Tanith glanced at the Doctor's jacket, "You wouldn't still have that TARDIS key, would you?" she asked him before motioning towards his jacket with her hand.
Once again, the Doctor watched on as the key floated out his pocket, though he was starting to have a better understanding of how Tanith was doing what she was doing, more so that she had actually told him twice already that it was called magic.
Though how a Time Lord came to possess such powers was unknown to him.
His train of thought derailed when he noticed the TARDIS key was glowing golden. "The key!" he exclaimed in delight as he went to grab it, only for it to move out of his reach.
"Doctor, it's bloody hot and the first thing you wanna do is touch it," Tanith remarked in disbelief.
"Ho-how are you doing that?" Rose asked, looking at Tanith with wide eyes, but the red head didn't take any notice of her as she watched the Doctor.
Frowning at Tanith, the Doctor quickly removed his jacket and used it to grab the key. "It's telling me it's still connected," he said as he looked at the glowing key in his hand.
"Of course she is," Tanith huffed, "I told you that you'd need it."
"And you didn't think to tell me why!" the Doctor snapped at her.
"Oh, and I'm sure you would have believed me," Tanith shot back, "Half an hour ago, I was just some human that had perked you interest."
"Guys!" Rose cut in before the Doctor could respond, "What is going on?" she asked, rather confused about everything that was happening.
The Doctor stared at Tanith before he suddenly went to the pulpit as he spoke to the humans, holding up the key, "The inside of my ship was thrown out of the wound, but we can use this to bring it back. And once I've got my ship back," he looked at Tanith who was watching the crowd, or more specifically, Peter Tyler, "Then I can mend everything," he continued when she glanced at him.
Tanith rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms across her chest, her eyes going to the doors closest to her when a Reaper outside bashed up against it, trying to get in. She frowned as she stepped towards the door when she noticed the wood buckle slightly under the assault and wondered how long they had until the Reaper's got inside.
Probably a lot longer than I have, she thought to herself as she could feel the walls around the part that was Zaly Pond slowly start to crack. She didn't know how or why, but her life seemed to hang in the balance with Zaly's, and if Zaly's mind burned, so would she, and Tanith would not let that happen.
"Now, I just need a bit of power. Has anyone got a battery?" the Doctor asked.
"This one big enough?" Stewart the groom asked the Doctor, holding up his dad's brick mobile.
"Fantastic," the Doctor remarked with a grin.
"Good old dad," Stewart said as he handed the phone to the Doctor, "There you go."
"Just need to do a bit of charging up and then we can bring everyone back," the Doctor explained as he pulled out his screwdriver.
Tanith placed her hand against the door as the Reaper continued to batter against it and frowned. She moved her hand to the right, and the creature seemed to hit where her hand was. She then moved her hand to the left, only to have the same result.
"They can tell someone's age," she muttered to herself as she recalled how one of the creatures had avoided the woman who was getting married in favour of the older vicar.
Furrowing her brows, Tanith looked to the Doctor, "And the older someone is, the stronger they are," she muttered as her thoughts turned troubled.
"Right, no one touches that key," the Doctor told everyone after he had placed it in mid-air, causing the TARDIS to start to fade in and out around it, "Have you got that? Don't touch it. Anyone touches that key, it'll be, well, zap. Just leave it be and everything will be fine. We'll get out of here. All of us. Stuart, Sarah you're going to get married, just like I said."
Tanith frowned as she watched the TARDIS start to materialise before she approached it. She circled the box as she muttered under her breath, making sure not to get too close as she held her hand out towards it, placing a ward around it.
The Doctor might trust these humans, but she wasn't taking any chances.
When she was finished, Tanith started to feel light-headed and made her way over to a pew, needing to sit down. She knew that using her magic would weaken her more quickly, but if this plan of the Doctor's was going to work, she would help him.
Even if he is a pain in the arse, she thought.
"Think of the devil and he shall appear," Tanith muttered as the Doctor came over and sat beside her.
"Are you okay?" the Time Lord questioned, looking at Tanith in concern.
He had watched her circle the TARDIS and her steps becoming more unsteady as she did so. He was uncertain as to what she did, but he knew that she had done something to protect the TARDIS as the moment she finished, he could faintly see a force field of some kind around his ship.
"How long will she take to get here?" Tanith questioned, not answering his. Whether or not she was okay was not any of his concern, but she needed to know if the TARDIS will return in time or if the Doctor's chance was up.
The red head wasn't even sure if what the Doctor wanted to do would save her.
The Doctor frowned at Tanith before he looked to his ship and sighed, "Shouldn't be too long now," he told her, realising she wasn't going to talk to him about how she was doing. He couldn't really blame her, though. Ever since all this mess had started, he really hadn't been making a great impression. He glanced back at Tanith, "What did you do to the carrycot earlier, with Rose's hair?"
Tanith shrugged, "Just a simple ward. Would have used blood, but I doubt blondie would accept me asking her if I could have some of hers," Tanith rolled her eyes at the Doctor's expression, "It wasn't anything harmful. All I did was stopped her from touching her younger self. The last thing we need is a paradox on top off all this mess," she told him as she noticed Rose and Pete come over to them.
"Look," the Doctor said, drawing her gaze away from Pete as the pair sat behind them, "I'm sorry, okay. I should never have done what I did. I should never have taken Rose-"
"I don't want you apologies, Doctor," Tanith cut him off as she shook her head, "Just get this mess sorted out," she told him as she stood up. Closing her eyes against her head spinning, Tanith took a deep breath before opening them and walking away, glancing at Pete as she did so.
Before I have to, she added mentally to herself.
Tanith made her way over to a window and rested against the wall next to it as she closed her eyes.
The Time Lady knew she didn't have much longer before the walls protecting Zaly crumbled and as she watched the TARDIS slowly materialize, Tanith also knew that what ever the Doctor had planned was going to take too long.
Though, she wasn't too sure what to make of the Doctor. The only things she had heard about the Time Lord had been from her mother, or on the rare occasions she saw her uncle. Though after meeting the man, she wasn't certain what truths they spoke of.
And then there had been what she had felt before, when he had grabbed her arm. Tanith knew that her armband stopped him from sensing her, though it was also the reason Zaly didn't know she wasn't human, but it hadn't been until she tapped into the powers she had learnt at the Academy that she felt it.
The pull to the Doctor had shocked her, not having expected it at all and it made her wonder why it was there. The only person she had felt anything like that with had been Severus, and that had almost destroyed their relationship.
But Tanith didn't even know the Doctor, let alone how to feel about the pull she had felt at his touch. The intensity of it had caught her off guard and she couldn't help but want to talk with her friend, Valencia about it.
It wasn't something she could talk with Regulus or Lucius about, and there was no way she'd even approach the topic with Severus, knowing how he still felt towards her...what she still felt towards him.
And then there is Mels, the red head thought with a sigh as she rubbed a hand over her face, feeling as though the drama she had with Severus didn't seem so bad right now.
"...you her dad? How old were you, twelve? Oh, that's disgusting," Jackie's voice cut through Tanith's musings, her voice clearly holding her disgust.
The red head opened her eyes before pushing herself away from the wall as she watched the argument unfold between Rose's mother and father.
This might be easier to fix than I thought, the red head thought as she started heading towards the group, rather amused by the argument.
She couldn't help but think that if she was either going to die, or have to kill someone before that happened, she could at least have a few moments to enjoy some chaos before either happened.
The only thing that would have made this situation even better was if her friend Valencia was there with her.
"Jackie, listen. This is Rose," Pete told his wife.
"Rose? How sick is that," Jackie spat, "You give my daughter a second hand name? How many are there?" she demanded, "Do you call them all Rose?"
Oh, Val would definitely wish she was here, Tanith thought as she continued to approach the group.
A small smile appeared on her face at the thought of her friend, though it turned sad when she realised she had no idea what had happened to the half vampire after Dumbledore had attacked her.
"Oh, for God's sake, look. It's the same Rose!" Pete told Jackie before taking baby Rose from Jackie's arms and handing her to the adult Rose.
"Shit!" Tanith exclaimed as she moved forwards, wanting to kick herself for getting distracted. Now wasn't the time to dwell on the past.
"Rose! No!" the Doctor shouted at the same time before he snatched baby Rose away, but Tanith knew it was too late as the Time Lord handed the baby back to Jackie.
A Reaper appeared inside the church and the humans started to scream.
"Everyone, behind me!" the Doctor said as he stepped forwards, "I'm the oldest thing in here."
"Oh, no you don't!" Tanith growled as she rushed forwards. There was no way in hell she was gonna be stuck here with these humans, and if the Doctor did succeed in his plan, there was one way she could guarantee she survived.
"Tanith!" the Doctor shouted as she pushed past him.
With every ounce of energy she had left, Tanith held up her hands as the Reaper went for her, only to hit an invisible wall. She gritted her teeth as she continued to try and stop the Reaper, pushing everything she had into her shield, but could already tell that her attempt was futile.
Taking a deep breath, Tanith dropped her arms and turned to the Doctor, her spell ending the second she did so.
"Finish this," she told him, before the Reaper took her.
"No!" the Doctor shouted as the Reaper circled the room before hitting the now unwarded TARDIS and both the TARDIS and the Reaper vanished.
The Doctor continued to stare at the spot Tanith had been not a moment ago as the TARDIS key fell to the floor.
Rose ran over to the key and picked it up. "It's cold. The key's cold," Rose told them, "Oh, my god, she's dead. The TARDIS is dead. This is all my fault."
The Doctor drowned out his companions voice the moment she held no sympathy for the loss of Tanith. He may have not really known the red head, but she was one of his kind, and because him and his companion, she was gone.
The Time Lord looked to Pete and frowned, knowing that Tanith had been right all along. He just hadn't wanted to lose anyone else, and now she had paid the price for his stupidity.
Finish this, her voice echoed in his mind.
But as much as the Doctor knew she was right, he didn't know if he could take a life.
Pete approached the Doctor who had been sitting down on one of the pew's, staring blanking ahead at nothing in particular.
"She knew, didn't she?" he asked the Time Lord, having just watched a beige car from a window driving around a corner again and again.
The same beige car that had almost hit him earlier.
"Knew what?" the Doctor asked, looking to the man.
"I'm not stupid," Pete told the Doctor, "I shouldn't have survived that accident, right?"
The Doctor sighed, "No, you shouldn't have," he admitted.
"And Ten, uh, Tanith knew, didn't she? And you did too. You saw it earlier but told me it was nothing," Pete continued.
The Doctor didn't say anything, but his silence told Pete everything he needed to know.
"Why did you stop her?" Pete questioned, not having missed the way the pair had been arguing earlier, nor the way Tanith had been looking at him like he was some old piece of gum stuck on the bottom of her shoe.
"Because I thought I could fix this without anyone dying," the Doctor told him.
"And yet, she's dead," Pete stated flatly, causing the Doctor to glare at him. He just shook his head however, unaffected by the Time Lords gaze. "She meant something to you, didn't she?" he questioned.
"In a way, yes," the Doctor replied vaguely, looking away from Pete.
"Do you care for her?" Pete continued to question the Doctor.
The Doctor frowned as he looked to where Tanith had disappeared.
He wasn't to sure what he felt for Tanith. Sure, there was a connection there, but that was because she was a Time Lady. Other than that, however, the Doctor didn't really know her at all.
Sure, she and Zaly held some very similar traits to her uncle, but other than that, he wasn't too certain what to make of the red head.
"That's all I needed to know," Pete said as Rose approached them, seeing something in the Doctor's expression that the Time Lord himself didn't even know was there.
"What are you two talking about?" the blonde asked, noticing the Doctor looking to her father in confusion.
Pete turned to his daughter, "He never wanted to tell you, to have to go through it again," he explained, "Not if there was another way. But Tanith was right, there wasn't any other way."
"What do you mean, Tanith was right?" Rose demanded, wondering how the red head, whoever the hell she was, could still be bothering her after she was gone.
Pete frowned at her daughter, "The car that should have killed me, love. It's here," he explained, "Tanith and the Doctor worked it out way back, but he, er," Pete glanced at the Time Lord who was watching the pair, "He wanted to protect me."
"Pete," the Doctor said as he stood up.
"But he's not in charge anymore," Pete injected, ignoring the Doctor, "I am."
"But you can't," Rose cried, realising what her father was going to do.
The Doctor sighed, looking away as he felt torn.
A part of him couldn't help but agree with what Pete was about to do, what Tanith should have done all along. But another part of him didn't want to see anyone else die.
But you always knew this would be the outcome, his traitorous mind told him, and the Doctor couldn't help but agree. Even Tanith had known that Pete Tyler dying was going to be the only way to fix this.
"Don't blame yourself," Pete told the Doctor as he laid a hand on the Time Lord's shoulder, breaking him from his thoughts. "And don't blame Tanith. She was only trying to do what she thought was right."
The Doctor frowned as he looked to Pete, seeing Rose in her mother's arms. "I'm sorry, Pete," he said.
"Don't be. How many people can say they got to spend a few extra hours with their daughter," Pete told him before looking to his wife, "I'm meant to be dead, Jackie. You're going to get rid of me at last."
"Don't say that," Jackie said.
The Doctor frowned as he walked away, leaving the man to say goodbye to his family in private. He wasn't to sure whether to be glad that Pete was choosing to do this himself, or upset. But as the Doctor looked to where Tanith had been, he realised he was more glad of the outcome if it meant she would be back.
The Doctor suddenly paused, realising something.
If Pete is fixing the wound in time, the block on Zaly's mind will be fixed as well, he thought, knowing that there was now a high possibility that either way, he was still losing Tanith. His brows furrowed as he mulled over that thought, wondering if there was a reason as to why Zaly couldn't remember anything.
I managed to protect her part of my mind when I surfaced, but I don't know how long I can do that for.
"But does that mean Zaly could remember over time?" the Doctor murmured to himself.
Tanith had never mentioned using a Chameleon Arch and had even told him that her memories are still in there, just hidden from Zaly to stop her mind from burning up.
"But what could have caused that?" he continued to mutter, at a loss as to what had happened to Tanith.
He was broken from his thoughts when he heard a groan and he looked to where Tanith had been taken, only to see her kneeling on the floor before collapsing.
"Tanith!" he breathed, rushing over to her.
"Easy there, Tanith," the Doctor muttered as he got her to rest against his chest before scanning her with the sonic.
"Doc, don't mean to be rude, but why in God's name are we in a church?" the red head questioned as she blearily looked around before her head fell back to rest on the Doctor's shoulder.
"Zaly?" the Doctor asked hesitantly.
Zaly opened her eyes and peered at the Doctor, "Who in blazes name would I be?" she asked before groaning as she felt as though she had splitting headache.
The Doctor sighed, frowning slightly as he realised he'd been correct in his assumption. "Just, just take it easy, Zaly. You might have a bit of a headache."
"Ah bit," Zaly snapped before groaning again, "Ok, talking bad. I think I'm gonna sleep," she murmured before passing out in the Doctor's arms.
"Zaly!" the Doctor exclaimed before realising that she was just sleeping, having gotten the results from the sonic and let out a sigh of relief.
Apart from a pounding headache and probably some slight confusion, he knew the red head would be fine with some rest. Though he also knew that he would be keeping a close eye on her in case there was any unforseen side-effects from having Tanith 'surfaced' for so long.
Scooping the red head up, the Doctor headed to the church doors, feeling a mix of relief and sadness at the sight of Rose kneeling next to her father on the road.
The beige car that had hit him had stopped not far away, the driving looking to be only a young adult.
Rose kissed her father in farewell before standing up and looking towards the Doctor. She frowned when she noticed the red head in the Doctor's arms, but was too upset to care.
They didn't say anything as the Doctor and Rose walked back to the TARDIS that had reappeared across the road, and the moment they stepped inside, the Doctor went straight to the med bay.
Rose once again couldn't help but glare at the red head in the Doctor's arms as he left, but this time for a different reason.
Tanith, Zaly, whatever her name was, had known all along her father was going to die, but didn't do anything to try and stop it.
A few hours later, the Doctor was once again sitting beside Zaly as she lay in a bed in the med bay.
He had checked to see that there weren't any side-effects from Tanith having been present in her mind, and was surprised to notice that not only was the wall in her mind that contained her memories of being Tanith still there, but there was also traces of what he guessed was her own magic helping to reinforce the block.
He wondered if it had been Tanith herself that had done so, or if it was remnants of when the Time Lady had protected Zaly from being burned up from the centuries of memories that were present while Tanith had surfaced.
He rather wished he could speak with Tanith about how this had happened, but he doubted it would end well.
Knowing that she had protected the part that was Zaly in her mind, the Doctor understood that she had done it for a reason. What ever had happened for Zaly to forget who she was, what she was, had been serious enough to kill her if she remembered to quickly.
The Doctor froze in his seat as a small flair of hope ignited at that thought.
"But she could still remember," he muttered as he eyed the red head before his eyes drifted to the computer screen, showing the scan he had done earlier, and his brows furrowed.
"Tanith said she wasn't human," he murmured as he got up to check the scans once again, not able to figure out why it was showing Zaly as one hundred percent human.
He looked to the red head as he pulled out his sonic, scanning her for anything that could be disrupting or altering his scans.
Coming up with nothing, the Doctor frowned before he changed the settings on his sonic.
Scanning her once again, but aiming for anything that was similar to the traces of magic he had found in the wall in Zaly's mind, the Doctor grinned when his sonic alerted him to something.
Moving to the red head, the Doctor carefully pulled up the right sleeve of Zaly's jacket, revealing an armband that sat half way up her forearm.
He looked at it curiously, noting the intricate design that was a mix of both human and Time Lord and couldn't help but marvel at how much time and effort had been put into making it.
He ran his sonic over it, wanting to get a good idea as to how the band worked, before placing his sonic aside.
The Doctor glanced up to Zaly's face before looking back to the armband, needing to confirm his theory.
He took a deep breath before sliding the piece of jewellery off Zaly's arm, exhaling heavily when the moment it had been removed, he could sense her and the Doctor closed his eyes in disbelief.
Tanith had told him the truth and after not having sensed another of their species in what felt like forever, the Doctor almost missed something vital. Something that changed his view on exactly who Tanith was.
"Impossible," he breathed, his eyes snapping open as he dropped Zaly's hand as he took a step away from her.
But what he was feeling could not be falsified.
He swallowed, staring at Zaly for a moment before his attention was drawn to the monitor that was continuously checking the red heads vitals as it changed, now taking in her extra heart and slight drop in temperature.
It too, only confirmed what he was feeling, although he frowned. It did not matter if he felt drawn to the red head if she couldn't remember who she was, and as he looked down to the armband in his hand, the Doctor felt almost slighted.
The one person he had never thought he'd meet, the one he was drawn to was also the one person who would die if she remembered exactly who she was.
There was a small voice in his mind that told him Zaly could remember, but the Doctor took no notice as he stared at the red head, his finger running over the writing inscribed on the inside her armband.
He frowned, glancing at the writing, but before he could read what it said, he was interrupted when the monitor taking Zaly's vitals started beeping wildly, alerting him as it started to pick up her increased heartrates.
His eyes snapped to Zaly and grew alarmed when he noticed her face was scrunched up in confusion before she jerked in the bed, her expression becoming pained.
His eyes darted from Zaly to the monitor, before lastly resting on the band in his hand, quickly realising why Tanith wore it.
Even unconscious, her body, and quite possibly her mind at a subconscious level would have noticed the sudden change and unfamiliarity of having a second heart.
The monitor continued to beep as the Doctor was quick to place the band back on Zaly's arm, inhaling sharply as both her presence and the pull he felt to her vanished, but he pushed through the feelings of loss he was once again overcome with.
He needed to be sure she was going to be okay and that having removed her armband hadn't done any damage. The Time Lord didn't know what he would do if he found out that in removing the band, he had harmed her in anyway.
The monitor stopped beeping wildly as Zaly's heartrate decreased. Her second heart was no longer being picked up and her temperature had returned to what was considered normal for humans.
The Doctor sighed in relief before he placed a gentle hand on Zaly's cheek. "Last time, Zaly," he murmured before adding his second hand to the other side of her face, shifting the first so that both were splayed on either side of her face.
Not a second later, he slipped into her mind, needing to make sure that there hadn't been any damage to the wall that was hiding who she truly was.
There was a small smile on his face as he exited her mind, having found nothing wrong mentally and he dropped heavily into the chair behind him.
His gaze fell onto the band that wrapped around her forearm before shaking his head.
As much as he hated the emptiness in his mind, the Doctor would not put the last Time Lady in existence at risk because he selfishly wanted to feel another's presence.
And he wouldn't dare risk losing the one who called to him as she did, even if he couldn't feel the pull while she wore the band.
No, the Doctor thought as he looked at Zaly as she rested, Knowing she's alive is enough.