"Urgh. Talk about Bleak House" The Doctor announced, as they entered the morgue which was scattered with dead bodies, with only white sheets covering them.
"Great more dead bodies" Katerina sighed, not liking where this was going.
"The thing is, Doctor, the Gelth don't succeed, 'cos I know they don't. I know for a fact there weren't corpses walking around in 1869" Rose stated.
"Time's in flux, changing every second. Your cozy little world can be rewritten like that. Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing" The Doctor informed her, snapping his fingers.
"Which is why I think we're rushing into this too fast. This is too big of a decision to make on the spur of the moment" Katerina argued.
"Kat, listen. They're dying, we don't have the luxury of time" The Doctor replied, as Katerina nodded.
"Doctor, I think the room is getting colder" Dickens exclaimed, as they all shivered.
"Here they come" Rose muttered.
A Gelth suddenly came out of a gas lamp by the door and stood under the stone archway.
"You've come to help. Praise the Doctor. Praise him" The Gelth cried, making Katerina roll her eyes.
"Promise you won't hurt her" Rose pleaded, as they ignored her.
"Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth" The Gelth insisted.
"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, all right?" The Doctor explained.
"My angels. I can help them live" Gwyneth smiled.
"Okay, where's the weak point?" The Doctor inquired.
"Here, beneath the arch" The Gelth informed them, as Gwyneth moved forward and stood beneath the arch.
"You don't have to do this" Rose begged, as she ran towards her.
"My angels" Gwyneth replied, cupping Rose's face.
Rose instantly sprang back, shocked by how cold Gwyneth's hands had already become. Katerina grabbed her hand, and pulled her behind her.
"Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!" The Gelth went on.
"Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!" Gwyneth offered, her eyes going wide.
"Bridgehead establishing" The Gelth muttered.
"Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!" Gwyneth cried.
"It is begun. The bridge is made" The Gelth announced, as Gwyneth opened her mouth and the gas like creatures came pouring through.
"Rather a lot of them, isn't there?" Dickens asked.
"Why do I feel an 'I told you so' is coming" Katerina glared at the Doctor.
"She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend…The Gelth will come through in force" The sweet blue apparition turned flame red with sharp teeth, as its voice deepened and hardened.
"You said that you were few in number" Dickens accused.
"A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses" The Gelth replied.
"And there the 'I told you so' is" Katerina muttered.
"Not helping" The Doctor retorted.
Suddenly, the creatures started to descend into the dead bodies around the room, entering these vessels and using them to stand up. They all exchanged worried glances, knowing this wouldn't be good.
"Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you" Mr. Sneed pleaded, as one of the corpses came up behind him.
"Mister Sneed, get back!" Rose warned, but it was too late.
The Doctor grabbed both women and pulled them back, as the corpse grabbed Sneed and snapped his neck, as a Gelth zoomed into his mouth.
"I think it's gone a little bit wrong" The Doctor admitted, as Mr. Sneed looked up at him, with his now dead, pale eyes.
"I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us" Mr. Sneed announced, with a ghostly voice.
"Oh Glory" Dickens sighed, as he started to edge towards the door.
"We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead" The Gelth explained, as the three of them started to back away.
"Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back now!" The Doctor pleaded.
"Four more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth" They went on, as the corpses approached them.
"Doctor, I can't. I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm sorry…" Dickens trailed off, running out of the room.
"Fat lot of good he is" Katerina cried, as they opened the metal gate behind them and ran inside it, closing the door behind them, hoping it would offer some protection.
"Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth" They insisted.
"I trusted you. I pitied you!" The Doctor accused, angrily.
"We don't want your pity. We want this world and all it's flesh" The Gelth spat out.
"Not while I'm alive" The Doctor told them.
"Then live no more" The Gelth retorted, as the corpses reached inside the gate, trying to grab them.
"But I can't die. Tell me I can't. I haven't even been born yet. It's impossible for me to die. Isn't it?" Rose questioned, desperately.
"I'm sorry" The Doctor replied, his face filled with regret.
"But it's 1869. How can I die now?" Rose queried.
"Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the twentieth century and die in the nineteenth and it's all my fault. I brought you here. I brought you here too, Kat. I've let you down…again…" The Doctor trailed off.
"It's not your fault. I wanted to come" Rose exclaimed.
"I spent almost 400 years trying to find you. I'm just glad I got to see you again" Katerina admitted, pulling the Doctor into a quick hug.
"What about me? I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff" The Doctor explained, making Katerina roll her eyes.
"It's not just dying. We'll become one of them" Rose realised.
"We'll go down fighting, yeah?" Rose asked.
"Yeah" The Doctor replied.
"Together?" Rose inquired, looking at both the Doctor and Katerina as they linked hands.
"Yeah" They both exclaimed.
"I'm so glad I met you" The Doctor confessed to Rose.
"Me too" Rose answered, smiling brightly.
"Hate to ruin your lovey-dovey moment, but I think Dickens has returned" Katerina stated, as he came running back into the room.
"Doctor! Doctor! Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!" Dickens announced.
"What're you doing?" The Doctor questioned, with a frown.
"Turn it all on. Flood the place!" Dickens went on.
"Brilliant. Gas" The Doctor realised.
"What, so we choke to death instead?" Rose asked, confused.
"Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous" Dickens queried, turning the gas on a nearby lamp up.
"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host. Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!" The Doctor explained.
The corpses then left the Doctor, Katerina and Rose, and started shambling towards Dickens.
"Um, why isn't it working yet?" Katerina queried, concerned.
"I hope, oh Lord, I hope that this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately" Dickens exclaimed, backing away.
"Plenty more!" The Doctor cried, ripping a gas pipe from the wall.
This seemed to work immediately, as the Gelth began to leave the corpses.
"It's working" Dickens told them, as they came out from the metal gate, Katerina giving him a thumbs up.
"Gwyneth, send them back. They lied. They're not angels" The Doctor advised her.
"Liars?" Gwyneth questioned, confused.
"Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!" The Doctor insisted.
"I can't breathe" Rose coughed.
"Charles, get her out" The Doctor stated.
"I'm not leaving her" Rose argued.
"They're too strong" Gwyneth insisted.
"Remember that world you saw? Rose's world? All those people. None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift" The Doctor explained to her.
"I can't send them back. But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out" Gwyneth advised them, as she took a box of matches out from her aproin.
"You can't!" Rose cried, as the Doctor held her back.
"Leave this place!" Gwyneth ordered.
"Rose, get out. Go now. I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Now go!" The Doctor exclaimed, as he handed her over to Dickens.
"Kat, you too" The Doctor told her, as she had been standing silently in the corner.
Katerina had noticed how Gwyneth was hunched over, and unlike Rose and Dickens, seemed to not be suffering from the same effects from the gas. It didn't take her long to figure out why.
"I'm sorry, Gwyneth. I'll remember you" Katerina announced, as the Doctor frowned at her, as she quickly followed the others.
They only just made it out of the house, as seconds after it exploded, causing debris to fly everywhere. Katerina turned around, and ran over to the Doctor.
"Are you alright?" She questioned, as he nodded.
"She didn't make it" Rose realised, looking back at the burning building.
"I'm sorry. She closed the rift" The Doctor announced.
"At such a cost. The poor child" Dickens sighed.
"I did try, Rose, but Gwyneth was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes" The Doctor confessed.
"What do you mean?" Rose asked.
"I think she was dead from the minute she stood in that arch" The Doctor explained.
"They just…killed her. And we didn't even realise" Katerina mumbled.
"But she can't have. She spoke to us. She helped us. She saved us. How could she have done that?" Rose insisted.
"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Even for you, Doctor" Dickens advised.
"She saved the world. A servant girl. No one will ever know…" Rose trailed off.
"We'll know" Katerina stated, as Rose nodded.
They all walked back to the Tardis, uttering their goodbyes, as Rose even gave Dickens a kiss on the cheek. Katerina couldn't help but giggle at Dicken's shocked reaction, she didn't think the Doctor was too happy about it though. After promising Dickens that his books would live on long after he died, they bundled into the Tardis.
"Doesn't that change history if he writes about blue ghosts?" Rose inquired.
"In a week's time it's 1870, and that's the year he dies. Sorry. He'll never get to tell his story" The Doctor explained.
"Oh, no. He was so nice" Rose sighed.
"But in your time, he was already dead. We've brought him back to life, and he's more alive now than he's ever been, old Charlie boy" The Doctor went on.
"He certainly had a good last adventure. Much better than most" Katerina stated.
"Let's give him one last surprise" The Doctor grinned, as he started to de-materialise the Tardis.
They watched Dickens reaction, as he gasped at first, then started laughing, practically skipping away from the scene.
Author's Notes: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Next week we'll be moving onto Aliens in London. Please leave a review:)