Hey everyone! Really sorry for the delay, but this is the sixth chapter. The turn of events is definitive now, and many many questions are opened... enjoy!
6 – The TARDIS' secret allegiance.
River's mouth just popped open.
She could see it as well, now.
That weird, scary, yellowish light within the entirety of her bulbs.
And what worst was that she could actually attempt to tell what it was.
"Doctor…" she started, nearly breathless "How can she have absorbed bits of the Time Vortex? This is impossible, it's never meant to happen… not even a Timelord can-"
"This has…has happened before" he interrupted her, trying to speak rapidly so that he didn't have to remind himself of it for long, but failing, and ending up babbling.
Meanwhile, the glow in Rose's eyes was growing and starting to take over the parts of her face nearby, such as the eyebrows, the temples, even the ears.
She was still conscious, but she looked possessed.
Her fingers began to stretch and snap, as in response to a very aggressive itch.
All of this, even if it was out of the sudden, made Rose feel amazingly comfortable, warm and fondled. Her brain was highly stimulated and it seemed to be impossibly capable of containing all of the newly acquired information, although it had to delete her thoughts in order to do so.
It didn't look like it by the outside, though, and both River and the Doctor were exceptionally scared.
"Can you hear? Can you understand me?" he whispered, abruptly grabbing her shoulders because she didn't seem to have heard his warning.
She didn't respond. Her mind was deaf and floating far, far away.
He quickly scanned her with his screwdriver, his hand slightly trembling under the weight of the importance that the results of the scan would've had.
"The energy's overtaken all of her grey matter, and that sure is predictable… but how does it fit in there? She's human! Utterly, completely human! This is literally impossible, and I don't mean the usual impossible-that-is-later-found-to-be-possible, but impossible-IMPOSSIBLE! All of the universal laws of physics contrast to these happenings! Not even a Timelord can survive the pure, mere Time Vortex within himself without regenerating soon afterwards! No, no, no… perhaps if she gets out she'll still have a chance…"
"Yes, yes, but Doctor, the question is: why is that energy filling her? It seems like it's attracted to her. And I'm also pretty sure that the TARDIS is not only attracted to the energy, she is the one who is channeling it! Touch here…" River suggested, pointing at a very hot edge of the driving machinery.
The Doctor touched it. It was true.
Rose turned to him. She couldn't hear him. But she could hear lots of other things: shouting, clinging, smashing, and then singing, symphonies and thunders and footsteps and the noise of a page turned…
"That's right! She's also kind of moaning… like there's something she doesn't want us to know… but we NEED to know!" he protested, powerfully fisting that edge "We can't just leave Rose Tyler wandering about in space while being controlled by the Time Vortex energy! Who knows the damage it can-"
He was interrupted by the phone ringing.
After glancing up worryingly at River, he decided to answer and quickly picked up. Meanwhile, she took charge of keeping an eye on her and on the continuation of that incredible process.
"Doctor, this is Torchwood 3. Some weird happenings are occurring here and we strongly believe that you are the only one who could be responsible for them. Your presence is required immediately, otherwise we'll go and look for you ourselves."
That stubborn feminine voice stunned him for a moment. Torchwood? What was going on?
"Torchwood from what century, exactly?" he whispered into the receiver, as if he was actually talking to her in the ear.
"21st century" she answered, clearly hiding the increasing dread within her from her voice.
"Oh, I see… I guess I'll be there, then. You just, wait for me…" the Doctor said, his attention caught by the sudden faster spread of the Time Vortex energy in Rose. River winked at him alarmingly, wavering in her boots.
"Yes, of course. Of course we will… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
A bewildering sound made the Doctor totter and fall on one knee. He held to a lever to get up, and yet again he accidentally felt how hot and determinate it was.
It was the sound of the TARDIS, coming from the receiver, along with the woman's scream, quickly followed by a louder, angrier sound coming from the TARDIS herself.
"It's time" Rose suddenly stated, yellow particles slowly beginning to fluctuate around her, her left hand especially. She sounded very emotional. The sounds and images in her mind were getting clearer and absolutely beautiful.
River had tears in her eyes as she uselessly tried to push some control buttons and check some radioactivity levels.
"The energy isn't harming her, Doctor: it's empowering her! And the TARDIS is blase to the commands I'm giving her… I've got no clue, really…"
"Doctor, this is Martha Jones" a tragically familiar breaking voice replaced the former on the phone, making the Doctor pop his eyes wide open "We've got a serious issue here! Thousands of people are disappearing out of nowhere, trapped in what seems to be Time Vortex energy just sucking them whole! They just …vanish! Do you know what's going on?! What can we do?! Please help us…" she hung up.
The Doctor stuck his view to the floor.
He couldn't stand seeing those eyes.
"What are you doing?" he muttered, in a low and menacing tone.
The TARDIS answered for her, with a furious and very loud noise. She also shook herself, making River and the Doctor tumble on the floor.
Rose, instead, rose and opened arms, scattering disassembled time energy everywhere in the ship and contemporarily receiving it from the TARDIS, flowing, streaming in innumerable large branches.
She laughed. Now she knew her mission. Her target. Who did she have to chase. What was it for.
So, she began.
"What?!" River exclaimed, slapping her hair out of face and bouncing to the controls of the machine "What's that supposed to mean? You are aiding her, why?!"
"That's what everyone needs" Rose answered, her eyes two magnetic raging stars "We're helping. Just help and love. It will all be done. It will all be created. The Bad Wolf and the TARDIS… we are one and we will help the Doctor, but we need trust. Please trust us."
"People are disappearing! What kind of trust can I give you?!" he screamed angrily, while stepping forward and trying to avoid those rays.
She said still for a moment, the energy prosecuting to cast itself inside her; then she repeated: "Trust" and blacked everything out.