Episode 13:1- Bad Wolf

"So are you a duplicate of me or something?" asked Calvin Two.

"Are you a duplicate of me?" Calvin One retorted.

"Why don't we let her pick?" Calvin Two asked, poking a finger at Rose.

"Because Rose is oh so trustworthy," the other snarked quietly.
"She is," Jack put in.

"I am!" Rose exclaimed. "But I can't pick!"

"You can!" Calvin One said earnestly. "I trust you, Rose."

She looked uncertainly between the two. Who could she pick? They were identical.

Jack patted her on the back, but said nothing.

"There are days," Rose said quietly. "When I absolutely hate the world and everything in it. This is not one of those days. Today, I hate the whole bloody universe."

She looked between the two Calvins. "How do I pick? It's impos-"

And then it clicked. "Oh," she breathed. "Well, that's... great."

"What is it?" asked Jack. Rose grinned.

"I can pick now." She pointed at Calvin One. "You."

"Yes?" he said, turning around. "What?"

"You said you trust me."

He nodded frantically. "I do!"

She began to laugh. "Wow, you really did make a good copy, however you did it. You got everything down perfectly. The clothes, the mannerisms, even the..." she looked at his hair, quirking an eyebrow. "...hair. But you got one thing wrong."

"Do tell," Calvin Two smiled, looking directly at her.

She tapped Calvin One's shoulder sharply. "I know Calvin pretty well. And the one thing he'd never tell me is the fact that he trusts me. He doesn't. And even if he did, he'd never say it."

It was one of the constants of the universe. Aliens will attack, the Earth will be saved, stars will be born, galaxies will die, and Calvin will never trust Rose Tyler.

Both of them knew it.

Calvin One scowled. And Hobbes and Ace burst in.

"There's two of them now?" Hobbes yelled loudly, more from shock than anything. Jack sighed.

"We've been through this. One of them is fake. Rose figured it out."

Ace tilted her head. "How did you do it?"

"It was easy," Rose began, and Ace shook her head.

"No, how did the fake copy Calvin? It makes no sense."

Calvin One, who by now had given up on trying to pretend he was the real Calvin, sighed. "I suppose you want me to tell you?"

"Yes," said everyone together.

The fake reached carefully up to his eyes, and pulled away two contact lenses. His eyes were no longer piercing blue, like a shard of sea glass. They were a deep black that was like the bottom of the ocean, where the angler fish swim.

"Hello," he said. Rose visibly stumbled back a step.

"Wait," she protested. "How is that... who..."

He crossed his arms. "I'm Grandfather, if that's what you're asking."

"THAT MAKES NO SENSE!" Ace screamed. "You're Calvin, and then you're Grandfather, who looks exactly like Calvin...!"

"I am Calvin!" Grandfather/Calvin One growled.

The other (real) Calvin raised his hand. "Uh, no. I'm pretty sure I am, since we established that five seconds ago."

"Does it feel like the universe is broken?" Hobbes asked to no one in particular. "or just this small part of it?"

"It's always like this," said Jack slowly. "At least, I think so."

"Who are you?" asked the real Calvin.

Grandfather smiled pleasantly. "I'm sure you and everyone else would love to know. Very well. I'm you."

There was a stunned silence.

"Makes no sense," Jack said cheerfully. "Try again."

"I'm Calvin. From the future."

"Still makes no sense," Rose sighed. "If you were, then why did you attempt homicide via wizard chess?"

"I'm evil," Grandfather said happily.

"You're evil Calvin," said Hobbes, deadpan. "That sounds like a bad fanfiction episode. I suppose you're from a mirror dimension?"

"No, actually," he frowned. "I'm from the future."

"You're evil me from the future," Calvin sighed. "Right. How are we supposed to believe that?"

"Plastic shop dummies, end of the Earth, zombies and Charles Dickens, aliens at 10 Downing Street, Daleks, Dischordia being eaten, Rose's dad, and creepy chanting children," Grandfather rattled off promptly.

"The real question is," Rose interjected. "Why are you evil? You seem fine to me."

Grandfather threw his hands up wildly. "Because I want to destroy the universe!"

Ace stared. "...yeah, that's evil."

He giggled a bit. "It is, isn't it?"

"You're also insane," put in Rose, also staring.

Calvin (the real one) stepped up to his future self, and glared at him fiercely. "I'd never be evil, and you know that. I'd never want to destroy the universe. Why?"

"Spoilers," Grandfather/Calvin smirked.

For some reason, that sounded like a bad TV line.

"But I can tell you," he continued. "it happens right now. It happens today. You begin to destroy the universe today."

"Not going to happen," Calvin frowned. "If I decide not to become evil, or whatever you are, you're just going to blink out of existence. You won't be any more than an idea or a possible future."

Future Calvin/Evil Calvin/Grandfather simply smiled.

Rose, meanwhile, had been busy figuring out something. It was very important, she knew. And then she realised it. "Wait. If you're from his future, then what about us? Where's Hobbes? Where am I?"

Future Calvin grinned even wider, showing pointed teeth that the current Calvin definitely didn't have. "I killed Hobbes."

Hobbes took a step back. "No."

"Yup. I enjoyed it. I have a rather nice tigerskin rug now."

Calvin looked slightly sick.

"And," Future Calvin continued. "I threw Jack into a molecular reconverter. It was fun watching him scream."

Jack grimaced. "Those are outlawed in most of the universe."

"I know!" Future Calvin twirled around a bit. "I'm such a bad boy. As for Miss McShane there... I turned her into my breakfast. She tastes good as Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs."

"You can't use the Transmogrifier Gun for that," seethed Calvin. "It's cannibalism."

"It's not. I'm half-tiger now, so it really, really, isn't. I used Hobbes's DNA for a transfer."

Rose's eyes were wide in horror, and her face twisted with disgust. "You're sick. You're really, really sick. Calvin would never do that. You're lying."

Future Calvin smirked. "You haven't even asked what I do to you."

Rose was silent for a moment, looking down at the floor. Then she stared up at him. "What did you do to me?"

In response, he clicked his fingers, and a door from down the hallway swung open. Golden light spilled out, filling every crack and crevice. Ethereal singing filed throughout the room.

"I remember this," said a drifty voice that still had a hint of London accent to it. "I was watching from over there. I don't want to do this."

"Hurry up, dear," sang the Future Calvin. "Don't keep our guests waiting!"

"I don't want to do this," the drifty voice said again. "I don't want this to happen."

Ace clapped a hand to her mouth. "Is that-"

"Come in, now," Future Calvin snapped.

Another Rose, surrounded in a glowing golden aura, floated into the room. Her eyes were closed, and her expression was serene, apart from stress lines stretching from the corners of her eyes. Her hair span around her in a blonde halo, long and spreading out. She looked beautiful, but not happy at all.

"I made her insane," Future Calvin giggled. "Isn't this fun?"

The current Rose stretched out her hand. "This is so creepy," she whispered.

Hobbes looked stonily at the future version of his friend, who seemed to be muttering nonsense to herself. "What did you do to her?"

The Future Calvin bounced up and down. "I threw her into the Time Vortex!"

"You threw Rose into the Time Vortex?" yelled Jack. "No one can survive that!"

Future Calvin held up two fingers. "Uh-uh. Two things. One. She obviously did, although she's... oh, you know, mentally disbalanced now."

Rose paled a bit.

"And two. She's not Rose anymore. She has a new name. She's the Bad Wolf."

"I see Time and Space," Future Rose sighed, almost like a song. "I see everything that ever was and everything that will ever be. The universe, looping over and over, in the dance of ages. It's beautiful and horrible and wonderful and terrible. Stars and galaxies are born. Life always survives. Always. Life will always exist, from the beginning of Time to the very end of it."

"I don't want to be like that," Rose whispered. Her future was insanity, if nothing happened.

Calvin moved over next to her, and gripped her hand tightly. "Don't worry. We have this covered."

"Bad Wolf," Hobbes said slowly. "I've heard that before."

Rose laughed and elbowed him in his ribs, standing up as well. "Come on, I can see a place. It's called..." she squinted. "...the Malo Lupo. Wonder what that means."

"No idea. I'm not Google Translate or something."

Rose nodded. "No, I've heard it too. Remember, in 1869?"

"I see..." she hummed. "You're from London. I've seen London in drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about half naked, for shame. And the noise, and the metal boxes racing past, and the birds in the sky, no, they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying. And you, you've flown so far. Further than anyone. The things you've seen. The darkness, the big bad wolf!" She gasped, and sat upright.

"Bad Wolf," Calvin said softly. "The words. They're following us."

"'FD'?" Rose asked, holding Hobbes back from jumping out of the wagon.

"'Flow Dab'."

"Where did that come from?"

"Someone graffitied it on the handle of the wagon," Calvin said, pointing. "Wonder what it means?"

"Gahh..." Calvin gasped. "Did someone get the number of that mutant hippopotamus?"

"BW1254," supplied Rose, flopping her arms wildly.

"Why, though?" Hobbes wondered. "And how?"

"Security coding Bad Wolf One," said Van Statten quietly to a guard, who nodded in recognition, and keyed that code into an access panel.

Ace straightened up. "I mentioned it. Why did I say it? I can't even remember..."

Ace grinned. "See you, Blondie. And don't be afraid of the Big Bad Wolf."

Before Rose could ask what she meant, she had already dashed off.

"And Sentience said it, too," added Jack.

"Uh, no, that's fine," he assured her.

"But I want to!" she gushed, and turned into a wolf.

Future Rose's eyelids flickered. "Time is shifting," she said.

Future Calvin turned to her. "What does that mean?" But she didn't say anything else.

Calvin's watch beeped. He looked down at it. A smiley face was flashing cheerily. Fixed! scrolled across the screen. He nudged Hobbes, removing the watch and passing it to his tiger friend.

"Hey there," Hobbes said quietly into the watch, pressing it into his ear like a mobile phone.

"Hi!" chirped Sentience. "All systems back online. That's good, right? How's the fate of the universe?"

Hobbes glanced up at the Future Calvin, who was ranting insanely at Bad Wolf Rose. "Uh... debatable."

"Would this happen to have anything with the fact that the Earth in Rose's natural timeline happens to be collapsing in on itself?" Sentience wondered. Hobbes instantly started paying attention.

"What?"

"It is, if that's what you're wondering."

Calvin was now engaging in a vicious argument with his future self.

"Sentience," Hobbes began. "would it be possible to teleport Ace, Calvin, Rose, Jack and myself into the Time Machine? Possibly instantly?"

"Give me a minute. Be ready"

The watch beeped, and she went offline. Hobbes tossed the watch over to Calvin, who caught it without even looking up.

"Time is unravelling," Bad Wolf said.

"This is it," Future Calvin told his past self. "In about an hour, you're going to make the decision to destroy the universe."
"Don't think so," Calvin replied, casually strapping his watch back on. "Why are you calling yourself Grandfather, by the way?"

"I think the Captain can answer that one," he said, looking at Jack. He sighed.

"Have you heard of the Grandfather Paradox?" he asked the group as a whole.

One minute, Hobbes mouthed to Calvin, who nodded.

When everyone shook their heads, Jack continued on. "It's when a time traveller goes back and kills their grandfather, or another very close relative. If you kill your grandfather, you never could have existed, and so never could have gone back to kill your grandfather in the first place. Thus, the paradox."

"I killed my own grandfather," Future Calvin confided happily. "It's something I always wanted to try."

The teleport activated, and for a moment, there was a dizzying rush of color, light, and sensation. And then they were in the Time Machine.

"Connection achieved," said Sentience bouncing up and down. She was holding two cables together. "What evil megalomaniac did you anger this time?"

"So, let me get this straight," sighed Ace a minute later. "Your evil future self killed, murdered, or generally drove insane all of our future selves because something's going to happen in the next hour to turn you evil."

"Right," said Calvin.

"Meanwhile," Ace turned to Rose. "You've been driven insane by the Time Vortex and have taken on the alias 'Bad Wolf' which is somehow spread throughout your timeline for some unknown reason."

"Yeah," nodded Rose.

"And the Earth is going to destroy itself if you don't turn evil in the next hour because of some paradox loop, and if you do turn evil the Earth will be destroyed anyway because you'll kill your own grandfather."

Jack nodded as well. "That seems like all of it."

"Great," Ace groaned. "Just... wanted to clear that up. Should I be surprised that this actually makes sense to me?"

"Probably not," grimaced Hobbes. "Our only real issue is not turning Calvin evil and somehow managing to cause the timelines to collapse at the same time."

"How did he turn evil in the first place?" asked Rose rather sensibly. "If we know how it started, we can prevent it."

Everyone turned to look at Sentience. She was fixing her frizzy brown hair back in a tight ponytail. She glanced up, and her shoulders drooped. "Why do I have to have all the answers?"

"You're the Time Machine," Hobbes told her. "It's your job to know stuff."

"Scan the next hour for the most temporal activity," Jack suggested. She nodded, closed her eyes, and appeared to concentrate hard.

She was probably doing some weird type of interface with the Time Machine hard drive, Rose thought. And then Sentience began to hum the chorus of Wonderwall under her breath, and Rose gave up on trying to figure out what the small girl was doing.

"Got it," Sentience said after a moment, opening her eyes. "I can probably do a projection."

She waved her hand, and a spotlight swung around to rest on a projection wall that had rolled down from the ceiling. The light formed into a picture, that began to move.

Two Calvins, glaring at each other. No one nearby. They began to fight.

("Sorry," said Sentience, almost apologetically. "No sound.")

They shoved, bit, scratched, and fought like animals. One of them, the one with startlingly blue eyes yelled something. It looked loud.

Then, the other Calvin shoved the first one against a wall, and said something, before pulling both Transmogrifier Guns out of his pockets. He tucked one into his pocket, and then put the other on a shelf. He pressed a button on the wall, and the floor dropped open, just in front of the original Calvin, who stumbled back a few steps. The other Calvin smirked, and pushed him.

Down.

Down.

He fell into the empty black void below.

"Have a nice trip," said the remaining Calvin on screen, turning to look directly at the camera.

"I thought you said that it had no sound!" Jack exclaimed, pointing at Sentience.

"It doesn't," she replied, looking puzzled. "It shouldn't."

Calvin shuddered. "This isn't looking good for me, is it?"

"No."

"Nope."

"Sorry."

"It isn't."

"It really, really, isn't."

"You're screwed," Sentience summarized. "But don't worry! We're very good at being helpful."

"We need a plan," Calvin decided. "A really good plan, with complex side twists."

Everyone there immediately began working on miniature plans inside their heads. Calvin recognized that everyone in the room was brilliant in their own way, and decided to let them think things through. It would be better than forcing them to plan there and then on the spot. After a moment, everyone glanced up, each with their own questions.

"Can there be explosives?" Ace asked hopefully.

Hobbes brightened. "Can I pounce someone? Preferably a bad guy?"

"Do you have weapons?" Jack wondered.

"Are we going to get Earth back?" Rose asked.

"I'll be mission control!" Sentience cheered.

Calvin looked at all of them happily. "Yes to all of those. We'll need a really big sheet of paper. Sentience?"

The big sheet dropped down from the ceiling, along with assorted colored markers, pens, and quills for the old-fashioned of them.

"This will be good," sighed the Time Machine happily. And she was partly right. The plan to come would be dramatic, well thought-out, and include many references to various obscure books and movies. That made it automatically good.

But not everyone involved would come out happy.

(A/N-

I'm writing this while a rather fierce thunder storm is raging outside. That halfway-describes the dramaticness. As for, you know, the ick... well, that's my brain at work.

As always, check out my newest short stories, and leave a review!

:-D

~Kitty)