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The strange woman's bite made everything the Doctor saw and felt suddenly shift. It was cold again and the woman had the green skin of a Reginalder like before the scene had changed to Gailifrey. Rose and Jackie were nowhere to be found, but instead, the Doctor & the Reginalder appeared to be standing on an ice sheath. Any vision of Santa's Village wasn't visible either. In short, it was the scenery the Doctor had expected when he had exited the TARDIS earlier before it was completely impossible sans Rose. He thought about all this as the woman's bite made him almost cry from the pain.

As soon as the woman released her mouth, leaving a bit mark a vampire would be proud of, the scene began to faze back to the red of Gailifrey. The female quickly pinched him returning the harsh cold reality of the North Pole. "Ow!"

"Pain. In this case pain is good. Pain is how you can fight it, Doctor."

"At least let me pinch myself."

The woman nodded as she released and the Doctor pinched his own arm. "Ow! That bloody hurts!"

"You've experienced its power now. Even Rose is at its mercy. That's why she didn't translate."

"The whole bloody world is powering this being. It's the only way it could have penetrated my psychic walls."

"Don't you see? That's why you have to go, Doctor. Save yourself because this one's lost. Do you understand how much strength it takes me every damn day to still be aware?"

The Doctor was silent still holding the pinch on his arm and squeezing a little harder to intensify the pain. The funny thing was the pain was the furthest thing from his mind. "I'm going to have to do it."

"Do what?"

The Doctor pointed with his other arm at the blue phone box that he knew as the TARDIS sitting near them. "Correction, she will!"

The Time Lord let go of his arm and started running like no abandon toward his ship. As long as he stayed focused the being that had assaulted his hopes and dreams wouldn't effect him.

The woman looked on with a mix of relief and dread. She suddenly knew what the Doctor was going to do and she also knew that this would be the last time she'd probably ever see him. Defeat the being causing all the madness and she'd die with it. The Reginalder yelled so the Doctor would hear her, "My name is Charone."

The Doctor threw open the doors of his ship knowing that time was of the essence. Over 6 billion people were powering this evil life source and by the minute their beliefs made it stronger. Worse still, Rose, was worse off. Part of him thought that it might already be too late. While all the bloody humans on this planet were dreaming of Santa Clause, Rose was struggling with the love she only held for her mother. The Doctor had to be drastic, so with a strong and determined stance he laid his hands on the console urging it with an almost battle cry, "Show me what you can do, old girl!"

The Time Lord madly threw switches and levers and then it happened. The TARDIS engines screamed and pulsated as the ground below him began to shake madly, but it wasn't the ship that was shaking. The Earth itself began to tremble. The Doctor laughed with glee as the entire planet Earth experienced its first and only full planetary earthquake in its history.

All over the planet people's dreams and fantasies of Santa Clause suddenly began to cloud as they quickly feared for their lives instead. In houses all over the world things fell off of dressers, plates fell out of cabinets, and Christmas trees fell down to the ground. It was horrifying, but just as quick as it had all started, it ended just as bluntly.

As people all over the planet Earth rose slowly from their crouched positions they noticed the blue sky's above. The scene outside their homes looked more beautiful than ever before. All over the planet, Christmas had come and the biggest gift was that normalcy was all they had ever needed.

At the North Pole, the Doctor rushed out of the TARDIS as soon as the shaking stopped to see Rose. As soon as he left it's doors he realized with a deep sadness that she was nowhere to be found. The whole planet was saved, but Rose was still lost.

The Time Lord shook his head. No, not after all he had been through was he going to let this thing take the woman he loved. All of the souls of the planet Earth to the tune of 6 billion being severed meant that the being that he had been fighting all along was already starting to die along wither everyone trapped by it.

The Doctor closed his eyes and he dreamed. He dreamed and wished as hard as he possibly could about citadels, red headdresses, and silvery leafs. The Doctor dreamed that the Time War never happened and he wasn't responsible for the erasure of his own people from time and space. To even think such things it hurt the Doctor so much, but the Time Lord focused as hard as he could that it had all been real and when he opened his eyes he was back on his planet once again.

Charone grinned at him with an all knowing look. Rose was near talking with her 'mum.' Fear hadn't saved Rose because she was in too deep. Her dream had consumed her heart.

Rose's mum stared at him with a seething anger. "You could have just run away."

The Doctor met her gaze with a no funny business attitude. "When you looked in my head, when you used my dreams and desires for your vile purpose, what did you see?"

"For such a high and mighty being you know nothing. You haven't even begun to understand the universe yet."

"Then why are you so afraid of me?"

"I'm dying." Rose's mum teetered and Rose caught her.

Tears began to leak in Rose's eyes. "Mum don't."

"Rose, she's not your mum. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but she's not."

Rose's mum weakly taunted. "If you take Rose away from me you'll kill me. Her faith is the only thing keeping me going."

The Doctor said nothing as he made his way over to his companion and grabbed her roughly, startling her in the process. The Time Lord leaned in and snogged her brains out. Around them the world once again shifted leaving Gailifrey behind and leaving them on the cold ice caps of the North Pole.

Rose pulled away after having enjoyed the kiss looking around quickly asking, "Where's…"

The Doctor grimly looked at her. "It's all gone." He was right. Whatever the consciousness was that fed off the dreams and beliefs of the whole world, he had killed it by severing Rose from its consciousness. Charone and all the Reginalders that had been long sensed trapped went with it. All those souls never to be heard from again.

The Doctor smiled briefly. "Charone."

Rose nodded not knowing exactly what he meant by that, but understanding the tone completely. She reached her arms around her companion and soon they both were hugging. No more dreams and what ifs, just the two of them here and now. Neither wanted it any other way, demons in their past or not.

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