The Doctor wasn't sure if the fact that he could still manage to be surprised after nine-hundred years of space and time travel was something to marvel at or fear. However, he certainly didn't marvel at or fear the beast that he discovered trapped in the pit at the center of Krop Tor. No, the only thing that he felt for that particular entity was a deep, primal sense of anger and disgust.
That didn't stop the beast from trying, though - it had a particular word for each of them, each message carefully worded to instill a sense of dread. The Doctor didn't miss the fact that the creature didn't have any sort of threat made specifically for him - he suspected that that was because the beast's words for Rose were already the Doctor's own worst nightmare.
"And the lost girl, so very far away from home. The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon."
The Doctor knew that it was a lie - it had to be - but that didn't stop him from throwing caution to the wind in an attempt to confront this beast face-to-face and personally put an end to the monster's vague and sinister threats.
All the while, he felt the emptiness in his head like a gaping wound - the space that he didn't even realize that he had reserved for Rose sitting completely silent and unoccupied in the back of his skull. He didn't even have a way of knowing if she was okay or not - the distance was simply too great. For all he knew, the beast's threats could have been real and his bond with Rose could have been severed forever without him even knowing.
But the Doctor refused to give up on hope - to give up on her - even when the beast's true agenda was revealed and the Doctor realized just how disastrous their situation really was. Destroy the beast, or destroy them all? Let the monster run free, or send them all hurtling into a black hole? The Doctor couldn't help but wonder how many more times he would be forced to make the decision between Rose and the greater good.
"Except," the Doctor insisted as he rattled through his one-sided monologue, "that implies in this big, grand scheme of gods and devils that she's just a victim. But I've seen a lot of this universe. I've seen fake gods and bad gods and demigods and would-be gods, and out of all that - out of that whole pantheon - if I believe in one thing, just one ... I believe in her."
And his simple, honest belief in Rose did just what it always did - it somehow managed to defeat the many odds stacked against them and got them all home safe and sound. Well, it got them away from that insane, impossible planet and the crazed beast, at least.
After the Doctor had finally been reunited with the TARDIS and made his slim escape from Krop Tor, he only had to wait three minutes and eighteen seconds until he heard her voice again, shouting in elation over the comm link that he had opened with Zach's rocket ship. "I'm here! It's me!" she exclaimed eagerly.
Their faded bond came blooming back to life twenty-nine seconds after that, and the Doctor telepathically pulled her as deep into his mind as he could, simultaneously celebrating her return and begging her not to ever leave again.
Knew you'd be back, she hummed happily against his thoughts. Never doubted you for a second.
Me, neither he agreed with a sigh. I knew you could do it.
It was another five minutes and fifty-three seconds before the Doctor finally got to lay eyes on her again - his perfect, beautiful Rose. She burst through the TARDIS doors, smiling grandly up at him as though she couldn't quite believe that he had come back for her (even though they both knew that he always, always would).
They started running at the exact same moment, meeting halfway as they did in all things. He lifted her into the air with his hands wrapped tight around her ribcage, trying to draw her in as close as he possibly could. Her bubbling excitement to see him combined with her pleased hum of satisfaction rang through his head and instantly laid all of his lingering anxieties to rest.
When the Doctor finally parted from her, it was only long enough so that he could step out of the bulky orange environment suit that he had been wearing ever since his descent to Point Zero. It only took thirteen seconds before he pulled her back to him, but he could feel each moment of time as it ticked by, reminding him of the precious nanoseconds that he was wasting. His lips found hers easily after that, but as a wave of sudden desperation crashed over Rose, the kiss quickly turned hard and uncoordinated, her teeth pulling at his lips as though she wanted to devour him whole.
The Doctor clumsily attempted to reach into her mind and find the heart of the matter that had suddenly sparked such a wild flame of nervous fear in her thoughts, but before he could get any sort of grasp on the situation, she was stepping away from him again.
Rose flashed him a small, apologetic smile (and the gesture cut straight to his hearts - why did she think she would ever have to apologize for something like that?) as she reached for the brown, pinstriped jacket that had been slung over the railing next to them and casually helped him into it. He silently continued to question her, but she offered no sort of verbal or telepathic response as they reestablished their comm link with Zach and his team.
"What do you think it was, really?" Rose asked him hesitantly a moment later.
"I think ... we beat it," the Doctor replied simply. "That's good enough for me."
"It said I was going to die in battle," Rose insisted, her brown eyes wide as she watched him, desperate for him to contradict the beast's words and prove the universe wrong.
"Then it lied," he stated with firm confidence, looking straight into her eyes and opening his mind fully to her so that she would know beyond a doubt the depth of his sincerity.
Because the Doctor knew a thing or two about lies - he lived and breathed them. So much of his nine-hundred years of life had revolved around them - it was a necessity, considering the many, dangerous secrets that he kept (both from himself and others). That's why the beast in the pit hadn't affected him the way that it had all of the others - he had recognized immediately how the creature twisted the truth to create fear and discord (an old but dangerously effective trick).
He simply had to believe (had to) that the monster's threat was simply one more example of this. Surely the universe wouldn't be foolish enough to try and take Rose Tyler from him. Surely all of creation knew that if it wanted to go on existing, it would never even dare to cross that line. Because the whole, undeniable truth was that there was no longer any Doctor without Rose Tyler. They were two pieces of the same, single unit. Destroy one, and you destroy the other. It was a deep, abiding fact, and no lie - however great - would ever be able to dispute it.