Shakespeare Code: Part 3
Rose and the Doctor ran, hand in hand, back to the theatre. They got a little turned around in the maze of streets, but as they turned the corner that brought the Globe into view, they saw a frightening, red cyclone swirling above it.
"I told thee so! I told thee!" the man who had earlier insisted that the world would end in fire shouted after them.
"Stage door!" the Doctor called and tugged Rose around to the side of the building. Once inside, they found Will just waking up where he was sprawled out on a bench backstage.
"Stop the play. I think that was it. Yeah, I said, stop the play!" the Doctor yelled as he ran past him toward the stage.
"I hit my head," Shakespeare said in his defense.
"Yeah, don't rub it, you'll go bald. I think that's my cue!" he called over his shoulder, hearing the audience screaming in fear.
"Now begins the millennium of blood!" the Carrionites shouted threateningly from one of the boxes overlooking the stage from above.
The Doctor, Rose, and Shakespeare ran out onto the stage as they took in the horror that was unfolding. Deep red clouds swirled directly overhead, shadowy creatures could be seen within them.
"The Doctor. He lives!," Lilith exclaimed in shock. "Then watch this world become a blasted heath! They come. They come!" Lilith cried and held a crystal upwards, releasing huge, bat-like creatures from the portal.
"Come on, Will! History needs you!" the Doctor shouted over the roar of the wind.
"But what can I do?" he argued, staring at the spectacle fearfully.
"Reverse it!" the Doctor told him, as if that should be obvious.
"How am I supposed to do that?" Will questioned.
"It was your words that called them here, your words can send them back," Rose encouraged him.
"The shape of the Globe gives words power, but you're the wordsmith, the one true genius. The only man clever enough to do it," the Doctor added.
"But what words? I have none ready!" the playwright told them helplessly.
"You're William Shakespeare!" the Doctor insisted.
"But these Carrionite phrases, the need such precision," Will argued.
"Will, you're brilliant. When you're writing, the words just come to you, don't they? Just like magic, they make their way from your mind onto the page," Rose pressed, knowing that they were running out of time.
"Trust yourself. Words of the right sound, the right shape, the right rhythm. Words that last forever. That's what you do, Will. You choose perfect words. Do it. Improvise," the Doctor added.
William Shakespeare squared his shoulders as he braced himself for the attempt. "Close up this din of hateful, dire decay, decomposition of your witches' plot. You thieve my brains, consider me your toy. My doting Doctor tells me I am not!" he shouted confidently.
"No! Words of power!" Lilith cried fearfully as they watched Will on the stage.
"Foul Carrionite spectres, cease your show! Between the points…" Will continued and looked to the Doctor for the numbers that he needed.
"Seven six one three nine oh!" he supplied encouragingly.
"Seven six one three nine oh! Banished like a tinker's cuss, I say to thee…" Shakespeare continued, but got stuck looking for a rhyming word that would send them away.
Rose wanted to help, but the only words that came to mind were from their conversation earlier about Harry Potter. Oh, why not. She shouted, "Expelliarmus!"
"Expelliarmus!" the Doctor echoed, smiling brightly at her.
"Expelliarmus!" Shakespeare repeated in agreement with their choice.
"Good old JK!" the Doctor laughed.
The Carrionites began to scream loudly as the swirling clouds began to pull the monsters back into the portal. The words seemed to have had the desired effect.
"The deep darkness! They are consumed!" Lilith cried painfully as they watched all of their sisters disappear along with the pages of the play.
"Love's Labour's Won. There it goes," the Doctor commented.
There was a loud flash and bang. Suddenly, the room was clear. No Carrionites, papers, or anything to be seen. The people below were silent. Suddenly, someone started clapping, and everyone else quickly joined in. There were whistles and cheers.
"Oh my god. They think it was all special effects?" Rose gasped.
"Your effect is special indeed," Will said flirtatiously.
The Doctor scowled at him and grabbed Rose's hand to bring her along with him up into the balcony where the Carrionites had been. There was a crystal ball sitting on the floor, the three witches scratching against the inside of the glass as they tried to escape their prison. The Doctor picked up the crystal and tossed it in the air playfully.
"Careful!" Rose gasped, worried that he'd drop it and inadvertently release them.
"Not to worry! I've got a spot in the TARDIS where this lot can scream for all eternity," the Doctor told her with a wink.
"I don't even wanna know what's all in the TARDIS now," Rose said, staring at the small globe in the Doctor's hands.
They made their way back down to the stage to say their goodbyes to William Shakespeare and along the way, the Doctor picked up a large skull from the prop room. He also snagged a neck ruffle and put it on, playfully.
"Well, it's been fun, Will. But I think we're off," Rose told him and gave him a friendly hug.
"Are you sure that your heart belongs to him? He seems reluctant to show his affections," Will teased, noting the glare that the Doctor gave him from over her shoulder.
Rose blushed, but didn't answer.
"The Doctor may never kiss you. Why not entertain a man who will?" Will whispered in her ear.
"It's not gonna happen, Will," Rose rebuked him, backing away a bit. How did people stand to kiss one another before dental hygiene?
"Good props store back there. I'm not sure about this though. Reminds me of a Sycorax," the Doctor announced loudly, pretending that he wasn't bothered at all by their interactions.
"Sycorax. Nice word. I'll have that off you as well," Will told him admiringly.
"I should be on ten percent. How's your head?" he wondered.
"Still aching," Shakespeare admitted.
"Here, I got you this." The Doctor held out a familiar ruffled collar, stepped closer, and wrapped it around Shakespeare's neck.
"Neck brace," he announced. "Wear that for a few days till it's better, although you might want to keep it. It suits you."
"What about that play?" Rose asked.
"Gone. I looked all over. Every single copy of Love's Labour's Won went up in the sky," the Doctor told them.
"My lost masterpiece," Will lamented.
"Well, lots of other masterpieces to write, yeah?" Rose suggested.
"I suppose, I could rewrite it," Will pondered.
"Yeah, better not, Will. There's still power in those words. Maybe it should best stay forgotten," the Doctor told him warningly.
"Oh, but I've got new ideas. As you said, Dame Rose, other masterpieces await. Perhaps it's time I wrote about fathers and sons, in memory of my boy, my precious Hamnet," he mused happily.
"Anyway, time we were off. Rose and I have more exploring to do," the Doctor announced, eager to be on their way.
"You mean travel on through time and space," Will corrected him.
"You what?" the Doctor gasped.
"How did you-?" Rose questioned with wide eyes.
"You're from another world like the Carrionites, and Rose is from the future. It's not hard to work out," Will told them confidently.
"That's incredible. You are incredible," the Doctor admitted.
"We're alike in many ways, Doctor. Rose, Let me say goodbye to you in a sonnet. 'The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem, For that sweet odour which doth in it live-"
He was suddenly interrupted by two of the actors bursting in.
"Will!" one of them called.
"Will, you'll never believe it. She's here! She's turned up!" the other one cried out.
"We're the talk of the town. She heard about last night. She wants us to perform it again!" the first one exclaimed
"Who's she?" Rose asked.
"Her Majesty. She's here!"
They heard a fanfare, then Queen Elizabeth the first walked in, followed by two guards.
"Queen Elizabeth the First!" the Doctor beamed as the elderly monarch entered the building.
"Rose Tyler," the woman yelled in shock and anger.
"What?!" Rose gasped, not sure why the queen would seem to despise her so much.
"And her meddlesome husband, the Doctor," Elizabeth continued.
"I beg your pardon?!" the Doctor squeaked and audibly swallowed.
"Off With their heads!" the queen ordered loudly.
"What?!" the Doctor and Rose cried in unison.
Shakespeare started laughing merrily at the sight, enjoying the show in front of him.
"Run!" Rose screamed and grabbed the Doctor's hand.
William Shakespeare just sat on his bale of hay and laughed as the two guards chased the Doctor and Rose out of the theatre.
XxXxXxXx
"Stop in the name of the Queen!" one of the guards shouted at the pair of travelers, who were certainly not going to stop.
"What have we done to upset her?" Rose questioned worriedly.
"How should I know? We haven't even met her yet. That's time travel for you. Still, can't wait to find out," he told her with a grin and pushed her inside the TARDIS. "That's something to look forward to. Ooo!" he added and ducked inside himself just as an arrow stuck into the door behind him.
XxXxXxXx
A few days, two trips, and one jail cell later, Rose and the Doctor were running through London, chasing after a hoix.
"Doctor! Doctor! Doctor!" a mysterious blonde woman called after him.
"Hello. Sorry, bit of a rush. There's a sort of thing happening. Fairly important we stop it," he said, trying to excuse himself to go and help Rose.
"My God, it's you. It really is you. Oh, you don't remember me, do you?" the woman said in awe.
Rose ran past him, carrying a red bucket and shouting, "Doctor, are you sure it's the red bucket? Cause last time, you said-"
"No! It's the blue bucket!" he shouted.
"Last time you said NOT blue!" she argued.
"I know what I said!" he shouted and turned back to the woman. "Look, sorry, I've got a bit of a complex life. Things don't always happen to me in quite the right order. Gets a bit confusing at times, especially at weddings. I'm rubbish at weddings, especially my own."
"Oh, my God, of course. You're a time traveller. It hasn't happened to you yet. None of it. It's still in your future," the woman realized.
"What hasn't happened?" he questioned distractedly as he watched Rose duck down an alleyway nearby.
"Doctor! Come on! This thing is heavy!" Rose shouted from the alley.
"It was me. Oh, for God's sake, it was me all along. You got it all from me!," the woman realized.
"Got what?" the Doctor asked in confusion, Hoix mostly forgotten.
"Okay, listen. One day you're going to get stuck in 1969. Make sure you've got this with you. You're going to need it," she told him as she handed over a plastic folder filled with papers.
"Doctor!" Rose screamed and ran out of the alley, a frightening growl following her.
"Yeah, listen, listen, gotta dash. Things happening. Rather nasty, smelly, dangerous things," he told her and began to bounce on his toes as he itched to rescue his companion.
"Okay. Right," Sally said, staring at the hoix with wide eyes.
"What was your name?" the Doctor asked.
"Doctor, it didn't work!" Rose yelled, her trainers pounding on the pavement as quickly as she could manage, back towards the other bucket.
"Sally, Sally Sparrow. Shouldn't you?" She pointed toward Rose. .
"Good to meet you, Sally Sparrow. Might wanna get inside." A man came by and Sally took his hand.
"Goodbye, Doctor," Sally called out as the Doctor ran to help Rose.