"The thing is Rose. Love, it isn't about here." Doctor Two poked her forehead but maintained a serious face. "It's about here." He poked her heart, and kept it there as its beats grew faster, heavier. He pulled it away and looked at the road. They were sitting in a gutter on the side of a random street in the middle of the city. They'd spent the day wandering around, mostly in silence. Doctor Two had described a few historical events in relation to particular architectural features of London, from a first person perspective. Rose had been distracted in silent contemplation and didn't add much more to the conversation then the occasional 'ooh' and 'aah'. Doctor Two had essentially become a kind of tour guide and Rose a tourist in her home town.
It was getting dark but Rose didn't notice. Nor did she particularly care. She found being close to Doctor Two and listening to his stories, to be the most comfort she'd had in years. She didn't think about the wolves, and she certainly didn't want to go home.
The sun loomed on the horizon and the sky turned pink and purple, reflecting off the skyscrapers and the sheen of the road. Rose turned to Doctor Two. "They say that it's just a bunch of chemicals in your brain, a kind of reaction to pheromones."
"What, love?" The Doctor turned to her with his nose scrunched. "Naw, that's just a bunch of gobbledygook. No, love is warmth and need, it's blood and life, it surges around your body and never really lets you go."
"That's a bit sentimental, especially for you." Rose shoved his shoulder, and gave him a big smile. She couldn't take this side of Doctor Two seriously. He was normally such a stern, abrasive kind of character.
Before he could respond, a rumbling growl echoed down the empty street. Both Rose and Doctor Two looked up to the sky to see black smog streaming down toward them and settling on the road in a hazy black fog. With determined immediacy, they jumped to their feet, Doctor Two reaching in his coat for his sonic screwdriver.
"They aren't transforming. Why aren't they transforming!?" Rose asked urgently as she scrambled to load her tranq gun.
Doctor Two scanned their surrounds with the screwdriver. The dim blue light gave limited vision of the unusually still blackness. "It's not moving. It's like its frozen midair. That doesn't happen. Does it?"
"How am I supposed to know?" Rose exclaimed, pointing her gun in every odd direction, completely spent of ideas as to what to do.
Then the darkness closed in, pressing Rose and Doctor Two against the brick wall behind. They both felt for a door handle, a window, anything to escape into to no avail. They felt cornered and Rose fell into a mild panic. Then there was a silver glow.
Doctor Two spotted it first and pointed at it with the blue light from his sonic device, reaching for his glasses, squinting through the dark. He tugged on Rose's arm who suddenly felt overwhelmed by a sense of de ja vu.
"Wha…what is it?" She asked tentatively, looking to Doctor Two with wide eyes. She didn't need to wait for an answer. The blackness began to clear and suddenly she could make out a shape. A shape of a man. His white skin glowed silver through the dark, like the sun reflecting off the moon. "Am I…am I dreaming?"
Doctor Two looked at her in quiet awe as Rose's skin began to glow a rich gold, as it did two years previous when they'd first met. Rose stared into the figures eyes, black pools that stared back into hers with a deep sense of knowing. She realised this wasn't her dream, the recurring dream she'd had almost every night since coming to this alternate universe. This was real, and she needed answers.
At that she ran. She sped steadfast to the figure, half out of determination and half out of fear that he might disappear. She felt Doctor Two closing in on her heels, she sensed his arm reaching out for her and she heard his voice yell "Stop!" to the back of her head, but she wouldn't stop. She couldn't. Her heart raced as she sprinted ever faster, beads of sweat forming on her forehead, breath pumping rhythmically through her mouth. As she approached, the figures glow only grew stronger and for the first time she dimly recognised it, not from her dreams but from her life with the Doctor.
She slowed her pace as she approached and heard Doctor Two's feet shuffle to a halt behind. The figure stood tall, lanky and nude, its eyes endless pools of black and its teeth jutting out from its mouth, fang-like. Rose knew he wasn't the same. Not exactly. It was a different person to be sure. It was older, taller, and lanker and had stronger, bigger features- a rigid jaw and a dirty unshaven chin. It was a relic from her past life come back to haunt her, and it only made Rose angry.
"Stand back Rose", Doctor Two placed his hand gently on her shoulder in an attempt to pull her back. In one bold gesture Rose shrugged it off and stepped directly in front of the figure, so her eyes met its in one empty gaze.
Rose stared it down. "There's something of the wolf about you."
The figure began to laugh. It was disjointed and unpleasant. It echoed through the darkened streets and bounced back sharply into Rose's ears. She was not amused.
You burn like the sun.
Its voice was shrill. It didn't sound as if it came from the figures open mouth, but instead from all the smog in Rose's surrounds. Rose felt Doctor Two's hands on her shoulders once more as she attempted to move even closer to the figure. This time the grip was tight, and she was unable to approach.
"Let go of ME!" She squirmed in a small fury, trying to escape, but Doctor Two would not let go. Rose, feeling this struggle was fruitless, instead turned her fury to the figure in front. "Who are you!? What do you want!?" She spat.
The figure smiled coyly and held a tightly clenched fist to its face, like a grotesque imitation of a geisha hiding behind her fan. I am the Bad Wolf. Its voice whispered through the streets.
"Impossible." She heard Doctor Two's voice from behind as he shoved her to the side and approached the figure with sheer resolve. "You no longer exist." It was more a command then an observation.
Rose couldn't help but feel she'd missed something. "But Bad Wolf…that was me! It was just words. It was just a message!" Rose clenched her fists and moved to Doctor Two's side. "Who ARE you!?"
I am nothing. I am everything. I weave, I sniff, I bite. I'm swift. I'm cunning. I leave the carcass behind to rot. I am the creator. I am the destroyer. I am you.
Rose ogled the figure with a gaping mouth, unable to process its words, suddenly hypnotized in its sheen. She felt strangle compelled to touch it and proceeded to stretch her arm to the figure. Her golden glow met his silver, and they tangled between. Doctor Two took a sudden step back, examining the two figures with a face of helpless awe.
"You are not me." Rose whispered unexpectedly, irrevocably entranced.
The valiant child. The figure stretched his arm towards her, sliding his chilling finger down the edge of her jaw. So tender. So loyal. It smiled coyly once again. Dead and buried. The voice was razor sharp and stuck like a knife. In a sudden jolt of movement, it turned its' head to Doctor Two. The Bad Wolf will bring him down to the grave and lick his bones. It laughed. Rose watched Doctor Two's face turn white in the silver glow, and for the first time in a long while, she thought he looked scared.
With abrupt fortitude, the figure vanished in a swirl of silver and gold. The black smog fell to the earth and the wolves took form once again.