A bit of a strange chapter: remember that time is passing and we all grow as people over time. I'm going to go ahead and warn you that there is some dub-con in this chapter. Nothing explicit, but I don't want to upset anyone without warning. If you have any issues, please feel free to come to me. And the end is a bit trippy, but I like it. Also, new image on tumblr.

Thanks for all of the support! Please review and enjoy!


Chapter VI - Lady of Gallifrey

It only took a few decades for the High Council to change all of its members and Rose was deemed not a threat. She spent most of her days and a good amount of her nights in the hills outside the Citadel. Walking through the tall grasses made her feel young again, reminded her of when she was new to Gallifrey.

Closing her eyes against the force of the wind, Rose climbed the hill, humming to herself. The suns were beginning to set, and so she was going up to a higher vantage point so that she could watch them sink for longer. With only vague memories of Earth sunsets, Rose had to believe that those of Gallifrey were the most magnificent in the universe.

Settling in the grass, she felt the breezes of high summer whip around her head. She had only recently begun climbing up this high, where she was higher than even the Citadel. It was bitterly cold up here after the suns sank, but that was how she liked it. The fire in her blood had made it impossible to sleep unless she was cold. Breathing in deeply, Rose picked a few flowers from the area around her and started to braid them together.

Daisies were considered the weakest of all Gallifreyan flowers, no better than common weeds. Rose didn't care. They were from home (because after all this time, she still couldn't call Gallifrey her home-not without the Doctor here), and lived simple lives, much like Rose.

She smiled to herself when she thought about her first journey into space, her first date with the Doctor. Jabe had given them a twig, and Rose had spoken to it, half expecting it to talk back. She was foolish then, assuming that everything was sentient. No, the twig was just that-a twig, but Rose had met talking flowers and singing flowers, dancing flowers, and murdering flowers (now that was something she was not keen to see again), all while traversing the universe with the Doctor.

Every single thing in the universe was made up in such a way that there was more than met the eye. Rose liked to think of herself that way. She, Lady Arkytior, the Bad Wolf, was but a legend for Gallifreyans, and a nuisance for Time Lords. In the last several years, she had rediscovered her youth. Sliding down bannisters and chatting to students in the library, Rose was carefully watched by the Time Lord Council.

They knew she was just a human who was an impossibility. Someone new came by to look into her mind every week, and Rose welcomed it now. She was tired of being cooped up in her chambers; she wanted her freedom. If students of the Academy wanted to examine her mind, they would have to leave the Citadel and find her in the fields, playing with children and wildlife.

She would never really get used to having other people in her mind, but since she was human, she wasn't even sure if they were invading her privacy or if she was just projecting that which they were looking for. The Doctor would probably be appalled that she was letting any Time Lord who asked into her mind, comparing her to a cheap whore, but Rose was beyond that.

Rose Marion Tyler was her own species, currently living on Gallifrey. She had come to terms with that a long time ago. With no job and no responsibilities, Rose was free to do what she wanted. She could play with the children of Gallifrey, weave patterns of golden wisps of Time, and pick daisies whenever she so chose.

Her daisy chain was growing longer and longer as she kept picking the flowers and tucking them in. When it was a sufficient length, she started to tie off the ends, singing, "I've got a lov-e-ly bunch of coconuts, deedle-dee-dee, there they are, all standing in a row! Bum, bum, bum, big ones, small ones, some as big as your head!"

The figure she'd been ignoring as he climbed up the hill cleared his throat impatiently. Rose slipped the chain on top of her head, letting it rest on her golden hair like a crown. Eyes gleaming and smile growing, she looked up and saw a man she did not know standing before her.

"Well, don't just stand there," she said. "Sit down and watch the suns set!" Rose patted the ground beside her until the Time Lord scowled and sank beside her, sitting a respectable distance away. There was an unpleasant look on his face, probably thinking Rose was off her rocker, but she ignored his judgements. "Would you like me to make you one?" she asked, referring to the daisy crown atop her head.

"No," the Time Lord said curtly. His voice was deep and biting, and would have made her shiver if she hadn't gained control of everything over a century ago. "I hear you are the most powerful being on all of Gallifrey."

"I hardly doubt that," Rose said, uprooting long blades of grass. "I'm nothing special. Just a Wolf."

"The Wolf," he corrected.

"Oh, so you do know me!" she grinned, dainty fingers braiding the strands together in an intricate pattern. "Yes, I am the Bad Wolf, but most people just call me Arkytior, or Lady Arkytior if that makes you more comfortable. Not that I'm really a lady. It's just a title given to me by the High Council. The Lord President does seem to like me. His predecessor found me a bit childish, I'm afraid."

Rose pursed her lips and stilled her hands. Turning her head to look at the man, she studied him and tried to discern how she knew him. There weren't to many Time Lords she had the pleasure of meeting in her few centuries on the planet. But this one seemed so familiar. Then it hit her.

"Ah," she said, "Koschei. It's been a while. Did you miss me?"

He actually growled at the use of his childhood nickname, and sneered, "Hardly. I am above such disregard for status, unlike the Doctor." If he was trying to goad a reaction out of her, he was unsuccessful. "Once I realized that you were simply human, I aimed my interests elsewhere."

Rose shook her head but still offered him a smile. Even if he wasn't the Doctor, the Master was one of the first Time Lords she had befriended on Gallifrey. "What brings you up to my hill, Koschei?"

"I am called the Master," he pressed, voice dangerously rough.

She was not afraid of him. "Well, then you can drop the Lady and call me Arkytior!" Finishing up the lei of red grass, Rose dropped the necklace over the Master's head so that it circled his neck, contrasting against the tight black clothing he wore. Rose tried not to pay attention to what he looked like or what he smelled like, but it was hard. She was only human, and humans had base desires that Time Lords lacked. Oh, well.

The Master in this incarnation-possibly still his first, judging the color of his hair and eyes compared to that of his childhood-was quite handsome. His eyes were a light green or blue, hair incredibly dark in contrast. There was something pained in his expression, something wrong with him.

"Did you come to look into the infamous Bad Wolf's mind?" asked Rose, teasing him with her tongue between her teeth. He stared at her plainly, a mixture of emotions passing over his face: anger, suspicion, concern, intrigue. "Come on," she said, her voice lilting like a song, "I don't bite...much."

In all honesty, Rose was incredibly capable of defending herself. She had strong shields in her mind, a joint effort between the TARDIS when she was docked here and the Wolf in her head. But in the moment the Master's eyes locked on hers, Rose felt fear like she hadn't in many years.

The Master's eyes flashed, something dangerous lurking within. "Do not tempt me," said he, words slow and gravelly. Just then, Rose wanted to back away, to hide where no one could find her, but she didn't have a chance to run. Looking down at her fingers, Rose pleaded for the Wolf to help her. She cried out as the Master commanded, "Look at me," as he gripped her jaw and forced her head up.

His fingers were tight; Time Lords were incredibly strong. The Doctor had never used his strength like this, at least not on a human. Rose briefly wondered if the Master was going to break her jaw. He was certainly gripping her face tight enough to.

"Look at me," he repeated in an even lower voice. Despite her best efforts, Rose could not disobey. His eyes were hypnotic, driving into her own. The Master leaned forward and rested his forehead against hers, plunging into her mind. Rose gasped; no one had been this forceful and deep before.

The Master flew around her mind frantically, beating through her barriers like sheets of paper. His speed was unmatched by her; she couldn't protect herself fast enough. The Wolf in her head tried to fight back, but that noise beat it down.

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Drums, pounding against her mind as he slammed through every single piece of information he could fine. It went on and on until he was going through memories Rose didn't even know she had, and those she had tried desperately to forget. He was there in the ghost shift room at Canary Wharf, kneeling beside her father as he died, standing in the corner of her mum's living room on Christmas when she was eight, in the crowd when Jimmy Stone first kissed her, watching as Theta laid her back on the grass-

Rose screamed, gaining control of her body to shove him off of her. The Master was thrown back, but he quickly caught himself. Rose was prepared for a fight, the Bad Wolf rising up to protect her. Breathing heavily, Rose reveled in the silence of her mind without that percussive torture.

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Thinking about it made her gag.

The Master took advantage of her momentary weakness, pouncing on her so that she was pressed beneath him. He was larger than her, stronger than her. She was trapped. He gripped the sides of her head and straddled her hips to keep her from thrashing about. Rose squirmed as his face ducked down and pressed his lips to hers. As if he knew she was about to knee him in the groin, he dropped his hips down to pin her to the ground.

She gasped in surprise, and he forced his tongue between her parted lips. Rose's lungs were burning; she couldn't get any air in her lungs with him putting all of his weight on her and shoving his tongue down her throat. Before he could throw himself into her mind again, Rose bit down on his tongue, causing him to yelp and leap back.

Freed from his weight, Rose scrambled back and curled her hands into fists in case he tried to come near her again. The Master shouted out into the air, and yelled, "You bitch!" Quietly, he stalked toward her, Rose's fingers digging into the dirt as she tried to crawl away, but he made no move to stoop down to her. His voice was steady and calm when he said, "I thought maybe I would understand why the Doctor spent so much time with an ugly little human like you when we were children. Did he kiss you gently? Did he hold you in his arms?" The Master's lips curled back into a sneer. "Did he make love to you?"

Rose fought the tears threatening to fill her eyes. She didn't want to think about those weeks with Theta, didn't want to remember the months she shared with the Metacrisis Doctor, didn't want to relive the grief she still felt after all this time.

When she didn't answer, the Master barked out a laugh. "He used you, little ape, as a childish plaything. He spent time with you because you were the only one deluded enough to indulge him. He fucked you because you were there when his body betrayed him like the miserable halfbreed he is. That's why he left you after one night of passionate lovemaking. You weren't good enough for him because he is a Time Lord, albeit a pathetic one, and you are a human ape. In fact, that's what I'll call you. You aren't a wolf, you're a little monkey."

Rose knew he was just being mean because she had rejected him and because the drums in his head drove him to madness, but his words still struck her like a knife. Her chest contracted as she gave into the tears, letting a sob out of her mouth.

"Oh, don't cry, little monkey. If you're nice, maybe I'll come back and fuck you rotten like the little whore you are." He stepped closer to her, but Rose was too upset to move. She couldn't even bring herself to run away. "Goodnight little monkey," he said, leaning down to press his lips to her forehead, thrusting into her mind once more.

She screamed and he was walking away like nothing had happened. Tears falling freely, Rose sank down on her side and curled up, pulling her knees to her chest. The sky was dark with only the stars and two moons shining above her. She had missed the suns setting.


She dreamed of the Olympics, of a little girl's drawing that came to life. Like the Isolus, Rose was all alone on a planet of people who should have been enough but weren't. If she could capture all of the people of Earth into a drawing to keep her company, it still wouldn't be enough.

Rose wanted the Doctor.

She cried for him, chased after him through the long, winding corridors of the TARDIS. Even the ship had abandoned her, leaving her to run through the halls until she was unable to go on. It didn't matter how fast she ran, the Doctor was always just out of reach.

She was falling, falling, falling into the Void. Her fingers slipped from the lever in Torchwood and she was being pulled into nothingness. There was no Pete from an alternate universe to catch her this time. Just as she crossed into the Void-into the Twilight Zone-the walls snapped shut and she was completely alone.

But she wasn't alone. There were ghosts surrounding her, watching her every move. Whispering behind her back, skittering just out of sight when she noticed them lurking in the corner of her eye. Nothing was alive. The entirety of the Void was blank and dead, a painful white that was more blinding than staring into the sun.

The ghosts were taunting her, snickering at her as she cried and walked in circles, collapsing down onto the floor that wasn't a floor, couldn't have been a floor because something had to exist for there to be a floor and this was just nothing. And then the Master arrived with his drumbeats and kisses.

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She ran from him, but it was futile. He was everywhere, laughing, laughing, laughing no matter how far she ran, where she turned. Not just his handsome face that had molested her mind-tantamount to rape on Gallifrey-but every face he would ever have, and others that she knew were not his.

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The Doctor joined the ranks of her tormenters eventually. There were faces she didn't know, two she did and those were the worst of all. They chanted that she was just a silly little whore, nothing like Sarah Jane or Reinette, just a chav from the Estate. Really, she was lucky to have been allowed onboard the TARDIS. She begged and begged to be taken with them until they finally acquiesced.

Rose jumped up and down to capture their attention. The Master was the first to notice. "Oh, my little monkey," he said, patting his lap. "Come and let me take care of you."

She was burning and falling and flying and drowning, all at once.

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Why couldn't she just die already?

Rose screamed out, cried, sobbed, begged the universe to just let her die because this wasn't life; this was hell. Why couldn't the universe have chosen another girl to become the Bad Wolf, someone who was worth the Doctor's love, someone better equipped to save the multiverse? She was useless, a little flower blowing in the wind, letting the rabbits come by and eat her up before shitting on her head.

Her head pounded, her mind burned. Fire licked at her skin, she tore holes in her clothing, just to relieve the pressure on her mind. Stockings in shreds, skirt bunched up at her waist to try and cool down, Rose finally wandered through the abyss until she reached an oasis.

She chased after the water for an eternity, but it was elusive, dancing away on the wings of laughter as the Doctor and the Master jeered at her uselessness, buzzing around in her mind like vultures on a carcass (if only she were lucky enough to die). When she finally became weak enough for the oasis to take pity on her, Rose slipped into the water and ducked her head under, letting her golden hair swirl around her head. Her lungs burned, but she didn't resurface, wouldn't let herself resurface. She wanted to die, damn it!

Why couldn't she just die?

Rose was dizzy and her head felt like it was going to burst-she needed a Doctor-but she refused to live, didn't want to go on. The universe was not on her side.

She lifted her head out of the water, out of the Void, out of the darkness just as the suns were rising.