CHAPTER 10
The Bad Wolf and the Oncoming Storm
"Is there anything else I need to know Doctor?"
"Yes, Rose before we go any further I need to explain something to you."
"Okay." she said hesitantly and tightened her grip on his hand.
"Oh Bollocks. The easiest way to explain this, I suppose, would be to start from the beginning." Rubbing the back of his neck he pulled her over to the bed and flopped down onto it. Rose sat down next to him and waited for him to continue.
"A Gallifreyan woman was worth her weight in gold Rose, and back before the days of Rassilon, prior to the rule of the Pythia, even couples who bore female children were revered. Scarce were the females of my kind." the Doctor sighed as he continued.
"There was a practise that despite all our advancements in technology we were still yet to be able to rid ourselves of. Because females were so rare, they were often desired by all, doesn't really apply now though, last of the Time Lords and all." he chuckled slightly.
"Tell me, Doctor." Rose said softly and nodded for him to continue.
"Since Lord Rassilon's time we conditioned ourselves against such desire from a young age though we are able to break that conditioning if we so wish. It is a relatively simple matter. Quite easy in fact."
"Doctor, you're babblin' again." Rose laughed.
"Yes I know, I'm stalling. But perhaps when I'm finished you'll understand why."
"Jus tell me yeah?" he nodded and stared as his shoes as he began.
"Gallifreyan bonding, is essentially a practise of marking, creating a bond between mates, signalling to other males and warning them off. We never did work out why, but over the generations unbonded males were unable to have sexual relations. Which means...in order to do so, we would have to bond Rose."
"Yeah, and what's so bad about that Doctor?" Rose couldn't understand his concerns, it wasn't like she wanted anyone else, and to tell the truth, the more she thought about it, the more she herself felt a strange urge to mark him in a likewise manner. The urge to bite, to feed.
"Bonding, as marking is a term I absolutely refuse to use, I don't care to assume that I own my mate despite my body's inclinations. It is painful to the female Rose, at least at the beginning. My race were telepathic, in Gallifreyans it means we are able to hear each other's thoughts, feelings and share experiences ever afterwards. And because you were born human, I don't know how successful this process would be I'm sorry, nor how the pain would differ. I have spent so many centuries without a mate Rose. I can control the level of primal desire, but once the process is begun it is irreversible, I would be unable to stop myself even if I wanted to, and changes will come over me that I would do my best to control, essentially, every emotion, need, want, pain, regret, fear would surge through you, you would feel every one of my experiences as if you yourself had been witness to them, 900 years worth of memories is a lot to take in let alone the emotional baggage that precedes them. It works the same in reverse, just as you would bare witness to mine, I would have the same to yours. I would also become instinctually protective, and jealous of any other males you would have contact with. I would never assume you would agree to the bond and as much as I feel the want to do this, I do not wish to cause you pain, and as you may have guessed the idea of marking itself has never sat well with me. I love
you Rose. You are the first person I've allowed myself to care for in such a way who was not of my own kind, who doesn't know what to expect."
A revelation dawned on her and Rose knowingly smiled at him and giggled slightly.
"Ah, but that's where you're wrong Doctor."
"What?!!"
"While I may not have been born of your species, Doctor, I am Gallifreyan, and I do know what to expect. Four chemicals, three bites. The TARDIS knew what would happen; she explained it all to me."
"But she's wrong Rose, which is unlike the old girl; there are only three chemicals and two marks, one to the neck, one above the heart. The third chemical, well, that's, what I mean to say happens when we, you know...Anyway why would the TARDIS give you the wrong information?"
"She didn't."
"I don't understand, there are only three chemicals tha..." Rose interrupted him mid sentence.
"For you, that's correct, but I am more than just Gallifreyan Doctor." She turned her head away from him pulling her hair back to expose the marking on her neck.
The Doctor gasped and fell off the end of the bed, looking up in awe at the woman who sat before him. Rose, his Rose, a goddess in her own right, marked and protected by Rassilon himself.
"The fourth, Doctor and final mark is mine to make." she smiled as she watched realization dawn on his face.
"But how?" he watched in wonder as she moved over to the wall and pressed her hand lovingly to the TARDIS.
"I am the Bad Wolf, I create myself do you remember? My existence Doctor was prophesized by your people, by Rassilon no less on the eve of his coronation. He knew that one day Gallifrey would burn and come to ruin at the hands of one of its own, not by choice though, the destroyer of worlds forced to destroy his own for the good of the universe. This is why the TARDIS couldn't let you die. Did you ever consider what a coincidence it was that you met me when you did? You were meant to find me my Doctor, to lead me to my destiny. The Lord of Time and a shop girl. Since the dawn of the universe you have always been my destiny. When I looked into the TARDIS, she looked into me and she understood what she had to do. It was never I that brought about the end on Satellite 5, it was you, the last great act of the Time War, was a death bought about by love for another a life given for life to continue."
"I saw all that was, all that is and all there ever could be, and I saw us." A tear fell down her cheek.
"You knew that we would be separated, why didn't you stop it?" he asked still in shock at the magnitude of the situation.
Rose was sobbing lightly as he went to her and placed an arm around her shoulders, holding her tight as she cried.
"Yes, I could have stopped it. But I had no memories of what I had seen at the Gamestation then. It wasn't till I came back to you that they began to realign themselves, I always dreamt about wha happened but I was too afraid to ask you before.
"Please believe me Doctor when I say it was necessary to let me fall. I was the one that told Pete to catch me, I did it from the Gamestation, just before I destroyed the emperor, and I'm so very sorry to have put you through so much pain Doctor, I'm sorry but I had to, to save myself. I saw my own demise at the hands of the Master before my body had time to fully take to the change in DNA, so I had to make sure I wasn't there. I'm sorry, so so sorry my Doctor."
"The Valliant." he breathed as she continued to cry into his chest.
"Yes, It was no mere coincidence the ship was named as it was, nor were its coordinates random, I sent a reminder to you, a reminder of a message scattered by myself through time and space, sending you dreams and memories hoping that you would understand that I was with you and would come back to you."
"It was you, you were the one calling to me in the Vortex, the song, the emotions, it was all you." said the Doctor, a statement of fact rather than a question.
"Yeah." Rose sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes. "He and the TARDIS heard me calling out in desperation, I had sunk so low that I couldn't cope anymore I needed you, I needed to come home. But I didn't remember, couldn't remember any of things that I had done and seen, until I came back, I feed off this universe just as the TARDIS does. She helped me remember, but I couldn't tell you anything until all the pieces fell into place."
"He?" the Doctor questioned already half knowing who 'he' was.
"I am linked to this universe Doctor, through the TARDIS, Jack and through you. He, is the spirit of Rassilon, he who is in essence you. You, whether you realise it or not, protected me in the void while myself and the TARDIS opened the rift." She smiled shyly up at him as a look of confusion crossed his features.
"Me?"
Rose smiled in amusement at the baffled expression now on the Doctors face. He who thought he held all the answers.
"Yes you Doctor. You and me are the final two pieces in the puzzle. Two halves that join to create a whole. United at last, the Bad Wolf and the Oncoming Storm.
Another realisation dawned on him as she spoke. A thought that terrified him nearly to the point of regeneration.
"Rose, do you have any idea the power that was involved in reaching me in the Vortex, that type of power should not be held by any one entity, the corruption of that power would not only destroy you but rip apart this universe and everything within the fabric of reality!" the Doctor began pacing up and down the wall next to Rose, running his fingers through his hair as he thought. This force that Rose had used to get back to him in his mind he could only liken to that of a god., the power of creation and obliteration depending upon whomever got their hands on it.
"Yes." Rose replied to his train of thought "You and I Doctor, were always destined to save the universe, to protect it, this is what Rassilon saw. A joining of love, which cannot be corrupted. In our union, we will become the most powerful beings in the whole of time and space, Lords of Time, protectors of all things, for all eternity."
"No one is ever meant to weild such power Rose, let alone myself. If a Time Lord was to hold the power of the vortex then he would become a god, and a vengeful one at that."
"No you wouldn't Doctor, and it is what you were always meant to be, you being the last was no coincidence either, you were different from all the rest, you and I are the future for the Time Lords, a way to restore their glory to what Rassilon had always hoped that they would become."
"I can't be trusted with that much power Rose."
"No, like you said no one person should have that power, but no one person does Doctor. You and I hold it, and only together can we use and control it. You my Doctor and me, are the only ones that can keep the balance, and the universes in equilibrium. Like I said before Doctor, two halves, one won't work without the other. Destroyer of Worlds and the bringer of life together once more, as it was always meant to be. Please understand me." She begged him to understand.
The Doctor looked into her eyes and finally understood completely what she was trying to tell him, he still couldn't believe that he, the destroyer of worlds had been chosen to become a god no less, and that the love that he shared with this once simple human woman, was indeed the answer to everything. He who thought the universe was against him all this time, only to find that all he had endured in his oh so long life, had all been for this, this one moment in time, to be reunited with Rose, to be loved solely and completely by her with all his faults and failings and be joined to her forever to restore peace and continuity to all that this universe was, is and ever could be. He closed his eyes and could see it now, all of it clearly, he saw his Rose, his best friend his everything, he saw his children that had long since passed and smiled as his eyes opened wide and looked into Rose, into her very soul and saw their future together, saw their beautiful children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so one for generations. This was destiny, fate, whatever you want to call it her and him, lords and protectors of the universe until the end of time and beyond.
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