Anti-Rose
Chapter Three
"Mum, are you alright?" the girl asked, never taking her eyes from the Doctor. Jackie gave no response. "All right, what have you done to her?" she snarled at the Doctor. The Doctor raised his hands, palms forward, and gave a smile.
"She was hysterical and holding knives. I thought she was going to hurt herself or me. I didn't fancy either of us getting hurt so I put her in a trance. It's easily broken." Watching the girl carefully, he reached out his hand towards Jackie. "Jackie, listen to me. When I click my fingers, you will be in control of your own actions and thoughts again. You will remember everything that happened when you were in the trance. One, two, three." he said, and clicked his fingers.
Jackie blinked, looked confused for a moment, and then looked at the Doctor.
"Don't you ever do that to me again." she said. Then she blinked again. "'Ere, your eyes are different. They're blue! I suppose you've tried to disguise yourself with contact lenses, hair dye and a shorter coat. Well, I know you, Doctor, and you've got a cheek comin' up here and inviting yourself in."
"Can I ask who you are?" the Doctor said to the girl.
"You know damn well who I am. You were looking for me, remember? You told my mother you came 'looking for Rose.' Well, here I am, What do you want?"
"How can you be Rose? I saw her in my TARDIS less than an hour ago. Like you, but blonde, similar jacket, but different somehow. Yes, hers was red where yours is black, and vice versa."
"I saw a girl like that half an hour ago." said the other Rose or the 'anti-Rose' as the Doctor had mentally tagged her.
She moved over to the Doctor. "Look up but no sudden moves." she said. She checked the Doctor's eyes and his hair roots.
"Well, it's not contact lenses and it's not hair dye unless the lenses are invisible and the dye doesn't affect the skin." she said. "You don't have the same smarmy attitude either. I don't know who you are, but you seem very like someone that I know called the Doctor. I ran into him earlier this year and wish I hadn't." A remembered pain flickered over her face.
"Wait." said the Doctor. "You're Rose, but not as I remember, and you" he said pointing to Jackie "are Jackie, Rose's mother, but again, different to how I remember. You remember the Doctor as being like me, but different again. I wonder?" He thought for a moment, then straightened up.
"The untried full power dematerialization! I've never heard of it being tried before, but we did have all the energy of the Eye of Harmony behind it."
"Now you're sounding something like him." anti-Rose said. He was glad to see that she had lowered the weapon. "Are you a Time Lord as well?"
"Yes I am, and I think I know what's happened. My TARDIS got too close to a black hole, and I had to do an untried manoeuvre to pull free. I think the force of that manoeuvre may have ripped a hole between my universe and yours. We are from two different possibilities, two equally valid realities which are never meant to meet. You are Rose, but a different Rose to the one I know, and I am the Doctor-my ninth incarnation actually-but obviously a different Doctor to the one you know.
"Your Rose, when I met her, I thought she was in league with the Doctor from my reality." anti-Rose said. "I knocked her out."
"Where?" asked the Doctor. "I've got to find her."
"She was gone when I came back." said anti-Rose. "I assumed she had recovered."
"Then we should check my TARDIS." said the Doctor. 'She may have gone there." He got up and anti-Rose said, "Stop! How do I know you're telling the truth?" The Doctor thought, and then reached into one of his inside pockets. Anti-Rose stiffened and the Doctor stopped.
"I'm going to show you a photograph taken a few weeks ago." he said. Moving slowly and carefully, he took out the photo of them all that Jackie's friend had taken after the Slitheen incident. It showed the four of them-Rose, Jackie, Mickey and the Doctor-outside the flat, smiling and posing for the camera.
Anti-Rose took it and looked. Tears sprang to her eyes and she wordlessly passed it to her mother. Jackie looked at it and stared, then passed it back to the Doctor.
"Mickey's still alive in your reality?" she asked.
"He's not alive here?" asked the Doctor.
"No, he only saw the Doctor from a distance. The Doctor made a deal with something called the Nestene Consciousness. He then double crossed it and destroyed it, but the Consciousness had caught Mickey. Mickey was trapped when the Nestene lair blew up. He died there. I only just got away myself. He didn't care! He just left Mickey there to die."
"I may think he's an idiot, but in my reality, I got him into my TARDIS and got him-and you-away." the Doctor said.
"Come on.," said anti-Rose. 'Let's find my alternate self."
Anti-Rose took the Doctor down to where she had left Rose. As she had said, she was no longer there. The Doctor looked up at the CCTV camera and saw where it was pointing.
"How long has that been inactive?" he asked.
"It was working when I went down for my papers this morning." anti-Rose told him. "Why?"
"Because it may have recorded something." the Doctor said.
"Can your TARDIS view CCTV film?" asked anti-Rose.
"Easily." said the Doctor. "That TARDIS has shown more CCTV film then you've had hot dinners."
"I doubt that!" retorted anti-Rose. "Wait here a moment." She walked into the shop.
Ten minutes later, she came out with the tape. "That was easy." she said. "We're allowed it for half an hour. The shop owner knows and trusts me." They set off for the TARDIS.
The Doctor knew Rose hadn't been back the moment he stepped into the TARDIS. An alarm went off as soon as the door opened, which the Doctor stopped with a single word of Gallifreyan.
"I triggered that to go off just the once, the next moment someone entered the TARDIS once I'd gone." he said. "If she'd been back, that would have been tripped already. The fact that it hasn't mean Rose hasn't been back since I left. So, let's see if this tape gives us any clue." He put it in, and told the TARDIS to replay the last five minutes of data.
For a minute or two they saw nothing, and then they saw Rose cross over, and head towards the alley, which was off-screen. Then nothing for a while, and then they saw a pale-haired figure in a long black leather coat cross the screen, heading the same way Rose had gone. A few seconds later, he walked back into screen, carrying an unconscious Rose. They saw him drop her legs, point his sonic screwdriver at the camera, and then it went black.
" Has the Editor stolen the TARDIS and come here with it?" he asked anti-Rose."
"No." anti-Rose said. "That's you-him-you in my reality. That's the Doctor. He's got your friend, and that's very bad news indeed." She looked at the Doctor.
"I don't know what he wants with her, but I do know one thing. He'll kill her without a qualm if he wants to, or if she can't or won't give him what he wants".