Guys, I got such a good response to the last chapter that it motivated me. So here's another chapter!
This chapter is jam packed and has a lot of furthering the plot.
I'm not going to spoil it here, but in the author's note in the end I explain a little about my reasoning for doing what I've done in this chapter.
Enjoy!
~RainingCoffee
PS. I only know what I know of Countdown from what I goggled. Plus it's however many years in the future, any discrepancies can be explained by that, right?
"Hand me that juren laser, would ya?" The Doctor says, hand appearing out of the grating.
I study the tools by my side. "The juren laser is the one that looks like a starfish on the end right?" A faint affirmative reaches my ears. I pick it up and gingerly place it in the Doctor's hands, making sure nothing sharp bites into anything sensitive. Which is harder than it sounds, the whole tool basically looks like a torture device.
There's a burst of light from under the console, then a noise like all the air getting sucked out of somewhere. I peer into the grating while blinking spots out of my eyes. The Doctor pops up, beaming smile and googles firmly in place. "There, that should do it."
"And what was it that we were doing exactly?" I ask, biting back a smile at his appearance. There's a large streak of black across his forehead.
"Re-calibrating the cold fusion connecters." He explains, lifting the googles up and accidently smearing the grease farther across his forehead.
My lips twitch involuntarily. It's taking everything in me not to bust a gut.
The Doctor pauses, tilting his head and studying me. "What?"
"Nothing." I respond, innocently.
He raises an eyebrow, eyes roving over my innocent expression. "Somehow I doubt that."
I gesture for him to lean closer, reaching for the rag that's to my right. The Doctor grumbles but allows me to wipe at his face. "You had grease all across your forehead." I laugh, not able to keep it in anymore.
The Doctor looks down at his hands, which are covered in grease, then turns his attention to me.
"Don't you dare." I caution immediately, already putting my legs underneath me in preparation to bolt.
The Doctor is too fast for me, however, and manages to swipe his fingers across my cheek. I pout at the half of his body I can see, crossing my arms.
Unfortunately, it's lost on him, seeing as he's laughing too hard to notice my expression.
"Hey Spitfire." Jack calls out, startling both me and the Doctor.
I place a hand to my chest, trying to force my heartrate back to normal. "Jesus Jack. You can't sneak up on a girl like that."
Jack rolls his eyes. "I didn't sneak, you were both too busy to hear me walk up. I was standing here for a minute."
The Doctor takes the goggles off all the way, leveraging his way out of the grate. "What is it Jack?"
"I've been elected as spokesperson." Jack says, smiling wryly. "It's been a while since we've had an adventure and I don't know about you, but I'm getting antsy. So is Rose."
"Well, I was giving Willa here a chance to get settled in before we went anywhere." The Doctor's eyes slide to me. "Are you up for it?"
A pang of anxiety rolls through me at the thought. I know it has something to do with the next adventure, but with my fading memories of the future episodes I have no idea why. So I smile and hide my discomfort. "Sure, why not?"
If I had known it was going to jumpstart everything, I would have said no.
xxxx
I startle awake, disoriented and nauseous. Hands grab my arms and pull me into a standing position. "Wha-?"
"It's okay, that was the transmat. Makes you all weird in the head at first." A man tells me. It's not someone I recognize.
"I don't understand, what's going on?" I murmur, looking around. We aren't in the Tardis anymore and that's the last place I remember being.
A woman smiles at me from her position in line. "You've been chosen for the games. Just like we all have."
I open my mouth to ask more questions but there's a noise from the middle of the room and a person disintegrates right in front of my eyes.
The man who first helped me up scoffs. "Must have had the farthest away score."
What? "Who the hell are you people and what the hell just happened?"
"My name is Anna." The woman says, then gestures over to the man. "That there is Brian."
"I told you, we've been chosen for the games." Brian repeats, looking confused.
"I'm Willa." I respond. "And I have no idea what you guys are talking about when you say games."
"That's impossible, everyone knows about the games." Anna tells me.
Shrugging, I make sure to keep an eye on the contestants of this 'game'. It's looks as if every time someone is disintegrated they pull someone from the line to replace them. "Let's just say I'm not from around here."
Brian shakes his head. "I'd say. Never heard of the games. Pah."
"What about you guys then? You obviously know about them, but I just watched a man get murdered. How can you watch something like that?" I demand, deeply disturbed.
Anna frowns, looking upset herself. "It's not like we have a choice."
I keep my silence. All they are doing is painting a picture that I'm not really liking. For some reason I'm coming up blank on what episode this is supposed to be. It's like my brain wants to connect the dots but there's something blocking me from doing so.
Being in line does allow me to observe the rules of the game. It seems to be a number game called Countdown. You were given a set of 6 numbers and had 30 seconds to combine them in any way shape or form to get the number they had on their board. You had to use all the numbers provided.
More people get disintegrated, and so more people get pulled from the line. Until it's time for me to be put in the game.
"So the numbers you are given today are 25, 50, 75, 100, 3, 6. You have to find a way to make those numbers get as close to 952 as possible. There are 30 seconds on the clock." The show host tells us. "Good Luck."
The clock starts counting down. My mind takes off, frantically ticking off the possibilities. I've seen what happened to the other contestants who failed. I have no desire to become vaporized like they were.
What I needed to do was win the game and then somehow break out and find the Doctor.
"Time's up!" The show host calls out, unnatural joy in her voice. "Does anyone have 952?"
Brian is up first. He shakily breathes out. "I have 951."
"I have 951 as well." Anna answers, sure of her answer.
And so it goes on down the line. There are a couple of 950's, even a 954, but no 952's. I was the newest contestant, and so I was called on last. "I have 952."
Instantly a hush falls over the room. Every contestant turns to look at me. Even the show host looks surprised.
"Well then, can you walk us through the process?" She recovers, getting ready to write on the board in front of her.
"First take the 100 and add 6 to it." I say, watching her write the numbers as I say them. "Multiply that by three and then multiply that number by 75."
The show host looks bewildered. "You want me to multiply 318 by 75?"
"Yes." I respond. The show host laughs, but does as I said.
"I'm going to need a calculator for this one." She teases, looking around for someone to hand her one.
I resist the urge to roll my eyes. "It would be 23,850."
The other contestants are starting to look worried now. By this point the show host has quieted down after receiving confirmation that 318 multiplied by 75 was indeed 23,850.
"Subtract 50 from the 23,850." I say, ignoring the discontented murmuring starting up around me. "Now divide 23,800 by the 25."
I've used all the numbers, and if my math is correct, and it usually is, then the final number that should come out is 952.
"I can't believe it." The show host murmurs, after getting a calculator brought to her and verifying the answers. "Willa is correct."
"That's ridiculous!" Brian bursts out, looking frantic. "Maybe she's an android or something. There's no way she figured those numbers out on her own."
The show host shakes her head. "You know that there is an extensive scan before the transmat drops you off. It wouldn't have brought her here if she was enhanced." She picks up the vaporization ray and calmly points it towards the woman who got 524. "You were the farthest away from the correct number. Thank you for playing and goodbye."
Before the show host gets a chance to pull the trigger and vaporize poor Sally, Brian leaps over the desk and tries to take it from her.
The guards come running around the corner, and at the same time a door into the corridor opens up. Jack and the Doctor come running in, both of their faces lighting up as they see me. "Willa!" The Doctor cries.
I'm so relieved I could cry. In the confusion caused by Brian, I'm able to make my way over to the Doctor and Jack, who quickly usher me out of the room. As soon as the door closes behind us, I throw my arms around the Doctor's waist.
"I'm so glad you guys are here." I breathe out, relief coursing through me.
The Doctor tightens his arms around me. He presses what feels like a kiss against my hair, breathing harsh.
Jack's voice comes from behind us, tone urgent. "Doctor we don't have much time."
Cursing under his breath, the Doctor shakes his head. "I still don't like it."
"We need all the information we can get." Jack insists.
Even though I don't want to, I start to pull back. Jack is right. We don't have a lot of time.
Sighing, the Doctor allows me to pull back from the hug, but he keeps his hands on my shoulders. Staring at me in the eyes, his voice takes on a hypnotic cadence. "Willa this is important. Is there anything, anything at all you can tell me about what's going on?"
"I can't remember." I respond, caught up in his eyes. It's as though he's looking into the depths of me. "But I have the most awful feeling something bad is going to happen."
"C'mon, use me as a conduit." The Doctor demands, hands tightening on my shoulders. "I need to know."
Use him as a conduit? I don't understand what he's talking about. The Doctor makes a frustrated noise, hands moving from my shoulders to the sides of my head. There's a yanking sensation, then the peculiar feeling of my body falling away.
The place I end up in is bare, and the only thing that is visible is fog. I simultaneously know nothing and everything in this strange in-between I've been put into. The Doctor had just yanked me out of my body because he knew I had access to future information. Future information that he had gone through painstaking effort to block off in the first place, but now he needed to know. I spare a moment to be sad. It wasn't safe for me to be here and he knew it.
And then, well, I wasn't able to think about that at all. Images rush past me. The gamestation, the games themselves. Rose being disintegrated by the Anne Droid. Rose not really being dead. The Daleks. Rose becoming Bad Wolf. Bad Wolf. Bad Wolf.
I'm abruptly slammed back into my body. My mouth shuts with a click of my teeth, jaw sore from the wordless scream that my mouth had opened into. There is something hot and wet dripping from my nose.
Raising my eyes to the Doctor, I'm taken aback at how devastated he looks. He reaches for me again, and I stumble back. "Willa. I-"
I cut him off. "I don't-I don't want to hear it right now." Closing my eyes, I take a breath to settle myself. "I can't tell you anything concrete, it becomes fixed that way, but I can give you abstract information."
The Doctor swallows, expression evening out. "Yes, I'm aware."
"To that effect, I'm only going to tell you two things." I say, making my voice firm. Making it very clear that those are the only two things I'm going to tell him. "When the time comes, no matter how impossible it seems, the ray doesn't actually kill people. Also, you're about to meet an old enemy, and it's going to break your heart."
"You can't tell me anything else?" The Doctor asks. His voice is hoarse as he speaks. There is an air of sadness around him now.
"Yes, I can. But I'm not going to." I respond, raising my chin in defiance.
The Doctor nods, accepting that. At least for now. Jack steps up from the peripheral of the room. He doesn't look pleased. "We need to go get Rose now."
I gesture for them to go first, following behind. Finally allowing myself to swipe at the wetness under my nose, I'm not surprised when my hand comes back red. God Willa. You know better than this. People are selfish and self-serving. Why did you think these people would be any different?
Closing my eyes for a few brief seconds, I acknowledge the reason. These were people I looked up to, people I placed on a pedestal. It wasn't their fault, it was mine. I had forgotten how the ninth Doctor got when it came to this kind of stuff. Once he gets it into his head that it is what has to be done, he does it. Even if it might hurt someone else. Heck, the whole first season was about him repenting for the war. It happened with Gwyneth, with the tree lady when the earth exploded, and countless others. Sometimes it saved lives and other times it didn't.
I just never thought that kind of intensity would focus itself on me, though I suppose it was naïve of me to think so. I guess it was that the Doctor had been so genuinely kind. Eager to listen and even more eager to teach. Jack had also been kind. I had thought we were actually getting on rather well. I had forgotten how fast the Doctor could shift moods, and the fact that a Jack this young would do anything for the Doctor's approval.
I had forgotten and once again I had been burned.
Yeah, I wasn't interested in being burned anymore. Hardening my heart, I pull my emotional barriers up like a shield against the world. I hadn't been using it with these people. Guess I wanted to be genuine. Ha, I never learn.
By the time we reached the floor Rose was on, which I only knew because Jack said something about it, the blood was wiped away from my face and my face was a blank mask.
"Remember." I murmur as we reach the door to the game she's in. "It's not really death."
The Doctor hums his understanding, working on the door to let us in the studio.
"I could blast it open?" Jack offers, but the Doctor shakes his head.
"You can't. it's made of Hydra combination." He states.
Jack makes a frustrated noise in response.
"C'mon. C'mon. C'mon." The Doctor mutters, frantically waving his screwdriver. Something clicks and the doors open. "Rose!"
"Doctor!" Rose's voice comes from deep in the room.
The Doctor, Jack and I all run into the room. "I order you to stop this game!"
Rose hurries around the podium, running towards us. In that moment, the scared look on her face resonates with me. There is no way I can let her be taken the way I saw it happen in the show. My body moves with purpose. Rose might be running towards us, but I'm also running towards her. If I timed it right, and my math is always correct, I should make it to her just as the Anne Droid fires.
And I do. It only takes a little push to make Rose fall out of the line of fire, a line of fire that now extends to me. As the beam closes in on my position, I'm glad that I don't have to see the look on the faces behind me. Rule 1, Willa style, nothing is ever set in stone.
xxxx
The transmat is harsh, spitting me out onto the ground of the Dalek ship. Looking around, I'm not surprised to find several Daleks heading straight for me. "Hello Daleks." I say, standing up and brushing the dust from my pants. "Can't say I'm happy to see you here."
"THE FEMALE HAS KNOWLEDGE OF THE DALEKS." One Dalek states.
Another Dalek starts to roll forward. "SHE IS AN ASSOCIATE OF THE DOCTOR."
"Yes." I say, tone mild. "And because it's the Doctor, you know he's going to find you."
"WE HAVE YOU NOW. THE DOCTOR CARES FOR HIS ASSOCIATES. HE WILL COME FOR YOU AND THEN YOU WILL ALL BE EXTERMINATED." The first Dalek that spoke, informs me.
He won't if he knows what's good for him. But the Doctor never does what's good for him, so I'll probably be seeing him soon. With that in mind, I settle in to wait. It's going to be a bit until the Doctor figures out what's really going on.
Around twenty minutes later a Dalek comes out of an adjoining room. "ALERT. ALERT. WE ARE DETECTED."
Another Dalek rolls back to look at the first. "IT IS THE DOCTOR. HE HAS LOCATED US. OPEN COMMUNICATIONS CHANNEL."
A Dalek points its eyestalk towards the ceiling and a holographic video feed blinks into view. "I WILL TALK TO THE DOCTOR."
"Oh, will you?" The Doctor asks sarcastically, leaning back in his chair. "That's nice. Hello!"
"THE DALEK STRATAGEM NEARS COMPLETION. THE FLEET IS AMLOST READY. YOU WILL NOT INTERVENE." The Dalek states.
"Oh, really? Why's that, then?" The Doctor's face is cold and hard. I can see Rose try to place on hand on his shoulder, but he brushes her off.
A Dalek rolls up from behind me. 'WE HAVE YOUR ASSOCIATE. YOU WILL OBEY OR SHE WILL BE EXTERMINATED."
There's a second of pause, where the Doctor looks at his end of the view screen. "No." Everyone on his side of the screen turns to look at him in disbelief.
"EXPLAIN YOURSELF." The Dalek that's projecting the viewscreen states.
"I said no." The Doctor repeats.
Several Daleks swing their eyestalks around to look at each other in confusion. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS NEGATIVE."
Narrowing his eyes, the Doctor stares into the view screen. "It means no."
"BUT SHE WILL BE DESTROYED." The Dalek repeats.
"No!" The Doctor yells, jumping to his feet. "Because this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to rescue her. I'm going to save Willa from the middle of the Dalek fleet. And then I'm going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!"
The Dalek beside me shifts. "BUT YOU HAVE NO WEAPONS, NO DEFENSES, NO PLAN."
"Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death." The Doctor states, before shifting his eyes on the view screen until they almost perfectly line up with mine. It feels as though he's looking right at me. "Willa?"
"Yes, Doctor." I respond, tilting my head to the side.
"I'm coming to get you." He promises. Then he raises the sonic screwdriver and the screen blinks out.
"THE DOCTOR IS INITIATING HOSTILE ACTION." A Dalek states.
Another Dalek shifts forward. "THE STRATAGEM MUST ADVANCE. BEGIN THE INVASION OF EARTH!"
"THE DOCTOR WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" "EXTERMINATE!" "EXTERMINATE!" "EXTERMINATE!" Multiple Daleks start speaking at once, until they are all chanting 'Exterminate!'. The noise is so loud, it sets my teeth on edge.
One Dalek turns to me. "YOU KNOW THE DOCTOR. YOU UNDERSTAND HIM. YOU WILL PREDICT HIS ACTIONS."
"Nah." I shake my head. "No chance of that."
"PREDICT! PREDICT! PREDICT!" It yells at me. I hold my silence.
A Dalek rolls into the room. "TARDIS DETECTED IN FLIGHT."
"LAUNCH MISSILES. EXTERMINATE." The Dalek next to me commands.
Biting my cheek, I don't show how nervous I am. There's no telling if the Doctor still had the idea to use the extrapolator as shielding. I wasn't going to give the Daleks the satisfaction of seeing me worried though. Give an inch and they'd take a mile.
Fortunately, it seems the Tardis did have the shielding as not two seconds later it starts to materialize around me. I can see the Doctor over by the console with Rose standing near him, and Jack preparing the gun.
The words are just starting to form on the Doctor's lips, but I don't need them. I dive out of the way. Jack activates the gun, destroying the Dalek and blasting it's casing open.
There is a moment of silence, as everyone in the room digests what just happened. Then the Doctor rushes over to me, pulling me up by my arms and drawing me into a desperate hug.
"Hey big guy." I murmur, patting him on the back gingerly. "It's all good, you got here in time."
"You said it wasn't death. But there was a pile of ash, it looked so real." He whispers, leaning back to look at me properly.
I gesture to myself. "Perfectly okay, the Daleks didn't even touch me."
Jack saunters over, smirking. "Don't I get a hug?"
Laughing, I disengage from the Doctor and hug Jack. Jack picks me up and swings me around. When he places me down, Rose is there.
"Thanks." She mumbles. "You pushed me outta the way, it could have been me over there."
It was supposed to be, I think, but don't say. Instead, I nod in return.
Rose turns to the Doctor. "Hold on, what I don't get is that I thought you said they were extinct. How come they're still alive?"
"One minute they're the greatest threat in the Universe, the next minute they vanished out of time and space." Jack adds.
The Doctor wanders over to the Dalek, scanning the casing with his screwdriver. "They went off to fight a bigger war. The Time War."
Jack snaps his head towards the Doctor. "I thought that was just a legend."
"I was there." The Doctor states, face haunted. "The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, with the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them. I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing."
"There's thousands of them now. We could hardly stop one. What're we going to do?" Rose asks.
The Doctor pulls his own mask up. False cheer firmly in place, he looks at us. "No good standing round here chin wagging. Human race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have got the answers. Let's go and meet the neighbors."
He heads down the walkway towards the doors, us trailing after him like puppies. I lag behind. Next to the console, I can see an echo of the Doctor that fought in the war in the Tardis. He looks defeated. There is a bag beside him, and I know it contains the Moment.
"You can't go out there!" Rose cries out jolting me from the afterimage. The Doctor ignores her and steps out of the Tardis anyways.
There are three Daleks who immediately try to shoot at the Doctor. "EXTERMINATE!" "EXTERMINATE" "EXTERMINATE"
Their shots rebound off a forcefield. The Doctor just stands there unconcerned. I slip out of the doors to come stand next to him. Jack and Rose follow me, slowly.
"Is that it?" The Doctor asks. "Useless! Non points. It's all right, come on out. That forcefield can hold back anything."
Jack opens his mouth, but I step on his foot as hard as I can. The sound of his mouth clicking shut is music to my ears. There is no need for the Daleks to know what's about to come of out Jack's mouth.
The Doctor glances back briefly. I shake my head, it's nothing he needs to worry about. Though it is something I need to worry about. The walls that the Doctor had originally put up to block me from this, they hadn't snapped back into place. The future, and the past, were bleeding into the real world.
Directing his attention back over to the Daleks, the Doctor continues. "Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Homeworld? The Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all your emotions but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left, and that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face me? So tell me. How did you survive the Time War?"
"THEY SURVIVED THROUGH ME." A deep voice says form the darkness.
As we turn to look, the lights turn on and reveal the Emperor of the Daleks. He's in a huge casing, easily a hundred feet tall.
The Doctor shakes his head. "Rose, Captain, Willa, this is the Emperor of the Daleks."
"YOU DESTROYED US, DOCTOR." The Emperor accuses. "THE DALEK RACE DIED IN YOUR INFERNO, BUT MY SHIP SURVIVED, FALLING THROUGH TIME, CRIPPLED BUT ALIVE."
"I get it." The Doctor responds.
Immediately, several Daleks roll closer. They are audibly upset. "DO NOT INTERRUPT." "DO NOT INTERRUPT." "DO NOT INTERRUPT."
"I think you're forgetting something." The Doctor states. "I'm the Doctor, and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got one way of stopping me. So if anybody's going to shut up, it's you!" He turns around and yells at the Daleks who told him not to interrupt. They back away quickly. The Doctor turns back around, rage still simmering under the surface as he addresses the Emperor. "Okey doke. So, where were we?"
The Emperor seems unconcerned with the Doctor's interruption. "WE WAITED HERE IN THE DARK SPACE, DAMAGED BUT REBUILDING. CENTURIES PASSED, AND WE QUIETLY INFILTRATED THE SYSTEMS OF EARTH, HARVESTING THE WASTE OF HUMANITY. THE PRISONERS, THE REFUGEES, THE DISPOSSESSED. THEY ALL CAME TO US. THE BODIES WERE FILTERED, PULPED, SIFTED. THE SEED OF THE HUMAN RACE IS PERVERTED. ONLY ONE CELL IN A BILLION WAS FIT TO BE NURTURED."
"So you created an army of Daleks out of the dead." The Doctor summarizes.
Rose looks at the Doctor. "That makes them half human."
"THOSE WORDS ARE BLASPHEMY!" The Emperor immediately responds.
"DO NOT BLASPHEME." "DO NOT BLASPHEME." "DO NOT BLASPHEME." The three Daleks insist form behind us.
The Emperor continues. "EVERYTHING HUMAN HAS BEEN PURGED. I CULTIVATED PURE AND BLESSED DALEK."
"Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?" The Doctor asks, giving the three Daleks behind us a strange look.
"I REACHED INTO THE DIRT AND MADE NEW LIFE." The Emperor states. "I AM THE GOD OF ALL DALEKS!"
"WORSHIP HIM." "WORSHIP HIM." "WORSHIP HIM."
The Doctor shakes his head, disgust on his face. "They're insane. Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity. You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever." He turns back to the Emperor. "We're going."
"YOU MAY NOT LEAVE MY PRESENCE." The Emperor orders. It's in vain though, we are already making our way back to the Tardis.
"STAY WHERE YOU ARE." "EXTERMINATE!" "EXTERMINATE!" "EXTERMINATE!" And the sound of the Dalek's energy beams hitting the forcefield fills the air.
The Doctor is the last one in through the doors, giving the Dalek's a cheeky little smile. It's fake of course, the sight of the Daleks are making him question everything that he did to win the war. He closes the doors, taking a second to lean his head against them.
I reach out and place a hand on his shoulder, compassion making me drop my self imposed distance.
He sobs, just a quiet noise. One that Jack and Rose certainly can't hear, but I can. I realize then, that it doesn't matter if I still feel hurt over what happened earlier. This wasn't about me right now. It was about him. I take a step closer to the Doctor and pull him into a hug.
The Doctor goes into my arms willingly, head bowed over my neck. "The Daleks." He whispers. "Why did it have to be the Daleks."
"Braveheart Doctor." Is all I can say. "It's not over yet."
"Of course it isn't." He mutters, straightening up and giving me a critical look over. His hand comes up to swipe under my nose and comes back wet with blood.
A frown forms on my face. "Ah yes, that's beginning to become a problem."
"I need to place the barrier back up again. They should have sprung back into place by themselves, but I suppose the amount of force you used to get past them was too much for them to handle." The Doctor tells me. "You were supposed to use me as a conduit. I-" He cuts himself off.
"I already know you were the one to seal my memories of the future off in the first place." I say, rolling my eyes. "I knew it as soon as I went to that place."
His face falls. "It was easier for you that way."
"You don't have to explain it to me, I understand. I also understand why you wanted me to push through in the first place, that you needed to know." A glance over at Jack and Rose show that they are willfully trying to ignore that fact we are huddled up over next to the door. "The thing is Doctor, what happens the next time you need to know something. What's the use of putting the barrier back up if my foreknowledge is still necessary?"
The Doctor winces, then shakes his head. "It won't be." There is a note finality in his voice. "And I have to put the barrier back up. No one is supposed to be seeing what you are able to see. It's why you're bleeding."
"At least wait until this is over." I insist, swiping at the remaining blood under my nose. "I can't do anything if I can't remember."
Stubborn, he opens his mouth to argue, but Jack interrupts. "Doctor, the extrapolator can't keep up under this pressure for much longer. "
"Of course it won't." The Doctor snarls, rushing over to the console and sending us off towards the gamestation.
We materialize and the Doctor is off again, heading down and out of the front doors, snagging my arm as he goes. "Turn everything up. All transmitters full power, wide open. Now! Do it!"
There's a man at the primary console. He's already moving to do what the Doctor ordered, even as he questions it. "What does this do?"
"Stops the Daleks from transmatting on board." The Doctor explains. "How did you get on? Did you contact Earth?"
The man shakes his head. "Well, we tried to warn them, but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programs."
"And the planet's just sitting there, defenseless." The Doctor looks over at a woman with pigtails and his voice softens. "Lynda, what're you still doing on board?" His voice hardening again, he turns back towards the man. "I told you to evacuate everyone."
"She wouldn't go." The man replies.
"Didn't want to leave you." Pigtails says, looking up at the Doctor.
The second woman, one who looks a bit more sensible about things, pipes up. "There weren't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here. We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero."
"Oh, my God." The man breathes. "The Fleet is moving. They're on their way."
The Doctor leans over to verify, then pushes away from the console with a noise of frustration. He paces for a couple seconds before abruptly changing course and heading over to the energy stacks lining the walkway area.
He starts pulling covers off, yanking out wires as he goes. "Dalek plan. Big mistake, because what have they left me with?" The Doctor looks over at us, but no one says anything. "Anyone? Anyone? Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter. This station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?" His face is so full of false cheer that it's almost painful to watch.
Jack gets it first, taking a quick step forward. "You've got to be kidding."
"Give the man a medal!" The Doctor responds.
"A Delta Wave?" Jack asks in disbelief.
The Doctor nods. "A Delta Wave!"
"What's a Delta Wave?" Rose asks, looking between the two of them.
"A wave of Van Cassadyne energy." Jack explains. "It fries your brain. Stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbequed."
"And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks!" The Doctor elaborates.
"Well, get started and do it then." Lynda says, a hopeful smile lighting up her face.
At the sight of her smile, the manic energy that the Doctor had been holding onto dissipates a little. "Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about, oh, three days? How long till the Fleet arrive?"
The man, the one who was manning the console originally, closes his eyes. "Twenty two minutes."
Jack frowns, contemplative. "If I can-"
"If you can what?" Rose asks.
"Hold that thought!" Jack responds, running into the Tardis.
I walk over to the Doctor. "Anything I can help with?"
He pulls a small knife out of his pocket. "Here, use this and start stripping the ends of the wires so I can link them up together."
So that's what I do. Jack enlists Rose's help in doing whatever he's doing. If I remember correctly, he was disengaging the extrapolator from the Tardis to use on the gamestation. It would buy us a small bit of time, but every bit counts when you were talking about Daleks.
Jack and Rose emerge from the Tardis with the extrapolator, bringing it over to the console and enlisting the help of the people still hanging around to get it hooked up.
"We've now got a forcefield so they can't blast us out of the sky, but that doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading." Jack cautions them.
"Do they know about the Delta Wave?" The man asks.
"They'll have worked it out at the same time." Jack explains. "So, they want to stop the Doctor. That means they've got to get to this level, five hundred. Now, I can concentrate the extrapolator around the top six levels, five hundred to four nine five. So they'll penetrate the station below that at level four nine four and fight their way up."
"Who are they fighting?" The business woman asks.
Jack looks at her. "Us."
The man scoffs. "And what are we fighting with?"
"The guards had guns with bastic bullets. That's enough to blow a Dalek wide open." Jack responds, crossing his arms.
The business woman sounds unimpressed. "There's five of us."
"Rose, you can help us." The Doctor calls out. "I need all these wires stripped bare."
"Right." The woman comments. "Now there's four of us."
"Then let's move it." Jack commands, shooing them off. "Into the lift. Isolate the lift controls." Jack, the man, and the business woman all head over towards the lifts, but the woman with pigtails comes over towards the Doctor.
She wrings her hands. "I just want to say, er, thanks, I suppose, and I'll do my best."
The Doctor smiles at her half-heartedly. "Me too." They exchange handshakes and the woman moves over towards the others near the lift.
Jack comes over and stops in front of us next. He rocks on his heels, a brave smile coming to his face. "It's been fun, but I guess this is goodbye."
"Don't talk like that." Rose says, smiling. "The Doctor's going to do it. You just watch him."
Jack doesn't smile back. "Rose." He states, cupping her face with his hands. "You are worth fighting for." Jack kisses her, then turns to the Doctor. "Wish I'd never met you, Doctor. I was much better off as a coward." Jack kisses the Doctor as well, then he turns to me. "Spitfire, it's been nice knowing you."
I get up and hug him, hard. Pulling back, I smile my best smile for him. "Captain Jack Harkness. Never, ever, for one second forget that you are fantastic. And you always will be."
Jack blinks, eyes a little watery. He manages to give us one last patented Captain Jack smile. "See you all in Hell." And then he leaves.
"He's going to be all right" Rose states, looking at the Doctor. The Doctor doesn't respond. Her voice turns accusatory. "Isn't he?"
"Let's get back to work." I murmur.
We work quietly for several seconds.
"Suppose." Rose starts, then hesitates.
"What?" The Doctor flicks his eyes up to look at her briefly.
Rose shakes her head. "Nothing."
He pauses his work, giving her his full attention. "You said suppose."
Rose sighs. "No, I was just thinking. I mean, obviously you can't, but, you've got a time machine. Why can't you just go back to last week and warn them?"
"As soon as the Tardis lands in that second, I become part of events, stuck in the timeline." The Doctor explains, continuing putting the connections together.
"Yeah, thought it'd be something like that." She responds, focusing intently on the set of wires in her own hands.
"There's another thing the Tardis could do." The Doctor murmurs. "It could take us away. We could leave. Let history take its course. We go to Marbella in 1989."
Rose shakes her head. "Yeah, but you'd never do that."
The Doctor looks at her. "No, but you could ask. Never even occurred to you, did it?" He turns his head to me. "Or to you."
"Well, I'm just too good." Rose laughs.
I don't say anything. I already know what's about to happen. There's a sound, like energy is building. The Doctor looks up in hope.
"The Delta Wave's started building. How long does it need?" He jumps to his feet and rushes over to the console, staring at the information on the monitor.
Rose looks between the console and the Doctor. "Is that bad?" The Doctor lowers his head, bracing his arms on the monitor. "Okay, it's bad. How bad is it?"
The Doctor abruptly turns to look at Rose, smile taking over his face. "Rose Tyler, you're a genius! We can do it. If I use the Tardis to cross my old timeline. Yes!" He grabs Rose's arm and uses it to pull her towards the Tardis. She laughs in response to the Doctor's enthusiasm. I follow after them in a more sedate manner.
"Hold that down and keep position." The Doctor orders Rose, placing her hand on a button.
"What's it do?" She asks.
"Cancels the buffers." He responds, full nonsense at this point. "If I'm very clever and I'm more than clever, I'm brilliant, I might just save the world. Or rip it apart."
Rose's face scrunches up. "I'd go for the first one."
Tilting his head, the Doctor laughs. "Me too. Now, I've just got to go and power up the Game Station. Hold on!" He runs out of the doors, closing them behind him.
The engines start, Rose looks at rotor in confusion. "Doctor, what're you doing? Can I take my hand off? It's moving."
I walk up to the console area and shake my head at her. Her face drains of blood. Running over to the doors, she tries to open them, but they won't budge. "Doctor! Let me out!" Rose orders, starting to pound on the door. "Let me out! Doctor, what've you done?"
But it's far to late, we've already taken off. A hologram of the Doctor appears, exactly on time. 'This is Emergency Program One. Rose, now listen, this is important. If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing. We must be in danger. And I mean fatal. I'm dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape.'
"No!" Rose denies.
The hologram continues, uncaring of her denial. 'And that's okay. Hope it's a good death. But I promised to look after you, and that's what I'm doing. The Tardis is taking you home.'
Rose shakes her head, moving closer to the hologram. "I won't let you."
'And I bet you're fussing and moaning now.' Holo-Doctor predicts. 'Typical. But hold on and just listen a bit more. The Tardis can never return for me. Emergency Program One means I'm facing an enemy that should never get their hands on this machine. I want you to let it go. And if you want to remember me, then you can do one thing. That's all, one thing.' The hologram moves its head till it's looking straight at Rose. 'Have a good life. Do that for me, Rose. Have a fantastic life.'
'And Willa.' The Holo-Doctor continues, startling me. His head is now turned in my direction. 'You came into this world under such strange circumstances, and there was so much more I wanted to teach you. But it's not going to happen now. The Tardis is yours, she'll help you learn what you need to. You go out there. Run. Laugh. Be kind. Life your life to the fullest extent you can.'
Then the hologram fizzles out and I gape at the empty space it had occupied. That last bit wasn't supposed to happen.
Rose makes a noise of frustration, running her hands over controls and attempting to reverse the flight. "You can't do this to me. You can't. Take me back! Take me back! No!" Nothing happens, the engines stop.
Running to the doors, Rose peaks outside. It's the Powell estate. Running back inside, she continues to pull levers and push buttons. "Come on, fly. How do you fly?" Rose looks at me. "Come on, help me!"
I walk over, placing a hand on top of hers to still it. "We can't do anything right now. The Doctor sent us away for his peace of mind. Let him at least have that."
The look on her face after my words isn't pretty. Betrayal. Disgust. "How can you say that? After he took you in and allowed you to stay here?"
"I'm saying that because I respect his decision." She opens her mouth to argue, but I shake my head. I'm not finished. "And. This isn't the right time to try to go back."
I leave her there, still attempting to get the controls to work, as I go deeper into the Tardis. "Hey old girl, can I get a blank journal or something?" She chimes, opening a door on my right. I express my thanks, trailing my fingers along the doorframe as I go in.
My room is the same as I left it this morning, or was it yesterday at this point? First thing was first though, I go into the bathroom. Taking care of the blood that was still encrusted under my nose, I grab a towel for insurance and head back out to the journal on my desk.
In the journal, I put every big plot point I can remember from the show. I do so in my own shorthand. That way, just in case someone gets ahold of it, they won't be able to understand everything. I write everything from Torchwood, to the Master, to Amelia Pond. From David Tennant to Peter Capaldi to Jodie Whittaker. I can't write everything, so most of it's just hints. I don't want to know everything anyways. That kind of responsibility is something that no one should have.
As I write, the blood starts to drip from my nose once again. I ignore it the best I can, using the towel to temper the flow. At some point, the pain in my head gets so intense I can't even see straight. It's then that I admit defeat, I'm not going to be able to do anything else.
Hiding the journal in my desk drawer, I mop up the drops of blood that have splattered on the desk while I was working. I want no one to have a clue what I just did. This is cheating on a spectacular level.
I giggle to myself. It's not as if the Doctor can even scold me. We're talking about the man who purposely looked for information about his death, to the point of finding out the exact date and time.
Towel in hand, I make my way back towards the console room.
Mickey is in the process of hooking up a chain to the console. "Is it the mini or the big yellow tow truck?" I ask him, making him jump.
"Yellow tow truck." He responds, before shaking his head. "Wait a minute, who the hell are you?"
"I'm Willa." I respond, watching as Rose walks in through the doors.
She scowls at the sight of me. "You're still here."
"Course I am." I try to smile at her, but my headache makes it difficult. "Now is the right time to try to go back."
"Don't try that on me." Rose scoffs. "You can't just show up after the fact and say some sort of cryptic line pretending that you knew it was going to happen. The Doctor might believe that you have future knowledge, but I'm not buying it."
Focusing on Mickey, I make eye contact with him. "Mickey Smith. Raised by his grandmother, until she tripped over a tear in the carpet. You always said you felt guilty, cause you were supposed to fix it, but never got around to it." The blood drains from his face, and he excuses himself quickly.
Turning to Rose, I look at her. "Rose Tyler. Daughter of Jaqueline Tyler, nee Prentice, and Peter Tyler. Your father died when you were young, and you were raised by your mother. At one point you convinced the Doctor to take you back to see your father and you caused the reapers to descend. I know what the name Jimmy Stone means to you. You are one of the Doctor's most cherished companions-"
"Stop!" Rose shouts, face also pale. She turns away sharply. Which is good, because my legs take that moment to give out.
I..might have overdone it a bit. So much for having a cheat sheet only I could read in my desk. At this rate, all my writing will have been for nothing.
"Let me be the one to look into the heart." I murmur, using all my strength to stand back up.
Rose sends me a dirty look. "And why should I do that?"
I laugh, not in the mood to argue. "Cause if you do this, the Doctor will die. Or as close to it as he gets." The drip from my nose is a steady stream now. "Besides, at the rate this is going I don't think it'll matter for much longer."
For the first time, concern draws itself over Rose's face. "Are you alright?"
"No." I respond. "I'm not supposed to have the ability to see the future, that's why the Doctor locked it away. But the wall came down and all my foreknowledge from the other universe is rolling around my head. The universe doesn't like it, and my brain can't handle the strain."
"If I let you do this, will it help you?" Rose asks after a pause.
"Yes." I immediately lie. "I'll be fixed after this."
She studies me, before nodding her acceptance. "Just keep away from the console." I murmur.
Rose yells for Mickey to start pulling. The chain strains, and the Tardis remains stubbornly shut. I lean against the coral, pressing my forehead against the glass of the time rotor. Please, I think, please. You see things just as I do, you know this has to happen one way or another. The Doctor has to be saved, so he can go on to do everything he needs to do.
At my last mental thought, the console pops open and the shine of the Tardis washes over us. "Rose, look away!" I order.
The light dances around for a moment, and then rushes right into me. It only takes a whisper of a thought for the Tardis to close her doors and fly back towards the Doctor. In this one point in time, the Tardis and I are one and we have only one goal. To save the Doctor.
We materialize behind him, slamming the doors open and spilling ourselves into the room. We lock the doors behind us. Rose will not see this. The Doctor turns to look at us, immediately stumbling back a few steps and falling to the floor. There is fear on his face. "What have you done?" He cries.
"It was always coming to this." We tell him. "I looked into the Tardis and the Tardis looked back into me."
"Willa, you looked into the Time Vortex. No one is supposed to see that." The Doctor says, horrified.
"I know." We say, tilting our head to the side. "It was supposed to be her, but Rose Tyler is important to you. I pushed it too far, my brain was overloading." The words, it's no use killing both of us when I was already halfway there is left hanging in the air.
On a view screen the Emperor of the Daleks twitches its tentacles. "THIS IS THE ABOMINATION!"
"EXTERMINATE!" One of the many Daleks in the room call out, sending a beam of energy straight towards me. It's easy work to hold out a hand and make it stop.
"I take the words and scatter them." We say. The words 'Bad Wolf' are lifted off the wall and thrown threw time and space. "A message to bring you both here."
"Willa, you have to stop this!" The Doctor pleads, finally getting up from his ungainly sprawl on the floor. "You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're going to burn."
"Not yet. There is still more I have to do before I stop. The Doctor must be protected" We inform him.
"YOU CANNOT HURT ME. I AM IMMORTAL." The Emperor cries.
We want to laugh, but now isn't the time. "You are not immortal. I can see everything that ever was, everything that can be. I take every single atom of your existence and I divide them." It's the work of a second to obliterate the whole Dalek fleet. The golden light of disintegration is beautiful against the backdrop of space. "Everything dies, all things come to an end. This is your end. The Time War is over."
A mixture of dread and fear mingles on the Doctor's face. "You've done it. Now let it go."
"One last thing Doctor. I bring life." We raise our arm and lock Jack into the immortal path that he always would have been in.
"But this is wrong! You can't control life and death." The Doctor tells us.
We know. We knew before we could see properly. But this was a fixed point. "This was always supposed to happen." We remind him, there are tears streaming down our face.
He shakes his head. "This power is going to kill you and it's all my fault."
"No." We comfort him. "This was my choice."
Suddenly the Doctor gets a determined look on his face. "Come here."
We shake our head, alarm shooting through us. "No, this was supposed to prevent that."
"You are too young to know how to funnel the energy back into the Tardis. At least not without a little help." The Doctor continues, stepping forward towards us.
"No, please." I say, horror ripping me from my communion with the powers running inside of me. The pain is unbelievable now that I'm not being shielded from it. This is important though. I bite the inside of my cheek so hard I feel the skin split, grabbing his wrists as he reaches for me. "This was to keep you safe."
His expression softens. Inclining his head, he leans it against mine. A spark of contact. My choice. His voice echoes in my mind. The Doctor's presence is enormous, I'm nothing but a speck in comparison. He gently coaxes the power from me into him, repairing the barriers that I ripped down earlier as he does so.
I collapse, the Doctor catching my weakened body. He breathes out, the power traveling out of him and back inside the Tardis.
His own legs give out then and we tumble to the floor.
"Why did you do that?" I manage to ask.
"What sort of adult would I be if I let a child be the one to save me?" The Doctor replies.
I shake my head, trying to coordinate my shaky limbs into some semblance of working. "You're going to regenerate now, I wanted to save you from that. I always felt as if you went through this body way to fast."
A faint laugh is the response I get. "That's not your choice to make." The Doctor picks me up and slowly makes his way to the Tardis. Faintly, you can hear Rose smacking on the doorway. I forgot she was there for a second. Oh god, I promised her that this would save the Doctor's life. What is she going to think of me now?
The Doctor shifts, palming the key to the door in one hand. "It was supposed to be her?"
"Yes. This was always going to happen. One way or another." I echo the words from earlier.
The key goes in the keyhole, and the door opens. Rose gasps at the sight of us. "What happened?"
Grunting in response, the Doctor pushes past her, closing the door behind him. He pauses at the console, staring at something over my head. I look up see the smears of my blood over the top of the console and against the glass. "Whoops." I comment, lips twisting into a semi bitter expression. "I didn't realize I bled so much everywhere."
The Doctor shifts, setting me down. I cling to his arms for a second before I realize that my legs are willing to hold my weight now. He steps away once I'm stable, pulling the dematerialization lever and sending us off.
"Doctor? What about Jack?" Rose demands, looking angry that we're leaving without him.
There's a pause, as though the Doctor is thinking up an excuse. "He decided to stay behind." I pitch in, leaning up against the console behind me. "Rebuild the Earth and all that. The Daleks did a lot of damage before they were stopped."
That earns me a grateful glance from the Doctor, who I smile at in return. The smile is short lived though, a sharp pain in my stomach causes me to hunch over.
It smarts for a good 5 seconds, and I curse under my breath. The Doctor places a hand on my shoulder. "It won't be long now."
I ride out the wave, looking up at him blearily. "What?"
"I had wanted to prepare you better." He says. I still don't understand.
"I still don't und-" I start to say, but cut off mid sentence as golden light dances across my hands. Horrified, I turn my gaze back to the Doctor. "What?"
The Doctor gazes back with compassion. "You obviously grew up human. Your mannerisms, the way you act, it's all very distinct. But your mental presence is undeniably Gallifreyan. The additional tests I ran confirmed that as well."
The physical scan on the med table, and the vials of blood he took. I remember thinking it was weird. I knew he wasn't doing it specifically for my wrist, but just figured he wanted to make sure I was healthy.
The fire rises higher, crawling under my skin. It burns. I can't help the terrified whine that rises up in my throat.
Then the Doctor is there. He folds me into his chest, the hug comforting. "I know it's scary. It's terrifying, but you can't fight it. You need to let it happen." He says urgently.
I don't think I could stop it from happening, it's burning through me like I'm dry timber. I cry out again, and this time the Doctor releases me. The fire reaches a crescendo. It hurts. I can feel everything, my old body burning up for the sake of a new one. And then it's over, and I'm no longer in any pain.
The silence is almost deafening to my new ears. The hands I'm looking at flex at my movements, not yet feeling like they belong to me.
"What the fuck." Rose blurts out, startling me and causing me to look over at her. Before I can, The Doctor gets into my path, blocking my view.
"Regeneration." I say, looking up at him, but it's not my voice.
"And a fine regeneration indeed." The Doctor replies, smiling at me. The smile turns into a grimace of pain.
I can't help but smile back at him, my mouth feeling too wide, too big. "Your turn."
Rose takes a step towards us, a look of confusion on her face. "What's going on."
The Doctor turns to look at her. "It's a bit dodgy, this process."
"What process?" She demands. Her eyes keep skittering over to me, before focusing back on the Doctor.
"Time Lords have this little trick. I'm going to change like Willa just did." He explains.
Rose shakes her head. "Why do you have to change?"
"Because I'm dying." The Doctor states, causing Rose to gasp. "I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that."
"There isn't anything else you can do?" She asks.
He shakes his head, looking tired with the conversation. "And before I go. I just wanted to say that you were fantastic." His head swings over to me. "You were fantastic." The Doctor smiles. "And you know what? So was I."
Light bursts from his body, golden energy arcing through the room. Seconds pass, the light recedes and a new face greets us.
The Doctor breaths, focusing on me. "Hello. Okay." His face contorts, tongue running over his teeth. "Ooo, new teeth. That's weird."
I laugh, mouth curling into that strange new smile again. "Wait till you see your hair."
"Why, what's wrong with my hair?" The Doctor demands, hands coming up to check.
"You're still not ginger." I say, putting him out of his misery.
He pouts, pulling some of the longer hair down towards his eyes so he can verify. "Auhh. I wanted to be ginger!" Reaching out, he tugs on a piece of my longer hair. "You got ginger on the first try. No fair."
I reach up and pull a handful into my view of vision. It is indeed ginger. My nose scrunches up in disapproval. "I don't know if I like it." There was nothing wrong with the plain black hair I had before.
"You'll get used to it." The Doctor replies.
I hum noncommittedly, which then turns into a gag. The Doctor lunges for me, face turning alarmed as a cloud of regeneration energy streams from my mouth.
"Something is wrong." I manage to get out around the pain I'm suddenly in. My head feels as though it's about to split in half.
Of course there would be consequences to having the Time vortex running through my body for so long, I don't know why I had thought it was over now. Though part of me isn't surprised at all. That same part also isn't surprised when darkness creep over my vision and swallows me up.
End Author's Note: Mkay, so first thing is first. I was always really mad that the Doctor died after holding the vortex in himself for a fraction of the time that Rose did. It never made sense that he would die and she would still be alive. So, as you see, I've fixed that in my version of it.
Also, I don't particularly dislike Rose but I don't particularly like her either. She was an interesting character, but I always hated how she monopolized the Doctor's time and got angry when he showed any kind of attention to another woman. Or when he mentioned anything that she didn't want to hear, like children or the fact that he had traveled with others before her.
It would be a kind of 180 if she just immediately started acting nice to Willa, which is why I've written her as I wrote her here.
That's Balderdash – Thank you!
Falling Right Side-Up – There are a few, but the focus isn't just on the father/daughter relationship. Until the End by mltrefry is one that has a pretty cool parental aspect, though that doesn't come in till later in the story. (Chapter 32 to be specific) And to understand it, you would really need to read the whole series. Which the story I recced to you happens to be the fourth addition to. Someone You'd Admire by transistor_robot has a pretty interesting father/daughter aspect between the Doctor and Jenny.
Of course you could always check my AO3 account out, it's under the same name (RainingCoffee) and I have around 500 Doctor who fic recs saved to my bookmarks.
Rosealyn – Exactly! I always get really annoyed when Rose gets all jealous over the Doctor. Like, he's over 900 years old sweetie.
I think you'll find I answer half of your question in this chapter, but the other one I'm going to keep tight lipped about.
Arashi – IV of VI – Thank you very much!
Guest on chapter 2 – Thank you!
Almadynis Rayne – Hahaha, I'm glad you like it! I really loved writing the Doctor as a dad. It's an aspect that doesn't get explored very much in the series, but he was always really good at it.
Willa's previous life isn't going to be explored very much right now, I'm going to focus on the present. But I will flesh it out more later.
Wingdings13 – Thank you!
