Chapter 8:
"So what do you think we'll find there?" Rose asked excitedly, smiling at the Doctor from the other side of the console.
"I'm hoping…" His stomach growled, loudly enough for both of them to hear. He looked at it for a moment, as if trying to figure out what the sound was, before looking back up at her. "Bananas."
She burst out laughing. "You're always hoping we'd find bananas."
"Oi! What's wrong with bananas?" He asked, insulted.
"Nothing," She said, pretending to be serious, which only made him look even more insulted. "Absolutely nothing."
"No, seriously, what's wrong with bananas?!"
The Doctor pressed a button, speeding it up. "We were both there, we know what happened," He mumbled, trying to hide his insulted look.
But Rose noticed it. Unsure whether this was shocking or unbelievably funny, she found herself asking, "Does losing that argument still bother you?"
"No," He replied immediately, too fast for it to be true.
She started laughing. "That actually still bothers you!"
"No, it doesn't!" Her laughter only turned louder. "Seriously, Rose, would you stop laughing?"
"I can't believe you're a nine-hundred-years-old Time Lord and that actually still bothers you," She managed through her laughter. He pouted. "Would you like me to call Jack and ask him for a banana?"
"Oi!" She kept on laughing, tears beginning to form in the edges of her eyes. "Fine," He said suddenly, stopping the recording. "Then I take it you don't want to see it."
She immediately stopped laughing and glared at him. "Play it."
"I could probably delete it; make sure we could never see it…"
"Doctor."
"…or possibly forget that ever happened…"
"Doctor-"
"…and maybe make sure the TARDIS forgets too…"
"Doctor!" He turned to look at her. She looked serious all of a sudden; too serious for her twenty-six years. "This is our child being conceived. Don't you want to see this just as much as I do?" Her voice was soft, but he knew she wouldn't give up, even if he says no.
But the truth was he did. He wanted to know how it happened. He hesitated for less than a heartsbeat before gently taking one of her hands with his. "Come here," He said, pulling her closer to him. His voice was soft as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Of course I want to see it."
She rested her head against his shoulder. "Do you think we'll actually see… it?"
He shook his head. "Now that I think about it, probably no. We've been gone for so long that day that it could have happened away from her. Besides, I remember you falling and pulling you back in here immediately afterwards; whatever happened had to have happened in between. But we might, at least, get a clue of what exactly happened outside the TARDIS."
She nodded in understanding against his shoulder. "So we'll never know what really happened there?"
"I don't know," He admitted. "Maybe if we find out more about why it happened in the first place we'll be able to remember. Maybe not. There's a chance that, yes, we'll never know what really happened there." He scratched his head, messing his hair in the process. "I hope it's buried somewhere in our memories so we can remember, but there's no way to know if it's really here until we try."
"I've tried." Her voice was quiet all of a sudden. "Don't you think I have? Almost two years without you… I've tried remembering every day; every night. I really can't remember."
He moved away from her and gently cupped her cheek, looking into her eyes. "You didn't have a Time Lord," He said quietly, "Or a TARDIS. You had no hints about what happened. Now there's a chance we could find it. And it's not that tiny."
She nodded in understanding. He resumed the recording.
"Where are we?"
"Orion's Belt." He replied. "358th century. About thirty-four thousand years into your future."
The Doctor stopped the recording and turned to look at her. "If that's thirty-four thousand years into my future, doesn't that make it the 361st century?" She asked, looking back at him.
"That's just what I was thinking." He tilted his head, looking at the screen again. "Actually, it's not 361st; the controls are indicating the 359th century. Why did I say 358th?"
"A mistake?" She suggested.
He shook his head. "No, that doesn't make sense. Besides, you just made that calculation in about ten seconds – why didn't you just ask me that back then?" She opened her mouth to reply and then shut it as she realised she had no response. "Exactly."
"So, then, are we continuing?" She asked as he kept staring at the screen thoughtfully.
"What? Yes, of course." He sped up the recording until they left the TARDIS and walked out to the scorched surface of the planet. "There we go."
"Do you smell it?" Rose asked as they stepped outside.
"The fire?" She nodded. "Yes." He kneeled, putting his glasses on. One of his hands touched the ground and lifted sand up so he could see it. He grimaced when he licked it. "The ground is completely scorched. It's as if somebody burned up the entire city."
"Who could have done that?"
"Any number of people." He got up. Taking off his glasses, he added, "Let's see if any of the other settlements still exists."
They turned back to the TARDIS, just when Rose spotted the little silver arrow flying towards the Doctor. She dove in to protect him and the arrow hit her instead, causing her to fall down. He immediately noticed.
"Rose!" He hurried to kneel down by her side. "Rose!"
He stopped the recording, turning his head to look at her. She raised her eyebrows questioningly, silently asking why he stopped. He hurried to explain. "As far as I can remember, at this point I carried you back to the TARDIS and then we dematerialised. You woke up after a few hours. Whatever happened… it was here."
"I know," She said simply.
He looked at her silently for a moment, a strange look in his eyes, but then turned back to the screen and played the recording. She frowned, wondering what was happening, but didn't question him any further.
Before they could blink, another arrow was shot and reached the Doctor. He picked it up from the skin of his neck, studying it hazily. "What…?" He mumbled.
The sound of steps made him look up. Two men were walking towards him, both of them studying him and Rose. They spoke quietly in an unknown tongue the Doctor couldn't, apparently, fathom, as he frowned and attempted to talk. They stopped in front of him.
"What… Who…?" He mumbled before collapsing next to her.
"What language was that?" She asked him quietly.
The Doctor seemed just as clueless as he did in the recording. "I have no idea. It sounds familiar, but I have absolutely no idea what it is. Look, even the TARDIS can't translate it."
"So it's not Gallifreyan or something like that?" He frowned and she hurried to explain, "You told me that the only language the TARDIS doesn't translate is Gallifreyan."
He nodded briefly in understanding. "Right. No, it's not Gallifreyan." He scratched his head, messing his hair in the process. "It's something we've never heard before, but that's… impossible!" He finished eventually. "The TARDIS has access to the Time Vortex; she knows every language there is. Besides, there isn't anywhere the Time Lords haven't been to. Whatever this is – whatever they are… none of it is supposed to exist."
"And yet they do."
"And yet they do," He echoed in agreement. "It's impossible, but here it is."
"It wouldn't be the first time we've seen the impossible, though," She reminded him.
He tilted his head slightly in agreement. "There's that." His fingers drummed on the console. "The thing is, I know this language. I don't understand a word they say, but I know I've heard it somewhere before."
"Maybe it just sounds like it."
He shook his head. "No. I know I've heard it before." His hand once again went through his brown hair. "If I could just remember how… Think!" He mumbled to himself, "It's somewhere inside my head, I know it is. I need a bigger head!"
She raised her eyebrows, amused, and played the video. They watched as the men – whoever and whatever they were – helped both of them stand up and walk away, whilst still being unconscious. Both Rose and the Doctor stared at the screen in slight horror as all figures disappeared.
"Do you think that's…?" She started, unable to finish the thought.
"No." His eyes were just as wide as hers, telling her he had the exact same thought. "No. No, no… No. Can't be. There's only so much another being can do with external control." He gulped. "No."
"So… Now what?" She asked quietly after a long moment of silence. "That gave us absolutely no answers."
"If anything, it only raised more questions," He agreed. She nodded. "There are so many strange things about this. Who are they? What did they want with us? What did they do to that city? And why on earth were we missing the most obvious things about this place?"
"We could go back," She suggested.
"No," He replied immediately, too fast for it to be anything but an instinct. His eyes narrowed as he realised it. "Why did I say no?" He mumbled.
"Do you think they did it?" She asked, somewhat hesitantly. He turned his head to look at her. She shrugged. "If they did whatever happened to the city, maybe they were the ones who confused us and made us forget."
His eyes widened and he smiled. "Perception Filters," He muttered, his smile turning bigger with every word. "Oh, that is brilliant! You are brilliant! Brilliant Rose Tyler."
She smiled back at him. His excitement and enthusiasm were catchy. "So what does that give us?"
"They're using perception filters. There aren't a lot of races who use perception filters, certainly not ones who use a language the TARDIS can't recognise…" He trailed off as a new idea came to his mind. "Oh, of course! How didn't I think about it?"
"About what?" She asked immediately, but he didn't seem to notice.
"I really am thick sometimes!" He shook his head slightly in disbelief and then grinned at her. "You, Rose Tyler, are absolutely brilliant. I could never have found anyone better to fall in love with." Still grinning at her – and clearly not noticing what he'd just said – he grabbed her hand and pulled her after him as he began running.
