Chapter 36 - Tempered steel

The Doctor set the TARDIS down as gently and quietly as he could. He'd been to check on Rose half an hour ago. She'd been sound asleep. If you could call twisting and turning and most likely having nightmares as sound. It had been difficult for him to leave her like that. But he'd had no other choice. Where he was going he could not allow her to follow. The TARDIS hummed down. It wasn't quite the pleasant familiar hum he was used to. It sounded a little queasy.

"Sorry," the Doctor said, tenderly running a hand along the console. "I know you don't like it here."

The Doctor retrieved his coat and drew it on before he left the TARDIS. He made sure the door was securely locked. For a moment he clasped the handle of the door tightly, second guessing his decision.

The place he would have gone to for answers was long gone. Gallifrey, its High Council and all its knowledge had burned in fires of his making. If anyone knew how to undo what he'd done it would be them. But they were lost. Gallifrey was lost. But there was still a remnant of that time existing in this universe besides himself. An entity of as much knowledge as it possessed malice. If there was any hope to be had it would be were hope never had a home. At the start of darkness and madness. A cursed nightmare of hollow stars and beauty turned rotten. The Forest of the Damned.

The Doctor released his hold on the TARDIS door and turned around. A vast forest surrounded him. Last time he'd been here sunshine had shone through the treetops, casting the forest floor in equal light and shadow. But there was no sun now. The sky overhead was dark and starless. This sky would never hold stars again. Thankfully lightning kept illuminating the night enough for him to see. Only it carried no sound with it. It was an eerie thing to behold.

The Doctor made his way through the trees. He could feel things moving in the shadows. Watching him. Just waiting to rip out his heart and feast on his soul. He walked into the clearing. The trees around him seemed even more rotten than last time, the lightning making the hollowed out bark twist into grotesque faces, laughing at him.

It wasn't there. The child that was not a child at all. The Doctor glanced around the clearing. White flowers covered the ground, their pristine beauty so at odds with the rest of the forest. The rest looked as though it was slowly decaying. The rot contorting the trees into misshapen, convoluted shapes.

"I didn't think I'd see you so soon, Time Lord." The eerie child-like voice chirped through the trees. The Doctor twirled around, searching for the sound. He didn't have to search for long. The thing that used a child's shape materialised out of the darkness. It licked its fingers as it walked into the clearing. The Doctor noticed it wasn't wearing the thimble like pieces of metal to cover its blackened fingertips. Blood, red and shining were dripping of its hands. Its tongue flicked out and caught an errand drop as it ran down its finger. The Doctor looked on in disgust. He had to struggle not to think about where that blood came from.

"I love what you've done with the place," the Doctor said, indicating their surroundings.

"Moorish, I know," the child said with a smile. He put the pieces of metal back on his fingers. Something moved in the darkness at the edge of the clearing, making the Doctor immediately turn towards the threat. "No, no," the thing chided in its sing-song voice. The monster in the shadows reluctantly retreated. "You must forgive them," the boy said. "Food has been...scarce lately."

"Good," the Doctor said. The boy's eyes narrowed on the Doctor. For a moment the Doctor was unsure what the thing would do. But then a horrible smile cleaved the boy's face. It was horrible in its beauty.

"Where is your girl?" the boy asked, watching the Doctor with child-like curiosity that just made it all worse. This thing was not a child. There was no part of it that was innocent. That had ever been innocent.

The Doctor didn't answer. He couldn't bring himself to talk to this thing about Rose. It had been bad enough last time when she hadn't let him go without her. "Is she still just as pretty?" the boy asked, walking into the clearing. "I have to admit even I was quite taken by her." The Doctor fought not to scream at the boy to not utter one more word about Rose. It was so beyond wrong to even have her in that things head. "Oh, come now," the boy chided. "You know I won't give you anything unless I get something in return."

The Doctor swallowed hard, fighting his revulsion. "She's back on the TARDIS," he said in a strained voice. The boy nodded with a smile.

"Did she forgive you for what you did?"

"Don't know what you mean."

"Oh, come now Time Lord. She was prepared to die. She had made her peace with it. You took it away from her."

"She wanted to live," the Doctor insisted.

"No," the boy said, shaking his head. "She wanted to be alive. Is she? Is that beautiful creature you tied to yourself alive? Or is a bird in a cage no longer a bird but an echo of what it once was?"

"I didn't come here to play your games," the Doctor warned.

"Well, TOUGH!" the boy suddenly screamed. Its shriek of a voice carved through the silent forest like a blade. The lightning overhead fired off across the sky in a spiderweb of light. "You are in my world now, Doctor!" The monsters in the shadows seemed to get riled up as the boy's temper rose. They snarled and snapped in the darkness. "The world you banished me to!" the boy screamed. "I am the Nightmare Child! You created me! I was born out of your war! Out of your chaos!"

The entire forest shook with the child's anger. The wind picked up. Lightning flashed. The Doctor took a step towards the child. And suddenly the woods around them seemed to bend slightly around the Doctor instead of the boy.

"Yes," the Doctor said, his voice dropping an octave or two. There was a slight shift in the air. This world might belong to this thing. But the Doctor was not a force to be taken lightly. Not if you wanted to live. "Let's keep in mind just who put you here," the Doctor reminded him, his face dark as lighting flashed overhead. "After you gorged yourself during the Time War."

The Nightmare Child had been a force born out of that, the greatest of wars. The Time Lords had made many mistakes. The creation of the Nightmare Child was one of the worse ones.

The child smiled, black ooze staining its teeth and dripping off its chin.

"What a time that was," he said with glee. "Everyday I could feast on the death and misery your species brought about."

"We didn't start that war," the Doctor said.

"No," the boy agreed. "But you finished it." It smiled wickedly, wiping its chin of the black goo. The boy flicked its hand in a delicate motion. The black liquid fell on the white flowers at its bare feet. The minute it reached the petals the flowers began to whither and rot. The Doctor's upper lip twisted in disgust.

"You never could keep from tainting everything around you," the Doctor said.

"No. Much like you Doctor," the boy pointed out with obvious malice. "But isn't it the nature of horrid things to crave the beautiful? Even if all it does is corrupt it?" The Doctor bit his tongue, choosing not to reply. It didn't matter what this terrible creature would try to make him believe. The Doctor was nothing like the Nightmare Child. It had devoured planets and entire systems in its endless hunger.

The boy smiled knowingly as though he could tell just what the Doctor was thinking. The Doctor imagined it wasn't that hard for it to guess. His disgust must be written all over his face. The child however seemed to rather rejoice at the Doctor's revulsion.

"Are you going to tell me why you've come to me this time then, Time Lord?" the child asked, regaining his eerie sing-song voice. The Doctor steeled himself, placing his feet wider apart as though a more solid stance would somehow be beneficial when dealing with this monster that had chosen to take the face of a child.

"You know what I did," the Doctor said. The boy nodded.

"You took your human girl and tied her to you." The boy wandered along the clearing, wiping more of that black goo from its mouth and letting it drop down onto the flowers, creating a trail of death in its wake. "Even though you weren't allowed." The child smiled. "Naughty, Doctor."

"I need to undo it," the Doctor said, ignoring its words. The boy laughed. A shrill twisted sound.

"Undo?" it mocked.

"Yes," the Doctor ground out, struggling as much this time as the last time he'd been there to not walk over and wring the things neck until it snapped. The child turned back.

"It can't be undone," he said with a twisted smile. "You know that."

"There must be some way. You ate civilisations. All their knowledge. You know more than any one thing in this universe."

"Not many Time Lords though," the boy pointed out with a wag of his finger. "You were hard to catch."

"I'm sure you ate enough of them," the Doctor growled. The boy continued walking around the edge of the clearing, his eyes on the Doctor.

"It's not meant to be undone," it said.

"But they must have had a way incase it happened," the Doctor tried. The boy shook his shoulders.

"Perhaps," it allowed.

The Doctor waited, thinking he wasn't going to beg, yet knowing he'd do it if that's what it took.

"There were some precedence," the boy said.

"What happened to these precedences?" the Doctor asked.

"Your Council had them executed of course," the child said, rather cheerfully. "It was forbidden you know."

"No, The Gallifreyan Council would never issue a warrant of termination for that," the Doctor refuted hotly. "It would never pass." Time Lords were peaceful. In the Doctor's view sometimes too peaceful.

"No, I imagine it wouldn't," the boy agreed.

"Then what are you saying?"

The boy bent down, watching closely as the white flowers withered down around him.

"I'm saying they did it anyway."

"They wouldn't," the Doctor swallowed hard. "They wouldn't." The boy looked up at the Doctor, smiling knowingly. The Doctor realised it sounded as though he was trying to convince himself more than the boy.

The Doctor had told Rose that whatever information he had about the bond was based on legend. But they weren't so much legends as horror stories, meant to scare them at the Academy. They were the stories whispered in dark corridors and told to frighten the younger children. Tales of Time Lords who'd lost their minds. Who'd torn apart the very fabric of time and space in their madness.

"Tell me, Doctor," the boy said. "You've been married, you've had children. Did you love your Time Lord wife? Or lady as it were?"

"Of course," the Doctor replied.

"But not like you love her, right? Your Rose?"

"No, not like that."

"Do you know why?"

"It... it was arranged," the Doctor managed to get out, feeling a lump forming in his throat. "All Time Lord marriages are arranged."

"So this can't happen, right?"

"Yes."

"Is it really so hard then to believe if someone did step out of line and bonded like you've done. That your Council wouldn't snuff that threat out without blinking?" The child smiled with twisted pleasure. It was enjoying this. "You've heard the stories. You're entire race has and that President of yours, he was directly linked to the Matrix right? All the knowledge of past generations. He or she would know exactly what that bond could do."

"What exactly can it do?" the Doctor asked, not sure he really wanted to know.

"Why, burn down the universe." The boy gave him a wicked smile. But the Doctor shook his head.

"No," he denied.

"You've bonded, Doctor," the child insisted. "There is nothing, no crime, no atrocity you won't commit for her, nor she for you. Give that to your average life from and you have a beautiful life- long commitment to one another. Give that to a Time Lord and watch the world burn."

"No," the Doctor kept denying. The child looked at him with curiosity in his strangely purple eyes.

"You think you won't break time to save her?" The Doctor said nothing. "Isn't that the very reason you're here? You know fixed points can't be altered. Not without unraveling time itself. But that's what you want to do. For her."

"I just want her to be happy," the Doctor insisted.

"Yes, and you'd do anything to make sure she is. Anything."

"I love her."

"I know." The boy straightened. It tapped one metal-clad finger against its chin. "You know, you Time Lords always claimed to be so high above such things." He watched the Doctor thoughtfully. "Yet you were the beings with the highest capacity for it in all the universe." It laughed a little to it self, shaking its head in private amusement. "Always thought that was an amusing contradiction." The boy continued its slow walk along the edge of the clearing.

"Is there a point at all to this?" the Doctor asked, his patience wearing thin.

The child stopped walking and turned to the Doctor.

"My point," he said. "Is that if you wish to set your bird free you must wring its neck." The Doctor felt his blood run cold inside his veins. "There is no undoing what you've done. The only thing you can do is follow in your Time Lord brethren's footsteps and end it before that love you share destroys everything around you. That's it."

The Doctor spun on the child. "You're lying," the Doctor spat. "The Council would have found a way. They would never simply execute people."

"For being a Time Lord you know so very little of your own species true nature," the child observed.

"I know no President would ever have condoned such actions," the Doctor insisted.

"Then you simply don't know how devastating that bond has been in the past," the child said simply.

"I refuse to believe you."

The Doctor simple couldn't let himself entertain the notion of sanctioned murder. Not by his own people. They had many faults and they had made many mistakes. The Doctor would be the first to admit it but they were not a cruel race. He simply could not believe that.

"Believe what you will," the boy said with a shrug of his tiny shoulders. "I got what I wanted."

"And what exactly was that?"

The boy's face cleaved in a triumphant smile. "Why, my revenge of course," he said. The Doctor's eyes narrowed on the small child.

"What?" the Doctor asked, feeling a hint of trepidation run like a shiver down his spine.

"What did you think, Doctor?" it asked mockingly. "I used to feast on galaxies and you trap me here, living of scraps! You thought I wouldn't hurt you? You thought I wouldn't break you if I got the chance?"

The Doctor took a couple of threatening steps towards it.

"What did you do!?" he barked. The child laughed.

"I gave you what you wanted," it said. "It just happened to be what I wanted too."

"You did this!?" the Doctor screamed. "You did this to Rose! You did this to her!?"

Lightning flashed in the starless sky overhead and for the first time that evening a thundering rumble accompanied it. Lightning cut through the sky, hitting the ground just at the child's feet. It scuttled back, a hint of actual fear in its eyes.

"I didn't do this to her!" the boy spat back at the Doctor. "You did!" He laughed as thunder roared. "All I did was tell you where to go. You made the choice! You put your bird into that cage you call a heart! Or hearts."

"NO!"

"YES!"

The Doctor stalked closer to the Nightmare Child. He squashed the flowers under his feet but didn't care. Thunder and lighting cried across the sky and the Doctor didn't care.

"Tell me how I undo it!" he screamed at the child.

"You can't!" the child screamed back. "Did they teach you nothing old man! You created a fixed point! Undo it and unravel time!"

"I don't care!" the Doctor screamed. "I won't loose her for this!"

The boy laughed, manic and frenzied. "That's the beauty of it, Doctor!" the boy laughed. "You can't. You made her yours forever. That's what you wanted isn't it? You got your wish. She's yours until it kills you both."

"No."

Lightning cut through the night, hitting the twisted trees around the forest. Immediately the rotten bark caught fire. Flames leaped up out of the treetops around them. The Nightmare Child stared at the building chaos, equally exited as it was terrified.

"Never thought I'd see the day," it said. "You really are something different aren't you? Time Lords, always so very afraid of chaos but you thrive on it. Is that why you could do it? Is that how you could destroy them all?"

"Shut up," the Doctor growled. He wasn't screaming anymore. He wasn't overcome with grief and fear and anger. Instead a calm, fury burned in his chest, fuelled by something he had very little understanding of. An ancient strength with no more mercy than an oncoming storm.

The trees were burning around them. But the Doctor was only half aware of it. The Nightmare Child however. It's eyes kept darting about as the fire creeped towards them. Another lightning strike hit the ground at the creatures feet. And another.

"You shouldn't be able to that!" he screamed at the Doctor. "This is my world!"

"You think your mind stronger than mine? the Doctor asked darkly. "Think again."

"Kill me then!" the child screamed with faked bravado. "But know that I got my revenge on you, Doctor!"

Lighting struck the boy. He screamed. Its sound shrill and inhuman. As the lighting lit through him it illuminated all the twisted and corrupted features that hid beneath the innocent face of that child. Grotesque and twisted shapes. More lighting hit the ground. It lit more trees. Fire raged around the Doctor. An inferno of his fury.

Then something broke through that blinding rage. A voice unlike any other. The voice of hope and joy, reminding him of everything that had ever been good in his life. It was her voice. It was her presence. Her essence, nearly close enough to touch.

The Doctor managed to pull himself out of the dark hole he'd dug for himself, using her voice as his lifeline. He looked around, his fury replaced by sudden panic as he saw the fire raging around him.

"Rose!" he screamed. She came stumbling into the clearing. She was covered in soot and wearing nothing but her nightclothes.

"Doctor!" she called out as she spotted him.

"Rose get out of here!" he screamed. He looked around. Everything was on fire.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Rose screamed at him. The Doctor glanced back over his shoulder. There was no sign of the Nightmare Child. Either it was dead or it had scurried back into the shadows were it belonged.

He heard Rose scream. His head flipped back towards her just as he saw a burning branch fall from a tree overhead. He shouted her name as the branch fell burning over her. He ran. He ran faster than he ever had. He jumped over the burning log, finding Rose on the ground. He fell to his knees next to her, his hearts pounding away inside his chest.

"Rose? Rose!?" his voice was frantic. She moaned and struggled up on all fours.

"I'm ok," she said. "I'm ok." He clasped her arm, helping her to her feet.

He took her hand in his, feeling that familiar link blazing up like the fires around them.

"We gotta get out of here," he said and she nodded. His hold tightened on her hand and they both ran.

The forest was falling apart around them. Fire burned through the hollow trees, entire sections crumbling or crashing to the forest floor. Rose and the Doctor ran through the fiery chaos, dodging burning branches and jumping over fallen logs. The fire sparked and crackled and smoke was getting in their lungs. The Doctor heard the sound of breaking wood seconds before a large branch collapsed right above their heads. He grabbed Rose and spun her away. Her back hit a tree that had not yet started to burn.

The Doctor pressed himself tightly to her, shielding her as best he could with his body. Burning branches fell from above them. He felt bits hit his shoulders and ashes falling into his hair. He could feel the frantic beat of her single heart against his chest as he pressed himself tightly against her, doing everything he could to protect her from the fire. Her rapid breath came out in puffs against his neck. Broken branches stopped falling from overhead. They had to get out of there. Or they would be caught in the ever building blaze.

The Doctor ceased her hand again and without another word they both ran. The Doctor could see the TARDIS up ahead. Though fire had touched the trees around her she looked fine as usual, a blue beacon in the inferno. The Doctor could feel the relief coming from Rose across the bond as she saw the ship. The same relief he himself felt.

Fire chased them as they rushed towards the TARDIS. They were running out of time. Always out of time. The Doctor's hand tightened on Rose's and by sheer force of will he managed to put on an extra burst of speed, dragging her with him as burning trees collapsed behind them.

The Doctor shoved the key into the lock as they reached the TARDIS. He pushed opened the door. They both crashed through it. Rose stumbled, catching herself against the railing. She struggled to breathe air that thankfully wasn't poisoned with smoke and ash. The Doctor shut the door and ran up to the console. The TARDIS hummed to life as he ran around flipping switches. The ship dematerialised from the burning forest of the damned. The Doctor hoped that creature born out of nightmare and war burned with it.

Rose staggered up the ramp. The Doctor gave the controls over to the TARDIS and hurried over to her. He clasped her arms rather roughly.

"Are you ok?" he barked, capturing her chin between his fingers, turning her head.

"Y...yes," she croaked, struggling not to cough.

"Rose, are you ok!?" he very nearly screamed, too frenzied to have heard her answer.

"Yes!" she answered more forcefully, making sure he heard her this time. His eyes ran over the planes of her face, down the length of her and back up again. "I'm ok," she repeated.

"What the hell were you doing!?" the Doctor demanded to know, his voice rising more in fear than anger.

"What the hell were you doing?!" Rose shot back at him.

"You could have gotten hurt!" he barked. "You could have died."

"So could you! What were you thinking going back to that thing?!"

"I was looking for answers," the Doctor said, letting her go.

"Fine, let me rephrase that," Rose told him harshly. "Why did you go alone?!" The Doctor ran his fingers frustratingly through his hair, shedding ashes around him as he did.

"It wasn't safe for you," he mumbled, his eyes darting about the room. "It's never safe. You're never safe."

"Doctor, what are you...?" He turned away from her before she had a chance to finish.

The Doctor hurried over to the console and began pushing buttons. Rose stared nonplussed at his back. A device came lowering down from the ceiling. It was one Rose had never noticed before, hidden in the cables and wires hanging from up above. Rose had no idea what he was doing.

The Doctor grabbed the thing and pulled it towards him. It looked like some metal torture device to put on ones head. She had no idea what it was for. The Doctor fished his sonic out of his pocket and began running it over the macabre looking headset. His movements were frantic. He had soot smeared on his face and ash still in his hair. He coughed from the smoke in his lungs but didn't once stop to bother with it.

"Doctor?" Rose asked. He didn't answer. She took a couple of steps towards him, his desperation actually scaring her a little.

She had awoken alone in her bed by the urgent hum of the TARDIS. Remnants of nightmares had kept fluttering inside her chest. But she'd pushed them away because something had been wrong. The TARDIS wouldn't have woken her up for just anything. She had struggled out of bed and gone in search of the Doctor. But one quick check across the bond told her he wasn't anywhere on the ship. The hum of the TARDIS had grown more insistent and Rose's own worry had slowly turned to panic. She'd rushed out of the TARDIS finding herself in that horrible forest once again. Where the Doctor had gone to search for answers to save her life when she'd been dying. It looked quite different from their previous visit but it was the feel of the place that was the same. It made you feel cold all over.

Lightning had roared across the night sky and the trees had seemed to shake with it as Rose hurried through the woods. Then the lighting had struck the treetops and they'd caught on fire. It had taken mere minutes for the forest to be ablaze. But she didn't turn back. She could feel him. The fury burning through him. If she didn't stop him he would stay here and watch as everything turned to ashes around him. She hurried through the forest until she'd made it to that clearing. There she'd found him.

He'd been standing, watching that eerie, evil child as lighting tore it apart. He stood and watched as it screamed. As the forest burned down around him and he'd not moved a muscle. She could feel that he took no pleasure in it but neither did he feel any aversion for it. What was happening was just and therefore it would be done. It had taken for her to shout his name several times for him to hear her and even then he'd not quite come to his senses until she'd stumbled into the clearing so he could see her.

"Doctor?" she tried again. His hands were running rapidly over the device, his sonic flashing blue. "What are you doing?" Rose asked when he did not answer her. "Doctor?" She walked around him.

"If I can reconfigure it to match your specific gene-code. Maybe I can... But of course there is the feedback loop. Wasn't designed for humans. Certainly not ones like... well.. you... I just have to..." He was rambling, his words so rapid she could barely perceive what he was saying.

"Doctor, stop," Rose pleaded. But he continued his frantic fiddling and endless mumbling.

Rose reached over and caught his hand. At her touch he became absolutely still. "Doctor, what are you doing?" Rose asked again. He finally raised his eyes to hers. They were filled with a painful desperation.

"I have to save you," he said.

"You're not making any sense," Rose told him. "What is that thing?" She nodded down to the headset he was still holding. He glanced down at it.

"A Chameleon Arch," he said.

"And what does it do?" Rose asked.

"It rewrites biology," the Doctor said, backing up a step so her hand slipped from his. "Specifically Time Lord biology."

"Explain."

"It can turn me human. If' I wanted it to."

"Human."

"Yes."

Rose stared at the metallic headpiece. "Ever thought of using it?"

"Yes," the Doctor admitted. "I did use it. Once." Rose nodded, not asking him to explain further.

"And what do you hope to achieve with it now?" Rose asked.

"If I could reprogram it to fit your DNA instead of mine..."

"You think it can somehow rewrite the parts inside me that aren't human," Rose concluded. The Doctor nodded. "In so doing erase the bond." He nodded again. "Can it?" Rose asked. After a while he shook his head.

"I'm afraid it will just kill you. The feedback...-" Rose held up a hand to stop his words.

"I don't need the details," she said. The Doctor kept quiet. He let go of the Chameleon Arch, placing it on the console. "Tell my why you burned that place down," Rose said. "And don't even try to tell me it was not your doing. I felt you."

"The thing who resides there..."

"He was placed there as punishment for crimes to great to speak of. That's what you told me," Rose pointed out.

"Yes. But it was I who put it there and the crimes happened during the last Time War. It feasted on entire galaxies. Gorging itself on the chaos the Time Lords and the Daleks wrecked upon the universe."

"I take it he didn't have the answers you were looking for," Rose said.

"No. It didn't."

"Right." Rose stepped back from him but he caught her hand, stopping her.

"Rose, I'll find a way. I promise. Even if I have to bring Gallifrey back or break the time- lock to get there. I'll do it."

"And tear the universe in half? You'll do that too?" Rose asked.

"Rose..." he moved towards her and she drew back.

"Don't you see, Doctor," she said sadly. "We are right back to where we started. Breaking something won't mean fixing something else."

His gaze fell from hers. He couldn't stop his thumb from brushing across her knuckles, from enjoying the way her skin felt. Bond or no bond touching Rose Tyler would forever have the power to bring him to his knees. He nodded. She was right. Rationally he knew she was right. But it was so hard to remain rational when she was at stake.

"You're like heated steel," Rose said. His gaze flickered back up to hers. "You just burn. But to be strong you need to be tempered you know."

The Doctor reached out, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her to him. Rose let him.

"You temper me," he said, leaning his head against her shoulder. "You make me strong."

"Than trust me," Rose said. "Don't run off on your own. We have to do this together, yeah?" He nodded against her.

"Together," he agreed. "Always."