Disclaimer: I have no claim to the wonderful world of Doctor Who.

A/N: I'm absolutely amazed by the fantastic response that I've been getting on this story! Thank you so much, it's really very inspiring! And I'm so very, very, sorry about how long it took me to post this chapter. I got caught up in school - between final projects and graduation, there was no time to work on this story. But I'm done with grad school now, so I'll be able to properly focus on this story for a while! Now, here's the long-awaited next chapter!

Chapter 9 – The Wolf

"Where am I?" Rose asked groggily as she opened her eyes. Disoriented, her mind felt fuzzy and unresponsive. Recent memories were a confusing blur of pain and fierce, golden light.

Rose curiously looked around herself to discover that she was surrounded by darkness, existing in an empty space full of nothingness. A shock of fear sent adrenaline coursing though her system, then suddenly, the darkness disappeared. She found herself sitting on a grassy hillside, overlooking a large body of water with sunshine reflecting off of its waves. A giant, futuristic city sprawled before her with shining towers jutting up into the bright blue sky. The sweet smell of apples wafted across the gentle breeze that began to tug at locks of Rose's golden hair. The young woman leaned back with a contented smile to rest on her arms as a sense of peace and calm enveloped her. Her fingers threaded through the grass, and she recognized the smell of apples as that of apple grass. She was on New Earth, the very same hillside that she had once sprawled out on with the Doctor on his brown overcoat. This time, though, there was no hustle and bustle of cars flying through the air. No coat, no Doctor, no TARDIS in the background. The only sounds that could be heard were those of the grass blowing gently in the soft wind.

As Rose soaked up the warm sunlight, the memories of the past day began to come back to her: adventure, adrenaline, Daleks, fear, death, pain, the Void, the TARDIS, and then nothing. A single tear ran down her face, but the calming nature of this place staved off the pain and grief that should have accompanied the memories.

Almost like a nudge in the back of her mind, Rose felt something approaching her from behind. Sensing only comfort and familiarity, she lazily looked behind her to find a wolf with golden fur padding up beside her. She felt no fear or danger from this creature. When it sat on the grass next to her, Rose calmly reached out a hand to pet the soft fur behind its ears.

The wolf leaned its head into Rose's hand, and she heard a musical voice say, "You are within the depths of your own mind."

Startled, Rose quickly removed her hand from the wolf, giving it an accusatory look. She could have sworn that the voice emanated from that creature, although it had made no visible motion to have done so. The wolf made a huffing sound, as if of amusement, then the voice continued, "Of course I'm talking to you. I am the Bad Wolf, and you, Rose Tyler, are my cub."

"And we're in my mind?" Rose asked disbelievingly.

"Yes. You have lost consciousness, and we have retreated here for safety."

"Yeah, okay then," Rose's brow scrunched up with thought as she tried to sort out all of her conflicting thoughts and emotions. She had a strange feeling that she was supposed to be in pain, although whether physically or emotionally, she wasn't quite sure. She felt as though her mind was padded with gauze, insulating her from the pain that she ought to feel.

"You're in shock," the wolf explained Rose's confusion, "and I'm blocking some of the emotions that you should be feeling after recent events. We need to have a proper conversation without all of that human nonsense interfering."

Rose stared at the wolf, at a loss for words. She had so many questions, and this conversation only seemed to be raising more. Rose opened her mouth to ask a question, but closed it before words could come out. Then, a new thought arose and she said, "Wait, I thought I was the Bad Wolf? 'I create myself,' or something like that."

"Yes, and no," the wolf replied as it looked her in the eyes with a hauntingly aware stare. "I have many names, but you know me best as the Bad Wolf. Our Doctor has other names for me, but he does not know that yet. I exist outside of you and outside of the universe itself. I am of Time. I bring life and I bring death."

"Then how come I can be the Bad Wolf, too? Is that you possessing me or something? Is that why I couldn't remember the first time it happened?"

"Yes and no," the wolf answered cryptically as it tilted its head at her.

"Oh not this again," Rose rubbed her face with her hand out of frustration.

"Hush, young one, and I will explain. Like I said, I exist outside of this universe, and all others. I created you as my vessel, to do my bidding. When you looked into the heart of the TARDIS all of those years ago, you were able to contact me through the time vortex, and you accepted my powers willingly. That act allowed me to pass my powers to you and to establish a connection within your mind. But you were only human then, and you could not maintain the connection. So I began to change you. I had to leave when the Doctor removed the time vortex from you, but the connection had already been formed and the changes had already begun. Why else do you think you - a mere human - could survive the vortex when it caused even the Doctor to regenerate? When you called out to me in the alternate universe, I was able to use that connection to inhabit you once more."

A drumming sound rang out in the air, causing Rose to jump in surprise. It could not distract her for long, though, from the curious conversation at hand.

"I'm still confused," Rose asked, biting her lip as she tried to puzzle out the information that she had been given. "So you exist outside of the universe, but you also exist within me? And then, that makes us the Bad Wolf together? Like, I use your powers and you use me to use those powers?"

"Yes, it's a symbiotic relationship. I am a thing of Time and you are Rose Tyler. Separately, you are just a girl, and I cannot easily act within the physical realm. But together, we act as one and are the entity known as the Bad Wolf. We control life and death, and can see all of time itself."

"So I am Rose, and you are Time, and we are both the Bad Wolf?"

"Yes."

"Then what do I call you? You're not actually Bad Wolf, so I can't really call you that, can I? But then why do you look like a wolf?"

"So many questions!" The wolf huffed with amusement again as it shook out its fur. "I appeared as a wolf to you because that is the form that you have chosen to associate with this power. Like I said previously, I have many names. In time, you will discover who I truly am."

"Okay," Rose stood up and began pacing across the apple grass. "I think I'm beginning to understand this. It's madness, of course, but it does make a strange kind of sense." Rose stopped pacing to stare at the wolf as a new thought hit her. "Do I have access to all of your powers?"

"Only when I grant them to you," the Wolf replied lazily as it laid down on the grass.

"So that's why I could bring back Jack but not my Doctor," Rose replied as sadness began to overtake her.

"Yes. You and the Doctor had already met a future version of Jack before you ever brought him back to life. You'll remember him as the Face of Boe. He was always meant to be a fixed point in time, so I allowed you to bring him back forever."

"It wasn't just me not having control over the power, then? We actually meant for it to happen like that?"

"Yes. The Earth needed Captain Jack Harkness, just as New Earth needed him as the Face of Boe many years later."

"But I need my Doctor," Rose whispered.

"The human-Time Lord biological metacrisis was never supposed to exist in the first place. Once created, the metacrisis was always doomed to live out the rest of his life in that universe."

"But we were supposed to grow old together!" Rose half-shouted as grief quickly began to seep through the gauze-like emotional barriers around her mind. "The rest of his life was supposed to be years and years, not ending on a Dalek ship just as we were beginning to live our lives. We were happy!"

"Once the events had been set in motion, the metacrisis had to die in that universe. You cannot become who you are destined to be with him, so I could not let you bring him back. A balance must be maintained between life and death."

"That's hardly fair," Rose whined as she wiped the tears from her face. "And what do you mean 'destined'? Shouldn't I get to choose what I do with my life?"

"Yes and no. There are events soon approaching that you are needed for."

Rose released a single, haunting bark of a laugh. "Who am I destined to be then?"

"That is up to you."

"Is it really? Or have you just been molding me into the person that you need for these 'soon approaching' events that you speak of?" Rose accused with anger. She did not like her life being out of her control like this.

"It is true that you have been set on a certain path. But the choice to continue always remains with you."

"Is this what I'm to become?" Rose raised her arms in a helpless gesture. "Full of pain and rage? Able to destroy an entire species at the blink of an eye, but unable to save the ones that I love? I don't like this person. This is not who I am."

"Then change it. I may grant you my power, but you are ultimately the one that chooses to use it."

Rose paused as she realized the implications of that statement. She couldn't blame the Wolf for the deeds that she had done, it was her decision, after all, to destroy the Daleks. She had wanted them to suffer for what they had done, but she had also wanted to protect the Earth. Rose thought that maybe she beginning to grasp how the Doctor himself felt most of the time.

"I don't know how to get rid of the anger," Rose whispered. "You wouldn't let me bring him back."

Rose looked around confusingly as the drumming got louder. She could feel the air vibrating with the sound now, and it was beginning to give her a pounding headache. If that was even possible, to have a headache while within your own head. Rose was now causing herself to have a meta-headache.

"What is that?" She asked the wolf as the drumming continued.

"It is the Doctor," the wolf replied nonchalantly as it contentedly basked in the sun. "You've been unconscious for two hours now, and he is worried. He thinks he needs to take the time vortex out of your head again, so he has been trying to force his way into your mind."

"What's stopping him him from breaking in?"

The drumming got louder.

"Your mental defenses are weak right now, so I am blocking him out. We cannot let him remove this power. It would cause him to regenerate again if he took the vortex into himself, but it will kill you, as well, this time. Your body began changing after the events at the Game Station, slowly modifying your cellular structure to be more capable of handling our connection and the powers that I grant you. The emotions created during the recent Dalek attack jump-started the next phase of the modifications. When you let me in, your body and mind began changing rapidly in order to complete the process that was started at the Game Station. The changes are not yet complete, and you need to rest for them to finish. If they do not complete, your body will be incapable of containing the power of time, and you will perish because of it. At the same time, I can no longer be removed from you. I am a part of you now, and removing the power would surely kill you."

"So we're stuck together then, huh?" Rose asked as she realized she was resigned to this fate.

"Yes."

"Great," Rose replied sarcastically. She really hoped that this otherworldly being didn't end up wanting to harm her or something. Or, become bored with her miniscule little human life and decide to up and leave her one day without warning, causing her early demise.

"No harm will come to you," the being answered her thoughts with a gentle voice. The Wolf stood up and walked to where Rose stood defensively, nudging her hand with its head in a comforting motion. "We are one now," The wolf continued with a motherly tone. "Although I do still exist outside of you, I created you. You are my cub, my child, and I will not let unnecessary harm come to you. I can control which of my powers you have access to when it is necessary to ensure the proper progression of events, but rest assured, I will not remove myself unless you ask me to. There is no need to fear me, young one."

Rose relaxed slightly as she allowed the comforting action of petting the wolf's head soothe her. Then, the drumming suddenly became so loud that it drowned out everything else. Rose and the Wolf were once more surrounded by darkness as the scenery of New Earth vanished. Rose doubled over in pain, as the mental onslaught became too much to bear.

"Can't you make it stop?" Rose cried as she held her head in her hands.

"No, but you can."

Rose suddenly opened her eyes to the real world and sat up in one quick, fluid motion, screaming, "Get out of my head!"

At once, the assault on her mind stopped as the Doctor flinched backwards, gaping at her with an open mouth.

"You just threw me out of your mind!" He loudly exclaimed in a shocked voice. "How did you do that?"

"I didn't give you permission to be in there," Rose answered coldly as she looked around her to observe her surroundings. She appeared to be on a bed in the medical bay on the TARDIS, with the Doctor standing at her bedside. He had clearly regenerated into a bow-tie wearing, floppy-haired young man, but there wasn't time for Rose to dwell on this matter just yet.

A hurt look briefly passed across the Doctor's face before it was replaced with a stern one, and he said, "I don't know what you've done, Rose, but you've got the power of the Vortex running through you. Again. You need to let me take it out of you."

Rose opened her mouth to argue and raised her hands to gesture for emphasis, but her attention was quickly diverted by a flash of golden light. She tentatively held each hand out in front of her, staring at them with mild surprise. The skin of her hands appeared to be almost translucent, with visible swirls of gold rippling underneath them like the tumultuous current of an ocean as a storm rolled in. She vaguely wondered what the rest of her body looked like before remembering that she was in the middle of a conversation.

"No," Rose stated calmly as she looked at the Doctor with resigned sadness in her eyes. "You can't remove this power. It's too late, Doctor. I've already made my choice."

"But it'll kill you!" The Doctor shouted at her, waving his hands about like a mad man as he tried to make his point. "You're only human, Rose! You can't contain all of that energy within you without it ripping you apart!"

"Run your medical scans on me," Rose said with a smirk. "I think you'll find that I haven't been quite human in a very long time."

"What?" The Doctor stared at her as if she'd gone crazy. Perhaps she had.

"If you try to remove the power from me now, it will kill me. So stop trying to get in my head, you're giving me a headache." Rose suddenly groaned and clutched her head as a wave of pain shot through it.

"But..." the Doctor opened and closed his mouth several times as he tried to form the correct words to argue with his Rose. Worry etched lines across his too-young face as he replied morosely, "It'll consume your mind, Rose. You'll burn from the inside out! You'll die!"

"No, I won't," Rose confidently stared into the old, familiar eyes within this new, strange face. "You have to trust me on this one, Doctor. Now, leave me alone and let me get some sleep. You woke me up too soon. I'm not done cooking yet."

Just like that, Rose's eyes rolled up in her head and she collapsed back onto her pillow, unconscious once more.

"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," the Doctor muttered grimly as he tucked her back in and set about conducting those medical scans on her.