For several seconds, absoloute, overwhelming shock. It ripped through Theta like a white-hot knife, leaving him unable to move. For several seconds, time and the universe ceased to exist. There was only Rose.

Oh, Rose!

He came back to his senses then and hit the machine with one huge blast from his screwdriver before his shield ran out of power. Fury was beginning to take the upper hand as the machine exploded violently, sending a pyroclastic stream of shrapnel and mutilated flesh raining towards them. There was a power surge as the thick cables sparked with power the machine could no longer use. Several Spectres were electrocuted. They didn't die but lay on the floor, shaking violently, then stood up again as ifnothing had happened. The Doctor saw there was little chance of him killing them. The entire room had been thown into disarray, the Spectres' plan had been destroyed and now they would have only one objective - to kill whoever had caused this.

Theta was not a violent man. Far from it. He was a man desperately in love, with a broken past and now, it seemed, a broken future. As the machine exploded, he re-appeared, ran to the crumpled body on the ground that was Rose. He took her into his arms, listened for a pulse, a breath, anything. Nothing. And he cried like a little boy as he cradled her so lovingly amidst all the blood. He was so incredibly gentle. Stroking her hair, kissing her forehead. He was, at that moment, the saddest lost soul in the universe. Once more the lonely god.

Darling Rose... I should have died.

In his eyes was a growing fire. An all-consuming rage. He was going to go mad and he was going to kill without relent or mercy - for once uncaring of the consequences. He was going to prove to them what he really was.

The commander looked down at Rose's body and saw that the effects of the scanner had worn off when she died. He now realised her - Rose Marion Tyler. His mind flicked back to the photograph of them on Earth television. And wherever this girl was - so would be the Doctor. The commander was certain - it was he who had caused this. Right on cue, Theta's body materialised as he ran towards Rose and picked her up, ignoring the commander completely.

The Spectre Leader took the commander's gun. "I want to do this myself." He walked over to Theta, still cradling Rose, and laughed manically as he pointed the gun at his head.

"Doctor... you have ruined everything. So many years of labour, conquest, sleepless nights. I must congratulate you. But now you will find I experience the final satisfaction... not so clever now are you, Doctor? About to die... - he spoke so softly - like your little blond ape - "

He was grabbed by the collar as Theta held him in a stranglehold.

"YOU WILL NOT INSULT HER!"

The Leader pressed the gun into his neck and grabbed his wrist, cutting off the circulation painfully so Theta was forced to let go.

"Say goodbye..." He leered, about to pull the trigger.

At that moment, there was a deafening war cry. The Doctor could hardly believe his ears - it was high-pitched, squeaky but very loud. It was, to him at that moment, the best sound in the universe. What he saw was a regular army of Little Purple Men who stopped at the door, in pairs, carrying pieces of sharp metal, some with their tails alight. They were tiny, but looked frighteningly dangerous. Fierce, venemous, a real threat. They were no longer slaves. They were the Doctor's saviours.

The Leader dropped his gun in shock and Theta grabbed it quickly and pointed it at him. The Little Purple Spokesman then ran up to him, and he stared at him in amazement.

"You guys are incredible!"

The spokesperson beamed. "We could not leave you on your own, Doctor-who-saved-us-from-death..." He trailed off as he saw Rose's body on the ground, dropped to his knees and actually cried. The Doctor picked him up.

"Don't cry for her now... we've got guards to defeat!" He nodded his purple head, then remembered something and beamed.

"Oh! I taught the army the war cry. Here it is in your tongue:" He yelled to the army.

"WHO DO WE FIGHT FOR?"

"DOCTOR-AND-ROSE-WHO-SAVED-US-FROM-DEATH"

"WHO ARE OUR HEROS?"

"DOCTOR-AND-ROSE-WHO-SAVED-US-FROM-DEATH" The army squeaked together, in perfect unison. Theta smiled, his trademark grin back on his face. Rose would have loved it...

Rose! Oh...

No! Control! He told himself firmly.

"It's fantastic! Is that your entire race outside the door?"

"Yes! Thousands of them! All free! Half of them are on ground floor, fighting. Now we will take care of the remaining guards here... We will destroy Genesis forever!" He looked around and saw the Spectres had picked up their weapons. One fired a bullet at him quickly and he ducked. He roared to his army.

"FIGHT!" And the Little Purple Heros broke ranks into a swarming mass of death and jumped on the Speactres with a roar. Theta and the spokesman watched them all fighting tooth and nail with an intense pride.

Theta prepared to say his goodbyes. "You are the most wonderful people... thank you."

"We would not be here without you, Doctor."

The spokesman jumped on Theta suddenely and hugged him hard. A suprised Theta hugged him back before picking up Rose and cradling her in his arms again as he watched the battle continue.

He roared to all the Little Purple Men on the fifth floor for the last time. "THANK YOU AND GOODBYE!"

And to his astonishment, every single one of them stopped fighting, bowed low to the ground and squeaked in unison,

"GOODBYE DOCTOR!" before smiling at him and continuing to fight.

Returning the smile, the Doctor gazed at them fondly before suddenely turning and running off. With Rose still in his arms and her blood on his hands he knew he wasn't gonna be able to hold it in much longer. Once he got to the Tardis he was gonna break down completely. The Tardis! Where was it? He didn't know - he hadn't thought of it. He used the sonic screwdriver to probe for it and realised it was on the ground floor. He raced down the stairs.

When he arrived on ground level, he saw the fight continuing between some of the guards and the Little Purple Men. Down here there weren't as man of the little men and the guards were gaining the upper hand. Following the probe and ducking bullets and Spectres charging at him he ran into a small side room that his Tardis had been moved into. It was the nucleus of the fight, where some of the last little men left had formed a barricade around it and were clearly defending it with their lives, small as they were. The guards laughed and jeered at them as they died, and the Doctor's fury rose out of control.

"Pity the Doctor's not here to save you now... What a pathetic, emotional fool he was..." holding one little man to the ground by his neck. The little guy was seething in fury, about to be strangulated.

"The Oncoming Storm... hah! I wonder why everyone was so scared of him..."

The Doctor could feel the surge of Bad Wolf - his fury magnified the power so that he didn't even have to reach for it. He put Rose down and surrendered himself to the Vortex, feeling for the first time the gold and the blinding power.

"OH YEAH? WELL YOU'RE ABOUT TO FIND OUT!" he roared in a voice most unlike his own.

Everyone turned to watch the Doctor, surrounded by swirling gold.

"THIS," he shouted, outpouring all his fury and rage, "IS WHY THEY ALL ME THE ONCOMING STORM!" He raised a hand and all the Spectres fell dead, dissolving with screams into golden dust. This took away so much of his strengh that he could barely stay conscious. Dimly, he forced himself to leave Bad Wolf behind and only just managed to scoop up Rose, unlock the Tardis, throw them both inside and shut the door before the blackness claimed him.

Waking up minutes later on the floor, it took him a moment to realise what had transpired. Then he saw Rose's body on the floor and broke down in tears. He lay there crying his eyes out until there were no more tears and he could only gaze at her with the most intense sadness on his face. He knew what it was to lose people, of course he did. It was just that losing Rose... was like losing himself. He pressed a kiss to her lips gently.

Rose... Angel! I'm sorry. I'm so sorry... I should've stopped you...

It was then that he noticed it - a strange little yellow glow among the blue blood in Rose's veins. He got to his feet in a state of total shock. What the hell was going on? He glanced down at his veins and was astounded to see gold specks in them too. He dashed for a mirror. The effects of the scanner were beginning to wear off now, he was taller with a little brown in his hair, but his eyes. His eyes reflected gold. He ran his hands through his hair, sticking it on end. And then - it felt like his head had exploded. It was only for a second but he yelled and fell to the floor in agony. He opened his eyes as the pain subsided. Something was going on here.

"TARDIS! WHAT'S HAPPENING?" he roared as he was hit with another wave of agony.

Picking himself up again he ran to the control room and stared at Rose on the floor. She was glowing! Glowing with a golden light. Dashing back to the mirror, he realised he'd started glowing too. The Doctor was now buzzing with exitement, fear, ADRENALIN! It hit him in a rush as he realised he'd felt these symptoms before.

Think Theta, THINK! Neither of them were human. Neither of them were Time Lord. He'd said it himself - they were a hybrid mix of Time Lord, Human and Vortex. So why did this feel familiar? Unless... no, he wouldn't allow himself to hope. They were new, untried, untested. Alone in the universe... but YES!

Oh yes!

He jumped around the control room in various stages of understanding. He was now completely manic, his usual reaction to a stroke of genius. His fingers roved restlessly through his hair, his mind was on overdrive. In the midst of his bouncing, he suddenely had an idea. He raised his foot and stubbed his toe on the console. Hard.

Ow!

He removed his shoe and pulled off his sock. There was an angry bruise rising up on his toe. But as he watched, dumbfounded, his toe began to glow and large amounts of golden dust emenated from it. As he watched, the bruise was covered in the sparkling dust, and then healed. The skin was smooth, unmarked. It was as if the bruise had never been there. Theta remembered what had happened to his hand on Christmas Eve.

It IS technically possible... We both have Time Lord blood in us don't we? Maybe it mixed with the Vortex and... It couldn't be could it?

It could.

But he was hingeing an awful lot on his guess being right. If he was wrong Rose and him could be dying, or worse, about to end up with two heads... He just couldn't tell.

He went and got two trolleys, parking them in the control room. He gently lay Rose down on one and himself on the other, glancing at Rose as she did so. She was now covered in swirling dust. That was a good sign. Another mind-blowing agony session racked him then and he slipped into blissful unconsciousness once more. He very much hoped that he was right with his theory as to what was going on because if he was right... IF... it could mean only one thing.

They were BOTH regenerating.

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Review Review Review! The chainsaw now has a skull-cracking device! And a deadly-poison injecter! And I bought chocolate muffins!

What more can I say? I hope you liked it. :D