(AN) Thanks again to anyone who is supporting this story! I thought I'd try replying to some reviews, seeing as I've never done that before and I really wanted to try it out!

Purple Guest: I'm glad that you like the story from the Doctor's point of view! I'm going to try and incorporate more of that into later chapters. And yeah, the Doctor is kind of out if it right now. It will take a while for things to settle in now that he's got a parallel Rose on the TARDIS. Also, thanks for consistently reviewing my chapters!

TiaKisu: There isn't much difference personality-wise between the Doctor on Rose's universe and the one in this universe. This just goes to show it. As for the TARDIS landing on earth, you will learn more about that in future chapters, including this one.

Thanks again for all reviews! Enjoy!

Rose awoke with a gasp. The dim room swam before her before becoming gaining some clarity, and she sank back into her pillows, shutting her eyes. For some reason her mouth tasted horrible, like something had burnt there, and her throat was raw and sore.

Rose swallowed, cringing, and then slowly pulled her legs over the side of the bed, padding over to the bathroom. Upon reaching there, she made her way over to the sink and swished a cup of water. Her head was aching something awful, so she then proceeded to knock down two of the pain pills next to the sink.

These actions didn't have much presence in Rose's absent-minded, sleepy brain, until she froze in the doorframe before she was about to go back to her room.

Rose was on the TARDIS. Which, under ordinary circumstances was shocking enough in it of itself. But she wasn't supposed to be on the TARDIS, not at all. The memories from earlier in that day flooded back into her brain, and she involuntarily clutched at her throat, half expecting to feel the suffocating tar coming up from her lungs.

But Rose was breathing fine, and altogether feeling fine aside from the symptoms she had experienced upon waking. She had feared in her last moments before passing out outside that she would die there, succumbing to the Viscitis disease that the Doctor had told her about. But apparently, someone had found her and taken her back to the TARDIS.

It only could be the Doctor, for he was the only one with access to the ship. This meant that he was probably still on board somewhere. With this knowledge, Rose crept out of the bathroom and went back into her room. She flipped on the lamp beside her bed, squinting slightly as she grew accustomed to the light. When she did, she noticed a small slip of paper on the bedside table that she hadn't noticed before. She picked it up and unfolded it.

Rose,

You contracted Viscitis, and your symptoms were more severe because you hadn't been exposed to this type of dust before. I brought you back to the TARDIS and cleared your lungs, but that doesn't mean you should go wandering off, you're still sick. I'm out by the camp, and I'll be back soon. STAY WHERE YOU ARE.

-Doctor

Rose scoffed, tossing the note back on the table. As if. She was going to find the Doctor, wherever he had pranced off to. Of course, as soon as this thought popped into her head, Rose started coughing, her throat burning as she doubled over.

After a moment of this, Rose straightened, if anything, more determined than before. She wasn't going to let a petty little bug keep her in the TARDIS. Every moment she was idle, her family and Mickey could be in even more danger than before.

On this note, she marched out of her room and towards the console room. On her way, she passed by the wardrobe. Glancing down, she could see that her clothes were a mess. A change of attire was in order.

The old TARDIS in her universe had always provided her with whatever clothing best suited the situation she was going into, moving the clothing items to the front of the wardrobe so she could retrieve them easily. Rose wasn't as sure about this TARDIS. It hadn't done anything that had notably indicated that she wasn't welcome, and it had provided her with clothes once before, when she had first arrived on the ship. But she hadn't gotten much time to know it so far, so she couldn't really be sure. The TARDIS was a sentient being, and Rose knew that she could easily have a completely different persona in this universe.

Rose eased open the door to the wardrobe, and much to her relief, there was some clothing around her size on the front and foremost rack. To her surprise, however, along with the shirt and trousers provided, there was a space suit. A bright orange space suit, very similar to the ones that she and the Doctor had donned frequently on their adventures in the other universe.

Rose grabbed the clothing and then ducked in to the wardrobe, changing into them. She grabbed the spacesuit as well, but neglected to put it on, instead folding it up and carrying it along with the helmet as she headed into the console room.

A shrill beeping sound hit Rose's ears as soon as she entered the room, and she cringed, scanning for the source of the sound. She quickly found that it was coming from the monitor, and approached it, dropping the suit down on the jump seat.

The screen was flashing, and rather than displaying some complex scientific figures or percentages, like Rose was expecting, there was something that shocked her beyond anything.

Hand on her mouth, Rose shook her head and backed away from the screen. There had to be some sort of mistake. If the information on the screen was true, then they were in bigger trouble than she could have ever conceived previously.

Rose ran for the door of the TARDIS and grabbed the handle, yanking. But the door wouldn't budge. Rose knew that by default, it wouldn't lock like this, and it should be able to open.

"Let me go!" Rose shouted, turning to the console accusingly. Her doubts from earlier about the TARDIS were certainly returning. Clearly the only cause of the door locking like this was the ship's meddling. "The Doctor doesn't know what he's saying, he has to know this inform-!" Rose paused as another fit of coughing overtook her.

Gasping, Rose directed her gaze at the console once more. "I need to get to him, I need to-" She froze once more, this time for an entirely different reason. She now saw the spacesuit sitting on the jump seat.

Five minutes later found Rose fully decked out in the suit and helmet, going for the door once more. Not to her surprise, it now swung open with ease. It was what lay beyond that was shocking.

A thick, impermeable smog filled the air in front of her. It was a grayish brown in color, and almost entirely opaque. Accompanying this were the sounds of yelling and what sounded like explosions. Before Rose could even begin to get used to this alarming scene, some massive form fell right in front of the TARDIS entrance, causing her to shriek and jump backwards. She could only see as much as a few steps in front of her, so it was impossible to discern who or what the massive thing was. She reached up to the top of her helmet and flipped a switch, turning on the headlight. It didn't help much, but she could see slightly farther in now.

It was one of the creatures from before. One of the large, white creatures with the tendrils lay in front of her, something that resembled mud leaking out of its side. Rose ran to it, dropping down on to the ground. She had seen one of these creatures die before, when she had been outside the bubble. It had fallen straight from the sky when coming into contact with the bubble. Now that Rose back to that, the occurrence seemed to be rather peculiar. It had just fallen, without any reason other than hitting the bubble.

However, the circumstances of that were slowly causing this creature's death were much less bizarre. Unlike the other one, it was clearly injured. It's large body heaved up and down weakly as more sludge leaked out of its side, coming from what appeared to be a large ragged cut. Rose's hands hovered over the creature, her eyebrows knitting together from concern. She had positively no idea what to do in this situation.

"Get out of the way!" someone yelled. Rose jumped with a start as someone pelted past her through the dust, clutching rags to their face and hefting what appeared to be a poorly crafted spear over their shoulder. Rose could only watch with dismay as the person threw the spear, effectively striking down another one of the creatures.

The creature gave a large bellow and plummeted to the ground, before Rose knew what she was doing, she was running, running as far as she could because that was all she could bring herself to do. She couldn't even begin to fathom what had happened out here, what with the air somehow becoming even more noxious and people suddenly making it their priority to kill these creatures. This had all happened in a matter of hours, with a jab of guilt, Rose thought of the possibility that she and the Doctor were somehow responsible.

But that wasn't first priority. Rose had to tell the Doctor what she had seen on the monitor. Much to her relief, the air cleared slightly up ahead, and the thin turquoise membrane of the shield the Doctor had set up became visible. Rose quickly ducked into it, and sighed with relief at the sight relatively clean air in front of her. She then proceeded to yank off her helmet as another coughing fit overtook her. Her chest stabbed and ached with each ragged breath, and she swayed, her vision blurring before her. However, after standing there for a few moments, she was able to regain her breath. The treated air soothed her burning lungs and made it so she could properly breathe.

Rose looked around, searching for someone who could possibly know where the Doctor was. But it appeared that the camp was nearly deserted. A few stray tents here and there had people by them, but said people were mostly the children and the elderly. Rose's safest bet was to seek out Harriet Jone's tent and see if the Doctor had gone there.

It took her a lot longer to reach Harriet Jone's tent than it had last time when she had been running around the camp. Everything in her body ached, and she was horribly sweaty in the suit. Each and every step was laborious.

She eventually got there though, and much to her relief, upon reaching the tent, she heard a loud northern accent shouting from within. Rose's first instinct was to go right on into the tent, but then she remembered the Doctor's note that he had left behind. She most liKelly wouldn't be well received if she just popped right on in.

"Harriet Jones, this is no time to have your civilians running amok and shooting down aliens! Your atmospheric toxins just had a dramatic increase, and they're all going to suffocate!" Rose heard the Doctor yell. She crouched down by the tent flap, leaning intently towards the sound of his voice.

"Doctor, you are mistaken. Clearly the creatures are responsible in some way shape or form for this plague and as leader of these people I am responsible for-"

"The creatures haven't even done anything! You have no proof of anything whatsoever, and clearly these people are just looking for an excuse to jump to violence! What we need to do is-"

"Doctor, I am leader of this camp, not you," Rose almost cringed at the coldness in Harriet's tone. "Since I am hospitable to some extent, I won't kick you out of my tent. But as of right now, I am exiting to view the progress. I assure you, the disease will fade away as soon as these pests are annihilated."

The sound of Harriet's footsteps on the dirt became louder and louder, and in vain Rose tried to duck out of the way of the flap. But Harriet was already storming out of the tent, and Rose was in plain sight as she surveyed the area around her. In a moment, her gaze had fell on her.

Before Harriet could say anything, Rose pressed a finger to her lips, shaking her head. She then gestured to some distance away from the rent, and Harriet nodded curtly, albeit with a somewhat surprised look on her face. Rose got to her feet, and the two of them proceeded a safe distance away.

"Rose Tyler, what are you doing here?" Harriet exclaimed, as soon as they had gotten out of the Doctor's earshot.

"I have some very important information that I have to relay to the Doctor," Rose replied, her eyes darting nervously back towards the tent. "But I can't see him quite yet because I'm not supposed to be here."

Harriet raised an eyebrow. "Then why bother coming in the first place?"

For some peculiar. reason, Rose could feel her face heating up. "Jus' wanted to make sure he's safe, that's all," she said, trying in vain to appear composed. "But that's all good and done. So, for now, tell me what's goin' on out there." She gestured to the exterior of the bubble

Harriet decidedly ignored her apparent embarrassment, continuing to speak in a business-like manner. "We have reason to believe that those creatures are responsible for the disease and pollution."

Rose crossed her arms, a perplexed look coming onto her face. "But I thought that the Doctor already explained all that stuff with the asteroid and that planet?"

"Well..." Harriet started, trailing off. "It's possible that there are multiple causes."

Rose shook her head. "But I heard the Doctor in that tent right there saying that-"

"We found one of them by you when you contracted Viscitis!" Harriet finally exclaimed, interrupting Rose. "And people had long suspected that the creatures were possibly responsible for all of our issues, so they seized the chance to attack!"

"But it didn't do anything!" Rose retaliated. "For some reason, it died when it hit the shield that the Doctor constructed. It didn't do anything to me!"

"But don't you see, Rose?" Harriet said, her voice suddenly dangerously quiet. "These people are desperate. We were abandoned! We were left behind and are now dying out. We need something to latch onto, some kind of cause, anything!"

Rose backed away from this woman, this parallel Harriet Jones, disgust apparent on her features. She reminded her of the Harriet Jones who had attacked the Sycorax ship so long ago in the other universe. A cold, merciless woman who had become bred for war. Someone who one touch too far to bring happiness to her people.

But at the same time, before Rose stood a disheveled, broken woman who had once probably been a strong leader. Her society had faced unexpected crisis that only degenerated as time went on, and along with it, she had disintegrated. Occasionally she put on some fake bravado to save face, but on the inside, she was ever so very tired.

"Rose!" A sudden sensation of dread filled Rose as she hear the Doctor's call behind her. She had known that eventually he would emerge from the tent, but she had wished to prolong their encounter as long as possible. She had directly defied what he had told her to do. She was weak and sick and would only interfere with his plans. Not to mention, this Doctor couldn't possibly know her as well as the other Doctor, so he'd be less willing to cut her slack. She turned around, completely expecting to see the oncoming storm charging at her.

But instead, she saw the Doctor, just the Doctor, jogging towards her, and as he neared, only worry was written across his face.

"Rose, are you all right?!" The Doctor asked upon reaching her. His eyes frantically travelled up and down her body, and before she knew what was happening he had clamped a palm on her forehead.

"You're burning up!" he exclaimed a moment later. He placed his hands on both of her shoulders, rubbing his them up and down her arms. His concerned eyes boring into hers.

"Why did you leave the TARDIS?" the Doctor asked softly. "Rose, you're still sick!" The look in his eyes made Rose feel horribly guilty, which was worse than the shouting that she'd been expecting. She was worrying him, out of all things, and that made the fact that this man was the Doctor so much more real.

"I have to tell you something, it's urgent," Rose said firmly, trying to draw her feverish brain back to reality. The warmth that spread through her chest as the Doctor gripped her arms didn't help in the slightest.

"What is it?" The Doctor asked, removing his hands, his ears holding the slightest pink tinge. Once more, he was all business.

"Doctor, you thought that you landed the TARDIS incorrectly," Rose said, eyes locking on his.

The Doctor gave her a confused look. "I clearly did make a steering mistake though."

Rose shook her head. "No, you didn't." A second before Rose said her next sentence, she could see fear settling in on the Doctor's face, understanding of what she was saying before she even said it.

"Doctor, right now we are on planet Earth." Rose shut her eyes, sighing heavily as the truth settled down on her shoulders.

"And we're here six months after we last left."