(AN) I apologize for not updating in so long, but I've honestly had a rather hectic schedules as of late. Enjoy this latest chapter though!
There were numerous emotions that Rose experienced as she felt the Doctor's lips pressed against hers. At first, confusion, shortly followed by a general inclination to respond to the action. But then, just as she was snaking her arms around his neck: realisation.
Rose pulled away from him, but it was too late. She could already feel the energy subsiding, the warm tingly sensation that had formerly inhabited her fingertips slowly fading out. Now, the Doctor stood in front of her, his skin glowing as her's had before.
"I pulled it out of you, in the other universe," he stated calmly. "That's why you lived."
Rose wanted to cry out, to protest, but instead rather unexpected words tumbled out of her mouth. "That's the only reason you just kissed me?!" she exclaimed.
The Doctor stared at her hardly. "What do you think?"
And Rose knew the answer, she felt the answer in her very core, and she was flooded with relief. But before she could respond, before she could say the words that she finally could scream aloud, the Doctor doubled over, clutching at his torso.
He yelled out, and Rose could only watch, because she had seen this before, and she had already seen these things. She had already seen the Doctor save her life and then die in front of her eyes. But then, something changed. Something shifted in the air, and different word left her lips.
"No," whispered Rose Tyler. And then more firmly, "No!"
The Doctor looked up at her, his form trembling in anticipation of the release of the energy that now sat inside him coiled like a spring, but Rose didn't let that faze her.
"This," said Rose,"Is my universe. And therefore, I can make it do whatever I want." And before she or the Doctor could truly register what was happening, Rose shut her eyes, and took a deep breath.
When she opened them, by some unknown process, the energy had exited the Doctor's form, and he now stood empty, returned to his former state. The tingling sensation returned to Rose's fingers, and she didn't need to see herself, only the shocked look on the Doctor's face, to know that she was glowing, and crumbling inside.
"Why," he simply stated, voice broken. "Why are you doing this, Rose?"
"Because it isn't real, Doctor," said Rose. "No matter what you say, it isn't real, it never will be."
"Why?" He repeated, like a petulant child.
"Because I said so," replied Rose. "I say it's not real, so therefore it isn't real." And that's when the pain settled in. Not the emotional pain, for that had lingered for a very long time already. The physical pain. The pain that started as an ache in Rose's chest, but then sharpened into a stabbing sensation, hitting every nerve ending in her whole body. She assumed that everything was going blurry, but she had no honest idea, because she had already shut her eyes from the pain, crumpling to the floor. Someone was screaming, and Rose had no honest idea whether it was her, or the Doctor, or both.
This is death thought Rose, and if she thought it couldn't get worse, a sudden pressure emerged on her sides, as though something was clenching around her, squeezing her tightly. And someone was shouting over the shrill screaming, and after a moment the pressure died off, only to be replaced by a similar sensation in her chest. A jerking, pounding feeling, as though her very heart was tearing out of her chest.
And then...nothing. Though, Rose supposed that even feeling nothing was a type of sensation, if you were indeed aware that you were experiencing nothing. But that even that was untrue. Rose couldn't signify up and down, left and right, and she couldn't feel anything in her body. If she even had a body, she supposed. But somehow, she was still thinking. Somehow, she was still existing.
She wasn't sure if she... Existed, in this state of nothingness for a day, a year, or a matter of seconds. Time wasn't a line, the Doctor had told her once. It was an ocean. An ocean full of cascading waves and the unknown swirling in its depths. And ocean that he hovered above uncertainly, and was never quite sure what lived at the bottom.
But eventually, like all things, the nothingness ended. Eventually, it fizzled out of her fingertips like a spilled soda on a table. When she first felt sensation in her limbs, it was an impossibly foreign experience. Something entirely new. But soon, she remembered, that she had once felt before, and everything was actually quite all right.
But she didn't want to open her eyes. Because even though every nerve in her body had died for the shortest time, everything in her head had remained. As long s Rose kept her eyes firmly shut, she could trick herself into the perfect delusion that she was still in that former universe. That the Doctor was still alive. That she hadn't ruined everything.
"I know you are awake," a voice said. Mickey's voice, to be more specific, but Rose knew it wasn't actually him.
"You shouldn't have selected me," Rose responded. Her voice sounded raspy from disuse.
There was a pause, a moment of silence, and then it spoke again. "We are aware. We had to release you from the beetle. You were a failed experiment."
Rose still kept her eyes shut. "Where am I?"
"Where you were before," said the creature. And then Rose opened her eyes, and she sighed internally as she did so. She had been able to perceive that she was laying on her back before, and she now knew where. She lay in the exact room she had been in when this whole thing began. A white lab room, and Mickey sat beside her, blank eyes fixed at some point on the wall.
"I don't understand," said Rose softly. "This is where I first saw the Doctor, the Doctor from that universe. How can I be here now?"
"This isn't the same room," it said. "Your mind replicated this room when it went into this universe. This is where you were brought after you were infiltrated by human substances that rendered you unconscious. We attached the beetle to your back, and then when you awoke, you were in a parallel version of this room, where we were preparing to wipe your memories."
"How were you able to travel there with me?" asked Rose, rather confused.
The Reddolyte turned to her now, and for the first time ever Rose saw the briefest flicker of emotion on it's blank features. "We are part of the beetle," it said flatly. "When the beetle dies, we die with it."
Rose cringed with this realization. "Then... It's still on my back?" she asked hesitantly.
It nodded. "Now," it said, "You must die."
Rose's heart nearly stopped in her chest, and she jerked away from the creature. But before she could truly move, it had risen, yanking down a strap on either end of the table and securing her to it in the blink of an eye.
"Why do you have to kill me?!" She exclaimed, writhing in her bonds.
The creature walked away from her, putting a briefcase on the small table next to her. "Either you die, or the beetle dies."
"Well obviously kill the bee-!" And then Rose realized. The Reddolytes would die. She was essentially telling the creature that bent before her to kill itself.
But just as the creature was flipping open the briefcase, most like.y to pull out some kind of ghastly weapon, the door burst open, a roaring sound filling room. A familiar roaring sound. The sound of a TARDIS materializing. Rose's mouth fell open, and she gaped open,y as the mammoth box appeared in the doorway. He had arrived. He had come for her. How, Rose didn't know. She didn't even know why. But somehow, he was there.
The box sat there silently in all its majesty for the briefest moment, and then the door burst open. Rose anticipated crying the Doctor's name, in them locking eyes as he rushed out of the doors in his hurry to save her. But she was rather shocked to see someone altogether unfamiliar step out of those doors. A man, yes. But he was short. Thin. He had gray, wiry, hair, and looked significantly older than the Doctor. He wore a navy blue suit with a red lining and black combat boots. Rose could do nothing but stare at him for at least ten seconds before she regained the ability of speech.
"Doctor...?" she asked hesitantly.
The man glanced at her as she uttered his name, raising a rather aggressive looking eyebrow. "Yes," he said calmly. "But how do you know my name?"
(AN) Dont panic. If you haven't seen season 8 yet, I promise there won't be any spoilers. Just know that this is the twelfth doctor, or the most recent one.