Armageddon: Chapter Two
She awakens. She breathes, smiles, opens her eyes, and blinks a little. Her hair is too long, she notes, but as a rising feeling of absolute giddiness takes over her she finds she does not care for once.
It's hard, but she turns her head to look around. Everything's exactly as it was when she left it, but the ice around her has melted. She is naked, she realizes, but not cold, though water clings to her like perhaps a young man with an incurable illness would cling to life. The light is bright; she and she alone can withstand it, can withstand the radiation, because she made it, made it to protect her body. Her thoughts have a strange feel to it, echoing, echoing like you would hear an echo in a cave, only this cave is alive, very alive.
She almost takes a step forward, forward onto the diamonds, the sparkles, the wonder, but then chastises herself. Her body's been locked up for who-knew-how-long, after all. Her muscles, frozen or not, would need to recover. She decides to speed this up, feeling impatient after all of her long waiting. Her powers are scarce, yes, but enough, particularly right now, at the start of this very new beginning. She feels warmth spread to her fingertips, a glow of golden radiance overtaking her pale white skin. She feels pain, excruciating pain, as her muscles undergo sudden, premature growth. Feeling confident, she lets it go on longer than she strictly needs to, so that when she finally straightens (when had she knelt to begin with?), she feels powerful, eager, ready for adventure and life.
She has not awakened. She is reborn.
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Rose panted with exertion as Bad Wolf, curling up contentedly, retreated. The wall became solid again, no longer a mass of white. She expected exhaustion to knock her over, but it didn't. She felt oddly empty.
Bile came up in her throat unexpectedly, and she doubled over, releasing it from its confines gladly. It splattered all over the floor, and she turned away to keep from doing it again. The voices in her head started to dim in her mind, so she spat out the last of the bile, wiped her mouth on her sleeve, and held her head high. Her stomach continued to churn, but now that the singing was fading away, she felt she could handle it.
She was being Called again.
Bad Wolf barked at her, and she jumped. A bluish-silver flash, like lightning, blinded her, and she braced herself for the disorientation of appearing suddenly in a completely different place.
She certainly didn't expect, however, to arrive in Bad Wolf Bay. In Pete's World. She very nearly lost control of Bad Wolf in that moment, angry, furious even, at everything and the world and the multiverse for doing this to her.
Especially when the singing started again.
Sighing, Rose looked at a device attached to her wrist. It seemed like a normal digital watch at first glance, but it had more than just numbers and dates on it. What was a watch, after all, to a one-time time-traveller? No, when this all started, she, Mickey, and one of Torchwood's techs invented something that would keep track of time as it was in whatever universe or planet she was on, whatever date for the same, and which universe she was actually in so she wouldn't get confused. Most of the time she could tell just by the feel of the place, but it didn't hurt to make sure she had extra measures in place.
Sadly, tears prickling at her eyes again, Rose gazed out over the sea for several seconds before reaching for Bad Wolf, prodding it awake. It blinked at her somewhat grumpily, and then the world was a mess of swirling color and more blue-silver lightning as she transported herself back to Torchwood.
"Rose!"
It was Mickey, completely unsurprised that she had suddenly appeared from nowhere and a flash of light in his office.
"Hi, Mickey," she said glumly. "How long have I been gone?"
"Just a week. Any luck?"
"Yeah," she swallowed. "Closed it off real good."
Mickey smiled widely at her, but she could see the worry in his eyes.
"I knew you could do it," he said. "Do you want something? I know you don't exactly need a lift, but if you want I could drive you home, take you to get something to eat…"
"Mickey," Rose smiled; he was always looking out for her somehow, "thanks. But I have a report to file now."
"You can take a break you know," he called after her retreating back, and she stopped, then looked over her shoulder.
"There's still more to come," she said solemnly. "The Void won't get to the Doctor now, yeah, but I'll still be Called somewhere else, won't I?" Her eyes sting with fresh yet unshed tears at this thought. Counting this recent one, she'd only ever been able to save one universe, and even then she hadn't been alone. "'Sides, we still got something or someone out there who needs a stern talking to," she tries to smile cheekily, but Mickey believes it just as much as she does.
"Right," said Mickey, sensing that she just wanted to be let go. "Off you go, then. Might want to change your clothes, too."
"Oh, shut up," she laughed, and he grinned. She started toward the door again. "Go ahead an' tell mum I'm back, but I'm probably not gonna finish in time for supper."
There was sadness in his eyes Mickey replied.
"Yeah," he said. "I'll do that."
Rose walked the long hallways of Torchwood, greeting any workers that she passed to let everyone know that she was back…again. Surreptitious looks passed between most of them when they thought she wouldn't notice, and she knew what they were thinking. When is she going to disappear next?
It had become a habit, really, ever since the handful that watched the Void (and the wall that manifested the sealed breach) for any sign of dangerous activity had found a small glitch in the reports. It actually turned out to be a small "glitch" that was a very big problem, and when this was reported to Rose, the "Head Field Investigation Advisor" (which was more of a fancy title than anything else, as she really covered just about everything there was to do at Torchwood) she had suddenly disappeared without a trace. It had been her first trip back to her home universe, "The Doctor's World", as they called it, and she'd discovered that the universe was royally screwed — someone had messed with it, and there was a parallel universe within it, a big one. That was the first time she'd met Donna.
Then she came back to Pete's World, and had to spend several hours convincing everyone else that she wasn't insane. When she finally had, it was only to disappear again a day later, to a completely different, unrelated universe, where she found that the multiverse was ripping apart at the seams. This was why, with the help of Bad Wolf, they created the special watch.
It had come as a shock to her when, the night after she had said her final goodbye to the Doctor in Norway, Bad Wolf woke, howling in pain and agony, a perfect mirror of everything she felt herself. From that point on, she found that she had, to a very, very, very limited degree, the same omniscient power she'd had when she had absorbed the time vortex on Satellite Five. She could feel the Earth — or whatever planet she happened to be on — turning under her feet, a great big ball of life, wonder, horror and tragedy. She could see into the future every now and then, but not often, and only when she and Bad Wolf were at full strength, which wasn't often. When she dreamed, she dreamed of the past, and she was painfully aware of every atom in existence that came within three feet of her. It wasn't a long range, no, but it was nearly enough to drive her insane. She had some control over these atoms as well — she experimented, sometimes, even when she wasn't supposed to — and found that she could turn things to dust and back again when she had half a mind to. She could turn air into water, water into stone, stone into fire, fire into lightning — she'd had a little too much fun one day and created a little thunderstorm that followed her around everywhere she went for a whole day before she figured out how to get rid of it.
One of the most useful things she got from Bad Wolf was teleportation. She could travel any distance across whatever universe she happened to be in a split second and a flash of "lightning", with a just a bit of tweaking of the atoms in and around her own body. It had taken six months for her to perfect it, but it was definitely worth the effort, because she do it anywhere. Especially handy when she was kidnapped or captured, given that they weren't aware of her abilities and consequently had a field of electrons safeguarding her escape attempts.
When she had first realized that Bad Wolf — the most solid reminder of the time she had spent travelling with Doctor — was still with her, Rose had lived her life with a fear that at any second Bad Wolf would be taken from her. But it never was, and she wasn't sure anymore if it could be.
It was beyond useful for Torchwood, she found, and over the next six years she proceeded to do everything she could to give the unofficial title "Defender of the Earth" true meaning, beyond just a little joke between the Doctor and her. She fought Dragnorox, Garguatas, Foryst Lazinurus, Liazzahrds, Yuiths, Reglaths, Verganis, Hothis, Krystal Fragneltons, and more. She acted as ambassador and allied Earth with five whole galaxies, six solar systems and seventeen planets. She salvaged unused technology of broken worlds and helped integrate it into their own — it took her going back to take her A levels and then a few years at Uni, though, before she felt she could even begin to hold her own in a technological conversation. Useful as Bad Wolf was, it didn't grant her instantaneous education.
Presently, Rose stepped into her own office and, after grimacing in distaste at the utter mess she'd have to sort through on her desk, she passed through another door and into her temp quarters. Not many workers at Torchwood had temp quarters, but hers were installed after she had had to stay for three nights in a row to solve a mysterious generator problem in the basement (the first time she ran into the Krystal Fragneltons, which fed on electricity). After that, she spent so much time at work her family — which included her mum, Pete (whom she found difficult to refer to as her "dad" in her head), Mickey, and her little brother, Tony - had started to tease her that Torchwood was her new home.
But it wasn't. 'Cause her real home was too far away to call anything that, even after nearly seven years.
Rose sighed and shook herself of those useless thoughts.
The room was comfortable enough, but it felt stale, like a hotel room that she stayed in often but had no personal attachment to. There was a twin-sized bed with a large black comforter, a wardrobe with Torchwood uniforms and spare street clothes, a cabinet with odds-and-ends of various alien gadgets, and a telly in front of which was a small black leather loveseat. The floor was bare and concrete, the walls white and undecorated. There were no windows, but a single door led to a small bathroom — to which she made a beeline for immediately.
After showering — and taking her sweet time — she threw on some pyjamas and went to the bed, grateful to finally get a chance to rest for the first time in days. Although, with her luck, she would probably be Called in her sleep, which was an unpleasant and rather humiliating experience that had only happened once.
With the way the singing was going on in her head, she wouldn't exactly complain if she was.
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She walks, feeling lonely, through the corridors of the castle. It is a modest castle, with only two floors, but still a castle and one she is proud to temporarily call home.
She has been here for a week and has not yet found any clothes. There is food, thank goodness, plenty of food, but it will not last forever.
It is as she waits that she realizes the flaw in hiding her body so thoroughly: no one will come with whom she can leave. There are only tourists, and they are too cautious. On the other hand, anyone who would dare to come here, onto this planet called Midnight, would be a worthy one to travel with indeed. Maybe she did not have to be so alone always.
On the ninth day of her stay, she is running out of water. Her throat is parched, and she wonders if she will die here after all, the place of her own rebirth. To her luck and delight, however, she sees in the sky a curious-looking spaceship coming to land. No one exits the craft, and for several seconds she wonders if anyone is even there.
But there is. She can feel them, their insatiable curiosity, their burning desire to risk to the radiation and the lack of any real atmosphere. Not a tourist, then.
She is conscious of her nudity, but the prospect of adventure stays her hand. She knocks on the hull, and hears a knock in return. She asks to be let in, and is asked who she is. She tells them her name, tells them she was born here but is trapped and alone — oh, so alone — and asks again that she be allowed on board. She tells them she has no clothes, and that she does not wish to be any burden but any bit of generosity would be of a help.
A blonde woman opens the lower hatch. She bears a resemblance to someone—two someones, actually—who she feels she should know but can't think of because her memories have not yet completely returned. Still, she is welcomed, and the door soon closes behind her; she finds herself in a cosy ship with little room for maneuvering. She is given a pair of forest green jeans and a black T-shirt, but is told that they will have to stop elsewhere for undergarments and shoes. She does not mind. Maybe she will get her hair cut along the way.
The woman is excitable, as easily eager about adventure as she. Her name, she learns, is Jenny.
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Laughter, laughing, smiling, grinning, teasing…
Shared looks, lingering touches…
Anger, mixed hatred and love…
Desire, thick and burning…
Bones melting, her heart aching…
Hands frozen; times fading…
Lost forevers, broken tomorrows…
Colors bleeding, shadows hiding…
Cold and lost, scarred and screaming.
She woke with a gasp, sitting bolt upright in bed, trying to shake off the choking fear that constricted her chest. Bad Wolf howled, and she turned into her pillow, screaming as hard as she could, releasing sorrow, hopelessness, and pain by making her throat bleed in the place of her heart. It was muffled, and unless someone else was in the room, no one would hear her grief, an unspeakably releiving gift.
When at last she had no more breath to scream and Bad Wolf's howling faded into pitiful whimpers, she pulled away and swallowed hard, wincing at the ripping pain that tore at her throat at the action.
Rose didn't know how long she sat there, trying to calm her breathing and remind herself where she was and why. Eventually, rubbing sleep from her eyes, she decided it would do her no good to stay still for long and so began to set about preparing herself for another day at Torchwood.
Her watch showed that it was six-thirty in morning, about twelve hours from when she had gone to bed. She shuddered at the realization of just how tired she had truly been.
After running a brush through her hair, dressing in typical Torchwood field attire (black jeans, long leather jacket, boots and a white T-shirt) and throwing on a thin layer of makeup, she decided she was as ready as she ever would be. Teleporting to the mess hall and startling Gareth and Leroy, two field agents, Rose poured herself a styrofoam cup full of black coffee. She had never really had much taste for coffee before, but as groggy and grumpy as she felt, she figured a cup or two wouldn't go amiss.
"Ma'am!" Gareth and Leroy snapped to attention, saluting, having apprently regained their composure. Rose rolled her eyes without looking at them and waved a hand.
"As you were, gentlemen," she said as she refilled her cup. Warily, Gareth took up his toast, which he had dropped on the counter, and Leroy filled his own plate with scones, darting glances to her every few seconds with gray eyes filled with awe. Rose almost laughed, but she wasn't in the mood for their antics.
When she finally finished her coffee, she refilled the cup again, this time adding a few things to improve the taste, and teleported back to her office, no doubt startling the pitiful young men again.
Rose had just managed to get through a whole stack of paperwork before someone tentatively knocked on the door. Sighing, she told whoever it was — and she had a good idea who — to come in.
"Rose," said Pete, looking relieved, as he came in and closed the door behind him. "Mickey said you were back, but you didn't come for dinner, we weren't sure…"
"Work to do," Rose lied with a little smile, inwardly hating how easy it was for her to lie now.
"Right," Pete agreed immediately. "Speaking of which, have you seen the news lately?"
Her left eyebrow wrinkled in confusion. "No, why?"
He nodded his head at the computer on her desk, and, obediently, she turned it on, fingering the keyboard when it booted and frowning at the headline she was sure Pete wanted her to see. She clicked on the link to a live station and sat back. Pete didn't move, watching her.
Soon enough, voices filtered through the speakers, sharp and clear.
"Reports of temperatures shooting through the roof are coming in from all over the world, and in Antarctica, well, you should probably see this for yourself…"
The image of the reporter vanished, replaced by water viewed from overhead, probably from a copter. A small strip of land could be seen in the distance, but it was muddy and appeared to be sinking.
"As you can see, there's nothing left."
Rose shot a look at Pete. He shook his head sadly.
"It's happening all over the world, Rose. The seas are boiling, every land with ice has gone — it's global warming sped up."
"Global warming," repeated Rose incredulously, looking at what remained of Antarctica — which was, virtually, nothing. "How is that possible?"
A familiar feeling of dread told her the answer before Pete did.
"That's not all," he said, and gestured to the monitor again, to which Rose turned her attention again.
"Other signs show that the sun is expanding at the rate of three feet in diameter every hour," Rose gasped; "and earthquakes have been growing stronger and more frequent all around the globe. There are freak storms showing up in random places over the world, causing wildfires and floods everywhere. Casualties report whole cities that have been levelled to the ground. Millions are dead. Many have said that this is the end of the world. Scientific authorities have tried and failed to give logical explanations as to these strange occurrences, so there is little else to believe. The public is panicking, and many fear that Armageddon has come."
Rose shook her head, wanting to deny it, knowing she couldn't, and wanting more than anything to believe that this wasn't happening, even though she knew it was.
No. Not here.
"It's the Void," said Pete unnecessarily. "The government's looking to us for a solution, but…"
"Not to you," Rose corrected, looking directly into her father's eyes, "to me. They want me to fix it."
"That's not true —"
"It is and you know it," Rose snapped, cutting him off and standing abruptly.
How the Hell am I going to be in two places at once? she thought to herself. Norway and Canaray Wharf, she knew, the weakest points for the slip through. She could only reach one of them in time, and that wouldn't be enough. Despair tasted thick on her tongue.
"Rose, you're not alone. You have all of Torchwood —"
"All the UNITs and Torchwoods in every other universe wasn't enough to stop the Void," she interrupted bitterly. It was too true, and Pete knew it.
"We're sending pleas for help to all of our allies," said Pete, licking his lips nervously. "We haven't got any reply yet."
She wanted to laugh hysterically.
"Of course we haven't," she said. "Who knows how to stop the Void? We can't research it, there aren't any books detailing nuclear war against the thing - the Void is nothing, it can't be attacked—"
She stopped abruptly, mouth closing with an audible click, listening. She couldn't hear the singing anymore.
"Rose?" Pete uttered, sounding and looking concerned. "What's wrong?"
"I'm being Called again," she said, exchanging horrified looks with Pete. Desperately, she tried to calm Bad Wolf, who was growling restlessly within her, tried to keep the inevitable from happening, but it was too late.
"I'm sorry, Dad!" Rose shouted as Bad Wolf barked and silvery light consumed her world. "I'll try to get back, I promise! I'll save you!"
She wasn't sure if he heard her or not. She wasn't sure she believed herself.
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It was the Doctor's World, she noticed, and for the first time she felt glum about that. She was in an alley — not for the first time, she thought wryly — and when she looked at her watch it confirmed that it was nearly noon in London, England. She put her head in her hands, briefly, before forcibly reminding herself that this wasn't the end. It wasn't, dammit.
A gasp made her spin around.
"Rose?"
"Jack!"
Indeed, Captain Jack Harkness was looking at her from the far end of the alley, Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones to either side of him. Rose felt a pang of sadness everytime she saw them, no matter what universe it was.
Now, she had a dilemma on her hands. Why was Jack even alive? Was he from an alternate universe, too? Where was Donna? Obviously she had to be somewhere nearby; the watch reported that it had been four days since the last time she'd seen the woman, for one thing, and she'd had dreams of this date and time in the presence of the redhead; and the singing had not yet returned. Judging by the absence of Tosh and Owen (which could really be saying anything at all if she wanted to look that deeply into it, which she didn't; in the other universes, they were most often seen with Jack when Gwen and Ianto were), this Jack was most likely part of the linear timeline, which meant that he may or may not have already met Martha and, since Rose knew this world's Martha once travelled with the Doctor, the Doctor in his tenth incarnation as well. In that case, assuming all these if's and but's wouldn't prove negative and she was right, which happened rather often, it wouldn't do any harm for her to run into his arms right now, as she felt the temptation to.
Still, she had spent too long being paranoid of screwing up universes to break the habit in a few seconds because the situation simply appeared harmless. But despite herself, Rose felt a grin crack across her face, and she made slow advances toward Jack. As she walked, Jack leading Gwen and Ianto toward her at the same time, her eyes darted everywhere, cautious and never trusting. It looked like an ordinary, filthy alley in London.
Oh. That was it. London.
Wasn't Jack supposed to be Cardiff? He was always in Cardiff whenever she saw him in the other universes, and she knew the various universes didn't ever deviate that much from the basics.
In spite of all her misgivings, however, she could not deny the warmth of blissful relief that clouded her insides when she found herself enveloped within Jack's strong embrace. He kissed her on the lips, a kiss which quickly turned into a full-blown snog, and when they finally broke apart she giggled, mostly at the looks on Gwen's and Ianto's faces.
"Long time no see," said Jack in his familiar American drawl. She smiled wider, if that was possible.
"Yeah," she agreed, and they pulled a more respectable distance away, though Rose refused to let go of his hand. This was too good to be true, after so long of waiting. If she got to see Jack, who was alive maybe — no. She halted her train of thought before it got out hand.
"Rose Tyler, this is Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones," he introduced dramatically with a sweep of his free arm.
"I know," Rose blurted before she meant to. "Hello," she said to Gwen and Ianto, who were both gaping at her, before anyone could make any comments on that. "Pleased to meet you." She held out her hand, and was pleased when they shook themselves from their stupor and alternately took it.
"Jack?" Gwen muttered inquisitively, eyeing Rose warily.
"Rose is an old friend of mine," Jack explained without any of his usual joviality. "She used to travel with the Doctor.'
Their faces dawned with comprehension, and Rose couldn't help but giggle again. And then, suddenly, the seriousness of the situation came over her once more, and her smile faded.
"Jack, where is the Doctor?"
He shrugged. "In the TARDIS, most likely."
"That's helpful," she muttered under her breath.
"I don't understand, Rose," he said, turning to her. "He said it was impossible to get back. How —"
"I don't think now is that time to discuss that, Jack," Rose interrupted, raising her eyebrows and looking pointedly at the buildings around them.
"Of course," said Jack, still obviously confused but apparently letting it pass for now. "Do you need a lift?"
Rose smirked.
"I think I can handle on my own, thanks."
"Oh, you can, can you?"
"Where we goin'?"
"Back to the Hub. That's in Cardiff, right next to -"
With a mysterious, cheeky grin, Rose winked and cut him off: "I'll meet you there, then."
And she teleported.
Sucky ending to a really short chapter, I know, and I'm sorry, but hey, that's what happens you know less about what your fic's about than the people reading it. "The Stolen Earth" gave me a few ideas (I really liked Ten, dammit!), but any suggestions would be nice. I think Rose's reunion with Jack was kind of empty, but that might just be because of the "Armageddon" that Rose just left Pete's World to suffer.
Let me know what you think!
