This wasn't right. This couldn't be right. Rose Tyler was standing not ten feet away from him but that should be impossible. He could just about believe that his tenth self might have snapped and let the darkness take over (he did get a bit close towards the end there) but not while he was travelling with Rose - never with Rose.

She was standing right in front of him now (when did that happen?) and he should really say something, shouldn't he?

'Ro-'

smack

Any words the Doctor may have been about to say were stopped short by Rose's hand colliding with his face.

'OW!' he cried. 'Christ, you're worse than your mother!'

He caught Rose's wrist as she swung in for another go.

'If Mum was here you would be in for a lot more than just a slap,' she replied, eyes blazing.

He ignored her comment; his mind was far too busy cataloguing all the little differences in her appearance. Her hair was a different shade of blonde; she had a few extra scars and she looked thinner than he had ever seen her. This was not the Rose he had travelled with nor was she the one who went hopping through dimensions to find him. This was his Rose, that was for sure, but she was older and more hardened. He could see it in her eyes.

She must have come back through the void but how? Why? And where was… oh.

The realisation hit him as if he'd been slapped again. That's why he couldn't remember. That's why there was no echo. It wasn't him who had become the Valeyard - it was the meta-crisis.

The Doctor's blood boiled. His human clone had gotten everything that he wanted: a life with Rose. How dare he throw that away.

He looked down at his former companion; she was still glaring at him. He slowly let go of her wrist.

He vaguely registered the sound of Martha ushering her husband out of the room ('You've seen him get slapped, now let's leave them to it.') and then the sound of a closing door.

'Rose,' he began. 'I-'

'Don't say it!' she snapped. 'Don't you dare say you're sorry. You're always so bloody sorry. You left me with a maniac!'

'I didn't know he would be like that.'

'You knew it was a possibility. He committed genocide but you were in such a damn hurry to dump me back in a parallel world that you didn't even think.'

'Is that what you really think?' he asked, his own anger flaring now. 'Leaving you with him was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Besides, you didn't seem to mind that much, if the way you were snogging him was anything to go by.'

Rose was visibly shaking now. 'You… you've got no clue. The things he made me do, made me think…'

'Well – wait, what do you mean "made you think"?'

'Doesn't matter,' she said turning away but the Doctor walked around her so that they were still face-to-face.

'No, Rose, it does matter. What did he do to you?' Still no answer 'He went inside your mind, didn't he? Used his telepathic powers to change the way you saw things? Made you do whatever he wanted.'

'Doesn't matter,' she repeated, turning her head away from him again.

If the Doctor was angry before, it was nothing compared to the apocalyptic rage he was feeling now. How could he have been so wrong? The meta-crisis was supposed to be just like him. He was supposed to care for Rose - worship her even, not violate her in this way.

The Doctor turned and stalked towards the door.

'Where do you think you're going?' Rose asked.

'Well, seeing as there is no threat of a paradox, I'm going to go do what I should have done in the first place and throw the bastard into the nearest supernova.'

He opened the door but it slammed back shut again. He looked down to see Rose with her back to it, keeping it closed.

'You can't do that,' she said.

'The hell I can't. Let me through.'

He tried the door again but Rose was throwing her whole weight against it.

'No. I'm not letting you do this.'

'Why not? After what he's done, he deserves it.'

'What's happed to you? Is this the kind of man you are now?'

The Doctor stopped trying to open the door and looked back down at her. She looked just as she did that day in Henry Van Statten's museum The day she stood between him and a Dalek.

What about you, Doctor? What the hell are you changing into?

He stepped away from the door and sighed. 'Start from the beginning,' he said. 'Tell me everything.'

He pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. She stayed at the door for a moment as if she wasn't sure if he was going to try to get out again. Eventually she moved away from the door and took the seat opposite the Doctor.

A/N: This chapter and the next one were probably the hardest ones to write. I had a couple of different ideas about what Rose's reaction to seeing the Doctor again would be and in the end I kind of just joined them all together but I think I'm happy with it. She's less angry in the next chapter.

And yes I am basing a lot of the Valeyard's character on Kilgrave. How did you guess?