Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own anything.
A/N Part 1 of the rewrite for 'The Time of the Doctor'. A massive thanks to Vampiyaa for the beta.
The plot of 'The Time of the Doctor' has been changed significantly. I tried to do a rewrite but none of the versions I outlined felt right to me, especially in this verse. I eventually just started the plot from scratch, using the basic plot devices and characters from the episode in question, but they too have been changed in various ways to work them into the story. Hope you still like it!
Chapter Twenty Nine
The Doctor chuckled and inched his fingers under Rose's top, tickling her ribs lightly. She squealed at his touch and burst into laughter. The two of them had spent a few more hours in their cloud garden before returning to the TARDIS for a much needed shower. They had gotten dressed, eaten a widespread of breakfast foods (no toast, though) and were currently trying to ascertain their next destination from the list that the TARDIS had made for them but they kept getting distracted by each other.
"Stop it," laughed Rose. "We have to get something done today, besides each other."
"Where's that rule then?" he asked cheekily, pressing her against the console and kissing the side of her neck. "Who says we can't spend today and maybe even a few more days exploring each other instead?"
Rose's protest died on her lips when the Doctor found that spot on her neck and began lavishing attention on it with his lips, tongue and teeth. "God, you drive me mad when you do that," she gasped, tilting her head back to allow him better access.
"I know," he said, smiling smugly against her neck. "Fair's fair, really. You manage to discover my weak spots so easily in every body."
Rose hummed in agreement and then pulled his head up to kiss him instead. "But I've barely discovered what you like in this body," she said, holding his gaze when she pulled away. "Don't be in a hurry to change it."
"Wouldn't dream of it," he said, grabbing her waist and lifting her to sit on top of the console.
"Ouch," said Rose, shifting to avoid the lever digging into her hip. "This hasn't gotten any more comfortable, you know."
The Doctor opened his mouth, ready with a retort, but the sound of the Cloister Bell echoed through the TARDIS, sending a chill down their spines. Rose met his gaze and hopped down from the console as they both started checking the console to see what was causing it. Their previous playful mood was gone, replaced with a sense of foreboding.
"Here," said Rose, pointing to the receiver on the console. "There's an incoming transmission."
The Doctor walked up to her and examined it with a frown. "It's being broadcasted to everyone. All over the universe."
"Not many beings in the universe with that sort of technology," said Rose, the feeling of foreboding getting worse at the ominous three beeps being repeated over and over again. "Why isn't the TARDIS translating?"
"I don't know," said the Doctor. "It might be encrypted which means it needs a key to unscramble it. It's not uncommon, especially if they are broadcasting all over the universe."
"They don't want everyone to know what it says, yeah," she nodded. "We should track it, shouldn't we?"
"Don't see any other way," he said lightly and reached around her to activate the tracker.
Letting the tracker do its job, Rose turned around and snogged the Doctor deeply, her hands fisting into his tweed jacket with alarming strength. The Doctor cupped her face gently and returned the kiss until she relaxed her hold.
"I'm here," he said, resting his forehead against hers. "Whatever you are feeling, you won't lose me. Okay?"
Rose nodded and wrapped her arms around him, feeling comforted when he returned her embrace and held her close to him. "Maybe it's nothing," she said, unconvincingly. "I have been getting a bit jumpy at times."
"Either way, I'm not going anywhere," he said, brushing his lips over her hair. "Wouldn't want to be anywhere without you. Love you too much."
The tracker beeped with the result and they broke their hug reluctantly and turned to the console to look at it. A light blue planet with ice rings around it was visible on the scanner. Surrounding the planet were a myriad of ships, all of them in orbit.
"Oh my God," said Rose, staring at the scanner.
"Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Draconians, Judoon...ooh, this is not good," said the Doctor, looking at the individual ships. "This is not good at all."
"Why are they all just parked around the planet?" asked Rose, finally tearing her gaze from the scanner to look at the Doctor. "What are they waiting for?"
"The planet's shielded," realised the Doctor. "They can't get in."
"Who shielded it?" asked Rose.
"Give me a moment," said the Doctor. "The TARDIS can run a loop to see who was the first to arrive."
Rose nodded and let the Doctor get to work. She saw the Dalek ship on the scanner and had to clench her fists to stop them from trembling. She had known that some Daleks had survived the war, but being so close to them now was bringing up unpleasant memories, not to mention, her tenuous control on her recklessness was slipping. The Doctor, concerned as he was about her these days, noticed the state she was in and brushed a comforting hand up and down her arm until the tension receded slightly.
"I should be stronger than this," said Rose in a low voice as they waited for the TARDIS to work her magic. "I have faced Daleks before I even knew what they were. This shouldn't be hard."
"You are stronger than you think," said the Doctor gravely. "This is the first time you have been around Daleks since the war. It should be the most difficult thing to face them and trust me, you are holding up far better than I did."
"That's 'cos I'm here," she said, looking at him. "What happens when we leave the TARDIS?"
The Doctor smiled easily. "Do you really think I'm going to let a Dalek anywhere near you?" he asked, the protective gleam in his eye apparent even as he smiled jovially.
Rose smiled back weakly, feeling heartened despite her misgivings. It was easy to forget the darker persona that this Doctor seemed to possess, hidden as it was underneath layers of childishness and bright smiles.
The Doctor beamed when he saw her smile and he turned his attention back to the TARDIS. His smile dimmed when he saw the first ship to arrive at the planet.
"What?" asked Rose curiously.
The Doctor grimaced before answering. "The Church of the Papal Mainframe," he said.
"Never heard of 'em," said Rose, shaking her head.
"51st century, weird traditions. Biggest security hub of their time," he said. "I knew their Mother Superious. She has been very helpful at times."
"Okay" said Rose. "So, I suppose we need to get dressed up for church then?"
The Doctor shook his head in amusement. "Dressed down, actually," he said. "Visitors have to be in the nude."
Rose's mouth fell open. "Seriously?" she asked.
The Doctor laughed. "No," he said. "They used to, until a few years ago. Now you only have to be nude if you are going in for a confession, which I don't suppose either of us are."
"We're not exactly the confessing types, are we?" chuckled Rose as she turned back to the scanner. "Do we know what planet this is?" she asked suddenly.
"Oh," said the Doctor. "No, but we could find out. Ah, here we go. Basic diagnostics tell us this is…" He stopped talking and stared at the screen in front of him with wide eyes.
"Doctor?" asked Rose, looking at him in concern.
"It's wrong," he said, his voice low and rough with anger. He smacked the side of the screen sharply, making the TARDIS hum in irritation. "Your analysis is wrong," he added in a louder voice, glaring at the console.
"Doctor," said Rose sharply as the TARDIS lights above the rotor flickered angrily. "What does it say?"
The Doctor moved away from the console and did not answer. Rose shot him a worried look before checking the scans herself and a sharp gasp escaped her when she read the name of the planet.
"It can't be," whispered Rose. "It doesn't...it's not…"
"I know," snapped the Doctor. "Gallifrey, indeed. Does that look like Gallifrey to you?" he asked loudly, yelling at the rotor.
The TARDIS stayed silent and Rose absently reached for the Doctor's hand. "Maybe it's a mistake," said Rose, shaking her head. "I'll run it again."
"Don't bother," said the Doctor, taking her hand despite his tone of irritation. "We both know that's not Gallifrey."
"Well, the TARDIS thinks it is," said Rose.
"I destroyed Gallifrey," he said, eyes flashing in anger. "You know I did. So it can't be down there."
"I know," said Rose, closing her eyes briefly to keep her temper. "I know," she repeated in a softer voice. "Maybe it's a remnant of something from the Time Lock. All communications during the war were encrypted, weren't they?"
The Doctor stared at her with wide eyes and nodded slowly. "Yes," he said. "It's not completely impossible for a comm. device or a stray weapon to have fallen from the Time Lock. They were all built with homing beacons so they could be recalled to Gallifrey rather than fall into enemy hands."
Rose nodded along. "So, maybe it's not Gallifrey down there," she said. "Just stray technology."
"Right, stray technology," said the Doctor, his anger starting to recede. "Nothing more than stray technology."
The two of them nodded yet again, as if pushing back every thought about Gallifrey to the backs of their mind. Rose wasn't certain if they were hoping to be right or wrong about it. But the Doctor was right. He had destroyed it. He had pressed that button and ended the Time War.
"How did you get out?" asked Rose curiously, her eyes far away.
The Doctor looked at her sharply. "What?" he asked.
Rose looked at him with a frown on her face. "How did you get out of the Time Lock after you pressed that button?" she asked.
"Rose," he said sternly, as if that was all he would say on it.
Rose ignored it and pressed on. "You said you created a small tear in…"
"Rose," he said again, his voice much sharper this time. "Gallifrey did not survive through the tear I made. It was barely enough for one TARDIS to get through and I'm pretty sure it closed behind us when we left."
"But it didn't though, did it?" asked Rose. "You still got out."
The Doctor stared at her unblinkingly and then looked down at the console, shaking his head in confusion. "The TARDIS got me out," he insisted as if that was enough of an answer.
"How? We left the TARDIS behind before we walked all the way to the shed," said Rose persistently.
"I don't know," he said. "She must have found me. Honed in and materialised around me...it doesn't matter," he added sharply and looked up at her pleadingly. "Rose…"
Upon seeing the look of utter hopelessness in his eyes, Rose decided to let up and nodded instead. "Alright," she said and walked over to him. "I'm sorry. Just...let's just deal with this, 'kay?"
The Doctor nodded and Rose smiled back softly as they started to work the console in silence. "I can't let myself think that, Rose," said the Doctor when they were in the final moments of the dematerialisation process. "I can't let myself hope." He snorted humourlessly. "Or dread it, as is the case."
"Doctor," said Rose gently. "You told me how empty it is in your head. Wanting to fill that silence...it doesn't make it wrong."
"Except what we did...what I did...they are not likely to forgive either of us if they survived by some impossibility," he said darkly.
Rose wished she could assure him that some of them might, but she knew the words would sound hollow and falsely optimistic. Even if Gallifrey had survived by some miracle, she was certain their arrival would be met by anything but forgiveness.
The TARDIS materialised on the gigantic ship belonging to the Church of the Papal Mainframe and the Doctor and Rose shook themselves out of their individual trains of thought. The doors opened to a darkened church hallway with a high ceiling. A row of military personnel stood on either side of the hallway, unmoving and staring straight in front of them. None of them had reacted to their arrival, apart from the man at the far end of the hallway who beckoned them with a nod.
"The Mother Superious will receive you now," he said, as the massive double doors swung open into a spacious altar chamber decorated in purple silks.
A woman dressed in swathing black and blue gown smiled at the Doctor in greeting. "I was just about to extend you an invitation," she said. "Welcome, Doctor. It is nice to see you again."
"And you, Tasha," said the Doctor, bowing deeply. "Rose Tyler, meet Tasha Lem. She is the Mother Superious. Tasha, Rose is…"
"Your wife," finished Tasha, with a smile towards Rose. The Doctor and Rose opened their mouths to deny it but she waved it away. "You may not have formalised the arrangement but you forget that the Church sees everything, Doctor. You two have been doing quite a lot to rebuild the universe. You have our gratitude and our congratulations on having found each other again after much time apart."
Rose seemed a little astonished at how much Tasha knew about them but the Doctor merely smiled and nodded. Tasha offered them both seats and sat herself down in front of them with a pensive look on her face.
"I wish we had met under more pleasant circumstances, but I'm afraid I require help from you," she said. "Both of you."
"The planet down there," said Rose, sitting up in interest. "Do you know what's happening to it?"
"No," answered Tasha. "Which is why I need you both. The first thing we did upon arriving was seal off the planet to stop anyone from landing on it, including us."
"What about the signal?" asked the Doctor.
"We haven't been able to decipher it," said Tasha, shaking her head. "Again, with limited knowledge of what it is, it has been difficult. All we know is that those three beeps are being broadcast all over the universe and eliciting the same response in all species."
"What response?" asked Rose warily.
Tasha met her gaze gravely. "Dread," she said. "That's why they have all come here. To find whatever it is and stop it from ever leaving this planet."
The Doctor and Rose exchanged a long look before the Doctor turned back to Tasha. "That planet downstairs," he said. "What is it called?"
Tasha stood up slowly, motioning them to do the same. "Trenzalore," she said. "It's called Trenzalore."
Clara awoke with a sharp gasp, as if someone had screamed loudly in her ear. She appeared to be flat on her back on a hammock that was swinging back and forth listlessly. The smell of metal and burnt soufflé permeated the air and there were loud shouts in the distance that ought to have sounded familiar, but her brain was far too scrambled to understand it.
She sat up slowly, careful not to jostle the hammock too badly. She appeared to be inside a tiny mechanical room, with a wide, comfortable-looking black chair. She glanced to the other side and was surprised to see the door boarded up by wood planks. The place seemed eerily familiar but it swayed before her eyes, making her stumble.
When her eyes opened again, she appeared to be sitting comfortably in a wide conference room dominated by an oval-shaped glass table. The chairs lining the table were all empty, except for the one directly opposite Clara, which was occupied by a well-dressed woman in black, with an odd eye patch covering one of her eyes.
"Identity confirmed," said the woman in a cool voice before resting her elbows on the table. "Hello, Clara Oswald. It is nice to meet you."
"Where am I?" asked Clara, trying her best to think of the last thing she remembered properly.
"You're in church," said the woman with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. She leaned forward slightly. "Don't fret, it is the quiet part of the church. Just us girls."
"Who are you?" asked Clara warily.
"You can call me Madam Kovarian," she said.
The conference room door opened and Clara turned towards it. A tall humanoid with an elongated, bulbous face and long fingers walked in, dressed in a well-tailored black suit. Clara stared in horror at the creature.
"Don't worry about it," said Madam Kovarian and Clara's eyes snapped to her.
"Don't worry about what?" she asked, feeling confused.
Madam Kovarian smirked. "Exactly," she said. "Now, dear Clara, just sit back and enjoy the show."
The screen on the far wall of the conference room lit up and Clara was shocked to see the Doctor and Rose talking to a dark-haired woman. She couldn't hear what they were saying but it seemed to be a serious discussion.
"Where are they?" asked Clara, turning to Madam Kovarian.
"They're here," she answered, examining her nails with a bored look. "But they won't be, for long. Our Mother Superious is sending them out on a mission."
"Then why did you…" Clara trailed off as her memories finally snapped back into place. Daleks had confronted her on her way home. "Where are they?" she asked Madam Kovarian who was staring back at her impassively. "I know the Daleks brought me here. Are you working for them?" she demanded, getting to her feet.
"Working for them, dear Clara?" asked Madam Kovarian, smiling widely as the skin of her forehead parted and a Dalek eyestalk protruded out of it. "Yes, you could say that we are."
Clara jumped back in shock, staring in horror at the repulsive sight. She looked ready to bolt but Madam Kovarian stood up and held up a Dalek ray gun coming out of her hand.
"Sit down," she said in a pleasant voice that was colder than ice.
Clara considered the merit of disobeying her and just running, but the fact that she hadn't been harmed yet gave her some heart. Silently, she sat back down in her chair.
"Good," praised Madam Kovarian, and the hideous Dalek parts withdrew themselves back into her body as she sat down. "Isn't it nice when we keep things all civil?"
"Why am I here?" asked Clara, glancing at the screen where the Doctor and Rose appeared to be getting ready to leave. "Do they know I'm here?"
"You are here as insurance, Clara Oswald," said Madam Kovarian. "Not that they are aware of it. If the Doctor is foolish enough to disobey the collective might of the Dalek Empire and the Church of the Papal Mainframe, then we have something valuable that would make him obey."
"What is it that you want him to do?" asked Clara.
Madam Kovarian looked like she might answer but a cool ping chimed through the room and she turned her attention to the screen. Clara followed her gaze and saw the Mother Superious smiling. She appeared to be alone in the wide altar chamber.
"How is our guest doing, dear?" she asked lightly.
"Being very cooperative so far," answered Madam Kovarian, looking at Clara with a small smirk. "Have they gone?"
The Mother Superious nodded. "The Doctor and Rose Tyler reacted as expected," she said. "They have been told to discover the mystery of the planet and that it is vital to the survival of the universe. They agreed to the task and I teleported them down to the planet through the shields. It is all going to plan."
"And what of the Doctor's machine?" asked Madam Kovarian in a hard voice.
The Mother Superious smirked. "It remains here," she said. "They have no way out."
"Doctor," called Rose as the Doctor began striding forward with purpose as soon as Tasha had teleported them down to the planet. "Doctor, hold up, will you?" She caught up with him and grabbed his arm. "Oi, what's going on?"
He didn't answer but Rose was equally relentless and with a sigh, he gave in. "This is Trenzalore," he said, giving a weight to the name that Rose didn't quite get.
"I know," she said, looking around at their snowy surroundings. "Looks mostly like what I remember it."
The Doctor looked alarmed. "You've been here before?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said. "I told you, remember? Trenzalore was where the Daleks caught up to me and the explosion brought me back to this universe. To you, on Karn."
The Doctor blinked as he remembered her telling him the story after the event at the Gates of Elysium. Her story had raised so many more pertinent questions that this little factoid had gone past without much thought. He had been a little shocked that the weak spatial point had been on the planet with his own grave, but apart from that, he had dismissed it immediately. Never ignore a coincidence. Unless you're busy.
"Doctor," said Rose, looking at him questioningly. "Doctor, what is it?"
"Probably nothing," he said, his brain racing to connect the dots.
Rose didn't buy that for a moment. "Doctor," she implored.
He ran a hand over his face and exhaled deeply. "It's my grave," he said finally.
"Your grave?" asked Rose in surprise. "I don't understand."
He smiled sadly. "I can't live forever, can I? Some day, I'll run out of my regenerations," he said. "And when that day comes, Trenzalore shall be my grave."
"Why Trenzalore?" asked Rose, trying not to dwell on the notion of him dying and not regenerating.
"I don't know," he said, with a gentle shake of his head. "It hasn't happened for me. But I have always been curious, so I discovered my gravesite a long time ago. A sort of youthful curiosity in my seventh life to remind myself of my own mortality."
Rose's eyes softened. "You're not going to die just yet, Doctor," she said. "You still have regenerations left, not to mention many more years in this body."
"I can still die if I am killed before I can regenerate," he said, feeling compelled to point it out.
"But you won't," said Rose, with such conviction that it would have seemed childish coming from anyone else but her. "You aren't done yet. We are not done yet."
The Doctor met her fierce gaze and surged forward to capture her lips in a short but intense kiss. "I don't know what I would do without you, you know that?" he said, linking his hand firmly with hers as they started walking along together.
Rose smiled and swung their joined hands between them. "You are far too ready to jump to the worst possible conclusion, you know that?" she teased back.
"Perils of old age," he said, only half-joking.
"There's life in you yet, Time Lord," said Rose, tossing him a cheeky wink. "Besides, you promised not to change in a hurry, remember?"
"Yeah," he agreed softly and kissed her temple briefly.
The snow crunched under their shoes as they walked through the ever-present twilight that was typical of the planet. They were yet to leave the wooded area that they had beamed down to and the silence was pressing down heavily around them. While Trenzalore was not a heavily populated planet, it was still unusual that they hadn't encountered anyone yet.
"Should have worn sturdier shoes," murmured Rose after a while, scowling at the fact that her thin boots were soaked through because of the snow.
The Doctor smiled a little as he glanced down at her feet but the smile abruptly vanished and he grabbed Rose's arm to stop her from walking forward. Rose turned to him with an inquisitive look on her face and followed his gaze to where an arm made from stone was poking through the snow a mere foot from where Rose was about to step.
"What in the world is that?" asked Rose, as she bent closer to take a better look.
"No, don't," said the Doctor, pulling her away before she got too close. His eyes scanned the snow around them quickly and he bit back a curse. "We have to run. C'mon."
Rose barely had time to shoot him a bewildered look before he was dragging her behind him as he ran. She heard shuffling behind them as they ran and she glanced back briefly to see the stone arms dragging themselves through the snow. Alarmed, she picked up her pace and they didn't stop until they emerged out from the woods and into the small town square. The town appeared to be deserted and the tiny houses looked like they hadn't been inhabited for years.
Rose glanced at the Doctor and found his mouth pressed into a thin line. "What were those things back there?" she asked.
"Weeping angels," he said and then hastily corrected himself. "Broken weeping angels. They must have attempted to pass through the Church's shield." He reached into his jacket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver to scan their surroundings. "Huge mistake."
"They still seemed to have some consciousness as far as I could see," said Rose, fighting back a shudder as she remembered those stone hands trying to grab at their ankles. She glanced around at the snow-covered ground to see if any more of them had crawled their way here but found a rusted brass plaque instead. "Christmas," she read, once she had picked it up. "Looks more like Halloween, if you ask me." She got a puzzled look on her face when she said the last part, feeling like she hadn't quite meant to say that out loud.
The Doctor seemed to have thought so too, and had turned to look at her with raised eyebrows. "You always look so beautiful in snow," he said and then his eyes got wide when she stared at him. "I didn't mean to say that. I mean, you do look beautiful, but I hadn't meant to tell you that right now. Also, I can't seem to stop talking and all I want to do is tell you how much I want to…" He clapped a hand over his mouth to silence himself.
"Truth field," said Rose, remembering it suddenly. "There's a truth field here. It even affected the Daleks. I thought it was only around the tower but it seems to be covering the whole place in this universe. Which is a bit inconvenient because I don't think I can stop talking either now that I've started. Incidentally, did I ever tell you that I really do want to take off your bowtie with my teeth…" She winced and covered her mouth too, a hot blush rising on her cheeks.
The Doctor slowly raised a finger, still covering his mouth with his other hand. He reached into his tweed jacket and fumbled around briefly before pulling out two plain gold rings, one slightly wider than the other. He handed the slimmer band to Rose and wore the other on his left ring finger. Rose followed his lead after hesitating for a brief moment and felt the urge to babble subside significantly. She lowered her hand from her mouth cautiously and saw the Doctor do the same.
"They are a special brand of bio dampeners," he explained. "They ward off telepathic interferences. The truth field is still working so we can't lie, but at least we won't babble incessantly."
Rose nodded and then examined the ring more closely. Her heart jumped when she saw the same symbol from her wedding ring carved onto it. She raised her head to look at the Doctor questioningly, who rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"I made them a few days ago," he said. "I thought we could...one day, maybe."
She smiled softly in return. "Think we are a bit past planning weddings," she said. "Didn't exactly do it the first time around either. We know what we are, and that's enough. Isn't it?" she asked softly.
His eyes softened and he nodded. "Yes," he said and then placed a lingering kiss on her temple. "C'mon, let's see what else there is."
Rose slipped her hand into his and the two of them walked towards the tower that Rose indicated. It was identical to the one in the other universe and looked just as abandoned as everything else. They halted at the rusted gate briefly before pushing it open and walking inside with slow, measured steps as if expecting to be attacked at any moment.
However, nothing did, and when they shoved together to open the rotting wooden door that opened the base of the tower, they found themselves in a dusty room piled high with junk, and a strange glow emanating from the far wall. The beeps were louder inside the room and when they finally managed to navigate past everything to reach the far wall, Rose felt the Doctor inhale sharply at the sight of the large, glowing crack in the wall.
"What the hell is that?" asked Rose, trying to move towards it to examine it further only to be yanked back by the Doctor's firm grip on her hand.
"Don't," he said fiercely, regarding the crack with loathing. "I know what it is. I've seen it before." Rose looked at him questioningly but he grabbed her hand to lead them back outside. "We need the TARDIS," said the Doctor urgently.
"I thought Tasha had put up shields to prevent anything from materialising on the planet," said Rose as they emerged back out into the snowy town square.
"She has," nodded the Doctor. "The Church's shields keep everything out. Not the old girl, though."
He pointed the sonic screwdriver at the sky and brought it back down with a flourish. Nothing happened, but then Rose felt the key around her neck getting warm and she drew it from under the neck of her blouse. The air filled with the low, wheezing materialising sound of the TARDIS and the Doctor grinned at Rose as he ran inside as soon as the materialisation had finished. Rose followed him a beat later and already found him re-examining the signal through the TARDIS systems.
"Doctor?" asked Rose. "What was that crack back there?"
He took a deep breath before answering. "It's a crack in the fabric of reality. Two parts of space and time that ought to never have touched," he said, running a hand through his hair. "I closed it and nearly wiped out my own existence making sure it stayed closed."
Rose laid a hand on his arm to soothe him and he relaxed a little. "Okay, so how come it's still here?" she asked.
"It's just a remnant but someone is knocking from the other side, making it a viable entry into this universe," he said. "And I ran the diagnostic program once again. The only reason why the TARDIS would identify this planet as Gallifrey was if…"
"If it was Gallifrey that was knocking from the other side," finished Rose, her eyes going wide. "What are we going to do?"
"Well," he said, digging through his jacket pockets. "First things first, let's find out what they are saying, shall we?" He held up a gold, round disk with the mark of Rassilon on it.
"The Seal of Rassilon? Where did you even get that?" asked Rose. "Seals like those haven't been in used in…"
"Oh, ages," he agreed. "But they still work on decoding encrypted transmissions." He raised his hand to insert the Seal of Rassilon into the comm. circuits of the TARDIS.
"No, wait," shouted Rose, but the Doctor brought his hand swiftly and hit the comm. circuits. The beeps went silent and the Doctor looked at Rose questioningly. She swallowed roughly before speaking. "It's being transmitted all over the universe," she said. "They will all hear the translation."
The Doctor looked horrified as realisation swept over his face, but at that very moment, the air was filled with the sound of the same two words echoing over and over, being broadcast all over the universe.
"Doctor who?"
A/N Thanks for reading. Only two more chapters to go in this story.