AN: Playing the new Lara Croft origins game inspired a 'Tomb Raider' meets 'The Girl Who Waited' story that's a little bit 'Arrow' and a little bit 'Voyage of the Damned.' This tale brings out the darker elements of Rose's proverbial Wolf. Strap in for a bumpy ride - literally. A huge shout-out to beta lastincurableromantic for turning this around on a dime for me. Thanks so much!
"This is the story of how I died."
These days, the Doctor couldn't really be sure to what extent Rose was aware of the passage of relative time. He knew, even if she did not, that as of tomorrow it had been a year since Torchwood One foolishly ripped open the hole in the Void with the Ghost Shift program. A year since they had saved the Earth from both the Daleks and Cybermen but lost Jackie Tyler and Mickey Smith to a parallel universe. On that day, Rose severed the last of her ties to the planet of her birth and the TARDIS became her new home for good. No turning back.
With all the adventures they had experienced in the meantime, he couldn't be sure if his companion was dwelling on the anniversary of her loss. Even so, the Doctor remembered the milestone well. He wanted to do something nice for her, to put her mind in a peaceful place if she was, in fact, missing her mother.
The companion in question lumbered into the console room, freshly showered and changed. He had become an expert over their travels together at not noticing the way her still damp hair fell around her face or the subtle scent of a new shampoo, though it had become increasingly difficult the closer they became.
Every lingering embrace and flirtatious smile chipped away a little bit at his resolve to keep their relationship from progressing into more intimate territory. With every passing day they wavered along the already blurry line between friends and lovers. So far, he had retained a modicum of plausible deniability in that regard, which was an accomplishment all things considered.
"We've landed," Rose stated bluntly.
He nodded in confirmation. "That we have."
She stretched her arms far above her head and yawned widely. Even after breakfast she was still just waking up. He was sure it had nothing to do with their late night spent pretending to read, but actually just snuggling and chatting, in the library. Must just be humans and their incessant need for sleep.
"Where we goin' today?" she asked, approaching the console to stand beside him.
The Doctor flashed her a bright smile. "You, Dame Rose, are the lucky recipient of an invitation to board the Capricorn Cruise Liner Concordia on its first voyage sailing the Great Ocean of the planet Amalfi Six."
She returned with a cheeky grin of her own. "This 'invitation' wouldn't happen to be printed on psychic paper, would it?"
"Hmm. Could be," he said, throwing in a wink for good measure. "There just may be a big blue box stashed away in the cargo hold."
"Am I under-dressed?" she wondered aloud, twirling as she examined her current attire.
Of course, leave it to Rose to bring attention to the way the denim of her jeans clung to her hips and her tailored bomber-style jacket followed the dips and curves of her figure. She had always embraced the concept of wearing practical, though decidedly form-fitted, clothing for their adventures and he wasn't about to discourage it in favor of strappy heels and short skirts.
"Nope. You're perfect," he affirmed distractedly, downplaying the affectionate implications of the statement even as he made it. "Shall we, then?"
He proffered his arm and she threaded hers through. They cheerfully exited the TARDIS to greet the day's adventure, effectively attached at the elbow.
Any hope that this was a semi-romantic respite for just the two of them flew out the window when the Doctor started gabbing with the crew about the mechanics of the vessel and its planned itinerary. He started off introducing her to the first few passengers they encountered, but when he got swept up she drifted to the edge of the ballroom alone.
It was inevitable once he found out this was the very first sub-orbital dual-propulsion ship in Capricorn's fleet, capable of traveling both in space as well as in the atmosphere of most planets. According to a particularly knowledgeable crewman, they were currently hovering ten feet above the water's surface and sailing at a leisurely rate of 10 knots to exhibit the scenery, though the ship could easily maintain 35 without disrupting the local environment. It seemed the more the Doctor learned about the ship, the more he wanted to know.
His current mark was a cocktail waitress named Sarah. Another gorgeous, impressionable natural blonde who was throwing him doe eyes and giggling at every nautical joke or pun he managed to fit into the conversation. Rose had foolishly hoped he'd abandoned the habit of shamelessly flirting right in front of her after the fallout from a certain French king's mistress. But now it looked like this was a routine that was here to stay.
She had made her choice long ago, even if it meant she would always be nothing more than last year's model. Still, it was frustrating to watch him flaunt his rejection of her affections right in front of her face. She had promised him forever. Gave up a life with a reunited, if parallel, family to stay by his side. What else did he want?
To make matters worse, it turned out Rose was under-dressed. The passengers of the luxury cruise ship were dressed to the nines and she wanted to kick him for yet again letting her stand out from the crowd and appear as a lower sort from the company they were keeping. Just once, she wished he wouldn't categorize her with the maids and the food service workers. She wanted to cavort with the important people like he did, effortlessly blending in and becoming the center of attention.
Rose stared absently out the large bay window as she vaguely listened to the ship's historian prattle on about Amalfi Six. He was talking about the first human colonization of the planet centuries ago and how the settlement was abandoned due to the severe electrical storms that rocked the archipelago of Campania, the only land masses in the planet's vast ocean. He went on to talk about New Earth which at least gave her an idea of the current year.
The island in her view was apparently called Secapri, after the island of Capri on Earth. It was truly beautiful and fit with her mental image of a paradise. Crystal blue waters gave way to dusky pink sand at the shoreline. The lush vegetation was mostly purple, where on Earth she'd imagine green, with a smattering of what she thought were colorful fruits and flowers. Above the forest rose two stark white crags with rocky columns that resembled grand Roman pillars stretching up toward the cobalt sky.
It was the sort of place she wished the Doctor would take her, secluded and dazzling. The longer she stayed with him, the more he seemed to avoid being alone with her. Besides the quiet moments together on the TARDIS, their recent adventures always involved a rotating cast of characters whom the Doctor was always busy befriending. She wondered if he was growing tired of her already.
Rose startled from her thoughts when Doctor finally deigned to join her.
"Having fun?" she muttered, not bothering to disguise the annoyance in her tone.
"Oh yes," he chirped excitedly, seemingly oblivious to her ire. "Aren't you?"
"Champagne's nice," she replied airily, lifting her half empty glass in demonstration.
Before their awkward conversation could devolve further, the ship jolted sharply, sending Rose into the Doctor's arms for balance and her precious champagne splashing around their knees.
She groaned in exasperation. "Oh, what now?"
Rose didn't understand why they couldn't have just one trip when things didn't go monumentally wrong. She righted herself and shook her dampened shin with a discouraged huff.
"Just a little turbulence," he dismissed easily. "Nothing to worry about."
As if on cue, there was a thundering clang and the boat lurched again a little more violently, sending them both spilling to the ground like so many bumpy landings on the TARDIS. Only now, they weren't laughing. He helped her up gingerly, avoiding the shards of her broken champagne glass, even as he glanced around them at the mounting chaos.
"Stay here," he commanded automatically.
She balked. "What? No, I'm coming with you."
He placed his hands securely on her shoulders. "Rose, someone has to keep these people calm. That's you," he explained hastily. "Now stay here and I'll be back in a tic."
Without another word he disappeared through the throng of people swarming the steward for information about the apparent crash. In the commotion, some of the people the Doctor was speaking with earlier gravitated toward Rose.
"Where's he going?" a polished man she remembered as Ridgely demanded.
"To help," Rose confirmed stiffly. "The Doctor, he - he knows about this sort of stuff."
His wife Erin looked worried. "Did he know something was wrong?"
Rose shook her head. "No, I don't think so."
"You're his girlfriend," the illustrious blond Sarah assumed politely.
"Yeah," Rose answered, a white lie born of misguided hope and possibly misplaced jealousy.
Sarah nodded resolutely. "Well, he wouldn't leave you behind unless it was going to be okay."
Rose smiled warily in response. She wished she shared the waitress's confidence. The steward and several midshipmen were trying to gain control of the situation but Rose's attention turned outside to the darkening sky. Black inky storm clouds had appeared from nowhere when just moments before the sky had been nearly clear.
The Doctor tried valiantly to make his way to the bridge, but the effort seemed in vain. Another sharp jolt of the ship made him realize he wouldn't make it in time. Frantic passengers were seeking out crew members for answers. Fortunately, even billions of years after twenty-first century Earth, people still wanted to talk to a friendly face rather than a machine. Especially in times of emergency. That left a nearby information console free for him to sonic at will.
In his haste, he discovered several things. Some clever - evil, but oh, so very clever - saboteur had disabled the safety protocol and set the compression ratio in the engines to increase exponentially, resulting in almost inevitable auto-ignition and complete engine failure, not to mention catastrophic damage to the ship. And someone, presumably that same evil, clever saboteur, had jettisoned an escape capsule right after the first impact. That someone was looking for something on Amalfi Six, something either very precious or very dangerous, and was taking great pains to make sure no one else could follow.
Armed with this disturbing information, the Doctor searched the panicked mob around him for an authority figure who could help him act on it. He caught sight of the engineering insignia on the uniform of a passing crew member and pounced.
"You. You're in engineering."
"Please, sir. I don't have time - "
"The engines," the Doctor insisted brashly. "They've been damaged. We have to get everyone -"
"There's been an electromagnetic disturbance," the engineer said, cutting him short. "We're just on the edge of monsoon season and it's kicked up this nasty storm."
"Electromagnetic disturbance? What could've caused that?" the Doctor was silent for a moment, introspecting. "Was it - no, couldn't be."
An explosion from the stern shook the whole of the ship. The boat rocked backward severely. There was a spattering impact, confirming the stern had been knocked from the air into the water, followed by the sickening crack of ruptured metal. Rose. He had to get back to Rose. In the havoc of flickering lights, screaming passengers, and a swiftly tilting cruise liner, the Doctor ran.
After a blur of narrow passageways and corridors, he finally saw her across the ballroom. Wearing a matching expression of relief, she dashed forward to meet him.
Before they could reunite, the floor beneath them tore apart suddenly with a ghastly sound. The ballroom windows shattered, wooden floorboards splintered, and the outer metal bulkhead groaned and buckled under the pressure. The entire ship was breaking apart in the space between them.
Rose was lucky. She stopped just short of the gap and shot him a desperate look through the cascade of rain pouring in from the mangled ceiling. Inconceivably high waves lapped at the hull of the ship all around them. Frigid air and water filled the room and she stood frozen in paralyzing shock.
There was no time. This ship was already sinking.
"You have to jump," the Doctor yelled over the cacophony.
She gaped at him in horror. "What?"
"Jump! I'll catch you."
He held his arm out and tried to put as much assurance into his expression as he could gather. Rose took a deep, steadying breath, and backed up a few paces. Ignoring the voices around her that pleaded with her to stay, she sprinted the few strides left of the ballroom floor and leapt across the gaping hole just as the ship's stern pulled away behind her.
For those next agonizing seconds, time seemed to stop. Rose felt everything - each pummeling raindrop on her skin, the terrifying sensation of a free fall, and the sting of the raging wind in her eyes - with chilling clarity. Her heart seized in her chest at the reality that she might not make it.
By some miracle, the Doctor caught her on the other side, hands scrambling for purchase around hers as she swung precariously in the widening gap between the two halves of the doomed cruise liner. He gripped tightly but it was no use. Blue water surged around them as the rain pelted mercilessly from the sky. Their skin was just too slick and her fingers were slipping through.
"Doctor," she whispered. A prayer. A plea.
Rose fell.
The last thing she remembered was the Doctor screaming her name before she crashed roughly into the water below.