Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own anything.
A/N Thank you for the overwhelmingly lovely response on the last chapter. I apologise for the cliffhanger but as I said, I did not want to break the next scenes. This is Part 2 of the 50th anniversary.
Thanks to Vampiyaa for the beta.
Chapter Twenty Three
Previously
"I'll tell you once I stop seeing in fours, Doctor," she joked and looked up to see the Doctor looking away from her.
"I don't think that will happen, Rose," he said and Rose followed his gaze to see three gaping faces at her.
"Oh," she said, her eyes going wide. "Hello."
"Oh, big mistake," said the Tenth Doctor, advancing on them with a furious look on his face. "I don't know how you knew that face, but change back RIGHT NOW!"
Rose looked shocked for a moment at the hostility on his face before she glared right back at him. "Don't point that thing at me," she snapped, looking at the sonic screwdriver in his hand. "And what the hell are you talking about?"
He looked utterly taken aback at that, but schooled his features back into a scowl. "Don't you dare!" he threatened. "You're not her, d'you hear me? You are NOT her. Change back into your usual form, Zygon, or I will do it for you." He raised his sonic screwdriver threateningly.
Rose swelled in anger, but the Eighth Doctor stepped between the two of them and glared at his older self. "You will do nothing of the sort," he said firmly. "I will not have you harming...aargh!"
The Eighth Doctor's back slammed into a nearby tree trunk as the Ninth Doctor grabbed the front of his pea coat and hauled him into a near-chokehold. "You bastard!" shouted the Ninth Doctor, spit flying from his mouth in fury. "You utter bastard! How dare you!"
"Doctor!" shouted Rose, bounding up to them. "Doctor, stop!" She grabbed the Ninth Doctor's arm, realising that he was using his full strength to choke his younger self.
His grip didn't falter, but he looked at Rose, ice blue eyes crackling in anger. "Stay away," he said, in a deathly calm voice.
"I will do nothing of the sort," said Rose furiously, gripping his wrist until he loosened it. She glanced behind her quickly to check on the Eighth Doctor, who was looking at his older self with wide eyes as he tried to catch his breath. Rose turned back to the Ninth Doctor and saw him glaring at his younger self with venom. "Why are you trying to kill yourself?" she asked, moving between the two of them and laying a hand on the Ninth Doctor's chest as if to stop him from lunging at the Eighth Doctor.
"Because he didn't die," spat the Ninth Doctor angrily. "The bastard didn't die. He made me live. He made me live when we should have just died." He tried to move towards him again, but Rose held him back with a steady hand to his chest.
"I don't know what you are talking about," wheezed the Eighth Doctor, still trying to catch his breath.
"He probably doesn't," interjected the Eleventh Doctor, who had been suspiciously silent the whole time. "Why would he know?"
"Are you mad?" asked the Tenth Doctor, looking away from Rose finally to glare at his older self. "Who else would know if not him? He was the one who did it."
"Did what?" demanded Rose.
To everyone's utter surprise, the Tenth Doctor snorted. "Oh, that's it, isn't it? I have finally gone round the bend. I am seeing and hearing things that aren't real. I wonder where I fell asleep this time," he murmured the last part to himself but everyone heard it just the same.
"What is he talking about?" asked Rose, looking at the other Doctors for an explanation.
"Skinny might have lost his mind, I think," said the Ninth Doctor, looking at him in disgust.
"But he raises a good point," said the Eleventh Doctor quickly. "You shouldn't be here, Rose Tyler. If you really are her."
"'Course I am me," snapped Rose, glaring at him. "Who else would I be? The bloody Queen of England?"
"No, that would be me, I expect," came a posh, feminine voice and the five of them whirled around to see a redheaded woman dressed in 16th century finery approaching them along with a small guard behind her.
"Queen Elizabeth the First," murmured the Eighth Doctor in shock.
"The usual custom is to kneel when you see the Queen," she said sharply, glaring at all of them.
"They would," came an identical voice from the other side and they turned around to see another Queen Elizabeth approaching them with her own guard, both of them identical down to the colour of their gowns. "If you were the real Queen," she added with a sneer at her duplicate.
"Don't trust them," said the Tenth Doctor, moving closer to Rose instinctively. "One of them is a Zygon."
"A Zygon?" asked Rose.
"Yeah, you know, big red things with suckers," said the Eleventh Doctor and Rose rolled her eyes.
"Yes, I know what a Zygon is," she said. "Why are Zygons impersonating Queen Elizabeth? And which one of them is real?"
"Why, I am, of course," said one of them.
"Hardly," snorted the other. "I am the real Queen."
"The Doctor knows I am real," said the first one, turning her nose up at her duplicate. "He asked me to marry him."
Rose turned to the Tenth Doctor and raised her eyebrows, making him sputter in disbelief. "I only did that to prove you were a Zygon," he said.
"But I wasn't," she pointed out with a smile.
"You are a liar," snapped the duplicate. "He asked me to marry him. And he knows that I am not a Zygon."
"Oh god," muttered the Tenth Doctor under his breath.
Fortunately, the portal decided to spark back up again, startling everyone but the Doctors and Rose.
"Doctor, are you still there? Who are you talking to?" came Clara's voice.
"Just myself," said the Eleventh Doctor jovially. "But I could use your help actually."
"What sorcery is that?" asked the captain of the guard, looking terrified.
"That is a portal of the witch," said the Eleventh Doctor. "Isn't that right, witch? Witch?" he said again pointedly.
"Oh, right, yes," came Clara's voice. "I am the witch!" she said, making her voice appear menacing. "Now, do as I say, or I will turn you all into...into frogs!"
"Ooh, frogs, scary," said the Eleventh Doctor with a bright smile. "Your Majesties, I think while you two sort out your identity crisis, it would be an excellent idea to lock us all up in the Tower of London."
"What?" asked Rose and the Eighth Doctor in unison, looking at him like he was mad.
To their surprise, the Ninth Doctor nodded at once. "Yes, that sounds fantastic," he said. "My good Captain," he said. "Would you be kind enough to take us to the Tower?"
"Er, I…" He looked between the two Queens, unsure as to whose orders he should follow.
"Lock them up!" The two Queens said it in unison and then glared at each other.
"Yes, your Majesty," said the captain of the guard, looking a little relieved. "And what about…?" He left the question hanging about the two Queens.
"I believe we shall settle this between ourselves," said the first Queen. "Won't we?" she asked her duplicate threateningly.
"Of course," said the duplicate, rounding on her.
"The Tower of London?" asked Clara, looking at Kate. "Why would he want to be locked in there?"
"Oh, he is good," said Kate. "Come on."
Clara ran after her, catching snippets of a conversation Kate was having with someone named Osgood. Something about accessing the Black Archives.
"Sorry, what are the Black Archives?" asked Clara.
"The only place on Earth that is entirely TARDIS-proof," said Kate proudly. "Contains quite a lot of things the Doctor would not approve of. Fortunately, it also contains a vortex manipulator, although we don't know the code." She checked her phone and smiled. "Well, we didn't until now."
She showed Clara a series of numbers that looked like they had been scratched onto an old column. She started to smile back until she saw two other people walking into the Black Archives, one of them a UNIT soldier with a gun and another a young woman wearing an enormous scarf.
"What are they doing here?" asked Clara, slightly unnerved at the blank looks on their faces.
"Oh, Osgood and McGillop have probably finished disposing of the humans a bit early," said Kate.
"What?" asked Clara in shock.
"Dear me," said Kate. "I really do get into character, don't I?" She transformed into a Zygon and Clara reared back quickly, feeling slightly grateful when she encountered the vortex manipulator.
"Activation code, right?" asked Clara, remembering the numbers she had seen. She quickly typed them into the vortex manipulator. "Thanks for that." She pressed the button and vanished.
"Hmm, cheery," said Rose, looking around at the gloomy cell that they had been thrown in. "Tell me it was your plan all along to get us in here."
"It was my plan all along to get us in here," said the Eleventh Doctor as he immediately made his way over to a column and started scratching on it.
"Rose," whispered the Tenth Doctor, staring at her. "Is it really…? I mean, how…?"
Rose avoided his gaze and looked at the ground instead. "Doesn't matter," she shrugged.
"What do you mean it doesn't matter?" thundered the Ninth Doctor, walking up to her and grasping her shoulders firmly. "You look like you've been through hell, Rose, and not two hours ago, I was saying goodbye to you because you were going out with your mates for a drink."
Rose's brow wrinkled for a moment before she punched his shoulder lightly. "I knew it!" she said. "I knew you used the TARDIS to jump forward an hour. You could have just come with me, you know."
The Ninth Doctor didn't react, not to her punch or her words. He was staring at her hand in silence. "Married," he said, and lifted her hand up.
Rose flinched and withdrew her hand sharply from his. The Ninth Doctor looked at her in question, but Rose moved to the farthest wall from the Doctors, crossing her arms over her chest and looking away.
"Married?" asked the Tenth Doctor, his eyes wide as he looked at his older self who was also staring at Rose in silence. "But that would...so where is he?"
Rose fidgeted briefly before looking up with a steely look on her face. "He passed away a long time ago," she said.
"Long time…?" asked the Tenth Doctor weakly before he abruptly went quiet and then looked at his Eighth self who was standing tensely, as if waiting to jump between his older selves and Rose if need be.
"Someone explain plainly what the hell is going on," said the Ninth Doctor, his eyes glittering dangerously.
"I married you," said Rose, looking at him. "Well, technically a human-Time Lord biological metacrisis version of you. But still the Doctor." She turned to the Tenth Doctor who looked pale. "After you left us in the parallel world, things were fine. For a while, at least. But the metacrisis failed. He…" Rose's voice shook and the Doctors could fill in the gaps themselves.
"Oh, Rose," said the Tenth Doctor, moving towards her but Rose took a step back, stopping him in his tracks.
The Eighth Doctor moved to her side silently and took her hand. She smiled gratefully at him and took a deep breath before continuing.
"I also realised that I wasn't ageing," she said, looking at their clasped hands as she spoke.
"How?" asked the Eleventh Doctor. Unlike the Ninth and Tenth Doctors who looked positively pale and shaky, he was relatively calm, his green eyes sharp and focused on her.
Rose shrugged. "Bad Wolf," she said, by way of answer.
"What…? the Ninth Doctor started to ask, but the Tenth Doctor cut him off.
"You'll know soon enough," he said impatiently, looking at Rose to finish telling her story.
"Well, I had a vortex manipulator and a universe to explore, so I was fine," she said, smiling brightly though it fell away when the Eighth Doctor made a noise of dissent.
"What?" demanded the Tenth Doctor, looking at him angrily for interrupting.
The Eighth Doctor glared right back at him. "You left her there," he snarled. "In that world. With Torchwood."
The words hung in the air for an inordinate amount of time, until the Tenth Doctor's jaw clenched in anger, the dimple making an appearance. "What did they do?" he asked, the barely concealed fury of the Oncoming Storm evident in his tone.
"What do you think?" the Eighth Doctor shot back, looking at his older self furiously.
"Enough," said Rose sharply. "It's in the past and not something we can change. Besides, that is not why we are here." She directed the last part to the Eighth Doctor who looked very much like he wanted to argue.
"I don't bloody care," said the Tenth Doctor, advancing on her. "Did they hurt you?"
Rose bit the inside of her cheek, trying to calm herself down. It didn't do well for her to lose her temper when the Doctor got like this. One of them had to have a cool head at all times, and it didn't look like the Doctor was going to calm down anytime soon. She took a few deep breaths, and left the Eighth Doctor's side to move towards the Tenth Doctor and placed a hand over his cheek gently.
He closed his eyes at the contact and the dimple in his cheek became deeper, making Rose realise that he was trying to calm down as well. She stroked her thumb over his sideburn and with a sigh, he turned his head to touch his lips to her palm and then down to the inside of her wrist, before burying his face in her neck and wrapping his arms tightly around her.
A low cry escaped Rose's mouth involuntarily as she returned his embrace just as eagerly, eyes falling shut at the feel of those familiar arms around her. She could hear the Doctor holding back sobs as he squeezed her close until she could barely breathe. The impatient shuffling of feet from the others brought her slamming back to the present and she tried to disentangle herself from his arms, but he didn't seem to want to let her go, and it took several tries and a very pointed throat-clearing from the Eighth Doctor for him to release Rose.
Rose turned to the Eighth Doctor. "Can't you do your telepathic conference thingy and tell them the rest?" she asked, the pleading note in her eyes evident.
"Of course," he nodded and looked at his older selves.
The Ninth Doctor looked very much like he wanted to hold Rose the way his Tenth self had, but he seemed to have realised that there was a lot of it he still wasn't understanding. The Eleventh Doctor, on the other hand, looked calculating, his eyes moving between Rose and his Eighth self in quick succession, though his fists were clenched tightly, which he didn't seem to be aware of.
The Tenth Doctor had a look on his face that said quite clearly that he wanted to be alone with Rose and talk to her without his other selves interrupting them. He had his hands stuffed in his trouser pockets, as if having them out would mean they would reach for her without his permission.
Rose looked at the Eighth Doctor, who raised his eyebrows to make sure it was fine to share everything with them, and she nodded softly at him. "Alright then," he told them. "Contact."
"Contact," said the Tenth Doctor at once, closing his eyes quickly.
"Contact," said the Eleventh Doctor, following suit.
The Ninth Doctor looked at Rose and at a small smile from her, he sighed and closed his eyes. "Contact."
Rose fiddled with her ring while the Doctors were brought up to speed. She looked at the column where the Eleventh Doctor had been scribbling and saw that he had written a series of numbers, which she thought looked like a code. She would have examined it further, but she realised that the Doctors were almost done being caught up. She moved subtly between the Eighth and Ninth Doctors, praying that it wouldn't come to blows again.
The four Doctors opened their eyes in unison and then glanced at each other briefly before their eyes fell on Rose. They were quiet for an unnerving amount of time, so Rose looked at the Eighth Doctor. "Just how much did you tell them?" she asked.
The tension broke slightly and the Doctors relaxed a little. "Everything from the moment I met you on Karn until we saw them back in the woods," he answered.
"You fought in the war," said the Ninth Doctor, looking like he very much was going to pass out. "Oh, my precious girl." Rose only had a moment's warning before she was swept up in his arms, feeling the leather-clad arms wrapped solidly around her. She could feel him trembling, but unlike her pinstriped Doctor, she knew that it wasn't because he was holding back sobs. He was downright furious, and even though she couldn't see his face, she knew his eyes would be spitting blue fire. She rubbed her hand soothingly over his back, trying to get him to relax but it was only partly helpful.
"It makes no sense," came the Eleventh Doctor's quiet voice, which finally got them to separate.
He had moved away from everyone else and was staring at his own hands like he didn't quite know what they were. Rose looked at him in concern, a look she saw mirrored on the faces of the other Doctors.
"What doesn't?" asked Rose softly, moving towards him.
He looked at her, and Rose was surprised at the utter devastation she saw in his eyes. "Oh, Rose," he said and took both of her hands in his. "I always thought...but Karn...and the Moment…" He shook his head and Rose squeezed his hands.
"Use your words, Doctor," she said and he chuckled a little at that.
"Words, yes," he said, and then turned to his other selves, still holding onto one of Rose's hands tightly. "My memories changed some time ago," he said.
"What?" asked the Tenth Doctor, shocked. "How could that happen?"
The Eleventh Doctor shot him an irritated look for interrupting. "Someone thought it would be good idea to open up my timeline and meddle with it. Thankfully, Clara managed to fix it." He looked at his other selves pointedly. "You might have seen her. A short brunette. Always scurrying around the edges?"
"Hold on, what?" asked Rose, confused.
"She splintered through time," said the Eleventh Doctor. "The pieces were scattered throughout my timeline. Fragments of her, other selves of her whom I sometimes met but who always, always died."
"But how did your timeline change if Clara managed to fix it?" asked Rose curiously.
"I don't know," he said. "In the original timeline, you died on Karn," he told his Eighth self. "You took the potion that the Sisterhood gave you and forced a regeneration onto yourself to become a Warrior. He fought in the war, not you."
The Eighth Doctor looked incredulous at that and looked at the Ninth and Tenth Doctors who looked equally surprised at that information. "An entirely new regeneration?" asked the Eighth Doctor finally.
"I-I think so," said the Eleventh Doctor, rubbing his head. "It's fading now. Like a dream."
"Or an untapped timeline," said the Ninth Doctor sharply. "If Clara fell into our timeline, how is she still alive?"
"I got her out of there," said the Eleventh Doctor.
"You entered our timeline?" thundered the Tenth Doctor. "Have you lost all sense?"
The Eleventh Doctor ignored him. "While I was there, I saw him. The Warrior," he clarified. "But then he vanished. Like it never happened."
"It never did," said the Eighth Doctor. "I was certainly not dying when I was on Karn, though the Sisterhood tried to claim I was. I refused their potion, and like you can see, it's the last day of the war and I am certainly not wearing a new face yet."
"Was I there?" asked Rose quietly. "In that old timeline?"
The Eleventh Doctor looked at her sorrowfully and nodded slowly. "You were the interface that the Moment chose. The memory is vague, but the interface looked just like you do now."
"The Moment doesn't have an interface," said Rose, confused. "It's just a power source."
"The Moment has a conscience," corrected the Tenth Doctor and Rose shook her head again.
"The point is," interjected the Eighth Doctor before Rose could disabuse him of that notion. "None of this ever happened. Either your mind conjured up a whole new self," he told his Eleventh self. "Or it was an echo of a timeline."
"When you went into our timeline, did you encounter a sealed nexus of memories?" asked the Tenth Doctor.
"I did," said the Eleventh Doctor. "It unfurled when our minds touched just now."
"What was in there?" asked Rose.
"The truth," he said sadly. "There was no Warrior, there never had been. It had always been me. I was the one who pushed that final button."
"'Course it was," said the Ninth Doctor gruffly, crossing his arms and glaring at the floor. "We aren't fortunate enough to have a magical regeneration bear all our burdens. We have to carry them on our own."
"You never have to carry anything alone," said Rose firmly. She turned to the Eleventh Doctor. "I was there, wasn't I? With you when you pushed that button?"
The Eleventh Doctor looked over her shoulder discreetly at his Eighth self. An inscrutable look passed between them before he beamed at Rose. "Of course," he said, taking both her hands and squeezing them. "You were right there with me."
Rose nodded back, satisfied at that. She looked at the other Doctors behind her, who smiled back at her. "So, you knew all along that you would see me?" she asked the Eleventh Doctor.
"Not until I saw this," he said, drawing out a yellowed parchment from his purple tweed jacket.
"What is that?" she asked.
"Queen Elizabeth's love letter for her husband," sneered the Ninth Doctor, glaring at the Tenth Doctor.
"I said I proposed to her because I thought she was a Zygon," the Tenth Doctor protested immediately.
"That doesn't make it sound any better, trust me," said the Eighth Doctor, looking slightly revolted.
The Tenth Doctor huffed and looked at the Eleventh Doctor and Rose, both of whom looked a little amused. "What does the damn letter say?" he asked.
The Eleventh Doctor handed the parchment to Rose, who opened it with slight trepidation. She really, really did not want to read a letter written to the Doctor by a Queen whom he may or may not have had a dalliance with. The situation was entirely familiar, and for all the wrong reasons.
However, it wasn't a love letter that she found. It wasn't even a complete letter. Just two words written plain as a day in Rose's own writing.
"Bad Wolf," she read.
The Tenth Doctor made a noise in his throat that may or may not have almost been a giggle and the Eleventh Doctor beamed at her as he took the parchment back and put it back into his pockets after folding it with great care.
The Eighth and the Ninth Doctor were still a little confused. "What is the Bad Wolf?" asked the Eighth Doctor finally.
"It's not a what," said the Tenth Doctor, smiling.
"It's more of a who," finished the Eleventh Doctor with a pointed look towards Rose.
"You are the Bad Wolf?" asked the Ninth Doctor, looking at Rose in surprise.
"You've seen the words, haven't you?" she asked him shrewdly. "Everywhere we go."
"Didn't think it was a name," he shrugged back. "Not yours in any case."
Rose smiled sadly. "You, of all people, should know how much more important the name you give yourself is than any name you might be born with," she said.
"How did this never come up in more than a century we spent together?" wondered the Eighth Doctor.
"You know, I really have no idea," said Rose. "I think there was simply an overload of titles for us to add even more to that."
He grinned at her in agreement, and the tension in the air seemed to have all but disappeared when the door to their cell slammed open and a frantic Clara rushed in.
"Oh hello, Clara," said the Eleventh Doctor as he stood up and smiled at her. "How did you get in?"
"The door was unlocked," she said and then looked at all of them with wide eyes. "Did neither of you check?"
"Yeah, sorry, think we missed the obvious," said Rose, standing up from behind them and smiling tentatively at Clara.
"Oh my God," said Clara, her eyes going wide when she saw her. "You're Rose Tyler."
Rose looked taken aback, as did the Doctors. "I'm sorry, have we met?" she asked.
"No," said Clara quickly. "I just...I recognised you from all the missing persons posters. They were all over the Estate."
"Missing?" asked Rose before realisation spread across her face. "Yeah, that was his fault," she said, nodding towards the Ninth Doctor who rolled his eyes fondly at that. "Said it had been twelve hours when it had really been twelve months. Everyone thought I was dead." She looked at Clara for a moment. "I don't really remember you seeing around the Estate."
"Oh, I wasn't," said Clara. "We moved to the Estate around the time you went missing and I was only there for a year before I went away for uni. Don't think our paths ever really crossed." She bit her lip. "Last I heard was that you were...erm…"
"Dead?" guessed Rose, ignoring the way the Tenth Doctor tensed next to her.
Clara nodded. "The Battle of Canary Wharf," she said. "Bunch of people from the Estate were gone. So…hang on," she turned to the Eleventh Doctor. "Your friend, Rose? The same one you told me about?"
"The very same," said the Eleventh Doctor.
"But...how did you get here?" asked Clara curiously.
"More importantly," interrupted the Eighth Doctor. "Why wasn't the door locked?"
"Because I was fascinated to see what you would do upon escaping," came the voice from the shadows before Queen Elizabeth emerged from them. "I understand you're rather fond of this world. It's time I think you saw what's going to happen to it."
"I don't like any of this," murmured the Eighth Doctor in Rose's ear as Elizabeth led them through the dungeons over to the Zygon control centre. "It's too…"
"Perfect," she whispered back and he nodded.
"What are you two whispering about?" asked the Ninth Doctor suspiciously.
"Just admiring the decor," replied the Eighth Doctor cheerfully. "A bit red, but there you go."
"The Zygons lost their own world," Elizabeth was saying, drawing their attention back to her. "It burnt in the first days of the Time War. A new home is required."
"So they want this one," nodded Clara.
"Not yet. It's far too primitive. Zygons are used to a certain level of comfort," said Elizabeth just as a Zygon approached them.
"Commander, why are these creatures here?" it asked.
"Because I say they should be," said Elizabeth imperiously. "It is time you too were translated." She turned back to the others. "Observe this. I believe you will find it fascinating."
The Zygon put its hand on the glass cube and vanished, reappearing in a 3D painting nearby.
"A stasis cube," said Rose. "Very clever."
"What's that?" asked Clara.
"Time Lord art," answered the Ninth Doctor brusquely. "Frozen instants in time, bigger on the inside, but could be deployed as…"
"Suspended animation," finished the Eleventh Doctor. "Oh, that's very good. The Zygons all pop inside the pictures, wait a few centuries till the planet's a bit more interesting, and then out they come."
"May I ask why you would tell us all this, Your Majesty?" asked the Eighth Doctor, looking at Elizabeth.
"Because she is a fake," said the Tenth Doctor, rounding on her. "Do you know why? Because the real Elizabeth would never be stupid enough to reveal her own plan. Honestly, why would you do that?"
"Because it's not my plan. And I am the real Elizabeth," she said, fixing him with a glare.
"So how did you defeat your duplicate then?" asked the Ninth Doctor suspiciously, still not convinced.
"Honestly Doctor," interrupted Rose, shaking her head. "She's the Queen. She probably carries a knife at all times."
"A dagger, actually," said Elizabeth, regarding Rose with a pleased look.
"Even better," nodded Rose. "May I see it?"
Elizabeth nodded back and pulled out the small dagger from the folds of her heavy clothing and handed it to Rose.
Rose examined it briefly and walked up to her to return it, but instead of putting it back in Elizabeth's outstretched hand, she pinned her against the nearest wall and held the dagger at her throat.
"ROSE!" shouted the Tenth Doctor but Rose smirked at Elizabeth.
"Do you want to change back or should I make you?" she asked.
"Let go of me," shrieked Elizabeth. "I am the Queen and I shall have your head for this."
"You are not the Queen, not even close," said Rose, glaring viciously at her. "Do you know how I know? Because I was there. At the fall of Zygor." Elizabeth stopped struggling and looked at Rose with wide eyes. "When you spend your days tending to Zygons as they die, you pick up on things. So, don't insult us both, and change back into your usual form."
She released Elizabeth and stepped back, throwing the dagger to the ground. There was utter silence before Elizabeth slowly morphed into a Zygon.
"You were there at the fall of Zygor?" hissed the Zygon.
"I was," nodded Rose. "We tried to save as many as we could, but the Neverpeople had ravaged it far too much before we could stop them. I know we sent off the survivors to safe zones as best we could, and I guess you lot were some of them."
"We fell through the cracks," said the Zygon. "Fell to Earth in this primitive time."
"I understand," said Rose and looked back at the Eighth Doctor who nodded. "You can go into your painting then. We'll see you in a few centuries."
"Won't the humans resist?" asked the Zygon.
"Not if you work together to co-exist instead of colonising the planet," said the Eighth Doctor.
The Zygon gave a short nod. "Very well," it said and placed a hand on the cube. It vanished from the control centre and reappeared in the painting behind them.
"Blimey," said Clara. "So, where's the real Queen Elizabeth?"
"I don't think she is here at all," said the Eighth Doctor, crossing his arms over his chest. "Both those Queens we saw were Zygons. Intended to trick us, no doubt."
"But why?" asked Clara.
"You saw them, they are terrified that the humans would rather start a war than coexist with them," said Rose. "I'm pretty sure they wanted 'Queen Elizabeth' to charge the Doctor with defending the kingdom."
"And by that, defend Earth from a war between humans and Zygons," nodded the Eleventh Doctor and then clapped his Tenth self on the shoulder. "No wonder she wanted your head. When the real Queen returns, the kingdom will be rife about you having plans to marry her."
The Tenth Doctor shot him a glare. "Oh, do shut up," he snapped.
"I don't know if this is a good time to say this," interrupted Clara. "But Kate was a Zygon."
"Yes, I thought she might be," said the Eleventh Doctor. "Come on, gang, let's go back to the TARDIS."
"Gang?" mouthed Rose to the Eighth Doctor, who was looking at the Eleventh Doctor in disgust along with the other two Doctors.
Regardless, they started to find their way out of the dungeons and towards the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS, but Rose felt one of the Doctors grab her arm lightly and pull her behind the rest. She turned around and saw that it was the Tenth Doctor, who smiled tentatively at her.
"Doctor, what-?" she started to ask but he cupped her face and stopped her words by kissing her softly.
The others stopped walking and turned around but the two of them didn't notice as Rose melted into the kiss slowly, her hands tangled lightly in his really, really great hair. He made a soft noise in his throat at that, wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up slightly so that she didn't have to rise on her tiptoes as much. Rose had her arms around his neck for balance and when her lungs burned with the need to breathe, she let her head fall to his shoulder.
"Wanted to do that since the moment I saw you," he murmured in her ear as he set her down carefully.
She regarded him with a sly smile. "You thought I was a Zygon when you first saw me," she reminded him.
"Wellll," he said in that all-too-familiar way, a wide cheshire grin on his face and Rose couldn't help but smile back.
"If you two are done," came the irritated Northern voice and Rose jumped slightly, having forgotten that they had been in the middle of something.
"Right," she said, disentangling herself from the Tenth Doctor and fighting the blush she could feel rising in her cheeks. "Back to the TARDIS then?"
A/N Thanks for reading. Let me know what you thought.
Part 3 of the 50th anniversary will be up next Saturday. Oh, and Happy Doctor Who Day :)