23 Tales of a TARDIS Thief
Rose leans against the Pool, watching Romana walk away. When she can no longer see her, she turns and slumps to the floor laying back against the outside of the Pool. She wishes there was a way to save Romana. Not that she has a spare body lying around anywhere. She's just angry that she doesn't have a solution she likes. Sighing, she leans her head back looking up at her Doctor and says, "What am I going to do with you? Where would you go in here, it's your mind. Did you hide? Were you thrown somewhere? Grrr…this is not how I was anticipating my day ending."
~My Wolf, I can save Romana.~
"What?! How? She's dead and just the memory of herself," Rose asks.
~That is somewhat true, but Time Lords are not easy to kill, and as you noticed, she copied herself into the structures she built. Her essence is in them, and I can move that into my matrices—saving her.~
"Oh! That's wonderful. Would we be able to communicate with her?"
~If she wished it, yes. She will have her own space to keep her intact.~
Rose feels like she's missing something. Darling is telling her this like she's done it before, as if she has more Time Lords stored inside Her.
"Darling, do you have more people stored in your matrices? More Time Lords or anyone else?"
She can't quite decide if this is creepy. What if there's a copy of her in there, would she know?
~Oh yes, my Wolf. Romana and my Thief's matriarch placed a copy of the entirety of the High Council's Matrix within me when they were preparing for the Moment. She could stay within the Matrix or choose to be separate, with an avatar and access to you and my Thief.~
Rose is so surprised that she can't speak for a moment; she knows exactly what the Matrix is. Darling is harbouring the entire storehouse of knowledge from the Time Lords. Billions of years worth of history and individual personalities, stored in one magnificent being. Wow!
"But that would be huge. I can see pictures of it in my mind, and I would think that would be big even for you. Does the Doctor know?"
~ He does not know. He has never asked. I was ancient when my Thief found me. He is not my first pilot. I have known many Time Lords. I am the only one of my kind I know alive, but I was one of the oldest when we were many. My matrices expand as I age; I grow. It is one of the reasons I was to be decommissioned. I had grown to the point where they felt I was 'wilful and erratic', and that was unacceptable in a fully functioning time capsule. My Thief is also 'wilful and erratic', and he suits me perfectly.~
Feeling somewhat smug about her Thief, Darling shares her first meeting of the Doctor and Susan, with Rose.
Rose sees the Doctor as a small, old man, sneaking around a time capsule repair area, snooping on the ageing ships. Passing several, he doesn't notice a girl step out from between two of them until she speaks, "Doctor. Doctor!"
He turns to see a dark haired girl he doesn't recognise take a couple of steps toward him. Afraid he's been caught, he responds curtly, "Yes? What is it? What do you want?"
Stopping and coming no closer, she replies,"Sorry, but you're about to make a very big mistake." He looks around to see if anyone has noticed her arms over her chest and leaning against another capsule next to the one he and Susan were just about to make off in, the mystery girl continues with a slight smile, "Don't steal that one. Steal this one. The navigation system's knackered, but you'll have much more fun."
Poking his head back into the first capsule, he calls quietly for Susan, who joins him at the door. After a moment, they both move to the suggested capsule. The Doctor attempts to thank their benefactor, but turns to find her gone. Oddly, he doesn't feel suspicious. Upon entering the capsule, he's greeted warmly, and everything just feels…right.
"Thank you, Darling. I hadn't seen the Doctor old before; which him was that? And who was the girl who helped?"
~That was my first Doctor, and the girl was…helpful. I am starting to feel my Thief fade. We must find him, and disassemble the Pools. I will save Romana as soon as you release the energy contained within them.~
The disturbing notion of her Doctor fading pushes any thought that Darling was being evasive straight from Rose's mind.
"I don't know what to do first. If I break the Pools, I'm afraid I won't find his consciousness before his body dies, but if I don't free his body what will the consciousness come back to?"
~My Wolf, the Doctor's body will be fine for a time. Leave his mind, and I will show you how to set up the monitors in the Infirmary. I can keep him alive for some time without his consciousness present, and I can heal the damage done by the overload to his body, flushing it of the extra hormones that are currently oxidising.~
"Alright, I'll go prepare Jack," Rose says as she stands from beside the Pools and pulls herself from his mind. She sits up on the exam table just as Jack walks into the Infirmary.
"Rose, how does he look?"
"Well, like everything else that's happened in the past few days, it's bloody complicated!" Rose says with evident frustration. Climbing off the bed and scrubbing her face with her hands, she starts moving around the med-bay nodding to herself and connecting the Doctor to several machines. Jack comes over, helping her get him covered in temperature stabilising blankets, and moving the scanner over that will monitor his vitals.
He stays silent the entire time, waiting for Rose to clue him in. Not getting anything from her for several long minutes after they are set up, he decides to push her a little.
"Rose. You said it's complicated. How? Tell me how to help."
"I don't know that you can help, Jack. At least you can watch him while I work in his mind. Apparently, he was preemptively trying to be ready for the wake up. He was trapped in his mind when the reset happened, and he knew what could be coming, so he was readying himself by building partitions and upping hormone production while he was still in cryo-sleep. Because his body was basically in stasis, all his changes dumped at once when he awoke. The combination of John activating the torc and the Doctor's bodily changes activated the torc and the collar together, creating an overload. Time Lord brains aren't designed to seize, so his whole consciousness split itself in two—the biological systems and the Personality. The biological system is trapped in a stasis field in his mind, and his Personality is lost in there somewhere. So the TARDIS just told me what to do to support his body once I go in and destroy the stasis generator in his mind. Then, I can go digging for his Personality. Sound like fun?" She finishes with a grim expression throwing her hands in the air.
Jack has no idea what the hell she's talking about. How do you have stasis fields in your head? Right. Doesn't matter. Rose needs his help. She'll hopefully explain it to him later in a language he can understand.
"Rose, I will do whatever you need me to. Just point and shoot me," he smiles a reply at her, hoping it will help.
"Jack, you're a good friend," she says, taking a calming breath. She doesn't smile, but her shoulders relax a little, and she nods to him in thanks. "I have to go back into the Doctor's mind, and try to find him so his parts join up. I have no idea how that's going to happen. The TARDIS seems irritatingly confident, so I'm just going to run with it, and assume this is somehow vaguely normal Time Lord weirdness."
"Sure, Rose. I'm here," is what he says, but he's thinking that if this is normal, he doesn't want to know what weird is.
Rose climbs back up on the table, and lays on her side next to the Doctor. Taking his right hand in her left, she reaches up and places her right fingertips against his temple. Upon making the connection, Jack sees her hand fall limply to the Doctor's chest. Jack has no idea how long this will take, so he looks around for a comfortable chair, and there is one right behind him with a table and dinner already laid out.
"So, this is going to take awhile, I guess," he says out loud to the TARDIS. She doesn't reply, but there are now also several books to choose from. "Right." Jack sighs as he reaches for a roll and the top book. Sitting, he gets comfortable. Gazing steadily at Rose and the Doctor for a minute, he sighs and turns his attention to his book. /Tale of Two Cities. Oh, okay, never read that one,/ he thinks as he opens the first edition copy of Charles Dickens' classic.
Rose slides effortlessly into the Doctor's mind again. She's prepared this time for the lack of resistance, but still experiences a pang of regret that a Doctor isn't there to catch her. Looking over to the Pools with resignation, Rose walks to them and places her palms against the lower edge. Looking over it and into the silvered liquid, she sees the great expanse of nothing. Rose hopes with all her might that the TARDIS is correct, and she can save Romana.
Taking a deep breath and thinking over what Romana showed her to do, she doesn't even start to reach for Bad Wolf before Rose senses Her stir. Feeling a soft brush of wind against her hair, Rose lifts her head and opening her eyes, turns to look to her side. Beside her smiling, is the version of herself from the vision she'd had with Romana in the Pool during the glitch. Gasping, Rose turns to face Her fully. She looks much like Rose, but Her hair is wildly disheveled, and she's dressed like a refugee from the 1980's music scene. All of this would seem ridiculous were it not for Her luminous, dark eyes. As Rose's gaze meets Her eyes, they flash gold and She grins like a loon.
"Bad Wolf," Rose says in wonder.
-Yes and no. I am, and I am not. Myself I am, but I am that as well, though some call me the Moment-
Her voice is Rose's, but with the hollow quality that Rose recognises from the Doctor's memory of Satellite 5.
"Well, that's confusing. Romana showed me that you're made from pieces of me—the TARDIS, Bad Wolf, and the Sphynx. How can you also be a moment? Wait, you mean the Moment. The weapon that destroyed Gallifrey! But, how…?"
-Yes, I am that, now. I will be this later…earlier…I get confused. I was/will be/have been on Gallifrey, but now I am here-
She continues to smile, but now she's walking around the other side of the Pool to stand opposite Rose.
-These we must remove for Time's Champion to be made whole. It is time he remembered-
"Yesss….the TARDIS said I must release the energy, and the Doctor's mind will heal the damage."
Rose can tell that She's being evasive. Rose was perfectly aware of the kind of power Bad Wolf was capable of, and that it could certainly be a weapon; but the Doctor had never made it sound like it was a woman who looked like she hadn't combed her hair in a week and bought her clothes at charity shops.
Hopefully, the Doctor will be able to answer her questions when she gets him back. She'll try to remember to ask…right after she snogs him into next Tuesday.
-Ahh, slow path. This is good…I will have more Time -
She grins at Rose with her own tongue in tooth smile. This is now the weirdest thing Rose has ever experienced. This is turning into some kind of day. It never occurred to her that they could properly talk. As a composite being within her, she had just assumed it would only be impressions—much like the Doctor and the TARDIS. This must have something to do with them being inside the Doctor's mind. She was basically a dream made manifest. That's definitely interesting. That would mean She could interact with all of the mental structures in here. That wasn't so good if She decided to be uncooperative.
-My Rose, you are. We have the same goals. I will only help, never hinder; we are the same in this place. Just easier for you to see me-
Rose has no choice but to trust her. They are now a part of each other after all.
"Right. Well, let's do this. I will disrupt the Pools' structure, and you'll siphon the energy to the TARDIS?"
-Yes!- Bad Wolf says with evident glee. Rose rolls her eyes, but she's charmed by the fact that She isn't scary or even worried. This helps Rose relax a bit. They both place their hands against opposite sides of the Pools, and tipping their heads back identically, they begin to sing.
At first they're in perfectly pitched unison, but then Rose diverges from the chord slightly. As they continue building their song, they interweave their intentions into it. The upper and lower walls of the Pools begin to glow gold. A stream of particles flow away from each of them, converging into a river of energy that streams up and away from the Doctor, presumably out and to the TARDIS. However, Rose and Bad Wolf are much too busy to notice. As they work, the Pools slowly empty of their light and dark liquids. Once clear, the stones of the walls themselves fade into the streams one by one. Moving around what is left of the Pools, they circle until there is nothing but a hazy outline remaining on the mindscape's floor.
Walking toward each other across where the Pools had been, their Song finishes again in unison. He is still suspended, but they can see the Doctor's colour is much better; though he has yet to move. This is the point where Rose was hoping something awesome would just happen; but as the seconds tick by, it's obvious that's not going to be the case.
"What do we do now?" she asks Bad Wolf.
-There must be joining-
"Yes, of course. Romana said he was split, personality from physiology. So, we'll Sing him back together!" Rose grins at Bad Wolf. Bad Wolf can tell Rose does not entirely understand, but she will soon enough. With a grin of her own, Bad Wolf starts this time, and they sing the Doctor down.
Rose follows Bad Wolf's lead and they Sing of Joining—of coming together, completeness. Once the Doctor is within reach, Bad Wolf begins writing in the air the beginnings of a Manifestation. This one starts with a single simple golden circle around the Doctor.
There are a great many words in Gallifreyan that represent completion. It is genetically instilled in them, even despite Rassilon's tampering, to seek out that which makes them feel whole. It's no wonder that a race with the power to regenerate—becoming a new person, but with all the previous memories—would sometimes feel fractured. Also, being telepathic, they can reach a level of connectedness that is not known by many other peoples. The Doctor is literally separated from the rest of himself, and Rose is determined to fix it.
Rose and Bad Wolf fill the space around the Doctor with the words of wholeness. As they sing, Rose loses herself to her Song. She is completely focused on her intention to heal the Doctor to the exclusion of everything else around her. Bad Wolf, on the other hand, has now taken the supporting role in the Song, and is watching as all the many pieces that are the Doctor converge on the Foyer.
There are many more faces than any one Time Lord ought to have. Bad Wolf is not surprised by this. The portion of her that is still original to herself has been aware of Him since before He was known as the Doctor. This version of herself has already interacted with one of Him. The Foyer is soon filled with men all watching either Rose, Bad Wolf, or the latest incarnation of themselves suspended in a cocoon of words made from golden light and intention.
Instinctively knowing the moment when the last of the Personalities has arrived, Rose changes the Song to encourage Oneness. So focused in her Manifestation, she has yet to realise the extent of the crowd around her. Spreading her hands wide, all of the words part and become individual symbols—hanging in the air a moment, shining. Then, Rose slowly starts bringing her hands together, and the words begin to join into one concept. As she's doing this, the first incarnation, a tall blonde fellow that looks uncannily like her current Doctor, walks toward the next, reaching out a hand to touch him. At the touch and in a flare of blue light, the first incarnation is gone with only the second remaining. This chain continues with each incarnation of the Doctor reaching for his next self.
With each joining of personalities, the blue flare gets larger and more complex. The coalescence that leaves behind the final eleven personalities is particularly huge, and pulls Rose back to herself within the Song. Opening her eyes, she sees the older Doctor from Darling's memory, the one who stole her, step toward another man with short straight, dark hair and a benign smile. At their touch, the older one is gone in a flash with only the dark one remaining. Rose suddenly realises she is seeing the Doctor's past selves.
Still bringing her hands together and singing of their coming oneness, Rose watches as each of the Doctors continues the chain toward completion. They flow smoothly from one to another. Grey hair and cape to tall, curly, and scarfed… blonde and…(was that celery?), to blonde and an eye-bleeding coat. Next on to a small, dark man who stares at Rose a moment with a particularly penetrating gaze. He leads into a handsome young man with curly chestnut hair and a sad smile. This one hesitates for several moments, gazing at his next form with something akin to remorse, before moving to touch him. This joining is again particularly powerful, a dark electrified purple instead of the previous blue, and Rose almost loses her Song; but Bad Wolf is there to stabilise her.
The Doctor that steps away from that joining is older and hard. The lines of his body are rigid, and he carries himself like a soldier. This is Romana's Warrior Doctor. Rose remembers him from the strange flashback while she was speaking to Romana. His posture is so completely different, and he is so much older even than the first Doctor she had seen. He's staring intently at Bad Wolf, pausing before he moves on, like he recognises her. Rose watches something pass between them, and then Bad Wolf smiles and nods at him. He visibly relaxes, and with a soft smile of his own, he steps forward, calmly reaching Rose's first Doctor; with his leather coat and piercing blue gaze. Palm open and splayed, he lays his hand against his next incarnation's shoulder with what seems like a look of relief. In another blinding flash that's blue again, he's gone; and with a gasp, her big-eared, daft grinning Doctor is gazing at her with obvious love in his eyes.
Her hands have nearly met, and her first Doctor reaches out a hand towards her, but doesn't touch, letting it fall back to his side.
"Look at ya. I knew you'd figure it out—my brilliant Rose. We're nearly finished now. Thank you," he says to her. She adds more love to her Song for him, and with a grin, he strides directly into the shining sphere of gold containing her Doctor, reaching up to lay his hand against the other's chest between his hearts.
Outside in the Infirmary, Jack is startled awake when all the medical machinery goes off at once. Jumping to his feet, he takes two quick steps to the bed's side. The Doctor and Rose are both surrounded by a sphere of gold dust, much like when they worked the Manifestations yesterday. Rose looks pale, but Jack can see from the monitors that the Doctor's hearts have stopped, and the machines are trying to stabilise his systems. Jack is just about to panic when suddenly, the Doctor gasps, chest lifting slightly off the table. Jack relaxes as the machines quiet, and the Doctor is now breathing normally; but he notices the gold dust is still swirling through and around both Rose and the Doctor. Reaching out a hand to touch Rose's, Jack receives a shock from the golden sphere.
/Okay! Not my business then,/ he thinks, shaking his hand to alleviate some of the tingle. Pulling the chair closer, he sits back down to continue watching. Checking his watch, Jack sees that he's been asleep for 4 hours. That's plenty of time, and he's determined to be awake in case there's anything he needs to do.
The explosion of light and energy from the joining of the final two Doctors renders everything dark and silent in its absence. Rose is sprawled face up on the floor near where the Doctor fell, unconscious. Bad Wolf remains. She sits near the Doctor and Rose waiting, keeping all of them in the Doctor's mind. The Doctor is the first one to rouse himself. Groaning, he puts his hands back and levers himself into a sitting position. Looking up finally, he spots Rose first.
"Rose!" he yelps as he starts toward her.
-Stop,- says Bad Wolf calmly. The Doctor was so focused on Rose, that he hadn't noticed Her. He rocks back onto his bum again in surprise at seeing another version of Rose kneeling near him.
"Err…hello? Who, or rather what, are you then? Where? How?" he finishes, looking her up and down. She looks like Rose but with weirdly dark eyes. Looking past her and around, he can see that they are in his Foyer… His Foyer! They are in his mind, but the Pools—they're gone! His head feels clear and blessedly quiet. The damn things had hummed, and he hadn't realised how much until they were gone.
"The Pools! Where did they go? How….but we're still in my mind. I don't understand," he says to Bad Wolf in frustration. She just smiles at him. Lifting a hand, she invites him over to sit next to her at Rose's side. He's unsure why this apparition isn't answering him, but he is worried about Rose; so he joins her.
-My Rose is very weak. She gave much of herself to save you. Are you worth it- she asks in her hollow voice, pinning him with a look that sears his soul and lays it bare.
"I..I want to be," he stammers. How can this, whatever this is, ask him such a thing in his own mind? How the hell did she get in here anyway? Just because she looks like…Rose. Suddenly, he knows exactly who this is…
"Bad Wolf," he whispers, staring at her in awe now, where moments ago he was working up a good mad.
"Yes," she says simply, now sounding just like Rose. Eyes flashing gold, she continues, "We are not finished yet. There is one part left to Unite; but first, I must give you back what I hid from you. It is time. The Moment has come again."
"What? What moment? What are you going on about? What could you have taken from me?" He's trying unsuccessfully to hide in his babble, but she can see right through him. It's easy, really.
"Doooc…torrrr," she says mockingly. "You were much quieter before, or were you not? Do you like bow-ties?" She is looking at him closely, but then shrugs, reaching out a hand to him, beckoning.
He stares at it and then back to her face, at a loss for how to respond. "What about Rose?" He asks.
"Come on then, I know you want to see what I took. I am keeping us in your mind for now. She is resting. We aren't 'going' anywhere. You won't believe me, but you must. You and my Rose have a great deal of work to do." She smiles at him. She feels something close to regret for taking the memories from him. It was necessary at the time, and it was her price. But seeing the echoing vastness of grief in the Doctor's eyes fills her with sadness. He has suffered long enough. It is time for the healing to begin.
Her hand is still out for him to take. She wriggles her fingers at him. Looking back up into Her eyes, almost undoes him. There is so much sympathy and compassion in them, but with the timeless depth of Eternity. She may look like Rose right now because She chooses to, but this is not his Rose. This is something much greater. Taking Her hand, opens a doorway in his mind that he didn't even know was there. She is/was/will be the Moment.
The Doctor stands in a space holding the hand presented to him. They are surrounded by images of himself during the Time War, when he couldn't bare to call himself the Doctor. These, he recognises. Next, there are images of him with the Moment. He landed far from the Citadel and carried It to a convenient barn. He attempts to open It. Though It whirrs and clicks, It does nothing. Suddenly, he sees Rose is there. Of course, as this War Doctor, he didn't know her yet. She reveals to him that She will be Rose Tyler, but is then Bad Wolf. "Are you afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, Doctor?" She asks him.
She's the Moment! The interface—after stealing it, his mother had mentioned to him that the weapon called the Moment was sentient, and had been kept deep in the archives because it didn't choose to be helpful. The War Doctor knew the other Time Lords wouldn't touch it. They wouldn't like the idea of being judged for their decisions. Well, he was used to that—let It judge. So long as It did what he needed, It could judge him all It wanted. He had to stop this War before either Rassilon's attempts proved successful, or the Daleks reached the Matrix and the Eye. Neither eventuality could be allowed to happen. Not if the Universe was to continue, damaged or otherwise.
The images continue….The current Doctor sees his past self confused by Her, by time fissures— Elizabethan England….wait…That was him (his current him), and then…was that Future Him? He'd finally lost the ears, but he has that…that chin to look forward to? Blimey!
Turning, he looks at the woman holding his hand while they are still surrounded by the images of his life playing out around them…three versions of it.
"What is this? I haven't met Elizabeth I yet. What's going on?" He doesn't understand. These feel like memories. Surely he isn't being shown things he shouldn't know. Is this an alternate Timeline? What about Gallifrey and the War Doctor? He regrets what happened, but this—none of this is what he remembers.
"Some of this is what actually happened. Some of this is what would have happened without the Sphynx—without Rose at your side. This is why I am now restoring to you what I took. These events will not happen this way…not for this you. But it is imperative that the outcome remain the same, so you will need to insure these events occur." She turns away from him, but keeps a firm grip on his hand as they watch the Doctors work their way through the Zygon crisis.
The Doctor watches as the War Doctor returns to Gallifrey, ready to use the Moment. He knows that feeling well. The regret and self loathing, but filled with an iron determination to sacrifice as many as necessary to save everyone else. Oh, he hated that decision. He doesn't want to watch it again.
"Stop! I remember this part, though without you, and I was on my TARDIS above Gallifrey. Why are you showing me this? I don't want to watch my people die again. Alternate timeline or not, they die; and I don't want to see it." He tries to remove his hand, but She has it locked in an iron grip.
"This is what happened, Doctor. This is the truth—feel it coming back to you. What you think you know, I put in your mind. I had Romana build the Pools, not to save you from me—as she thought, but to keep you from knowing the truth. They stored the true memories away from you. I knew you would hate the Pools and wouldn't touch them. The Pools were my price for using me. I am the Moment."
Looking at her in surprise, the Doctor sees her eyes glow, and the images pause just as two more TARDIS were materialising in the barn.
"How many children do you think died on Gallifrey that day Doctor?" She demands of him, locking him with Her glowing gaze.
"Two point 47 billion," he chokes out. Why would She ask him that? He had worked on that calculation for weeks as his past self, till he was able to figure within a few hundred. He wanted to know exactly how much potential he had destroyed.
"You are wrong," She says simply. Releasing him from Her gaze, She starts the images up again. They watch as the other two Doctors come to support the decision made by their predecessor. He shouldn't have to do it alone.
This is the weird partial memory he had experienced earlier. Those were his hands, along with past and future's hands. He knows exactly what that button feels like against his palm. He almost closes his eyes seeing his original memory start to rear up in his mind. Just as he's about to let his eyelids slip shut though, Future him pauses. The Doctor watches the conversation between his future self and his companion…Clara. She looks so familiar, but he can't place why.
His attention now rapt as the scene plays out, he watches as they come up with another solution, one that somehow involves all of his lives and stasis cubes, cuppa soups, and…
"Oh my God, Gallifrey may not be gone," he says in an astounded whisper. Turning to the woman sharply, "Is this true? Is Gallifrey whole?" Clutching his head with his free hand, feeling the revealed memories slide into place, he looks desperately up at this creature wearing the features of the woman he loves. The creature who has told him She is both the Moment and Bad Wolf. "Did it work? Did I…save…them?"
Bad Wolf stares at the Doctor for a long moment before She answers, "Do you remember the painting we just saw?"
"Yes, No More or Gallifrey Falls; I don't like either title, but what does that…"
"That is wrong. The title is Gallifrey Falls No More. Now what do you think that means?" She looks at him expectantly.
No longer capable of supporting himself as everything he has believed to have happened is reversed, he falls to his knees. She allows his hand to slip free of hers, as they appear in the same location in the Doctor's mind as they were previously. Rose is still laying there, unconscious between them. The Doctor leans forward, gliding a cool hand over her forehead and brushing a stray lock of hair from her eyes where it had fallen when she collapsed.
He has so many questions, but only one mouth. The first one that finally tumbles out is not the one She was expecting.
"How? How are you the Moment and Bad Wolf?"
Laughing lightly, She seats herself, and resting Her head in Her hand, looking at the Doctor.
"The Moment was not crafted by Time Lords. It was actually made by an Eternal. Which one no longer matters, but they were able to trap a portion of me within the architecture of their weapon. The problem for them was I wasn't interested in being utilised without understanding why. No one wants to be judged for their actions when they are committing death on such a scale. They only want to feel divinely inspired or righteous. I am uninterested in righteous inspiration, I am interested in Balance. Only once was I used, and never again.
"When Rose took in the Heart of your TARDIS, she became one with another portion of the Universe that is at the source of myself—your TARDIS and the Sphynx. Together we strive for Balance. Rose threw herself across Time and Space to help us maintain that Balance. She was there in that barn with us, as much as she was on Satellite 5, saving you from the Daleks. She is now a part of us, and we…her. There is something coming Doctor, and you both will be needed."
He nods. He has felt that for some time now. The feeling of foreboding that had started at the 2012 Olympics. He'd assumed it was related to losing her at Canary Wharf, but it had only continued to intensify, even after he got her back. Subconsciously he had known it would involve he and Rose, but he had been avoiding that realisation.
Choosing now to ignore it a little longer, he asks, "And Gallifrey? You're letting me believe it's safe, but where is it? How will I find the pocket Universe? It could be anywhere."
"It could be, but it is where it needs to be," She says with an enigmatic smile.
Feeling an indignant answer come to his lips, he swallows it when She raises Her hand, forestalling his complaints.
"I know it is hardly the answer you want, but you understand that you cannot know everything."
Thinking back, he remembers an instant She showed him, where he demands of his future self to know, for once in his very long life, where he's going, and the reply, "No. You really wouldn't," stunned him. The expression on future him's face made it very clear that it was, yet again, more unpleasantness. But that wouldn't happen that way now, so maybe things are looking up after all.
"Fine. So, you said that was an alternate timeline; it will happen differently now?" he asks, seeing if he can get anywhere with this line of questioning.
"Yes Doctor, it will be different. This time you won't be alone," She says, copying Rose's tongue in tooth grin.
He's about to launch into more questioning, when Rose begins to stir between them. He is instantly distracted by her, and all his questions fall right out of his head. So much has happened, and he hasn't been paying proper attention to her being unconscious on the floor of his mind. Feeling guilty, he ignores Bad Wolf and focuses wholly Rose, taking her hand in his.
Watching the two of them a moment, Bad Wolf smiles broadly at the pair. Leaning forward, She takes both of their hands in Hers. Looking the Doctor straight in the eyes, She says, "There is one part left to Unite." And with an abrupt pop, they are out of his mind and laying next to each other on a bed in the Infirmary.
A/N: I am so sorry this update took so long! RL reared its head and both I and my beta were swamped. The good news? I have finished this story! We are currently editing the final chapters, heading towards picking up the Queen of Sassy herself. If you have any inspiration you'd like to toss my way as to ways to get the Doctor, Rose, Donna, and Jack into to trouble, toss 'em to me! :-)
Thanks so much for following along on the ride. All of my reviewers, you are the sprinkles on top that makes everything worth it. Thank. You!