Uff. I'm glad I could finish it before going to sleep. Now. Enjoy! Ridiculously long. This one. Hehe
The dungeon was dark, only with a few candles lighting the room, failing nonetheless. It was cold. Would make anyone shiver in there, if they could feel the cold. Because none really could. They were too scared of the creature in the cage, hidden behind the cold metal bars.
But they were in an undeniable advantage of the situation. Even if they weren't aware of it. Only one pink and yellow human knew. True enough, the bald men did not have an advanced weaponry or anything of that sort, but the strategy was certainly here. And it was what was trapping Rose away from so desired escape.
She was closer to the creature, werewolf, as they came to know it, than any other human, held captive. Why was she the one to be in such an unfair situation, must have been just her luck. Rose chuckled sadly at the thought. Even with such miserable situation ahead of her, she was still glad that she at least sent Flora away. It may have very well have been her - at the claws of death.
The room was changed. Not the interior, but the purpose of it was changed considerably. It was divined into two. A huge, strong, or at least supposedly strong, wooden fence across it, barricading the cage and the prisoners near the wall. However, the fence didn't stand alone. It had a human figure leaning up against it, as the wooden chains were restraining her freedom. It must have been purposely made wooden. To let the prisoner try the escape plan, prolonging the chase.
"You will be the first," the man in the cage hissed like an animal.
Rose tilted her head with a gulp. Yeh, she could see the trouble she got herself into now, clearly. Not only the obvious fact of her dangerously small proximity between her and the cage, but also the fact that the chains were attached to the wooden fence. While the wooden fence was nothing to the likes of the creature just ahead, it was not a battle she could win to Rose. And what made her shiver more, was that it was not even the battle to win for the Doctor.
It was wood. Wood was their downfall.
The dining room was in turmoil. Everyone was on their feet; shouting at each other, asking for answers.
"What is the meaning of this?" the Queen demanded to know.
"Explain yourself, Sir Robert!" one of Her Majesty's guards countered the man.
"What's happening?" Victoria persisted.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, they've got my wife." Robert was apologizing with regret.
"Where's the cellar, Robert!?" the Doctor asked fiercely.
"Why the cellar, my Lord," Flora asked the Doctor cautiously. "The message said that's where the wolf resided at. Shouldn't we go help Miss Rose instead?" she asked with undoubtful care in her voice.
"And that's where she is," the Doctor stated in a low voice. "Robert!" He practically shouted at him to take his attention.
"It's Sir Robert to you, Doctor," one of the guards corrected him.
"I don't have time for this!" he shot back at him, making the poor man shiver.
"I'll lead the way. My wife must be there too," Sir Robert said in a shaky voice, as he lead the running group out of the room. Flora was running just a bit behind them, with her skirt in her hands.
"I don't understand, Sir. It said the bad wolf was there. Why you must go to death?" Her voice was filled with worry.
"It's a double meaning." The Doctor told her, slightly moving his head to her direction to answer, while not stopping his pace. "If only the wolf was held there, it would be simply Wolf at cellar message, but it was Bad Wolf. It's a message only two of us know," he spilled in one breath and quickened his speed.
"I said pull! Stop your whining and listen to me!" Rose was shouting at the group behind the wooden fence. "All of you!" she added sharply. "And that means you, your Ladyship." She directed it at Robert's wife. "Now come on, pull!"
"Moonlight." The creature looked at the moon, smiling in contentment, as the light reached its cage.
Rose could feel her blood drain and cold sweat down her spine. This was so not looking good.
She turned her head to the group, struggling with the chain.
"Don't slack! Pull!" She urged them with all of her strength. She was not sure how much time she would buy for them with her sacrifice. And if they didn't take the chain off the wall before it started its attack on Rose, she was certain they would be too frozen in place to finish the job.
The creature was standing up, taking his gown off, as he started to yell in an inhumane way, all his bones snapping sharply. The transformation was starting.
"Pull!" she cried once more, her face twisting at the sight ahead.
The Doctor was running with all his might. From one corner to another, finally seeing his target in sight. The double wooden door just ahead of them, at the end of the hallway.
He reached the end of it in another few moments. He kicked the doors open with a force, revealing the group of prisoners escaping the chain of the wall with one last pull. He searched the group in a second, just to be proven wrong about Rose being there.
He snapped his head to the other side of the room to see the hideous beast nearly out of its imprisonment, stopping only for a second to admire the werewolf, let's note too, until he spotted Rose sitting on the ground. To his surprise, she looked at the beast with determination, rather than fear.
"Even if I die here today. I'm not going down without fighting," she snarled at the werewolf, making the Doctor's mouth quiver in a smile. Maybe not that surprising.
Just as the creature was about to bounce his pink and yellow human, he whistled to get its attention. And that done it. Its head snapped to see the source of the whistle, sniffing the air around it.
"Out of the room!" the Doctor commanded the group, not breaking the eye contact with the werewolf, as he began walking a half circle on the other side of the fence. Sir Robert was frantically urging the group to leave the place.
"Doctor," Rose breathed.
"Tell you what, Rose Tyler." The Doctor smiled while saying her name.
"What?" she answered faintly.
"You are not going to die today. Not with me still standing." As he pulled out his sonic to point at the beast.
"Then I have to tell you something else," she half-joked.
"What?" He was still smiling despite the situation: the beast was now preparing itself for a jump on the other side of the fence.
"My chains are made of wood," she whispered.
That made the Doctor's head snap at her and his face twist in worry. That's all it took for the beast to make his jump. But by some kind of luck, maybe because the beast was just newly transformed, it didn't quite make a jump that graceful as it planned. It crashed the fence half open, breaking one of the chains on Rose.
The Doctor chuckled a bit nervously. "Guess 'am still lucky," he exclaimed, as he began pacing around the room in circles with the creature staggering a bit, and shaking its head of the wooden bits. It was a ring of the bullfighting.
"Get yourself out of that one!" he shouted in her direction.
"'Am trying," she cried while pulling the chain with her both hands. That clearly being an advantage now.
"Hurry!" he shot at her, making her roll her eyes, as she was fighting with the chain.
"One. Two. Pull." She was muttering, when she heard a loud bang, being reminded of the duel on the other side.
One more, two more pulls and there, she got it! She was out. She exhaled with a laugh at her achievement.
"Doctor!" she called for him, as she ran towards the doors, extending her hand to take into his. The Doctor dashed towards the doors too, while ducking the beast attack. As it was nearing them, the Doctor turned around to face it, and bleeped the sonic into his eyes. It was enough to trick it for a second, while they went through the doors, locking them with the sonic screwdriver.
"That's not gonna hold him!" Rose cried, while still running.
"It makes him disoriented," he replied, grasping her hand more tightly, as they dashed further inside the hallway.
The last thing they heard was a howl of a wolf.
Everyone in the gun room were preparing themselves for the fight. The men were arming themselves, while sending the women out.
"It could be any form of light modulated species triggered by specific wavelengths. Did it say what it wanted?" the Doctor asked Rose, as he was hitting on the chain of Rose's with a metal side of a gun. She could see his face twist in disgust that he had to use the gun, even if it was not of its main purpose.
"The Queen, the Crown, the throne - you name it," Rose said, frowning a bit. She was still a bit taken aback by the fact that she escaped her death just moments ago. The Doctor was right about one thing for sure.
They were in luck.
There was a crash of something bursting through a wooden door, which took everyone's attention. The Doctor went out to investigate with Rose close behind, just to see the werewolf at the other end of the passageway, walking on its two feet. The Doctor looked at it in awe, before the growl out of the creature's mouth snapped him back to reality. He grabbed Rose's hand, now out of any chains, running back into the gun room.
"Fire! Fire!" one of the elderly men commanded the men. Momentary the bullets startled the target, making it leave the room.
But Rose knew how temporarily it was. And the fate of this poor stupid man. Who was too proud to see the truth in front.
"All right, you men. We should retreat upstairs. Come with me." The Doctor urged them in the mist left by all the shooting.
"I'll not retreat. The battle's done," the man replied with all-knowing voice. "There's no creature on God's Earth that could survive such an assault." As he turned to walk further inside the hallway, towards where the creature once stood.
"I'm telling you, come upstairs!" The Doctor took a few steps forward. He was yelling at the man to come to his senses, his own face desperate.
"And I'm telling you," the man shot back. "Sir, I will sleep well tonight with that thing's hide upon my wall." He tried to turn, but was stopped by Rose.
SMACK
The man's mouth opened slack, with his eyes wide in confusion of what had just happened. The Doctor exhaling a breath of relief, that someone decided to smack some sense into this man. Soon, the man's expression darkened, as he shot a glare at Rose.
"How dare you, woman!" he began, raising a hand to hit her back. Rose flinched. She was not expecting this reaction. Not that it was that unexpected, considering the times, and this man's personality, but as she acted before giving it a thought, it startled her. She closed her eyes in anticipation of a slap, but felt none. She opened one to see the elderly man's hand hanging in the air, in another one's tight grip.
"Now. You'll not proceed further into this, and follow us upstairs without a word. Is that clear?" The Doctor's grip tightened with his eyes making shivers in the man's body.
As much as the man would have wanted to argue back, he was certain that he deserved more authority than the Doctor, but he didn't dare to utter a word. As he came to a realisation of how true a statement of one's eyes could kill was.
They heard a snarl coming from the ceiling and soon enough, they saw the wolf's head poking out, gritting its teeth at them.
"Run!" the Doctor yelled out, while releasing the grip on the man's arm, nudging him to move, while taking Rose's hand into his as they started to run.
The sound of guns echoed inside the room. "Everyone!" The Doctor tried to urge the men, but they were too stunned by the sight and were not able to move away, meeting their miserable fate at the beast's dinner plate. Only the proud man's footsteps could be heard, somewhere further inside the manor. The Doctor gritted his teeth in anger of the man's stupidity. Even at coming face to face with death he could not bother to trust the group and rather act as he saw fit himself.
"Come on!" Rose urged him and they ran.
"Your Majesty? Your Majesty!" Sir Robert was calling out frantically, as the group found themselves near the staircase, the Doctor sonic'ing the doors shut.
"Sir Robert? What's happening?" Victoria came down the stairs. "I heard such terrible noises."
"Your Majesty, we've got to get out," Robert told her with all honesty. "But what of Father Angelo? Is he still here?" he asked, concerned.
"Captain Reynolds disposed of him," the Queen breathed, looking at the side uncomfortably, Rose noted. Must have been her.
"The front door's no good, it's been boarded shut," the Doctor announced. "Pardon me, Your Majesty. You'll have to leg it out of a window." He gestured to his side, while pressing his lips together, slightly nodding to make the point.
As soon as they entered the room, Sir Robert wasted no time. "Excuse my manners, Ma'am, but I shall go first." As he moved forward next to the window.
"A noble sentiment, my Sir Walter Raleigh," Victoria commented.
"Yeah, any chance you could hurry up?" the Doctor said, frustrated by such useless speech exchanges.
At that moment, Rose had a flashback of the bald men in orange clothing, just outside, shooting at the window. She opened her mouth, making a step forward in reflex, just as Robert flung the window open with the monks outside opening fire right at them. Everyone had to duck the attacks.
"I reckon the monkey boys want us to stay inside," the Doctor calculated, speaking in a half-whisper.
"Do they know who I am?" Victoria asked breathlessly, rubbing her collarbone to soothe herself.
"Yeah, that's why they want you," Rose breathed. "The wolf's lined you up for a-" She paused. "A biting." Which she actually would get. Rose considered. Why all the fuss now, if the Empire of the wolf would still take place?
"Stop this talk." The Queen chided her like a child. "There can't be an actual wolf."
Suddenly, the howling sound startled them all, making everyone sprung around. Okay, maybe not that pointless after all. If that was gonna keep them all alive.
The group ran into the corridor to see the door being ripped open from the other side by the beast's claws.
"What do we do?" Rose asked in reflex. Must be the adrenalin, she excused herself. Not like she didn't know what they were going to do.
"Weee-run," the Doctor sang lightly.
"Is that all you got to offer?" Victoria asked in concern.
"Your Majesty got any silver bullets on herself?" he asked her in sarcasm.
"That I do not," she answered with her head high.
"There we are then, we run," the Doctor exclaimed. "Your Majesty, as a Doctor, I recommend a vigourous jog." He showed an example, running in place. "Good for the health. Come on!"
They were running up the dark staircase, barely seeing where to step, only the cursed moonlight emitting a slight path for them. They could hear the snap of the doors being opened and the growls getting nearer and nearer. They were running desperately for their lives, Rose already forgetting that she lived it all once before and she knew the path ahead. Because with running, there was no logic. You just run. Run for your life. And that's what they were doing at the moment.
"Fast! Come on!" The Doctor urged them frantically, pushing them further into the hallway, Queen ahead of everyone, panting heavily with her eyes popped out. The Doctor the last, and as he saw the beast leap on the railing of the stairs, snarling at them, he quickened his pace to catch up with others.
Everyone were running with their last breaths and the Doctor was now side by side with Rose. The hot breathing of the creature just inches away from the pair. And as the last time, Rose failed to notice a damaged wooden board on the floor, making her trip, the Doctor leaning to her side.
BANG
The Queen's guard saved them both with a shot at the target, making it back away a few meters. Everyone was breathing heavily from all the running. Rose tried to pull herself together. Everything's going to be alright. She tried to soothe herself. They survived this, just like everything else. No need for her adrenalin to take over.
"I'll take this position and hold it. You keep moving for God's sake!" The guard choked the words out. "Your Majesty, I went to look for the property and it was taken. The chest was empty." He looked at the woman in question with alarm.
"I have it. It's safe," Victoria exhaled.
"Then remove yourself, Ma'am." The guard smiled in content. "Doctor," he called out. "You stand as Her Majesty's Protector. And you, Sir Robert." He paused. "You're a traitor to the crown," he stated.
"Bullets can't stop it!" the Doctor exclaimed frantically. For God's sake, couldn't anyone listen for once?
"They'll buy you time. Now run!" The guard didn't budge, as he pointed his gun towards the hallway.
The group ran inside towards the room, with Rose stopping in her tracks. This was it. The scene she had lived three times now. It was wrong. She felt her fear change into desperate need to protect the man. She could not watch this scene over and over again, while being given so many chances to change it. The guard started to shoot at it and with just a few leaps it would have reached its goal.
And then, in a spur of a moment, Rose launched herself right before the beast. It made its final leap, but then threw itself on the wall, making a backwards jump. The man stopped shooting, too stunned, and the creature gritted its teeth at the human behind the man.
The wolf wanted to rip her guts apart, but something was preventing it. That bright golden light emitting from the girl's eyes were making it weak at his feet. There was so much life in them. The wolf wanted death of her, but she was broadcasting life, that she would not be dying here, at this moment. It moved uncomfortably, pacing about, he couldn't understand, what exactly was she or what was happening to itself.
"Rose!" The Doctor's frantic voice reached her ears. She could also hear footsteps nearing. She flung her head to the side, her eyes now back to normal. She was a bit shaken, not sure how it started and much less how it ended, as she felt her hand into the Doctor's.
"Come with us." Was Rose's last words, when the man in question and the Doctor together with Rose joined the group inside the room.
"Barricade the door," Robert instructed and everyone helped him do so.
"Wait a minute. Shush, shush, wait a minute." The Doctor shushed everyone, as a lonely howl reached their ears.
"It's stopped," the Doctor whispered, looking at Rose.
"Just like with you." He wrinkled his forehead, feeling that unsettled question about Rose making its way to the surface. Rose looked at him with pained expression. She hated to see him look at her like that.
They heard the wolf step away from the door. "It's gone," the Doctor uttered, glancing towards the door.
"Listen." The guard spoke.
The footsteps and growls from outside the walls were heard as it walked around the room.
"Is this the only door?" the Doctor asked barely audible.
"Yes," Robert breathed and then he paused for more than Rose felt necessary.
"No!" she yelled, making her way towards the other door. Everyone dashing to block it too.
The noises continued outside the walls.
"I don't understand. What's stopping it? Why didn't it attack me?" The guard spoke frantically.
"Something inside this room. What is it? Why can't it get in?" The Doctor paced about the room, asking nobody in particular, but clearly seeking for an answer. At the same time ignoring the last question of the guard on purpose.
Rose made a step forward to the Doctor, but as she felt him stiffen, and purposely keeping his back on her, she retreated. Feeling a stab in her heart. She messed up. She was naive to think that maybe the Doctor ceased to doubt her. It was always there. Never leaving his eyes. The doubt. The doubt directed at her.
It was killing her.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am. It's all my fault. I should have sent you away," Robert started with regret filling his insides. "I tried to suggest something was wrong. I thought you might notice. Did you think there was nothing strange about my household staff?" he asked lightly.
"Well, they were bald, athletic." The Doctor shrugged nonchalantly, avoiding to look at Rose directly.
Avoiding her.
She looked sideways, stifling the tears, which were starting to make its way.
"Your wife's away, I just thought you were happy," the Doctor ended blithely. Then he got a glimpse of Rose's unsteadiness. He sighed, rubbing on the back of his neck, as he walked over her.
"Rose." He approached her softly. Rose shot up her glance at him, startled. She saw his face twist, as he saw her pained expression.
"I don't know," Rose whispered. The Doctor looked a bit confused at her words. "I don't know why it stopped," Rose repeated with all honesty, which she meant, since she truly didn't know the origin of anything of this happening.
The Doctor sighed audibly, as his shoulders seemed to relax a bit, Rose noted. He held his hand up to cup her one cheek as he uttered faintly.
"I'm sorry."
Rose exhaled a breath she didn't know she was even holding and soon found herself in the warm embrace of the Doctor, soothing her. "I'm sorry." Whispering in her ear. She shook her head in his shoulders. She was the one sorry. For not telling him anything. For making him feel this way.
"What, exactly, I pray tell me, someone, please." The Queen's voice startled them, making them break apart. "What exactly is that creature?" she stammered, her breath heavy as she uttered the words.
"You'd call it a werewolf." The Doctor nodded, starting his smart talk, while rubbing with his hand on the back of his neck. "But technically it's a more of a lupine wavelength haemovariform," he ended in a quick pace, his gaze falling upon the room.
The Queen opened her mouth, but then was interrupted by the Doctor's exclamation. "Mistletoe!" As he rushed towards the cravings on the door, Rose following him. "Sir Robert, did you father put that there?" he asked with curiosity.
"I don't know. I suppose." Robert shrugged, sitting on the chair on the other side of the room.
"On the other door, too," the Doctor wondered.
"I'll tell you what, though." The guard took his attention.
"What?" The Doctor turned to face him.
"Mistletoe," he noted.
"Yes, I just said that," the Doctor agreed, a bit lost. The guard pointed upwards with his head. The Doctor lifted his gaze to see at the pointed thing.
"Oh," the Doctor exhaled.
Rose faced upwards too, just to see the ball of mistletoe hanging on the door. Rose blinked a few times, not yet catching on. When she lowered her head to face the Doctor, she could barely note what was happening. She felt a brush of another pair of soft lips on her own, followed by a pair of hands cupping her face.
She blinked a few times. Not daring to close her eyes. And just like how it miraculously started, she felt the sensation drift apart in a split of a second. The Doctor turning his attention back on the doors, leaving Rose stand there completely speechless, with her mouth half open.
"No, a carving wouldn't be enough," he wondered in all seriousness, like nothing really had happened just a second ago. "I wonder." And with that, he lifted himself up on the chair to lick the woodwork.
"Viscum album, the oil of the mistletoe. It's been worked into the wood like a varnish," he spilled it in one breath. "How clever was your dad?" he exclaimed all happily, jumping off the chair. "I love him!" he announced, making Rose jump out of her trance, and make a nervous smile. "Powerful stuff, mistletoe. Bursting with lectins and viscotoxins." The Doctor moved towards Rose to tell her that.
"A-and the wolf's allergic to it?" Rose stammered, forcing a calm face.
"Well, it thinks it is." The Doctor seemed to not notice it in the least. "The monkey monk monks need a way of controlling the wolf, maybe they trained it to react against certain things," he said in one breath.
"And should I trust you, sir? You who change your voice so easily? What happened to your accent?" the Queen stated a question.
"Oh right, sorry, that's-" The Doctor seemed to notice only now.
"And your actions just beside the door?" She shook her body slightly, her eyes wide. Rose tensed at the words. feeling her face flush a bit.
"That's a tradition!" the Doctor cried in defense.
Tradition. Of course.
"With a married woman!" the Queen shot at him, eyes wide from barely suppressed anger. "What would your cousin say to this? Or is his existence yet another falsehood?"
"Weell, that's another-" he began, tugging on his ear.
"I'll not have it. No, sir. Not you, not that thing, none of it. This is not my world," she ended in a voice of authority, her head held high.
"Nevertheless, we've got to stop that creature Ma'am," Robert countered her. "It won't give up, Doctor, and we still don't possess an actual weapon."
"Oh, your father got all the brains, didn't he?" the Doctor muttered in sarcasm, shaking his head.
"Being rude again." Rose informed him with a smile.
Forget the mistletoe.
"Good. I meant that one," he told her as he went forward to the bookcase. "You want weapons? We're in a library," he announced with an ease in his voice. "Books!" He held his hands up in the air to make his point. "Best weapons in the world." He sprung around to face them, putting his glasses on. "This room's the greatest arsenal we could have," he half-whispered, as he took some books, throwing them to Rose.
"Arm yourself."
"What are we searching for again?" the guard asked, flipping pages of the book.
"Something on wolves in here," Rose answered absentmindedly, while making herself look busy, reading a random book.
She knew which book was the right one. But she done just about enough for the day. She better stay low.
"Uh!" The Doctor looked intrigued by what he had just read, as he leapt off the chair, placing the book on the table. "Look what your old dad found. Something fell to Earth."
"A spaceship?" Rose spoke in reflex. Blimey, she was so accustomed to this now, that everything coming to Earth seemed to be spaceship now.
"A shooting star." Robert read the description about it.
"But that's over three hundred years ago. What's it been waiting for?" Rose asked, making a hint.
"Maybe just a single cell survived," the Doctor half-whispered. "Adapting slowly down the generations, it survived through the humans, host after host after host." He spoke, looking at her.
"But why does it want the throne?" the guard asked.
"Imagine it. The Victorian Age accelerated." The Doctor was creating one of those serious and important atmospheres. "Starships and missiles fuelled by coal and driven by steam, leaving history devastated in its wake," he ended in a meaningful whisper.
"Sir Robert. If I am to die here-" Victoria stood up to face Robert.
"Don't say that, Your Majesty," he pleaded her.
"I would destroy myself rather than let that creature infect me. But that's no matter. I ask only that you find some place of safekeeping for something far older and more precious than myself." She placed her hand in her purse.
"Hardly the time to worry about your valuables," the Doctor remarked.
"Thank you for your opinion," Victoria said, a bit offended. "But there is nothing more valuable than this."
A finest white 105.6 carat diamond shined in her palm, making the Doctor's mouth slack open in awe. Rose smiled at the sight. She was sure, no matter how many times she would see it, the affect it took on people, would never fade.
"Is that the Koh-I-Noor?" the guard breathed, just as mesmerised.
"Oh, yes," the Doctor exhaled, moving towards it. "The greatest diamond in the world." He smiled at the object in the Queen's hand.
"Given to me as the spoils of war. Perhaps its legend is now coming true. It is said that whoever owns it must surely die," Victoria told them.
"Well, that's true of anything if you own it long enough," the Doctor muttered, before extending his hand towards it. "Can I?"
The Queen hesitated for a moment, before she handed it to him. The Doctor examined the diamond with great care.
"That is so beautiful," he uttered softly.
"It is." Rose breathed the sight just the same as him.
"Where is the wolf?" Robert started pacing worriedly around the room. "I don't trust this silence."
"Why do you travel with it?" The Doctor ignored Robert, his attention full at the Queen.
"My annual pilgrimage. I'm taking it to the Royal Jewellers at Hazelhead. The stone needs recutting," she announced.
"It looks perfect enough," Rose stated.
"My late husband never thought so," Victoria said.
"Now, there's a fact." The Doctor took his glasses off. "Prince Albert kept on having the Koh-I-Noor cut down. It used to be forty percent bigger than this. But he was never happy. Kept on cutting and cutting."
"He always said the shine was not quite right." Victoria spoke with nostalgia. "But he died with it still unfinished."
The Doctor looked at her for a moment. Then it clicked him. "Unfinished," he exhaled, making Rose grin. He looked from her to the stone as he collected his thoughts. "Oh, yes," he whispered, throwing the stone back to Victoria.
That might have been a little careless.
"There's a lot of unfinished business in this house," the Doctor spilled in a quick speed, walking backwards, his manic eyes making their way to the surface. "His father's research," he said to nobody in particular, then leaning towards the Queen. "And your husband, Ma'am, he came here and he sought the perfect diamond." He was pointing a finger at her, before turning to walk inside the room frantically. "Hold on, hold on." He had his face in his hands. "All these separate things." He began to tug on his hair madly. "They're not separate at all, they're connected!" he exclaimed, spinning around in a circle, in a speed of his thoughts. "Oh, my head, my head." He was having a mad expression on his face, just like he was after the regeneration.
What did he say about not being able to control himself because of the wrong turn in regeneration? That certainly was not the case now. Rose chuckled slightly, but thankfully was left unnoticed, everyone watching the mad man with caution.
"What if this house-" He took a huge step forward to the Queen, making her stiffen. "It's a trap for you. Is that right, Ma'am?" He was adding the speed to the conversation.
"Obviously."
"At least, that's what the wolf intended," he spilled. "But, what if there's a trap inside the trap?" He looked at her with wide eyes.
"Explain yourself, Doctor," the Queen answered, not daring to move.
"What if his father-" He was wandering with his eyes from one person in the room to another. "And your husband weren't just telling each other stories." He made a gesture of dismissal. "They dared to imagine all this was true," he ended with his mouth still slightly parted and eyes wide. "And they planned against it, laying the real trap not for you-" He shook his head slightly. "But for the wolf."
The plaster dust falling from the ceiling adding impact on his last sentence. They looked up to the domes skylight to hear the growling sound.
"That wolf there," the Doctor breathed, looking at it.
With the glass in the skylight cracking, it made him snap out of it.
"Out! Out! Out!" The Doctor began running and yelling manically. Everyone were working on unbarricading the doors, resuming their running, moments later.
And there they were again, dashing through the corridor. It was catching up to them at high speed, almost grasping them, when a hot pot of boiled water with mistletoe was poured at its face.
"Good shot." The Doctor praised the woman.
"Isobel!" Robert drew his wife in a kiss. Rose ducked her gaze, as it made her remember some things.
Robert urged his wife to go back downstairs with the girls and they were back at where they left on.
"Come on." The Doctor urged everyone, dashing further inside the hallway, Robert showing the way to the observatory.
They carried on their running up the staircase, just like before, as the werewolf was slowly recovering, making a run to catch up with its prey.
"No mistletoe in these doors," the Doctor began, once the group made it to the observatory. "Because your father wanted the wolf to get inside. I just need time. Is there any way of barricading this?" the Doctor asked in an urgent voice.
"Just do your work and I'll defend it," Robert stated.
"No. I'll do the work." The guard stepped in.
"I've betrayed the throne. Let me at least die in honour." Robert looked at the man's eyes, pleading.
"You've still got a family ahead of you. I've got none." The guard formed a sad smile. "Repay your debt with your loyalty. Now, go!" As he stood there to block the doors.
"Good man," the Doctor said, before turning to the Queen. Rose looked taken aback by it. It was just not fair. How many times could a man get killed?
"Your Majesty, the diamond." The Doctor extended his hand.
"For what purpose?" Victoria exhaled.
"The purpose it was designed for," the Doctor said urgently.
With one last reassuring look to Rose, the guard closed the doors shut under her nose, locking them as he took a sword from a display on the wall and stood ready with the werewolf coming up the stairs.
As soon as Victoria handed over the diamond, the Doctor rushed to the control wheel of the telescope.
"Rose," he called out for her and she didn't waste time to join him.
"Lift it. Come on." He began working on the wheel. It was hard to do so, just as the last time.
"Is this necessary?" Robert asked impatiently.
"Yes it is," the Doctor said under his breath.
"Then I'll join you," Robert said firmly, as he joined on Rose's side.
The Doctor beamed at him. Must have forgotten he existed, Rose thought. As he didn't ask him to help them out.
Rose closed her eyes, when she heard the screams of a man being ripped apart. Victoria was already holding up her jet cross and started praying. The Doctor and Robert were lifting the adjuster with desperation.
"You said the telescope is of no use, Doctor," Robert breathed.
"It doesn't work as a telescope because that's not what it is. It's a light chamber. It magnifies the light rays like a weapon. We've just got to power it up." The Doctor told him, as he was still lifting the wheel.
"Power up how exactly?" Robert persisted, feeling lost of whether he was not mad, lifting up the telescope with the wolf right outside the doors.
"Moonlight," Rose said under her breath. The Doctor grinned at her, as she formed a smile on her own lips.
"Come on!" The Doctor urged them.
They watched the moon starting to shine down into the telescope lens and bouncing between the prisms, magnifying as it went. At the same time the werewolf broke in, making the trio turn around, watching it going for Queen Victoria.
"Your Majesty!" Robert tried to reach her, but he didn't have to, as the Doctor slid the diamond over to where the light hit the floor. It refracted upwards, catching the werewolf in its beam and lifting it up off the floor. The wolf turned back into a young man, hanging as if crucified in mid air, taking everyone's breath away. Queen Victoria watching it in awe.
"Make it brighter. Let me go," the man pleaded.
The Doctor blinked a few times to compose himself, as he went to adjust the magnification on the eyepiece. The man turned back into a wolf shape, howling and vanishing in thin air.
Everyone exhaled the breath. Only Victoria was looking at a small scratch on her wrist.
"Your Majesty?" The Doctor slowly approached her, looking back at Rose just before asking. "Did it bite you?"
Robert stormed his way to the Queen, now feeling nervous. "Your Majesty-"
"No, it's, it's a cut, that's all." She dismissed them, looking somehow intrigued by the cut.
Where had the rather die than let herself be infected gone to?
"If that thing bit you?" The Doctor cautiously made his way to Victoria.
"It was a splinter of wood when the door came apart. It's nothing." She held her gaze on the cut.
The Doctor was not buying it. "Let me see?" He tried for her hand, but was slapped back.
"It is nothing." She backed away a bit. "Escort me back, Sir Robert."
"Right away, Ma'am."
It was already early in the morning, when the distress ceased in the manor and everyone were informed to be present at the drawing room at 6 am. Her and the Time Lord decided for a cup of tea just before the meeting. They had a small chat along with it, and Rose felt herself easy up as the Doctor stopped shooting her doubtful glances. Laughing and some happy yells could be heard outside the room.
At least for the moment.
They didn't see a suspicious glare coming from the Queen herself as she passed the room. But nobody had too much of a chance to dwell on it, as the appointed time reached its existence.
In the presence of the whole household, the Doctor and Rose knelt before Queen Victoria, who was armed with a sword. The pair sharing a glance, smiling.
"By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee Sir Doctor of Tardis." She put the sword on the Doctor's right shoulder, then left. "By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee Dame Rose of the Powell Estate." She did same for Rose. The Doctor looked at her being knighted in amusement.
"You may stand."
"Many thanks, Ma'am." The Doctor thanked her with all honesty.
"Thank you." Rose bowed slightly. Her smile was a bit forced, though. She knew what was coming next.
"Your Majesty, you said last night about receiving no message from the great beyond. I think your husband cut that diamond to save your life." The Doctor spoke fondly. "He's protecting you even now, Ma'am, from beyond the grave," he ended softly.
"Indeed." The Queen trailed off. "Then you may think on this also." She paused a bit. Rose could barely hold a snort. "That I am not amused." She shot a glare at Rose.
The Doctor mouthed an "Oh", grimacing at his loss. Rose just grinned happily.
Well, she may have cheated a little bit, but oh well. No real harm done.
"Not remotely amused," Victoria exclaimed in an attempt to take their attention back. Rose pressed her lips together.
"And henceforth, I banish you," Victoria stated.
"I'm sorry?" The Doctor was taken aback.
"I rewarded you, Sir Doctor, and now you are exiled from this empire, never to return." The Doctor looked at her with dumbfounded expression. Rose taking it in calmly.
"I don't know what you are, the two of you," Victoria continued in a whisper, stepping closer to them. "Or where you're from, but I know that you consort with stars and magic and think it fun. And your relationship with your cousin's wife brings shame in my kingdom." The Doctor tried to open his mouth to correct her but she cut him off with a sharp look. "Whether or not he may be of this world."
"Your world is steeped in terror and blasphemy and death." She was staring into the Doctor's eyes, his face solemn now. "And I will not allow it," she said in a threatening voice. "You will leave this shores and you will reflect, I hope, on how you came to stray so far from all that is good, and how much longer you will survive this terrible life." Rose gulped at that.
This woman really knew how to make the person uncomfortable. It made Rose itch to launch herself at her to demand her to take back her words. They will survive. With this Estate being their greatest challenge. Rose glared at the woman, declaring a mental war at her. Victoria moved a bit, frowning even, but she quickly composed herself.
"Now leave my world, and never return." She stepped back, her giving the both of them a dangerous look.
There was a pause of some sort, when Rose leaned in to whisper to the Doctor's ear. "What 'bout the TARDIS?" The Doctor grinned at her, making her puzzled.
"Very well, Ma'am." The Doctor made a graceful bow. "We shall leave your presence at once." And before the guards could make their way to escort the pair, the Doctor took Rose's hand into his and uttered only one word.
"Run."
Once back inside the TARDIS, panting heavily from their running upstairs to where the TARDIS was held at and while still trying to avoid the guns shooting at them, Rose dropped herself into the jump seat.
"That's just not fair," Rose exhaled. "All that running, and we still had to run for our lives to reach the TARDIS." They both chuckled at that.
"I know!" he sang. "But had to get inside the wardrobe at some cost. And I still think we got banished 'cos of your "cousin" thing." He shot her a look.
"Well, nobody told you to make me your cousin's wife," Rose mumbled under her breath.
"You started it!" The Doctor pointed playfully at her.
"Only because you were going to make me some sort of cheap runaway feral child you bought for a few pence in London!" she cried in defense.
His eyes widened in recognition. "How d'you know that?"
Rose just rolled her eyes. "Wouldn't be the first now, would it?"
The Doctor sniffed, choosing to ignore the obvious.
Rose sighed. "Having a husband that devoted to stars you'd think she tolerated it more than this... but guess it was just a bit too much for her."
"Naah," he insisted. "She must have thought our actions were too inappropriate for her to watch."
The Doctor saw how a sly grin started to appear on her face. "Are you saying we're having an inappropriate relationship?" Rose teased him, the Doctor looking at her in utter disbelief.
"Wha-. No! No, that's-" he faltered, but Rose saved him with a laugh.
"I still can't believe the TARDIS was there all the time. And how did it even fit?" Rose shook her head in disbelief while smiling. The Doctor took a breath, as he collected his thoughts.
"That was the perception filter, and TARDIS used the Time Lord's technology, making the cupboard bigger on the inside," the Doctor exclaimed all happily. "And I'll tell you what." He looked at her meaningfully, grinning.
"What?" she breathed.
"Queen Victoria the werewolf!" he sang.
"You truly believe that she is?" she teased him.
"Could be," the Doctor said lightly.
"The Royal Family of the werewolves." Rose chuckled.
"Could be." The Doctor grinned at her. "No, but really, the funny thing is, Queen Victoria did actually suffer a mutation of the blood. It's historical record. They used to call it the Royal Disease." He started his story while pressing buttons on the console. "Aaand her children had the Royal Disease. Maybe she gave them a quick nip." They both chuckled at that.
"Although." He came to consider. "A single wolf cell could take a hundred years to mature." He backed away from the console, thinking deeply. "Might be ready by..." He trailed off. "Oh," he exclaimed. "Early 21st century?" he sang, looking at her.
"Nah, that's just ridiculous!" She laughed. "Mind you, Princess Anne," she said in all seriousness.
"I'll say no more," the Doctor joked, getting back on the console.
"And if you think about it, they're very private." Rose chuckled, slapping slightly on the Doctor's back, making him turn around. "They plan everything in advance. They could schedule themselves around the moon. We'd never know!" she sang, making him giggle. "And they like hunting! They love blood sports." Now the Doctor was laughing out loud, his head pulled back as he turned to face the console again.
"Oh my God, they're werewolves!" she exclaimed, jumping of the jump seat to swirl in a circle.
Laughter could be heard outside the TARDIS doors, followed by eager wolf howls. This was theirs everyday life.
to be continued...
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