Rose had opened the door of the TARDIS to get one last look at the black hole that had swallowed up an impossible planet and the beast that inhabited it.
"So!" The Doctor was rolling up the sleeves of his pinstripe jacket while pressing various buttons on his console. "Where do you wanna go next?"
Rose was staring into the black hole as if she had been hypnotized.
"Oooh!" The Doctor's inner child was showing again, "how about the lost city of Atlantis, eh? I haven't been there in ages, y'know I sunk Atlantis, WEEEEELL…re-sank it, that is." He looked over at his companion who was still staring into the void. He rushed over to her, "hey," when she didn't respond, he gently turned her around and tilted her chin upwards toward his face, she wouldn't look him in the eye, "that…thing…whatever it was…it was lying," she looked away from him.
"You don't know that though," she turned away from him completely as to hide a single tear that ran down her face.
"Rose," he turned her around again and wiped the tear from her face, "I won't let anything bad happen to you, and you know that."
The Doctor smiled wide and Rose couldn't help but to chuckle. She gave him a hug and let him return to the controls.
"Well!" He flipped a switch on the console, "maybe we'll just stop back home for some tea with your mum," he took out a mallet and smacked the console, "but you might wanna call her and let her know, y'know how she is with surprises." He pulled one more lever on the console.
As The Doctor was about to hit the final switch, the lights in the TARDIS went off.
"Doctor," Rose's silhouette was the only thing visible, "what happened?"
"I don't quite know," he reached into his jacket pocket and removed his sonic screwdriver, using it to illuminate the TARDIS. He walked over to the console and took some readings with his screwdriver.
"Is everything alright?" Rose was trying to make her way over to The Doctor but she couldn't see anything.
"This can't be!" The Doctor used the screwdriver as a flashlight to guide Rose and himself to the door, where he took some more readings, "outside pressure is similar to that of Earth's atmosphere, Oxygen's a bit low for humans, but it should be safe, but that still doesn't explain what's going on in here…"
"Doctor, what exactly IS going on in here?" Rose was fearful but she refused to show it.
"It's the TARDIS," he took a one last reading to confirm his suspicions, "she's dead," he looked her dead in the eye, "there's no possibility of us ever returning." The Doctor puts his screwdriver back in his coat and opens the TARDIS door. Before he can open it all the way, Rose shuts it on him.
"So the TARDIS is dead and we're stranded on some god forsaken planet that you might not even know of, and you just wanna walk out there like nothing's wrong?"
There was a moment of silence before The Doctor responded, "Yep!" He opened the door and confidently walked out onto the planet.
The TARDIS had landed on a cliff overlooking a city that appeared to be abandoned. The city was shielded by a glass dome that reflected the image of both of the planet's suns. As The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, he stared at the city in disbelief.
"Rose," he called out for her, "you're never going to believe this."
"Why?" before he had a chance to respond, she noticed the city in the distance, "what happened?"
"Technically speaking, I happened." He walked away from the cliff, heading in the general direction of the city
"What do you mean, YOU happened?" Rose hadn't noticed that The Doctor was no longer next to her, she followed after him quickly until she was at his side again. "What's wrong Doctor?"
He stopped. He quickly turned to her and put his hands on her arms.
"This planet," he looked at the city again, "it was…well…is, the home to the Time Lords."
Rose looked confused, "so this is good right? Your people can help us get back, can't they? Can't they get you a new TARDIS?"
The Doctor let go of her arms and turned away from her, taking a few steps before facing her again.
"If this is my home planet, if this is REALLY Gallifrey," he looked at the ground and kicked some dirt up, "then we're stuck inside a time lock," he took a breath, "and nothing can ever enter or exit a time lock."
"Then how did we get here in the first place?" Rose was trying to understand but she couldn't put all the pieces together.
"That's the problem, it's not physically possible, we must have fallen through a crack in time created by the TARDIS."
"So the TARDIS brought us here?" Rose was even more confused than before.
"The TARDIS has to contain MASSIVE amounts of energy in order to contain the internal dimension, so when a TARDIS dies it releases some of that energy back into the universe," he was gesturing madly, "and if that energy is released while still in the time vortex it can leave a crack in time and space, and you can end up anywhere."
Rose had completely forgotten the prophecy of The Beast, because she was stranded on this foreign planet far from home, never able to see her family again. For Rose, this was a fate worse than death.
"I should call my mum, and…" Rose couldn't finish her sentence because she was interrupted by a stream of tears. The Doctor ran back to her and held her tight.
"Hey," a single tear rolled down his cheek but he wiped it away before she could see, "I'm gonna think of a way out," his voice was trembling.
Rose was starting to calm down, "promise?"
He stared into her eyes, he was sure that they would never leave his home planet, but he couldn't tell her that. "I promise." With the words now spoken, he stuck out his hand and smiled. She smiled back, grabbed his hand, and ran toward the city the way they always do, and the way they always will. Together.