Invasion of the Unexpected

AN: I have officially killed the Doctor 10.5. It's a shame really, he was beginning to grow on me. But the plot must move on …This chapter is short, but it needed to be… Thank you all for the reviews!

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Paris fired randomly, and at the same time a creeping song took through the corridor; the Atopili's soothing song, becoming louder and louder.

As the gunshot sounded, the Doctor and Rose both took a wild duck. The bullet missed the Doctor's ear by about a millimetre; he heard it, whooshing past. Faster than he felt, he pointed the screwdriver at Paris and pressed. But it took no effect whatsoever on the man, who simply looked around wildly for the source of the Atopili's music.

"Come here! Help me!" cried Paris.

"Where we shall leave,
 People shall die.
 Devastation left to rest here ,
For all of time ."

The Doctor again pointed his screwdriver at Paris' eyes, meaning to stun him, but again it took no effect. Then he noticed something, something that he might have noticed before but had not had the chance to care of. Paris' eyes were glassy and unseeing. The man was blind, the Doctor now realised.

He looked at Rose, screaming over the rising volume of the song, "Did you know he was blind?!"

Rose didn't hear, covering her ears as the song got louder and louder, becoming less beautiful and more screeching by the second, singing the same thing over and over.

"Where we shall leave,
 People shall die.
 Devastation left to rest here ,
For all of time ."

Paris could no longer hear the footsteps or breathing from Rose and the Doctor over the screeching of the Atopili. He pointed his gun wildly and began shooting at random. Whether through fear or anger, the Doctor could not tell.

Without much thought, the Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and pulled her up. They ran as Paris continued to fire randomly, away from the echoing cracks of the gunshots. When they hand rounded the corner and the Doctor was sure neither of them had been hurt, he only quickened his pace. The Atopili's song was still of the same volume, screeching around them.

After rounding more corners and running through several more corridor's the Doctor grabbed the nearest door and pushed Rose in, following right after and shut the door firm behind him. He locked the door with his screwdriver and gave a small sigh, "That should keep them. Until we have a plan of action of course!" The singing had been numbed to a distant echo. He turned to Rose, suddenly becoming sombre, "Are you okay?"

Rose didn't answer; she simply stared at him, breathing heavily. The Doctor sighed and inspected the room they had entered. It looked to be an old scientist lab. There were laboratory tables positioned against the walls and various beakers sat on them, seemingly they hadn't been used for a while the Doctor saw as he inspected further. They sat, gathering dust.

"An old laboratory," the Doctor informed Rose. He bent down and looked into one of the oddly shaped glasses. "Ah, wonder what's in here, heh? Looks like acid." He placed his finger in, put it to his nose and sniffed. Immediately after, wiping it off onto his coat in disgust. "Yep, sulphuric acid. Not very pleasant smell, hardly overly dangerous though. No, hmm, I don't think the Atopili use this room. More like the humans before. Shame, could have given us a clue to what's going on if we'd picked a useful room." He shrugged, "Ah well, we'll think of something.

"All we need to do is get the Atopili on our side. The only reason they trust Paris is because he hasn't died yet, but that's only because he can't see them. So! If I find away to look at the Atopili and talk to them without dying three days later then they'll listen to me." He looked Rose, hoping for a response.

But Rose still said nothing as he rattled on, just stared at him with slightly glazed eyes.

"Look Rose, are you alright?" he asked, deflating a little by her gaze. "I know it was… I'm not trying to…" he trailed of, staring at her sadly. "I'm sorry, okay? I am… so sorry."

Rose nodded, and a tear dribbled down her cheek. She swallowed hard and looked down at the floor. The Doctor felt as though he had shrank just a little bit. She needed comforting and he'd just been rattling on about nothing as usual. He went up to her and put his arm around her, half expecting it to be flung off again at any minute, but she didn't remove it, just huddled closer to him and sobbed into his chest. He couldn't even imagine how confused she must have been right then. One Doctor dies right in front of her, in her arms, and then a sudden replica just pops up out of nowhere. Some might call it a miracle. He knew it to be cruel.

"I'm sorry," he muttered into her hair. "I never meant… I never dreamt he'd…" the Doctor took a deep breath as Rose took her head from his chest and looked up questioningly at him. The Doctor went on, "I never meant to come back… to complicate things."

Rose stepped back slightly, and her wet, brown eyes met his misty ones, "Why did you…? Why'd you come…?"

"The Atopili," he replied. "I actually –"

"But how?" interrupted Rose.

"That," said the Doctor, "might be a story for later. Right now I think we need to find a way –"

"No!" Rose said loudly. "Tell me, what's goin' on?" She sat on an old lab stool and wiped away her tears, staring at the Doctor and waiting. "Tell me."

The Timelord sighed deeply and nodded, leaning against a lab table as he looked at Rose. "The Atopili," he began, "aren't from this universe. They're from our – my! They're from mine – my universe." He frowned slightly, "I found them and…"

Rose stared at him. "What?" she whispered.

The Doctor looked at her. He would have to start from the very beginning… to make her understand…

…

AN: Yes, this is short, I know, I know… but that's only because it seemed like a good place here to start the next chapter. You see the next chapter is how the Doctor got from the end of Journey's End to the here and now… so yeah, it shows how the Doctor got to the parallel world. Do Review for more, please! And get a free cookie!