This was almost part of the prologue, but I decided to split it up, so this chapter is mostly filler but with some very important bits. The action really starts up in the next chapter, so hopefully I'll post that in a few days-I'm still trying to figure out a posting schedule that works for me.
I was entirely overwhelmed by the response to this! Thank you to everyone, and please continue to review!
Again, images are on tumblr.
Chapter I - Two Words
Rose landed in London on the thirty-first of March, 2007. But it was wrong. She could feel it in the air. Something was different in the universe. There had been a shock and a flash, and she was sprinting across the street to let out the energy of being thrust across the Void.
Behind her, a voice called, "Blimey! Are you alright? What was that, fireworks or...?"
She did the best she could under the circumstances: she lied. "I don't know. I was just walking along. That's weird."
"You're the one!" the ginger woman exclaimed, pointing a finger at Rose. "Christmas Eve. I met you in town."
"Donna, isn't it?" Well, of course. The Doctor had told her all about Martha Jones and Donna Noble, and how the Human-Time Lord Metacrisis was never supposed to happen, so the original him would have to wipe her brain of all memories of him. In retrospect, she should have seem his death coming. But in the way this world was working, she must have arrived before the twenty-seven planets were stolen by the Daleks.
"What was your name?" asked Donna.
Rose was quick to deflect the question back on the other woman. "How're you doing? You're looking good. How's things? What have you been up to?" She pasted on a smile, trying not to seem too disturbed by the thing on Donna's back.
Donna was not amused or distracted by Rose's efforts. "You're doing it again?"
"What?" Rose asked, crossing her arms and willing herself to relax. She played dumb; it was the only sensible thing to do.
"Looking behind me," Donna said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Honestly, Rose felt bad for the woman; it couldn't be easy having everyone looking behind her all the time like there was some sort of monster behind her. "People keep on doing that, looking at my back."
"What sort of people?" She needed to stall for time, needed to think of what the Doctor would do if he were here. Of course, he wasn't here because in this universe he was dead! So why would the half-human Doctor send her here?
Donna seemed nervous when she answered, "People in the street. Strangers. I catch them sometimes, staring at me. Like they're looking at something. And then I get home, and I look, and there's nothing there. See? Look, now I'm doing it!"
Change course, Rose. "What are you doing for Christmas?" Another fake smile plastered across her face. Save her life, Rose, she reprimanded herself. Next Christmas would be the Titanic, she could save Donna and her wonderful family.
"What am I what?"
"Next Christmas," Rose repeated. "Any plans?"
Donna shrugged and rolled her eyes. "I don't know. That's ages away. Nothing much, I suppose. Why?"
"Just, I think you should get out, you and your family. Don't stay in London. Just leave the city."
"What for?"
"Nice hotel Christmas break?"
"Can't afford it."
"Well, no, you got that raffle ticket," she reminded Donna. Is this what the Doctor always felt like? Having so much prior knowledge of how the future was going to go and hinting that people should do something to keep themselves safe, but unable to elaborate because that could change everything? No wonder he was mad.
"How do you know about that?"
The best thing she could would be to disregard the question, move straight towards the benefits. "First prize, luxury weekend break. Use it, Donna Noble."
She seemed more angry and frustrated than ever. "Why won't you tell me your name? I think you should leave me alone." With that, Donna turned around and walked away. Shaking her head, Rose pressed the button again in an attempt to return to her home universe, disappearing in a flash of light.
Rose wandered around the Earth for a few days, hoping she would run into the Doctor. It seemed that, for the time being, she was stuck in this particular universe. Hopefully not forever, but there was definitely something keeping her here. One more jump left her on a dirty street corner with military men standing around in every direction. The dark seemed to comfort her more now than ever before; in darkness, there was anonymity. But not from everyone.
"Hello," said Donna Noble.
"Hi," Rose replied. They made small talk for a bit, but mostly walked in silence until they reached a park and could sit on an empty bench with no one in sight. "It's the ATMOS devices," she explained. "We're lucky, it's not so bad here. Britain hasn't got that much petrol. But all over Europe, China, South Africa, they're getting choked by gas."
"Can't anyone stop it?"
Rose nodded. "Yeah, they're trying right now, this little band of fighters on board the Sontaran ship. Any second now." Right on cue, the sky lit up in a flash of fire and burning gas. It only lasted a second before burning itself out and dissipating, leaving the stars as clear as ever.
"And that was?" Donna trailed off, begging for an answer.
"That was the Torchwood team. Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, they gave their lives. And Captain Jack Harkness has transported to the Sontaran home world. There's no one left."
Donna finally addressed something that had been on her mind. "You're always wearing the same clothes. Why won't you tell me your name?"
"None of this was meant to happen," Rose said, just as much to Donna as to herself, realizing the truth as she spoke with authority. "There was a man. This wonderful man, and he stopped it. The Titanic, the Adipose, the ATMOS, he stopped them all from happening."
"That Doctor?"
She nodded. "You knew him."
"Did I?" asked Donna. "When?"
"I think you dream about him sometimes. It's a man in a suit. Tall, thin man. Great hair. Some really great hair," she blushed, thinking about how many years she had dreamed about running her hands through his hair, and finally being allowed to as much as she wanted. And now all of that was over.
"Who are you?"
"I was like you," she said. "I used to be you. You've travelled with him, Donna. You've travelled with the Doctor in a different world."
"I never met him, and he's dead," Donna said sadly, but with just a hint of thinking that Rose might be the crazy one.
Rose continued on, "He died underneath the Thames on Christmas Eve, but you were meant to be there. He needed someone to stop him, and that was you. You made him leave. You saved his life."
She watched as Donna's eyes slammed shut and she started shaking her head, plagued with a flashback of a path she had never taken, not in this world. "Stop it," she told Rose. "I don't know what you're talking about. Leave me alone."
"Something's coming, Donna," Rose warned. "Something worse."
"The whole world is stinking. How can anything be worse than this?"
Rose set her jaw. "Trust me, we need the Doctor now more than ever. I've been pulled across from a different universe because every single universe is in danger. It's coming, Donna. It's coming from across the stars and nothing can stop it." As she spoke, Rose began to wonder if it wasn't just the Daleks she was talking about. She knew that it couldn't be anything else because she didn't know of anything else, but she felt the faint tingling of something she could only describe as a premonition. It wasn't a comfortable feeling to have.
"What is?"
"The darkness." Well, that was a bit more dramatic than was probably needed.
Donna easily grew angry again; that seemed to be quite a character trait of hers. "Well, what do you keep telling me for? What am I supposed to do? I'm nothing special. I mean, I'm-I'm not. I'm nothing special. I'm a temp. I'm not even that. I'm nothing!"
Hearing Donna say those awful things about herself broke Rose's heart. Donna Noble was so much more than that, and listening to her degrade herself was more than Rose could bear. It was sad, but she used to be the same way until she met the Doctor and learned that she could be so much more than just a shop girl. "Donna Noble," she said with a smile smile, "you're the most important woman in the whole of creation."
"Oh, don't," Donna pleaded, shaking her head. "Just don't. I'm tired. I'm so tired."
Time to get to business. Rose had spent a few days at UNIT, preparing them for the impending apocalypse, readying everything she might need to get home. "I need you to come with me.
"Yeah. Well, blonde hair might work on the men, but you ain't shifting me, lady," Donna said, voice full of snark and sass that couldn't help but make Rose smile.
"That's more like it!" She remembered the stories the Doctor would tell her about the wonderful things Donna would say, about the hilarious things she would do, about the truths she couldn't help but make amusing.
"I've got plenty more."
"Then you'll come with me, only when you want to."
"You'll have a long wait, then."
"Not really," Rose said, remembering two days previously when Donna had come to her to finally do what was needed. Rose's own explanation of the plan and use of the Doctor's technobabble that she presumed the TARDIS had secured in her head impressed even Rose. It was like that time when she ate the super smarts chips and could do maths in her head. "Just three weeks. Tell me, does your grandfather still own that telescope?"
"He never lets go of it."
Rose nodded once. "Three weeks' time. But you've got to be certain. Because when you come with me, Donna...sorry. I'm so sorry, but you're going to die."
Before Donna could become upset or ask questions, Rose faded away and found herself on the street in broad daylight. If anyone noticed her appearing out of nowhere, they didn't act on it. She looked down at her vortex manipulator to check the date and time. Yes, she had arrived on Monday the twenty-fifth at precisely ten in the morning. She had one minute to find Donna and give her the final message.
There was a scream, and Rose took off running. She sprinted down the street, pushing past people and darting between the cars at a standstill until she found the large truck that Donna had run out in front of. Rose rushed to the ginger in the road. It was painfully obvious that she was dying; Rose hoped it would be quick and easy. "Tell him this. Two words," she said, and leaned in close to Donna's ear. God, she hoped that Donna wouldn't remember any of this pain when she found the Doctor again. "Bad Wolf."
Donna's eyes fluttered shut. Rose looked up at the truck before her, specifically at the license tag. She could only assume that the universe was on her side this time. The letters on the tag said B4D W0LF.
Rose wasn't sure what was going to happen next, but before she even properly think about what to program into her vortex manipulator, she felt very warm and tingly. Looking around, she saw that nobody was even looking at her. Just as she sensed a presence behind her, there were chilled hands at her temples, something entering her mind, and then nothing.
