Previously:
She lets out a sobs and buries her face in her hands and cried. She wiped the mascara and tears away and began to prepare the TARDIS to go back to the vortex when she sees her.
A bride.
"What?"
The bride turns "what?" she squeaks.
"But how…?"
"Where am I? What is this place?"
"But…but…but I'm in flight! How can you be here?" Rose ran to check the console "still in flight, this is physically impossible. How can you be here?"
The bride put her hands on her hips "where the hell am I? I demand you to tell me! I have rights!"
"Ok you answer my questions and I'll answer yours" Rose said calmly.
"What! I refuse to be kidnapped by a peroxide blonde!"
"I haven't kidnapped you!" Rose protested. "You're in the TARDIS"
"The what?"
"The TARDIS"
"The what?"
"The TARDIS!" Rose snapped losing her patience "look we can do this all day but funnily enough I have better things to do"
"That's not a real word, you're making things up" the bride said crossing her arms.
"What ever makes you sleep a night" Rose muttered, "so how did you get here?"
"YOU KIDNAPPED ME!" the bride exploded. "Who was it? Is it Nerys? Oh, my God, she's finally got me back. This has got Nerys written all over it."
"Who the hell is Nerys?"
"You're best friend!"
Rose rolled her eyes "I can assure you that I do not know Nerys. Now where are you from?"
"London, duh!"
"Well then, hold on and I'll get you there before you can say 'I do'" Rose said moving up to the console.
"No thanks! I can find my own way back" the bride stormed down the ramp, reaching out to the doors.
"NO!"
Rose ran after the bride trying to stop her before she opened the doors and fell out into space (not that it would be that much of a loss). The doors opened and the bride stepped back gasping in shock.
"What…what…what…?"
"Beautiful isn't it?" Rose asked quietly. The bride said nothing. "Let's start over, I'm Rose and you are?"
"Donna…Donna Noble"
"Human?"
"Is that an option?"
"It is with me"
"Yeah, I'm from Chiswick"
"Right then, what church?"
"St. Mary's"
DWDWDWDWDWDWDW
Instead of getting Donna to St. Mary's like she was supposed to, Rose landed in Central London; something told her she should re-take the TARDIS driving course if she keeps doing this. She lent Donna her mobile so she could call someone at the wedding while Rose went to get some money out, it had been awhile since she had been on Earth, she tended to avoid it after her Mum's 'funeral'.
She just got the money when she saw Donna getting into a taxi cab.
"Donna!" she called out.
The redhead turned and waved "good riddance Blondie!" she shouted before slamming the door shut.
"Oi! Hang on you still have my phone!" Rose shouted running after the taxi as it began to slowly drive away. And then she saw the driver in the mirror…it was one of the Santa Clause robots that attacked her last year. Crap.
She ran to the TARDIS, hoping that she won't crash into anything when she flies it on the road to save Donna.
DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW
Rose stood holding on to the Tardis door and looking at the taxi that Donna was in, she shouted to her. "Donna, open the door!"
Donna shouted back but Rose couldn't hear what she said. She pointed the sonic screwdriver at the window and it opened automatically. When the window was open, Donna shouted. "Santa's a robot."
Rose rolled her eyes, as if she didn't know! But she decided not to comment. "Donna, open the door!"
"What for?" asked Donna.
"You've got to jump."
"I am not bloody jumping, you can go jumping. I'm supposed to be getting married!" The robot in the driver's seat of the car pressed his foot down on the accelerator- and the car pulled away from the Tardis.
Rose managed to get the Tardis back alongside the taxi. She pointed the sonic screwdriver at the robot and rendered it incapable of any sort of movement and shouted to Donna. "You're going to have to jump."
Donna looked at him and said "I'm not jumping on a motorway."
Rose groaned they didn't have time. "What ever that thing is, it needs you, and whatever it needs you for is not good. Now come on."
Donna shouted "I'm in my wedding dress."
"Yes and you look gorgeous, now come on!"
Donna took a deep breath and opened the door; Rose held her hands out as far as she could without losing balance and falling onto the motorway. "I can't do it!" Donna wailed.
"Yes you can, I'll catch you. Please Donna just trust me on this"
Donna took another deep breath and leaped out of the taxi, Rose just managed to catch her and the pair toppled backwards into the TARDIS.
DWDWDWDWDWDWDW
Rose was putting out a small fire in the TARDIS while Donna looked down at her watch and sighed deeply. "Did we miss it?" Rose called over her shoulder.
"Yeah…"
"I'm sorry, but you could always re-book it"
"Suppose"
"You still got the honeymoon to look forwards to" Rose said trying to cheer Donna up.
"But it'll be a holiday not a honeymoon" Donna pointed out, sitting down on the ledge of the roof.
Rose wrapped the Doctor's trench coat round Donna's shoulders. "I'm sorry"
"S'not your fault" Donna mumbled.
"Oh that's a change" Rose said a small smile playing on her lips; Donna smirked slightly and wrapped the coat tighter round her.
"This is huge! Whose is it? There's no way a girl like you could wear this without drowning"
"It was…it was my friend's, he left it behind"
"Ex-boyfriend? He's not worth it then if he can't see what a catch you are…though you should try to lay of the peroxide"
"Thanks" Rose said sarcastically, she then shook her head. "No, we weren't like that, just very good friends"
"Friends with benefits?"
"NO!"
"Oh come on, I bet you wanted to"
"Yes…but I don't think he did."
"So what happened to Mr Mysterious?"
"He's…lost"
Donna didn't press on, she could see the grief and pain written all over Rose's face. She turned to look on at the many buildings of London. Rose rummaged through her pocket and pulled out a gold ring, she handed it to Donna. "Put this on"
"Yeah rub it in why don't ya Blondie?" Donna snapped.
"It's a Bio-Damper. Those Santa's will be able to detect you by your biological signature this will hide it. Please put it on"
Donna huffed before snatching it out of Rose's hand and slipping the ring on. She sighed and then decided to ask "so robotic Santa's'?"
"Oh, your basic robo scavenger, the Father Christmas stuff is just a disguise. Trying to blend in, we met them last Christmas."
"Why what happened then?" Donna asked she sounded as though she really didn't know what had happened
"Great big space ship, hovering over London, you didn't notice?" Rose asked the confused red head
"I had a bit of a hang over."
"Oh what a surprise" Rose muttered, she pointed over to a handful of buildings "over there is the Powell Estate, I used to live there."
"You're human?" Donna asked looking surprised.
"Used to be" Rose said.
"What do you mean by used to be?"
"Long story Donna" Rose murmured before changing the subject. "Question is what do camouflaged robot mercenaries want with you?" she reached into the pocket of her jacket. "And how did you get inside the Tardis, I don't know. What's your job?" she asked as she started to run the sonic screwdriver over Donna.
"I'm a secretary."
"Weird, I mean you're not special, you're not powerful, you're not connected, you're not clever, you're not important."
"You're mysterious bloke, did he leave because of your continues insults?" Donna snapped glaring at Rose.
"No more like I inherited it from him" Rose mumbled. "What kind of secretary?" she asked
"I'm at H C Clements. It's where I met Lance. I was temping..." Donna lost herself in her memories "I mean it was all a bit posh really. I'd spent the last two years at a double glazing firm. Well I thought 'I'm never gonna fit in here' and then he made me a cup of coffee. I mean that just doesn't happen, nobody makes the secretaries coffee. And Lance, he's the head of H R he doesn't need to bother with me, but he was nice, he was funny and it turns out he thought everyone else was really snotty too. So that's how it started me and him, just one cup of coffee. That was it."
"When was this?"
"Six months ago."
"Bit quick to get married."
"Well he nagged and nagged and nagged, so I finally gave in." Donna said waving a dismissive hand.
Rose let out a disbelieved snort, something told her it was Donna who did the nagging, but she wisely avoided the subject. "What does H C Clements do?"
"Oh, security systems, you know, entry codes, ID cards that sort of thing. If you ask me that's a posh name for locksmith."
"Keys..."
"Anyway enough of my CV. It's time to face the consequences. Oh this is going to be so shaming." She turned to Rose and said "You can do the explaining Martian Girl." Before marching into the TARDIS.
"I just told you I'm from Earth!" Rose snapped following Donna into the TARDIS.
DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW
The reception was chaos. When they first entered everyone crowded Donna demanding to know what was going on, Donna evaded them by putting on some dramatic sobbing. Rose managed to get her mobile back from Donna and did some research of H. C. Clements and found out that it was a cover for Torchwood, what a surprise.
While Rose watched everyone dance she had allowed herself to remember a time when it wasn't just her on the TARDIS but the Doctor and Jack, how they danced just like this to Glenn Miller. She then spotted a cameraman and watched the wedding video, she figured out the golden light that had surrounded Donna was Huon particles, something she only knew due to the continuous studying the TARDIS forced her to do.
Then the Santa's came round and the baubles on the Christmas tree started to attack everyone. Rose, Donna and Lance (someone Rose felt rather creeped out by) decided to investigate H. C. Clements (well Rose and Donna did, Lance just tagged along while complaining).
Rose, Donna and a reluctant Lance ran into the H C Clements building and up to the floor that Donna works on. They stopped at her desk and Rose said "To you lot this might just be a locksmith, but H C Clements was bought up 23 years ago by the Torchwood institute."
"Who are they?" Donna asked noticing the dark looks that Rose wore when she mentioned Torchwood.
"They were behind the battle of Canary Warf and me losing my mum and friend" Donna looked at Rose with confusion written all over her face and Rose elaborated "The Cyberman invasion" Donna still looked confused
"Skies over London full of Daleks?" asked Rose.
Donna still didn't have a clue what they were talking about and said "I was in Spain."
"They had Cybermen in Spain." Rose said flatly.
"I was scuba diving." Donna replied as if that explained everything.
Rose looked away back at the computer that she'd been trying to get into since they'd arrived in that room and said "That big picture, Donna you keep missing it."
Donna glared at Rose "keep pushing it Blondie"
"Torchwood was destroyed, but H C Clements stayed in business." Rose went to another computer and said "I think that someone else came in a took over the operation."
Donna was getting fed up with the lack of information and she said "But what do they want with me?"
Rose looked up from the computer screen and said "Somehow you've been dosed with Huon energy and that's a problem... because Huon energy hasn't existed since the Dark Times, The only place you can find a Huon particle is a remnant in the heart of the TARDIS. See that's what happened." she paused and grabbed a cup off the table next to her and tried to explain what happened to Donna "Say this is the TARDIS." she then grabbed a pencil and continued "say this is you. The particles inside you activated, the two sets of particles magnetised and wap! You were pulled inside the TARDIS." he said and dropped the pencil in the cup.
"I'm a pencil in a mug?"
"Yes, you are." she said "4H sums you up." she put the cup down and turned to Lance and said "Lance, what was H C Clements working on? Anything top secret, special operations. Do not enter?"
Lance looked at her, shrugging and said. "I don't know. I'm in charge of personnel. I wasn't project manager." he paused and then said "Why am I even explaining myself to you? What are we even talking about?" It was clear to Rose that she was getting on Lance's nerves and that Lance didn't understand what was going on, so she said very calmly (while inwardly glad that the TARDIS had forced her to study or otherwise she wouldn't have been able to work out what happened to Donna).
"You make keys that's the point" she brought up a virtual plan of the building and said "Look at this, we're on the third floor." she turned and looked at Donna and Lance and asked "There's a basement under the reception, yes?" she got up and headed to the lift and waited for it to come down "So how come when you look in the lift there's a button marked 'Lower basement'. There's a whole floor that doesn't exist on the official plan. So what's down there?"
"Are you telling me that this building's got a secret floor?" Lance asked.
Rose looked at him and said "No I'm showing you that this building's got a secret floor." Donna looked at the buttons on the lift and noticed something that the Rose obviously hadn't.
"It needs a key." Donna said slowly.
Rose ran into the lift and said as she pointed the sonic screwdriver at the button "I don't." the lift button unlocked and Rose put the sonic screwdriver back in her jacket and said "Right then, thanks you two. I can handle this, see you later."
Donna looked at Rose and said "No chance Martian, you're the girl who keeps saving my life, I am not letting you out of my sight." as she spoke she joined Rose in the lift.
"Going down." said Rose beaming at Donna; she could see why the Doctor enjoyed having a companion.
"Lance!" said Donna; she was trying to get her fiancée to get into the lift with them.
But he said "Maybe I should go to the police."
Donna wasn't having any of it "Inside!" she said Lance reluctantly got into the lift. The lift doors closed at took the four of them down to the lower basement
The three of them exited the lift when it stopped and Donna asked "Where are we?" she stepped further away from the lift "What goes on down here."
Rose said "Let's find out."
"Do you think Mr Clements knows about this place?" asked Donna suddenly
"The mysterious H C Clements?" said Rose raising an eyebrow "Oh! I think he's part of it."
Rose was looking around and she noticed something that the other two hadn't seen yet and said "Oh look transport."
They turned to see three motor scooter type of things.
DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW
They found a lab that was manufacturing the Huon particles. Rose examined them interestedly while Donna looked round in awe. When Rose showed Donna the Huon particles Donna got scared and Rose was promising to save her when a voice caught their attention.
Oh. She is long since lost" the wall in front of Donna and Rose lifted up to reveal a cavernous room on the other side, with a large hole drilled in the centre.
"I have waited so long." said the voice "Hibernating at the edge of the universe"
Unnoticed by the pair who were looking around the room for the source of the voice, Lance left the room and as he did so the voice continued to speak. "Until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to waken me."
Rose looked around the room and noticed that there were several of the robot Santa's round the large room (minus the Santa suits and musical instrument, instead they were wearing long black cloaks and were carrying guns). Rose walked forwards and looked at the hole and said "Someone's been digging." she paused at looked carefully at the hole and notice marks that were obviously made by a laser "Oh, very Torchwood. Drilled by laser. How far down does it go?"
"Down, down all the way to the centre of the Earth."
"Really? Seriously, what for?"
"Dinosaurs." suggested Donna
Rose turned to look at the redhead who was now standing beside her and said "What are you on about? Dinosaurs."
"That film, under the Earth, with dinosaurs" she looked at her face and saw that she wasn't amused and said "Trying to help."
"That's not helping…though actually in other circumstances that would be a rather good idea"
"Such a sweet couple."
"Where are you?"
"High in the sky. Floating so high on Christmas night."
"I didn't come all this way to talk on the intercom. Come on let's have a look at you."
"Who are you with such command?"
"I'm Rose."
"Prepare your best flower power, Rose child. For you will be sick at heart."
The owner of the voice appeared in the room with the three of them and they could now see a being with a spider-like lower body and a humanoid upper body, she had fangs for teeth, four extra eyes on her forehead and two devil horns coming from the side of her head incorporating her ears, she was completely red with occasional bit of black glittering on her skin. She really was an awful sight to look at.
Rose looked at the creature and after some thought and going through the books in her mind she figured out what it was "Racnoss." she said "But that's impossible, you're one of the Racnoss."
"Empress of the Racnoss." said the creature.
"If you're the empress then where are the rest of the Racnoss? Or are you the only one?"
"Such a sharp mind."
"That's it." said Rose. "The last of your kind." Rose turned to Donna who were standing next to her. "If I remember correctly The Racnoss come from the Dark Times, billions of years ago. They were carnivores. Omnivores, they devoured whole planets." The Empress must have heard her because she turned round to face her.
"Racnoss are born starving, is that our fault?" she asked.
"Oh so I was right?"
"They eat people?" Donna asked.
Rose looked up at the ceiling and turned to Donna "H C Clements. Did he... uh wear those black and white shoes?"
"He did" answered Donna sounding amused "We used to laugh. We used to call him the fat cat in spats." Rose pointed to the ceiling and tied up in a web was a body wearing black and white shoes and that was all that you could see of the man in the web. Donna looked up and looked back down as she took in what she was seeing and said "Oh my God."
"My Christmas dinner." The Empress of the Racnoss said her teeth glittering.
"You shouldn't even exist. Way back in history the fledgling empires went to war against the Racnoss. They were wiped out."
"Except for me." The Empress said. As she spoke Donna spotted Lance coming up behind the Racnoss and decided to distract it until he was near enough to strike with the axe that he was carrying
"That's what I've got inside me that Huon energy thing. Oi! Look at me lady I'm talking. Where do I fit in? How come I got all stacked up with these Huon particles? Look at me you, look me in the eye and tell me."
"The bride is so feisty."
"Yes I am." Donna agreed "I don't know what you are, you big thing. But a spider is just a spider and an axe is an axe. Now, do it!"
Lance lift the axe as though to strike the Racnoss Empress, but he stopped short of hitting her and started laughing with the Empress and Rose placed a hand on Donna's shoulder, to keep her still but also as a sympathetic gesture.
"That was a good one." Lance said "Your face"
"Lance is funny." the Empress said as though that explained everything.
"What?" Donna asked now that she had regained the ability to speak.
"I'm sorry." Rose said.
Donna looked from one to the other "For what?" she asked. She then looked at Lance and said "Lance. Don't be so stupid, get out of there."
"God, she's thick" Lance said "Months I've had to put up with her. Months! A woman who can't even point to Germany on a map."
"I don't understand." Donna said.
"How did you meet him?" Rose asked Donna looked at him confused. "He made you coffee."
"What?"
"Everyday I made you coffee." Lance said in a patronising tone as though he was talking to a child rather than a full grown woman. Rose looked at Donna sympathetically.
"You had to be dosed with liquid particles over six months" Rose explained.
"He was poisoning me?" Donna asked.
Rose looked at Lance and said "It was all there in the job title, the head of human resources."
"This time its personnel."
"But... We were getting married."
"Well... I couldn't risk you running off so I had to say yes. Then I was stuck with a woman who thinks the height of excitement is a new flavour Pringle. Oh I had to sit there and listen to all that yap, yap, yap. Ooh Brad and Angelina, Is Posh pregnant? X Factor, Atkins' diet feng shui. Split ends. Text me, text me, text me. Dear God, the never ending fountain of fat, stupid trivia. I deserve a medal."
"Is that what she offered you?" asked Rose "The Empress of the Racnoss?"
"It's better than a night with her!" explained Lance.
"But I love you." said Donna in a small voice, he confidence had been knocked by Lance's betrayal.
"That's what made it easy" said Lance without a trace of guilt in his voice "It's like you said Rose, the bigger picture. What's the point in it all if the human race is just nothing? That's what the Empress can give me."
Rose was getting sick of this idiot so she decided to set him straight. "The human race isn't nothing, I've been to the future, I've seen the End of the Earth and New Earth, the Human race is the race that always survives right through the ages the human race is always there in some form or another and in history humans have done brilliant things and will continue to do so until the end of time. Tell me the human race is nothing now?"
Lance appeared to ignore everything that Rose just said. "The Empress can give me a chance to go out there to see it. To see the size of it all. I think you know something about that don't you Rose?"
"Who is this little flower child?"
"She said Martian."
"Oh, I'm sort of homeless." Rose said "But the point is what's down there? The Racnoss are extinct what's going to help you 4000 miles down. That's just the molten core of the Earth isn't it?" she asked pointing at the hole
"I think she wants us to talk." said Lance.
"I think so too." agreed the Empress of the Racnoss
"Well tough all we need is Donna."
"Kill this chattering little flower child"
"Don't you hurt her." said Donna as she stepped in front of Rose, feeling defensive about the blonde woman she had only recently disliked.
"No it's alright."
"No I won't let them." The robots all around them were aiming their weapons at Rose.
"Ah! Now except..."
"Take aim." ordered the Empress.
"Well I just wanted to point out the obvious..."
"They won't hit the bride; they're such very good shots."
"Just hold on. Hold on just a tick, just a tiny little, just a...tick. If you think about it the particles activated in Donna and drew her inside my space ship." Rose said as she took out the sonic screwdriver " So, reverse it and my space ship comes to her" she took out the vile of Huon particles and held it beside Donna and the Tardis appeared around the two of them.
As soon as they were inside the TARDIS Rose ran to the controls and Donna sat on the captain's chair. Soon the familiar sound of the TARDIS time rotor was heard in the TARDIS and the TARDIS put itself into the Time Vortex.
"This isn't just a spaceship, it's a time machine as well and now we're gonna use it. We need to find out what the Empress of the Racnoss is digging up. If something is buried at the centre of the planet then it must have been there from the beginning. . I've always wanted to see this. Donna I'm going further back than I've ever gone before. I'm sorry Donna" Rose babbled.
DWDWDWDWDWDWDW
The saw the Earth being formed and saw the Racnoss ship be the centre of it all. Both Donna and Rose looked awed, Rose couldn't help but think that the Doctor would love to see this. She played the past few moments in her head and she couldn't help but think my god I sounded like the Doctor.
The Empress of Racnoss pulled them back.
Donna was terrified, she had almost been sacrificed with her ex fiancée (who was now dead) and now she was witnessing Rose killing the Racnoss, she looked up and saw not the light friendliness in the blonde's eyes but a darkness, a grieving darkness, a want to die. This girl was so young but her eyes weren't and it terrified her.
"ROSE!" she screamed "ROSE STOP IT, PLEASE STOP IT!"
Rose blinked and held a hand out to Donna, helping her up and the pair of them ran out quickly, climbing out of the tunnel. They breathed deeply, enjoying the cool air on their face.
"Oh my god!" Donna squealed when she saw the Thames. "You drained it! You drained the Thames!"
The military blew up the Empress's star web like ship. Everything was over, Donna was now safe. Rose took Donna home.
"You don't have to go home" Rose said quietly "you could always come with me."
"No, no I can't" Donna said "I like you, I really do. But…down there with the Racnoss…you weren't Rose; you were something dark and suicidal."
The Doctor was labelled the Oncoming Storm because of that, was that what the Bad Wolf was to Rose? Was turning into a Time Lady also making her dark, losing her humanity?
"Oh…ok, it's all right. But you watch out, yeah? Take care of yourself"
"I will, I might travel or something" Donna said.
"Good luck with that" Rose said before quickly hugging the bride "I'll see you around, I guess"
Donna watched the TARDIS de-materialise when she realised something "ROSE! ROSE!" the TARDIS came back and Rose popped her head back out of the door.
"Jesus you and my Mum could have a shouting competition, you're that loud. What is it?"
"Find yourself someone. I think you need someone to help you"
"All right, I will" Rose promised "anything else?"
"Yeah…you're friend? What was his name?"
"Doctor"
"Doctor Who?"
"Just the Doctor"