Chapter 4 – Bitterness

'Settling in?'

Rose jerked up out of bed, fear coursing through her as the voices returned to her. She'd just hoped they'd gone, but somehow, she knew that she should have known better.

'How the heart does race. Like a little mouse being chased by a big nasty cat.' Each word hit her like slaps and she trembled. They chuckled softly, wrapping their slimy tails around her mind and began her silent torture.

'He will find out you know.' Serious tones flittered the voice this time, as though the mere thought made him grieve. 'Whatever will he say?'

'Don't count on him believing you. He's seen it all, hasn't he just?'

"What are you talking about?" Rose whined, pulling her knees close to her chest and hugging herself as she slightly rocked. "This is all you do. Riddles and messed up sentences. Just tell me what you're saying!"

'What would be the fun in that?'

'The cat always plays with its prey.'

"I'm no mouse. And I've had enough of you being the devils on my shoulders. Just leave me alone!"

'Now now, don't be so harsh towards us. After all, you wouldn't be where you are now without us.'

"No, if it weren't for you two, I'd be back in the TARDIS, and...And he'd still be..."

'He had it coming. We were only speeding up the inevitable.'

"Shut up!" Rose yelled. Suddenly, there was a thud from the small room outside the bedroom and a short curse before Jack burst in through the door, practically snapping in half as he slammed it with his shoulder.

"What is it, Rose? You ok?" He asked, breathlessly, rubbing his shoulder as he looked into Rose's pale shocked face. "Rose?"

"Jack...It was...It was just a nightmare, I think. Nothing more. I'm sorry for making you start." She looked so upset as she apologised that Jack felt the pain ebb away as he came to the bed and sat on the end, looking into Rose's brown eyes and brought a hand up to her cheek.

"We'll find him Rose." He said gently, running a thumb under her eye to soothe the tears. "We'll find him, the TARDIS and you'll be back on your way." His voice was like silk just then, so quiet and comforting as though he were a trainer of an abused animal. Rose looked back into his eyes and saw a glimmer of sadness there. She knew just how much it'd hurt him to be left behind after she destroyed the Daleks. She'd felt it almost, as though bringing him back to life while she was Bad Wolf had given her a sort of connection to him, a faint nudge at the back of her mind that sometimes let her feel his feelings. It'd been that which had told her of his pain. But, she supposed that after the Doctor's regeneration, her life had just turned and she'd turned away that nudge without a single thought of it. Now it was all here, looking her back in the face, Jack's heart tugged this way and that.

"If...If we find him..." She struggled to talk as she began more and more conscious of his hand warming her dampened cheek. "You could always come back along with us. You know that."

"After last time?" He looked relieved to know that he was welcome, but something was holding him here. "Nah, there'll be a time and place for me to come back to time travel, but with so many of brainless experts here, I wouldn't be surprised if that one day we'd come back and this place was being run by raccoons with guns." Rose grinned as he chuckled softly. His hand was still there, still wiping her cheek. She felt something begin to stir inside of her. Lost feelings almost. With that, both of them began to lean in and their lips began to brush.

Almost immediately, a great pain washed over Rose's mind and she felt some kind of force push them apart. The voices were wailing things, things Rose couldn't understand and comprehend. Jack looked shocked and ashen, his eyes suddenly bright with fear.

"W-What was that?" He asked her, pulling a hand across his lips as though brushing away a fly. Rose could merely tremble and look at him, guilt pouring into her eyes. Jack stammered words, swearing a couple of times before turning and grabbing Rose harshly by the shoulders. Rose gave a small cry, expecting the pain to come back but it didn't.

"What did you do?" He said darkly. "What is going on?" He could feel her tensed against his touch and shook her a little. "Answer me!" Rose just shook her head and began to weep, the tears dripping onto her knees as she bowed her head. She'd never seen Jack so angry, so angry at her. It was as though she'd done some horrific crime right in front of him and merely laughed.

"Rose," Jack said, trying to stop his voice from rising, or was it shaking? "Rose, please, I-I felt that pain and the..." He gestured with his hands, showing his interpretation of the force. "Did you do that?"

'Certainly wasn't us.' The voices chattered. They seemed as scared as Rose, cowering in the corner of the mind they thought they ruled. But it was suddenly obvious that they weren't the only ones in there. Rose was getting closer and closer to telling Jack what she'd been suffering from, but the voices began take their stand again.

'Ah, we don't think so my dear...We brought you here, but obviously something is not right. We take leave. Now!' For the first time, since Rose had been with these voices, she felt the tone send shivers down her spine. Her eyes began to sting through the tears.

"I-I don't know." She muttered. Too many things were happening at once in her head. Noises, memories, the voices ordering her to...to...

Jack watched as Rose's eyes rolled into the back of her head before down again before the lids closed.

"Rose?"

The eyes twitched before snapping open. The once brown eyes were a vivid blue, the irises wide and the pupils as small as pinpricks. Her chin was suddenly pointed and narrow and her hair short. A grin passed along those pale lips.

"We don't understand this." She hissed, standing up and looking down at Jack. "But we understand enough to know it was your fault."

"We?" Jack said, testing this new Rose. "Who's we, exactly? And what have you done to Rose." He stood so that he was face to face, picking up on every movement that this Rose made. Her eyes seemed to flicker as whatever was changing Rose was fighting inside her head. And they were. The voices taunted and roiled the other.

'We answer him? And give this all away?' The first snapped, imagined as a snake coiled up and baring its fang, slowly morphing to a distinct cobra. Its hood was flared and its eyes were burning.

'What is the point in not saying? We make ourselves known, we become a threat!' The second retorted sharply, its on imaginary form being a mongoose, it's fur raised high and its muzzle held at an angle where it could attack the cobra's throat in a moment. The two thoughts collided and the imaginary states were lost.

Outside, Rose's face twisted and flashed with anger.

"We are...Nothing...You...Beings...Forms..." The words were spaced by sharp gasps. Jack reached out to grasp her shoulders again, but before he could even move his arms, her left hand clenched into a fist and struck Jack with such a blow to the face that he was immediately unconscious as he fell to the floor with a grunt.

The voices stilled. Their mad bickering had brought that around. But now the calm was beginning to spread and the old Rose was back in a blink of an eye, trembling and staggering, looking down at the fallen Jack with alarm and fear.

The Doctor coughed. It hurt. A lot. More than he could stand even. But then, so did breathing, moving and anything else that had any effort in it. Only thought was painless, however, the memories of Rose coming toward him with the knife, watching her dark face, expressionless and evil, as he'd felt the knife slip into his flesh. But from this memory, which he'd gone over so many times just to stop himself from shuddering every time something made him think about it, he'd come up with a probable explanation. Rose had either been possessed or, yet again, he'd destroyed one of her best tops in the washing machine. Like she'd said last time, she'd murder him if he ruined another.

Casting this comic thought aside and struggling to sit himself up, he leant against the stand of the chair, gasping for breath. He was weak. Too weak. Not many Timelords he'd ever known of had managed to stop a regeneration while dying and still live. But now, the healing process was making him constantly weary but he couldn't sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her face. It wasn't her face. It was her, he was for sure. But her face was just different. He couldn't explain how either. It just was, the chin. He could have sworn the hair was shorter, but who looks at the hair of a knife wielder about to kill you?

He opened his eyes fully and looked around him. As he's guessed, the TARDIS was a mess. He couldn't bear to even guess what the rest of it was like. He could only hope that the TARDIS would sort itself out in all due time. Then his gaze fell upon the knife. It made him jump and cringe all at once, making his wound sting viciously. His blood still stained the blade, but was he didn't understand was that there was something written in the blood. Forcing himself to peer harder, he saw four wobbly letters in his own blood.

J A C K

Yes, sorry for the long delay in updating. With it being Christmas and all that Cornwall holiday, I forgot to update this. I return to school tomorrow as well, so big groans all around. Anyway, please review, next chapter will be updated sooner than this one was! Sorry again!

TheNextTitan