Notes: I sincerely apologize that I couldn't find a good place to give Rose some "alone time" with eight. I may have to mix him into a later story in this series for just that purpose ;) Anyway, I hope you like this... we go from eight into nine in this chapter and all the fun stuff is really about to happen!
Chapter Twenty-One – Relative Dimensions: Part Two
Rose angrily followed the pinging scanner on her sonic and made her way to the bomb that she was assigned to defuse. Missy was up to something. She would either be following the past Doctor the whole way or leading them all into a trap, Rose just knew it. She paid careful attention to all three of the Doctors as she went, terrified that something would go horribly wrong.
~'Is everyone alright?'~ she asked them all worriedly.
~'Yes, Rose, try not to worry. I have faced the Master many times before on my own,'~ the past Doctor replied with a mental eye roll.
~'Don't worry about us, love, just you be careful ok? She knows how much you mean to us,'~ Alex answered. His soothing mental caress helped to ease her tension slightly.
~'I'm fine, darling, but I'm worrying about the same thing you are. She's up to something and it isn't good. There's more to it than a bunch of bombs that we can find easily. She wanted us separated from each other and the TARDIS,'~ Evander told Rose and Alex.
~'Oh my god, you're right, Evander! The TARDIS! What if she's after Susan?'~ Rose nearly shouted to all three Doctors.
~'Susan?! No, no, no. Oh darling, you're right. She knows that the best way to get to me is through my companions and we can't go back to the TARDIS until we've taken care of these blasted things,'~ the eighth Doctor despaired.
~'You're right, as usual, love. Missy is sure to go to the TARDIS and threaten all of them waiting for us there,'~ Alex agreed, not having heard his past self's reply.
They had each reached their destinations at nearly the same time. Defusing the bombs was insultingly easy for all of them, only emphasizing the point that this was only a distraction, aimed to get them away from the TARDIS and its occupants.
On their way back to the two TARDISes, they discussed options for when they got there.
~'Our TARDIS is a second out of sync, learned that one a while back from the Daleks. It's useful for hiding her from the Master,'~ Evander told Rose. It was a bit of a distracting echo, but she passed along everything her current Doctors said to the past Doctor as the others said it.
~'Alright. Is there anything we can do with our TARDIS to stop whatever Missy is doing in the other TARDIS? Materialize around her or something?'~ Rose suggested.
~'We can't put the TARDIS inside of herself, unfortunately,'~ Alex told her.
~'Well, I have had it happen before, but it was an accident and Amy and I fixed it, but it was Rory's fault! He was looking up her skirt or something and dropped... oh never mind. It's a bad idea. So we need another one,'~ Evander rambled, which was unusual for this incarnation.
~'Perhaps we could have the future TARDIS communicate with the past TARDIS. Figure out where she is and rearrange the rooms to trap her,'~ the younger Doctor suggested and Rose passed along the message.
~'Yes, that might work. Almost there now,'~ Alex replied and they ran back to where they had first parted ways.
Evander used his sonic to bring their TARDIS back into sync with reality and the four of them entered immediately. "I can bring up the scanners from the other TARDIS on our monitors, but Rose, darling, you're the best one to talk to her," he announced as he ran around the console to the keyboard.
"Not a problem, love," Rose answered and placed a hand on the time rotor as she watched the screen with her Doctors.
They made suggestions as to how to manoeuvre Missy where they wanted her to go and lock her in the room. It also happened to be shielded from time manipulations, so that she couldn't leave with her wrist strap for the time being.
"There now, I think we ought to go and see if dinner is ready," the past Doctor proclaimed haughtily and took Rose's arm as he led her out of one TARDIS and into the other.
Alex and Evander looked at each other and shrugged, accepting their fate as they followed the others to Christmas dinner. Susan, Lucie, and young Alex admitted that Missy had frightened them quite a bit when she stormed into the TARDIS, but had managed to barricade themselves in the library until the Doctors had taken care of her. Doctors Alex and Evander did their best to enjoy the time with their Granddaughter and Great-Grandson, but knowing the fate that would befall them far too soon, just made it all too painful.
"Despite knowing that what you thought happened during this time is incorrect, what did you remember?" the past Doctor asked the future ones.
"Oh, you're really trying to confuse your companions now," Rose chided and shook her head.
Susan rolled her eyes. She understood all of this from her time studying on Gallifrey before they left. She was a Time Lady as well and knew about memory suppression. But she had no desire to try and explain that sort of thing to her son.
"Oh, well," Alex began, rubbing the back of his neck. "Something about a fish escaping Susan's old room? It was killing the Fledershrews, I think."
"Oh! We saw some dead Fledershrews in the hallway when we heard that voice! Didn't we, Alex?" Lucie exclaimed.
"I guess all that did still happen," Evander sighed. "Shall I go shuffle the rooms to lock it up as well? Maybe we can lock it in with Missy and it can electrocute her a few times before we let them out."
"Might as well," Alex agreed.
When everyone had finished dinner, they all gathered in the sitting area of the console room, where there was a Christmas tree set up. The Doctor gave Susan an Aztec necklace and Alex some drawings from Leonardo da Vinci. He was surprised though to find a box under the tree with Rose's name on it.
"Must be something the TARDIS thought you should have," the young Doctor suggested.
"The Old Girl always has loved you, Rose," Alex said fondly.
Rose opened the gold wrapped present carefully to find a beautiful, silver bracelet inside. The surface was covered in Gallifreyan writing. The Doctors all gaped at the item as Rose admired her present.
"Oh it's lovely!" she sighed and turned it around to read the inscribed message. Rose gasped at what she saw. "Doctor! This... this..." she stuttered and held it out for them to see.
"That's a relic! How in Rassilon's name did the TARDIS get that?" Evander exclaimed.
Alex took the time to read the inscriptions that had bothered Rose and found that it was covered in the words 'Bad Wolf.' Entwined between the circles that made up the language of the Time Lords were vines of roses.
"This belongs in the vaults on Gallifrey," the eighth Doctor insisted.
"I think you'll find that it belongs with Rose. Look at what it says," Alex argued and showed the bracelet to Evander.
"Across all of space and time indeed. Our precious, Bad Wolf," Evander said with a disbelieving shake of his head.
"Well, none of us certainly stole it from Gallifrey, so there isn't much I can do now but accept it," Rose decided and clasped the bracelet around her wrist. Everyone in the room gasped as the trinket glowed with golden light for a moment before any method of opening it again disappeared.
They were all startled out of their admiration for the bracelet, by the lights in the TARDIS flickering.
"Oh, that bloody fish is draining the power systems! It's bound to take down the temporal shielding on the room holding Missy soon," Alex groaned and dashed to the console to check on things.
"Well, she can't have gotten through yet or I wouldn't..." Rose began but disappeared before their eyes.
"Still be here? Yeah, that's what I thought. Now, the question is, will Missy be able to get through the time lock or will she even want to be around during our next life? Of course, if she skips that one, it means we're going to have two Rose's on our next trip," Alex rambled as he tried to keep the fish that he knew was draining power from the TARDIS contained. "Alright, you've got your own problem to deal with here there was a little dried air fish in Susan's room, but as soon as you brought her room out of stasis, it escaped and is now a pan-dimensional, pan-temporal pest. You'll manage, we've got to go find Rose."
"...still be here. Oh!" Rose cried as she collapsed onto familiar metal flooring. "Doctor?"
"Who are you and how did you get in here?" the familiar voice of Jack Harkness demanded over the whining sound of a sonic blaster powering up.
Rose put her hands in the air as much as she could while recovering from her transport. "Just give me a minute, Jack, please?" she asked.
~'Doctor, I know you can feel me. Please don't say anything until I've unlocked some memories for you. You can trust me, I know you think it's impossible, but unlocking those memories will explain everything,'~ Rose thought to the Doctor, unsure of just where he was at the moment.
They heard the sound of heavy work boots pounding on the grating as he stormed into the console room. "Put the gun away, Harkness," he said curtly.
"But, Doctor, who is she? She just appeared out of thin air. I didn't think anyone could teleport into here?" Jack argued.
"Just put the gun away. We can trust her," he told Jack as he helped her up from the floor. "Now, you can give me that explanation."
"Right," she said shakily as she finally looked up into painfully familiar blue eyes. She placed trembling fingers against his temples and unlocked the memories of their past meetings and exactly who she was. Before removing her hands and looking at him again, she told him silently, ~'Call me Sagacity. Don't tell myself or Jack that I'm your wife, might be best not to even let them know that I'm a Time Lady. Now when are we?'~
Rose opened her eyes and took a step away from the gaping Time Lord. It took a full minute before he managed to clear his throat to speak again, but before he could say a word, a much younger Rose entered the console room and looked at the newcomer curiously.
"Right. Good. Jack, Rose, this is Sagacity. She's a friend of mine and another time traveller. To answer your question, Sagacity, we are in Cardiff. Is that enough information?" he explained warily.
"Uh, yeah. Timing. Is Mickey here yet?" Sagacity asked, worriedly trying to think of damage control.
"Hang on, how did you know...?" Rose started to ask.
"I told you, she's a time traveller. She'll know a lot of things that haven't happened yet. And that's dangerous. So she won't be able to answer every question. Now, contact Alex and Evander. We'll fix the problem with Missy as quickly as possible and avoid creating any paradoxes," the Doctor interrupted as he took charge of the situation.
This Doctor's no nonsense methods tugged at Sagacity's heart painfully. She sent the signal along her bond to her husbands, releasing their memories so that they would know where to find her. Looking at her past self, Rose wondered if her hips had looked that wide just before she regenerated. She shook herself away from that line of thought and considered Jack. He was so young here and definitely not immortal. He would be understanding about maintaining timelines, but not so happy about having to suppress his memories. He was already missing years of memories thanks to the Time Agency. They'd have to find a way to convince him though, because he didn't recognize her when they first met him after her regeneration.
There was a knock on the door, that Sagacity presumed would be Mickey. Jack went to open the TARDIS door for him and came face to face with... himself. "What?" the younger Jack gasped.
Future Jack just gave him a look of incredulity. "Really, Jack? You were a Time Agent. You're coming with me for a minute to explain a couple of things, Doc, you can come if you want. Sagacity, when you get back to your regular time, you need to tell me about this and send me here. Got it?" he explained and winked saucily at her.
"Got it, Jack. And thank you, I was a little worried about this," Sagacity replied.
The leather-clad Doctor followed the two Jacks deeper into the TARDIS to pass along whatever messages needed passing on. His mind could barely grasp what was happening. His past selves had simply accepted how amazing this Rose from their future was and adored her devotion and abilities. Now, he knew Rose. He knew exactly where she came from and how she had grown since meeting him. He had already fallen for her, of course, but fought those feelings fiercely. Apparently, he shouldn't. He shook himself out of his thoughts as they stopped in Jack's room and closed the door.
"Ok, here's the deal. Jack, you're going to hate this, I know, but you will have to trust the Doctor when this is over and allow him to lock the memories away," future Jack began.
"But I can..." younger Jack started to argue.
Holding up a hand, the older Jack stopped him. "I know you think you can just keep it all a secret, but you can't. I'll trust myself to keep the secret for the duration of the events, but you have to forget once she's gone. Sagacity is Rose."
"What? What are you talking about?" the younger Jack questioned disbelievingly.
"It's true, Jack. She unlocked some memories for me just now. That woman out there, is Rose from the future. A future where she managed to turn herself into one of my species so that she could stay with me. She's been sent back through my timeline by someone who's been trying to kill me in my past," the Doctor explained, knowing that his version of Jack was questioning whether this other man really was himself from the future.
"You know that the legends of the Time Lords say that when they are dying, they can change their whole bodies and become someone new. That's why she doesn't look like the Rose you know. But you can't just keep this secret. There are too many things that happen in between for you to know this much about her future. I wouldn't be telling you all this right now, except that Missy is going to reveal certain things anyway. Best if you aren't left in shock while things need doing. Now, I'm coming from a future point after everything with Missy is done. The only warning I've been told that I can give is that this time, she isn't after you, Doctor. She's going to try and kill Rose before she changes herself," future Jack informed them.
"Right. Ok," the Doctor sighed and his brow furrowed in concentration. "I presume you aren't staying, Captain?"
"No, I just came to make sure that he let you suppress those memories when this is done," future Jack said with a nod to his younger self.
"Good. It'll be bad enough with two versions of Rose and three versions of me around here," the Doctor acknowledged.
"Three?" younger Jack exclaimed.
"Long story. We protect the younger Rose at all costs. The older version of Rose is to be called Sagacity at all times and there is to be absolutely no mention of the fact that she is my wife or the younger Rose will be so upset that she'll end up not paying attention to anything and get herself into trouble," the Doctor reasoned.
"Absolutely. Rose was always brilliant, but she's extremely self-conscious at this point. Knowing you have a wife in the future would break her heart. Not a word to her about it. If Missy mentions it, be prepared to deal with a Rose that is completely in shock," future Jack told them. "Now, before I say anything else, I've got to go. Good luck, boys," he added with a wink and pressed the button on his vortex manipulator.
Jack smirked at the Doctor and crossed his arms. "Your wife, huh?"
"Yeah," the Doctor replied with his manic grin. "On this trip through my timeline, I've met this version of her in every one of my lives. Only for short periods and I couldn't remember any of them afterward, but I never really knew her. Just knew that she was my future wife, that I could trust her and that she was absolutely brilliant. Now that I know where she came from, Jack, I can hardly believe it," he told him, clearly in awe of the woman that Rose would become.
"I can't tell you how happy I am for the two of you. But with all of the timelines crossing right now, we are going to have to be super careful. I'm glad for the warnings from myself," Jack said with a broad smile.
"Right. Best get back in there. I'm sure our Rose is uncomfortable enough with a female friend of mine on board," the Doctor joked.
Jack laughed and they both made their way back to the console room. Rose was sitting on the jump seat with her hands clasped between her knees, eyeing the stranger warily. Sagacity smiled at her past self reassuringly as she leaned against the railing casually.
"All set there, boys?" Sagacity asked when they arrived.
"Yup. Future Jack explained a few things to this Jack and let us know what Missy is up to this time," the Doctor informed her.
"I know all about it," Jack told her with a wink.
Sagacity laughed, realizing that he knew who she was now. "Come here!" she told him and opened her arms for a hug.
He ran over and wrapped his arms around her waist as he spun her happily. The younger Rose looked extremely confused by this since Jack didn't seem to have a clue who this woman was earlier. They heard the door being unlocked as Alex and Evander entered the TARDIS.
"Oi! You could knock!" the leather-clad Doctor protested, prompting an eye roll from both of them.
"Come here, Sagacity," Alex said with a smile and open arms.
She extracted herself from Jack's hug and ran into the arms of her husband. As usual, she was passed over to Evander where he kissed her and pressed his forehead against hers lovingly. Jack smiled at the sight. He still didn't understand how there were two Doctors with this future Rose, but it didn't matter. The fact that Rose and the Doctor were properly together was enough to make his heart soar.
"We had a visit from Jack in your time. He managed to tell us what Missy is up to. She wants Rose," the Doctor told them and crossed his arms as he nodded towards his young companion.
"What?" Rose squeaked.
Both Alex and Evander's faces transformed into the Oncoming Storm. Beings throughout the universe would cower from the power behind their eyes. Evander wrapped his arms tightly around Sagacity as Alex growled, "Over my dead body."