Thank you Dreamcatcher49, uzumaki misaki, andAkumakoRonso, you were my first 3 reviews! I love you all so very much and thanks to you I was able put up this chapter! Everyone give Dreamcatcher49, uzumaki misaki, and AkumakoRonso a round of applause …Pause for dramatic effect…Okay are you ready?
Summary: After a mission, the Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River recieve an eerie message form Rose Tyler, one that will change their lives.
Chapter Two: Last Words
"Doctor, if you're getting this message, then I'm dead."
The room froze. It was almost as if time had stopped. No one could breathe. No one could speak.
"I'm sorry to tell you like this, but I don't have a lot of time to explain. I know you're trying to figure out how I'm sending this message, but it will all be explained in time." Rose's image was calm, but serious. "In a very short time our paths will cross—" The Doctor opened his mouth, a confused look on his face, but the hologram of Rose held up her hand. "You have to stop thinking about how this is possible and listen to me."
No one spoke. Rose continued.
"When we meet again, I am going to ask you for your help." Rose stopped for a moment; her eyes began to tear up. "Doctor, you must not help me."
The Doctor stood up straight and yelled. "Why not?"
"Don't talk to me like that." Rose said.
"How is she doing that?" Rory whispered, looking around the room suspiciously.
"She just knows him that well." River whispered back.
"I know that goes against everything you've ever done, but Doctor, you have to listen to me." Rose ran her hand though her hair. "I've seen what happens if you help me and it makes the universe collapsing into the Void look like an okay thing."
The Doctor's lips tried to form words but he just couldn't get any out.
"Doctor, I…" Rose's hologram seemed to groping for words too. She smiled and laughed, but winced a bit from the cut above her eye. "It's just I, had this whole speech planned and now…now I can't think of what to say. This just keeps happening doesn't it though? I mean five years ago, we were on a beach having a conversation almost like this. Except, then you were telling me I was dead and telling me good-bye, now here I am telling you I'm dead and telling you good-bye. It's almost funny isn't, in a crazy way?"
The Rose hologram began to cry a little, but she laughed a bit as she wiped away a tear. "I told myself I'd be grown up about this and not cry. You can see how that worked out."
"Rose." The Doctor whispered. This was killing him, watching her like this, knowing he couldn't touch her, no matter how realistic the image looked. He felt a tear run down his cheek. He felt someone grab his hand. It was Amy, she held his hand tightly, as if she were keeping him grounded, afraid that if she let go she'd lose her Doctor.
A voice surrounded them, not the TARDIS's calm, serene voice, but a cold, electronic voice that came from the hologram's message. "All passengers evacuate to escape pods. Two minutes until impact."
Rose wiped another tear off her cheek and smiled. "Told you: we even have the same amount of time as last time."
Rory watched as the Doctor stepped away from his wife and towards the hologram. Rory had an idea of what he must be feeling. He remembered when he could hear Amy crying a begging for help when the Silence had kidnapped her. He had even killed Amy once. Was the Doctor thinking this was his fault, like Rory had?
Of course he was.
Rose straightened her posture. "Doctor, since I have time, there are a few more things that I'd like to say: I don't regret a second of my time with you. Not a second. Not a second of our time together or my time with John."
"John?" the Doctor said. John had to be the Meta Crisis Doctor, the Doctor born in battle.
"Oh, God, John." She cried, as she remembered something important. "If…if you see him, tell him…" Rose cried, but a realization seemed to come over her as she spoke. "No, don't tell him anything. Don't. I don't know what he'll do, and he needs to be stable for Noble."
"Noble?" Donna? What was Donna doing there? And how could she be there and alive? The very memory of him could kill her. The Doctor stepped forward again, closer to the image, the image that would no doubt be forever burned in his mind. He pushed out the other thoughts as he watched his Rose cry, knowing he could nothing.
The cold voice sounded again. "60 seconds until impact."
Rose looked up, seeing something the others couldn't, or maybe just looking above for help. Tears ran freely down her face. She didn't even try to stop them now, but took a ragged breath and continued.
"I forgive you for what you said—what you're going to say, I guess. That is, if you'll forgive me, for what I'll say. I didn't mean any of it; I was just angry and hurt. I didn't understand why you wouldn't help. I do now."
"What? How?" the Doctor yelled at the hologram. "There is no way you could possibly know! I can still save you Rose!"
"Doctor—" Amy tried to comfort her distressed friend. She couldn't stand seeing the strongest man (well Time Lord) she'd ever known being in so much pain. She could see the pain on his face. She could see through the Doctor most of the time; even when he was at his worst, he could still smile and pretend he was happy. But Amy always saw, just like he always saw through her.
"Amy."
Amy snapped out of her reverie and looked at the new face, shocked at hearing her name pass her lips as if she knew her.
"Amy," said the hologram of the dead girl. "I hope you and your husband don't take what I say to heart, I just wanted to hurt the Doctor like he had hurt me. I hope you understand that, and I wish you all the best."
"How does she know me?" Amy asked.
"She's met you; you just haven't met her yet." River explained.
Amy looked back at her grown daughter. She was crying; silent tears ran down her face slowly.
"Did you know her?" Amy asked.
River said yes at the same time the Doctor said no. The Doctor whipped his head back to look at River. "What? That's not possible, how?"
River shook her head and opened her mouth just as the hologram of Rose spoke.
"And River, it was nice seeing you again. I hope you and the Doctor figure it out, because, I have this feeling that you are very important." Rose said knowingly.
The Doctor took another step towards the hologram, drawn towards it. Drawn towards her, even this pixelated version of her. Just seeing Rose made his hearts beat faster, like they had a purpose other than to just keep him alive.
"Doctor, I know I've already said this but I need to say it again, because I know you'll hate yourself if I don't make it clear: I forgive you."
The Cold Voice spoke again. "Impact in ten, nine…"
Rose jumped, shaking. Tears fell like rain down her terrified face. "Doctor..."
"Seven, six…"
"But I need to tell you, since I never got the chance to say it," Rose was speaking faster, trying to beat the limited time the ship had set on her heart.
The Doctor stepped to the side of Rose, looking at her as if she were his salvation, tears falling from his eyes as he watched her start shaking.
"It was really great seeing you again." Rose sobbed and turned and faced the Doctor, just a few short inches from him, knowing that he would be there. "And…and I will always love you."
"Four, three…"
The message ended and the image of Rose disappeared in thin air.
Again, time stood still. No one spoke, only the steady hum of the TARDIS and the Doctor's ragged breaths.
River stepped forward to the control panel and programmed some coordinates into it. There was no crashing around or whooshing noise like there would've been if the Doctor had done it. And for once, the Doctor appreciated this.
Once they had landed, he spoke, his voice hollow and unfeeling. "Where are we?"
"Earth, December of 2011." River said her voice shaky. "Cardiff."
The Doctor didn't respond.
"She was Bad Wolf?" Amy said. This seemed to be the only thing she could think of saying. Maybe 'I'm sorry' would have been better, but she knew that would only make her feel better, not the catatonic Doctor.
Indeed it was River who answered. "Yes."
"How did she save the Doctor?"
"She saved everyone."
"How? What did you mean she looked into the heart of the TARDIS?"
"I sent her to safety…" the Doctor said without looking at them, but continued to stare at the empty spot where the hologram had stood. "She came back…she let the TARDIS into her body. It would have driven her mad if I hadn't…"
The Doctor trailed off.
"Hadn't what?" Amy pushed. If he was talking, then there was hope.
"If I hadn't taken the energy into myself. It caused a regeneration." He said, off handedly. "She doesn't remember a thing. She doesn't even know she brought someone back to life and made them immortal."
"What?"
"Captain Jack Harkness." This was the only answer she got.
"I'm sorry sweetie." River said.
The Doctor said nothing for a moment. When he turned around, it made Rory pull his wife closer to him and farther away from River. The Doctor was looking at River in such a way that he'd never seen before, not even when they'd found out that Amy had been taken by the Silence and they'd been living with a Ganger. And Rory thought the Doctor had been angry then, this was nowhere near there. This was galaxies away from there.
"How do you know her?" The Doctor asked his voice steady despite his expression.
"Spoil—"
"Don't. You. Dare."
River stopped speaking a stepped farther back from the Doctor, from her husband. "We met in the…past."
"Who's past?" he snapped.
"Ours."
River knew that she couldn't give the Doctor a straight answer and knew that he knew that too.
"I'm sorry." She said again.
The Doctor turned away from her. "She was alone."
He had whispered it and Amy hadn't heard him well. "What?"
He turned back to face her, the angry man he had just was been broken with grief. "She was alone, Amy, she died alone and scared."
Amy rushed forward and hugged him. He fell to pieces in her arms. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." These were the only words she could say now that she really meant them, now that they weren't just words to make her feel better. Now that he really needed to hear them.
River and Rory stood there, feeling powerless as they watched the two people they cared about most in the universe cry, knowing they could do nothing.
And then, there was knock on the TARDIS's door. One knock but it seemed to shake the entire ship. The Doctor's tears waned and Amy stopped speaking. All four of them looked at the doors.
There was another knock.
"Who could that be?" Rory whispered.
No one spoke, but River walked over to the door and opened as the Doctor parted from Amy and wiped away his tears.
They all knew deep down, even Rory, who would at the door, yet they were all still shocked as River opened the door and a new but familiar woman stood there in Jeans and blue sweater with a black bag at her feet.
"Did you miss me?" Rose Tyler said smiling broadly.
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P.S. AkumakoRonso, I hope I did what you asked. I tried and I will keep trying.
