This chapter was slightly edited on 26/11/13

Chapter 3

Amy dialled the number for what felt like the millionth time and for that millionth time, no one answered. She was beginning to grow worried for the mystery caller, she had sounded so urgent on the phone. Amy pursed her lips and pressed redial once more. She didn't even bother putting her ear to the phone; she had become much too accustomed to listening to that God awful ring tone.

Martha and Mickey sat with their fingers threaded together and their eyes closed. Martha sank into her husband as they shared the single leather arm chair like their life depended on it. They didn't move, they scarcely even breathed. Together the pair had gone up against Sontarans and rogue Judoon. They'd aided UNIT in battling two separate alien invasions and had even exploded a few Slitheen, but now they knew that they were out matched. Just the sounds of the creatures moving outside sent shivers down their spines. They couldn't attack them, they couldn't beat them. They couldn't do anything except hope to God that the Doctor would come, because he was their only hope.

Ironically, the exact thing they wanted was their imminent downfall. Both Mickey and Martha opened their eyes in shared looks of horror as the mobile that had been placed on the coffee table began to vibrate.

The Doctor

Martha had to force herself not to scramble up and grab the device. She couldn't answer it, couldn't stop it. It was already too late.

Four knocks on the door was all it took to send Martha into a panic.

"Fear."

Martha screamed a proper, blood curdling scream. She never thought she could ever scream like that ever again. But there she was, just as terrified, perhaps even more than she had been on her last adventure with the Doctor before she had walked out on him.

Just four knocks. That's all it took.

"Fear's an amazing thing, y'know."

Martha refused to open her eyes, her body was locked against Mickey, her entire being frozen. It took up until Mickey's ferocious "Who the Hell are you?" to jolt her out of her almost trance-like state.

There, sat across from them on the sofa where Martha had been only moments beforehand was a rather short, stout man with short brown hair and a simple tweed suit.

He grinned and crossed one leg over the other, leaning in towards the couple, "You see I save so much energy when I'm using people like you," the man gestured towards the couple with a tight smile. "With as many memories like you two, all I have to do is-" he lifted out a palm in front of him, "-pluck out a fear and exploit it." His tongue traced along the front of his teeth as his fingers clenched together into a tight fist.

"Get out," Mickey said through gritted teeth.

Already, he was reaching for the gun he had placed just next to the arm chair. The couple were armed and ready for any form of alien attack.

"Oh, guns won't work on me; you see I work on a different level." As if to illustrate his point, the strange little man suddenly faded from sight and in a moment's instance, reappeared in the doorway that led into the hall. Mickey now had his gun loaded and aimed straight at the creature's head, but Martha lifted a hand to stop him.

"Who are you?" She asked.

The man pulled a face and rolled his eyes, "You're a lot of fun aren't you? Guns and questions, that's all the yap I get out of you two." The man folded his arms as he leant against the doorway, "Still, you're the Doctor's friends and any friends of his are enemies of mine."

Martha stiffened, "You know the Doctor?"

The man grinned, "I've yet to meet a man who hasn't."

"Martha," Mickey warned, still holding the gun with strong hands.

"Oh, what'll that do Mickey, really?" Martha growled, grabbing Mickey's wrists and forcefully pulling the device down to his waist. "You just saw it, that thing… whatever it is, isn't really here."

"And yet I still instil fear in you, don't I Martha Jones-Smith?"

Martha shuddered at the use of her full name, but the man only took pleasure out of her repulsion, "Your fear is one of the sleekest I can create. For your husband it takes a full blown army but for you it's just four. Little. Drums." The man began tapping in a steady rhythm of four against the plastered walls. He clicked his tongue in the same beat as he grinned at her. Martha felt her heart racing. "Stop it." She growled, "Please."

"You've stopped whole armies from invading and yet just this little beat of four sends you to your knees."

"Stop," Martha begged once more.

The man began to laugh, enjoying every moment of Martha's pain like some kind of sick pleasure. He continued drumming as he spoke, "Oh, I'm only just starting. You see, I've been given a rare opportunity and I won't waste it."

"What are you on about?" Mickey snarled.

"Ah!" The man smiled, pointing towards the fuming Mickey, "He speaks! Mickey the idiot isn't it? Ricky?"

Mickey fell silent at the mention of his old nick-names. Only the Doctor ever called him those names. For a brief moment, Mickey had to look at the man that stood before him a little harder. Something about him seemed so familiar.

The man rolled his eyes, sensing Mickey's thoughts, "Oh, don't worry… I'm not the Doctor, not exactly, he isn't nearly as much fun as I am. You see, I'm the sort of psychopath you might want to invite to a party. I won't kill you, no that comes much later." The man's eyes darkened as he looked upon his first two game pieces, "Let's say I want to play a game, a game where your true fears come to life." The man snapped his fingers and suddenly the front door crashed open.

Thousands of voices echoed around the couple.

Exterminate, Exterminate!

You will be assimilated!

One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four!

I name thee Martha Jones!

Martha and Mickey covered their ears as the noise became too much, suddenly it became coupled with gun fire and the smell of burning.

"Oh, I hear your hearts racing, but the fun's only just beginning!" The man clapped his hands together as he fizzled out and appeared right next to the couple. "You're just two of many… my little game needs many pieces. You see, it's all about keeping your head." The man narrowed his eyes, "Think you can do that?"

Martha forced her eyes upon the creature before her and tried to reach out, only failing to grab anything solid as the man simply turned to static around her grip, "Who are you?" Martha rasped before gasping out as the four drum beats returned inside her skull. She sunk her nails into her head, yelling out as the noises and smells continued, getting stronger and stronger until her mind was overwhelmed.

The man clasped his hands together and grinned smugly, "Well…" he raised his arms up in mocked surrender, "Considering it won't burn any galaxies up by telling you, I might as well. You can call me the Dream Lord and from now on, I'm in control."

Mickey yelled out this time, the sounds of mechanical marching invading his head. The Cybermen that had killed his other self, the things that felt nothing. He had been so scared.

"Good!" The Dream Lord cried, laughing once more, "Feel your fears, because from now on, that's all you'll be feeling! The game starts, NOW!"

Suddenly, Mickey and Martha were engulfed in a blindingly bright light and then, just like that, they were gone. And so was the Dream Lord.

Nothing was left except for the lone mobile phone on the coffee table, still vibrating impatiently, waiting to be answered.

To Rose Tyler, it had felt like centuries since she had travelled with the bewildering mad-man of an alien that called himself the Doctor. All of time and space in a little blue box, nothing was impossible. Not even their relationship, until when it was.

Until she found herself trapped in a parallel world; Pete's World, with an identical, human copy of her beautiful, incredible mad man.

Honestly, it had taken Rose much less time to adjust than she had previously expected. She'd started working for Pete's World's version of Torchwood and together, they helped save the world from alien incursions. They even made friends with a few species on the way. The Doctor's meta-crisis self went by the name of John Tyler, (ever since the two had become engaged) however, to everyone at Torchwood, to everyone that knew who he was, he was still The Doctor; he was still Rose's Doctor.

A few years ago, John had made his first realisation that even being separated through two different Universes, he could still – on some level – feel the Doctor inside of him. It had come to a surprise to everyone when he had felt what could only best be described as his other self, his alien self going through another regeneration. Even though Rose was happy where she was, even though she was well on her way to building a family with the one and only man she had ever desired since their first encounter… She still cried.

She'd seen the Doctor regenerate once before and she'd seen him get shot by a Dalek and almost, almost regenerate again. She could only imagine what kind of awful tragedy had occurred to send the Doctor into his eleventh incarnation.

Fortunately, according to John, the regeneration was a success and there were much milder implications in the transformation than last time. Apparently, the Doctor had been 'up on his feet' and 'saving the world' almost instantly afterwards. Rose couldn't help but smile towards the news.

But that had been years ago and John hadn't made another connection with the Doctor since. So, life went on as usual, well as usual as it could be for a group of Torchwood employees.

But suddenly, after what felt like years of trying, Rose and John were no longer just a couple, but a family.

Rose grinned as she leant against the kitchen wall, the home phone pressed against her ear, "She's still fine mum, stop worryin'."

"Oh, I know sweetheart, but I always wonder, I mean… what if she's part Time Man or something?"

"Lord, mum," Rose rolled her eyes to her mother's discontent. Every day for the past two months since Rose had left the hospital, Jackie had phoned just to make sure that the baby was still just a baby.

"What if she has two hearts?"

"No, mum, seriously, I checked, the doctors checked… there's nothing different about her, The Doctor, John, he did a full check on her. She's one hundred per cent Human."

"Oh sweetie, I'm so proud of you!"

Rose couldn't help but smirk as she heard the emotion through the phone line. Whenever her mother wasn't worrying, she was congratulating her on actually making a start to real life. Jackie had never been thrilled with Rose's choice of work; she'd been worried enough when her little girl was on different planets, mingling with other species, now her little girl had found a way to do that in the comfort of her own planet.

"They're giving you a leave of absence, yeah? Make sure you get paid, honestly honey, if they don't give you paid maternity leave then I'll personally phone them up and-"

"Mum, we don't live off of making profits, and besides, we're fine, really." Rose couldn't help but stress the last part. Her father, unlike the one from her original Universe, had become a multi-millionaire, selling devices that just seemed to catch everybody's attention. He gave her a large sum of the profits every month or so and with it, Rose and John had managed to buy a rather extravagant house. Rose smiled as she moved her gaze through the hallway and towards the stairs where her little baby girl was sleeping peacefully above, "I love you."

"I love you too sweetheart."

Rose bit her lip and sighed, "I need to go now, just to make sure everyone's okay."

"Okay, but Rose, make sure to tell me if anything changes-"

"Bye mum," Rose quickly interrupted as she smoothly cut off her babbling mother. Sometimes it was tiring to hear the same concerns over and over. There was nothing wrong with her baby, not at all. The meta-crisis Doctor was human. He had one heart and aged at the same rate as she did. The only reason that there could ever be something wrong would be if…

"Still afraid are we?"

Rose suppressed a yelp of surprise as a short, brunette man with a red bow tie appeared in front of her.

He folded his arms and smiled cruelly, "Who's afraid of the big Bad Wolf?"

Rose froze as soon as the words clicked. Only a select amount of people knew what the Bad Wolf meant and even fewer knew who created it. Rose Tyler had been – for a short period – the Bad Wolf. A human God with the power of the very essence of a TARDIS running through her heart and soul. Rose could have died, but the Doctor had sacrificed his ninth incarnation to make sure she remained safe.

But Rose Tyler had grown strong in her years as a Torchwood operative. She may not have known every name of every species in the entire Universe, but she was no longer afraid of facing off with one. She'd done a few lone missions before and now, Rose Tyler hardly feared anything at all. "What are you and how do you know about that?" Rose snapped, her brown eyes imploring deep within the alien in front of her.

"Look closer," the man urged. "Go on, I dare you. I bet you won't like what you see."

Rose narrowed her eyes at the creature, but kept searching. She looked for anything that might give her any inclination on what the alien was or how to defeat it if necessary. Instead, she only found herself moving deeper within the creature's chocolate eyes. Eyes that were far beyond their years, eyes with shadows of darkness and tortures and memories never to be shared with anyone. Ever.

The eyes of a man she once knew, a man she still knew.

"Doctor!" It didn't take her half a second to make the connection. The being in front of her was impossible, even for Rose Tyler, the big Bad Wolf.

Rose started running for the stairs, screaming the Doctor's name. But no one came. In fact, she suddenly realised that she wasn't running anywhere at all, but instead suspended in the frozen motion of running away. It didn't stop her trying, however, "Doctor! Help! Doctor!"

"I really did expect something more from the famous Rose Tyler," the man almost sounded disappointed with her reaction.

Rose scoffed to that, finding she couldn't jerk her head around to meet the thing, she instead settled for moving her eyes over in that direction, "The fact you've stopped me shows that you're the coward," Rose argued, eyes glinting with the danger of an angered young woman. She'd seen the Doctor dodge the worst of situations by talking his way out of them. Now it was her turn. "You wanted me to look at you and I did. You've got old eyes mate, and I know what that means."

The man only faltered slightly, but his grin grew all the same. "Oh, now that's the kind of ferocity I adore! It's always more fun when there's something to tear away during the game."

Rose let out a breath, frowning, "Game, what game?"

The man lifted his arms up, "Everything starting from now."

"You're seriously messed up." Rose snorted, trying to ward away her sudden concerns with humour, "Go on then, what's your game?"

The man beamed and flickered out of existence, only to appear mere inches from where Rose was stood, frozen. "Thought you'd never ask," he sneered.

Rose listened in silent wonder as the man introduced himself as the Dream Lord. It didn't take a genius to figure out where he'd gotten the name from. The way he presented himself, the way his eyes showed a darker tale than his younger face… this man may not be a Time Lord but he was something close to the Doctor, something that didn't belong in this world.

But the story took a darker turn when he began to speak of the game once more, "I unleash your fears and what's beautiful about this game is you humans have so many!" The Dream Lord laughed at his own joke as he fizzled out again and appeared – this time – behind Rose. He took a strand of her blonde hair and carelessly threaded three of his fingers through it. Rose wanted nothing more than to hit the sorry excuse of an alien right in the gob.

"Your biggest fear, though you like to pretend it isn't, is the one of your past experience as the Bad Wolf." The Dream Lord dropped Rose's hair and allowed it to fall lifelessly to her back once more, "You fear that the monster will return and maybe… maybe something inside your own daughter has unlocked as well."

Rose kept calm throughout the talk. She'd been in worse situations than this and thanks to her team, she'd been trained on how to act under these circumstances. Remain calm even when being exploited, if they want to play with your mind, don't let them. It just seemed to be getting harder and harder as the Dream Lord dug deeper and deeper into her mind. It was like the Dream Lord had known her before, but that was impossible…

"But this isn't about your daughter or even your precious half-form of a husband, no, this is about you, Rose Tyler." The Dream Lord appeared once more in front of Rose. "You see, at the moment I exist as a faceless being." As if to illustrate his point, the Dream Lord turned to static and then to a solid being before her gaze, "But I've been given a large window of space to do whatever I please, and I intend to get back at the man that cheated in my first game,"

"The Doctor!" Rose blurted, looking at the Dream Lord slyly. "It figures, the Doctor could beat you any day,"

"Ah-ah-ah!" The Dream Lord wiggled his index finger in front of Rose's nose as if she was nothing more than a simple minded dog. "You see, the Doctor cheated in his game, but would he dare cheat when he knew that each incorrect move would mean another game piece lost?"

Rose frowned, "Game piece… you mean… oh," Rose didn't want to know any more. She wished more than anything that John could be here, that this was all some kind of horrible nightmare induced by lack of sleep. But she knew it to be real.

"Good girl, now you understand the rules, perhaps you're ready to play… but first, let's give you a little bit of an unfair advantage."

Rose's eyes widened, "A what?" but by the time the words had fled her lips, she already knew what the Dream Lord was implying. Still frozen in place, her hands began to glow a fierce gold, then her arms, and then the light began to engulf her very being. It was like a fire had started inside Rose's mind and although it was so very, very beautiful, it hurt. Oh God, it hurt so much. And that made her angry, angry at her human form for being unable to take the power that she held.

"I see all."

Rose, on some level, knew that it wasn't her that was speaking, but it didn't matter. Her body had already broken free from the hold the Dream Lord had on her.

The Dream Lord laughed in ecstasy as he clapped his hands together, "Oh, brilliant! Absolutely superb. I'm telling you, I'll bet that you're the favoured piece!"

Before the Bad Wolf could speak and before she could atomise anything within her prison, the Dream Lord took her in a light almost as bright as the one that she radiated. And again, the two forms disappeared leaving the sound of a baby girl in distress as she cried in a distant wail and the sound of an even more distressed Doctor John Tyler as he ran down the stairs.

"ROSE, ROSE, WHERE ARE YOU?"

"ROSE!"