The lab was burning.
The thought floated lazily across the brain of Doctor Jane Brown as she studied the ceiling of the medical lounge. Her eyes drifted toward the door and the crushed metal equipment that blocked it. Death was on the horizon and the woman prepared to embrace it.
The sharp screaming of metal cut through her smoke clouded mind, causing her head to turn towards the door. She watched in silence as the machinery twisted toward the opening, allowing the flickering amber light of the main hall to fall through. A shadow suddenly fell over the doorway and a figure emerged from the smoke.
"Are you Doctor Brown?" The question was whispered with such hatred that Jane wished for death to come upon her immediately rather than face the wrath of this being, for surely this was no man. The figure was waiting for an answer, and Jane could not disobey. She shakily nodded, wondering if perhaps this was the devil, come to harvest her soul.
Seeing her affirmative, the man made his way towards the trembling woman, kneeling in front of her trapped body. This close Jane could see the slight charring around the figures paisley tie.
"The file says you were the last attendant on Rose Tyler." Once again Jane nodded.
The creature's eyes darkened at her words. "You left an unknown piece of alien equipment inside the operation room she was in?"
Jane stiffened; he had obviously read the official file. Guilt bubbled inside her stomach as she considered her side project and how it had led to the unfortunate removal of Rose Tyler from her time line.
"Y-yes" she choked out.
The creature's slim fingers clenched into fists and Jane choked on the sharp smell of death that seemed to radiate from him.
"You're incompetence lead to her death," He stood and walked back through the doorway. "It will also be the result of yours."
The screeching of metal as if reformed over the doorway tore through the small room and Doctor Jane Brown's world faded to black.
….
Martha Jones watched as what was formerly UNIT's main building of operation stained the predawn morning with an amber glow. Once the Doctor had identified the cloaking device used on the corpse it had been relatively easy for him to track the source.
"But what is it Doctor?" Martha questioned, as the group left the cemetery, leaving the Torchwood agents to clean up.
The Doctor held up a silver speck on the tip of his finger, no bigger than a grain of sand. "It's called a stellio clip. You give it a sample of living flesh and attach it to, in most cases, a dead body. The clip will cloak the corpse to look like whatever you gave it a sample of. Very popular on Repugnantia during their civil war, no one knew who was dead and who was alive."
"So it's alien?"
"Definitely, this technology never even comes to earth."
"But Rose was alive when they took the sample?" Pete interrupted.
"Yes, and for their sakes she better stay that way." The Doctor growled, pulling out his screwdriver and waving it over the clip.
…
When the familiar mop of brown hair appeared outside the building, Martha clenched her hands into fists, physically restraining herself from punching the alien. "What the hell did you do?"
The Doctor ignored her and continued walking toward the parked car.
Martha had enough. "That building was perfectly fine before you waltzed in there. It's now on fire, in case you haven't noticed, and all signs are pointing to you as the cause. So I repeat Doctor, What the hell did you do?"
He stopped and turned toward his glaring companion. "They killed her."
"That doesn't mean you can just burn down the building!"
"It's Sunday, there were only a few people in there, and almost everyone made it out." Martha cringed at his cold tone.
"You left someone in there, didn't you? You found out who killed her and killed them."
The Doctor whipped around to face Martha, his eyes blazing. "They planned this Martha! I found the files; they've watched her since she became trapped here. They thought she was part of the cybermen infiltration, letting Rose live was never an option for them."
He turned his back on Martha and stormed toward the waiting car ignoring the sirens of fire trucks in the distance.
…
"So Bad Wolf is trying to help you get back to the Doctor by letting you get sucked into your own timeline through a time agents relay machine?"
Rose laughed at Jacks simplification of the events. "Basically," She smiled, leaning against his arm. "But I have no idea what I'm supposed to do while in here or how to get out."
Jack frowned as he took in the situation. "You're definitely going to have a problem there Rosie, time agents who used a relay machine used ganger copies of themselves to be transported in. Your entire body is dissolved into the time line and there is no way I know of to get it back."
Rose felt her stomach drop at his words and the feeling of hopelessness threatened to drown her once again.
"Hey, none of that!" Jack wrapped both arms around Rose's form and hugged her body against his chest, resting his chin on her head. "We will figure this out Rose, and Bad Wolf will probably be dropping another clue here soon, don't you worry."
Rose smiled and wrapped her arms over his. "In the first time line I repeated, I didn't know what was going on and thought I was experiencing some sort of virtual torture in order to make me talk."
Jack's laugh rumbled against her chest. "A logical explanation, what happened?"
"I attacked you in the kitchen and the Doctor had to break us up."
"Who was winning?"
"Me, but I had the advantage of a fork."
That sat in silence for a moment taking in the crashing waves of the ocean and the approaching storm clouds.
A thought suddenly struck Rose. "Why didn't you come with us after the Game Station?"
Jack stiffened. "What?"
"After the Game Station, the Doctor said you stayed behind to help rebuild."
"Did he?"
Rose pushed herself from Jack's lap and turned to face him. "Yeah he did, I missed you so much Jack."
She watched has his eyes darkened and he averted his gaze. "I missed you too, Rose. You don't know what I would have given to keep traveling with you guys, to have been just a few seconds faster."
"I don't understand."
"I was left on the Game Station; the Doctor took off without me."
Rose looked blankly at Jack. "What do you mean?"
"How much do you remember of being Bad Wolf?"
"Bits and pieces."
Jack sighed before facing Rose and cupping her face. "I don't blame you Rose, everything you did was done out of love and I could never be mad at you for that."
"You're scaring me."
He nodded, moving his hands from her face to instead hold her hand. "I died on the Game Station, zapped by a couple of daleks."
"This isn't funny Jack."
"When you became the Bad Wolf you brought me back to life, except you didn't really have much control over it and sort of brought me back permanently…"
"You can't die." She whispered.
"Nope!" Jack grinned cheerfully, "Extremely useful in most situations."
"Oh God."
Jack frowned, "Rosie?"
Rose turned to face her friend with tears in her eyes, "So you're saying that I made you immortal, abandoned you on the Game Station, and then proceeded to never contact you again... and your fine with that!"
Jack ignored her protesting and pulled her to his chest. "Lucky for you, I already took most of this out with the Doctor. Turns out his Time Lord instincts go crazy when he's around me, and not in a good way."
"I'm sure he could have worked through it." Rose grumbled against his shirt.
…
"Why can't just travel back a few weeks get Rose before UNIT does?" Martha asked as she and the Doctor exited the black sedan.
"We're part of events now; it would rip a hole in time." He explained in a sullen tone.
The two had stayed at the Tyler mansion while the Doctor waited for the Tardis to recharge. Apparently the time remnants that had brought them to the parallel universe were also able to boost the power on the Tardis, allowing for the return trip home. The Doctor had confirmed the Tardis ready for travel that morning and after a private word with Jackie, resulting in tears on both ends, the two were off.
The Doctor unlocked the door to the blue box and held it open as Martha stepped inside. She took a moment to take in the familiar space and the comforting image of the Doctor as he ran toward the controls and started flipping switches and pushing buttons.
Martha frowned as she suddenly felt like she was forgetting something.
"Doctor?" She called, from her perch on the jump seat.
He glanced up from the switch he was pulling at "Yes Martha?"
"Was Rose always blonde?" The question had left her mouth before she could even process what she was saying.
The Doctor had stilled over the console, before glancing up questioningly. "She's naturally a light brown, but prefers to keep it blonde." He paused and fidgeted with another button. "Or at least she did."
Martha nodded and let him get back to whatever it was that made the ship move. She didn't know where that question had come from, only that something in the back of her mind was eating at her.
…
Rose stood over the raging ocean her feet shaking slightly as she stared down into the icy water.
"You don't have to do this Rose." Jack pleaded as he gripped her hand.
"I need to figure out more about the streams, and the best way to do that is to experience as many as possible." She cringed as a particularly large wave splashed against the bridges pillars.
"Promise to do what we talked about."
Rose turned towards Jack and grinned. "Promise, Love you Jack."
He released her hand. "Love you Rosie."
And then Rose Tyler was falling into the black depths below.
…
"Wake up!"
Rose gasped as she sat up and brought a hand to her throat. The burning feeling she remembered from moments before was gone.
"Good, you remember drowning; you're getting better at this."
Rose glanced up to see her younger self sitting happily across from her. "Where have you been?"
The younger Rose grinned. "Finding a way to get you out."
Rose's heart sped up at the other girl's words. "And did you?"
The girls smile dropped a fraction. "It's the closest I can get with the circumstances."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that I'll be able to give you your body back but you will need to stay in an area with high time traces for a while to maintain functionality."
Rose clenched her fists and glared at the other Rose. "Why can't I just have my regular body, why does this whole thing have to be so complicated?"
The younger girl glared right back. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to bring a fully functioning body into existence that isn't technically there anymore? Not to mention the amount of time traces I have to handle to even let you back into your original universe. If all you want is a body, I will happily whip you up something and send you back to your parallel universe looking like a sixty year old man!"
Rose looked down at her running trainers sheepishly. "Sorry, I know this is stressful for the both of us."
The younger Rose rubbed her temples tiredly before nodding. "I know it's hard for you, but I am trying to make this work. You will get your body back for good, but you will need to give it some time."
Rose nodded satisfied. "So I'm going to be able to be in my own body, but have to stay in an area full of time traces. What are those?"
"The remnants that get left behind when time passes; your new body is going to crave them."
"Why in the world is it craving that?" Rose asked.
"Because you're new body is going to be slightly different from the one you're used to." The younger girl said cryptically.
Rose rolled her eyes before thinking over all her instructions. "Wait, did you say that you're going to put me back in my original universe?"
"Yep, right back in England!"
Rose felt a grin spreading across her face. She was going home, finally.
"What's the name of the town?" She asked curiously.
"Leadworth."
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