Another short one, but it's been a crazy week/weekend. I've had five performances in the last 36 hours, not to mention projects and stuff. If things go well this week, I'll try and update extra this week in honor of the 50th. I make no promises, but I will try.
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Chapter VI
[Falling is just like flying, only there's a more permanent destination. -Jim Moriarty, Sherlock]
Clara braced herself against the TARDIS console. The entire ship was shaking uncontrollably, making her feel like her brain was being smacked around: not an entirely pleasant feeling. "River!" she cried out, fingers slipping against the cool metal, "What's going on?"
Hanging on to the console screen, River quickly ran her eyes over the readings shown. "We're back in our universe, but we're caught in a lightning storm!"
"A lightning storm?" asked Amy, disbelief apparent in her voice. "In space?"
"How is that even possible?" tagged on Rory.
"Solar flares," River explained. "And it's not in space, it's permeated into the Vortex. I think we caused it when we punched a hole in the walls of the universe. There's no way for us to avoid it, and it doesn't look like it'll go away any time soon. We've got to get to the Doctor. Fast."
Rose felt lightheaded, and not just from the constant rocking. She had forgotten how much her mind rang when she was in the TARDIS, particularly when they were in motion. The song that was usually golden and calm was burning and raging. Something was very, very wrong.
Pressing a hand to her forehead, Rose shut her eyes and tried to focus on the song. Had it always been this loud? It just seemed to get louder and louder until there was a ringing in her ears and thunder in her head. She didn't know it, but the others were staring at her and trying to get her attention rather unsuccessfully. She was moving around the console with her eyes closed, somehow flying the ship where even River couldn't.
After about thirty seconds of this, the TARDIS gave a sudden jerk of great magnitude and went still. Rose collapsed to the floor.
She had never seen the landscape before, but she recognized it easily: Gallifrey. The sky burned orange, the wind blowing through the red grasses and silver leaves. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. So many minds reached out to hers without even thinking about it, disturbing her for a few seconds until she caught her breath and was able to drown it out with a song of her own.
He was here.
Picking up the ratted skirt (when had she changed clothes?), Rose walked through the tall grass, up the hills. Behind her was the Citadel in all of its glory and splendor from the height of its age. She knew that it would be gone before long, destroyed in the fire of the Moment.
Where did she get that knowledge? Rose shook her head to clear her thoughts, but the information kept flowing through her, like it had always been there. Everything just seemed to make sense in her mind in a way that was very impossible, because she had always been rubbish at maths and she certainly couldn't derive the quadratic formula and hadn't even heard the words 'Hodge conjecture,' much less solve the problem, and why was she suddenly able to balance equations to figure out the exact density and composition of the air around her in relation to the air on Earth?
Nothing and everything made sense to her now. Two words flitted through her mind: bad wolf.
Silently, Rose walked up and up until she was no longer alone; time and space did not seem to make logical sense here. She was sitting next to a lanky man with floppy brown hair and green eyes. He looked sad in the way that she had only ever seen one man look, like the weight of the universe was on his shoulders.
The Doctor.
The words came from her mouth without her being able to comprehend them. "The Moment is coming."
He just realized that she was there, turning abruptly, eyes flicking over her in appraisal and recognition. "What?" he asked, perplexed by how she could be there, on Gallifrey. Rose herself didn't know. She only had the two words flitting through her mind, becoming her, molding her into something she didn't know, didn't understand.
It was a part of her past, part of her future, part of who she would always be. It was who she was the day that her human Doctor died, when she destroyed the Cybermen, when she connected with the TARDIS. There is something of the Wolf about you, she remembered bleakly, wondering when she became a goddess instead of a normal shop girl.
"You know," she answered, recognizing that maybe her eyes looked sad, that her expression looked grim. Rose held out a hand, wanting-needing-to touch him, to feel that he was here, that she had found him. If he took it, she would never let go, like she should have never let go of that clamp.
He clasped her hand between his two larger hands, and she felt at home, right here with him. She tried not to think that this was his home planet that would soon be destroyed (or had, because she didn't know what sort of reality she was currently in). He recognized her obviously, but he didn't know her. So he did the only reasonable thing he could do: ask, "Who are you?"
"I am the Bad Wolf," she responded, the words leaving her without her control, like running water. She may have been Rose Tyler, but she was the Bad Wolf. "I create myself." I take the words, and I scatter them across time and space, a message to bring myself here.
Having searched her eyes for the truth, knowing that her words were her new reality, the Doctor dropped his head. "That's what I was afraid of." She panicked; what if he no longer liked her? After all, he had River Song now; he had no need for Rose Tyler. But her human concerns vanished, replaced by a confidence that she had only felt once before. My Doctor, protected from the false god.
Rose used her free hand to gently lift his chin up and turn his head back to her. The way that his eyes shifted quickly between hers made her feel light and airy. Once again, the words moved without her will, without her intent, from somewhere beyond and somewhere within. "You are in possession of the Moment. You are the only one who is able to use it. Rassilon fears you. The prophecy will unfold, but not now. You know what you must do."
The presence of the other Time Lords in her mind began to wane, filling mostly with the essence of him. He was not reading her mind, nor entering her head, but it was the close proximity with him and her heightened telepathic sensitivities. He nodded once, still reading her eyes. "Yeah," he said, "s'pose I do."
It was funny to her. For having been through so much, having seen so much, just his hand in hers and looking into his eyes made her stomach flutter, her heart start to leap. She didn't know how long it was until his hand found the nape of her neck, bringing her lips to meet his, her hands rising to his chest. The thumps of his double heartbeat brought butterflies to her stomach, her own heart soaring like it would never fall. An eternity could have passed, but she would not have known. This was heaven to her.
But she was human, and needed air. As soon as she pulled away, she knew that it would be difficult for her to ever go so long without kissing him. She craved him more than the air she needed to breathe. More than anything, Rose knew that her feelings for him had never changed. She felt her consciousness begin to weaken, like waking from a dream. Before she ran out of time, Rose quickly said, "I am coming for you, Doctor. It will be soon."
She blinked.
The front of her head was pounding, the light was too bright. If she didn't know better, Rose would swear she was hungover. Of course, that thought sparked a search of her memory for the last time she was drunk enough to have a hangover. Had it really been two years?
"Rose?" a voice called from off in the distance.
Eyes squinting, Rose looked and saw Rory leaning over her. At first, she was scared he was about to do CPR, because she wasn't a princess and certainly did need a true love's kiss, but then she remembered that he was a nurse and this was his job.
"What happened?" she slurred, trying to piece together what had happened. They were on the TARDIS, then she was on a mountain-no, she was with the Doctor. She had seen the Doctor. She had spoken with the Doctor. God, she had to find him! "Where's the Doctor?" She tried to push her self up onto her elbows, but she instantly felt dizzy and dropped back down. Her head still felt like it was being repeatedly hit against a brick wall.
"That's what we're trying to find out," River said from Rose's left.
"When you passed out," said Clara, "the TARDIS just sort of...stopped. I mean, it's still functioning, but it stopped shaking and throwing us around. You did something to it to make it stop."
"Is she gonna be okay?" Amy whispered to Rory.
He nodded. "Slight tenderness, probably some bruising, but nothing serious. You should just take it easy for the rest of the day."
"No," Rose shook her head. "We've gotta find the Doctor. He's on Gallifrey-"
"That's impossible," River said. "It burned, got trapped in a time lock."
"She visited his time stream," said Clara, somewhat in awe. "You managed to get inside his time stream and see Gallifrey, his home. Was he alright?"
Eyes still closed, Rose nodded. "Just...sad, I think. Yeah, 'e was sad." Her head was killing her. It felt like hurricane-force winds were rushing through her mind, scattering everything and igniting it in a blazing inferno, like she was being burned alive. "We gotta find 'im."
"We will," Amy said reassuringly. "I'll make some tea and we can try to fly the TARDIS again, see if she'll work this time."
"Sounds glorious," Rose said, words still running together. Feeling brave and willing to try and sit up again, she opened her eyes and grasped at the floor for traction to raise herself up. She was stilled when the others all gasped and jerked back. "What's wrong?"
"Your eyes...they're gold," Clara said.
Rose shut her eyes again, wishing that her headache would go away. If she didn't need it, she would just cut the bloody thing off. When she opened her eyes again, the others relaxed. "They're normal now," said Amy. "That was weird."
The others stared at her like she was some sort of alien with twelve heads. Rose lifted herself up so that she was fully sitting up. River moved to stabilize her, shifting her body so that Rose was able to lean against the sturdy railing. She pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her forehead on her kneecaps. Squeezing her eyes shut, Rose could barely hear the TARDIS' song over the insane amount of whirring in her mind.
Somewhere above, Clara slowly said, "I don't think we're gonna have to try and fly the TARDIS. We're here."
"Where?" asked River, moving to her feet.
Clara looked at the others. "Trenzalore."
Rose's eyes snapped open, her head lifting of its own accord. For some unknown reason, a tear slipped down her cheek. With sudden strength, she stood and walked towards the doors, flinging them open. In front of her was the exact same TARDIS layout, except this one was old and dusty and covered in foliage. She stepped out of the ship and into the next, eyes wandering over the room until they reached the pillar of energy in the center. Glowing white, she felt drawn towards it. Stepping closer, Rose reached her arm out, but fell still when she heard a throat cleared behind her.
Whipping her head around (which she instantly regretted, what with her migraine and all), Rose locked eyes with three people she had never seen before but somehow recognized. "Is she part of the Great Intelligence, ma'am?" asked the human girl to the lizard woman.
"I do not think so, Jenny," the lizard woman replied.
The Sontaran beside her raised his gun and aimed it at Rose, shouting, "Identify yourself, boy."
"Strax!" exclaimed a voice behind Rose. Clara rushed out of the TARDIS and moved to show that Rose was a friend, not a foe. "This is Rose. She's here to help the Doctor. We're gonna save him. I've brought some others, too. Amy and Rory Williams, and River Song. Everyone, this is Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax. We've met a few times."
"Oh, we have met before," said Madame Vastra, the lizard woman, to Amy and Rory and River. "Unless, it has not happened for you yet."
"We met very recently, in fact," said River, "but they have not met you yet. Time travel is a tricky thing. It shouldn't be long for them now."
Rose gasped in pain and clutched her head, gaining the attention in the room. "What's wrong with him?" asked Strax, earning him a jab in the side from Jenny.
Clara put an arm on Rose's elbow, saying, "We've come to find the Doctor. And-" She was cut off by the sound of the TARDIS engines. They all turned to look, only to see the police box fade in and out until it was completely gone. "We're stuck," Clara said, her stomach dropping. "The stupid ship went and left us."
And only a few seconds after it first began to dematerialize, the TARDIS proceeded to reappear. Everyone stilled, waiting eagerly for what lay on the other side of those doors. With a creak, the doors opened and outstepped a familiar man in a deep purple coat and bow tie with an eccentric grin to match.
"Did you miss me?"
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