Long ago, there was a girl, and she became a light in the darkness that had shrouded him. The strength that he lost, she had offered hers to help him stand. She saved him, risked her own life to save his own, and it cost her dearly. She was never aware of the beast she had invited inside her head, but when he saw the power of the vortex shining through her eyes, he knew she had offered up a piece of herself she would never regain. He had desperately tried to save her, but feared he was seconds too late. He ignored the signs.

Something of the wolf about her…

He wished to never believe what he knew to be true. How he had loved her. He had lost her once, but when she had returned, he thanked every god in the universe, and only wanted to hold her close. But he saw the beast beginning to stir, and he knew she was not safe. There had been something in her eyes, something that unsettled him.

Everything was unpredictable, there was no certainty, the beast could be released at any moment, if it was there at all. And he wanted her to have a life he could never give her; though she said she would remain with him forever, he knew forever was so very fleeting, and she would come to regret her decision in the end. So he led her back to the cage she had once escaped, and when the door closed behind him, the weight of his betrayal nearly destroyed him. He never looked back even when he felt her eyes following him; he did not trust himself.

Centuries past, and the girl he once knew, once loved, was gone.

I am the Bad Wolf…

He shook his head in a desperate attempt to deny what was before him. The tall woman stared at him unrelentingly, her golden eyes flashing in a familiar way that made him stumble in horror. He could not look away from her, even as the dangerous light swirled about her fingertips, he took a tentative step towards her.

He slowly approached her, waiting for her to run from him, but she stood immobilized against the wall; silently watching him. When he was but a breath away from her, he reached to touch her face. She flinched but let his fingertips trail down her cheek and then grasp a lock of her hair.

She was no longer looking at him. Her eyes now stared hard over his shoulder, as if she could not bare his gaze. He searched her face openly, trying to find any familiarity in her cold expression. Then on impulse, he took her face into his hands, forcing her to look him into his eyes. And there! The gold melted away from her iris's and he saw terror underneath them. Familiar brown eyes gazed up at him in surrender. He frowned, concerned as tears welled in her eyes, and it was too late before he realized he was being swept into her memories.

Shrouded in a cloud of white, he heard the pitiful cries of agony.

"Someone help!" A woman called, and then the cloud lifted. He saw a familiar man crouched down into a corner of a bedroom. His hands clutching his head as he groaned in pain. Blood ran from his eyes and ears and his body shook as waves of pain tortured him. A blonde woman knelt beside him, calling for help that never came, and she wept in despair. For a moment the man raised his head, and the Doctor recognized himself as he had once been.

"I'm sorry. So, so, sorry," the man whispered.

So the Doctor watched in horror as the agonized man slumped against the weeping woman, blood trailing down his cheeks, finally out of his misery. The woman bent over the body, and was silent for many long moments.

Again the cloud of white enclosed upon him, and a new sound echoed through the mist.

"Rose, when will you come back?" The cloud lifted to reveal a child clutching the hands of the woman. Her blonde hair flew about her face as the wind whipped about them. They stood on the outskirts of the city, the sea roaring at their backs.

Her face, her eyes…

He reached out to her, but she was only a memory, and the little boy cried as she bent to hug the small child.

"I'll come back as soon as I can." She promised, hugging him tight. He saw her face as she held the child, and a sadness clouded her eyes. She knew she was never coming back.

Slowly, the two faded like mist in the wind, and he was jolted by the sound of glass being shattered. A scream made him turn sharply to see that he stood back inside the gray house. And he watched helplessly as the woman was dragged from her bed. Two burly men held her arms struggling to contain her as she thrashed about.

A tall, smiling man stepped in front of her, and as if in defeat she slumped to her knees.

"Rose," the man sounded astonished, "I have heard so much about you. I almost gave up hope of ever meeting you, but," he clapped his hands together and sighed deeply, "well, here we are."

The two men jerked the woman up to her feet and led her out the door, but for a quick moment the woman looked over her shoulder at the tall man, her eyes flashing ominously. The scene changed abruptly, and the Doctor wished he could turn away from the sight.

Rose lay strapped to a table and gnashed her teeth as a nurse injected a long syringe into her arm. Her wrists were bloodied from her struggles against the restraints that held her down, and when the nurse had finished the injection, Rose began to thrash about on the bed; groaning as a river of light flowed underneath her skin. She continued to flay violently on the bed, her head shaking from side to side, her arms pulling at the restraints until fresh blood trickled down her arms.

"Please," she gasped between clenched teeth, "please don't do this, you don't know what your doing. Please, just let me go."

The Doctor had not noticed the tall man who stood at the end of her bed, but now the slight man was all he could see. There was nothing special about him except his ice blue eyes, and he stood patiently over her bed looking almost disappointed at her feeble begging. But he smiled as he said, "You do not even know what it is cable of. Think of all the people you could save, the power we could all share. Give in Rose, let the Wolf free."

Suddenly her eyes sparked with the golden light, and she screamed in agony as the light began to envelope her whole body. She writhed on the bed, sweat beading on her brow.

The man leaned in close to the struggling woman's ear, his eyes dancing.

"Let the wolf free," the man coaxed softly. Rose turned burning eyes toward the man and let out a trembling scream. Then suddenly, the light diminished, and she lay gasping for air.

She had won.

Medical instruments clattered to the floor as the man kicked the cart violently to the floor. He rubbed his hands aggressively over his face, trying to regain his own sense of stability. Then he approached her bed in slow, predatory steps. She watched him, her muscles tightened for what ever blow he planed to aim at her.

Instead he knelt by her bed, and gently stroked her damp hair from her face.

He was silent for a long moment, but then stood back to his feet, looking down at her almost pityingly.

"Next time," was all he said, then turned sharply on his heel and left the small room.

At the click of the door, Rose collapsed on herself and let the tears spill from her eyes. Abruptly the scene melted before him, and he gasped for air for he had forgotten to breathe. But there was not time to recover for the world transformed into chaos.

Buildings crumpled from above as fire raged about him. People fled into the streets to only be crushed from the flaming timbers. A child knelt beside a woman, shaking the still form as the little one screamed. The ground began to shake and fissures of broken earth appeared beneath his feet, and without warning, the ground gave way into a bottomless pit beneath the scampering people. He looked to the sky and saw the blue hemisphere give way into flame; the world was burning.

Amidst the chaos, the world around him blurred, as Rose stepped into the street. Only, the girl of pink and yellow was no more, and in her place was a creature. Her eyes glowed and a gleeful smile twisted her mouth as she took in the scene. But the smile disappeared when she noticed a man scrambling towards her. The Doctor recognized the man as the one who had stood above her bed as she pled with him to stop her pain.

The man continued his advance seeming oblivious to the snarl that had taken the place of her smile. When he stood just a yard away he stopped, his shoulders heaving from exertion.

"Please," he extended his hand to the Creature, "come with me. We can go anywhere you wish, just come with me. Leave in peace."

She regarded him carefully. Staring at his outstretched hand in disdain.

"Is this not what you wished for?" She took a step toward the man, and he seemed to shrink at her approach, "are you not pleased with my work?"

The man stumbled back, aghast at her words.

"Not this," he objected, "not this…"

"Ah," she leveled his gaze, "you wanted me for yourself no? To command me for your every whim? Did she not tell you once before? I am not to be caged."

She looked at him in disregard, and he paled underneath her scrutinizing gaze.

"Did you truly think you could entrap me? You have little sense in that magnificent head of yours."

She stepped toward him, then reached out and stroked his cheek; the man seemed paralyzed.

"Poor Rose. So much pain you caused her. I was surprised how long she held on. Stubborn little thing. But I need her as much as she needs me. And you tried to take her from me."

"What, no…no I..."

"Hush," she placed a finger against his protesting lips, "you did. By braking the cage, you had to break her. You tried to erase her. However," she absentmindedly traced his lips with her finger, "when you tried to erase her, you almost killed me. We are linked you see; I am her and she is me. You know so little about us…you should have listened to her."

Gold eyes locked onto blue ones.

"Your eyes," she continued, "she hated your eyes. I think they reminded her of someone she used to know."

Suddenly she lashed out and gripped the mans head between her hands. And with little effort, she dug her fingers into his eyes and ripped them form his skull.

The man screamed, his cries shaking the Doctor who was rooted to the trembling ground.

The man sank onto his knees, clutching his head; blood trickling down his hands.

The Creature sighed and threw the useless organs to the ground. After wiping her hands clean of the blood, she knelt before the shaking man, and patted him comfortingly on the shoulder.

"I must thank you for granting my freedom. Rose would never have granted it to me on her own. How little she trusts me. Which is why I need to prove to her she can. I cannot tell you how many times she envisioned blasting you with that ridiculous gun of hers. So I must do what she could not. I think that will gain me an inkling of her trust. Do you not think so?" She smiled sardonically, then stood to her full height and let her power gather until her hands glowed as bright as the sun.

"Please," the man pleaded, "please…"

But she paid him no mind as the force of her power struck his heart. The mans body convulsed and he twisted in a desperate attempt to escape, but he was pinned to the ground so he twisted and cried in agony until his heart melted in his chest. The woman lowered her hands and knelt down beside the man. A thin finger traced the mans sharp jaw.

The world around them erupted into chaos when the ground began to shake and give way into bottomless pits. Sparks from the burning buildings flew down upon them, scorching the skin of the helpless people below. The Creature rose from the mans side and looked about herself in fascination. A smile twisted her lips, and she gazed up into the sky as sparks of fire flew about her head. There was no trace of Rose left in her face, and the Doctor watched as she carelessly stepped over the mans twisted body. He waited, hoping to see a sign of the girl he had known, but she was replaced by this Creature who smiled with glee as she watched the world burn. He tried to detach himself from the memory, not wanting to see any further, but he felt a cold iron grip keeping him in place.

Then unexpectedly, the Creature whirled about and her golden eyes rested upon him, and her mouth widened into a dangerous smile.

"You thought to protect her here; thought this world would be a perfect holding cell. Well look," she pointed toward the crimson sky, "Look how the sky is burning."

She grinned gleefully, but the glowing eyes suddenly faded in a white mist.

He finds himself in an alley, and Rose lying motionless against the cobbled stone. Her hair, now a darker shade of blonde, lies about her head like a halo. Her eyes flutter open, and traces of the golden light swirl in her irises. Confusion wrinkles her brow, and with a groan she sits up wearily, holding her head. Slowly she stands, taking in deep jagged breaths.

There are sounds of a crowd forming in the street, a loud cluster of people that cheered and sang. Slowly she approached the end of the alley and frowned at what she saw.

A girl in a swing skirt grasped arm of her boyfriend's sport coat as they hurried to the growing line of young people.

Elvis Presley, King of Rock n' Roll!

Read the sign above the large building. Confusion made Rose frown, and as she continued to stare at the growing crowd, she noticed something leering at her from the darkened corner of the alley.

A pair of red eyes glowed up at her, and she stumbled back against the adjacent wall in fear. And, then in a blink, the eyes disappeared and she stood wondering if she had imagined it all. But then a sound echoed in the alley; it was a loud grating sound, a sound one might cover their ears in distaste, but Rose turned towards its echo with wide unbelieving eyes.

Far down the alley, the TARDIS slowly appeared.

Rose stood frozen in shock, her hand bracing herself against the wall. She continued to stare at the marvelous machine, uncertainty stalling her from approaching. But then, as if in a trance, she took a tentative step toward the familiar blue box. With painstakingly slow steps she reached the door and stood motionless; her hand rising towards the door handle. Finally summoning courage, she raised her hand to knock, but the door swung open to reveal an unfamiliar face.

She did not know this new face; completely different to what he had been before, but to the Doctors surprise she smiled in recognition.

Her hand shook as she lowered it back to her side, her smile growing wider.

"Doctor," she whispered his name, and she reached for him.

But there was no response. And he watched in fascination as his former self stepped from the TARDIS threshold and continued to walk straight through the woman as if she were made of mist.

Again she was frozen, horror seeping into her face. She looked down at her self, her hand pressed against her chest.

Whirling around, she called after his retreating form.

"Doctor!"

The former Doctor made no indication he had heard her as he only stood and watched the crowd.

"Doctor?" She made a step toward him, not knowing or understanding why he was refusing to speak to her. She came to stand by his side, searching his face.

"Do you not hear me?" She whispered, and the hope that had filled her eyes dissolved into anguish. She reached toward him, to touch his shoulder, but her hand passed through him as if she were nothing but a ghost.

Horrified, she clasped her hand to her chest. Shaking her head, she stepped away from him, fighting the tears that spilled from her eyes.

Not knowing of the woman who stood beside him, the former Doctor turned back toward the TARDIS and yelled, "Amy! If you don't hurry up, you can just forget about seeing Elvis!"

She turned to see a skimpy looking girl dash out the door with a gleeful smile.

"Coming!" She twirled in her dress for him to see, but he quickly reached for her hand and lead her to the gathering crowd. Both leaving the woman alone in the alley.

He was grounded to where he stood, silently watching as Rose watched the two figures disappear into the gathering crowed. He barely remembered the event, it had been so long ago. He desperately tried to recall the memory, if there had been any signs he had missed. But the memory had faded with time, and there was nothing eventful he remembered.

All this time, she was there…

Suddenly the iron grip released its hold, and the world faded into white mist. He watched memories pass him by in a colorful blur. Voices echoed through them, but he could barely back out the words they spoke.

But then he heard name, then a plea for help, weeping, laughing, then nothing. Everything melted together until there was nothing but the golden eyes of the woman clutching his jacket.

He was back in the gray house, and at long last, Rose was in his arms.