Alt! Series 1 Chapter 13, a doctor who fanfic

Chapter 13: The Parting of the Ways

'You know the Doctor!' a Dalek snapped at Rose. 'You understand him. You will predict his actions.'

'I don't know!' Rose lied. 'And even if I did I wouldn't tell you.'

'Predict! Predict! Predict!' it chanted.

'TARDIS detected in flight!' another Dalek exclaimed.

'Launch missiles!' the first one chanted.

'You can't!' Rose knew they would anyway. 'The TARDIS hasn't got any defences! You're gonna kill him!'

'You have predicted correctly!' the first Dalek stated.

She also knew it would have no effect. They were using the extrapolator.

The missiles flew across space and slammed into the TARDIS, causing a nuclear-level explosion. But the TARDIS remained unharmed. Inside, Jack and the Doctor were at the console.

'The Extrapolator's working,' Jack reported. 'We've got a fully functioning force-field.' Then, as an afterthought he added, 'Try saying that when you're drunk.'

'And now for my next trick.' The Doctor pulled a few levers.

Rose turned around as she felt the TARDIS materialise around her.

'Get down, Rose!' the Doctor yelled.

She felt nothing but relief at the sound of his voice.

'Rose, get down!' he yelled again.

She saw why. She ducked as the Dalek yelled, 'Exterminate!'

It shot the Death-ray, the Doctor ducked and Jack shot. The Dalek was now no more than rubble.

'You did it,' she murmured, standing up as the Doctor came over.

'I told you I'd come and get you,' he said as he hugged her.

It was such sweet relief to be so close to him again.

'I never doubted you,' she told him, pulling back a little to look up at him.

'I did,' he stated. 'You all right?'

'Yeah.' She straightened his jacket. 'You?'

'Not bad,' he said. 'Been better.' He looked over at the Dalek and went over to look it over.

'Hey, don't I get a hug?' Jack asked.

'Aw, come here!' Rose told him.

'I was talking to him.' Jack stated, before hugging her anyway.

'Welcome home,' he told her.

'Feels like I haven't seen you in years,' Rose said.

Outside of the TARDIS, the Daleks gathered. Their eyestalks were trained on the timeship. Daleks could still get impatient and they certainly were.

'Patience, my brethren,' a dark ominous voice commanded.

Soon, the Doctor would step out.

'One minute they're the biggest threat in the Universe and the next they vanish out of time and space,' Jack stated, referring to the Daleks.

'They went off to fight a bigger war,' the Doctor responded, standing up. 'The Time War.'

'I thought that was just a legend.' Jack looked up at him.

'I was there,' the Doctor answered. 'The war between the Time Lords and the Daleks with all of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them. I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing.'

Rose rubbed his arm. The Doctor looked over at her and smiled tightly. Then he dropped all the tension.

'No use standing around here chinwagging,' he stated. 'Human race! You'd gossip all day. Daleks've got the answers. Let's go meet the neighbours.'

He walked out. Rose huffed in exasperation. She and Jack hurried after him. Jack, having forgotten about the extrapolator, pulled Rose back as they got to the door while the Doctor walked right out.

'Exterminate!'

The death-rays bounced ineffectually off the force-field. The Doctor looked around at the Daleks. Rose knew, as long as the Doctor was with them, it'd all be fine. Jack's grip on her loosened.

'Is that it?' the Doctor asked. 'Useless. Nul points.' He turned back to Rose and Jack. 'It's all right. You can come out. That force-field can hold back anything.'

Rose went right to the Doctor's side. And, as he stepped out, Jack's mouth worked three seconds faster than his brain. 'Almost anything.'

'Yes.' The Doctor looked at him in a sarcastic fashion. 'But I wasn't going to tell them that. Thanks.'

'Sorry.'

The Doctor stepped away from Rose and towards one of the Daleks. 'Do you know what they call me in the legends of the Dalek home world?' he asked in a threatening tone. 'The Oncoming Storm. You may have removed all your emotions but I reckon there's one spark left in your DNA. And that's fear.' His eyes narrowed. 'Doesn't it just burn when you face me? So tell me, how did you survive the Time War?'

Suddenly a familiar voice drifted down. 'They survived through me.'

He turned in the direction of the voice and his eyes momentarily widened as he wandered over and stopped. Rose and Jack followed him. 'Rose. Captain.' The Doctor addressed his companions. 'This is the Emperor of the Daleks.'

'You destroyed us, Doctor,' he snarled. 'The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time. Crippled but rebuilding.'

'I get it,' the Doctor stated coldly.

'Do not interrupt!'

The Daleks yelled at him in turn.

'I think you're forgetting something,' the Doctor stated. 'I'm the Doctor and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got 5 billion languages and you haven't got a single way of stopping me, so if anyone's gonna shut up, IT'S YOU!'

The Doctor watched in satisfaction as they backed off, before turning back to the Emperor.

'Okey-doke,' he said cheerfully. 'So, where were we?'

'We waited here in the dark,' the Emperor continued. 'And we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth. The homeless, the prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed. They all came to us. The human race is perverted. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured.'

'So, you created an army of Daleks out of the dead,' the Doctor concluded.

'That makes them…half-human.' Rose's lip curled in disgust as she spoke.

The Doctor couldn't blame her. It was one of the most disgusting things he'd ever heard.

'Those words are blasphemy!' the Emperor exclaimed.

'Do not blaspheme!'

The Doctor turned around. That was just ridiculous. These weren't even proper Daleks. Rose was right. They were half-human, but not in a good way.

'Everything human has been purged!' the Emperor stated. 'I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek.'

The Doctor turned to him. 'Since when did Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?'

'I reached into the dirt and made new life,' the Emperor explained. 'I am the God of all Daleks!'

'Worship him!'

'They're insane,' the Doctor stated. 'Centuries in the dark is enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. You hate your own existence.' He paused. 'That makes them more deadly than ever.' He turned to the Emperor. 'We're going.'

He followed Rose and Jack back into the TARDIS.

'You may not leave my presence!' the Emperor screamed.

'Worship him!'

'Exterminate!'

'Worship him!'

'Exterminate!'

The Doctor closed the TARDIS door and the whole thing caught up with him. He rested his head against the door and sighed. He felt Rose come and put a hand on his arm. He turned around and pulled her into his arms, burying his face in her hair.

'How did I let this happen?' he whispered, agonised. 'All those people…'

'It's not your fault,' she told him.

But it was.

'Rose.' Jack kissed her. Then he turned to the Doctor. 'Wish I'd never met you, Doctor. Life was so much easier when I was a coward.' He kissed him. Then he ran off. Rose looked at the Doctor.

'He's not gonna die,' she said.

He didn't say anything.

A beeping alerted the Doctor and Rose to the status of the Delta Wave.

'The Delta Wave's started building!' the Doctor announced. 'How long does it need?'

He ran over to the computer and Rose followed him. He knew she couldn't read it. He was just grateful for that.

'Is that bad? Okay, that's bad.' She read him like a book anyway. 'How bad is it?'

He turned abruptly and looked at her. He had to do this. He had to make her go.

'I've got an idea!' he exclaimed.

Rose slammed her fists on the door. She'd fallen for it again! Different tactics, she'd grant, but she still fell for it.

'This is emergency program one.'

Rose turned around. There was a transparent hologram of the Doctor standing there, just like last time. She turned around and watched it.

'Rose, now listen.' He'd been prepared again. 'If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing. We're in danger and I mean fatal. I'm dead, or about to die any second with no chance of escape.'

'No!' Rose stepped forward.

'And that's okay,' the Doctor announced. 'I hope it's a good death. But I promised, at least to myself, to look after you and that's what I'm doing. The TARDIS is taking you home.'

'I can stop you!' she announced, coming up to the side of the hologram. 'I can!'

'And I bet you're fussing and moaning now,' the Doctor remarked in an irritated tone. 'Typical! But hold on and listen just a bit more. Emergency program one means I'm facing an enemy that should never get their hands on this machine. So this is what you should do: let the TARDIS die. Just let this old box gather dust. No one can open it, no one will even notice it. Let it become a strange little thing standing on a street corner. And over the years, the world will move on and the box will be buried. And if you want to remember me, then you can do one thing. That's all: one thing.' The hologram turned and looked at her. 'Have a good life. Do that for me, Rose. Have a fantastic life.'

The hologram faded out. She shook her head.

'No!' she yelled. 'I can't have a good life without you!'

The TARDIS suddenly stopped and she ran out. She was back home. Back in London, outside the Tyler Mansion.

'The TARDIS will only open if she's absolutely positive you're prepared to lay down your life for this,' Dani told her.

'Well, I am,' Rose announced with absolute certainty.

'Well, then.' Dani smiled. 'We better start pulling.'

Pete hit the accelerator. Apparently, last time Mickey had been doing this. Now it was his turn. Dani had once described the TARDIS as indestructible. That meant they just had to keep pulling until the TARDIS saw they were serious and let go.

The truck flew forward and he hit the brakes. Jumping out, Pete ran back to see a gold glow coming out of the TARDIS a moment before the doors slammed shut. Then the TARDIS dematerialised, taking Rose back to the Doctor.

The Doctor looked around as the Daleks all rolled in.

'You'll really want to think about this,' the Doctor stated. 'I set this wave off, the brain cells of every living thing gets fried.'

'You cannot hurt me,' the Emperor disputed. 'I am Immortal.'

'Do you really want to put that to the test?' the Doctor asked.

'I want to see you become like me.' The Emperor answered, 'All hail the Doctor! The Great Exterminator!'

He grasped the lever. 'I'll do it!'

'Then prove yourself, Doctor,' the Emperor told him. 'What are you? Coward or killer?'

The Doctor's hands shook as he tensed, scared to push the lever. The impact of what he was about to do, hitting him. His hands slid off the lever. 'Coward. Any day.'

'Mankind will be harvested because of your weakness,' the Emperor stated.

'And what about me then?' the Doctor asked. 'Am I becoming one of your angels.'

'You are the heathen,' the Emperor answered. 'You will be exterminated!'

'Maybe it's time.' The Doctor closed his eyes and waited. But instead of death, he heard a warmly familiar sound. And that was not good.

'TARDIS materialising!' one Dalek reported.

The Doctor turned and whipped around and fell back on his butt as the door opened and the Huon Particles exploded out. His gut dropped like a boulder as he saw Rose, with the Vortex swimming around her head, step out.

'What have you done?' he yelled.

'I looked into the TARDIS,' she said, her voice a echoing melody. 'And the TARDIS looked into me.'

'You looked into the Time Vortex!' the Doctor yelled. 'Rose, no one's meant to see that!'

'This is the abomination!' the Emperor yelled.

'Exterminate!' a Dalek yelled, shooting Rose.

But she just held her hand up and rendered the Death-Ray ineffective.

'I am the Bad Wolf,' Rose stated. 'I create myself.' She waved her hand. 'I take the words. I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here.'

As she spoke the words scattered and it all came together in the Doctor's head.

'Rose, you've got to stop this!' he called to her desperately. 'You've got to stop this now! You've got the entire Vortex running though your head! You're gonna burn!'

She looked down at him. 'I want you safe. My Doctor. Protected from the False God.'

'You cannot hurt me,' the Emperor stated. 'I am Immortal.'

She looked back up at him and her eyes blazed brighter than before. 'You are tiny! I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence and I divide them!' She raised her hand and a Dalek's atoms all separated. 'Everything must come to dust.' She raised her arms, 'All things. Everything dies!' Soon all the Daleks were having their atoms separated and turning to dust. Rose looked forward. 'The Time War ends.'

'I cannot die!' the Dalek Emperor screamed as his atoms were split and he did just that. 'I will not diiiiieeeee!'

The Doctor twisted around to face her. 'Rose, you've done it, now stop. Just let go.'

She looked down at him. He was almost knocked over again from all the love her saw in her eyes. Then he felt the skin-rippling sensation of Jack being brought back to life—forever. She smiled gently and exhaled. The vortex drifted into the TARDIS and the panels slipped shut. Rose's knees buckled and the Doctor lurched forward, catching her in his arms before she hit the ground. She rolled her head onto his shoulder and groaned.

'Ow.'

He looked down at her. 'How are you still conscious?'

She looked up at him. Her eyes were red and her skin was pale. She looked exhausted in his arms. A tired smile crossed her face.

'You still haven't worked it out?' she asked softly.

The question threw him. He thought back on the time that he'd known her. And it all fell into place. How could he have been so stupid? How could he have missed it? He could really have kicked himself.

'You're from the other dimension,' he breathed. 'You travelled with my counterpart there.'

'Bingo.' She pressed her face into his shoulder. 'This Bad Wolf thing happened there too. Can't get rid of me that easy.'

'Rose, you had the vortex in your head twice,' he told her. 'You could've died. You could die.'

'But I won't,' she murmured.

'How do you know?' he demanded.

'You won't let me,' Rose answered. 'You love me too much.'

He exhaled, defeated. 'Yes. Yes, I do.'

He leaned down and kissed her. Her lips were soft, warm and inviting. And she was more than willing, sighing gently against his mouth as she responded as much as she could. But she was weak. She needed rest. He broke the kiss.

'We'll continue this when you're stronger,' he told her.

She rested her head on his shoulder again and closed her eyes.

'I love you,' she breathed.

He slid his arm behind her knees as he stood, lifting her up. As he turned to the TARDIS, he had to turn back again because Jack ran in. He'd have to explain to Jack what happened to him later. Jack's eyes went to Rose.

'Is she…?' he began.

Rose turned her head and curled tighter into the Doctor's arms.

'She'll be fine,' the Doctor told him. 'She just needs some shut-eye.'

'I could do with some myself.' Jack groaned, following him to the TARDIS.