Title: Rebirth of the Time LordsAuthor: RamblingRose
Rated: PG
Summary: Rose tells the Doctor to take her back to her time and come back in twenty years to get her. But after leaving her, TARDIS takes him to a post-time war Barcelona where he is assigned the task of taking on several companions and teach the ways of the Gallifrey.
Notes: 10/Rose. Very AU. Sorry it took so long for this chapter... I actually have up to chapter eight written and ready for posting... I'm just kinda lazy and I also thought I had already posted them

Chapter Six - New Gallifrey
As the engines came to life, Rose ran to the console room to see The Doctor yelling orders at Dee.

"I've already did that!" Dee shouted. "I'm not an idiot!"

"What did you do Dee?" Rose demanded.

"I didn't touch anything, Mum, I swear!" Dee exclaimed.

"The TARDIS took off on her own, it really did Rose," The Doctor added. "She's been doing that a lot lately, just larking off on her own." He patted the console affectionately. "But then, she always knows where we have to go."

"All right," Rose sighed heavily. She looked pointedly at Dee. "You're off the hook this time. I'll go get the others ready to be off." She put a kiss on The Doctor's cheek before breezing out of the console room.

The Doctor glanced over at his son and raised an eyebrow. "Something I should know about?"

Dee's eyes widened and he shook his head. "No," he replied a little too quickly. "Just some bad childhood habits and all. Nothing to worry about."

The Doctor eyed Dee with mingled distrust and amusement. "Why do I get the feeling I'll find out when I go back?" He shrugged and smiled widely. "Oh well, you're right there at it, tell us where we're going."

Dee looked down at the screen and half smiled. "Gallifrey. Or at least that's the conclusion I'm coming to since it's showing nothing on but a bunch of zeros on the screen. Or, rather, I guess you would call it 'New Gallifrey' since it was destroyed and all..."

The Doctor was about to say something when a new voice spoke up from the hall, "It was prophesized that when he -- aka, The Doctor -- arrives it would soon be time for the Eye of Harmony to select its host," a voice said firmly.

The two men turned to see Lilith standing in the doorway to the corridor. She had her long dark hair piled up on top of her head in a mass of curls. Instead of her all-too-familiar toga, she was wearing jeans, trainers, and wispy white tunic. If it hadn't been the fact each lace in her trainer was knotted on ether side instead of tied in a bow she would have looked entirely too serious and official for sixteen. In spite of it, she still looked like any other normal teenager.

"You make the Vortex sound like some sort of leech," Dee commented.

"I was just saying what the prophesy said," Lilith shrugged her shoulders. "Isn't that what it does?" she asked, walking up to the console. "It just uses my mum to give itself a voice that we can all understand. But the Vortex didn't want to have to do it. Evidentially The Gallifreyan people still felt they were better than time itself."

"That's preposterous!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Time and space is too vast for any one being to even grasp the idea of them being bigger and better."

"That's what you're for Doctor," Lilith smiled. "You're there to teach them better."

There was a familiarity to Lilith's smile. As if he had seen it on another face in another time. It made the Doctor think that maybe he had known her mother before she became The Empress. Part of him knew it was possible; Gallifreyans did have a fairly long lifespan, even if they lacked the necessary abilities to regenerate.

"Actually, Doctor," Lilith piped, turning a few knobs for good measure. "Right now, you are the only Gallifreyan still able to regenerate. When my mother recreated Gallifrey, she wanted to be a little more exclusive with some of the rules."

"Oh really?" The Doctor asked blandly.

"Really," Lilith said in a hushed, sarcastic tone. "Only the Gallifreyan people that receive Time Lord education are able to gain knowledge of regeneration and the necessary Rassilon strand to do so."

"I wish you were eight again," Dee huffed. "You're too much of a smartass now."

Lilith bounced slightly on her feet as she grinned. "Dee, are you familiar with the letters 'S', 'T', 'F', and 'U'?"

"Hey!" Dee gawked.

"Okay children," The Doctor interjected. "That's enough."

The console room quieted down as the kids resorted to just making faces and the TARDIS finished materializing at its location. Not long after, Rose and her other three children came into the room, trying to get their shoes on.

"Who all has been to Gallifrey before," The Doctor asked. To his surprise, every hand raised promptly. "Oh... hands down then... Who all has been to the New Gallifrey?" all hands went up, "Old Gallifrey?" Once again every hand shot up into the air. "Okay what fun is there in taking you places you've been?" He put his hands in his pockets and eyed the travelers. "Okay... who all has been to Sector Five of the Quadrant System?" Just Lilith raised her hand. "In person... 'mum consumed by the space time vortex' inherited visiting does not count." Lilith's hand dropped and he grinned widely. "That's better. Let's go then."

"Have you been to the new Gallifrey Doctor?" Lilith asked smugly.

"No, I haven't," he grumbled.

Lilith smiled brightly, her tongue catching between her front teeth as she did so. "Fantastic then. You are in for a shock. My mum redecorated a bit."

"What?! I will have to have very firm words with her when I next see her. I liked Gallifrey the way it was. She didn't have to go and change it!" The Doctor exclaimed as Lilith bounded to the TARDIS doors and thrust them open with gusto. A light filled the room, it was so bright everyone had to put a hand up to shield their eyes until the light evened out and the outside world came into perfect view. The Doctor fell silent as he took in what little he could see through the doors from where he stood beside Dee.

With wide eyes, he stumbled down the landing and out the doors, into a field of bright yellow remembrance flowers. The capital loomed in the distance like a beacon. From a distance, it still looked the same... The Capitol looming on the side of a mountain, covered in its dome. Well, that is the exception of the thousands of Remembrance Flowers surrounding it. The sky was still a mixture of beautiful hues of purple, green and yellow against the dark orange atmosphere.

The Doctor laughed loudly and fell face first into the flowers. He dug his fingers into the soil and then put the same fingers in his mouth, sampling the taste of Gallifrey. "It's Gallifrey," he laughed. "Rose! It's Gallifrey!" He turned onto his back and looked up at the deep orange sky. "And judging by the sky... It's morning!"

Lilith skipped past laughing happily until she tripped over her own foot, when she tried to twirl, and went face first into the flowers. Dee pointed at her and laughed, making some sort of rude comment about her clumsiness.

"Oh come off it, Dee," Ambrosia sighed. "You're no ballerina yourself." With that, she gave her older brother a shove, knocking him down on the ground too.

Lilith bound to her feet, a bright smile on her face. "Jack, Mick, come on... let's go greet the locals."

The youngest of Roses's children and Ambrosia's twin brother gave Lilith unexpected, bright smiles and raced to join her as she started striding toward the dome structure purposefully. Rose knelt down next to The Doctor and roughed his hair. She leaned over him and brushed a kiss on his forehead.

"Welcome home Doctor," she said softly.

"Oh don't start that again Mum," Ambrosia huffed with annoyance. "I don't want to see any more of that sickening lovey cripe."

Dee pulled himself to his feet and brushed his clothes off. "Oh and you're one to talk Ambrosia? You're just want to go see your boyfriend."

"Well, at least I have a love life," Ambrosia spat back venomously.

Lilith turned around and yelled, "Come on, you lot! They probably heard the TARDIS coming and are waiting for us." She took backwards steps. "Just wait until you get your TARDIS, Ambrosia... now that is power and beauty."

As the children tramped away in the distance, bickering at each other, The Doctor looked up at Rose and grinned.

"I'm excited, are you excited Rose?" The Doctor asked cheerfully. "We're on Gallifrey, isn't that wonderful? And I don't even mind the changes. Though, I do kind of wonder how the Flowers of Remembrance are able to grow in this sort of terrain..."

Rose put a finger to his lips and shushed him gently. "Yes, Doctor, it is wonderful. Every time we come it's wonderful."

The Doctor lifted up onto his elbows and looked behind him the best he could. "Speaking of which... I am so excited right now that I can't help but realize that we could have the TARDIS all to ourselves, without any children to come in and interrupt."

"Actually, it's all locked up and secured," Rose pointed out. "And I gave Dee and Ambrosia the keys --" The Doctor made a move for his pockets and Rose laughed, "And Dee nicked the sonic screwdriver from the coat you left on the console. You should be more careful about where you leave that thing. Dee and sonic screwdrivers are a dangerous combination."

"Not that I would have used the screwdriver to get into the TARDIS anyway..." The Doctor hummed. "I'm sure the capitol is safe enough for the kids alone if you want to dotle around here for a while."

"And do what? Have a shag?" Rose chuckled.

"Well... now that you mention it..." The Doctor grinned. Rose shoved him down with a playful scoff.

"Nice to know that some things never do change," Rose said softly, leaning over him.

888

The Doctor and Rose meandered into the Capitol some several hours later, hand-in-hand. Rose just watched his expressions as he took in everything. Occasionally he would gasp in glee and run to take a closer look at something. Of course, they were things she had seen several times before but they were all new to him.

Rose couldn't count the times her and The Doctor had come to New Gallifrey with the children. Though, this was the first time there seemed to be a celebration of some sort going on. Apparently this was also something very unfamiliar to The Doctor because he kept wondering aloud what some of the decor was.

They were a good distance away from the citadel when they came to a crowd of amassed people. Lilith's voice rose above the crowd. "Haven't you been begging for him to return? To release the Vortex so that it can choose it's host?" Loud cheering deafened Rose's ears. "It is almost time! The chosen one walks amongst you now, just waiting for The Doctor -- Theta Sigma... The Oncoming Storm... whatever you wish to call him, whether you know him now, knew him in university, or fear him -- just waiting for him to release the power of the Vortex!"

"What's this madness?" The Doctor asked crossly. Without further warning he dragged Rose through the crowd. "Under no circumstances am I going to be the one to release the Vortex..."

The Doctor froze as Lilith called for silence, Rose ran into him as he stopped suddenly.

"Well, don't be rude," Lilith said. "Let him through."

Almost instantly the crowd of people separated. Lilith, flanked by the children, were up on a raised platform. The Doctor and Rose ran up and onto the dais. The Doctor looked across the crowd of people before getting face to face with Lilith, glaring at her angrily. "I may be crazy, but I am not fool enough to release the Vortex from the Eye of Harmony."

"Doctor, a word please," Lilith smiled. She pulled him away to an unoccupied portion of the platform.

Rose went over to check on her children. "Are you all right?" She patted each one down as if checking for wounds of some kind. "What's going on?"

"Lilith just formally introduced us to the people of Gallifrey," Mick commented quietly. "It wasn't like this when we were kids mum. We just sort of mingled in without anyone noticing us."

"And I remember her being older," Jack commented, nodding toward Lilith, who was still in deep conversation with The Doctor. "Why was she still little when we got on board?"

Rose looked over at Lilith and The Doctor's backs and smiled softly. "She had to grow up before she could help the Doctor train you." She looked at her children and smiled brightly. "But, you know Auntie Lilith, she never was normal... even for a Gallifreyan."

"You make her sound like Dad," Ambrosia commented. "And why did it take the two of you so long to get here?"

"We were enjoying the scenery," Rose said quickly. Ambrosia got a sickened expression. "And she always prattled on about having an older brother who's a Time Lord..." Rose continued. "Maybe the Doctor's her brother."

"But that's impossible Mum," Dee said with confusion. "She said she was born in New Gallifrey, if she was Dad's sister... She would have been loomed in the Old Gallifrey. And we went there! She doesn't even exist in the timeline until almost a year from now." Dee gasped and his eyes widened. "That means..."

"Lilith's mum is somewhere in the crowd," Mick injected, peering around him mother as if trying to find a face like Lilith's. "Either about to be or already pregnant with her."

"All together now," Lilith beamed, grinning ear-to-ear. "Fan-tas-ic!" She took in a deep breath and was about to repeat it when the Doctor nudged her in the back of the head.

"Stop it," he chuckled. "You are no longer allowed to use that word. It's my word."

"Was your word..." Lilith smirked. "Now it's mine."

Rose turned to face the Doctor, he was smiling vaguely. "Is it that good or that bad, Doctor?" she asked, a hint of a smile on the corner of her lips.

"Well..." The Doctor sighed. "We can have one of two options. Option number one is... I help the Vortex release itself from the Eye of Harmony and consume the Chosen One..."

"What will happen?" Jack asked. "I mean, I know the Empress and all will keep things in check but what happens to the Chosen One? Does she die?"

"No, no," Lilith cut in before the Doctor could answer. "She provides a conscious where the Vortex hasn't one. My mum just sits on a pretty throne all day letting the Vortex run through her brain and making sure everything stays in a continuum. She can change the things she doesn't like as long as balance remains. She assures the balance. Vortex saw nothing wrong with Gallifrey being rebuilt, so... here it is. Created from a single emotion so strong that it can shape the entire universe. The Vortex didn't have that, my mum does. It's part of the reason she is the Chosen One."

"What's the other option Doctor?" Rose asked.

The Doctor had been gazing at her blankly and shook his head to clear it. "Other option?" he asked hazily. "Oh... Since the Eye is becoming unsteady, the other option is wait and the entire universe just sort of collapses and is destroyed. What would you do Rose?"

"Existence or non-existence? Is that supposed to be a trick question?" Rose laughed, trying to lighten the mood. "I thought you knew better than to ask which is preferred."

"Even if it means it will condemn someone to a life of loneliness... her only company the child she doesn't know she's carrying?" He searched her eyes for an answer.

Rose just gazed up at him. "If that's what one has to do to assure the universe doesn't collapse, then so be it. Unless… You know who Lilith's mother is don't you?"