Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own anything, nor do I get paid for it.

A/N Thank you for the mind-blowing response on the last chapter. So glad you loved seeing Eleven and Clara for a change.

This chapter is a filler of sorts but I think the events set in motion from now will continue without pause.

Happy Reading!

Chapter Nineteen

The soldiers dutifully cleared a path when they saw the Lady Commander of Shada stride forward with purpose. Only a few hours ago, a blue Police box had appeared in the middle of their Time Station and everyone knew it would only be a matter of minutes that someone would inform the Lady Commander of the capsule's arrival. It didn't matter if she was in the thick of battle or not on Pazithi Gallifreya at all, she would always return to the blue box as soon as the word came from one of her Lieutenants. After decades of warfare, everyone had stopped questioning it and they were far too busy to speculate.

A quick look at the Lady Commander now told the soldiers that she hadn't been in battle at all, but in a meeting with the High Council. The spotless sweeping white dress stood out like a sore thumb in the midst of armour-clad soldiers, and they only had to see the anger in her eyes to know that the meeting hadn't gone well, not that they had expected anything otherwise. The Council had split a few years ago, with the War Council now comprising solely of Commanders and Cardinal Braxiatel who was now Coordinator Braxiatel, to the delight of some and dismay of the others. The High Council, on the other hand, was made up of Chapter Cardinals and Chancellors who had never set foot outside the Capitol, let alone into battle.

On the battlefields, the High Council was a matter of contempt. The Lieutenants would whisper of the Commanders having to fight the Council on every step to get even the basic supplies and support for their troops. The two Councils clashed often on matters of strategies, and the political machinations were a frequent hindrance to the war. If the Lady Commander had visited the High Council in full robes, then the soldiers knew that she had been going for an important negotiation, though the angry look in her eyes was not encouraging. She finally reached the box and opened it with a key she drew from under the neck of dress. The doors slammed shut after her, and the soldiers dutifully went back to their respective duties.

Inside the TARDIS, Rose loosened the frightfully tight knot that her hair had been tied up in and shook her head. She was so tired after locking horns with the High Council yet again, that the word of the Doctor's arrival had come as a blessing. It had still taken her a few hours to be able to leave politely, and there was no sign of the Doctor in the console room. Rose ran her fingers through her hair and shuffled towards the bedroom.

Sure enough, she was greeted by strewn clothes on the floor and the Doctor fast asleep on the bed. There was a healing bandage around his left wrist that was a worrying dark colour, indicating that it was a barely healed wound. She slipped her dress off, the silky material sliding down her body in a single swoop, and worked the rest of her clothes off before crawling into bed next to him. He stirred a little when the bed dipped, but didn't wake. Rose examined his wrist carefully, wondering why he was using something as primitive as a healing bandage, but gritted her teeth when she remembered the Medical Commander arguing with the High Council for more supplies and the Council's indifference to his demands.

Her huff of irritation woke the Doctor and he turned slightly to wrap an arm around her shoulders so that she could rest her head over his bare chest. It was ridiculous really how quickly she relaxed when she felt his hearts beating under her cheek. He stayed quiet and ran a hand through her hair and Rose felt her eyes starting to droop. She hadn't slept in nearly a week but the gentle motion of the Doctor's fingers in her hair and the steady beats of his hearts lulled her into slumber quite easily.

The Doctor continued to stroke her hair long after she had fallen asleep. His wrist was throbbing and he really wanted to get up and find a painkiller, but at the same time he didn't want to move. He hadn't seen Rose in months. He had been commanding a battalion of soldiers, fighting off the Daleks in the skies while Rose had been dividing her time between fighting Zagreus' army of Neverpeople on Pazithi Gallifreya and working with the Councils down on Gallifrey. While he didn't envy the latter part of her duties, he worried constantly about her on the frontlines.

As much as he hated the thought of it though, having Rose on the frontlines was an advantage like no other. The Doctor had almost screamed in terror when on the first day of battle, Rose's eyes had glowed golden. But then he had seen the way she could move the Horde and command them to fight even though she wasn't the Host. They seemed to flock to her like a moth to flame and the Host himself seemed to either still have some remnant of Narvin left within him, or was simply drawn to the vortex energy in Rose. Whatever the reason, she was the only one apart from the Host who could effectively control the Horde of Travesties, though the way her eyes were always golden when she did that, worried the Doctor to no end.

His wrist twinged again and this time the Doctor had to reluctantly untangle himself from Rose to fish around in his clothes to find the painkiller. The Daleks had unleashed one of the creations of the Deathsmiths of Goth and he had been unfortunate enough to be reinforcing the shield at the moment their first attack had come. The onslaught of antimatter had turned half the troop with him to dust, but he had been lucky to escape with only a gash across his wrist. Antimatter was almost as poisonous to Time Lords as Anti Time, and he had been advised to use the healing bandages to let his lifeforce heal the wound naturally rather than a quick fix with the dermal regenerator.

He found the small green pill in his jacket and he dry swallowed it quickly, sighing when the pain started to abate. His eyes drifted over to Rose's discarded clothes and he felt a twinge of sympathy at the sight of the white dress. The split between the councils had been bound to happen. Valyes and many others like him had disliked the way the War Council was relying on aliens and methods that were unbecoming of Time Lords (according to them) to fight this war. The War Council, on the other hand, was merely trying to make sure that the war didn't end in the destruction that they had foreseen. Poor Romana was caught between the two, trying her hardest to reconcile the two Councils as well as ensuring the safety of Gallifrey and the Time Lords.

Rose whimpered in her sleep, and the Doctor recognised immediately that she was having a nightmare. He slid into bed next to her and gathered her in his arms, biting back a cry of pain when he accidentally jolted his injured wrist. The momentary stab of pain dulled and the Doctor relaxed slowly, but Rose's whimpers were getting louder. The Doctor did his best to soothe her but when he felt her skin go cold and saw sweat beading on her forehead, he shook her gently to wake her.

Her eyes sprang open, her mouth ready to scream, but the Doctor tilted her face up to meet his gaze, and Rose calmed down a little, though her pulse was still racing. The Doctor ran his fingers through her hair until her pulse slowed down, and Rose sighed as she buried her face in the Doctor's neck.

"Thanks for waking me," she murmured and he nodded slightly before kissing her forehead. She looked back up at him and gave him a weak smile. "What happened to your wrist?"

"Dalek attack," he said. "I am on mandatory leave for a week so that it can heal naturally."

"My week, your week or the war week?" she asked.

He almost smiled at the way she put it. "Your week," he answered. "7 days. 168 hours. I could give you the minutes but I think you got it."

Rose glared at him with no real heat. "Not my fault I don't have an advanced time sense like everyone around here," she pointed out. "Even with that people get confused these days."

"Temporal warfare has a way of doing that," he said wisely. "And nobody uses Gallifreyan measures of time unless they are writing a thesis."

Rose didn't say anything. They both avoided the uncomfortable topic of the 'war time', which was a direct consequence of temporal warfare. Time loops, altered realities, closed nexus...if Rose had ever not believed that time was a complex entity, she did now. She and her troops had been caught in a skirmish with the Neverpeople for nearly two decades until they had broken through the sealed nexus, and realised that only a year had passed outside their battle. She had also been trapped into a time loop once, but fortunately it was only a few months long and they had managed to break it by the third loop.

In reality, Rose had no idea how long it had been since the day she had returned from Shada. Despite her title as the Lady Commander of Shada, she hadn't been back there after Narvin had become the Host. Her point of command was from Pazithi Gallifreya, and she and three other Commanders had managed to hold Zagreus off from breaching the transduction barrier on Gallifrey. As far as she knew, the general consensus was that they had held them off for a century, though Rose was not certain how many years in that century she had actually lived through. She supposed it could be more than a century or less, and with no discernible aging in her, it was difficult to gauge the passing of time. Ironically, she never had time to ponder over these matters.

The only respite in these years were the rare days she got to spend on the TARDIS in the Doctor's embrace. They didn't speak much about the war, talking about the basics when needed, but mostly they just used the time to shut out the rest of the world and lose themselves in each other. There were a lot of things they didn't tell one another, the close calls and near death experiences prominent among them, but the comfort they derived from each other was unquestionably helpful.

"Does it hurt?" asked Rose, looking at his wrist.

"They gave me some painkillers," he said.

Rose nodded, though the concern in her eyes was evident. "Tell me what happened," she requested in a soft voice.

"The Daleks have found some weapons left behind by the Deathsmiths of Goth," he said. "I think it was an antimatter cannon that they used. Nasty things."

"You were hit with antimatter?" asked Rose in alarm.

"Yes, which is why the medics want me healing naturally," he said, running a soothing hand through her hair.

Rose's eyes fluttered shut at the comforting action, she really was quite tired, but she forced herself to keep her eyes open. "Let me have a look at that," she said, no longer requesting it.

He looked exasperated but showed her the bandaged wrist. Rose ran a gentle finger over it a few times before her eyes took on a gold shine. The Doctor almost scrambled back in alarm, but his wrist suddenly felt like it was on fire, and he clenched his teeth to bite back his scream. The pain was gone the next moment, and the healing bandages had gone from a dark colour to a khaki, showing that it had healed quite significantly. He looked at Rose, ready to berate her, but her eyes were half-closed and she was covered in a light sheen of sweat.

"Damn it, Rose," he muttered, cupping her neck and brushing his thumbs over her cheeks. "I told you not to do that, you silly woman."

Rose looked drowsy but she still managed an impish smile and wink before her eyes rolled up and she fell asleep. The Doctor knew she would be out for a few more hours and he settled deeper into the bed, holding her tighter in his embrace. He hated when she did that, particularly when he wasn't certain if she could die or not. If a being who couldn't die was in the presence of a Time Lord, they would dislike the sensation entirely, but the Doctor got no such discomfort from Rose's presence and neither did the other Time Lords as far as he knew.

That meant that Rose was somewhat mortal, though she was not aging at all. The Doctor had got a few chances to see some of her scans when his visits had coincided with the instances of Rose getting injured in battle. The Artron radiation seemed to be replenishing itself and no one was really sure if it was the war and the exposure to Artron energy that was causing it or if her body had become so used to producing it that it had become a part of her lifeforce. Once Rose realised that, she was even more aggressive in using her lifeforce to fight and defend, or even heal herself and others on occasion. It always left her drained but there was no stopping her from putting her life in danger over and over by tapping into the vortex energy inside her.

It terrified the Doctor, but whenever he brought it up, Rose would quickly point out that he often lent his lifeforce to power the shields even though it was expressly forbidden. The Doctor would usually rebuke this by reminding her that he was only in his eighth life and had regenerations to spare, unlike her. To which Rose would remark quite rightly that they had no idea if she could regenerate, but if she could heal perfectly from a near death situation which would normally cause a Time Lord to regenerate then it meant that it was not very easy to kill her. It was an ongoing argument between them and a part of the Doctor was amused at how domestic that argument really was.

The Doctor closed his eyes and decided to sleep for a little while longer. Rose's steady breathing and her comforting scent naturally eased him into sleep and for once, there were no nightmares for either of them. When he woke again, it was to the sound of Rose moving around the room. He may or may not have made a sound of protest when he saw that she was getting dressed.

She heard it anyway and laughed. "I have to go down to the planet," she told him. "The Councils are meeting again."

The Doctor left the bed and wrapped his arms around her waist before she could put her dress back on. "How bad is it?" he asked.

"Worse than it was before, and that is saying something," she said, turning around in his arms to rest her head on his shoulder. "How's your arm?"

"It will be healed in a day or so now," he said, unable to keep the disapproval from his tone.

She nuzzled his jaw and kissed it softly. "Antimatter should only take two or three days to heal. The fact that the medics said it would take you a week means that you were weak already," she said shrewdly. "Just because you have regenerations left doesn't mean you ought to throw them away."

"This is about you, not me," he said sternly.

Rose pulled away to look him in the eye. "It's about the both of us," she said. "We agreed that we would survive together, remember?"

"I do remember," he said. "Which is why I worry about you, Rose."

She smiled wryly. "Don't you think I do the same?"

"It isn't the same," he shook his head. "I know how far I can safely push myself."

Rose glared coldly at him and left his embrace. "If you are worried that I will lose control, I assure you I learned my lesson with Torchwood," she hissed.

"That is not what I am saying, Rose," said the Doctor, drawing her closer. "I don't want anything to happen to you because you pushed yourself too far when there could have been another way. A safer way."

Rose sighed and nodded. "I understand, I do," she insisted. "But I'm gonna need you to trust me to know what I am doing."

"I suppose that's fair," he sighed.

Rose smiled as she hugged him. "Thanks," she said. "I really do have to go, you know," she said when he continued to hold her against him.

"Why are the Councils meeting again?" he murmured into her neck.

"Zagreus hasn't attacked in a while," she said with a sigh. "Our last battle with them was brutal. The High Council thinks we have fractured his forces enough and are advising us to retreat."

"You don't agree?" he asked.

"No, of course not," said Rose, huffing as she left the Doctor's arms and sat down on the edge of the bed. "He's planning something. I don't know what yet, but he is. The last battle, it was brutal, yes, but it seemed like...I dunno, a distraction."

"Perhaps he's gathering more forces," said the Doctor, sitting down next to her.

"Maybe," she agreed. "Or he's doing something worse."

"Worse like?" he asked.

"Like trying to breach the transduction barrier," said Rose. "The Council seems to think that is impossible. The words impenetrable might have been used. Told them I didn't like to say impenetrable because it sounded too much like unsinkable. Got blank looks in return."

The Doctor smiled, despite himself. "If Zagreus tries to breach the transduction barrier, he will be in for a shock," he said. "I was personally responsible for heightening the defence of the barrier when we were under siege. A Dalek would have a better chance of getting in than a being of Anti Time and right now, Daleks are far too scared by what the Neverpeople did to their base in the rift."

Rose nodded, slightly reassured. "I am still worried about what he will do to try and get past it," she said. "He might not succeed, but we don't know what would happen to those of us who aren't inside the barrier because of his attempts."

The Doctor put an arm around her shoulder and Rose sighed as she melted into his embrace. "Zagreus likes to think he is clever and that is always his downfall," he said. "We'll defeat him, Rose." Rose mustered up a smile and the Doctor tilted up her chin to kiss her. "Go on then," he murmured against her lips. "Tell those pompous arses about what needs to be done."

Rose kissed him again and stood up. "Take it easy, you," she said. "Rest. Heal."

He tossed her a wry salute and she responded by sticking her tongue out at him as she pulled on the white dress. The charm in her hair had come loose when she had been sleeping, so she tightened the braid and then put her shoes on. The Doctor watched her get dressed with a practiced sense of efficiency and frowned to himself. Her concerns were valid, and if Zagreus really was planning something, it would be better if she had help.

"On second thoughts," said the Doctor, getting up. "I think I'll come with you."

Rose looked at him in surprise. "You're supposed to be resting," she pointed out.

"It's not as if I'm going down to the battlefield," he said, putting his uniform on. "As much as I hate bureaucrats, if there is anyone they would listen to about Zagreus, it would be me."

Rose had to concede his point. "Thanks," she said. "Want me to fly the TARDIS down to the surface?"

"Be my guest," he said, buttoning up his uniform jacket.

Rose nodded at him and went out into the console room. She'd had to take lessons on piloting a TARDIS, although on a TT-270 rather than the Doctor's Type 40. Time Lords in general were disgruntled at the Lord General's choice of time capsule, but Rose always felt more at home piloting the beloved Type 40 than any other advanced TARDIS. The Doctor had been absurdly pleased when Rose had told him that one time, and he had been letting her pilot them now and again.

The Doctor emerged into the console room just as the TARDIS was landing on Gallifrey. Rose pulled the handbrake and then did a quick check of the console to see if there were any problems. When she found none, she shot the Doctor a quick thumbs up and the Doctor grinned at her as he opened the doors.

"Perfect landing," he declared when they found themselves back inside "their" quarters in the Capitol.

The doors to the quarters opened before they had even closed the TARDIS doors behind them, and a harried-looking Lieutenant Qynokos ran up to them. "Lord General," he said, slightly out of breath. "My lady."

"What is it Qynokos?" asked the Doctor.

"Lady Trevilik has been brought to Gallifrey. She has been injured," said Qynokos.

The Doctor's jaw clenched. "Where?" he asked.

"Down in the medical wing," said Qynokos. "The Daleks...after you left...they had another one of the Deathsmiths' creations."

"Which one?" asked the Doctor, anger blazing in his eyes.

"The Apocalypse Device, my lord," said Qynokos, looking very pale.

The Doctor cursed under his breath and glanced at Rose who nodded at him quickly. "Go," she told him, knowing that Lady Trevilik was his first Commander and that he had to deal with whatever new danger the Apocalypse Device had brought. With a quick nod at Rose, the Doctor and Qynokos left immediately.

Rose locked the TARDIS after herself and headed towards the War Council's chambers. The chambers themselves were empty but there were murmured voices coming from the lab next doors, so Rose went inside and found Braxiatel supervising a few technicians.

"Coordinator," she greeted and he looked at her in surprise.

"I did not expect you back here just yet, Lady Commander," said Braxiatel. "The High Council has been adjourned for another day."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Typical," she muttered. Her eyes drifted over to what Braxiatel was supervising and her eyes went wide. "The Genesis Ark."

Braxiatel looked at her in alarm. "How could you possibly know that?" he asked.

Rose hardly heard him as she walked over to the pepperpot-like structure that was just the size of a Dalek. The metallic surface on the outside was spotless and shining, unlike the broken and tarnished surface that Rose remembered from Canary Wharf. It was also completely empty. "You're building it," she realised.

"You still haven't answered me," said Braxiatel sharply. "This has been kept strictly under wraps."

Rose blinked and then shook her head at Braxiatel. "Don't worry, no one leaked the information or anything, I promise. I just...I know what it is," she said, trailing off and looking at the structure that would one day be responsible for such destruction.

"Rose, a word?" said Braxiatel, giving her no chance to refuse as he took her elbow as gently as he could and led her back to the empty Council chambers. "I gather you have seen it in the future," he muttered in a low voice.

"I have, yeah," she nodded. "You are going to use it as a prison for Daleks, aren't you? Time Lord science...it's bigger on the inside."

Braxiatel stared at her contemplatively and nodded. "We were planning that, yes," he said. "Only trouble is, we planned to use Artron energy to lock it. Now that the Daleks have incorporated it to fight back in this war, we are admittedly stumped about how it should be locked so that the Daleks could never open it."

Rose's eyes went wide for a moment before she threw her head back and laughed uproariously. Braxiatel looked at her in surprise, as if fearing for her sanity. "I'm sorry," she said, trying her best to stop. "I am just marvelling at time travel."

Braxiatel merely raised his eyebrows. "I assume you know how we can overcome this particular difficulty," he said.

Rose nodded, amusement still shining in her eyes but Braxiatel thought it rather looked like tears. "Touch," she said. "Something the Daleks can't do."

Braxiatel's eyes went wide. "That...could work," he said. He was about to return back to the lab when the Doctor walked in with a grim look on his face.

"How is Lady Trevilik?" asked Rose.

"She has regenerated and is currently recovering from it," he said. "The blast of antimatter stopped one of her hearts."

Braxiatel winced and Rose's eyes turned sympathetic. "She'll be alright though?" she asked.

"Yes," nodded the Doctor. "I am going to have to return to battle soon. If the Daleks have got their hands on an Apocalypse Device…" He shook his head and glanced around. "I assume the Council has been adjourned?"

"They thought that all pressing matters had been addressed," said Braxiatel, displeasure evident in his voice. "Excuse me, I have to inform the technicians about something quite important."

He nodded at the two of them and left the Council chambers. The Doctor looked at Rose questioningly but before she could say something, the Doctor's eyes shut in pain and Rose felt the device on her wrist spring to life. It was used to catch telepathic alerts and messages that other Time Lords could hear without a device to help them do it. Despite what telepathy Rose had, she never ran on the same frequency as the rest of them which was why she wore the device on her wrist which doubled as a comm. link when needed.

She hastily opened the message and the three words in bold red letters popped up as a hologram in front of her. Rose might have made a wordless sound of horror, but her eyes remained fixed on the glowing letters, even as alarms rang all around them. The three words were being transmitted to every Time Lord in existence and it was the worst that had come true.

TRANSDUCTION BARRIER BREACHED

A/N Thank you so much for reading. Let me know what you thought.

The next chapter will be up next Saturday. See you then!