Disclaimer: Doctor Who (c) to the BBC.
Rose blinked, and the effect was gone. Tobias was motionless; his back was pressed against the sheeted machine, his silvery eyes wide with what could only be described as fear. When Rose's eyes returned to their usual deep brown, he let go of the sheet and cleared his throat like he hadn't been clutching it like a comfort blanket. Rose blinked her strangely itching eyes, marvelling at his fear of her.
She was broken from her train of thought by a half groan, half choking cough from her left. Sarah was waking up. Her eyes fluttered open and met Rose's; there was no sign of any lasting effect from whatever Tobias had done to them, and the only difference she could feel herself was a slight grogginess.
"Toby?" She mumbled. "Toby, I had the most horrible dream…" Rose saw her slowly take in her surroundings, husband and his two other prisoners. Then her face crumpled, and she began to sob quietly when she realised that it hadn't been a dream. This would usually be the part when Rose hugged and comforted her, but all she could do was watch helplessly as her old/new friend broke down. Everything Sarah Jane believed in was crumbling around her with no way of stopping it, and Rose knew exactly how she felt and was powerless to help.
"It'll be OK." She promised, whilst hearing how empty and fake it sounded. Sarah Jane could hear it too, and turned her tear-stained gaze on the girl.
"How?" she said simply, and Rose opened her mouth to reply but couldn't find an answer.
"Oh do shut up!" Tobias suddenly bellowed at his wife, who flinched as if he had struck her. "I've put up with your whining for twenty years, and I AM DONE!" He punctuated his words with a vicious backhand across the face.
"Oi!" Rose shouted as Sarah tumbled sideways, almost bringing the chair crashing down. She managed to stop herself from falling at the last second, and stared up at her husband through a sheen of tears. Rose twisted sideways to console her; the ropes dug into her wrists but she no longer cared. Tobias paid his wife no attention however, instead, he crossed to Rose and spoke before she had a chance to.
"I would have made do with the boy…but you had to rush in, so heroic, and flash your eyes at me." He shook his head, looked at her, and saw the look of confusion on her face. "Don't feign ignorance. I know it's you, I felt your presence the moment you tried to work your eyes. It's you."
"What's me?" Rose was nonplussed. "You mean a time traveller?"
Tobias smirked. "And so much more. I can see it now. You are the Bad Wolf!"
"Oh," said Rose. "That. Er…yeah, that's me."
Delighted, Tobias let his face stretch into a creepy smile. "And your blood is so much sweeter!" He reopened the case and Rose felt fear trickle down her spine when a clean syringe emerged.
"No, please…" She began, knowing how pathetic she sounded and hating herself for it. She couldn't believe that she had faced Daleks and Slitheen and so many other horrible things, and hadn't gotten over her childhood fear of injections. Tobias' smile widened, and Rose held her face forcibly still. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.
"What's wrong?" He said sweetly, crouching down in front of her. "I thought you had a thing for doctors…"
Rose shut her eyes, and felt the pain bite into her arm. She didn't make a noise, but could feel herself trembling. She could imagine the look of mocking on his face, and snapped her eyes open. Dark blood bloomed into the glass of the syringe, and she stared at it without blinking.
The needle slid out of her arm, and she felt nothing but a slight twinge as it came free of her skin. It was as if her fear, her anger, everything that made her vulnerable, had been extracted with her blood. Rose was relieved; to do this, live her life, go up against these monsters alone…she had to be more than human. She had to be the Bad Wolf.
She watched, emotionless, as Tobias took both vials and headed towards the machine. Holding the vials between the long fingers in his left hand, the man raised his right and grasped the sheet covering his contraption. It hummed under his palm – as if it was impatient for Tobias to do whatever it was he was going to do. Then, in one sweeping gesture, he whisked the sheet off the tall bulk, and Rose saw the machine for the first time. The sight of it nearly made her pass out.
It was the TARDIS – not the wooden box exterior, but the central column from inside. It was identical to the one inside the TARDIS she knew and loved, down to the last dial on the control panel. The pillar of green light glowed, but wasn't moving; it only did that when it was in flight.
"How did you…what…" Rose was shaken to the core. Her mind reeling, a hundred agonising memories collided inside her head, memories of the Doctor standing at that very console, enthusiastically flicking switches and turning dials. It was all too much. Rose shut her eyes and sobbed, letting her emotions pour out. It was the first time she'd cried since that day at Bad Wolf Bay; she had been like a shell, walking and talking, automatically doing everything she was supposed to, but not really alive. Now, faced with the thing she wanted most in the world, she found the strength to cry.
Eventually, the tears dried up, and Rose could open her eyes once more. She discovered Sarah Jane had edged her chair sideways so that Rose could bury her head in her shoulder, and the older woman was smiling kindly down at her. Rose sat up, feeling more grateful than embarrassed, and gave Sarah a shaky smile. She felt drained and exhausted, as if she had just run a mile.
"Are you quite finished? Can we get on?" Tobias was examining his fingernails, an uninterested expression on his sickly face. The two women glared at him.
"You were always cold, Toby, but I never imagined you were so empty to watch a girl cry and be…bored!" Sarah Jane snapped. Rose couldn't imagine how hard this must be for her, to find out that her husband was so malevolent. She had never thought that the monsters she would have to fight would be so close to home. Tobias turned on her, hissing through his sharp little teeth.
"If you had any idea what I've gone through…but you humans, you're too selfish, too wrapped up in your own problems…ARGH!" He suddenly struck out, catching Sarah on the side of the head. She slumped back in her chair, all but unconscious.
"What the hell – why did you do that!" Rose demanded, livid. Her arms strained against the ropes, sheer anger giving her strength. Tobias flashed her a look of contempt, and didn't reply.
"Are you going to hit us, is that it? You're just going to beat us up, for no reason?" Rose changed tack, figuring she might as well try to intimidate him into telling her what she needed to know. "What are you going to do with our blood?"
"I suppose there isn't much harm in me telling you; after all, you are going to help me do it…" Tobias smiled.
"I am, am I?" Rose muttered, but Tobias didn't seem to hear. He was in a world of his own; his eerie eyes stared past Rose, as if he was watching something happen over her shoulder, and he finally began to speak in a soft, sad voice.
"If a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear it? If a Time Lord murders his species, is he still a Time Lord?"
"What are you going on about?" Rose interrupted; she didn't have time for riddles. The look Tobias turned on her was not one of anger; instead, it was the look the Doctor got when reminiscing about his past. It almost made her wish she hadn't said anything.
"The Time War," Tobias continued, after a moment's hesitation. "It was the end of the Time War, when the doors between parallel worlds were still open. Your Doctor and I, we're not so different. In fact, we fought side by side in the War, and when he told me of his plan, instead of helping him like he wanted, I fled like the coward I am. I fled to this world, and shut the gate behind me, sealing this world from the Doctor's, forever."
"So you're the reason – if you'd stayed, fought, it could have all turned out different…you could have saved them -"
"Yes, I admit I was a coward," the man interrupted, "but no more so than the Doctor himself. His race - our race fought bravely, but he took the easy way out. He chose to kill them all.""His people, and the Daleks. There wasn't anything else he could have done. You're twisting it all round -"
"Oh, and you know better, I suppose? You've heard it all from your precious Doctor, no doubt." His eyes suddenly flashed angrily, and he spun away from Rose, placing his hands on the control panel and leaning heavily. "Poor, poor Doctor. His entire species, exterminated in a single strike, and he is the only survivor. Well, now you know different."
He dropped the two vials into holders on the edge of the control panel, and as he spoke, his hands flashed across the table, connecting wires and crocodile clips to the tubes of blood. The other ends of the wires he connected to box similar to the large batteries Rose had used in Chemistry classes in school. There was a large dial, with numbers from 0 – 100 beside the sockets for the wires. He took two more wires with round pads on the ends, and attached them to the lifeless Sarah's temples. She didn't seem to notice; she was hunched in her chair like a discarded doll, oblivious to her surroundings.
Rose watched all this in silent fury, Tobias' words ringing in her head, until he turned once more to face her.
"So, you're mad at him, you think he shouldn't have done it. You want to kill him?"
A smile tugged at the corners of Tobias' mouth. "Of course not," he scoffed. "He and I, we are so alike. Lost, alone in this world, searching for a true home…he thinks he is the last of the Time Lords, but he is wrong. He thought I died that day, but he is wrong. I need to find him, but not for the reasons you suppose. I don't want to kill the Doctor; I want to help him!
"And, thanks to your blood, I am going to find someone to tell me how!"