Chapter 3: Run
Rose knew she should have told Torchwood about the Time Lord. That they may have been able to figure out why it was locking onto his TARDIS rather than the Doctor's. She knew she should have even confided in Mickey or Pete at least. But she worried that they would call a stop to the whole mission. Deem it too risky to continue. But the darkness was coming. Stars were going out all across the dimensions. The multiverse was in danger and if they stopped now then it would be the end. They couldn't stop. They could replace her. Her mum would convince Pete to send someone else. But no-one knew the Doctor or the TARDIS in this universe as well as Rose did. Noone had a better chance of reaching the Doctor and convincing him to help them than her. So she needed to keep this secret for now. At least until she reached her destination. Once she found the right time and the right Doctor, then she would tell them. The Doctor would want to know there was another Time Lord out there, that he wasn't alone.
She was getting ready for another jump. It had been three days since the last one. The team had been working off the scans from the last time she landed. She was too early. She needed the Doctor when he was travelling with Donna Noble. She knew she had been with him until the summer, until the Battle of Canary Wharf. After that, she wasn't sure. She didn't know when he met Donna, just that it must have been after she was trapped as she had never known Donna.
She instructed the team to try for 2008, the year after she was trapped. With any luck, Donna would be the next passenger he took on the TARDIS.
"Cannon ready to launch." A computerised voice sounded.
It made Rose laugh inwardly. She doubted her friend Siobhan from back on the estate had meant this when she had called her a rocket so long ago.
Rose made her way to the platform, jump disk in hand. She said her goodbyes and they wished her luck, as always. She pressed the button.
Bright blue light flashed and she found herself being thrown. She ran into a wall but was able to get her hands up to brace herself.
That was odd, she thought.
That had never happened before. Usually she just sort of appeared.
She steadied herself and tried to get her bearings. Another thing that was different. Her head was spinning. Usually, there was the odd bit of dizziness from the cannon, but it never lasted more than a few seconds. This feeling was more intense. She felt disoriented, like her senses we're out of whack. It took her several minutes for the majority of the sensation to pass, leaving just a dull remnant behind.
Rose looked at her watch, hoping it would shed some light on the situation. The date part was flashing but it was not telling her anything, just a jumble of numbers, obviously, it was on the fritz. The scanner was the same. She wasn't sure if it was a malfunction or if she was in the wrong universe and some technology was interfering. It wouldn't be the first time that had happened to her.
Realising the scanner was useless Rose decided to go old school. She would just have to rely on her eyes and ears to get a sense of where she had landed.
Looking around she could see brick walls. It looked like she was in another alley, but she couldn't tell if there were buildings around her as the only thing she could see was red-bricked walls, it was like a maze of brickwork. She followed the wall she had run into, hoping it would lead to an opening somewhere.
After fifteen minutes of walking, she was rewarded at the sight of light streaming in from an opening just up ahead. As she was about to move through the opening she caught sight of something in her peripheral vision and turned to the left to see what it was.
She froze.
Standing tucked into the corner under an alcove of brick was the blue box she had been looking for for so long.
Without giving it conscious thought Rose had made her way towards the ship and was running her hands over the wooden exterior. She couldn't quite believe her eyes were seeing what she thought they were and as her hands touched the surface she began to doubt that sense too.
After so long, after so many jumps, so many different dimensions, could it really be that she had found what she had been searching for? Had she succeeded in her locating mission?
She raised her hand to the chain that sat around her neck and pulled it free. The Yale key on the end, glistening in the street light. It had been a treasured possession for years even back when he had worn leather and spoke with a Northern accent. After she became trapped it was a precious memory, of holding hands and pinstripes and really great hair and the man she had loved and lost. When the darkness came and the star started going out, when she had begun her dimension jumping it had become a symbol of hope. Hope that they could stop the darkness. Hope, after a harrowing jump, that she wouldn't go through that again. That she would find him and avert the crisis.
As she slipped the key in the lock and felt the tumblers move within, heard the click as the door opened, her mind was swirling with emotions. Happiness, apprehension, relief and a feeling of belonging. She had never felt more at home than she did during her time on the TARDIS, walking through that door she began to feel like she was finally home.
The ship looked much the same as it did the last time Rose had been onboard. Coral struts and soft lighting and the ever calming glow of the time rotor in the centre of the control room. Or at least it has always been calming. For some reason, Rose was getting a sense of dread from the sentient ship. She ran her hand up a strut as she made her way to the console, silently wondering what had gotten into the old girl. She had just reached the edge of the console when she heard a soft click behind her. A bright smile made its way to her face and she tried to push down all the emotions that were flooding her insides. All she had to do was turn around and she would be face to face with the love of her life. The man she thought she would never see again. The man who would save them all. She took a deep breath and turned to face the door, the smile dying on her face as soon as her eyes landed on the figure who had just entered the time ship.
"We really do have to stop meeting like this," he purred.
"You," she whispered, still unmoving.
He smirked. "Me."
"What are you doing here?"
"Not even a 'Hello'? Where are your manners, Miss Tyler?"
"How did you get in here?"
"Same way as you, through the door."
Her head was swimming with questions. His presence here wasn't right. She had thought he had his own TARDIS, that the cannon was locking on to his by mistake. But this was most definitely the Doctor's TARDIS. He shouldn't have been able to get through the door without a key. Unless he had one. But why would he? Was he a friend of the Doctor? He didn't seem like the type of person he would be friends with, but he was a Time Lord, maybe it didn't matter that he was a bit sinister, as long as the Doctor wasn't the last of his kind. But if that was true then where was the Doctor? She hadn't seen him, she didn't think he was on board. And she didn't like the dark glint in this other Time Lord's eyes. He was looking at her like she was prey. The way he inched up the ramp, confidently but oh so slowly, eyes never leaving her. Like a predator. And she was distracting herself with all these thoughts as he swooped in for the kill.
"Where is the Doctor?"
He stopped and smiled. It wasn't a pleasant smile. He had wanted her to ask, it was almost gleeful.
"He's gone."
Her heart stopped. He couldn't be.
"Well, as good as," he continued, "he's trapped at the end of the universe. 100 trillion years in the future without a TARDIS or any way to escape the end of everything."
"Because of you?" she asked.
"Yes!" His eyes wide and full of glee.
"You're insane."
"And you're trespassing on my TARDIS."
"She's not yours."
"He's gone, I'm here. Last Time Lord, last TARDIS. Guess that makes it mine now."
He was almost to the console now. Rose took a few small steps backwards, manoeuvring herself towards the opposite side of the console, putting the central column between herself and the madman.
"It seems I've had a wasted trip then. So I think I'll just be on my way," Rose spoke, projecting false confidence into her voice.
He laughed and the sound made her stomach sink.
"Oh, I don't think so. After all, it would be rude to just go after I've put so much work into getting you here."
"What?" She asked, confused by what he might mean.
Was he referring to right here and now in the TARDIS. Or did he have something to do with the stars going out? Was he responsible for her dimension jumping? Was everything she had been through, all that she had endured due to the machinations of this insane alien? Was she the puppet with him pulling her strings?
A deep fear embedded itself in her heart. She could feel her feeble grip on her emotions slipping.
"And what a pretty puppet you'd make." His voice broke her thoughts. "Not that I'm not flattered, but no I'm not responsible for your disappearing stars problem. Just getting you right here, right now."
She gave him a look of shock mixed with anger. He was reading her thoughts. Along with everything else she was feeling now she felt violated too.
"You're projecting," he chastised her with a false pout, "even with your basic shields I can't help but overhear. It's like you're screaming from a room and I'm walking past the door."
Rose threw up every mental barrier she could and tried to regain control of her emotions. She didn't like that he was even in the same room as her, she didn't want him in her head either.
"I'm not in your head, you silly ape. I can only hear what you're shouting at me."
Rose relaxed a little. She would just need to keep herself calm and he wouldn't hear her thoughts.
"If I wanted in your head I would need to be touching you, like when you heard the drums. Time Lords are touch telepaths."
Somehow that didn't make her feel any better.
"Anyway, we are getting off track here. Shame on you, Miss Tyler for distracting me," he scolded, playing with the buttons on the console.
"Then why don't you cut straight to the chase? What is it you want?"
"Why do you assume I want anything? Maybe I find your company enlightening."
He laughed.
"Sorry, I couldn't even say that with a straight face. You're right, I do want something. The same thing I've always wanted. And I'm working on a way to get that, but I can't have any obstacles getting in the way. And you, my dear, are just that," he paused meeting her eyes, "I don't need one of his little pets screwing everything up. It's too early. So you'll have to be dealt with."
"Screwing what up? What is it you're doing? And what do you mean it's too early?"
"Is this the part where I reveal my evil plan and you thwart me? Excuse me if I decline to do that right now. I have more pressing business to attend to."
Rose's watch beeped cutting the standoff the two were having. She pulled her jumper from her pocket, eyes trained on him as he glanced down at her wrist with a hint of amusement in his smile. She pressed the button and… nothing. Her eyes widened. She pressed it again. And again. It wasn't working.
Dark laughter rumbled breaking the silence.
"Oh you didn't really think that would work in here, did you? Didn't the Doctor ever tell you nothing can get in or out of the TARDIS?"
Rose was frozen to her spot. The dimension cannon wasn't working. It couldn't. She was trapped. He had trapped her. This was the reason he wanted her in the TARDIS. He had herded her in here to trap her. She couldn't escape but she wouldn't surrender to him so easily. She needed to think, needed to get away from him.
He closed the distance between them as she had been lost in thought, now she was only an arm's length away from him.
"And now, sweet Rose, I get to say something I've wanted to say since I first laid eyes on you..."
She brought her eyes up to meet his.
"Run!"
