A/N: I'm just going to apologize for the plot twist that's coming in advance. So... Sorry. :D Although, on the bright side, you'll learn why Violet is so weird!
A cool breeze swept across the Scottish fields as safety clip after safety clip was attached to Rose's and Violet's backs. Preparing for the retrieval of the TARDIS seemed like it would take longer than actually going down into the hole. They had been here for about an hour now, with officers giving them orders and about a thousand different things to remember when down there. The attachment, although Rose had been reluctant to give it away, was currently being flown back to Torchwood London for examination.
Violet was acting strange about the entire thing, and honestly Rose couldn't put her finger on her. The woman was so strange, ever since she had met her she had acted weird about everything. Whether it was not being able to come along to do something or magically appearing in Scotland when Violet hadn't even known about the TARDIS being found until after Rose did. Sure, she smiled sometimes, Rose had even seen her make a bad pun or two, but when Violet looked at people it was as if she was making a choice. Rose's Egg buzzing snapped her out of her deep thoughts and she flipped it open, seeing a message from Julie.
"Where do you keep the Cheez-Its in your house?" The message read, making Rose roll her eyes even though nobody was really looking at her right now.
She typed her reply quickly, her fingers darting across the tiny keys, "In the rightmost drawer in the kitchen... Why are you in my house? I thought you were in Austria with Cam."
"He went alone. And it's okay, Jackie is here and she doesn't mind." Another message from Julie came seconds afterwards, "Well, she's sleeping, but I'm sure she doesn't mind."
After flipping the Egg shut she walked over to Violet who was now standing alone, fiddling with her harness. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Rose asked.
"Yes, I'm sure," Violet answered simply, snapping something shut and giving Rose a tiny grin. "We'll find your ship, Rose."
She nodded little bit in reply and walked back over to Finn, who was staring out at the hole with his arms folded across his chest. "Hey," he said without looking at her.
"You alright?" Rose asked with concern, blocking his view of the hole with her body and frowning. "You seem a bit off."
"It's weird to me that Violet would volunteer for this," Finn explained with a sigh. "She rarely came on our regular Torchwood missions, I've never met her family, she never talks about anyone in her personal life... Don't tell anyone I said this, but frankly, she scares me a bit."
"Think she's safe?"
"Oh, definitely. I can tell that much about her at first glance... It's just... She's hiding something, Rose, I guarantee it."
Rose nodded and walked over to where the rope that would be attached to her harness was coiled up, waiting to be used. A man attached the rope to her back and smiled with a look that could only be described as pity, "You ready?"
"Yep. Come on Violet, let's go down."
The beginning of the descent was definitely the worst part. Rose was terrified, breathing heavy breaths and shaking a little as her feet finally lifted off the grassy ground and hit the side of the ginormous hole, catching a small foothold instantly. Violet followed after her immediately, jumping down with ease and catching two footholds. "God, this is deep," Rose muttered when they were getting faster at descending down.
"Yeah, I really hope your ship is down here," Violet said hopefully.
Suddenly Finn's voice came through the walkie-talkie, "Rose? Can you hear me?"
"Got you loud and clear captain," she replied with a tiny laugh, "we're both fine."
"Glad to hear it. Good luck."
Rose flipped the walkie talkie off with one hand and held tight onto the rope with the other, even though it wasn't necessary to hold onto it. They continued their descent in silence for several long minutes, until finally Violet spoke. "How long do you think this will take?"
"I'm not sure... It's not like we're going too fast, so it may be a while," Rose replied. "I can't sense the ship yet. I think when we get close enough I'll be able to."
"It's so dark... Creepy, huh?"
"I'll take out my flashlight," Rose decided, pulling it out of her left pocket and flicking it on to examine the cavern wall they were both holding onto. "It's cold, too."
Violet made a noise of agreement and Rose sighed, wanting to ask her something but unsure of how to phrase it. "So Violet... If you don't mind my asking, where's your family?"
"They're... Far away. They've been away for a while," she said quietly, jumping off the wall and lowering herself further down.
"Oh... That's rough, I'm sorry."
"So, tell me about this Doctor. What's he like?"
Rose frowned, he was honestly the last thing she wanted to talk about right now. "Oh, you know... He's brilliant, really, really smart. Just sort of came into my life one day... Met me in a shop..."
"Do you think he really is a genius?" Violet asked quickly. "I can assume he was, from what I've heard."
Although Rose didn't remember telling Cameron that, she just nodded. "Yeah, he is. The Doctor is handsome too..." A little smirk grew on her face, "Really nice bum."
Violet's eyes widened a little bit and Rose laughed hysterically, then the two friends fell into a comfortable silence.
Eventually, after several more minutes that seemed like individual hours, they came across something large and purple sticking out of the ground. "What's that?" Rose asked, now shivering a little bit in her suit. She was surprised that the rope hadn't run out yet, since it looked so small when it was coiled up at the top of the hole.
"I think..." Violet took out her own flashlight and shined it over the structure, "it's a slide."
Rose swallowed, "I'm really surprised the TARDIS would crash-land in a playground... Especially with children in it. She's pretty smart, I doubt she'd hurt anyone on purpose."
"It is strange," the other woman agreed, her feet hitting the bottom of the hole and landing on top of a broken swing. "We've reached the bottom. Do you sense the ship now?"
Rose closed her eyes tight and got on her knees, feeling the ground and focusing her thoughts on the ship. Her eyes flashed open as she a light buzz ran through her mind, "I heard something! In my head, I heard something!"
"Let's find it!"
The two searched through the playground wreckage with their flashlights, trying not to be impaled with cracked see-saws or pointy chains from swings. Eventually Rose came across a mutilated corpse and gagged a little in her suit, "Don't come over here!" She warned Violet, hopping away quickly.
After looking for several minutes Finn's voice came through the walkie again. "A flower arrived for you Rose... Somehow it made it inside my car. Have you two reached the bottom?"
"Affirmative," Violet said, ignoring Finn's information about the flowers and smiling. "Looking for the ship now."
"Keep me updated."
"Got it."
They continued their search until eventually Rose spotted a little bit of TARDIS blue in between two large boulders that were precariously placed next to each other, looking as though they may collapse or break at any moment. "I may have found it!" Rose shined her flashlight over it more carefully to try and get a better look, but when she touched one of the rocks in front of the ship a few pieces of stone fell on top of her. "It's not in a good spot, if we crawl through the boulders will probably break on us."
Violet made it over there a minute later and assessed the situation, unsure of what to do. The two women checked the top and sides of the boulders, trying to find another way in but failing. Rose whipped out her walkie again and turned it on, "Finn, we found the TARDIS. She's in a bad position, two boulders are blocking her path. We could just barely fit through..."
"I'll go through," Violet said bravely, nodding towards the ship.
"Wait," Finn said through the talkie. "Don't go through there, we'll just send down more people to break up the rocks and stuff, alright?"
Rose contemplated this then got down on her knees to be at eye level with the piece of the ship she could see. "I can hear the TARDIS.. God, she's in pain. A lot of pain. We have to get her out right now, I'm going through."
"Rose!" His voice was louder and more demanding now. "Don't you dare go through there, just wait, alright?"
"It hurts..." She rubbed her temples, "I can feel her pain. God, it hurts so bad, Finn. We have to get her out."
"Rose, I'm skinnier than you," the other woman stated with a frown. "Let me go through, alright? Just back up."
"Are you sure, Violet? You really don't have to..."
"I'm sure."
"Violet! Rose! Are you two bloody insane? I want you to tug on the rope and we'll lift you up this second, just get out of the danger zone now! Just-"
Rose flicked the walkie off, interrupting Finn and making Violet giggle a little bit. "Who needs him? If the boulders fall on you, I'll be here to get you out right away, yeah?"
"Got it," Violet gave her a reassuring smile and got down on her elbows and knees to crawl through the ginormous rocks better. "Okay... Let's do this..."
She army crawled forward a bit, careful to not let her hands or elbows touch the boulders or slip too far in front of her. Slowly but surely she made her way towards the TARDIS which seemed to get further away with every movement. Her foot accidentally kicked the boulder on the left and it shifted, making Rose squeal. Violet froze, but luckily the rock didn't move anymore so she continued. "I see the word Public... Sound like your ship?"
"That's it!" Rose said excitedly, now bouncing up and down on her heels.
"Almost there..."
Suddenly, Violet's arm lightly brushed the rock on her right and the entire thing slowly fell in on her. She tried quickly to back up towards Rose, and Rose desperately tugged on her feet to get her out while shrieking, but it was too late. The boulder broke into two, half of it remaining where it was and the other half crushing Violet's entire right arm and part of her chest. Her head was still free, stuck on the other side of the boulders, and an ear-piercing cry escaped her mouth. "MUM!"
Rose gasped, and if she had any thoughts as to why Violet called for her mother first then they were gone quickly when she realized Violet was stuck. "Violet! I can't get you out! I'm sorry, it's not working! You're stuck!" Rose tugged desperately at the rock, which at now of all times refused to budge. Then she tried Violet's feet again, only making the woman moan in pain. "Stay with me Violet!" She flipped on the comm. device and desperately screamed into it. "Finn! Violet has been hurt! Her right side has been crushed by a rock! Send someone down... Hurry!"
"Rose... Please..." Violet moaned in pain, and if Rose could see the top part of her then she would be disgusted to see the color draining from the woman's face and her eyes squeezed shut. "Move. You have to move away. You can't see... Don't look... Move away!"
Rose didn't move, making Violet scream louder, "MOVE AWAY, ROSE!"
Rose obeyed this time, standing up and backing away, trying to see through her tears. Though, clear eyes or not, she didn't believe what she saw.
A beautiful, orange glow was beginning to flow from Violet's head, arms, and legs. The boulder around her seemed to melt away a bit as the glow grew stronger and stronger, consuming her body until everything was on fire, and Rose had to duck out of the way quickly in order to not be scorched. When the light had dimmed down enough for Rose to see, she was shocked to see a new woman laying on the ground, completely weak and frail while the Violet she had known was gone.
"Regeneration?..." Rose's eyes widened as she stumbled backwards, tripping onto the ground and crying. "Violet? Violet? What just happened to you?"
A woman looked up with red hair about the length of Rose's and bright, intelligent green eyes. Her skin was peach and nose tiny, with a large mouth and the same suit Violet had been wearing, though it didn't fit as well as it had before. The woman had a completely different voice than Violet as well, much higher pitched and friendlier sounding.
"Rose, I swear I can explain."