A/N: Doctor Who Rights: Epic item, value: £100,000,000. Don't belong to anybody reading or writing this.
V. Gridlock
"I thought we were going to arrive on a meadow overlooking the city" were Martha's words right after she ducked back inside of the TARDIS to avoid the torrential downpour washing the backstreets they'd arrived in. Rose had the good grace to look apologetic.
"So did I, I'm just not all that experienced at piloting the TARDIS yet" she said, and then her eyebrows shot up. "Nice of you to say it, old girl, but I can take the blame when I deserve it."
"You're doing it again" Martha said.
"What?"
"Talking to your ship."
Rose patted the coral affectionately. "She's alive and talking to me, why wouldn't I talk back?"
Martha cringed a bit. "It looks weird?"
"So does a medical student from the twenty-first century knowing Hippocrates personally."
Martha groaned. "I can never win with you. And tell me you're not actually going out" she added as Rose made for the door.
"Why not?" the blonde woman replied. "Not expected, but still new, and I'd at least like to make sure this is New New York. I mean, the right New New York."
"Why wouldn't it be the right New New York?"
"If it's the first after the original?"
"Isn't that kind-of implied in the name?"
"Not really" Rose replied, and she smiled wistfully. "If I got the city right, we're technically in New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York. Never thought to ask about the state, though – is it really New New Jersey, or is it somewhere between that and New New New New New New New-"
"I get the drift. And how do you intend to check this is the right New New York?"
"Find someone and ask them if we're actually on New Earth?"
"People from the future aren't very imaginative, are they" Martha said tartly, and Rose smiled.
"Revivalist movement" she explained. "Right after they let our sun resume expanding and the original Earth exploded, there was this big, nostalgic surge and humans from all over the universe went in search of a planet that was as close to the original Earth as possible, and they found this one. The locals – they're cat people – accepted them, and voilà, New Earth, New New York."
"I suppose it makes sense explained that way" Martha said thoughtfully, then she cringed again. "Are we really going outside under this downpour?"
Rose's hand went for her pocket, diving into it well past normally possible limits, and then coming back out holding-
"Tada! Umbrella!" Rose sing-sang, grinning.
"The wonders of technology" Martha said with a flat look.
"Shall we, then, Miss Jones?"
"I suppose."
The pair exited the TARDIS and started to make their way along the dank streets, and Martha made a face. "And I thought Ancient Greece was bad."
Rose laughed. "It's not. Well, it is, but after you've travelled a while you get used to smells attacking your senses and learn to kind-of ignore it."
"Or you run out of olfactory glands" Martha groused. Her attitude stayed as she pointed at something. "Who puts screens on random backstreet doors?"
"New New Yorkers, apparently?" Rose said, taking out her sonic screwdriver and approaching the screen. "Now let's see here… Universal remote…" The screen flared to life, and revealed a display of a great city looming in the distance, over vast green hills. "Here we go! That's the New New York I remember!"
A woman's voice made itself heard at the same time "-and the driving should be clear and easy, with fifteen extra lanes open for the New New Jersey expressway. This is Sally Callipso, signing off. We now take you to commercial."
Rose's screwdriver whined again, and Martha pouted in front of the now-black screen. "I was curious!"
Rose laughed again. "No sneak peek into future haircare products!"
"It would only be a couple more minutes!" Martha protested.
"And then there's this new exotic program from the future, these new commercials, this other new exotic program, and before you know it you've spent half a day in front of a random backstreet door watching year-five-billion-TV and done exactly zero exploring."
"I guess" Martha said, unconvinced. "This would still be interesting."
"If you're really curious after we're done here, the TARDIS can receive literally any channel at any time in the entire universe."
"Doesn't hold too much appeal" Martha mumbled.
Rose gave her an appraising look, soon followed by a sad smile. "Something is bothering you."
"Yes" Martha admitted, then she swallowed. "I know it's not really going to sound fair to you, but this bit about the TARDIS getting all the channels, it felt a bit like inviting me to stay the night to watch TV before you drop me off first thing in the morning, and I'm not sure I like the idea of that."
Rose sighed. "You wish to stay on" she said.
Martha nodded. "At least for a little longer. I'm just beginning to discover just how much is out there, and just how great you can be. And I don't think I can just go to sleep and pick up normally the next morning like nothing special has happened, because it has. You have. And I'd like to spend some time out there traveling with you."
Rose sighed again, looking down. "I've been like you, once" she said in a quiet voice. "Getting swept up by a whirlwind and not thinking twice before embracing it."
"When you met that Doctor you keep mentioning" Martha speculated, and Rose shook her head.
"Years before I stumbled upon him" she said. "I dropped everything I was doing, left my home, abandoned school over a guy. Thought he was wonderful, and he was a bit of a whirlwind himself. Didn't work out. Returned home after a little over a year, but I never managed to pick up where I'd left off. Never picked up my studies, never quite had the same relationship with my mum."
"It's not going to be months and months" Martha replied with a bit of a frown. "I've got no intention of dropping my studies; I see this more as a holiday of sorts."
"It's really not" Rose replied. "You've had a taste for yourself that time on the Moon, I lead a life that tends to get me into serious trouble on a regular basis."
"I don't mind the adventure" Martha said quickly.
Rose chuckled bitterly. "Right now, you don't. And then at some point you're going to find yourself in front of some kind of genocidal monster like the Daleks, or abducted because that'd be a way to get to me, or you'll realize I screwed up and you're about to die, and you're going to change your mind in a hurry."
"Aren't you a bright ray of sunshine" Martha said tartly – and then she jumped with surprise when a wall panel right next to her burst open, revealing a stall and a reedy man who jumped straight into the conversation.
"Your friend's absolutely right! You need Happy! I've got Happy!"
Another stall clacked open on the other side of the street, this one served by a thickset man. "Customers! We've got customers!"
A third stall followed, showing a matronly woman. "We're in business, dearies. Want some mellow before you risk arguing? Nice, cheap, sweet Mellow, Mellow!"
"No thanks" Martha said flatly, turning to look again at Rose. "Drug vendor street, seriously?"
"Sounds more like they're selling moods" Rose said, and Martha snorted.
"Right. Same difference, still chemicals to get high."
A young blonde wearing a shawl had made her way to the stall served by the matronly woman during that exchange.
"And what can I get you, love?" the vendor said heartily. Her customer didn't seem to share her enthusiasm.
"I want to buy Forget" she said dryly.
"I've got Forget, my darling" the vendor replied. "What strength? How much d'you wanna be forgetting?"
"It's my mother and father" the young woman said forlornly. "They went on the motorway."
The vendor turned genuinely compassionate. "Oh, that's a swain" she said as she retrieved and put out a small, circular patch which Rose looked at curiously. "Try this; Forget forty-three. That'll be two pence."
The young woman put a small chip on the counter and took the patch, and noticed Martha's disapproving look. "You've never lost anyone to the motorway, have you?" she said sharply.
Rose cut in before Martha could respond. "Why exactly is it so bad that your parents went on that motorway, anyway?" she asked, and the other woman glared at her, taking Rose aback.
"Nobody comes back from the motorway. Everyone knows that." And before anyone could add anything else, the young woman slapped the patch on her neck, and her posture and attitude changed almost instantly, the weight on her shoulders being lifted suddenly. "What am I doing in a place like this?" she said hesitantly, taking in her surroundings, and Martha cringed.
"Forget forty-three. Does exactly what it says on the label."
"Don't be stupid" the young woman snapped back, "I know better than to get on Moods."
"Leave it" Rose said quietly to Martha as she put a hand on her arm. "We're not getting anything out of this or out of her."
Martha looked at Rose, and nodded. "Sure you don't want to reconsider about year five billion TV?"
"You really could do with some Mellow, dearie" the matronly woman called.
Martha spun to face her. "Not interested" she said sharply. "That's not how I want to remember my trip here."
The woman's face lit up. "Oh, you're not from around here?"
"Just visiting."
"So then it's true what the stories say, there is-"
The woman was cut off by Rose's sudden outcry. Martha spun back on her heels to see her companion held by a burly, short-haired man, one arm around her throat and the other twisting an arm behind her. Right next to him was a woman pointing what had to be a gun straight at Martha.
"What the hell are you doing?" Martha shouted at them, and of all things the woman gave her an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry, we've got to take her. We won't harm her, we promise."
"I'm the one who's going to do the harming" Rose growled as she struggled, and the man twisted harder in response. "Ah!"
"You really don't want to do that" Martha said, taking a tentative step closer.
"We've got to risk it" the man said, breathing heavy but without amenity. "We need three."
Rose managed to grab something from her pocket with her free hand – "Martha, setting 45 opens things!" she shouted, tossing what the medical student recognized as Rose's sonic screwdriver.
Martha fumbled the catch and dived to retrieve the tool from the sodden pavement. She'd have asked questions about what Rose wanted her to do, but didn't get the chance – while she was looking down, the blonde woman had somehow been rendered unconscious, and Rose was now being dragged off towards another green, metal backstreet door, while the young woman in the pair kept her gun trailed at Martha.
"No!" the medical student shouted. "Let her go! Whatever you need she can help you, but you've got to let go!"
"I'm so sorry" the woman responded, waving her gun one last time before slamming the heavy metal door.
Martha swore and ran for the door, only to find it had to have been either locked or barred – and then she remembered the device she was gripping. "Setting 45" she said feverishly, looking for where the settings could be modified and finding three tiny buttons and a little knob near the screwdriver's head. "Lovely."
The young woman fumbled through finding the correct way to input settings on the screwdriver and activated it (that button, at least, was obvious), and found herself rewarded with a satisfying "clong". She opened the door and ran through the dank, smoke-filled corridor behind, and after another door she found herself on top of a flight of metal stairs, just in time to watch a dark, oblong vehicle taking off.
"No! Give her back!" she shouted desperately, but to no avail. The vehicle turned a corner and disappeared, leaving Martha behind.
"And now what am I supposed to do?" she fretted. "I can't follow her, I have no idea where to find her and I can't pilot the TARDIS – how exactly are myself and a sonic screwdriver going to be enough to rescue a Time Lady? Argh!" The young woman kicked the door behind her – to little effect but resounding noise and a wince.
"Ouch!" The medical student nursed her foot, pondering. "They said they needed three. If at least I had an idea of what for I could get an idea of where to look or where to point the local authorities… Meaning I've got to go back to the drug dealers, just can't tell them I'm going to sic the star police on the kidnappers." The young woman looked at the screwdriver in her hand. "Plus, I can open any doors, that's going to count for something."
She clenched her hands, gathering her resolve. "Here you go, Martha. Your mission, save a Time Lady."
And the simplest way to start was by knocking on the now-closed booth of the matronly woman from earlier, which Martha did energetically the moment she was back in front of it.
"Thought you'd come back" the woman said with a happy smile. "Decided you need some Happy after all, love?"
"I need to know where those people took my friend" Martha said harshly, "and you're going to tell me why they said they needed three."
The matronly woman took an indignant expression. "Oi, no need to get in a huff! I'm offerin' somethin' to help – you're never gonna see your friend again anyway."
That gave Martha pause; the medical student's voice was shaken when she spoke. "What do you mean, I'm never going to see her again?"
The vendor turned commiserating. "Well, they were carjackers, weren't they? Means they've gone to the motorway. And nobody comes back from the motorway." She gave Martha a sad smile. "Everybody knows that."
"I've got to find her" Martha replied with a hint of panic.
"You can't."
"I've got to!" Martha shouted, this time with clear desperation in her voice. "Without Rose I can't return home!"
"She's got your keys? Oh, that's a doozy. Yeah, you really need some Happy right now, dearie."
"I've got no time for this" Martha snapped. "Where can I get on the motorway?"
"You don't have a car" the woman replied patiently, "you're not getting anywhere."
"Then I'll just hop into one" Martha shot back. "Where do I get in?"
The woman shrugged. "Your funeral. Straight down the alley, right at the end. Can't miss it."
"Won't be my funeral" Martha replied.
"Nobody can breathe the fumes and survive, dearie" the woman said. "Won't help you knowing where to go."
"No, but I'm pretty sure my friend's got equipment for that in her, er, flat. Thanks for the help, I suppose."
Martha took off in the direction of the TARDIS, ignoring the woman's invitation to come back to her if she needed some forget or happy. Thankfully, the door to the time and space ship was still open, and the ship herself proved very cooperative, leading Martha straight to a hazard suit of a type she was familiar with. The young woman thanked the ship, grabbed the suit and a couple of extra oxygen bottles, and ran back through the alley, hoping there would be a way to find Rose there.
On her end, Rose was coming-to to find herself lying on a couch in a cramped space she recognized as a flying car, complete with amenities, and to hear the whooping of her abductors as they were granted "fast lane access" – something which had to be remarkably precious, if the monumental traffic jam visible through the car's front window was any indication. Rose also spotted the gun, lying within her reach, but decided against going for it. She wouldn't know how to drive the car, and she had other options if it came to scaring her abductors off. But first, talking.
"If you're done celebrating, mind filling me in on why I got kidnapped?" she said casually, making the couple jump with surprise and break away from each other.
"Oh, you're awake!" the man said, traces of a goofy smile still on his face.
"No, I'm having a fit of somniloquism and dreaming I got abducted by a pair of simpering teenagers" Rose replied tartly, eliciting an indignant protest from the woman of the pair.
"Hey, I'm twenty!" the woman squawked.
"Twenty going on fourteen-and-a-half" Rose replied sarcastically. "I'm still waiting for an explanation once you're done squawking, and it had better be a good one." She felt something slip from her neck, and picked up a dried-out Sleep patch. "Nice one, by the way. Not going to work again now that I'm awake and aware of how you did it."
"Yeah, sorry about that" the man said embarrassedly, "but I was afraid of having to hurt you if you kept struggling, and we mean you no harm."
"We really don't" the woman added. "We just needed three, we really didn't have a choice."
"Needed three for what?"
"For fast lane access, obviously. You know about the car-sharing policy, right?"
Rose gave the woman a flat look. "Not from this planet, mate."
"Oh!" The pair gave her a wide-eyed look, and the woman continued. "Really? There haven't been any off-world visitors in downtown New New York for ages – maybe even since before I was born!"
That caught Rose's attention. "No visitors from off-world in two decades? Exactly what's been going here on since I last visited?"
"Like you'd be old enough to remember" the young woman replied smugly. "You look younger than I do."
"Disaster at a hospital with cat nuns revealed to conduct human experimentation on grown flesh ring a bell?" Rose replied.
"Did that really happen?" the man said. "I thought it was just one of dad's stories to dissuade us to try and make our way to the world above."
"I was there" Rose said simply.
The man looked at her in shock. "You can't have been! That was twenty-eight years ago!"
"She could be one of those long-lived crossbreeds, Milo" the young woman offered.
"Something like that" Rose said noncommittally. "I still don't know what I'm doing here or why nobody has come from other worlds in a couple of decades."
"Don't know about the latter" Milo replied. "As to the former, and as you could guess, Cheen and I needed a third adult in the car if we ever were going to get out of Pharmacy Town."
Rose sent him a flat look. "Yeah, abducting someone to get out of the traffic jam, I got that part. Still not good enough."
"We just can't stay in Pharmacy Town" Cheen replied with a hint of defiance in her voice. "I'm really sorry, but we had to do that if there ever was going to be a chance."
"I can get that" Rose replied, "looked miserable down there. I can also get from the traffic jams and the fact we haven't moved forwards since we started talking but only downwards that it can take forever to get from point A to point B."
Cheen cringed. "Decades, actually. That's how long it would have taken us had the two of us been on our own to make it to Brooklyn. They have jobs there, and they have a place fit for a child to grow up in – we're pregnant" she added with a dreamy smile.
"Congratulations" Rose said flatly. "And that fast lane cuts your travel time by how much?"
"It gets us to the Brooklyn flyover in less than an hour" Milo offered. "There's no fast lane after that, but it's only five miles."
Rose gestured at the outside. "Five miles of that?"
"Yes, but it shouldn't be too long" Milo said in his most reassuring tone of voice. "It'll only be six years or so."
That earned Milo another flat look. "Six years. You thought it was a good idea to kidnap a complete stranger and live with them cramped in one single car for six years, giving birth to a kid in the process and beginning to raise them in the presence of a very, very grumpy passenger."
"We really mean no harm!" Cheen protested. "We'll drop you off as soon as we are able, I promise!"
"Which would be in how long?"
"It's only four or five months from the beginning of the Brooklyn flyover to the first layover" Milo supplied.
"Oh, that's so much better" Rose replied sarcastically. "You were only going to leave my friend stranded for four or five months without any idea of how to make a life for herself on a strange and unfamiliar world – in the dumps you were so eager to escape, filth-ridden backstreet alleys lined with drug vendors and apparently without enough jobs even for the locals." Rose took no satisfaction in the ashen faces that greeted her tirade, but she forged on. "Not to mention you never bothered to wonder whether the person you were abducting might just be a mite dangerous, if only because they'd be thoroughly pissed at being abducted from their life and you'd somehow have to placate them for four or five months, because there's no way somebody without a job could have afforded a five-months long supply of moods to keep them under. Bloody brilliant, the pair of you."
"I won't let you threaten our child" Milo said as threateningly as he could manage, only to earn himself a shrug.
"Don't bother" Rose said dismissively, "I would never endanger an unborn kid's life anyway. Which is more than I can say about the pair of you – why exactly are you on one of these moods?" she said, pointing at Cheen's neck.
"Honesty patch" the young woman groused, "to prove to you our good intentions."
"Minus the whole kidnapping-thing" Rose replied sarcastically. "You might still be in luck – you've possibly kidnapped the one person who doesn't need to spend the whole four or five months with you to get off your car, and all it'll cost you is a gas mask. You've got spares, right?"
The couple looked at her with disbelief. "You're not seriously thinking of jumping from car to car, are you?" Milo said.
"Only need to get on the roof after you've cleared that fast lane" Rose replied, "you don't need to bother about the rest. I'd offer to take the pair of you as well, but everything you own would be staying in that car, right?"
Milo looked at Rose like she was crazy. "You can't teleport outside of the motorway, it's self-enclosed."
"Anddd you don't really need to worry about that" Rose said evasively, then she turned sharper as she addressed Cheen. "And I'd get that mood thing off if I were you. Pregnancy and drugs – bad mix."
"Never caused problems for anybody" the young woman snapped back, "and it's not your business what I put in my body anyway."
"No, but it'd kind-of be a shame if your kid were born a mood-addict, like a lot of people here seem to be" Rose replied pointedly. "Speaking of which, would that mood addiction have anything to do with why off-worlders haven't been coming to visit for a couple of decades? Did some government official swimming in chemicals decide strangers weren't allowed anymore?"
"Who knows?" the young man replied, a hint of defiance in his voice. "It's not like they ever bother coming down there. Their world's skies and trees and apple grass, why would they care about people living where none of that can ever be accessed? There's even an automatic lockdown on cars to stop us from flying to the roofs above our heads, or even the upper levels – we're parked down there and forced to waste our lives on the motorway if we ever wish to get anywhere else."
"Would explain why no off-worlders make their way down there" Rose said pensively. She mulled this over for a moment, then looked pointedly at the couple again. "Say… what if you two were given a chance to show up in front of whatever government there is up above and got to air your grievances like you just did, only more extensively?"
"They would never listen" Milo dismissed. "We'd never make it inside the Senate building anyway."
"Assume I can teleport you anywhere – without your car, I'm sorry about that" Rose said mildly. "Which means like, say, showing up out of nowhere in the middle of the Senate chambers."
Milo glared at her. "Assuming we could – and we've got no reason to think that – we'd just get torn down to pieces by security before we even got to take a step."
"Assume we wouldn't" Rose replied. "Like, assume a nuclear bomb could blow up right next to us and we'd be unscathed from the explosion."
Two jaws dropped.
"Not possible" Milo made after he'd recovered.
"I've found out nothing's impossible" Rose replied. "Plus, getting you up there and giving that stern talking-to to whoever's in charge could help millions who're either stuck here on the motorway or forced to stay down in the slums – and that you're desperate enough to resort to kidnapping and spend six years living inside a glorified shoebox should send its own message."
"And if they refuse to listen?" Cheen said.
"Then I take down the government" Rose replied simply.
"You take down the government" Milo repeated, his disbelief plain.
"Or at the very least I give it my best try – I'm not going to let the people up there ignore the plights of millions without causing them serious headaches."
"What can a lonely woman do to even make an entire government feel threatened, let alone fall?"
"Assume I can be really intimidating if I really set my mind to it" Rose said with the same kind of tone as earlier.
"That's a little hard to believe" Milo protested. "I mean, you've got quite the temper and a big gob" ("I'm flattered" Rose chirped in), "and you're quite the handful when struggling, but a stick of a woman in leather doesn't quite look like she can scare an entire regime."
"Ergo the telling you to assume bits" Rose replied flatly, "you won't believe it's happening until you see it happening anyway. But if it could happen, would you be willing to at least try and speak on behalf of the others who're stuck down here?"
"Without hesitation" – "Absolutely" came the replies.
"Brilliant" Rose said. "So, three gas masks?"
Milo's expression turned a bit sheepish. "Do we absolutely have to be on the roof to teleport out?"
"I could materialize my ship inside your car, but it'd be a very bad idea" Rose countered.
"Why?"
"Solid matter materializing inside solid matter? We'd blow up half the city – if we're lucky – and I'm not in such a hurry to talk to your Senate that I'd kill a couple dozen millions or so to get there."
"Well, we've got a bit of a problem, then" Milo mumbled.
Rose looked at Cheen. "He forgot to get some gas masks."
"It's only a six-year trip" Cheen said defensively, "it's not like there would be much need for external maintenance."
"We were only planning to get out after we went through the airlock at the other end" Milo mumbled, "we didn't know you could teleport us all the way up".
Rose arched her eyebrows. "You could have asked for help rather than kidnap me and drug me unconscious?"
"We're really sorry" Cheen said, looking down, "really, terribly sorry."
Rose sighed and threw herself back on the couch. "Nevermind that. Four or five months it is – dwelling on what you two screwed up isn't going to change things."
"We really didn't know" Milo said, very chastened. "We were so desperate. And we would never have guessed."
"Forget it" Rose snapped. "Just, once we're out of here, I'm going to check up on the friend we've left stranded – hopefully she'll still be in one piece and not driven crazy after being stranded fifty-odd galaxies away from home."
"We're awfully sorry" Cheen said, but Rose ignored her.
"Although knowing Martha, she might find a way to get in touch with us before the layover… She's got a good head on her shoulders and quite the temperament. I don't think she's going to give up and just sit tight and wait without knowing when I can finally make my way back to her…"
Rose was entirely correct. While she was busy discussing with Milo and Cheen, a fuming Martha clad in her acquired hazmat suit had reached the motorway and been taken on board by a completely baffled cat-man and his human wife.
"Why would anyone in their right minds be willing to walk into the motorway?" the cat-man was asking as Martha busied herself with the fastenings of her protective cowl. "Been driving for twelve years, never heard of anyone not inside a car ever getting here."
Martha's head emerged from the removed cowl. "You've been driving for twelve years" she echoed disbelievingly.
"It's not like it's that unusual or exceptional" the cat-man replied. "Some people I know have been driving for over twenty years!"
"And my friend's stuck in there" Martha breathed.
"Your friend?" the woman queried.
"Yes, she got car-jacked about half an hour ago, barely missed her kidnappers. That's why I was walking."
The cat-man gave her an incredulous look. "She must be really special to you, that friend."
"Not just to me. I've got a selfish reason to look for her, though – without her, I'm stuck."
"Maybe not all that stuck." The cat-man extended a hand, which Martha shook gingerly. "Thomas Kincade Brannigan; and this is the bane of my wife, the lovely Valerie."
"Pleased to meet you" the woman said, extending her hand in turn.
"Martha Jones. Not all that stuck, you said?"
"I did – and in more ways than one; we're moving!"
The car lurched forward, but not for very long, at least not by Martha's reckoning. Thomas, on his end, certainly looked pleased. "Twenty yards!" he said enthusiastically. "We're having a good day!"
"We're not finished, dear" Valerie remarked.
"Oh yes! And here, in the back, is the rest of the family" the cat-man said proudly. "Two months old. Poor little souls; never felt the ground under their paws."
"And how long until they'd get that chance?" Martha asked in a weak voice.
"Oh, perhaps seven or eight years. That's how long it should take to finish the trip to the laundries on Fire Island – they've got jobs for the both of us there, and the kittens once they grow up. Certainly better than risking our luck back where we started."
Martha cringed. "And how far back is back where you started?"
"Five miles?"
"Five miles" Martha repeated. "You've been driving five miles in twelve years."
"That's why there are carjackers" Thomas said. "If there's three adults in one car they get special fast lane access. For all the good it does them"; that last part was spoken with a definite lack of enthusiasm.
"Why would it not do people good to drive on the fast lane?"
"I'd rather not talk about that, if you don't mind" Valerie interjected. "And before you think about asking, no, we're not driving down there, and it's not negotiable, not with the children on board."
"Alright, alright" Martha said defensively, putting her hands up. "I won't ask. Figures, though, it wouldn't be Rose Tyler if she didn't end up in some kind of jeopardy just because she's around."
"Your friend's a troublemaker?" Thomas asked, eyes glinting with mirth.
"More of a trouble-makes-her" Martha groused. "You said there might be a chance to locate her?"
"Oh yes" Thomas replied happily. "Let me call the Cassini sisters."
"Isn't there the police or some other service to call?"
"You can always try while I get in touch with the sisters" Thomas offered, gesturing towards a communications device in the back of the car, making Martha cringe again."
"How does it work?" the young woman asked, and then she quickly added an "I'm an off-worlder, not familiar with this thing and don't know where to place the call."
"I'll help you" Valerie offered, getting out of her seat.
Thomas grinned. "This is purrfect."
"Do you have to?" Valerie said tartly.
"Don't get visitors too often, do we?"
"You're impossible."
"I love you too!"
Martha couldn't help a snort. "You have an interesting couple going there."
"I hope so" Valerie said. "My parents hoped I'd be marrying a boring and proper human, I'm glad I settled for an energetic cat – even if he doesn't know how to behave."
"I'm hurt" Thomas chirped in.
Valerie grinned at Martha. "He's not, there'd be spittle all over the controls."
Thomas let out a drawn mewl. "Can I call the Cassini sisters now?"
"You do that, love" Valerie said, turning her attention to the communicator in the rear. "Let's see here – three, four, diamond, zero…" A display flashed with the New New York police emblem. "Here we are. I hope you're patient, Martha Jones, because it's going to be at least eleven days before we get someone."
Martha stared at the woman. "We're getting put on hold for eleven days by the police?"
Valerie returned an apologetic smile. "At least. Nobody managed to wait for longer – that guy ended up going to sleep."
"You mean he-" but Valerie shook her head, cutting Martha off. The medical student felt herself deflating. "You've all been abandoned here on the motorway, haven't you?"
"We keep faith" Valerie said simply. "Someday, there will be someone who comes and gets us off the motorway."
"Now I really wish I knew where we can find Rose" Martha said.
Valerie arched an eyebrow. "That friend of yours that got carjacked? What could she possibly do?"
"I don't know" Martha answered honestly, "but I know she would do something. I've seen her manage completely impossible things before."
"That friend of yours" Thomas called out from the front, "she came in through Pharmacy Town?"
"She came through this very entrance!" Martha replied, and she checked the chronometer on her suit. "Thirty-seven minutes ago!"
"There you are, Missus" Thomas said to whomever he'd been talking to. "Only one car matches? Great, can you…? Four six five diamond six? Perfect. Thank you, sister!" Thomas snorted with laughter and pressed a button to terminate his call. "Here we go."
"Let's call that car, then?" Martha said pointedly, only to be met by Valerie's sad smile.
"We can't. They're designated fast lane, it's a different category."
Martha groaned with frustration. "Can we at least spot the car?"
"Right over here" Thomas said, pointing out at his display. "Eighteen rows below, two lanes to the right, three cars to the front – now just you wait a minute, you can't possibly be thinking of-"
"Car-hopping?" Martha finished as she dragged her cowl back on. "You're right I am. Four six five diamond six, right?"
"Yes, right, you've got good memory – and that's beside the point. Have you taken leave of your senses?"
Martha smiled maniacally. "Just for this trip. Thank you, Thomas, Valerie!"
She clasped her helmet back on and removed the sonic screwdriver from a safe pocket.
"Now what?" Thomas said.
"Trapdoor?" Martha's voice answered, distorted by the suit as the young woman pointed at a circular plate at her feet.
"Yes, there's safety exits both at the top and bottom of every car, but you are- YOWL!" Thomas threw his hands on his head as the sonic screwdriver whined, and the kittens chorused in the back of the car.
"Sorry about that" Martha said as the trapdoor slid open. "Thanks for everything. See you!" And before she could think about it the young woman let herself fall directly on the roof of the car below, leaving Thomas and Valerie to stare at each other in disbelief.
"I'll never again say you're completely insane" Valerie said.
"That woman certainly got me looking sane" Thomas replied. "And she's never going to make it, not with only one layer between her friend and the fast lane."
"Why didn't we tell her anything?"
"Because we didn't know she could disable the safety locks with that screeching thing of hers?"
"Good point. Turn the communicator back on, please, love, it's almost time for the Contemplation."
"It's time for the Contemplation" Cheen was saying to Rose at the same time, while her husband activated a screen revealing a familiar face.
"This is Sally Callipso, and it's that time again. The sun is blazing high in the sky over the New Atlantic, the perfect setting for the Daily Contemplation."
"It's a recording" Rose breathed. "The weather doesn't match."
"Shh" Cheen made gently as Sally Callipso advised people to drive safely and apologized, and Rose had half a mind to berate the young woman for so blatantly ignoring the obvious; but then the singing started, a poignant song of loss, and Rose lost any feeling of vindictiveness she might have had. She sat in silence as the couple sang along with, in all likelihood, hundreds and thousands in their cars all over the motorway, following the recorded choir relayed over their communicators.
"I have to do something" she said resolutely once the singing was over.
"You can't for the next few months" Milo reminded her.
"Maybe, maybe not – that's going to depend on Martha."
"You have a lot of trust in your friend" Cheen remarked. "You two must go a long way back."
Rose chortled. "Not that long – and how long changes depending on who you ask."
Cheen looked at her blankly. "That doesn't really make sense."
"Think about it" Rose replied with a tongue-touched grin.
"You stalked her before she knew you?" Milo tried, and Rose laughed.
"Nice and logical. You've got a good head."
Milo levelled a flat look at her. "Tell me I wasn't right."
"Not even close" Rose replied.
The console chirped, cutting off the conversation: "Fast lane access. Please drive safely."
The young couple exchanged entranced looks. "We made it" Milo said. "The fast lane."
And the fast lane had good reason to be that – in contrast with the humongous traffic jam the car was descending away from, the lines designated fast lane were completely empty. Or at least the top layers – somewhere below, something was emitting a sound suspiciously akin to growling.
Rose let out a groan. "Tell me that nothing is living down there."
"There really isn't" Milo said reassuringly, and he squeezed Cheen's hand. "Legends talk of creatures living in the depths of the motorway, feeding on the exhaust fumes, but that's all it is, a legend. It's only the air vents sounding like that because they're strained. Nothing could live down there."
"If there's one thing my travels taught me, it's that nothing's impossible" Rose countered. "And this one's actually not all that far-fetched – the components of exhaust fumes are actually going to be nutrients for some life forms, and living organisms have been known to adapt to all kinds of toxicity. If there's nobody taking care of maintenance and cleaning up the bugs down there, life forms could have developed and colonized the entire bottom of the motorway, clogging the actual vents and creating an even more favourable environment for themselves and larger species in the process."
Rose sentence was punctuated by a sound akin to screeching, making Milo and Cheen go white with fear. "Yeah, that wasn't air vents."
Cheen's voice was shaking. "How far to the Brooklyn flyover?"
"Little over four miles. Might have to do a loop, though, it's currently listed as closed, but as long as we're on the fast lane it'll take less than two hours to come back and by then it should be open."
"Not too keen on that" Rose said. "Any way I could take a look below us?"
"There's safety exits on top and bottom of all cars" Milo answered. "You're not going to see anything, though; too much smoke."
"I'm going to try something about that" Rose said. "Got no idea whether it'll work, but you never know."
"Alright, then." Milo pressed a few controls. "Don't even think of putting your head outside the car. Way too toxic."
"I'm not insane" Rose protested, before backtracking: "Well, I guess I am, actually, but I'm not a masochist."
Cheen snorted. "Just crazy."
"Just crazy."
The trapdoor opened, and Rose peeked through. There wasn't much to distinguish aside from a shifting mass, but the growling and screeching that entered the car were clearly not the noises from air vents. The young woman concentrated, focusing on her time sense.
Then both she and Cheen gasped.
"What the-" Cheen started, only to be cut off by Rose.
"Milo, veer to the right, now!"
"What?"
"NOW!"
The car lurched, and there was a loud, wet clacking sound just in the position they'd have flown towards.
"What the hell was that?" Milo shouted while Cheen gibbered in fright.
"No time for that! Brake!"
Milo executed himself, and saw a giant pincer clack right in front of the windscreen.
"Holy-"
"Left!"
Another lurch.
"Dive!"
"We're not going towards whatever these things-"
"Just do it! Dive!"
They dived, Cheen screaming in panic, and Rose had to shout to cover her. "Shut the trapdoor and shut down the car! Now!"
Milo obeyed, and the car stopped where it was, plunging into darkness, the only light sources left coming from the sleep mode displays – and from Rose's eyes.
"What the hell?"
"I'm really sorry about that" the blonde woman replied, letting go of her time sight, "but what I did just saved our lives."
"Nevermind that" Milo snapped, "what the hell are those things?"
"I don't know" Rose answered honestly. Cheen was now whimpering in her seat, folded upon herself. "Tend to your wife" Rose said, "I need to think a bit about what happened and how we could get out of this fix."
"And what was that with your eyes?"
"Save that question for later. Cheen needs you."
The young man turned to his wife, who launched herself in his arms and asked something Rose couldn't catch. His eyes didn't quite leave Rose as he said a soothing "it's alright, we're gonna make it through this, it's alright."
"It's not alright!" Cheen wailed. "We're going to die!"
"We're not" Rose said calmly.
"How would you know that?" Cheen cried out – and then she gave another shout of fright as the car tilted to the left. "Please, not now! Please, not now! Please, not now!"
"Give her some Sleep" Rose said quietly for Milo.
"What is wrong with you?" the young man shot back.
"She can't handle this right now, and we need to think if we're going to make it out alive."
Milo looked at Rose, gobsmacked.
"Now!"
"Please don't. Please don't. Please don't!" Cheen cried out as her husband fumbled with something in his pocket – but Milo applied a patch on her neck anyway. "Please… don't" his wife whimpered, and then she fell silent, cradled in his arms.
"She better wake up to something" the young man said darkly.
"I can't promise that" Rose replied, "and we don't have time to argue."
"We've got just enough time for you to answer one question" Milo replied. "What are you?"
"I told you, genetically modified human" Rose answered. "Slower cellular aging, sort-of time sense. That's how I could guide you moments ago."
"There's more to it than that" Milo replied, holding onto his wife protectively. "You've got a way to get us out of here by teleporting – you're going to use it, and-"
"I'm not going to" Rose interrupted, her voice very quiet. "I told you, if I try and do it I blow up half of the city."
"You said you could make us immune to even a nuclear explosion."
"I'm still not slaughtering millions just to save four lives" Rose said more sharply. "And believe me, there's nothing I'd like more than to get the hell out of here, but I can't. I'm not worth all these lives; none of us are worth all these lives."
Milo's expression turned desperate. "Then what are we going to do?"
"Think of something" Rose replied quietly. "How much air have we got?"
Milo's eyes flicked to his displays. "About eight minutes."
"That's our reprieve. If we can't find something I'll guide you out of here, I'll use that foresight of sorts again. We can keep going for a while, we'll try and find a way back up in normal traffic. We'll be out of reach of these things."
"The flyover is closed."
"That's why we'll return to the regular motorway."
"We don't have permission to return to the regular motorway."
Rose stared at Milo for an instant. Then she regained her composure. "In this case it's up to Martha" she said.
"That friend of yours you weren't going to see for months?" Milo asked with plain disbelief.
"It won't take months" Rose replied with a smile. "From what I know of her, she's probably got an idea of where we can be found by now."
Rose was correct again, although Martha was stumped about what she needed to do at that point. The young woman had reached the bottom layer after a number of jumps down, landing in the car of a man in a bowler hat who'd had the good grace of offering her a cup of water, giving her time to think of how to proceed based on the progress made by car four six five diamond six when she checked after every jump to a new car (to the exception of the naked couple she'd happened upon, she'd quickly made her excuses and left them to their business).
Martha's current problem was that car four six five diamond six no longer was detected on the motorway – and judging by the growls and screeches and smoke-shrouded motions coming from below them, where the fast lane was supposed to be opened, chances were her friend was in serious trouble. Or she no longer was and had called the TARDIS back to her, in which case Martha wasn't going to find Rose anytime soon.
A possibility Martha didn't want to think about.
"Alright, no car four six five diamond six" she said uncomfortably. "How about other cars on the fast lane? How many are there?"
"Near to us?" bowler-hat-man replied. "Seven – no, six. One of them just disappeared."
"Took a flyover?"
"They can't. All flyovers are closed."
"A car can't just disappear in the middle of nowhere!" Martha protested, and then she exchanged a meaningful look with the car's driver. "There's beasts below, aren't there?"
"No one actually knows" the man replied uncomfortably. "Only the people on the fast lane would; communications are cut off from the regular motorway."
"Yeah, I've been told about that" Martha said unhappily. "Can you check a car's last position before they disappeared?"
"Not without asking the police, you can't."
Martha groaned with frustration. "Please, tell me I didn't go all the way down here for nothing."
It was at that moment the trapdoor above was forced open, and a cat-woman in a blue nun's uniform, armed with something that looked uncomfortably like a personal machinegun, dropped into the car, took a look at Martha, and levelled her weapon at the medical student.
"Where's the Doctor?" the cat-woman hissed.
"Whoa, slow down!" Martha said, raising her hands hastily, at the same time bowler-hat-man protested loudly.
"No guns! I'm not having any guns on board!"
"I'm not going to shoot unless she forces my hand" the cat-nun said, eyes not leaving Martha. "I'll ask again: where's the Doctor?"
"Doctor who?" Martha replied.
"Don't play games" the cat-woman hissed. "I've tracked his sonic screwdriver."
"Oh! That Doctor!" Martha said, suddenly realizing what that was about. "Sorry, no, he's not here. And that screwdriver is Rose Tyler's."
"His companion?"
"I don't know about that, but she's the one in charge these days now the Doctor is gone."
The cat-nun lowered her gun, a horrified expression on her face. "No, tell me he's not-"
"Not that I know. You'd have to ask Rose for the full story, I don't really understand myself."
The cat-woman recovered. "Then I have to find out. And where is Rose Tyler?"
"That's what I was trying to find out" Martha replied with a hint of annoyance.
"She's on the motorway too?"
"Car four six five diamond six – only it's gone silent."
"Good enough for me" the cat-nun said, and she slung her arm on her back and grabbed Martha by the arm.
"Hey!"
Then the world around Martha lurched, and she suddenly found herself on all fours in near-complete darkness, trying her best to keep hold of her last meal.
"Martha!"
"Rose?"
"What the hell is going on now?" Martha looked up, catching sight of a very pissed-off young man who was cradling an unconscious woman in his arms. "How did you get into my car?"
"Teleported" the cat-nun said, "although I only had the power for one trip." She turned to the small blonde woman. "Rose Tyler. I'm told you're hard to find."
"Do I know you?" Rose asked in response.
"We met briefly twenty-eight years ago, at the hospital" the cat-woman replied, "although you might not remember much of me. I'm Novice Hame, and I'm looking for the Doctor. Where is he?"
Rose looked down. "Not here" she said quietly.
"He'd have to be" the cat-nun protested. "We've spotted the TARDIS."
"I lost him a little over a year ago linearly – he's stuck in a parallel world" Rose answered. "I'm the one who travels with the old girl nowadays."
The cat-nun deflated visibly for the second time. "Then my search was in vain. My master will be so disappointed. And we're stuck down here, now that I no longer have power."
"Car's got power" the young man cut in. "Name's Milo, by the way, and this is my wife Cheen. And you wouldn't happen to be Martha Jones, would you?" he added with a piercing look at the medical student, who'd now gotten back on her feet.
"I am, yes."
"Told you she'd try something" Rose said a bit smugly.
"Yeah, you did. How many can your teleporter transport?" he asked Novice Hame.
"It could have gotten all of us out, and it can't use this car's power reserves" the cat-nun answered. "We'll have to drive our way out of here."
"Maybe not" Rose said. "Martha, still got the screwdriver?"
"Sure!" The medical student retrieved the device and held it out to its owner. "Try not to lose it again."
"No promises" Rose replied off-handedly. She turned to Novice Hame. "Can I have your teleporter?"
"It's not really going to help, but yes, you can" the cat-nun answered, unclasping the device's bracelet and handing it over to the blonde woman.
"Thank you, Novice Hame." Rose started to fiddle with her screwdriver.
"This is not going to work, though" the cat-nun said. "The power source and the teleporter won't be compatible."
"Once reactivated an alien multipurpose camouflage device by connecting it with a diesel generator" Rose replied, voice straining with concentration. "This shouldn't be too much of an issue; there's just the one thing."
"What is it?"
"Milo" Rose called, lifting her head from her work to look at the young man.
"Yes?" the man answered.
"I'm really sorry, but we'll have to abandon your car and everything in it."
"I don't care" Milo replied bluntly. "I just want to get out of here alive with my wife and child."
"That I can give you." She held the teleporter back out to Novice Hame. "Set the coordinates for where we need to go" she instructed. "We'll have to switch the car back on, and I'll have to quickly reroute some power into it before whatever's out there gets a crack at us."
"They're Macra" Novice Hame said.
"They could be the vengeful ghosts of all the Kings of Britain for all I care" Rose said bluntly. "No matter what happens, you all have to grab onto me and make sure not to let go, but you'll need to leave my arms and head free and not get between me and the car's console, so this is going to be awkward. Milo, you're going to grab me from behind with your wife in-between us. Martha, Novice Hame, this is going to be bloody uncomfortable for you two; you've each got a leg, and you're going to have to reach around Milo's. Don't be afraid to squeeze. Any questions?"
"Where are we going?" Milo asked, for Novice Hame.
"The Senate" the cat-nun answered. "My master is waiting for us there."
"Hope you're not too loyal to your master, because I'm going to kick his ass for keeping all of us stuck down there" the young man said belligerently.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves" Rose cut in. "Novice Hame, can I have the teleporter back?"
"I'm done" the cat-nun replied, returning the device to the blonde woman.
"Alright. Everybody in position and brace yourselves, this isn't going to be pleasant."
It wasn't – the only one who didn't suffer to some degree was Cheen, and that was because she was kept under by the sleep patch. And of course, the disorientation led to everyone crash-landing in a heap on the cold marble floor of the Senate chambers.
"Can't believe a year six-billion teleporting device is still so rudimentary" Rose choked out as she crawled away from the heap.
"Why do you complain, you from the future or something?" Milo groused. "Besides it took us here and-"
"Oh my God!" Martha put her hands over her mouth, staring in shock all around her. Dried out corpses were strewn everywhere in what was set up as a main chamber of Parliament.
"So this is what happened" Rose said quietly. "They all died. The entire upper city."
"They did" Novice Hame confirmed, finding her own footing. "There was this new mood, a chemical called Bliss – and inside was caught a virus which mutated quickly, became airborne. It killed the entire city except for the areas that got closed out."
"That's why the flyovers stay closed" Rose mused. "The whole lower city and the motorway aren't being used to keep their inhabitants downtrodden – it's a quarantined area. Which means-"
"The virus has long since died out" Novice Hame cut in. "There's no danger left here; there hasn't been for twenty-four years."
"Except perhaps you" Rose said with a dark look. "I remember what you guys were up to last time I visited."
The cat nun bowed her head. "I only survived by pure chance. I was made to serve my current master as penance for my past sins. If you will not trust me, please trust him."
"Is he alive?"
"He was protected. And when the crisis occurred, he shielded me from the virus with his fumes."
"So it's only you and your master living up here" Rose concluded, and the cat-nun nodded.
"It is only us. All we could do was keep the system of the motorway from choking – there isn't enough power left to reopen it."
Rose made a face. "Going to be a lot trickier than powering back up a teleporter."
"You should discuss this with my master, among other things" Novice Hame replied, starting to walk away, Rose following. "This is why we needed the Doctor. But between the two of you, maybe something can still be done."
"Do you want us to come with?" Martha called from behind.
Rose stopped. "Could you check on Cheen? She's pregnant and we've had to put her to sleep, she was headed into hysterics."
"Oh, brilliant idea" Martha said sarcastically. "How far are you going to be?"
"Next room" Novice Hame supplied. "Come now, Rose Tyler. My master awaits."
"And just who is your master?"
"The Face of Boe".
Rose stared at the cat-nun for an instant. "He's the one who saved the undercity?"
"He is. My master is giving up his energy to keep the city from sinking into the depth of the seas."
"And this has been going on for twenty-four years" Rose breathed. "And you – you stayed to take care of him all this time, didn't you?"
"I did" Novice Hame confirmed, leading Rose on – at least until the young woman stopped in her track, right in front of a door at the end of the senate chamber.
"There's something wrong on the other side of this door" she said quietly. "Your master may not be alone in here."
"There's no one else left alive on this world" Novice Hame countered. "It has been quarantined ever since the virus began its rampage."
"There's still something really wrong inside. I've got a time-sense of sorts and it's making it, er, twitch."
"It is said the Face of Boe has lived for billions of years, maybe that's what makes you uncomfortable."
"He has, he was around in the year two hundred thousand" Rose reminisced, and then she had a small laugh. "Helped me with a trivia game, even though he didn't know me back then. I guess I owe him one."
She stepped inside the side-chamber, all senses in alert, followed by Novice Hame. It was much darker in there, most of the light coming from displays and consoles on the walls and from a spot illuminating the large, familiar tank inside which the Face of Boe rested, a distinct look of weariness on its ancient, huge features. The Face was also the source of her discomfort – somehow, it gave off a sense of wrong which the young woman couldn't explain.
"Rose Tyler" a voice made, speaking directly inside her head.
"The Face of Boe" Rose said with a wince. "You're the one who saved all those people."
"I cannot" the Face replied in her mind. "I could only give them a brief reprieve."
Rose couldn't help a small laugh. "Yeah, figures that for a six-billion-year-old being twenty-four years would feel like a wink."
"It does. Where is the Doctor?"
Rose's good humour evaporated. "He's gone" she said quietly. "Trapped inside a parallel world to save me."
"And you won't allow yourself to seek a past version of him" the Face of Boe observed.
Rose swallowed. "Not that I wasn't tempted, but I've learned my lesson about paradoxes. I can't ever let him know it's me if I meet him again."
"Perhaps. And perhaps it is better this way; it is fitting that it would be you who become the instrument of my end."
"What do you mean, the instrument of your end?" Rose asked, bewildered.
"There isn't much power left in me, and I can't force it through to reopen the city; but you can assist me there."
"And it's going to kill you." Rose said, horrified. "That's what you meant by 'instrument of your end', you want me to help you die. I can't do that!"
"You must. It is one life for twenty million, and I have lived longer than them all combined. It is time for me to rest."
"I can't" Rose whimpered. "You're asking me to sacrifice you – I just can't!"
"You would have sacrificed yourself for them if it could save them – you were ready to die for many times less in the hospital on the Moon" the Face of Boe said. "You will just help me do the same."
Rose was now openly in tears. "I'm sorry. I can't!"
A furry hand came to rest on Rose's shoulder, and the young woman turned to look straight into Novice Hame's eyes. "Then let me carry this burden for you" the cat-nun said gently. "It's the least I can do, for all these people, and for my master."
Rose shook her head again. "I can't make you do this either" she whimpered.
"I have many dead on my conscience, as you well know, Rose Tyler" the cat-nun said, "all in the name of saving many more lives in the long run. My soul is already stained; it won't make a difference."
"I'd have to play a part in it even if I don't push the button" Rose replied. "I'd only be a coward if I make you do it for me."
"You are no coward, Rose Tyler" the Face of Boe said kindly. "And you have known for a long time that in dire circumstances, someone needs to make the hard decisions for everyone, like the Doctor once had to, that time he could save the world but lose you."
It finally hit Rose just how much the Face of Boe seemed to know about her – 10 Downing Street, the hospital on the Moon…
"How do you-"
"For you, this is the last time we will meet when you don't know more about my future than I do about yours" the Face of Boe cut in, and Rose had the strange notion the ancient being was feeling… mischievous? But then it grew serious again. "You will find out in due time. Our paths cross again often enough, and you must not already know about what happens when they do, because you didn't know what would happen when they did."
"I understand that."
The sound of steps behind alerted Rose to the approach of Martha, Milo and Cheen, the latter of which was now awake and still shaken, but no longer in full panic; her husband was too concerned with her state to really notice much else, but Martha had no such restraints. Her jaw dropped as she took in the Face of Boe's appearance.
"What is that?" she asked Rose, and then her head whipped back to stare at the Face of Boe. "You're speaking in my head!" she said with shock.
"He's a telepath" Rose supplied, "that's how he communicates."
"Inside my head?"
"So is the TARDIS when she helps you understand different languages."
Martha gave Rose a flat look. "That's different. The TARDIS-"
"Is very much sentient and capable of thought, and she's got quite the temper, by the way, so I wouldn't think that way about her when we get back to… When we get back to…"
Rose turned back to the Face of Boe. "The TARDIS. Does she have the power to help reopen the city?"
"She does not" the Face of Boe replied definitively. "I am the only one here who can."
Rose deflated for an instant; then she straightened up. "Would the Bad Wolf be able to?" she asked tensely.
"It would kill you, and you cannot die here without causing a massive paradox" came the stern reply.
"Time can be rewritten."
"Not to that extent. You don't know enough about its laws yet to try it."
"I'm not a Time Lady" Rose said sharply. "You should know better than most."
"The Time Lords are the ones who usurped the appellation; they do not rule time as much as they are ruled by it. The Bad Wolf does – at a horrendous cost, and that is why you need to learn its laws. There will come a moment for which this is crucial."
"And how would I even learn about the laws of Time? There are no Time Lords left!"
"Quite the opposite, and this is why your continued existence is so crucial, Rose Tyler. One who would usurp your title is yet free, moving in concealment."
Rose shook her head. "The Doctor would have known. He could have sensed him in his mind."
"He is concealed, and biding his time until he can strike, and at the same time unaware that he is doing so."
"That doesn't make any sense!"
"It will after you've seen the Arch" came the reply, along with a warning: "Do not try to make sense of it until then, you will not be capable."
"I understand better why the Doctor called you textbook enigmatic" Rose grumbled.
"What are you two fighting about anyway?" Martha cut in. "You being called a Time Lady again?"
"Least of our worries" Rose replied sourly, "we've got a bigger fish to fry. One of us has to sacrifice themselves to save the people trapped in the undercity and on the motorway; we're disagreeing on who."
Martha looked at Rose and then the Face of Boe, a look of disbelief on her face. "Oh no. No, no, no. Two big heads like yours, you've got to find a better solution."
"There is not" the Face of Boe said inside Martha's head. "And there is scant time left to save everyone. I am fading already."
"Rose has a time machine" the young woman objected. "She could leave right now and return five seconds later for you, but after she's gone and found the kind of energy source you need."
"I might fail to do it and never return" Rose countered. "If we leave, twenty million lives keep hanging in the balance."
"And with the whole of space and time at your disposal, you don't think that the kind of energy source you need would lie around somewhere?"
"I don't know where to look!" Rose cried out. "I could spend decades out there bumbling around and never find what the people of New New York need me to and just die – maybe even of old age!"
"And you would have to stop looking for a way to bring the Doctor back" the Face of Boe added for Rose, who returned a venomous look.
"This isn't the time to worry about my feelings!"
"No, it is about who is the most important person in this universe, and you are tied for number one."
"That's nonsense, the Doctor is the most important person in this universe, even if he can't reach it."
"It is a two way tie" the Face of Boe insisted, "one between you and one other you already know about."
"I'm not more important than anyone else in this room."
"You are." It was Milo, still supporting a shaken Cheen. And the young man kept going. "Look at what has become possible just because you travelled here."
"You're all alive thanks to the Face of Boe" Rose shot back.
"Sorry, but that's not good enough – you've seen what it's really like down there. Our people can't stay stuck on the motorway forever, and the longer it lasts, the more people will get desperate like Cheen and I were. And it's plain from the bits and pieces of your conversation that time's running out, and somehow it means that one of you's going to have to give up their life if you're going to free all the others who're still stuck down in the undercity and on the motorway."
"To save their lives" Novice Hame cut in. "My master is fading; and unless something is done before he dies, this entire city will sink into the sea."
"He's not going to die" Rose said grimly.
"I am dying either way" the Face of Boe said in her head. "And as much as I enjoy your company, I would rather make that journey on my own."
Rose shook her head. "The Bad Wolf could do something about that too."
"Why would the Bad Wolf kill you?" Martha asked pointedly. "You left that part out when you explained to me what you did that one time on the game station."
The reply came from the Face of Boe. "She took the entire Time Vortex into her head, and essentially became a Goddess of Time and Space. But the power is too much for anyone to handle – it was tearing her body apart, and would have killed her had the Doctor not taken it out of her, and he too nearly died in the process."
"All of time and space in a human head" Martha breathed. "I can see why that would kill a woman – even an exceptional one like Rose."
Said Rose sent the Face of Boe a dark look. "Thank you so much."
"What does that make you", Milo inquired, "some sort of Goddess?"
"Only if she does something stupid again and in the moments before she dies, yes" Martha supplied.
"So once she becomes that, that's it" the young man continued, stepping away from his wife and towards the two women out of their time. "She dies, and Mister Face stays here."
"That's the point" Rose said stubbornly.
"Then how about the people you have yet to save?" Novice Hame said in a voice laced with pain. "The people who live here will be saved either way, but if the Bad Wolf dies now, the rest of the universe stands to lose. Even if he lives on a little longer, my master cannot watch over all of space and time."
"I know that" Rose breathed. "It's just – you're asking me to kill him."
"Have you never killed one to ensure more than one lives?" the cat-nun asked.
Rose was about to reply negatively – when she remembered the impossible planet orbiting a black hole, the rocket, the nail gun she'd used to send Tony, the young man possessed by the Beast, to his death alongside the entity that possessed him. She had done it.
"I don't really have a choice, do I" she said in a shaking voice. "I have to kill an ancient and beautiful being with unparalleled knowledge because it's better for the universe in the long run."
"I was never meant to live this long" the Face of Boe said in her head. "This is why I feel wrong to your senses – something happened to me that wasn't natural and violates the laws of time. You will only be setting that right by releasing what energy I have left."
"Which is what's left after – wait a minute." Rose stared at the Face. "You've been replacing this city's power generators for twenty-four years like it'd been plugged on some kind of giant battery?"
The Face of Boe sent the equivalent of a mental shrug. "A tremendous amount of energy got poured into me."
"Yeah, enough to crack the planet open had it all been released at once. You've been a walking, er, a gliding ten-teraton H-bomb in a tank for six billion years!"
"There never was a risk of explosion, I was made to last" the Face replied, not without humour.
"Yeah, right…"
"You seem to be getting used to the idea".
Rose glared at the Face of Boe. "I don't have a choice, do I?"
"You do" the Face replied. "But I know you, Rose Tyler. You don't make the easy or the selfish choice; you make the right one, when no one else will."
"Another perk of replacing the Doctor" Rose said bitterly.
"He never wanted to have to make those choices either" the Face of Boe pointed out. "And that is why you and he can be trusted with them – neither of you desire the kind of power you have over trillions of trillions of lives. You just want to do good where you can."
"I know…" Rose said grimly. She turned to look at the rest of the group – Martha, stalwart and resolute; Milo, so determined to see something done; Cheen, so awed and just daring to hope; Novice Hame, patiently waiting for a decision.
Rose swallowed. She turned back to the Face of Boe, staring at it for a moment. "They will all know what you've done for them" she said eventually in a thick voice.
"They don't need to".
"No, but they owe it to you to remember."
"They will also remember you, Time Lady."
"I know. I just wish it were someone else they remember instead of me."
Thomas and Valerie Brannigan were as surprised as the rest of the travellers of the motorway when a young blonde woman appeared on their screen, addressing them calmly.
"Sorry everyone, I'm not Sally Callipso; I'm Rose Tyler, speaking on behalf of the Face of Boe, who is just now opening the motorway so you can finally leave."
"Leaving the motorway? What is that girl on about?" Thomas said.
"Look!"
The cat-man followed his wife's gaze and saw the bright light shining at that end of the motorway, slowly progressing towards them as the tunnel's ceiling opened.
Husband and wife grinned at each other. "This is incredible" Thomas said while his wife reached behind them; she handed two of the kittens to him, and Thomas held them out in front of him. "Your first sunlight! Oh yes, children, we're leaving the motorway!"
"We're leaving the motorway" a man in a bowler hat echoed with wonder, mesmerized as the blonde woman on the screens kept talking.
"The automated systems will keep running just long enough to make sure everyone can leave the motorway safely. Out there, it's going to be a whole new world for you to discover, a world where the bright light of the sun shines over vast meadows of apple-grass – or it will soon, sorry everyone, I'm afraid it's been quite the rainy day out there over New New York.
"Anyway, everyone, drive up, drive safe; and everyone, remember it was the Face of Boe who made this possible. Remember it was the Face of Boe who saved your lives and set you free."
"A whole new world to discover" the man in the bowler hat mused. "She and that Face of Boe are giving this to us – but why is that woman so sad?"
The answer to that lay on the floor of one of the Senate's chambers along with the Face of Boe, whose tank had ruptured from the surge of power Rose had set loose. And it had somehow transformed the ancient being in such a way that he no longer grated at the young woman's senses. The Face of Boe felt normal; and it was dying.
"I'm so sorry" Rose said with tears in her eyes, kneeling beside it and gently caressing the creased visage. "I wish I could have done this in your stead."
"You are worth dying for, Rose Tyler" the Face rasped, its voice trailing the words.
"It is said the Face of Boe will speak his final secret to a traveller" Novice Hame cut in from besides Rose.
"I already have" the Face said. "The Time Lady knows – or she will after she's seen the Arch."
"Not a Time Lady" Rose protested, but her heart wasn't in it.
"You have been – you will be" the Face strained to say, before it let out a deep sigh. "It's good to breathe the air once more."
And then the Face of Boe never breathed again.
Martha had kept quiet while she had watched Rose discuss arrangements with the young couple and Novice Hame, then record another message telling those who wished to help rebuild New New York to seek out Novice Hame and work with her. "That's what every city needs, cats in charge" the blonde woman had quipped, but once again, the humour didn't quite reach her eyes.
The medical student hadn't been surprised either when her companion had called back the TARDIS around them, nor when she had proceeded to quietly move about its controls. The journey hadn't been a smooth one – Rose had obviously been too distracted to remember about the stabilizers – but Martha couldn't hold that against her companion. The death of the Face of Boe clearly weighed heavily on the young woman, and Martha couldn't fault Rose for wanting to be on her own again, at least for a while.
Certainly, she'd have loved to keep traveling through space and time a bit longer, unexpected dangers notwithstanding. But for now, Martha was home, and had something to look forward to, if…
"I am going to see you again, am I not?" she called back to the young woman standing in front of the blue box.
"You are." Rose smiled. "You're good at this stuff, you know – better than I was when I got started."
Martha laughed. "Please, I bet you saved the world on the day you met your Time Lord."
"I didn't- I mean-" Rose spluttered.
"You totally did!"
"I didn't bring the anti-plastic!"
Martha grinned victoriously. "See? Better than you think you are!"
"And you're probably the right amount of impossible to make a good companion" Rose groused.
"You're still coming back, aren't you?"
Rose smiled again, a bit wanly this time. "Yeah, I'll come back. I just need…"
"I understand" Martha said kindly. "You've been through a lot in those two days; you need some time."
"Yeah…"
The ringing of Martha's home phone cut through the silence before it could become awkward. The medical student glanced at it. "It'll wait" she said, "it's only mum".
"Mums are very important" Rose said without thinking.
"I'll call her as soon as you're off."
"I'll be back tonight for you – and before you ask, it's the morning after I picked you up."
"I've got a shift at the hospital, won't leave much time to pack" Martha said while her mum was talking on the answering machine, but she was ignoring that.
Not Rose, though. "You have a sister who's famous enough to be on TV?"
Martha chortled. "Not really that famous. She's got a PR job with a big pharmaceutical company, I guess that's what that is about."
"Well, I'm interested" Rose said with a tongue-touched grin. "Come on, any sister of yours has got to be awesome."
Martha quirked her eyebrows, but gave in and switched on the TV. Her sister was on, but standing behind and to the side of an elderly man who was talking, a Professor Lazarus, according to the caption below him.
"Tonight, I will demonstrate a device like no other any of you has seen before" the man said, and Rose snorted. "With the push of a single button, I will change what it means to be human."
Martha switched the TV off with a grimace. "So much for Tish being on TV."
"She might have introduced that segment and we'll have tuned in too late" Rose offered. "And Tish?"
"Patricia" Martha supplied. "And it's not like any of this is news – that's what you are really getting me out of if you pick me up tonight, by the way, attending a rather boring soirée for the introduction of yet another ineffective and very expensive device to make you appear younger than you really are."
"You'll change your mind after you spot the first grey hair" Rose said teasingly.
Martha groaned. "What makes you so sure I'm older than you anyway?"
"Medical student near the end of her cursus? Safe to assume you're older than twenty-two" Rose said, grinning.
Martha looked at her in shock. "You're twenty-two?" Then she blushed. "Sorry, I didn't mean – it's just that with all your experience and your outlook on – oh God, I shouldn't be going there, I'm sorry – but still – twenty-two?"
"Bit young to be carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders, aren't I?" Rose said, and then she grimaced. "Not that I should boast about it or anything."
"She says after saving yet another world" Martha said tartly. "It's not boasting, it's what you do. The Bad Wolf, that mad girl in a box traveling through time and space and saving the day wherever she goes until she gets reunited with her alien boyfriend."
Rose winced. "Don't."
"That's who you are, though, and it's one lovely story. Can't wait to have kids to tell that one to."
"That's it, I'm going" Rose said huffily, and Martha laughed.
"Just don't forget to pick me up before I have to go to that party!" she shouted at Rose as the blonde woman opened the TARDIS' door and stepped in. The blonde spun around and stuck her tongue at Martha.
"I'm tempted to make a mistake with the day just so you don't get out of it" she said tartly.
Martha winced. "I learned my lesson with the stabilizers, thanks. Please don't make me attend?"
"I won't" Rose said with a smile. "I'll see you tonight."
She closed the door, and Martha watched the blue box with wonder, already looking forward to her next travels through time and space with the mad, formidable young woman who was now vanishing alongside her box, and-
"Hang on!" Rose's voice called from the bedroom. "Did that Lazarus guy actually say he would change what it means to be human?"
A/N: Well, this one was always coming, wasn't it?
Took me a while to muddle through this one – didn't have much time, and had to make a few decisions, what with a certain character knowing a lot more than he should. At least I know where I'm going for a good long while…! I might come back to revisit this later on, that said.
Thanks to DuShuZhi, TheDoctorMulder and Bad Wolf Jen for the reviews. I'm noticing this is quietly picking up follows, that's nice to see.
Next up, The Lazarus Experiment. Minus a science geek.