Disclaimer - I don't own Doctor Who, although I wish I did.
The Granddaughter and the Clone.
Rose and infinity.
John looked in stunned open mouthed wonder as he looked at the interior of his technically not granddaughter's TARDIS. It was beyond a doubt beautiful.
It was a cross between a living room, a museum and Aladdins' cave and a TARDIS console room without the roundels and traditional hexagonal indentures you found in TARDISes, Susan had thrown tradition out the window in this case.
Oh, John was so proud.
It was larger than a standard console room with sapphire blue walls and black flooring. There were beautifully carved bookcases with every major work of literature, both human and Time lord and each one worth a small fortune. There were also glass cases of various souvenirs she'd taken on her travels - a racing uniform from a gravity competition, a Viking warriors armour, with a holo of Susan and a big, broad handsome Viking warrior. Pictures of dinosaurs and teeth and plants from the Jurassic and Cretaceous on pedestals.
There were comfortable black leather couches with ornate cushions. There was a rocking chair, a highly polished wooden table with a chess board on it.
There were objects d' art littered around the room - priceless antique time pieces, some sundials, fob watches and one grandfather clock in a corner. She'd obviously collected them on a trip to Earth and other planets. There were potted plants, each one in a self contained environment, to preserve them for all time. There were movie posters - Jaws, creature from the black lagoon as well as magic posters from great illusionists.
One side of the room was more like a science lab; a trestle table with Bunsen burners lit under beakers of liquid of various colours. There was also science equipment littered around the table. John was delighted by the retro look of the whole setup.
The console was larger and boasted controls and displays absent from most TARDISes. Some parts of it looked like it belonged elsewhere. Some were touch sensitive buttons, Victorian era switches and levers, telepathic interfaces and so on. The scanner screen was a large circle on the opposite wall. The time rotor itself was crystalline, with concentric rings suspended nearby, which reminded John of the Rani's TARDIS.
Susan looked at him and suppressed a giggle.
" Like it ?"
John looked at her in astonishment, " Like it, I love it. I've never….what kind of TARDIS is this ? I don't recognise it."
" You wouldn't, its not on the roster. It's a Type I for infinity TARDIS. The first and only one of its kind with a vortex tap for greater power, the controls are a combination of telepathic and manual, the defence system includes time torpedoes and other weapons."
John looked at her aghast.
" Look, I know you have a hatred of violence, but that doesn't mean I go in to a situation with guns blazing. Besides, I once rescued a diplomat from a Cybership and destroyed them. Or saved a planet from an invasion by the Dominators."
John looked at her, making a mental note to argue with her later. But he decided to pass judgement later. He was fascinated by the wonders around him.
He walked around the console, noting the changes, improvements and virtually every single aspect of it. He could feel the heart of the TARDIS and could tell it was fundamentally different from any other.
" The heart of the TARDIS feels different. Surprised it can work in another reality."
Susan grinned. " Told you, vortex tap, the energy goes in to where the eye of harmony usually is in the time sceptre and the energy is purified by the main space time element. My element uses a small black hole in the base of the chamber for extra boost. There is another black hole underneath that in the tap chamber. Both black holes purify the energy and send it further into the future, giving me a larger amount of power than you'd get in say, a Mark 4 TARDIS. That way, I don't really need to wait 12 minutes for the computer to recharge and the energy unit to gather power. When I arrive in another reality, the heart recalibrates to the natural frequency of the vortex. The phase shift is in the main computer and the heart can tell the difference between our reality and others."
" I see, " John said thoughtfully, trying desperately not to feel jealous. His double had had to make do with an old TARDIS of the mark one type 40 models, whilst his granddaughter had a super TARDIS.
How in the name of Gallifrey did she conceive it in secret without the knowledge of the Time lords ?
Susan pulled him to a couch and asked him a question she'd had on her mind.
" How did you come to be here ?"
John sighed. " I told you about Davros, but I didn't tell you that Rose Tyler, a former companion, was obsessed with getting back home to dear old Doctor. The Doctor first met Rose when he - I - was in our Ninth incarnation. It was after the Time War and without the presence of the Time lords to ease the regeneration, well, that was a rough time. But then he had to deal with the latest Nestene invasion and Rose was there. Constantly. He couldn't get her out of his mind. He invited her to travel in the TARDIS, but as time passed he found she had issues. I wont go in depth. But I will tell you, he took her back in time to the point where her dad died and…she saved him."
Susan looked at him aghast, " She saved him ? A fixed point in her personal time line ? Is she that dumb ?"
" I know."
" You let her travel with you still, didn't you ?"
John sighed, " Yes." there was no avoiding that question so he decided to be truthful.
Susan got up and started pacing. " I can understand and sympathise with her, but not to take her home….."
" Is that what you'd do ?"
Susan glared at him, stopping in her tracks. " Yes. Whose to say she wouldn't have done it again, there are dozens of fixed points in time and space. Kennedy in 1963, Hitler during the Nuremberg speech, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson in 1805, Wellington in 1815. Suppose she saved one of them before they died, would you have let her travel with you ?"
John looked down. Susan did have a point, he had to admit. Time travel wasn't all fun and games, it was dangerous. You could be born in 1980 and die in 1355. Time travel didn't make you immortal. There had to be rules in the game. Time had fixed and fluxed points, it was like a railway line, with stations as the fixed points. Events that needed to happen to promote life and change.
John knew the Doctor had been tempted, really tempted, to drop Rose back home like he did with Adam Mitchell, the boy genius who walked around like a fish in a bowl, mouth open and no sound coming out. He didn't because whilst Adam did it for himself, Rose did it for her and her mom. Jackie had told him that life without Pete had been hell. So, he'd decided to let her stay.
" I can't change the past, heaven knows that I am so tempted on occasion," He said finally.
Susan sat opposite him, " You think you're the only one ?"
Dinner Time.
Susan and John sat opposite Jackie and Pete with Tony nearby in the mansion.
Pete had only met one Time lord, the Doctor, and didn't know nor understand the nuances of the Time lords in particular. Susan had already shown she was like the Doctor and John in more ways than one. John had proved to be a valuable asset to Torchwood, especially now Rose was gone. That day had brought dozens of parties for a good 3 months.
Rose had proven to be a disaster in Torchwood. Her methods were sloppy, she didn't care about the danger to those around her, she didn't care about the harm she could do. All she cared about was herself. Because of her, Torchwood was responsible for the deaths of 53 people all due because of some very dodgy experiments.
Once Rose had been in charge of a hyper spatial teleportation experiment. There was an accident and the test subject was vaporised the other end of the conduit.
Until John came there was no answer for the accident. John had taken one look at the equations and the technology of the testing chamber and found that the power level was too high and the equations were not balanced to send a mass into hyperspace in the first place.
Pete, and the rest of the Torchwood board of directors, when they found out, threw Rose out and replaced her with John, who even now was still cleaning up the mess his alternate daughter had made during her time at the institute to this very day.
Unlike Pete, Jackie Tyler had experience with Time lords. At first she wasn't sure what to make of Susan. She was like the Doctor in the fact she could be alien and yet so human at the same time, but unlike the Doctor she was more emphatic and alert to other people. Like Pete, Jackie had been horrified at the callous disregard for life in general Rose had.
Jackie liked Susan, the girl was sweet and kind. But there was a shadow in her eyes, a hint of distrust of people. The Tyler matron couldn't understand why, but she was sensitive enough to realise if the Time lady wanted them to know, she'd talk on her own. The best way to handle a Time lord, she knew, was to give them their space.
Susan was playing with Tony, who'd taken to Susan immediately, when the front door rang.
Jackie looked up from reading her book, and looked at Pete, who was also looking puzzled.
" You weren't expecting someone, were you ?" John asked with a frown. Most people didn't disturb the Tylers at night.
" No, you ?"
Jackie shook her head and got up. The others in the room heard the door open and they could hear raised voices from Jackie and another woman.
John looked up at Pete, " I thought you said she wasn't allowed here ?" he hissed angrily.
Pete protested, " I did."
Susan was confused. " Who are you talking about ?"
Her question was answered by a young woman, maybe in her late 20s. It was hard for Susan to determine, mostly because of the garish makeup the woman wore on her face. Her hair was the same colour as Jackie's, but it was longer, more lank and greasy.
The woman had an arrogant look in her eyes, almost as if she was god's gift to the universe. It would've been convincing if she looked the part.
Judging from the way Pete, Jackie and John were glaring at her - Tony was cowering away from her - she was Rose Tyler.
Rose looked with disdain at the family, her haughty look would've been more convincing if she was wearing the right clothes.
" No welcome then ?"
Pete stood up, " You are not welcome in this house, especially since you kicked Tony in the stomach."
Rose shrugged nonchalantly, " I didn't mean to do that, but the little brat got in my way." Here she glared at John. She hadn't noticed Susan yet.
" Got in the way ? He was in his room. You waked in and kicked and punched him in a rage, you were lucky I didn't have you arrested." Jackie shouted.
Rose shrugged, nonchalant about the event. It was obvious to even a blind man she didn't care about it one way or another.
John glowered at her, remembering the event well.
Rose and he had been fighting, not uncommon especially since he took her job at Torchwood and destroyed the dimension cannon and was going over her blunders even now, she'd yelled and hollered at him and later on Pete and Jackie had got involved. It was 3 to 1 for Rose. Both of the Tylers had decided that Rose was no longer welcome since she'd been shown to be so callous abut life.
Rose had stormed out, but they heard cries of pain coming from little Tony's room. Running there, John had found her kicking the boy in the stomach, after grabbing her and throwing her out, Pete and John shouted at she wasn't welcome back in the manor.
Tony had recently recovered, but he still carried the mental scars.
Susan gasped, wondering how anyone could be so vicious. She grabbed onto Tony, holding him protectively.
Rose sneered, finally noticing Susan but was unaware and totally ignorant of the Time lady's true identity.
" Whose this then, another babysitter ?"
John wanted to keep Susan out of this, and sent a warning look that even Pete picked up upon.
Unfortunately, Susan didn't care, " I'm not a babysitter, but I'm a friend of the family."
Rose snorted, " A friend of the family ? Yeah, right. These people make friends with the rich not commoners."
Jackie couldn't help but add to that barb, whilst wincing that her own daughter was evil, " Don't you mean people like you, Rose ? People who beat their own siblings when they can't fight back ?"
Rose ignored her and moved towards Susan, who stood up, her stance tense. " So," Rose breathed, " who's the latest slut Johnnie boy's brought in ?"
John's voice was quiet, but laced with danger and anger, " She is not a slut." there was no way he was going to let Rose insult Susan, especially after his double had let her down so badly.
" Oh no, then why would she be here ?" Rose retorted.
" She's my - " he was interrupted by a very angry Jackie.
" She's his granddaughter !" She shouted whilst holding a crying Tony, who wanted his " sister ", more like stranger to leave and never come back.
Rose stood there, mouth open but no sound coming out. " Granddaughter ? Oh. Don't make me laugh, he's not old enough to…" then realisation struck her as she glanced at Susan.
Susan confirmed the other woman's thought, " I am one hundred percent pure Time lord stock. I am the Doctor's granddaughter. Not that it matters to you." She added quietly.
Susan admitted to herself that she and John would've preferred to keep her heritage secret but Jackie had revealed it accidentally in her righteous anger. She could see that already Jackie regretted her actions, so she sent her a look of reassurance. The woman was angry and when your angry you make mistakes.
Rose didn't care for any of that. Only one thought latched onto her mind, the thought of getting back to her precious Doctor.
" But that means you have a TARDIS. You have to take me back." She said empathically, although to Susan it came out as a demand.
Susan wondered whether or not this woman was just bone dead stupid. Here she was, trying to act sweet and gentle, whilst she'd come in and been abusive verbally.
What drugs are she on ? She wondered to herself.
" Take you back where exactly ?" Susan asked slowly. She knew exactly where Rose wanted her to be taken back, she just wanted to hear it straight from the horses mouth.
" Back to my Doctor of course," From the way Rose said that and the way she said Doctor Susan was disturbed and could understand now she'd seen it first hand the possessiveness Rose had for her grandfather.
Susan was wondering whether or not the woman had some form of Stockholm syndrome when the blond got in her face. She could smell the cigarette smoke and the cheap and nasty perfume and makeup Rose had on. The stench almost made her gag.
" Well ?"
" No. I wont take you back. I'm not running a pleasure cruise, especially for you." Susan was resolute.
Rose's face took on an ugly appearance, but she tried to cover it up. She needed this Time lord to take her back to her own reality.
" Why not ?"
" Because I don't like you." Susan said dead pan.
Rose looked at her blankly. " But you don't even know me." She spluttered.
" I don't need to know you. I only need to look into your mind, pathetic as it is, and the stories I've heard since I got here." Susan folded her arms, but she was prepared in case Rose struck her.
She wasn't exaggerating about looking into her mind, the things she'd seen….they made her gag.
( Use your imagination, cos I certainly wont say )
Rose lashed out, trying to connect her hand with Susan's jaw, with lightening movements Susan grabbed the hand and squeezed it.
" Trying to persuade me after you hit me eh ? Not going to work. What makes you think I'll take you back, especially if you hit me ?"
Good question.
As soon as Susan let go Rose yanked her hand back and glared at the Time lady. Susan stared back at her, Time lady stare of impassiveness at full power, ready for action.
Rose turned and stalked out, but before she actually left, she turned around and looked the Time lady in the eye.
" You will take me back to my Doctor. One way or another."
Then she left before Susan could make a retort.
A/n What do you think ? Please leave a review.