hello everyone! yes, i am still alive, in case you were wondering! :P

so sorry about the delay, firstly i had yet ANOTHER case of witers block. it was horrible! - i knew what i wanted to say, but i just couldn't get it into contex! aaaaa!
secondly, my internet on my laptop broke! :O and i nearly died! so i have spent practicaly all week trying to get it onto my computer (which is still - luckily - working and connceted to this wonderful thing known as an internet!

sorry, this chapter is quite short, but i think it says a lot. well, Rose does at least! i wrote it to basicly fill up the gaps (well, some of them anyway!)

i think, in the end, this chapter was alright, but please REVIEW, and tell me what you think! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!! PLEASE!!

anyway, hopefully the next chpater wll be along shortly, but i'm making no promises.

enjoy! (and if you do, why not write a REVIEW. also, if you don't, why not write a REVIEW. either way, please write a REVIEW!)


"What is it? What did you do?" Donna asked, flying down the TARDIS after Rose,

"I just… I dunno! It just, sorta, made sense, like, everything I've been doing up to this moment has suddenly clicked, and I only have one, last part of the puzzle to slot into place, and then it'll be ready," Rose replied, almost disappearing round the corner, as she whizzed towards the control room, now covered in drawings, wires, scribbled notes and various other objects.

Pulling the door open, Rose practically jumped into the main room of the TARDIS, closely followed by an out-of-breath, but very excited, Donna.

With only a seconds hesitation, Rose was at the controls, flicking leavers, pulling strings, pressing buttons. Donna was filled with a memory of the Doctor, looking very similar as he ran round the TARDIS, setting them off on another adventure to God-knows-where, but she pushed it to the back of her head. Now wasn't the time for memories. Now was time for the present.

"Right, now then Donna, hold this down for me…" Rose pointed to one of the millions of buttons on the TARDIS desk, "…And this too…" And then she was off again, running like a madman, "Okay, release the first one, and pull this down… SLOWLY!" she indicated to a small leaver, just to the right of Donna's already stretched arm.

Rose jumped back to Donna, and, sensing the trouble she was in to reach, pressed down on her left hand, whispering in her ear "I've got this one."

She held Donna's button down for 10 seconds, before flying off again, flicking switch after switch, pulling leaver after leaver, pressing button after button, before she finally came to a rest, standing just over Donna's right shoulder. "You can let go of that one now," she murmured from somewhere behind Donna's ear.

Donna turned round, just in time to see a worried frown adorn Rose's face as she looked at the screen, but that frown was quickly hidden behind a huge grin, and a wave of her hand, beckoning Donna to come and sit with her on the floor.

"So… What d'you wanna know first?" she asked, slightly out of breath after that running episode.

"Um… For starters… What are we actually doing here?" Donna stuttered out. Rose had never really made it very clear as to what they were doing, she had simply given Donna instructions, and told her to get on with whatever it was that she was meant to be doing.

"Well, basically, this all comes back to the Bad Wolf, and that…"

"But what is the Bad Wolf?" Donna interrupted,

"I was getting there!" Rose insisted, slightly agitated by Donna's interruption. In reality, she was planning to avoid going into any huge details about the Bad Wolf, but if she was going to do that again, then Donna had a right to know. Rose took a deep breath before continuing. "Donna, the Bad Wolf is deep and complicated, if you wanna understand it, you are gunna have to know the full story. And I'm gunna have to work out where to start!" She ended, with a poor attempt at a laugh, instead finding herself with a small, sad smile on her face.

Rose thought for a moment before continuing, "I suppose it started on Satellite Five, but known to the human race then as the Game Station, 1,000 channels all bursting out game shows all day and all night, for the entire human race to watch. And they had to watch them, cuz the air was toxin, and there was nothing else to watch. It was horrible. But the Doctor and I, we realised what was going on. We found out who was in charge of the Game Station, and with it, the human race.

"What we found was worse, much worse than every single human watching telly all day. We found the Daleks. And the Emperor of the Daleks." Rose paused for a moment, allowing her words to sink in. Donna's face was unreadable, but Rose supposed that she just wanted to get to the part where she finds out where the Bad Wolf comes in. Well, she thought, she'll just have to wait. Because a lot of it didn't make sense unless you know how they got there.

"But it was alright, cuz me and the Doctor… and Jack…. We found a way… We found a way of stopping them." Donna looked up, her face still unreadable, but a little amount of pity shone through her eyes. Pity for Rose, for her disability to get through this without stumbling, for her obvious love of the Doctor, and for so many different reasons that even she could never place. Rose looked back at Donna before continuing with her explanation. "You see, the Doctor worked out that he could make this… um… this… Delta Wave, and with it, wipe out the Dalek race. But he miscalculated, he didn't realise how much area the transmitter would cover. He worked out that it would destroy all of us on board as well as the Daleks… and the humans, although he never told me that it would destroy the Earth." Rose's voice wavered, and she closed her eyes for a moment before carrying on, "Um, yer, so, he tricked me. He tricked me into going in the TARDIS, and then he sent me home. An Emergency Program One started up, telling me to have a 'fantastic life', but I knew, from that moment, that nothing could possibly be 'fantastic' without him there." Tears began to leak, ever so slightly, out of the corners of Rose's eyes, but still, Donna stared on, lost in her own thoughts. Rose wondered for a moment if what she was saying was being lost on Donna, but something told her that Donna was listening better than Rose herself.

"Anyway, he sent me home. But I never really was one for staying at home, and I did it. I worked out a way to get myself back.

"Donna Noble, I looked into the heart of the TARDIS, and absorbed the Time Vortex. That's what the Bad Wolf is. It's me." Rose finished, simply. Alright, maybe she could've just told Donna that the Bad Wolf was her, but then Donna wouldn't have understood. She wouldn't have understood the complexity of the situation.

"I absorbed the Time Vortex because I knew, somehow, that the Doctor would die if I didn't get back to him. If I didn't save him." Forgotten tears returned to Rose's eyes with a vengeance as she ended with, "So I did it. I saved him. But at a cost. The Time Vortex was killing me, there was just… to much knowledge for my mind to hold, so the Doctor, he took it out of me. Don't ask how, he never said. But her did. I saved him that day, and in return, he saved me. But it killed him. He had to regenerate, because no-one can ever hold the entire Time Vortex. So he changed, every single cell. But it was still him. Even though it took me a while to realise that." Rose bowed her head slightly, hiding her eyes, "I am the Bad Wolf. And now I must be again," she whispered, slowly getting back to her feet. "Understand?"

"Yes… No… I don't know." Donna said, following Rose back to the TARDIS computer-like screen, "I get how you're the Bad Wolf, yeah, and I get the whole 'Time Vortex kills' idea. But what I don't understand, is what we're going to do now?"

Rose looked at Donna, regret clear in her eyes, "Donna, I'm gunna have to do it again. Be the Bad Wolf, to save the Doctor."

"But… won't that kill you?" Donna asked, full of concern.

Rose merely laughed, nodding sadly. "It's possible. But it's a risk I'm gunna have to take. For the good of the Doctor."

Donna closed her eyes. Didn't Rose know, if she died, then the Doctor would probably die. He needed to know Rose was alive and safe, or that would be the end of him. That thought was all that had kept him going for the past years, and Donna was the only person who knew that. Just how much Rose Tyler meant to him. She was his life, his reason for fighting. If the Time Vortex destroyed her, then there would be nothing left for him. And Donna knew that.

"Rose… she whispered, placing a hand on her arm. Rose tensed slightly, but looked up into concerned eyes.

Donna never got to finish her sentence, however, when a loud beeping filled their ears, and Rose jumped away from Donna, rocketing round the TARDIS, before finally coming to rest by the screen.

She looked at the Gallifreyan words and symbols that she now understood so well, and buried her face in her hands.

"Is that bad?" Donna asked, suddenly very alert, "Okay it's bad… How bad is it?"

Rose just sat there, staring at her hands. Eventually, after what seemed like forever, she looked up at Donna, sorrow pouring out of her.

"Yer, it's bad," she said, a sad, regret-filled smile appearing on her face,

"What is it?" Donna asked, noticing how suddenly Rose's expression changed from one filled with so much hope, to one that said, very loudly and clearly 'I'm sorry'.

"It says… If I do this… Then I could… Then I might…" Rose tried, but she just couldn't find the words.

"Donna Noble, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. But I might kill you."