Chapter 2

The Doctor woke and sprang to his feet and patted his body with his hands. Everything seemed in order—nothing out of place…and that was…weird.

He looked about the control room and walked around the console. There was no one around. He was alone. He wrinkled his brow, confused because where he was now and where he was then just didn't add up.

He ought to be dead—regenerated, gone, passed on, pushing daisies even, not standing around like a chicken with it's head lopped off. It was all wrong. He should be well into his 10th regeneration and fully reborn and ready to whisk fantastic Rose Tyler to Barcelona, the planet not the city.

Yet, here he was alone and well in the TARDIS without a clue.

The Doctor spoke out loud to himself, "What on earth is going on?"

Then, suddenly an unknown voice spoke to him from out of nowhere, "It does not matter and it will do no good to question a gift once received, Doctor."

He should have known! Of course some kind of alien force was behind this. There was no way that he could prevent regeneration after sucking all the power of the Time Vortex out of his precious Rose but, he didn't understand why someone would want to meddle with him.

The leather-clad man shouted, "What do you want? And what sort of gift should I be thanking you for?"

"The gift I have granted you, Doctor is the gift of life."

Frustrated, the Doctor crossed his arms. He didn't need saving. He didn't deserve it and what gave this—phantom the right to choose if he should live or die?

"You've got no right interfering, but under the circumstances, thanks, now could you do me a favor and tell me where's Rose?"

"…You are more forceful than your future self."

"What are you blabbing on about? Just tell me where's Rose?"

"Rose is safe. However, you are not the same man you once were. You are displaced and I am the one who is responsible for your being."

"What are you saying?"

"Rose is now traveling with your tenth regeneration like you had planned, but I created the you as you are now. You are now a branch."

"So, what's the point of all this? What's your angle? What are you? Some kind of fan?"

"I wish for the lady to have all she wishes. She said that her life first began the moment you took her hand and told her to run. She said you gave her the stars. It is that admiration she holds for you that I have saved you and will allow you to be a contender."

The Doctor was confused, "Contender? A contender for what?"

"For the lady's heart."

The Doctor laughed and leaned against one of coral beams. He said, "Like there would be any competition. Of course Rose Tyler would pick me."

"You are over confident. Yours is a love killed at the moment of its revelation. The Rose you once knew is no more. Time has changed her and it is that Rose which you must win. I'll be seeing you soon, Doctor."

Suddenly, the TARDIS began to shake. The Doctor quickly ran to the controls and tried to access the console, but nothing was working. There was something wrong with the TARDIS. The Doctor kneeled down to the grated floor and ripped open a panel and saw a strange series of circuitry he didn't recognize.

"Damn! This isn't the bloody TARDIS."

The Doctor rose from the floor and tried to tap into the navigation and flight controls, but saw that the system was locked in an automatic destination. He tried overriding it, but it was no use. He then opened the ship's map and schematics and saw that the ship was some sort of alien space cruiser. He read she was a deep space warship called the Victory that was fairly advanced but she had nothing on the TARDIS.

The Doctor banged on the console when yet again, she refused to break her heading.

"Rassilion! Stupid ship, why won't you do as I say?"

Then, without warning the ship's AI spoke, "Command override denied."

"Oh, just fantastic! An AI, well if you won't do like I tell you then at least tell me where we're going?"

"Earth."

"Earth?"

"Yes, I am reprogram to bring you to Rose Tyler."

"Yeah, I got that, thanks. Now, tell me something I don't know."

"We will arrive at the Tyler mansion momentarily."

"What? Tyler mansion? Since when does Rose own a mansion? Did you make a mistake? Rose lives at the Powel Estates."

"Negative. Tyler mansion is property of Peter Tyler, owner of Vitex and acting director of Torchwood London."

"Pete Tyler? The man's dead."

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I've yet to pick out who Rose will end up with or think up the background story for the challenger. Right, now all I'm 100 percent on is that the challenger will be an orginal character, so don't bother look up if he's from the Doctor Who universe.

Please, review. Thanks.