Disclaimer etc.: see Prologue.
Right. Who saw 'Doomsday'? (Everyone probably.) I have one thing to say on the subject.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Ahem. Sorry.
Enjoy!
Golden Death
4 - Burning
They burned around her, faces melting, bodies dripping into pools of unidentifiable sludge. Gold fire swam around her, highlighting her hair in twists of iridescent beauty. The screams of those she sacrificed to herself echoed through eternity, giving some life, or death, to the cold of the spacelanes.
And through it all, all the death and all the terrible, gut-wrenching screams, she laughed.
As the sinisterly smiling Angel before her melted away into stink and nothing else, she laughed hysterically. It was just funny, for some reason known only to her.
It was only after the Angels around her had crashed and burned that she felt something different; something wrong. The Bad Wolf and Rose Tyler twitched in confusion inside their shared mind. What is that? their shared thoughts asked; their immense knowledge flummoxed.
Then it came; a freezing probe that seared deep into their brain, ripping away their defences and tearing into the gold that spun in a never-ending spiral. It gorged itself on the power, dragging the brilliance away from the combined strength of the Wolf and Rose.
Something giggled at them as they were left stripped and vulnerable.
What are you? they howled back.
we are the angels. Another giggle. thank you! thank you!
For what?
for the power to destroy him of course!
Terror, flooding through both of them, the Wolf influenced by Rose's potent emotions. Pain and fear. Destroy who?
the doctor! and when he falls, we shall rule over all!
But we killed you!
we are more than flesh and blood! we are the angels! we are more powerful than you can comprehend! you cannot kill us!
You cannot kill him!
and what do you plan to do about it? we hold you, you are our prisoner. what can you do?
You can't!
watch us.
The gold faded away, leaving the room a vicious charnel house. Rose's form was left upright in the centre, naked in mind and body, clothes burned away by the fire that had burned out Heaven.
"Time to find your Doctor." Rose Tyler's lips moved, but it was neither her nor the Wolf that spoke. The Angels dredged the pair's joined memories, and then snickered. " 'Everything has its time, and everything dies'," they quoted.
The conjoined Rose/Wolf screamed out to the Doctor inside their mind; telling him to run, to flee, to hide. He couldn't hear.
Ecstatic giggles. "It's his time now!"
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The earth shook beneath the Doctor's feet as his world was yanked out from under him. "Rose!" Her name slipped free from his lips as he reeled against the wall, stricken.
The red being only just caught him before he fell. "Doctor? Is it Rose Tyler?" It shook him. "What is it?"
The Time Lord gasped, desperately trying to drag oxygen into his lungs, and failing miserably. There was something reaching for him, dragging at him, tearing at him with razor-sharp teeth. He was slipping towards it.
"Doctor!"
His eyes rolled up in his head and he sagged against his crimson companion, unconscious.
>>>>>>>>>
Darkness.
That was all there was around him. Blackness that ate at him, threatening to pull him down and down until he was but a shell of who he used to be. For a split-second that seemed to go on into eternity voices screamed at him; the voices that yowled inside his mind, heralding the insanity.
And then they were silenced, and there was nothing but quiet.
He shivered.
"Rose?" he called into the emptiness around him, his voice echoing into the far reaches of this place; this place that held the darkness of his own mind. "Rose! Can you hear me!"
Gold speckles drifted towards him as if summoned by his impassioned voice. A smile twitched at his lips. "Rose?" he asked again.
"She is here." The echoing voices drifted into his senses and he whirled around in the emptiness, trying to see where they came from.
"Where?"
"Here." The speckles swirled towards a point before him, coalescing into a vague outline of an unmistakeable form; the gold stark against the black. It was as though an artist had sketched her roughly on a dark canvas with gold pencil, simple lines picking out her body and face in glowing streaks. She watched him through golden eyes, the irises solid rings of gold, black shining through in the centre. "Doctor," she whispered almost-provocatively.
He gasped with joy. "Rose!"
The outline's full lips curved in a cold smile; eyes evaluating him harshly. "Not quite, Time Lord."
He was blasted backwards and sent spiralling off into the darkness.
>>>>>>>>>
DOCTOR!
Rose and the Wolf struggled together, but they couldn't dig the Angels' claws out of their spirit. Leave him! they screamed. Don't hurt him! Please!
why not? the Angels cackled, cruel in their insanity.
PLEASE! Leave him!
no!
They screamed and screamed, but it didn't matter. The Angels were inside them, corrupting the power, and as the power was corrupted, so were they.
They were corrupted, and suddenly the Wolf was gone, and Rose Tyler was all alone.
join us, the Angels whispered to her. the doctor made you hurt, he abandoned you. make him pay. make him scream. don't deceive yourself. you hate him.
She struggled on. No! I love him!
you hate him! don't be so naïve!
I LOVE HIM! Leave him alone!
alright then. maybe you do love him. but does he love you?
What? Of course he does!
he told you he does. is he telling you the truth?
Why would he lie?
why wouldn't he lie? he likes to travel with an entourage. sarah-jane told you as much. maybe he thought you would leave if he didn't tell you that he loved you. maybe he lied to you just to keep you with him. A giggle. it worked as well.
You're lying. But there was doubt in her thoughts.
The voices became suddenly sympathetic and slightly condescending. why would we lie to you? you are one of us. we do not lie to family.
Anger. Incredible anger. I am not one of you! I would never be one of you!
Smugness. you may want to revise that statement. you are one of us.
No!
yes. you can talk to us. that proves that you are.
You've possessed me! She was floundering now, because she could feel the voices were telling the truth. But she wouldn't believe it. You're just using me! I'm human! I love him! Leave me alone!
But it was too late. She burned alone.
rose tyler. A smile inside her mind. welcome.
>>>>>>>>>
The Doctor's eyes shot open. Rose!
"Doctor!" the red being greeted, a relieved smile gracing its scarlet features. "You scared me!"
The Time Lord didn't reply.
"Doctor?"
"They've taken Rose," he bit off in reply, every word laced with anger and pain and frustration and overwhelming fear.
The smile was immediately wiped away, replaced by an expression of genuine sorrow. "Oh Doctor," the being murmured, "I'm so sorry."
Help us Doctor. Please.
He blinked. "What?"
"What what?" his companion asked.
"Did you just hear a voice?" the Time Lord asked.
"No!"
Doctor! Listen!
"Again!"
"Doctor, are you sure you are okay?" The red being's voice was worried.
The Doctor shushed it softly. "Who are you?" he asked the voice, his head inclined slightly upwards towards the roof.
The Wolf.
"The Bad Wolf?"
Yes.
"But, I thought you were Rose?"
I am. In a manner of speaking.
"D'you mind explaining?"
Rose and I are two halves of a whole.
"Ah. Right." He frowned. "Where is she then?"
As you said. She's been taken by the Angels.
"But you're here."
They had to get rid of me in order to fully encase her mind, in order to full control her. I was ripped away and cast out.
"That can't be good."
It isn't. She is incomplete. She will die soon if I cannot return to her. And I will too.
Claws of ice grabbed at his heart. "Die?"
Confirmation. Die.
"Where is she?"
The ashes of Heaven.
" 'Ashes'?"
It burned. We burned it.
He couldn't help but smile. "She's more powerful than she knows, isn't she?"
We are the most powerful being in existence. Fear. Pain. Nostalgia. When joined, that is. Now we are half the strength of what we were.
"How do I get to her?"
We. You will not go alone.
He smiled despite the situation. "Okay then. How do we get to her?"
The TARDIS.
The Doctor sighed, his quirky smile vanishing. "She's gone though," he replied, sadness in his tone.
He could feel the Wolf's disapproval. The TARDIS is alive and well. A little battered, but fine.
He frowned in amazement. "Where?"
Hell.
The Doctor grinned. He could suddenly see brilliance where before had been all shadows. "Let's go find her then!"
He felt the Wolf's agreement and amusement.
"Who?" his scarlet acquaintance asked finally, frustration evident in its tone and face. "Who are we looking for? Who were you talking to? What's going on!"
The Doctor grinned and patted it on the shoulder. "We're looking for the TARDIS, that's my ship; I was talking to the Bad Wolf and as to what's going on… We're going to go save Rose Tyler!"
The red being eyed him. "You're crackers," it observed.
The Time Lord took a little bow, still grinning like a loon. "Oh, I know." He turned away and marched down the corridor, the red being trailing in his wake, muttering to itself.
Within a second the smile faded from his lips, replaced by a mask of grim determination.
Hold on Rose. I'm coming.
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