A/N: I own a drum. I don't own the Drums.
XI. Because you are Rose Tyler
The second time Rose Tyler materialized in her bedroom, Martha Jones was actually there to see it, and it was even more impressive than that one time the TARDIS had disappeared then reappeared in front of her – spectacular was the word, seeing the woman first appear as though seen through a silvery curtain sparkling with small golden flares. Then Rose had fully materialized, and so had the man in a long officer coat accompanying her. Unlike Rose, he was conscious, and he was supporting a very unresponsive time traveller.
"Captain Jack Harkness" the man said with a smile that might have been intended as charming but really came off as an automatic gesture. "And you don't really need to remember that name" he continued as he hauled Rose into his arms, "we're not staying."
"You're not leaving until you've told me what happened to Rose" Martha said, jumping out of her bed, then she mumbled. "Same old clothes, can't have been too long for her."
"You know her" Jack said flatly.
"I travelled with her. Now put her in the bed and either tell me what happened to her or shut up and let me examine her."
"You're not going to be able to do anything helpful" Jack replied as he carried Rose through the cluttered room over to the bed, "I don't think human medical science covers consequences of a meta-human directly accessing the Time Vortex."
"What?"
"Exactly." Jack laid Rose down gently over the bedsheets, making sure her head was supported by a pillow, then he stood back erect and faced Martha. "Besides you being a med student, going by the kit in this room I assume we're shortly before 2010."
"It's the 27th of October, 2008" Martha supplied. "Harold Saxon was just named Prime Minister by her Majesty and moves into Number 10 later this Monday morning."
Jack arched his eyebrows. "Got his landslide win?"
"He did" Martha said with a small smile.
"Would have voted for him too, guess I missed the chance" Jack replied, smiling back. "You said you travelled with Rosie?"
"Yeah, until six nights ago" Martha said, her expression turning miserable. "The failed Lazarus experiment."
"Damn. You lost someone there."
"My sister, Tish."
"Two members of my team were there" Jack said, "I know what happened. They saw Rose deflect the worst of the blast and work to extract as many people as possible from the debris."
"You try telling my mother that" Martha replied with a bitter laugh. "I know she saved a lot of people" she added in a quieter voice. "I just wish Tish had been one of them – and before you say it, no, I don't blame Rose for that. It was that idiot Lazarus' fault. Trying to turn himself immortal and young forever, like that would even be possible."
"You didn't travel with Rose long, did you?" Jack said lightly.
"Couple of trips only" Martha replied. "There was a five billion years-old being at the end of the second one, but they died, not immortal. I did see a rejuvenation in ancient Greece, but that was a one-time thing and really not permanent."
Jack grinned. "Oh-ohh, when this thing is all over and Rose gets the TARDIS back, we're dragging you off on a nice, long trip to get rid of that rational mind of yours."
"Does that come before or after my mother kills you?" Martha shot back.
"Won't hurt me" Jack returned, and his expression turned serious. "Actually, if helping Rose right now is going to put us into any kind of danger and you see me leap in front of a knife, in the path of a bullet or on top of a grenade, you just let me do it. I'm as close as it gets to immortal, I can't stay dead."
Martha stared at him. "What?"
"You can still do CPR if you like, I enjoy waking up to it."
Martha groaned. "Does anybody who spends any significant length of time with Rose ever stay sane?"
"Sane is boring" Jack said.
Martha was about to reply that she could do with a bit of sane, thank you very much, when she heard Rose groan. The young time traveller was stirring.
"Well, that was quick" Jack said casually, and Rose started and tried to scramble away from him for an instant, until-
"Did I say how much I hate reactin' to you like tha'?" she slurred.
"You have, but all the options leading to you not mentioning it are pretty crappy, so I'll pass" Jack returned, grinning at the blonde woman. "How are you feeling?"
"Ranks up there with New Year's day in 2003" Rose groused, then she looked at Martha and smiled tentatively. "Hi. And thanks?"
Martha's expression turned sad. "Like I told Jack, mum might blame you for what happened, I don't." Her expression turned fiercer. "Or I won't unless I find out it's been years for you since Lazarus."
"You didn' see your mum that night" Rose said very quietly. "I'm sorry, but my not bein' aroun' her survivin' children was for the best."
Martha's nostrils flared in anger. "How long?"
"'bout a year" Rose murmured, massaging her temples.
"A year" Martha repeated. "Tish-"
Jack cut her off bluntly. "You don't get to blame Rosie for running away until after you know what it's like to have lost everyone that ever mattered to you."
"Not quite" Rose mumbled, "there's Martha an' Donna, there's Professor Song, an' now there's you."
"Yeah, I'm the guy that understands you best in the whole while universe and we've known one another for all of two months – that's not remotely close to having a family member or a truly close friend in your life, and we both know it."
Martha gaped at Rose. "You've really got no one?"
"She doesn't" Jack confirmed, "and I can't say I blame her, having a fair idea what her life is like."
Martha's attention turned to Jack. "You are alone too?"
"I was born human and am close to two centuries old, you guess how many old friends died on me."
"You're two hundred?"
"And looking good, don't I?" Jack said with a cheeky grin.
"Time an' a place, Jack" Rose slurred.
"Rose is twenty-three, though" Martha went on, "she isn't two hundred."
Jack shook his head. "Doesn't matter. All of her close family is trapped in a parallel world, and how exactly do you tell an old schoolmate or a second cousin about how you're really not entirely human, you're going to live for hundreds of years, and hop all over space and time for a living?" Martha had no reply, of course, and Jack nailed her with a cold look. "Exactly. So you don't get to go all high and mighty on Rose because she stayed away for a year. You don't until after you've lived for a while with only pain, loss and the tally of the dead for company."
"Jack" Rose tried, but her friend cut her off.
"No, Rosie, you're not worrying your pretty little head off about Miss Martha right now. We've got other concerns, starting with how we're going to find the TARDIS, if she's supposed to be somewhere close, and then we have to get back to the late nineteen sixties and stop one hell of a paradox."
Rose swallowed, then chewed on her lower lip. "You're right" she said eventually, "we've got priorities, let's get to them."
"How can I help?" Martha said, a look on her face clearly implying she wasn't accepting 'no' as an answer.
"Right now I'm goin' to try if I can at least get a feel of how distant we're from the old girl in time and space" Rose said, "just gimme a moment."
The young woman focused on her sense of the TARDIS – and instead of the usual golden shine in her eyes, she was surrounded by an angry red wreath of energy and screamed, hastily letting go.
"Oh my God!" Martha said, rushing to the young woman seated in her bed. "Are you alright?"
Rose was now hiding her face in her hands. "The TARDIS" she croaked. "She's all wrong!"
"What do you mean, she's all wrong?" Jack said sharply.
Rose's slur had vanished. "I don't know!" she exclaimed herself. "Missy did something to her."
"Missy?" Martha asked.
"Acquaintance of the Doctor" Rose supplied, "though I'm really starting to doubt she ever was one of his friends. She's been helping me on a couple of occasions, but now I know she was just leading me to the point in my timeline when she would steal the TARDIS. She's played me like a fiddle the whole time we worked together. In fact…"
Rose didn't continue, and Martha prompted her with an "In fact what?"
"Just realized that the old girl hasn't once answered my 'summons' since I've met with Missy in the Library" the blonde woman replied with disgust. "I've been so stupid."
"You've been up against a Time Lord" Jack told her sternly. "She's got who knows how many hundred years of knowledge and experience of time travel over you, it's not your fault you didn't see it coming."
"Not too loud" Rose mumbled, "headache. And the Doctor would have" she added dejectedly.
"You don't know that, and I don't know that" Jack replied harshly. "For all we know Missy got the better of him too – you know he's been rumoured to be dead since the sixties and UNIT think you killed him."
Rose's head snapped up to look at the captain, and she winced. "What year did you say he died in again?"
"April 1969."
Rose groaned. "I was around in April 1969. That's when I lost track of Missy, midway through the month. Waited for her for three months, she never showed up. Wondered about it at the time, too, she said she was stranded."
"Well, she lied, obviously" Jack said.
"She probably had the TARDIS all along." Rose let out a bitter chuckle. "Isn't this brilliant. I've got no TARDIS, can only try and hop haphazardly around if Jack and his vortex manipulator come along, UNIT are after me, they've got a crazy genius who completely outplayed me to guide them. Right now I almost wish Torchwood were still around."
Jack looked at Rose uncomfortably, and she groaned again. "They are, aren't they?"
"In a manner of speaking" Jack replied quietly.
"What's Torchwood?" Martha inquired.
"Secret state agency chartered by Queen Victoria in 1879" Rose supplied, "founded at the manor of the same name after the Doctor saved the Queen from a werewolf. He and I got knighted and banished on the same day. Torchwood went on as a means of securing Britain alien technology and an edge over all other powers – 'if it's alien it's ours' is what they used to say."
Martha quirked her eyebrows. "Used to say?"
"Remember the Cybermen that attacked all over the world and the murderous pepper pots invading from Canary Wharf?" Rose asked, and Martha nodded grimly.
"I lost a cousin that day, like I told you."
"I'm sorry" Rose said sheepishly. "It must be fresh for you, it's been a bit longer for me."
"Lesson number seven about time travellers, it's not that they don't care, it's that it's been too long for them to remember" Jack stated matter-of-facty.
Rose smiled humourlessly. "Careful, Jack, you were this close of accusing me of being an old lady."
"Old is me" Jack returned with a cocky smile.
Martha gave him a questioning look. "You're actually two hundred, not just said that to make a point?"
Jack grinned at Martha. "And forever good-looking." He sobered up as he returned his attention to Rose. "I need to go out and make a call or two. Got some people who could help, so it's not just the two of us."
"The two of us indeed" Rose said, and Martha glared at the other woman.
"You're not just walking out on me again" she said harshly.
"It's too dangerous" Jack said flatly. "Sorry, but I'm with Rosie on that one, you don't know what you want to get into. It's just as bad as what happened at Canary Wharf, if not worse."
Jack left the bedroom, leaving behind a fuming Martha. "I did alright in New New York" the medical student grumbled, "I'm not useless."
"Your mum doesn't need to lose another daughter now" Rose replied quietly.
"I know" Martha hissed, and an uncomfortable silence fell between the two women. It was Martha who broke it. "I'm going back to the living room" she said, and then her tone turned ironical. "Our new lord and master is about to address the Queen's subjects."
"Oh, right, Saxon. He's been rather effective as a minister, from what I remember."
"Voted for him. Leo and dad too. I think Mum didn't, but that's because she's too bitter to accept he did all he could after Lazarus' machine exploded."
"Might try and ask for his help" Rose said, feeling uncomfortable but not quite understanding why.
The two young women adjourned to the living room. Martha made tea for them and came to sit down by Rose on the sofa, the pair of them quietly sipping from their mugs and Rose occasionally rubbing at her temples as they watched the BBC's special edition. Any minute now, Harold Saxon would close a meeting with his advisors about the composition of his government and address the nation. And apparently, from the drumming of her fingers on her sofa…
"That impatient to see him, are we?" Rose teased, tongue between her teeth.
"He is a looker" Martha replied with a grin. Then, wistfully: "Shame he's married."
"Doesn't mean you can't look, does it?"
Martha grinned again. "Look, there he is."
"Let there be silence for Master Saxon" Rose quipped, and Martha shushed her before returning her attention to the TV, fingers still drumming.
It was a happy, even a little manic-looking Saxon who began to speak. "Britain, Britain, Britain, what extraordinary times we've had. Just a few years ago, the world was so small. And then they came, out of the unknown, falling from the skies. You've seen it happen."
"Technically, they fell from Raxacoricofallapatorius" Rose noted, and Martha mock-glared at her.
"Show-off."
Meanwhile Saxon had continued to speak, clips of recent alien invasions replacing his face on the screen. "A spaceship over London. All those ghosts and metal men. The Christmas star that came to kill. Time and time again, the government told you nothing."
"Not that Torchwood told the government much" Rose mumbled, but Martha didn't reply, and the blonde woman didn't grudge her – Saxon had moved on to news that piqued Rose's own interest.
"Citizens of Great Britain, I have been contacted. A message for humanity, from beyond the stars."
Saxon was now replaced by the slightly grainy image of a technologically advanced metal sphere floating in mid-air, which spoke in a pleasant female voice, and in flawless English.
"People of the Earth, we come in peace. We bring great gifts."
"That's a change" Rose whispered, and Martha whispered back.
"Do you know what these are?"
"No idea."
Harold Saxon, now returning on screen, supplied the answer. "They are called the Toclafane."
"What?" Rose blurted.
"You know of them?"
"Questions later" Rose mumbled, now listening very attentively to Saxon, who was going on with his address.
"Tomorrow, we take our place in the universe. Every man, woman and child. Every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer. Oh, I don't know, every girl who didn't pass their A-levels, and every medical student?"
Rose didn't wait to hear the rest of the speech; she grabbed Martha by the sleeve of her pyjamas and started to run.
"What are you doing?" Martha protested.
"Questions later!" Rose shouted back, sonicking the door open and dragging the medical student after her.
"I'm in my PJ's!" the young woman protested again.
"Better look stupid than look dead! Now come on!"
They exited the apartment building and crossed the street just in time to dive behind cars for shelter as the entire place blew up, showering the street with debris and dust.
When Martha emerged from behind her shelter, she was in shock. "Oh my God…" Her mouth fell wide open, and then she started to cough from the inhaled dust. Rose pulled the medical student back down and grabbed hold of her, forcing the face-to-face.
"Okay" Rose said. "Can't leave you behind, you're already involved. Jack will be back in a minute and we're gonna have to run."
"He's after you" Martha breathed. "The Prime Minister is after you."
"The Prime Minister is in league with an alien" Rose said in a tone brooking no discussion. "I figured it out when he called the both of us out. I'll explain, but after we've got away and Jack has got away."
"I'm here" Jack called from behind her, and he helped the two women on their feet. "Everything alright?"
"We aren't hurt" Rose said. "In a couple of minutes this place is going to be swarmed with coppers, we've got to run."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "From the police?"
"From anyone that obeys Britain's Prime Minister" Rose returned grimly. "I'll tell you why later."
"Just like old times" Jack said with a grin as he slipped out of his long coat. He held the garment out for Martha. "Here. You'll look a bit strange, but it beats straight PJs."
"Thanks, I guess" Martha mumbled.
The sonic whirred, and a SUV's doors clacked open loudly, grabbing the pair's attention. Rose was already climbing into the driver's seat. "Get in." Martha and Jack got into the rear seats, Jack grinning again.
"Love it when you take charge, Rosie" he teased, only to get caught off guard by a tense "Time and place, Jack" from Rose as she took off.
The blonde woman drove casually. The trio stayed silent for a while. Soon they were past the rush of police cars, not having attracted much attention. Rose continued for another mile before they ditched the car under a bridge.
The moment they were out, Martha held out a hand to Rose. "I need to call my family."
"Bad idea" Jack pointed out.
"I don't care" Martha shot back. "Phone. Now."
"Here's hoping Britain doesn't have direct access to Archangel" Rose mumbled as she held out the device.
"It was an international project" Jack pointed out, "and Saxon had barely got into politics when the satellites launched."
"Won't matter if he's working with Missy, she could have been involved in anything at literally any point in time" Rose said darkly.
"Who's Missy?" Jack asked. "I got that she tricked you into thinking she was a friend, but she clearly isn't, and that she's a time traveller."
"I think she's a Time Lord. Can regenerate, very familiar about time travel, uses Gallifreyan items, knows how to pilot the TARDIS, knows the Doctor well enough to pretend they're friends, and more importantly, she would know about the Toclafane."
Jack looked confused. "The what?"
"Exactly" Rose said. "They don't exist, they're the Time Lords' equivalent of the Boogie Man, and seeing as how they have to compete with horrors like the Daleks, the Meanwhiles or the Neverweres, they're a lot scarier than plain old floating metal spheres that speak English and may or may not be armed to the brim. I think Saxon is getting played by Missy and he has no idea of what he's about to unleash."
"Smarmy bastard" Jack grunted. "Always was a pleasure to work with, always proved himself a great help, now it turns out he was working against you all along and-"
Jack stared at Rose, and she stared back, mirroring his sudden look of unease. "Time Lords regenerate" he stated, and Rose nodded. "They change appearance when they do, and clearly, they can change their sex when they do."
Rose nodded again. "Same pattern" she breathed. "Professor Yana. Missy. Harold Saxon."
"Exactly."
Rose turned to Martha, who had evidently finished with her phone call, and now gave her companions a hard look. "We've got to help them" she said in a flinty tone.
"Help who?" Jack asked.
"My parents" the student supplied. "Rose, you owe it to them."
"What's going on with them?" Rose asked back calmly, holding out a hand for her phone. The gesture went ignored.
"Saxon's people have got them" Martha said. "We've got to rescue them."
"Great idea" Jack said sarcastically. "The three of us against the whole country."
"We can't leave them in Saxon's hands!" Martha shouted, and Jack grabbed hold of her by the shoulders, forcing the medical student to look at him.
"Listen to me. Harold Saxon controls the police forces of the entire Kingdom. He knows all about us. He's bringing his own pet alien species to invade Earth. He's got UNIT to hunt for Rose, and he's got enough reach over Torchwood to have sent my people on a wild goose chase where they're incommunicado."
"Torchwood?" Rose said sharply.
"Later, Rosie. Now listen to me, Martha" he said, and the other girl narrowed her eyes. "We can't do anything for your parents right now. If you've got any siblings, or any other close relatives, you can try and reach them and warn them, but you've got to do it quick, because there's a good chance Saxon can trace our calls and find out exactly where we are. And we can't help any of them."
"They're my family" Martha replied stubbornly. "And Rose owes them."
"Rose needs to figure out how we can go up against a hostile Time Lord, not to get guilt tripped into a suicide mission" Jack replied harshly, gripping Martha harder when she tried to slap him. "Wake up, woman!" he roared. "The entire planet is about to get taken over by a Time Lord and their client species – everyone is in danger, not just your parents! The only way we can help them is by find a way to stop Harold Saxon and his Toclafanes! You understand that?"
The pair exchanged glares for an instant. Then,
"Let go of me."
Jack released his hold on Martha. The medical student looked at Rose, who had watched the entire exchange with a guilty expression. Then Martha harrumphed, shook her head and proceeded to call her brother Leo. Midway through, she blanched, and then walked back to Rose, returning her phone, call still ongoing.
Rose wasn't surprised to hear the voice of Harold Saxon.
"Miss Tyler."
"Missy" Rose ventured.
"Ha! You did your homework!"
"I suppose you're calling yourself the Master again, then."
"Of course I am." The Master's tone turned business-like. "You told me the Doctor was trapped in a parallel universe. What did he say about the other Time Lords?"
Rose swallowed. "They're gone."
"They lost the Time War."
"Everyone lost. The only Time Lords left are you and the Doctor. And there's maybe a handful of Daleks existing somewhere lost in time and space. They seem to always find a way to escape."
The Master's voice grew tense. "What about Gallifrey?"
"Trapped in a time lock. It burned."
"You're lying."
"The Doctor did it. He had no choice."
There was a silence over the line while the Master mulled over what Rose had told him. The young woman was the one to break it.
"What do you want?"
"The Bad Wolf."
Rose tensed. "You've been after me from the very start" she accused.
"Of course I have" the Master said, his manic enthusiasm returning. "A human with bits of the Time Vortex stuck inside her, capable of piloting a TARDIS and even of connecting with it directly. Do you have any idea what I could make of you?"
"Whatever it is, I'm not interested" Rose returned.
The Master laughed. "I know that. That's why I took the liberty of gathering a few incentives. Martha Jones' parents – pity her sister died, I almost had her hired in my staff. Don't quite have Captain Harkness' little coterie on hand, but I can have them killed with a phone call. Oh, and how kind of you to leave Professor River Song to my tender mercies. We've been having a lot of fun, she and I. Did you know she's really Bad Wolf 2.0?"
Rose couldn't help herself from asking a "What do you mean?"
"You could find out" Saxon replied pleasantly. "All you have to do is surrender yourself to the Police when they catch up to you and we'll be reunited, the Master, the Freak, the Little Wolf and the Aberration."
"Our pet names are a lot less flattering than yours" Rose said acidly, and the Master hissed.
"You will respect my name, and you will respect the last of the Time Lords."
"I've met a number of people who would disagree."
"Their opinion doesn't matter. I'm the last of the Time Lords… The last Time Lord, the one person in the entire universe left with mastery over the laws of time… And if what you say is true, if Gallifrey is gone, I will create a new Gallifrey, and I will ascend at its head, with all of time and space as my dominion, and there is nothing you can do against it!" The Master's voice then turned sickeningly sweet. "But you will help creating it. You can't escape me forever. Tomorrow morning, this world will be mine."
"Not if I have anything to say about it" Rose protested with a scowl, and the Master laughed.
"You'll want to look at the camera as you make this proclamation."
"What does that even mean?" Rose said in confusion, looking all around.
"No, seriously, you're on telly. You and your little band – which, by the way, is ticking every demographic box. So, congratulations on that."
"Public enemies number one, two and three, I guess?"
The Master cackled. "I'd have let little Miss Jones go, but you decided to get her involved."
"Like you'd have left her alone" Rose said with a scowl. "You aren't that noble, are you?"
"Noble?" There was a note of delight in the Master's voice, now. "Noble. As in, Donna Noble."
"Are you going to be hunting every single person in connection with my travels?" Rose asked in an exasperated tone.
"No plans for her" the Master replied off-handedly. "Most important creature in the Universe for some reason, I'm not playing with that. I'm not an idiot; she'll stay safe and secure until her purpose becomes clear."
"So you sensed that too" Rose said darkly.
"One of a few points we have in common" the Master replied, and then his voice turned harsh. "Don't get her involved. This little matter is between you and I."
"I feel flattered" Rose said sarcastically. "The high and mighty Time Lord acknowledges me as a worthy adversary."
"I'm not a fool." The Master's tone turned surprisingly complimenting. "You're a human who somehow survived getting infused with Huon particles and can withstand the Time Vortex, and has managed to learn to pilot a TARDIS and to travel through time and space without causing any catastrophic mishaps. I had to nudge you a couple of times, but that's because your simple, scattered human brain could never have learned in two years what Time Lords learn in decades of intense study. It's almost a shame you aren't Gallifreyan. Given proper education, you might even have made a good foil for a proper Time Lord."
"I'm not mating with you to restart your species" Rose growled, and the Master chortled.
"That's a good one! Wouldn't work, and even if it could, it doesn't matter anyway. I've already got a second set of Time Lord genes ready for looming."
"The Doctor's spare hand" Rose breathed.
"Exactly."
Jack grabbed the blonde woman by the shoulder, and she yelped with fright. "Don't do that!"
"Sorry Rosie, but we've got to run" Jack said, grabbing the phone and shutting it down after a quick "See ya!"
"Where are we going?" Martha asked as the group got going.
"Torchwood hideouts are out" Jack replied grimly, "but they're not all I have. Good thing about living for a couple of centuries: you've got more than enough time to set up hiding places."
One of Jack's old hiding places turned out to be a derelict warehouse. The place was rundown, humid and let in far more air currents than Martha was comfortable with when she was clad in slippers, PJs and a coat too large for her. Not that the medical student would have been comfortable to begin with. Her family were either hunted or already caught, she couldn't try and contact them any further without risking a call being traced, no matter who lent her their phone, and Captain Harkness refused to let her do anything with the laptop he'd retrieved from one of his stashes – Torchwood protected, he'd said, which was why he felt safe enough navigating the Internet with it searching for as much information as he could about Harold Saxon.
Finally, some time after nightfall, the third member of the band returned – with clothes and warm food she'd somehow acquired. Rose was the most wanted target of the Master, but he had his hands full with Downing Street and setting up his "first contact" for the following morning, leaving the young lady with a time sense at a distinct advantage where it came to anticipating enemy movements, something she'd put to good use.
"Even got a little bit of snooping around done" Rose was now explaining to a Martha that felt much warmer in suitable clothing and eating warm chips, "and can you stop doing that? It's kind-of creepy."
"Stop doing what?" Martha asked.
"It's a plastic container, not a drum" Rose replied, looking at the other woman's fingers, which had been tapping on the disposable bowl for her chips. "I swear, every other person I've come across since this afternoon has been doing that."
"Doing what?" Jack said from where he sat.
"That four-beat rhythm you all seem to be engrossed in beating with your fingers and feet – stop that!" she added; the Captain's foot had been beating.
"I don't do it on purpose" Jack said grumpily. "Nobody paid attention to you?"
"Ever notice how people don't tend to notice the TARDIS or its keys?" Rose asked in reply, and Jack nodded in response. "Well, that got me to thinking – that and how nearly everybody nowadays has a phone, and they connect through Archangel. Attach one of the TARDIS keys to a mobile phone so it broadcasts the perception filter signals through that satellite network, and nobody carrying a device which connects through Archangel really pays attention to the person carrying the mobile and key."
"So how come we can see you clearly, then?" Martha inquired, and Rose smiled faintly.
"Switched off my phone." She retrieved the device from her pocket. "Here, I'll show you. The two of you, try and point at me."
"Oh, this is going to be a good one" Jack said from where he sat. Then he frowned, trying to force himself to see. "Now that's weird" he said, turning his look to Martha, who returned a puzzled glance.
"Wasn't Rose here a moment ago?"
"She's still here" Jack replied pensively, "just not where I can see. It's like she were at the corner of my eyes."
"Actually, she's right behind you" Martha said, and Jack turned to spot Rose surprisingly close to him, holding her phone and grinning.
"Don't do that" Jack said, and she snickered.
"Now you know how annoying that is."
"Very funny" Jack replied tartly. "And congratulations, your little gadget works. Shame it's going to stop us from interacting with one another at all."
"I've thought about that" Rose replied, walking back towards Martha. "Actually, all I need to do is link a TARDIS key to your phones – I bought one for you, Martha, you can give Jack's back now, or even better hand it over to me. Where was I? Ah, yes. The keys. They're part of the TARDIS, they'll recognize each other and they'll be able to find me."
"The Master will also be able to find us" Jack remarked, and Rose sighed.
"One step at a time. And even if he can see us, he's going to have fun having to prove anybody else there's something to see at all and he hasn't gone barmy." Rose turned her attention to Martha, and smiled apologetically as she held out her hand. "I'm sorry, giving you a TARDIS key should have been a far more momentous occasion, especially with you being the first I give one to and all."
"Nothing's going as it should be right now" Martha replied nervously. Her face was rife with worry. "I was doing it again. Tapping my fingers, I mean."
"Something's making you people do that alright" Rose said, walking off with Jack's phone and heading to set up a makeshift workspace for herself. "I have no idea why it's not affecting others – children and the elderly seem mostly unaffected. And I'm not doing it either, but nearly every person my age is."
"Martha's stopped" Jack remarked, and a huff came from Rose's workspace. "No, I'm serious, she's all focused on you and she isn't drumming like she was one minute ago in the same circumstances."
"I'm not" Martha concurred. And then it clicked for her. "Oh my God. It's the phone. I stopped doing that the moment I let go of the phone."
Rose stared at the young woman, then at Jack, whose foot was tapping again. "Jack, toss over your other phone."
"I don't have another phone" Jack replied. Martha deflated.
"Sorry. Thought I'd found out what it was."
"You might have" Rose said grimly. "Jack, that laptop connects to the Internet through Archangel, doesn't it?"
"Not much choice even if you're a government agency, is there?" the man replied casually.
"Shut it down" Rose ordered, and once again, the captain complied. His tapping stopped, and the young woman let out a deep sigh. "Wonderful. Hundreds of millions, possibly billions of people under a compulsion relayed through the one worldwide network of satellite controlling all of the planet's communications. We never learn, do we?"
"Learn what?" Jack asked.
"Learn not to trust the system, I suppose" Martha said quietly. "Everybody uses Archangel, there's no equivalent in the world, a bit like nearly all cars nowadays are equipped with ATMOS to reduce carbon and particle emissions."
"Or like later on everybody gets a chip installed in their brain or goes on living on the rations supplied to them and watching the reality shows on telly until they're made to participate." Rose groaned. "We're really not that bright as a species, are we?" Her sonic screwdriver whirred, and a faint rhythm of four beeps started to rise from Martha's phone. "Well, there we have it. Our Lord and Master is telling the world to beat the drums, and I've got no idea why." Rose sighed, and went on as she shut the noise down. "Mind you, he was obsessed with them to begin with, maybe he's just sharing the love."
"That's something we might want to utilise" Jack said, and Martha looked at him pensively.
"Are you per chance thinking of making Saxon look stark raving mad on live television?"
Jack grinned as he addressed Rose. "Oh, she's good!"
"Well, I'm not as good as the two of you" Rose replied, her attention focused on her work. "Care to explain to the slow one in the class?"
"Tomorrow at eight AM, Harold Saxon will be making first contact with the Toclafane live on television from the UNIT floating fortress Valiant" Jack explained. Martha stepped in.
"The entire world is going to be watching that, even more people than had been watching when Neil Armstrong took the first step on the Moon. Everyone's attention will be focused on that one single event. It's a unique chance to make it look like Saxon has gone insane and seeing things that don't really exist – take control of the situation away from him."
"The Americans will also be there and already want to take charge" Jack continued. "Bush Junior wants to go out with a bang, and Saxon seems to have ruffled his feathers because he didn't really follow protocol with regards to first contact protocol. Air Force One is headed for a military landing stripe right as we speak."
"You want to take a chance tomorrow morning and create enough chaos to stop the Master from carrying through with his plans" Rose concluded, and her sonic screwdriver whirred again. A few sparks flew from Martha's new phone.
"What are you doing?" the young woman asked.
"Giving you nearly unlimited power supply" Rose replied. "At the very least enough battery to last you a couple of years."
"Why would I need such long supply?" Martha asked, visibly puzzled. Rose frowned.
"Because your new battery's serial number starts with BD-WLF" she said grimly, "and there has to be a reason. I just need to try and guess what it is."
Martha looked uncomfortably at the other woman. "Bad Wolf" she said. "Again."
"It really does keep following you" Jack added, and Rose let out a bitter chuckle.
"Sent myself a lot of messages while I was busy messing with all of time and space. You'd think I'd have given myself better clues if I'd known all along this too was going to happen. Could use a few good pointers to stop the Master right now, if I could be so kind as to tell me." Another whirr of the sonic screwdriver, then Rose snapped Martha's phone shut. "There. All done." The young woman made to hand over the device to its owner, but Martha was clearly reluctant to take it back.
"Will I start drumming the way I did again?" she asked apprehensively.
"I don't think you will" Rose replied grimly. "I just can't be sure. I think the TARDIS key will interfere, but I'm sorry, Martha, I can't make any promises. I don't actually understand how all of this works, just that it should."
The medical student reluctantly took the proffered phone and pocketed it without switching it back on. Her eyes followed Rose for a while, as the blonde woman returned to her makeshift workspace and got started on Jack's phone. "You really are in way over your head" Martha eventually said, her voice soft, laced with pity.
"I'm a none-too-bright twenty-three year old shop vendor who didn't even finish her A-levels trying to walk in the sandshoes of a nine-hundred-years old alien with extraordinary intelligence and knowledge who keeps saving the Earth from world-ending monsters time and again" Rose said bitterly, eyes staying on her work. "I'm going to fail to save it sooner or later. It just hasn't happened yet."
"But that's not stopping you, is it?" Martha replied softly. Rose looked up; the blonde woman's eyes were shimmering noticeably, even from a distance.
"What else can I do?" she asked, anguish seeping through her voice.
"Just keep doing what you've been doing for a while" the medical student replied. "You're the Big Bad Wolf who stands against the monsters in the dark and protects us all."
"Until I mess up and let your sister die" Rose replied darkly, and she lowered her gaze to her work again.
"Even the Doctor never expected everybody to live when he saved the world" Jack cut in. "Remember the Blitz and the rampaging nanogenes?"
"Of course I do" Rose snapped. She looked up, and blushed faintly. "I'm sorry" she said more softly. "I remember, yes."
"That's one occasion when the Doctor saved the day and everybody lived" Jack replied quietly. "You've been on countless trips with him. When the going got really that tough, how many more such times did he pull that off?"
"I don't know" Rose said waspishly. "Many times, more times than I managed at any rate."
"You've been wandering space and time with the Doctor for two years, and then another two years on your own" Jack said. "Count the times. For him, and for you. Just try."
Rose looked at the captain, and then at Martha. Then she lowered her eyes. "The Autons killed someone" she started listing. "The tree of Cheen burned. Gwyneth gave her life, and the Slitheen killed several people."
"Not off to a very great start" Martha said tensely, and Jack made a shushing gesture.
"The Dalek killed dozens, and people died both times on Satellite Five. Workers died in Cardiff. Then the Sycorax came, and the Doctor changed." Rose's voice trailed over the next words. "They all died. Nothing really changed. On New Earth, more people died. Queen Victoria's guards. Students at Deffry Vale School. So many people fell to Lumic's Cybermen. Magpie was killed by the Wire. The Ood all died, and took several others with them. All but two of LINDA died." Rose's face lit up, and her voice turned wistful. "No one died with the Isolus. We saved them all."
"That's one time. Go on" Jack prompted.
"There's no need to go on" Rose replied quietly. "Canary Wharf happened after that. So many people died. I lost the Doctor. And then it was my turn to lose people."
"Not true" Martha protested. "On New Earth, everybody lived."
Rose shook her head. "The Face sacrificed himself. The Racnoss killed HC Clements, and the Judoon killed someone on the Moon. The Pharaoh took seven lives. Lazarus took many more. The Carrionites took Sally Sparrow." She looked at Jack. "We've just lost Chantho, and perhaps others taken by the Futurekind. And before that were the Weeping Angels, and…"
Rose didn't continue. It was Martha who spoke up. "Everyone lived, didn't they?"
"Sort-of" Rose replied. "Florence Nightingale and Billy Shipton got taken out of their timeline, and I couldn't bring either of them back. But I suppose they both lived a long life."
"I think it counts" Jack said firmly. "What do you think, Martha?"
"It counts" the student promptly answered, and Jack returned his attention to Rose.
"See? Score is one all, and it really should be two. You're not doing so bad."
"Nobody died when we went to visit Hippocrates either, but I don't think she counts that" Martha added, and Jack let out a whistle.
"Took a med student to see Hippocrates? Nice idea. And everybody lived?"
"Not just that, Rose did the impossible" Martha supplied, "transformed a dragon back into a young woman."
"That was the TARDIS, not really me" Rose mumbled. "And you gave us the idea."
"Like you never helped your Doctor" Martha shot back. "You saved a world for him twice, I remember, including that one time with the Isolus when everybody lived. And how many more times are you on?"
"I always had help, every time" Rose protested.
"And so did the Doctor" Jack replied. "You helped him, many times. I should know, I was there for some of it. And I'm betting you're not counting that time you took the Time Vortex into yourself and saved the entire universe from the Daleks when the rest of us were beaten."
"I only wanted to help" Rose mumbled. "I didn't want to let you all just die."
"Exactly" Jack said in a tone that brooked no discussion. "When it matters, you never run off. You take a stand. You do what's right. Not everyone lives all the time, but you save many, many more people than you fail to save. But you never count those lives, do you?"
Rose did not reply. It was Martha who spoke up. "She never does. Even now, she's trying to do something against a completely impossible opponent who rules all of Britain and is about to take over the world. And she's going to somehow find a way to beat him, maybe with our help, maybe without it, but the one thing she's not doing is giving up."
Both medical student and captain fixed their eyes on the blonde woman who held her head down, eyes closed, keeping her silence. The tremor of her shoulders, however, said enough.
"I know there's a lot of pressure on your shoulders right now" Jack said calmly, "but that's what you've got us for. We're not your family, and we haven't been friends for all that long, but you are not alone."
"I know" Rose murmured.
"I'm even willing to bet this Donna Noble of yours has been trying to call, hasn't she?" Jack added, and Rose looked at him briefly, guilt painted on her face.
"I can't get her involved" she said quietly. "We can't get her involved. The Master and I are even agreed on that – no matter what happens, Donna is the most important woman in the entire universe. She's got to live."
Martha spoke up again. "And we're not involving her. But that doesn't mean you can't talk to a friend."
Rose looked at Martha, then at Jack, her eyes still glistening.
"Call her" Jack said simply. "We'll be in the back."
The pair walked away, giving a now openly weeping Rose some space. With a shaking hand, the blonde girl took out her phone and switched it back on, and entered Donna's number. The redhead picked up almost instantly.
"Spacegirl, where are you?" Donna asked frantically. "They've shown you on television, you're Britain's most wanted criminal and they said a United Nations Intelligence Taskforce is even looking for you!"
"Donna?" Rose choked, and instantly the other woman's tone changed.
"Oh my God, Rose. Is there any way I can help?"
If Donna had any words after that, they were lost to the young woman as she broke down completely, hugging the phone to her forehead and bawling. Donna's voice was still there, though, reassuring, comforting, saying platitudes, reminding Rose of how much she'd helped her friend when her marriage to Lance had come crashing down around her, and on the same day the young woman had suffered a terrible loss too.
Eventually, Rose quieted down, and her tears dried up. She excused herself for a moment, blowing her nose before she picked her phone back up, staying silent, searching for words, not finding them. Until-
"Donna?"
"I'm here, Spacegirl."
"Donna, I'm scared."
"I know" the other woman said soothingly. "But I also know it will be alright."
Rose sniffed. "How could you know?"
"Because you're Rose Tyler" Donna replied. "The mad woman in a blue box who rescued me on the day of my wedding and saved the entire world. And because I'm your friend. And I'm here for you. Just tell me everything you need to let out."
Donna wasn't there to notice, and Jack, lacking a counter to the perception filter on Rose's activated phone, just returned to his research without paying much attention to the last occupant of the warehouse. But Martha Jones had activated her phone, letting her notice what was going on with Rose Tyler as the blonde woman talked and poured her soul to her friend on the phone, and went on to speak for hours about what had happened to her.
The medical student found herself a quiet corner, well within earshot of the time traveller, and settled herself to listen to the tales and worries and the fears of a wisp of a woman who was also the formidable Bad Wolf, who had created herself and spread the words to lead herself on her path. And long after that call ended and Rose had gone on to rest for a few fitful hours, Martha Jones pondered about all she'd heard, and as she kept pondering and putting things together, she finally understood what needed to be done and how to unleash the Bad Wolf upon the Master. And that was why she left the warehouse in the dead of night, leaving behind a note explaining she had gone to seek and protect Donna Noble, and inviting the pair to go after the Master without her…
The first time Rose had taken the Time Vortex into herself to activate Jack's broken manipulator, she'd gone unconscious from the strain. This time around, as the pair rematerialized on the Valiant, the young woman wished it had gone the same way. Instead, she stiffened as she felt a powerful sense of pain and anguish coming from within a very familiar blue box with an interior completely transformed in nightmarish fashion – the Doctor's TARDIS, bathed in blood-red light and tolling a mournful bell as she kept toiling on with the purpose the Master had set for her.
"Oh, my poor old girl, what is holding this paradox together doing to you?"
"Putting her through excruciating pain, a never-ending agony" said a voice Rose Tyler had never expected to hear then and there.
Heels clacked on the TARDIS' floor as a woman's figure emerged from behind the contraptions trapping the time rotor – somehow familiar, except she, too, looked like she had been twisted and altered, her hairless head held together in metal casing, her eyes, her mouth and the holes in her cheeks leaking trails of rich gold motes that faded in the air. And the figure was holding a laser gun in each of her hands.
"Hello, sweetheart" Professor Song said pleasantly. "You're late."
"River Song" Rose whispered, horrified. "What has the Master done to you?"
"What he will do to you" the woman replied. She made an imperious motion, and the door of the TARDIS opened, letting soldiers in UNIT uniform, armed to the teeth, stride in. Jack jumped into action, trying to interpose himself; but he crumpled with a cry of pain as Professor Song gunned him down.
"No!" Rose cried out. She knew that Jack would be alright, but she also knew they were caught, and didn't need the soldiers roughly taking hold of her and restraining her to remind her, nor did she need the patronizing look from the ravaged and faintly glowing face of River.
"He knew you'd come" the modified woman said with a light smirk. "The Master's known for a very long time that all he had to do was threaten your world and you'd come running, even if you couldn't have the beginning of a proper plan to stop him. Throw in an affinity with the TARDIS, which all but ensured you'd appear here if you ever tried to come close to him as his plans unfolded, and you never had a chance."
"River, this is not you" Rose said, her voice shaking as she forced herself to look into the other woman's eyes. "We've only met the once, but I know you're a good person, and I know you love the Doctor."
"There isn't a Doctor" the Professor said in a deceptively benign voice. "He died on the twenty-second of April in 1969, at five-oh-two PM British Standard Time. And I believe you were seen there." The woman had a chilling smile. "That is the crime you're wanted for, after all."
"I didn't kill the Doctor" Rose replied quietly. "I couldn't kill the Doctor."
"Not as you are now, certainly, sweetheart, but take a good look at me and tell me you can't be made capable of it."
Rose tried to reply, but her protest died in her throat when the older woman leaned closer, giving the blonde woman a clear view of the lattice of distortions and scars underneath the metal and around the openings, the results of the Master's work on this person Rose hardly knew, but already understood would become terribly important to her.
"I can hear you caring" the twisted River murmured, her amusement plain. The older woman stepped away again. "You see, this is exactly why the Master knew you'd never actually be a match for him. The Doctor could be ruthlessly efficient and put aside all his concerns when necessity called, but you? Not quite. You care. You always care, you care too much, and while it means a few more lives saved than might otherwise have been, it also means you were always going to overextend someday, and to fall, and to fail all those whose lives depended on you. And do you know why you were always going to fail?"
Rose didn't reply. She didn't need to. She knew what the other woman was going to say, and she dreaded hearing it. But she would have to all the same, and it pained her to see just how much pleasure this woman from her future seemed to be taking in torturing her with just a few words, sealing her absolute defeat against the Master.
"You were always going to fail, sweetheart, because you are Rose Tyler."
And such were the words which heralded the start of the second worst period in the young woman's existence.
A/N: Just one chapter left in "season three", which I'm likely to take a bit of time writing, as it will be one that will be setting a "fixed point" for quite a bit later on, which will mean writing a good portion of the ending of "season four" in parallel, as it specifically regards the fate of one Donna Noble, about which I'm still not entirely decided, meta-crisis or otherwise.
TheDoctorMulder, thanks for the review and the kind words. And also, spoilers!
Asteria25, thanks to you for the series of comments, they were very welcome. And I will at the very least say we'll return to the Library – this is why Rose has already been introduced to the Vashta Nerada, as a matter of fact.
So, Jodie Whittaker. For the purposes of this story, I really like having her around, although actually watching her play the Doctor will be nice to have an idea of how to write Thirteen, because at this point I can only write Thirteen from House MD, which doesn't really help here. Also, I'm back to being older than the actor playing the Doctor. Arg!