Chapter 14

It could have been minutes, or hours, she wasn't sure. She wasn't even sure if time passed in the same way here, if it even passed at all. She sat leaning heavily against the scorched and blackened ruins staring out across the vastness cataloguing every crater and hole while cradling the Doctor's unconscious form against her. She gently stroked her fingers through his hair while whispering sweet nothings and recalling stories of their brilliant adventures together to him as he slept. She felt him begin to stir in her arm.

"Rose?" He murmured gently, moving slightly to shift his weight off her and turn.

"Hello," She whispered smiling brilliantly at him despite her exhaustion, "Welcome back."

He smiled in response and stood up, pulling her with him. She was startled when he swept her up in an embrace and whispered into her hair. "Thank you." She squeezed him back. "Anytime." He pulled back to look at her. She was tired he could tell and the soot from the ground beneath them had stained her hair and clothes. He looked down at his own appearance. His first thought was his current state of undress, well in his opinion anyway. It wasn't often he was without his full suit and coat. He raised an eyebrow as he chanced a sniff at his shirt.

"Come on, let's go back to the TARDIS, you look terrible." He grinned as she slapped him in the arm. "Gee thanks." Was her sarcastic response, then she remembered something from before, while he had been asleep and she'd had nothing better to do then take in their unique surroundings. "Wait a minute." She stopped him, turning to the higher peaks to the right of them.

"Is this the only thing here, I mean weren't there anymore buildins' or anythin'?" She asked turning back to face him. He frowned and glanced around once more before replying.

"No, this was it. Didn't need anything else. Bigger on the inside remember." She frowned and looked back to their right.

"Then what's that?" She asked pointing to what appeared to be a door cut into the rock about 100 yards from where they stood. "I didn't notice it at first, just kinda noticed it outta the..."

"Corner of your eye." He finished for her. "That's a perception filter." He frowned at the door as if challenging its very existence with his stare. They cautiously approached it, the Doctor producing the sonic screwdriver from his trouser pocket. It whirred into life as he traced around the offending door. Rose moved closer to the rock face, noticing a slight silver glint. She dusted it off and looked over at the Doctor.

"What about this?" He pointed the sonic at the panel and with a hiss the door slid partially open.

"I think it's stuck." He muttered as he pushed his body between the door and it's housing using himself to open it further. "There we go." He turned back to her.

"What's in there?" She asked nervously trying to peak around him into the darkness. He grabbed her hand and dragged her in after him. "No idea." Despite the dark she could tell by his tone that he was thrilled at the prospect of a new mystery to apply his brilliance to, even if he was only using it as a distraction.

She was pulled out of her musing as she stumbled slightly over some unknown object on the floor below her.

"Wait here." He told her and let go of her hand.

"Oh you've got to be kiddin', I can't see a bloody thin..." She squinted as the light overhead blinked into existence. Her eyes, finding their target, flicked to the Doctor who was standing next to the wall, palm flat against its silver panelling, grinning.

"Shut up." She muttered rolling her eyes trying not to match his expression. Instead she turned her attention to the room in front of her. It was more like warehouse than a room, a decent size in length with two slightly shorter outer sections, with alien machinery lining the high walls some of which resembled the console of the TARDIS. If she could see it from above she would have believed it to be cross-shaped in appearance. She wondered briefly what the Webster's definition of cruciform was; perhaps this was what it referred to. Perhaps the rubble outside had once resembled something similar. She turned to ask the Doctor but thought better of it as she watched him muttering to himself as he progressed along the far wall.

"What is all this?" She asked moving up the middle of the room, glancing between him and the opposite wall.

"Secondary control room, well as far as I can tell anyway." He frowned leaning closer before blowing the thick lining of dust off the monitor in front of him. She stepped down into the centre of the room and her eyes were drawn immediately to the ceiling above her. It was open and she could see the dull space of the outside through the steel and glass that spiralled in a familiar pattern.

"If seen this before." She mumbled more to herself than to him. "In the TARDIS." He moved towards her slowly, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he stepped down next to her and glanced up at the ceiling. He remained silent, staring.

"It's beautiful." She murmured noting the way it seemed to twist and curl with no beginning or end.

"The Seal of the Time Lords." He spoke sadly. "Ancient and forever, a symbol of strength and knowledge and eternity. But no one remembers it now." She slipped her hand into his pocket and wrapped her fingers around his own. "I'll always remember Doctor," She whispered, "And so will you." He looked down at her and nodded, a small smile gracing his features. He looked back to the ceiling as she glanced around at the consoles, moving away from him to run her fingers across them like she would the TARDIS console.

"Does it work?" She asked, he jumped slightly previously lost in a daydream.

"Does what work?" He asked then noticed her eyebrow rose in amusement as she gestured to the room around them. "Oh, I doubt it." He replied disheartened. "Its original power source was drawn from the planet, just like the TARDIS. You remember I showed you the Cloister Room?" She nodded.

"The eye of harmony wasn't it?" It was his turn to nod. He sat down on one of the hard wooden benches around the centre observatory and watched her as she moved about slowly touching over every dusty surface lightly with her small hand.

"So how come the lights still work then?" She queried.

"They're running off the kinetic energy produced as the asteroid moves." He wasn't really up for a full explanation so he was grateful when she nodded. She stopped at the far wall and frowned at the small hole which was cut into it. She bent down to peer into it but all she could see was black. She moved to the next wall and stopped, staring back in his direction.

"So if there's no power," She mused. "Why are there blinkin' lights on all these ones?" She pointed to where she had just been. "And those ones over there?"

"What?" He raised an eyebrow at her and sat forward.

"All these consoles have little blinkin' lights on the monitors, well not a light really but you know, the thing that appears at the top of a computer screen when it starts up, you know a...a cursor?" She turned back to the monitor as he approached behind her. She turned to him, a deep frown creased his brow.

"What is it Doctor?"

"They're on standby." He murmured more to himself than in answer to her question. "But that's impossible." He took a step backwards, running a hand through his already wild brown hair.

"Doctor?" He stood staring so she tried again. "Doctor!" His attention snapped to her.

"What are all these machines? What do they do?" She asked quickly save his attention waver again.

"Umm," He began gesturing to the far wall, finding it hard to concentrate with the number of thoughts he was currently processing. "Those would've controlled the defensive systems, um, transduction barriers, dimensional defence fields." He scratched his head at her confused expression. "They were used to shift the planet outside of the space time continuum, prevent everything and anything getting through. Some of the others controlled temporal baffels, temporal locks to stop travel into the planets past and onto the planet itself." He was pacing in front of her.

"What about the ones on this side?" He stopped pacing and glanced along the wall.

"They're crypto-forming devices." He stared at the bank of monitors and frowned once more.

"What is it kinda like tera-formin' or somethin'?" She asked following him with her eyes as he began pacing again.

"No...weeeeell sort of...but no." He appeared to be having an internal argument with himself. "During the dark times there was a war, way, way back in Time Lord History. Crypto-forming was used to clone whole planets, my planet...another sort of defence mechanism in order to create a diversion. I mean imagine creating several copies of the same planet and hiding the original amongst them, or even better than that, pop it into another dimension and let the enemy destroy the rest." He shrugged spinning round to face the opposite wall once more.

"Or bring it back when the enemies defeated." She whispered and his eyes darted to hers, burning into her.

"What?" He breathed moving to stand directly in front of her. She swallowed, looking up at him nervously.

"What if that's why we're here." She said quietly, he made to move away from her but she grabbed him, speaking a little more forcefully this time.

"Think about it Doctor, we shouldn't be here but we are despite the time lock." He stared into her. "All this is here," She gestured around the room with her free hand, "And it shouldn't be."

"What you're suggesting is impossible." He seethed pulling away from her. "There isn't enough power even if it was possible." She winced as his voice echoed off the vast walls, but she was a little perturbed that he wasn't even seeing the possibility, and he was yelling at her too which didn't help.

"How would you know how much power is here, you haven't even checked yet. Besides, why is it so impossible to think that the Time Lords, if they were as infinitely wondrous and all-knowing and powerful as you keep tellin' me," She shouted back angrily, "Wouldn't have done sumfin' to make sure everything wasn't completely lost!"

"Because they would have told me!" He bellowed. "I should have known about all this. But I didn't!"

"And you accuse my species of havin' tunnel vision." She spat. "Just 'cause you can feel the worlds turning under your feet don't mean they revolve around you!" He made to snap back at her, she could see and feel the atmosphere around him beginning to waver and charge but she wasn't having it, oncoming storm be damned.

"There are older and wiser and more powerful things than you in this universe Doctor!" She circled around him before finally in a lower softer tone she spoke. "Or did you forget about the TARDIS lying down the mountain in pieces." He took a step back then, his mouth snapping shut; it was if his entire argument had been collected by an oncoming bus.

"I...I..." His mouth gaped open again and he shot an uncertain look in her direction. She steped closer and took both his hands, looking up into his stricken brown eyes.

"She brought us here for a purpose, she nearly killed herself to do it," She nodded towards the console. "Maybe you could try it Doctor, make her sufferin' worth it." She looked down at their joined hands. "And if it works, even if there ain't no one else, at least you'll both have a home again." A tear trickled down his cheek and dripped onto her hand. She looked up at him and placing a hand on his cheek wiped away the trail of moisture.

"Rose Tyler," He murmured. "So wise for one so young."

He smiled at her then, she could feel the energy bubbling up inside of him and she grinned back as he enveloped her in a hug before placing her back on the floor and pressing his lips to hers. She giggled despite herself and he pulled back matching her grin.

"Rose Tyler, you are the most brilliant person I've ever had the pleasure of knowing." He laughed at as she tried to hide her blush. She pushed him off gently.

"Yea well," She muttered smiling, looking up to see him still grinning at her. "Go on get on with it." She laughed.

"Right you are!" He clapped and rubbed his hands together.

"Now," He began, slipping his glasses on and moving to the monitors on the far side. "This may prove to be a little more difficult to do inside the time lock, but maybe if I'm very, very clever, which you know I am, and incredibly lucky." He poked his tongue out in concentration of his fingers flew over the dusty control panels, over what Rose assumed must be some kind of keyboard type thingy. "I can remove us from micro space and shift us back into synch and into the proper space-time coordinates within the web." He smiled at her as one by one the monitors on the wall where he stood began to hum and glow as symbols she couldn't understand streamed across them. It resembled a sort of loading window, she guessed.

"The Web?" Rose frowned.

"The web of time, it's oh, it's complicated." Came his distracted response. She reached for the support of the wall as the whole place shuddered and groaned.

"Right," He exclaimed. "We've managed to break out of time lock. It's not broken entirely but we arrived at a time after everything had been destroyed so everything that must will remain as it was." He glanced over at her as he moved to the next console, fingers moving so fast she could barely see them at all.

"Alright Data." She quipped and he turned and grinned at her. "It's not Spock, but it's close enough I guess." He laughed aloud at this.

"I'll never understand your obsession with Star Trek Rose." He replied shaking his head.

"Hmm, it's a human thing." She smiled back just as her pocket began to vibrate, scaring her nearly half to death.

"Hello?" She answered her phone after finally prying it from her pocket. She held it away from her ear as the very irritated voice of Jack Harkness bellowed through the small speaker. The Doctor raised his eye brow at her, while continuing to input data into the consoles.

"Yea we ran into a bit a trouble." She answered.

"No we didn't intentionally leave you there." She frowned.

"Of course we're comin' back, we just can't at the moment." She sighed, looking at the Doctor for help. He just shrugged, of course they'd be worried and since himself and Rose were unable to determine the exact amount of time they'd been here, it'd turned out as he over heard from the screaming coming through her phone, that he'd deposited them back into normal space a week after disappearing in the first place, so naturally their other companions were panicking over not being able to reach them.

"No you don't need to come here." Rose argued with the man on the other end of the line.

"I don't care Jack you can't..." There was a flash of white and blue as Donna and Martha dropped to the floor next to her followed by an incredibly irate looking Jack who was still abusing her over the phone as he walked up to her.

"I will and I did." He snapped. "Don't you ever do that to us again." He grabbed her quite firmly and pulled her against him, his hug almost pushing all the air from her body.

"I thought I disabled that thing." The Doctor chastised as he darted over to the opposite wall and the consoles began loading more data. Jack was about to release a barrage of expletives in the Doctor's direction but was silenced by Donna.

"Where the hell are we?" She glared between the Doctor's pin-striped back and Jack.

"Jack, Martha, Donna," He smiled. "Welcome to the Crucible."

"Oh yea," Donna remarked. "And what's that when it's at home?"

"We're makin' a planet." Rose smiled back at him before glancing at their three companions dumb struck looks.

"Oh," Jack asked. "Just a passing fancy or?"

"No," Rose replied, "This planet is very particular and very, very special, and it took a great deal to get us here." She looked knowingly at the Doctor who nodded and returned to his work.

An hour passed, the consoles were all now lit up and humming quietly away in the background. Donna and Martha were sitting staring up into space, while Rose rested her head against Jacks arm in an attempt to sleep when after another deep rumble and groan the Doctor finally shouted out.

"Rose, I need you to come hold this for a moment." She moved quickly to place her hand on the console. "Just hold this part down until I tell you to stop okay?" She nodded.

"Good girl." He murmured before moving to the console opposite Rose.

"Jack, I need you over here." The Captain complied offering a smirk to which the Doctor merely rolled his eyes.

"Martha over here." He ordered and placed her a few consoles up from Jack instructing her to place her palm face down on the silver panelling.

"And finally Donna, I need you over here." She moved towards him and he spread her hand over the white panel against the wall up from Rose.

Rose, who had been watching him eagerly position his companions smiled to herself. They were positioned within an equal distance around the centre observatory, much like the four guardians on Arcacia, only this time they weren't powerless she thought, they were actually making a difference, even if the other three still had no idea of the importance of what they were doing, even if it was only important and significant to one of them.

"Lucky you lot turned up when you did; don't know how the two of us would have managed." She laughed, the Doctor turned and smiled at her. She could tell he was giddy.

"We would have managed, but since we did have the extra help, it'll make it a lot more stable now." He grinned. "After all, it's not every day we get to bring a whole planet into existence. Why hog all the fun."

He turned serious as he returned to the three panels he had been working on between Rose and Donna and furiously began entering the final sequence that would start the crypto-forming process.

"The data banks already have a complete template to work from," He shouted as the humming and rattling increased in volume, the dust being dislodged and falling from parts of the console and various parts of the ceiling due to the vibrations. "All we have to do is hold on and hope we have enough power." He glanced quickly at Rose. "I've rerouted all the power through the crypto-forming processors, it's all I can do." She nodded at him.

"So we wait." She replied. "And hope this works." She looked back to her panel as a blue spark began to travel up her arm.

"Doctor?" She turned to him and he glanced down at her arm.

"It's artron energy." He frowned at her but was unable to finish his sentence as the building began to vibrate intently, parts of the long forgotten bunker beginning to fall from the ceiling.

"No matter what, don't move until I say so!" He shouted. Rose watched as an unseen wind swirled around them, and a tiny sliver of blue light sparkled in the centre of the observatory as the floor beneath began to retract, the sound of steel on steel screeched through the room as the floor slid back on itself until a gaping black pool of matter swirled in its place.

"HOLD ON!" The Doctor screamed as the swirling matter spun and columned higher and higher like a tornado, the air crackled around them, the power building upon itself. The Doctor watched the monitor in front of him, staring at the empty expanse of space his planet once occupied, the place directly above them now as slowly the dark matter began to ripple the fabric of reality. The Doctors eyes were dragged away as two of the consoles began to bleep and shut down.

"No no NO!" He cried. "Not now, not when we're so CLOSE!" He frantically tried to reboot the lost consoles, as two more from next to Jack began to fade out.

"Two more out here." Jack shouted at him.

"Doctor what's happenin'?" Rose yelled flinching as another blue spark danced up her arm.

"We're running out of power!" He groaned as he tried to bash the consoles into submission. "Please just hold on a little longer." His plea was so desperate.

Rose flinched again as the spark from the console sent a strange feeling up her arm and suddenly images began flickering across her vision.

A tall woman in robes handing a small bundle to a shorter, older man.

"Are you sure the child will survive?" He queried with sad eyes.

"Yes." Replied the woman, "One day, far from now, this child will house the whole of creation within her soul." She smiled at the bundle in his arms before turning her attention back to the man. "Now hurry we don't have much time. The matrix must be saved if we are to survive this ourselves."

"Will you take her yourself?" He asked as he placed the child on a small ceramic tablet.

"Yes, the Doctor must have no knowledge of this." She sighed. "It is already enough for him to have to bear our deaths on his own, let alone to know what will become of his soul mate."

A bright golden light streamed down upon the child, but it barely made a sound, merely continuing to gurgle and kick lightly at its wrapping. When it was over the woman gently swept the child off the tablet and held her to her chest, closing her eyes tight as she kissed its small forehead.

"You have quite an adventure ahead of you little one." She smiled down at her. "But for now, you must leave us." The child began to squirm and whine. "Shhh now, we will meet again, have no fear of that."The woman's kind eyes moved from the child and Rose was startled as the woman appeared to stare right into her.

"Now is the time, Rose Tyler." She spoke. "If you are here then his TARDIS has managed to break through the Time Lock and you've found the secondary control room. He is trying to restore Gallifrey, but there is no power left, it's running out as we speak and it's failing. But there is something you can do, must do, something only you can do and it's so very vitally important, and I'm sorry, so very sorry but it will cost you your life."

Rose sobbed, tears streaming down her face as she looked through the woman to the Doctor frantically dashing between consoles.

"I need you to help us now, Rose Tyler, help us, save us." Tears spilled down the other woman's face a mirror of her own.

"What do I have to do?" Rose answered her mind already set.

Behind you is a hole in the wall, it's a hole in the fabric of reality, all you need to do is place your arm in there and hold on as tight as you possibly can and remember. Remember all of this, remember him and remember that you once held time and commanded it to your will and use it to save us, Rose please you have to save us, save the Time Lords." She cried holding the baby closer to her chest.

Rose's head fell and the vision disappeared, her palm slipping from the console, still sparking blue. When she reached the wall she turned to see the Doctor's worried and confused expression. She turned away placing her palms either side of the hole and took a deep breath. She turned once more, the last thing she saw as she plunged her small hand down into the blackness was the Doctors terrified face as he ran towards her screaming her name. Pain over took her but she held on, she looked into her own mind and found time itself, she was just about to reach out and take it when a cool hand reached out and wrapped itself around her wrist gently. She looked up to see an unfamiliar face, but looking into his eyes, as all encompassing and deep as the universe itself, she knew who it was. He smiled kindly at her and lent forward to whispered into her ear. "Thank you." She closed her eyes and in an explosion of radiant golden light she saw everything once more, and then nothing.