Chapter 1: Rose
Rose Tyler stepped into Hendrick's. The thing was Carly had told her that this Doctor would be exactly as the one she'd initially met was. That meant he was cynical and liked to insult other species—mainly humans. Rose was only coming to check if he was really here. Her dad had said, considering the circumstances, it would be better if Rose went alone. So, here she was sneaking around Hendrick's. She hid, just the way the Doctor, in her birth dimension, had taught her. Rose knew she could sit for hours if it meant she'd see the Doctor again.
She waited until the doors closed. There was no lottery money in this one. Rose assumed that was just a small difference. Nethertheless, when the doors closed, she stepped out of hiding and headed for the lift. She hit the button and it opened. Then she stepped in and waited for it to hit the bottom floor. She knew, to get the Doctor's attention, she'd have to call out the same things she did back when she'd really first met him. She stepped out of the lift.
'Wilson?' she called. 'Wilson, are you there?'
She went over and knocked on the door. Knowing he was already dead helped with this little performance. She was sure someone, at least, heard her. She passed a bit of graffiti on the wall. She tried to ignore the words: BAD WOLF.
'Wilson, I've got the lottery money! Look, I can't hang around, cause they're closing the shop.' She paused, waiting for it. She wasn't disappointed. A clanging sounded from behind her. She turned and headed towards the storeroom, injecting the required nervousness into her tone. 'Hello? Hello, Wilson? It's Rose. Wil…Wilson?'
She headed into the storeroom. Turning her head, she turned on the lights. The storeroom lit up dimly. She could see the living plastics and made her way forward. She'd gotten halfway through the storeroom, just like last time, when the door behind her slammed shut. She whipped around but she didn't run back. She didn't need to on account of the fact that she knew that it would be locked.
'Is that someone mucking about?' she called, knowing the Doctor, if he was here, would be able to hear her. 'Who is it?'
Almost as if on cue, the sound of plastic creaking reached her ears from behind her. She turned and pressed her lips together as she saw the living plastic creature started advancing on her. She backed away, mirroring her actions from years ago in the alternate of the same basement. And she repeated her words in the same tone. 'You got me! Very funny! All right! I've got the joke! Whose idea was this? Is it Derek's? Is it? Derek, is this you?'
She almost tripped on a bag of wares—forgot about that—and then her back hit the wall. They had her cornered again, but she knew she needed to be cornered to find out if Carly was right or not. She jammed her eyes shut while she primed herself to move in case the Doctor didn't show up.
The feel of a rough, calloused and very familiar hand brought all of her thoughts to a halt. Rose looked to her left and saw Him. His sharp features and dark nut hair were the same as she remembered.
'Run!' And his voice was the same as ever too.
She let him tug her out of harm's way. Her mind quickly worked as he pulled her through the corridor and past the living plastic dummies. This Doctor didn't know her at all and she wasn't as ignorant as she'd been when she'd first met him. The Dani in her dimension had said Rose was the one the Doctor needed. Supposing that was true, she'd have to make this him fascinated with her. The fact that she'd travelled with him made it easy and withholding the answers from him would help. He'd take her with him if only to solve the mystery that she was about to make herself. The Doctor loved a good mystery.
Once they were in the lift and the Doctor was yanking the arm of one of the dummies, Rose leaned on her knees and made a big deal of catching her breath. Uh-oh. The TARDIS key around her neck dangled forward. On the other hand…
That could be used. How would an everyday human have a key to the TARDIS? That was sure to get his attention if nothing else would. She straightened up as he got the arm and the doors closed.
'You pulled his arm off?' she asked. Unlike last time, it was a question of the purpose, rather than an exclamation of disbelief.
'Yup.' He tossed it to her. 'Plas—'
She was aware he was staring at the key that was now visibly resting just below her collar as she caught the arm. That was what had made him cut himself off. Rose looked at the arm and then up at him. He had an adorably puzzled expression on his face. She could get used to seeing that on him.
'Well, yes,' she said. 'But, what for?'
'You wouldn't understand,' he told her.
'I wouldn't be too sure.' She chuckled. 'I'm human, but I'm not just a stupid ape.'
He turned and looked at her strangely. She smiled cheekily. She'd used one of his catchphrases and he knew it. She could tell he was wondering how she knew. Rose decided she wasn't doing too badly.
The elevator dinged and the Doctor stepped out. Rose followed him and stood behind him as he soniced the elevator so it wouldn't work. He then turned around and looked at her, but he didn't say anything. He just studied her. With a suddenness that she'd missed, he moved forward, grabbed her arm and steered her out.
'Well! Can't have you sticking around here. Those are creatures of plastic. Living plastic creatures. They're being controlled by a relay device on the roof, which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this.' He pulled out the bomb and showed her as he steered her out the door. 'So I'm gonna go upstairs and blow it up. And I might well die in the process. But don't worry about me. No. You go home. Go. Go home and have your lovely bean on toast. Don't tell anyone about this because if you do, you'll get them killed.'
He slammed the door shut. Rose folded her arms, plastic arm still in hand, and waited. She didn't have to wait long.
He opened the door again and said. 'I'm the Doctor, by the way. What's your name?'
'Rose.'
'Nice to meet you, Rose.' He held up the bomb. 'Run for your life!'
He slammed the door shut again. Rose rolled her eyes and walked away.
Dani looked at the arm in the Tyler Mansion. It was now in a specialised glass containment. The case wouldn't interrupt any signals. It was designed solely to keep the arm inside it. The Doctor would come looking for it soon. Dani felt the suns rays on her face through the window. She could hear little Tony playing with Pete, Jackie, Mickey and Jake outside. Rose was keeping near the front door, waiting for the Doctor to start sonicing the door. Morge sat opposite Dani. He listened to the little boy's laughter. Dani didn't know what had happened in the other dimension, but in this one Morge's alien saviour had been gunned down by the army.
Dani tipped her head back as Rose yanked open the door.
'What are you doing here?' the Doctor asked.
'I live here,' Rose answered.
'Well, what do you wanna do that for?' the Doctor asked.
'Not everyone has a TARDIS,' Rose said.
'How do you know about the TARDIS?' The Doctor sounded menacing now.
Rose wasn't intimidated though. She just grabbed his jacket and yanked him in. Then she closed the door and led him into the living room. The Doctor stopped when he saw Dani. Rose went to the maid, who had just finished dusting the mantelpiece.
'Could you get us some tea?' she asked.
The maid nodded and went to get the drinks. The Doctor then noticed the arm and crossed over to it. Dani propped her feet up on the table.
'That can wait,' she told him. 'You're not going to accomplish anything by running yourself ragged. I heard bits and pieces from the War.'
'Oh, yeah?' He was defensive now. 'How?'
'She's friends with a Handiconean,' Rose answered, coming back over.
'Ah.' The Doctor finally sat down.
Dani thought it was funny how Rose sat down at the same time, right next to him. The Doctor reached over and slowly drew the TARDIS key from around Rose's neck. He studied it for a moment and then looked up at her.
'This is a key to my ship?' he asked.
'Yes,' she said.
He looked at Dani.
'I didn't give it to her,' Dani stated. 'She's had it since I've known her.'
He looked back at Rose. 'Who gave it to you?'
'I could tell you,' she said with a slight smile. 'But that'd take all the fun of the mystery out.'
Dani snorted in laughter. 'True. And you always did love a good mystery, didn't you, boss?'
The Doctor dropped the key and sat back. The maid came back with four mugs of tea. They were set in front of the two humans and the two aliens.
'Rose and Morge are actually pretty experienced with aliens,' Dani told him. 'Morge was saved by one, and then the poor girl was gunned down, when he was four. And Rose…well, no fun in my just telling you that one, is there?'
'I can see what you're doing,' the Doctor said. 'And it's not going to work.'
He took the arm and stormed out. Dani huffed. She stood up.
'It's all right,' Rose told her. 'He doesn't want a companion right now. He thinks he deserves to be on his own.'
'Post-traumatic stress, then,' Morge murmured.
'Still think you'll go with him again?' Dani asked. 'He took the arm.'
'They'll come after me,' Rose responded. 'They think I'm connected to the Doctor.'
'Well, duh!' Dani exclaimed. 'You have a TARDIS key around your neck and they've seen you together. You may do it yet.'
Morge lit a cigarette and watched as Rose was followed by the…Auton, Dani had called it. Rose knew it was following her though; she was walking quickly, glancing back behind her. Morge was on a balcony where he had a bird's eye view of the whole thing. The Doctor was following a signal and he looked around the corner. Morge didn't see him roll his eyes, but he knew it happened. The Doctor waited until Rose passed him and then pulled her into the shadows. She didn't make a noise, like she was expecting it. She pressed her back against the wall as she watched the Doctor grab the Auton and start wrestling the head off. No sooner had he gotten the head off, Rose grabbed him and pulled him back from the rest of the body. The two of them ran into the TARDIS and Morge watched it dematerialise.
'You see,' the Doctor explained as he moved around the console, wiring in the Auton head, 'the arm was too simple, but a head is perfect. I can it to trace the signal back to the original source.' He stopped and turned around. 'Right. Where do you wanna start?'
'It's a TARDIS, right?' Rose asked. 'Time And Relative Dimension In Space?'
'Dani told you that?' the Doctor guessed.
'No,' Rose answered. 'Someone else did.'
'Who?' The Doctor thought over the people he knew to be in London. 'Sarah Jane Smith? Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stuart? Ace McShane?'
Rose looked behind him. 'The head's melting.'
'Melt—?' He turned and looked.
Sure enough, the head was melting down. It was taking the signal with it. He bolted over to the console.
'Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no! It's fading! Come on! Almost there! Almost there! Oh!'
He turned and bolted for the door. Rose pushed the door open so he didn't have to bother. Then she followed him out.
'I lost the signal,' he groaned. 'I got so close!'
'Well, it can't be far away,' Rose told him. 'You've got the anti-plastic, right?'
He spun around. She knew what he was after and she knew how to stop it. He moved close to her.
'You know more than a stupid ape generally would,' he said. 'How?'
'My dad runs Torchwood.' Rose answered with only one explanation.
'What's Torchwood?' the Doctor asked, raising his eyebrows.
'It started with the Cybermen,' Rose said. 'This bloke called Lumic wanted to beat this illness he had and decided to preserve the human brain. Result: Cybermen.'
'Ugh.' The Doctor groaned. 'I thought I got rid of those bliming cyborgs, but there's more of them?'
'There were,' Rose said. 'Me, Dani, my dad, my ex-boyfriend, Mickey, and a few others managed to stop them and trap them. Then they tried to pass the void into an alternate world. Now they're stuck in the void. Dad decided we needed something to defend ourselves and Dani's the head advisor on that. Nothing goes past without her say-so.'
'How'd Dani get into that?' the Doctor asked.
'Lumic was using earpods,' Rose answered. 'They were transmitting a high-pitched noise, inaudible to the human race but Dani was another matter. It was giving her a splitting headache. She got some kind of special permission to not wear them as a special case. They thought it was just a harmless noise that people with abnormally sharp hearing picked up.'
'When really it was a signal.' The Doctor nodded to himself. 'All Lumic had to do was activate it and turn the entire human race into mindless drones that would march right into the conversion chamber. How'd you get out of it?'
'I wasn't wearing them at the time,' Rose answered. 'Neither was Mickey. Dad's shorted out right before they were activated. He got lucky. There was also a group that didn't wear the earpods in rebellion. Called themselves the Preachers.'
'Hmm,' the Doctor murmured. 'Was that your first encounter?'
'No,' Rose answered. 'My first encounter was when I was 19, working as a shop girl. Went on a errand, my life hasn't been the same since.'
The Doctor nodded. 'I assume this ties into how you got a TARDIS key?' he asked.
'Yeah,' Rose agreed. 'But don't we have a Nestine Consciousness to find first?'
'Oh? Right!' He refocused. 'First thing is to find out. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?'
'The transmitter?' Rose asked.
'Yeah,' the Doctor agreed. 'It should be somewhere slap-bang in the middle of London. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible.'
She pushed her hands into her pockets and said. 'You mean like the national landmark behind you?'
'Eh?' He turned around.
She was right. The London Eye was directly behind him and was perfect for the transmitter. He looked between it and Rose a few times.
'Oh.' He grinned from ear to ear. 'Fantastic!'
They both ran across the bridge. As they did, something made the Doctor reach over and grab Rose's hand. Dani had been right, he guessed. And this little yellow and pink ape gave him some feeling he'd never had before.
'Think of it.' he told her, 'Every artificial thing on Earth coming to life. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires.'
'The breast implants,' she added, looking like she was picking on him a bit.
He liked this one. She seemed to have some knowledge of him and she could laugh in the face of danger. He gave a small chuckle.
'Yeah,' he said. 'Still, we've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath.'
Rose ran over to the edge of the bridge. 'What about down here?'
The Doctor came and looked. 'Looks good to me.'
Rose remembered this and watched from the balcony as the Doctor went down.
'Am I addressing the Consciousness?' he asked.
Unlike last time, Rose could understand the words being said. She knew why too. She had been in the TARDIS. The girl had been in her head. She knew that Rose was from another dimension, had travelled with the Doctor and pulled another form of him back from the very same brink that this one was tethering on. She wanted her to save this version of the Doctor too, and that was just what Rose intended to do. The TARDIS already viewed her as a companion.
'You are.'
'Thank you,' the Doctor said. 'If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilisation by means of warp-shunt technology, so might I suggest with the greatest respect that you shunt off?'
'Who do you think you—' the Consciousness began.
'I am talking!' the Doctor snapped. 'Now, listen. This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have barely learned how to walk, but they are capable of so much more. I am asking you on their behalf: please, just go.'
There were two autons coming up behind him.
'Doctor!' Rose called out a warning.
But it was too late—again—and he twisted around only to get caught. One of the autons pulled the vial of anti-plastic out of his jacket. Rose knew how this went. And she knew how it ended.
'You came to kill me!' the Consciousness accused.
'I was not attacking you!' the Doctor insisted.
'Then what do you call this?' the Consciousness demanded.
The panel opened and the TARDIS was sitting there.
'Oh, no!' the Doctor cried. 'Honestly, no!'
'This is your craft?' the Consciousness interrogated him.
'Yes, that's my ship,' the Doctor answered.
'It is one of the crafts that sent me to this primitive place.' The Consciousness snarled.
'No!' the Doctor yelled. 'That's not true! I was there! I fought in the war!'
'You are the Doctor and you let my planet die!'
'I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!'
'Doctor!' Rose called.
'It's the TARDIS!' the Doctor called. 'The Nestine's identified it as superior technology! It's terrified! Just leg it, Rose! Go, now!'
'No!' Rose called back.
'Time Lord!' the Consciousness roared.
Rose watched the activation signal go up.
'It's the activation signal!' the Doctor called. 'It's transmitting! Rose, please! Leg it, now! Just run!'
She did the same thing she did the last time this happened. She got over and grabbed an axe. She raised it and muttered to herself. 'I've been shot out of my own dimension. I've caused a regeneration. I've taken the vortex into my head. There's no way back. The walls have closed. So if this is the world's way of giving me another chance…'
She slammed the axe into the chain and yanked it down.
'…I'm not going to lose him again!'
She ran to the edge and swung down. She knocked one auton down and the lid came off the anti-plastic and spilled into the Consciousness as the Doctor flipped the other one over his shoulder and into the vat.
'Rose!' he called as she came back down.
She flew into his arms and he caught her. She felt the adrenaline rush, that Torchwood work never seemed to give her, once again as they both laughed. They looked down and then back at each other.
'Now we're in trouble!' the Doctor remarked.
The two of them bolted upstairs and then ran into the TARDIS. The Doctor dematerialised them and Rose dropped herself into the jump-seat as the column started moving. The Doctor looked at her and grinned.
'Making yourself comfy?' he asked.
'Yeah.' She beamed.
'Well, why not?' The Doctor laughed. He moved around and stood in front of her. 'Do you wanna come with me?'
'Hm.' Rose pretended to think about it. 'All of time and space versus London, early 21st century? What a no-brainer. Off we go, Time Lord.'
