Chapter 8: A Human's Humanity
'I don't understand this!' the Doctor raged as he read the results on the console computer screen. 'I just don't understand this! It shouldn't even be possible.'
Rose sat in the co-pilot's seat, chewing her fingernails. After they got rid of Adam, the Doctor had wanted to scan her to be sure that the torture had done any permanent damage on her body. What he found was not something even she was prepared for. It seemed that all of her cells had stopped ageing at some point. She had no doubt that it had something to do with Bad Wolf. She'd had it in her body once and it was clear it would be in her body again. They kept running into the words.
She looked at him as he crouched in front of her. She could see it scared him. He wrapped his fingers around hers. She wanted to slide into his arms and curl up into a pathetic ball but she knew it was still too early for him.
'Rose, can you think of anything that may have caused this?' he asked.
She shook her head. What could she tell him? She'd once opened a TARDIS and had the vortex swimming around in her head? No, of course not. He'd want to know where she got the TARDIS and how she opened it without the Time Lord who owned it knowing and stopping her. It was still too soon for him to know she was from another dimension.
He sighed heavily and stood up. Rose followed him to the console and watched him work the controls. The look on his face was one Rose had only seen when he was thinking about something he didn't like.
'Where are we going?' she asked.
'I'm honing in on the brainwaves of an old friend of mine,' the Doctor answered. 'If I don't have answers, she probably will. She can feel peoples' life force.'
Rose knew the TARDIS could hone in on the brainwaves of people that had been inside her, but only those people. She could hone in on them, find an appropriate era and land. The Doctor only did this, though, went he wanted to find someone in particular who could be anywhere at all.
'Why?' she asked.
'I'm worried about you,' he told her. 'It's not a natural phenomenon for a human to stop ageing. Wait.' He seemed to consider something. 'You don't have alien DNA anywhere in your heritage, do you?'
'No,' Rose answered. 'I was the first one in my family to get involved with aliens and I was once targeted because I'm a pure-blood human.'
'Right, so no alien cells.' He seemed to consider something else as he walked around the console, working the controls. 'You ever dated an alien, then?'
'Not…properly,' Rose answered. She smiled as she realised he was actually asking her if she'd shagged an alien. 'I haven't opened my legs for an alien, at least.'
He blushed a bit. She figured he was embarrassed that she'd seen right through that one. He looked up at her. 'You sure?'
'I've only had sex with two guys, both of which I dated,' Rose told him. 'Both were human. Mickey freaked out the first time he saw aliens and Jimmy was just too stupid to be an alien.'
'You dated Rickey-boy?' the Doctor asked.
'First, we grew up together,' Rose pointed out. 'It was kind of natural. Second, don't call him that. "Rickey" was Jake's boyfriend. Got converted into a Cyberman.'
'Oh.' He looked contrite.
'So who are we going to?' Rose asked.
'Evelyn Parsons,' the Doctor answered. 'I've yet to find a scientific explanation for what's happened to her, but I'll find it. She was born in 1180 in London. When she was eighteen, she stopped ageing. She's able to sense your life force, like I said before. She can also bring back the dead, but she also has to sacrifice another life to do it, so she doesn't do it very often.'
The TARDIS landed with a light thump. The Doctor took her hand and led her out and into the streets outside. It was late at night and it seemed to be a small country town. Rose stepped out and looked around.
'Where are we?' she asked.
The Doctor tipped his head back and inhaled. 'Australia. Early-mid 2010s. Lowest point of the Earth. That makes this the town of Raven.'
'Raven?' Rose asked.
'In the Valley of Ashes,' the Doctor announced. 'This place was the worst place to send someone back when Australia was a mass of convict colonies. They sent the killers down here.'
'Hm, explains why the names are so depressing,' Rose remarked.
'Yeah,' the Doctor agreed. 'Come on.'
The Doctor knew that Evelyn knew they were here. If she didn't show up soon, he was going to…well, he'd have to find her before he worked out what he was going to do. The town was small so he wouldn't have to look very hard.
He jumped when a body sailed through a metal roller door. The person slammed into a car on the other side of the road but still pushed themselves to their feet. Rose saw it was an orange-haired girl with violet eyes. She looked at the Doctor for a moment.
'Be right with you,' she assured him.
She ran back in, swinging through the hole she'd made when she flew out. Rose looked up at the Doctor. He had an expectant look on his face. Rose could guess.
'That's Evelyn Parsons?' she asked.
'Yes,' the Doctor said.
'He got away!' someone else in the building yelled.
A few minutes later, Evelyn came back out. 'Sorry about that, Doctor. The others got reincarnated and we were just dealing with a bit of an alien.'
'A bit of an alien?' Rose laughed.
'Okay,' Evelyn allowed. 'Straight out: it's an alien. I like this one, Doctor. She's got spunk. How long…'
'Is that the guy that you credit for the continued existence of the human race?' a blonde girl asked as she stepped out.
'Yup,' Evelyn said. 'All right, Doctor, guess I better introduce the rest of the Guardians. The blonde's Taylor Isuni. The brunette's Shayne Resoil. The redhead's Payni Silk and that's Tiara Shanning. So, like I was saying: how long have you had this one?'
'About six months, by Earth calculations,' the Doctor answered.
'Seems a bit experienced for a six-monther,' Evelyn remarked.
'My dad runs Torchwood,' Rose explained.
'Oh!' Evelyn laughed and nodded. 'That explains it.'
Shanning Stables was the motel that Tiara's mortal parents owned. She lived there. It was also there that the Doctor explained to the Guardians what they'd shown up for in the first place. Evelyn seemed confused.
'I had noticed it,' she explained. 'It's not immortality, per say. She can still die, I think. Shayne?'
'Her cells feel no different to ours,' Shayne answered. 'Except that they can't heal over immediately again.'
Evelyn looked at Rose. 'It's almost like you've touched some colossal power that you shouldn't have touched.' She turned her attention to the Doctor, 'How many options do we have?'
'Not too many,' the Doctor answered. 'She shouldn't have been able to touch any of them either. She was a human living in 2010, London when we met.'
'About two years ago,' Evelyn remarked. 'I was in London two years ago. Outside of the Cybermen ordeal and the ideology swap about five years beforehand, nothing big really happened.'
Tiara said nothing.
'Oh, well,' the Doctor muttered. 'It was worth a try. Now, what's this about an alien?'
They decided it was no good trying to find the alien until the next day. Rose was about to go to bed when there was a knock at the door of the room Tiara had given her. She went to answer it and found Tiara herself there.
'Hi,' Tiara said. 'I wanted to talk to you about something.'
'Sure.' Rose stepped aside. 'Come in.'
She let Tiara in and closed the door behind her. Tiara walked over and sat on the small kitchen island in the room. Rose watched her curiously. Tiara seemed to gather her thoughts before she spoke, 'Did the Doctor tell you what the Guardians are?'
'Not really,' Rose answered. 'Just about the immortality and that he was looking for a scientific explanation.'
'He can look for a scientific explanation 'til the cows come home,' Tiara responded with a slight smile. 'There isn't one. Maybe it's because of his age. The idea that there's no such thing as magic is too deeply rooted in his head. Or maybe there is a scientific explanation, but it'd be too complex. I don't think anyone would be able to find, understand and explain it. We're immortal and we can't die. We never get any older than eighteen and we have the souls of one so-called mythical creature each.'
'Why?' Rose asked.
'Because three men—Cecil, his brother, Randolph and a warlock called Genika—sold their humanity for immortality,' Tiara answered. 'Somebody had to stop them. We're still working on it, though. Cecil was an executioner and Randolph was a torturer.'
'So they were sadistic?' Rose asked.
'Very sadistic.' Tiara nodded, 'Taylor, Shayne, Payni and me were killed back in 1180. Evelyn was killed too, but she had the soul of a Phoenix. She just rose out of her own ashes. Like she said, we had to be reincarnated. There are five elements and five basic life-form functions. We each control one element and one function. The elements are air, fire, water, earth and spirit. The functions are the mind, the body, hearing, sight and life itself.'
Rose could figure where this was going. 'Let me guess. Evelyn can control spirit and life and you can control the mind?'
'And air, yes,' Tiara agreed.
'So, you know then?' Rose asked.
'That you're from another dimension and you touched the time vortex, yes,' Tiara said. 'I spoke to the others. It explains everything. Your body has reached a state far beyond what any human—even an immortal one—has ever reached before. Your mind's expanded, you're using a lot more of it. The Doctor would have you believe he's got a bigger brain. Not true. Time Lords just use more of their brains. They use 100%, where normal humans only use 10% of their brains. I use 65.5% of mine. You use about 50%. All because you took the vortex in. If you were to do it again, you would have a lot more control. More than that. Your brain usage would increase again. This time to 100%, just like his. But, either way, that's why all of this has happened to you.'
'I'll have to take the vortex in again,' Rose told her.
She picked up a magazine that was sitting on the table. One of the subtitles said "Bad Wolf". Rose pointed to that. Tiara squinted.
'"Bad wolf"?' she asked. 'What's that got to do with it?'
'We've been running into these two words everywhere we go, just like in my original dimension,' Rose answered. 'I put them there after I absorbed the vortex. It was a message to lead myself there.'
'Well,' Tiara scratched her head, 'Evelyn says dimensions that have coincidences in events aren't having coincidences in events. I will say this, though. Next time, you'll have a lot more control over it. What happened last time?'
'The Doctor had to take it out of me,' Rose answered. 'It killed him. He had to regenerate.'
'Hmm,' Tiara looked thoughtful. 'I reckon this time you should be able to get it out yourself. Just remember what will happen if you don't.'
'I will,' Rose agreed. 'He's only got thirteen lives. But what will happen if he finds out about my higher brain usage?'
'He'll either figure it out—that you've seen the Time Vortex—or he'll assume you were attacked by a mind-attacking alien and saved by a telepath, simply because they're the only ones that can,' Tiara explained. 'Mind-attacking aliens generally prey on beings that don't use much of their brains because they're too weak to kick them out, or even notice them. Some of these mind-attackers open up all the channels in the brain so they can feed on the input. The feeding will eventually kill the victim.'
'And telepaths can sense these mind-attackers?' Rose asked.
'Yes,' Tiara answered. 'The more advanced your brain is, the less likely it is that one of these little buggers will attack it.'
'How come?' Rose asked.
'More defences,' Tiara explained. 'Like, if I wanted a prod around in the Doctor's mind but I didn't ask, he could put up a barrier and I wouldn't be able to get in. He's tinkering. He and Payni are building something. Should keep him distracted so that he won't notice me teaching you how to put up the defences.'
'Nice!' Rose laughed.
The Doctor looked the gadget over. He had to admit, Payni was very good with technology, especially for a human of the early 21st century. He ran over what he knew of this time and place. Her father owns Silk Industries. That explained it. She'd been raised her whole life around technology manufacturing so she knew exactly how it worked.
The first step was finding it. The device that the Doctor and Payni had built was designed to track the alien down. Once they tracked it down, it was only a matter of cornering it. There were three ways it could get out of the alley it was in, unless it had a teleport.
The Doctor and Rose would be coming along the south entrance, which had quite a few twists and turns along it. Tiara, Taylor and Evelyn would be coming down the north entrance, which was a lot more direct than the south entrance. Shayne and Payni, who were a lot more brash and impulsive than the other three Guardians, would be coming down the rooftops.
Rose smiled as she and the Doctor walked through the alley. If they weren't looking for an alien, she knew she would've fanaticised about the Doctor pushing her against the wall and having his "wicked" way with her. And she knew he thought about it because, in her original dimension, after his regeneration he'd actually admitted it with an adorable little blush. She hadn't lied when she'd said she'd never opened her legs for an alien. She and his counterpart had been kissing but they hadn't crossed the line yet. She'd make sure she crossed the line with this one first, though.
'What are you thinking about?' the Doctor suddenly asked.
She smiled. 'You probably don't want to know.'
'Okay, now I'm really curious,' he told her. 'What are you thinking about?'
At this point, he stopped her and turned her to face him. He was staring at her, trying to understand. She had already, early on, told him that she didn't appreciate anyone prodding into her head without permission. Now was the perfect opportunity to do it.
'All right,' she said.
She grabbed the openers of his jacket and yanked him forward. He made a slight sound of surprise as she kissed him. He was frozen, probably not comprehending that this was really happening, and his eyes were open in shock as she kissed him. She slid her arms around his waist. She was going to enjoy having the upper hand on his while she could. After all, she'd probably have to play it down later.
He suddenly seemed to recover himself. His lips moved over hers and he deepened the kiss. One of his hands cupped her head and the other pulled her firmly against his frame. She nipped his bottom lip and he groaned. As soon as the sound left his throat, however, he seemed to remember himself.
His hands grabbed her shoulders and he pushed her away, breaking the kiss. She saw the terror in his eyes a minute before he averted his gaze. She knew he'd never been close to someone like that. Never loved someone and kissed them, so this was a strange and terrifying ordeal to him. Finally, with all his emotions in check, he looked back up at her.
'What do you think you're doing?' he demanded.
'You asked what I was thinking,' she answered innocently.
'You were thinking about kissing me?' he asked sceptically.
'Threw you off, didn't it?' she teased playfully.
The Doctor laughed. 'You did that just to throw me off?'
'I might've done.' She gave him the tongue-in-teeth grin.
'You're gonna be the death of me, Rose Tyler,' he told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and leading her on.
Payni had to grin to herself and she and Shayne watched the alien from the rooftops of the alley, because Payni could also see Rose and the Doctor. She knew Rose had just snogged the Doctor. As much as Rose played it down, Payni knew the truth as well as the rest of the Guardians did.
Rose had come to be with him through her own choice. Not because she wanted the aliens and spaceships. She already had that at home. And not because of the time travel. She came to be with him because she loved him more than her own life. He would learn that in time.
It was no matter now. The alien had come out of hiding. It was time for action.
The Doctor was one of Evelyn's best friends outside of the other Guardians. She did feel guilty for lying to him and saying they didn't know what was up but he would find out eventually. The only reason they'd gotten away with it was because the Doctor didn't know the full ability of Tiara's mind powers.
Evelyn stepped up, she and Taylor flanking Tiara, as the alien came out of hiding. As they remembered, it was vaguely human in shape but it had purple skin that was covered in what looked like studs.
'You again?' it hissed. 'What do I have to do to get rid of you?'
'Leave the planet,' Tiara answered. 'The humans are not food.'
'You certainly aren't,' he remarked snidely. 'And where are your other two then?'
Taylor pointed up. Shayne and Payni were visible standing on those buildings. The alien snarled. Taylor then smirked.
'Oh, and we've got a couple of friends.'
As she said this, the Doctor and Rose walked around the corner. The alien saw the Doctor first. He squinted.
'You're not human,' he observed.
'No,' the Doctor answered. 'I'm the Doctor.'
Then the alien saw Rose. Fear entered its life force. Evelyn guessed it could feel the leftover power that was still running through the blonde girl. He took at step back and gasped, 'Wolf!'
The Doctor and Rose watched the fire burning. Shayne had lit it, with her power, to cremate the alien. A proper burial across the universe and a way to remove the evidence of its existence from humans who weren't ready for the existence of aliens. It still amazed the Doctor to no end how some creatures could be so scared of something—a wolf of some sort—that they would kill themselves. And it'd mistaken Rose for this wolf creature. The Doctor looked over at the Guardians, who stood there watching it burn. For a moment, all five turned their eyes to the Doctor and Rose with a silent goodbye.
The Doctor took Rose's hand and led her back to the TARDIS. He may not have found his answers today, but he would soon. He still had all the time in the universe, after all. Inevitably, he would find the answer. In the meantime, he would keep an eye on Rose. Also, he needed to understand why that kiss made him react like a…like a bloody human.
