Disclaimer etc.: see Prologue.
Hey there, sorry about the delay. I got a case of writer's block on this fic after 'Doomsday', so I apologise. And the computer wouldn't let me post it yesterday.
And my thanks to everyone who reviewed previous chapters, you are fantastic!
Enjoy!
Golden Death
6 - Choosing
"Jackie, get back!"
The Doctor's yell screamed through Jackie Tyler's head, shocking sense back into her, and she instinctively obeyed, falling away from her daughter-who-was-no-longer-her-daughter and scrambling through into the next room. "Where have you been?" she screeched back at the Time Lord.
He rolled his eyes. "That's the thanks I get for saving your life!"
"Yes!"
"Jackie,can you please be quiet!" he yelled, fury and fear flooding his voice.
She went quiet.
"Thank you." His attention left the older Tyler woman and moved to the Angels.
It was the first time he'd seen her in the flesh since they'd been separated, and he had to remind himself that it wasn't her; it wasn't Rose Tyler, TARDIS traveller, who stared out from those gold-flecked eyes.
"Leave her," he ordered dangerously, his fingers tightening around the sonic screwdriver in his hand. "Leave her now."
A bubbling laugh erupted from the full lips that he knew so well. "And how do you propose to make me?" they asked, multitudes of voices overlaying Rose's unique tone, pushing it down beneath the weight of the many above her.
And the Doctor, for once, was stumped.
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Rose could see her Doctor, his dark eyes blazing with anger and determination and frustration and love.
"Don't give in," she murmured, sickeningly aware that he could not hear her. "Don't give up. Don't let them win."
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A cruel smile widened on Rose's lips, spread by the Angels. "And for all you know, Doctor, your Rose could already be dead."
He didn't show any outward reaction, but an icy hand tightened around his heart for an eternal instant.
"For all you know, Doctor, we could have killed her the moment we stepped into this body." They were enjoying themselves; enjoying tormenting him. He could tell.
Doctor. The unseen Wolf, breathing reassurance into his mind. Rose is alive. You know it as well as I.
He smiled, equalling the Angels in arrogance. "I would know if Rose were dead," he shot back by way of answer. A pause, accompanied by a widening of his cocky grin. "She is alive."
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Rose's fingers were clenched tight around the gleaming bars of her cage, her vision elsewhere. Fires raged around her, sending the temperature of the metal she grasped soaring up to way above the point at which water was reduced to gusting steam. She didn't notice as her skin blistered.
It wasn't important.
Because she could feel what the Angels were about to do with the power that was wrapped around her spirit. "No…" she moaned in a whisper. "Please no…"
They heard her, and laughed. maybe it is fortunate that your doctor arrived when he did, they mused. maybe he will make an even better lesson than your mother would.
"NO!" she screamed out, her voice echoing around the ruins of Heaven. "No! Leave him alone!"
There was a chuckle, a malicious cackle that set her teeth on edge. very well then. we will give you a choice.
What?
a choice of who lives, and who dies.
No… No, you can't!
A giggle. which will it be? the choice is yours; your mother, or your lover?
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DOCTOR!
He jumped as her voice screamed through his head. Rose?
There was no answer, but he could somehow feel her despair and fear. His hearts twisted, and he turned to the Angels. "What have you done to her!" he raged. "What the hell have you done to her!"
The smile turned mocking. "Given her a choice," they replied in that multilayered voice.
"A choice?"
A short laugh. "A choice that only gods should have. Who lives, and who… doesn't live."
He understood. It was horrified understanding. God no, Rose! "That'll break her!"
They smiled, curving her lips upwards provocatively. "Exactly."
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The Wolf heard what was said and unsaid, and it thought.
The Doctor was right. An impossible choice such as that would shatter Rose Tyler in two. It was sick really; the Angels were using Rose's love to destroy her and, ultimately, cast everything into shadow.
But if it could get to Rose then maybe it could fortify her, keep her strong until the Doctor could bring her back from the brink of despair with a touch and a kiss. The Wolf would have grinned.
But then the Wolf fretted. There was no way to get to Rose, no link to her.
Wait…
The Angels held Rose's body, and they had access to her knowledge too. How else would they have known the effect that the decision between Jackie and the Doctor would cause in the human's mind? But Rose's consciousness was not in the Tyler flat; the Wolf would have been able to sense its other half if she were here.
It couldn't sense the whole, but it could feel something. A tenuous connection; a little whisper drifting through space to caress its spirit.
And the whisper was coming through the Angels.
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A golden wisp moved through the air, barely visible against the blaze of power that came from Rose's unwilling body. It wavered, moving slowly but systematically towards the Angels. It was insignificant; nothing.
But the Doctor saw it nonetheless.
And he knew what it was. The Wolf?
Doctor.
What are you doing?
I can reach her. The Doctor's hearts skipped a beat. I can reach her, through the Angels' hold on her mind.
"Doctor?" the Angels demanded, but he ignored them and watched, vaguely open-mouthed, as the golden trace wrapped itself around the-body-that-had-been-Rose's neck. Hold her for me, he asked. Keep her sane until I can reach her.
What else would I do? He could feel amusement. And I'll see what I can do about the Angels as well. You never know what I might find.
He smiled. Good luck.
And then the Wolf sank through the perfect skin, reaching down to the very centre of the foreign spirits' grip on the body. Rose's body spasmed as the Angels suddenly found their control weakened by the passing of the Bad Wolf.
"What—?" they managed to get out.
The Doctor grinned. "Looks like Rose won't have to make the choice after all," he said softly.
They looked up at him. He almost took a step back at the pure hatred that blazed from the alien intelligence behind Rose's dark eyes. "Then she will make no more choices ever again," they hissed malevolently.
"What?" he demanded sharply.
The body staggered to one side, catching itself on the wall for support. The head tilted up to glare at the Doctor, and a sneer spread across the lips. "She will die."
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