A/N: I do not own anything relating to Doctor Who. I only own the ideas of my OC. Sorry if this isn't the best. I've been a bit ill lately. Please let me know what you think in a review. The opinions help me continue writing. I hope you enjoy. :-)
Previously: "Alright. We'll be back soon." He quickly left the room, closing the door gently behind him. I heard muffled voices from another room. Rose seemed worried at first before the Doctor reassured her. This headache was worse than most. I rarely felt so weak or tired. As the medicine kicked in, my eyes began to droop and darkness consumed me.
There was nothing but darkness. Then came the flash of a match striking something. A sudden explosion engulfed me. Though fire surrounded me, I felt nothing. There was a scream.
I sat up straight, looking around me. I was still in the sitting room of the funeral home. My headache was gone, thankfully. I stretched before I heard a thump in the next room. I quickly stood and ran into the room. They were all sitting around a table and Gwyneth was slumped over on the table.
"Gwyneth?" Rose asked as she went over to her, I joined her.
"What happened?" I questioned, checking to see if Gwyneth was alright. She was still breathing lightly. It was as if she had simply passed out.
"All true." Charles said incredulously. I turned to him. "It's all true." He looked terrified. I turned back to the task of checking on Gwyneth. I looked at Rose for answers.
"Blue alien ghost things that want to use the dead bodies as their own." She almost growled the last part out, glaring at the doctor. Mister Sneed and Charles helped Rose bring Gwyneth into the sitting room. I stopped the Doctor.
"What is going on? I fall asleep for one minute and suddenly. . . this." I gestured with my hands, not knowing how to articulate what was going on around me.
"There are aliens, the Gelth, the don't have physical form anymore. Something happened. They want to use the bodies of the dead so that they can live again. Gwyneth collapsed after they left back into the pipes. Rose is angry because I want to give the Gelth the bodies." He explained, walking into the sitting room. I sighed and followed him. Gwyneth was laying on a chaise lounge. I poured a cup of tea as Rose tended to her. As I walked over, Gwyneth awoke.
"It's alright. You just sleep." Rose comforted her, trying to keep her sitting.
"But my angels, miss. They came, didn't they? They need me?" Gwyneth sat up in the lounge. Rose frowned.
"They do need you, Gwyneth. You're their only chance of survival." The Doctor explained. Rose snapped her head to him with a glare on her face.
"I've told you, leave her alone. She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles." She yelled at him.
"Rose." I chastised softly. I tried to grab her shoulder but she backed away from me. I sighed and turned to Gwyneth. "Here, drink this." I offered her the cup which she accepted and started drinking.
"Well, what did you say, Doctor? Explain it again. What are they?" Sneed asked the Doctor. I took the cup from Gwyneth when she was done and went to get her more tea.
"Aliens." The Doctor replied simply.
"Like foreigners, you mean?" Sneed questioned, not understanding the Doctors true meaning.
"Pretty foreign, yeah. From up there." The Doctor pointed toward the ceiling, meaning to be gesturing to space. The others didn't seem to get it.
"Brecon?" Sneed asked.
"Close. And they've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road's blocked. Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes." The Doctor explained.
"Which is why they need the girl." Charles suggested.
"They're not having her." Rose snapped. I looked at Gwyneth sympathetically. She looked down at her hands for a minute.
"Rose." I said quietly, drawing her attention to me.
"What? You don't even know what's going on. You weren't there." She hissed at me.
"But she can help. Living on the rift, she's become part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through." The Doctor explained to Rose, not hearing our whispered argument.
"Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers." Charles was in awe.
"Good system. It might work." The Doctor agreed.
"You can't let them run around inside of dead people." Rose cried indignantly. I decided to stay out of the argument because, she was right, I hadn't been there so I didn't truly know all of what was going on.
"Why not? It's like recycling." The Doctor questioned.
"Seriously though, you can't." Rose put her foot down, looking furious.
"Seriously though, I can." The Doctor quipped.
"It's just wrong. Those bodies were living people. We should respect them even in death." She tried, though her reasoning was only partially sound.
"Do you carry a donor card? What about you Phoenix?" He asked us.
"I do." I nodded.
"That's different. That's-" Rose tried to refute him.
"It is different, yeah. It's a different morality. Get used to it or go home." I didn't say anything but I narrowed my eyes at him. He huffed, but continued. "You heard what they said, time's short. I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying." That was the first time I noticed the hint of guilt in his voice. There was definitely something I had missed.
"I don't care. They're not using her." Rose yelled.
"Enough Rose!" I snapped at her. She looked shocked.
"What?" She snapped at me. I turned to Gwyneth.
"Thank you miss." She looked at me, to which I simply nodded. She turned to Rose. "Don't I get a say, miss?" She questioned.
"Look, you don't understand what's going on." Rose sighed. I frowned at her.
"You would say that, miss, because that's very clear inside your head, that you think I'm stupid." Gwyneth said sadly.
"That's not fair." Rose pouted.
"It's true, though. Miss Phoenix is the only one here who wishes to truly let me make my own decision. Things might be very different where you're from, but here and now, I know my own mind, and the angels need me. Doctor, what do I have to do?" She questioned. I didn't like how she had called these Gelth her 'angels'. The Doctor glanced at me. I remained neutral. I didn't know the whole story and Gwyneth was right, I wanted her to make her own decision.
"You don't have to do anything." He told her.
"They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me." This made me even more uneasy.
"We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other." He explained before turning to Sneed. "Mister Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?" He questioned. I frowned.
"That would be the morgue." Sneed replied.
"No chance you were going to say gazebo, is there?" The Doctor tried to joke. I groaned.
"It's always the morgue. Why would it be any place other than the morgue? That would be nice and happy and not scary as hell." My attitude came back full force. We made our way down some stairs and into the morgue. It was freezing and there were several bodies under white sheets. "If I didn't like this before, I really don't like this now." I muttered to myself.
"Ugh. Talk about bleak house." The Doctor replied from in front of me. There was a strong urge welling up within me to run from the house and keep running until I couldn't run anymore. It took a tremendous amount of effort to stay.
"The thing is. Doctor, the Gelth don't succeed, 'cos I know they don't. I know for a fact there weren't corpses walking around in 1869." Rose tried to explain to the Doctor. I couldn't contribute because unless it was a specific major event, like the assassination of President Kennedy, it wasn't in my knowledge.
"Time's in flux, changing every second. Your cozy little world can be rewritten like that." He snapped his fingers for example. "Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing."
"Such a lovely way to set the mood." I frowned.
"Doctor, I think the room is getting colder." Charles spoke as I shivered.
"Here they come." Rose said uneasily. A humanoid form of gas came from the lamp by the door and moved to stand under the archway in the center of the room.
"You've come to help. Praise the Doctor. Praise him." They called out.
"Promise you won't hurt her." Rose called at them.
"Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth." They cried.
"Promise that you will not hurt the girl." I called at them, uneasy that they hadn't responded to Rose's request. They ignored me as well as the Doctor began to speak.
"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, alright?" He asked.
"My angels. I can help them live." Gwyneth smiled.
"Please be careful." I urged her.
"Where is the weak point?" The Doctor questioned.
"Here, beneath the arch." The Gelth said.
"Beneath the arch." Gwyneth repeated as she moved to stand below the arch, standing within the form of the Gelth.
"You don't have to do this." Rose called to her.
"My angels." Gwyneth sighed.
"Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!" They cried.
"Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!" She called to them.
"Bridgehead establishing." They replied. I frowned.
"Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!" Gwyneth reached her arms out in welcome.
"It is begun. The bridge is made." Gwyneth opened her mouth as blue gas came flooding out.
"This isn't right." I muttered. No one looked to me. All our eyes were fixated on Gwyneth and the Gelth coming through.
"She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend." The Gelth called out. The blue form that Gwyneth had been standing in, turned red and grew sharp teeth. The voice became darker, angrier, more dangerous sounding. "The Gelth will come through in force." It roared.
"You said that you were few in number." Charles cried out in surprise.
"A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses." The voice replied. The bodies under the sheets began to get up.
"Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you." Sneed begged Gwyneth. He was too close to the bodies for my comfort.
"Mister Sneed, Get back!" Rose yelled at him, but she was too late. One of the corpses grabbed Sneed and snapped his neck. A blue gas went into his mouth, reanimating him.
"I think it's gone a little bit wrong." The Doctor suggested. I turned a glare on him.
"You think?! Next time I get a really bad feeling, lets try listening to me." I snapped at him. Sneed's body moved closer to us and we began to back up.
"I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us." A voice spoke through him.
"No." Charles moved closer to the door.
"We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead." They called out.
"Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back now!" The Doctor called to her.
"Gwyneth they lied to you. Please send them back." I begged her.
"Four more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth." Sneed's body began to advance again. Rose, the Doctor, and I backed up against a metal gate.
"Doctor, I can't. I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm so-" He never finished his sentence. He simply ran out of the room. We quickly ducked behind the gate and closed it, keeping the bodies from reaching us. My chest tightened with panic. There was no way out of the small area we were in.
"Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth." The voices cried at us.
"I trusted you. I pitied you!" The Doctor yelled at them. His earlier guilt had vanished. It was quickly replaced with betrayal. My fear of the Gelth mixed with anger. I grabbed a metal poker off the wall next to me and thrust it between the bars, trying to keep the bodies back.
"We don't want your pity. We want this world and all its flesh." They replied darkly.
"Not while I'm alive." The Doctor glared at the bodies.
"Then live no more." They continued advancing. I kept thrashing at them, keeping them from reaching in at us.
"But I can't die. Tell me I can't. I haven't even been born yet. It's impossible for me to die. Isn't it?" Rose cried out.
"I'm sorry." The Doctor said sadly, turning from her to me. "I'm sorry."
"But it's 1869. How can I die now?" Rose continued to question.
"Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You two can be born in the twentieth century and die in the nineteenth and it's all my fault. I brought you here." A new guilt filled him. I gave his arm a squeeze.
"It's not your fault. We wanted to come." Rose reassured him.
"Don't worry. You gave us fair warning before we joined you." I added, agreeing with Rose.
"What about me? I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff." He pouted. I groaned, happy that he wasn't sounding as guilty but now annoyed at him thinking he had done too much to die.
"Whining is not going to help us get out of here." I huffed.
"It's not just dying though. We'll become one of them." Rose frowned.
"Less thinking about death. More thinking about getting out. Hell I'll even settle for going down fighting." I swatted the poker at the bodies again, but they grabbed it and took it away from me.
"Sounds good." The Doctor smiled. I moved back a bit.
"Together?" Rose asked.
"All together." He replied, grabbing each of our hands. "I'm so glad I met you two."
"Me too." Rose smiled.
"Likewise." I grinned as well. Charles burst into the room with a handkerchief covering his mouth and nose.
"Doctor! Doctor! Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!" He cried out as he messed with one of the lamps.
"What're you doing?" The Doctor questioned him.
"Turn it all on. Flood the place!" He coughed into his handkerchief.
"Brilliant. Gas." The Doctor beamed.
"What, so we choke to death instead?" Rose asked nervously. I looked at the bodies. They were beginning to notice Charles.
"Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous." Charles asked, messing with another lamp.
"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host. Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!" The Doctor exclaimed as the corpses began moving away from us and toward Charles.
"I hope, oh Lord, I hope that this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately." Charles noticed the corpses. I hoped he was correct as well. I turned around and saw a pipe on the wall that I couldn't reach. I pointed to it, covering my nose and mouth from the gas filling the room. The Doctor nodded and pulled the pipe.
"Plenty more!" He called out. The Gelth began to leave the bodies which crumpled to the ground.
"Brilliant man!" I beamed at Charles. Once the bodies crumpled, we were able to leave the little alcove that we had been cornered in.
"Gwyneth, send them back. They lied. They're not angels." The Doctor moved to Gwyneth.
"Liars?" She asked sadly.
"I'm so sorry Gwyneth. They lied to you. They lied to everyone." I assured her.
"Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!" He continued on.
"I can't breathe." Rose coughed.
"Charles, Rose, get out of here." I yelled at them.
"I'm not leaving you or her." She cried at me.
"They're too strong." Gwyneth almost sobbed.
"Remember that world you saw? Rose's and Phoenix's world? All those people. None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift." The Doctor pleaded with her.
"I can't send them back. But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out." She said sadly, taking a box of matches from a pocket within her apron. I frowned, recalling my dream.
"You can't!" Rose cried.
"Please, Gwyneth there has to be another way." I pleaded. Deep down, I knew there wasn't. Something about that strange dream had given me the feeling of finality. There were no other options. I felt tears fall from my face.
"Leave this place!" She yelled at us.
"Rose, Phoenix, get out. Go now. I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Now go!" The Doctor yelled at us. I turned to Rose and Charles, addressing the latter.
"Get her out and don't let her come back in." I begged him. He nodded and pulled her out of the room. I went back to the Doctor.
"I told you to leave." He frowned at me.
"I can't. She needs comfort." I said as tears fell from my eyes. He must have seen the determination in my eyes and turned back to Gwyneth.
"Come on, leave, give that to me." The Doctor tried to get Gwyneth to give him the matches. She didn't move though. I walked over to her with him. He felt her neck for a pulse. "I'm sorry." He said sadly and kissed her forehead. I moved in front of her.
"You are one of the bravest women I've ever known. I will not forget you. Thank you." I said as I gave her a hug. Her body was freezing. She pulled a match from the box. The Doctor grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the building. Just as we got outside, the building exploded into flames. The Doctor caught me as I stumbled. Rose ran up and hugged me.
"She didn't make it." She said sadly.
"I'm sorry. She closed the rift." The Doctor replied.
"At such a cost. The poor child." Charles spoke softly.
"We did try, Rose, but Gwyneth was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes." The Doctor tried to explain to Rose.
"What do you mean?" She questioned.
"She was freezing cold. She wasn't there anymore." I whispered.
"I think she was dead from the minute she stood in that arch." The Doctor agreed with me. He gave my shoulder a squeeze. I dried my eyes and collected myself. Rose finally let go of me.
"But she can't have. She spoke to us. She helped us. She saved us. How could she have done that?" Rose questioned sadly. Truth be told, I don't think the Doctor even knew how.
"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy. Even for you, Doctor." Charles offered, noticing the lack of an answer from the Doctor.
"She saved the world. A servant girl. No one will ever know." Rose said sadly.
"We will. We will never forget her. We will keep her memory alive." I suggested. She nodded sadly at me. We walked for a little bit back to where the Tardis was.
"Right then, Charlie boy, I've just got to go into my, er, shed. Won't be long." The Doctor nudged Rose and I toward the Tardis.
"What are you going to do now?" Rose questioned Charles.
"I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital." He beamed.
"Sounds like a lovely idea." I grinned at him.
"You've cheered up." The Doctor chuckled.
"Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I'm inspired. I must write about them." Charles seemed giddy at the thought of having new ideas to write about.
"Do you think that's wise?" Rose questioned him, voicing her worry. I thought nothing of it. A writer was known to dabble in the imagination. Shakespeare was one to write on such things as ghosts and his work was even older than Charles'. As long as people were entertained, they didn't pay much mind to the folly of it. Besides, Charles had already written about ghosts.
"I shall be subtle at first. The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth." Charles said excitedly. We all smiled at him. Though I could remember that this specific novel was never finished. I couldn't recall why, so I tried to mask my frown.
"Good luck with it. Nice to meet you. Fantastic." The Doctor rambled.
"It was lovely meeting you." I smiled at Charles. He gave me a smile and nod.
"Bye then, and thanks." Rose shook Charles' hand before kissing his cheek. I giggled at his surprise.
"Oh, my dear. How modern. Thank you, but, I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?" Charles questioned. We moved closer to the Tardis.
"You'll see. In the shed." He walked up to the door.
"Upon my soul, Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you. But after all these revelations, there's one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this. Who are you?" Charles asked.
"Just a friend passing through." The Doctor shrugged.
"But you have such knowledge of future times. I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor, do they last?" He seemed so worried. I smiled at him.
"Oh yes!" The Doctor beamed.
"For how long?"
"Forever." I gave Charles a kiss on the cheek as well before returning to the Doctors side.
"Right. Shed. Come on, Rose, Phoenix." He guided us inside.
"In the box? The three of you?" Charles looked surprised. I smiled and gave him a wink.
"Down boy. See you." The Doctor said before coming inside and closing the door. He walked up to the console with Rose and I following.
"Doesn't that change history if he writes about blue ghosts?" Rose questioned.
"Doctor, I'm confused. I don't recall the ending of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It is unfinished isn't it?" I asked as well.
"In a weeks time it's 1870, and that's the year he dies. Sorry. He'll never get to tell his story." The Doctor explained softly.
"Oh, no. He was so nice." Rose frowned.
"But in your time, he was already dead. We've brought him back to life, and he's more alive now than he's ever been, old Charlie boy. Let's give him one last surprise." He smiled. I nodded as I helped him pull levers and push buttons. When we were in flight, I looked to Rose who still looked a little down.
"At least he's happy. He was so down when we met him. We gave his last year a little bit of excitement." I tried to comfort her. She smiled at me.
"Yeah I guess we did." She smiled. "Alright. I want to get some sleep. Maybe tomorrow we could pop back home for a minute, get some clothes or something." She suggested. I gave her a nod and turned to the Doctor. He was watching us carefully.
"Don't worry, you're not getting rid of us that easily." I teased. He simply laughed and nodded. I turned back to Rose. "Go ahead and get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning." We gave each other a quick hug before she walked off to her room. I started walking away as well when the Doctor stopped me.
"Phoenix." He called out softly. I stopped and turned around.
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry I couldn't save Gwyneth." He said sadly. I walked over to him.
"It's not your fault Doctor. The Gelth lied. They had everyone fooled." I patted his arm.
"Everyone except you." He looked me in the eyes. I shrugged.
"Not necessarily. I just felt like something was off. I pitied them the same as everyone else for a bit." He didn't look convinced. "Look, if you want to make it up to me, next time I say I have a bad feeling, look into it a bit more. But don't for one minute think that Gwyneth was your fault. As soon as she believed they were her angels, her mind was made up. I saw it in her eyes."
"Thank you." He said softly.
"Welcome. Now, I'm going to get changed out of this dress and get some sleep. I have to mentally prepare myself for Jackie's lecture as to why I got drunk enough to be hungover." I curtsied and walked out of the room.
I walked into my room and saw my purse sitting on my bed instead of in the wardrobe. I had completely forgotten about it.
"Thank you dear." I smiled as I walked over to a dresser and found some clean sleep clothes. A simple black tank top and black and red plaid pants.
~You're welcome. I have to ask though, why did you not tell the Doctor about your dream?~ She questioned as I changed.
"I'm not sure. I didn't know what to say about it. I didn't think anything of it until I realized that it had come true. I guess I feel guilty that I didn't say something before." I sighed and put my things from the black bag into my purse again.
~My dear, it wasn't your fault. It wouldn't have changed things. You yourself said the girl had made up her mind. Besides, you did not know what it was about.~ She tried to encourage me.
"I guess." I shrugged, crawling under the covers.
~Next time, please tell him though. It may help.~ I nodded. ~Would you like me to wake you when Rose is up?~
"Yes please." She hummed in agreement and I slowly drifted to sleep.