Standing in the communications room the following day and waiting for the Architect to initiate contact, Rose let her mind linger over the previous twenty-four hours filled with goodbyes.
Her mum had been the hardest.
While Rose had spent the afternoon playing with her brother, snapping pictures and cramming in as many memories as she could manage, she'd felt her mum's eyes on her the entire time.
It was only after Pete had put Tony to bed and retreated to his home office that Jackie dragged her to the kitchen, plied her with tea, and all but erupted.
Her fear forced out words intended to guilt Rose into staying, but Rose wasn't a nineteen-year-old girl anymore, who thought that the best she could do was eat chips, work in a shop, and come second bed to a football match in the eyes of her comfortable boyfriend...
"How d'yah know you can trust this Shadow person then, eh?" Jackie demanded, barely avoiding slamming a mug of tea onto the table in front of Rose.
The crash of the mug against the glass table made Rose wince, and Jackie lifted her eyes to the ceiling for a moment, both of them holding their breath to see if the toddler upstairs would wake or not.
When the rest of the house stayed silent, Jackie turned her eyes back to Rose and glared at her, "They could be tricking you, or lying, you could die, Rose!"
Rose wasn't used to her mum's anger being hissed at her, quietly. She was much more comfortable with the loud shouting matches that had so often erupted when they lived on the estate, but she also didn't want to wake her brother so she let her mum rage quietly, while trying to keep her own temper. Waiting until Jackie's rant died down enough for Rose to answer without raising her own voice.
"The Shadow Proclamation is a galactice wide law enforcement... group," Rose tried to explain. She really didn't know too much about them, but that was the last thing she wanted to tell her mum, who was already in a near panic.
They know I don't belong here, and they're well within their rights to execute me for the damage being here is doing, so why would they lie?" Rose asked, forcing herself to ignore her mum's whimper of fear and tear-filled blue eyes. "We have no allies or weapons that would be strong enough to fight them, so there's nothing stopping them from pressing charges. They have nothing to gain from tricking me, and everything to gain by helping me get back home—"
Rose cut herself off quickly, but it was too late. The moment the words left her lips, she smothered a wince as her mum's eyes flared, furious all over again. 'Home' had been the wrong word to use, but it was too late to retract it now, so she resigned herself to the often-repeated argument.
"This is your home. You are home, Rose! He left you here, and if there's a way to get back then why hasn't he found it, hmm? You're not smarter than a nine-hundred-year-old alien, madam, so don't go thinkin' you can manage what he can't! Airs and graces, I always said you'd start getting 'em if you forgot where you come from—"
"Enough," Rose hissed, "the tardis is my home. You are my family, but so is the Doctor and the Tardis. Everyone moves out, everyone leaves home eventually and finds their own place in the universe," she snapped, still struggling not to turn the argument into a screaming match.
Rose took a slow breath, lips pressed together for a moment before she continued, slightly calmer but still furious as her mum gaped at her in surprise. "What exactly do you want me to do, mum?" she asked quietly, "Stay here until you die and I have no one left? Nothing to live for? 'Cause that's what's would have happened. Except now my choices are to leave or die."
There was a finality to her words that Rose hadn't intended, and she quickly scooped up the tea in front of her and smothered her hurt and anger in a mouthful of the hot, soothing liquid. Choking down the words still bubbling on her tongue, the heat or their acidity scalding her throat as she swallowed hard.
Her mum was staring at her in shocked silence, but a moment later Rose could feel the tension leak out of the room, and her mum's warm hand landed on her shoulder, pulling her around in her seat and into a hug.
"I'm sorry, Rose," she whispered, voice full of emotions and Rose instantly caved, returning the hug tightly, her arms curling around her mum almost hard enough to hurt. "I'm just gonna miss you, love. I don't wanna lose you but I understand. I do, really. S'just..." Jackie pulled back and cupped Roses' face with her hands, thumbs brushing across her cheeks as she smiled and, Rose met her eyes feeling tears climbing her throat against her will. "You're my baby, an' I worry about you. An' that's never gonna change."
Rose offered a watery smile and nodded, "You'll always be my mum, an' I'll never ever forget you. You know that, right?" she choked out. "No matter where or when I am. You helped to make me who I am... couldn't get rid of you if I tried," she forced herself to tease, laughing softly when Jackie swatted the back of her head, knocking her blonde locks over her shoulder before they both returned to their tea.
Neither of them said anything more that night, and when Rose went home to pack what she wanted to take, neither of them said goodbye. If Jackie hugged her a little harder than usual, for a little longer or Roses' voice broke as she whispered her love in her mum's ear, then it wasn't mentioned.
Rose knew that if there was a way to visit like she had before, then there would be no stopping her. But she also knew it wasn't possible. She'd never see her mum again, but at least this way she could have the Doctor and the Tardis, or at the very least her own world back. If she stayed, she'd have no one and be forever out of place. Or dead. Staying was no longer an option. If it had ever really been an option at all.
Mickey had surprised her the most. Even knowing how much the spineless teen had changed into a confident man, his easy acceptance of her decision had been unexpected, and when he'd shown up at her front door that morning to see if she needed anything, she'd not been able to do anything other than pull him into a tight hug...
The doorbell rang through the large flat, and Rose shoved the last piece of her omelette into her mouth before heading for the door. It would be the last time she'd ever have post, and she couldn't stop a bright grin creeping over her face.
"Morning Tom, anything good or all bills today?" she asked as the door swung open, blinking in surprise when she realised it wasn't her postman but Mickey, laughing at her softly.
"Hey, I heard you've found a way back. Thought you might need a hand packing," he offered, eyes smiling at her, and she'd flung her arms around his neck, letting him catch her.
"When did you get back?"
Late last night, but what's all this for?" he asked, even though she could hear him grinning, and Rose forced herself to pull back, wiping away tears quickly.
"I thought everyone was gonna make this so damn hard. Thank you," she admitted, and Mickey sighed.
"Your mum?"
Rose nodded, dragging him into her flat and closing the door behind him before heading towards the kitchen, Mickey on her heels. "Yeah. I mean, I get it. Really, but.. she knows I've been looking since that day on the beach..." Rose sighed, shrugging one shoulder. She lifted the kettle in a silent offering of tea, but Mickey shook his head.
"I don't think Jackie ever thought you'd actually find a way," he said, leaning against the door frame, arms crossing. "I warned her though. I told her that nothing would stop you two finding each other again. It's what you both do. It's what you're good at."
"What d'yah mean?" Rose asked, and she could feel that she was staring, eyes wide with surprise at her ex's faith in her but he just grinned in the face of her shock.
"Rose, it's always been you an' him, yeah? Ever since 'Did I mention it travels in time?' Ever since 'Did you miss me?' Ever since 'Always wait five an' a half hours'," Mickey explained, hands lifting into teasing air-quotes as he reeled off some choice lines he'd heard the Doctor use over the years, and Rose swallowed hard, a single tear finally sliding down her face.
"Oh babe," he murmured, stepping into the kitchen and gently brushing the droplet off her cheek. "Every person on Earth dreams of finding a love like that. I'd bet most people in any universe. I know how much you love yah mum, but you can't give up a future for a past. I think Jackie knew that, but..."
"But it still means losing me, yeah," Rose finished softly.
"Now come on, no more cryin'. You got that rucksack you nicked from the recon teams' equipment room?" he asked, moving from the kitchen into the living room, and still calling over his shoulder. "Should be able to fit a good number of momentos into that thing. Your photo albums could sit in the bottom and your laptop'll hold the rest of your pictures, right?"
Rose had taken a long moment to stare at her oldest friend while he dug through her cupboards, searching for the oversized rucksack that she'd not even thought about. He sought it out so that she could pack away her memories and take them with her, and a flush of gratitude ran through her that made Rose step across the room and pull him into another tight hug, with a softly whispered thanks.
He'd returned her hug gently, letting her lean on him for several long minutes until Rose managed to pull herself together, and the two of them spent a quiet morning filled with laughter while packing the important parts of her life into a rucksack.
Around lunchtime, Mickey had driven her to Torchwood so that she didn't have to take her car, and Rose had settled herself into the communications room to wait.
As she watched time slip by, minute by minute, Rose didn't expect her team to track her down for their own farewells, and for the opportunity to speak to her one last time.
Alone with her, each of them had words of thanks, gratitude, trust, love and affection. regret that she was leaving, understanding that she had to. Needed to. Wanted to.
Their support, like Mickey's, brought her near tears several times, but overall Rose drew from their strength in the same way they always drew from each other out in the field.
Mickey would take her place as team leader, and in that role he eventually ushered everyone back to their office, leaving her alone to wait. The quiet hum of the machines the only sound to mark the passage of time.
It was nearly one o'clock when Rose heard the door open again, and she turned her head to see Pete Tyler standing there, gently closing the door behind him and she smothered a tired sigh.
"Rose," he greeted, and she forced a smile onto her lips that drew him closer, to stand beside her, his arms folded.
The silence held until Rose blew out a breath and forced herself to speak first. "Thanks," she whispered, and Pete glanced at her the question in his eyes and in the arch of his raised eyebrow. "For looking after mum. For loving her," she clarified.
Pete nodded, lips pressing together firmly. "I'm sorry I couldn't quite manage to do the same for you," he offered, but Rose shook her head.
"Nah, you were right. I don't belong here, I'm wrong. Besides, I think I might have resented you if you'd tried to take the place of my dad. You're a good person, Pete, but you were right, you're not him." she paused, and nudged his arm with her shoulder gently, shooting him a genuine smile this time, "You made a great step-dad though, Pete. I'm gonna miss you."
She heard him clear his throat before he suddenly turned and pulled her into a tight hug, pressing his cheek to the top of her head as he all but crushed her to him.
"You take care now. I don't wanna have to tell your mother you got stuck somewhere, and Torchwood had to rescue you," he told her roughly. Rose nodded against his chest, her throat tight, but the sound of an incoming communication made Pete release her and step back quickly.
"I couldn't be a dad to you, but you are an amazing young woman, Rose," he told her gently. "The Doctor had better realise just how lucky he is," he added before he shot a glance at the incoming message light and shook his head, sobering quickly. "You'd better get that, Agent Tyler, We shouldn't keep our guests waiting."
It was the last thing he said to her, before leaving the room. He hesitated at the door, but Pete didn't look back at her, and Rose watched him step out of the room and snap the door closed before answering the Architects call.
Rose was brought aboard the ship with what she figured was some parallel version of a transmat beam. While it didn't induce the amnesia Rose had experienced on Platform One, she did find herself violently ill for nearly an hour.
While she was being treated in the small medical bay on the ship, they left the Earth behind and by the time she was able to make her way back to the command deck to finally meet the Shadow Architect face-to-face, the view outside the ship was filled with darkness and distant glimmering stars.
The first thing to strike Rose was just how tall the Architect was. Rose stared for a long moment, before deciding that she was even taller than the Doctor, flushing when she realised what she'd been doing.
"Sorry," Rose offered, "It's good to meet you in person, at last."
"We've nearly reached our destination," the Architect responded simply. "When you expressed a desire to leave, the Proclamation sought a way to facilitate your departure," she explained, becoming Rose closer and indicating an empty seat at a disconnected control panel, returning to her own seat where she could overlook her ship's crew.
"We currently have in our custody a creature that was banished into the void at the dawn of the universe. She would already have been executed for escaping her prison, except that she is dying and requested clemency," the Architect continued. "Her situation has been under debate for some time, but it seems that she can be of use to us in solving the dilemma of your presence in this universe."
Rose frowned as she listened, and shook her head, "But if she was banished into the void, why aren't you sending her back?" she asked, and the albino smiled, apparently approving of the question.
"The situation is this. The Carrionite claims to be capable of sending you back to your original universe. We have no way of banishing the Carrionite back into the void, so our options in regards to her fate are execution or allowing her to spend the remainder of her life on an isolated world before she passes from the universe naturally."
The Architect paused for a moment before her gaze settled on Rose once more. "A few months here will not do irreparable harm to our universe, so in exchange for her assistance in returning you to where you come from, the Proclamation has agreed to her request. The Carrionite problem is solved either way but this course of action prevents an unnecessary death on your part."
"I'm rather grateful for that honestly," Rose muttered, and the Architect inclined her head. "So, it seems simple enough, yeah?" Rose continued, clearing her throat slightly, and keeping her fingers interlaced to stop them twisting together nervously, but the Architect smiled in a way that made Rose think the woman could see right through her act.
"You are wise to be wary," the Architect admitted softly, "the danger involved is unknown. We could seek another way, but there is no guarantee that there is another way and, in the meantime, the Carrionite may die, trapping you here all over again and sentencing you to death in the process.
Rose swallowed hard. There was a lump in her throat and it stole her words, so she let herself stay silent, turning the Architects words over in her head. She didn't know how much time passed but the Architect made no move to disturb her thoughts and eventually Rose was able to gather herself and list her determined gaze to the blood-red orbs still watching her.
"I'd like to speak to the Carrionite first but... but I don't think this is an opportunity I can pass up," she admitted and the woman across from her nodded.
"Were our positions reversed, I suspect would feel the same way," the Architect agreed. "I'll have one of the crew show you to your room. The arrinites are not the easiest creatures to converse with. You should rest before we arrive."
The tone of their conversation was the friendliest it had been so far. The woman's words were compassionate, and her manner gentle, bordering on pleasant, but Rose could still sense the dismissal in the suggestion and couldn't smother her grin.
Rules and regulations, she'd predicted, and now that the job had been explained, and the course set, she'd been ordered off to sleep like a misbehaving child.
Regardless of how much Rose wanted to stay where she could get the most information, she felt content knowing that she'd accurately assessed the species, despite not knowing what that species was, and let herself be escorted away and settled into a small but comfortable bunk, with a small window that let her gaze out upon a field of stars.
While she had done nothing more taxing than sit and talk, the excitement and trepidation flooding her system had drained her, and Rose quickly fell into a dream of finding the Doctor again and being pulled into a hug for the first time in what felt like forever.
When a crew member came to wake her up, the ship had already docked and Rose could honestly say that she had absolutely no idea where she was.
Being led off the ship and into a space station of some kind, what Rose assumed was the location of the Shadow Proclamation, she allowed herself to observe her surroundings with barely veiled interest.
The tall hallways were made of some kind of white stone, the tiles beneath her feet were sleek, their unpigmented surface was unmarked by dirt or scuff marks and even the lights were producing a bright colourless glow that gave everything a stark and clinical feel.
As he was guided down several flights of stairs, Rose was led into a hallway that was lined on one side by what looked like simple yet comfortable hotel rooms. The only difference was the containment fields stopping the prisoners from leaving, or the visitors from entering.
Her guide explained that the Architect had given permission for Rose to speak with the Carrionite, but when she left the cellblock she must have her decision prepared. To leave, or to remain in a cell of her own in the hopes that an alternative method of transportation could be found.
A small stool was placed outside of one of the hotel-room prisons, and then her escort left Rose alone, retreating via the door they'd brought her in through.
Approaching slowly, Rose sank onto the seat and gazed into the room, but the starkness of the surroundings gave her nothing to do but stare.
The being that stepped towards the containment field looked like an old woman, wrinkles coating her features and her frame curled in on itself. Rotting from the inside out. White eyes showed age-old wisdom and a level of danger that was unexpected from her feeble looking frame. While her wispy hair floated as though dancing in a light breeze, she slowly limped her way towards Rose, coming to a stop just short of the containment field and leaning heavily on a long walking staff.
"Valient Child, Bad Wolf, Rose Tyler..." the old woman croaked, and Rose's eyes narrowed.
"You're not as blind as you appear," she responded softly, pulling a cackle of laughter from the Carrionite.
"You are my salvation, or my executioner," the crone told her before shuffling backwards and lowering herself carefully to perch on the end of her small bed. Only once she was settled did she lift her milky white eyes, meeting Rose's gaze directly despite her apparent blindness. "Do you seek to travel between dimensions, Rose Tyler?"
"What's your name?" Rose asked, ignoring the question. The Carrionite knew she did, that was the whole point of their mutual deal with the Shadow Proclamation.
"Names have power, Rose Tyler," the Carrionite said before falling silent, but Rose simply waited and eventually the Carronite grunted in surrender. "I am Mother Deathswing. I am Carrionite as you are Human. I am Wordsmith as you are Team Leader."
If she didn't know better, Rose would have thought this woman was merely an old human, but there was a power in her words that made the air vibrate when she spoke, and her staring white eyes and the small smile of amusement twisting Deathswing's lips drew a shiver across Roses' skin.
"The Shadow Architect says that you claim to have a way of returning me to my original universe," Rose said, waiting for a moment to see if Deathswing would pick up the thread of the conversation, but she remained silent so Rose continued. "How can you do it? How does it work?"
"Luck," the Carrionite said simply, her smile twisting up further into a grin, baring sharp teeth, but she sobered in the face of Rose's frown. "Allow me to explain. I am a Carrionite," she said slowly, her voice rasping but firm. "Our abilities range into what humans would call magick. My kind thrive on death and destruction, blood and bones, and for many ages we roamed across the universe spreading death in our path and thrilling in it. But all things must end, and The Eternals found a way to banish into the deep dark. That place they called the Howling, and you call the Void."
"If you were banished, then how are you here now?"
"Some of us escaped. Two of my sisters, and a child, returned to where we came from to attempt a return of the Carrionites. But I am old. So very old, even for my kind... so I chose a different direction. An entirely new universe so that I might live to the end of my life, without the threat of banishment once more hanging over my head."
Deathswing's head bowed slightly, and Rose could almost hear the silent sigh she released, "Things didn't go exactly as I planned," she growled, her frustration with her own predicament leeching through into her words and Rose could see her milk-white eyes darting around her prison.
"I am dying. My life is limited to months, at best, so I pleaded my case to live out my days on a comfortable planet. When they were seeking a way to travel dimensions I sensed that I may be of some use to them and leveraged my aid appropriately." Deathswing returned her gaze to Rose and studied her for a moment in silence, but Rose continued to listen, waiting patiently until the Carrionite continued, "I can open you a stable gateway between this universe and the one you came from."
"But you still haven't said how," Rose shot back quickly, forcing back a sigh of frustration with the Carrionite, and she clasped her hands together with forced patience. "I want to make sure I'm not going to shatter the multiverse if I accept your help—"
"I would like to be alive at the end of your journey as well, Rose Tyler. I gain nothing from obliteration. The procedure is perfectly safe for the multiverse. I couldn't send just anyone across the endless nothing but somehow, someway, and somewhere, one of my sisters has named you, Rose Tyler. That naming has created a link between here and there that I can manipulate to catapult you across the void."
Rose was silent for a long moment, turning this new knowledge over in her mind carefully. If someone had 'named' her, whatever that meant, it had to have something to do with the Doctor. She could see no other reason why a creature in a parallel world would be interested in her, especially not a creature that she'd never even encountered before. And that made her all the more determined to find her way back.
"What are my chances?" Rose asked softly, lifting her eyes from where they'd sunk to stare at the floor as she thought, "How likely am I to come out the other side alive?"
"You will be alive on the other side, but there are risks, of course. There is no time inside the void and so the Journey may take you a matter of minutes, or a matter of years. There is simply no way to tell. The time at which you emerge will be pure chance, but will be after the moment you left that world," Deathswing explained, taking another slow, rasping breath before she could continue.
"The other risk is how your isolation will affect you. There is no time, as I said, so you will not age, but there is also no light or dark. No sound or silence. There's no telling what possible side effects the isolation of your senses may cause when you emerge on the other side."
"Any other risks? Dangers? Possible disastrous problems, or dimensions shattering issues?" Rose asked, arms crossing as a deep frown of through crept over her slowly, but the Carrionite shook her head.
"None. You will arrive on the other side alive, sometime after you left, and both universes will be unharmed from the travel. That is all I can guarente."
Rose nodded and leant back on the stool with a sigh. What more could she ask than that? It was the best opportunity she'd stumbled over since Bad Wolf Bay. Even if her life hadn't been on the line, Rose knew this was a chance she'd always have leapt on, and damn the consequences.
"You'd better start thinking about what planet you want to retire to," Rose told the Carrionite softly, and the old woman's whole frame relaxed in almost palpable relief. Different species and cultures; Aliens to each other in every way, the Human and the Carrionite shared a small smile of two people searching for a happy ending and now awaited the Shadow Architect's summons in oddly companionable silence.