A/N I don't own BBC or DW
Book of the update: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Chapter 21

The Doctor ran up to the house, pulling Rose along with him (he still hadn't released her hand – not that she minded, not at all) and didn't even knock, just opened the door and ran inside.

"Rude!" She chastised, grinning, but he just clicked his tongue at her and turned sharply down another hallway, swinging open a bedroom door to reveal a man, Rose recognized him as Mrs. O'Brenton's grandson, Jeff, sitting on the bed with his laptop.

"Hello! Laptop, give me," the Doctor commanded, dropping Rose's hand for the very first time to reach out and take it from him, ignoring Jeff's protests. He looked at the screen and then looked back at Jeff, his face shocked. "Blimey! Get a girlfriend, Jeff," he muttered before sitting down on the bed and starting to work on the laptop.

Jeff looked up at Rose, who had her arms crossed, a disgusted look on her face. His own face was a bit red.

Someone opened the door and Rose jumped back a bit to get out of the way as Mrs. O'Brenton opened the door. "What are you doing?" she asked the Doctor.

"The Sun's gone wibbly-wobbly, so right now, somewhere out there, there's gonna be a big old video conference call." He looked down at the screen again, typing things and clicking buttons. "All the experts in the world panicking at once and do you know what they need? Me. Ah! And here they all are," he said with a smile, looking down at the screen.

Rose walked over and sat beside him, looking at it. He began pointing out names to her. "NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Centre, Patrick Moore."

"Oh, I like Patrick Moore," said Mrs. O'Brenton and the Doctor winked at her.

"I'll get you his number. Better watch him though, he's a devil."

Six different faces appeared on the screen; the six people in the video conference call. The Doctor was about to become the seventh.

"But you can't just hack in on a call like that!" Jeff said, and Rose laughed.

"Just you watch, Jeff."

The Doctor flashed his psychic paper at the webcam, and at once, they could all see him.

"Who are you? This is a secure call, what are you doing here?" the one in the bottom right asked and the Doctor gave a little wave.

"Hello, Gentlemen. I know, you should switch me off. But before you do, watch this." He began to type rapidly, and everyone in the call looked at their own screens, saying they'd gotten it, whatever it was. "Fermat's theorem," the Doctor said, "and the proof. And I mean the real one, never been seen before. Poor old Fermat, got killed in a duel before he could write it all down." He looked up guiltily, "My fault. I slept in. Oh, and here's an oldie but a goodie – why electrons have mass. And a personal favorite of mine, faster-than-light travel with two diagrams and a joke." He pressed a final key with a flourish and looked up at Rose. "How about that?"

She was stunned. She'd gotten her A-levels in the parallel world, along with quite a bit of special Torchwood education and she'd taken several classes during her time here in Leadworth, and she knew that this was big information. Big information.

"Look at your screens," he told them, "Whoever I am, I'm a genius. Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get. Fellas, pay attention."

He pulled out Rory's phone and began typing things again, and Rose just leaned her chin on her hands on her knees and watched him.

"Sir," said someone on the call, Rose didn't know who, "What are you doing?"

"I'm writing a computer virus," he told them, "Very clever, super-fast, and a tiny bit alive, but don't let on," he warned, shaking his finger at them. "Why am I writing it on a phone? Never mind; you'll find out," he told them, winking at Rose. She was reminded of the first time they'd been to the parallel world, when he'd stopped the Cybermen with her phone. With Mickey's help, of course.

"Alright, now, I'm sending this to all your computers. Get everyone who works for you sending this everywhere. Email, text, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, radar dish. Whatever you've got. Any questions?"

"Who's your lady friend?"

The Doctor looked at Rose and then back at the screen, subtly scooting closer to her, a bit possessively. "Patrick, behave."

"What does this virus do?"

"It's a reset command, that's all. It resets counters. It gets in the Wi-Fi and resets every counter it can find. And clocks, calendars, anything with a chip will default at zero at exactly the same time."

They all looked uneasy and did nothing. "They don't trust you," Rose murmured and he blinked.

"Right. Of course. Why should you trust me? I could be lying. I'm not, but I could be. Well. I'm going to let my best man here explain." Silence. "Jeff," he whispered, "You're my best man."

"Your what?"

He shut the laptop partially and looked at him. "Listen to me. In ten minutes, you're going to be a legend. In ten minutes, everyone on that screen will be offering you any job you want. But first," he said, clapping Jeff's shoulder, "You have to be magnificent. You have to make them trust you and get them working. This is it, Jeff, right here, right now. This is when you fly. Today's the day you save the world."

Jeff stuttered for a moment, unsure what to say, but then decided on "Why me?"

The Doctor grinned. "It's your bedroom." He handed him the laptop. "Now, go, go, go."

And then he took Rose's hand and was out the door. Rose popped her head back in briefly to say, "Delete your internet history," with a raised eyebrow, and then they were gone.

DOCTOR WHO

Rose clambered up the ladder after the Doctor, a bit slower and much more cautiously than he had. When she reached the top, she ducked in through the window to see the Doctor facing a woman and two children, all holding hands.

"….if I am to die, let there be fire," the woman said with a gruesome smile and Rose hopped in and landed on her feet, making a dull thud.

"Okay," the Doctor said, turning his head the slightest fraction to look at Rose and smile before turning back to the creature. "You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again. Just leave."

"I did not open the crack," the creature said and Rose raised her eyebrows.

"Then who did?" she asked, and it looked at her.

"The cracks in the skin of the universe. Don't you know where they came from?" it asked mockingly, "The Doctor doesn't know, but does his Bad Wolf?" Rose's eyes widened and she saw the Doctor flinch at the mention of that name. "You don't, do you?" the creature asked, tauntingly. "Ha! The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."

There was a clicking, crackling noise and the Doctor grinned. "And we're off! Look at that." He pointed to the clock, which now read 0:00. "Look at that! Yeah, I know, just a clock, whatever. But do you know what's happening right now? In one little bedroom, my team are working. Jeff and the world. And do you know what they're doing?"

The creature made a hissing sort of noise. "What?"

"They're telling everybody a word, all the same word," Rose answered, stepping up next to the Doctor and linking her hand with his.

"Exactly," he said, squeezing her hand gently, "And do you know what the word is? The word is zero. Now, me, if I was up in the sky in a battle ship, monitoring all communications on earth, I'd probably take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able to track a simple old computer virus to its source in, what, under a minute?"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out Rory's phone, holding it up for the prisoner to see. "The source, by the way, is right here." Light suddenly shone in through the windows of the hospital room and the Doctor cheered, looking around. "Oh! And I think they just found it!"

"The Atraxi are limited," said Prisoner Zero, using the woman's voice again, "While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone, not me."

"Yeah," said the Doctor, "but this is the good bit. I mean, this is my favorite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of?" the creature seemed a bit nervous, but stood its ground. The Doctor turned to look at Rose, standing beside him. "Rose, what is this phone full of?"

"Pictures," she answered, catching on. "Pictures of you." The last part was directed at Prisoner Zero.

"Every form you've learned to take, right here, right now. Ooh, and being uploaded about now," the Doctor added, looking down at the phone. "And the final score is no TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare. Who da man?" he flung his arms out wide, releasing Rose's hand.

She pulled it up to cover her mouth, trying not to laugh. The Doctor looked around at everyone and then put his arms down. "Ooh, yes. I'm never saying that again. Fine."

The creature kept right on with the conversation, ignoring his little outburst. "Then I shall take a new form."

"Stop it," he laughed, "You know you can't. Takes months to form that kind of psychic link."

The creature smiled gruesomely. "And I've had years."

It began to glow red and Rose collapsed where she stood, falling to the floor beside him. He dropped to his knees. "Rose! No! Rose?" he took her face in his hands, his voice frantic. "You've got to hold on. Rose! No, no, no, don't sleep! You've got to stay awake, please!"

Rory slapped his back, pointing and he looked up. It was him. The way he used to be, with fabulous hair and a brown suit. Prisoner Zero had gone into Rose's mind and rifled through her memories and picked him. But then it morphed. He sat up, looking at it in confusion.

It was a man, taller than he had been, with sort of floppy brown hair and a big chin. He wore a practically destroyed button down shirt that was partly untucked and a swirly tie with burn holes in it.

"Well that's rubbish," he said, looking at it, "Who's that supposed to be?"

"It's you," Rory told him and he blinked.

"Me? Is that what I look like?" he looked down at himself briefly and then up at Rory, who seemed bewildered.

"You don't know?" Amy asked in confusion, "How could you not know?"

"Busy day," he defended, still cradling Rose's head in his lap. "Why me, though? You're linked with her. Why are you copying me?"

"I'm not," it said and his blood ran cold. It was Rose's voice….except it wasn't. It was Prisoner Zero. It stepped out from behind him, holding his hand. "Poor Rose Tyler," it said, looking down at her body on the floor, "dreaming of her precious Doctor, who always comes to save her. But he's left her behind. You've become such a disappointment to her."

The Doctor's jaw twitched and for a moment, he seemed to believe what the creature said. But then he looked down at the real Rose Tyler, lying in his arms, and he knew it was just lies. "No. She's dreaming about me because she can hear me." he cupped her face again, leaning down close to her. "Rose, don't just hear me, listen. Remember the room? The room in Amy's house that had a perception filter? She told me you went inside. Rose, please, dream about what you saw."

"No, no, no!" cried Rose – that is to say, Prisoner Zero – as the creature that had taken the form of Rose and her precious Doctor disappeared, and was replaced by the most disgusting, un-beautiful alien he had ever seen. It looked a bit like a snake, but with huge fangs and slime everywhere.

"Well done Prisoner Zero," the Doctor said from on the floor, not wanting to leave Rose's side until she woke up. "A perfect impersonation of yourself."

A spotlight shone through the window, landing right on the creature. "Prisoner Zero is located," called the voice of the guard, "Prisoner Zero is restrained."

The snake-alien-prisoner hissed at him. "Ssssilence, Doctor. Sssssilence will fall." There was a flash, and it was gone.

"No!" He cried, gently putting Rose's head on the floor and bounding over to the window, looking up.

"Has it gone?" came a foggy-sounding voice from behind him. Rose.

"Yes, Rose, it's gone. It's alright," he soothed, running to her and patting her hair awkwardly, but she pushed him away.

"But that thing – the Atoxic or whatever – they were going to destroy the whole world! You can't just let them get away with it!" she was outraged, and quite rightly so.

He stood up, helped her to her feet, pulled out Rory's phone, dialing a number.

"But, the sun…it's back to normal. That's good, yes?" Rory asked, sounding confused, "That means it's over."

"Yeah," Amy said proudly, "The Doctor did it."

"No I didn't."

"What are you doing?" Rory asked.

"Tracking the signal back. Sorry in advance," the Doctor said, holding the phone up in the air.

"About what?"

Rose grimaced. "That's gonna be one helluva bill," she muttered, thinking back to the bill Jackie'd gotten from Rose's call from the year 5 billion.

"Oi!" The Doctor yelled into the phone, "I didn't say you could go! Article 57 of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully-established, level 5 planet, and you were going to burn it? What? Did you think no one was watching? You lot, back here, now." he turned off the phone and threw it to Rory.

"Okay. Now I've done it."

Rose laughed and wrapped her arm around his, leaning her head on his shoulder as they walked down the hall. "Thank you."

"Uh, did he just bring them back? Did he just save the world from aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?" Rory called after them in confusion.

"Where are you going?" Amy asked, running to catch up with them. The Doctor flung open the doors in front of him dramatically.

"The roof." He saw a door and ducked in there, saying, "No. Hang on."

Rory and Amy followed him, shutting the door behind them. The Doctor let go of Rose's arm and began to pick up shirts everywhere, throwing them back down onto the floor again when they didn't take to his liking.

"What's in here, then?" she asked, laughing as she caught the plaid shirt he flung over his shoulder.

"I'm saving the world," he explained, throwing more shirts and ties over his shoulder, "I need a decent shirt. To hell with the raggedy. Time to put on a show!" he had narrowed it down to about 4 shirts and a handful of ties, so he just dropped everything he was holding onto the floor and began to take off the ruined, swirly tie he was wearing.

"You just summoned aliens back to earth," Rory said, trying to get the Doctor's attention. He wasn't even looking at him, facing the other way. "Actual aliens, deadly aliens." The Doctor began to unbutton his shirt. "Aliens of death, and now you're….taking your clothes off." The Doctor's shirt was gone. No shirt. "Amy, he's taking his clothes off."

The Doctor laughed at him. "Turn your back if it embarrasses you," he said, trying on a black shirt and then taking it off just as quickly.

"Are you stealing clothes now?" Rory asked, becoming uncomfortable, and Rose had to stifle a giggle. "Those clothes belong to people, you know….." he trailed off and turned around.

Amy and Rose did not. Rory, seeming jealous, grabbed Amy and spun her around so she wouldn't look. Rose saw her roll her eyes, but she complied, probably to keep her kind-of-boyfriend happy.

"Are you not going to turn your back?" Rory hissed at Rose, who smirked.

"Not a chance."

The Doctor turned his head and winked at her, though his cheeks were tinged with red.

He finally decided on a sort of reddish-pink shirt with stripes on the wrists and suspenders clipped to his pants, and three or four ties thrown around his neck, untied. He also had abandoned the white Chucks for a sturdy pair of brown leather shoes, claiming that the sneakers were too small.

"Time to go," he said, spinning around and grabbing Rose's hand, dragging her back through the room, Amy and Rory following. He stopped for a moment, to grab a jacket and he gave it to Rose. "Hold that, would you? Thanks."

And then they were walking down the hall again and he was smiling and she was laughing and Amy was smirking and Rory was fussing and then they were on the roof. And there was an eye. There was a ship, one of the snowflakey things they'd seen before, and an eyeball at the very center, looking right at them.

The Doctor walked right up to it, pulling Rose with him, and looked it right in the eye.

"But they were leaving! Wasn't that good?" Amy asked, and the Doctor gave a short laugh.

"Leaving is good. Never coming back is better. Come ooooon then!" he yelled up at the ship, "The Doctor will see you now!"

Rose jumped back the tiniest bit as the eye swooped down from the ship, stopping maybe 3 meters from them. The eye sent out some sort of scan right over the Doctor, who was pulling his suspenders up over his shoulders, and it passed over Rose as well, though she guessed that the main intention was scanning the Doctor.

"You are not of this world," said the voice from the eye after the scan was complete. It sounded like the guard.

"No, but I've put a lot of work into it," he said, adjusting the suspenders. He picked up two of the ties around his neck and compared them. "I don't know. What do you think?" he asked, showing them to Rose, who wrinkled her nose. "No, I didn't think so either." He took them both off and threw them behind him to Rory.

"Is this world important?"

"Important?" Rose cried, outraged. "Of course it's important! What the hell does that even mean, 'is this world important?'!"

"Six billion people live her, is that important?" the Doctor asked, backing her up. "But here's a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi? Well, come on, you're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?"

The eye created a projection of the whole earth and watched it rotate.

"No."

"Are the people of this world guilty of any crimes by the laws of the Atraxi?"

The eye changed the projection. Now it was a live feed of humans. Humans all over the planet, all at once, just being human.

"No."

"Okay," the Doctor announced, "One more. Just one. Is this world protected?"

Images and videos of aliens trying to invade the earth flashed before their eyes. The Cybermen. The Daleks. Sycorax. Gelth. Slitheen. And many more that Rose couldn't name.

"Because you're not the first to have come here," the Doctor said, "Oh, there have been so many! And what you've got to ask is…what happened to them?" he took the coat from Rose and pulled it on, still fiddling with the one remaining tie.

Images flashed before their eyes. Faces. Different faces, but all belonging to one man.

That man stepped forward and broke through the projection, Rose a step behind at his side. "Hello. I'm the Doctor." He smirked. "Basically….run."

The eye shot back into its socket on the ship and the snowflake's blades began to spin, like a helicopter. And it ran away. All the way up to the clouds. And then it was gone, never to return.

The Doctor turned to Rose. "There we are. Can you tie a bowtie?"

She raised an eyebrow. "A bowtie?"

"Yes."

She released his hand and reached up, tying the red tie into a perfect bow and tucking his collar down over it. "There," she said, straightening it, "Bowties are cool."

He grinned, but it disappeared when she frowned and put a hand to her neck. "Ah! It's hot!" she picked up her TARDIS key by the chain, showing it to him. It was glowing gold.

"Is that it? Is that them gone for good? Who were they?" Amy asked, but the Doctor and Rose had already gone, sprinting through the hospital and back to Amy's house to their TARDIS.

"Okay," the Doctor said when they'd reached her, "What have you got for us this time?"

Rose unlocked the door and swung it open, laughing when she saw the inside. "It's gorgeous!"

"Oh, look at you," the Doctor said, looking around his beloved ship, "oh, you sexy thing. Look at you!" and he shut the door and ran to the console, eager to try out all of the new buttons and twirly thingies and bells.

And the TARDIS began the dematerialization sequence, leaving a very sad, very confused Amy Pond just outside. Again.

DOCTOR WHO

"Who the bloody hell is he?"

"Donna Noble!" He cried, rushing into the living room and sweeping her up into a hug.

"What?!"

"He's the Doctor," Rose told her, laughing.

"What?!"

"I'm the Doctor!"

"What?!"

The Doctor finally set her down and grinned at her. "Do you like it? The face? The hair? The bowtie?"

Donna looked back and forth between the two of them. "Will somebody please tell me what the bloody hell is goin on?!"

"I've regenerated," the Doctor explained to her, "It's a Time Lord thing, what we do when we're about to die. 'S perfectly normal!" He grinned at her, bouncing on his heels.

Rose took pity on poor spluttering Donna and began to explain a bit more, "It's like, when a Time Lord's gonna die, every cell in their body changes, and they become this whole new person. But not really. On the inside, he's still just the same old Doctor," she stepped up beside him and laced her fingers with his, poking his chest with her other hand, "in here."

Donna blinked, absorbing the information. "Right. So while I was here, sleeping, you ran off and got yourself killed and turned into a different person?"

The Doctor waved, grinning sheepishly. "Hello."

She stared at him for a minute before launching herself at him in a hug, causing him to stumble back and release Rose's hand, caught off guard. He wrapped his arms around her, smiling.

"Oh, don't you ever run off and do that again, Spaceman! You're like my baby brother; don't go around changing your face while I'm not there, alright?"

He nodded, a bit unsure about the baby brother comparison, and set her down. "Yes, Donna, absolutely. Now then," he opened the TARDIS doors with a flourish, "Shall we?" and hopped inside, followed by Rose and then by Donna.

"Oh, you've changed this, too!" she hollered, "What else's happened?" she asked with her hands on her hips and Rose and the Doctor exchanged guilty looks.

"Well…." He started, but Rose cut him off.

"Oh no! Amy! You've left her – again!"

His head snapped up. "Oops." And he ran to the console, pulling knobs and twisting springs and ignoring Donna, who was shouting behind him,

"Who's Amy? Did I miss something, again?!"

A/N Updates will be sporadic and few in the next week or so due to midterms and then holidays, sorry.