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A/N: And here it is, dear readers. The final chapter of "Once More With Feeling". Over a year in the works and so many of you have stuck with me though it. I apologize now, it is possibly the shortest chapter I have ever written for "Once More With Feeling". But I thought a simple, sweet send off of the first Season was needed. I am sure there are a lot of questions that were left unanswered. I meant to do that. hee hee.
Welcome to mymerical, my newest follower.
As always, a big shout out to one of my mused, ladyHopeofGallifrey, love knowing that you are enjoying the story. A massive shout out and thank you to all my followers, reviewers, and readers. Without you, I'm not sure this story would have gotten finished. This one if for you all.
Much Love!
Once More With Feeling
Chapter 49: Begins Again
The Doctor never thought feeling a companion dying could hurt anywhere as much as losing Alex had once.
He was wrong.
The only things that hurt worse than feeling Jack's timeline snap suddenly was the loss of his planet, the fact he would never see the bright eyes of his little girl again, and sending his beloved Rose away from him with his third heart.
Losing his great grandson just before the Time War had nearly sent him into a massive depressive swing that, until now, he never knew he could feel. He had lost companions before, hell he had once turned his back on his own granddaughter, Susan. Alex Campbell was both a spark of pride for him, knowing his Susan had grown up in love and had the family he never had, and could never have given her. Losing him, was losing Susan all over again.
Now Jack Harkness was gone.
And the Doctor felt like he had been gutted. It wasn't the same pain as when he once felt Rose die under the care of a one human in Utah. He still refused to acknowledge that creature's name after Neo-Nippon.
"Theta!" he could hear the Beast calling for him. Be never responded. He stood there, staring at the screen.
"Doctor?" Lynda was calling to him.
Strood was dead now too.
Along with Bumpei, Nagano, and Pavel.
So many people the Doctor lead into death once again.
Destroyer of Worlds, he was called. And once again, he earned that.
Licking his suddenly dry lips, the Doctor lowered darkened blue eyes to the switch that would finish the job. All Daleks and Humans alike would die. It didn't matter that the Beast had his fleet out there, fighting off the attackers that were targeting the Earth below. Or the people that were hidden, trapped in the station in the Big Brother houses. If he hit the switch, everyone before would die. Lynda would die.
It was likely he and the Red Fleet would go as well.
Coward, me the Doctor thought with a dark sigh.
The sounds of the doors opening made his head snap up.
The Daleks had made their way to him finally.
He gave them all a look that was the Incoming Storm, glaring each Dalek as it surrounded him down, showing them not a single ounce of fear or despair he felt. Instead, he was the Doctor. The Time Lord who ended the Time War.
The man who caused this situation in the first place.
"You might want to think about this," the Doctor warned, his voice low and full of ice. "I active this signal, and every living creature dies."
The main screen flickered to life as an image of the Dalek Emperor appeared. It was almost a surprise to the Doctor that it was not his armor he was looking at. It was the creature inside, the nightmare that is the true flesh of the Daleks, that was addressing him. The single eye, ancient and tired yet gleamed with the madness of countless decades, seem to be smiling at the Time Lord. All over communications had gone silent. As much as he did not want to assume, the Doctor knew it was likely the Red Fleet was taken down, now nothing but floating space debris.
"I AM IMMORTAL," the Emperor intoned, smug as he watched his old enemy struggle. "THAT LITTLE TOY WILL NOT KILL ME."
"D'ya want to do that to the test?" the Doctor taunted, resting his hand on the trigger. He kept his gaze on the screen and away from the Daleks that now surrounded him.
"ONLY A GOD CAN KILL ANOTHER GOD," the Emperor replied. The Doctor stiffened. "YOU ARE NO GOD, DOCTOR. WHERE IS THE TRAITOR ABOMINATION?"
That made the Doctor pause a moment. "Traitor?"
"THE ONE THAT CALLS ITSELF DALEK THORN."
"Gone," the Doctor growled. "Safe from you."
"DID YOU THINK I WOULD HARM ONE OF MY FIRST BORN?" the Emperor almost sounded offended at the thought.
"In a human heartbeat," the Doctor replied, breathing out slowly. Thorn and Rose were safe. Away from him, away from the situation. Safe, with Jenny.
"COME NOW, DOCTOR," the Emperor seemed to grin at the Time Lord now. "ACTIVE THE SIGNAL. I WANT TO SEE YOU BECOME LIKE ME. ALL HAIL THE DOCTOR, DESTORYER OF WORLDS, THE GREAT EXTERMINATOR."
The Doctor growled at the taunt, turning to active the wave.
A spark of gold in his mind, his Rose, stopped him.
In that instant, the Doctor saw flashes of his Rose, watching him. She was smiling at him, holding out her hand to him. On her hip was their daughter, born of their DNA and souls. Jenny smiled at her father, holding both arms out to him. Both blondes were smiling at him, accepting him for who he is.
He is the Doctor.
He is no longer a Warrior. He does not need to be.
The Beast's face with his Mina and Mirage flashed in his mind.
They would accept this move. They would expect this move from the Doctor. The man who sworn to protect, to heal, to defend. They would handle the hard part of this. He could still feel the fleet in his mind, hundreds of Gallifreyan minds, Time Lords, buzzed in the back of his brain. It filled the void he thought never to be filled except by Rose and Jenny.
Sometimes he swore he felt Jack there too. But now that spot of empty.
Dropping his hand, the Doctor smiled sadly. "It's all on you now, Beast."
"PROVE YOURSELF, DOCTOR," the Emperor challenged. "PROVE YOURSELF WORTHY OF YOUR TITLES. ARE YOU A COWARD, OR A KILLER?"
Turning to the screen, the Doctor showed his sad smile, the blue of his eyes a storm of emotions.
"Coward," the Time Lord called out, proud to call himself that in this moment. "Any day."
The eye of the Dalek Emperor narrowed dangerously, "MANKIND WILL BE HARVESTED. AND IT WILL BE BECAUSE OF YOUR WEAKNESS."
"Maybe," the Doctor smirked a little as a small explosive wave rocked the station. So the Red Fleet was still out there.
"THIS LITTLE FLEET IS LIKE GNATS BEFORE A GOD, ANTS BENEATH ME," the Emperor growled. "NO ONE WILL ESCAPE THIS HOLY PURGE. AND YOU, HEATHEN, WILL BE EXTERMINATED AFTER YOU WATCH. PUNISHMENT FOR DENYING GOD."
Before the Doctor could make a return comment, the room suddenly started to shake. The grinding noise of an ancient but beloved engine filled the room. All around the Doctor, he watched in awe as tendrils of golden energy arched from the floor, wrapping protectively around him. He heard over the noise a Dalek in the room call out an alert. It mentioned the TARDIS arriving. But that couldn't be! He sent it away with Rose! Sure she knew how to pilot the Old Girl, but his locks could not be overridden. The Emperor was calling out to him, rage filling his gravely voice but the Doctor had no time to pay him attention. He was too busy focusing on the materializing TARDIS.
The golden spark in his mind exploded as the doors slammed open.
Two rays of energy snapped from the blinding golden light as Thorn glided out, shooting down two Daleks that shot at the Doctor.
"IT IS THE TRAITOR!" the Emperor raged. "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE!"
"I AM NO TRAITOR," Thorn called out defiantly. "I AM NOT ONE OF YOUR CREATIONS. I HAVE A NAME I GAVE MYSELF. I AM THORN! AND I DEFY YOUR WILL."
The Doctor blinked, not expecting Thorn before movement behind the Dalek got his attention. It was like watching an after image of a woman's form walking forward. The golden energies he had seen before, wielding by Rose at times, trailed behind the image like the hem of a gown. When the image stopped before him, Thorn hovering behind like a vengeful protector, the Doctor fell back on the ground, horror coloring his eyes.
"Rose!" he gasped, his throat closing. "What have you done…?"
Bright golden eyes looked down at him, dulling to familiar browns. When she spoke, it was her voice overlapped with a thousand other, sounding like nothing he had ever heard. "I looked into the TARDIS. She looked into me. We are joined."
"THE ABOMINATION!" the Emperor could be heard raging behind them on the screen, writhing and squirming with his anger.
"You looked into the Time Vortex?" The Doctor was not sure his hearts could beat any harder then they were right then. It felt like they would burst from his chest, and at the same time, it felt like he couldn't get any air. "Rose! No one is supposed to do that! It will kill you!"
All around them the Daleks seemed to react a second too late, all calling out for her death together, the Emperor ordering his mate's death. The Doctor could only watch as if he was witnessing this from a screen as Rose lifted a hand without looking. Everything froze. The Daleks called out in fear as their shots suddenly stopped in mid air. Turning from him, Rose lifted her gaze as the golden ignited again, nearly white.
"I am the Bad Wolf," she told him, that overlapped sound stronger now. It was like listening to a choir, all female voices, all Rose Tyler voices from across time and space. "I create myself. I take the words and scatter them," she paused a moment to lift her other hand. "I send them through time and space. A message to lead myself back here. To this moment."
As the Doctor watched, the letter of the corporation peeled themselves from the wall and shifted, like paper in a wind storm. They flew around the room twice before fading away, leaving gold and silver nodes behind. Turning back to Rose, she was glaring at the Daleks. She lowered the first hand and the shots disintegrated into the same nodes of power as if never there.
"Ants," she hissed at them in distaste.
Thorn kept silent behind her, ever the guardian.
"Rose, listen to me," the Doctor knew he was begging as he watched a tear slide out of her eye and glide over her cheek. "You've got to let go. Now. You're gonna burn. Stop this now!"
Again, that timeless gaze turned to him making the Doctor stiffen again. Horror and realization swept through him. "You knew…" he breathed out, choking on the words.
"I want you safe," Rose told him in a soft loving voice. "I am the Howl before the Storm. I am the Protector of Time's Guardian. She who is all and none. And I will protect you, my Doctor. Protected from this false god."
The Doctor was dumbstruck. She had done this same thing before. This was what she mentioned about an incident that made her whole. Why she was never surprised or shocked at the words 'Bad Wolf'. Why she kept silent on so many things. This moment, this fixed moment in time was when he would lose her. It had to be.
"YOU CANNOT HARM ME," hissed the Emperor at Bad Wolf's words. Long had he known about this being, but never dared to think it was real. Just a story the Time Lords told to keep the little ones in line. This was not happening! Not with him being so close to winning! "I AM A GOD! I AM IMMORTAL!"
Bad Wolf's lips curled back into a snarl as she glared at the image on the screen. A cruel smile turned the corners of those full lips. "No, you are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. I am the Bad Wolf you were warned about. I see every atom of your existence. And I divide them."
Her eyes never leave the screen as the Daleks in the room started to fade into nothing, the golden nodes of the vortex drifted as if caught in a gentle breeze. The Doctor looked all around him as it happened that same to every single Dalek in the room. He could only guess what was happening outside of the room.
Bad Wolf was too busy focusing on the wave of gentle energy she was sending out. It washed over the dead, gently kissing them as if a mother kissing her child good night. It waved out visibly from the Game Station, moving every outward.
"Sir!" one of the navigators of the flag ship of the Red Fleet, MI-RAGE, called out to the Beast. He was standing in the middle of the control room, the time rotor behind him. The red haired Time Lord stepped forward without a work, but a question in his violet eyes. "There seems to be some kind of pulse wave coming off the Game Station."
"Sensors tell us it is made up of," a technician called out as well before trailing off. "I don't believe that. I thought the Lord Commander was working on a Cassidyne Wave. This is made of Huron particles."
"Commander!" yet another chimed in, this time with alarm in their voice. "The wave is attacking the Dalek fleet! It's… It's disintegrating them!"
The Beast blinked a moment. "Put it on the main screen, Mirage."
At the order, the main room of the massive Type-900 went silent as everyone turned to look up at the holographic viewer. Mirage appeared next to the Beast with a pleased smile on her fey like face. The wave moved swiftly, but gently, washing over Dalek ships and solo Daleks that had left to directly engage. As it touched each one, the being would start to fade away, leaving only wisps of dust to float away into obscurity in space. Almost immediately the whispers where heard as the wave passed over ships of the fleet without harm.
Whispers of 'Bad Wolf' could heard as the wave passed them by to the Earth below.
"Well, well, well," Mirage purred, putting both hands on the bare shoulder of the Time Lord she called pilot then rest her chin there. "It seems we have witnessed a birth. How marvelous."
The Beast could only stare before the smile curled his lips, the images he saw making perfect sense.
"I should have known," he laughed as the transmissions for him own fleet started pouring in with reports and questions.
"Everything must end," Bad Wolf told the Doctor and the Dalek Emperor. "Everything becomes dust. Everything dies. The Time War ends."
Over the screen, the Emperor screamed in rage and fear. The Doctor turned his eyes from the being in front of him to watch as the wave she was controlling reached his ship. Horror, awe, fear, relief, all these emotions and more washed over the Doctor as the leader of the homicidal pepper pots was gone. Not just gone, as in he was dust. Bad Wolf stood there, staring into nothing as she focused. It would be too easy to let go, lose control. She knew what she could do, what she wanted to do, and what would cause time to rip apart.
She let out a controlled sigh, bringing her sight back to where and now the main body was.
So many things to do. To set up and less time to do it, she thought with a weak chuckle. It was amusing to her as well, the body was holding up better this time. But then again, this is her.
"Okay, Rose," the Doctor was on his feet now and moving towards her. "You've done it. Now stop. Just let go, precious girl."
Bad Wolf looked up at the Doctor and offered him a smile, soft and loving. It startled him almost as much as the second tear track over her cheek.
"I still have one more task," Bad Wolf told him.
A jolt went through the Doctor as Jack Harkness was suddenly awakened.
It hurt. It made his skin crawl.
"But you can't!" the Doctor begged Bad Wolf. "You can't control life and death."
"But I can," Bad Wolf told him calmly. "The Sun, the Moon. All of them."
The Doctor blinked as if he just now completely realized exactly what was standing in front of him in the form of his beloved mate.
"It's wrong," the Doctor argued. "Now let go before you burn, and it will be my fault!"
"Oh, my Doctor," Bad Wolf smiled at him again, reaching up to cup his cheek. "It is my choice. It is, was, and always be my choice. I will always choose you. There are some things that are always meant to happen. Some things can change. But Bad Wolf is, was, and always will be me."
"Rose," he tried again, crumbling inside.
"I see everything," she told him as she drifted towards him, voice getting softer. "All that is. All that was. All that will be."
Angling his head, the Doctor hated what he knew would come next but at least he would leave this life with her kiss on his lips. "That's what I see all the time."
"I know," Bad Wolf chuckled faintly, looking into his eyes. "And doesn't it make you mad. My Doctor. I need you."
There was no further words as their lips melded together in their last sweet kiss.
The sound of the Time rotor whirring is the first thing Rose Tyler heard as she woke up.
The first thing she felt was the leather of the jump seat under her instead of the hard grating of the floor. Thank the stars for that change, she thought sluggishly. Eighty years since this happened the first time and she couldn't remember it hurting as badly as it did right this moment. With a groan, she lifted a hand and pressed it to her forehead.
"Did either of you get the name of the lory that hit me?" was the first thing out of her mouth, eyes still closed.
It was the sound of the Doctor's low chuckle that made her eyes pop open and sitting up so quickly, she made herself dizzy.
"Woah," Rose groaned again, closing her eyes a moment before looking around frantically for the Doctor. As soon as she locked her gaze on him, she was running around the console, tripping over her own feet in her haste. He turned to her and simply opened his arms.
She threw herself into his embrace and whimpered his name.
"Do you remember what happened?" the Doctor asked into her hair, refusing to let go of his precious girl.
She only nodded silently, tightening her grip around him.
"What happens next?" he could not stop the question from slipping out. "Do I rengerate?"
Another nod.
"Oh Rose," the Doctor pulled back from her, smiling lovingly into her eyes. "There were so many places I was going to take you."
"Like Barcelona the planet?" she asked, tears gathering in her eyes. The pain she felt on waking on slowly getting worse. Her chest was tight like her heart was struggling to keep working. Her stomach felt like someone put a hole through her. It never hurt this much last time, but last time she was not bonded to him, nor as in love as she was right now.
"Barcelona," he agreed, pressing his lips to her forehead, "where the dogs have no noses."
Rose reached up to cup his cheek, memorizing this face when something caught her attention and her eyes widened. The Doctor frowned before looking at what she was and he reacted by tightening his arms, crushing her to his chest.
"Rose!" he choked out as she pushed away from him suddenly.
As the Doctor watched her double over in pain, phantom pains pierced his abdomen. Holding her stomach, she looked up at him with wild, terrified eyes.
"What's going on, Doctor?!" she demanded as another wave of pain stabbed through her.
Helplessly, the Doctor watched Rose Tyler stagger back a few more steps. Taking a few steps forward, he held his hands up. "You're going to change, Rose. You are just enough Time Lord that … "
"I can regenerate?" she panted, watching him, remembering the fear and anxiety she went through when he did this. For the life of her, she could not figure out what went different this time. "Heh. Looks like it's my turn to cheat death, yeah? To change into something new."
"Don't say that!" the Doctor was feeling desperate now. This was all new even for him. Judging from the anxiety and fear running through Rose that he was feeling, this was new to her as well. "Just relax, love. Let it go."
"Just… promise you will still love me," she groaned before the flames of regeneration consumed her.
Head flinging back, arms out wide, the Doctor was forced to shield his eyes and take a step back when Thorn suddenly appeared in front of him, forcing him back. Vortex energy filled the room at the same time, as if the TARDIS herself was trying to coach Rose though this process. And she screamed.
And screamed.
Thorn was silent the whole time he kept the Doctor was trying to get closer. The close contact allowed the Doctor to feel the Dalek's own fear and worry over his charge. She had warned him something like this would happen once. But she never said it would be hurt who changed. He was all too aware of the Time Lords doing this. Hell, during the war he himself had killed a number during this stage. How amusing and ironic, the alien thought in the back of his mind, that he would be protecting one.
How he had changed.
As suddenly as the whole thing began, it ended.
Standing in Rose Tyler's place was… Rose Tyler. Only slightly different.
Lifting her head, she looked at the Doctor and Thorn and smiled. It was the same small that both knew. She was slightly taller, her hair more golden, natural looking. It was a bit shorter now as well, hovering above her shoulders. Her eyebrows though were still dark brown of her formerly natural hair tone. Her face was a bit thinner, the baby fat of her teen years gone now. Sharper, older, more regal looking. The same with her figure. Her body has shed much of the baby fat that had lingered, despite her best efforts to lose it with training. The clothes she wore were loose around her leaner, more athletic figure.
Panting a little, she wetted her lips.
"So," the voice was the same, only a little deeper with age. She no longer appeared to be the nineteen year old girl, but now a young woman in her late twenties to early thirties. She and the Doctor looked closer in age now. "What was that about Barcelona?"
A/N: There is a second season coming with our Ninth Doctor at the helm! From Thorn, Rose, Jenny, the Beast, and of course, the Doctor, we'll see you soon!
Tra!
