Chapter Three: Coward or Time Lord

"Where are you taking me?" Rose finally asked again, sitting near the controls with her arms crossed.

"Isn't that the question of the day," he commented dryly. He backed away finally and just stood there, watching the cylinder pump until at last, it stopped. Rose jumped up and went to the controls, pushing a button before he could stop her. "Oi! What are you doing?"

"Just checking where we stopped is all," Rose responded in a tone just under a snappy retort. The monitor showing what was outside the TARDIS came to life again, and a picture flashed up on the screen.

Rose jumped back and fell into the seat again as she bumped into it. Her eyes were wide as she stared in disbelief at the sight before her.

"Impossible!" she murmured. "So many! Where did they all come from?!"

"They survived the Time War," the Doctor said above a whisper, his hand poised above various levers as though ready to leave.

"But what happened to Earth?" she asked quickly.

"Nothing yet," he started sadly. "But they're preparing an invasion."

"Why? What will they do with the planet?"

"Change everyone on Earth. Make them like Daleks."

"Because everything that isn't like them is wrong," Rose cut in, showing her understanding on the subject. "'The ultimate racial cleansing.'"

"Couldn't have put it better myself," he said, nodding.

"I'll bet… But what will they do after that?"

"Add Earth to the great Dalek Empire," he said mockingly.

Rose just stared in shock at the monitor still, watching the hundreds of Dalek ships just floating there in space, ready to attack whenever they pleased. "What year is it?" she asked.

"2006," he replied. "Your present. We only left Earth to view the space around it."

Rose jumped up. "Seriously?" she asked. He nodded gravely. He reached forward once again, pushing buttons and making the cylinder pump once again. "Where are we going now?" she demanded. He didn't reply, though she expected as much. "Well isn't anyone going to do anything about it then? What about Torchwood? We haven't had any readings or anything! How'd they get past our technology?"

"No offense, but your 'technology', as you put it, is no where near the strength of the Daleks'!" he said.

"But no one on Earth can do anything about it!"

"Your point?"

Rose rushed forward and spun him around to face her. "You're the Doctor! You're the last Time Lord, are you not?"

"I am," he said softly, sadness on his face again.

"Then do something about it!" she cried. "You're the only hope the Earth has, though no one but me knows it!"

"They destroyed my people!" he retorted. "How do you expect me to wipe them out on my own?"

"You're the Doctor, you'll think of something!" she replied coldly.

"I can't fight them" he whispered angrily.

Rose stared at him disbelievingly. "What?"

"I cannot fight them!" he roared at her.

She just stared at him, not sure what to say. He was completely foreign to her, his mind, his thinking, and his lack of action. Something was different here in this universe to make him like that. "What happened in the Time War?" she asked softly.

He just looked at her, shaking his head.

"What happened?" she demanded again, slightly louder this time.

He scowled before he answered. "They destroyed my people and my home."

"I know that!" she snapped. "But that's not all, is it? What did you do in the War?"

He paused a long time, such a look of pain covering his face. "I couldn't help them. I couldn't save them… I also couldn't destroy them. The Daleks wiped them out—all of them. And I ran away, unable to avenge them all on my own." His head fell, and he looked at the ground.

Rose stared at him in awe of the fact that he had just run away. "But you can save Earth. My race. And you won't?"

"I can't," he whispered in a frightened voice.

She scrunched up her face, anger and fear mixing within her and tears running down her face. "You're nothing like my Doctor."

"I never claimed to be," he said, putting his hands into his pockets.

"But you are a coward," she replied slowly.

"Any day."