Braxiatel gave her a sharp look. "How do you know that it's impossible?"
Because Gallifrey is gone, destroyed in the Time War by the man I am traversing across universes to find. You lot are long dead and stuck in a time lock, Rose thought hysterically, dropping her head into her arms.
"Madam?" Romana asked, her tone almost gentle. "Are you alright?"
"Please," Rose spoke, raising her head suddenly and meeting the wide eyes staring back at her. "Please you have to let me go now."
"Highly unlikely. We have some questions." Romana answered her gently.
"This is wrong. This is so wrong. I shouldn't be here.'
"It's too late to run," Braxiatel inserted, his tone and expression dark and formidable. "Either you will answer our questions voluntarily or we will take the answers we need."
Telepathy, Rose realized. The Doctor was a touch telepath, had gone into her mind once to make sure all traces of Cassandra were gone. He had gone a second time to help her build walls in her mind. Later he had gone back to make sure that the walls were holding and she had quickly forced him out and he stared at her with a look of incredulity. Apparently that had been unexpected.
"You don't have to do that." Rose said, trying to keep her voice calm.
"Then you will answer all of my questions and leave nothing out!" he slammed his hands down on the table and leaned forward.
Rose bit her lip and ignored him, turning back to Romana. "Please. You must let me go. You don't understand."
Romana stared at her for a long moment before speaking. "Braxiatel, leave us."
"But…" he stammered out and she shot him a dark look that was infinitely more terrifying than the one he tried to give.
"I am still your president. Leave us. I will call for you in moment."
"Yes, Madam President," he bit out and walked out, his back straight and fists clenched at his sides.
"You're the president?" Rose questioned. "And you're sitting in on an interrogation?"
"You have the whole of Gallifrey talking already. An off worlder doesn't just appear here. What is your name?" Romana crossed her arms and leaned forward.
"I can't tell you that." Rose denied hotly, leaning back. "If I tell you that an entire causal nexus could break down."
"Interesting. Okay, I'll allow that for the time being. Where are you from?" Ramona stood, staring down at Rose, her blue eyes intense.
"Earth." Rose answered truthfully.
"Sol 3. Of course." Romana sucked in a deep breath. "But you don't read as human."
"Read?"
"Your timelines." Romana's eyes went slightly unfocused as she stared near Rose's head.
I can see...
"Stop it! Whatever you're doing, stop it!" Rose shrieked, grabbing her head.
I can see everything.
"I said stop it!"
All that is.
"Please!" Rose screamed, standing up and sending the chair toppling behind her.
All that was.
"Listen to me, I don't know what you're doin', but you've got to stop!"
All that ever could be.
A song was beginning to build in Rose's mind, a song so familiar and ancient that tears filler her eyes. She reached out for it greedily, ready to claim it and had grasped it and was bringing it forward, when Romana blinked and it vanished. Rose lost her grip and fell back into her chair.
"What are you?" Romana demanded, backing up a step.
Rose's mind was so empty again, she was reaching out still for something that wasn't there. For a moment she had been so full and whole and she couldn't adjust to the silence again.
"I asked you a question!" Romana burst out and Rose blinked up at her, trying to get her breath back.
"Human! I'm human!"
"That was not human!" Romana argued, walking back towards Rose, her eyes narrowed and fierce.
"I was born on Earth! My parents are human, I am human. It's this place. It's messing with my head."
"How? How is Gallifrey messing with your head?" Romana leaned forward, her blue eyes so like her first Doctor's that Rose wanted to cry.
"I don't know! All I know is that I have to go. Please!"
"You are not leaving yet. Especially not after that scene that just happened."
"Then I'm sorry." Rose pushed the recall button on her watch and closed her eyes.
Nothing happened. Romana looked at her with almost sympathy.
"There's no teleportation inside this room."
"Then let me out!"
"You must be aware that I can not do that."
"You've got to!"
"Why?"
"Because I know the future!" Rose cried out. "I know the future of your entire planet, Time Lady. I can't stay here and you know it."
Romana looked surprised, rocking back on her heels and perching at the edge of the table. "The future of an entire planet?"
Rose merely stayed at her, biting her tongue. Damn, she hadn't meant to say that. She wasn't kidding before when she said this place was messing with her head.
"When are you from?" Romana asked.
"The 21st century," Rose answered, rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"Humans don't have time travel for another three thousand years and then only a crude form that couldn't bring you to Gallifrey."
Rose sat in silence, refusing to answer any more questions.
"I can very easily go into your mind and find the answers myself."
"You can try." Rose met her eyes at this and grinned wolfishly.
"You are very confident."
"I've had reinforcements. I know how to protect myself."
"Yes, I'm sure that you have. By the Doctor?" Romana asked nonchalantly. When Rose froze, Romana sighed and sat across from her.
"You're from his favorite planet, in his apparent favorite time period. You have his attitude. It was not a hard leap to make."
"You know the Doctor?" Rose breathed.
"He is very well known. Gallifrey's lost son and black sheep. He's been the president. He is quite the rebel."
"Yes," Rose murmured in agreement "He still is."
"And he is a very dear friend of mine." Romana finished quietly and met Rose's gaze head on.
After a moment, Rose decided to trust her with at least a little bit of the truth.
"I didn't crash here." Rose raised her arm and pushed back the sleeve to expose her wrist. "I...jumped."
"A vortex manipulator?" a look of disgust crossed Romana's pretty face.
"Sort of. It isn't pretty," Rose agreed. "It was set to random. I never expected to land here."
"I believe you." Ramona answered several seconds later, after some rather intense eye contact.
"Then let me leave." Rose said simply.
"It's not that simple. More than why you are here, it is what you are."
"Human." she supplied again, getting tired of this question.
"No," Romana shook her head, her face earnest. "Maybe once, but no longer."
"That's not possible!"
"When I looked at your timelines, I almost got lost in them."
"And?" Rose demanded. "What does that even mean?"
"That's impossible, that is what it means. Humans in particular, they may have a few timelines. Different possible futures. But yours...they wrap around you. There's so many, but there's also only one. It stretches out further than I can see. They nearly engulf you." Ramona's eyes went hazy for a second, looking for something that only she could see.
"You said there are many, but then there is only one. That doesn't make sense!" Rose growled out in exasperation, slamming her hands on the table.
"There are so many that surround you. But your timeline in particular shines the brightest. Yours is the brightest, yours stretches on further than I can see. It's like you've been touched by time, but that is impossible." Romona breathed, reaching forward to try and touch whatever she was seeing and the movement had the interrogation light shine on the red jewel at her throat.
I am the Bad Wolf
Rose froze again, whatever Ramona was reaching for was also causing the song to swell quietly in the back of her head. "You lot, you need to learn a new word. Not everything is impossible."
"But more than all of that, it is almost as if you hold time itself inside of you." Ramona's eyes cleared from the fog of whatever she had been searching for and she suddenly looked at Rose with a hard expression. "You tell me that you know the future of my whole planet. Which sounds rather ominous, don't you think? How could you possibly think I could let you go?"
"Which version of the Doctor do you know?" Rose asked suddenly and Romana just looked amused at the question.
"All of them."
"The latest, I mean." Rose clarified, sitting back down in her chair.
"His eighth incarnation." Romana supplied in a mildly condescending way, like she was talking to an errant child.
"And I know the Tenth. Before that, I knew the Ninth." Rose thought of his blue eyes and warm hands and a pang shot through her heart again. He would have never let her fall. He would have torn the walls apart himself if she had been lost. None of this would be happening if...but no. That wasn't fair. He was the same man. "That is how I know the future of your planet."
"You aren't telling me the whole truth! Why have you held time in your hand?" Romana demanded.
I create myself.
"I can't tell you that!" Rose slammed her palms on the table again, ignoring the ache in her head, the way the silence hurt. It bothered her all the time, she could handle it it hurting more. "The Doctor taught me that much. I can't reveal the future or change the past."
Romana stared at her for a long moment and Rose kept her gaze. She would not back down on this. If this woman truly knew the Doctor, she would know that he only travelled with those brave enough to stand in their convictions, who would sacrifice whatever necessary to protect him, to protect what was right. After a long moment, Romana nodded.
"Very well. You will be escorted out of here and kept under guard until you reach the spot you landed, where you will immediately leave. You will not be allowed back here." Ramona stood ramrod straight, her voice hard and flinty, her whole persona on guard, and Rose could easily see how she was the Lady President and stood in protection of this planet.
"I understand."
"If you return, I will not be as generous." Romana warned.
"I understand." Rose repeated and stood, stretching out her hand and gasped when Ramona shook it. For just a brief moment, there was a presence in her mind that took the edge off of the pain, but when Ramona withdrew her hand, the pain flared bright hot.
"Remember this. You are not human." Ramona delivered her warning with soft eyes and a hard mouth and the obviously jumbled reaction she was having caused Rose to worry more than if she was just simply cruel or compassionate.
"Then what am I?" Rose demanded, her heart racing.
"That I can not answer. You have chosen to leave." As if there had been another option on the table. In light of this startling new development, Rose would have been willing to risk staying here, to figure out what this Ramona woman, who could see far too much, was talking about.
"I didn't realize I had to choose between the two." Rose burst out and Ramona sighed, spreading her arms almost hopelessly, before allowing them to fall back to her sides.
"Honestly, I want you off Gallifrey. Your timelines are causing much gossip and we have enough going on without adding this." Rose noticed for the first time how tired Romana looked with the faint shadows under her eyes and lines of stress bracketing her mouth.
"It's started, hasn't it?" Rose whispered and was subjected to a long look.
"The War?" Rose licked her lips and nodded in response to the question.
"It has." Their eyes met, Ramona's head tilted as she stared at Rose, who looked away, fighting stirrings of guilt. "Judging by your expression, I assume that it doesn't go well."
Rose schooled her expression quickly and shrugged. "It's war. Does war ever go well?"
"No, I suppose that it doesn't." Ramona's voice was soft and they shook hands again, before Rose went to walk out of the room, leaving Ramona standing by that cold table. But Rose hesitated by the door before making a quick decision and turning back to see Ramona staring intently at her.
"There will come a moment when all hope seems lost. Call the Doctor then." Rose said this very quickly with her eyes closed, as if by not looking at Ramona as she said it, then she could pretend that she wasn't possibly messing everything up.
Romana's lightly colored brows were raised when Rose opened her eyes to look at her. "He will not already be here?"
"He will. But a terrible choice must be made. An impossible choice. Please don't force him to make it alone." Rose's voice cracked and she had to swallow down the rest of what she wanted to say.
"You are asking me to change the future." Romana stated harshly. "After you already told me that you know you can't do that."
"No," Rose quickly shook her head and denied that. "No, the future must unfold. All I am saying is don't let him make the choice alone. He thinks he's better alone, but if you know him at all, you know that isn't true."
"No, it is not true. He once almost broke the entire…" she broke off abruptly and let out a heavy sigh, that said more than any words ever could. She was struggling under the weight of the War, of being strong in such hard times. "Never mind that now. A different life."
"Just be there with him, please. Let him know that he isn't alone." Rose blinked back tears, unsure who her heart was breaking for the most at this moment.
"You care for him very much."
"The Doctor showed me a better way of living. He gave me a better life, made me a better person. He does that for everyone he touches." Rose almost had herself back under control, if there was anything that she could talk about with utter assurance and conviction, it was this.
"It's more than that, though. I know that the Doctor loves your planet, your people. But I have never met anyone who defends him as fiercely. Were you and he...?" Ramona trailed off delicately and for that Rose was grateful, this was no one else's business.
Rose didn't answer and put her hand on the doorknob. "Goodbye, Romana."
"Wait." Romana walked forward and unclasped her necklace.
"What is this for?" Rose questioned, when Ramona placed the beautiful necklace in her hand. The red stone twinkled up at her, small but stunning, the chain looked like platinum, but felt sturdier, even just resting in Rose's hand.
"You have given me fair warning. This is my gift to you."
"I can't accept this." Rose shook her head, trying to place the necklace back in Ramona's hand, but Ramona closed her hands into fists instead and took a step backwards.
"I insist. Please, put it on." Romana made a gesture like she was wrapping it around her neck for her.
Rose hesitated but put it on when Romana gave her an impatient look. Immediately the empty spot inside her head felt better. Not filled, but not the ragged gaping wound that it had been. She moaned with relief at the diminished pain and gave Romana a questioning look.
"It is mildly telepathic. I can tell by the you hold your head that it is empty. That's a terrible burden that no one should feel." Romana clasped Rose's shoulder. "It is nowhere near the same as having a bond, but it will help with the emptiness."
"I...thank you." Rose's knees were slightly weak at the sudden lightness of her burden.
"I wish you all of the best." Ramona's voice was nearly a whisper and Rose knew it was time to leave. But first…
"So the Doctor was president once?" Rose joked, smiling with her tongue poked out and touching her top lip.
"Once? Oh no, he was the Lord President twice. He was horrified both times and did whatever he could to escape the confines of his office." Ramona snorted, the inelegant sound at odds with her elegant appearance, which caused peals of laughter to fall from Rose, and the sound made Ramona start laughing too. For a second, they were just two young (looking) women laughing over the absurdity of a man. No matter the species, no matter how many genders she came across, Rose had learned well that laughing over antics of men could be used to bond females.
Rose felt tears well up suddenly, cutting off her laughter. In another life, in a kinder universe, she could see them being friends. She rushed and hugged her quickly, ignoring the squeak of protest, before letting go and hurrying out, unable to look back.
