Hello everyone! I'm happy to see that you've decided to at least read chapter 1 of 'Shadow'. But I'm going to warn you now, I am by no means an experienced writer. I hope that as the story progresses my writing skills will improve. I may go back to previous chapters and rewrite them if not enough reviews are made or if I just simply hate it. My idea for this story actually has been around in my head for years. Her name at least was thought of before Matt Smith was even cast for the 11th Doctor. She won't be named yet, but... she is a Time Lady. Hold on! Don't leave yet! She also isn't exactly a Time Lady either. What do I mean by that? Well, you have to read to find out. You may ask questions about certain things in this story and I'll try to answer them. I may even tell you which episode/chapter the answer will appear in. Most likely the episode because I will add little in-between bits sometimes after each episode anyway. She will be a little, um, 'cute' or 'innocent' in the early chapters and won't know what anything is (I'll only say room, door, flap, etc. in her P.O.V. but she doesn't actually know what anything is called), she won't be like that forever and will eventually impact the story. She will be over-looked, ignored and forgotten during the early chapters as well, especially by the Doctor. This is a romance between the Doctor and my O.C. and it won't really be prominent with the 9th Doctor but he will get jealous sometimes and protective. Fluffiness is included and last but not least... My O.C. is mine! Mine I tell you! She is my creation! I hope you enjoy...
Underlined = P.O.V.
Rose
The Girl' P.O.V.
I poke the flap at the bottom of the door trying to see what it is. I've never seen that before. I tap the swinging flap again before it moves on its own. I stare wide eyed at it before breaking out in a grin. It must be living! Just then it opened revealing a girl's face. I gasped and she gets up and opens the door. "Who are you?" I'm still crouched on the ground terrified. "Excuse me, but I think I deserve an answer seeing as you're poking around my door." She pulls me up and pushes me inside then shuts the door. "Answers now!" she crosses her arms. A knock sounds at the door. "Oh good maybe your doctors are here to return you to the looney bin". She opens the door again only to reveal a man.
"What're you doing here?" he asks with a furrowed brow.
Exasperated she replies "I live here."
"Well, what do you do that for?"
"Because I do. I'm only at home because someone blew up my job."
He pulls out a glowy blue thing. "I must have got the wrong signal." he spots me then cocks a brow, "does she live here with you?"
"No, course not."
"You're not plastic, are you?" he knocks on my head, then the girl "No, bonehead. Bye, then."
"You. Inside. Right now." she pulls him into the flat.
Another voice comes from a room behind me, causing me to jump "Who is it?".
The girl leans against the door frame to the room leaving the man with me, "It's about last night. They are part of the inquiry. Give us ten minutes."
"She deserves compensation." the woman calls.
The man goes around me and takes the girl's place "Oh, we're talking millions."
I stand where I am; I'm too petrified to move. The woman stands and glides her way over to the man "I'm in my dressing gown."
"Yes, you are."
"There's a strange man in my bedroom."
"Yes, there is."
"Well, anything could happen."
"No." he declines then walks off. She makes a face at him when he walks off, not noticing me standing there looking quite scared. The girl returns and drags me towards the sitting room.
"Don't mind the mess. Do you either of you want a coffee?"
"Might as well, thanks. Just milk." she nods then turns to the me. The man turns to look over at me also. "I don't think she can speak." he tells her then continues to what he's doing.
"Okay, fine, I guess." She shakes her head then goes into the kitchen, "But we should go to the police. Seriously. Both of us."
He picks up a copy of a magazine from the table and leans over to show me, "That won't last, he's gay and she's an alien." I look at it questioningly. Why are the people flat?
"I'm not blaming you, even if it was just some sort of joke that went wrong." The girl continues talking from the other room.
He finds a paperback and flicks through it. "Hmm. Sad ending." he tosses it in my direction. What is that? I warily watch the man and girl then slowly sit down on the sofa. I poke the book to see what it does.
"They said on the news they'd found a body."
"Rose Tyler." The man looks towards his reflection in a mirror, "Ah, could've been worse. Look at the ears."
"All the same, he was nice. Nice bloke."
"Luck be a lady." he sings then picks up a pack of cards.
"Anyway, if we are going to go to the police, I want to know what I'm saying."
He fails to shuffle them.
"I want you to explain everything."
He sheepishly looks over at me "Maybe not."
The cat flap sounds at the door "What's that, then?" he leans over the settee as I lean back; finding him too close even though he made sure to go on the other side of the couch away from me. I watch what he's doing. "You got a cat?"
"No."
A plastic dummy's arm suddenly shoots out and grabs his neck, throttling him.
Oblivious to what is happening behind her the girl continues "We did have, but now they're just strays. They come in off the estate." I cock my head at him before slightly giggling finding him funny. The girl returns from the kitchen with two mugs of coffee and I warily take the one she hands me and takes no notice of the man's current predicament.
"I told Mickey to chuck that out. You're all the same. Give a man a plastic hand. Anyway, I don't even know your name. Doctor, what was it?"
He finally manages to chuck the arm off. But It stops in mid air and grabs the girl's face instead. He struggles to pull the arm off of her face and ends up falling backwards smashing the coffee table. I cover my mouth as I laugh at the show they are doing. They must be trying to tell me that they mean no harm by trying to make me happy. The man pushes her back towards the sofa and finally gets the hand off her face. He struggles to use the blue tube thing before finally jabbing the device into the hand, causing the fingers to stop moving.
"It's all right, I've stopped it. There you go, you see? Armless." He tosses it to the girl before nodding to me when I clap at the end of the show.
The girl glares at the both of us, "Do you think?" She smacks him with the arm. As I take the drink my new friend offered earlier and take a big sip.
"Ow! What did I do? She was laughing!" he points at me.
They both look over at me as I spit it back into the mug. It was going to kill me! Why would she do that? It must not be a drink after all. I blush at my mistake. Maybe now they think I'm not worthy enough to be their friend. I sadly hand the mug back to her. She scrunches up her face, "Uh. Thanks." The girl tries not to gag as she set it on the floor.
~DW~
The Girl
"Hold on a minute. You can't just go swanning off." The girl says while pulling me alongside her down the staircase following the man. Now they are going to get rid of me. I try to hold back my tears at the thought of not being accepted by the first friends I would have had.
"Yes I can. Here I am. This is me, swanning off. See you."
"You have to at least take her." she gestured to me.
"Why should I? She is your problem, not mine." The girl sighed.
"But that arm was moving. It tried to kill me."
"Ten out of ten for observation."
"You can't just walk away. That's not fair. You've got to tell me what's going on."
"No, I don't." we make our way outside.
"All right, then. I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone. You said, if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell me, or I'll start talking."
"Is that supposed to sound tough?"
"Sort of."
"Doesn't work."
"Who are you?"
"Told you. The Doctor."
"Yeah, but Doctor what?"
"Just the Doctor."
"The Doctor."
"Hello!" he waves. Does that mean I am excepted? I smile widely and return the wave.
The girl beside me rolls her eyes, she is obviously still mad at me "Is that supposed to sound impressive?"
"Sort of."
"Come on, then. You can tell me. I've seen enough." she asks before whispering, "Are you the police?"
"No, I was just passing through. I'm a long way from home."
"But what have I done wrong? How comes those plastic things keep coming after me?"
"Oh, suddenly the entire world revolves around you. You were just an accident. You got in the way, that's all."
"It tried to kill me."
"It was after me, not you. Last night, in the shop, I was there, you blundered in, almost ruined the whole thing. This morning, I was tracking it down, it was tracking me down. The only reason it fixed on you is 'cos you've met me."
"So what you're saying is, the entire world revolves around you."
"Sort of, yeah."
"You're full of it."
"Sort of, yeah."
"Hold on. What about her?" she points to me while I feel the man's jacket, confirming my suspicions that it would be smooth.
"What about her?" he slaps my hands away from him.
"What if it goes after her? I mean she's not all that smart"
"What are you talking about? She's plenty smart. Just... you know." he frantically tries to explain. "Fine you know what? I'll take her." he takes my hand from the girl. Which I gladly take as I'm more comfortable with him because he accepted me regardless that I tasted what I thought was a drink. "Just until I return her to where she belongs". He mutters under his breath.
The girl grins, probably because she is glad she doesn't have to deal with me. I'll try my best to become her friend so that she won't hate me. The girl then continues speaking, "But, all this plastic stuff. Who else knows about it?"
"No one."
"What, you're on your own?"
"Well, who else is there? I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly, while all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on."
She grabs the plastic arm from him."Okay. Start from the beginning. I mean, if we're going to go with the living plastic, and I don't even believe that, but if we do, how did you kill it?"
"The thing controlling it projects life into the arm. I cut off the signal, dead."
"So that's radio control?"
"Thought control." he looks over at her, "Are you all right?"
"Yeah. So, who's controlling it, then?"
"Long story."
"But what's it all for? I mean, shop window dummies, what's that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?" They both start chuckling as l smile at the Doctor.
"No."
"No."
"It's not a price war." he says before chuckling again. "They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you. Do you believe me?"
"No."
"But you're still listening." he counters before she stops following him. I look back at her, then make the man stop walking.
"Really, though, Doctor. Tell me, who are you?"
He looks at her, "Do you know like we were saying about the Earth revolving?" him and me make our way back over to her, "It's like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it." he drops my hand, then takes hers. "The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go." he removes his hand from hers, "That's who I am. Now, forget me, Rose Tyler and forget her. Go home." I smile at the girl and she gives a small smile back before that wemustnow be friends, I take the man's hand while we walk over towards a blue box.
~D.W~
A yellow VW Beetle turns right onto a neighborhood.
"You're not coming in. He's safe. He's got a wife and kids."
Mickey gives his girlfriend Rose a look, "Yeah, who told you that? He did. That's exactly what an internet lunatic murderer would say." Rose exits his car annoyed and makes her way up to Clive's door. A man comes out of a nearby house with a black wheelie bin and gives Mickey a nasty look. Mickey notices and returns the look before checking on Rose. She knocks on the door across the street and a young boy answers it. "Hello, I've come to see Clive? We've been emailing." The boy makes a sound of acknowledgment and calls "Dad! It's one of your nutters!"
A heavy-set man comes to the door. "Oh, sorry. Hello. You must be Rose. I'm Clive, obviously."
"I'd better tell you now. My boyfriend's waiting in the car, just in case you're going to kill me." Mickey winds down his window seeing as they are talking about him.
"No, good point. No murders." Clive waves at Mickey, who only gives him a scrutinizing stare.
"Who is it?" Clive's wife Caroline calls from the stairs.
"Oh, it's something to do with the Doctor. She's been reading the website." he answers. "Please, come through. I'm in the shed."
"She? She's read a website about the Doctor? She's a she?" Caroline closes the door. Leaving a suspicious Mickey.
~D.W~
"A lot of this stuff's quite sensitive. I couldn't just send it to you. People might intercept it, if you know what I mean. If you dig deep enough and keep a lively mind, this Doctor keeps cropping up all over the place." Clive pulls out a blue binder. "Political diaries, conspiracy theories, even ghost stories. No first name, no last name, just the Doctor. Always The Doctor. And the title seems to have been passed down from father to son. It appears to be an inheritance." he points to a fuzzy, picture of a man in a leather jacket. "That's your Doctor there, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
"I tracked it down to the Washington public archive just last year. The online photo's enhanced, but if we look at the original..." he shows Rose a few different snaps of the same picture of the Doctor. "November the 22nd, 1963. The assassination of President Kennedy. You see?"
"It must be his father."
Clive drops the photos and retrieves another blue binder "Going further back. April 1912. This is a photo of the Daniels family of Southampton, and friend." he points yet again to a picture of the Doctor. "This was taken the day before they were due to sail off for the New World on the Titanic, and for some unknown reason, they canceled the trip and survived." he takes a sketch from off the wall, "And here we are. 1883. Another Doctor. And look, the same lineage. It's identical. This one washed up on the coast of Sumatra on the very day Krakatoa exploded. The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, he's there. He brings the storm in his wake and he has one constant companion."
"Who's that?"
"Death"
He flips out another picture. The first thing Rose notices is that it was a picture of two violet lights. "What is that?" she looks back at Craig. He tells her to look closer. Rose complies and takes in the fact that it was taken at night. With closer examination the violet lights seem to be actually two glowing orbs that resemble irises. Rose gasps. They are eyes! Taking this into consideration, she tries to make out the face, but is unable to. "I don't see anyone." she sighs.
He nods and then gives her a stern glare "Now, you're lucky I'm even going to show you these." he pulls out a very thick folder from a previous locked box that was under the table. Opening it reveals many notes and documents highlighted repeatedly. Some of the pages had pictures that she had previously seen, but these had closeups of areas other than The Doctor. Someone had drawn crosses, circles and question marks through and around faces. All of them, she realized were female. Craig flips to the next page and this one shows a picture of a girl. She doesn't appear to notice the picture even being taken and only the side of her face is shown. What Rose can see of the girl is her waist-length, wavy, raven hair cascading down her back and her skin is almost pure white, like she spends most of her time indoors. The half of her face shows plump, red lips in a wide smile. This girl, she realizes, looks like the girl Rose met earlier. Craig points to the girl. "Many people believe her to be the most dangerous thing you could ever come across."
Rose looks on in confusion. "But I think I've seen her. She hardly seems dangerous, " she gives a little chuckle, then frowns seeing that Craig is completely serious. He gives a shake of his head, seeing his warning not reaching Rose. "Every fairy tale or legend you have ever heard has elements of her." Rose looks at him confused. "What do you mean?" He sighs. "They aren't stories. They're warnings. She is dangerous Rose. She has horror stories following her where ever she goes. She reeks of death and destruction. No matter how kind, innocent, or sensitive she may seem, it is all a lie, it is a trick, every bit of it. If the Doctor's back, if you've seen him with her, Rose, then one thing's for certain. We're all in danger." Craig puts the pictures away. "If they've singled you out, if they are making house calls, then God help you."
"But who are they? Who do you think they are?"
"I think they are the same people you saw. I think they're immortal. I think they are aliens from another world."
~D.W~
Rose returns to Mickey's car completely unsatisfied "All right, he's a nutter. Off his head. Complete online conspiracy freak." she enters the Beetle "You win! What are we going to do tonight? I fancy a pizza."
"Pizza! P-p-p-pizza!" replies fake Mickey
"Or Chinese." she looks at him, completely unaware that this Mickey is plastic.
"Pizza!" He shouts, then weaves off down the road hitting nearly every object.
~D.W~
Rose and the phony Mickey sit across from each other at a sort of fancy pizza place.
"Do you think I should try the hospital? Suki said they had ajobs going in the canteen. Is that it then, dishing out chips. I could do A Levels. I don't know. It's all Jimmy Stone's fault. I only left school because of him. Look where he ended up. What do you think?" Rose asks Fake Mickey
"So, where did you meet this Doctor?"
"I'm sorry, wasn't I talking about me for a second?" Rose asks, indignantly.
"Because I reckon it started back at the shop, am I right? Was he something to do with that?"
"No."
"Come on." he smiles
"Sort of."
"What was he doing there?"
"I'm not going on about it, Mickey. Really, I'm not, because, I know it sounds daft, but I don't think it's safe. I think they're dangerous."
"Who is they?"
"I told you I'm not going on about it."
"But you can trust me, sweetheart. Babe, babe, sugar, babe, sugar. You can tell me anything. Tell me who he is with and what he's planning, and I can help you, Rose. Because that's all I really want to do, sweetheart, sugar, babe, babe, sugar, sweetheart."
"What're you doing that for?"
A waiter comes by, "Your champagne."
Without looking up Fake Mickey replies, "We didn't order any champagne." before sneering at Rose, "Where's the Doctor?"
"Madam, your champagne."
Confused by Mickey's behavior, she ignores the persistent waiter, "It's not ours. Mickey, what is it? What's wrong?"
"I need to find out how much you know, so where is he?" he demands.
"Doesn't anybody want this champagne?" the waiter asked one last time.
Phony Mickey rolls his eyes and looks up "Look, we didn't order an-" his eyes widen seeing as the waiter is actually the Doctor. "Ah. Gotcha."
The Doctor starts rapidly shaking the bottle "Don't mind me. I'm just toasting the happy couple. On the house!" he aims it at Plastic Mickey's forehead and releases the cage causing it to hit its intended target perfectly. But after a few moments Plastic Mickey spits out the cork
"Anyway." he stands up, turns his hand into a chopper and smashes the table while Rose flees screaming. The Doctor grabs Plastic Mickey and pulls off his head with a few yanks. "Don't think that's going to stop me." the head taunts causing the people around him to start screaming. The body gets up and starts to flail around.
Rose sees this and pulls the fire alarm "Everyone out! Out now! Get out! Get out! Get out!"
The Doctor and Rose exit through the kitchen. The Doctor spots the unnamed girl and ushers her out as well. He seals the exit, shut while Rose attempts to open the padlocked gates.
"Open the gate! Use that tube thing. Come on!"
"Sonic screwdriver." he corrects while making sure the girl is following him to the TARDIS.
"Use it!"
"Nah. Tell you what, let's go in here." Rose looks back at him like he is insane. The Doctor enters his TARDIS with the girl along side him. "You can't hide inside a wooden box." the banging from the door gets louder and causes larger dents. Rose runs back to the gate, "It's going to get us! Doctor!" Rose tries the gate again, then runs inside the TARDIS. She stops short then runs outside again. She glances around the TARDIS before sprinting inside just as the body smashes through the door.
"It's going to follow us!"
"The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they've tried. Now, shut up a minute. And you", he points at the girl "stop wandering off." he sets up the head on the console, "You see, the arm was too simple, but the head's perfect. I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source. Right. Where do you want to start?"
"Er, the inside's bigger than the outside?"
"Yes."
"It's alien."
"Yeah."
She warily stares at the girl, "Are you both alien?"
He glances over at the other girl and rolls his eyes, "Well, I am, but I'm not sure what you'll call her" he points over his shoulder in the girl's general direction.
Rose crosses her arms and narrows her eyes at him. "What!? Then what is she? Is she dangerous?"
The Doctor snorts as if the idea of her being dangerous is completely ridiculous. "She is probably some sort of mutant, but the TARDIS won't let me scan her."
She shakes her head at him in confusion. He catches her look and elaborates, "It's called the Tardis, this thing. T.A.R.D.I.S. That's Time And Relative Dimension In Space."
Tears start falling down her face. "That's okay. Culture shock. Happens to the best of us."
"Did they kill him? Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?"
"Oh. I didn't think of that."
"He's my boyfriend. You pulled off his head. They copied him and you didn't even think?" a sloshing sound comes from behind the Doctor, "And now you're just going to let him melt?"
"Melt?" he whips his head around and sees the melting plastic head on the console. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no!" he snaps his head over at the silent girl "What did you do?!". This outburst causes the girl to flinch. He sets the Tardis in motion.
"What're you doing?"
"Following the signal. It's fading. Wait a minute, I've got it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Almost there. Almost there. Here we go!". The Tardis lands and the Doctor runs for the door.
"You can't go out there. It's not safe." Rose runs out and sees that they've moved.
The Doctor paces back and forth. "I lost the signal, I got so close. And that stupid girl you stuck me with did this!"
Rose rushes out of the Tardis doorway, closing the doors behind her as she looks around, "We've moved. Does it fly?"
"Disappears there and reappears here. You wouldn't understand."
"If we're somewhere else, what about that headless thing? It's still on the loose."
"It melted with the head. Are you going to witter on all night?"
"I'll have to tell his mother." The Doctor shoots her a confused look, "Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you just went and forgot him, again! You were right, you are alien."
"Look, if I did forget some kid called Mickey"
"Yeah, he's not a kid."
"It's because I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering on top of this planet, all right?"
"All right."
"Yes, it is!"
"If you are an alien, how comes you sound like you're from the North?"
"Lots of planets have a north."
"What's a police public call box?"
The Doctor smiles "It's a telephone box from the 1950s. It's a disguise."
"Okay." she shakes her head, then draws a breath, "And this, this living plastic. What's it got against us?"
"Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. It's food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!" he mimes eating.
"Any way of stopping it?"
The Doctor holds up a tube of blue liquid.
"Anti-plastic."
"Anti-plastic." she repeats
"Anti-plastic. But first I've got to find it. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?"
"Hold on. Hide what?"
"The transmitter. The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."
"What's it look like?"
"Like a transmitter. Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London." he stands in front of the London Eye, "A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Radial. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible." Rose looks at the wheel behind him"What?" she nod towards it "What?" Rose nods to it again but the Doctor still doesn't get it, "What? What is it? What? Oh." finally the Doctor realizes what Rose was trying to tell him, "Fantastic!" they both sprint to the Eye forgetting about the girl still in the Tardis.
"Think of it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables"
"The breast implants." Rose adds
"Still, we've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath."
Rose runs over to the edge of the parapet,"What about down here?" seeing the large manhole entrance at the bottom of some steps. The Doctor runs over.
"Looks good to me." They run down the steps to the entrance and open the hole revealing steam and a red light. Rose eyes it warily. They climb down a ladder into an area with lots of hanging chains. The Doctor and Rose go through a door and down a stairwell. "The Nestene Consciousness." he points to a large hole filled with something that resembles molten lava, "That's it, inside the vat. A living plastic creature."
"Well, then. Tip in your anti-plastic and let's go."
"I'm not here to kill it. I've got to give it a chance." They descend to a landing "I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract, according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation." The Consciousness flexes and emits squeals. "Thank you. If I might have permission to approach?"
Rose spots Mickey on a lower level and runs down to him. "Oh, God! Mickey, it's me! It's okay. It's all right."
he shushes her and points to the vat "That thing down there, the liquid. Rose, it can talk!"
"You're stinking. Doctor, they kept him alive."
"Yeah, that was always a possibility. Keep him alive to maintain the copy."
"You knew that and you never said?"
"Can we keep the domestics outside, thank you?" Rose and Mickey move to another area while The Doctor continues downwards."Am I addressing the Consciousness?" it flashes, "Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off?" The Doctor addresses with a smile. The Consciousness squeals in annoyance. "Oh, don't give me that. It's an invasion, plain and simple. Don't talk about constitutional rights." again, it squeals. "I am talking!" he shouts, "This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have only just learnt how to walk, but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf. Please, just go." A pair of mannequins walks up behind the Doctor.
"Doctor!" Rose calls to warn him, but the dummies restrain him and show the anti-plastic from his pocket. "That was just insurance. I wasn't going to use it. I was not attacking you. I'm here to help. I'm not your enemy. I swear, I'm not." It squeals out a roar. "What do you mean?" A door slides open to show the Tardis. "No. Oh, no. Honestly, no. Yes, that's my ship." it accuses him, "That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!"
"What's it doing?!" Rose asks.
"It's the Tardis! The Nestene's identified its superior technology. It's terrified. It's going to the final phase. It's starting the invasion! Get out, Rose! Just leg it now!" The plastic in the vat roars, Rose phones her mother.
"Mum?"
"Oh, there you are. I was just going to phone. You can get compensation. I said so. I've got this document thing off the police. Don't thank me."
"Where are you, mum?"
"I'm in town."
"No, go home! Just go home right now!"
"Darling, you're breaking up. Listen, I'm just going to do a bit of late night shopping. I'll see you later. Ta-ra!" Jackie hangs up.
"Mum! Mum!" The Consciousness starts shooting energy bolts.
The Doctor explains. "It's the activation signal. It's transmitting!"
"It's the end of the world." Rose looks on in horror. The Tardis doors open and the girl makes her way out. The Nestene grows agitated seeing this and The Doctor struggles "No! I swear she has nothing to do with this! Don't touch her! Rose take her and run!" rubble falls down nearly hitting the girl. Rose and Mickey make their way over to her and try to open the Tardis as the dummies try to push the Doctor into the vat.
"I haven't got the key!" Rose cries
"We're going to die!" Mickey whimpers while holding onto Rose. Rose looks around for other possibilities.
"No!"
"Time Lords!" The Nestene snarls and glares at the newcomer. The Doctor looks back at the girl in shock.
"No." he whispers before shouting "No, she isn't, they all died I'm the only one left!" The consciousness growls out his reply, and the Doctor shakes his head "I wasn't hiding her!"
"I can smell it!" The consciousness replies.
"If she was then I would be able to tell!" it doesn't respond.
Rose stands up and looks at the Doctor, "Just leave him!" Mickey cries. Rose ignores him, then runs round the chamber, leaving Mickey with the girl. "There's nothing you can do!"
She grabs an ax, "I've got no A Levels, no job, no future. But I tell you what I have got." she chops through the chain, "Jericho Street Junior School under 7s gymnastic team. I've got the bronze!". She runs and swings out along the side of the catwalk, knocking the two dummies into the vat, causing the one holding the vial to drop it in as well. The Nestene screams before it starts to turn blue.
"Rose!", The Doctor catches her as she swings back. "Now we're in trouble." explosions start going off around them as the girl looks on in fascinated wonder. The Doctor and Rose run to the Tardis, where Mickey is holding on for dear life, the Doctor unlocks it and ushers them all inside. The Tardis dematerializes as the place goes up in flame. The Tardis materializes by a row of shuttered kiosks and Mickey runs out, terrified. Rose calls her mother who answers. "Rose, Rose, don't go out of the house." Rose chuckles "It's not safe. There were these things, and they were shooting! And they-" Rose hangs up and runs over to the cowering Mickey. "A fat lot of good you were." she tells him
"Nestene Consciousness?" The Doctor snaps his fingers, "Easy."
"You were useless in there. You'd be dead if it wasn't for me."
"Yes, I would. Thank you. Right then, I'll be off, unless, err, I don't know, you could come with me. This box isn't just a London hopper, you know. It goes anywhere in the universe free of charge."
"Don't." Mickey points at the Doctor, "He's an alien. He's a thing."
"He's not invited. What do you think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go anywhere."
"Is it always this dangerous?" She asks.
"Yeah." Mickey hugs Rose's legs in a desperate plea for her to not go.
"Yeah, I can't. I've er, I've got to go and find my mum and someone's got to look after this stupid lump, so..."
"Okay. See you around." he closes the doors behind him and the Tardis dematerializes. Rose stares at the place of the missing blue box. "Come on, let's go." Mickey is in shock from seeing the Tardis disappear. "Come on. Come on." The Tardis materializes causing them to stop.
The Doctor sticks his head out "By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?"
She turns to Mickey "Thanks."
"Thanks for what?"
"Exactly." Rose kisses Mickey on the cheek and runs into the Tardis.