A/N: I'm going to Canada this weekend for a wedding, so expect a drought compared to the speed I've been posting recently.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, Supernatural, or any of the related rights.
...
Rose's first thought, strangely, was that she was sick and tired of bad wolves following her everywhere. Words, phrases, and now actual wolves.
And then she forced her brain to more rational thoughts, thoughts like how she and Jack and Dean could possibly get out of this. Though, of course, she was more concerned for Dean at the moment. He was, after all, the one with a snarling wolf right in front of him.
And then, as they watched with open mouths, the wolf transformed itself. Lit by the bonfire and starlight, the leaves swirled around it again, and suddenly, it was a tall woman, draped in wolf's skin, her skin almost as white as the skin itself and her hair silver to match her eyes. When she spoke, her voice was low, almost a growl, but still piercing and warm. "Well, this is a familiar story," she said. She walked slowly around Dean, who seemed to be unable to move. Gently, almost lovingly, she reached out to stroke his cheek. (Rose could see the dangerous glow in Dean's eyes, but he couldn't do anything about it.) "The girl in the red hood, the hunter who couldn't save her, and the elders who sacrificed them both." She turned to Jack with a carefree smile. "I guess that makes you the odd man out of the story, handsome."
Rose couldn't see Jack, but she knew he was both pleased at the compliment and annoyed at being trapped.
The wolf woman continued to prowl around Dean, her hands gently crossed his shoulders. Then, suddenly, without warning, the wolf woman reached right through Dean's chest!
"Oi! Leave him alone!" Rose shouted.
"What are you doing to him?" Jack demanded at the same time.
Dean couldn't say anything, but the pain in his eyes and the strangled noises he made said everything.
The wolf woman didn't pay attention to any of them. She just kept her hand right there, apparently playing with Dean's insides. "Ooh," she said, sounding perversely delighted. "I could get a lot out of you." She licked her lips. "Courage and bravery, but also unrequited love." She pulled her face closer to Dean's. "Not the romantic kind, either. No, but this is so much . . . sweeter." She grinned, showing all her canine-like teeth.
Dean's mouth moved, but no words came out.
Rose took a deep breath and decided to play distraction. "So, what are you, the reality behind the myth? The Big Bad Wolf?" She tried to keep her voice from shaking.
The wolf woman whirled around to face Rose, which, as Rose had hoped, meant that she released Dean, and he slumped to the ground, panting and grasping his chest. She curled back her lips into a snarl to match any real wolf's, and she said, "Of course I wouldn't expect you to know, child." She licked her lips, suddenly staring at Rose's heart now. "I was once a goddess. I feasted on the children every year without complaint, without any of this sneaking around and changing shapes." She waved her hand impatiently. "And then when Christianity swept through Europe, I fell into myth. A mindless, hungry beast."
Rose couldn't see Dean or Jack very well, but she did catch a glimpse of the look they were both sharing. It was an action kind of look.
But then Rose couldn't see much of anything except the wolf woman's face as she felt something cold pass through her chest. And then there was pain. Agonizing, costly, absolutely paralyzing pain. She gasped for breath, trying to find a foothold, something to hold on to, but she could feel only fire. And yet, somehow, she could hear the wolf woman's voice as clear as day. "Oh, but you know about the wolf, don't you?" she purred. (Rose had no idea what she was talking about.) "Oh, but yours is almost as delicious as the hunter's. Fire and spirit and intelligence, and deep affection and love, a power to heal!" The wolf woman licked her lips. "I chose well when I chose you." And for a moment, Rose could see Alice, not the wolf woman.
Rose closed her eyes against the searing pain, but then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.
She felt the ground on her knees and hands and knew that she had fallen, but she wasn't very aware of her surroundings. It was hard to come back to herself. It was as if someone had been digging around inside of her, and that was exhausting, like being on trial.
When she managed to get her energy back, she realized that the wind was howling back into a wolf's shape. There was a silver knife embedding in the wood just inches to her right, and Dean was in the process of prying it loose while he shouted directions. And he was shouting because not only was the wind howling but so were the strangely clad people.
"Rose, listen to me," Dean was saying. "Can you hear me?"
She nodded. She was starting to get her strength back, at least enough to feel annoyed that he sounded so . . . patronizing.
"I just gotta get you to the TARDIS, okay? She needs two people. A guy and a girl. And she can have her pick of Jack and me, but if she can't have you . . . ."
Rose grinned and put on a braver face than she really felt like she had. "I love it when I'm the key to the whole operation," she said sarcastically.
Dean rolled his eyes at her.
Jack kept behind Rose, holding a gun that Dean had handed him. (She didn't ask what it was loaded with, but Dean seemed to know his way around an arsenal.) Dean stayed in front of her, keeping the silver knife out in front of him, muttering explanations under his breath. "I'm trying to remember what kills a pagan goddess, but the lore's all mixed up, and it depends on which god or goddess it is," he said. "Silver will hurt pretty much anything, though. Silver or salt. And I took a shot with the silver."
"How come you know where the TARDIS is?" Rose asked. They were walking pretty fast, so her half-healed heart was racing, but they were also treading carefully, keeping an eye out for the wolf woman or any of her worshippers, so she could still at least keep up a conversation.
"She took me here after I fed her some information," Dean said. Then, when he saw her incredulous look, he shrugged. "Look, long story. I'm good with machines, me and the TARDIS have history, sorta. Future to you, I guess." He blew out his breath in frustration. "Friggin' time travel. Never mind."
Rose tried to hide her expression by rubbing her chest where the wolf woman had reached right through her, but it was hard to hide it. Flying the TARDIS? She had been sure, until that moment, that no one but the Doctor could fly the TARDIS.
Maybe one day she'd learn how to do it, too.
They could just see electric blue through the trees when they heard a wolf howling and felt the wind catch them, pinning them, stopping them from moving forward. She heard Dean swearing next to her, heard Jack firing . . . .
And she heard something else, something above all the noise. A younger voice, and it was calling Dean's name.
...
The Doctor and John both jerked their heads in the direction of the gunfire. They glanced at each other and, without a word, turned back around and barreled toward the gunshots.
"Rose!" the Doctor shouted. He shook the torch John had given him, but it wasn't doing much to cut through the darkness of the forest around them. They'd been searching for hours. Night had set on, and he was really starting to worry.
"Sam!" John shouted. "Sammy!"
The Doctor frowned but kept right on running. He might not have been able to tell exactly where the gunshots came from, but it must have been close. It was a good thing they'd gone so far into the forest before they decided to turn around and go back to the station, or they might have been too far out to get anywhere in time.
"That must be my son," John panted beside the Doctor. "He must have found something."
There were a few more gunshots, but then there was only silence. The Doctor and John kept right on running, both determined to stay on the trail, neither willing to admit that they had no guarantee they were going in the right direction. The Doctor heard John muttering about how stupid it was for his son to go out on his own (and tried not to point out that he'd sent his older son out first), but he was more concerned about why the gunshots had stopped.
Was Jack the one shooting? It sounded like a shotgun, though, so maybe it was someone else. Jack's was a sonic blaster, though the Doctor hadn't really checked him for other concealed weapons. Maybe John's son had found the creature behind the disappearances but not Rose and Jack. Maybe the creature found him first.
The Doctor frowned. He couldn't afford to think about possibilities. He had to stay grounded.
John stopped in front of the Doctor, and the Doctor very nearly crashed into him. "We're going the wrong way," John said simply. He turned around and started running.
The Doctor frowned. "How can you be so sure?"
"Because that scream was close by. We'd have seen something by now."
The Doctor didn't argue. But as he turned to follow John, he could've sworn he saw something big in the woods, something like a wolf.
