Title: It starts with Barcelona
Pairing: Ten/Rose
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rate: T
Story: AU version of "Doomsday": Rose stayed with the Doctor and they set up their new beginning. There's something different in Rose, something that she still doesn't understand. The Doctor does though and he'll try to help her. This time, he'll allow himself to be selfish. Only this time, because she's the reason. She's the main reason that keeps him going.
A/N: Hello, guys. I've decided it's time to try something new and that's the reason I've started watching "Doctor Who". Then, I found myself falling in love with Ten... and then in Ten/Rose relationship. Because they are unique and special. So, I've decided to write my own post-version of "Doomsday". Enjoy and I hope you like it. :)
Chapter Thirty-Six: Shadows in the Library
"We should go downstairs," Mr. Lux looked around. "If you think it's safe of course."
"Well," the Doctor knelt and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. Then he started examine the room, reaching to the place where Dave was standing. "Dave, was you Dave? Could you move over a bit?"
"Why?" Dave asked.
"Over there by the water cooler. Thanks." The Doctor nodded and waited until Dave walked to the rest of the group.
"So, where are you now?" Mel was standing at Rose's right side. She had crossed her arms on her chest. "Without giving us too much of course."
"Why should I tell you, you're not giving us too much either." Rose shrugged.
"She's right, Mel." The Healer walked to Rose's left side. "She's not supposed to tell us anything."
"We have to know what to write," Mel muttered. "It's not like that much of a secret."
"Are you always like this?" Rose looked between them with curiosity.
"Meaning?" The Healer didn't even look at her. He was watching the Doctor's actions.
"Chatty." Rose chucked quietly.
"Rose! I'm working!" The Doctor shouted. "I can hear you from here!"
"I'm not your crew!" Rose snapped. "I wonder when you're gonna learn?"
"Excuse me," he looked at her over his shoulder. "Can you please be more quiet?"
"I'll try." Rose smiled sweetly.
"Thanks," the Doctor continued with his work.
"Impressive." Mel mumbled.
"Indeed it is." The Healer agreed with his sister.
"So, the Healer, huh?" Rose looked at him. "I wonder who gave you that name?"
"I did," the Healer looked at her. "I though, giving our background history… I could call myself like that. It's a tradition, you know it."
"But, the Gallifrey is gone now." Rose frowned. "How-"
"OK, we've got a live one! That's not darkness down those tunnels, this is not a shadow. It's a swarm. A man-eating swarm." The Doctor looked at everybody, standing behind him in the light circle. "I'm gonna need a pack of lunch." He looked around. Mel pulled out a lunch box from her backpack and gave it to him. He simply shook his head and opened it. Then he threw a chicken leg from the lunch box into the shadows. But by the time it reached the ground, there was only the bone left of it. "The piranhas of the air, the Vashta Nerada. Literally "the shadows that melt the flesh". Most planets have them, but usually in small clusters. I've never seen an infestation of this scale, or aggressive."
"What do you mean, most planets? Not Earth?" Rose frowned.
"Mmmm, Earth, and a billion other worlds. Where there's meat, there's Vashta Nerada. You can see them, if you look. The dust in sunbeams."
"If they were on Earth, we'd know." Rose shrugged.
"Nah, normally they live on road kill. But sometimes people go missing. Not everyone comes back out of the dark." The Doctor walked back to her.
"Every shadow?" Mel looked at them.
"No. But any shadow." The Doctor answered.
"So what do we do?" The Healer asked carefully.
"Daleks - aim for the eyestalk. Sontarans - back of the neck. Vashta Nerada... Run! Just run." The Doctor wrapped his arm around Rose's waist with a hint of worry in his eyes.
"We have to run all the way… down?" Mr. Lux frowned.
"Do you have a better idea?" Rose scoffed.
"There's another way… This is an index point. There must be an exit teleport somewhere." The Doctor looked around. "Mr. Lux?"
Mr. Lux shook his head. "Don't look at me, I haven't memorized the schematics."
"Doctor?" Rose looked up at him. "There's a little shop. They always make you go through the little shop on the way out so they can sell you stuff."
"You're right!" The Doctor grinned leaning to kiss Rose. 'Brilliant! That's why I like the little shop!"
"Okay! Let's do it!" Dave headed towards the shop but the Doctor spotted something.
"Actually, Dave… could you stay where you are for a moment?"
"Why?" Dave looked confused.
"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. But you've got two shadows." The Doctor walked to him and everybody looked at Dave in horror.
"It's how they hunt, they latch on to a food source and keep it fresh." The Doctor examined the second shadow with his sonic screwdriver.
"What do I do?" Dave asked.
"You stay absolutely still. Like there's a wasp in the room, like… there's a million wasps." The Doctor stepped back.
"We're not leaving you, Dave." Mel tried to walk to him, but her brother took her hand holding her back.
"Don't!" He simply shook his head.
"Course we're not leaving." The Doctor looked around. "Where's your helmet? Don't point, just tell me."
"On the floor, by the bag." Dave said.
Jane went for the helmet.
"Don't cross his shadow!" The Doctor took the helmet from Jane. "Thanks. Now, the rest of you, helmets back on and sealed up. We'll need everything we've got." He helped the helmet on Dave.
"We don't have any helmets," Rose pointed out. "How are we safe?"
"We're not," the Doctor walked to her, "that was a clever lie to make things better. Healer, Mel, anything I can do with the suit?"
"What good are the damn suits? I bet the same happened with all these people vanished here." Mr. Lux mumbled.
"We can increase the mesh-density, dial it up 400%. Make it a tougher meal." The Healer rubbed the back of his neck.
"Okay…" The Doctor soniced Dave's suit. "800%! Pass it on!" He showed his sonic screwdriver to the Healer but he lifted up a similar one.
"Got'cha!" The Healer grinned.
"I should've thought about it!" The Doctor mumbled.
"I have one as well," Mel grinned.
"Well, of course you have." The Doctor rolled his eyes.
The Healer went around sealing everyone's suits with her sonic. The Doctor watched him with something as a proud in his eyes. Then he grabbed Rose's hand. She looked up at him with confusion.
"With me, come on!" He led her to the shop.
"We're not gonna shop now, are we?" Rose furrowed her eyebrows.
"Nope, just moving! Try it!" He nodded at the place in the middle of the shop. "Right, stand there in the middle. It's a teleport. Stand in the middle. Can't send the others, TARDIS won't recognize them."
"What are you doing?" Rose frowned.
"You don't have a suit, you're not safe!" The Doctor looked at her. "Plus, somebody has to take care of Pete… One of us has to survive."
"Don't do this to me again!" Rose shook her head. "I won't leave you! Besides, we're gonna have a daughter… you can't-"
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The Doctor's eyes were full of sadness. "Make sure he knows I love him, okay?"
"No!" Rose shouted just when he pushed a leaver and teleported Rose away.
"Doctor!" The Healer called him from the other room and the Doctor rushed there. Dave's second shadow was gone.
"Where did it go?" He asked Dave.
"It's gone. I… I looked around, one shadow. See?" Dave answered.
"Does that mean we can leave? I don't want to hang around anymore." Mel muttered.
"You and me both," the Doctor looked at her.
"You sent her back to TARDIS, right?" The Healer lowered his voice so only the Doctor could hear him. "Mum?"
"Yes, she's safe there." The Doctor looked at his grown-up son.
"I'd do the same with Mel, but… she's a Time Lady." The Healer shrugged. "A bit too difficult."
"I understand," the Doctor nodded.
"I don't know why we're still here. We can leave him, can't we? I mean, no offence..." Mr. Lux interrupted them.
"Shut up!" Mel scoffed.
"Did you feel anything? Like an energy transfer? Anything at all?" The Doctor walked to Dave.
"No, no, but, look, it's, it's gone." Dave answered him, starting to turn around to show that he was clear.
"Stop there, stop, stop, stop there, stop moving! They're never just gone. And they never give up." The Doctor walked to him. He knelt down and started to investigate shadows with his sonic. "Well, this one's benign."
"Hey, who turned out the lights?" Dave shouted.
"No one, they're fine." The Doctor answered.
"No, seriously, turn them back on!" Dave shouted again.
"They are on," Mel whispered and squeezed her brother's hand.
"I can't see a ruddy thing," Dave said.
"Dave, turn round!" The Doctor ordered.
Dave turned back to the group slowly. His face was invisible in the darkness of the helmet. "What's going on? Why I can't see? Is the power gone, are we safe?"
"Dave, I want you stay still, absolutely still." The Doctor spoke slowly. Dave suddenly stiffened. "Dave, Dave? Dave, can you hear me, are you all right? Talk to me, Dave."
"I'm fine, I'm okay, I'm… I'm fine." Dave's voice echoed.
"I want you to stay still, absolutely still."
"I'm fine, I'm OK, I'm, I'm fine. I can't... Why can't I? I... I can't... Why can't I? I... I can't... Why can't I? I..." Dave kept stammering. The lights on his helmet's communicator were blinking.
"He's gone. He's ghosting." Mel hid her face in her brother's chest. The Healer wrapped his arms around her.
"Then why is he still standing?" Mr. Lux asked.
"Hey! Who turned out the lights? Hey! Who turned out the lights?" Dave's voice echoed.
Cautiously, the Doctor moved closer to Proper Dave.
"Doctor, don't!" The Healer shouted.
"Dave, can you hear me?" The Doctor didn't listen to him and took a step closer.
"Hey! Who turned out the lights?" Dave grabbed the Doctor and started choking him. His helmet finally lit. Only a skeleton was left in the space suit.
"Who turned out the lights? Hey! Who turned out the lights?" Dave's voice echoed over and over again.
"No!" The Healer shouted and ran to them. He used his sonic screwdriver to stun the skeleton and free the Doctor.
"Back from it, get back, right back!" The Doctor shouted when he was already free.
The group backed away but they are cornered by skeleton that was left of Dave, walking towards an awkward manner.
"Doesn't move very fast, does it?" Mel looked at her brother, who had caught her hand again.
"It's a swarm in a suit. But it's learning." The Doctor answered instead.
Several shadows reached out from skeleton Dave and moved towards the group.
"What do we do?" Mr. Lux went pale.
"See that wall behind you? Duck!" Mel used a sonic blaster to make a hole in the wall.
"Squareness gun?" The Doctor gave her a look.
"Everybody out!" Mel ignored his comment. "Go, go, go! Move it, move, move! Move it, move, move!" They got out of the room and arrived to a shadowy aisle between book shelves. "You said not every shadow." Mel looked at the Doctor.
"But any shadow!" The Doctor scoffed.
"Hey! Who turned out the lights?" Dave arrived to the aisle.
"Run!" Mel shouted and took her brother's hand again. They started running, following by the Doctor and the rest of the group.
Finally they reached to a sort of safe place. The Doctor stopped and fiddled on a lamp with the sonic. Mel and the Healer was near him while the rest of the group just sat there panting.
"Trying to boost the power. Light doesn't stop them, but it slows them down." The Doctor mumbled.
"So, what' the plan?" Mel looked up at him. "Do we have a plan?" She pointed at her sonic screwdriver to the lamp too and the light became stronger.
"Your screwdrivers… they look exactly like mine." The Doctor looked at the Healer and Mel.
"It's a tradition." The Healer grinned. "A family tradition."
"Now, can we go back to the plan?" Mel crossed her arms on her chest.
"Rose is back to TARDIS. If we don't get back there in under five hours, emergency program will activate." The Doctor rubbed his chin.
"Take her home, yeah. But… what home?" Mel mumbled quietly. She shook her head and turned to the rest of the group. "We need to get a shift on."
The Doctor looked at his sonic and suddenly became concerned. "She's not there! I should've received a signal, the console signals me if there's a teleport breach." His voice lowered.
"Maybe the co-ordinates have slipped. The equipment here's ancient." Mel touched his arm. "Besides, I'm still here and not vanished. That should tell you something."
The Doctor ran to a Node standing nearby. "Rose Tyler. There's a Rose Tyler somewhere in this Library. Do you have the software to locate her position?" He was way too worried to think clear now.
The Node turned its head to the Doctor to reveal it is wearing Rose's face. "Rose Tyler has left the Library. Rose Tyler has been saved."
"Rose!" The Doctor shouted.
"But that's-that's impossible…" The Healer just stared at the Node. "That's not supposed to happen!"
"I'm still here," Mel lifted up her hands and looked at them. "I'm alive. What's going on?"
"Oh, Rose…" The Doctor touched the Node's face. "I'll save you, I promise!"
"Hey! Who turned out the lights?" Dave's voice echoed near them.
"Dad!" Mel shouted taking the Doctor's hand. "We have to go!"
"No!" The Doctor shook his head. "I can't."
"We have to go! Now!" The Healer yelled. "If you want to save her, you have to stay alive! Move now!"
Mel just squeezed his hand and pulled him away from the Node. Then she started running, forcing him to run with her and the rest of the group. The Healer followed them with one last look at his mother's face.