A/N: Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews, I'm glad you're enjoying it. Really makes my day. I had one comment about Rose's outfit, how cool her coat was and that made me smile. I just had this vision when I thought up this story of Rose in all this sort of leather and lace take on the ninth Doctor and I'm so glad it worked. Anyway, still own nothing but I wouldn't mind it if RTD wanted to give me anything or ask me to write for him! I wish hey!
The stench of death was not something you got used to, that's what Rose realised as she made her way silently through the Kaled Dome. Bodies of the Kaled soldiers littered the corridors and adjoining rooms, their faces twisted in horror and agony. Rose swallowed down the bile in her throat as she picked her way through the dim, grey corridors finding herself never more longing for the large sweeping halls of the Presidential Palace with its bright marble and shimmering golds. She had thought it all pomp and circumstance, something she had thought to look poorly on during her time with the Doctor but alone in nothing but blackness and death she found herself longing to be walking beside Rasillon in her silken robes into the fine and ornate Senate Hall.
The familiar whirr of a Dalek echoed ahead of her and she ducked into a nearby alcove, suppressing a scream as the body of a soldier slumped down against her arm, his face half missing where the Dalek beam had struck him hardest. The stench of burning flesh overwhelmed her senses, making her gag once again but she quieted as she saw two Dalek's roll passed, their eye stalks swinging back and forth but not falling upon her. She waited until they were a safe distance away before sneaking out of the alcove, uttering a silent prayer for the man she left there. She saw the corridor to the surface barely ten metres away from her and was ready to run to the Valiant but voices to the left of her caught her attention. She crawled to the edge of the door but couldn't hear well enough so slowly and silently she edged into the room, ducking behind the nearest desk as she saw Davros giving commands to two menacing looking Daleks, the bronze casing Rose was used to replaced by brilliant white and gold. She held her breath and prayed her heart to stop hammering so hard as she listened to Davros speak.
"The Time Lords will be aware of the attacks by now, even with the Doctor and her friends escaping us. The fleet has done sufficient damage on the alliance planets to raise the alarm but they have pulled back for the time being. Did you have any luck opening the Doctor's ship?"
The familiar screaming voice of the Dalek's echoed out in the room, "We were unable to enter the Doctor's time ship."
"Then we must move to stage two of our plan. The entire fleet will converge on Gallifrey and we will force them to hand over their secrets of time travel. Once we have their secrets we will be unstoppable. The universe will be purified in the image of the Daleks. I will send the transmission, go to your ships."
Rose pulled out her blaster to fire at Davros's chair but she was stopped as her sleeve caught on the metal support of the desk. She tried to wrench her arm free but it only caused the table to tip over, an almighty crash ringing out in the silent room. She felt the light from the Dalek eye stalks on her even before Davros began screaming orders.
"It is the Doctor! Exterminate her!"
Rose ducked behind the desk as the Dalek fire flew over her head, she could smell the burning ends of her hair and cursed under her breath, slightly proud that the language leaving her would even make the Doctor blush. She steadied her blaster, her sleeve finally free of the desk's grip. Shooting to her feet she aimed, the laser bolt from her gun powerful enough to blow the first Dalek wide open leaving the rotting green flesh to slop down onto the hard metal floor. The other Dalek swung round and fired. Rose vaulted over a nearby table, hitting the ground with a thud and rolling to safety behind a wall. She heard both Davros' and the Dalek's screams, the screams that had haunted her nightmares for twelve years. She knew they would haunt her for the rest of her days after this one. Gritting her teeth against the pain swelling in her side where she hit the floor, she pushed onto her feet, turning the corner to find herself face to face with a Dalek. In the split second it took for them both to fire she felt it slow down like something out of a movie. The safety device Sumira had installed on her gauntlet activated when it had detected the close range hostile fire, placing Rose inside a temporal field long enough for her to side step the Dalek fire and move to safety.
As she stepped away the field disintegrated and the Dalek casing exploded with the power of the laser fire while its own shot slammed harmlessly into the opposite wall. Rose turned to Davros, saw his finger poised over the transmissions command that would send the fleet to Gallifrey. She raised her gun, barely three metres away from him, closing her eyes she pulled the trigger. She heard nothing. At first she thought she had been deafened by the explosion of the final Dalek but then she heard the rasping, screaming laughter of Davros. Opening her eyes she saw his hand flip the switch that sealed Gallifrey's fate and with all her might she threw the useless blaster at him, catching him straight between the eyes. His laughter turning to a scream as his life left him. His body slumped forward in his chair and the room fell silent.
Rose slumped down to sit on her heels, looking around the carnage in the room. Tears welling in her eyes for the fate of Gallifrey and for her actions, she had never killed a humanoid in anger before, never struck someone down so deliberately and it hurt. She felt the shame in her actions despite their necessity and wondered whether the Doctor's hatred of guns was down to how often he'd had to commit such deeds. She knew now it was not guns she hated but her own hands. If the gun had worked Gallifrey could have stood a chance but she had failed, failed them all. She was even sending the Torchwood fleet to their deaths, if in fact there was a fleet left when the Doctor reached them. She looked down at her outfit, the long leather coat she had warn as her armour, her connection to him. She realised that she had dressed that way as if donning the coat made her as good as him but she knew it didn't, she was not the Doctor, she never had been.
The tears in her eyes, blurred the room before her, blocking of her sense of sight. It was then she heard it. The song. That song. She heard it so often in the night, in her dreams. Comforting and haunting in a heart beat. The power she had possessed, the memories she had, the choices she had to make. She could hear it inside her head. The Bad Wolf, the song of the TARDIS. She pushed to her feet, blinking away her tears before running from the room, not stopping until she hit the surface and bundled into the Valiant's control room.
"Welcome Doctor," sang the Valiant happily.
"We've got work to do old girl," said Rose, "We're going home."
XXXX
The communications tower of Arcadia was sinking under the weight of transmissions, planets reporting that the Daleks had ceased their attacks and were retreating but sensor readings, augmented to pick up the Dalek battle fleet, had detected more ships heading directly for the planet. Messages were sent back to the alliance planets, calling them to Gallifrey's aide as the Daleks began their assault. All able pilots were already in the air, TARDIS battle cruisers, smaller one man fighters and ships they had decommissioned long before they had even learnt the secrets of time, all were manned and in the air. An evacuation was impossible, the transport ships were unable to get through the Dalek blockade that surrounded the planet.
Ero and Sumira worked tirelessly side by side, issuing commands beyond their stations and being obeyed to the letter by the terrified soldiers. The sensors rang out in alarm as the Dalek ships began bombing the cities, hitting every major point on the planet except Arcadia. Instinct told them to be glad of it but both Ero and Sumira knew the city was being saved for a reason. Sumira's fingers danced frantically over the computer controls, attempting to augment the shields on the ships that were failing under the Dalek onslaught. Over her head phones she could hear the commands issued but she could also hear the screams as the fighters were taken out one by one. Her screen was lit with green dots representing her people and red representing the Daleks and her heart sank as each green dot faded to nothing and the red dots massed on the edges, surrounding the mother ship.
Even with augmented fire power the fighters were unable to penetrate the hull of the massive ship. Most could not even get close as they were picked off by the smaller Dalek ships or by the Daleks themselves as they flew freely from their transports, their aim and fire deadly as they increased the assault against the planet. Even a pilot's brave attempt at a suicide dive when his weapons systems failed did not even scratch the surface of the great ship. Sumira wrenched off her headphones as she heard his final screams.
"Come on Doctor," she said to herself, "Both of you."
XXXX
Materialising in space rather than on land was not something Rose enjoyed doing especially when she materialised in between one of her own ships and the Dalek it was currently firing on. She steered the Valiant out of the way of the fire, smiling grimly as she watched the Dalek exploded against the star studded sky. She flipped open her communications channel.
"Good shot!" she called.
She heard the whoop from the communications tower at the sound of her voice.
"Doctor you're alive!" called Ero, his voice crackling across the subspace transmission but Rose could still detect the emotion there.
"You know me Chancellor, never miss a party," said Rose, "Have we had any word from Torchwood? Any of the alliance planets?"
"Negative," said Ero, "Doctor we're not going to last much longer."
Rose gripped onto the console as the blast from an exploding time ship knocked her sideways, "Yes we are. I'm flipping to battle mode, about time I tried out all those gadgets Sumi installed."
Flicking off her chameleon cloak Rose could imagine the blue box exterior of her ship fading into the sleek, steel lines of the TARDIS' original form. The ship not quite as elegant as a battle cruiser but still deadly as she moved to her viewing screen, aiming the weapons she had only ever fired in battle once before. She concentrated her fire on the nearest Dalek ship, aiming for its middle disk where she knew its engines lay, a boring night with the Doctor in the TARDIS proving fruitful for once as she learned the weak spots of every enemy space craft in the universe. The rain of laser fire that flew from the ship nicked the surface of the Dalek craft but only scarred it. She banked quickly as it returned her fire, proving to herself once more why Rasillon named her his best pilot as she managed to dodge the onslaught from several nearby craft.
"Tricky buggers aren't they?" she said.
"I'll try and give you more shields Rose," came Sumira's voice over the noise of the battle, "She if you can manoeuvre yourself to the mother ship and take her out. Use the gun on the right turret, its loaded with double rounds."
"I'm on it. Sumi send out transmissions to the alliance planets again. Davros intends to send the entire fleet to us and we'll need as much help as we can get. Protect the TARDIS data as much as you can, that's what the Daleks want. Nothing is more important that preventing the Daleks from knowing our secrets."
Rose closed her communications link as she saw several Gallifreyan ships hit by Dalek fire, consumed by flame before they exploded, filling the sky with macabre fire works. She couldn't hear their screams but she could feel them. Her people dying and it made her bleed, her heart ripped out as she watched the floating debris on the viewing screen. She flew the Valiant towards the mother ship, reeling and slipping in between the Dalek ships as their fire scorched down the Valiant's sides. She saw the looming shape of the Dalek craft ahead, shooting down several ships that insisted on blocking her view. She wanted to open her communications, hear the Dalek's scream, perhaps becoming the Doctor made you lose all mercy but she could see his face in her mind and knew that despite what her feeling were towards her enemy, death was death and it should not be revelled in.
She heard the beep of the console as Arcadia hailed her and flipped back open her channels, weaving to within firing range of the mother ship before an unexpected bolt of laser fire from her left sent her spinning back towards the planet. She fought to regain control of her ship as she heard both Ero and Sumira's voices ringing out in dismay as she tumbled out of control. She pulled the Valiant up, the engines groaning in protest but obeying all the same.
"I'm alright," she said, not sure if she was reassuring her friends or herself, "I've got it."
"Doctor," came an unexpected voice.
"Rasillon," cried Rose, "What's happening down there, my sensors are shot?"
"The Dalek fleet is descending, several Daleks have already landed on the planet, we are close to being over run," said Rasillon, "Doctor we cannot hold them off much longer."
"Torchwood will come, you'll see. Just try to contain them Rasillon, use whatever means necessary. I'll try the mother ship again."
"Doctor you cannot even get close to the mother ship," cried Rasillon, his voice so desperate the Rose barely recognised it, "You need to fire the Bad Wolf."
"No!" cried Rose, "Torchwood will come Rasillon, give them a little longer."
"We do not have a little longer Doctor, we are being over run and the Daleks will learn the secrets of time travel and when they do every planet in this universe is at risk. You took an oath, fulfil it."
"I can't!" said Rose, gripping on to the console in an attempt to stop the sobs racking her body, "I can't do it."
"You designed that program in the knowledge that if it came to it you would have to destroy us. You know of what the Doctor did before, in his own world. Rose, the fate of the universe lies in your hands, you must fire."
Rose's hands stilled on the console, "Evacuate as many as you can and then I'll fire," she said her voice barely above a whisper.
"There's no time Rose, the ships can't get through the blockade."
"I won't fire on civilians. Rasillon don't make me do this, we can fight them."
She could almost imaging Rasillon drawing himself to his full height on the communications deck, his robes brushing his ankles and his high ornate collar fanning behind him in the colour of a sunrise. He was magnificent and commanding yet the sadness was there, the sadness that had been present since he had learned of the Time War and known that it would one day come to him. That is why he had helped her design the program, the weapon that would augment the power of the vortex within the Valiant causing an explosion large enough to destroy the planet and anything surrounding it. It had been her Doctors fate and now it was hers, to murder the people she loved. She heard her master's words as her hands set the co ordinates for the planet.
"Rose Tyler. You are a soldier of Gallifrey and you will do as I command you. Fire."
The communications tower quieted as they waited for Rose's affirmative, their saviour and their murderer, her small time ship poised to deliver the devastating blow that would wipe them out of existence forever. They bowed their heads as they heard her utter a childish prayer, one so often sung in the academies by the young children.
"And so when I lay down to sleep tonight, I'll call for you with all my might and please my Gods, please hear me pray, that you will bring me home to Gallifrey," said Rose softly, as her hands made short work over the console, one button left to be pressed, "Bad Wolf locked. I love you all. I'm so sorry."
A/N: Just had to leave it there! I'm so cruel I know but don't you just love me for it. Is Rose destined to become the Doctor in every sense? We'll see.