Title: AU; Part Five Pairing: Rose/ Duplicate, Rose/ 9th Doctor, Donna/Duplicate
Series: Dr Who, series 4 Rating: 15 Type: Fanfiction, Angst
Summary: The board is set and the players are in place… it's all going to kick-off now!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Dr Who characters or anything from the universe of Dr Who. I am just taking the characters and playing with them a while – promising to restore them whole and unblemished! Thanks to Russell T for creating these toys for me to enjoy. Please don't take any of my playing as having any bearing on the actual franchise. Enjoy.
()()()
Rose had completely forgotten in all the rush that she already had a Doctor… who was now staring at her with wide brown eyes, having caught her as she fell out the TARDIS in a rush to re-live past adventures.
While charging down the ramp, shouting back directions as to where to find the living plastic, she was unaware that the TARDIS door had opened, with the click of slim fingers…fingers which now steadied her after colliding with their owner.
"Rose," the human doctor breathed in surprise.
"Doctor…" She was dumbfounded. How could she explain this?
And then she heard a familiar voice from behind him ask, "Do you know her?"
Rose couldn't believe it. There was no way…
But as she pulled herself upright, subconsciously smoothing his brown, pin-stripe jacket as she peered around him, her eyes caught the familiar flame hair and blue eyes of Donna Noble…
Donna Noble… stood outside the TARDIS, wearing a lovely, cerulean coloured dress… a dinner dress…
And now she looked at the human Doctor, she noticed his suit was pressed and how the ridiculous pumps he always wore matched the colour of his tie and the crazy mangle of hair was tamed with gel.
She was about to ask what the hell was going on, when she realised his focus was on the man behind her…
And even through Donnas question of, "Are you two going to come out of that box, or what?" The human Doctor stared straight into the Timelord Doctors eyes.
"You…" The human Doctor breathed in amazement… "Or, rather… me…"
"How did you get in here?" The Timelord asked, defensively moving behind the console. "The collective hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through those doors and yet, here you are with a daft suit and a silly hair-cut."
"How did I get in?" The human intoned, rubbing the back of his head, awkwardly. "Well … I kind of… clicked…" he said with a demonstration.
The Timelord shook his head and said sweetly, "The TARDIS doesn't work like that…"
"That's what I thought…" the human nodded, "turns out we were both wrong."
The taller mans eyes narrowed on the newcomer, "Who are you?"
"Is there someone else in there?" Donna asked from outside.
"And is that your little friend?" The Timelord turned to Rose, shaking his head with a look of betrayal in his eyes, "You led me into a trap. And I trusted you."
Rose felt the ground spin away from her in the chaos as Donna Noble entered the TARDIS and gaped at what she saw…
"It's…" she stuttered, "It's…"
"Bigger on the inside…" the human Doctor supplied.
"Bigger?" Donna said, eyes wide, "bigger is painting with light colours and using mirrors… it's huge. I mean… huge!"
"Thank you," the Timelord smiled widely, "I hadn't noticed myself…"
"And who the hell are you," Donna demanded as Rose looked on, unable to think, let-alone form words.
"I'm the Doctor," the Timelord said, throwing Rose the comment, "And who's she, the cats mother?"
"Is that street-talk or something?" Donna said, recovering herself and growing irritated, "Do I look like somone's mother?"
"Donna," the man in the suit said quietly, taking her hands in his, "I know this is a lot to take in… but we're in an alien ship."
Rose watched them a moment and saw a tenderness there she had not seen in him for months… he seemed so happy.
Then she looked back at the alien with a familiar face… her Doctor…
"John," Donna said, blowing out a confused breath… "I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm ok."
That was another surprise. Donna calling him John… he really had built a life for himself in this universe. Something Rose would never allow herself to do…
How long had he been seeing Donna?
"You're sure?" The human Doctor said under the other Doctors watching eyes.
"Yeah… Bigger on the inside… I can handle that. Just don't tell me there are aliens."
The human Doctor gritted his teeth and Donnas mouth dropped open.
"Are there aliens?" She asked, adjusting to the information and gasping, "Tell me there aren't aliens."
"Hands up all the aliens," the older man said to the air and looked surprised when the other man joined him in raising his hand.
"Right," he said, "I've had enough. I'm telling you what's going on," ringing a brass bell that hung from the ceiling, "all apes off the TARDIS."
"No, wait," the human Doctor said quickly, moving Donna behind him, "I can explain. I'm you, or I will be, in another universe."
"Lovely," the Doctor dismissed, "an alternate version of me. That's just what I need. But, you see, I don't have the time. You see, while you have been playing out your odd little drama on my doorstep, I have been calculating how to stop the destruction of your quaint little planet…. And I need you all to shut up and get out of my way."
Rose found herself in motion before she was aware of taking a step, "I'm coming with you."
The Doctor turned to her, a little fire lighting in his eyes, "Oh, is that so?"
"You're not getting rid of me," she said, wanting to say he'd done that once too often but, casting a glance toward the others in the room, she simply said, "you need the back-up."
The Doctors stern glare melted into a clownish smile as he admitted, "Probably do, yeah. In fact, I'd love it." Then he held out his hand for her, "Rose Tyler."
With a quick look toward John and Donna, Rose placed her hand in the Timelords certain grasp…
()
The duplicate Doctor watched history repeat as Rose placed her hand into that of this universes last surviving Time Lord… or so he assumed.
He felt a slight tug on his heart at the thought of all the adventures they might share together and what it had once meant to have Rose look at him the way she was now gazing at the man in the leather jacket.
Had she always looked at him in such a way back then?
Rather selfishly, he found he envied the other man. He had all their adventures to come and the human would have to remain behind.
"John," Donna said, quietly, "Who are these people?"
His eyes were drawn to his new companion and any chagrin he had felt at being reminded of all he had lost in his new human life was chased away by the hope that bloomed in his heart.
The other Doctor and Rose walked passed them and out of the TARDIS as he answered, "It's hard to explain, Donna. But they're going to save the world… a lot."
Manoeuvring her round, the duplicate Doctor guided her to the doors of the spaceship and was surprised when he heard her say, "Won't they need some help?"
After so much time together, The Doctor should have remembered this woman's capacity to surprise him… she had actually stopped him in his tracks as he gave a small laugh in thanks to the universe.
"I mean, I know I don't know the whole story here, but isn't that what you do?"
"I used to," he agreed, "a long time ago."
Donnas eyes narrowed, "Then why did you stop?"
There was a good question, but a better one would be how to answer it… did he really want to have the 'I knew you in an alternate reality' talk? Let alone mentioning that she was, in a way, sort-of, his mother?
An involuntary shudder ran down his spine.
Not using the word mother, he told himself, go with progenitor. Still creepy…
She was still waiting for an answer while he worked things through and The Doctor took a breath and said, "It's a long story…"
"But…" she continued, placing a gentle hand on his chest, "if I were making a difference… if I were saving the world… I wouldn't ever want to stop."
"Donna," he sighed, despairing at her self-depreciation, "you do make a difference. You wouldn't believe the difference you have made to me."
An unbelieving huff sounded as she shrugged, "I'm not special… just a temp from Chiswick…"
"One hundred words a minute," the Doctor finished the familiar sentence, to her surprise… "you are special, Donna Noble, you wouldn't believe how much. And I know much more about you aside from that."
Her brow rose, "I'll be asking you about that comment later," she told him. "But, if you have saved the world and they are saving the world… don't you think I can be a part of that?"
"I know you can," he said, taking up her hands in his, "But Donna… it will be dangerous."
She shrugged, "I get the feeling you've handled this kind of thing before."
"I have."
"Well…" Donna looked confused, "I trust you."
If it was possible for love to radiate from someone, the Doctor was certain it was beaming from every millimetre of his skin as he held out his hand and felt Donnas slide into place.
"Let's go then," he said.
"Lead the way."
()
Crazy; if there was one word that could sum up the past few days of Donna Nobles life that would have to be it.
She had gone from alone, unemployed and on the breadline… to high-flying PA, earning a pretty penny with a sort-of-boyfriend.
Kind-of-boyfriend?
He had asked her on a date, after all.
And as they raced after two of Earths heroes, Donna felt the rush of running hand-in-hand with this man. It felt safe and strangely familiar; like she was always meant to be here with him in the thick of danger.
The blonde girl, Rose, hadn't seemed too happy to see her. In fact, she'd reacted as if she knew her. Perhaps she did? Donna had worked in a lot of companies through the temp agency in the last couple of weeks. A day here and a day there… she couldn't recall everyone she had met or seen along the way.
But something a little more interesting than the way Rose had looked at her was how she had looked at John after seeing her. Rose hadn't seemed surprised at all, but had appeared more than a little jealous.
And then there was that thing she had called John… she had called him Doctor.
There were other things that had happened in that confused meeting she would store away to have John explain them later… things like that mad spaceship and how the older, grumpier man had made out he owned it… and described the blonde, John and Donna as apes and the Earth as their tiny, little planet.
He couldn't be an alien… no way! He looked so… human…
This was bonkers!
But as they headed down a set of stone stairs and into an underground facility, Donna decided to table all crazy thinking for after the group was done saving the world!
"I can't believe it," she heard the northern accent exclaim before joining the tall man and blonde girl in the large, open space, "We've actually arrived before you had time to set your plans in motion…"
"Seeding a level five planet is illegal under the laws set down by the Shadow Proclamation," the blonde said, walking to the man's side and staring down the stairwell to the level below.
Donna looked around, but couldn't see anything in the darkened space… she turned to John who was staring at the floor of the lower level with the same stern expression of the other two.
"We know you're there," the other man said, haughtily.
"Show yourself," the blonde demanded.
To Donna's amazement, the ground on the lower level began to shift and groan… she almost couldn't believe it, but the shape formed looked like a face.
"The Nestine consciousness," John informed her.
"Explain your presence here," the man said.
"What's going on?" Donna whispered as alien sounds broke and clicked in the air…
"The Nestines home world was destroyed in a time war," he nodded toward the face in the ground, "but it's a creature that feeds off the pollutants in the environment… and it wants to make a new home here, on Earth."
"That's fine… what's the problem?"
John tore his eyes away from the giant-faced alien to look at her, "Well… it would consume everything…"
Donna shrugged, "Look around. We have plenty of pollutants – this world was on the brink of collapse after the cybermen invaded…"
"Don't give me that," the northern man was saying in response to the aliens broken noises, "if you just needed to rest, you would have left by now. You're planning an invasion, plain and simple."
"So… the Nestine is tired?"
"Hurt," John corrected. "It's saying it came here to feed and once it's done and it's ship is repaired then it will leave."
"Well, that's fine then," Donna said and walked up to the Time Lord, clearing her throat. "Excuse me… but who are you to decide what's going to happen to this…" she glanced down to the giant puddle of goo… "creature…"
The taller man looked slightly dumb-founded and glanced toward the human in shock, "I'm the Doctor…"
"That's nice," she said, "I like a man with credentials… but who said you get to speak for our whole planet?"
The alien opened his mouth and, finding no words, looked a little dazzled.
Donna moved forward, "You can speak plastic, or whatever… right?"
The Timelord nodded, dumbly.
"Right then…" she said, looking down to the goo that churned unhappily beneath her, "You there… lets talk."