Tooth And Claw
After all three of them had gotten very long showers in to rinse off the Everrot sludge that they'd been thrown into - which was thick, green, and smelled like candy but tasted like hand sanitizer - they met back in the console room. The Doctor got there first, and Rose came in last just after Ross.
"Where are we going now?" Rose asked, pulling her ponytail tight.
"Concert!" the Doctor grinned at them. "Late 1970s."
Rose glanced down at herself. She had a guess of where they were going and was suddenly glad she'd worn long, bell bottomed jeans with a tight, long sleeved shirt with daisies on it. Perhaps not appropriate for the time they were actually going to be in, but more appropriate than her bare arms and legs from before. She wore converse, which was good for the running, and sighed. "Is there a reason you don't want to make me a sonic? What if I get stuck somewhere without you and need one?"
The Doctor rolled his eyes at her and switched on some music. "Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Number one in 1979."
"Punk," Rose laughed. "I like it."
"I've never heard earth music before," Ross commented, leaning against the railing. "Is it good?"
"You're asking a girl who grew up on earth and a man obsessed with the place," Rose snorted. "We're not exactly unbiased. You've really never heard music from earth before?"
"Not at all."
"TARDISes, strictly speaking, aren't usually for travel," the Doctor admitted sheepishly. "Definitely not what I use her for. Gallifrey is also rather… stuffy."
"I got that," Rose nodded along, smiling at Ross. "So what sort of music do you listen to?"
"We don't actually listen to much music," he admitted. "We have the song of the TARDISes and the singing hills, but aside from that-,"
"Like I said," the Doctor waved at him. "Stuffy."
"Well!" Rose grinned. "Let's go, then."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"1979!" the Doctor exclaimed, rushing to the door with his friends behind him. "Hell of a year! China invades Vietnam. The Muppet Movie, love that film. Margaret Thatcher-,"
"Hermione Granger is born and Regulus Black dies-,"
"Who?" Ross stared at Rose, who laughed and the Doctor rolled his eyes.
"Harry Potter characters," he explained. "Anyway. Skylab falls to earth with a little help from me. Nearly took off my thumb, and I like my thumb. I need my thumb," he insisted, walking out the door. "I'm very attached to… my thumb."
Rose let out a snort at the sight before them, shaking her head as she put her hands up. The Doctor did the same and when Ross didn't, she nudged him with her elbow until he got it. "1879, Doctor."
"Same difference," he tried with a small wince.
"You will explain your presence and the trousers on this girl," one of the men holding guns told them.
"Are we in Scotland?" the Doctor asked excitedly with a perfect Scottish accent.
"What's Scotland?" Ross asked Rose in a quiet whisper.
"Country," she answered quickly.
"How can you be ignorant of that?" the man asked the Doctor, ignoring their whispers.
"Oh, I'm- I'm dazed and confused," the Doctor insisted, glancing at his friends. "I've been chasing this- these siblings over hill and over dale. Isn't that right, you timorous beasties?"
"Definitely," Rose agreed, not bothering with the horrible accent again. Ross nodded along and they were both grateful for the fact that, since she regenerated, they had similar hair color and noses. There was nothing else, but it was enough to convince the guard.
"Will you identify yourself, sir?" the guard requested.
"I'm Doctor James McCrimmon from the township of Balamory. Uh, I have my credentials, if I may?" he said, moving his hand down to his pocket. At the slight nod he received, he grabbed the psychic paper out of his pocket. "As you can see, a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. I trained under Doctor Bell himself."
"Let them approach," an elderly woman's voice called. The guard leaned back despite the fact that she could hear them fine.
"I don't think that wise, ma'am."
"Let them approach," she repeated, this time more firmly. He frowned at the three of them.
"You will approach the carriage and show all due deference."
"Rose, Ross," the Doctor said as they walked up to the carriage and caught sight of the woman. "Might I introduce Her Majesty Queen Victoria. Empress of India and Defender of the Faith."
"Rose Tyler, ma'am," Rose said, bowing a bit.
"Rossindherlem," Ross nodded respectfully.
"My apologies for my… unusual outfit," Rose smiled.
"I've had five daughters, it is nothing to me. But you, Doctor, show me these credentials," she insisted. The Doctor handed over the psychic paper and her eyes lit up. "Why didn't you say so immediately? It states clearly here that you have been appointed by the Lord Provost as my protector and your friends your assistants."
"Does it?" the Doctor asked, clearing his throat. "Yes, it does. Good, good. Um… then let me ask, why is Your Majesty travelling by road when there's a train all the way to Aberdeen?"
"A tree on the line."
"An accident?" the Doctor hoped, despite knowing it was unlikely.
"Assassination attempt?" Ross wondered instead. He'd grown far too used to the very same on Romana's life, and he'd saved her from a number of them.
"I am the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Everything around me tends to be planned. I am quite used to staring down the barrel of a gun."
"Sir Robert MacLeish lives but ten miles hence," the guard from before, Captain Reynolds, announced. "We've sent word ahead. He'll shelter us for tonight, then we can reach Belmoral tomorrow."
"This Doctor and his assistants will come with us," Victoria told them firmly.
"Yes, ma'am. We'd better get moving; it's almost nightfall."
"Indeed," Victoria agreed. "And there are stories of wolves in these parts. Fanciful tales, intended to scare the children, but good for the blood, I think. Drive on."
As they continued walking, this time lagging somewhat behind the guards around the carriage, the three began discussing the situation.
"1879, she's had… oh, six attempts on her life," the Doctor told them.
"Do you often end up in the wrong place and the wrong time?" Ross questioned, laughing. "Is this Queen important here?"
Rose coughed to hide her laughter.
"We end up where we're supposed to be," the Doctor told him with a firm nod.
"By that, he means we end up wherever the TARDIS wants us to go, and sometimes we get to go where we want to go," she corrected. "As for the Queen…"
"We just met Queen Victoria!" the Doctor grinned, bumping her shoulder. "How d'you like that?"
"She was just sitting there," Rose shook her head.
"Like a stamp!"
"I want her to say 'we are not amused.'"
"Why?" Ross tilted his head in confusion.
"It's something- everyone says she said- history," she finished lamely.
"Earth history is just as difficult and confusing as Gallifrey's," the Doctor explained to Ross. "They might seem small and insignificant, but they're people with lives and personalities, too."
Ross hummed, allowing Rose to grab his arm at the same time she grabbed the Doctor's. "And how exactly do you intend to get her to say this?"
"I'll figure it out," Rose said, flashing him her tongue in teeth grin. "Persistence is key. I bet you five quid I can make her say it."
"Well, if I gamble on that, it would be an abuse of my privilege as a traveler in time."
Rose threw her head back in a laugh. "Ten quid."
"Done."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"Your Majesty."
"Sir Robert," Victoria smiled. "My apologies for the emergency. And how is Lady Isobel?"
"She's… indisposed, I'm afraid. She's gone to Edinburgh for the season, and she's taken the cook with her. The kitchens are barely stocked. I wouldn't blame Your Majesty if you wanted to ride on."
"Not at all. I've had quite enough carriage exercise," Victoria informed him, glancing at the house. "And this is charming, if… rustic. It's my first visit to this house. My late husband spoke of it often, the Torchwood Estate."
Rose sucked in a sharp breath and closed her eyes. This is where it began. Because of what happened there, what would happen that night, Queen Victoria felt she needed to create the Torchwood Institute. Because of what would happen that night, she and the Doctor had been separated. People had died.
It began there.
Are you okay?
Rose didn't answer him. She had nothing to say that would convince him she was fine.
"-excuse the odd children," Victoria said, nodding at Rose and Ross. "They're to stay with us."
"Feral children," the Doctor told him, gaining narrowed eyes from both of them. "I bought them both for sixpence in old London town. It was them or the Elephant man, so…"
"He thinks he's funny," Rose said, turning to look at the Queen. "But I am so not amused. What do you think, ma'am?"
"It hardly matters," she answered, clearly uninterested. "Shall we proceed?"
OoOoOoOoOoOo
Rose stood at the back of the room with Ross while the Doctor spoke to the owner of the house - Sir Robert. The two watched him examine the telescope with great interest.
"Do you know this one?" Ross wondered curiously. Rose hummed.
"I do, actually. It's not my favorite. I'd have rather gone to see Ian Dury and the Blockheads."
"So you just go about your life, unsure if you're about to repeat something? That sounds… awful."
"It isn't my favorite," she agreed. "But Everrot? I've never been there before. That one is new. I can't tell if the new parts come from the change in my relationship with the Doctor or if it's just the TARDIS trying to spare me my sanity."
"TARDISes aren't supposed to behave like his does," he told her.
"Well, we did literally watch him steal it from a lot of broken ones," she pointed out. "Have you had one before?"
He shook his head. "I've always worked in the higher ups. I do- I did no fighting. TARDISes are for fighting, for finding people like you and the Doctor- and now me, I suppose, and stopping us from changing time or interacting with it."
"Our TARDIS is absolutely not like that," she laughed softly. "She loves it. She loves the adventure and she loves us."
"You know that?" he wondered. "How?"
"My bond with her. When she brought me back, she told me… the Doctor was miserable without me. My bond with her was broken once and she spoke to me, told me I'd be okay and we'd get home while we were fixing it."
"-bit rubbish," the Doctor announced, gaining their attention. Rose rushed over to him, staring at him. "How many prisms has it got? Way too many! The magnification's gone right over the top. That's a stupid kind of…." he stepped close to Rose and lowered his voice. "Am I being rude again?"
"Yep."
"But it's pretty!" he assured them, turning back to look at them and a laughing Ross. "It's very pretty."
"And the imagination should be applauded," Victoria told him.
"I thought you'd disapprove, Your Majesty," Rose said, continuing with her bit from the last time they'd done this adventure. "Stargazing. Isn't it fanciful? I wouldn't be amused."
From behind the queen, Rose saw Ross shaking his head at her, looking pained. It was, she admitted to herself, a bit of an awkward attempt. The Doctor rubbed at his face in exhaustion.
"This device surveys the infinite work of God. What could be finer?" she asked. "Sir Robert's father was an example to us all. A polymath, steeped in astronomy and the sciences, yet equally well-versed in folklore and fairytales."
"Stars and magic," the Doctor grinned at Sir Robert. "I like him more and more."
"Oh, my late husband enjoyed his company," Victoria smiled. "Prince Albert himself was acquainted with many rural superstitions, coming as he did from Saxe-Coburg."
"Bavaria," the Doctor whispered in Rose's ear, gaining a short nod.
Victoria paced back over to Sir Robert. "When Albert was told about your local wolf, he was transported."
"What is this wolf?" Ross wondered, coming to stand next to Sir Robert.
"It's just a story, Sir Robert claimed, smiling tightly.
"Then tell it," the Doctor requested.
"It's said that-,"
"Excuse me," one of the staff interrupted sharply. "Perhaps Her Majesty's party could repair to their rooms. It's almost dark."
Sir Robert tensed and forced a smile on his face. "Of course. Yes, of course."
"And then supper," Victoria agreed. "And could we find some more fitting clothes for Miss Tyler? I'm tired of her… trousers."
"It's not amusing, is it?" Rose questioned, earning herself a look from the woman. When she turned back to Sir Robert, she grinned and tapped the Doctor's arms excitedly.
"We shall dine at seven and talk some more of this wolf," Victoria continued. "After all, there is a full moon tonight."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
Just like last time, Rose didn't change her clothes, although this time it was because she had absolutely no interest in putting on a dress when she knew there was running to be done. Instead, she went straight for where she knew the girl would be. Once she'd calmed her down, they sat together.
"They came through the house in silence. They took the steward and the master, and my lady."
"We can help," Rose assured her. "I've got some friends, the Doctor and Ross. We'll help you. You've got to come with me."
"Oh, but I can't, miss," the girl shook her head quickly.
"What's your name?"
"Flora."
"Flora, we'll be safe," she assured her. "I'm Rose. There's soldiers downstairs, they can help, too. Come on, okay?"
Flora nodded nervously and Rose carefully led her out of the room, looking around the corner before she did so.
There's some trouble and I'm about to be taken. Lady Isobel is still here. I'm going to find her.
"Oh, Miss," Flora gasped as they approached a man lying on the floor. Rose dropped to her knees to make sure he was still alive.
"He's not dead," she assured her. "Drugged, I think."
One of the staff grabbed Flora, and she let out a yelp. Rose turned around in time to see someone running for her.
"Rose!" Ross exclaimed running forward and out of his room. She turned back to him just as the man got ahold of her and was unable to say anything as someone grabbed him, too.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"Your companions beg an apology, Doctor," the man said, entering the room. "Miss Tyler is still searching for clothing, and Mister Ross isn't feeling well."
The Doctor did his best not to snap at him. "That's alright. Save them some ham."
"Feral children could probably eat it raw," Victoria joked, making Captain Ross laugh much too hard.
"Very wise, ma'am, very witty."
"Slightly witty, perhaps," she allowed. "I know you rarely get the chance to dine with me, Captain, but don't get too excited. I shall contain my wit in case I do you further injury."
"Yes, ma'am. Sorry, ma'am."
Ross is with me. We're okay.
The Doctor relaxed slightly at the news and focused back on what he wanted to know about. "Besides, we're all waiting on Sir Robert. Come on, Sir. You promised us a tale of nightmares."
"Indeed. Since my husband's death, I find myself with more of a taste for supernatural fiction."
"You must miss him," the Doctor commented.
"Very much," she agreed, her voice softening. "Oh, completely. And that's the charm of a ghost story, isn't it? Not the scares and chills, that's just for children, but the hope of some contact with the great beyond. We all want some message from that place. It's the Creator's greatest mystery that we're allowed no such consolation. The dead stay silent and we must wait… Come, begin your tale, Sir Robert. There's a chill in the air. The wind is howling through the eaves. Tell us of monsters."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"Don't make a sound," Lady Isobel warned them softly. "They said if we scream or shout, he will slaughter us."
"What is he? He just looks like a man," Ross commented in a whisper. Rose looked between them and then at the man.
"He's no man," Lady Isobel disagreed. "That creature is not mortal."
His eyes opened to reveal that they were completely black and Rose stared right back at them. This time, she felt something, something that she thought maybe he'd felt, too.
"Your eyes," Ross told her, grabbing her arm. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing," she shook her head. "It's him."
"Is he like the goddess?"
Rose shot him a look. "He is nothing like Bad Wolf, and she- I am not a goddess. Next time you suggest it, I'm gonna smack you."
"Rose," he nodded at her arms. "You're really not doing that?"
She put a concentrated effort into reigning in Bad Wolf's powers. They still had a long night ahead of them and she didn't know how much it would take out of her to use her powers to free them or send the wolf away. "Let's just focus on keeping everyone calm, okay?"
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"The story goes back 3000 years," Sir Robert began slowly, nervously. "Every full moon, the howling rings through the valley. Next morning, livestock is found ripped apart and devoured."
"Oh, tales like this just disguise the work of thieves," the captain told them, disbelieving. "Steal a sheep and blame a wolf, simple as that."
"Sometimes a child goes missing," Sir Robert said sharply. "Once in a generation, a boy will vanish from his homestead…"
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"Don't, child," Lady Isobel warned. Rose was on her feet, staring at the wolf ahead of them. "He'll kill us all."
She stepped as far ahead as the chains would allow them and kept her voice steady. "Who are you?"
"Don't enrage him," the steward insisted.
"You aren't from earth," Rose continued, standing tall. Ross came to stand at her side, completely unsure of how much danger they were in. "Where, then? Serigala?"
"Oh… intelligence," the wolf man said slowly.
"Who… is the man you're in?" she asked, tense.
"A weakling, heartsick boy, stolen away at night by the Brethren for my cultivation. I carved out his soul and sat in his heart."
"Tools of possession," Ross told her, grabbing her arm to keep her from moving forward any further. "Earth is primitive, especially now. He couldn't have gotten them."
"You'd be surprised," Rose muttered. "But you're right. I've been possessed before. That trip to New Earth? Last time, an evil skin tag possessed me. No, he's something else. He really is a wolf."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"Are there descriptions of the creature?" the Doctor questioned, feeling Rose's hesitance and nerves. Whatever she was doing, he didn't like it.
"Oh, yes, Doctor," Sir Robert confirmed. "Drawings and wood carvings. And it's not merely a wolf, it's more than that. This is a man who becomes an animal."
The Doctor's eyes opened in excitement and he leaned forward. "A werewolf?"
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"So far from home," the wolf man told her.
"I'd offer to take you back home, but I get the feeling you don't care to go there," Rose shook her head.
"Why would I leave this place?" he agreed. "A world of industry, of workforce and warfare. I could turn it to such purpose."
"How?" Ross wondered with a frown.
"I would migrate to the Holy Monarch," he answered as if it were obvious.
"The Queen," Ross breathed, glancing at Rose. "As far as you're aware, does she ever become a wolf?"
"No, but you know, time travel," she muttered back.
"With one bite, I would pass into her blood," the wolf man continued. "And then it begins, the Empire of the Wolf." He stared at her. "So many questions…"
When he jumped at her and snarled, she stood firm, her hair glowing now along with her arms and eyes.
"Your eyes," he said in a rush. "The Wolf. There is something of the wolf about you."
"So don't provoke it," she suggested, taking a deep breath to calm Bad Wolf. Slowly, the glowing receded to just her eyes and she glanced back at Ross, who was kneeling in front of Flora to check on her. "Okay?"
"Alright," he confirmed.
"You burn like the sun," he growled. "All I require is the moon."
The door slammed open, sending moonlight flooding into the room and pointed at the wolf man. He breathed out in relief and shed his robes.
"Stop looking at him!" Rose snapped at them. "Pull! Grab the chains and pull!"
With some help from Ross and the steward, everyone got to their feet and began tugging at the chains that were attached to the wall, all while the wolf man became less man and more wolf.
Rose, where are you?
Basement, there's a werewolf and a lot of people.
"The Doctor's coming," she told them, but mostly Ross, as they continued tugging.
"Do you think maybe you can- you know, let us out?" Ross asked her. She shook her head immediately.
"He'll get here in time," was all she said. The large group tugged hard one last time, finally breaking themselves free from the wall. Finally, the Doctor sped into the room and she narrowed her eyes at him. "And you don't think I need my own sonic?"
He looked between them and the wolf and helped get everyone out of there. They got up to a room with some weapons where everyone began organizing and Lady Isobel took her maids and left.
"-any form of light-modulating species triggered by specific wavelengths. Did it say what it wanted?" the Doctor asked as he removed Rose's shackles.
"The throne," Ross answered as the shackles finally fell. A crash and growl sounded and everybody save for the Doctor stopped moving. Instead, he rushed toward it and out into the hall. "What in Rassilon's name is he doing?"
"Being an idiot," Rose said, screwing up her face. Men lined up in front of them with guns and the Doctor ran back in just before the wolf did, coming to grab Rose's hand and pull her against him nervously. The men began firing and after it was shot, it ran from the room.
"All right, you men, we should retreat upstairs," the Doctor announced. "Come with me."
"I'll not retreat," the steward said, looking back at him. "The battle's done. There's no creature on God's earth that could survive such an assault."
"Not Earth," Ross told him. "We need to go now."
As the steward turned toward the door, the Doctor stepped forward and shouted at him. "I'm telling you, come upstairs!"
"And I'm telling you, sir, I will sleep well tonight with that thing's hide upon my wall!" They could do nothing but watch as he turned to look out into the hall and then back at them. "It must've crawled away to die-,"
His words were cut off by the wolf grabbing him from above.
"There's nothing we can do!" the Doctor told them, turning to run and pulling Rose after him. She grabbed onto Ross, and soon he joined them as well. They ran through the house and into the Queen's room with Sir Robert and shut the door behind them.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!"
"Sir Robert, what's happening?" Victoria questioned, rushing down the stairs to them. "I heard such terrible noises."
"Your Majesty, we've got to get out," Sir Robert said firmly. "But what of Father Angelo, is he still here?"
"Captain Reynolds disposed of him."
"The front door's no good," the Doctor announced, running back to Rose's side. "It's been boarded shut. Pardon me, Your Majesty, you'll have to leg it out of a window."
The woman held her head up high and headed over to do just that.
"Excuse my manners, ma'am, but I shall go first, the better to assist Her Majesty's egress," Sir Robert said when they got to said window.
"A noble sentiment, my Sir Walter Raleigh."
"Yeah, any chance you could hurry up?" the Doctor snapped. Sir Robert rushed up toward the window, but when he opened it, he ducked aside to avoid guns being shot at him from the monks outside the house. The Doctor blinked a few times. "I reckon the monkey-boys want us to stay inside."
"Do they know who I am?" Victoria asked, appalled.
"That's sort of why they want you," Rose said, trying not to roll her eyes. By the look on Ross's face, she guessed she failed. "The wolf wants you, ma'am."
"Now stop this talk," Victoria ordered. "There can't be an actual wolf."
Perfectly timed howling said otherwise.
The group rushed out to find the wolf banging at a door, trying to break it down.
"What do we do?" Ross asked.
"We run," the Doctor and Rose suggested together. The Doctor glanced at the queen. "Your Majesty, as a doctor, I recommend a vigorous jog. Good for the health." And then he took her hand and led her up the stairs with everyone else following behind them. They heard when the wolf finally broke down the door and began chasing after them up the stairs.
Just as they turned a corner, the wolf was about to pounce on the Doctor and Ross when Captain Reynolds shot it again, sending it running away. "I'll take this position and hold it. You keep moving, for God's sake. Your Majesty, I went to look for the property and it was taken. The chest was empty."
"I have it," she assured him. "It's safe."
"Then remove yourself, ma'am," he ordered her with a firm nod. "Doctor, you stand as Her Majesty's protector. And you, Sir Robert - you are a traitor to the Crown."
"Bullets can't stop it," the Doctor told him anxiously.
"They'll buy you time, now run!"
While everyone went to do just that, Rose stared at him and debated. She knew she shouldn't do anything - she didn't want to make anything worse. But at the same time… the man didn't have to die. She could see his timeline and the alternate versions where he lived and, just like that, plucked at it and turned to run before she'd even stopped glowing.
When she turned around, just before the doors shut and moments before the wolf would've reached the captain, gold light encompassed him and he disappeared.
Rose felt the Doctor grab her and practically carry her the rest of the way into the room. Ross and Sir Robert shut and barricaded the doors while the Doctor grabbed her face in his hands and looked her over.
"What did you do?" he asked her. "Rose, you shouldn't have."
"I just sent him away," she replied, feeling the golden glow under her skin. With the wolf following them and having just used Bad Wolf, it was impossible for her to rid herself of it without the TARDIS.
"It stopped," Ross said, turning around. He stopped short at the sight of Rose and hesitated. "Are you okay?"
"Is she-," Robert scoffed and looked to Victoria. "Your Majesty, are you okay?"
"I am alive."
The Doctor climbed up on the furniture stacked against the doors and wall and held his ear to the wall. He could hear the wolf on the other side, but still, the wolf did nothing. "It's gone. Listen… is this the only door?"
"Yes," Sir Robert whispered back as they all listened to the wolf stalking around, looking for another way in. "No!" he exclaimed, rushing across the room. Rose followed him, and they worked together to barricade that door, too.
"Why isn't it coming in?" Ross asked when they all felt a bit safer. "Clearly, it has the ability to rip through walls and doors and yet it isn't."
"Something in the room," Rose replied softly.
"But what is it?" the Doctor wondered, walking around. "Why can't it get in?"
Not bothering to say anything, Rose paced over to the Doctor and wrapped her arms around him, relieved when he did the same. They could both feel equal parts fear and relief through the bond.
"You all right?" he asked her.
"I'm okay, yeah," she assured him. When he looked at her pointedly, she shrugged a bit. "I'll be fine once we get back to the TARDIS. Tell you what, though, I'd have been a hell of a lot safer if I'd had my own sonic."
"Okay!" he threw his head back. "Once we make it out of this, I'll make you your own sonic."
"Yes," she grinned.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Sir Robert said, head in his hands. "It's all my fault. I should have sent you away. I tried to suggest something was wrong. I thought you might notice. Did you think there was nothing strange about my household staff?"
"Well, they were bald, athletic," the Doctor shrugged, earning a smack on his arm from Rose. She knew what he was suggesting. "Your wife's away. I just thought you were happy."
"I tell you what, though, ma'am, I bet you're not amused now."
"Rose," Ross groaned, tossing his head back.
"Do you think this is funny?" she hissed angrily. "What, exactly, I pray, tell me, someone, please, what exactly is that creature? And what are you? Glowing like an angel."
"Oh, I'm not- I'm just- uh, sun burnt."
Ross stared at Rose. Of her lies, that was probably one of the worst ones.
"You'd call it a werewolf," the Doctor took over for her before Victoria could continue questioning her. "But technically it's more of a lupine-wavelength haemovariform."
"And should I trust you, sir?" she asked, her glare turning quickly to him. "You, who change your voice so easily? What happened to your accent?"
"Oh, right, sorry, that-,"
"I'll not have it," she snapped, interrupting him. "No, sir. Not you, not that thing, none of it. This is not my world."
"Yes it is," Rose said sharply, gaining stares. "You may not like it, ma'am, but it is. You may never in your life run into anything as- as odd as this again, but you can't just dismiss it. You can't write it off, and you can't assume anything odd is as dangerous as that wolf."
"Surely you do not expect me to listen to the glowing child?"
"Didn't you say I look angelic?"
"Says the woman who refuses to allow me to call you a goddess," Ross whispered to her. She ignored him.
"All I'm saying, ma'am, is that these things happen. Regarding it all as a threat is… naive."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"Mistletoe," the Doctor whispered, brushing his fingers against the fine wood. "Sir Robert, did your father put that there?"
"I don't know. I suppose."
"And on the other door, too," the Doctor commented thoughtfully. "Though a carving wouldn't be enough… I wonder." He hopped up on a chair and… licked the wood.
"Doctor," Rose groaned. "You don't have to lick everything."
"It's a sense that we're not using enough, Rose," he disagreed. "Because that is viscum album, the oil of the mistletoe. It's been worked into the wood like a varnish! How clever was your dad? I love him!" He glanced back from Sir Robert to Rose and Ross. "Powerful stuff, mistletoe, bursting with lectins and viscotoxins."
"The wolf is allergic to it?" Ross questioned.
"Or it thinks it is," Rose told their friend. "The monks need to control the wolf. They could've trained it to react against mistletoe."
"Nevertheless, that creature won't give up," Sir Robert told them. "And we still don't possess an actual weapon."
"Oh, your father got all the brains, didn't he?"
"Doctor!" Rose hissed. "Being rude again."
"Good, I meant that one," the Doctor nodded firmly. "You want weapons? We're in a library. Books! Best weapons in the world. This room is the greatest arsenal we could have." He turned and grabbed a couple of heavy books and tossed them down on a table. "Arm yourself."
They all did as he said, grabbing multiple books through multiple subjects including mythology, local history, biology, and zoology. It wasn't too long before the Doctor found something.
"Look what your old dad found," he said, walking forward with the book open for them to see. "Something fell to earth."
"A shooting star?" Sir Robert said, looking at the drawing in the book. "'In the year of our Lord 1540, under the reign of King James V, an almighty fire did burn in the pit.' That's the Glen of Saint Catherine, just by the monastery."
"Three hundred years, what are they waiting for?" Ross asked, glancing from the book to his friends.
"Maybe just a single cell survived," the Doctor suggested thoughtfully. "Adapting slowly down the generations, it survived though the humans, host after host after host."
"But why does it want the throne?" Sir Robert wondered.
"The Empire of the Wolf," Rose quoted softly.
"That's what it wants, that's what it said," Ross explained at the Doctor's confused look.
"Imagine it," the Doctor said as his brain worked faster. "The Victorian Age accelerated. Starships and missiles fuelled by coal and driven by steam, leaving history devastated in its wake."
"This is why we don't interfere," Ross claimed, looking stressed. The Doctor looked at him in wonder.
"This is exactly why we do interfere! Are you kidding me? This will happen with or without us. At least we're here to help. You're exactly the type of person I was running from, you know that?"
"Doctor," Rose said, settling a hand on his arm. "Not the time. I did basically kidnap him, so maybe we give him a break while he gets used to this, yeah?"
"Sir Robert," Victoria interrupted, getting to her feet. "If I am to die here-,"
"Don't say that, Your Majesty," Sir Robert shook his head sadly, moving to stand in front of her.
"I would destroy myself rather than let that creature infect me," she informed them. "But that's no matter. I ask only that you find some place of safekeeping for something far older and more precious than myself."
"Hardly the time to worry about your valuables," the Doctor said, shocked at her priorities. He earned himself a look of irritation.
"Thank you for your opinion, but there is nothing more valuable than this," she said, pulling the Koh-i-noor out of her bag.
"Oh, Your Majesty," Sir Roberty breathed.
"...what is it?" Ross wondered.
"The Koh-i-noor," Rose answered with a soft smile.
"The greatest diamond in the world," the Doctor explained, stepping closer with them.
"Given to me as the spoils of war," Victoria told them. "Perhaps its legend is now coming true. It is said that whoever owns it must surely die."
"Well, that's true of anything, if you wait long enough," the Doctor said, rolling his eyes. "Can I?" he wondered, holding out his hand for it. Hesitantly, she handed it over. "That is so beautiful."
"Diamonds are precious here?" Ross asked Rose curiously. She nodded.
"They're used often for engagements- which are basically like a second stage bond. Very important, very expensive. This is the most expensive one in the world. If my mum were here, she'd fight the wolf with her bare hands for it."
"And she'd win," the Doctor joked.
"Where is the wolf?" Sir Robert wondered, walking away from them. "I don't trust this silence."
"Why d'you travel with it?" the Doctor wondered, glancing from the diamond to Victoria.
"My annual pilgrimage," she answered. "I'm taking it to Hellier and Carew, the Royal Jewellers at Hazlehead. The stone needs recutting."
"Why? Isn't it beautiful enough?" Ross asked, genuinely confused.
"My late husband never thought so," Victoria told him with a shake of her head.
"Now, there's a fact," the Doctor took off his glasses. "Prince Albert kept on having the Koh-i-noor cut down. It used to be forty percent bigger than this, but he was never happy. Kept on cutting and cutting."
"He always said the shine was not quite right," Victoria explained. "But he died with it still unfinished."
"Unfinished," the Doctor repeated as something clicked in his mind. He carelessly tossed the diamond back to the queen, gathering stares. "Oh, yes! There's a lot of unfinished business in this house. His father's research and your husband, ma'am. He came here and he sought the perfect diamond… hold on, hold on, hold on. All these separate things, they're not separate at all, they're connected! Oh, my head, my head! What if this house… it's a trap for you, is that right, ma'am?"
"Obviously."
"At least, that's what the wolf intended, but what if there's a trap inside the trap?"
"Explain yourself, Doctor."
He looked at Sir Robert. "What if your father and her husband weren't just telling each other stories? They dared to imagine this was true, and they planned against it. Laying the real trap, not for you, but for the wolf!"
"The mistletoe," Ross realized, eyes widening. At that moment, there was a tapping noise from above them. When they looked up, they caught sight of the wolf on the glass part of the ceiling.
"Go!" Rose yelled, grabbing Victoria's arm and dragging her toward the doors while everyone else began removing the furniture stacked against them. They got out of the room and quickly made their way toward the observatory.
When the wolf tried to grab Sir Robert, Lady Isobel tossed a bucket of mistletoe steeped water on the wolf, burning him and sending him away.
"Good shot!" the Doctor complimented the woman, who had appeared from a hall they'd just passed.
"It was mistletoe," Flora told them while Sir Robert grabbed his wife in a kiss. When they pulled away, he told her to get back downstairs and they parted ways.
"The observatory's this way," Sir Robert directed, and soon they were running again.
"No mistletoe on these doors, 'cause your dad wanted the wolf to get in. I just need time. Is there anyway of barricading this?"
"Do your work and I'll defend it," Sir Robert instructed.
"If we could bind them shut with rope or something-,"
"I said I'll find you time, sir. Now get inside," Sir Robert ordered. The Doctor nodded shortly with only a muttered "good man" before he walked into the room and got to work. Rose, already having grabbed the diamond from the queen, handed it over and he got to work. With the help of Rose and Ross, they moved the wheel to the right position. When Sir Robert began screaming, Rose tensed and lit up once more, grabbing him from where he was without even moving and placing him instead in the kitchens where Lady Isobel and her staff would be. The Doctor didn't spare the time to give her a look of disapproval and instead sent it through their bond.
With Ross's help, they got the telescope in place sooner than they'd done the last time and the thing lit up like a Christmas tree. Unfortunately, it was aimed at the wrong place, so the Doctor slid to the ground and tossed the Koh-i-noor over. It landed firmly in the moonlight and was then directed at the wolf, stopping him from mauling Victoria.
After a moment, the wolf was gone and instead, it just looked like the human body it had taken. "Make it brighter," he requested. "Let me go."
Rose stepped over before the Doctor could and did as he asked. The light was nearly blinding, and soon the wolf was back to howl. Rose, to her great surprise, lit up as well, but in gold instead of white. The wolf howled just before it disappeared, and Ross picked up the Koh-i-noor from the ground as Rose also faded back to normal.
Taking the diamond from Ross, the Doctor stepped closer. "Your Majesty… did it bite you?"
"No," she said, staring at her arm. "It's- it's a cut, that's all."
"If that thing bit you…"
"It was a splinter of wood when the door came apart. It's nothing," she insisted.
"Let me see," he requested, reaching for her arm. She tore it away from him and covered it with her sleeve.
"It is nothing."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee Sir Doctor of TARDIS," Victoria said, tapping the Doctor's shoulders with her sword before turning to Rose. "By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee Dame Rose of TARDIS." Finally, she looked to Ross. "By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee Sir Ross of Gallifrey. You may stand."
The three got to their feet and Rose prepared herself for what she knew was coming.
"Many thanks, ma'am," the Doctor said with a smile.
"Thank you," Rose and Ross said together, both not as touched but for different reasons.
"Your Majesty, you said last night about receiving no message from the great beyond… I think your husband cut that diamond to save your life. He's protecting you even now, ma'am, from beyond the grave."
"Indeed," Victoria said. "Then you may think on this, also… that I am not amused."
Rose's hand flew to her mouth to keep from gasping or laughing.
"Not remotely amused," she continued sharply. "And henceforth, I banish you."
"...I'm sorry?" the Doctor asked, sure he'd heard wrong.
"I have rewarded you, Sir Doctor," Victoria explained. "And now you are exiled from this Empire, never to return."
"Uh-,"
"I don't know what you are," Victoria stepped closer, eyeing Rose and the way she was still slightly glowing. "I don't know where you're from, but I know that you consort with stars and magic and think it fun. But your world is steeped in terror and blasphemy and death, and I will not allow it."
"It's not exactly your choice now, is it?" Rose asked sharply. "It's gonna happen regardless of what you think, and we're here to help."
"You will leave these shores, and you will reflect, I hope, on how you came to stray so far from all that is good, and how much longer you may survive this terrible life," she insisted before stepping back from them. "Now leave my world and never return."
OoOoOoOoOoOo
"But the funny thing is, Queen Victoria actually did suffer a mutation of the blood," the Doctor told them as they walked back to the TARDIS. "It's historical record. She was haemophiliac. They used to call it the Royal Disease, but it's always been a mystery because she didn't inherit it. Her mum didn't have it, her dad didn't have it. It came from nowhere."
"So what we just did, that didn't matter?" Ross questioned. "The wolf did what it wanted to do?"
"Doubt it," Rose disagreed. "Something more would've happened, we'd know by now if we changed time, right? Because I'm from earth, from the future."
"Yep!" the Doctor agreed as they entered the TARDIS. He threw off his jacket while she let the excess Artron energy flow out of her and Ross sent them into the time vortex. "Question, though. What did you do with Captain Reynolds and Sir Robert?"
"Oh," Rose looked up in surprise. "I sent Captain Reynolds to further in his timestream, to just after we left now. He'll appear right where he was. Sir Robert won't show back up until the Queen and company leave."
"You can't go around doing that, Rose," the Doctor warned her. "It's dangerous. You could be hurt, and now Victoria's suspicious of you."
She knew he had a point there. Before, the queen had only been upset with her because, like the Doctor, she'd enjoyed what was happening as much as she'd feared it. Now, she knew she was different as well. "That wolf said something to me. Said 'you've got something of the wolf in you.' And I kept lighting up. Why?"
"We've got a lot of questions about Bad Wolf," the Doctor reminded her. "And none of them answered."
"Now we know, though, that you just have to learn your limits," Ross spoke up. "Three trips carrying three people in a row? That could kill you. Shifting two people in their timestreams? Clearly, you're fine."
"He's got a point," Rose nodded.
"Well, for now, let's just get some rest," the Doctor suggested hesitantly. "I don't know about you, but running from a werewolf is tiring."
OoOoOoOoOoOo