Hey guys!
I started this story in 2013. I was in middle school when I started to write this story. I worked on this story throughout my entire high school career and now I am a sophomore in college. WTH! How weird is that, omg. Anyway enough about me! I know there are some of you who have been waiting for this story to end for a very very very very very long time, and for that, I thank you for sticking with me this long. ITS BEEN YEARS! Since I published this story on here! To those of you who just found it or haven't waited as long as others thank you so much for reading! I always thought about never continuing this or just deleting it off altogether but seeing all the people who have read this and waited for it made me think otherwise. I know my updating schedule was an absolute shit show but I wanted to finish this for you guys. So, without further ado, here is the last official chapter for this story! I love you all! Thank you so much! And Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Alireeses
P.S.: the google docs I've been writing this story on is 90 pages in 11 inch, 'Cambria' font. I've always thought that was super cool.
Last time: They walked Rose forward, being careful not to let her feet drag. When they got to the door, Koschei unlocked it with the sonic and shoved it open, fully prepared with whatever they'd meet on the other side.
The fall of his race was a tragedy he could never escape, the memory painted on his face every time he looked in the mirror. Now there was Koschei, a fallen warrior like himself, and Rose, a byproduct of the universe thrown into his life. Both people he loved and lost.
He couldn't lose her... After everything, he couldn't let this be another useless loss in the cycle of his lives. For once, he didn't want to leave her somewhere he couldn't follow. Just this once… he was going to keep her.
He could see Koschei out of the corner of his eye as they passed hallways and corridors, and wondered how he had handled this on his own last time. Was he thinking the same thing? Was Rose just something that was bound to be lost to fate?
"We're getting close." He muttered, thinking over his next move. This place couldn't exist anymore. They would stop at nothing to capture Rose and, from what it sounded like, she allowed them the chase. The last close encounter where she had all but wiped them from the universe must have scared her enough to not allow her to fight them. The Doctor knew her well enough to know she'd have hated that she'd played God.
After seeing what he had seen -- her bloody, beaten, nothing but a dripping vein for them to drain dry -- he had no such reservations against the idea.
A piercing alarm sounded, startling them to a near halt as a red light started flashing from somewhere above them. Koschei cursed to himself, "They must have found Tamul." He said as they both picked up the pace once again.
The Doctor had made up his mind. "Doesn't matter now." The phrase slipped out of him before he could stop it, but he could feel Koschei tensing.
"What are you thinking?" His tone was tight, and he knew Koschei wasn't stupid. He'd figured out his almost-plan. He couldn't bring himself to lie, or even to explain himself.
He must know.
He must understand.
"They can't be allowed to keep doing this." She would never be safe. He couldn't live with himself if this happened again on his watch.
"What would Rose say?" And the Doctor almost changed his mind at the utter pleading the other man was doing. The Doctor knew what Rose would say. She'd leave and she would sooner run for the rest of her life than take anyone's life into her own hands. She would plead with him to leave, to find some other way to stop them, and resolve it without unnecessary death. The Doctor would listen.
But what had she said to him when she left?
I'm the Professor now…
And what would she say?
"She's the Professor right now." The Doctor responded, as if that explained everything. As if her having an alias would change how she'd feel and make what he was wanting to do okay. As if it resolved him of blame.
As if it would stop her from hating him.
Koschei didn't respond, but the blaring alarm and lights were making it impossible to focus on anything other than running. The Doctor couldn't hear any guards running down the hallway they were coming down, but it didn't stop the knot of nerves within him. The Tardis was around the next corner, within whatever storage container she had parked herself in. They rounded it and he could see it, the door they'd pushed out of however long ago. A burst of energy flooded through him and he rushed past, pulling Rose higher off the ground, wanting to get her in a med-bay as fast as possible.
A crash from behind had all of them on the floor. The Doctor tried to keep Rose from hitting anything too hard, but the heat and power from behind him was making it harder to focus on how to stop falling. The floor hit him hard, and before he could jump back to his feet, swirls of gold pooled around him.
"Did you really think you could get away?" A distorted voice called from behind. More gold light followed and the Doctor could barely see his hands. He forced himself up, pulling Rose towards him as he whipped around. Tamul towered at the end of the hallway, the brightness filtering out of him like a mist. The Doctor's stomach sank. That can't be good. "I have the power now. Truly, I am a god." He tried to smile, but his features were bending and pulling with every burst of gold breath.
"Your form won't be able to sustain itself, Tamul!" Koschei yelled, scooting himself towards the door.
"Silence!" Tamul's yell nearly shook the place as Koschei slammed into the wall.
"No!" The Doctor screamed, scrambling to stand, but the gold held him down like cement. It was rising, filling the hallway like a thick cloud.
"You are nothing but vermin." His voice was pulsating with his stolen power. The Doctor had seen many horrific things in his years but this… Tamul's face was barely alive. His eyes were burning into themselves, pupils, sclera mixing together and pouring down his shifting face. Gold flooded from his being, evaporating like dry ice off of him and pooling to the ground. Rose had fallen with him, her limp body almost completely swallowed by her own essence. "I will c o n s u m e." His mouth barely moved as he growled.
The gold surrounding them had an acrid smell, and the Doctor assumed it had something with being filtered through Tamul's vile body. He was stunned, stuck to the ground next to the love of his life as Tamul looked at them. Koschei seemed to be out cold after the hit to the wall, his body slumped over and falling further into the sea of poison surrounding them. The Doctor looked to Rose again and tried to pull her up so she could breathe anything else in, but his hands stayed frozen underneath the fog.
He screamed. He stared Tamul down in his melting face and screamed. He couldn't think of anything else to do.
Everything. Everything he had hoped to have was crumbling before his eyes and he had never wanted to rip someone to pieces as much as did at that moment.
Tamul's melting face smiled at him. "Time l o r d. Not l ord. I am your g o d." The Doctor screamed at him again.
He took a step forward and then stopped. His focus taken from the Doctor's anguish to Rose beside him.
The Doctor followed his gaze, and saw Rose. Her eyes open, bright gold with the fog around her dissipating.
She was floating. Floating. Everything hurt. Hurts.
You have work to do.
She didn't know who was talking.
You have to wake up.
She was asleep? Everything hurt so bad. She was so tired.
The Doctor.
The Doctor?
Who was screaming? A piercing cry.
Everything came to her all at once. The grey ceiling of the ship, the gold fog pulling away from her, and the nice air coming into her lungs.
She couldn't feel her pain any more, but she could see the Doctor, red-faced and shocked, sitting next to her. She sat up. Was this a dream?
A nightmare, she corrected to herself as she saw Tamul's entire existence disintegrating in front of her.
That was hers. He took her life. Her power. Her entire existence, he pulled it out of her and he was wearing it like some sort of stolen drug.
She didn't like that. The Doctor was saying something to her but she was preoccupied with the abomination.
Then her attention turned to Koschei, slumped over and passed out against the wall.
She frowned. She really didn't like that. She wanted him over with her, and while she thought about it, she saw him slide to where they were.
Tamul didn't look very confident anymore. Had he been saying something? He needed to go somewhere else. Away.
Not killed. She had felt the murderous intent the Doctor had wanted when he screamed… she couldn't.
Away. Another place. She stood up.
Everything felt so fuzzy. Her own essence was writhing in pain around her. She could feel her stolen essence begging to dissipate. Its existence mixed with Tamuls greed was agony. It couldn't help but repel away from her as she walked towards him; he had morphed it into something horrible. He was sick with it.
She could feel the fear as she approached. It reminded her of when she was a little girl and her mother had scolded her for taking too many sweet things before dinner. But this wasn't sweets.
She needed to fix him. He didn't move when her hand came up to touch his forehead; she wasn't sure if it was because he couldn't or because he didn't want to. Maybe her essence did have some pull after all.
As soon as her finger touched him, a conduit opened. She could feel her own corrupted power like an infection. She needed to clean her mess up. She had been lazy last time. Unfocused. Confused. She could not run from this. Her power had infected him like an addiction, something he never should have possessed. The painful pull of the sickness he created started at the tip of her finger, slowly moving through her and back into her being. It brought a terrible ache as her body struggled to filter out Tamuls essence.
There were sounds happening around her. Something like murmurs. Screams? A familiar voice. She couldn't focus on that right now. In her peripheral vision, she could spy the tainted glow receding back into Tamul. He seemed frozen, his breaths shallow and strained.
She knew what she had to do.
As the last of her stolen energy pulled through into her, she stole the memories of it as well. Just like the drums. She cleaned Tamuls mind. Wiping any existence of herself and the Bad Wolf.
He would be clean.
As she pulled her finger away, he collapsed to the floor, thankfully still breathing. Her work was not done, but being here was not going to work.
She turned back, seeing her love and best friend on the ground. Koschei, still unconscious and the Doctor looking on in horror. Horror? Why?
Rose couldn't feel her body, but she knew she was moving towards them. It felt like a dream as she picked Koschei up, and walked toward the TARDIS. She could feel the machine close, and she knew the Doctor would follow her as she took their leave.
Everything was so messy. She had made such a terrible mess. Somehow they all made it back into the TARDIS, and Rose wasn't sure where Koschei had gone. She looked back through the doors, seeing the interior of the ship that had tortured her and held her captive. Her own energy was still bleeding out of her as she finished her plan.
They would no longer hunt them. Black spots clouded her vision, pushing and pulling at her consciousness. More screams, more murmurs.
The scene before her shook and darkened.
What was happening? Blackness overtook her.
Beep, beep, beep, Rose couldn't help but groan.
What was that horrible sound? And why was her head pounding?
"Doctor… Doctor! She's waking up!" Such a familiar voice. Where was she? Another groan.
There was the sound of rushing feet and she realized her eyes were closed with a heaviness she hadn't noticed before.
"Rose?" Was that…
Her eyes shot open. It was… the Doctor. Koschei sat next to him, tears filling his eyes as he grabbed her hand. She could see the med bay behind them. The TARDIS? She had just been with… Tamul? What had happened?
"You're safe." The Doctor already had tears running down his face as he put a hand on her cheek. "You sent them away. You sent them to the other universe." His voice could barely stay steady.
"The other… what?" She croaked out, and Koschei was quick to hand her some water. She choked it down, the wetness strange against her horribly dry throat.
The Doctor and Koschei shared a look. "You saved us. You wiped Tamuls memory and then you sent them to the universe you came from. You said it was the only way. Then you collapsed." Koschei explained quickly, wiping his eyes as took the water back. "It's been two weeks, Rose." His voice cracked with relief.
They're… gone, she thought the impossible phrase to herself. She must have used the surplus of energy to transfer their ship. She could feel the hot tears well in her eyes and she couldn't help but reach out towards the Doctor. They were safe. He was safe. Alive.
He smiled at her, a blinding happy smile and she couldn't help but smile back. Koschei leaned back in his chair, pressing hands against his face as he laughed incredulously.
A giggle bubbled out of Rose. This was crazy. After everything they were still here. She pulled at his sleeve and he all but collapsed against her, his forehead pressing to hers as they embraced. Another laugh and she grabbed at the collar of his shirt.
Was this finally it? Could she really keep him this time?
He let out a quick breathless laugh, his eyes darting between her gaze and her lips, "I love you so much, Professor Rose Tyler." And her heart swelled. "Please never leave me again." He begged, and tightened his grip on her arms, a pleasing grounding pressure for her.
Rose nodded furiously, trying to keep herself from sobbing. "I love you too, Doctor. I love you." And it felt like a cosmic truth. Like putting in a final puzzle piece. The last gear. The missing ingredient. How had she lived so long without this? "I'm not going anywhere." His lips against hers felt like the sweetest promise.