a/n: Bows down before who_in_whoville who is a patient and listens to me ramble on about this plot as well as serves as beta extraordinaire. Oh, any errors are mine as I tinkered with it after she looked it over. Also, a big shout out to all my Dalekian Sisters who have really helped me become a better writer. This fic would not exist without their support. Big squishy hugs to ya my Sistahs!
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the nursery rhymes which I made all dark and sinistery in this fic.
Rose was still gripping Donna's hand when the thick mist blanketed them in an almost mystical white world. "Doctor!" Rose called out.
"What is this stuff?" Donna demanded, trying to see through it.
Rose called out again but heard nothing in response. She looked down toward the ground and could still feel that they were standing in the wet muck of the swamp. "I don't know Donna, but this isn't natural. It came up too quick. You hear anything?" Rose asked.
"No, nothin'. It's weird. We're in a bloomin' swamp. We should hear somethin'. This stuff is thicker than my Aunt Edna's porridge
"We can't just stand here. We've got to do something," Rose said, poking the toe of her trainer beyond what she could see of the layer of thick fog surrounding them.
"What, you want to just pick a direction and hope we don't fall in a pool of quicksand or worse?" Donna asked, not happy with that plan.
"You got a better plan?" Rose asked her, still gripping her hand.
"Oh all right. Look, the Doctor was in front of us and everyone else was behind us. We should head back toward everyone and the Tardis. That's where the Doctor will go."
Rose nodded, but was concerned about walking away from the Doctor. She and Donna slowly made their way blindly back through the fog in the direction they thought they the Tardis was located. Suddenly, Donna swore and lifted up her shoe.
"What?" Rose asked.
"It's a bloody pond," she said, still holding up her now dripping trainer.
"But, that wasn't there before," Rose said. "Somethin's changing' things around." The fog began to thin and clear in front of them, they could see the pond they were about to walk through and they started to hear frogs croak and insects buzzing about them.
"So much for findin' the Tardis. We could walk around in circles in this place for days and never find anyone," Donna said, looking around at the mangrove-like trees sitting around the edges of the pond and the large purple lily pads floating peacefully in the dark murky water. The sun still had not come out and the dark shadows amongst the trees mixed with the veil of thick mist cast this place into some kind of twisted fairy tale world.
"You were talkin' about Alice in Wonderland on the Tardis. Guess someone with a twisted sense of humor heard you," Rose said and found an old fallen tree to sit on while they tried to formulate a new plan. Donna collapsed next to her sighing. She looked over at Rose staring across the pond.
"So, we just gonna wait for the fog to lift or what?"
Rose shrugged. "Well, like you said, it's better than fallin' into quicksand or endin' up lost in the swamp. Donna nodded and sighed just as a large purple and blue frog the size of a grapefruit jumped out of the water and plopped down in front of them.
Donna and Rose sat up and stared at the frog. "What are you lookin' at?" Donna snarked at the frog, who sat there staring at them with its little beady black eyes, its slick mottled skin beaded with water.
"Stuff it ginger creature!" the frog said.
Donna's jaw dropped. Rose started to smile and asked, "Sorry, but uh Mr. Frog, did you say somethin?"
"Oi, pink and yellow humanoid, watch it. I'm no pedestrian Earth amphibian. I am Philias, the last of my noble family and this is my realm that you have invaded."
"Rose, do you hear a talkin' frog?" Donna asked, still staring at the frog.
"Yeah," Rose acknowledged.
"Good, 'cos I thought I was losin' it. Don't know why. Travelin' with the Doctor and all. It's not like I haven't seen weirder stuff."
"Scuse me, Philias is it? Um, we were with some friends when this weird fog rolled in. Don't s'pose you've seen any other people like us about?" Rose asked. Donna just stared at her as if she was a nutter.
"You're talkin' to a frog," she said.
"Maybe, he can help us," Rose replied and turned back to the frog.
"Do I look like I spend my time engaging conversation with rude humanoids who stomp their vile warm blooded feet through my realm," he practically croaked and then shot his tongue out to grasp a flying insect which he quickly gobbled up.
"Oh bloody hell, we had to get the cheeky frog," Donna complained. "Look here Philias Froggy, we're lost and we need to get back to our friends. Surely, you saw somethin' while you was swimmin' around this pond doing your froggy thing?" Donna asked with attitude.
"Rude ginger creature! Maybe the Pink and yellow one can teach you some manners," he said and hopped off.
"Did you hear that!" Donna said outraged. "I've been insulted by a frog! A frog!" Rose stared at her for a few minutes and burst out laughing. Donna soon followed.
Rose stopped laughing abruptly when something dark moved through the swirling mist on the other side of the pond. She grabbed Donna's hand again. Donna stared where Rose had been looking.
"Did you see that?" Rose said and continued staring across the pond.
Suddenly Donna gasped. "I don't believe it," she whispered. A flash of red emerged through the fog near a large tree not far from where something dark was slithering through the trees. "Rose, is that…" Rose squeezed Donna's arm to quiet her. They both remained still as the noise of croaking frogs and crickets went deathly silent.
An inky darkness slithered on the ground making it's way to where the flash of red had a appeared. Rose stood up and shouted "No!" The darkness paused as if considering her and slithered away, tendrils of it absorbing anything in it's path leaving a trail of something Rose couldn't even fathom. It was like she was looking at a shimmering swirl of white but it hurt to look at it. "The nothingness," she whispered.
Donna stood up and put her hand on Rose's shoulder. "Rose, what was that. Why does it look weird over there?"
Rose shivered and turned to Donna. "I don't know, Donna, but it's wrong. We've got to find the Doctor."
Donna turned around with a jerk to find the little red cloaked girl standing a few feet away from them. "Oi, little red ridin' hood, it's rude to sneak up on us like that!" Donna said to the girl Rose had met in her dreams. Rose stared at the girl who stood about five feet away from them, still dressed the same with her cloak partially obscuring her face.
"We aren't alone," she said, fidgeting, her black mary janes squishing in the mud.
"That so," Rose asked carefully. "Don't s'pose you want to tell me who else is about or maybe, I dunno, tell me more than you did last time about this Darkness?"
"It devours everything and leaves only nothingness," she responded, clutching a light colored basket in her hand.
"Yeah, we got that." Donna said crossing her arms. "Look here missy, you obviously know what's goin' on so enough with the riddles. What is this thing and how do we stop it," Donna demanded.
"Donna Noble, you can't stop it," the child said in a calm voice.
"Wait a minute, you said it was afraid of the Wolf and the Storm," Rose reminded her.
"One went shopping, two stayed home, another defended the Earth, two stood together strong and the Darkness went wee wee wee all the way home," the child said almost absently.
"Are you kiddin' me!" Donna said in exasperation. "Rose, the kid's barmy."
"Why you always talkin' in nursery rhymes?" Rose asked, but the girl was silent
"I'm not askin' the right questions am I?" Rose said and the girl smirked.
"This Darkness isn't from around here is it?" The girl tugged at her cloak. "And it's not alone. There's someone or something else makin' all this happen," Rose said, as she thought about what had happened so far.
"It is the harbinger of that which will come. It was loosed on the multiverse to devour everything that was, is or ever could be, so that those who freed it may control all things. They want to possess you."
"Why? I mean why me? You said it was afraid and when I screamed, it backed off."
"Wolves travel in packs. They are strong and loyal and defend their territory. When the wolf calls for the Storm, they fear what will come."
"Cause this Wolf and Storm can destroy it?" Donna asked.
"Nothing can destroy the Darkness."
They heard a shout. "That's the doctor!" Donna said, jumping up and looking around.
When Rose turned away the girl dashed off . "Wait! Why are you here now? What about the Doctor, is he safe?" Rose asked.
The girl peeked from around a tree. "Storms can be fierce, but without that which feeds them, they blow themselves out." She ran a bit further and stopped, She clasped the basket close to her chest and turned to Rose. "Not everything is as it seems. It will try to deceive you, Rose Tyler and all those you love. Reflections can be dangerous. It's quite clever."
Some birds flew out of the bushes and she gasped and darted further away. She stopped on the other side of the water where the mist was thinning. "Do you know who you are? For, they surely do . Find yourself, Rose Tyler and believe," she warned as she stepped back into the mist.
Donna and Rose looked at each other for a moment. "I swear if you start with the spooky rhyming thing, I'm gonna slap you," Donna warned, before she was tackled to the ground as something came hurtling out of the mist at them.
Mickey held tightly onto Martha as the thick swirling fog wrapped around them, cutting them off from their friends and the rest of this world until it was just the two of them standing snug in a blanket of white. Martha called out for their missing friends, but there was no response. It was complete silence.
"Weird," Mickey commented.
"I'll say. They were right in front of us. They should have heard me," Martha said, shifting a bit as the fog seemed to close in further around them.
"It's not just that. Listen. You can't here anythin'. No birds, crickets, not even the wind. Somethin's toyin' with us," Mickey said, staring into the dense white mist, his grip on Martha's hand tightening slightly.
"We can't just stand here. We've got to do something. What if they're hurt and can't call out for help?" Martha said worriedly.
"Or, they could be like us and can't hear anythin'." Mickey said. "Ya know, this is the part of travelin' with the Doctor I don't miss. Stuck on an alien world in some foggy deathtrap."
Martha turned to him. "Could be worse ya know. Least we're together," she reminded him with a slight smile.
Mickey smiled back at her. "You're all right Martha Jones. If I had to be stuck anywhere, glad it's with you." The faint sound of a child singing broke the silence. Mickey and Martha looked out into the fog and then back at each other.
"Martha, can I tell you somethin?" Mickey asked.
"Yeah," she answered softly shifting closer to him.
"I saw lots of things while I worked at Torchwood and nothin' good ever came out of a bunch of swirling fog, specially not one with creepy kids singin' in it.
Martha nodded. "So, you thinking what I'm thinking."
"Let's not wait for whatever's in this fog to come lookin' for us." Mickey said and began pulling Martha along side him as they made their way blindly through the fog back toward the Tardis, missing the little red hooded girl who stood off to the side holding her basket as she watched them leave.
Jack stood stock still as he was enveloped in the thick white mist, stranding him from everyone. He rolled up his sleeve and started tapping buttons on his Vortex Manipulator. "Ha! Gotcha!" he exclaimed as he began making his way forward through the fog. Unfortunately, the Vortex Manipulator did not identify the tree he walked into or the deep muck that he eventually sank into, sucked down to his knees.
"Swamps, I hate swamps," he muttered as he began tugging futile at his mud suctioned legs. Realizing there was no way he could pull himself out without leverage, he began scanning the area trying to see through the fog to find something to help pull him out. A breeze blew some of the fog away revealing some trees with branches dangling just out of reach. He heard a rustling in some bushes and grabbed his blaster.
A child emerged dressed in a red cloak. She swept it aside and walked up to him revealing a pale skinned child with disheveled dirty brown hair and dark cruel eyes dressed in a black jumper and red plaid skirt.
"Immortal Jack did fall as he failed to save them all
Tried with all his might but he could not win this fight
So he sank in the muck until till all that was left was the blinding white"
She said with an evil smile.
"Cute, kid. Don't suppose you want to give me hand then?" he asked, still gripping his blaster.
"You're wrong you know and you don't belong in this world. The Darkness is coming and it will devour everything even you. It heralds what will come. The Wolf and the Storm will fail." she said smirking. Another child appeared in the woods, also dressed in a red cape but she kept her face partially obscured. She had neat brown hair and brown eyes with a red plaid skirt and she carried a light colored wicker basket.
She looked frightened but determined, staring Jack in the eyes. Jack always felt he was a good judge of people and felt something familiar with this child. She wasn't a threat. He was sure that she was the survivor of something horrible. He watched her turn to the other little girl who smiled wickedly at her.
A thick black ooze slithered from the swamp behind the dark child making it's way toward the other child. The girl with the basket said one word. "No." The wind picked up and lightening flashed temporarily blinding Jack and he swore he heard a wolf howl. When he opened his eyes, both children and the black amoeba like creature were gone. A branch had been severed from a tree by the lightening falling close enough for him to reach.
He pulled himself out and rested for a moment, taking his boots off to empty them of water and muck. After cleaning up as much as he could, he checked his vortex manipulator and grinned. He turned around until it beeped and began making his way through the muck and wet grass toward what he hoped would be his friends.
As he stumbled his way through the thick mist, tripping over some unseen stump and catching his balance, he heard a voice ring out, "Oi, you watch where you're goin!" Jack stopped and looked around and was bout start walking when the voice sounded again. "I said watch were you put those clunky feet of yours! Not everyone is big clumsy oaf like you!" Jack looked down and before him sat an irate violet blue frog.
Jack smirked. "Sorry, didn't see you down there little fellow. So what's good lookin intelligent blue amphibian like you doing in spooky swamp like this," he asked with a charming smile.
The Frog stared at him. "Disgusting mammal! How dare you proposition me! You and your disrespectful females are not welcome here! Be gone before I call out my people to throw you into the eternal pit of slime!"
"All right, all right. Take it easy. Hey, did you say females?" Jack asked, eager to learn more.
"Yes, you're trespassing rude females nearly contaminated my hunting grounds with their warm mammalian appendages!"
"Uh, sorry about that. Don't suppose you could show me where they are so I can, you know retrieve them?"
If a frog could sigh, he did. "Humans. No sense of propriety or manners. Always barging in where you don't belong and without permission. Very well, keep straight through the grass by the fallen tree until you reach the pond. That's where I saw the vulgar creatures last. Find your females and remove yourselves from my lands or the next time we meet, you will find yourselves running from the powerful jaws of a hungry Gazier!" the irate frog informed him and hopped off.
Jack turned and started making his way in the direction the frog told him. "Been along time since I was told off by a testy frog," he murmured as he marched his way through the swamp. As he reached the fallen tree, he saw something moving through the muck. "Oh, I don't think so!" he almost yelled as an eight foot long armored crocodile type creature raced toward him. He turned and leapt through the foliage.
The Doctor stood in the fog, his eyes darkening with fury at the taunting nursery rhyme mixed with concern for his missing companions.
"Who are you?" he shouted. There was no response, just silence. "Show yourself!" He turned around in place, his keen Time Lord senses actively seeking out anything beyond the thick silent, white barrier of fog. He had analyzed the thick mist already and knew it was not a natural phenomena and the components indicated it was the residual effect of an unstable rift nearby. He shivered and felt something that prickled his time sense, like a pivotal point in time, yet it was more than that. There was a presence along with it. It was mocking him. All of his senses were screaming something was wrong and different and not just here on this planet. This was a much more large scale issue, like a reverberation through time and space.
"What do you think you're doing? I can sense you and feel your attempts to manipulate this timeline." he shouted out. Still there was silence. "You've gone to a lot of trouble to bring me here and separate me from my companions." He heard giggling and the white haze began to thin slightly. He stepped forward, even though he knew something was leading him into what could be a trap. Eventually, he found himself mired in the muck in the middle of tall pink swamp grass as high as his chest. A flash of red caught his attention.
"I'm tired of this game. Whatever or whoever you are, you have my attention now. Tell me what you want and bring my friends back," he said, emphasizing "back."
A red hooded child emerged several feet in front of him, her hood pulled back revealing dirty brown hair, pale skin and dark menacing eyes.
"Evil red riding hood," he murmured to himself.
"You are the destroyer of everything," she said with a smirk. He winced. "Killer of your own kind and murderer of hundreds of races. You think you can stop us and keep this universe on a course your design. The Darkness comes and it devours everything. It is the harbinger of what is to come."
"Who are you? Who sent you? He demanded What have you done with my friends!"
She giggled and swirled her cape around as she spun in a circle.
In a Tardis in a wood
A little old Time Lord by the window stood
Saw the masses screaming and running by
Knocking at his door as the Darkness arrived
Help us! Help us! Time Lord they cry
Or the Darkness will devour us all and we will surely die
Helpless was the Time Lord as it all came to pass
Soon he faded away as the new lords of universe arrived in masse
"You think I'm so easily manipulated by some bad poetry? And, I mean bad and that's saying something cause I've been around," he said, babbling a bit. "He looked at her. "I've faced worst than this, than some faceless coward that takes on the persona of a child taunting me with twisted nursery rhymes. You're not even here, just some psychic projection on a world you know shouldn't exist. It's not even impressive. Just a cheap parlor trick."
He made his way through the thick muck, his long coat dragging through the muddy water as he circled the red cloaked girl. "I know my friends are here, tucked away in the swamp. It's only a matter of time before I find them or they find me. They're not exactly the kind to just give up, my friends. They have a tendency to fight for what they believe in and I know they won't let you, whoever you are, come and destroy this universe." He paused close to the child and stared coldly at her.
"Now give them back to me!" he said in a tight angry voice.
"You don't control us Time Lord," she answered and looked off to the side. He turned and watched the obsidian darkness slide its way toward them absorbing everything it touched. The thick black ooze engorged itself and spread quickly until it was only a few feet from him. All of his senses were on fire as a memory from long ago surfaced in all it's horrible clarity. He turned to the girl.
"Stop this! Stop it now! You don't know what you've unleashed!" he shouted at her.
"Did you really think you could stop us?" she asked, smiling as the sinister black amoeba-like creature slithered and slide its way closer to them. The Doctor pulled out his sonic, a look of terror in his eyes. Suddenly, he felt a small hand gripping his. He looked down into warm brown eyes amidst a scarlet cloak.
"It's the harbinger of the darkness to come. It eats everything, every moment until there is nothingness," she said sadly.
"Not while I'm here it won't," he said, suddenly infused with confidence. He looked down at the child who stared at the slithering mass approaching them. "You're the one that helped Rose aren't you? So whose the evil doppelganger then?"
"It's clever and cunning but it can be stopped. When the wolf howls, it hesitates. It knows a storm is coming."
The Doctor felt a chill pass through him. "Who are they? Who set the Darkness loose?"
"They want to control everything," She answered.
"It's afraid of Rose and I together," he murmured. "But why?"
"Doctor," the girl said softly.
He looked back down at her and noticed the dark creature inched closer to them, but slower now. It seemed to be hesitating. "Who are you?" he asked the child. She looked at him solemnly, but remained silent. He turned and faced the dark version of the red-hooded child and aimed his sonic at her.
"None of this is real. This is all some experiment. You and whoever is behind this is toying with this time line, this reality and me. This is done now," he said with confidence and activated his sonic. Thunder rumbled the sky and strong winds blew through the swamp, clearing it of the mist.
The evil girl stared at him frowning. "Don't be so smug Time Lord," she said as she backed away and started spinning. "The multiverse is falling down, falling down, falling down, the multiverse is falling down all round Rosey. Soon the Time Lord will lose his Rose, Lose his Rose, Lose his Rose and soon the Time Lord will lose his Rose and he can't stop it." She laughed and disappeared into the grass. When the Doctor looked back toward the other child, she was gone too leaving him standing alone in the swamp grass with troubling thoughts about the dark creature now roaming free and even more worrisome, where it came from.
Thunder rumbled across the swamp and large, cold drops of rain began falling shaking him out of his thoughts. This world was nothing but a manipulation of time, matter and energy never intended to be permanent. He could already feel the beginnings of it's unmaking and knew soon, it would disappear as if it never existed. He had to find his companions and quickly.
