Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own any of it, nor do I get paid.

A/N Thanks for the amazing reviews on the last chapter. We are finally at the end of this story and this is a long chapter to end it on.

Once again, there will be some mention of torture but mild compared to the last one so I'm guessing there would be no problem.

Happy Reading!

Ghosts of Oldbank: The Storm

Previously

Fitz discovered that the lever was not on the wall at all, but on the floor of the hallway. The opening slid open and the Doctor clenched his jaw as he walked towards it with determined steps.

Fitz ran after him and the two of them slid down the same chute that Rose had fallen into before.

They soon discovered that they had arrived into the dungeons, and that the place was much more extensive than they had first imagined. Still, the Doctor was adamant that they stay together and Fitz was only too happy to comply. No way did he want to be wandering these halls on his own.

Through the suspiciously quiet dungeons, the Doctor and Fitz navigated their way to find Rose and the Doctor's other self. Briefly, they wondered if the third one exploring the lower floors had ventured into here as well.

"Which way do you think?" asked Fitz, after nearly twenty minutes of walking through hallways. There were three ways to go from where they were now. The first one would lead out of the dungeons, the one on the right would go in deeper towards the grounds but they had no idea where the third one would lead.

"Here," said the Doctor quickly, moving towards the third one.

"Knew you would say that," mumbled Fitz as he went after him. He was starting to reconsider the whole time travel business. Gambling in Monte Carlo had been great, but he'd never signed up for haunted castles and aliens who split into three. So far, it was 1:1 on the perks and downsides tally and Fitz was wondering if he should remain around for what would come the next time. "Is it always like this?" he asked the Doctor.

"What?" he asked gruffly.

Fitz wasn't deterred. "Just, this," he said nodding around them. "Is this what time travel is all about?"

"If you want to leave, I could take you back," said the Doctor sharply. "This life, it's not always fun, it's not always smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will. So," he rounded on Fitz and looked him dead in the eye. "Tell me, Fitzgerald Michael Kreiner, are you ready for it? All those years getting beat up and hiding your bruises from your mother, listening to sneers of people about your heritage, watching your mother wither and die of an illness that took her mind long before it took her, never getting to know your father; are you ready to rise above it and see something more or is London 1963 our next destination?"

Fitz had gone white at the Doctor's words. "How-how do you know all that?" he asked, starting to tremble. "Christ, you know what, don't ever tell me how you know that. And thanks, for being so compassionate about it."

The Doctor ignored his sarcasm. "Do you know why I think the TARDIS took so well to you? She saw something in you, something she rarely sees in people that walk through her doors. Something that I saw beneath the rebel-without-a-cause facade. The potential you have, Fitz, is nothing to be taken lightly. But you have a choice to make. You can throw it all away or you can take it and carve out the life you've always craved."

With those words, the Doctor turned around and started on his way again. Fitz stared at his retreating back, feeling anger, hurt, and some shame swirling in his heart. Despite his harsh and somewhat unjustified words, the Doctor had spoken the absolute truth. He'd had a bad childhood, bad enough that Fitz wouldn't wish it on anyone. As soon as he'd turned eighteen, he had turned into a cautious person who breezed through life only doing the bare minimum but complaining about the mediocrity of his life all the same.

On one of his mother's more lucid days, she'd told him: Fitz, one day the world will be on fire, and you would light a cigarette and wait for the flames to consume you as you sit and complain about the heat.

Years later, standing in a dungeon, Fitz finally understood what she had been talking about.

"...14 bottles of beer on the wall, 14 bottles of beer. Take one out, drink it down. 13 bottles of beer on the wall…"

"Will you please be quiet?" the Sulky Doctor snapped as he and Fitz finally found the chamber where his Eccentric self had been stashed away.

"Oh, I am so glad you found me!" said the Eccentric Doctor with obvious delight. "I started at 500 bottles and things were getting a bit stale."

"Fitz, use this to cut through the straps holding him down," said the Sulky Doctor, giving him a switchblade while he undid the metal cuffs with the sonic screwdriver. "Have you seen Rose?"

"Yes, but I lost her somewhere in the hallways," said the Eccentric Doctor, sounding mournful.

"You had her and let her out of your sight?!" thundered his other self with a glare.

"She ran off to find you!" he protested and it brought the Doctor up short.

For a moment it seemed like he would demand to be told exactly what had transpired between them for Rose to want to seek him out, but Fitz had finally cut through the bonds and got the Eccentric Doctor free. He got to his feet and rubbed his chest. "There, that's better. Now, let me tell you everything."

The Doctor was moaning in pain, the effects of electrocution still quite painful. He was aware of his surroundings but his nerves had taken some damage and he was seriously considering dropping into a healing coma. The Phantasm couldn't torture an unconscious man but the Doctor wouldn't put it past him to cut him open instead.

Somehow, he had to escape. If the Phantasm got to Rose…

He was still struggling to escape when the chamber door slammed open. He was feeling a lot weaker than before but when he heard his own voice echo back he slumped back in relief.

"He's been tortured," said his own voice in a firm tone and he knew it was the Storm.

"Rose…" he tried to say. "Rose."

"Is he asking for Rose?" asked Fitz.

"Phantasm...going after...Rose," he managed to mumble.

Identical swear words escaped the Eccentric and Sulky Doctor's mouths as they freed their third self. "You two take him back to the castle's foyer. Stay there," the Storm ordered Fitz and the Eccentric Doctor. "He's been electrocuted. You know how to deal with it," he told his Eccentric self.

"What are you going to do?" he asked the Storm.

"I'm going to find Rose, and then deal with this Phantasm," said the Storm, his jaw set and his eyes practically spitting fire as he said the Phantasm's name.

"Oh," said the Eccentric Doctor simply, somehow managing to convey his disapproval in that utterance.

The Storm glared at him. "Don't get all morally superior on me right now. Rose's life is at stake," he snapped and stormed off, leaving Fitz and his Eccentric self to fashion a stretcher to carry the Doctor's tortured self out of the dungeons.

The Phantasm was in his office, gathering a fresh set of his instruments. He wasn't certain if he should use electrocution on the girl or go for some other way to extract information. She'd certainly put up a fight when he'd cornered her in the hallways, but he'd managed to subdue her with the sedative.

The electrocution equipment was on the other side of the dungeons with the first Doctor, so the Phantasm found his set of carving daggers and picked them up instead. As an added measure, he poured out a flask of chemical irritant into a small jar. Just in case, he needed to cause more pain.

Satisfied, he gathered up his tools and turned to leave, only to find a man standing at the door. The tools fell from his hands as he tried to find the sedative but the man was next to him in a flash, and had punched him right in the abdomen, making him drop to his knees.

"So, I heard you like to torture," said the man, so alike in appearance to his other two selves but so dangerous that even the Phantasm's usually unperturbed senses registered fear. "And those are for Rose, I presume," he added, looking at the daggers that had clattered to the floor.

"I wouldn't waste time with me if I were you. You'd want to recover your other selves first. The conditions that I left them in are not exactly ideal," said the Phantasm, trying to raise some sense of self-preservation in the man.

To his surprise, the Doctor gave a laugh that made the fear in his heart turn to terror. "Oh, oh, Phantasm. Don't be silly," said the Doctor as if speaking to a child. "I'm not interested in myself. I simply want to know where you've taken Rose Tyler." The Doctor's voice was gentle as he advanced towards the Phantasm who started to cower.

"I will never tell you!" shouted the Phantasm, his own sense of self preservation breaking through his cool facade.

The Doctor laughed again, the soft sound somehow managing to sound menacing as it echoed off the walls. "Do you really think I would ask you? You didn't, when you sent electricity coursing through my other self's body. So, you know what I'm going to do? I am just going to place my finger gently against your temple."

The Phantasm screamed in true fear when he felt the Doctor enter his mind. You're in my mind.

Of course, I am, came the Doctor's snap retort. The others never let me invade a mind. I can see why, this one's a dump. Have a taste for torture, don't you? Let's see here then.

Agony pierced the Phantasm's mind and body, and screams erupted from his mouth as the Doctor applied pressure on his thalamus.

Do you know what the beauty of torture is? The Doctor continued nonchalantly as he let the Phantasm catch his breath. Very few people know how to truly cause pain. You think you're quite good, but face it, electrocution and daggers are child's play. Now this, he added, sending waves of pain to the thalamus. This is true torture.

Get out of my mind, the Phantasm tried to gasp. You can't stay here an-and bully me!

Of course, I can. I can stay here as long as I like, cause you as much pain as I like. Until your brain can't take it anymore, or until you tell me where Rose is, continued the Doctor in a calm, gentle voice.

I won't tell you. I have tortured so many people. I know how to hold out. I will not tell you!

Do you know what my other selves call me? They call me the Storm. If your spectral beam was good for one thing, it was to separate me from those other two. Without them holding me back, there is so much more I can do. I no longer have the innocence or the rules holding me back. So, you tell me Phantasm, can you really hold out against me?

Mere minutes later, the Storm strode into the chamber not far from the office where he had left the Phantasm a weakened man. He found Rose strapped to the examination table, missing her leather jacket and jumper.

Fury rose in him and he nearly turned around to go and kill the Phantasm but he made himself turn back to her unconscious form. He quickly scanned her with the screwdriver and breathed in relief when he realised that she was only sedated and the Phantasm hadn't touched her. With a jaw clenched hard enough to grind through stone, he started to undo her bindings.

When he'd got her free, he located her leather jacket and wrapped it around her bra-clad torso. He was about to lift her up when she gave a groan of pain and started waking up.

"Doctor?"

"It's me," he said, grabbing her hand and holding it to his cheek.

"Are we safe?" she asked, sounding a bit sluggish due to the effects of the sedative.

"Yes," he said. "We are safe."

She nodded and sat up slowly with his help. The Doctor stood quietly, keeping his face impassive while she gathered her bearings. She gazed thoughtfully at him for a moment before jumping to her feet and nearly tackling him with a hug.

He was so surprised by it that he stumbled back a few steps with her in his arms. "Rose?" he asked, feeling bewildered.

"I love you," she murmured into his neck. "I'm sorry the other two don't understand. I'm so sorry."

A cry of near-anguish escaped his lips before he tightened his grip on her. "Oh, Rose Tyler," he said. "I have loved you for so long. It's that love that's stopped them from letting me love you like I want."

"They don't love me?" asked Rose, looking at him with tears in her eyes.

"Do you know what the Storm is, Rose? It's not just all the pain and the darkness. I am the one who feels, Rose. Good, bad, love, hate, anger, despair, joy, all of it. The loony one cares about you because you are a mystery, something undiscovered. The rational one appreciates you for all that you are and all that you have done for us."

"And you?" she asked.

"I am the passion, the love, the lust, the all-consuming fire that burns with all those things that the other two are too afraid to feel," he said. "So, they stop me. Put me in chains so I cannot…" he shook his head, unable to go on.

Rose stared at him silently for a moment before bringing his head down to hers in a kiss. There was no shock or hesitation on his part, as he lifted one of her legs to wrap around his waist and pressed himself closer to her. The leather jacket fell off Rose's shoulder but neither of them noticed as they lost themselves to the sensation of their tongues and lips and wandering hands.

The chamber door slamming open knocked them out of their ardour. They whirled around and saw the Phantasm, looking weakened but holding a device with a detonation button in his hand.

"If I have to die," he wheezed out. "Then I will take you all with me."

The Doctor moved in the blink of an eye as he drew out the sonic screwdriver and disabled just one of the circuitries on the explosives. It powered down at once, rendering the device useless.

"Now," said the Doctor, letting go of Rose and stepping up to the Phantasm. "I think it was a mistake to let you live. Something that I intend to correct." He extended his hand towards his neck.

"STOP!" The Doctor whirled around and saw the shocked expression on Rose's face.

"Rose?" he asked, looking confused.

"You can't kill him!" she said, horrified by the very idea that he had no qualms about killing a man in cold blood.

"He is a murderer. He tortured and killed hundreds of people. He tried to kill us!" said the Storm, trying to make her understand.

"No," said Rose as she walked up to the Storm. "I won't let you do this."

"He tortured my other self. He was going to torture YOU!" yelled the Storm, his fury rearing its head at the very idea .

Rose didn't flinch. "He's not the one trying to hurt anyone right now," she said, looking at the Phantasm who had collapsed to his knees. "He can't harm anyone any more. What about you, Doctor? Can you kill an unarmed man in cold blood?"

The Doctor's hands trembled at the disgust in her eyes, before falling to his side. "Yes," he said, suddenly sounding very old. "Yes, I can, actually. But I won't." He looked at the Phantasm who seemed very close to death. "He's too dangerous to be left free but there is a way to keep him contained without killing him," he said slowly.

Before Rose could ask what he meant by that, he had lifted the Phantasm and thrown him over his shoulder. Rose grabbed her jacket and ran after them. The Doctor took the Phantasm into the office where there was something that looked like an ordinary cabinet. He lowered his body into it and closed the doors before fiddling with the panel next to it.

"It's a crude cryogenic storage. It's all I can do," he said, avoiding Rose's eyes.

Rose touched his shoulder. "Thank you," she said.

He lifted his eyes to hers, needing to see the forgiveness in them for himself. What he found gave him heart and he kissed her forehead, before taking her hand. "I think," he said, starting to lead her out of the dungeons. "It's time to put humpty dumpty back together again."

Putting the Doctor back together turned out to be easier than anticipated. The three of them had to simply enter the chamber from before and the beam activated itself, reversing the process. Rose and Fitz waited outside anxiously, and when the green glow died down, the door opened and the Doctor walked out.

There was no sign of any pain in his features, in fact, he looked like he was in perfect health. He grinned at his companions. "Well, that was quite an adventure," he said.

"One that I do not want to repeat," said Rose with an easy grin.

The Doctor agreed with a laugh and grabbed her hand tightly. "Fitz?" he asked.

"I'm with Rose on that one," he said, as the three of them started walking back to the TARDIS. "But," he said in a slightly more serious voice. "I think I'll stick around to see what comes next."

The Doctor beamed at him and Fitz returned the smile with an awkward one of his own. They reached the TARDIS and he shuffled off to his room, murmuring good night to the Doctor and Rose as he did.

"That was some birthday," said Rose after the two of them had been silent for a while.

"It isn't over yet," said the Doctor. "There are still five hours left."

Rose chuckled a bit and shook her head. "Yeah, I guess," she said. The TARDIS ceiling was transparent and they could see the first breaks of dawn in the dark sky. She looked back at the Doctor and found him gazing at her with a soft look on his face.

"Everything I said back then," he said quietly. "It was the truth."

Rose looked surprised that he would bring it up himself but managed to school her features into careful nonchalance. The Doctor did not let it deter him as he walked up to her and took her hand in his. "I love you," he whispered and pressed his lips to her knuckles.

Rose was quiet for a moment before she took her hand away. "I'm going to bed," she said, and the Doctor's hearts crashed in his chest. "If you join me," she continued and the Doctor looked up, hardly daring to believe it. "If you join me, then we finish what we started back in that dungeon. But if you don't, then we'll leave everything that happened behind. You are still my best friend and I still love you, but I can't ignore what happened until I am positive that it is not something that you want."

With a determined smile and nod in his direction, she turned away and walked to their room. The Doctor stood in his place for a long moment before he turned abruptly and followed Rose.

A/N End of story #9 Ghosts of Oldbank. So, what did you think?

I know we haven't really focused on Fitz but the next two stories will have him in a more prominent role than Rose, and even the Doctor. I had to sort out all the Doctor/Rose issues first.

Oh, and if you wanted to listen to some clips from Caerdroia to get a feel for the Doctor's voices, there's a link on my profile to listen to bits and pieces. Paul McGann does an impressive job with all three Doctors.

The next chapter will be a standalone story instead of being in this one, and will contain smut. It will be up in 2-3 days so check back then. Alternatively, put me on alert so you can get a notification as soon as I post it.

Story #10 is called 'The Roman Invasion' and it will feature a familiar character. No, not Rory. Part 1 will be up in a few days after the standalone chapter. See you then!

~ Phoenix