Rose watched the Doctor as he pulled apart the machine, stripping wires and rearranging pieces of metal and screws that she would never remember what to do with. She didn't want to interrupt him but she thought he should know if she were about to faint.
"Doctor? Something is wrong. I don't know how to describe it exactly but it feels like...it's like everything inside me is just...shutting down." As she spoke it seemed that even her voice was fading out.
The Doctor looked at her in alarm and suddenly remembered the whole reason the Queen had wanted to trade bodies in the first place; she was dying.
"I know, and you're going to be okay. You trust me right? I'm going to fix this and you are going to be all right." He was talking to both her and himself. He understood the feeling of shutting down all too well. He'd stomped down the regeneration energy that had hummed through every part of his being for almost too long. It was beginning to fade just like the Queen's body. The clock was running out for both of them now.
Rose smiled at the Doctor. "Of course I trust you." She said softly. That was an understatement.
"You shouldn't." the Queen snapped from the chair where she'd been tied up. "He can't change us back. I'm keeping this body and you are going to die anyway."
"Oh, shut it." Rose snapped back without looking at her. "You don't know him. He can do anything. He's very, very clever." She smiled up at the doctor, rolling her eyes. It was very strange to look at the Queen's rapidly aging face and it still be so Rose. He smiled back for just a second before returning to the machine so that he could swallow the lump in his throat without her noticing. He could not betray her faith in him. He would not let her die.
"AHA!" The Doctor exclaimed as he lunged away from the machine and turned to the Queen in Rose's body to scan her with the sonic instead, then scanning Rose in the Queen's body.
"I see it now. Well, I don't see it but I see part of it and part of it is enough. You think you kill them don't you? You think you just take their bodies and they become nothing? Well, your Highness, you are wrong. No one is nothing and you can't just make a person vanish as if they were. They've got to go somewhere and they did." He stared at Rose then as if trying to remember something.
"Oh! ROSE! We saw them! We saw them and we heard them. The singing, Rose. It was all the clones of this wretched family. This blasted machine has trapped them in a state of pure energy." He dashed around, fiddling with the machines in the room until they were whirring and humming with life again.
Rose felt as if her legs could not hold her up any longer and she sat down hard on the nearest chair. "The stars..." She half whispered, remembering the beautiful green lights they'd marveled over when they'd arrived.
"Yes, the stars. They're stuck because this infernal machine doesn't kill them, it just replaces their consciousness with hers in the bodies. They become trapped in the atmosphere as those stars. That's why they were so bright, and why they seemed so close. But you, my brilliant Rose, you wouldn't go would you?"
Rose felt her chest tighten as he smiled at her with such tenderness. This wasn't right. It was more emotion than the doctor almost ever allowed himself and it felt amazing but still wrong somehow. She began to be more worried about the Doctor himself than about being trapped in the Queen's body.
"Doctor?" She said, still finding it difficult to reconcile her thoughts coming from the Queen's raspy voice. "We'll figure it out, you know that. We've probably been in worse scrapes than this."
He gave a little laugh, "Probably."
"No, really. I mean, the Daleks were winning and we handled that, and Cassandra was going to burn us alive and we handled that. Werewolves, Doctor. Handled them too. We always win, you and me. Always."
The Doctor stared at her for a moment before his face burst into his trademark grin. "I know what to do. Not about everything, not about her," He said, nodding towards the still fuming Queen, "or about them," now nodding towards the securely locked door where the Queen's servants had begun knocking very loudly and calling out for her. "But, I do know what to do about you and I."
He stood then, taking a deep breath and letting it out very slowly as a golden light began to shine around him. Rose remembered that all too well.
"Doctor!" She cried out as the light burst from every part of him. It consumed him entirely and he shouted in pain before looking directly at her and holding out his hand. Acting on instinct Rose used the last bit of strength she had to stand and take his hand in hers.
Suddenly she too was consumed with light. It filled her up ad streamed from every part of her for just a moment before the they both fell to the floor. Rose sat up quickly, ignoring the dizziness to inspect the Doctor, almost afraid of what she would find.
"Rose, are you all right?" He asked, rubbing his forehead and running his hand through his hair as if to banish the dizziness he too felt. She laughed with joy.
"You're still you!" She cried out, tackling him in a hug. He laughed in return, "I just used enough energy to heal myself and gave the rest to you. You didn't answer me though; How do you feel?"
"I feel perfect." She said, only just then realizing that she did indeed feel completely well.
"Not quite perfect," The Doctor shook his head, "Not until you and she switch back, which we can do right now." He announced, jumping up and smacking the side of the machine one more time, causing it to buzz even louder.
"I already told you," The Queen sighed, "You cannot switch us back so this whole thing is pointless. When my people get in here, which they will very soon, it would go better for you if I wasn't tied up." She sounded so bored and so sure of herself it was hard not to take her seriously but not for the Doctor.
"When I get things set straight it would go better for you if you didn't compound your many wrongs with empty threats."
After Rose and the Queen were once again hooked up to the machine the Doctor stopped working for a moment, looking straight into Rose's eyes, "Rose, you have to fight, just like before. Fight to stay with me, right?"
"Right." She whispered, closing her eyes so the look his wouldn't make her cry. Bad Wolf... I am the Bad Wolf... She kept repeating to herself hoping somehow she could trigger the force that had kept her intact the first time. She felt none of the power from the time vortex this time however and regardless of whether her eyes were open or not, she still only saw the Doctor.
"Right." He repeated, then took a deep breath before pressing the button to start the machine.