Disclaimer – Sorry, I forgot it last time! As much as I wish I did, I don't own Doctor who
Chapter 2
The Doctor stood alone in the TARDIS after his conversation with Rose. Not enough time. It hadn't been enough time to tell her everything he wanted to tell her. He looked around the console room, so empty, silent, and almost lifeless without her. The TARDIS always had a comforting feel before, so why did it feel so cold? The Doctor shivered. It wasn't a literal coldness, just an absence of the warmth and love that the TARDIS usually filled the room with. He listened to the hum of the engines; even they had a slightly different tone to before. Then he knew- the TARDIS was mourning the loss of Rose. His beloved ship didn't want him to be on his own. The Doctor was familiar with being on his own of course, but since meeting Rose, he'd grown unused to it, and it just seemed to hurt so much more than it ever did before.
Before he could stop it, a solitary tear slid down his face. Wiping it away, he pulled himself together. There was no use in moping- he had work to do. He had to do the impossible; he had to travel through the dead space, the void between time and space and reach another reality. To reach his Rose.
It would be hard, and it would take a long time. This he knew. He also knew that she was worth it, and he would never give up on her. Although he hadn't been able to tell her on the beach, he loved her, and he hoped she knew that. For him, imagining leaving her where she was and moving on was unthinkable, he couldn't live this life without her.
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The years passed, and still the Doctor worked on trying to reach Rose's world. He tried thousands of different ways in the hope that one of them would work. He worked on the TARDIS constantly, going to the far reaches of the universe trying to find special tools and pieces of machinery that would enable the ship to travel between dimensions. He was captured several times for being places his shouldn't and for taking things he shouldn't. He was imprisoned on several planets simply because they were the sort of planets that all sane people avoided. But the Doctor had refused to avoid them if they could offer any hope of getting back to Rose. This was a decision that he paid a high price for, and one that ultimately got him no closer to Rose. He ate little, and slept less, all his focus on the workings of the TARDIS, rather than his own well-being. In fact, his awareness for his own welfare had decreased so much that he was getting careless, getting himself injured in situations when it could have been avoided.
His latest excursion was a prime example of this. He had gone to a planet that could be described as, at best, hostile. It was a planet that he'd always avoided before, but there was one last item that he needed for the TARDIS, and this was the only place where he knew he could get one. Also, after all that had happened to him in the time he'd been alone, he felt that no worse could happen to him of this planet.
On the planet in question, Klakeen, the rocks on a certain mountain could store huge amounts of energy, enough energy to maybe reach another world. He'd already constructed machinery to link the rock to the TARDIS, so now all he needed was the rock. Unfortunately, the natives of the planet were less than friendly. The Klakeenians resembled humans in the mildest sense, in that they had one head, a torso, 2 legs and 2 arms. They were most unlike humans on the other hand, in that instead of fingers- they had 10 inch claws-- and weren't afraid to use them. They also had very limited intelligence, much more primitive than humans.
The Doctor had been nearly back at the TARDIS, complete with a rock, when he'd encountered the clawed native, who was not happy to see him. He considered himself lucky to have managed to escape back to the TARDIS, with the rock, and no life threatening injuries. However, the Klakeenian had succeeded in taking a swipe at him, and had slashed his chest, leaving several rather large and bleeding lacerations.
The Doctor stood in his bathroom in the TARDIS, inspecting his wounds and looking at the bloodstains on his once-white shirt in the mirror. He considered going to stitch up his chest, but quickly dismissed the idea. He had more important things to do. However, as he was leaving the bathroom, he caught sight of the scar on his face in the mirror, a constant reminder of the incarceration he'd rather forget. He briefly brought a hand up and touched the scar, but quickly took his hand away as if he'd been burned. Then he averted his eyes from the mirror and briskly walked back to the console room. He had work to do.
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For a brief moment of delight he thought he'd done it. But then the TARDIS groaned in protest and began to jolt. Lights flickered and the console exploded, sparks flying, while deafening alarms sounded, making him think his eardrums were going to burst. The TARDIS gave several violent lurches. Then it managed to materialise, though where he had no idea. Just as he thought it might be safe, the TARDIS plunged. The Doctor groaned, he must've materialised in the sky! He was thrown off his feet and into the console as the TARDIS collided with something very solid. Suddenly, he became very aware of a splitting pain in his head from where he'd hit it on the console. The Doctor only had time to think vaguely that he hoped whatever it was they had collided with was in better shape than he was, before the agony in his head caused him to black out…
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A/N: Ok, definitely longer than last time, but less cheesy? – debatable. Oh well, never mind, maybe next time!
Now about the rock thing, I couldn't think of anything else, don't ask. But my idea was that because the TARDIS draws its power from the universe, and when in the wrong universe it needed external power, then the Doctor could store power in the rock to get back with! Everything else he'd been building was to get to the other world, coz he'd sealed all the cracks between the worlds. That make sense?
Please review! But no making fun of the rock…!
