Meanwhile somewhere in the underbelly of London the sound of the universe turning came to be in a long since forgotten subway tunnel, a sound that was left behind, in a void the Doctor never thought he'd ever pass through again,. Of course, given this uncertain and dangerous trip the Tardis made a crash landing if there ever was one, throwing it's occupants to the floor with a thud.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT!?" Donna shouted having been bounced around for the past 10 minutes before being flung into absolute darkness. At the moment she was stuck between a pillar and the grating on the console floor hearing only panicked mutterings as the Doctor raced around the control panel.
"Impossible, no no no, girl - oh girl are you okay. Are you alive?" Alive, the ship was alive! Donna mentally marveled over this fact again as she struggled to right herself before her back broke. "A little help over here!" she said and of course the Doctor came after stumbling over his own feet a few times. "Right, right sorry - sorry" he muttered, lifting Donna with surprising ease since she was admittedly bigger than him before he went back to his pacing.
"This - this isn't happening I can't - I mean - that door. That door!" he said, raking a hand through his hair and even going so far as to tug at the strands as he paced leaving Donna both literally and metaphorically in the dark. "What's going on? What happened, why is it so dark and what about that door?" the red head questioned in a very Donna like manner. Refreshing, this one. All attitude, he liked it. "Is this .. Thing! .. Sick or something?"
"Shhhhhhh!" the Doctor scolded, stroking his machine in a loving manner which caused the Donna to chuckle under her breath, earning her a glare. "She isn't a thing she's a Tardis and in a sense, yes, she's sick."
"And where has she brought us? Rock-o-spa or some lava plant that will burn me till there's no tomorrow? Or perhaps they are Lycasmithes on the other side just waiting to rip our heads off or perhaps those polite little blue people who will wait on me hand and foot. You know, I like them." Donna said, beginning to speak with surprising ease of the aliens they had encountered. The Doctor would have swelled with pride had the situation not been so wonderfully grave.
"What's out there" the Doctor replied, going over the screen and repeatedly tapping it before realizing that of course it wouldn't work. Slapping a hand to his forehead he sighed, "What's out there" he said gesturing to the door, "If my assumptions are correct, is earth." Had it not been so dark the mussed up man would've seen a very bewildered Donna, furrowing a brow and giving him an expression that clearly said "So what?"
"Earth." she repeated with a frown, "Well, then, why are you pacing and panicking? Are we too far in the future stuck with a sick Tardis and I don't know war-ridden, plague-ridden earth?" Since growing up, Donna Noble had become very inventive he noted. "No, no that's not it." the Doctor said with a sigh, finally beginning to move and this time Donna heard a familiar scrap of the grating being removed and the unmistakable sound of the Doctor fumbling with the wires.
"Doctor, what is it? Explain now!" she said, arms folded over her chest as she carefully began maneuvering her way around the main console in hopes of locating him without falling into the underbelly of the ship.
"Thing is this earth is not your earth nor my earth. This reality is entirely different." Reality, Donna processed the word. She was still new at this and so the idea of a parallel universe hadn't even so much as crossed her mind. "What do you mean .. reality? How is this a different reality?" she asked clearly befuddled. The Doctor sighed as he continued scrambling around in the wires searching for a spark of life.
He was trying to think of anything other than what might happen when they left the Tardis. What year it would be, whether Rose would still be alive. He swallowed the lump in his throat as he thought of the body of his past companion rotting away in the ground, wrinkled and shriveled with age and if she was long since passed how her life had gone without him. Had she married, had children, dare he say it - moved on?
He had, of course, wanted her to move on, be happy but the self-fish part of him - the part that desperately loved her wanted her to have waited for him. He loved her enough, of course, to let her go but that shred of self-fishness held on. There was, of course, the possibility that she was still alive, perhaps it had only been mere seconds since their good bye in which case he could finally finish his sentence, finally tell her that he loved her. He not only loved her, he was in love with her. Totally in love with Rose Tyler, London shop girl.
He felt himself smile a bit despite the severity of the situation. If they were where he thought they were she could come back to him like nothing had changed. She would be his. He tried not to get up his hopes though because there was the strong possibility that this would not come to pass and he couldn't lose her again.
"Have you ever read a comic or seen a movie or telly show about parallel universes, parallel realities?" the Doctor inquired and though Donna nodded he couldn't see it so she spoke up. "Yes" she confirmed clearly waiting for more. "Remember when I said I lost my companion, my -- Rose" he said pausing before saying her name. His Rose. Donna barely picked up on it though. "Yes, of course" she said nodding again though the gesture was lost to shadows. "What are you saying? You lost Rose to a parallel world?" she inquired.
Ding, ding, ding give the girl a medal. "Exactamundo!" damn, hadn't he sworn to never use that world again. "So .. What's the big deal then? We'll go have a merry reunion and be on our way" Donna replied leaning back now though the railing wasn't quite where she thought it was so she stumbled a bit. "It's not that simple?"
"Is it ever?" The Doctor laughed a bit, the sound of more wires being tossed around ringing through the eerily dead Tardis. "Thing is the Tardis is linked to our reality and our reality one not to mention that the fabric between dimensions is delicate, thin, easily ripped. That's why I couldn't get to Rose otherwise believe you me I would've. I would've done anything to -- but that's no the point. The point is that this reality is not ours and therefore the Tardis is not linked to it. It also means that we've caused a disturbance not only in our reality but this as well. When I lost Rose we were at risk of having two worlds fold in on each other" he rambled "Travel between dimensions it used to be easy when my people were around could pop in and out before tea time but now that it's just me it isn't that simple" he said and Donna nodded,
"Delicate" she repeated in agreement. "Delicate" the Doctor agreed before letting out a squee of joy and illuminating the Tardis with a single breath directed into a little green crystal. "And what the bloody hell is that?" Donna asked as a beaming Doctor reemerged from the hull, lighting up the inside of the ship with the light from the small beckon of hope which actually made it all the more creepy. "This, my dear Donna, is our ticket home" the red head smile and waited for further explanations.
It was some thirty minutes later and after careful deliberations that the two companions emerged from the blue police box only to be greeted with darkness yet again. "Are you sure we made it through the void?" Donna hissed in a whisper, tentatively toeing the ground to make sure it existed before stepping out. ":Better yet, are you sure this is even earth?"
The Doctor glanced around "I .. don't know" he admitted which obviously rubbed the red head the wrong way. "You don't know? You don't know! How just like a man to go spewing this and that and then saying he doesn't know. What are you an idiot?" she said and if she could had seen him she would've given him a shove but with their surroundings so unfamiliar she left it at a quiet scolding.
"The air is breathable and we aren't being attacked" yet "So far, so good."
"Life with you" Donna commented, "Always an adventure" he concluded with a grin and the woman just laughed. "Right" Still, the Doctor was absolutely buzzing in hopes that this world was Rose's world. In about 10 minutes though, that would all change.
"Which way should we go?" Donna inquired after standing in comfortable silence for a few seconds. "Mmm, right! Right seems the right of way. Right, right, righty-oh!" the Doctor concluded and Donna shook her head. "Idiot"
"Genius!" he argued. Maybe he was a bit of both.
It didn't take long for the Doctor to conclude that they were in fact in a tunnel, a subway tunnel, an out of commission subway tunnel maybe going through repairs. The electricity was off thank G-d since it would be impossible to move his ship and it getting hit by a train simply wouldn't do.
"How do you know that?" Donna asked when he informed her of this,
"The air, I can't feel it or taste it. There's no spark, no electricity" he informed her with an all knowing tone.
"You can feel, no - no - you can taste electricity?"
"Of course! You humans are so lacking in senses, do you know that?" the Doctor asked and Donna scoffed.
"You aliens are so lacking in manners, do you know that?" Typical Donna, how brilliant. The Doctor opened his mouth to replied but shuffling was heard up ahead and he halted, holding Donna back with a hand and accidentally brushing her chest.
"Oi watch out alien perv that's my --"
"Shhhhhh!: he cut her off shooting her a serious look and her voice fell away as she clued in to the movement and noises ahead, not to mention the lamp light. "What is it?" she whispered a bit too loudly - loudly enough to alert their presence and the Doctor inwardly groaned. Damnit Donna!
The light was snuffed and there was more shuffled before the sound of footsteps was heard inching ever forward. His heart jumped into his throat.. Friend or foe? They would soon find out.