Author's Notes: I still don't own Doctor Who. Why not? Anyway, thanks for the reads. This is a short chapter, but necessary. Hope you like it anyway. Thanks, let me know what you think and happy reading!
Rose watched helplessly as Lydia walked out with the baby into the rain, wondering what unauthorized could have meant.
She soon found out.
The door snapped shut and Rose was thrown to the floor as the TARDIS lurched about uncontrollably. Rose and Madame Kovarian held on to anything they could until Rose could get to her feet.
"What's happened?," Rose asked Madame Kovarian as she went fruitlessly around the console. There were no readings.
Kovarian grimaced. "She's set us in the Vortex."
"Okay, well, let's get out of it then," said Rose. She started pushing and pulling on controls that wouldn't shift.
"Stop being pointless," said Kovarian. "We're deadlocked. That devious little girl. I never did like her."
Rose looked up. "You mean you know her?"
"An enemy," said Kovarian. "We're stuck until someone comes and gets this TARDIS."
Rose looked around. "We've got to get this console open," she announced.
"What?," asked Kovarian.
"The TARDIS, I can get it to go where I need if I can just look at it."
"Look at it?," asked Kovarian.
"I did it before," said Rose. "I looked into it, told it where I needed to go. I don't remember everything that happened after that, but it works."
Rose crouched down, looking at the casing of the heart of the TARDIS.
"How do we get it open?," she asked, looking at Kovarian.
Something happened as Rose looked away. She realized the casing was open.
"Who opened that?," she asked, looking back at Kovarian.
For a split second, Rose could have sworn she saw some kind of monster dead on the floor, a group of them in fact. She looked up at Kovarian and realized it must have been the TARDIS, reaching out and thrashing her, leaving her near dead on the ground. Rose looked back at it herself.
It was coming towards her.
Then it happened and she could see it all. Life and death. The sun, the moon, the stars, galaxies turning.
Yet she could only think of one thing.
The Doctor.
Rose turned to Madame Kovarian, eyes glowing. Kovarian looked up at her in terror.
"What are you?," Kovarian asked, trembling.
The gold energy overtook Rose and she disappeared.
Kovarian was left alone in the TARDIS with only the corpses of the Silence to keep her company.
She was really starting to hate Rose Tyler.
John looked at the Doctor as they stood outside the cellar door.
"Should we go in?," he asked.
"No."
"They haven't come out of there in days, though."
Since the TARDIS coral had been retrieved from Josh's cupboard, the Oracle and Mayantha had taken on the task of actually turning it into a TARDIS. They had taken over the cellar to this end as John still wasn't certain who in Torchwood he should trust with the knowledge of a coral that was about to grow into a spaceship. John and the Doctor had tried to help, eventually resulting in their being unceremoniously tossed out by the Oracle. Quite literally in the Doctor's case.
Donna joined them at the door to the cellar.
"Have you two still not gone in?," she asked.
"She told me not to," the Doctor said plaintively.
Donna rolled her eyes and opened the cellar door. The men followed closely behind.
The Oracle was currently sitting on an old sofa nursing a cup of tea. She looked up at the visitors.
"Oh. Hello. I was wondering when you would get curious."
"You said not to come down here!," spat the Doctor.
"As if that's ever stopped you."
"So," said Donna, looking at the thing in her cellar that currently resembled a giant gourd, "how's it coming?"
"Oh, nearly done. I might need some Earth parts to round out things since I don't have access to the replication database on Gallifrey and I could only use freeware." She motioned at the sofa. "Do you mind if I take this? It doesn't seem as if you're using it."
"It's nearly done?," asked Donna. "It doesn't look like the other ones."
"I don't have a chameleon circuit, there won't be any sorting that."
"So, wherever we go it'll look like TARDIS coral?," asked John.
The Oracle scowled. "I know, not as subtle as a big blue wooden box, but we shall have to make do."
"How did you get it to grow?," asked the Doctor. "It needs the Untempered Schism."
"Lydia mentioned that. What is it?," asked Donna.
"It's a gap in the facric of reality," said John. "Through it, you can see the whole of the Time Vortex."
Donna nodded. "Okay, I still don't know what that is. I heard the words, I knew what each one of them meant and yet when you put them together, they mean nothing."
"It's what makes us who we are," offered the Oracle. She looked at the Doctor. "Wouldn't you like to know how I worked my way around that?"
The Oracle led them into the TARDIS, which still looked very rustic on the inside. Amy was standing by Mayantha who was working under the controls.
"Oh, good, Donna. Someone else who speaks English," she said.
"What have you been doing down here?," John asked her.
Amy shrugged. "You know, handing Mayantha spanners, running to Starbucks, that sort of thing."
"Why can Amy help and we can't?," asked the Doctor.
"Because she doesn't have a propensity for blowing up things," said the Oracle. "Now, do you want to know how we grew a TARDIS?"
"Yes," said John.
The Oracle walked over to the center of the console room, a round table with what actually were bits and pieces of everything, not just looking like it. She opened a door on the main controls, revealing the time cube.
"You got it to feed off the time cube!," the Doctor said in amazement.
"Yes, at the moment it's the heart of the TARDIS, so no one move it," she advised.
"I knew there was a reason I married you!," the Doctor said cheerfully.
"Yes," said the Oracle. "That and I'm the only one who would although at the moment the reason why escapes me."
"And this will get us to the other universe?," asked Donna.
"It's likely to be a rough ride, but it ought to do the trick," said the Oracle.
John realized that something important had been said. "Us?"
"Yeah," said Donna.
The Doctor looked down sheepishly.
"You knew about this?," John accused.
"I might have sort of in fact suggested it," said the Doctor.
John looked at Donna. "You're not going."
"Since when do you get to tell me what to do?," said Donna.
"This is too dangerous, Donna. What about Josh and Ella? What if something happens? What if we can't get back?"
"That's why Josh and Ella are coming," said Donna.
"Oh," said the Oracle. "How many more rooms do I need?"
"we can just have hammocks," said the Doctor.
"Josh and Ella are coming?," John asked incredulously. "Donna, have you completely lost your mind?"
She was steaming at him now. "Have I lost my mind? Why didn't you tell me you might not be able to come back?"
"It's... just a possibility," said John.
"It's completely unacceptable," said Donna. "You'd have made certain Jackie Tyler ended up in the same universe as her daughter, mind doing the same for me?"
"Donna, this your life, it doesn't exist there. The company, this life, everything! Do you think you could leave all of this behind?"
Donna suddenly found herself slapping John.
The others stood in shock.
"What did I miss?," Mayantha asked from under the console.
"She slapped him," said the Doctor. He looked at Donna. "You slapped him."
"Yes," said Donna.
"You never slap anyone!," said John. "Just Ethan! That once! When did I become Ethan?"
Donna felt her face burning. "Do you think I care about all of this? Money, house, cars, company, it all means nothing if my children are not safe and with me! You, I can learn to live without. I've been on my own before, I can do it again. Georgiana, never. Not in a million years. So, yes, I am coming. Deal with it!"
Donna marched out of the fresh TARDIS and they heard the door to the cellar slam. John stood slack=jawed. He looked at the Doctor, the Oracle and Amy. Mayantha peeked out from under the console.
"Did I miss something?," asked John.
Amy crossed her arms. "I might have slapped you as well."
The Doctor looked lost in thought. "So, there's another one of her there?," he asked.
"Yes," said John.
"Does that one slap as well?," he asked.
"That one slaps more," John replied.
The Doctor glanced at the Oracle with a look of anxiety.
"Well, I'm not blocking for you," she said, not needing a telepathic link to know what was on his mind.