Note to all my adoring fans: cough Well, here we go. The next chapter is up and if this is indeed the last or the penultimate, you can bet that I'm writing a sequel ;)
Jessa7: Yes, I'm still sore from it! But we'll see who gets that cookie, shall we?
Disclaimer: Well, I still don't anything except myself and this here computer box! However, the offers are finally coming in (more like taunts…) about the Doctor Who Action Figure.
Once I finish this I'm afraid I'll have to do my favourite past-time: English Homework, so I'll try and write as much as I can but also tomorrow is going to be a bit tricky with my school award ceremony and my –joy- Orthodontist appointments. So I'll try, just for you guys
Is that…?
Chapter Five
Kastalian Headquarters
It's useless, worthless. Nothing's going to stop this. This is fate. We are the minority and we will be consumed.
But I can try…
Rose Tyler let the guard fall, unconscious to the floor. She held no compassion for whoever was behind that clouded visor; and she had no desire at all to check. Beside her, Mickey did the same with the other guard. Now for the door, bolted with steel. Mickey put the small Sleeper back into his pocket. It couldn't be counted as a weapon, because it did not hurt or maim or kill. It was used to distract, or to put to sleep – hence the rather obvious name. Torchwood wasn't imaginative with their developments. They were purely factual.
She gave Mickey a hasty smile before looking hesitantly at the door. She wasn't too sure this would work at all. But it was their only hope and it stood between them and liberty.
She was broken, she was torn apart by his absence. Time didn't heal, it didn't hurt. It did nothing. But she wasn't gone completely. She was Rose Tyler. And she was strong.
Press the guard's finger tips against the print scanner. Click. Access granted. The time moved quickly. More needed. The liquid was rubbed smoothly across the locked bolt. Slippery. Move away, before it explodes. A deafening bang. A smouldering door. Not open. Useless.
"Don't give up, Rose," said Jane, squeezing her arm reassuringly. Rose smiled at her, and looked back at her companion. Jane Tyler would be six years old now, and Jackie Tyler would be worried out of her mind, and so would Pete. Her dad. Her mum. Her sister. This Jane, however, shared none of the likenesses of Rose's… half… sister. She was a professional, and she was kind. But she just wasn't…
Rose rocked on her heels and Mickey looked back at her.
"They'll have heard that by now," he said, almost apologetically, to her.
Rose looked at the ceiling desperately and put her head in her hands. Think. Had to think. Too many thoughts. Useless, old thoughts. Not thinking about the right things. Stop thinking about him. Have to. Think about the present. The present. Focus on NOW.
"This is the goddamn present!" Rose yelled, suddenly, and took one of her earrings out, bent it out of its circular shape. White gold hoops that she'd had no joy in receiving from her parents years ago, but had appreciated all the same. A little part of home. But regardless of that, she jammed it in one of the many locks on the door, twisting it around desperately.
"Help me!" She cried out, not to her companions, but to the door. She seemed to remember saying that once before, in the TARDIS… trying to back to her Doctor…
No, don't think about that. Twist. Open. Force it open!
It clicked.
Rose stared up at the door in amazement. It didn't open, but if she could just…
She nudged it with her shoulder, and the door fell to pieces.
Behind her, there was a jubilant cheer as the members of the Torchwood Institute swarmed over to her. Jefferson nodded at her, Mickey hugged her, and Jane simply stepped over the remains of the frame.
"To hell with Torchwood," said Mickey joking, "let's thank F.Hinds for their jewellery."
"And to think I was gonna take them back to the shop," said Rose appreciatively.
There was a happy silence for a few seconds, broken only by Jane running back into the room with an urgency written in the lines of her forehead.
"Alien guys at 12 o' clock," she hissed to all of them. "Lots of alien guys!"
Rose leaned out of the door. A procession of mottled aliens garbed in black ran down the corridor, looking professional – killing professional. Rose did the first thing she could think of, and probably the most rational at the moment, too, and yelled:
"Run!"
The others didn't need telling. They plummeted down the corridor regardless of the raining bullets behind them. Not bullets. Light, pure light. So much for having at least another hour to live; now, she may have shortened her life even more.
Rose took the closest left; then right, then right again, running through the maze of corridors. She had no idea where she was. On the intercom of the building, somewhere up above, she heard a crackling voice spurt into life. There. A lift. She needed to get somewhere and that could be her way out…
"Seal Level 0."
The intercom spluttered out of life as the lift doors began to close. Rose launched herself through the doors, slipped, and then fell straight into the lift just as the doors sealed. When she opened her eyes, she could see someone lying next to her, about to get up from the floor. Thank god; it was Mickey. But… there were no other forms in the lift. Just her and her best friend. She looked around with sorrow. So much for Acting Captain; she had just killed two of her crew. She sat down in the middle of the lift and felt the lift tremble as it came into life, pulling her up.
Somewhere in the back of her head, she realised that this occurrence was probably not a good thing at all. There would be more guards on alert on floors above.
But somewhere, deep within her, she could feel all that pain turning itself over again. She put a hand to her ear where she'd torn her earring away, and looked at the slim metal gold rod she now had gripped in her hand. She bent it over so it resembled a hook, fumbled beneath the top of her zip-up jacket for the chain she had kept around her neck for seven years, and put it on. There. It had pride of place beside the key she'd wished for so many years to glow again with the light of the TARDIS.
"Cheer up, Rose." Mickey put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but, for the first time in about five years, Rose was back to thinking that it wasn't the right one. It should have belonged to someone else. The voice should have belonged to someone else. The face…
She rested her hand on his and stood up, just as the lift juddered to a halt and doors hissed and grinded, steel against steel, as they opened to show an array of soldiers bristling with weaponry.
"Thanks, Mickey," she said quietly, never taking her gaze off the aliens in front of her. Then she stepped forward into their cold metal embrace, feeling the metal of handcuffs bite into her flesh. Beside her the same was being done to Mickey. After all, there wasn't much escape from that, and Rose had seen worse days.
There was always an escape.
It was just, when seven years had passed after believing that, it was a hard thought to cling to.
Always an escape… Always an escape… always an escape… always an… always… always…
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"Execution of Rose Tyler to be on public record. Open Video Link. She will serve as an example to one and all."
Rose's heart quickened as she was shoved into a chair. She was blindfolded, but that didn't stop her sensing the people around her, hear Mickey's yell of "Rose!" as they pulled her away and imprisoned her in the chair which would be the death of her. He was taken away to another room, ripped away from her.
A sweep of air introduced the communication window. Rose could feel the groping fingers of her captors as they pulled ropes tight about her, as they bit into her skin and restricted her breathing. Something in her head, a voice, casually started a conversation about how ropes were a little medieval, and Rose knew why. She was panicking. Badly. This was her way of getting out of it, but it wasn't working. The voices grew louder. Talking to herself. Her fingers drummed against the arms of the chair with the nerves of it all.
Flash.
Lying on a hill, faking death after being tossed off a horse. Laughter, merriment. Birds twittered as he picked her up laughingly. She laughed, too. Happy days. For a moment she just stood there laughing, looking at him. Then he offered his arm. Take it. Walk with him. Walk in the stars. Not anymore. Distant, so distant. Absence… gone forever…
Flash
The tear ran down her face like liquid crystal. Rose blinked beneath the blindfold. Before her, someone moved, someone spoke. She hardly listened. Something about… her, being an example. Them being merciless. Them getting what they wanted. Somewhere in Rose anger rose at the pure selfishness, but was suppressed by the fact that this time, she couldn't escape. She was held by steel, and rope, and misery. Maybe a long time ago… but there was no longer room for wishful thinking.
Think of the good times.
By her throat, Rose could feel boiling: a vat of some sort? Her hands and face scrunched up, and the tears poured freely. Don't think about him. Never that. Think about what you've got; Mickey, Torchwood; Jane, Jackie, a new dad… Pete Tyler. A mansion, a limousine, parents that would have done anything and everything for her.
She didn't really have the time to think at all as she felt a boiling sensation, pain like nothing she'd felt before, spread along her body…
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The Doctor looked at one of the communication windows that had popped up everywhere. A public execution.
He stopped, and he stared.
And he ran like the wind.
A is for All I ever wanted
Oh, god, the pain… Rose felt it, it spread across her, enveloping her senses, tearing her apart inside, within… She wished, and she remembered, and she couldn't stop the tears…
B is for the Beauty I see, and C is my Confession
He ran…
D is for my devotion, E is for its eternity; F can only Follow after and G is for my Gratefulness to you…
And now she couldn't hear, couldn't feel. It didn't matter, because she already knew, she thought, that she would never have got back home. And she'd lived her life. She just had one regret…
H is for the Happiness, and J is for the Joy; K is for your Kindliness and I is for what's Inside…
Got to keep running…
L is for my Love to you, M is for what Might have Been; N is Night and darkness, O is when you screamed…
Regret… when he was torn away…
P is Perfection, Q means you were my Queen; R is for the Righteousness, S was never seen…
He couldn't let go of her now. Skid into the room, see it for real. Shout out. Cry for her. Feel desperately in his pocket…
T is for the precious Time, U was Understanding; V was Virtuosity and W was When I left you.
She heard a voice. She heard it calling, through the pain and the sensation that the liquid was burning away at her, working from the inside. She could feel herself slipping away. She recognised it; she cherished it. Now, she knew she was dead. Because that was the only way she could ever hear that voice again.
"Rose…"
X is the headstone of your grave, Y is years spent wasted. And Z is for the time's run out, there's no time to reach the finish line…
All that could be heard or felt in the room was darkness… enveloping darkness. A shout amidst it shook everyone to their senses. Some turned, and they met their deaths. Somewhere there was a vessel of misery so powerful it enveloped everything within it's midst.
And then, something disturbed the blackness. A whining sound, so minute it could have been dismissed; and a blue light flickered. The lights in the room flickered back on to reveal the bodies of armoured Kastalians. Everyone dead. The people of Pavar watching on the Communications Screen saw everything as the stranger with tears running down his face picked through the bodies and came to a stop at the chair and the vat. Slowly he took the whining device out, put it against the manacles and ropes and unwrapped the blindfold to reveal closed lids and a tear stricken face.
Everyone saw it, and it shook the hearts of the people watching.
The only person who didn't see it was Rose Tyler.
…
I'll sit here until eternity passes me by,
As the leaves from the trees begin to fly,
As they rest, golden upon your face,
And leave no mark or trace.
We never finished the race,
And this is why I kneel,
This book of letters in my hand,
In memory of your perpetual zeal.
Z is for your Zeal.
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A Dalek appears in the doorway, but the man is ready. The Doctor is always ready. He puts the body carefully down and confronts it, anger burning brightly in his eyes, his face set. No witty comments this time. Nothing to say that's nice. Just bitterness. Bitter, bitter, bitter. He speaks poison because that's all that is left for him.
He talks to the Dalek. He realises so many things. He realises the Dalek's feeble plans for the eradication of life on all planets through an alliance with another powerful race. He realises its desperation to cling onto what it has left of life, but there's no remorse for it. Other things, maybe. But not for his steel enemy.
So he takes the gun of white hot light he used against the rest. Purely for protection against the one he loved. Them or her. Her or them. Always them, never her. He'd never lay a finger against her. And he directs it straight at the unmoving Dalek, whispers good bye to his old foe under his breath, and fires a beam of light out of the nozzle.
The light never hits, because the Dalek does a random and emergency transport; he'll end up on another planet, somewhere, making trouble. But maybe it's best that way, thinks the Doctor. The Lonely Doctor. Because it gives him something to fight for. The light dissipates into nothing and the room is left cold again. People watching cry hot tears, not only with the sorrow but because they know that after such a horror, the war is over.
But not for the Doctor.
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Ba-dum.
Ba-dum.
It's a rhythmic drum pounding in her ears and she can hear it. She can feel, too. Feel the pain, lesser now.
Ba-dum.
It's getting stronger, strengthening with each beat. It doesn't sound like a drum anymore at all. It sounds like a heartbeat. It gets quicker with the realisation, and the golden light swarms below the eyelids. You see, it never went. Not entirely. And it's burning strong now, so strong, trying to get out of the one it loves and make her live again.
Ba-dum.
The drums are getting louder…
The Doctor always did dread the day he'd take her body home. To her mother. And even though he knew the day would now never come, he didn't feel any less pain for it. His heart was turning over and this time, he didn't bother wiping the tears away. He knew he shouldn't have come. Watching her die all over again, being torn away from him… no one deserved that, not even him. He couldn't. Nothing in the universe deserved it.
He carried her down the hallways, knowing he could not take her back home in his one seated pod. Knowing that his TARDIS was on a different planet. A feeling of utter helplessness enveloped the Doctor and he sat down on the floor with a bump, leaning against the wall, wiping away the tears angrily.
He looked at Rose Tyler's face with regret and whispered the words she'd never heard, was never going to hear. The words that he himself never thought he would hear. They came out anyway, despite his best efforts to keep them in.
"I love you too, Rose Tyler. I love you, too."
BA-DUM.
The golden light flickers. It hears.
That was all it needed.
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Rose's eyes opened and she saw herself, saw her wet clothes. Wet, but not damaged. Her every limb hurt and her skin burnt, but with her hand pressed to her face, she could see nothing had been damaged. It was a wonder she was alive. Who had saved her? She could remember so little. Mickey? No. He couldn't have saved her. Or… maybe this was death. One voice she had heard earlier had been impossible… it had to be…
She jumped up, feeling the pain bite at her flesh but not caring. It had been too real to be a dream. Way too real. No… where was he? Where…?
She heard a door slam.
She turned a round, and ran, ran as if for her life. Her fingers grasped the door handle and she desperately pulled it open, determined to see the figure that she'd longed to see for seven years. Tears of joy and relief blurred her vision but that didn't stop her, when she saw the light, from identifying the shape ahead of her. She slammed the door, cried an incoherent cry to the sky as she slipped out of what looked like a giant factory, all trace of illusion gone.
It couldn't be…
It was…
It was him…
The Doctor heard a cry behind him, so familiar. He would have turned around if he knew it wasn't just the old memories. He was thinking unwillingly as he went back to the ship. He was so guilty, felt so evil for leaving her in a deserted corridor, but what other choice could there be? Burying her in alien soil? That was almost as bad. Out in the open, where time would gradually reduce her bones to dust. None were appealing and none were right, but he didn't have a choice.
"Doctor!"
The voice was thick like the person had been crying, or was desperate. She'd said that so many times, seven years ago.
"Doctor!"
Long time ago. He'd never hear it again…
"DOCTOR!"
And that time, he heard it, and he looked around. She was a figure full of life who'd looked so dead before. Who should be dead. She'd had no heartbeat, no nothing. All these facts rolled through his head but none of them registered because right then, the Doctor was running as fast as he could back to the headquarters, back to her, back to someone who always sprang back and…
He enveloped her in his arms. He didn't care about anything else. The thoughts stopped as he felt her crying tears of joy into his coat. Time stopped as he whirled her through the air in the close embrace and he felt her sob against him. Which was okay. She was entitled to do so. He was crying real tears himself.
After what seemed eternity they pulled away and he looked at her directly, like he couldn't believe she was real. She tried to say something to him, but it wouldn't come out; he saw her eyes scrunch up as she tried to suppress more sobs. And then she said it. It needed to be said. He'd waited for those words for so long. Even these.
She smiled up at him, through the tears, and even though it wavered, he knew she was joyful.
"You," she sobbed, "you look like you need a cup of tea," she choked.
The Doctor smiled, and he hugged her again. He was never going to let go of her again. And on the spur of the moment, he said the happy words that he knew she'd always wanted to her.
"I love you, Rose Tyler. I really do!"
And it was true. Because seven years is a long time, and they'd both had time to think.
And their thoughts had stayed as stubborn as ever. And it didn't matter.
Because this was their reunion.
A/N:
Finished
Enjoy a sequel, if I write it.
And I hope that 'cut the dust'. Least, I hope it did. Please review with your thoughts. I may write an epilogue
StrangePrinciples.
