CHAPTER 26
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Rose contacted the Martian ship and the helmeted reptilian face of an Ice Warrior greeted her.
"Who are you that dares to address us?" he answered in the rasping voice of his race. They pronounced everything with a lisp stressing the s in every word like a snake.
"My name is Rose Tyler. Who are you to dare to attack my home? Get off of this planet! You have no right here. This is a clear invasion according to the Articles of the Shadow Proclamation," Rose said back to him defiantly.
"This is our world now. We claim it by right of conquest. Mars is no longer habitable for us. We need this planet," The Ice Warrior argued with her.
"You have no honor. The Martians of old would not have invaded another world like this without provocation!" Rose said in anger.
"Who are you to question my honor, human?" The Ice Warrior said in anger.
"I'm not human, soldier. I'm someone who knew the ancient Martians. They had honor and nobility. They were a proud race. Look at you now! You've fallen so low! You have no concept of honor," Rose said angrily.
She realized with a start that Arkytior was speaking now and not her. She worried about that for a minute until she could feel Arkytior assuring her that she was just momentarily taking over to handle things because she knew the Ice Warriors so well. She had been an ambassador to them for the High Council on many diplomatic missions after all.
Rose's friends were uneasy too because she wasn't acting like herself.
"Why is she saying she's not human?" Shareen asked confused.
"She's not anymore, Shareen. She changed about a year ago," Mickey said.
He then began to explain how Rose was actually a Time Lady and the Doctor's wife. He told her about Rose's fob watch and how she had opened it and transformed back to her original self.
Shareen started to get upset, and Mickey assured her that Rose was still the same.
"How can you say that? Listen to her! That's not my Rose," Shareen said as her eyes filled with moisture.
"She just talks like that when she deals with these world beater types. They respond better to that kind of diplomatic talk with the verbal threats and sparring," Mickey explained. Although Shareen could tell from the look on his face that he was worried about her too.
Rose could hear their conversation even though they were talking in low voices. She hated to be worrying them. Especially Shareen with all that she had been through in her life.
She was getting tired of dealing with this blowhard too. Arkytior might like it, but she did not.
"You will back down, human! Otherwise we will blow your strange vessel out of the sky!" the Ice Warrior said.
"Go ahead and try!" Rose challenged him.
"What? You dare to take thus to me?!" the Ice Warrior roared.
"I tried being diplomatic, but it just didn't work did it? So I'm tired of being nice to you! It's time I started giving you back what you've been dishing out!" Rose yelled back to him.
She cut off communications and started to dodge the attacks of the Ice Warriors as they opened fire on her. She flew through the barrage of weapons fire and drew closer and closer to the ship by the moment. As she drew closer, she unleashed one of her own TARDIS' weapons.
Hers was a fully equipped War TARDIS after all. She wouldn't use the weapons though except as a last resort. She, like the Doctor, didn't believe in using them. She had taken this TARDIS because it was the only one available that had not been claimed yet. She had wanted one for a while now, and it felt great to finally have one.
The weapon that she was using now was the least threatening of her arsenal. A missile flew out of her TARDIS from one of the car's headlights and hit the Martian ship head on. Its shields automatically cut off because the missile was designed to destroy a ship's shields and short out its electrical systems so that the shields could not be brought back up any time soon.
Now the ship was helpless before her, and she could easily attack it. She didn't want to do that though. Not if she didn't have to.
The Ice Warrior appeared on her monitor just like she knew that he would.
"How dare you attack our mighty ship? We will blow you out of the sky now!" he shouted at her.
Rose just smiled at him.
"Go ahead then! Attack me! I'm not going anywhere! Do it!" She said as she called his bluff.
He knew that she still had shields and would survive his attack, and then would send him one of her own. One he had no defense for at the moment!
Rose turned to Shareen and Mickey and shot them one of her face wide grins. Both of them still looked a little less uneasy but the familiar expression of joy on her face did help Shareen feel a little better about things.
"What do you propose to do, human? Our sensors detect that your strange vessel is full of armaments despite its peculiar dimensions. You could easily kill us if you want to. Do you wish to discuss surrender or a last request?" the Ice Warrior said with a sorrowful look on his face.
"I told you I am not human. I am a Time Lady from the planet Gallifrey, and I have dealt with your race before," Rose said.
She began to speak in the ancient language of the Martians, and the Ice Warrior looked at her in surprise and answered her back.
All of a sudden, Captain Jack Harkness broke into their communications and said, "From what little I could gather from your body language, I can only assume that you have this situation well in hand, but I need to break in here and make sure. You see Torchwood has all the world's governments breathing down its throat wanting us to do something about this. When I saw you were handling it, I decided to stay out of it. Do you need any help, or can I just tell them that the situation has been handled?" Jack asked Rose with a big grin.
He already knew what she was going to say. Rose knew why he was really calling. He wanted to talk to Penny.
"Things are fine here, Jack. Could it be that you have something to talk to Penny about though?" Rose said with a grin on her face.
"Well, now that you mention it. Penny could you, uh, well that is, um," Jack said as he stumbled over his words.
Rose giggled at his terrible attempts to ask Penny out.
"What is it, Jack?" Penny asked. She knew what he wanted and was trying to give him as easy an opening to her as possible.
He was red faced with embarrassment now, and he could hear his Torchwood crew laughing at him from behind him.
"Shut up!" He said to them in a low hiss.
Penny tried to keep from laughing herself now. She felt so bad for him, and if he couldn't get it out soon she would just take over the conversation herself to put him out of his misery. She got embarrassed and flustered around him too, but Jack was in a league of his own!
"Um, Penny, would you like to, um, go to a concert with me?" Jack said and then turned away from the screen as his face blushed bright red.
The laughter behind him got even louder and reached a crescendo.
Jack gave them all a look of death, and the noises quieted down but only a little.
"Sure, Jack. Why don't you call me later and give me the details. Things are a little tense here right now what with it being an alien attack and all," Penny said with a face a little red as well.
"Sure thing! Well, I'll see you later then. See ya! Um, bye now," Jack said as he signed off as the laughter behind him got much, much louder once again.
Rose giggled. Poor Jack! She thought as she shook her head.
The Ice Warrior had been watching all of this in quiet consternation. He didn't know what to make of this primitive courtship ritual nor did he much care. He only wanted to get this over with quickly for the sake of his crew. It wasn't their fault that he had picked a fight with a Time Lord and lost. They did not deserve his fate, and he hoped that she would be merciful and spare them. Maybe she would grant them a painless and quick death.
"I wish for you to show my crew mercy, great Arkytior! Punish me for my mistakes as you will but do not dishonor their bravery. I am at fault here. Do not punish them because of me," the Ice Warrior pleaded with her.
Rose looked at him in puzzlement.
"How do you know that name? I never mentioned it," Rose asked him.
"I did not recognize you at first because you have changed your form but now I know you. You are Arkytior, the great ambassador who negotiated the peace treaty between our various warring nations during the Great Insurrection. You almost singlehandedly averted total chaos and anarchy among us and brought that whole sorrowful affair to a peaceful end. Am I wrong?" the Ice Warrior asked her.
Rose looked at him and nodded.
"Yes, that was me. I was a different person back then though. That was a long time ago. At least a couple of hundred years ago," Rose said.
"Yes, countless hundreds of years ago. So long ago I've forgotten exactly how long it's been. I was a young warrior back then. I remember that I was frightened and trying not to show it.
Somehow you sensed my fear and took the time to quietly pull me aside and attempt to comfort me. I was not of your own race and you did not know me, but you still took the time to help me. I have never forgotten that! Please help me one last time and let my crew go with a merciful punishment," the Ice Warrior begged her.
Shareen couldn't help but smile at that. That was exactly what Rose Tyler would have done! Maybe she wasn't so different after all even if she had completely changed.
"Why did you attack Earth for in the first place?" Rose asked him.
"I was ordered to by the current government in charge on Mars. A number of us emerged from hibernation recently to discover Mars still uninhabitable from climate changes. The powers that be were determined not to return to our long sleep but to attack the Earth instead. We were sent here to prepare the way for an invasion. I do not support such a cowardly course of action, but I am following my orders," the Ice Warrior said with regret.
"Then, stop following stupid orders then! I'll tell you what you're going to do. You're going to go back and tell your leaders that they can reconsider their invasion plans right now! Tell them that if they set foot on Earth once more, I will reduce Mars to ashes. Let them try to live on it then!" Rose said but with a smile on her face not an expression of anger.
She winked at the Ice Warrior, and he understood that she was not actually threatening his people but asking him to convince them that she had.
"How would I convince them of this?" he asked.
"Tell them that the Bad Wolf will destroy them if they ever come back," Rose said but still with another wink at him.
The Ice Warrior recognized that name and looked at her with a shiver running through him.
"The Bad Wolf?!" he said in dread, and Rose saw his men turn and look at him in terror.
"That's me!" Rose said as she pointed at herself but still with a kind, smiling expression on her face. Her eyes flashed gold briefly so that they would get the message.
Shareen gasped behind her, and Rose knew that she would have a lot of explaining to do soon.
Rose spoke gently to him as she said, "I don't want to do anything really. Just tell them that. Convince them of it. I'll give you an indisputable piece of evidence to back up your argument."
The Ice Warrior watched in astonishment and horror as the words "Bad Wolf" were suddenly carved in huge letters all over his ship!
He turned shakily to Rose to see her still staring kindly at him, and he calmed down somewhat. He now understood that she had never meant him any harm. He felt that he could trust her for some reason, and so he decided to do as she asked him.
"I will go back and tell them what you have said and show them what you have done to my ship. I have no doubts about them deciding never to return here again. Thank you for your mercy, Arkytior!" the Ice Warrior said as he saluted her.
"Rose. My name is Rose," she told him with a soft smile.
The Ice Warrior nodded and he said, "Thank you, Rose!"
He signed off, and the ship left the Earth. Rose knew that they wouldn't be back.
She sighed in relief and returned to Mickey's front yard.
"I believe that we were going to test you two to see if you're related to one another or not. Let's go," Rose told Emma and Penny.
She led them to her TARDIS' fully equipped medical lab, and they had their blood drawn. Rose then took their blood and placed it into one of the large machines that surrounded them. Moments later, the results were displayed on a nearby monitor.
Emma and Penny looked at each other for a long time as neither knew how to react to what they had just discovered. Then they hugged each other, and they both began to cry with tears of joy.
The monitor read: Test results confirmed with 100% accuracy. Emma Miller is the paternal grandmother of Penny Miller.
Next: How did this come about exactly? Find out along with Emma and Penny as Captain Jack sheds some light on this family mystery next time! Also, Shareen and Mickey discuss Rose's strange behavior lately with her. Additionally, a strange new menace enters Rose's life as an old foe of the Doctor's returns to confound her. Hint: She really hates mirrors!