A/N - It's been pointed out to me that I've been misspelling Jackie's name, and as you'll notice if you notice these things, I haven't fixed it in this chapter. This is because I really don't want to go back and fix it in all three of my previously published chapters, and I've decided it's more important to maintain continuity within my story than to conform to every detail of canon. This is an alternate universe after all, so maybe in the Wolf's universe it's spelled Jacquie.
Chapter Four - A Star Dancing in the Night
The response came two hours after dawn. Everyone in the secret room under the Tower of London watched the big screen, holding their breath as the Sycorax captain reappeared. Would this, Earth's first contact with alien life, (or the first most of them knew about), end peacefully, or would the human race go to war?
The Sycorax captain didn't speak a word, just raised a clawlike hand. A strange blue light danced around his fingers like static building on a telephone wire in a thunderstorm. Then the transmission ended.
Harriet looked to Rose. "Do you know what that meant?"
Rose shook her head, but a memory was niggling at the back of her overcrowded mind. She'd seen that light before. She tried to quiet her thoughts and let the memory surface, but the room, so deathly still a moment ago, was in turmoil as everyone scrambled to decipher the alien's message. Her head started to hurt.
Shouts of confusion and alarm made her look around. People were abandoning their workstations and walking blank faced and silent toward the doors. Not everyone, but a lot of them. The young woman who'd been monitoring the satellite screens was among them. Mr. Llewellyn followed her, tugging on her arm and calling, "Sally? Sally!" , but she didn't seem to hear him.
Glowing on the faces of the sleepwalkers was that same eerie light. Rose was now sure she'd seen it before, a very long time ago.
The guards at the door raised their weapons as the sleepwalkers advanced, but Harriet shouted, "Let them pass!" and the men backed down. The sleepwalkers filed out the door in an orderly fashion and turned toward the stairs , heading up. Several of those unaffected, including Mr. Lewellyn, followed to see where they went.
Rose squeezed her eyes shut. She had the beginnings of a headache like a needle through her brain, and she knew she was upsetting the precarious balance of the two lives in her head, but she had to remember.
And then, like a stuck door popping open, the memory was there. It had been before the Academy, before they called her the Wolf. She and her sister Pella had gone to the circus and met a witch. The old woman said she could tell their futures if they each gave her a drop of their blood. Pella got scared and ran away, but the girl who would become the Wolf stood her ground. Her curiosity was stronger than her fear.
The next thing she remembered was waking up in a cage. The City Watch had arrested her for pickpocketing. She'd never been more frightened in her short life, but before long her father turned up with a shamefaced Pella in tow. When the watchmen heard about the witch, they released her. She might have forgotten the incident completely, the childish fear lost among the million stranger and more terrifying things she'd seen in the centuries since, if not for the nightmares. For almost a year afterward she'd woken screaming in the night, remembering the witch's hand reaching for her wreathed in ghostly blue light.
Mr. Llewellyn was back. Apparently all the sleepwalkers had climbed up to the roof, walked to the very edge, and stopped.
"It's happening all over the world," Major Blake said. "Early reports estimate it's affecting about a third of the population. That's two billion people ready to jump. "
"They won't jump," Rose said.
Everyone looked at her incredulously. "But ... that light, " Mr. Llewellyn said. "Somehow the Sycorax are controlling them with that light. This must be what they meant. 'Surrender or they will die.'"
"Oh, they want you to think they can make those people jump if you don't cooperate, but it's only blood control. Cheap party trick. If you have a sample of someone's blood or a close genetic match, you can control them. It's like hypnosis. You shut down the conscious mind, put them to sleep, and then you take over the body, make them walk like a chicken or sing like Elvis -"
"Or jump off a roof?" Harriet suggested.
" No. No more than you could make a hypnotized person shoot himself in the head. Survival instinct's too strong. If they try to make those people jump, it'll break their control instantly. "
"You're sure?" Mr. Llewellyn asked anxiously, but Major Blake cut across him. "But where did they get a sample of human blood? And why is it only affecting certain people?"
Rose hadn't worked that bit out yet. Blood control shouldn't even work on such a large scale or at such a distance unless they had some sort of signal amplifier, but before she could tell them this, Mr. Llewellyn said, "It's my fault."
All attention turned to him, and he shuffled his feet guiltily. "It's Guinevere One," he said, not meeting anyone's eyes, especially Harriet's. "It has one of those plaques identifying the human race in case it was found by ... well, aliens. Is just something you do," he rushed on. "You don't expect anything to come of it. We put on books and music, star charts and soil samples ... And blood. A sample of human blood."
On a hunch, Rose asked, "What blood type?"
"A positive. My assistant, Sally, donated it."
"Sally who is currently on the roof?"
He nodded, turning a pleading look on Rose. "You're sure she's in no danger?"
"Absolutely sure," Rose said. "She won't even remember this. "
"Well, there you are, Major," Harriet said. "Their blood sample is A positive, so only people with A positive blood are being affected. The question is, do we call their bluff?"
"Not until the right moment," Rose said. "That ship still has guns. They're only bothering with this little sideshow because they don't want valuable slaves getting killed in the crossfire."
At that moment, a tremor ran through the room. Dust fell from the ceiling, and everyone looked up apprehensively as though the ancient tower might collapse on top of them.
"Shock wave," Rose said. "The ship is entering the atmosphere." It must be massive for them to feel it all the way down here, a tribal flagship at least. There'd be broken windows all over the city. She hoped everyone up on the roofs had kept their footing. She turned to Harriet. "Prime minister, they'll be giving us another call soon, and this time I think I should do the talking. The Sycorax are very temperamental. Easily offended, if you take my meaning."
Harriet drew herself up rather haughtily. She was so small that it really shouldn't have been all that impressive, but somehow it was as intimidating as a mother bear rearing up on its hind legs. Blimey, Rose thought. When did she learn to do that? She could give the Queen lessons. "I've spoken before the British Parliament, child," Harriet said gently. "I think I can handle a tough crowd."
"I don't doubt it," Rose said, trying not to take offense at the 'child'. As far as Harriet knew she was only nineteen and her sole qualification was Traveling With the Doctor. "But the worst Parliament can do is shout you down or vote you out. If the Sycorax don't like what you have to say, they'll kill you on the spot. You're too valuable to this world to take that risk."
"She's right, ma'am," said Major Blake. "We can't put you in danger, and Miss Tyler, despite her youth, knows more about these Sycorax than any of us. It seems logical to put her forward as our negotiator."
Harriet relented with obvious reluctance. "Very well, but I expect you to comport yourself with the utmost dignity. Remember, Rose, you are representing the human race."
Rose tried not to laugh at the irony of that.
When the Sycorax captain appeared on the screen again, it was a live connection. He could see them as well as they could see him, but it was impossible to tell what he thought of them. His battle mask completely hid his expression. He spoke in the guttural Sycorax language, and in her mind Rose heard the words, "Who speaks for this planet?"
She stepped forward, trying to look as old as she felt. She was uncomfortably aware that the Doctor 's too large leather jacket made her look like a child playing dress up, but she didn't want to take it off. It was as close as she would get to having him at her side. "I do," she said.
He stared at her for a long moment, sizing her up. Finally he said, "Come aboard."
She felt a warm tingling sensation spreading over her skin. The world dissolved and reformed, and then the Sycorax captain was standing before her in the flesh. They were in a circular chamber with tiered platforms rising around the walls, and those platforms were filled with Sycorax in full battle dress. Rose attempted a quick head count but stopped when she reached fifty and still hadn't covered even a quarter of the room.
Harriet, Mr. Lewellyn, and Major Blake were still standing behind her. Perhaps the Sycorax captain wasn't taking her claim of leadership at face value. Perhaps he wanted to see what the others would do if she failed. Or perhaps he just wanted an audience for his little magic show. Whatever the reason, she hoped they all had the sense to keep their mouths shut and not draw attention to themselves.
Her eye was drawn to the device beside the captain, the one with the big red button. A smile spread over her face. This part was going to be fun.
The Sycorax captain reached up to remove his battle mask, and Mr. Llewellyn whispered, "It's a helmet. They might look like us."
"Quiet, " Rose hissed.
The Sycorax did actually look a bit like humans, or rather like humans who'd been turned inside out. They had an external skull encasing their head like a cowl, and the red ropes of their muscles were clearly visible through their transparent skin. Add in their ceremonial robes decorated with small animal bones and fur, and the entire effect was reminiscent of an anatomy dummy that someone had dressed up as a witch doctor for a Halloween prank.
"One half will be sold into slavery," the captain said, his voice echoing in the cavernous chamber, "or one third will die. Choose."
"What's he saying?" Major Blake asked.
"The same thing he's been saying all along," Rose said. "Now be quiet!" She turned back to the Sycorax captain and folded her arms. "Go on then. Kill them."
The captain hesitated, confused.
"Well? What are you waiting for? All talk, are ya? Fine then. I'll do it myself." She started forward and slammed her hand down on the button before he could stop her.
The effect was anticlimactic. What happened was ...nothing. No flashing lights, no wailing alarms, not even a beep. Rose gave the Sycorax captain her sweetest smile. "Great. Now that we've got that over with, can we have a proper conversation without any more empty threats?"
The captain tilted his head, examining her like she was a species of insect he'd never seen before. "Who are you?"
She shook her head. "That's complicated. Try something else. Like, what do I want."
He glared at her in silence.
"All right. I'll tell you anyway. I want to kill you. I've had a really, really long day, and I just want to kill you and go home, but I have a friend who wouldn't approve. He'd say I've got to give you a chance. So ..."
He just stared at her. If he'd been human he would have been raising his eyebrows.
"So this is your chance," she clarified. "Turn around and fly away. Leave this planet, and I will spare your lives."
Every single Sycorax burst out laughing. The room amplified the sound until it seemed to take on a life of its own. The echoes lasted almost a full minute after the actual laughter died away.
Rose waited patiently. She could feel Harriet's eyes on her,and for the first time she was glad the Doctor wasn't here. She didn't want him to see her truly become the Wolf.
"You think you can defeat me and all my warriors?" the captain asked mockingly. "You're a little girl."
Rose let her mind sink into the timeless space between moments,the place where the distance between heartbeats was as vast as the distance between stars. To her surprise it was no harder with a human brain. It actually seemed a little easier than she remembered.
"Girl, yes," she said,her voice deep and growling in her own ears, though to everyone else it would sound perfectly normal. "Little, maybe." She grinned. "But I'm so much bigger on the inside."
She began walking towards the captain at a leisurely pace that would be a blur of movement to the watchers. She saw his eyes widen,fear spreading across his face as gently as a sunrise. He took a whip from his belt and lashed at her. She sidestepped it lazily, grabbed it from him with one hand, and snapped his neck with the other.
As he crumpled lifeless at her feet, she let time flow through her again. Her headache was gone. She looked around at the assembled Sycorax. Their expressionless masks betrayed no fear, but the rest of their bodies were not so enigmatic. They all shuffled backward on their platforms, crushing the ones in the back against the walls as they tried to get as far from her as possible without actually appearing to be running away.
"Who is second in command?" she asked.
After some muttering that needed no translation, a Sycorax stepped out of the crowd on the nearest tier. A slight lurch to his first step suggested the crowd was helping him along. "Are you a witch?" he asked,avoiding her eyes as though she could strike him dead with a look.
She smiled when she realized she was only hearing the words in one language. The Doctor was awake.
"No," she said. "Just a wolf. Your captain's mistake doesn't have to be yours too. The offer stands. Leave us in peace, and we'll do the same for you."
He darted a quick look at the body at her feet, then at the whip in her hand. It was an electro-whip. It could reduce him to bones and ash with a single strike. He nodded frantically. "We will. I swear it."
"Glad to hear it. " She dropped the whip on top of the dead captain. "If you'll just let us off, you can be on your way." She rejoined Harriet and the others, trying to pretend she didn't see the fear in their eyes when they looked at her.
The teleport didn't put them back in the secret room under the Tower. When the world reformed, they were standing in a dingy backstreet that was a vaguely familiar to Rose. They couldn't be too far from the Powell Estate. The Sycorax ship hung in the sky. From the outside it looked like a giant boulder with engines stuck on. It didn't look at all aerodynamic, but as they watched it rose into the atmosphere, shrinking to a gray dot, then vanishing completely.
Behind her, Rose heard Major Blake say quietly to Harriet, "Ma'am, Torchwood reports they're ready, waiting on your command."
Rose turned slowly on the spot and looked the prime minister in the eye. Harriet stared back, unblinking. They stayed that way for a long time, the most powerful woman in the country and the girl who'd just saved the world.
"Ma'am," Major Blake prompted.
"Tell them ..."
Rose held her breath.
"Tell them thank you but the situation has been resolved. They may stand down."
~o0o~
When Rose got back to the flat, the Doctor was sitting up in bed while Jacquie fussed over him. Rose flew into his arms, almost upsetting the mug of tea he was holding.
"Hello," he said cheerfully, hugging her with his free hand. "You did it, then? Saved the world?"
"Yep. All sorted. Easy peasy."
"Never doubted you for a minute."
" Don't you tire him out now, " Jacquie warned, shaking her finger. "I'm gonna go check on the turkey."
"Turkey?" Rose said. "What are you cooking a turkey for?"
"Well, it is still Christmas, alien invasions notwithstanding, and with himself up and about again, I thought we'd have a proper sit down, all four of us."
Rose darted a look at the Doctor, half expecting him to mutter something about domestics and make a beeline for the TARDIS, but he was grinning like a Cheshire cat.
When Jacquie disappeared into the kitchen, he said, "I think she's growing on me."
"She does that," Rose said. "Like a fungus. Do you really need more rest, or was that her excuse to force feed you tea?"
"Oh, I'm fine now. Never felt better. But she does make a good cup of tea, your mum. I admit I've been milking it just a little. So how'd you do it? Tell me everything. "
She glanced nervously at the door, or rather the Christmas tree shaped hole where the door used to be. There was no sign of Jacquie, but the woman was a champion eavesdropper, and there were many questions Rose wasn't prepared to answer yet.
She began telling the events of the last few hours in Gallifreyan. Not the untranslateable Old High Gallifreyan that only the Time Lords used, but the ordinary Gallifreyan she'd spoken since childhood.
The Doctor's face lit up with delight at the sound of his native language, and she realized with a pang of sympathy that it had been at least as long for him as it had been for her. Between one thing and another, she hadn't had much time to think about it. Or perhaps she'd been trying not to think about it. The two of them were the last of their kind. The Doctor and the Wolf - not just the last Time Lords, but the last Gallifreyans.
She did tell him everything, even the parts she really didn't want to. If they were the last of their kind, they couldn't afford to lie to each other.
As she'd feared, his grin faded when she spoke about killing the Sycorax captain. "You did what?" he said.
"I had no choice," she rushed to explain, her heart cold in her chest. If he hated her for this, if he left her behind ... "I gave him a chance. He wouldn't listen."
But the Doctor waved his hand like he was shooing away a fly. "Not that. I understand that. But ... you slowed down time? How? You're human ... mostly."
" I know, " she said, doing her best to hide her relief. "I thought it would be hard. Mindlinking with you was like lifting a mountain. But this was ... easy. Natural. It even cured my headache."
This didn't reassure him. If anything, he looked more worried. "Promise me you won't do it again," he said. "Not until we put you right."
"But-"
"Please." He touched her cheek gently. "I can't lose you, Wolf. I can't ... I can't be alone again."
It was the first time since the regeneration that he'd used her real name. Not the Big Bad Wolf, just Wolf. And it was the first time since the Tribunal sentenced her to death that she'd heard her name spoken in Gallifreyan.
She put her hand over his and said, "I promise."
~o0o~
Christmas dinner was surprisingly tasty, and the Doctor still in his borrowed pajamas, didn't seem the least bit discomfited by the domestics. On the contrary, he was the life of the party. He pulled a cracker with Jacquie and wore the pink paper crown that came out at a rakish angle atop his spiky brown hair for the rest of the day. He didn't call Mickey Rickey once.
As night fell it began to snow. Most of the estate piled out into the yard, and Mickey and the Doctor had a snowball fight in which the paper crown got knocked off and trampled.
As Rose watched Jacquie and their neighbor Beth dancing around like schoolgirls and catching snowflakes in their mouths, she felt a deep sadness welling up in her. One last Christmas with her human family, she'd told herself, and now it was over.
She felt a hand slip into hers and looked up at the Doctor. "Do you want to stay a bit longer?" he asked.
She smiled and squeezed his hand. She knew he would do it if she asked him to, and she knew he would hate it despite his newfound liking for Jacquie's tea. She shook her head. "No. I don't belong here anymore."
She hesitated a moment, unsure if she should say what she'd been about to say. He'd gotten so scared when she told him about slowing time. But the words pressed on her tongue. She had to say it out loud, if only to reassure herself that it wasn't a dream or some elaborate hallucination. "I remembered my family," she said. " My... "
She almost said 'my real family', but she took one look at Jacquie and Mickey, and the words died in her throat.
"My other family," she went on. "I had a sister. Pella. We were as different as night and day, but we were inseparable when we were little. I can remember the exact color of her eyes, the sound of her voice... She's dead now, isn't she?"
He let go of her hand and put his arms around her instead. She laid her head on his shoulder. His scent had changed too. It was less like engine oil and more like sea salt, or the air before a thunderstorm.
"I'm sorry," he whispered into her hair. "I'm so, so sorry."
"I knew I'd never see them again," she said, talking to herself as much as to him. "But I thought it would be because I was dead, not because they were. It's easy giving things up when you think you won't be around to miss them."
"Yes," the Doctor said. "Surviving is always the harder part."
She looked up at him. "Easier if you don't have to do it alone."
He looked into her eyes,and though his face was younger than it had been yesterday, those eyes were ancient. She could only imagine how much he had seen, how much he had lost long before she was born. Compared to him she really was a child. And then he smiled like a little boy. "Where shall we go first?" he asked.
She looked up into the sky. Stars glittered through the falling snow, more stars than she'd ever seen over London before. The Sycorax must have shattered a few thousand streetlamps.
She chose a star that looked especially bright. "That way," she said.
