Disclaimer: I have no claim to the wonderful world of Doctor Who.
A/N: Once again, I want to issue a very big thank you to everyone who's reading this story (and a big apology for another delay in posting)! Remember, reviews are a great motivation to keep me in a writing mood when my busy life is trying to pull me away. Also, they're a good way to let me know if the story's moving in the right direction, which is really quite helpful. So please let me know what you think!
Chapter 7 – View From the Top
Hand in hand, the Doctor and Rose Tyler climbed the last remaining stairs of Torchwood Tower and bolted into the big room at the top. The room was empty save for a few desks and dusty computers, having been mostly abandoned after the situation with the Void. The couple slowed to a stop in the center of the room, and Rose leaned over, placing her hands on her knees as she fought to catch her breath.
After a few seconds, Rose peeked through the curtain of her blonde fringe to find the Doctor staring solemnly at the big, white wall at the end of the room. Now just a blank wall, it had once served as a link to the Void, and through it, to their original universe. That wall signified so much sadness and heartbreak for the both of them.
"Not exactly my first choice of places to be at right now," the Doctor said grimly, still staring at the wall with a hollow look in his eyes.
"No kidding," Rose agreed with him as she straightened herself up and grabbed his hand reassuringly. She had tried her best to avoid this room ever since the day that she broke down against that wall. She had succeeded quite well until now.
"Right," the Doctor peeled his gaze away suddenly, changing the topic as he raised his eyebrows and grinned at Rose. "We've got a planet to save."
The Doctor practically skipped over to a nearby table, placing his device on it and pulling out random bits and bobs from his pockets to set next to it. He slipped on his spectacles and quickly began examining the parts, setting some aside and hooking up others to the jumble of pieces that he had already assembled. Rose took the opportunity to access a nearby computer, beginning the preparations for the building's self-destruct sequence in case the need for it should arise.
As they hurriedly worked, the sounds of screams and gunfire became increasingly louder, echoing up the nearby stairwell and serving as a reminder of the lack of time available to complete their preparations.
"Please tell me you have a plan this time," Rose asked after a few minutes, her voice laced with desperation as she looked up from the computer screen.
"Of course I have a plan," the Doctor looked at her indignantly. "I always have a plan. What do you take me for, Rose, some kind of not-having-a-plan guy?"
Rose gave him a clearly disbelieving look as she replied, "You never have a plan, Doctor. You always just make it up as you go along."
"Oi! I think I liked it better when you still thought I knew everything," the Doctor grumbled.
"And now we have the Oncoming Pout, ladies and gentlemen!" Rose jested with a grin.
"Oi, Earth Girl!" The Doctor half-shouted, his Donna heritage showing itself not for the first time. "Time Lords do not pout!"
"Ah, well it's a good thing you're only part Time Lord then, 'cause you're definitely pouting." Rose grinned at the Doctor, her tongue slipping out from behind her teeth.
"I am not! And I do have a plan, thank you very much! Once I get this teleport working—which, I should be able to. As you've said before, I am very good with teleports," he gave Rose a cheeky grin before continuing, "It's just a simple transport across space, it's not like messing with time or crossing dimensions, and it really only has to work once, so it doesn't even have to be all that good, although it could be helpful if-"
"And the point is?" Rose cut him off.
"Point, right, yes. We get the teleport working, then I take it up to the ship and boom," the Doctor made an explosive motion with his hands, "no more Dalek ship. I may even be able to recall the Daleks to their ship before blasting it to pieces, so we can get them all. Otherwise, we'll still have a bunch of angry pepper pots making a mess of the place."
"No. No way, Doctor." Rose shook her head fervently. "You said earlier that to blow up the ship, you wouldn't be able to get back off of it in time. You are not blowing yourself up and leaving me stuck here all by myself again. There's got to be another way."
The Doctor looked back down at his work, unable to look Rose in the eye. "There isn't another way, Rose. Well, not one that we have time for. If there was time, maybe I could rig up enough power for a two-way transport, but as it is, this'll just be a one-use device. One teleport, then that's it. Device doesn't work anymore."
"And you're sure there isn't another way?"
The Doctor hesitated in replying for a moment as he took in the look of desperation on Rose's face. He was reminded strongly of the teenage shop girl that he first told to run in a basement all those years ago and his resolve faltered, if only for a moment. Then, he met Rose's eyes firmly to convey the importance of his words and answered, "I'm positive. It's the only option available to us right now."
"Then let me do it, Doctor," Rose pleaded. "There's so much more that you can do for this world. After all is said and done, I'm still just a stupid ape, blundering about without a clue of how to solve most of the problems that we face here everyday. This world needs defending, and I can't think of anyone better to do it than you."
"Oh, Rose," the Doctor sighed, putting down the wires he was messing with. He walked over to Rose and placed his hand gently on the side of her face and slowly rubbed her cheek with his thumb. Then he continued with a soft voice, "You were never a stupid ape. That was just my daft old self trying to put distance between the universe and me by insulting you and every other species in existence. But you, Rose Tyler, you are brilliant. Have you even seen yourself lately? Head of Alien Encounters at Torchwood, Defender of the Earth, Saver of Universes. You flew the TARDIS and saved both the Earth and me from total destruction. You built a dimension cannon and crossed hundreds of parallel universes in order to save them all. And today, you were rushing about giving orders like you owned the place, and you probably saved many lives with your quick action. This world doesn't need me, it got along just fine without me for this long. But you, Rose Tyler, you are special. You are needed, not just in this universe, but in all of them."
"Uh huh, sure," Rose smiled at the Doctor like he'd gone crazy, but at the same time she grabbed his hand from her cheek and kissed his palm. "You're not distracting me that easily, Doctor. The universe needs you, too. It's not just savin' the world and playin' with bits of alien stuff, you teach people to do what's right, to stand up for what they believe in. And I believe in you. I can't let you go sacrificing yourself if there's another way. And I'm the other way."
"Rose," The Doctor half-whined, running his hand through his hair and causing it to stick up in all directions. He was making no progress here. That's why he always used to act before consulting his companions – they never agreed with him, especially not his Rose. He began to pace in front of her as he replied, "I'm the only one that knows the Dalek technology well enough to blow the thing up. One wrong switch, one wrong dial, and you're, I don't know, blowing up the Earth instead! We'll try to come up with another way, but if not, you have to let me do this."
Rose simply nodded and went back to the computer that she'd been working at. She would never be the one to ask him to stop saving people. But she would find another way to save this world. There was always another way.
The sound of Daleks shouting on the other side of the door to the stairwell made both Rose and the Doctor look up from their respective projects with fear and a familiar tinge of excitement. They looked at each other for a moment, as identical manic grins appeared on their faces. Face the trouble head on, that was their policy. Then, their gazes shifted to the door as it exploded and a mass of Daleks entered the room.
Here goes nothing, Rose thought as she stood up from the computer with trepidation to meet the creatures that were rapidly flooding into the room.
"Surrender! Surrender!" The Daleks began shouting as they single-mindedly advanced on Rose, backing her against the nearest wall. They all but ignored the Doctor, much to his chagrin.
"Leave her alone!" The Doctor demanded as he tried to make his way to Rose, the half-finished teleportation device still in his hands. "What is she to you? What do you want with her?"
One Dalek moved closer to Rose than the others in order to assert his position as the leader. Then, he said to her, eyestalk peering her in the face, "The Bad Wolf will surrender."
"I will do no such thing!" Rose responded, offended that the Daleks thought she'd go so quietly.
"The Bad Wolf will surrender, or the Earth will be destroyed."
"Yeah, yeah. I've heard that one already. But see, I'm not the Bad Wolf. The Bad Wolf doesn't exist anymore. I took in power I wasn't supposed to have, but I had to give that power back. It's gone. I'm just a human, you don't want me."
"You are not the Bad Wolf. But, the Bad Wolf will manifest," The Dalek said confidently, its eyestalk looking her up and down.
"And what does that mean?" The Doctor asked, his face screwed up in confusion as he remained stuck behind the row of Daleks surrounding Rose. "What do you mean, it 'will manifest'? It can't manifest, it was pure TARDIS energy, and there's no TARDIS here to pull energy from!"
Some of the Daleks lazily turned to look at him, and if they'd had visible faces, the Doctor would have sworn that they looked bored. Soon after, they spun around again to continue staring at Rose. Rose looked at the Doctor with fear and confusion in her eyes at their strange obsession with her.
"You are not human," The Dalek in the front said as it continued staring at Rose, "and the Bad Wolf will manifest."
"Manifest! Manifest" The Daleks all repeated, filling the room with a din of mechanical shouts.
"What do you mean, she's not human?" The Doctor shouted over their noise as he looked at the Daleks with disgust. "Of course she's human, she's as human as they come. Besides, why do you want her, after all, when you could have me?"
"Why would we want you?" One of the Daleks turned around to face the Doctor.
A half grin formed on the Doctor's face as he stood up straighter, pulling at the lapels of his suit jacket, and replied, "'Cause I'm the Doctor."
At once, all of the Daleks spun around to face him, with repeated cries of "Doctor?". While they were distracted, Rose tried to edge along the wall to get out from where they had trapped her.
"Yeah, that's right. The Doctor. The one and only. Welll, not really the only, but close enough. The Doctor, The Oncoming Storm, The Destroyer of Worlds. Take your pick, I guarantee you won't like any of them." The Doctor glared at them all in turn with his best Oncoming Storm expression that could send entire armies running.
A few of the Daleks closest to him shifted backwards in what could only be described as fear.
Then, the Dalek that had asserted itself as leader looked him up and down, and replied simply, "You are not the Doctor."
"Of course I am!" The Doctor protested, slightly insulted. "I may be a bit more human than usual, but I am definitely the Doctor."
"You do not look like the Doctor."
"Oh, that's right!" The Doctor slapped himself in the forehead. "When did you last see me? Other universe, Game Station, death of Dalek emperor, right?"
"Blaspheme! Blaspheme!" The Daleks all began shouting.
"Ooh, yeah, hit a nerve there, huh?" The Doctor smiled wickedly at them. He could tell out of the corner of his eye that Rose had maneuvered herself so that she was almost free from the Daleks that had surrounded her. "Well, new face! That's why you don't recognize me. Time Lord, remember?"
"You register as human," The Dalek replied, his tone growing bored. "We have no need for you."
The Daleks all turned around to look at Rose again, and quickly surrounded her once more, this time backing her into a corner of the room.
"I am not human!" The Doctor shouted desperately as he tried to get their attention once more. "One heart, yes, but I've got a Time Lord brain! Part human, part Time Lord. I'm a human-Time Lord metacrisis. One of a kind. And how come you're saying I'm human but Rose isn't? Clearly you lot have gone mad. Madder than mad. Completely, flipping insane."
"Silence!" The Daleks shouted at him. "We will not hesitate to kill you."
"Oh, but you already have!" The Doctor replied with a manic grin. "If you don't need me, why haven't you killed me already? Huh?"
Three of the Daleks closest to the Doctor suddenly turned around and advanced on him. He probably shouldn't have said that last remark. Stupid giant gob.
"Ext-" The Daleks began to shout
"Wait!" Rose shouted, and the Daleks stopped their advance on the Doctor. "I'm the one that you want, right? Well, I won't cooperate if you hurt him. So, he's off limits. Got it?"
The Daleks turned back to face Rose as the leader asked her, "Do you surrender?"
"No!" The Doctor shouted as he fought to get closer to her, but the Daleks stopped his advance. "Rose, don't do it! You don't know what they want from you!"
"Doctor, if I can stop the suffering that they're causing, then I will. Just like you would, if given the chance," Rose replied, looking at the Doctor sadly as his frustration and desperation showed clearly on his face. Then, she turned to look at the leader Dalek and pleaded, "I'll surrender, just don't hurt him or anyone else on this planet."
Both Rose and the Doctor felt a faint fizz in the air, and she looked at him with confusion for a moment before she felt a rushing feeling and everything went black.
In the top room of the Torchwood Tower, the Doctor stood completely alone, staring disbelievingly at a hauntingly familiar white wall where Rose Tyler and a hoard of Daleks had been just moments before. The Daleks had transported her to their ship, along with each and every one of them.
Well, this certainly wasn't turning out as he had planned.