Chapter 1
London Hero
The Doctor awoke with a start from the cold TARDIS floor, the events of the Time War still fresh in his mind. He had hoped that when he regenerated, all memory of the Time War would be lost to him, but no such luck for the lonely wonderer. He lay on the cold unforgiving steel floor, images flashing thorough his head, images of pain and suffering.
"Up and atom!" He called out, trying to shake those thoughts out of his head.
He run over to the TARDIS door and threw it wide open. He was in the middle of London in rush hour.
"How about that." Said the Doctor to himself. "Got the intelligence of a Time Lord and a time machine and I pick rush hour in London."
He slammed the door shut and walked up to the console of his ship. "Come on think! Why did you come here?" He looked down at his shoes, and then moved his vision back up to his trousers then top and coat.
"My god, I fought the Time War wearing this! I need a change."
The Doctor walked off to his wardrobe and looked at what he could wear, perhaps he would remember while changing his clothes.
A few minutes later he had decided what to wear. It was a dark brown suit with a blue pinstripe, and a light brown overcoat and cream Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars trainers. All of a sudden an alam bell rang and a hologram appeared in the centre of the spaceship.
It was a hologram of his fomour incarnation. "Emergency message, code 905. Rift opening at Henriks's department store. In five minutes." The hologram cut out.
The Doctor stood still for a moment. "Oh yeah, I remember now."
Henrik's department store. Regent Street, London.
"Rose!" called out a high pitched vioce.
"What?" She replied.
"We need more brooms, the're selling like hot cakes for some reason. Go down stairs and get some more."
"Please wouldn't kill you love." She muttered under her breath.
Rose walked down the stairs to the basement; it still amazed her how long it was. Full of plastic chairs and shop dummies and, thank the lord, brooms. She walked over to them a picked up five, just as she did this the ground started to shake.
"Just my luck, an earthquake in London." She moaned helplessly.
All of the stock started to fall around Rose as she tried to run for cover. A big light blue circle opened up on the wall oposite her, a mass of swirling power and energy, in the colour of blue. The hole started to get bigger and bigger, Rose screamed out for help. But no one could hear her, appart from one man in a dark brown suit and a light brown overcoat. He poked his head round the corner and smiled a big grin at her.
"Hello."
Rose sat still on the spot. "How could this man be so calm?" She thought.
The Doctor spun around looking for something to stop this rift from becoming any bigger. All of a sudden his eyes light up like two bright suns. He had found what he was looking for. It was a light switch and for a moment he stood still, just looking at it.
"It's called a light switch mate, and there's bigger things going on than that!" Rose screamed out.
He ignored what she just said and flicked the light switch off. The rift shook at first and then started to shrivel up in to nothing. Rose sat on the floor astonished as to what had just happened. Then he slid down the wall next to her and smiled.
"I'm the Doctor, pleased to meet you."
Rose turned her head towards his still looking at the wall where the rift had just been. "Rose Tyler." She said.
"Well Rose Tyler, I think it's time to get you home and rest. You've had a big day seeing a rift open and close within, oh, five minutes."
"What's a rift?" She asked, her voice still shaking.
"A rift is a huge gap in time and space, it's like a massive gateway in to different planets, alien technology can pass through these things. Allthough this one seemed to be trying to absorbe your universe."
"How do you know all this?" Rose asked.
"Well…I just do really, anyway." The Doctor jumped back up onto his feet. "You should forget all about me."
Rose pulled herself up off the floor. "Why should I forget about you, you just saved my life and I don't even know your name."
"I'm the Doctor." He said with a big grin on his face.
"Doctor what?"
"Just Doctor."
"Well Doctor, you're my hero."
He walked back up the stairs and out of the shop with his overcoat flapping behind him. Rose run up the stairs after him.
"What was all that about?" Said the shop owner.
"I'm taking a quick break." Before the woman could reply Rose had all ready gone.
She run down the high street chasing after this mysterious man who had just saved her incredibly boring life. She followed the Doctor back to an old blue police box, he opened the door and walked in. Then it made a strange whiring noise and it faded away into thin air. Rose stood there aghast, had she really just seen that or was it a figment of her imagination?
Later on that night.
Rose lay in her bed thinking about the events of today, who was that man? Why had he closed that Rift? Something about him seemed different to Rose, different from all other men she had ever met, something seemed almost…alien about him. Eventualy she fell asleep.
On the TARDIS.
The Doctor never seemed to go to sleep anymore, he never really needed it. A few hours was enough for him, everything changed for him after the Time War. "Even I've changed" He thought. There was so much he wanted to see and do, why waste it on sleep? But the one thing that bothered him was how alone he had become. He would turn around expecting to see somone but nobody was there, this was starting to happen more and more; the person he would expect to see there was Rose, it happened every time.
"Forever the lonely wanderer." He mumbled.
The Doctor stood staring at his console, his mind full of thoughts; each one contradicting the other. Finally he came to a decsion.
"Aw why not?" He said out loud. "Could be fun." He typed some coordinates in to the TARDIS and pressed a button. He was heading back to Earth.
Henrik's department store
Rose sat at the counter with her laptop and was on Google. It was a slow day so her boss didn't mind. All she kept typing in was "Doctor, or The Doctor and Doctor Who." After hours of searching on the web she finally found something. It was called and when Rose clicked on it, it was filled with pictures of a man in a black leather jacket and a dark purple top and black trousers and shoes. Plus he had short hair and looked nothing like the man Rose had seen earlier. Some of the pictures on the website were extremly old, they almost looked like there were before World War 1. (Although history was never Rose's strong point.) Some of the photo's regarded him as a hero and in others he looked just like a member of the crowd. At the bottom of the page it said. "IF YOU HAVE SEEN THIS MAN CLICK HERE NOW!" Just as Rose went to click the link she heard a voice from behind her.
"He really needs to update my photo's."
Rose turned round to see if the voice matched the person she was looking at.
"Doctor!" She cried.
"Oh yes that's me! Thought I would check up on you, see how you were doing. It isn't every day a human gets to see a Rift open and see in to the time and space vortex. That's not good for anyone. It wasn't for me."
"So do you see all of your damsels in distress that you saved or am I a one off?" Rose queried.
He pulled out a device from his coat pocket and shone it in Rose's eyes. The small cyllinder made a soft whirring noise and shone a bright blue light, which blinded her a little at first.
"What's that?"
The Doctor smiled. "This is my sonic screwdriver, can unlock almost any lock in the universe...and check if your ok in the head."
Rose felt stupid for asking this but she did anyway. "Are you an alien?"
"Yep." Was his only reply. "There all done, you seem to be all in working order." He switched off his screwdriver and put it back inside his overcoat.
"So you're an alien? From another planet, a martian."
"I'm not from Mars. I come from a planet called Gallifrey, home of the Time Lords."
Rose laughed and put on a posh voice.
"So you're a Time Lord, does that make me a Time Lady?"
The Doctor made no reaction to this comment, he just stared into space. "But it's gone now, all gone; I'm the last of my kind. Last of the Time Lords."
Rose put her hand on his arm. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know."
"Anyway…" The Doctor snapped out of his depression. "You do know that I have a spaceship."
Rose's eyes widened. "Really?"
"It's called a TARDIS, stands for Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space."
"I don't believe you, prove it."
The Doctor smiled a big grin. "Follow me."
Rose grabbed hold of his hand and they both run out of the shop and down the road; eventually they arrived at the TARDIS. The Doctor pulled out his key and opened the old blue doors.
"Come on." As the Doctor walked in he threw his coat over a beam in the spaceship.
Rose walked inside the TARDIS. "It…It's huge, but how…"
She run back outside and looked at the old box. "How is that possible?"
The Doctor poked his head out of the doors. "Told you I was alien."
"So you're an alien with a time machine."
"And a sonic screwdriver." He added.
A alarm rung inside the TARDIS and the Doctor ran back inside.
"What's all that about?" Rose called out.
"The TARDIS has locked on to a huge electrical power outburst."
Rose smiled. "Probably my mum using the hoover and the TV at the same time."
"Then that's one big hoover and television." He replied, not really listening. "Plus, no human could create that amount of power."
The Doctor looked at the screen harder. "Whatever is doing this is absorbing electric, it's like it's eating it."
"Where is it?" Rose asked. She had finally accepted that the TARDIS was bigger on the inside.
"Good question Miss Tyler, and the answer is... The London Eye."
"Then let's go!" She ordered.
The Doctor pulled a lever on the control panel and the TARDIS shook violently from side to side.
"Blimey, do you know how to fly this thing?!" She shouted while hanging on for dear life.
"Time Wars must have taken it's toll on the TARDIS more then I thought." He stumbled to the computer screen and typed in something. "The forward stabilizers aren't responding, and the U.P.S is offline."
"U.P. what?!"
He sighed and tried to explian what it was. "You know you have G.P.S on your planet."
Rose nodded.
"Well U.P.S is one better, Universal Positioning Satellite, in fact my planet invented it."
"So that's not working right?"
The Doctor tripped over a pipe and landed flat on his face and rubbed his nose.
"Yeah, and that means we can't travel in the time and space vortex."
All of a sudden the TARDIS screeched to a halt in mid-air, neither of them wanted to move in case it fell straight to the ground. The Doctor was the first to move, he pulled himself up off the floor and opened the door of his space ship. They were floating above the London Eye, he went to step out of the TARDIS but Rose grabbed him just in time.
She sighed at him. "What did you ever do without me?"
"Live a long life." He smiled.
"Ok Doctor, you're an alien with a big brain. Why are we floating in mid-air next to the London Eye?"
He scratched his head then started to explain. "Right I can do this, the reason we are floating in mid-air in front of the London Eye is because…" He run over to his computer console once more and typed in something. His eye's were now serious. "We're trapped in an elctromagnetic field, like spiders in a glass or rats in a lab. But the power of this field is huge, off the scale and into the sky."
A huge blue flash entered the room and formed into a huge electric monster.
Rose and the Doctor stood on the spot astonished, she would never get used to these sort of things.
Then the Doctor clicked his fingers. "Wait…I know what you are, you're the Spark. I thought your race died out milleniums ago, which means you're the last of the Spark. That means we've got something in common."
The monster replied in a distorted voice. "You're a Spark too?"
For a minute Doctor looked puzzled. "Oh no, I mean I'm the last of my race."
"What race is that?"
"Time Lord."
The monster screamed out loud, the shriek filled the TARDIS and carried on echoing.
Rose lent over to the Doctor and whispered in his ear. "I'm guessing that was the wrong answer."
The Spark spoke again. "Your kind sent us away, banished us from existence. The rules no longer apply to us."
"What rules." He asked.
The monster laughted. "The rules of Time and Space. We can live for longer, we can live forever."
Doctor shook his head. "That's not possible, no one can live beyond time, not even me."
"So if you can't do it no one else can?" The Spark mocked.
"My kind didn't banish you."
"YES THEY DID!" Spark screached. "You were fighting in the Time Wars when we were attacked, but you kept us alive."
He stood still next to Rose and stared in to the monsters eye's.
"The energy you used to destroy your kind and the metal one's, that will feed me for years to come."
"I'm sending you back, to what ever dark pitt you spawned from and you will live the rest of your life there."
The Spark flashed a blinding light and when it cleared he was gone. Doctor run to his TARDIS doors and opened them, they were now facing the London Eye. It was alive with electricity from top to bottom.
"How are we going to beat them?" Rose asked.
"I don't know…yet."
He slammed the door shut and paced around the TARDIS. "Brain storm time, what doesn't mix with electric?"
"Water" she replied.
"Yes, but that would cause a massive electrical outburst, kill millions."
"Oh, not good." Then she thought of it. "Metal conducts electricity."
He smiled a huge grin. "Rose Tyler you're a genius, amazing, brilliant in fact…why didn't I think of that?"
She smiled and blushed a little.
"We can use the TARDIS."
"But it's made of wood."
Doctor pulled a face. "Kind of, but the microscopic particles are made up from tens and thousands of Gallifreien "metal" particles."
"And that will conduct the Spark?"
"Should do, or the TARDIS will explode."
"Not much at stake then." She replied sarcasticly
He smiled back. "That's all part of the fun."
He run around his spaceship madly, pressing and pulling levers. "This is going to take a lot of energy." He muttered.
"Why is it going to take so much power?" Rose asked.
The Doctor was pleased that she asked why, because this made him look even more clever.
"At the moment the Spark is drawn to the highest amount of power, and at that happens to be Earth. But, if i can create a new source of power stronger than the Earth's they will be drawn to it; like Moth's to light or humans to something they don't understand."
"I love it that you compare me to a Moth." Rose tutted.
He run his fingers through his hair. "I didn't say you, just the whole human race…anyway! Almost done, just need to fire up the energy converter and…" He went to press the button that would unleash the energy but Rose interrupped him.
"How can your spaceship…"
"TARDIS." Doctor corrected.
"TARDIS, create enough power?"
"I have the time vortex inside of this." He kicked the control panel. "And believe me that's a lot of energy Rose."
"Ok then captain, press the button."
Doctor smiled. "Hold on tight."
He pressed down the button and the TARDIS shock violently and spun around.
"Flipping heck!" Rose shouted out.
The lights in the TARDIS started to explode and sparks flew everywhere, the console in the centre of the spaceship started to catch alight and a huge distorted electrical monster, screaming aloud appeared. "YOU CAN NOT KILL THE SPARK, I SHALL LIVE FOREVER!!!!"
Then just as soon as it had started it ended. Rose got up from the floor and looked around. "Well, at least we didn't explode."
The Doctor stood still looking at the control panel.
"Where is it?" She asked.
He walked over to the door and opened it. "Rose, I need you to wait here."
She walked out of the TARDIS doors and stood on the spot like a naughty child.
"I'll be back in a few minutes." He said, then closed the doors.
Rose walked over to a bench and sat down watching the TARDIS dissapear into thin air. Thoughts were rushing through her head, "What if he doesn't come back?" or "What if something happens to him?" But a few minutes later the familiar blue box appeared again, she run up to it as fast as her legs would take her. The doors opened up and standing there was the Doctor. Rose run up and hugged him.
"Allright, I was only gone for a few minutes. Even though it was hours for me, and I fixed the TARDIS."
Rose stepped back and brushed herself down. "What did you do with the Spark?"
He stood still for a moment, his face giving nothing away. Then he spoke.
"He wanted to live forever so…I let him." The images of this flashing though his head. Images of the Spark falling into an event horizon of a collapsing galaxy.
"Anyway Rose Tyler, you get one trip as a treat for helping me."
"Just one trip?"
He sighed. "It's better that way. So where do you want to go?"
"I don't know…erm."
Doctor smiled. "Pick a random number any number you want, and we'll see where we land."
"Ok, I pick…8697."
He punched in the numbers and pulled the lever to fly away, and for the first time in a long while he thought. "I'm not alone."