Disclaimer: I disclaim everything(ish.)

Army Of Ghosts

In 1986, Rose Tyler was born on the Planet Earth. Just over 20 years later, that was where she died. For the first nineteen years of her life, nothing happened. Nothing at all. Not ever. And then she met a man called the Doctor. A man who could change his face. And he took her away from home in his magical machine. He showed her the whole of time and space. She thought she would be with him for ever.

But then came the army of ghosts. Then came Torchwood and the war. And that's when it all ended. This is the story of how she died.

Chapter 1: The Ghosts

The story began pleasantly enough, with the TARDIS materialising in a playground near the Powell Estate. They couldn't stop in the Powell Estate itself too often or the perception filters would cease to affect the locals.

The Doctor and Rose made their way up to her mother's flat and let themselves in. "Mum, we're back."

Jackie hurried out of the kitchen and seized her in a hug. "Oh, I don't know why you bother with that phone! You never use it! Oh, I love you!"

"I love you." Rose grinned.

As they hugged, the Doctor tried to slip past them towards the sofa, but Jackie rounded on him. "Oh no you don't. Come here!" She Grabbed the Doctor and kissed him. "You're all mine."

"Just, just, just put me down."

"Yes you are!" She insisted.

Rose had pulled out a large bag and a small metal urn. "I've got lots of washing for you." Of course, there were laundry facilities back on the TARDIS, but they'd been malfunctioning lately. Last time she'd put some shirts in there, she'd got a pile off cotton plants and a lamb out the machine. Next, she handed her mother the urn. "I've also got you this, from some asteroid bazaar. It's made of... What's it called?"

"Bazoolium." Said the Doctor.

"Bazoolium. When it gets cold, yeah, it means it's going to rain. When it's hot, it's going to be sunny. You can use it to tell the weather. Isn't that brilliant?" She grinned in a very Doctorish way.

"I've got a surprise for you an' all."

"Oh, I get her Bazoolium, she doesn't even say thanks." Rose rolled her eyes, again, much like the Doctor.

"You're just in time. He'll be here at ten past. Guess who's coming to visit."

"Dunno."

"Go on, guess."

"Mum, I hate guessing. Just tell me."

"It's your Granddad. Granddad Prentice. He's on his way any minute. Anyway, cup of tea." She disappeared into the kitchen.

Rose had gone pale. "She's mad."

"Tell me something new." The Doctor grinned.

"Granddad Prentice, that's her dad. But he died, like, ten years ago. Wow. She's lost it." She took a breath and followed her into the kitchen. "Mum? What you just said about granddad."

"Any second now."

"He died." Rose said as gently as possible. "His heart gave out. Do you remember?"

"Of course I remember." Jackie said, nonchalantly.

Rose wondered if she and the Doctor would need to stay with her for a while, just until she was alright. "Then how can he come back?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself? Ten past. Here he comes." The air above the kitchen counter seemed to shimmer briefly, before a pale grey figure appeared there, stepping through the worktop and out on to the kitchen floor. It was vaguely humanoid in shape but was also eerily smooth and translucent. Only the outline was clear. "Here we are then. Dad, say hello to Rose. Hasn't she grown?"

Without another word, the Doctor and Rose bolted from the flat and down the stairs to have a look around. Outside, around 10 more ghosts were strolling about.

"Doctor, look out!" Shouted Rose.

The Doctor spun round, just in time to see a ghost walk straight through him. It did no harm, but it wasn't a pleasant sensation. Fortunately, none of the ghosts around the square seemed to be out to hurt anybody.

Jackie had followed behind, looking at her watch. "You haven't got long. Midday shift only lasts a couple of minutes."

"Since when did ghosts come in shifts?" The Docctor said, before realising what he'd just said and adding. "Since when did shifts come in ghosts? What's going on?"

"Oh, he's not happy when I know more than him, is he?" Jackie grinned. She'd been rehearsing this conversation in her head since the start.

The Doctor looked round at the others in the square. A cyclist was idly weaving between the ghosts. A couple of teenagers were trying to chat one of the ghosts up and some younger kids were using a couple of stationary ghosts as goalposts. "No one's screaming or panicking."

"Should we?" Said Jackie. "Hold on, nearly 12 past."

In another part of London, two scientists pulled two massive leavers. The ghosts everywhere vanished. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to announce we've just measured the ghost energy at five terawatts. Give yourselves a round of applause."

In search of enlightenment, the Doctor turned on the TV. It didn't disappoint. There was a weatherman drawing patterns of ghosts across the country. A police spokesman making a statement that there was no cause for alarm, and sounding like he did this every day. A shopping channel attempting to sell ghost cleaning products. An evangelist preacher declaring the ghosts a sign that the end was near. A paranormal investigator, struggling to find something else to search for. A woman on a chat show who'd married a ghost. A session of Parliament debating whether to reduce the threat level to green or not. A Japanese game show, offering a ghost as a prize. French and American news stations talking about ghosts over there.

"It's all over the world." Said the Doctor.

He changed the channel again. Eastenders this time. Peggy, the bar woman, was shouting at someone in the pub. "Listen to me, Den Watts! I don't care if you have come back from the grave. Get out of my pub! The only spirits I'm serving in this place are gin, whisky and vodka. So, you heard me. Get out!"

The Doctor turned off the telly and turned to Jackie. "How did it start?"

"Well, first of all, Peggy heard this noise in the cellar, so she goes down..."

"I mean worldwide!"

"Oh. That was about two months ago. Just happened. Woke up one morning, and there they all were. Ghosts, everywhere. We all ran round screaming and that. Whole planet was panicking. No sign of you, thank you very much. Then it sort of sank in. It took us time to realise that we're lucky."

"What makes you think it's Granddad?" Said Rose.

"Oh, I can just tell. I can smell the cigarette smoke on his clothes. Can't you smell it?"

Rose sighed. "I wish I could Mum, but I can't."

Jackie smiled. "You've got to want it sweetheart."

"The more you want it, the stronger it gets." Said the Doctor.

"Sort of, yeah."

"Sort of like a psychic link. Of course you want it, you want your old Dad to be alive. But you're wishing him into existence. The ghosts are using that to pull themselves in."

Jackie frowned. "You're spoiling it."

"I'm sorry Jackie. But there's no smell. There's no cigarettes. There's just a memory."

"But if they're not real. How come they look human?" Jackie said in a satisfied way.

"She's got a point there." Said Rose. "I mean, they're human shaped. See through, but definitely human."

The Doctor pondered "Maybe. Maybe not. They're imprinting themselves on this world. But a footprint doesn't look like a boot."

Yvonne couldn't be prouder with her team. In just a couple of months, they'd come to the verge of an achievement that less enlightened researchers had spent their lives trying to crack. In a short time, they would be remembered alongside Stevenson and Brunel, as the people who had hoisted their nation head and shoulders over the rest of the world.

All that she'd needed was a bit of leadership. Set clear targets but let them approach at their own pace. And always keep in touch with them. As such, she once more did the rounds in the main office, checking each of the four operatives she had overseeing every aspect of the ghost shifts.

She came to the final one. A promising girl called Adiola Jones, or Adi, as she liked to call her. A girl who'd recently left Cambridge with degrees in several branches of science which officially didn't exsist. "So what've we got? Any sign of that power loss?"

"Nope." Said Adi. "Must've been a glitch last time."

"Very good." She touched her finger to the earpiece they all used to communicate within the building. "Rajesh, you got anything?"

"Yeah." Said Rajesh. "I'm on Soduku book 509." If this project in this dingy little chamber achieved nothing else, at least it would produce a Soduku expert by the end.

"We've just had a great ghost shift." Yvone's voice said in his ear.

"I know. We got nothing." He put his book down and went to have a look at the little semi circle of scanning devices pointed at the end of the chamber. "Did they tell you? RND came up with a new spectrometer yesterday. Barged in here, all full of themselves. Said they could detect the heat off a single protozoa through half a mile of steel."

"It gave them nothing. Same as ever. The machines keep saying that the sphere can't exist. But there it is." At the far end, suspended ten feet in the air, was a massive black sphere. Utterly black, not even a glimmer of light around the edges. If it weren't for their ability to look at it from different angles, they wouldn't have known it was a sphere at all. Just a circle of black. Utterly identical from whatever direction you looked at it.

Anything we can do?" Said Yvonne.

"No, I'm alright. It's just, it gets in your head this thing. Like it's starring at you."

Yvonne audibly nodded. "All right. We'll catch up later."

Rajesh went up to the stepladder. Some part of his mind tempting him to repeat one of the few tests that produced a result. He climbed up below the sphere and reached out. His hand stopped as it reached the surface. He could touch the sphere but he couldn't feel it. There wasn't even a pressure sensation. He tried pressing harder and his hand slid out around the curved surface. They'd worked out early on that the sphere had no coefficient of friction.

He turned away and went to find a way to distract himself. "Sebastian. Fancy another game of hangman?"

"Matt, get on to hospitality, will you? Send Rajesh something. He's going mad down there." Said Yvonne, before adding "Not alcohol."

Next to her, Adeola was taking the report one of the messengers had handed her. Well, typing that up would keep her occupied for another ten minutes, and she had half an hour to the next shift. Looking over at Gareth, who was the world's foremost expert on dimensional energy, she had a thought and typed an internal message to him. I'm relay bored.

Me too yawn. He typed back.

Want 2 go for coffee?

Thought youd never ask. :)

He got Yvonne's attention. "I'm just going to check the stacks, just in case."

"Alright, fine."

"I'm just going to cross reference levels with the sphere." Said Adeola.

"No problem."

Yvonne watched them go, then turned to the others, who were wearing similar grins. "And they think we haven't noticed."

On their way back from the kitchen, Gareth had an idea and led her down to one side, where one wall was covered in plastic sheeting. Through the door, they could see a similar room covered in the stuff, with equipment strewn around. "W should be fine down here. Just two minutes."

"But it's out of bounds!"

"That's the point. No one will see us." He grinned.

"What about the workmen?"

Gareth thought for a moment. "They must be allocated somewhere else."

"It's not worth it. For a snog."

"It is. Come on." He ducked through. Adeola hesitated for a moment. In that time, she heard a clunk and turned to see two workmen collecting their stepladder. She hurriedly tried to look as though she was just passing through. Fortunately, the men weren't too bothered and greeted her before taking their stuff elsewhere.

"Gareth?" She called, but got no response. "Now, don't be daft, where've you gone? Gareth! Look, I'm going to head back. I'm seeing you tonight anyway. Gareth? I'm going to go back to work."

But she didn't. It was her taste for excitement which had got her into this job in the first place. Instead, she stepped through. Inside, she found she could barely see a few feet in front of her, the plastic sheets stretched from floor to ceiling, in a labyrinthine pattern. "This is it. I'm going. See you. Now stop it, Gareth. I'm not kidding, just stop it!" But she pushed on anyway.

Behind one of the sheets, she spotted a figure. "Sorry. I was looking for my friend. He came in here..." Pushing the sheet aside, she screamed at what she saw, but was quickly silenced as a metal hand clamped over her mouth.