His Favorite Star
The Parting Of Ways
Chapter 6

Star just smiled hopefully and nodded to him, hugging Rose's side, like a child would do to their mother. The transmission ends and the Daleks start going nuts, zipping around, backing Rose and Star up to a wall, shouting orders at each other. Star just stuck close to the human beside her, flinching when ever a dalek even came close to them. Her brother was coming though. He was coming to get her and Rose. She held a breath of hope, knowing it wouldn't exsctly be easy getting through dalek ships.

But he was coming for her. That's all she needed to know.

"YOU KNOW THE DOCTOR! YOU UNDERSTAND HIM! YOU WILL PREDICT HIS ACTIONS!" A dalek demanded of the two cornered girls. Rose was bravely standing between the alien and Star, who was cowering against the bronze wall of the dalek's ship. The only thing that kept her from crying out like a child was the hope, that her brother would come quickly and rescue her from this nightmare. Again. "I don't know! And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you!" Rose said defiantly. Star just looked up at the blonde wondering how she could be so brave. "PREDICT! PREDICT! PREDICT!" the daleks demanded. There was a beep that got Star's attention. "TARDIS DETECTED IN FLIGHT!" yelled a Dalek "LAUNCH MISSILES! EXTERMINATE!" it ordered. Rose got a frightened and shocked look. 'You can't! The TARDIS hasn't got any defenses! You're going to kill him!" the blonde human said in a panicked tone. "YOU HAVE PREDICTED CORRECTLY!" a dalek mocked.

Suddenly the blue box materializes around Rose, Star and one of their dalek guards. Rose yelped when a gun was swung in her direction. "Rose! Get down! Get down, Rose!" the Doctor yelled as the gun was quickly powering up. Star pulled the blonde human down by her arm to lay on her belly on the floor, narrowly missing the blast, that completely disintegrates the dalek. Rose looks up with a smile saying "You did it!" as she gets up off the floor and goes up to the console area. Star stayed where she was, on the verge of tears. Happy, sad or shocked tears she wasn't sure which, but she put her forehead on the floor of the TARDIS letting her tears flow, not wanting to do anything else for a while. The smallest and toughest member of the group reduced to a puddle of emotion and shaken nerves. After a while she sat up, wiped her glasses out from the wet liquid. It was like the two humans didn't even notice her melt down. Jack and Rose were talking about the gun he used to get rid of the daleks, and Doctor was looking at her with a worried expression. Star looked back down to the floor with a dark and tired expression. She took a breath and acted like everything was okay, getting up and going over to her side of the console unnoticed by the humans, her brother following her. Star sits in her chair resting her head in her hands. Doctor put his hand on her shoulder, at a loss for what else to do. He was never good at comforting his sister. "Star..." he said quietly.

"Doctor, I cant go back out there..." she said looking at him with a pitiful, tired, and scared look. His face straightened and he nodded. "As you wish..." he said taking the humans back outside. Star rolled her eyes and turned the shields back on so they didn't get shot.

When the group got back into the ship, Star fired up the TARDIS to go back to Floor 500 of the satellite. The moment they landed, Doctor was out the door giving orders. Star eventually calmed down enough to walk out and join her brother. The ginger, although trained to hide it, had fear written all over her. "Oh, my God. The fleet is moving! They're on their way!" one of the workers said. Doctor looked at his sibling and they immediately go to work pulling out bits and pieces of conduits from what ever they could get their hands on. "Dalek plan. Big mistake, because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter. This station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?" Doctor prompted, knowing his sibling already knew the answer. "You've got to be kidding." Jack said in amazement. "Give the man a medal!" Star said, starting to feel a bit better about their situation. "A delta wave?!" Jack said excitedly. "A delta wave!" Doctor confirmed. "What's a delta wave?" Rose asked obliviously. "Well basically it's a wave of Van Cassadyne energy. It'll fry your brain!" Star explained. "Stand in front of a delta wave and you head gets barbequed." Jack put simply. "And this place can transmit a massive wave! Wipe out the daleks!" Star said a little too happily. Lynda spoke up with "well, get started and do it then!" receiving an impatient look from Star. "Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine," Doctor started, getting a glare from his sister "okay OURS, that should take about, oh, three days?" he looked to Star who commented, "May take longer if you wanna do it yourself!" That got a fake apology out of him and she continued to work. "How long until the fleet arrives?" Star asks. the same worker looks at a screen and reports that they have twenty two minutes.

After a few minutes of the siblings rewiring and Jacks help rerouting, the station had a fully functional force field. The humans were asking countless questions and the siblings were giving orders. When Lynda was called out, she shook the Doctors hand and smiled nervously, promising to do her best before going off to her position. Star gave her a small thankful smile before she left, leaving the four traveling companions together. "It's been fun, but I guess this is goodbye." Jack said dramatically. Star sighed and shook her head, not looking up from her work. "Don't talk like that." the ginger said coldly. Rose nodded in agreement "yeah! They're going to do it! You just watch them!" the blonde human said, making Star smile a bit while working. Jack says his goodbyes kissing each of them, lingering on Star for a moment longer before giving them all a wink. "See you in hell dear..." he said to the ginger. She smiled sadly at him and waved as he went. Rose looks at the remaining members in the room. Just here and the siblings now. "He's going to be all right, isn't he?" Star asked quietly. Rose smiled a bit. "He'll be just fine." she said encouragingly.

As time went by Star and the Doctor continued on working a rewiring the consoles. Rose was just standing around watching the two zip back and forth, arguing with each other some times, but getting over the subject quickly. Every once in a while a thought came to the humans mind.

"Suppose..." she said quietly. "What?" the Doctor asked absent mindedly. "Nothing." Rose responded brushing the thought off, getting a glance from the ginger across the room. "You said suppose..." Star commented. "no, I was just thinking. I mean, obviously you can't, but, you've got a time machine. Why can't you just go back to last week and warn them?" Rose asked sheepishly. Doctor gave a glance to Star for her to explain it, so he could keep working and in return Star sighed. "As soon as the TARDIS lands in that second, we become part of events, stuck in the timeline. Doctor just cant keep himself from getting in bloody trouble." Star explained quietly. "Yeah, thought it'd be something like that." Rose said before biting her lip. The Doctor stood suddenly looking at both the girls in the room. "There is another thing the TARDIS could do. It could take us away. We could leave. Let history take its course. We go to Marbella in 1989." he said. Star just looked at him like he was crazy. It wasn't like him to suggest such a thing. "Yeah, but you'd never do that." Rose said, praying she was right. "No, but you could ask." he countered "never even occurred to you did it?" Star couldn't believe what she was hearing. The small ginger gave a sigh of relief when Rose turned him down, and finished her work. "The delta wave's started building. How long does it need?" she asked her brother. He goes to check the console, but by his reaction, Star knew it wasn't going to be fast enough. Star jumped up with a big smile on her face going over to them and gets Rose to bend down so she could kiss the human on the forehead. "Rose Tyler, you're a genius! We can do it!" Star said excitedly. "what?" the Doctor asked. "If we use the TARDIS to cross our old timeline!" Star said and the Doctor nodded seriously, getting a smile. "Yes!"

The Doctor took Rose into the TARDIS to set her up and keep her there. When he came out he pointed the sonic screwdriver at the ship with a sad expression. The TARDIS doors close and the engines start. Star could hear Roses banging on the door and tried to muffle the sound by covering her ears. The TARDIS dematerializes in front of the siblings, who immediately got back to work in their tangles of wires and computer pieces. A few minutes later, Jack started calling up for Rose on a screen. "She's not here, Jack..." Star said with a sad voice. "Of all the times to take a leak. When she gets back, tell her to read me the codes." Jack requested. "She's not coming back" the Doctor said. "what do you mean? where'd she go?" Jack asked worried. "Just get on with your work alright?" Star said harshly, trying to hide her pain. "You took her home, didn't you?" Jack asked quietly. Star nodded silently, not being able to look him in the eye. "The delta wave? Is it ever going to be ready?" Jack asked.

"TELL HIM THE TRUTH, DOCTOR. THERE IS EVERY POSSIBILITY THE DELTA WAVE COULD BE COMPLETE, BUT NO POSSIBILITY OF REFINING IT. THE DELTA WAVE MUST KILL EVERY LIVING THING IN ITS PATH, WITH NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN HUMAN AND DALEK," came a rugged robotic voice of the dalek emperor over the main view screen. "ALL THINGS WILL DIE. BY YOUR HANDS."

"Doctor, the range of this transmitter covers the entire Earth." Jack said. Star looked to her brother. She could see him looking at the emperor with a crumbling determination. "YOU WOULD DESTROY DALEKS AND HUMANS TOGETHER. IF I AM GOD, THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS, THEN WHAT DOES THAT MAKE YOU, DOCTOR?" the emperor asked. The Doctor was silent. "You shut your bloody damn mouth!There are colonies out there. The Human Race would survive in some shape or form, but you're the only Daleks in existence. The whole Universe is in danger!" Star spoke up, defending her brother. "If we let you live..." Stars sentence trailed off. "Do you see, Jack? That's the decision we've got to make for every living thing. Die as a human or live as a dalek. What would you do?" Doctor asked. "You sent Rose home. She's safe. Keep working." Jack said. "BUT HE WILL EXTERMINATE YOU!" The emperor said in shock. "Never doubted them. Never will." Jack said, making Star smile sadly. "Now, you tell me, God of all Daleks, because there's one thing I never worked out. The words Bad Wolf, spread across time and space, everywhere, drawing me in. How'd you manage that?" Doctor asked. Star looked up, also wanting to know the squid-things answer.

"I DID NOTHING" it replied.

"oh, come on, there's no secrets now, your worship!" Doctor said, trying to flatter it out of the dalek.

"THEY ARE NOT PART OF MY DESIGN. THIS IS THE TRUTH OF GOD." the emperor said.

The siblings turn to the BadWolf corporation sign hanging over the main door in confusion. Then they immediately get back to work on the delta wave, making sure everything was ship shape. "Jack!" the Doctor called to the view screen "How're we doing?" he asked. "Floor four nine five should be good! I like floor four nine five!" Jack said through the speaker. Another voice, Lynda's voice, came through another speaker "They're flying up the ventilation shafts. No, wait a minute. Oh, my God. Why're they doing that? They're going down." she said in shock. Star could hear the screams on the monitors and got a pained face, trying to block it out and keep working. A few seconds went by and there was nothing but silence. "Floor Zero... They killed them all." came Lynda's shaking voice. "Lynda, I need you to focus! What's happening on Earth?" Star asked, trying to snap the girl out of it. "The fleet's descending! They're bombing whole continents! Europa, Pacifica, the New American Alliance. Australasia's just gone." said the human girl.

"THIS IS PERFECTION. I HAVE CREATED HEAVEN ON EARTH." the emperor said triumphantly.

"I've got a problem!" Lynda's panicked voice came through again. "They've found me!" The Doctor and Star instantly go to the monitors. "Lynda, listen to me, you'll be all right, Lynda." Star encouraged, knowing she was lying to the human. "That side if the station's reinforced against meteors." Lynda's voice came through the speaker in an optimistic tone. "hope so! you know what they say about Earth workmanship." the human laughed nervously and went silent for a moment. All the two timelords heard next was glass breaking and a single scream.

"Doctor, you've got twenty seconds maximum!" Jacks voice said. A moment later Star squeaked from hearing a bang on the lift. "It's ready!" doctor said threateningly. Star pulled her guns from her holster and stood with her brother, covering his back, against the daleks surrounding them in the room. " You really want to think about this, because if I activate the signal, every living creature dies." Doctor warned.

"I AM IMMORTAL!" the emperor said arrogantly.

"Does he want to put that to the test?" Star asked. She couldn't hide her pistols shaking in her hands. "I WANT TO SEE YOU BECOME LIKE ME. HAIL THE DOCTOR, THE GREAT EXTERMINATOR!" the emperor said. "I'll do it!" the Doctor proclaimed nervously. "THEN PROVE YOURSELF, DOCTOR. WHAT ARE YOU, COWARD OR KILLER?" The emperor implored. The doctor looked down at the big switch, put his hands on it to turn the delta wave on, but hesitates. "Doctor what are you doing?" she asked keeping her guns aimed at any dalek that even inched closer to them. The Doctor sighed, unable to press the switch. "Coward. Any day." he said quietly. Star turned her head to look at him, making a noise of disbelief. "MANKIND WILL BE HARVESTED BECAUSE OF YOUR WEAKNESS." the emperor said triumphantly. "Doctor..." Star said quietly. "Star put those away, they wont be any help..." he said. She hesitated nervously before doing as she's told, turning to face him. "And what about us? Are we becoming some of your angels?" Star asked knowing her brother wouldn't really want to. "YOU ARE HEATHEN! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" the emperor ordered. "Maybe its time... I'm sorry Star..." the Doctor said putting his hand in hers and readying himself to die. She held his hand. "Its not your fault... you git..." she said trying to be brave and stare death in the face. They both close their eyes, ready for the daleks to take their shot.

Suddenly, just as the two siblings heard a familiar sound. It was the whirring and whooshing of the TARDIS. They both turned, seeing the ship materializing in astonishment.

"ALERT! TARDIS MATERIALIZING!" One dalek shouted.

"YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE!" the emperor shouted.

The doors to the ship flew open and the siblings were blinded by a golden light that knocked them both off of their feet. When they were able to see again, it was Rose. Her features had all been turned gold, and her cheeks were wet with tears. Golden energy was snaking around and out of the ship. Both timelords looked at the sight in awe and in fear, neither knowing how exactly it was even possible. "Rose! What've you done?!" Doctor asked, shielding his eyes from the light. "I looked into the TARDIS, and the TARDIS looked into me." Rose said in an almost nonchalant way. "What?! You looked into the bloody Time Vortex! No one's meant to see that!" Star said beginning to panic. "THIS IS THE ABOMINATION!" the emperor yelled, riling the other daleks up. "EXTERMINATE!" They all yelled before taking their shots at Rose. "No!" Star screamed. The ginger stares in shock when the beams are stopped in mid air. "I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here." Rose said as she waves her hand over the bad wolf sign, making it disappear before their very eyes. Star backs away from the golden human and back to her brothers side, out of fear. "Rose you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now." the doctor pleaded "You've got the entire vortex running though your head. You're going to burn!"

"I want you safe. My Doctor. Protected from the false God." she said with a small kind smile.

"YOU CANNOT HURT ME. I AM IMMORTAL!" objected the emperor.

"You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence, and I divide them." Rose said, making a dalek disintegrate into the air. "Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends" the other daleks crumble on the floor into dust. "I WILL NOT DIE! I CANNOT DIE!" the emperor yelled, as him and his space ship disappears in a golden wave of light. Doctor got up and went over to Rose cautiously. "Rose, you've done it. Now stop. Just let go." Doctor pleaded with her. " How can I let go of this?" she asked "I bring life." As the doctor came closer to her, he could see the vortex in her eyes. He glances at Star, then back to Rose. "But this is wrong! You can't control life and death!" he objected. "But I can. The sun and the moon, the day and night. But why do they hurt?" Rose asked quietly, looking down. Star stepped beside her brother just as cautiously. "This power's gonna kill you, Rose. And it's my fault." the ginger said quietly. "I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be." Rose muttered, musing her new powers. "That's what we see! All the time!" The doctor said putting his hands on the golden humans shoulders. "And doesn't it drive you mad?" Star asked, with a worried tone. The power of the vortex was beginning to weaken her, both siblings could see that clearly. "My head." Rose groaned. "come here." Doctor said hugging the human. "It's killing me." Rose cried. "I think you need a Doctor" her brother said quietly. Star went into the TARDIS, knowing what would happen at that moment if she did. Her body began absorbing the vortex energy inside the ship, which wasn't as much as it seemed. Star saw the console piece that looked to be ripped open. Doctor came in carrying Rose, who was unconscious in his arms. He exhaled as did Star and the golden glow exited their mouths, and went into the open piece of the console. Star closed it and the TARDIS doors closed, as Star started to drive away from the satellite.

Rose was asleep when the siblings had set off. It had been at least a few hours now, and Star's organs were beginning to shut down inside her, causing a lot of pain in her body. The smaller ginger was currently laying down on the ramp of the TARDIS letting the drums distract her from the kidney failure that she was feeling at the moment. She heard Rose sit up and with a sleepy voice she asked what happened. "Don't you remember?" the Doctor asked her weakly. "It's like there was this singing." Rose mused getting up. Star tried to play it off and act normal, like she was just laying there for no reason, but regrettably chose to turn onto her side and felt like she had the wind knocked out of her. "That's right... Doctor sang a son-g... and the daleks... ran away..." Star said in a pained gasping voice. Rose looked at her with a worried expression. Star didn't hear much after that, she knew the change would come soon after this. The pain would be over soon. Maybe this time she could look more grown up.

There was a burst of light, and her eyes shot open. Well not her eyes any more. The ginger bounced up and ran to the mirror nearly knocking her brother over. First thing she noticed about him was the hair, it was spiked and fluffed in almost every direction. His face looked like a mans but had a child like grin on it, and she did notice he had new teeth. Weird. She didn't give him much of a look before the younger sibling took the mirror. "ooooh... This ones pretty!" Star mused but stopped because her voice sounded deeper than last time, with an Irish twang to her voice. She laughed "ooh I love the new voice too!" she commented, looking down at her new body. Well she got what she wanted, a slightly more matured body. She checked her hair. Yep, still ginger. She looked at her eyes and saw a teal color and smiled. Star liked her new looks.. She turned to look at her brother who had been looking above her in the mirror, because even though her body had matured a bit, she was still short. She grinned at him and started examining his features. "Well its better than the last one, I'd say." she said with a haughty tone "ooh I'm probably going to be a pain in your ass..." she said with a toothy grin. When they landed the Doctor gasped excitedly and looked out of the TARDIS door. Star stayed and continued to look in the mirror. "I like this one..." she said thoughtfully.

TO BE CONTINUED...