Notes: OMG! What's happened? What's going to happen? How is this going to turn out? Read on and find out.
Chapter 17
"So Human Time Lord Metacrisis, you have your time machine in this universe. Excellent. You will take me to it, we will collect the oscillators, and we will liquefy the walls of reality to allow my master, Sutekh the Destroyer, to escape his prison."
John was silent. He stared at the bloody chest of his dead wife. No! It couldn't be. It wasn't supposed to be like this. She was his wife, she was EJ's mother.
EJ needed his mother. How would they cope without her? It must be a mistake, or a bad dream. That was it, it was a bad dream. He would wake up now and Rose would be smiling at him for waking her up with one of his nightmares.
Not that he had nightmares anymore. Rose had cured him of his demons that used to visit him in the darkness. This was an anxiety dream about him losing his Rose, the only demon he had now that had any influence over him.
He found that he was walking down the hallway to the front door and picking up some car keys from the hall stand. He wasn't really paying any attention to what his body was doing. He wanted to stay with Rose and cuddle her until she woke up, but his body had other ideas.
He went through the front door with Yang and around to the garage, where an expensive Rolls Royce Wraith was parked. John clicked the central locking and sat in the driver's seat. Yang walked around the front of the car and sat in the back seat.
"A chauffeur, how splendid," Yang said.
John started the car and drove out of the garage and down the drive, turning right onto Hao Street. He drove down the road the way he had come with Rose on the trail bike. Rose! She was lying on the floor back there without so much as a by your leave.
What kind of a husband was he? He knew Sutekh was powerful, but he thought his love of Rose would have counted for something when it came to protecting her.
"You're quiet Doctor Not-The-Doctor. Your wife always loved your runaway gob. Did she ever tell you that?" Yang said
"Shut - the - fuck - up," John said slowly, fighting for control of his body and failing.
"You know Doctor Not-The-Doctor, your death will have to be spectacular. Ironic and spectacular."
Yang laughed. "I know, once I've returned from this dismal tunnel, you can wear the scarab and you will commit atrocities across the globe that will make you every police forces most wanted."
"No," John said, as the car turned onto Kaloko Drive.
"Yes," Yang said. "And then you will be hated and killed as a terrorist. And the world will have no one to protect it when I choose to destroy it."
John sat silently, his body driving the car, Yang navigating it.
"Nothing to say, Doctor Not-The-Doctor? Aren't you going to say something melodramatic and tell me that I'll never get away with it?"
"Get your entertainment elsewhere Sutekh. You won't enjoy your triumph."
"Really! How so?"
"The anticipation gives you a thrill, but the action leaves you disappointed. Like when YOU killed Rose. You thought you would enjoy that, but you didn't did you?"
It was Yang's turn to be silent as the car turned onto Hawaii Belt Road.
"And do you know why? Because you are a psychopath. You can't feel emotions. No happiness, no sadness. Nothing. just a big black hole of nothing. No love. Hah! you can't even hate properly."
"Oh I can hate Doctor Not-The-Doctor. I can hate the person who trapped me in this tunnel."
"Call that hate? One person? Come on in and have a look Sutekh. Look at the Daleks. I have hated an entire race and destroyed them! Now that's hate."
"Well Doctor Not-The-Doctor, you have been busy. You know, I might just keep you alive. You have so much to teach me."
They eventually came to the Queen Kaahumanu Highway, crossed into Palani Road and turned into the car park. John got out of the car and opened the door for Yang.
"Thank you my man."
They walked across the car park to stand in front of the blue, wooden police box. John took out his key and put it in the lock, turning it and pushing the door open. He stepped inside.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
He heard gunshots from outside the TARDIS, but he was still unable to turn and see what was going on.
"THE RING!" he shouted to whoever it was. "SHOOT THE SCARAB!"
Rose heard John and Yang leave the room and walk down the hallway. She heard a jangling of keys before the front door opened and closed.
"Ow," she said, rubbing her chest as she sat up. "Are you guys okay?"
"Rose, what the hell is going on?" Jack asked. "When I got shot, I heard Chrissie in my headset telling me not to move and play possum."
"Yeah, sorry about that guys, but we had to make Sutekh believe that we're dead so that we can move around without him knowin' about it."
"Were those bullets special FX blood capsules?" Jake asked.
"Yeah, that was John's idea. He forgot to tell me that they bloody hurt though." She popped the clip out of her Glock and replaced it with a clip of real bullets. She pulled the slide back and loaded a round into the chamber.
"Tell me about it," Gwen said, rubbing her sternum.
"You'd better all change your ammo," she told them. "Jack, we have to beat John and Yang to the TARDIS. Do you think you can do it?" Rose said as she moved down the hallway.
"Sure can Sweetheart." They went out the front door and over to the bikes. "Hop on and hold tight." He straddled the bike and Rose climbed on behind him, hugging his waist.
"Beta one to…. Oh sod that. Chrissie, this is Jack. Deactivate Doc's headset, activate his transponder and get a fix on it."
"Okay Jack, I've got a lock on it," Chrissie replied. The transponder was a 'tattoo' made of nano circuits that acted as a location beacon for field agents.
"Good girl. Now I'm on a trail bike and I'm going to need cross country directions to beat the Doc to the TARDIS. Can you do it?"
"Mmmm. I've not been asked that one before. Hang on; I'll have to do this on the fly."
Jack powered up the bike and zipped down the driveway, turning right onto Hao Street, following the turn John would have taken.
"Jack, take the next left onto Hao Way," Chrissie directed.
Jack and Rose leaned heavily to the left as the bike skidded to make the turn.
"At the end of the street you'll be going cross country. Just head down the hill, through the trees, and you'll come to Lawai'a Drive."
Jack hit the grass, dirt and scrub and headed for the trees. Rose was reminded of the speeder bike chase in Return Of The Jedi, as Jack weaved through the trees. Chrissie was giving him course corrections as he went.
When he came out onto Lawai'a Drive, he opened up the throttle, which caused the bike to do a small wheelie. Rose gripped even tighter, causing Jack to grin.
"There's a sharp left and right bend ahead Jack."
"Okay." Jack throttled back to take the bends and then opened it up again.
"Turn left onto Mamalahoa Highway and right into the next driveway."
Chrissie led them across rough ground again, past back gardens and down dirt tracks, until they came to Old Palani Road, which led eventually to Hawaii Belt Road.
"We know where we are now Chrissie, thanks for that."
He turned right onto Queen Kaahumanu Highway and zipped across the road, skidding to a halt on the grass verge. They abandoned the bike and scrambled down the grass bank to hide behind the TARDIS as the headlights of the Rolls Royce panned across the car park and came to rest on the blue box.
They stood with their backs to the TARDIS, listening to the car doors open and close. Rose took out her Glock, and Jack did the same. She pursed her lips and put a finger to them in the universal gesture of 'shush'.
She heard the key push into the lock and sneaked around the corner and along the side of the TARDIS. Jack did the same on the opposite side. She heard the door push open and footsteps on the floor grating.
She spun around the corner, Glock in outstretched right hand, left hand supporting under the grip. It was Yang and he hadn't even had time to register that she was there.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
She shot him four times in the head, blood and gore splattering out of the back of his head. Rose lowered her arms to her side, or more accurately, had them lowered for her.
"THE RING! SHOOT THE SCARAB!" she heard John shout from inside the TARDIS.
"I can't," she replied.
"Rose?" John's voice was quiet with disbelief. "ROSE! You're alive!" he exclaimed.
"It would appear so," Yang said as he turned his bloody face towards her.
Rose felt bile rise in her throat as she looked at the mutilated face of Yang.
"How did you achieve resurrection?" he asked, and then smiled as he read her thoughts. "An illusion. Learned from a story told by your friend…. Alistair. Very clever, but not clever enough."
Rose started to lift her pistol towards her head until the barrel was resting against her temple.
"Come Doctor Not-The-Doctor, you must see this."
John appeared at the door, looking longingly at Rose. Surely he wouldn't have to watch her die again. He didn't think he could stand it.
"Oh, and Jack. Perhaps you would care to join us as well."
Jack came around the corner and stood still, watching his friends face this powerful foe.
"John, what do we do now?" Rose asked, her voice trembling.
"You die of course," Yang said.
["Rose. I believe in you. You saved me on Satellite Five. You saved me in an alternate time line, and I believe you will save me again, my wolf girl,"] John said in her head, his voice and his face full of conviction.
"Wha'?" At first Rose didn't understand what he meant, but she didn't have to.
The vivid green light of the scarab ring started to turn more of a lime green colour. Then it seemed to have more of a yellow hue, as though the power of the ring was struggling to maintain its purity. Now it had a definite yellow core, forcing out the green until it shone with a bright golden light.
"NO! What is happening?" Yang screamed. He looked at Rose and his mouth fell open.
Her body was enveloped in a golden haze, and her eyes blazed with the fury of the sun.
"I will have you safe, my husband, my love. Protected from this false god." Her voice was other worldly.
Her golden gaze looked through Yang, straight to Sutekh. "You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence, and I confine them for eternity in a never ending loop of time."
A golden beam of energy travelled from her hand and enveloped Yang's body until it was too bright to look at.
"Rose," John said quietly as he stood by her side. "You can stop now."
"John...? How...? Oh, my head's killin' me," she cried.
"Take the ring off his finger and stare into it my Love." She did as he said and thin wisps of golden energy started to leave her eyes and travel to the ring. More and more threads emerged until there was a steady stream of bright energy.
Rose suddenly collapsed into John's arms and he lowered her to the tarmac, where the ring rolled out of her hand. Jack went to pick it up.
"DON'T!" he warned him. "It contains the energy of a small star."
"Doc, what just happened?" Jack asked him. "How could Rose generate all that energy and survive?"
"She didn't generate it. Just like the ring was a conduit for Sutekh's energy, Rose was a conduit for the TARDIS. Do you remember when Margaret the Slitheen looked into the heart of the TARDIS? Well Rose channelled that energy through the ring and right back at Sutekh."
Rose fluttered her eyes open. "John? What happened?"
"You did it Rose. You defeated Sutekh."
"Me? But how?" she asked, slightly puzzled.
"How did you survive me shooting you is a more pertinent question," John said.
She reached up and stroked his face. "I'll tell you over a banana ice cream sundae."
He looked puzzled, then his eyebrows rose as if a realisation had dawned on him, and finally he broke into an enormous grin.
"Oh Rose, that's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant."
"Where am I?" a voice said from behind them that made them jump. Rose and Jack had their pistols out in an instant.
There, sat on the tarmac rubbing his head, was Lee Kuan Yang. Multimillionaire and owner of New World Electronics.
"Oh Rose," John said with a smile. "You've done it again. You bad Bad Wolf."
