A/N: I'm once again using quite a few lines of dialogue straight from the episode, so just a reminder that I own nothing Doctor Who related except a Ten funko pop my sister gracefully gave me!
ACROSS THE VOID
IV.
Staring at the cackling spider-like alien and at the man standing next to it, Rose couldn't decide which of the two was the most repulsive.
Realistically, they should have expected betrayal.
She used to have an infallible faith in people, a desire to trust and help anyone or anything that passed her way – even Daleks. But the past few years had taught her better. One of the things she'd learned was that, no matter how amazing and extraordinary humans could be, too many of them would irremediably revert back to selfishness and greed.
The moment Lance started laughing, the Empress hissing in unison, Rose understood, maybe a second later than the Doctor. Unsurprisingly, despite Lance admitting to being a traitor, Donna remained in shock, unbelieving.
"How did you meet him?" the Doctor asked her, much more quietly than he had when talking to the Empress.
"In the office."
"He made you coffee," the Doctor continued.
Donna's confusion worsened. "What?"
"Every day, I made you coffee," Lance reminded her, with a hint of exasperation.
"You had to be dosed with liquid particles for over six months," the Doctor explained.
Understanding seemed to dawn on Donna at last. "He was poisoning me."
Rose's disgust increased when Lance had the nerves to joke about it, scoffing at his bride-never-to-be when she tried to appeal to his sentiments by reminding him of their engagement.
"I had to say yes," he replied, a mean streak in his voice, now. "And then I was stuck with a woman who thinks the height of excitement is a new flavour Pringle. Oh, I had to sit there and listen to all that yap yap yap. Oh, Brad and Angelina. Is Posh pregnant? X Factor, Atkins Diet, Feng Shui, split ends, text me, text me, text me. Dear God, the never ending fountain of fat, stupid trivia. I deserve a medal."
Rose could only watch as Donna stood there and let herself be insulted. The fiery, spunky woman who had slapped the Doctor not five minutes ago was gone, stripped of her ability to speak, along with any self-confidence she may have had. Rose almost heard it, the sound of her heart breaking.
And it made her furious.
"Oh, is that what she offered you?" The Doctor was now asking, carrying on his conversation with Lance, more interested in understanding the big picture than in defending the heartbroken woman who stood at his side, defeated. "The Empress of the Racnoss? What are you, her consort?"
"It's better than a night with her."
Had Rose had a gun, she might have used it then. She would not have aimed for his heart.
"But…I love you," Donna said, feebly, seeming to have reached that point where nothing that would be said or done could hurt more than it already did.
Lance made a face. A patronising face. "That's what made it easy. It's like you said, Doctor. The big picture. What's the point of it all if the human race is nothing? That's what the Empress can give me. The chance to go out there. To see it. The size of it all. I think that– "
Lance stopped abruptly, stumbling backward with a painful cry, having just been hit in the head by a vial of liquid Huon particles. Unfortunately, the vial was too small and the distance had been too great for it to be truly damaging, not even breaking the skin, but it had done the trick.
"What the…" Lance started, both his hands on his painful forehead.
"Do shut up," Rose snapped, having already grabbed another vial, ready to take aim again. Another thing she'd learned by travelling with a man who despised firearms; anything could become a weapon.
"Are you serious?" Lance shouted as the Empress hissed and clicked.
"Oh I am very serious," Rose proclaimed, incensed. "What I want to know is, who the hell do you think you are? No wait, don't tell me. Doesn't take a genius to figure out what kind of man sells what little soul he's got to a giant bug. Ever had a girlfriend before Donna, Lance?" He started to protest but Rose was not finished. "Now I suppose you're trying to tell me that I'm an idiot, and that I know nothing, and true, you probably have more degrees than me and Donna put together, but you know what? That does not make us stupid. I may know nothing about physics or country locations or whatever Huon particles are, but I do know about people. And the only kind of people that sink low enough to poison someone they pretend to be in love with, and then laugh in their face, are quite literally pieces of shit trapped in human costumes. Actually, no. I've met Slitheens that had more heart than you."
"Rose, I don't think you should – " the Doctor tried, but Rose rounded on him this time.
"And you," she said, fiercely. "I can't believe you'd just stand there and let him insult her like that."
Lance snorted from his perch. "I'm not the only one who got stuck honouring and obeying, eh?" He stopped, cowering when Rose started to aim for his head again.
Rose relaxed her posture, although her face remained set in a grimace of contempt. "You're disgusting. And naïve. You really thought the Empress of an ancient race of carnivorous aliens was gonna take you off this planet, instead of just killing you once you did your bit? I'd pity you if you didn't make me sick."
"Enough with all the human chit-chat!" The Empress half-hissed, half-spat. "I've got my key, the doctor-man and the irritable-woman are disposable."
"Irritable – " Rose started to repeat, still irritated indeed. "You wouldn't be so smug if I had some bug spray on me!" She actually made to move forward, but was immediately pulled back, the Doctor having grabbed a fistful of her hoodie.
"Don't you dare," he commanded her, his voice having dropped two octaves, the tone she associated with The Doctor, his least pleasant and most intimidating persona…not that it intimidated her much anymore.
All around and above, scavenger robots in Santa masks were reappearing, all of them holding similar looking riffles.
"Kill these annoying, chattering beings, spare the key!" The Empress ordered her troops.
Donna seemed to snap out of her shock, immediately putting herself in front of Rose and the Doctor, her arms held out as if to shield them. "Don't you hurt them! I won't let you!"
"No, no, Donna, it's all right," the Doctor had released Rose to grab Donna's gown instead, pulling her back behind him. "Will you two just stay put," he protested.
"Take arm!"
"I'm afraid we got to dash!" The Doctor called out at the Empress and her lackey, giving them one of his two fingers salutes, before opening the vial of Huon particles he himself had kept in his hand, causing Donna to start glowing at once.
Rose sensed more than she saw the TARDIS materialising around them, feeling the ship's vibrations beneath her feet. This was followed by an uncomfortable shift in her stomach, hit by sudden nausea. The Doctor would probably babble about spatial sickness if she asked.
"What d'you do?" Rose managed to articulate before clapping a hand against her mouth, forcing the chips and smoothie to stay down as he sprawled across the console.
"Simple magnetism between charged particles, common sense, really," he said, loud enough to be heard over the sound of bullets hitting the ship's shields. "I reversed what happened to Donna earlier today and brought the TARDIS to her."
As the Doctor sent his ship into the Time Vortex, Rose's nausea receded as quickly as it had flared up. He was now jabbering about needing to travel back in time, way way waaaay back, his words directed more toward Donna than her; the Bride had slumped down onto the jump seat. She had conveniently positioned herself so that they were facing her back.
There was nothing much she could do to hide the unmistakable and repeated rise and fall of her shoulders, though.
"Should we…talk to her?"
Rose started a little, a shiver shooting down her spine at the feel of his breath. He'd spoken the words quietly, directly into her ear, having completely invaded her personal space again.
Swallowing hard, she shook her head, feeling her heart breaking a little as she looked at Donna's shaking shoulders.
Rose knew nothing they could say would help her right now.
"Let's give her some space," she said instead, before stepping away from the Doctor, moving to the other side of the console, trying to give Donna at least an ounce of privacy.
Unable not to, she let her fingers trail in between nodes and levers again, feeling the welcoming undercurrent that ran through the TARDIS, her eyes darting from screen to screen, watching as the colours shifted and the symbols morphed. From the corner of her eyes, she saw the Doctor move closer to her, somewhat tentatively this time, not quite daring coming too close.
"You were right," he said, eventually. "About defending her. That was…very Rose of you."
She looked away from the screens, meeting his eyes. "I wasn't just being kind, Doctor. 'T was the decent thing to do. The right thing to do, and you do know it. Or at least, you used to."
She didn't imagine his slight wince, the almost-nervous shift of his jaw, or the way he swallowed, as if he'd been slapped again. Rose wanted to ask him what had happened to him, to make him colder, almost apathetic, the way he'd been when she first met him.
She knew what had happened, though.
"How long was it, for you?" She asked, her voice just loud enough to be heard over the comforting hums of the TARDIS.
He kept his gaze locked with hers, kept her trapped there.
"Long enough." He'd not only mirrored her words, he'd said them with the same heaviness.
Rose shook her head a little, averting her eyes at last. "You shouldn't've stayed on your own, though," she couldn't help but say, softly, not quite daring to add that being lonely never boded well for him or his foes.
Or any innocent bystanders.
"Was I just supposed to replace you?"
Rose met his eyes again, almost tempted to say that he'd done it before, to all his companions. But she saw in his gaze what she'd heard in his quiet words; a barely concealed sorrow, and sheer vulnerability.
He'd cared for them all, she knew that. He'd also replaced them all.
So why hadn't he replaced her?
There was a jerk, and her stomach twisted again, the tug more familiar than uncomfortable this time as the ship came to a stop. It wasn't abrupt enough to make her stumble, but strong enough to break their eye contact.
"We're here," the Doctor announced, louder than necessary, his eyes decidedly fixed onto the screen. "Donna," he peaked his head around the console. "We're about to witness the creation of the Earth. Want to take a look?"
Donna's shoulders went up, then down. "I suppose…" she answered, trying to sound bored by the idea, despite her voice being thick with tears.
"Let's take a peak outside, much better view than using the scanner." He leaped to the doors, opening them wide. "Come on, ladies. No human has ever seen this, you two will be the first!"
Giving Donna time to properly dry her face and compose herself without being stared at, Rose refocused on the Doctor. He was now leaning against the doorjamb, a hand extended towards her. Fingers wriggling.
She moved forward and took his hand, intertwining their fingers and letting herself be pulled, until she was leaning against him the way he leaned against the jamb, instinctively looking out of the opened doors, and the air left her lungs in a rush.
She had seen space before – a given when you travelled with a Time Lord, but never quite like this.
Except for once, maybe.
She guessed there was some universal irony in it all, or some unmovable patterns the two of them had to follow. Her first trip into space, what felt like one or two lifetimes ago, he'd taken her to the destruction of the Earth. She'd watched the Sun dying, had observed, helpless, as chunks of her planet passed in front of her. She'd been too late to watch it die, but not late enough to miss the aftermath; the endless stream of debris, scattered across the skies.
The Doctor's grip on her hand tightened, and she knew he'd sensed her melancholy. She kept her eyes on the view, though, not quite strong enough to meet his gaze again. "Billions of years to go before that day comes," he reminded her, quietly "The Sun's brand new, now. Just beginning to burn. A gargantuan amount of hydrogen and helium, incessantly fusing together."
"Where's the Earth?"
Donna now stood right next to her, having joined them at the door. Still, Rose kept her eyes fixed on the view in front of her.
"All around us," the Doctor said. "In the dust."
"Puts the wedding into perspective," Donna sighed. "Lance was right. We're just…tiny."
"No, but that's what you do!" the Doctor countered her, enthusiastically, probably trying to make up for being unsupportive earlier. "The human race makes sense out of chaos. Marking it out with weddings and Christmas and calendars. This whole process is beautiful, but only if it's being observed."
Rose could only agree. There was true beauty in the palette of colours that had been used to paint the cosmos, and she revelled in the grander of space as the Doctor explained how the Earth would eventually come to be, thanks to the immutable force of gravity. Right now, it was all dust and rocks and gas, just as it would be in the end.
Yet it felt so incredibly different.
She could feel the potential energy in all that shifting vastness, as if the infinite that had once run through her veins recognised the infinite surrounding them.
Time went on, silently, as the Doctor had become quiet, too; none of them seemed eager to break the spell. A particularly long stream of glistening dust passed in front of the TARDIS, and Rose once again marvelled at the elegance and majesty of it all. Through their linked hands, she sensed a similar reverence coming from him, the feeling strong, deep, almost dizzying.
Needing to share some of her amazement, Rose finally looked up at him, half-opening her mouth, aware that she'd have to say something quite interesting to drag his focus back to her. As it turned out, she'd barely moved her lips that the words died in her throat, her gaze immediately meeting his.
While she had been watching the skies, he'd been watching her.
She felt herself falling again, falling into the depth of his eyes. She felt almost light-headed, equally overwhelmed by the intensity of his stare, as she was by the strength of his awe. Even now, he seemed to wonder if she was truly real.
And Rose could see it all, reflecting into her Doctor's eyes. The universe.
Slowly, his fingers released hers; she didn't suffer the loss of their skin to skin contact for long. His fingers found the hem of her hoodie, and slipped under it. He found the hem of her shirt just as easily, his cool fingertips soon gazing her spine, creating dazzling shivers in their wake.
Rose let out a shaky breath as his palm pressed into the curve of her lower back, gently, yet decisively, pinning her more firmly to him, and her now-empty hand found solace in taking a hold of his jacket, her fingers slipping between buttons, feeling one of them come loose in her grip.
Drawn by the natural gravity of their bodies, he lowered his head, bringing his face so close to hers that she was soon breathing in the air he was breathing out.
"I am standing right there, you know."
They did not jump apart this time, despite Donna's tone being as unamused as it had been before. They simply reversed their movements, his face slowly pulling away as he straightened up, her fingers dropping from his jacket. His hand quietly slipped out from under her shirt and hoodie, finding hers again, as she put slightly more distance between their bodies, innocently turning away from each other to look back at the cosmos.
"Oh, look!" Rose exclaimed, a bit too eagerly, pretending her face and entire body weren't on fire, pointing at the star-shaped ship that had appeared in the sky.
"The Racnoss," the Doctor noted, before his entire body tensed. "Hold on!" Next second, he'd abruptly pulled away from Rose again, rushing back inside the TARDIS to twiddle with the console. "The Racnoss are hiding from the war. What's it doing?"
"Exactly what you said," Donna answered, having ignored the Doctor's sudden agitation (unlike Rose), her eyes still on the spaceship.
That's all it took to bring him back at their sides, all three of them watching as the ship began to pull rocks, dust and gas towards it.
"Ohhhh, they didn't just bury something at the centre of the Earth, they became the centre of the Earth!" He exclaimed, delighted, in a way only the Doctor could be upon discovering that a race of vicious aliens was responsible for the creation of his beloved planet. "The first rock. Brilliant."
The TARDIS jerked violently, sending all of three of them flying back inside, the doors closing with a bang. The ship whined and groaned in warning as the quakes increased in intensity.
"What was that?" Rose asked, having instinctively grabbed a railing, while Donna, clinging to the jump seat for dear life, bellowed: "What the hell is going on?!"
"Remember that little trick of mine, particles pulling particles?" The Doctor asked, running around the console in a craze, pulling, pressing, twirling as he tried to counter whatever was happening. "Well, it works in reverse. They're pulling us back."
TBC...
A/N: I swear that if I had more time/energy, I would have finished this two weeks ago already. Thank you for your patience, and for your encouragements, it helps a lot!