This chapter goes parallel to chapter nine.
Previously on The TARDIS Call.
A second that cost her life as one of the guards shot her, with a gasp she fell inside of the ship and the doors closed behind her; leaving only the trail of blood as proof that she had been there and the bullet that had pierced her heart.
Chapter Ten: "Rose Tyler Rises"
She didn't know how she got here, where ever 'here' was, or how her clothing had changed, but this place was truly beautiful, and Rose realized she didn't mind being in this strange place because she felt truly safe and at peace for some unexplainable reason. Still lying on the ground she could feel the blades of the red grass through her thin, soft white and gold dress. She felt the comforting warmth of the twin suns overhead in the beautiful burnt orange sky; the trees around her were covered in silver leaves. The suns glow was bouncing off the silver leaves making the trees appear to be on fire.
"My Cub"
A voice called from nearby, Rose sat up and looked around until she found a woman who looked like her –in a goddess kind of way. She had long blonde hair, her eyes appeared to be made of liquid gold and she wore a long vaporous blue dress that moved and flowed around her as if wind was playing with it.
"TARDIS?" Rose asked confused at the appearance of this strange but still familiar woman "Where are we?"
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" The Tardis spoke tears in her eyes, her voice full of sadness and guilt "I didn't intend for it to happened this way, I should have seen this coming. I just wanted you safe my Cub."
"What happened? What are you talking about?" Rose frowned confusedly at her words.
"You died" The woman confessed sheepishly. She looked away from Rose not wanting to see the pain realization would bring.
The memories came to Rose in a flash of images; she remembered the hot searing pain in her chest, the warm thick blood covering her body and clothes, falling face first onto the TARDIS floor, the metallic taste of blood in her mouth, the feeling of slipping away, of struggling to breath, listening to her heart slow.
Heartbeat.
Heartbeat.
And then everything went dark.
"I died" Rose repeated in disbelief, slowly she moved her hand to her chest but there was no wound there.
"I brought your consciousness here" The TARDIS explained before her eyes went lost "Its volcano day" she murmured looking off to the side before turning her attention back to Rose.
"And where is here?" Rose demanded after several minutes spent in silence, trying to process what had happened. "And why do you look like me? In that posh kind of way" She said jokingly, gesturing to what the other woman was wearing.
"We are on Gallifrey" The TARDIS explained with a soft sad smile. "As a sentient being I choose to look like the one who touched me"
In a strange way this all made sense to Rose, she was dead. So it made sense that the TARDIS brought her to a dead world, but how and why and who and when and all those other questions she had running through her confused mind.
"You said you didn't intended for me to die"
"The little boxes will make him mad" she suddenly whispered with her eyes lost in the distance, Rose frowned confused she had no idea what that meant, but the TARDIS seemed to remember where she was and continued the conversation. "I didn't I would have never hurt you" she insisted taking Rose's hand, looking her in the eye, willing her to believe her words.
"I know" Rose smiled softly, trying to calm the woman in front of her "But why did you bring me here?"
"I stole your consciousness before it could be claimed by death" she said waiting until Rose nodded before she continued "You are needed in the universe my Cub, but now your timeline had been cut short."
"Because I died"
The TARDIS nodded slowly and Rose continued "But I died before in the other universe, I was in this golden liquid something or other" she frowned trying to remember. "And I heard a howl and that song, yours?"
"I had to do that" the TARDIS confessed guiltily avoiding Rose's shocked look "It was the only way to bring my pack together, I sang to you to show you the way back"
"You give me the coordinates, it was the song I heard while I was dead" Rose murmured understandingly "And the howl? What is this entire wolf thing about?"
"You chose it" She replied cryptically.
"I did? When?"
"Now" the TARDIS smiled like a school teacher with a student that is about to get the right answer "Wolves are pack animals, every pack has an alpha male and female, who make all the decisions and protect the pack, they howl to communicate with the other members of the pack even at great distances, and no matter how far a member of the pack runs, they can always hear the howl of their family calling them back" the TARDIS talked like she was reading from the encyclopaedia, and for all Rose knew she was. "Just like a TARDIS"
"Wait, you mean a TARDIS is like a wolf, you have your pack the family you belong to, you sing to each like member the wolf howls to their family, you run through time and space, never staying still, always with your pack"
The TARDIS nodded smiling, proud of her Cub "I stole a Gallifreyan child, my Thief, I made him my pack"
Rose smiled at the idea, the Doctor always acted like he was so alone, but he had the biggest family in the universe. A pack full of brilliant people who ran with him, through time and space, and will always be a part of his pack, regardless of how far they run, they will always belong to him and the TARDIS.
"The only song in the forest is the Melody of the birds and the wind through the trees" again the TARDIS talked like she was reading from a book, and those were the words she caught while flipping quickly through the pages, it must be hard for her to have a linear conversation when she was actively part of so many points in time.
"Ok… So I understand this wolf thing" Rose started trying to keep her friend on track with the conversation "I'm part of your pack, and in this moment I choose to be the Bad Wolf, but I was…" she was going to say how she had been the Bad Wolf long before this moment, but that was normal linear thinking, and life wasn't linear. She thought about it for a moment wondering if this decision she was making now to accept the Bad Wolf would affect her past, all this Timey-Wimey stuff could be so confusing.
"You said it 'I choose to be the Bad Wolf' and nothing has more power than your words" The TARDIS smiled, her Cub had just fulfilled one of the step, she throw the first stone that rippled through time and space, along her time lines. "You wrote the words, in rose petals and let them go in the wind"
"I understand all this, I think, but I'm still dead, how am I going to come back to life?"
"A Gallifreyan female can tie her timeline to a Gallifreyan male, they will live out their lives together for as long as that may be, but at the death of one the other will follow, the only exception to this rule is the pregnancy of the female, who shall live long enough to give birth to her offspring dying at the moment of birth." Once more she talked like she was reading from the encyclopaedia.
"Okay" Rose nodded even if she was more confused now "But I'm not Gallifreyan"
"But you will be…if you accept, I can't make you what you don't wish to be"
Without thinking Rose said "Yes" nodding excitedly.
The second stone was cast rippling through time and space.
Once upon a time Rose had promised someone a forever, and her agreement made that true now, she was more than ready for that forever to begin and this was just one of the necessary steps to fulfilling her promise.
The TARDIS smiled at her, her golden eyes swirled with excitement; she put her hand on Rose's chest and whispered the song Rose knew so well.
The TARDIS opened one part of her console and sent out the time vortex to Rose's body, it was the only way to join them, to bring Rose's consciousness back to her body. The golden energy slithered through the air, until it found Rose's limp body, forcefully went inside her chest soaking her body, howling, calling her back.
With a gasp Rose came back to her body. She screamed in pain, burning from the inside, arching her back trying to crawl out of her skin, digging her nails into the grating of the floor, trying to hold onto some kind of clarity in the madness of the pain that seemed to run through her very being.
"It hurts!"
That was the only thought her burning mind could muster and the part of her that had a fading connection to the TARDIS give her a sheepish answer.
"Birth is never painless and especially not a rebirth"
The connection between the two faded, and becomes once more the murmur of the TARDIS song as she tried to lull Rose's mind away from the physical pain; until as fast as it came the pain stopped.
The force of the time vortex energy intertwined with Rose's regenerative energy that blast through the TARDIS was enough to destroy the paradox and rebuild the TARDIS back to what she used to be. She opened her console once more and absorbed the excess energy back into her heart.
The Wolf was now too weak to do anything but call her mate.
…Doctor…
TBC
Next week we have the reunion, are you excited? I am!
hope you liked this and even (especialy) if you didn't please review and let me know!
See you next sunday =)
Cheers.
-Emily.