FireOpal - Me again! Beta'ed by Hana, thanks to you all! BBC owns DW. Check out my LJ. This chapter wins the 'FireOpal Award for Most Stunning CliffHanger in DW fanfiction' (judging by Hana's reaction).
Reviews.
Lots of thanks to Ruth, Cloudhaven94, Kerry, morph, earthdrago, Becsy Lexi, porkpie, Sheela, golwenadaneth, Akisame15, YamiKITG.
golwenadaneth - Thanks very much, I love hearing from you peeps! And you love me? Wow. And as for the plot, read this first - it contains the mysterious answers!
Sheela - Yes, sorry bout the poor Cervarians. I liked them too, but I wanted to start this off-TARDIS, and I wanted to try my hand at creating a new species (haha). I love honest feedback, and I try to give it in return (which can piss off my friends, sadly), so feel free to say what you like/don't like or whatever, as long as it isn't unnecessary evilness. This was good! I have a feeling the Cervarians may return in another fic, even if, good god, there's a sequel to this! I will write more explosions in next time, just for you! You win the 'Best Review' award so far (must think of prize... hmm.) Enjoy!
Chapter Three.
Blackness, so deep and empty that she couldn't even remember anything else.
Cold; tendrils that ran down her sides and arms and skin, and yet underneath, in her blood.
Silence; making her ears pound in memory of vibrations that passes along messages, and close and so vast all at once.
Loneliness; the remembrance of forgotten voices, empty people with no faces.
And then there was light. Bright shining light that cut through her mind world, blasting her senses and making her eyes screw up tightly in sudden pain. Synapses flashed uncomfortably, bringing the dull thud of headache and sounds that washed over her ears.
"…all right… try… just put on…" The odd word started to become recognisable in the sounds she could now distinguish into voices and humming and something mechanical. Moaning involuntarily, she tried fruitlessly to lift her hands to cover her eyes and ears, to stop the pain and noise, but found her body strangely heavy and unresponsive.
"…Rose?" that voice she recognised, old and young, with that daft and comfortable Northern accent. Swallowing with a dry mouth, she opened her mouth and tried to speak.
"D-"
"Shh, Rose. Its OK." Something metallic clattered. "Try not to talk for a minute." She happily obeyed the order, as just that second, her mind decided to blast her last memories on her, and that rather took up a few minutes. After that time, and her brain was in some form of order, she tried the next task – opening her eyes.
Wrenching them open, she looked around blearily and quickly recognised her surroundings in the TARDIS infirmary before two faces came into view – one stoically blank, the other worried and not-quite covering it.
"Hey," Jack said, attempting a smile. Now she knew it was bad, if Jack's self-imposed mask was slipping this badly. The Doctor moved back, obviously satisfied she was awake, and continued tinkering with some small device. Licking her cracked lips, she tried again.
"Wha-what's going on?" she croaked, sitting up on her elbows only by sheer force of will. Thankfully, Jack quickly saw her dilemma and grabbed a cup full of water from where it sat on a workstation, and, ignoring her attempts, sat her up properly and helped her drink it, acting rather, Rose thought, like a mother hen. The cool liquid slipped down her throat like nectar, feeling so good she could've sung. Finally the cup was finished, and the Doctor finished tinkering, having ignored the question. If Rose had seen the twitch in his face as she asked, she might've been even more worried, but she hadn't, and so repeated the question, catching Jack in her forceful gaze.
"You just fainted, that's all." He said jovially, his American-sounding accent thick as ever. "Be right as rain in no time." Her body, however, begged to differ. Suddenly noticing a strange weight on her arm, she lifted it and looked at it curiously. It was strapped onto her wrist tightly – red with little buttons.
"What the-"
"One sec," the Doctor interrupted, slamming the device he had been cobbling back together, the bindings held with what looked suspiciously like duct tape. He stepped forwards, the device held in one hand. "I just want to scan you with this, just to make sure." She nodded, and watched interestedly as he waved the box slowly along her, a little light shining over the various parts of her anatomy. He seemed to pause at her head, heart and stomach, but it was over in a matter of minutes, and he moved off quickly, leaving Jack behind with the increasingly confused and annoyed Rose.
"Jack, what the hell's going on? What's this?" she waved the wrist device under his nose, and he squirmed uncomfortably.
"Um," he said eventually. "It's just to make sure, you know. In case anything went wrong."
"And what went wrong?" Rose said, gritting her teeth. "I just remember fainting in that hall place."
"Yeah, that was it." Jack replied unconvincingly. Suddenly, he seemed struck by an idea. "I'll just go and get you something to eat." He seemed almost gleeful as he passed the Doctor, leaving the alien to deal with the hot-headed teenager.
"Doctor…?" she said, trying to attract his attention.
"Hmm-mmm?" he replied, feigning concentration. If he wasn't busy pretending to be busy, and wasn't so worried about the happily-now-conscious earthling on the bed, he would be racing down the corridor to throttle Jack for leaving him alone with her.
"I know when you're fakin' it you know." She stated, rolling her eyes. "Look, I've been unconscious for god knows how long, my head hurts, I've got a weird device on my wrist and that never means anything good, so tell me what the hell is going on!" He looked up finally, and their eyes met. Despite the usual calm mask that he had placed over his emotions, she could see something in his eyes that sent an involuntary shiver down her spine.
"We don't know." He said quietly, moving towards the bed. "How long have you had the headaches?" The question seemingly came out of the blue, and her brow wrinkled even as she answered the question.
"Er, ages." His left eyebrow rose.
"Care to be more specific?"
"Well," she said, thinking, "It must've been before that thing with the ice planet… I think it must've been since, yes, since Jack joined us. It was just when I was showing him round." She looked up at the Doctor, who's brow furrowed deeply.
"Didn't eat anything dodgy there did you?"
"Eat?" she laughed. "Didn't have time. Too busy running away from gas-mask wearing people."
"And dancing with rogue Time Agents." He said quickly, smirking. Rose reached out and slapped him lightly on the shoulder.
"It was better than what you were doing – you call that dancing?"
"We've been over that." He pointed out. Then his eyes went distant.
"Didn't cut yourself?"
"The worst was that rope burn those little robots repaired." She replied, still wondering what he was thinking.
"Nanogenes." He corrected absently.
"Yeah, them." Rose said, nodding slightly, then wincing as her headache returned. "Hey, Doc, you don't have anything for this do you?" she gestured to her head, and he was suddenly right next to her, resting cool fingers against her skin, his eyes serious.
"So soon?" he seemed to be saying to himself as he gently probed her skull. She reached up with one hand and wrapped it around his, lowering it from her head.
"Doctor," she said seriously, looking into his eyes. "What's happening to me?" He faltered, then decided that maybe honesty was a good policy.
"You're changing. We don't know how, but you are."
"Changing? What do you mean, you don't know how?" He sighed, and stood up from where he had been perching on the edge of the bed.
"I've only seen a blood sample, the scans I just took will tell for sure…" he stayed turned away from her, his shoulders slumped.
"Your DNA itself is changing. Jack didn't recognise the multi-strands, but then he couldn't possibly. That DNA doesn't even exist anymore. Or it isn't supposed to." He turned back to her, but didn't look at her. His eyes seemed glued to a space in the distance. Then he looked down, straight at her.
"It's Gallifreyan."