Chapter Five:
"What the bloody hell are you doing?" Toshiko demanded, walking into Torchwood to find John typing away furiously at her computer. John brushed her off with a grunt and continued working, the glare from the screen reflecting off his specks. With a sigh, Tosh decided to ignore the man and approached her team leader instead. About ten feet from where John was sitting, Rose was curled up on the floor beside the dimension cannon, coffee cup lying forgotten by her toes. The woman was fast asleep, her mouth slightly open and her eyes twitching as though she were dreaming which, Tosh deduced, she probably was.
"Rose?" Tosh murmured quietly, leaning down next to the sleeping figure. She figured that if Rose was in the same room as John after what had happened between them- she gave everybody a full explanation the day after- then chances were that she didn't want him unsupervised. Being that the Asian woman wasn't entirely sure what John was up to, she decided it was probably best to wake her friend.
Gently, Tosh prodded Rose's arm un an attempt to get her to wake up. When she didn't respond, Tosh poked her a little harder and started saying her name.
"Rose!" She exclaimed, finally giving up on being considerate. With a degrading squeal, Rose shot up into a sitting position, her arms coming up to cover her face in a defensive manner. Laughing, Tosh stood up and made her way back over to the computer, motioning for Rose to follow her. With a heavy sigh Rose stood up and, stretching, followed the other woman over towards John.
"Would you mind telling me what he's doing?" The older woman asked, motioning with her hand to the man at the computer. "Because he's obviously never going to tell me." Rose smiled and looked over John's shoulder at the digits flying rapidly across the screen.
"I couldn't tell you if I tried." Rose stated apologetically, the apparently random sequences making no sense to her. "Sorry." She added as an afterthought. With an eye roll and an incoherent grumble, Tosh stepped back from behind John's chair and went to examine the newly modified dimension cannon instead. Turning back to John, Rose tried once more to make sense of the information presented on the computer before giving up completely and opting to ask John about his progress instead.
"Everything's coming together nicely," he began, stopping to smack the side of the computer screen quickly as it glitched slightly. "I only electrocuted myself twice more after you fell asleep." Rose chose not to answer, instead pulling up a stray chair and plopping backwards onto it, her arms coming to rest across the chair's back rest.
"Find anything worth sharing?" she questioned, looking at him with a raised eye brow.
"Weeeell, not really, no. Oh wait. Maybe... Yes! Yes, it looks like I did just find something. Right now. What brilliant timing." He rambled as a small blue blip appeared at the bottom right corner of the screen.
"What does the blinkin' blue dot mean?" The blonde asked, sitting up straighter as though it would help her to understand better.
"It's an alert." John stated, pulling up another screen that was showing the pair a digital blueprint of a cone shaped object. "It's saying that there's a disturbance in the timelines- a temporal shift if you will. Something big has happened and it's made a slight alter to the walls between this universe and your old one. Normally, it wouldn't be nearly enough to get through, but with the modifications I've made to your big blasty gun, you should, theoretically, be able to squeeze through without so much as a small scratch between the universes."
"Let's do it." Rose almost yelled, shooting up from her seat.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on." Tosh interjected from where she had sidled up beside Rose, unbeknownst to the blonde. "He said theoretically, meaning in theory, meaning it may not work if actually attempted."
Rose gave her a blank look. "Meaning," Tosh exclaimed. "That it's too dangerous for you to go bounding into blindly!" Something raged inside of Rose causing her to want to snap at Toshiko, how dare she try and take away her happiness? Sensibly however, Rose knew that her friend was simply worried for her well being and forcefully pushed the animalistic anger to the back of her mind. Some part of her mind growled out in defiance, but the young woman ignored it, too preoccupied with the questions that were now bubbling inside of her.
"Okay, yeah, you're right. So, how did this shift thing happen?" She asked, directing her attention back to John and the rotating picture on the screen.
"I'm not entirely sure," he answered, studying the diagram intensely. "It must have been something huge though, I can tell you that."
Rose tilted her head questioningly. "I thought you said the shift was so small that it'd be near impossible to get through?"
"Yes," he replied. "But in order to make even the slightest movement, something incredibly gigantic, not to mention dangerous would have had to happen in one of the two universes. I can guarantee that nothing happened here, I would have felt the disturbance in the time stream, so it obviously happened back in the Doctor's world. I don't know what kind of trouble he's got himself into this time, but I can guarantee that whatever it is, it's not good."
Rose stood contemplating what she was just told as John began barking orders to Toshiko. Tosh looked at Rose for confirmation that she should do what her team leader's ex-boyfriend was telling her to do and Rose nodded. She walked over to the wall and slid down it, millions of thoughts running through her head. She paid no mind to John as he quickly told Tosh how to set up the cannon, nor did she hear Tosh snapping back at him for being so pushy. Instead, she sat on the floor with her knees to her chest, thinking about her Doctor.
Finally, she was going to see him again. Although it really hadn't been all that long since Donna and the twenty-seven planets, Rose was already missing the Doctor to the best of her capabilities. As she sat thinking, she realized that a domestic life with John was never really what she wanted. There was a sort of thrill to moving around all of time and space, only stopping when you wanted to, laughing and saving worlds all at the same time. Not that she wouldn't love the Doctor even without the travelling, but John simply just wasn't the Doctor. After all, she told herself, it's not the memories you have, but what you do with them. John chose to put his travelling in his past, choosing instead to live a normal life of his own. The Doctor however, Rose knew would never be able to do that. Travelling around was his life, it was what he did to hide from his personal monsters. It had Rose wondering what kind of monster he had run into this time that had caused such a drastic effect throughout his universe.
Rising from her place, Rose decided it was time that she found out. She purposefully walked over to the still arguing pair and picked up the forgotten dimension cannon at Tosh's feet. Neither party paid her any mind as she quickly lifted it up and placed it next to the computer. Plopping down in the computer chair, she wiggled the mouse in order to rid the device of its screen saver and began looking over the schematics. As though some foreign, yet uncomfortably familiar entity took control over her knowledge, Rose began to make sense of the information before her. Brushing it off as another side effect to the apparent return of Bad Wolf, she mentally sorted through enough of what she was reading to begin firing up the canon.
Flipping a couple switches on a newly installed panel, Rose started up the relocation program that John had added to the system as an extra boost to get her through to the next universe. All she had left to do was plug in the coordinates of where it was that she needed to go, which unfortunately, hadn't been present on the screen, meaning she would have to ask John.
Clearing her throat, she drew attention to herself and stopped the argument that was still raging full on between her coworkers. Amazing, she thought, how oblivious the two of them were being. Shocked, John looked around to observe all that Rose had done in the small amount of time.
"How-?" He started, but Rose waved her hand cutting him off. Shrugging, he walked around and checked all of Rose's work, making sure all the right levers were switched and the settings were correct.
"All I need is the coordinates," she said as he went to start the program that she already had running. "I did everything else." John shook his head in disbelief but moved back to the cannon to input the coordinates into the side of the device.
"How you did that is beyond me, and I would so love to find out, but I don't know how much time we have before things shift back and you can't make it through anymore. That'll just have to be something for the Doctor to figure out." John said with both awe and disdain. Looking at the coordinate panel, the metacrisis furrowed his eyebrow in confusion before quickly bounding back to the computer. "Huh."
"What is it?" Tosh asked, suddenly remembering her concern about the situation.
"Oh, nothing bad." He assured her, plunking a few keys on the keyboard. "It's just that there's two sets of compatible coordinates, so now I have to pick the right one. It looks like we have a choice between... um... actually, I'm not sure what this first one is. The coordinates are all funky, but the other option is London 2010. So, I'm gonna guess that that's where you want to go."
"Yes please."
"All righty then, I'll just plug those in, aaaand, you're all set to go!" he exclaimed happily. Then, his face falling slightly, he added, "You sure you're ready? I mean, it's now or never, it could collapse at any moment but, are you sure?" Rose smiled and patted John lovingly on the cheek.
"I already said my goodbyes to my family, and Tosh will tell the team what happened. It's time for all of you to get on with your life, and for me to get mine back." She said, grabbing his hand and giving it a comforting squeeze. Removing her hand, John found that there was now a small weight in his palm. Looking down, he saw the box he threw at Rose from the window of his car only a small time earlier. His shoes suddenly becoming interesting, he looked down and studied them shamefully. "Go find a nice girl," she murmured to him. "Someone that you love, not the Doctor. Find her and live the life that you want to. John Smith, have a fantastic life."
Giving a quick hug to Tosh, Rose lifted the dimension cannon from its spot next to the computer and activated it. With one last smile to the room's other occupants, a white light filled the room and when it receded, Rose Tyler was gone.
After an unexpected and soulful meeting with Wilf, the Doctor once again found himself confronting the Master, this time in an old abandoned warehouse. The Master angrily shot bolts of energy from his palms in the direction of the Doctor, but the Time Lord continued moving towards his childhood friend turned greatest enemy. Having already missed his target twice, the Master quickly became enraged and fired another long stream of energy straight into the Doctor's chest, causing him to fall to the ground in pain. The dark haired man gasped for breath and looked up at the Master as he approached threateningly.
"I had estates." He spat venomously. " Do you remember my father's land back home? Pastures of red grass, stretching far across the slopes of Mount Perdition. We used to run across those fields all day, calling up at the sky. Look at us now." The man looked down at the Doctor in disdain, silently blaming him for the loss of Gallifrey.
"All that eloquence. But how many people have you killed?" The Doctor retaliated, ignoring the Master's taunts and choosing instead to focus on the problem at hand.
" I am so hungry." He replied simply.
"Your resurrection went wrong. That energy... Your body's ripped open. Now you're killing yourself!" The Doctor's eyes were alight with concern for the other man; even after all he had done, the Master was still important to the Doctor. He was all that was left of his race, the race that he had killed.
"That human Christmas out there. They eat so much! All that roasting meat, cakes and red wine. Hot, fat, blood, food. Pots, plates of meat, and flesh, and grease, and juice, and baking, burnt, sticky hot skin. Hot. It's so hot." The Master said, going into a slight daze imagining all the food sources present around him.
"Stop it."
"Sliced. Sliced. Sliced." He continued, his head turning rapidly with every word.
"Stop it!" The Doctor said again.
"It's mine. It's mine. It's mine to eat and eat and eat!"
"Stop it," he said once more. "What if I ask you for help? There's more at work tonight than you and me." The Master snapped out of his daze and eyed the Doctor skeptically.
"Oh yeah?" He asked.
"I've been told something is returning." He gasped, still recovering from the Master's blast. The other man laughed and held out his arms.
"And here I am!" He exclaimed.
"No," the Doctor interjected. Something more."
"But it hurts." The Master whispered painfully.
"I was told the end of time." The Doctor said, an undertone of fear leaking into his voice.
"It hurts," The Master said again, ignoring the Doctor's words. "Doctor, the noise. The noise in my head, Doctor. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four! Stronger than ever before. Can't you hear it?" He whispered, dropping on his knees and crawling towards the Doctor.
"I'm sorry."
"Listen, listen, listen, listen. Every minute, every second, every beat of my hearts, there it is, calling to me. Please listen." The Master moved even closer to the Doctor so that their foreheads were resting against each others. With a small telepathic nudge, the Master projected his mind into the Doctor's.
"I can't hear it." The Doctor murmured apologetically, but the Master shushed him before he could say anything else.
"Listen."
With another push into the Doctor's mind, stronger this time, the Master opened his mind completely. The Doctor gasped as the all too familiar four part beat resonated throughout his head. He pulled away and looked up at the Master in disbelief.
"What?" The Master demanded, unsure how to react to his old friend's expression.
"But-"
"What!?" The blond man exclaimed again.
"I heard it," he replied, looking at the Master in awe. Slowly, his face fell and he continued. "But there's no noise. There never has been. It's just your insanity... What is it? What's inside your head?"
"It's real. It's real. It's real!" The Master cried, jumping up superhumanly and bounding off in another direction. Quickly and with a startled gasp, the Doctor sprung up from the ground and ran after him.
"All these years, you thought I was mad; King of the wasteland! But something is calling me, Doctor! What is it? What is it? What is it?!" The Master exclaimed frantically, looking down on the Doctor from atop a mountain of waste. Suddenly, a bright light appeared, engulfing the man, followed by another one shining down on the Doctor. Squinting, the Doctor watched as a group of military like soldiers descended from ropes towards them. Before he had time to react, two soldiers grabbed the Master and injected him with a sedative, knocking him out almost immediately.
"Don't!" The Doctor cried desperately, running towards the people in front of him. In response to his outburst, the army clad soldiers hoisted up their guns and began firing at him in an attempt to prevent him coming any closer. Ignoring them, the Oncoming Storm bolted as fast as he could towards the people carrying the other Time Lord away, effectively managing to evade many of the bullets.
Just when he thought he might make it to the Master, the Doctor felt a piercing pain in his lower back and collapsed, falling unconscious almost instantly.
(A/N): Thanks everybody for reading! Thanks katzenjammers for being my BETA! That's how you spell that, right? Haha, anyway. The next update should be up next Sunday as usual, but it may be a couple days late just due to an atrocious amount of school work. Also, in case you're wondering, this fic isn't going to turn into a rewrite of season five with Rose in it. I thought about doing that, but I've decided against it as there's already enough of those stories floating around on this site that are probably better than anything I could come up with for it. There's still a little ways to go on it, we're probably about half way through now. Thank you everybody for your continued support!
PLEASE REVIEW AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO HAPPEN NEXT ;P
~JediLlama