Disclaimer: Don't own, just fingerpainting with words. And worshipping the BBC for making the decision to bring DW back.
Chapter 4 - Vignettes part three: And Now Back to the Follow Up
AN: I've already got three, maybe four different editions of rewritten Stolen Earth/Journey's End in the works, and I was not about to do yet another full edition. So I decided to do vignettes for this set too.
The original plan was to have the Stolen Earth and Journey's End vignettes in the same chapter as the other ones. But it went waaaaaaaay over my preferred wordcount because I found so many places where that one moment would change Sylvia... and then the aftermaths happened, so... oops. Separate chapters, my bad. Anyway, this chapter covers Stolen Earth vignettes, the next one will be Journey's End. And then I think I can finally call this story properly finished. :D
Warning: Authorial dislike of Rose taken to the extreme, just like in the first chapter. So brace yourselves.
Betalove to tkelparis, and love to all my reviewers and readers! *mwah!*
Vignette 1 - Stolen Earth - Yes, that was Rose. Unfortunately.
"So, I just met, and got murdered by, Rose Tyler." Donna glanced around the neighbourhood they'd landed in. Nice sleepy Saturday, everything looked all right.
"Yeah," he replied, still watching the milkman trundle on, making his deliveries. Earth was fine, for the moment...so where was the danger going to be coming from? "Although why she was so insistent you die is beyond me. That parallel world would have collapsed within five minutes of the change."
Donna still thought it was because the tart thought she was competition, but held her tongue. She'd already inadvertently hurt her poor Spaceman enough, just telling him what had happened, she didn't want to add more to his pain. So she decided to pursue the how of the encounter instead. "But...you said she was locked away in a parallel world, different to the one that was created around me. How can she do that, hop between parallels?"
"I don't know," he replied, lost in thought. "I couldn't make the crossing when I lost her. But if she can cross from her parallel to your parallel now, than that means the walls of the universe are breaking down, which puts everything in danger. Everything. But how?"
Donna followed him back into the TARDIS, frowning in thought. "How's everything in danger if the walls are getting thin enough for transit? I mean, other than several parallel worlds possibly trying to go to war with each other."
The Doctor heaved a sigh as he went to the console. "Once the walls were sealed, they could only safely be unsealed by the ones who sealed them originally. My people, with the resources that were lost with Gallifrey, were the only ones who could make it like you said, a thinning of the walls. Any other attempts to penetrate...well, for example, you saw what happened to the windscreen when your mum used the axe on it to get your grandfather out of the car. Pretend that windscreen is the walls between the universes."
"Getting that fixed was expensive," Donna remembered, then blanched at the visual. First spiderweb cracks all over plus a huge dent in the safety glass - then the glass had shattered into those little bits. "But you can't just run a universe down to get the glass replaced. That's...that's..."
"That's why everything is in danger, Donna." The Doctor glanced up at her, his face troubled. "And Rose is right in the centre of it."
And here she went, but she had to put her foot in it to try and make up for ruining his hopes. "Doctor...couldn't it be possible there are other Roses in the parallels, and that was a different one that killed me?"
"No." He looked up at her then, and gave her a sad smile in thanks for the compassion that had made her try to find alternatives to the painful truth. Then he explained why he'd denied it. "There probably are other Rose Tylers in other worlds. But the one who killed you...that was my Rose. She's the only one who lived the experiences that would make her use 'Bad Wolf' as a message to me."
"I'm sorry," Donna was interrupted by the TARDIS shaking, and then they had bigger problems to distract them from the thorny Rose issue.
Vignette 2 - The Stolen Earth - Dangerous Thorns
"I need to find Donna and the Doctor," Rose said, absently waving her Preacher around and smirking inwardly as the ginger cow's mother flinched.
"Yeah, I've tried calling her, but I can't get through," Wilf said, keeping a careful eye on that gun while pretending he didn't notice her waving it about. "But she's still with the Doctor, I know that much, and the last time she phoned, it was from a planet called Midnight, made of diamonds."
"Planet made of diamonds," Sylvia scoffed, and went on to complain as she used to, in hopes that her apparent distaste of the Doctor would make this girl stop waving that terrifying gun around. "And here we are, planet been taken and those mad pepperpot things killing everyone and where is my daughter? Who knows where, and who knows what that blasted alien's gotten her into now!"
"You were my last hope," Rose said, gun drooping to point at the ground. If Donna's mother was so against the Doctor, then that meant...oh, she'd deal with that ginger cow, all right. Kill her and make sure the Doctor was hers, just as it should be. But where were they? "If we can't find Donna, we can't find the Doctor. Where is he?!"
Sylvia was about to say that wherever he was, he was better off than here, but the laptop beeped, and that horrible girl got distracted by everyone popping up on that odd Subwave network thing.
Selfish little beast, Sylvia thought with her lips thinned to near-invisibility. The world in danger, all these people trying to help get the Doctor and her only child back, and the only thing this Rose girl could think of was that she was first? Which she couldn't have been, if that Sarah Jane Smith had been a companion of the Doctor's. She looked like a contemporary of her own, which put her first and made Sylvia wonder what the Doctor had seen in this bottle-blonde chit.
And she didn't dare say anything about it, because that girl had that gun, and she didn't want to be shot dead and leave Dad and Donna all alone. Neither of them could manage without her...well, Dad couldn't, anyway. Donna...well, she was doing better now. And all because of the Doctor, much as she sometimes hated to admit it.
When those network people got everything going, she and her dad, as well as that horrible Rose, dialled the Doctor's number as well. Every little bit helps, as she said every week with the coupons. She'd just never imagined it would apply to saving the whole Earth.
And it apparently worked, even though it cost Harriet Jones her life. Because there was her daughter and the alien she was sure would be her son-in-law someday. Sylvia stifled a sob, hands clapped to her mouth as her dad puffed out his chest in pride that they'd helped, even if it was only a smidge.
Rose's lip curled as she watched how close the Doctor was to that useless ginger. He was only lonely, that's the only reason he had her along. Stupid bitch, thinking she was so special. She ought to leave her a real surprise, but she didn't have time to kill these two old people. Not if she wanted to get the shift right so she could get to the Doctor and reclaim him from the interloper.
After she'd called back to control, she hefted her Preacher and smirked at the old man and the cow's mother. "I'm going to find the Doctor now. Wish me luck."
She phased out to their calls of 'Good luck!'
Sylvia looked at her dad. "Good luck indeed. She'll need all of it she can scrape up to survive un-slapped when Donna finds out what's been going on."
"Now sweetheart, our little General's too smart to waste time on slapping when there's so much danger going on."
"Oh, I suppose. But just wait until they've saved the world." Sylvia would have said more, but then the phone rang, and she broke a nail in her rush to pick it up and answer.
Vignette 3 - The Stolen Earth - One Extra Phone call
They'd lost the Subwave Network, so while the Doctor was picking a spot to land them somewhere in Britain, Donna pulled out her mobile to find out if she still had a family.
The phone rang three times, then Donna almost cried when her mum answered. "Oh Mum, I have never been so glad to hear your voice!"
"Donna! Where have you been?! And why is some teleporting blonde with a ridiculously large gun stalking the Doctor? I mean, I appreciate her shooting that Dalek thing that was going to kill us, but still! She's stalking him! And who was that disgusting-looking man who shut down the Subwave Network we couldn't talk on?"
"Oh God, Mum," Donna groaned. Figured Rose would show up and annoy her family. "Are you and Granddad all right?"
"Oh yes, we're fine. Almost shot dead of course, but we're fine for now. What about you? And the Doctor? Has he figured out how to stop this yet?"
"Eh, good a shape as being in a crisis allows, and no, not yet. But he's working on it. Look, haven't got time, just had to find out if you were okay. You two stay safe, and I love you both!" Donna sniffed hard, then hung up on her mother trying to get her to stay on the line.
Vignette 4 - Stolen Earth - A Walk Down Memory Lane
"They all right?" The Doctor asked, then walked over to take her hand.
"Yeah, they're all right. Apparently Rose popped up and shot a Dalek, and they all watched the Subwave Network conversation, and now Rose is gone again so I just told Mum to keep her and Granddad safe."
"That's good. Donna," he started as they cautiously stepped out of the TARDIS into what might as well have been a ghost town. "Can you remember anything else Rose said in that parallel world?"
"Other than the last? Just that the darkness is coming. And the stars are going out. Look Spaceman, why don't we just step back inside a moment and you can look at my memory. Like when you let me hear the Oodsong - do that telepathy thingy."
"Isn't often I get someone who invites me into their head," he gave her a wan smile but stepped back into the TARDIS with her. "Now, this time I'm not opening your mind, I'm going into it." He met her eyes as he raised his hands to her head. "So anything personal and private, just imagine a door closing and I'll stay away from it."
"Yeah, okay, slam metaphorical doors in your face if you get nosy, got it. Now get on with it." She quirked a smile at him, then closed her eyes and relaxed.
"Bossy Earthgirl," he said fondly, then went seining through her memories looking for encounters with Rose.
...meeting her on the bank of the Thames. Rose saying everything was wrong and staring at Donna's back...
...meeting Rose on a random street, and again with the staring at the back, plus a warning to be out of town on Christmas. Ooh, that would've been the Titanic crashing...
...once more, during the ATMOS...oh, that's what she'd meant by Rose talking him up like she owned him. That was an odd look for Rose...possessive and almost...avaricious, he thought. And he really didn't like how she lied - it was impossible to be pulled from parallel to parallel without already being in transit. She had control over the process to an extent, given the light show that occurred every time Rose appeared. But that was the first mention of the darkness...
...the final time, that eventually lead to Rose killing Donna, that he paid close attention to. What Rose had done to the TARDIS had made him feel gutted too...but what she knew about the beetle made him both furious and curious. How could she be more callous than him in her explanation? Donna was terrified! And more important, how in any hell known in the universe did Rose know about the Trickster's Beetle? He'd never even mentioned the Trickster to her, much less any of the Trickster's Brigade. Never. He could understand Donna not consciously remembering that though - she'd been terrified from seeing that beetle attached to her.
As he continued to force the memory to clarity, he frowned. What did Rose mean, reality was bending around Donna? Yes, it was like she was a coincidence nexus regarding him...but reality bending? Since she was born? That was...he'd say impossible, but it probably wasn't - just outside his experience. Oh, he had a lot to talk about to Rose now.
He sighed as, once more Rose was callous, to a degree he'd have to struggle to match, to a terrified woman who was grasping at fragile straws of hope. All she had to do was agree, because Donna had been right! That world would blink out of existence once the correction had been made! And yet Rose let her go off believing she had to die. Why?
He could feel Donna close off the rest of the memory, but he begged to be allowed to see it. Donna, please, I have to see it. I have to know the rest.
He was so proud of her when she tentatively thought back at him. Doctor, please. I told you it already...I don't want you to hurt more, this's all hurt you so much...
Please? I might be able to find a clue to explain why. He didn't pressure that door though, simply waited for her decision. He felt her reluctance, but she also opened the door to let him see...
...the rage-fuelled run, and using the remainder of her energy to stay on her feet and snap at her mother. Sylvia had needed to hear that truth, but it just made him want to hurt all the people who'd harassed Donna like that. Between them and Lance, it was no wonder she was so leery of getting close to anyone...
...the final encounter with Rose didn't have any new information, but now he saw why she hadn't wanted to show him it. He felt like his hearts had been ripped out of his chest to bleed despair and grief on the floor, actually seeing Rose be so vicious, seeing Rose deliberately pull the trigger to kill someone. Not that Donna had shown to her best either, but she'd told him her part already...
He pulled out of her mind to find both their faces wet with tears, and Donna offering a hug that he gratefully accepted.
"I'm sorry, Doctor." That was all Donna said, but it was all that his compassionate, fiery ginger needed to say with words. Her hug said the rest.
"I know. But I had to see it for myself. See how much Rose had changed." Once the hug ended, he gave her a wan twist of the lips that might be a smile, then pulled out handkerchiefs for them to dry their faces.
Donna dried her face, then looked out the TARDIS and almost rolled her eyes at what she saw. Still, he wanted to know what she was thinking, and there she was ready to be asked. "There she is. Now you can ask her everything yourself."
"So I can." He started walking toward Rose, hands in his coat pockets.
Of course then a Dalek had to show up, and Rose had to be oblivious to the danger, so he had to run. Which meant he got shot...oh, that was going to make difficulties...