Now remember that this story is AU. I am trying to be realistic as to how things could occur with Aliya being around. So while there will be some AUs/partial AUs of episodes, my focus is still probably more on the original stuff in-between.
This chapter does contain my AU of Rose, or rather, parts of Rose.
"Stop it."
The Doctor's Northern voice was commanding and gruff as it broke the lingering silence in the library. Aliya narrowed her eyes at his vague words. The reaction didn't last long before she again dropped her eyes to the sketchbook in her hands.
She was drawing on the thick paper with an actual antique quill dipped in Raxacoricofallapatorian Ink. Her strokes were harsh, brought on the bottled up tension inside of her. And above all, ignoring him.
"I mean it. Cut it out," He said firmly, planting both of his hands on the opposite side of the table she was sitting at.
Soon after their stop at the Eye of Orion, the realisation of Gallifrey and the Time Lords being gone had begun to weigh down on Aliya very heavily. Despite her demands to be told what occurred during the war and how it ended, the Doctor had refused to disclose any information, getting incredibly touchy about the subject.
Eventually, she had lapsed into a period of silence, determined not to speak to him until he told her the truth. She had not even changed out of the dress she had worn at the Eye of Orion despite five days having passed.
Needless to say, the Doctor had had it up to the eyes.
The quick and sharp movements of the quill illustrated a rough scene derived completely from the blonde's imagination, but a scene that the Doctor found familiar. The picture was rough and sketchy and only half completed. But it showed the interior of a Dalek battleship, and inside, confronting the Daleks stood a man with longish hair and Victorian clothing. He frowned, being the only one still alive who knew that his Eighth body had never actually entered the war.
"Aliya, you listen to me right now. You had bloody better stop ignoring me, or-"
"Or what?" Aliya snarled suddenly, jerking her head up to glare at the man in leather. "You'll what? Threaten me?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
He scowled.
"What can you possibly do?" She asked forcefully with a hateful glower. "I'm the only other surviving member of your species, not to mention your once best friend, you can't hurt me."
The Doctor simply continued to try to stare her down, with nothing to say back to her. She rose out of her seat and began walking around the table.
"You're not the only one hurting, Doctor. Tell me what happened, or this conversation is over. Permanently." She walked behind his unmoving form in the direction of the door, and was caught off guard by his sudden movement. He had swiftly turned and pinned her against the nearby wall, but she only stared him evenly. "I'm not scared of you," She seethed through gritted teeth. "So tell me now."
"Have you considered that maybe I don't want to?" He asked angrily, his face inches from hers. "Have you considered that perhaps the reason I don't want to tell you, is because I want to save you from knowing the horrors I've seen? You won't be able to sleep at night."
"I. Don't. Care," Aliya hissed. "I need to know. They're my people too."
"Alright, but don't you dare say I didn't warn you," The Doctor said reluctantly.
His hands travelled from her arms down to her hands so that he could guide her to one of the living rooms and sit her down on a couch. And then, taking several deep breaths, he started to tell her of the war. Of how he avoided it for as long as he could, until he realised that he was perhaps the only one who could stop it.
He did not tell her of his previous body. Of the one who broke the promise. He wouldn't. Not ever. That was his secret, which he hid out of shame.
But he had to talk of what he did see once he entered the fray of the Time War.
Talk of Daleks, the Time Vortex, fire, the Deathsmiths of Goth…of Romana leading the Time Lords in battle, millions dying, Black Hole Carriers, N-Forms, the endless screaming, Davros, the Gates of Elysium and how he had tried to save his old enemy, the Nightmare Child, Polymos, the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Could-Have-Been-King and his army of Meanwhiles…Rassilon and how he bullied the Time Lords into submission, into agreeing with his outrageous plan, the Final Sanction…
And then, even though he would not speak of that version of himself, he couldn't avoid telling her how it ended. So he spoke of how he stole the Moment…and used the Time Lock to end it all.
Emptiness.
When it was over, he finally managed to look at her. She stared at him, her brow furrowed and eyes…disbelieving, accusing, horrified…
"Say something," He said, rather desperate, "Please, bloody say something."
"What do you want me to say?" She asked quietly, through a sheet of tears and a constricted throat. "You tore down our whole world and killed everyone on it. What do you expect me to say?" Her voice rose, conveying her anger. He reached a hand out to touch her on the shoulder, but she recoiled. "Don't. Just don't."
"Aliya, please-"
She got up from the couch. "Don't you say 'please'," She said shakily, "You have no right to ask anything of me."
"But-"
"You killed them!" She yelled, new tears bursting from her eyes. "You killed all of them, every person, every child, and now you sit there and expect me to what? Tell you that's it's okay? That I forgive you? Well I don't! I don't care if you had to save the whole universe, I don't care that there was no other option! You killed billions of people. And right now that's all I can see when I look at you."
Tears started to well in his eyes too. "I didn't have a choice. Please, you have to understand…"
"No, I don't! I owe you nothing!"
"Then kill me! Kill me right now, to avenge them!" The Doctor got to his feet, eyes alight with the challenge. "I deserve it, so do it. End it because right now I wish I were dead. I wanted to die with them."
"Then why didn't you?" Her voice was back to being quiet. The question wasn't vindictive or accusing, it was curious.
"The Moment was so powerful that it was sentient. It spoke to me. Told me that because I intended to die, that was why I had to live." He looked her right in the eye. "It had your face. It walked like you and talked like you. Your fourth body. Because it knew that it would drive me to do what had to be done."
"Me?" She asked weakly. "Why?" Her voice was pained.
"I thought you were dead."
"Why?"
"Everyone did, first day of the war, you disappeared, so did your TARDIS. We thought you ran off and got killed by Daleks."
"I don't even know what happened."
"I don't care. What I care about is that you're alive, and here. But I don't think I can live with another hour of you looking at me like that, let alone years."
"I just…" She stared at him, threatening to crumble. "Tell me that you regret it even though it was necessary. Tell me that you're sorry."
"I'm sorry," He said earnestly, and she propelled herself at him and hugged him tightly, crying into his chest. Both of them shook with grief and loss as they remembered their planet and its absence, and they didn't move for a very long time.
"Alright, I've told my side of the story, now it's your turn," The Doctor said to the blonde woman sitting nearby.
They were in the library, several days since he had told her of the war. Both of them still experienced lapses of control where the grief and silence was too much and they would just break down, but they didn't often overlap, which meant they always had the other to help them through it.
Eventually, she sighed and closed the book on her lap gently before looking up at him.
"You ask, I tell," She suggested.
"Alright, you turned up outside my TARDIS with a Vortex Manipulator. Where did you get it, and where did you come from before that?"
"You're not going to like it," Aliya said, and he frowned.
"Why not?"
"I was rescued by a blonde woman, with curly blonde hair up to here-" She placed her hand at the bottom of her own hair, "-a voice that sounds exactly like this, and different coloured eyes."
"You're telling me you were rescued by yourself?" The Doctor asked in a tone that showed he clearly hoped it wasn't true.
"Well, I didn't know at the time, because I didn't look like that, and for some reason our minds didn't connect. But looking back on it now, it's a paradox!"
"You would do that wouldn't you? Create a bloody paradox just to rescue yourself."
At that, she glared, not caring for his tone or the way he looked at her like a naughty child. "Hey, I hate them just as much as you do. None of that superiority talk if you don't mind."
"What were you rescued from in the first place?" The Doctor asked.
Aliya frowned at the question. "This is the bit where is gets really strange. I was imprisoned in a mountain, only it wasn't really a mountain."
"Helpful," The Doctor said dryly. "Care to elaborate?"
"I think there was some kind of void inside it. No gravity until the exterior seal was broken, and completely hollow and dark inside. I was suspended in the middle, unable to move, touch, feel, see, smell, hear…I literally felt nothing. The darkness started shutting down my brain…I don't know how long I was in there, but before she – I rescued me, I had regenerated for the third time since I had been put in there," Aliya explained.
The Doctor thought back on her past and did the math. "Which makes this your eighth body, if I'm right?"
She nodded.
"Blimey! You've almost caught up to me now!" He noted, grinning, but only for a moment. "But how did you get to the mountain before you were inside it? Do you remember?"
Aliya shook her head. "I remember waking up in bed...alone..." She half expected him to react, but the Doctor only continued to stare evenly, with unusually patient curiosity. "And then just after I had gotten dressed, suddenly someone got me in the neck and I lost consciousness. I'm guessing that was when they took me, because the next thing I remember after that was voices. They forced a regeneration on me and put me in the void. That's the last thing I can remember. Dying in the dark." She was grim by that point, remembering the incident with horrifying clarity.
"Well, despite whoever did it not treating you that well, I can't help but want to thank them," The Doctor said.
"Why?"
"Because if it weren't for them, you wouldn't be here now with me." He replied simply.
"So there's that silver lining I was looking for," Aliya said softly, giving him a gentle smile.
"I still don't quite understand what I did wrong," The Doctor complained as they walked back along the gravel road to the TARDIS.
"You threatened them."
"One of them was threatening you!"
"Because I was wearing jeans in a place where it was scandalous if women showed their ankles."
"Details," He retorted.
"And anyway, that was only one of them. The other one didn't seem to mind, so what exactly did he do wrong?" Aliya asked in exasperation.
The Doctor rolled his eyes at her as they entered the TARDIS console room. "Mind? Of course he didn't mind. Why would he mind?"
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Aliya crossed her arms as she leant back on the nearest coral pillar, as they were part of the new desktop theme that the TARDIS had installed after its own regeneration.
"He was looking at you," The man in the leather jacket explained flatly as he sat down on the jump seat.
She raised an eyebrow. "He was looking at me." She repeated in exactly the same tone.
"Yes, he was. And I didn't like it, so I told him to shunt off." The Doctor crossed his arms stubbornly. His eyes watched her briefly before moving to latch onto the console instead.
Aliya rolled her eyes. "If I didn't know better, I would say you were jealous."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because if you were, that would be ridiculous."
"Oh really? And why's that?" He turned his eyes back to the console after they once again wandered to her.
She laughed. "Because of the obvious!"
"You might think that it's obvious, but believe me, it's not. And jealousy makes no difference, I don't want complete strangers happily staring at your-" The Doctor hesitated as he tried to think of the right words, only too aware of her waiting expression which suggested trouble if the wrong word slipped out. "-assets."
"But why does it matter? When I'm obviously-" Aliya stopped herself, as an unsure frown settled on her face. "- I mean, you must realise."
He sighed grumpily. "Realise what?"
"That I - oh my lord, you really don't see, do you?" Her eyes widened as she took him, all brooding leather and dark expression. This particular incarnation of the Doctor was very much the brooding type, something she had noticed very quickly. The man in question began tinkering with the TARDIS console, purposely not looking at her. "Look at me!" His blue eyes slowly ascended to meet her gaze.
"See what?"
"What I've made fairly obvious over the last couple of months, and the last couple of centuries! That in the entire universe, I have eyes for one person." She had made some progress, as he now eyed her with something close to disbelief, meaning that while he had caught on, he either didn't agree or couldn't understand it.
"Better go and tell'em, then," He said slowly, and ever so slightly deliberately. At the same time, she could sense it was his way of being sure, that he was giving her an out...or perhaps himself one.
Aliya chuckled a little, grinning, "Don't worry, I'll be sure to use a language that even he can't misread."
And so, as he kept his eyes on her, she approached him steadily, at a pace that gave him plenty of time to move away. Unsurprisingly, he did nothing of the sort, and instead stayed as steadfast as a boulder. She stepped into his personal space and let her hands come up to take his jumper in her fists. And then, with his heavy gaze on her, she brought herself up on her toes and pulled him down just enough so that she could bring her lips to his in a kiss which, while gentle enough, also made her point suddenly very clear.
Although his lips somewhat returned the gesture, his body remained frozen until she let go, and she noticed his hands clenched at his sides. When half a minute had passed and he had done nothing but stare, doubt hit her, rather belatedly.
"Okay, I get it, it was just the regeneration energy making you do it before," She said quietly, trying to ignore the huge pit in her stomach which was growing with every passing second, "Didn't mean anything. I'm sorry, you clearly don't-"
The Doctor cut her off by using her jacket to reel her in before pulling her into a kiss which made her legs go weak and the entirety of time and space fall away. It was strong, passionate, forceful, and full of intent. Her arms looped around his neck as she kissed him back with all the energy and affection she had. Since his hands already held her jacket, it was easy for him to throw it on the floor and let the sides of her torso become much easier for him to manually map out.
But when their hips aligned, a shiver ran down Aliya's spine. Not the bad kind, but one that was far too good. Her hands tried to push him away but it took a few seconds for him to respond, though the moment he did she was out of his arms and he was several metres away.
"I'm sorry, that was out of line," He apologised before she could say anything, and she abruptly shook her head.
"No, no it wasn't, it was good, more than good," She smiled a little when a spark of hope came back into his eyes, "But there's no rush."
He nodded, before admitting, "You might have been right about the jealousy. I just... I don't like the idea of other men…you know…" He trailed off.
"Looking at me?" She guessed with slight sarcasm.
"No," The Doctor said, and then paused before stepping back towards. "Yes. No."
"Which is it?" Aliya laughed softly.
"Looking at you…that's for me. No one else," He said firmly, his blue eyes locked with her different coloured ones, which watched him with curious anticipation. The Doctor ran his eyes over her wavy hair that fell short of her shoulders, and felt slight satisfaction come with the fact that he was slightly taller than she was. "Touching you…" He placed his hand on her cheek gently, slowly caressing it with his thumb. "That's mine too." She closed her eyes as her entire body relaxed under his touch.
"Look at me," He commanded. She did as he said.
"So looking at you…" She swept her eyes over his short hair and strong ears and nose, taking in his entire body before returning to his face. "Is that mine?"
"If you want a daft old man like me, then yes," The Doctor said with only a half joking tone.
"You're not old. 905, or even 1207 – or however old you really are – isn't that old. There's only two hundred years between us." She protested calmly.
"I'm about twenty years older than you physically, by human standards." He continued, almost as though he wanted her to be disgusted by the gap.
"So? Humans can't get anything right," She said simply. "Anything else?" She opened her eyes to show him the small amount of hope in her eyes. He gave her a small smile and traced his thumb across her lip.
"Anything else that's mine?" He repeated slowly, before turning a smouldering gaze onto her. "You tell me."
Aliya struggled to keep coherent thought dominant in her mind. His gaze was so intense. She would never be able to get used to all the emotions he was able to hold in his eyes at one time.
"Anything you want," She whispered, grabbing his other hand and running her own fingers over it in a gentle massage as she brought it to touch her hair. He continued to stroke it softly even once her hand was gone. "I'm yours in all the ways that could possibly matter, have been for a while."
"Mine?"
"Yours." Aliya could see the reaction across his face that had been caused by her words. There was surprise, then satisfaction, then something close to possessiveness.
His face was inches from hers as his fingers grazed her lips, a questioning look in his eye.
"I think we've already clarified that one," She said with a wry smile.
The Doctor kissed her gently. To her, he tasted of red grass and the smell of the mountains of their planet. To him, she tasted like silver trees and the orange starlight. It offered comfort to both of them, giving a small cure for the homesickness they both felt.
After a short time, he pulled away. "You said no rush, so I'm not going to push my luck."
"You know that it's not like that," She let her hand drift over the leather of his jacket, "After all, it's not like we've never...you know."
He chuckled a little at that. "Now that you mention it, I do remember a fair few times...quite distinctly," He said cheekily, and she just smiled at her memories of the events he was referencing, remembering them well herself.
"Exactly, except that it's different this time. We've both got new bodies and personalities to break in...and there's no reason to rush like there was before. We can just...take it slow and figure out where we end up."
The Doctor thought her words over as he studied her face and eventually nodded. "Slow," He pondered. "Alright. Might be good to work on my patience."
She laughed gently. "I don't know about you, but I can't quite fit the idea in my head." She broke out into a wide smile. "I mean, we can actually do what we want!"
"We've known each other for a millennium, and yet this is a first for us. Actually having free will." The Doctor's grin matched hers.
Aliya was about to leave to see if the TARDIS had made a room for her yet, but was struck by an overwhelming urge. Turning back after only having travelled half a dozen steps in her path, she rushed back and stood on the very tips of her toes so as to get as much height on him as possible, and she kissed him gleefully for a few seconds. He chuckled at her carefree actions and they laughed against each other's lips during the few seconds the kiss lasted.
After having pulled away, Aliya flashed the Doctor a look over her shoulder that told him she was very pleased with herself. The Doctor stared after her, still having trouble comprehending everything concerning her. How she could possibly be alive, and with him.
And while he knew that he wanted her in every way possible, he knew that 'taking it slow' would be good for both of them, even if it was presently far more difficult.
"Look at that!" The Doctor announced, eyeing the results on the scanner.
"What?" Aliya asked in a bored tone while flicking through a TARDIS engineering manual she had found at the very back of library. It had not surprised her to find it there, as TARDIS engineering had never been one of the Doctor's strong points, no matter what he liked it claim. Coming from the House of Arpexia on Gallifrey and spending most of her school life specialising, it was one of the few things she was actually good at.
"A trace of warp-drive energy…and I've seen this level of concentration before. Nestene," He explained.
Aliya raised an eyebrow as she looked at him, now reluctantly hooked with mild interest. "Nasty. I suppose you're going to rush in there and see what it's doing?"
"Of course I am! Rushing about and sticking my nose in is what I do best." He replied proudly. "And don't you go putting all this 'me' stuff in. You're coming with me."
"Look, fighting hostile aliens might be your idea of a good time, but not me." Aliya said vaguely as she turned a manual page.
The Doctor raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "Like I'm going to believe that. I've seen that look you get in your eyes when I talk about my adventures, and you know you loved the ones we've already had. I mean, that planet where we had to hop, I know you loved that."
"Well…fine, so maybe you're right," Aliya admitted. "I guess I'm just feeling lazy today."
"All the better reason to get out and do something! Come on, Aliya, we've got work to do! I think I can use the sonic to trace the signal to the source, or maybe a transmitter, though you never know what we might find…"
He pulled her out of the TARDIS, and out onto the London street, where a large clothing shop stood on the corner.
Aliya stood in the elevator, waiting for the Doctor to return from whatever it was he was doing. Suddenly, the doors opened and he ran inside, with a blonde human girl in tow. As the doors shut moving plastic mannequins were visible, and one managed to get its hand through. The Doctor wrestled with it and she did her best to help until the arm finally came off and the elevator doors shut properly.
"You pulled his arm off!" The human said in disbelief.
"Well spotted," Aliya said dryly, but soon smiled at the other blonde. "He drag you into this?" The girl nodded. "Of course he did."
"Oi!" The Doctor said indignantly.
"But, you pulled his arm off!" The human girl repeated again.
The Doctor threw the arm to her. "Yep. Plastic."
"Very clever, nice trick! Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?" She asked seriously, looking annoyed. Then again, they had mostly likely just tried to kill her, so Aliya realised that perhaps annoyance was a little justified.
"Students?" Aliya repeated.
"Yeah, students." The girl raised an eyebrow.
"Why would they be students?" The Doctor asked.
"I don't know!"
Aliya stared at the girl. "Then why did you say it?"
"Because I just did, does it matter?" The blonde looked irked, particularly at the older female.
"Well, you said it. Why students?" The man in leather asked.
"Because…to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they gotta be students." The girl shrugged.
"That makes sense. Well done."
"Thanks."
"We never dressed up as plastic duplicates and tried to kill people when we were students!" Aliya argued, not agreeing with her friend's previous statement. "So how does that in any way make sense?"
"Aliya, no offence, but you know virtually nothing about this place, so if you kept your ignorant questions to a minimum, we would save a lot of time." The Doctor said flatly, still watching the lift doors.
"And how am I supposed to change that if I don't ask questions?"
"I don't mind the questions, but there's a time and a place."
The blonde girl cut in. "Sorry, um, can we return to the students thing?"
"They're not students," The Doctor corrected her.
"Well, whoever they are, when Wilson finds them he's gonna call the police."
"Who's Wilson?"
"Chief Electrician."
Aliya made an uncomfortable noise, and the Doctor looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Dead?" He asked. She nodded solemnly, a frown on her face as the doors to the elevator opened. She and the Doctor quickly exited.
"That's not funny, that's sick!" The girl said as she followed them out.
"Hold on, mind your eyes." The Doctor pushed her to the side as he used his sonic screwdriver on the elevator.
"I've had enough of this now!" The girl cried. The two Time Lords ignored her and began to walk off. "Who are you two then? Who's that lot down there?" When she got no answer, she followed. "I said, who are they?"
"They're made of plastic, living plastic creatures." The Doctor explained.
"Nestene," Aliya added.
"Yeah, because she really knows what that is." He rolled his eyes at her. "They're being controlled by a great big relay device on the roof, which, would be a great big problem if I didn't have this." He held up a beeping gadget. "So, I'm going to go upstairs, and blow it up, and I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me."
"Don't be so pessimistic!" Aliya chided him. "It's not like I won't be there to help. I'm hardly going to let you die."
"Anyway, off you go, go have your lovely beans on toast." The Doctor told the blonde girl as he pushed her out of the door. "Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed."
"We have to go now!" Aliya reminded him. He nodded and shut the door only to open it a second later.
"I'm the Doctor, by the way, and this is Aliya," He added, "What's your name?"
"Rose," She answered unsurely.
"Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!" He told her cheerfully before closing the door. He grabbed Aliya's hand and they headed for the roof.
The Doctor went down the steps of the council estate building, done with interrogating the human girl – who was following him.
"Hold on a minute. You can't just go swanning off."
"Yes I can. Here I am. This is me, swanning off. See you," He told her. He'd come alone because Aliya had bluntly told him that she had no interest to make house calls to humans and would rather get something to eat from the TARDIS kitchen, so they'd left each other to it.
"But that arm was moving. It tried to kill me," The girl said.
"Ten out of ten for observation," He remarked a little sarcastically.
"You can't just walk away. That's not fair. You've got to tell me what's going on."
"No, I don't."
"All right, then. I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone. You said, if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell me, or I'll start talking." He looked back at her with slight amusement, the little human called Rose, trying to threaten him.
"Is that supposed to sound tough?" He asked.
She frowned. "Sort of."
He chuckled. "Doesn't work."
"Who are you?"
"Told you. The Doctor."
"Yeah, but Doctor what?" Humans had the most irritating tendency to never just accept his name. It was always, 'Doctor what?', or 'Doctor who?'. As if their naming system was the only valid one in the universe.
"Just the Doctor," He said for at least the ten thousandth time in his life.
"The Doctor."
"Hello!" He waved, smiling cheerily at her.
"Is that supposed to sound impressive?"
"Sort of."
"Come on, then. You can tell me. I've seen enough. Are you the police?"
"No, we were just passing through. Long way from home."
"But what have I done wrong? How comes those plastic things keep coming after me?"
"Oh, suddenly the entire world revolves around you. You were just an accident. You got in the way, that's all."
"It tried to kill me."
"It was after me, not you. Last night, in the shop, we were there, you blundered in, almost ruined the whole thing. This morning, I was tracking it down, it was tracking me down. The only reason it fixed on you is 'cos you've met me," He explained, not bothering to hold much back from her. What was the point?
"So what you're saying is, the entire world revolves around you."
"Sort of, yeah." He chuckled again.
"You're full of it."
"Sort of, yeah." The Doctor grinned, loving any time to stroke his own ego.
"But, all this plastic stuff. Who else knows about it?"
"No one, except Aliya."
"What, you're on your own?" He wasn't sure why she sounded so surprised. After all, just how many did she expect to be informed about this sort of thing? Sure, there was UNIT, but they were secret military, and didn't exactly count. It's not like they were much good most of the time anyway, not without his help.
"Well, who else is there? I mean, you lot, all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly, while all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on."
"Okay. Start from the beginning. I mean, if we're going to go with the living plastic, and I don't even believe that, but if we do, how did you kill it?"
"The thing controlling it projects life into the arm. I cut off the signal, dead."
"So that's radio control?"
"Thought control." He glanced at her, checking for culture shock or freak outs. "Are you all right?"
She smiled and nodded. "Yeah. So, who's controlling it, then?"
"Long story."
"But what's it all for? I mean, shop window dummies, what's that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?" She laughed, and he laughed with her.
"No."
"No."
"It's not a price war." He became serious. "They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you. Do you believe me?"
"No."
"But you're still listening." He looked up. "Ah, there she is!" He remarked happily as he spotted a figure in the distance leaning against a blue box. He waved and she waved back.
"Really though, Doctor! Who are you?" Rose called out, pulling him away from his thoughts about the woman who was now walking over to them.
"Nobody important. Just trying to make up for some things I did wrong. Forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home." He pretended to wave the plastic hand, and at the same moment, Aliya got to them.
"You didn't get yourself killed then?" She noted with a grin.
"Hey. Rose, wasn't it?" She smiled at the girl, and then spotted the plastic arm. "Urgh, it's that again."
The Doctor turned away from Rose to speak to the other blonde. "And just for that, you can hold it." He told her with an innocent smile as they began to walk back towards the box together, away from Rose.
Aliya eyed the arm with distaste but took it with her left hand anyway. Rose watched the two of them walk away. Their flirtatious banter faded from her hearing range with every step they took.
She stared after them before turning away.
Rose followed Clive to his dark shed. She'd gone home, looked up the Doctor on the internet, and kept refining her search until something helpful came up (mentioning his friend's name did absolutely nothing at all, it was like she didn't even exist, also, unless she was spelling it wrong). 'Doctor Blue Box' had finally got her what she wanted, and after emailing the man Clive several times, here she was.
"A lot of this stuff's quite sensitive," He told her, "I couldn't just send it to you. People might intercept it, if you know what I mean." He began going through his stuff. "If you dig deep enough and keep a lively mind, this Doctor keeps cropping up all over the place. Political diaries, conspirisy theories, even ghost stories. No first name, no last name, just the Doctor. Always The Doctor. And the title seems to have been passed down from father to son. It appears to be an inheritance. That's your Doctor there, isn't it?" He showed her the fuzzy picture, and she nodded.
"Yeah."
"I tracked it down to the Washington private archive just last year. The online photo's enlarged, but if we look at the original…" The original was a picture from Kennedy's assassination, where the Doctor was just in the crowd with everyone else. And there was a blonde beside him who also looked suspiciously familiar, though the quality was vague enough that she supposed it was possible she was just being paranoid. "November the 22nd, 1963. The assassination of President Kennedy. You see?"
"It must be his father," Rose murmured.
"Going further back. April 1912. This is a photo of the Daniels family of Southampton, and friends." He showed her the picture of the Doctor with an unmistakeable Aliya at his side, both dressed in clothes of the time. "This was taken the day before they were due to sail off for the New World on the Titanic, and for some unknown reason, they cancelled the trip and survived. And here we are." He took out a sketch. "1883. Another Doctor. And look, the same lineage. It's identical. This one washed up on the coast of Sumatra on the very day Krakatoa exploded. The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, he's there. He brings the storm in his wake and he has one constant companion."
"Her," Rose said, pointing at Aliya.
"Death," Clive corrected, and then sighed. "But her as well, I suppose. No one can really work out who she is. No name, nothing even as vague as Doctor. She's just there. But if the Doctor's back, if you've seen him, or her, Rose, then one thing's for certain. We're all in danger. If he's singled you out, if the Doctor's making house calls, then God help you."
"But who are they? Who do you think he is?" Rose asked.
Clive frowned. "I think he's the same man. I think he's immortal. I think he's an alien from another world. Her too, maybe."
The Doctor burst into the TARDIS, and Aliya could hear Rose's voice from outside.
"You can't hide inside a wooden box. It's going to get us! Doctor!" There was a pause, the sound of footsteps and then rattling. Then Rose burst into the TARDIS, only to run out again and return less than a minute later.
"It's going to follow us!"
"Don't worry," Aliya said with a reassuring smile. "They can't get in."
Meanwhile, the Doctor turned around to face the startled human girl. "Right. Where do you want to start?" He asked kindly.
"The inside is bigger than the outside."
"Yes."
"It's…alien."
"Yep."
"Are you alien?" She asked the Doctor.
"Yes. That alright?" He smiled.
"Yeah," Rose said quickly. "Are you both alien?"
"Yep. She's same as me," The Doctor said with a grin, "It's called the TARDIS, this thing. T-A-R-D-I-S, that's Time And Relative Dimension In Space." As it all began to sink in, Rose momentarily broke down. "That's alright, culture shock. Happens to the best of us," The Doctor said comfortingly.
"Did they kill him? Mickey?" Rose asked suddenly, pointing her thumb towards outside. "Did they kill Mickey, is he dead?"
"Oh, I didn't think of that." The Doctor frowned. Aliya pinched the bridge of her nose with exasperation and elbowed him lightly.
"Well, it's a good thing I did!" She told him before turning to Rose. "They would need a live source to sustain the duplicate, so he may be alive. But you might want to prepare yourself in case he's not."
"Alright," Rose said with a nod. "How are we going to find him?"
"We'll follow the trace from the head-" Aliya turned back to indicate when she noticed the head melting. "Doctor! The head!"
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no!" He exclaimed, and began frantically jumping around the console, commanding Aliya to help him.
"What are you doing?" Rose cried.
"Following the signal, it's fading!"
After a few seconds of staring into the scanner he went off into another string of 'No's, but Aliya reminded him they were almost there. When they landed the Doctor grabbed Aliya's hand and pulled her out of the doors with him onto the street next to the river.
"You can't go out there, it's not safe!" Rose called after them, but quickly went quiet upon seeing their surroundings.
"…I was so close!" The Doctor complained to Aliya, who just confidently assured him that they would get there in the end.
"We've moved!" Rose said in surprise. "Does it fly?"
"It disappears then reappears here, you wouldn't understand," The man in leather said gruffly.
Aliya just flashed Rose a sympathetic smile.
"How could you hide something so big in a city this small?" The Doctor wondered.
"Hide what?"
"The transmitter," Aliya said.
"Exactly, The Nestene Consciousness is controlling every piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."
"What does it look like?"
"Like a transmitter! Round, massive, somewhere slap-bang in the middle of London." He said, walking around to the other side of the police box. "A huge metal circular structure, like a dish…"
"Or a wheel?" Aliya said vaguely, staring at the London Eye behind him.
"Yeah, and close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible." He continued.
Rose also was looking at the London Eye now. He frowned.
"What?"
Rose nodded in the direction of the Eye. He turned his head around and then looked back, not noticing what she was trying to get across.
"What?" He asked again.
Aliya rolled her eyes and walked up to him before turning his whole body around to face the Eye. "How about the giant metal wheel which is completely visible, right in the middle of the city, and close to where we're standing."
The Doctor finally got it. "Oh," He said while staring at the Eye, but he turned back around to face Aliya again. "Fantastic." He gave her a quick kiss as a result of excitement before running off towards the bridge. Rose and Aliya quickly made to follow.
The three of them climbed down the ladder and came into the multi-level underground chamber. The Doctor explained the anti-plastic to Rose before he began his descent down.
"I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peace contract according to convention fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation." He waited for a reply. "Thank you. If I might have permission to approach."
"Oh god! Mickey, it's me!" Rose exclaimed, and she ran down to where Mickey was curled up at a lower level. Aliya followed her. "You're stinking."
"Told you, there's always hope," The alien said to the human, who smiled back. The Doctor continued to negotiate behind them.
"Shouldn't you be helping him?"
Aliya glanced back at him, standing there accusing the Nestene of invading. She shook her head. "This is his area, not mine. Besides, I don't think I'd be much help."
"Not so sure about that," Rose said, noticing the plastic dummies approaching the Doctor, "Doctor!" But it was too late for a warning, they had grabbed him and one of them pulled the anti-plastic from his pocket.
"That was just insurance," The Doctor said, "I wasn't going to use it." Aliya moved to help him, only to be grabbed as well. "I was not attacking you, none of us were. We're not your enemy, I swear we're not." He paused. "What do you mean?"
A door slid back to reveal the TARDIS. "No. Oh, no. honestly, no. Yes, that's my ship. That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world. I couldn't save any of them!" The Doctor yelled at the consciousness.
"What's it doing?" Rose asked Aliya, who was nearer.
"The Nestene identified the superior technology of the TARDIS, and now it's panicking. It's going to the final phase, the invasion," She answered, trying not to panic herself. The outlook wasn't good.
"Get out, Rose! Just leg it now!" The Doctor yelled. As the plastic in the large vat continued to roar, Rose got her phone and started dialling.
"Mum?" She paused as her mum talked. "Where are you, Mum?" Another pause. "No, go home! Just go home right now! Mum! Mum!"
"It's transmitting!"
"It's the end of the world," Rose breathed.
"Get out, Rose, just run!" Aliya shouted.
"The stairs have gone," She said, and her and Mickey ran to the TARDIS as the dummies began to push the Doctor into the vat. "I haven't got the key!"
"We're going to die!" Mickey cried. But Aliya could see Rose looking around the chamber, could see the girl thinking of other possibilities. She then ran around the chamber and grabbed an axe before chopping through a rope that held a chain in place. She took a firm grip and swung on it, kicking the dummies into the vat, resulting in the anti-plastic falling in as well. As she swung back, the Doctor managed to grab her.
"Now we're in trouble," He told her. The four of them were quick to run to the TARDIS.
Mickey stumbled out of the TARDIS, not able to get away from it fast enough. Rose followed, calling her mum on her mobile phone to check on her, only to have her mother to tell her the same thing she had been trying to say all along – don't go out of the house.
"Fat lot of good you were," Rose told Mickey, who merely cowered now that the Doctor and Aliya were standing in the TARDIS doorway, the former leaning on the doorway and latter leaning on him.
"Nestene Consciousness?" The Doctor said, "Easy." He clicked his fingers.
"Aren't they all?" Aliya joked.
"You two were useless in there! You'd be dead if it wasn't for me." Rose reminded them proudly.
"Of course!" Aliya grinned.
"Yes, we would. Thank you," The Doctor admitted. "Right then, we'll be off! Unless, I don't know, you could come with us. This bus isn't just a London Hopper you know! It goes anywhere in the universe, free of charge."
"Don't! They're aliens! They're things!" Mickey pointed at them.
"We'd rather if you didn't bring him though," said Aliya.
"No, he's definitely not invited." The Doctor agreed. "What do you think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or go…anywhere!"
"Is it always this dangerous?" Rose asked.
The two Time Lords exchanged grins. "Yeah."
Mickey chose that moment to begin hugging Rose's legs, desperate for her not to leave.
"Yeah, I can't," Rose said eventually. "I've got to go find my mum, and someone's got to look after this stupid lump. Anyway, it's not like you really need me. You two have each other."
"Yeah, we do," Aliya said with a small smile.
"That's okay, just an idea." The Doctor said quickly.
"Tell you what though, if you ever need someone, like, on Earth, just come to the Powell Estate and ask for me. You know, if aliens come back to Earth or something, since I already know about it," Rose suggested.
The Doctor grinned widely. "We'd like that. Fantastic. Rose Tyler, the inside intelligence. See you around." He turned from the doorway and went inside.
"Bye, Rose." Aliya followed him.
Rose watched the TARDIS dematerialise before walking away with Mickey. It didn't come back.
For the record, the Moment in the Deafening Silence/Halfway Out of the Dark universe WILL be the Bad Wolf/Rose. But in this case, with the timeline altered, you see that Rose doesn't become a companion, she'll be more of a Jackie or Mickey-type character. By not travelling him, he's not in love with her, hence Bad Wolf isn't the form that the Moment would take.
But in the DS universe, Rose obviously was a companion and the Doctor was very much in love with her, so she/Bad Wolf will definitely still be the Moment.
Let me know what you thought?
-MayFairy :)