The Sunless Planet
A "Doctor Who" fan fiction by NYDragonRose
In the era of . . .
The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler! The good ol' days!
So, so, so! This is my first "Doctor Who" fan fiction ever! The second fan fiction I've ever written. I'm going to say it occurs between "The Idiot's Lantern" and "The Impossible Planet" – just another adventure Rose and the Tenth Doctor had before they were separated. Not obscene amounts of romance, but the same sort of . . . shall we say implications? they had on the actual show. A bit of drama, an original character, talk of Daleks, some old running jokes and a few puns are involved. Hope you like it and please review! The story begins . . .
The TARDIS had landed squarely on a roving plain of solid snow. Rose tentatively cracked the door open and shivered. "Where are we, Doctor?" she asked.
"Anywhere," he replied from within, sticking his head out briefly. "I offered to show you Elvis for real, the Medusa Cascade, the Leisure Palace of Midnight, William Shakespeare, Shan Shen, even Barcelona again, but you just said, 'anywhere', so here we are, at anywhere."
"Anywhere is cold," Rose quipped as the Doctor joined her outside, closing the TARDIS door behind him.
"Well, I can't guarentee comfort when satisfying your whims!" he protested, folding his arms against the cold. "Now, do you want to go somewhere else, or should we at least explore a bit?"
Rose shrugged. "Well, there could be something interesting on this planet. I'll face my poetic justice for my choice of 'anywhere', Doctor." She, too, folder her arms, and added, "Come on," before walking away.
Even this was immensely difficult through the blinding snowstorms and three-foot layer of icy powder. Rose shivered even more uncontrollably, and the Doctor attempted to wrap his coat around her. They stood awkwardly thus for a moment, until Rose noticed a dark shape in the blurred white distance.
"What's that?" she asked, and promtly dashed off towards it, the Doctor in her wake. They approached the snowy point of darkness and found to their dismay it was a girl with long ebony hair, wearing a sort of red half-cape over what appeared to be striped pajamas. She was shivering fitfully on the ground, half-buried in snow and unconscious.
Immediately Rose knelt beside her, digging and dusting the excess snow from the girl, and the Doctor tore off his coat and threw it over her, exclaiming, "We need to get her inside the TARDIS before she freezes!"
Wrapping his coat around her, he lifted her gently from the ground and carried her back to his time machine, Rose trailing tremulously behind, wishing she could help.
The interior of the TARDIS was welcomingly balmy after the harshness of the planet outside, and Rose warmed herself, folding her arms and leaning against the center console of the TARDIS. She watched as the Doctor laid the girl on the seat, pulled out his stethoscope, and set it to the girl's chest.
"You almost look like a real doctor," Rose said quietly, eliciting a small, distracted smile from him.
"Well!" he proclaimed, after a moment more of inspection, "her heart is beating fine. She just got too cold, I suppose, and her body shut down. Should wake up in a minute."
"Just one heart, then?" asked Rose.
"Yes: definitely not a Time Lady," the Doctor confirmed.
"They're called Time Ladies? Female Time Lords -?"
"They were," the Doctor said, in the sort of somber tone that forbade further joking on the subject.
"Sorry," Rose said quietly, and the Doctor nodded.
"Now," he added, changing his tone back into one of careless felicity, "Where do you want to go next, Rose Tyler? As it's clear this planet is too cold to explore comfortably, I think you really ought to give Barcelona a chance . . ."
"I should," Rose agreed. "Look, Doctor, she's awake!"
Rose's statement was correct; the girl sat up, wide-eyed, looked wildly around, and proceeded to begin hyperventilating.
"It's alright, it's alright," the Doctor assured her. "Take it easy; you're safe now."
The girl was now searching her person for some object and concluding, "I've lost it!" But a moment later, her hand passed desperately over a lump in her pajama pocket, she let out a sigh of relief and said, "No, I haven't; thank goodness!"
She sat a moment organizing her thoughts before turning to the Doctor and saying, "First – thank you, for saving me. Second - who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor replied, "and this is Rose Tyler." He indicated Rose, who waved, and girl waved back, smiling slightly, before turning back to the Doctor.
"You're the Doctor? The Doctor? Doctor who?" she asked.
The Doctor and Rose laughed heartily in unison. "Haven't heard that one in a while. It's just the Doctor. What's your name?"
"Ardyce," the girl replied, "Just Ardyce, no title, I'm afraid."
"That's alright," said the Doctor. "Now, if you don't mind me asking, just Ardyce, what exactly were you doing wandering alone in the cold of this planet? It wouldn't be my choice of location for a leisurely jaunt. It must be common knowledge that it's too cold to last long. "
"I wasn't just walking, sir," the girl replied, and for the first time a small trace of pride crept into her small voice. "I have – a quest."
"A quest!" the Doctor exclaimed, joining Ardyce on the seat. "I love a good quest, don't you, Rose?"
"Oh, it's of utmost importance!" the girl declared. "I'm sorry, I really must get on with it." She rose to her feet unsteadily.
"No, no, no, no, no, sit down; maybe we can help you," the Doctor told her, standing immediately and pushing her back into the chair. "What's this quest, then?"
Ardyce pandered in indecision for a moment.
"It's all right," the Doctor said, "you can trust me."
"Yes," the girl agreed, a sudden smile alighting on her lips. "I believe I can." She paused another moment. "My quest is to save my city from the oncoming storm."
"The Oncoming Storm?" the Doctor asked in mild confusion. "I –"
"Indeed, sir," Ardyce replied, "the oncoming storm of cold that will envelop my people if we do not collect the heat. Sorry, I just thought the 'oncoming storm' sounded more impressive."
"You have to collect your own heat?" Rose asked.
"Yes, Miss Rose – you see, this planet has no sun. We must mine our heat from its core in the form of these rock things, known as –"
"—rolonium," Ardyce and the Doctor finished in unison.
Ardyce nodded and went on. "Every city on this planet is built around a mine of rolonium, including . . . mine – no pun intended. But in the old days, we didn't know how to make it grow, to keep our stock infinite, so my city's mine ran out. We had no more of the precious heat stone to keep us from freezing to death."
"So why didn't you move to another city?" Rose asked.
"We didn't need to, back then – we could trade with neighboring cities for their rolonium. Our city may have no rolonium, but with our other resources, we remained one of the richer cities, and we kept warm easily, because with just one rolonium stone, our entire city could be kept warm for a hundred years," Ardyce explained.
"But then what happened?" the Doctor asked gently.
"Invaders," Ardyce replied coldly. "A fearful, wicked race invaded this planet, but they only took one city by force – the city we traded with to get our rolonium. They were so terrifying that their influence of fear cut off all our other sources of the mineral as well. They kept all the rolonium in that city for themselves, and refused our pleading for it. The invaders swore they would not exterminate us if we paid them proper tributes and asked nothing in return."
"Exterminate –?" began Rose, looking significantly at the Doctor, who ran his hand wearily over his face.
"What race, Ardyce? Do you know?" the Doctor asked. "What were the invaders called?" It was with great restraint that he did not shout, "Answer me!"
"The most fearful race in this galaxy – the enemy of all," Ardyce replied. "Sir Doctor, we were invaded by the Daleks."
The Doctor leapt to his feet. "No!" he shouted, burying his face in his hands. "Not again!"
Rose frowned and put a comforting hand on the Doctor's arm.
"I – I take it you have met Daleks before?" Ardyce asked.
The Doctor and Rose nodded grimly. "That doesn't sound like Daleks, though," the Doctor noted. "I mean, usually, they wouldn't bother with threats or swearing not to exterminate – what could they want?"
"Evidently, they wanted rolonium," Ardyce replied. "All of it. To utterly cut us off from the mineral keeping us alive. It may count as exterminating to let all our cities slowly freeze to death. So it really made no difference whether we obeyed them or not – we would die either way. Ergo, we didn't. Once every hundred years, when our rolonium stone's power is dying, one is sent from my city to steal a piece of rolonium from the Daleks' dominion. This time, it was me."
"So that's what you were doing – sneaking to the Daleks' city to steal back your precious heat source. Risking life and limb to freezing and extermination to save your entire city," the Doctor said, unable to keep from smiling. "Oh, Ardyce, I like you."
"And I would have failed, had you not rescued me!" Ardyce exclaimed, blushing slightly at his compliment. "My people will be in your debt, Sir Doctor, and noble Rose Tyler. But you see, I must get on with it, now, or surely my city will believe I too have failed, and send another."
"You too?" the Doctor asked. "Are you not the first?"
"First to volunteer, but second to go," Ardyce replied. "H-he was older, so he had seniority. He was only trying to protect me, but he never came back, so I went. The first was – my brother –" Her voice broke, and small tears streamed down her face. "Oh, shame!" she said, burying her face in her cape and Rose hastened to put a comforting arm around the girl.
"What was his name?" asked the Doctor gently.
"Bram," Ardyce replied.
He allowed perhaps another moment of respect for the deceased before wondering aloud, "But what would Daleks want with rolonium? They don't feel, they can't get cold; they have no need forheat. Unless they're just trying a new method of killing, but still, to stock up on rolonium like that – Daleks are clever, they'd try to kill two birds with one stone – namely the rolonium. Is there anything different or special about it, Ardyce? Does it have any properties besides heat?"
Ardyce wiped the remainder of her tears away, thanking Rose, and pulled a small jar out of her bulged pocket. "You can look at it, Doctor; I was on my way back when weakness overcame me."
The Doctor accepted the jar gratefully and promptly put on his glasses to examine it closer. Inside the jar was a small round stone, mostly an inky black with occasional streaks of glowing orange the color of Gallifrey's sky.
"It doesn't look quite normal for rolonium," the Doctor noted. He shook the jar aggressively, inquiring of it, "Come on now, what do Daleks want with you, eh? Eh?"
The jar slipped from his hand and promptly shattered on the TARDIS's floor. With a gasp, Ardyce pounced on the liberated stone, then straightened up and stuffed it in her pocket. She dashed trippingly out of the TARDIS, saying as she went, "I'm sorry, sir, I really must be going now! Thank you!"
"Wait, wait, wait!" the Doctor called after her. He and Rose followed the girl outside and found her staring blankly and wide-eyed at the tiny blue box in front of her.
"It can't be!" she exclaimed, running all the way around it. "That thing was huge! It's like – It's – Sir Doctor, it's –"
"-bigger on the inside," all three of them finished. Ardyce's face lit up with a smile. "That is – that is just bloody amazing!"
"And you know what else is amazing about it?" the Doctor asked. "It can travel in time and space, which means we could get back to your city a lot faster if we stepped back inside."
"Time?" Ardyce asked, her eyes widening even further, her face paling suddenly and breaking out in sweat. "Are you – are you a Time Lord?"
The Doctor had opened his mouth to reply, but his words were not meant to be said, as the next moment, the TARDIS vanished.
"What? What?" the Doctor shouted again. "What? How -?"
"I'd guess it was the work of the Daleks," Ardyce said faintly, swaying slightly.
"Well, we have to get it back – let's go and see those Daleks, Rose!" the Doctor insisted.
"Yes, you go, good sir, noble Rose. I must return to my city. Best of luck!" Ardyce's voice sounded even more quiet and strained.
"Doctor?" asked Rose. "We leave Ardyce to go back to her city alone?"
"No," the Doctor replied after a moment's thought. "No; good point – Rose, you go with Ardyce. I'm going to have a word with those Daleks."
"I'm not letting you face Daleks alone!" Rose insisted. "And they can wait, can't they? Ardyce –"
"Oh, don't bother," Ardyce said, her voice hardly more than a whisper now. Quite suddenly, she collapsed in the snow again, gasping in pain.
"Ardyce?" the Doctor asked, hastening over to her side. "Ardyce, what's wrong?" He and Rose simultaneously knelt down beside her.
Her pain rendered her momentarily incapable of speech; the Doctor took her hand and frowned. "Ardyce, you're burning. This entire planet is freezing to death, but you're burning like a living sun!"
"I absorbed it," panted Ardyce. "When you broke the jar with the rolonium, all the heat would have escaped in a second, would have gone into you and Rose, so I absorbed it. I have – within my body – enough heat to keep my city warm for a hundred years!"
Rose shot the Doctor a panicky expression; he remained frowning gravely. "Transfer it into me," he commanded her softly.
"No!" she insisted, seizing Rose's shoulder to return to her feet. "I can't do that! You've saved me once already! If I just get back to my city, I can transfer it into the Central Torch, and no one else has to suffer!"
"It could kill you, Ardyce!" the Doctor insisted, following her in her determined, though unsteady, march.
"That's a risk I'm willing to take!" Ardyce panted, Rose taking hold of her right arm and helping her on a few more steps.
The Doctor opened his mouth to argue, but shut it again. He instead took hold or Ardyce's other arm, he and Rose exchanged an unsmiling nod, and they marched on.
It was hardly twenty yards later that Ardyce collapsed into the snow again with a blood-curdling scream. She writhed in agony, tears streaming down her face now. Rose watched in a helpless horror.
The Doctor's eyes had gone misty. "Please, Ardyce, transfer it into me," he begged softly. "It will destroy you . . . you will die and your city will freeze!"
"It's – more than heat!" she screamed. "It's – anguish – despair! I think . . . Sir Doctor, it's been poisoned!"
"The Daleks corrupted your heat source," the Doctor said, his voice filling with a sort of calm, grating vehemence. "Just in case you'd had the courage to try and not freeze to death, there would be one more way to exterminate you, using your only hope against you. You can't take it back to your city now – it would kill everyone as fast as the cold."
"What can we do, Doctor?" Rose asked, horrified. "Can she let it out? Can she release it?"
"No."
"Is there any way to get rid of it, then?" Rose gulped bravely. "C-can she transfer it into me?"
"Your body wouldn't accept it," the Doctor lied easily.
"Hers did!"
"Well, she's not human!" the Doctor said. "Humans aren't the only race who look just like Time Lords, you know: Jack wasn't from Earth, either. The only solution is to transfer it into me."
"You are a great man – a hero! It is clear my death will be of less consequence! Please finish the job when I am dead, Doctor. This quest was my first attempt at anything useful . . ." Ardyce moaned, getting to her feet again. "Just let me die . . . in the arms of heroes . . ."
Rose's eyes shone with tears; the Doctor took Ardyce in his arms and spoke once more to her.
"Ardyce, I am begging you: transfer it into me. Because you were right – I am a Time Lord. That energy will not hurt an almighty Time Lord. No one has to die, Ardyce, if you just transfer it into me."
Ardyce's mind was apparently too distracted to wonder why he hadn't said this from the beginning. "Really?" she asked. "It won't hurt you? Time Lords are that powerful?"
The Doctor nodded, smiling tremulously, holding her right hand in his. "Now do it!"
At long last, Ardyce relented. Energy crackled ominously through her arm into the Doctor's hand and into him. He bravely stood the shock until every particle was out of Ardyce's system. She promptly collapsed, to be caught by Rose.
The Doctor took a deep breath and said, "Right then! Since now we have nothing to take back to the city and I really ought to get my TARDIS back . . . I think we need to have a word with those Daleks. Come on. Allons-y!"
Ardyce was able to walk normally again after about ten minutes of recovery, and was very obliging in directing the Doctor towards the city dominated by the Daleks. Both she and Rose shivered periodically, attempting sometimes to cling to each other for more warmth, but the Doctor did not seem cold at all, for which Rose became suspicious as they shuffled on through the merciless chill of the sunless planet.
Ardyce wondered aloud whether the Daleks had left any of the rolonium uncorrupted; that if not, her city was doomed. The Doctor, with an inane grin, turned to her and said, "Ardyce, not only are we going to save your city, but we are going to liberate this entire planet!"
Ardyce smiled hopefully as Rose let out a large and visible breath, shivering more violently than ever. The Doctor immediately stripped off his coat and handed it to her.
"No," Rose said angrily, pushing the coat back to him. "It's not as if Time Lords can't get cold as well!"
"I won't," the Doctor replied. "Look at me; I'm not cold in the slightest!"
Rose took hold of his hand and gasped. "No you're not, you're burning! Burning just like Ardyce was!"
"Yeah, well . . ." the Doctor began, but Ardyce interrupted as she took his other hand to test Rose's assertion.
"You said you were a Time Lord! You said it wouldn't hurt you!" she insisted. "You – you lied?"
"I am a Time Lord," the Doctor replied. "And, look at me, I'm f –"
His statement was simultaneously interrupted and disproved by a cry of pain, causing him to fall face-forward on the ground. Rose and Ardyce knelt beside him.
"OK – yes – I lied, I'm a liar, throw me in jail," he said, gasping. "I'm sorry, but I could tell it was the only way I'd get you to transfer it."
"Well, transfer it back!" Ardyce pleaded.
"No," said Rose, facing Ardyce, "you've had your turn. I'm going to assume my body not accepting it was a lie, too. Doctor, transfer it into me!"
The Doctor smiled, shaking his head. "No," he said firmly. "I'm not transferring it into anyone," and his smile widened as he added, "because I have a plan!"
Slowly and tentatively, Rose returned his smile and the two girls helped the Doctor to his feet.
"Those Daleks probably think they're so clever, using your only hope against you," the Doctor said. "But they never thought it could be used against them!" He stood, panting pitifully, sweat dripping down his face. "Now then, if you're cold, you can take an arm, each of you – and you'll be warmer, and we'll move faster."
Rose and Ardyce hastened to obey, pulling each of the Doctor's arms over their respective shoulders and looking to him for further instructions. He smiled, remarking happily that he had "a friend on each arm" and they continued laboriously toward the city conquered by the Daleks.
Rose and Ardyce were indeed kept warm by clinging to the super-heated Doctor. In return, however, they nearly had to carry him after a while, as the poison and heat had rendered him weaker than ever. When finally the cold metal walls of the city were visible, he could barely speak, all of which greatly distressed Rose, but he constantly assured her he had a plan.
Straight ahead was the main entrance to the city – a great, impressive, tall and heat-locked doorway.
"That's not how I got in," Ardyce whispered to the panting Doctor. "I snuck in through an emergency vent. It was hard to find and harder to reach, especially when I was so stiff from the cold, but I was able to evade the Daleks seeing me."
"Right," the Doctor gasped, "but that's not our plan. We want to be seen! We're gonna use the front door!"
"How are you going to get it open? I'm pretty sure they're not keen on uninvited guests," Ardyce said.
"Just get me closer," the Doctor said. "I have a few tricks."
Ardyce and Rose brought the Doctor to the doorway and he pulled out his sonic screwdriver. Soon enough, they were able to step inside the heat-lock and enter the city.
"Very nice," the Doctor commented, glancing over the shimmering buildings and towers of the city, "beautiful, really . . . well, if there were no Daleks, and come think of it, I don't see any."
He was quite right, of course. The streets appeared to be deserted of the robotic creatures.
"That's weird," Ardyce noted. "It was crawling with guys last time!"
"Murphy's Law," the Doctor said grimly, "they'll only be here if you don't want them to be here!" Then he desisted in clenching his teeth and moaning softly for a moment.
"Doctor," Rose began, but he gave her no chance to finish.
"Daleks!" he shouted at the top of his voice. "Come out! Take me to your leader! I need a word with him!"
Immediately, armed men burst out of the houses, bearing staffs and looking generally threatening in nature. In no time at all, the three of them were surrounded.
"Here they are!" Ardyce said fearfully. "They're going to exterminate us! What's your plan, Doctor? Now would be a good time!"
But Rose and the Doctor were staring strangely at the men. "You're not Daleks," Rose said.
"We are too Daleks!" said the leader, a leering, beefy man with a six-foot-long staff; his voice was a fairly good impression of a Dalek.
"For your insolence, you will be exterminated!" echoed one of his fellows, raising his staff; it began to glow.
"No, no, wait – just wait!" the Doctor insisted, holding up his hand. "I need to see your leader. I have an ultimatum for him!"
"Who are you?" asked the first man, still in his Dalek-like voice.
"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor replied.
"Doctor who?" asked the leader.
"See, if you were real Daleks, you'd know who he was, the Oncoming Storm, and you would be terrified!" Rose insisted.
"We are real Daleks!" the leader insisted angrily, as the Doctor was overtaken by another wave of poisonous pain and despair. "We are enemies of the Time Lords and every other being in the universe!"
"Aww, and I thought we could be friends," the Doctor gasped, recovering. "But, if you're the enemy of all Time Lords, you might want to start with me."
"He is a Time Lord! Exterminate!" roared all the men. The leader raised his staff threateningly to the Doctor and electricity crackled through it, but at the last moment, Ardyce pulled the Doctor back and Rose jumped defensively in front of him, receiving the full shock of the blow. She screamed and collapsed.
"ROSE!" the Doctor yelled, half-fallen as one of his supports was gone.
Ardyce gripped his hand briefly, but soon relinquished it with a swift, "Sorry." She vanished into the crowd of men, leaving the Doctor to collapse beside Rose.
"You are an almighty Time Lord?" the leader taunted. "You are weaker than a human! We did not even strike you, and yet you fall!"
The Doctor glared angrily up his captors. "I was trying to give you a chance!" he snarled. "Because I am a Time Lord, and right now, I have the power to destroy your entire city, and if you don't want that, you will take me to your leader! NOW!"
"If you have such power, then destroy us!" the leader taunted.
"I want to give you a chance! I need to see the leader of all of you! You can't decide for your whole city!" the Doctor screamed in anguish, collapsing again beside Rose's prone figure.
The leader of this mob set his staff on the Doctor's shoulder. "If we do not give you a chance to give us a chance, will you kill us mercilessly, Doctor?"
The Doctor was now writhing in such agony it rendered him incapable of reply.
"You are weak," the leader decided. "Live no more." Electricity crackled from his staff and flowed through the Doctor, whose figure immediately stopped twitching and became limp and still.
Faintly he felt the Dalek impersonators pick him up and carry him somewhere, where they threw him roughly to the ground. He heard something else landing beside him. He opened his eyes a fraction of an inch. It was Rose.
With an effort, he reached out and took her hand, feeling her wrist and the beat of life still slowly pulsing through her. He smiled very faintly before yet another wave of the poison overtook him.
The poison that the Dalek impersonators had injected into this planet's heat source was like none the Doctor had experienced before. It didn't just destroy your body from within, but was sadistic enough that it drove you mad with images inside your head until your body tried to destroy itself to end the torment, to literally die of despair. Now, internally, the infernal poison forced him to relive the death of Gallifrey, to watch it burn again and again and again . . .
"Doctor?" asked Rose's weak voice from just beside him.
Silently he reached out his other hand for her, and she took both his hands in both of hers and squeezed them tightly until the image had been forced out of his mind. His eyes flickered open and he saw Rose beside him, scarred, pale, and drawn, but with that beautiful, determined face.
"I'm sorry," the Doctor whispered weakly. "Rose, I am so sorry."
"Never mind that," Rose said quietly. "What happened? How did I survive? What're we going to do now?"
"They shocked you and me, but it didn't kill us, because neither of us is the right species. You're human, I'm Time Lord, but I think that energy can only kill inhabitants of this planet. Poor Ardyce - she's probably dead by now . . ."
"Where did she go?" asked Rose, her head whipping around to look.
But the Doctor ignored her question. "Rose, can you walk? I need you to go, find the TARDIS, and just leave. I'll show you how to have it take you home . . . but you have to go, Rose."
"Oh no you don't!" Rose said stubbornly. "You tried that before and I came right back! I am not leaving you, Doctor!"
"You have to," the Doctor breathed. "If I execute my plan while you're still here, you'll die, too, Rose. There's no other way. You have to leave me!"
"But –" began Rose. "I can't – I'm not –" She paused for a sharp and calming intake of breath. "Doctor, where did Ardyce go? Did she abandon us?"
"She did not," said a voice from behind them. They both turned; there stood Ardyce, brandishing one of the staffs over a cowering Dalek impersonator, dusty and battle-scarred, but grinning brilliantly. "There is another way, and no one is leaving you!"
Rose gaped at her.
She hurried over to them and helped them both to their feet, greeting them warmly. "Now after fighting through a million of those guys, I've cleared a path for us and the leader is very willing to talk! I made sure of it!"
"How did you-?" began Rose.
"I stole a staff, and as it turns out, these things work equally well on them; they are the same species as me! They impersonated the Daleks, somehow, because they found a damaged Dalek ship falling through space, and since we had never seen actual Daleks, the aura of fear kept us at bay. But they're merely renegade invaders from our neighboring planet, seeking to expand their empire!" she proclaimed happily.
"But they all had staffs! They could have killed you!" Rose exclaimed, clinging to Ardyce's shoulder.
"Yeah, well . . ." said Ardyce. "I don't mind if I go down fighting. And as it turns out, I didn't have to. Now, let's go, Doctor! Let's give them a chance!"
She threatened her accompanying Dalek impersonator into helping the Doctor while she helped Rose and the four of them made their way up many stairs and passages to where the emperor was waiting. The TARDIS was sitting peacefully beside him.
"Your turn, Doctor," Ardyce smiled as she and Rose sat down in chairs beside the emperor to watch the fireworks.
The emperor was a small and wise-looking man. "So," he said, not bothering to sound remotely like a Dalek. "You are the Oncoming Storm, a Time Lord and enemy of the Daleks? You have a threat to make to us?"
"Well," said the Doctor, remaining resolutely on his feet despite his lack of support, suppressing the poison for as long as this conversation would take. "Threat is a harsh word. More of an . . . ultimatum."
"Make it, then!" snarled the emporer.
"Right," said the Doctor. "Well, I'll make this simple. You've been impersonating Daleks and using this world's fear of them to scare them into submission and you've also tried to kill them by cutting them off from and poisoning their heat source."
"These are indeed forms of conquest we've employed in order to conquer this planet. We also considered blood control, but it seemed a little old-fashioned. You point being?" the emperor said impatiently.
"As a Time Lord, I have a different physiology than you - my body is more resilient to the poison than most, and I also have the ability to release the poison from my body into this entire city, where each one of you will be killed by it, because you could not release it."
"But Ardyce released it into you," Rose noted confusedly.
"And I willingly accepted it and absorbed it from her at the same time," the Doctor explained. "It had to be a mutual thing."
"So that is your threat?" asked the emperor.
"Yes; leave this planet, never return, or I will use the power you used against your enemies to destroy all of you!" the Doctor shouted.
"Could you do that, Doctor? Would you really kill us all, this entire community, and endanger your friends?"
"Rose, Ardyce, get in the TARDIS! Hey, that rhymed! Ardyce, TARDIS." He turned back to the emperor and shouted: "Anyways – yes! I am perfectly serious! I'll do it!"
"You will kill us all?"
"I am giving you a chance!" the Doctor pleaded. "Just leave, and I won't have to. Please! Please just leave!"
The emperor considered him for a moment. "We . . ." he began slowly and dramatically, "accept. We will leave. The dominion of this planet is not worth our lives."
"What, really?" the Doctor asked, disbelievingly. "You're really going to go? I don't have to do it? I don't have to kill anyone?"
"Really," the emperor confirmed. He further confirmed his decision when he called for an immediate evacuation of the city; in not five minutes, the Dalek impersonators could be seen from the windows, entering the Dalek ship they had found, about to take off.
Rose and Ardyce watched in wonder, though Ardyce still kept her stolen staff poised over her captive so he could show her where the uncorrupted rolonium was before he left – having confirmed it existed by deducing that these people, not being Daleks, would need some for themselves to keep warm. Rose cheered; she seemed nearly recovered from her shock, and exclaimed, "Everyone lives, Doctor! Again!"
But the Doctor had his back to her and had not moved since the emperor had vacated the premises.
"Doctor?" Rose asked concernedly, going to him and taking his hand. He was wearing an extremely somber expression. "Everyone lives, Doctor," she repeated, giving him a weak smile. "Aren't you happy?"
"Everyone lives . . ." he said slowly and rather gloomily, "except me."
"What?" Rose demanded. Ardyce, too, looked horrified.
The Doctor heaved a sigh and sat down in Ardyce's vacated chair. He looked drawn and weary, broken and small. "The poison is still in me, Rose. I've held it at bay a long time, but eventually it will kill me just like anyone else."
"You just said you could let it out! Do it! They're gone now!" Rose pleaded.
"Then it would go into you and Ardyce," he said softly. "It's a parasite – it hooks onto any and all living things and destroys them."
"Well, we'll get into the TARDIS and then it can't reach us, yeah?" Rose suggested. "Then after you get rid of it, you follow us inside and we get out of here!"
"If no one else was around, it would go back into me, so it comes to the same," the Doctor explained weakly. "There's no way around it, Rose. Get ready to see a new face on me again." He gave a weak, watery laugh. "Please take it better than last time."
"Doctor," Rose sobbed. "You can't - I – I lo—" she began, but could not go on.
The Doctor put his arms around Rose held her closely. "Oh, Rose," he said wistfully, his eyes going a little misty again, "My Rose Tyler – thank you." He kissed her forehead. "I –"
But Ardyce cut him off.
"No!" she shouted stubbornly. "I will not have this! You, Sir Doctor, are not going to die today!"
"Ardyce, I –" began the Doctor, but she didn't even listen.
"Everybody will live today, Doctor, and that includes you! There is a way!" she said.
"What is it?" asked Rose desperately, attempting to dry her eyes and staring up at her, barely daring to hope.
"This city is just like every other city on this planet in that it has a Central Torch that emits the heat from the rolonium," she began. "See how we're not freezing here?"
"Yeah, and?" Rose prompted.
"And the Doctor can release the poison into there! It's not a living thing, but the specific purpose of the technology of the Central Torch allows it to hold onto that energy," she explained. "Yes, it will make this city uninhabitable for another hundred years, but quite frankly, Doctor, your life is worth that!" she said fiercely.
"Will it kill us, though? I mean, the thing will transmit the poison, won't it?" Rose asked. "So it comes to the same –"
"It's not as concentrated, though. It release only a little energy at a time; it's got to last a hundred years, so if we're quick in legging it after you get rid of the stuff, we shouldn't be that much worse off," Ardyce said confidently.
"Let's do it, then," Rose said, pulling the Doctor to his feet. "Let's go! Let's get to the Central Torch!"
"You go," Ardyce said. "I've gotta get him" – she indicated the Dalek impersonator she still held at staffpoint – "to show me where they kept the rolonium that wasn't poisoned. I've still got to save my city!"
"Good luck, then," said Rose, dragging the Doctor toward the door. "The Central Torch -?" she began.
"In the center of town, you can't miss it," Ardyce said. "There's a bit of a climb up to it. Anyways, good luck to you, too. And I'll see you at the TARDIS, yeah?"
"Yeah," Rose agreed.
The Doctor was virtually silent as he allowed Rose to half-drag, half-carry him across the city toward the Central Torch. Ardyce had been correct in her statement that it was impossible to miss, and very soon, she was pulling the Doctor up a seemingly eternal flight of stairs. Her determination seemed to have completely cancelled out her own weakened state from the staff's shock.
They were both panting rather severely, and approximately one-third of the way up the stairs, the Doctor collapsed again, with a loud cry.
"Rose," he moaned, "if this doesn't work – If I don't get there in time –"
"It'll work!" Rose insisted loudly, her voice squeaky yet defiant.
"But right now – if I don't start regenerating right now, I'll die for good, Rose. No new face, no new man. I'll be dead, forever, like a human. The end of the Time Lords . . ." he explained to her.
"That won't happen!" Rose shouted, and with renewed vigor, she slung the Doctor's arm over her shoulder and charged on. "You're going to live! This you does not end now!"
With her last gasp of energy, Rose delivered the collapsing and agonized Doctor to the Central Torch. There was a sort of tiny circular door in its side that Rose pulled open. A metallic voice said, "Input rolonium, please."
The Doctor shoved his arm in the hole and stood rigid as all the energy of poison, heat, and torture was siphoned out of him by the Central Torch. Then he promptly collapsed again, and Rose caught him, holding him closely as they sunk together to the floor, panting. They looked eachother in the eyes and laughed airily in their glee. They sat together, exhausted and relieved and silent, until a familiar voice wrenched them back to reality.
"Oy!" yelled Ardyce, hundreds of feet below. She was brandishing a fresh jar with a tiny rolonium stone inside. Her stolen staff was no longer threatening the last of the Dalek impersonators, but she had apparently snapped it in two and smashed its head, thus destroying its destructive power. The last Dalek impersonator was standing quite peacefully at her side. "Still alive, both of you?" she shouted up at them.
"Yes!" Rose replied, beaming, standing pulling the Doctor to his feet. He waved.
"Well then, we'd better leg it before that thing starts transmitting poison!" she said. And with that, she ran off.
Rose and the Doctor held hands and they once again ran together, fleeing destruction toward the safety of the TARDIS.
Ardyce was waiting for them outside of it, grinning from ear to ear, and apparently having discarded the broken staff on the way there. "Can he come, too, Doctor?" she asked, indicating her companion, the last of the Dalek impersonators. "All his people left, so I suppose he'll find a home with us . . ."
The Doctor nodded and they all got in the TARDIS as it transported them out of the city and over to Ardyce's own.
Upon their arrival in the city, Ardyce performed the very ceremonial lighting of the Torch, and was applauded by the entire population; Rose and the Doctor were given a table with refreshments from which to observe the festivities.
Once she explained to the Regent of the circumstances of procuring the uncorrupted rolonium, Ardyce insisted that Rose and the Doctor received proper recognition, so the three of them were awarded medals by the child princess, a lovely, energetic blonde little girl with rosy cheeks and a sort of sing-songy voice.
"Not quite as impressive as being knighted by Queen Victoria," the Doctor commented happily.
As Ardyce reunited with her parents, Rose and the Doctor prepared to leave, but Ardyce spotted them, and tore herself out of her mother's arms to dash over to them.
"You're off, then?" she asked them.
"Yep," the Doctor replied.
"Well, thank you both," she said modestly, "for everything you did for this city, this whole planet . . . for me."
"Thank you," the Doctor said warmly, with a smile.
There was a pause. Ardyce stared at her own feet.
"I've been meaning to ask, what planet is this?" Rose asked her.
"Padrivole," she replied. "This planet is Padrivole, and this city is very creatively titled Padrivole Regency Nine."
"Oh, Padrivole!" the Doctor exclaimed. "I've heard of this place! You were the first planet in your system to accept Judoon as intelligent life forms, and you once tried to befriend the Sontarans as well!"
"Well there was no harm in trying!" Ardyce replied, a little defensively. She paused, looking sad.
Rose shot the Doctor a significant look.
"So, Ardyce, what do you plan to do now you've saved your city?" he asked her. "You should probably remind them not to go back to the other city for a hundred years . . ."
"Well, I'll try to be better," Ardyce said. "I'll try to be more like you two! I'll find him a home," she indicated the last of the Dalek impersonators, "and . . . I'll just . . . live, won't I?"
"Quite right, too," the Doctor said, "but did you consider coming with us? I could really get used to saying, 'Ardyce, get in the TARDIS!'"
Ardyce's expression didn't change, but she merely repeated, "Coming with you? On that thing? The ridiculous blue thing that's bigger on the inside?"
"It'll be great, Ardyce," Rose assured her. "You can see new galaxies, new times. I could show you Earth! You could meet my mum . . . my mate Shareen . . ."
Ardyce went misty-eyed. "You don't have to meet her mum," the Doctor said, "if the thought is that traumatic. I wouldn't blame you."
"I can't," she said in a choked voice.
"Why?" Rose asked.
"What use would I be?" Ardyce asked defensively.
"What use were you today?" the Doctor asked, counting on his fingers. "Let's see, you saved your city, got me my chance to negotiate with the enemy, and helped to save my life! Of course you're completely useless, Ardyce!"
"Well, that was different, I wasn't really myself today!" Ardyce said.
"Oh, Ardyce, I think you were more yourself today than you've ever been before," the Doctor said softly.
"Well, I – I won't be like that again!" she argued stubbornly.
"Why are you so determined not to come, Ardyce?" Rose asked curiously.
"I would truly love nothing more . . . than to see the stars, the past, Rose's world . . ." Ardyce said wistfully, "but I can't. My parents have lost one child; they don't want to lose another now. I need to be with them."
"But I can travel in time," the Doctor said. "They wouldn't even have to know you were gone!"
"Yes, but . . . I would like it too much, I think. And I would never want it to end, so I would never want to come back to them. I would forget about them, and if I ever came back, it would be as someone completely different, not the Ardyce they know," Ardyce replied earnestly. "I'm sorry. But I reckon you and Rose will do fine with just each other."
The Doctor nodded. "Bye, then, Ardyce," he said, and they hugged.
"Goodbye," Ardyce said. "Hope I see you again! Come back . . . if you ever get lonely. I'll prepare a Padrivole feast to please the gods. Even a very lonely god."
Ardyce then hugged Rose. She and the Doctor, joining hands, entered the TARDIS to leave Padrivole.
"Promise you won't forget me?" Ardyce asked.
Both Rose and the Doctor smiled and looked back. "Never ever."
And the TARDIS door closed and it vanished.