, but my Doctor nonetheless.
"Doctor, there you are," she said, running up to him, then commented, "What are you wearing?"
"What am I wearing, what are you wearing?" he asked, nodding at her light blue jacket and black pants. "And who's the Doctor?"
"What are you going on about, you're the Doctor," She reminded him, now beginning to get really confused.
"What?" he asked.
"Rose!" another voice called. Then, Rose looked up in utter confusion, as yet another Doctor came down the road, this time in his usual attire but with a face exactly like the one of the man in the white T-shirt.
"Doctor?" Rose asked, creasing her eyebrows. When she spoke, the Doctor's doppelganger spoke too.
"Doctor, what's going on?"
"Rose, what's going on?"
Rose and the man who looked like the Doctor looked at each other in confusion.
"Well, this is… interesting," The Doctor confessed.
"John, there you are!" a voice called. Rose turned around, stricken by the familiarity of the British female voice. Her eyes widened when she saw her own doppelganger approaching them, with her hair back in a casual bun and wearing a blue shirt, tight leather jacket, and black dress pants with blue converse. She stopped in her tracks, looking around at the display.
"Well, looks like there's already quite a party," she said. She faced the real Doctor (or so Rose started to think, as what he was wearing made a lot more sense) and reached her hand into her jacket at the same time he did. At precisely the same time, they both whipped their hands out of their pockets to reveal near-identical sonic screwdrivers and buzz them at each other. Rose and the other Doctor stood off to the side, confused as all Hell. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, both taken off guard, then put the sonics away.
"You have a sonic screwdriver," The Doctor commented.
"You have a sonic screwdriver," the other Rose responded.
They both just stared for another moment.
"Who are you?" The Doctor asked suspiciously.
"I'm called Rose," she answered.
"No you're not," he answered. "So why pretend to be us?"
"You must have some clue to the motives, seeing as how you're imitating John," she answered quickly.
"John?" The Doctor asked. "Who's that?"
"Uh, hi," his carbon copy said curtly, then turned to the other Rose and asked, "What's going on? Is it zygons maybe?"
"No, I scanned him. Can't tell what he is," she answered without looking at him.
"Nor can I tell what you are," The Doctor responded. He paused for a moment, "Something's wrong," he said. The real Rose shivered, frightened by the Doctor's genuine concern.
"What are you?" The Doctor asked lowly.
"I doubt you'd know it," other Rose responded.
"You'd be surprised," The Doctor added.
The other Rose slowly nodded. "Alright then, search your databanks for this," she answered, spreading her arms out in openness, "Time Lord."
The Doctor's face filled with shock and so did Rose's.
"Hold on, Doctor, how can she be a Time Lord, she's- she's me!" Rose exclaimed.
"Go on, scan me. Two hearts, binary vascular system," the other Rose responded. The Doctor took out his screwdriver and scanned her again, looking at the results with awe.
"She can't be," he muttered to himself, "But she is…"
"And you?" other Rose asked, "What kind of species still knows about the Time Lords?" she asked.
"Try a Time Lord," The Doctor responded casually. He scanned himself with one hand and then tossed her the screwdriver. Her eyes went wide at the results.
"But that's impossible," she said.
"I know," The Doctor agreed, "And yet here we are."
Time Lord Rose glanced nervously up, tossing him back his screwdriver. "What did you say you called yourself again?" she asked.
"The Doctor," he answered coolly.
"Anything to go with that?" she asked.
"Nope, just the Doctor," he said, as he usually did.
"Well, I would know," she said, "It's Rose. Just Rose."
"He's a Time Lord? Another Time Lord?" John asked in awe, "Seriously? Rose, that's incredible, maybe there are more out there!"
"Possibly," she agreed, holding the sides of her jacket, "But in my opinion, this is the sort of matter to discuss over chips."
So, that's what they did. Time Lord Rose insisted on going down to one of the nearest little diners and they all got a seat, trying to pick out where to start in this whole conundrum.
"So," began the second Rose as she leaned back, turning to the Doctor, "Your Rose is human and you're the Time Lord?" she checked.
"Yep," The Doctor agreed, "And would I be correct in saying that in your situation it's the other way 'round?"
"Yep," Rose answered, "So, now the question."
"How," The Doctor finished, crossing his arms.
"Any suggestions?" The Time Lord Rose asked, taking a chip off her plate and biting into it.
"Well, Rose, it could be that he's not really a Time Lord," John reccomended, "I mean, he gave you his screwdriver to scan himself, maybe he pre-set it to say Time Lord or something."
"Very true," Rose agreed, pulling her screwdriver out of her inside coat pocket. The Doctor opened his arms.
"Scan away," he told her. She did so, and then checked the results and frowned.
"Totally Time Lord," she responded, leaning back as she tucked her sonic back into her coat.
"You're sure it isn't still wrong?" John asked.
"I trust this object with my life," Rose said strongly.
"Right. Sorry," John responded.
"Don't be. It was a good idea."
"What about like, parallel universes or something?" The other Rose asked, the one with only one heart. "I mean, I know it's supposedly impossible, but there could be a way, right Doctor?"
"Suppose there could be," The Doctor agreed, looking over the Time Lord Rose, "What do you think of it, Rose?"
"Well, I just told you-" the human Rose began.
"Think he means her," John interrupted, "I think this is going to get confusing after a while, so maybe we should have other names for us. Not to mention it would probably be smartest to make some distinguishing features so we know who's the human and who's the Time Lord."
"Good point, John, well done," The Doctor complimented, "It's good to see you've got a clever mind on top of all those gorgeous looks."
Both Roses rolled their eyes.
"So, it doesn't have to be complicated, right?" The human Rose asked, "I mean we've already got John vs. the Doctor, we could just do something like Rose A for me and Rose B for her."
"Why should you get to be Rose A?" the other Rose snapped.
"No need to freak out about it, missy, it's not going on your birth certificate," the human Rose responded, irritated.
"Er, how about your last name?" John recommended, turning to Rose, "Cause y'see, my Rose doesn't have a last name so I figure you having a full name should be distinguishment enough. So tell me, what is your last name? If you don't mind me asking."
Rose paused for a moment, considering this, before she finally said, "Tyler."
"Tyler it is, then!" The Time Lord Rose agreed, "Now, how do we tell ourselves apart?"
"Any sort of marking will probably do," The Doctor said, sitting up straighter and reaching under his jacket into his pocket. After a few moments of searching, he withdrew a black sharpie. "This should be fine," he said.
Rose, who was across from him, offered out her arm first. On her arm the Doctor drew two boxes connected by one corner, as though they were on either corner of an invisible box cut into four. Then, John and Tyler offered up their arms, and on each of their wrists he drew one equilateral triangle with the base up towards their palm. They both looked at it curiously as he drew on himself the same marking he had put on Rose's wrist.
"What's this?" John asked.
"A means of alien species identification, used in the north sector of the Meridia Galaxy," Rose answered casually, watching as the Doctor drew the mark on himself, "What species people are tends to depend on their vascular system, so one heart is a triangle, like yours, two hearts is the two squares, three hearts is three circles stuck together and anything over that is just a horizontal line. There are other specifications of course, but those are the basics."
The Doctor glanced up, "You're good," he commented.
"I've been around," Rose responded smugly. John casually nodded at the information and had another chip, as though this happened all the time, but Tyler just caught herself staring. She wasn't like her at all. Who she really sounded like was the Doctor, but she wasn't exactly like him either.
"We'll have to do something more permanent at some point, once we get back to the TARDIS," The Doctor said, tucking the sharpie back in his pocket. He turned to Rose, "You have got a TARDIS, haven't you?"
"Course," Rose agreed, "Not doing so well, though. However it brought us here to wherever we are, it took quite a bit of energy."
"Like enough energy to travel through universes?" The Doctor asked.
"Don't insult me, Doctor, I think I know when I've ripped a hole through the universe," Rose responded quickly.
"So do I, so how exactly did you get here without even being sure you did?" The Doctor asked. "How far away is your TARDIS?"
"About three blocks, down on the corner of Elm Street," Rose answered, leaning in.
"Mind if I see?"
"Why?"
"I think you know."
"Scan the surrounding area for rifts or anomalies and check myself for void stuff?"
"Exactly."
"Let's go."
They both stood up and headed immediately for the door, leaving the two humans still shaken from the outstanding tension between them. Tyler glanced up at John and sighed.
"I suppose we have to-"
"Yeah," he agreed, then took his wallet out from inside his jeans pocket and paid the check. After that, the two of them headed out to follow the two Time Lords.
"So, what's it like with me as… you know, basically the Doctor?" Tyler asked awkwardly, "I mean, what am I like?"
John looked out at the Time Lords, thinking over the question, before he turned back to Tyler and answered, "All of it's sort of a whirlwind, really. I mean, that deal with the check, that's not exactly the first time it's happened. You - er - Rose, tends to sort of think on her toes and do what she wants. So… kind of messy and gets us into trouble… but brave, very brave. I wish I was half as daring as her, really."
Tyler let out a spurty, short sort of laugh. "Her? Braver than you?" she asked incredulously, "But you're…" there was a long pause as John looked at her expectantly.
"I'm what?" he inquired finally.
"But you're him," Tyler responded weakly.
"I'm not though, that's the thing," he answered, "I'm just John Smith. Mummy's boy from London, spent most of his adult life working at Marshall's and trying to make ends meet. I'm not even twenty years old."
Tyler shook her head, trying to make it make sense. "That's so weird," she said with a slight smile.
"Totally," John agreed, "You're what, around my age?"
"Nineteen," Tyler answered.
"My Rose is ages older than that," he said. He looked up at her, talking to the Doctor up ahead of him, "I love her though," he confessed.
"Ooh, something going on in your universe," Tyler said childishly.
"Well, yes of course," John responded, creasing his eyebrows and turning back to her. "I mean we're basically at the human equivalent of dating at least. She doesn't call it that, but it's certainly out in the open."
"What, seriously?" Tyler asked, her jaw dropping.
"Yeah!" he answered with a smile, "Why, aren't you two?"
"The Doctor and I we're… we're just friends, is all," she said nervously.
"Liar," he answered, "You see, this is why I say you're braver, in the world where she's a Time Lord we've been together for months. I bet you twenty quid that the only reason your Doctor hasn't snogged you already is because he's just too shy to try anything."
"I think the last word I would use to describe him is shy," Tyler scoffed, "And besides that what am I supposed to do about it? Meet him at the closest pub to our solar system?"
"Yeah! I'm telling you, if he's got even a line of the same genetics as me he's not gonna act on it unless it truly is his last chance. You're the brave one, Rose, however much you hate to admit it. You've got to show him how you feel or it's never going to get anywhere."
Tyler thought about this for a moment, before continuing to say with a smile, "Never thought I'd be getting dating advice from my crush's doppelganger." John chuckled in agreement.
"Here we are," Rose said as she and the Doctor approached an old flat. She walked up to one of the doors.
"In an apartment? Won't people talk?" The Doctor asked.
"Is the apartment," Rose corrected as she opened the door. The Doctor stepped in. It lead directly to her TARDIS.
He looked around. It was mainly like his own, only the walls looked a little burnt and scratched and lasered, as did the console, and the heart of the TARDIS was dim and sick. He could understand what she meant when she'd said it wasn't doing so well.
"What, doesn't your chameleon circuit work?" Rose asked. The Doctor didn't answer for a moment, slightly embarrassed.
"No, yeah it- it totally works. Definitely," The Doctor lied. Rose shot him a look. She went over to the console, beginning to type in a few controls, when John stepped into the TARDIS, followed by Tyler. Tyler looked around for a moment, a little surprised their TARDISes were so similar.
"Ah, Rose, there you are, come here for a second," The Doctor said. He took her by the shoulders and then turned her away from the console, taking a few steps away and talking low so their doppelgangers couldn't hear him. Meanwhile, John went over to Rose and began asking her what she was doing.
"Something's very off here," The Doctor said intensely to Tyler, "Look around at this TARDIS, what's wrong?"
Tyler looked around, over her shoulder at the console, around at the walls, and under the grating to the bowels of the ship. It all looked pretty much identical to the Doctor's TARDIS.
"I don't see anything," she confessed.
"Exactly," The Doctor responded, "Now, the most likely explanation at this point is that Rose's ship travelled through the void to a different universe, and if that's the case, where's all the damage? A ship like this would come out of the void as not much more than scrap, and yet she claims that she didn't even notice that they came here."
"So, what are you saying?" Tyler asked.
"I'm saying something's wrong," The Doctor insisted, "With the TARDIS, with Rose, with everything. Don't trust either of them yet, not before I can be sure how they're here. Don't be with either one of them on your own, and always check the marking on John's or my wrist before you see us to double-check."
"But it's just sharpie, can't they wash it off?"
"I may have sort of lied," The Doctor confessed, "It's just disguised a sharpie, it's really a special ink that only comes off with a certain material."
"Ah. Okay," Tyler said, a little lost.
"Doctor!" Rose called. The Doctor turned around like nothing happened, "I think I've got something," she continued. The Doctor walked over to her, squatting down to look at the panel she'd opened up.
"Oh, yeah, look at that," The Doctor agreed.
"What?" Tyler asked, bending over to try and see the wires underneath.
"It's completely fried. Kaput!" The Doctor told her, and then turned back to Rose, who was sitting up beside him. "Still though, pretty lucky for having travelled through universes. Is this all the damage?"
"All I can find," Rose said, "I mean, the heart of the TARDIS will probably have to heal for a few days, she feels kind of sick to me. But other than that, yeah, I guess we got off pretty well."
"Very well," The Doctor agreed. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver. "May I?" he asked.
"Go ahead," Rose answered. The Doctor scanned the panel and then looked at his screwdriver in confusion. Then, he scanned around the other panels beneath the console and the heart of the TARDIS itself, creasing his eyebrows at the results.
"You… made it through the void and all you did was bust the wires in one panel?" The Doctor asked again.
"Yeah, guess we did," Rose said, casting him a warning look. The TARDIS was uneasily quiet for a second. "Or, we didn't," Rose said after a moment, standing up. The Doctor followed after. "We still haven't checked for void stuff, we probably ought to make sure that it was inter-universal travel. I've got my scanners in the other room, come on."
She started off towards the door to another part of the TARDIS, and the Doctor followed after.
"Come on, Ms. Tyler," he told Tyler, and she began to follow after before Rose continued,
"Not her. We need someone to make sure travelling through the void doesn't have any after-effects on the TARDIS, and John has a different duty."
"What's my duty?" John asked curiously.
"Go see what shape the Doctor's TARDIS is in, if it might have been him who travelled through the void," Rose explained as she headed through the door.
"Sure!" John said excitedly, but there was a tone of nervousness behind his voice.
"Alright, Rose, just-" The Doctor began. He glanced down the hall, making sure Rose wasn't listening and John was heading out the door. "Go, watch him."
"But she said-" Tyler interrupted.
"I know, but just keep an eye on him. And Rose!"
"What, Doctor?" she asked.
"Be careful," he reminded her, and then turned down the hall and started walking away.
Just then, John's head poked through the door and he looked at Tyler. "You know, come to mention it, I don't actually know where your TARDIS is parked. Do you mind?"
Tyler raised her eyebrows. Well, that was convenient. "Sure, yeah," she said, and then followed him out of the TARDIS.
"So, where'd he park it?" John asked, looking around the city.
"Just down a few blocks," Tyler told him.
"Ah. Thanks," John agreed. They walked for a little while, down the big crowded streets before they came to a grey building that was coated almost entirely in different color paint, a huge abstract mural of faceless, straight-edged people walking through a nonsensically shaped, geometric looking city. People were taking pictures and marveling at it, and Tyler stopped for a moment to take a look.
"Oh, look at that. Never seen that before," she said with a smile, "Funny, you'll go off travelling the stars and miss all sorts of crazy things in your very own home town."
"Mm," John agreed impatiently, tucking his hands in his pockets.
"You alright, John?" Tyler asked, turning back to him.
"Yes, fine, fine," he answered quickly, "I just think we ought to be going is all."
"Well, the TARDIS is a time machine, I think we can stop for a moment to look at one painting," Tyler insisted. Her smile faded slightly at the worried expression on John's face.
"What's the matter with you?" she asked, "We're really not in that much of a rush, it's only a few blocks away."
"Look, Rose, can we just-" he began quickly, and then stopped himself. "Tyler," he corrected, "Can we just… go? Please?"
Tyler looked him over once, a bad, sickly feeling seeping in from the air and into her mind. But eventually, she answered. "Yeah," she said, "Alright."
"This should be it," Rose said casually, as they came up on a door down one of the hallways of the TARDIS. The Doctor looked around, following behind Rose as the layout of her TARDIS was fairly different from the layout of his own. She stepped into the door she'd gestured to, and the Doctor followed her in.
The room looked almost like a laboratory mixed with a classroom, with white walls and tables and various cabinets on every side. It wasn't particularly interesting, but she was just here to get what she used to look for void stuff. The Doctor drifted in and looked around, before glancing back around. She turned around and leaned on a table in front of him, turning to the other side of the room.
"So, what have you got, what do you use to scan for void stuff?" The Doctor asked slowly, wandering around and facing the back of her head. "I've got those 3-D glasses like they give you in the cinemas, but that's sort of just my style. Most people have got like binoculars, or scanners or probes…" he suggested, glancing at her, "Possibly a bionic implant…?" he raised his eyebrows at her, wandering slowly to the other direction, "Although, you're probably past all that aren't you?" he asked softly, "Because as I can clearly see, Miss Rose, your technology is very, very advanced. I don't know many people who can take their ship and fly it through the void to have it come out virtually unharmed." He leaned forward, putting his fists on the table she leaned over and leaning forward, trying to get a look at her facial expression. "Care to teach me your tricks?" he asked softly. A long pause lingered through the air before finally, with her head turned away, Rose responded.
"I'm sorry," she said finally.
"Sorry for what?" The Doctor asked slowly. For a moment, she didn't answer. Her fists balled up against the countertop. Then, in a split second, she turned upward and punched the Doctor hard in the face, knocking him out and leaving him to fall to the floor. She looked down at his unconscious body with guilt storming through her eyes.
"For this," she said finally, and then proceeded back to the console room.