A/N I aint the BBC.
Chapter 33
"Long way from Saturnyne, aren't you?" the Doctor asked Rosanna when she entered the throne room. Must've been quite a shock to find a strange man lounging on her throne with a blonde on his lap. One of the Doctor's hands was gripping the throne, as if it was meant to be there. The other was around Rose's waist, holding her so close to him that Rose could feel his chest vibrate behind her as he spoke.
Rosanna's eyes widened, but she quickly composed herself. "Oh, I see. Are you the owner of the psychic paper?" she looked at the Doctor only to ask this, and Rose felt mildly offended that Rosanna didn't think her capable of owning a bit of psychic paper. "You're refugees, then? Like me."
The Doctor didn't answer, only tightening his grip on Rose's waist for a moment, signaling her not to speak for now. "I'll make you a deal," he said. "An answer for an answer." He waited to continue until Rosanna nodded her agreement. "You're using a perception filter. It doesn't change your features, but manipulates the brainwaves of the person looking at you. But seeing one of you for the first time in, say, a mirror, the brain doesn't know what to fill the gap with, so leaves it blank, hence no reflection."
Rosanna crossed her arms. "Did you have a question, or would you like to tell me more about myself?"
"Yes, actually. Why can we see your big teeth?" he asked, drawing his lip up to mime fangs.
"Self-preservation over rides the mirage. The subconscious perceives the threat and tries to alert the conscious brain," she answered without pause, as if she had been expecting him to ask that. "My turn. Where are you from?"
He raised an eyebrow, his eyes darting to Rose. "Which one of us?"
She took a moment to think before saying, "Both."
"London," he said and Rose raised her hand in a little wave. "And Gallifrey."
Rosanna's eyebrows crept to her hairline. "You ought to be in a museum," she commented. "Or a mausoleum."
The Doctor shrugged slightly. "Why are you here?"
"Running from the Silence. Why are you here?"
The Doctor smirked, pulling on Rose's waist so that she fell back to lean completely against his chest. "Supposed to be having a nice date. What're the Silence?"
"There were cracks. Some were tiny. Some were as big as the sky. Through some we saw worlds and people, and through others we saw Silence and the end of all things. We fled to an ocean like ours, and the crack snapped shut behind us. Saturnyne was lost." It sounded like she'd read it in a textbook somewhere, no emotions behind the words.
"Didn't exactly answer the question," Rose muttered. The Doctor nodded slightly in agreement, but his next question wasn't about the Silence.
"Is earth to become your new Saturnyne?"
Rosanna's head snapped up, a hopeful look in her eyes as she crept toward them. "You could help me," she offered, "Both of you. We could build a new society here, as others have. What do you say?"
The Doctor opened his mouth to respond, probably with an offer of an empty planet to call their own, but Rose cut him off. "What was her name?" she asked, "The girl who helped me escape. What was her name?"
Rosanna almost laughed. "The traitor? What does it matter?"
Rose jumped to her feet, hands on her hips. "Isabella. Her name is Isabella and it matters everything! You're out here changin' all the girls in Venice to vampire fish and you can't even bother with getting to know them all first. You disgust me," she spat, finally turning and stalking out the door, the long Venetian skirt helping with the unintended dramatics.
The Doctor stood as well and strolled over to Rosanna, hands in his pockets. "Your little reign of terror," he told her, "is going to end today. No more, Rosanna. I've worked too hard protecting this earth to let you ruin it now."
She held her chin up high, pride getting in the way of hearing the threat in his words. "You are weak, Doctor. I will bend the heavens to save my race, while you and your beloved cling to this pathetic little band of apes. If it is survival of the fittest, as they say, let's see who can survive the longest, hmm?" she asked with a sickly sweet smile, making the Doctor's lip curl.
"I warned you, Rosanna. But if you want survival of the fittest, on your own head be it." He started to walk towards the door, turning back briefly with a little smirk. "And ah, word of advice," he added, "I'd stay off of Rose's bad side if I were you."
And the door slammed shut behind him.
The gates were opened for the Doctor as he passed through, meeting Rose just outside. She was still fuming, and he didn't try to calm her. Just took her hand and started on the street back to Guido and Isabella's house. "We need a plan," Rose said after a moment.
"Agreed." They were silent, neither of them thinking of anything. "Alright, let's start with this: what do we already know?"
"Fish people," Rose began, ticking off her fingers as she began to list other things. "Their planet's dead, they got here through a crack, umm….changes girls into aliens?"
The Doctor nodded at her as she spoke. "Yeah, got that, but why? And what happens after? They come from the sea. They can't survive for ever on land, so what's she going to do?"
"Well, if they can't survive on land, she could just make them all go underwater," Rose suggested, but he shook his head, absently rubbing circles on the back of her hand with his thumb as he spoke.
"No, no, that's not what it sounded like. Seems like she would've just gone down there to start with. Unless she's going to do something to the environment to make the city habitable. What did she say? She said something, what was it? Ah, ah, ah," he said, smacking his head until Rose released his hand and grabbed his wrist to stop him. Then it hit him. "Bend the heavens. She said, I will bend the heavens to save my race. Bend the heavens."
Rose's eyes widened. "What, like pull the sky down?"
He swallowed loudly, looking her right in the eye. "She's going to sink Venice." He grabbed her hand again and started to run. "Come on!"
DOCTOR WHO
"She's going to sink Venice?" Guido asked incredulously, not believing them.
"And repopulate it with the girls she's transformed, yes," the Doctor replied, as if it were obvious.
"Hold on," Isabella said, frowning, "You can't repopulate an area with only girls. You umm, you know. Woman and man."
Rose smiled grimly. "Yeah. Remember what Rosanna said? She said she's got ten thousand husbands waiting for us in the water."
The Doctor nodded. "Only the male offspring survived the journey here. She's got ten thousand children swimming around the canals, waiting for Mum to make them some compatible girlfriends." He frowned, scrunching up his nose. "Urgh. I mean, I've seen a lot, but really that's, that's…..eugh."
There was a loud thump and they all looked up at the ceiling.
"The people upstairs are noisy," the Doctor commented.
Guido looked at him fearfully. "There are no people upstairs."
"I knew you were going to say that," he groaned. "Rose, didn't you know he was going to say that?"
More thumps and an eerie creaking filled the momentary silence. "Is it the Calvierri girls?" Guido asked in a whisper, "The vampires?"
Rose frowned as the Doctor pulled out a big UV light from his bigger-on-the-inside pockets. "Told you, not vampires. Fish from space."
Isabella screamed as the window right by her head shattered, glass flying everywhere. Rose reached out and grabbed Isabella by the elbow, yanking her back just as the not-vampires closed in, leering at them through the broken remains of the glass. The Doctor jumped to his feet and ran to get between the fanged fish and his Rose. He smirked at them, wielding the long UV light. He opened his mouth to ask Rose to grab his sonic from off the table, but she was already placing it in his free hand.
"Thanks, love," he mumbled, fiddling with the settings on the screwdriver for a moment before pointing it to the four or five girls fighting their way in through the window. They seemed to…flicker for a moment, once, twice. And then the lovely young girls were gone, replaced by horrid slimy fish with bulging red eyes and terrible fangs snarling at them.
Guido jumped back, subconsciously hiding behind the Doctor as well. "My god….what's happened to them?"
Rose looked at them, half with pity and half with repulsion, saying, "There's not anything left in them. Everything they were…it's all gone now."
The Doctor wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, okay, move. Let's go."
As if they knew that he was planning an escape, one of the vampire fish lunged for him with terrible clawed fins outstretched and mouth open to reveal the hideous teeth. Isabella stood frozen in fear before the creature, and it definitely would've gotten her if not for Rose's quick thinking. She jumped off to the side, out of the group, and began to hop up and down, waving her arms around.
"Hey! Over here!" The creatures turned and began to advance on her with a snarl, leaving Isabella free to go. "Look at me, that's it…..run!" she yelled at the girl, who still stood frozen. She nodded numbly and ran down some sort of hallway, right behind her father. The Doctor didn't leave. He looked at the fish creatures, who were getting dangerously close to his Rose.
The Doctor pushed a chair out of the way and forced a path to Rose's side, the UV light held aloft. He fumbled for her hand for a moment and then clasped it tightly with his own when he found it. The Doctor leaned down, his eyes still trained on the fish creatures cowering from the light, and said into her ear, "Run."
And run they did.
"Come on!" Guido shouted, waiting at the top of a staircase. Rose took the lead, pulling them both toward the stairs while the Doctor held the light behind him, keeping the not-vampires at bay. "Give me the lamp," he said when they were all somewhat safe on the staircase, Guido the very last. The Doctor handed him the light, and the man swung it around behind him to ward off the space fish. "Go, go, go!"
There was a door at the end of the staircase, and it was open, allowing the dull sunlight to float up to them. Isabella hesitated, but then plunged headlong into the light, gritting her teeth and trying to ignore the intense pain that spread over her skin. Rose released the Doctor's hand to run to Isabella, using her own body as a sort of shield from the sun. It was sort of effective, and soon the two girls got out through the door and found a bit of relief in the shade of a nearby building.
"Doctor, stay away from the door!" they heard Guido shout and looked up to see him closing the door behind him. The bolt slid shut with a loud clang. "I love you, Isabella!" he hollered through the wood of the door. "Stay back!"
Rose and Isabella rushed to the door, ignoring the man's protests from inside. "Doctor, open the door!" Rose pleaded, but it was no use.
"I can't! It's bolted, the sonic isn't working!" he said, almost in a panic. He tried again. And again. And again. "What are you doing? Guido!"
Isabella was hysterical, pounding on the door with her fists. "Father! Father!" Her skin was becoming red and blistered from the sun, even though it was filtered through the clouds.
The Doctor heard Guido shouting something, luring the fish creatures closer, and then it clicked. "No!" he screamed, banging on the door, "Don't do this!"
"Get away! Doctor, get them away!" Guido shouted, the words coming out muffled through the door.
The Doctor's eyes widened and he grabbed Isabella in one hand, Rose in the other, and ran as fast as he could, pulling them along. There was a terrible boom behind them and they were knocked over from the shockwave of the explosion.
The explosion.
"Father!" Isabella wailed, crawling on her knees back to the wreckage. The Doctor's arm gently wrapped around her waist and held her back, and after a moment, he became the shoulder she needed to cry on. She clung to him, her tears soaking his shirt as he rubbed her back consolingly. Ash and pieces of the wreckage floated down around them like rain, coating everything with a thick black dust and sticking in their hair. It made her seem even more pitiable, curled up in a ball, crying her eyes out, covered in ash and little bits of burnt wood….she was a sad sight.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered, looking down at her with sorrow etched all across his face.
Rose knelt beside them and gently laid a hand on Isabella's shoulder. The girl looked up at her and just looked for a while, the tears still running down her cheeks. And then she gave a loud sob and collapsed into Rose's arms. Rose kept silent, just rubbed her back and gently rocked them back and forth.
The Doctor stood and looked around. The sky was filled with smoke, yeah, but behind that….there were a lot of clouds. Too many. His eyes widened in understanding after a moment. "Rosanna's initiating the final phase," he said, "We've got to stop her. No," he corrected himself, looking back at the mess of a girl behind him. "I've got to stop her. Rose, take her somewhere safe, alright?"
Rose just nodded, knowing that he wasn't just trying to get her to stay back. Isabella really did need help. "Have you got anyone who you could go to? A friend or an aunt or something?"
Isabella shook her head. "No, it was only me and….I suppose it's just me now. I haven't got anywhere to go," she was bawling again.
"Come on," Rose said quietly, "I'll take you back to our….house." She looked at the Doctor with a raised eyebrow and he nodded. Back to the TARDIS was a good idea. She led the poor girl down the little network of alleyways between the houses, trying to remember where they had parked. Let's see, it was a….right. And then a left. Then another left and across that little courtyard and then…..where did they go then?
Isabella sniffled, looking up at the grey sky. "It's really storming," she commented, apparently trying to take her mind off of her father's death.
Rose looked up as well, her eyebrows scrunched up in concern. "The Doctor was saying that Rosanna was starting the final phase, right? If she's going to sink Venice, maybe she's gonna –"
"Ahhhhh!" Isabella shrieked, cutting Rose off mid-sentence.
"What? What is it?" she asked, looking the girl over for some sort of injury or something, but there wasn't anything. She turned to see what Isabella had been looking at and – oh.
Rose sidled her way to stand in front of Isabella, protecting her as best she could. "Fancy seeing you here," she called with a little wave, faking cheery confidence. She looked back at a panicked Isabella and jerked her head away. "Get out of here," she mumbled, gesturing to the way they had come.
The girl gaped at her for a moment, looking back and forth between Rose and Francesco. She took a step backwards and, with a final glance at Rose, turned and ran the other way.
Francesco smirked and walked forward, coming to a stop not even three inches from Rose. "I never did like her much. Not enough spirit. You, on the other hand…." he trailed off, smiling gruesomely at her with a mouthful of fangs.
Rose glanced at his teeth for a moment and then back up to his eyes. "Look, you can't do this."
"Can't I?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow. "But it seems….it seems as though we're already doing it, no? Your precious little city will be underwater before nightfall and my brothers and I will take the newly transformed below the waves and fornicate –"
"Whoa," Rose interrupted, holding up a hand. "Didn't really need to hear that, thanks. But what I'm saying is that the Doctor and I can help. We can bring you to some empty new planet where you can start over. You don't have to destroy a whole city!"
He shook his head, his lip curled up in a vicious snarl. "Oh, the Doctor. Don't talk to me about the Doctor. You were to be mine, do you know that? You were my favorite," he purred, reaching a hand up to stroke her cheek.
She twisted her neck away from him, jumping back. "Don't touch me."
Francesco stepped forward to fill the gap between them. Rose stepped back. He followed.
"Look, I'm giving you a chance here. If you don't take it…..the Doctor's not gonna let you ruin Venice. I'm not gonna let you ruin Venice," she added as she saw his temper flare up at the name of the Doctor.
"Don't be so holy," he spat at her, still moving closer even as she moved back, "Why does this Doctor want to save one city so much? Was he not the man who stood by and watched as his own race died?" Rose opened her mouth in defense, but he only spoke louder, not listening to her words. "I won't be that man – I will fight with everything I've got to save my family. And anyone who tries to stop me…..is expendable."
"Alright, listen," She said firmly, planting her feet. She was done reasoning. "I get it. I do. You want to save your people. You want your home back. But destroying someone else's home isn't going to make anything right! It's just going to make them feel exactly the way you do! Can you do that to someone else?"
While she was speaking, Francesco had raised his hand as if to strike her, but now it hung limply in the air, his fist loose and his arm slowly sinking. He stared at her long and hard for a minute, until finally his eyes dropped along with his arm. "No. I couldn't do that to someone. I won't."
Rose's eyes widened in surprise. She'd honestly expected him to say that he could and he would and proceed to hit her. But…he didn't. "What, really?" she mumbled, almost in awe. "Thank you," she said louder, so he could hear. "We've got to stop your mother."
He stumbled back. "My….oh. Oh, no, you see…I don't think that I thought that through very well. I can't go against Mummy!"
She raised an eyebrow incredulously. "You're joking."
"I…what?"
"How old are you?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"I….I'm two hundred and seven. Why?" he asked warily, hand on the hilt of his sword.
"You're two hundred and seven years old and you're telling me that you've never once gone against your mum's wishes?" she snorted disbelievingly. "Although, she is a pretty crazy old bat. Maybe she's brainwashed you or something," Rose mumbled as an afterthought, more to herself than to Francesco.
Unfortunately, he heard, and his sword was draw faster than she could even blink. "What did you say about Mummy?"
Rose backtracked immediately. "She's lovely. A real charmer, yeah. Almost found myself wanting to get transformed by her."
Francesco didn't buy it. He lunged toward her, sword outstretched, and Rose jumped back, cursing. Her hands blindly fumbled around behind her for a second until she came up with, in her haste, a broom. Well, better than nothing. She held the broom in front of her like a sword, trying not to think of all the possible things wrong with this picture.
He lunged again, stepping forward with textbook footwork, and she brought the broom up to counter the hit, praying that it wouldn't just be sliced in two. Thankfully, it wasn't, though there was a rather deep cut in the handle. Francesco swung again, and Rose watched as the bristle-y end of the broom came off and hit the stones below.
She evaluated her options for no more than a second before choosing flight over fight. She ran backwards, broom still outstretched as a weak sort of defense. "Thought you said I was your favorite?" she groaned as he sliced off the other end, leaving her with about a foot left of the hollow wood.
"Was being the operative word," he said, smirking.
She tossed the useless remains of the broom to the ground, running up a set of conveniently placed stairs behind her and pushing a potted plant down behind her, knocking Francesco back down to the ground again. It delayed him for not even a minute, as he was back on his feet and running up the steps before she could think up her next plan.
He made it to the top of the stairs in no time and advanced on her, sword tip not even an inch from her stomach. Rose slowly backed up, trying to work out her options. She wasn't really seeing any right now. "I ummm…don't think you want to do that. You'll live to regret it," she bluffed, her mind a thousand miles away.
He smirked, still advancing on her. "And why is that?"
"I…uh…." Rose trailed off, looking at the blade grazing the front of her dress. She squeaked as her back hit something and turned her head to see a railing, and just behind that a long drop to the pavement. "Right," she choked out, looking down. Too far to jump, definitely.
She closed her eyes, sure that Francesco was about to run her through, but nothing happened. Just as she decided that she'd open her eyes to see what had happened, she heard a terrible screaming and the weight of the blade on her stomach vanished. She smelled something in the air, what was it….smoke?
Rose opened her eyes to see Francesco clutching his head in pain, his sword long forgotten on the ground. His skin was burning in the sunlight – wait, sunlight? Rose looked up at the sky, which was still shrouded by thick clouds, and then back to Francesco, writhing in pain on the ground.
"Rose! Rose!" someone was shouting for her.
She turned and saw Isabella standing on the ground below the balcony. She was holding a little bit of mirror that reflected the dull sunlight perfectly at Francesco, who was still screaming and smoking. Rose pushed by him and ran down the stairs, coming to a stop beside Isabella. She looked back up at Francesco and her eyes widened.
"Look away!" Isabella told her, jerking her own head to the side just as Francesco exploded into dust and ash.
Rose looked back up in complete shock after the worst of it had cleared. "Uhh…thanks," she muttered to Isabella, who nodded, still looking at where Francesco had been standing.
"Yeah. Yeah, no problem."
"I've gotta go help the Doctor, but listen, our…place is about a block from here. Two lefts and a right," Rose explained, carving out a path through the air with her hand to demonstrate.
Isabella raised an eyebrow. "I'm coming with you."
"It'll be dangerous," she protested, "The Doctor and I can handle it."
Isabella tucked the mirror into her belt and flipped her hair over her shoulders. "Well are we just gonna stand her and watch? Come on!"
DOCTOR WHO
"Rose! Isabella! Fancy seeing you here," the Doctor exclaimed with a laugh, skidding on the wet tiles as he ran by them. "Get out; I have to stabilize the storm."
"Here to help," Rose said, crossing her arms and planting her feet.
He sighed. She wasn't going anywhere. "Oh you stubborn little…." she raised an eyebrow as if daring him to finish that sentence and he laughed. " Love you darling!" he said with a wink, making her laugh as well.
Isabella just looked at them like they were both mad. "Kind of the end of the world here!" she cried, "Focus!"
The Doctor immediately sobered. "Right. Yes, sorryyyyyyyyyy!" his sentence went all wibbly as the floor beneath their feet decided to have a bit of a spasm, throwing them all to the ground, little bits of the ceiling raining down around them.
"What was that?" Rose asked, groaning and holding her head with one hand. She'd fallen right on the corner of the stairs. Probably have a nasty bruise there tomorrow.
"Rose! You're hurt!" the Doctor exclaimed, jumping to his feet and scrambling over to her side, inspecting her head.
She gently pushed him away, looking around. "Nah, I'll be fine. Really though, what was that? Like an earthquake or something?"
"An earthquake?" Isabella asked disbelievingly.
The Doctor shook his head, stood up, and offered his hand to Rose to help her up. "Yeah. Rosanna's machine messes with the elements, it can cause earthquakes. A side effect. Like nausea. Or gas. Right, but don't worry about the earthquakes."
"No?"
"No. Worry about the tidal waves caused by the earthquake." He clapped his hands, turning to face the throne behind them. "Okay, so Rosanna's throne is the control hub but she's locked down the program. So destroy it! Tear out the circuits, rewire everything, hit it with a stick….whatever works. We've got to shut it down and reroute control to the secondary hub, which I'm….guessing will also be the generator."
"And the generator is…." Rose trailed off, not really sure if she wanted to know the answer.
He smiled at her, looking slightly more insane than usual. "Go crazy!" he said, gesturing towards the throne. He hopped forward, pressed a kiss to Rose's forehead, and then he was gone, leaping up the slick stairs behind him like a manic little monkey wielding a sonic screwdriver.
Rose bit her lip, worried, but pushed that out of the way. They had a job to do. "Come on!" She rushed at the throne, gesturing with her hand for Isabella to come along. As soon as she touched it, the top cushion pooped open to reveal a bunch of most definitely not 1580's machinery, all blue lights and wires. They quickly set to the task of ripping out anything they could get their hands on – if the angry sparks were anything to go by, they were doing a pretty good job of wrecking it – tearing apart the circuits, disconnecting the wires. They did not, however, hit it with a stick.
Meanwhile, the Doctor was scaling the roof of the bell tower in the pouring rain in very not-grippy boots, hoping very much that the last thing he ever said to Rose would not be "go crazy" because those would be awful last words. Almost as bad as "go to your room, I'm very cross." Almost.
His awful shoes slipped and his hearts nearly gave out as he slid down, only just catching himself on the power cord hanging down. He almost laughed with relief, resting his head against the slick metal roof for a moment. "Okay. Alright," he said – to himself, of course. He was on the roof. Alone, of course. Using the power cord like a rope, he walked himself up, his hands on the cord, his feet on the roof, until he made it the last few feet to the big brass ball.
Throwing his arms around it, he dropped the power cord, praying that inertia would win out over gravity at the moment. It seemed to, because after a moment, he was able to breathe out and open his eyes, his fingers searching the outer edges of the sphere for a button or a latch or something. For a second, he panicked. What if the switch was on the other side, what if he couldn't open the – click.
That's a relief.
A quarter section of the sphere flipped up, revealing complicated clockwork at work inside. The Doctor floundered for a minute – he didn't know what to do! What was he supposed to do with these…these…gears and little brass balls orbiting around on the gears? He didn't know what to do! But then – ah. The little switch, not even the size of his pinky nail. He reached in and flipped it, sighing in relief as the sky instantly cleared. It was over.
He waved to the cheering crowd below, quickly dropping his hand to grab the power cord again when he nearly fell off. Going down was much easier than going up had been, he noted as he slid down the cord, only occasionally touching his feet to the roof, and slid in through one of the arches in the bell tower. He turned to get a final look at Venice, finally the way it should be. But something caught his eye and made his smile disappear. Right outside of the House of Calvierri, by the canal, there was a figure looking down into the water. Rosanna.
The Doctor's eyes widened and he scrambled down the stairs and through the throne room, ignoring Isabella and Rose as they tried to speak to him and then run after him, and through the courtyard until he came to a stop behind Rosanna, who was standing on the edge of the water in only a simple white shift, her royal jewels and elaborate dress lying in a heap beside her.
"Rosanna!"
She didn't even turn her head. "Hello, Doctor. These are my children," she said sadly, gesturing to the water below her. "They're very lonely. And hungry. They always seem to be hungry," she was whispering now and he slowly walked up behind her, trying not to startle her into falling in. He had an idea that her children wouldn't be so hospitable to anyone in their waters, even their own mother.
"I think you should step away from the canal, Rosanna," he said quietly, hands outstretched to her.
"One city to save an entire species. Was that so much to ask?"
He sighed. "I told you, you can't go back and change time. You mourn, but you live. I know, Rosanna. I did it," he told her, thinking back on his time after the fall of Gallifrey. After he felled Gallifrey. Rose had been his savior, his light in the darkness. She'd helped him when he'd thought there was no one left to help. "We can help you."
"No you can't," she said sadly, still not even turning her face to look at him. "Tell me, Doctor. Can your conscience carry the weight of another dead race?" There was a short silence as she looked at the little waves below her, probably full of her bloodthirsty children. "Remember us. Dream of us."
And then she walked.
"No! No!" he cried, leaping after her, not even registering pain as he crashed down onto the stones by the water. Because she was gone. And it was his fault. He could've stopped her. Could've saved her. Now the blood of another race was on his hands and on his heart. Because he didn't save her.
He could have.
But he didn't.
A/Anyone have any tips on how to keep Rose in character? I sort of struggle with it….a lot? And the Doctor…? And everyone else….?