Chapter Five: The Serenity to Accept the Things that Cannot Change
The Doctor grinned at Donna as he stepped back from the console. "Well, we gave your granddad a show he won't soon forget."
Donna laughed. "No, and you can bet he'll be asking me about it when I get home."
It was on the tip of his tongue to ask where she wanted to go next, but then he spotted the shadows under her eyes and Rose's constant reminders that their human companions needed more sleep finally sank in. The TARDIS hummed, and he nodded in agreement.
"The TARDIS has a room for you if you're ready for bed, or we can give you a quick tour first," he offered.
Donna's eyes sparkled, and he knew what she was going to say. "Are you kidding me? My first night on an alien spaceship, and you think I can just go to bed? Come on; show me the place!"
The Doctor chuckled at her enthusiasm. "Right this way, Donna Noble," he said, gesturing grandly towards the corridor behind him.
Rose brushed a kiss over his cheek. "I'll go scrounge up something for supper," she said. "Bring her to the galley when you're done with the tour."
"Right, so it's bigger on the inside," Donna said as they started down the corridor, following Rose who took the first left towards the galley. "And you've got a kitchen, apparently. I guess aliens who travel in time and space still need to eat."
"Yep," the Doctor agreed, popping the p.
He hesitated at an intersection, then went left. If he ended the tour with Donna's room, he could show her how to get to the galley from there, ensuring she could find her way back.
"We've got pretty much anything you'd want, really," he told her. "Swimming pool, wardrobe room… snooker room…"
"Snooker?" Donna snorted. "You sound like someone out of a Victorian novel now." They reached a door, and she put her hand on it. "What's in here?"
"Open it," he invited.
She stepped into the room, and the Doctor grinned a little when her jaw dropped. "You've got a library," she said, turning in a circle so she could take in the walls covered in books. "With a fireplace, and one of those fancy ladders that are attached to the shelves." She picked up a book and flipped through it. "Have you read all of these books?"
The Doctor shook his head. "Most of them, though," he added. "Come on, the media room is next."
He made sure to show her all the main rooms companions tended to enjoy, leaving several ready for her to find when she went exploring.
Finally, he stopped in front of another door. "Are you ready for this?" he asked, nodding at it.
Donna bit her lip, then pushed it open and walked into her bedroom. "Oh, I love it!" she said, running her fingers over the dark red wall by the bed. "I always wanted to do an accent wall, but Mum gave me this long speech about how it's not practical."
She reached for the gauzy gold curtain floating down from the post of the four poster bed, then froze and looked at the Doctor. "But hang on, you said earlier that she was making me a room. Do you mean this room didn't even exist a few hours ago?"
The Doctor shook his head. "The TARDIS is sentient," he explained, finally remembering this was an important fact humans liked to know. "She knew you needed a room so she made it for you."
"Well, she must have read my mind, because this is exactly what I would have picked out for myself."
He didn't know how he gave himself away, but a minute later, Donna narrowed her eyes. "Can she read my mind?"
"Only very surface level," he said hurriedly. "Nothing major, I promise."
He watched anxiously as Donna rolled that idea around in her head before nodding. "All right." Her stomach growled. "Now I don't know about you, but I'm starving. I haven't eaten all day."
oOoOoOoOo
The next morning after breakfast, they gathered in the console room. "What would you like for your first trip, Donna?" Rose asked. "Time, or space?"
Donna sat on the jump seat and swung her legs, looking at little overwhelmed. "Your ship can go literally anywhere in the universe, right?"
"Yep!" The Doctor patted the console. "Well, barring a few places that are just completely inaccessible."
She shook her head. "I can't even wrap my mind around it." She took a deep breath. "But I know what I want. Ancient Rome."
Rose pushed off from the strut she was leaning against to help the Doctor send the TARDIS into flight. "Been a while since we went to Rome, Doctor," she commented as they worked in tandem.
He looked up at her as he set the coordinates. "Four years. Hopefully this trip will be a little less… eventful than that one."
"Why?" Donna crossed her arms over her chest. "What happened the last time you went to Rome?"
The Doctor threw the dematerialisation lever. "Oh, nothing much," he said, but the way he tugged on his ear gave him away. "You know… found a GENIE, got turned into statues, that sort of thing."
"You were turned into statues?" Donna looked them up and down.
"We got better!" the Doctor protested, his voice going squeaky.
The TARDIS shook a bit as they went through some turbulence, and Rose adjusted the controls to compensate. Despite her efforts, they still took a hard landing, nearly throwing them all to the ground.
Rose was the first to steady herself, and she jogged down the ramp. "Come on then," she said, gesturing to the door. "Are you ready for this, Donna?"
Donna shook her head, but hopped off the seat. "I suppose, but I'm not keen on getting turned into a garden ornament."
"Nah," the Doctor said as he pushed open the door. "The same thing won't happen twice."
There was a curtain draped in front of them, and he pushed it out of the way, revealing a sunny street lined with brick buildings and market stalls. "Ancient Rome," the Doctor proclaimed. Rose slid her hand into his, and they walked out into the crowd. "Well, not for them, obviously," he continued as they walked. "To all intents and purposes, right now, this is brand new Rome."
"Oh, my God. It's, it's so Roman." She turned in a circle, then looked back at them. "This is fantastic." She darted forward and hugged Rose first, then the Doctor, drawing a warm chuckle from him.
Livestock wandered the streets along with humans, and hay was scattered over the flagstones. The resulting aroma was a pungent combination of barnyard and human sweat, but it didn't seem to have any effect on Donna's excitement. She kept rambling as they walked, and Rose grinned at her as she tried to wrap her mind around where they were.
"I'm here, in Rome," she exclaimed, pointing at the stone street for emphasis. "Donna Noble, in Rome. This is just weird. I mean, everyone here's dead."
Rose laughed. "Not yet, they aren't."
Donna tilted her head and the skin around her mouth tightened. "Hold on a minute," she said, pointing at something behind Rose and the Doctor. "That sign over there's in English."
They followed where she was pointing and spotted a hand-painted sign on a wooden cart that said "Two amphorae for the price of one."
"Are you having me on?" Donna demanded, a disappointed frown on her face. "Are we in Epcot?"
Rose dropped the Doctor's hand and wrapped an arm around Donna's shoulders. "Nah, the TARDIS is translating for you," she explained. "She's telepathic, the TARDIS, and she makes foreign languages look and sound like English."
Donna raised an eyebrow, and Rose winked and crossed her heart. "I swear. You're talking in Latin right now."
"Seriously?" She looked over at the Doctor, who grinned and nodded. An answering smile spread across Donna's face. "I just said 'seriously' in Latin."
"Oh, yeah," the Doctor said as they started walking again.
"What if I said something in actual Latin—like veni, vidi, vici?" Donna asked as they walked past a stall selling baskets. "My dad said that when he came back from football. If I said veni, vidi, vici to that lot, what would it sound like?"
They climbed a few stairs to the next street, shadier than the last as the cloths hanging between the buildings kept the sun from reaching the ground. Donna beamed at them while she waited for an answer to her question.
Rose started giggling at the Doctor's consternation, and she watched him try to work out an answer to Donna's question.
"I'm not sure," he admitted after some consideration. "You have to think of difficult questions, don't you?"
Donna tapped his arm. "I'm going to try it," she said gleefully, before approaching a fruit seller wearing a brown apron over a loose tunic.
"Afternoon, sweetheart," the Roman man said. "What can I get you, my love?"
Donna rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, excitement pouring off her. "Um, veni, vidi, vici."
In the back of her mind, Rose's connection to the TARDIS twinkled with amusement, and she bit back her own laughter as she waited to see what practical joke the ship was planning for their new companion and the Roman man.
The man blinked, then shook his head. "Huh? Sorry? Me no speak Celtic," he said slowly, enunciating every word. "No can do, missy."
Rose's amusement broke out in gales of laughter. "Oh, Donna!" she said when their friend rejoined them. "Thanks for that."
And thank you, dear, she added. The ship's sly sense of humour never failed to make her laugh.
"How's he mean, Celtic?" Donna asked.
"The TARDIS is having a bit of fun," Rose explained. "She decided to make Latin sound like…"
"Welsh," the Doctor finished when she looked at him. "You sound Welsh." His eyes sparkled, and Rose suspected he would be using as many Latin phrases as possible while they were in Rome.
They wandered away from the main market area, no real destination in mind. The warm Italian weather felt good after the last few days in the English winter, and Rose tilted her face back, basking in the sun.
"Don't our clothes look a bit odd?" Donna asked, gesturing at her loose, tunic-like top and jeans.
Rose sighed and looked at people in togas milling around, going from one stall to another. The women all wore the traditional stolla, with a palla covering their hair. "That's a fair question," she told the Doctor. "Should we go back to the wardrobe room and change?"
"Nah," the Doctor told her. "Ancient Rome, anything goes. It's like Soho, but bigger."
Donna raised an eyebrow. "You figured that out when you were statues?"
He scoffed. "That's not the only time I've visited Rome." He held up his hands. "Before you ask, that fire had nothing to do with me." He tugged on his ear. "Well, a little bit."
Rose chuckled and nudged him with her elbow. More than a little bit, I suspect, she teased, and watched the tips of his ears turn red.
"But I haven't got the chance to look around properly," he said hurriedly. "Coliseum, Pantheon, Circus Maximus. You'd expect them to be looming by now. Where is everything?" they went through an opening in a stone wall and the Doctor stopped and looked at the new street before striding forward. "Try this way."
They walked went around a corner and walked down another street that opened out onto a large piazza. The buildings here were made of brick, not rough hewn stone, and were obviously more expensive and important.
Rose turned in a circle, trying to get a feel for where they were. She'd run through Rome once, and this just didn't feel quite right.
Donna found the answer first. "Not an expert," she said, "but there's seven hills of Rome, aren't there? How come they've only got one?"
Rose and the Doctor looked up at the mountain Donna had spotted, looming over the city. And it was definitely a mountain—this was no hill. As they watched, the ground rumbled beneath their feet and a plume of smoke rose from the mountain peak.
"Here we go again," said a vendor behind them as pottery shattered on the brick street.
"Wait a minute," Donna said. "One mountain, with smoke. Which makes this—"
"Pompeii," the Doctor and Rose said in unison. They both reached out with their time senses, and Rose gasped when she realised what the date was.
"We're in Pompeii," the Doctor confirmed. "And it's volcano day." He spun on his heel and raced back for the TARDIS, darting around a corner and nearly toppling over a stack of baskets in his haste to get to his ship.
"Come on," Rose called to Donna, then took off after him, trusting she would follow.
I don't understand, Doctor, she said as they ran through the streets of Pompeii. A chicken squawked and flew in her face, and Rose waved her arms at it to get it away. We should have felt the fixed point as soon as we landed, but even now that I know where we are, I still don't feel that prickly feeling under my skin.
I know, he said curtly. If I'd felt it, we would have left right away. But this is still Pompeii, and that is still Vesuvius, and we have got to get out of here before it's too late.
They reached the street where they'd started, and the Doctor ripped back the curtain hanging over the alcove they'd parked the TARDIS in.
It wasn't there. They could see straight back to the opposite wall, lined with shelves full of pottery.
The Doctor took a few deep breaths. Oh, this was bad. This was… Rose tried to use their bond to calm him, but everything he knew about Pompeii whirled through his brain. The strength with which the mountain would erupt. The number of deaths. The way the city was buried for centuries, forgotten but for the references of Pliny the Younger.
And they were stuck here without a way out.
"You're kidding," Donna muttered when she reached them a second later. "You're not telling me the TARDIS has gone."
"Okay," he mumbled, vaguely aware that Rose had left his side.
"Where is it then?" asked Donna.
He frowned and looked over at her. "You told me not to tell you," he said, realising as the words left his mouth that she probably hadn't meant that literally.
Donna rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Oi. Don't get clever in Latin."
Rose reappeared behind Donna, and the grim look on her face didn't make the Doctor feel any better. "The vendor sold it," she told him.
The Doctor looked at the man Donna had spoken to earlier, peering suspiciously at them over Rose's shoulder. "But it wasn't yours to sell," he sputtered.
"It was on my patch, weren't it?" He put his hands on his hips and grinned proudly. "I got fifteen sesterces for it. Lovely jubbly."
The Doctor raked his hand through his hair. No point arguing ownership—they just needed to get the TARDIS back and leave. "Who'd you sell it to?" he asked.
"Old Caecilius." The vendor rolled his eyes, clearly losing patience with them. "Look, if you want to argue, why don't you take it out with him? He's on Foss Street." He pointed. "Big villa. Can't miss it."
"Thanks." The Doctor nodded sharply and they ran off in the direction he'd pointed. They'd only gone a few steps when the Doctor turned back around, nearly twisting his ankle when he caught a piece of uneven pavement. He regained his balance and leapt across the street to the fruit stand. "What'd he buy a big blue wooden box for?"
"Well I don't know! He said something about modern art." The man sighed; he clearly hadn't expected this much difficulty for his fifteen sesterces. "Foss Street is that way, eighth street down. Turn left, you'll find Caecilius."
Rose had waited for him while he got directions, but Donna hadn't. The Doctor shook his head. "Next time we think about asking someone to travel with us," he muttered as they ran through Pompeii, looking for their companion, "we're going to ask first if they know what, 'Don't wander off,' means."
The ground rumbled again, and they stopped in the middle of the street to brace themselves. We have less than twenty-four hours to get out of here, the Doctor told Rose.
We'll make it, love, Rose promised. The rumbling stopped, and they took off again.
"There's Foss Street," Rose pointed out as they ran. "As soon as we find Donna, we'll come back, get this Caecilius bloke to give us the TARDIS back, and we'll get out of here. All right?"
The Doctor nodded, then sped up when Donna appeared at the next corner.
"Ha," he said when he ran into her. "I've got it. Foss Street's this way."
Donna shook her head, her long, red ponytail whipping back and forth. "No. Well, I found this big sort of amphitheatre thing. We can start there. We can gather everyone together. Maybe they've got a great big bell or something we could ring. Have they invented bells yet?"
"What do you want a bell for?"
Rose rubbed at her forehead. She knew why Donna wanted a bell, and she knew this explanation wouldn't go over well, on either end.
"To warn everyone," Donna said. "Start the evacuation. What time does Vesuvius erupt? When's it due?"
The Doctor pitched his voice low, so the surrounding locals couldn't overhear their conversation. "It's 79AD, twenty-third of August, which makes volcano day tomorrow."
Donna grinned brightly. "Plenty of time. We could get everyone out easy."
The Doctor was wound tight, and Rose could feel his anxiety itching to burst out. She put a hand on his arm, then took a step towards Donna. "Donna, we can't."
Their friend blinked and looked at her. "What do you mean, you can't? That's what you do."
"Usually," Rose agreed, while the Doctor paced beside her, raking his hands through his hair. "But Pompeii is a fixed point in time. We can't change what happens here."
Donna crossed her arms over her chest and rested her weight on one leg. "Well, why not?" she challenged, her eyes flashing.
Rose sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment while she thought of a way to explain fixed points. "Okay, let's say time is a building," she said, speaking quickly so she could get the explanation out before the building stress and fear erupted out of the Doctor. "As a time traveller, you can change some things—redecorate a bit, maybe add a window in this wall if you're careful. But there are are some things—some events—that are more like load-bearing walls. They're the pillars that hold up the rest of history. And if you remove them, the entire thing will collapse."
"Exactly!" the Doctor broke in. "What happens here, happens. We can't do anything to change it. And we have got to get the TARDIS and get out." He grabbed Rose's hand and they ran towards Foss Street.
Rose looked over her shoulder as they ran and was relieved that Donna was following them. She hadn't been sure if her explanation would get through to the stubborn woman, but maybe it had made enough sense to persuade her.
Another tremor shook Pompeii as they reached Foss Street, and the vibrations rattled the walls enough to let the door to Caecilius' villa swing open.
"Come on," the Doctor muttered and darted inside. In the vestibulum, a marble bust shook in its niche and nearly fell to the floor. "Whoa!" The Doctor caught it and put it back in place. He patted the sculpture's cheeks as he steadied it, then put his hands behind his back. "There you go."
A tall man with deep-set eyes nodded slowly. "Thank you, kind sir. I'm afraid business is closed for the day. I'm expecting a visitor."
"But that's me," the Doctor said quickly. "I'm a visitor. Hello." He grabbed the man's hand and shook it, then moved into the atrium, making it harder to be shoved back out the door.
"Who are you?" the man—Caecilius, the Doctor assumed—queried.
"I am…" The Doctor floundered for a proper Latin name, then said the first thing that came to mind. "Spartacus."
Rose took his hand. "Which makes me Mrs. Spartacus," she added.
"I'm Spartacus, too," Donna chimed in as she moved to stand on his other side.
The Doctor tugged on his ear. "No relation. It's a very common last name where we're from."
Caecilius didn't appear interested in their unique naming convention, though. "I'm sorry, but I'm not open for trade," he insisted.
Rose cocked her head; she could hear the TARDIS, just out of sight. While the Doctor learned of Caecilius' work in marble, she slipped around the man and offered a charming smile to the red-headed woman and young man sitting by the pool in the middle of the atrium. They blinked in confusion, but didn't stop her as she walked quickly to the blue box in the corner near a potted tree.
Oh, am I glad to see you, she told the ship as she reached for her key.
But instead of a welcoming hum, the TARDIS' song changed to a warning buzz. Rose dropped her hand and stepped back from the box. Apparently, they weren't supposed to go anywhere just yet. She sighed and turned around, just as the Doctor pushed past Caecilius claiming to be a marble inspector.
"By the gods of commerce, an inspection," moaned the woman Rose had noticed a moment ago. "I'm sorry, sir. I do apologise for my son." Caecilius' wife took the young man's goblet and poured it into the shallow pool, earning an outraged protest from the lad.
"And this is my good wife, Metella." Caecilius stammered a bit in his introductions. He knotted his hands together anxiously. "I—I must confess, we're not prepared for a…"
The Doctor shook his head quickly. "Nothing to worry about. I'm, I'm sure you've nothing to hide." He pointed at the TARDIS and raised an eyebrow at Rose, who was leaning against a nearby column. "Although, frankly, that object looks rather like wood to me."
"I told you to get rid of it," Metalla griped to Caecilius as the Doctor strode past her.
The Doctor pressed his hand to the door, then pulled back with a hiss when she shocked him.
Rose nodded. She wouldn't let me in.
"I only bought it today," Caecilius explained quickly.
The Doctor stuck his hands in his coat pockets and rocked back on his heels. "Ah, well. Caveat emptor," he said, impishly choosing the Latin for "Buyer beware," knowing the TARDIS would render it as Welsh.
"Oh, you're Celtic," Caecilius said, nonplussed. "There's lovely."
The Doctor rapped lightly on the door then turned away from his rebellious ship. "I'm sure it's fine, but I might have to take it off your hands for a proper inspection."
Donna tossed her ponytail over her shoulder and looked at the Doctor and Rose. "Although while we're here, wouldn't you recommend a holiday, Mr. and Mrs. Spartacus?" she asked.
The Doctor stiffened, but Rose's anger was even stronger than his frustration, so he kept quiet and let her talk.
"Why would we do that, Spartacus?" she asked, a sharp edge of warning in her voice.
Donna lifted her chin and pointed at the family. "Oh, this lovely family. Mother and father and son. Don't you think they should get out of town?"
The Doctor looked at the floor and rubbed at his eyebrow. Rose had explained, far better than he would have done, and Donna was still insisting… He pressed his lips together to hold in a sigh—did she really think he didn't want to help these people?
"Why should we do that?" Caecilius asked, sounding bewildered and wary.
Donna rolled her eyes as she turned to them. "Well, the volcano, for starters."
"Donna, don't," Rose growled, while Caecilius just asked, "What?"
"Volcano," Donna repeated incredulously.
"What ano?" Caecilius questioned, a deep furrow in the middle of his forehead.
Donna pointed over her shoulder with her thumb in the vague direction of Vesuvius. "That great big volcano right on your doorstep."
The Doctor grabbed her by the shoulders and gently shoved her off towards the shrine on the side of the room, with Rose right behind them. "Oh, Spartacus, for shame. We haven't even greeted the household gods yet." He dropped his voice to a whisper as they walked through the sheer curtains into the small cubiculum housing the shrine. "They don't know what it is. Vesuvius is just a mountain to them. The top hasn't blown off yet. The Romans haven't even got a word for volcano," he told her as he sprinkled water over the gods. "Not until tomorrow."
"Oh, great," she said sarcastically. "They can learn a new word as they die."
"Donna, stop it."
That order, pitched in a low, hoarse voice, came from Rose. The Doctor and Donna both turned to stare at her, him in surprise and her in anger.
"Listen, Blondie," Donna hissed, "I don't know what things are typically like in your blue box, but you're not telling me to shut up. That boy"—She jerked her thumb over her shoulder at the family—"how old is he, sixteen? And tomorrow he burns to death."
Helplessness welled up inside the Doctor. "That's not my fault," he argued. He'd meddled slightly with a fixed point before, and while he would never regret saving Charley, there had definitely been repercussions.
"It's your fault right now, if you won't save him," Donna insisted.
No. No, Doctor, it's not your fault, Rose told him firmly.
The Doctor took a deep breath and tried to find the words to explain—since clearly, Donna hadn't accepted Rose's explanation—but before he thought of any, a herald called out, "Announcing Lucius Petrus Dextrus, Chief Augur of the City Government."
Everyone in the villa turned towards the door. A portly man with a cloak draped over his upper body stepped into the atrium, then paused, framed by the doorway, while he waited for them to pay him appropriate homage.
"Lucius." Caecilius hurried to greet him. "My pleasure, as always."
"Quintus, stand up," Metella ordered, and the young man reluctantly got to his feet.
"A rare and great honour, sir, for you to come to my house." Caecilius held out his hand, but Lucius ignored it.
The Doctor raised his eyebrow. It looked like a snub, but somehow, he got the feeling there was more to Lucius' refusal to shake hands than simply a desire to remind the marble worker of his place.
"The birds are flying north," Lucius said pretentiously, "and the wind is in the west."
Caecilius only hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Quite absolutely. That's good, is it?"
"Only the grain of wheat knows where it will grow."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. It had been a long time since he'd heard such ridiculous obfuscation portrayed as prophecy.
But Caecilius was obviously impressed, even though he had no clue what the soothsayer's words could mean. "There now, Metella," he murmured, drawing his wife to his side. "Have you ever heard such wisdom?"
"Never," she agreed, then stepped closer to the augur, holding out her hands in welcome. When Lucius merely looked at her hands, she turned the gesture into a genuflection. "It's an honour," she said obsequiously.
"Pardon me, sir. I have guests," Caecilius said, pointing the the Doctor, Rose and Donna. "This is Spartacus, Spartacus and, er, Spartacus."
"A name is but a cloud upon a summer wind."
The Doctor blinked. Not that their aliases were particularly clever this time around, but they weren't usually sussed out so quickly. "But the wind is felt most keenly in the dark," he returned, wondering if Lucius would grasp his meaning that he, at least, did not have a name to give.
"Ah." Lucius took a few steps towards them. "But what is the dark, other than an omen of the sun?" In other words, you once had a name and have chosen to let it go.
"I concede that every sun must set." Yes, I did have a name once.
"Ha," Lucius crowed.
The Doctor nodded, but didn't stop. "And yet the son of the father must also rise," he concluded, neatly turning the conversation away from himself.
Lucius' smile disappeared, replaced by a petulant frown. "Damn. Very clever, sir. Evidently, a man of learning."
"Oh, yes. But don't mind me. Don't want to disturb the status quo."
"He's Celtic," Caecilius whispered.
"We'll be off in a minute," the Doctor added, pointing at the TARDIS.
"I'm not going," Donna muttered when he tried to push her towards the ship.
"You've got to," he told her, sotto voce.
"Well, I'm not," she retorted.
What difference will it make, if the TARDIS won't let us in? Rose asked as they slowly made their way across the atrium.
Oh, she'll let us in, the Doctor promised darkly. Because we can't stay here, and she knows it.
"The moment of revelation. And here it is."
The excitement in Caecilius' voice drew the Doctor's attention, and he paused to look over his shoulder when the were a few feet away from the TARDIS. The marble worker pulled a velvet cloth off a marble tile, and the Doctor stopped in his tracks.
Doctor? What is it? Rose asked.
Caecilius, unaware of his rapt audience, continued speaking just to Lucius. "Exactly as you specified. It pleases you, sir?"
He nodded at the black marble tile and the rows of parallel lines etched into it in white. Does that look familiar to you?
Lucius smirked at the tile. "As the rain pleases the soil."
Rose recognised it right away. This is why the TARDIS brought us here, isn't it? she asked. And why she won't let us leave. Something's wrong.
It might also be the reason why we can't feel the fixed point, the Doctor agreed.
"Oh, now that's different," the Doctor said as he walked back towards the locals. "Who designed that, then?"
Caecilius nodded at Lucius. "My Lord Lucius was very specific."
"Where'd you get the pattern?" Rose asked.
Lucius looked back at them, obviously displeased to be questioned. "On the rain and mist and wind."
"But that looks like a circuit," Donna told the Doctor and Rose.
"Made of stone," the Doctor agreed quietly.
She took a step towards the circuit. "Do you mean you just dreamt that thing up?"
The Doctor winced at the incredulity in Donna's voice. It was a fair question, and one he'd like the answer to himself, but it was a touchy subject in a time and place where prophecy was the order of the day.
"That is my job, as City Augur," Lucius snapped.
Donna snorted softly. "What's that, then, like the mayor?"
"Oh, ha," the Doctor said quickly, anxious to repair the damage Donna's careless words had done. "You must excuse my friend, she's from… Barcelona." He turned to Donna and lowered his voice. "No, but this is an age of superstition. Of official superstition. The Augur is paid by the city to tell the future. The wind will blow from the west? That's the equivalent of the ten o'clock news."
"They're laughing at us."
That was a new voice, and everyone looked over at the young woman, looking pale and drawn in a yellow dress with her hair loose around her shoulders.
She nodded at the Doctor, Rose and Donna as she shuffled into the room. "Those ones, they use words like tricksters. They're mocking us."
The Doctor held a hand up. "No, no, I'm not," he refuted quickly. "I meant no offence."
But Metella was apparently more concerned that her children would offend, than the other way around. "I'm sorry," she said breathlessly, walking quickly to the girl's side. "My daughter's been consuming the vapours."
Quintus stared at his sister, for the first time showing something more than teenage impudence. "By the gods, Mother. What have you been doing to her?"
"Not now, Quintus," Caecilius commanded.
"Yeah, but she's sick. Just look at her." Quintus gestured angrily to his sister.
Lucius walked slowly towards mother and daughter. "I gather I have a rival in this household. Another with the gift."
Metella wrapped an arm around her daughter's shoulders. "Oh, she's been promised to the Sibylline Sisterhood," she said, a note of pride in her voice. "They say she has remarkable visions."
Lucius sneered. "The prophecies of women are limited and dull. Only the menfolk have the capacity for true perception."
The Doctor winced and waited for Donna or Rose to jump on that.
"Some things never change," Rose muttered, while Donna's retort was a little sharper and a little louder.
"I'll tell you where the wind's blowing right now, mate."
A minor tremor shook the windows, and Lucius looked down his nose at them. "The mountain god marks your words. I'd be careful, if I were you."
"Consuming the vapours, you say?" the Doctor asked the young woman.
She leaned against her mother. "They give me strength."
The Doctor shook his head. "It doesn't look like it to me."
"Is that your opinion… as a doctor?" she asked, lifting her chin slightly.
Shock rolled through the Doctor and Rose both. "I beg your pardon?" he asked.
"Doctor. That's your name." She looked at Rose, her bloodshot eyes wide and unblinking. "And your favourite flower is the Rose."
Rose took a step back from the girl. "How did you know that?" She grabbed the Doctor's hand, and he welcomed the familiar pressure.
Instead of answering Rose, the girl turned to Donna."And you. You call yourself Noble."
"Now then, Evelina," her mother whispered. "Don't be rude."
"No, no, no, no," the Doctor said. "Let her talk."
Evelina tilted her head, and her eyes went unfocused as she looked at something no one else could see. "You come from so far away."
"The female soothsayer is inclined to invent all sorts of vagaries," Lucius scoffed.
"Oh, not this time, Lucius," the Doctor said, looking back at the man, then at Evelina again. They knew every one of Evelina's prophecies had been accurate, but it was more than that. She was not simply guessing based on signs, nor was she telepathically pulling information from them. The ripples she created in the timelines was unmistakable.
Evelina could see the future.
The Doctor shook his head slowly. "No, I reckon you've been out-soothsayed."
"Is that so, man from Gallifrey?" Lucius intoned as the ground shook again.
The buzz of curiosity quieted immediately, and the Doctor looked at Lucius. "What?"
Lucius stared at him, looking straight into his eyes when most would look away. "The strangest of images. Your home is lost in fire, is it not?"
"Doctor, what are they doing?" Donna asked.
Lucius looked at her and Rose. "And you, daughters of… London."
Rose's hand shook a little in his. "How does he know that?" she asked, the uncertainty sharpening her London accent.
"This is the gift of Pompeii," Lucius declared, while the volcano rumbled in counterpoint to his words. "Every single oracle tells the truth."
"That's impossible," Donna insisted.
"Doctor, he is returning."
Rose's grip on his hand became painfully tight. Doctor, you promised me he couldn't come back!
He can't, love. I promise, there's no way he could possibly come back. Lucius must mean someone else.
"Who is? Who's 'he?'" the Doctor spat out. Despite his reassurances to Rose, the prophecy put him on edge. The Master couldn't come back, but there were plenty of other people the Doctor would rather never returned.
"And you, daughter of London." He looked at Rose, and they both tensed. "The wolf will howl again."
Rose and the Doctor froze for a moment, then Rose straightened and took a step towards him. "How do you know about that?" she asked, her voice low and her body tense.
"Even the word Doctor is false," Evelina mumbled, drawing their attention back to her. She stepped towards them, her eyes burning with a strange fire. "Your real name is hidden. It burns in the stars, in the Cascade of Medusa herself. You are a Lord, sir. A Lord of Time."
The Doctor's mind raced, trying to figure out how these people could possibly know so much about them. Their names, the truth about his home and his hidden name, even knowing about the Medusa Cascade. It was all impossible, and yet he'd heard it with his own ears.
Evelina swayed on her feet, and the Doctor realised a second too late that she was going to faint. The girl turned as she fell and landed on her side instead of face first.
