A/N
Disclaimer: Once again, I plead innocent. I don't own Doctor Who. I don't make any money writing this. Too bad, prosecutors! You shall fail!
Here ya go! Another chapter! Not as long as the previous one, but still okay. Longer than chapter 2. On that note, if you didn't understand the part where Rose said 'Loranos', I suggest you re-read Chapter 2. That'll tell you everything.
Onward with the story!
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
Walking out of the TARDIS, Rose sighed. She had spent ages in the TARDIS, refusing to go out until she had calmed down. But she had calmed now, and so was walking out, with the Master, who had chosen not to leave her side.
"Sorry 'bout before," Rose said to him, slightly embarrassed.
"Don't need to apologise," the Master replied, smiling at her gently.
They were both quiet as they continued walking to the old, battered house. Rose, still deep in her thoughts, clutched her mother's phone to her as if it was a lifeline. Still, she walked without a tremor in her step.
When they reached the house, Rose gasped. The house looked horrible. Where once the house had just looked old, this version of the house looked like it had existed for centuries after it's time. "Is this the same house?" she asked the Master.
"Yes, it is," another voice responded, flowing in the air.
Rose glanced around quickly. An old woman, extremely old, had made her way to the two of them, and was now watching them with something close to envy mixed with compassion. "Who are you?" Rose questioned her, looking confused.
"Look closer," the woman whispered, beckoning Rose closer.
She walked closer. The woman was wearing a kimono-like dress that swayed gently as the wind brushed it. Hazel eyes stared intensely at Rose.
Rose gasped.
"Loranos?!"
The woman sighed deeply, her grey hair pulled into an uneven bun and swaying in the breeze. "Yes," she said.
"But...but... how?" Rose asked, still in disbelief.
"I believe that question is best answered by the Master," Loranos whispered, lilting voice now gone, replaced with a dull croak.
Rose looked at the Master in confusion. "What's going on?"
The Master sighed, but replied, "We came back far into the future," the Master explained to her.
"How far?" Rose asked, shock clearly still written on her face.
"About three hundred years," the Master mumbled.
"Three hundred years?!" Rose exclaimed. "Was it a mistake? Did the TARDIS go to the wrong time?"
"No," the Master sighed, "The TARDIS sent us to the right time."
"But then..." Rose said to herself, deep in thought. Then her eyes widened in astonishment. "W-we were s'posed to come at this time weren't we?" she accused. "The device... because it would take ages to create, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah," the Master looked down.
"So..." Rose was trembling, whether with anger or horror she didn't know. "They stayed here for three hundred years in order to create the device to send me back to the Doctor?"
"Yeah," the Master continued staring at the ground.
"No!" Rose exclaimed. "No! Change it!"
"I can't," the Master muttered.
"But you wasted their lives!" Rose yelled. "How could you?"
"Actually," the old Loranos interrupted, "He was against the whole idea. It was our choice, and we made it."
"The argument..." Rose trailed off, looking stricken. She stared at Loranos, tears forming in her eyes. "I didn't want you to waste your life for me," she told the old woman, who, just a couple of hours before, had been young.
"We didn't waste our lives," Loranos comforted her. "We finished building the device. And I may look old, but that only means I haven't needed to regenerate."
Rose looked down again, and sank to the ground, face in hands. She had been so cooped up in the Doctor- so much so that five people had wasted three hundred years of their lives to help her. Needlessly wasted three hundred years. Returning to the Doctor didn't mean she had to destroy other people's lives. "I'm sorry..." she whispered, much like the Master had.
Loranos, wrinkles and all, knelt down and gave her a gentle, fleeting hug. "Don't be," she said to Rose, helping her stand up.
Rose, wiping a tear from her eye, stared at Loranos. "Look at you," she stated sadly. "You shouldn't have done this for me."
"But I did," Loranos whispered, "And that is never going to change."
"You shouldn't have."
Loranos lifted Rose's head to meet her own. "I chose to."
"If I'd known..." Rose trailed off.
"That is why we did not tell you," Loranos replied.
"Why not?" Rose mumbled. "If you'd told me, I wouldn't have let this happen. I wouldn't have let you waste your life for me."
"We did not waste our lives," Loranos straightened, proud and upright. "We helped someone who deserves helping."
"Why, though?" Rose asked, looking up. "Why would you help a complete stranger?"
"Because..." Loranos started. "Because, we owe it to the Doctor. And because we wanted to."
Rose nodded, finally accepting this answer. But what had the Doctor done to earn all this? What had been so important that they owed him now, even with him dead? And did it have something to do with what the Master had told her, back at her Mum's place? Did they want to help her because the Doctor had saved their lives, too?
"My Doctor isn't your Doctor," Rose said.
"A Doctor is a Doctor is a Doctor," was the Master's reply.
"Poetic," Rose joked, rubbing her eyes and standing up straighter.
"Yeah..." the Master paused, looking stricken. "Wait! I hate poetry!"
Rose chuckled. "Okay, okay. Let's go inside?"
"Yep." The Master followed Loranos inside the ram shackled building, Rose following the Master.
Entering, Rose was astonished. The building inside was a lot more spacious, and a lot more clean. They had walked into a lounge room of some sort, with couches of strange designs and colours were nestled around a table. Cushions were thrown randomly on each couch, their colours complete opposites of the couch in which they rested.
She looked up as a door opened.
"Here already?" the voice asked. The new arrival had a brown trench coat, with pure white hair atop his head. As he looked at her, Rose grinned at the familiar lavender hue of his eyes.
"Jorax!" she called, feeling pride at remembering all of their names.
"Yes. That's me," was the reply, "Come, come."
She glanced at the Master, who had started walking towards Jorax immediately. Pursuing them, she was surprised to find herself travelling down stairs. "Are we heading to the basement?" she asked no one in particular.
"Something like that, yeah," the Master replied.
It stayed dimly lit the whole way down, the lights casting strange shadows against the walls and yet seeming to diminish all darkness. Another Time Lord invention, probably. Whatever it was, it was cool.
Jorax pushed open a door at the bottom of the stairwell, calling out something in Gallifreyan that made the Master chuckle. Another Gallifreyan reply came, and Loranos replied, in Gallifreyan, to whatever that statement had been.
As Rose entered the room, she was shocked. Eyes wide, she surveyed the huge underground room. Tables were against the wall, tables that looked like lab benches, each table having huge amounts of stuff on them. On the left side against the wall, one long table was obviously designated for 'chemical reactions'- dozens of tubes and beakers contained different coloured liquids, some of them steaming, others bubbling. One was even changing colours.
On another table was equipment, strange in appearance, but one reminded her of an electric drill, only instead of a drill on the end, there was a bright green light. One of the things on that table, Rose realised, was a sonic screwdriver.
However, what caught her eye was a table at the far end of the room. This table was mostly empty, having only a couple of strange things on it- two different devices, but there was more than one copy of each. Automatically, she made her way over to it, Jorax behind her, the Master and Loranos in front of her.
Upon reaching the table, she reached a hand out to touch one of the devices- a small, black thing, with a blue laser-like line running down one side and a red dot in the middle- but a hand reached out to stop her. Surprised, she looked up.
This man had inquisitive dark blue eyes, with light blonde hair that flopped down his face. Light stubble covered his chin. He was wearing some kind of armour- which was definitely new. Rose couldn't remember the man.
"Hi Rose!" the man said, and winked, smiling.
Her eyes opened wider, eyebrows raising. "Phantom?"
"Or as the Master tells me," the man continued to smile, but, if even possible, his smile grew.
"You regenerated?" she asked.
"I did," was her confirmation. "I was going for a walk, you know? And I sort of fell. And I sorta landed on something rather sharp."
Rose winced. "Ouch."
Phantom grinned. "Yeah, it hurt. It was only a couple of days ago, though. At least I don't look old and grey, huh?" He winked.
Rose smiled, albeit slightly awkwardly.
"Right!" Jorax called, picking up the device that Rose had been looking at. "Rose!" he said, gaining Rose's attention.
"Yeah." Rose turned and gave her full attention to Jorax.
"This is the device you will use to return to your universe," Jorax told her.
Rose frowned. "But I thought if I travelled to my universe I would destroy both universes."
"Well, yes," Jorax conceded. "But we've figured out another way to get you back. It's quite ingenious, really, if I do say so myself."
"What...How is this device," Rose gestured to the device in Jorax's hand, "Going to get me to my world?"
Jorax sighed, trying to think of something to compare it to. Then he lifted both of his hands, putting the device down. "Picture... two bubbles," he said.
"Okay..." Rose replied, slightly confused.
"Now, when you force these two bubbles together, they pop, right?"
"Yeah, I suppose," Rose answered.
"Okay. But if, instead, you let them join slowly, they merge to become one, correct?"
"Yeah!" Rose exclaimed, beginning to understand. "So, wait, does that mean you're connecting both universes?"
"No." Jorax shook his head. "There are three bubbles. One of them is this universe. One of them is your universe. The last bubble is you. You, the smallest bubble, will travel slowly through the void, joining up slowly to your universe."
"Oh," Rose said, staring down at the device in blatant awe. "Will this device do all that?" she asked in incredulous amazement.
"Yes," Jorax nodded. "It's slightly more complicated than that, but you get the idea."
Rose nodded. "So what do I have to do to get it to work?"
This time, Phantom spoke. "See that red dot? You have to press it, thinking the whole time of wherever you want to end up. Assuming that you want to be wherever the Doctor is, all you have to do is concentrate on the Doctor."
"Is it that simple?" Rose asked, surprised.
"Not really," Phantom replied. "Did you know the void is timeless?"
Rose nodded.
"Well, because of that, your mind can't deal with the stress of going so slowly. It will be hard to concentrate, and I imagine you will get rather dizzy."
Gulping, Rose nodded again.
"But it won't be so bad," the Master jutted in, hoping to comfort Rose. "It'll be like going on a roller coaster." At Rose's glare, he elaborated. "Just a very twisty roller coaster."
Rose looked down, staying quiet for a long while, before looking up again with eyes watering. "Thankyou," she whispered. "Thankyou- all of you- for doing this."
"No problem!" Phantom exclaimed. "Always happy to help out." Phantom's blue eyes darkened slightly at these words, but Rose didn't notice.
"It was our honour," Jorax said. "But... but we have one favour to ask."
"Anything," Rose replied.
"That device... it can hold more than one person... and it can travel more than once. Would it be agreeable if the Doctor accompanied you back to this universe to see us?" Jorax asked her.
Rose nodded emphatically. "Yes, yeah, that'd be fine."
Another man, hiding in shadows, walked out and handed Rose a different device, slightly smaller, looking almost like a light bulb except a pale blue in colour. Rose grabbed it, and stared at the old man in confusion.
"Thankyou," Rose said, then upon realising who it was, grinned. "Thanks, Officer."
"It's a communication device," the Master told her. "It'll enable conversation between different universes, but only when both ends have a device such as this. I'll be giving one to your family after you leave."
Rose beamed gratefully. "Thanks."
"We'll see you soon, right?" the Master asked her, handing her the transportation device.
"Yeah," Rose smiled, clutching both devices. "Yeah. You will."
"Concentrate," the Master told her.
She closed her eyes, picturing the Doctor's handsome face smiling at her, and plunged her hand down to hit the red button. "Bye!" she called, as she felt a pressure change.
She was spinning. Time was going so slowly, and yet it was travelling as fast as light. She dared to open her eyes. Dizzy. Swirling colours. Myriad of different colours joining together at alarmingly fast rates. Very dizzy. She closed her eyes again in fear of falling. Nausea. She felt sick. How much longer was this going to last? Dizzy still. She still held both devices. She still envisioned the Doctor's face.
Dizzy. Still dizzy. When would it stop? Sick. She was going to be sick. Suddenly, another shift. She felt herself falling, landing on a hard surface, feeling something tear at her arm. She opened her eyes. The sky was swirling. She closed her eyes again. Wait...
She opened her eyes again. There it was. The sky. She was back on Earth. She had made it. She was about to cry out with joy, but the nausea prevented her from doing so. She made it to all fours, and released the contents of her stomach. Bleugh. Vomit looked disgusting.
She raised her head weakly, spitting and hacking, when she felt a pain in her arm. She glanced at her arm. Blood was pouring from a cut, and, from the feel of it, the cut was pretty deep. About to grasp her arm, she stopped as she remembered the devices still in her hands. She had to find the Doctor.
"Doctor!" she called.
No answer. "Doctor!"
Again, no answer. Didn't Phantom say that the Doctor would be near? "Doctor!"
This time, she heard a sound that made her heart come out of her chest. It was the TARDIS. The TARDIS. The Doctor was nearby. The Doctor was nearby!
Scrambling to her feet, the dizziness making her pause for a second, she glanced around. She was on the corner of a street, one that she didn't recognise, but she could tell she was in London. The faint view of the Big Ben sort of gave that away.
The TARDIS continued to make its sound, but the sound was growing fainter. "Doctor!" she shouted, running towards the sound. Emerging on a different street, she sprinted towards the shape of the TARDIS, the TARDIS that was slowly fading from view. Dematerialising. He was leaving.
"Doctor!" Rose yelled. "I'm over here!"
The TARDIS continued to disappear. "Doctor!" she repeated, continuing to sprint forward. The TARDIS kept fading. Fading... fainter, fainter...
"Doctor!!" she screamed.
Too late. The TARDIS was gone.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
TBC...
A/N
Oh, no! Another cliffie!
I made a boo-boo. I told you all that the Doctor would return in around the eighth chapter. Oops. I meant the sixth. I had to cut down on some chapters because the dot-point summaries I had weren't long enough for a whole chapter. Anyway, if you go to my profile page, you'll understand what I mean.
You like?
I hope this chapter was understood. If you didn't understand it, re-read Chappy 2 (as I said at the beginning of this chappy).
This chapter was regretfully short, but, well, you know. Stuff happens.
I need to thank Talia-taylor for pointing out a mistake I made in the previous chapter. Needless to say, it's been fixed. If anyone else noticed, you have my congratulations.
Onto the thanking people:
Thanks to all that reviewed. Your reviews make my day: QuiteRightToo, Wanabee, Talia-Taylor, x-EmilyTennant-x, CSITribe, VampMistress and Tigris T Draconis.
Huge, huge thankyou to those that put this story on favourites: Wanabee, VampMistress, Talia-Taylor, Rosie-Jess, QuiteRightToo, Queen of the Jelly Babies, Kaia-S and I'mTheMasterOfWhatever.
Lots of cheering and a big hug for those that put me as their favourite author: I'mTheMasterOfWhatever, Mara Jade Snape, QuiteRightToo, Rosie-Jess, Talia-Taylor andVampMistress.
Once again, another thankyou to those that put this story on story alert- not going to list, there are too many. Thankyou also to the many people who put me on their author alert list.
You guys make me soooo happy! Thankyou!
Anyway, here's hoping that the next chapter will come out soon.
Cheers!
SnowFox3