A/N: Thought I'd do something different and start with a lyric. Yay System! Sorry this chapter has been so long coming (there's only four more chapters, I think). Hey! It's my only day off today, and I had to drive 100 kilometres to use the computer. So go easy on me. I'm living in a caravan at the moment, and at four-thirty in the morning, when I get up, it's C-O-L-D! Brr.
This chapter is dedicated to my brother's first son, Levi, who was born on Friday night.

xxx xxx

I have a problem that I cannot explain

I have no reason that it should've been so plain

I have no questions but I sure have excuses

I lack the reason why I should be so confused

I, I know, how I feel when I'm around you

I, don't know, how I feel when I'm around you

-Roulette, System of a Down

xxx

Where was she?

The Doctor squinted into the dark, his mind reeling, body tense and frozen. Before him, the twin hydra heads of the desert worms swayed hypnotically. Ready to strike.

Where was Rose?

"Doctor!"

To his left, the nicotine yellow smear of predawn was spreading. Stars faded overhead, but the light was still too weak to do anymore than outline the worm's smooth flanks.

"Rose?"

"Get away from them!"

Rose was crouched behind a short sand dune, watching. The Doctor was mere feet away from the worms, but a half dozen yards beyond Rose's reach. She was still groggy from sleep, and trembling violently. Her stomach squirmed with nausea, fear for herself, fear for the Doctor. Too much fear.

"Doctor, get back!" she shrieked.

Grubby light shimmied along a rearing serpent neck. A split second later, the huge axe head crashed nose-first to the ground.

The second worm let out a shrill hiss, and jerked the remainder of its colossal body from the sand. It writhed across the dunes, directionless at first, then heading straight towards Rose.

Yards away, the Doctor was sprawled out on the sand, winded but otherwise unharmed. A dawn zephyr, stirred by the heat of the rising sun, kicked dust in his face. Since only the very top of the worm's head had hit him, the Doctor guessed the gentle breeze had been enough to throw it off the scent.

"Must be my lucky day." He groaned, propping himself up on one elbow.

Silhouetted against the murky blue sky, the desert worm loomed over him. It hissed, globs of drool dripping from its cavernous mouth.

"Or maybe not."

Forgetting the fire in his stomach and the lead in his limbs, the Doctor scrambled up, battered joggers slipping on the sand.

He ran on blindly, head filled with the guttural roars of the worm behind him. He slid down a dune, clambered up another, tumbled down the next. There was no time to hide, no place concealed enough even if there was time. The worm had his trail now, and it wasn't letting up.

"Over here!"

A woman's shout. Not Rose. It must have been Odjya then, which meant she hadn't been killed. A promising start to the day.

The Doctor steered himself in the direction of the call. His foot hit a strangely soft dune, sunk in, and stuck. He wrenched it out, barely aware of what he was doing, and kept running. The cool sand was a sudden shock under the same foot, and the Doctor realised his sneaker was missing.

The worm had a confusing moment where it was suddenly confronted with two delicious-smelling meals, one moving and one stagnant. The stagnant one was almost overwhelming in its potency, full of the smell of life and sweat and blood.

"And Rose told me to wear socks." The Doctor smiled to himself, pausing to watch the desert worm rip his beloved abandon Chuck Taylor behind.

Odjya wasn't far away. There was a patch of red, welted skin on her forearm that looked almost as fierce as her expression. Instead of nursing the wounded appendage, Odjya let it hang freely by her side, forsaken. For her part, the time lady was squatting in the shelter of a small outcrop of sandstones.

"Are you injured?" Odjya demanded, rising when she saw the Doctor.

"Not really. Bit annoyed. They could have waited until day time until they assailed us." He grinned, not looking annoyed in the slightest, "How're you? Sore arm, I see."

Odjya gave a one-shoulder shrug. "Flesh wounds are nothing. Where's your ape, by the way?"

"She's-"

The Doctor stopped mid-sentence, and stared at the time lady. Rose! He glanced around futilely. There was a definite lack of Rose.

"If you wait for a moment-"

Odjya didn't bother finishing her own sentence. The Doctor was gone, running back out into the open.

"That human is going to get him killed." The time lady muttered, lifting an axe from her belt. "And that won't be good at all."

Shrill screams echoed around the dunes. Human or desert worm, it was hard to tell. Odjya had never been much of a connoisseur of screams. She didn't even know if the new sound, the howl of agony or frustration or whatever else, belonged to the Doctor.

Axe in hand, Odjya stepped out from behind her shelter.

She did know one thing.

That girl was getting in the way.

xxx

"Rose!"

The Doctor was panting hard, openly terrified. He couldn't count the amount of times he'd fallen in the sand, but he guessed it was enough to put Frodo to shame.

Feet away, the desert worms had their slimy backs to him. Both of the amphibian monsters were crowded around a single, small object, the huddled figure of Rose. Now, as he called out, one worm snapped its head around to listen.

The flaps of skin that covered its nostrils flared up, open, and the worm snorted deeply. Nearly deaf and completely blind, the desert worm's sense of smell was second to none. They could smell life through the body of the earth, buried miles deep. Their existence was that of an caged animal, trapped by their own lack of senses. They were mad, cruel things, that lived only to seek out life and destroy it, extinguish the scent, so they could be left to their own dark oblivion.

This fact was something very much used to the advantage of that pompous race that called themselves the creators. It was also a fact that ultimately contributed to their extinction.

"Doctor! Where have you been?" Rose demanded, rasing her head to glare at him. "These bloody worms are trying to eat me, you know!"

"Shh!" the Doctor hissed furiously at her, finger pressed to his lips.

He took a cautious step back, trying to get his bearings. He was actually very close to where they'd set up camp. Sleeping skins and travel packs were strewn across several metres of churned-up desert floor. The fire pit was closest. It was dead, no flames stirring amongst the grey ashes.

"Fire!" Rose mouthed, when the Doctor glanced helplessly at her.

She gave a short scream and lunged to the side as one worm's head crashed towards her. It missed by inches, and Rose let out a frightened wail. She knew there was no chance of her outrunning the worms once they locked onto her, and Rose had no shoes to spare. Both boots were sitting, quite forgotten, in her travel pack.

"There's none!" the Doctor mouthed back urgently. Perspiration beaded on the back of his neck. Cold sweat felt like ants crawling down his back.

"Hurry!" Rose cried, wringing her hands. She barely managed to scrambled out of the way a second time, the worm slamming its head down once again.

This was too much for the worm that had been endeavouring to get a fix on the Doctor. He was too confusing, moving too much, not offering any noises to ascertain he was living. It recalled the last thing it had eaten that smelled like that had not tasted particularly good at all.

That left Rose with the problem of two worms lunging at her, one after the other, while she wailed and scrambled madly.

"Do something!" she shrieked, presumably to the Doctor, scuttling out of the way of yet another strike on all fours.

He didn't want to die.

Neither did Rose.

"Hold on!" he shouted, jerking into action.

There was still life in the ashes. A tiny coal glowed orange for a moment, then died. Never mind that. There were more ashes, more coals, buried beneath that dead top layer.

"You'll heal."

The Doctor said these two words of self-encouragement under his breath, moving to stand over the fire pit. He ground his teeth together and stooped over, pushing his hands through the warm grey ash at the top of the pit, and into the fiery hot depths.

A wisp of fire raced up the length of his arm for a second, and the potent smell of burning hair was thick in the air. Never mind that. His shoulders trembled with the effort it took not to pull his hands out of the coals, away from the searing heat.

"Hurry up!" Rose screamed, by now more than a dozen yards away.

"I'm trying!" the Doctor snarled back.

That was it. That was enough.

With a gasp, the Doctor jerked his hands, buried to the wrist, out of the fire pit. The coals cupped in his hands blazed orange and black, tiny flames flickering between his fingers. There wasn't words enough to describe the pain.

"Flesh wounds are nothing hogwash!" the Doctor growled, jaw grinding.

Stiffly, he jogged towards the worms. They were both swaying, and hissing to each other.

The Doctor bellowed wordlessly at them, and crushed the burning ashes into the flank of the closest worm. The amphibian flesh bubbled under the coals, then split open. Clear yellow fluid flowed over the Doctor's hands as he pushed the coals deeper into the wound, struggling to keep his balance while the worm flailed madly. Its massive body spasmed, slamming against the Doctor. His back hit the ground, and he slid across the sand before coming to a rest.

"Bloody hell." He panted, taking the moment to rest and regroup. His thoughts were all over the place. There was blood in his mouth, and a rush of warmth down his face meant he was bleeding.

Flesh wounds, nothing to worry about. There was no pain anywhere, except his hands. No broken bones this time.

That meant he had no excuse to delay saving Rose. Oh, well.

"Here, take this." The Doctor stared at the figure hovering over him.

Slim, girlish, holding out an axe. Odjya.

The time lady held out her free hand, and the Doctor reached up to take it. Odjya took one look at his hands, and grabbed his wrist instead.

"Take it. I'll fix any injuries afterwards." Odjya said, after she hauled the Doctor to his feet. She handed him the axe, the one Rose claimed to be African.

The time lady took a second axe from her belt, and started towards the worms. Rose was nowhere in sight.

"Odjya, wait."

She stopped. Without looking back, she said, "We have to hurry if we're going to stop the Gymnophionan from devouring her."

The Doctor stared at her. For a second, even the raging pain in his hands seemed dulled. His hearts beat as furiously fast as they had when he was afraid. Well. He still was afraid.

"Can you really have a child?" he demanded, tightening his grip on the axe. Letting the pain drag him back to reality.

"I can." Odjya said.

She waited a moment longer, wondering if there were any more questions. When none came, she trotted down the dune. She twirled the axe between her fingers as if were nothing more than a cheerleaders baton, anticipating the fight.

The Doctor stared at her retreating back for a few long seconds before following. His jaw ground back and forth. For once in his life, all his confidence was gone. He was almost reluctant.

Odjya, on the other hand, was positively ecstatic. She was humming to herself, just softly enough that the Doctor wouldn't overhear. They had their prize; with a worm or two in tow, they could go back to Gymnophiona that very day. From there, it would only be a matter of days before everything was ready.

Imagine! Gallifrey, alive.

Almost casually, Odjya stepped up the closest worm. This wasn't the injured creature. That worm was several feet ahead of her, making frenzied attempts to capture the human girl.

"Good bye." Odjya hummed. She brought the axe up in a graceful arc, twirled it between two fingers, and slashed down.

The worm's bloated side split from back to belly. Odjya twirled the axe again, leant back, and flicked forwards. Intestine, brown in the now gold light, slopped out to the sand. A horizontal slash, as long as Odjya's arm span, bisected the first cut.

"And now your friend." She said, smiling at the dying worm.

Odjya sidesteps the worm's wild thrashes, and flittered over to the second creature. She had to move fast to come between the worm, who was readying itself for a strike, and the human.

"Watch your head, monkey." Odjya warned, stepping in front of the girl.

"Do you want a hand?" the Doctor called, jogging to catch up.

Odjya smiled. One good, swing slash opened the injured worm from the base of its body to the bony ridge of its jaw. She jumped to one side to avoid to rush of purplish blood that poured from the split worm, and hung the axe back on her belt.

"I'm fine on my own, thanks." Odjya said, smirking.

"Thank you!" Rose squeaked.

As much as she disliked the time lady, Rose had to admit that Odjya was far better at dealing with the worms. In fact, she was so good at it that Rose decided that she would make sure to get out of the way straight away, and let the other woman deal with it should they encounter any worms in the future. Didn't want to crowd her, after all.

"Are you alright?" the Doctor demanded, brushing past Odjya and crouching down beside Rose. Feet away, the worm twitched one last time, and slumped down, lifeless.

"Yeah, I'm alright." Rose gave him a small smile. "I think we both would have been worm meat if it wasn't for her, though."

The Doctor lay the axe down carefully on the sand. He hugged Rose tightly, squeezing her hard enough that she could scarcely breath.

"Rose, Rose, Rose." He mumbled, pressing his face against hers, "I almost lost you, Rose."

"Okay!" Rose choked, "Down, boy!"

"Oh. Sorry." The Doctor released her. He leant back on his heels, not taking his eyes off hers.

"Are you okay?" Rose wondered, fearful of this grinning maniac before her. "Since when are you so worried about a silly ol' ape like me, hey?"

There was more than relief for her safety in the Doctor's mind. He stared at her, this human he cherished so much, and suddenly felt greatly relieved.

It didn't matter that Odjya was a time lady. It didn't matter that she was the last, the very last, of his people that he would ever see. Odjya had asked him a question, and, looking at Rose, he knew the answer.

"I'm glad you're not hurt." The Doctor said, his eyes warm.

"I really do hate to interrupt." Odjya cut in before Rose could reply, "But seeing as we do have the worms here, I see no reason to stay any longer. As soon as we pack up camp, we can return to Gymnophiona."

Rose glared at her. "How about you do that, then? Give us some privacy for a minute."

"Doctor? Do you want privacy with your pet?" Odjya asked, as politely as she could manage. Only with iron determination she kept from leaping over the Doctor's head and strangling the stupid monkey girl.

"Yeah." The Doctor glanced up Odjya, who was standing far too close for his liking. "We'll be up in a minute to help you pack."

Odjya stared at Rose for a moment longer, before spinning on her heel and stalking off across the dunes.

"She's a bit intense, isn't she?" Rose said, watching the time lady leave.

The Doctor shrugged. "She's alright. Wouldn't want to spend eternity with her, though."

Rose couldn't help but laugh. They were in the middle of a desert, a hundred miles from the TARDIS and a million miles from home, and the Doctor was worried about commitment.

"What?" he wondered, giving her a Look.

"It's nothing." Rose giggled, crying almost as much as she was laughing. "I just don't know what I'd do without you."

"That's good. There, uh. Rose, listen." The Doctor's expression was serious. He was almost frowning, more like he was about to announce an impending war on earth, or the revival of the Daleks, rather than what he actually had to say.

"Go on." Rose smiled, eyes shinning. She put a hand to her mouth to conceal a grin.

"There's just. Something. I just want to, you know. Just tell you. Something." The Doctor stammered, diverting his gaze to the ground. "Before. You know. Anything else happens."

Rose stopped smiling, and snapped to attention. Was this it? Was this what she'd spent so long waiting for?

"I, um. I." at this stage, the Doctor was staring hard at the ground. "I. What's that, Rose?"

"Oh, that." Rose followed his gaze. The broken compass Pg had given her was sitting on the ground between her and the Doctor. "I put it in my pocket before. Must've fallen out."

"It's a compass."

"Pg gave it to me. 's nothing, really. Odjya probably dropped it, and he found it." Rose picked the compass up out of the sand.

"It's Gallifryan lab-issue. Look at the logo on the bottom." The Doctor pointed to the metallic base of the compass.

"Looks like rust to me." Rose muttered.

The Doctor took the compass from her, and squinted at it. He hadn't bothered bringing his glasses all those days ago, figuring tobogganing wouldn't require him to read any fine print. "This isn't that old. It must have only been here a hundred years."

"So what? Odjya's probably been here that long." Rose said. She wanted to get this whole compass conversation over with. She was sure the Doctor was just stalling whatever he'd been about to tell her.

"She's been here a thousand years. So," the Doctor glanced up at Rose. "I don't think this hers."

Rose considered this. It made sense. Odjya hadn't mentioned anything about manufacturing compasses - hell, she had even gone to earth for axes - so where would she get a compass?

"This is a hundred years old." The Doctor said. His voice rose an octave. "And Odjya had been here a thousand. She can't have got it from Gallifrey, and yet it's Gallifryan. Rose, do you know what that means?"

Rose gave up, and admitted to herself that whatever the Doctor had been about to say, she was going to have to wait to hear. Bleeding hell.

"I have no bloody idea." She sighed.

"It means," the Doctor leaned closer to her, until his unruly fringe brushed her forehead, "That there are other Gallifryans here."

"And they didn't invite Odjya to stay with them. Imagine that." Rose smirked.

The Doctor didn't appear to hear her. "They aren't gone."

No more genocide.

"Hey, you might want to think about this-" Rose said, as the meaning of his words dawned on her.

It was too late. The Doctor was on his feet and running in the direction of camp.

"Odjya!" he shouted. The excitement was clear in his voice.

Rose sighed. "Bleeding hell."

xxx xxx

Thanks again for waiting. Please reveiw! I feel so terribly, terribly cold when no one reveiws. ; )
More chapters - hopefully all of them!- this weekend. I'll be back in town then, and the computer will be mine. My cousin kicked me off it last weekend. Dang him. Dang him to heck!

Eek! Last episode of Doctor Who? What are we going watch after?