Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Chapter 7

Something was wrong.

Rose didn't know how she knew. She just had this terrible feeling deep in her gut that something was not as it should be, something was different, and that was rarely a good thing.

She was standing alone in a corridor of the TARDIS, silent but for the gentle humming of the engines.

Too silent.

Now she came to think of it, Rose realised that from where she was she could hear any sound from the console room. Usually the Doctor was working on his beloved ship, and the sounds of random clangs of metal, mixed with his strange Gallifreyan muttering and cursing would float down the corridors. Rose could sometimes even hear him from their room. And whatever her mood, hearing him always brought a smile of amusement to her face, because even though she didn't understand what he was saying, her imagination was usually good enough to fill in the blanks.

But now… nothing.

The young human ran down the corridor and, rounding a corner, into the console room.

Immediately, she stopped in her tracks, frozen standing in the doorway. Cold fear crept through her body, paralysing her from doing anything. Unstoppable terror gripped her heart and were it not for the fact that Rose could practically hear it hammering in her chest, she would've sworn that it had stopped.

Rose took a step forward, praying that the sight before her wasn't true, that her eyes were deceiving her, that she was hallucinating… anything but have it be the truth.

"Oh God…no, no, no, no, God no… please no… please," she whispered in a voice that was barely audible even to herself.

She stepped further into the room and dropped to her knees beside the motionless form of her lover. Tears began to rapidly fall from her eyes onto his pale, ashen face, mixing with the blood that ran from his eyes, nose and mouth. She put a hand to his chest, her heart breaking when the comforting double beat of his hearts was missing.

"You should have realised it would come to this, child," came a voice she recognised from behind her. It was a gentle, educated voice, and one that belonged to a woman who Rose would never forget. Jean Antoinette Poisson, later Madame de Pompadour, otherwise known as Reinette, the beautiful French aristocrat from the 18th century.

Rose turned to look at her, her hand still clasped around the Doctor's unnaturally cold one. Reinette was standing demurely beside the console, looking her most beautiful in an ornate dress of blue silk. Her skin practically glowed gold under the artificial lights of the TARDIS. She was vibrant, and alive. But that fact didn't register as wrong in Rose's mind. She didn't even wonder how the other woman had got into the TARDIS, let alone come back from the dead.

"What do you mean?" Rose asked plaintively, choking through her tears.

Reinette smiled serenely, "You should know by now, Rose. Wherever the Doctor goes, death is never very far behind," and as Rose tried to take this in, she continued, "You have come to a time when you must ask yourself. Is he worth the pain?"

"Yes, of course he is!" Rose answered instantly, and almost instinctively. Then she added accusingly, "You said so yourself that he was."

"I said he was worth the monsters, child," Reinette replied, looking sadly at the Doctor's prone form on the floor. "But what of the evil that lies inside of him?" Reinette looked straight into Rose's eyes, piercing blue eyes connecting with brown, "You must know by now that this time you share together won't last."

"No!" Rose insisted, "He'll fight it! He won't leave me… he loves me."

"And you love him… just as I did," Reinette stated. It wasn't a question. She looked down at her lonely angel and said, almost to herself, "I loved him more that I have loved any man. But what good did it do me?"

Rose didn't have an answer for the older woman. She now remembered Reinette's fate. How she'd died at the age of only 43 years, still waiting for the Doctor to return for her and take her to see the stars. Rose remained silent.

"So, you will remain in his world," Reinette continued, sensing that Rose would never leave the Doctor, "Then the only question you must ask yourself is this: how far will you go to stop him?"

Rose frowned slightly, what was she talking about? However, Rose had a creeping sensation down her spine telling her she already knew.

"Unless drastic actions are taken," Reinette clarified, "This is your future," she gestured towards the Doctor. "But once the men you loved is gone… what will you do to stop the being that replaces him? How far will you go to save the universe and everyone in it? Will you destroy him? Or merely curl up in a corner and cry?"

At this, the uncrowned Queen of France took several steps backwards and faded, "This is the choice you now have to make, child," he voice whispered as her image disappeared completely, "Choose wisely."

Reinette was gone.

Now looking at an empty space, Rose turned back to the Doctor and was surprised to see he was stirring, his eyes opening.

"Doctor!" she cried, hurriedly wiping the tears from her eyes and helping him to his feet, "You're ok! Never ever do that to me again!"

But in the most uncharacteristic way, the Doctor said nothing. He merely stood and surveyed his surroundings with an expressionless face. Then he looked down at where Rose's hand was still clutching his arm, before finally looking up at her face.

Something was different with him. Wrong. Instead of smiling at Rose with love and joy in his eyes as he usually did, her lover stared at her with cold, empty, soulless eyes. Everything that made him the Doctor – his spark, his very essence of being –wasn't there.

Rose released his arm and took a step back, tears prickling in her eyes and threatening to start falling again.

"No, it can't be…" she whispered.

But even as she spoke, Rose knew that it was true. It had happened. The Doctor, her Doctor, was gone and now there was no one here to save her, or the universe anymore. She was alone.

The man in front of her, who Rose knew wasn't her Doctor anymore, smirked evilly at her. "It can and it is, my sweet," he said in a voice that sent chills to her very soul. He traced his fingertips down her cheek and leant closer to her. Rose shivered, turning her face away from this bastardised version of the man she loved.

"Don't be afraid, little human girl," he crooned in a sing song voice that set Rose's teeth on edge, "I'm not going to hurt you. You and I can have eternity together ahead of us, in the universe of our devising.

Rose tried to back away from him, but found that his grip on her arm was too strong. "Let. Go. Of me," she demanded, rediscovering a source of courage she'd forgotten about, "I know what you are, and I know you're not him. You're the thing that killed the Doctor, so let go you bastard!"

She tried to prise his fingers off her arm, where she was sure he was leaving bruises, but to no avail. His grip was vice-like, and didn't budge. All she succeeded in doing was royally pissing him off. Bad move.

"If I were you," the thing in the Doctor's body hissed, "I would sit down and shut up. You don't want to get on the wrong side of me. You have no idea what I'm capable of."

"I don't need to know," Rose countered, in a voice that came out a lot bolder than she felt, "All I need to know is that you're the monster that killed the Doctor, and all you need to know is that I'm going to stop you."

The Doctor's face smiled at her. But it wasn't a smile she liked the look of. He stepped even closer to her, pressing right up against her. Then he reached up as if to caress her face again. Then he backhanded her, knocking her forcefully to the ground.

On the floor, Rose groaned. Her lip had split, the metallic taste of blood in her mouth and running down her chin. She hesitantly touched her cheek, it felt entirely probable that she'd fractured the cheekbone.

The Doctor's voice sounded again from behind her. But this time, it wasn't the cold, alien voice she'd been expecting. It was full of passion and concern. It was the Doctor as he should be, and he was calling her. "Rose! Come on sweetheart… Rose… Rose!"

And somehow, his voice was getting louder and the console room of the TARDIS was fading away…

Rose woke with a start. She opened her eyes and look widely around. She was in her and the Doctor's room, and the Doctor was sitting on the bed right next to her, a worried look on his face. After a glance into his eyes, which confirmed that he was indeed her Doctor, Rose threw her arms around him and clung to him like she never had before. It may have only been a dream, but it'd felt so real, and had enough of a possibility of coming true as to terrify her.

Still clinging to the Doctor, she supposed that it was a good thing that, as a Time Lord, he required less oxygen, and could hold his breath for longer than humans. Otherwise he'd probably have passed out by now from oxygen deprivation as a result of how tightly she was hugging him.

But the Doctor didn't seem to mind. Instead he seemed to sense exactly what she needed and wrapped his arms tightly around, holding her close.

"I can't lose you," she whispered into his ear.

The Doctor heard this and held her even tighter to him, wishing he could promise that he wasn't going anywhere, that he wouldn't leave her.

So, instead they sat on the bed, holding each other like they'd never let go, as if they were each other's life lines. And the silence spoke much louder than any words ever could have.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, I have finally updated! I am so sorry that I left it so long, but I have been really really busy. Anyway, I'm not sure about this chapter, but it was written in a multitude of places whenever I had a minute to spare: on the plane back from Dublin, my lunch break at work and sitting at a swimming gala.

So, please review, and I'll really try not to leave it so long next time!