"You are proof," the Cyberleader later declared without any sort of prompting, "that emotions destroy you."
And, for the first time in his long life, the Doctor had to admit that the metal robot had a point. His emotions had always been an issue, ever since he had been a child - it was one of the reasons why he had originally left Gallifrey. And why did he even bother? What had emotions ever done for him except cause pain, hurt, and loss?
They also bring love, patience, and forgiveness, his bond hummed in reply as Rose reached with concerned curiosity when his morose mood began to seep across their connection.
And hope, he thought as he silently embraced her and solemnly vowed to not stop running until he had her back in his arms again. Always, always hope - especially when it came to Rose.
And it seemed that the universe was content to reward that hope as a group of six people dressed all in black and outfitted with guns and gas masks suddenly shimmered into existence out of thin air right before his eyes and immediately blasted all surrounding cybermen into smithereens.
The Doctor was shocked to see the familiar face of Jake Simmonds among them, but he was even more shocked when the young man flashed him an over-confident smile and hit the yellow button hanging from around his neck, which immediately transported them across dimensions to his own parallel version of Torchwood.
The Doctor barely had time to blink before the queasy feeling of being in an alternate universe hit him square in the gut and his mental bond with Rose was quickly and efficiently severed. The emptiness that he had felt in his head whenever he had been separated from her during one of their adventures in their home universe paled in comparison to what he felt now.
The broken bond was a physical, open wound in his mind and his ache for her nearly knocked the wind from his lungs as he stumbled clumsily on his feet and attempted to settle his dizzying thoughts. The Doctor pressed the heel of his hand to his temple in pain, as though it was a physical injury and he needed to stem the blood flow.
He was distantly aware of the fact that Jake was describing something to him, but the Doctor could suddenly care less about the impending collapse of all reality. All he knew was that he needed to get back to Rose - now.
"I've got to get back," the Doctor insisted desperately. "Rose is in danger, and her mother."
But then suddenly Pete Tyler himself - Vitex millionaire and apparent Torchwood executive - came strolling in and the Doctor silently rolled his eyes and wondered how many more times the combined universes were going to force him to watch this one, simple man die. Pete's easy dismissal of Rose and Jackie made the Doctor grit his teeth together in frustration as he silently cursed the entire human species (and the male sex specifically) for being incapable of thinking outside the parameters of a single reality.
However, Pete was good for one thing, at least - in that he was able to give the Doctor the full background story of the current mess that they were dealing with. It became clear relatively quickly that the dimension jumping was causing a huge disturbance in the fabric of reality and soon every parallel world would begin to suffer for it. That was, if any of the parallel worlds managed to survive the daleks and cybermen, who seemed determine to continue punching their way through reality in an attempt to exterminate/delete all sentient existence in their wake.
The Doctor shivered when they finally returned to his home universe. He could sense that Rose was still in the building - hovering somewhere just outside of his reach - but has he had suspected, their bond didn't immediately snap back into place, despite what he may have wished. With their connection so completely and viciously severed, he knew that they would need time and proximity to rebuild what had been broken.
He couldn't help but breathe a small sigh of relief when he finally strolled into the room that the daleks had taken up headquarters in and had the chance to lay eyes on her once more - Rose and Mickey, both of them still alive and well, at least for now. The wide smile she flashed him the second that her eyes landed on him gave the Doctor the swell of confidence that he needed to face off against one of his greatest foes, but he could see the questioning fear in her gaze as well. She had felt the bond snap just as severely as he had, and she had no idea what was going on.
"How are you?" he asked, grinning teasingly to disguise the fear and pain that still hummed in the back of his mind where he knew that his bondmate was meant to be.
"Oh, same old, you know," she replied casually, her smile not dimming in the least as he came to a halt as near to her as he dared. He knew that one wrong move on either of their parts could cause more pain than comfort with their broken mental bond lying in ruin between them.
But the Doctor's own discomfort had to be pushed aside as he faced off against the four daleks before him, who revealed themselves to be none other than the Cult of Skaro. Suddenly, he felt even more desperate than ever to learn the true meaning and purpose behind the Time Lord device that they referred to simply as the "genesis ark".
Strategizing against daleks had never been a particularly difficult task - they all basically had the same motivation and function: exterminate anything that was not dalek and destroy anything that got in their way. But the members of the Cult of Skaro were another story altogether - they had been created, brought up, and raised to think. The Doctor had never met them in the flesh before, but he thought that facing off against these four unassuming robots might just be his greatest feat yet.
However, even if the Doctor was never able to accomplish the monumental task that loomed before him, he could at least be satisfied with the consolation prize of being responsible for the reuniting of Rose's parents. He wished very dearly that he had still been connected with Rose in that moment, just to be able to share with her in her emotions as she watched her mother and father from two different universes embrace one another.
The Doctor had to settle, instead, for taking her hand in his and meeting her eyes in a silent vow to fix all that had been broken between them. As Rose squeezed his fingers and met his gaze, he could feel her attempting to reach for his thoughts with her own, but he had already constructed a careful barrier around his mind, burying his severed link deep within where she wouldn't be able to find it.
Rose furrowed her brow at him in silent question, but he knew that there wasn't time to explain to her the intricacies of telepathic bonds and how mending them could be like setting a broken bone - getting it wrong could cause devastating, irreparable effects later.
So the Doctor was forced to settle once again as he leaned forward and pressed a quick, comforting kiss to her forehead instead. "Later," was his only whispered promise as he squeezed her fingers tight and then rushed forward to lead them all off further into the Torchwood Tower.
The seed of an idea in his head was beginning to take root and the Doctor thought that he just might be able to save all of them, the entire planet, and all of reality along with it, if he could just manage to work out the last, drastic kinks - namely, how to keep Rose at his side when the universe seemed determined to rip them apart.