A few hints into what happened to Rose and why and a glimpse of this 'verse's take on Gallifreyan biology (more to come on that later). Back to Jack and the action next chapter. You're all amazing and thank you so much for the support and reviews! And I'm planning on locking myself in my room tonight and banging out some more of Shades of Blue. =)
The Doctor slowly gained consciousness only to find that he had probably not really gained consciousness, unless consciousness had suddenly lost all of its creativity. From his position on the ground next to Rose, he could see that they were in a world entirely made of white. He slowly sat up, folding his long legs under his body, making sure not to release the hand clasped with Rose's, to look around them. Sure enough, everything around them: ground, sky, trees, grass, benches, everything, was disconcertingly white. He felt a bit as though he was in one of his early versions of the TARDIS. He felt Rose stir beside him and turned concerned eyes on her, watching as she blinked at the blank surroundings and slowly sat up as well, folding her legs underneath her until they sat facing one another, knee to knee, hands in hands resting on top.
He held his breath, waiting for her to speak first. She looked him over carefully, hazel eyes searching his face and taking in his upper body, shoulders and head. He considered her as well, noting that she still looked too thin, too haunted and that they both seemed to be barefoot and clad in some sort of white linen scrubs.
"Hello," she finally said, tilting her head to the side and offering him a shadow of a smile which he met with a smile bright enough to blind even in this white landscape.
"Hello!" he answered. He waited with bated breath until that shadow of a smile slowly transformed into a full-fledged one before continuing, "Not sure where we are. Any ideas?"
"Vergosa," Rose answered, both the surety in her voice and her answer surprising him.
"What?" he asked, incredulously. "We can't be!"
"Well, it certainly looks like the Vergosa I remember," Rose said, swinging her head around and crinkling her nose. "Not sure how we go here, though."
"You've been to Vergosa?" he asked, his voice rising in surprise and shock again and his eyebrows shooting into his wild hair. Even in a parallel world, it had to be impossible.
Rose frowned slightly at his confusion. "Well, yeah. It's where Pete took me after my telepathy first exploded an' I didn't know how to handle it. They taught me how to deal with it," she said, carefully, shrugging her shoulders. She and he had so much to discuss but his hands in hers felt so good.
"Rose, I don't understand," he said, letting go of one of her hands to pull at his ear and her heartstrings pulled, wanting to follow the action and reclaim that errant hand. "Vergosa is a Time Lord myth. A legend. El Dorado, Atlantis, Brigadoon, Oz. It doesn't exist. Anywhere, in any universe. It's impossible," he stammered.
"Ah, the arrogance of a Time Lord," a calm voice behind him drawled, sounding slightly amused. He jumped and clambered to his feet, dragging Rose up with him because there was no way he was letting go of her remaining hand. "Give him a glimpse of something he doesn't understand and it is immediately impossible. In all your years, in all your adventures, have you not learned, my dear Doctor, that there are really very few things that are actually impossible? Is there not, in the basis of all legends, some kernel of truth?"
He was immediately distressed when Rose let go of his hand to propel herself at the intruder, a very tall, blue, vaguely humanoid alien with a long neck, large, luminous blue eyes and no discernible mouth. Rose wrapped her arms around the creature's waist, burying her head in its torso. "Renyiors! I missed you!"
"And I you, little wolf," he responded, letting loose a lilting laugh and patting her back affectionately before disengaging himself from her. "You are worrying your mate, little one. You should return to him," he said, nudging Rose back toward the Doctor. She nodded, looking a little embarrassed at the term 'mate' but obediently returned to his side without question, taking his hand once more.
It had taken the Doctor a moment to realize that the creature, Renyoirs, as Rose had called him, was communicating entirely telepathically with them. He felt a small surge of jealousy wash through him as he watched Rose looking affectionately at the tall blue alien and both Rose and the Vergosan swung their heads to look at him, Rose looking surprised and Renyiors looking amused.
"I have no intention of moving on your mate," Renyiors said, making him blush at the way the word 'mate' kept being bandied around and making the blue creature look even more amused. "I am simply here in your dreamscape to explain a few things and then I will return to the past where I am needed/was needed and you will return to the present where you were needed/are needed/will be needed."
"This language is awkward to speak of Time in as there are not enough verb tenses to accommodate but Rose has yet to learn Gallifreyan and my language is long since dead for even you, Doctor. I realize you have questions, little wolf, but for now simply know this: my people were the keepers of Time before the Time Lords and I am sure that later the Doctor will share with you the undoubtedly exaggerated legends of us and you can tell him where he is wrong," he said, amusement shining once again in his luminous eyes. "Come, let us sit."
The three of them walked to the white grass and sat down again, the Doctor and Rose, hand in hand, side by side facing the tall, graceful creature. "Rose is/was/will be, as I am sure you have figured out, Doctor, a very unique event in Time and Space. As are you. The universe's attempt to right a wrong and perhaps Time's attempt to reward her champion. She is a fickle mistress and I have no hope to interpret her actions or motives," he said, seriously, turning to look first at one figure in front of him and then the other. "The Time War never should have happened and the Time Lords never should have perished. But it did, they did, and the universe suddenly rested solely on the shoulders of one threadbare man. That is until a silly little human girl came along to share his burden and a series of events much bigger than either of them could imagine were set into motion." The Doctor squeezed Rose's hand beside him and they both continued to listen.
Renyiors turned his attention back to the Doctor. "You are familiar, Doctor, with a crux in Time?"
"An essential point in Time requiring resolution in one of two ways, the outcome of which can significantly change the future," he rattled off, as if reciting a vocabulary definition, Rose thought.
"Correct," Renyiors answered, looking pleased. With anyone else, the Doctor would probably have been annoyed at the teacher-like tone he so often used himself, but he was so awed by the Vergosan, he took no note.
"The Dalek attack coming to a head at Satellite Five was supposed to be a fixed point. The end of the universes. It was Time's way of wiping clean the slate, of righting that wrong. However, your TARDIS and your human endeavored to change Time, making it a crux instead. Down one path, the Daleks complete their task and everything ends in the 51st century. Down the other, she returns to you, destroys the Daleks, becomes something new and everything continues."
Rose turned her head to look at him, looking just as overwhelmed as he felt. He tried to smile at her encouragingly before turning their attention back to Renyiors. "And the crux took the second path," he said.
"Yes," Renyiors answered. "Rose took in the Time Vortex and the first path was destroyed." He turned to look at the Doctor. "Merely saving you and destroying the Daleks, however, was not enough. The energy from the Time Vortex would kill her and you, Doctor, in your grief and anger, would soon have followed, leaving the newly forged future with no protector. Do you deny this?" he asked, the large pools of blue searching his face.
"No," the Doctor answered grimly, hearing Rose's sharp intake of breath beside him, turning his deep brown eyes to face her, willing her to know that losing his blessed anchor then, sacrificed for him, in that dark and chaotic body would have been far too much. It had almost been too much for this one, and at least this time he had known that she was alive, somewhere. It would definitely have killed him then, had almost killed him now.
"And so, Time sought to find a new solution. Taking the blueprint of the life you gave for hers," the Doctor squeezed Rose's hand at this as she gasped again, "the Vortex and your TARDIS rebuilt her in the image of a Time Lord as best they could. Not a perfect rendition but Time, as always, ironically, was short," he continued, wryly. "She was with you a short time following that but, as other events fell into place, it became clear that she would have to be separated from this universe for a time."
"But why?" Rose asked, breaking the silence for the first time. "Why did I have to be taken from him?"
"It was not from him, little wolf, but from another that you had to be protected," he said, sadly. "I will say no more as you two must explore your pasts together but know this: It was for the best, as much as it pained us to watch your grief and hardship," Reyniors continued.
"As there were no Time Lords to be called to help her and, indeed, few that would have anyway, we were called from the past to assist her after her first regeneration. The telepathy was not difficult to control and Rose is, as you well know, a bright and apt student," the Vergosan continued, smiling in their heads. "However, without a TARDIS..."
"Her Time sense would have killed her," the Doctor finished, horrified. His hand in hers tightened once again. He could have lost her again, right then and there. How many of these horrible near-misses was he going to have to learn about from her seventy-five year absence?
"Precisely," Reyniors said, nodding grimly. "And so we did what we could, locking all those impulses behind heavy shields, able to be unlocked only with the touch of another Gallifreyan mind, for when she was back with you and your TARDIS. It would seem, however, from the frantic memories flitting across your mind, Doctor, that our plan did not work quite as we had hoped."
No, it hadn't. Overwhelmed and confused, he'd tried to connect with her in Jack's lift, far from his TARDIS and he must have activated the seal then. No wonder it had seemed like her Time sense had just exploded in her head. It had. No wonder Rose had run.
"I must take my leave of you now, young ones, as I have completed my task. You have much to discuss with each other, but I am afraid that it will have to wait. Your friends need you now," he said, unwrapping his long legs and standing in front of them. Rose and the Doctor followed suit and stood facing him once more.
"It has been my pleasure to help you, little wolf, " he said, turning those luminous eyes to face Rose once more. Rose nodded to him and let a few tears fall down her cheeks.
"Take care of her, Doctor. And of yourself," he finished and, with that, the world of white around them began to dissolve, the last thing visible in the fading white, a pair of large, blue eyes that reflected in their depth two small figures standing hand in hand, with all of Time swirling around them.