Warning: you may cry
I don't know if you actually will be the last time I thought that people screamed at me about their tears.
This is the end of the paradox.
Martha Jones was the single biggest threat to the Master's reign. She carried no firearm but she had her words and they were the real weapons. As long as she was free, her words would continue to spread, which made her capture the most important thing. So it only made sense that the Master would want the honor of bringing her in himself when presented with the perfect opportunity. And it had just been given to him.
It was for that reason that Bad Wolf remained high above the Bexley slave quarters while Martha and Tom disappeared inside the houses. When the Master came—and it would be soon, he'd had the message for hours now—she couldn't be close by or he would know and it was too soon. She knew he wouldn't be able to stop her if she wanted but it was stupid to think he wasn't aware of the Bad Wolf's existence and if he saw her, he'd wonder why she didn't attack and free Martha. He would become suspicious and everything could fall apart.
She counted down the minutes left until the countdown would begin. 2am. Six hours left.
Six hours to live, Rose thought.
You must cease with these negative thoughts, Tardis admonished. You are not helping yourself.
I don't want to die, Tardis. I really don't wanna die.
I understand. I do not want you to die, either. But we must remain focused. He comes.
He came with ten armed Enforcers and twelve Toclafane. The humanoids arrived in two SUVs while the Toclafane glided overhead. The urge to snarl, to fly down and decimate him for his crimes, to make him pay for what he'd done to Rose and Tardis, was great. Bad Wolf resisted. Somehow.
Several hundred feet below, in a house that reeked with the smell of unwashed bodies, waste and fear, the people pressed together as a barrier between Martha and the door. Tom's coat lay over her and the people sitting on the stairs draped their bodies atop her form to conceal her
"He walks among us," a terrified boy cried in a trembling voice, "our Lord and Master!"
From outside, the Master's voice rang out clear as day: "Martha!" A gasp ran through the building and several heads turned towards where Martha lay hidden. The bodies pressed firmer against her. "Martha Jones!"
She started to shake. She'd known this was coming. She'd known he'd be the one to come for her. She thought she'd been prepared…but apparently not.
"I can see you!" he added, high-pitched and gleeful. She flinched.
"How did he know?" a woman whispered fearfully.
"Shh!" hissed another.
"Out you come, little girl!" the Master went on normally. "Come and meet your master. …Anybody? Nobody? No? Nothing? …Positions." And then came the telltale clicks of many guns cocking at once.
The people heard it too and they murmured anxiously. God, was he going to order the UCFs to open fire on the slave quarters? Her breathing escalated and she slammed her eyes shut. She didn't want to go out. She had to. She didn't want to. But she had to!
"I'll give the order," he warned darkly. "Unless you surrender. Ask yourself—what would the Doctor do?"
He would surrender before anyone got hurt. Opening her eyes, Martha steeled herself for what had to be done. She'd lived in fear of this man for a year. Time to face him. She pulled off her key and slowly rose up. Everyone turned to look in her direction and a few shook their heads. Pushing the jacket off of her, she slid off the stairs and walked towards the door. The people parted for her and a few brushed their hands across her arms, shoulders, and head in silent gratitude, admiration, and farewell.
Tom crouched by the door, peering through the mail slot, with his gun raised. Martha placed her hand on it, fingers brushing his hand. He gazed at her sorrowfully, lowered the gun, and stood so she could open the door. Martha turned to look at everyone one last time and gave them what she hoped was a reassuring smile. Then before she could change her mind, she undid the lock, pulled the door open, and stepped outside into the night. The door shut behind her.
There were ten Enforcers and at least seven Toclafane, plus the Master himself waiting for her.
He spotted her walking away from the door and clapped his hands together. "Oh, yes! Oh, very well done! Good girl!" She approached him slowly and was careful to keep her features perfectly schooled. "He trained you well."
Martha stopped ten feet away from him.
"Bag. Give me the bag. No, stay there," he added when she started towards him again. "Just throw it."
Doing her best to appear reluctant, Martha removed her pack and threw it onto the ground between them. There was nothing left inside that she valued. She figured she'd lose the pack at some point tonight and had stowed the things she wished to keep safe on her person hours ago.
The Master lifted his laser screwdriver for her to see. She glared at him. He fired it at her pack unceremoniously. Light exploded around it and when it faded, there was a hole the size of the beam burnt into the fabric. The case, gun, and chemicals were surely destroyed.
"And now, good companion, your work is done." He pointed the laser at her and her heart stopped.
She expected Bad Wolf to come swooping down. She promised she'd been waiting high above to make sure all according to plan and Martha knew she could travel between places instantaneously. But it was Tom who came barreling to her rescue with a loud scream. "NO!"
The Master adjusted his aim and fired. The yellow beam hit Tom directly in the chest. His cry died in his throat and he collapsed to the ground, dead. The Master chuckled and Martha stared at the prone form of the man she'd started to grow fond of, determined to not let the Master see how much his death hurt. Her expression hardened as she looked at him one again.
Little did the Master know, Tom would be alive soon enough.
But Tom's death had given the Master a moment to reconsider. "But you…when you die, the Doctor should be witness, hmm?" He paused as if expecting an answer, which never came. He inhaled deeply and his eyes flitted across the homes around him, each holding at least a hundred terrified people. "Almost dawn, Martha. …And planet Earth marches to war."
He sneered at her. "I think your death will be a perfect way to kick off the fun." To the Enforcers, "Get her in the van."
Two UCFs came towards her with their guns raised. She glared at each of them in turn, and then walked towards the SUVs. She was loaded unceremoniously into the back of one and cuffed to the headrest of the front seat. One Enforcer slid into the seat next to her and stared stoically ahead. Two more got in the front and the doors were slammed shut.
Martha refused to look back at Tom's body as they drove away.
It was the grand beginning of an interstellar war that the people of Earth had unwillingly engineered. Everything that had occurred in the last year had all been leading up to this. The next phase of the Master's great plan was finally about to begin. Cameras were set up on the bridge of the Valiant and a live feed was being prepared to broadcast across the entire planet. All across the world, the slaves were ordered to stop working and a majority of them were herded into areas where large screens had been set up for the event. They all went willingly, which surprised the most of the UCFs as very few of them had been privy to Martha's stories.
Word spread amongst the free peoples and resistance groups that the time had come. Television screens and antennas were built out of old parts. Those who were willing to risk it snuck into known labor camps and slave cities to have a guaranteed view. Tension and anxiety filled the air everywhere people had gathered, overpowering any excitement that people were feeling.
Elliot's cave group had travelled to a nearby town at the boy's insistence that they needed to see this and that it would be safe. The members of Torchwood had cobbled together a very rough TV out of Tosh's old equipment and they and the people of their village gathered around it. The remaining members from the camp in Oregon that Rose had died for gathered in an old dollar store around a TV that Stevie—the girl Martha had saved—managed to get working.
When the screens flickered to life and the Master's voice rang out, "Citizens of Earth, rejoice and observe!" the entire world seemed to draw a breath.
The first thing they saw was the Master standing on a pristine platform next to a sickly blonde woman in a silky red dress. Those who bothered to remember such things realized that it was Lucy Saxon, the Master's wife. Though she had changed much in the past year, and even though she stood up there with him, many of the viewers could tell she belonged down with them.
Then the image on screen changed to a door. It slid open…revealing Martha Jones and two armed guards.
And across the world, millions of people murmured in dismay at the sight of their hero, their Messiah, a prisoner of the Master. For those who didn't know of her death, there was hope that Rose was still free and ready to act. Then as they watched her slowly approach the platform where the Master stood, a quiet thought began to trickle through: what if this was a part of the plan?
Because surely…if someone really was a prisoner of the Master…shouldn't they look a bit more scared?
The bridge hadn't changed much in the past year. The lighting was a bit different. The long table in in the middle of the room was notably absent—although she was sure it had been there in the broadcast yesterday.
Her family was alive, standing in a row on one side of the room. Her mum and Tish were wearing black maid dresses with white collars, cuffs, and white-rimmed aprons. Her dad was in some sort of janitor or mechanic coveralls. They were thinner and more worn than she'd ever seen them but they seemed to be relatively well groomed. A grisly guard was holding a gun on them.
Jack was standing across from her with his own personal armed guard that was keeping a careful eye on him. His skin and clothes were filthy, his hair greasy and matted, like he hadn't had a shower in a long time. He nodded to her as she passed.
A wrinkled creature with a large, bald, domed head, oversized ears, and enormous brown eyes stared at her from within a bird came hanging from the ceiling. He had on a mini pinstriped suit and a thin, silver chain was wrapped around his arm. Martha recognized it instantly, and though part of her wondered how it was possible that he had it, she knew that this could only be the Doctor. He looked so miserable even as he smiled at her and she knew he was seeing the empty space where Rose ought to be.
The Bad Wolf—where was she? They hadn't discussed the particulars of her location for this part of plan, just that she would be here when it was time.
Martha stopped at the base of the platform in front of the stairs, almost the exact same spot that she had teleported off of the Valiant with Rose. The Master was holding out his hand, gesturing with his fingers. "Your teleport device," he ordered. "In case you thought I'd forgotten."
Speak of the devil. Irritably, she leaned down and pulled it out of a pocket in her trousers, tossing it up to him. He caught it deftly.
"And now…kneel," he commanded.
She sighed inwardly but did as he ordered. It wasn't time yet. But soon. Soon she was going to shove it all back in the smug bastard's face.
"Down below, the fleet is ready to launch. Two hundred thousand ships…set to burn across the universe," he declared savagely then bounded up the stairs to a comm link. "Are we ready?"
"The fleet awaits your signal," a man replied. "Rejoice!"
The Master looked at his watch. "Three minutes to align the black hole converters." A clock on the wall flicked to 180 seconds and began ticking downwards. "Counting down!"
179. 178.
YES! Martha cheered inwardly. The Doctor had been right! There it is everybody. There's your timer.
The Master turned to his audience, smiling gleefully. "I never could resist a ticking clock," he practically giggled then he raised his voice. "My children! Are you ready?"
Then from the speakers came the chilling childlike voices of the… Remnants. That name was the most appropriate for them. They weren't spheres, they weren't Toclafane, they weren't human. Just Remnants of a time gone by. "We will fly and blaze and slice! We will fly and blaze and slice!"
160. 159.
"At zero, to mark this day, the child, Martha Jones, will die." He laughed under his breath. "My first blood." He laughed again. "Any last words?"
She glowered at him stonily.
He wasn't impressed. "No? …Such a disappointment, this one." He descended the top flight of stairs. "Your other one, Doctor, she could absorb the time vortex. Shame she's dead, 'cos this one's useless."
Martha ignored the jab, her attention on the Doctor whose expression turned acidic at the mention of Rose. But then the Master was pointing his laser screwdriver at her and ordering her to bow her head. So she did.
"And so it falls to me, the Master of all, to establish from this day, a new order of Time Lords!" he declared. Oh, bloody hell. She couldn't take it anymore. "From this day forward—"
She chuckled.
"What? What's so funny?"
She raised her head and looked at him like he was stupid. "A gun."
"What about it?"
"A gun in four parts?"
"Yes, and I destroyed it." He growled, irritated.
135. 134.
"A gun in four parts scattered across the world? I mean…come on." She rolled her eyes. "Did you really believe that?"
He smiled, shaking his head a tiny bit. "What do you mean?"
"As if I would ask them to kill," the Doctor rasped, gripping one of the bars with his long bony fingers.
"Oh, well, it doesn't matter. I've got her exactly where I want her!" And he pointed the laser at her again.
Martha laughed again, a good proper laugh full of scorn. "Really? Are you absolutely sure you're holding all the cards? That we didn't stack the deck?"
Then, at the exact same moment, both the Doctor and the Master tensed. The former swiveled his head around to stare at a point next to Martha and the latter inhaled sharply, staring at the same spot. Martha's grin became a smirk. Bad Wolf had arrived.
"What is that?" the Master growled.
Martha looked, instead, at the Doctor who was staring like he was witnessing the second coming, and smiled. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Bad Wolf appear wearing the outfit Rose had died in, but not the one covered in blood, thankfully. The Doctor let go of the bar and fell back on his bum in shock, brown eyes impossibly wide. Behind her, Jack let out a strangled sound.
89. 88.
The Master raised the laser screwdriver and fired it at her. Bad Wolf's hand flicked up and caught the beam. It curled into a palm of energy in her palm, which she then tossed at the Doctor's cage. It seared through the lock on the doors and several of the bars, freeing him. The Master fired once more but she caught it, formed it into a ball, and tossed it against the opposite wall. He didn't try again.
Still smiling, Martha got to her feet.
"Don't you want to know what we were doing?" she asked. "Traveling the world?"
"What?" he spat.
60. 69.
"We did as the Doctor said," Bad Wolf spoke for the first time since arriving; her layered voice was like poisoned honey, smooth but with a cold, biting undercurrent. "We walked across the continents and told them our stories."
"We told them about the Doctor. And we told them to pass it on, to spread the word, so everyone would know about him."
"Faith and hope?" The Master shook his head scornfully. "Is that all?"
"No. We gave them instruction," Martha replied.
"We know how much you love a ticking clock," Bad Wolf purred.
"And if everyone thinks of one word, one thing, one person, at one specific time—"
"Nothing will happen!" the Master interrupted. "Is that your weapon?! Prayer?!"
30. 29.
"Right across the world." Martha laughed. "One word, just one thought, at one moment…but with 15 satellites."
Suddenly the Time Lord didn't seem so confident. "What?"
"The Archangel Network," Jack told him.
"You've bound the entire race together with a telepathic field." Bad Wolf drew herself up. "You've awakened the latent telepathic abilities of 5 billion people. And every single one of them is united against you."
10.
"By seeking to control them, you've given them power," Martha told him savagely. "And now every single person on Earth, all of them, are going to think of the exact same person at the exact same time. And that person…is the Doctor."
00.
The Doctor began to glow with a brilliant bluish-white light. She saw Bad Wolf's eyes flare brighter than ever before and golden light was suddenly interwoven with the white. The cage around him dissolved away.
"Stop it!" the Master ordered. "No, no, no, no, no, you don't."
"Doctor," Bad Wolf whispered. "My love."
"Doctor," Jack echoed.
"Doctor."
"Doctor."
And from the speakers they could hear millions of voices chanting along with them.
"Doctor!"
"Stop this right now!" the Master shouted. "Stop it!"
"Doctor!"
Up on the platform, Lucy Saxon whispered, "Doctor."
Martha looked at the shining man in the light. He was taller, still old, but de-aging every second. She pictured him young and whole, smiling and happy. Hugging her. Kissing Rose. Running. Laughing. Saving people. Eating bananas and dangling donuts just out of Martha's reach to tease her. She closed her eyes and whispered, "Doctor."
"Doctor!"
"I've had a whole year to tune myself into the psychic network and integrate with its matrices." the Doctor said through his teeth.
"I order you to stop!" the Master screamed uselessly.
Martha heard Bad Wolf utter a string of words so softly that she barely caught it and definitely would not have been able to repeat it even if she tried. It was beautiful but it definitely wasn't English. The light around the Doctor went entirely gold, flaring so bright that Martha had to squint and look away. When it dimmed, he stood on the ground, young and whole again.
"The one thing you can't do," he growled. "Stop them thinking."
Martha laughed and Jack did too. She turned and looked at her family, beaming at them, and Francine held out her arms. Martha ran towards her immediately and breathed out a sigh of pure relief as she felt her mother's arms around her for the first time in over two years. Then Tish's arms. Then her father's hand on her back.
"No!" The Master snarled and the laser fired.
Martha turned around in time to see the beam be absorbed harmlessly into the field of light around the Doctor.
"I'm sorry," said the glowing Time Lord. The Master fired again and again to the same effect. "I'm so sorry."
The Master adjusted one of the controls on the screwdriver. "Then I'll kill them!" he said, pointing it and Martha and her family. But Bad Wolf flicked her hand and the laser flew out of his hand and exploded into dust, mid-air.
Now he was well and truly terrified. Bad Wolf waved her hand once more and the Master lifted into the air, kicking and flailing, and then she slammed him into the floor at the Doctor's feet. He had to be in pain but he stilled rolled to his hands and knees and tried to crawl away. The Doctor advanced on him.
"No!" the Master shouted. "No! My children!"
Bad Wolf could sense the moment all the Remnants began swarming down to Earth. Through the speakers their voices screamed as one: Protect the paradox! Protect the paradox!
She was inclined to agree with them but knew she couldn't. The paradox had to go. Its time was up. And so was hers. But first…
"Captain!" the Doctor bellowed. "The paradox machine!"
Jack nodded. "You men, with me!" he ordered some of the Enforcers, including the one who had been guarding him, and told a few others to stay behind. They raced out of the room.
Shit. She was out of time. There was still plenty of Archangel energy left to draw on. She reached for it as well as the own energy she'd been gathering for this exact thing. And then…
On the floor, the Master was pulling out the vortex manipulator.
The Doctor saw what he was doing and lunged towards him. "No!"
Everything went silent.
Still.
Utterly still.
Not a sound, not a twitch. Even the hum of the engines was gone.
The Doctor noticed almost immediately. He slowly let go of the Master and looked around the room, at the people, then his eyes fell on Bad Wolf. She was as still as the rest of them but she was merely waiting. His expression was thunderous, his mouth open in a tiny 'o' of disbelief. And, slowly, she allowed a smile to grace her lips.
His hand tightened around the silver chain woven around it. Rose's necklace. How in the hell did he have it? He took a step towards her. His eyes were positively brimming with emotion and he looked so hopeful that it hurt both her halves.
"Rose?" he breathed.
"My Doctor," she whispered.
He shook his head slowly and said just as softly, "I thought you were dead. All this time he's been telling me you were dead. He showed me your grave. He had this—" he held up the hand with her necklace wrapped around it, glancing down at her neck, and his voice died in his throat. Rose's necklace was clearly visible around her neck, as was the TARDIS key hanging off it.
The Doctor looked from hand to her neck. "But…I don't… I recognize this…."
"Where did he get it?"
"He…he had your grave dug up t-to make sure it was actually yours. But your body wasn't there, only this. Or so he said."
Bad Wolf frowned. Rose's body wasn't in her grave but the necklace only she could remove was? …That did explain why Rose didn't wake up still inside her body. They must have destroyed it as they were coming to life. The rush of energy would've been enough to atomize flesh, bone, and the TARDIS key, but not the necklace.
"He was telling the truth."
"But you're wearing it now, I can see it."
"He was telling the truth about everything."
The Doctor inhaled sharply and then shook his head. "No. No, no, no, no. You're right in front of me; I can see you, I can hear you. I can feel your mind! How are you dead?!"
"I could show you proof but it would only hurt you. Please, don't ask me to. I don't want you to see me that way."
All the life seemed to drain away and the Doctor's face crumpled. Her heart broke for him and she wanted so badly to hold him. The tears she could not form were welling in his eyes. He ducked his head and ranked his fingers through his hair and grabbed fistfuls of it in the back.
"Doctor, look at me," Bad Wolf pleaded. "I'm not Rose." She walked slowly towards him, shifting to her very first form, then she stopped. "I am the Bad Wolf."
He stared down at her numbly.
"But she's here. In me. She's me. Everything she feels, so do I. All her love…." She reached her hand up to his cheek. She brushed her fingers through the space where his skin began, feeling a small tingle in her fingers, and mirrored the action with her mind against his. He trembled and his eyes slipped shut.
She let her hand fall and ceased the mental contact. His jaw trembled and a moment later he opened his eyes. By then, she had returned to her previous form. If the change surprised him he didn't show it. "You've gotta go. You know what happens if you stay here."
Bad Wolf smiled. "We're in a time bubble. We've got a bit yet."
He looked around the room in interest, suddenly remembering that everything around them was, in fact, frozen. "You did this?"
She nodded. "I'm somewhat limited without the time vortex to draw on. Been conserving power for weeks."
"How long can you hold it?"
"Not long. Maybe ten minutes more. After that I'll have to leave immediately. I have an important job for you, Doctor. In exchange, you may ask anything of me and I will answer."
The Doctor swallowed and looked down at his hand. "How did you die?"
"I give you the chance to learn anything and you wish to know how Rose Tyler died?"
"Please," he implored. "You don't have to show me but I—I need to know."
"A group of Enforcers had been pursuing us relentlessly for months, often killing many members of camps we were in just to find us. She couldn't sit by again and allow more people to die because of her and her anger was enough to awaken me. I killed them. Their leader, Moran, tried to shoot Martha as he was dying. But Rose pushed her out of the way. She was shot in the side—here." She pointed to the spot.
"So you died in battle," he said as he exhaled. "Guess it was right after all."
Bad Wolf nodded. "Doctor…I swear. I am going to do everything I can to give her back to you. But I can't promise you anything."
"What?!" His voice, usually high and squawky when he uttered that word by itself, was barely more than a panicked croak. "Why?"
Bad Wolf pressed her lips together. "Do you know what I am, Doctor? I am Rose Tyler…and the TARDIS. They both are me and I am them. I've always been them. Ever since the beginning. Think back over the last year you spent with Rose. All those feelings, instincts, urges—she felt them through the TARDIS just as the TARDIS felt through her. I'm always there in the place where they are bonded and because of me, they could sense each other. You could always see it in her eyes when I was awake."
The Doctor's mouth parted in a small 'o' of comprehension. "That's why she was able to heal."
She nodded, smiling. "Me. Always me. The TARDIS has the power but she can't use it. Rose has no power but if she did she could wield it. Put them together and you get a creature of time who can command it and wild unfathomable power. You get me. For as long as Rose and the TARDIS are bonded, I will always exist, even if I'm not awake."
"Alright but that doesn't explain why you can't promise me she'll come back."
"Doctor, you know how paradox machines work. Tell me: is it possible for a TARDIS to die as long as the machine is fully functional?"
"No," he answered immediately. "The price of a paradox machine is too great for them to be made on a whim. There'd be no sense in going through that and sacrificing a TARDIS if it could fail at any given moment."
"And that is how I am here. Our bond is strong enough for Tardis to keep Rose here but only since she herself cannot die."
"But when the paradox machine is destroyed, the TARDIS can die."
"And there is nothing holding either of them here. Tardis will release her hold on Rose and not join her in death."
"But if you're not on the Valiant—"
"Then I will be caught in the reversal, just like the rest of the world. I am aware. But our issue is time. If Rose dies before time begins to reverse, then she will revive along with everyone else. But if she dies as time is reversing—"
"She'll be lost to time," he finished in a whisper. He took a deep breath, shuddering as he exhaled.
"Doctor, we don't have long. So listen because I need your help."
"Anything," he said immediately.
"I'm going to give you a…package of knowledge that I need you to keep safe within your mind. If and when Rose is with you again, give it to her. There is every possibility she won't remember the past year and we agree that she needs to. There's also a few things in there, knowledge Rose would like to have that the TARDIS has agreed she can. Do you consent?"
The Doctor nodded. "Yes."
"Thank you."
She tapped her mind against his in three precise knocks, like he had taught Rose long ago. He smiled and she could sense the memory in his mind as he allowed her in. She wondered if he could see both of her individual minds or all he saw was one, larger mind. Did it matter right now? She had more important things to worry about. The package was already ready; it was simply a matter of finding a place to put it. He must have heard her because his mind reshaped into a long hall full of doors, and it was her turn to smile at the old analogy he loved to use. One of the doors was already open and the room inside was completely empty. She placed the package there and pulled the door shut.
Withdrawing from his mind, she waited until he opened his eyes and smiled at him. "If you become certain that Rose will not return, then we give you permission to open the package yourself. But know that you cannot pick and choose what memories you see. You will experience them all…including her death."
"I understand," he said with a nod. She nodded, too. For a moment they simply stood in front of each other, drinking each other in, and wishing more than anything that they could touch.
Bad Wolf could feel the time bubble beginning to thin. She looked at the Master who was still frozen with the vortex manipulator in his hand. She frowned, grabbed it telekinetically, and tossed it to the Doctor. He caught it with a nod and tucked it into his pocket.
"Doctor, what do you plan to do with him?"
He sighed, rubbing the back of his and. "Well, he's a Time Lord so he's my responsibility. Dunno. Keep him in the TARDIS. Plenty of rooms we can keep him locked in."
"You wish to keep him prisoner."
"Essentially, yes."
She sighed, only a little surprised, but did not tell him his solution was inadequate. Bad Wolf drifted up just a few inches so they were eye to eye. "Time's almost up."
He stared at her intently and reached a hand out to caress her cheek. She leaned towards him and even though he passed through, she felt the tingle of light telepathic contact where his hand must've felt it because he closed his eyes.
"…I love you," she told him, adopting Rose's accent. He blinked his eyes open, jaw going slack. "More than anythin' in the universe. Remember that…just in case."
"Rose…. I will love you for the rest of my lives," he murmured in Gallifreyan, voice breaking. "For as long as my hearts beat, they are yours."
Smiling, she brushed her lips against his, savoring the tingle of contact, and caressed his mind at the same moment. His mind nuzzled against hers in response. Drawing back, she gave him the most tender smile she could, wanting that to be his final memory of her. Then she pushed him from the time bubble.
He remained frozen as he was, arms raised as if to cup her face, his eyes so old, and his face full of love and grief.
She took a deep breath, the very human response helping to manage the very human emotions racing through her. Then she looked at the Master once more and pulled him into the time bubble.
His fingers clamped down onto nothing and his vicious smile turned into a look of utter confusion. "What?" He looked down at his empty hands, turning them this way and that. Then he seemed to notice the unnatural silence and stillness, the way his time senses weren't working right. His head whipped around, body following a second later.
"Time Lord."
The Master spun around and his eyes narrowed. "You!"
Bad Wolf dematerialized and rematerialized directly in front of him. He jumped back.
"Me."
"What are you?" he hissed. "You're not the Doctor's little woman."
"I am the Bad Wolf. …Ah, you know of me. Good. Then you must know why I am here."
He backed away from her. "No! This isn't fair!"
"Fair?" she growled, floating upwards to tower over him. Her eyes blazed with the golden fire of time. "You wish to speak of fair? What of the children who lost their parents? Of mothers and fathers who lost their children? What of lovers torn apart? What of the children whose innocence you've stolen? What of the six hundred million people you ordered killed on the first day? What of the people of Japan? What of the psychic child who felt his parents die? What of the woman who was forced to watch her child mutilated by a Remnant for its enjoyment? What of Martha Jones who held Rose as she died from the bullet meant for her? Do not speak to me of what is fair and what is not."
He gaped at her, speechless. Even the Master quivered beneath the wrath of the Bad Wolf. "Time and Space have judged and found you guilty of high crimes throughout time and the universe. You have violated the Laws of Time in a manner that is unforgivable. You desecrated the last TARDIS and turned her into a paradox machine for unwarranted and malevolent purposes. Your life is forfeit."
With that, she plunged her hands inside his body, closed her fists around his hearts, and turned them to dust. His eyes bulged and he let out a choked noise. She withdrew her hands sharply and gave him a look of disgust. He collapsed to the floor, gasping and choking, limbs twitching, body convulsing. She felt the regeneration energy beginning to run through his body, a last ditch effort to save himself, but she latched onto it, drawing it out and let it dissipate into the air. And then he fell still. She sensed his body stop functioning and felt his mind drift away.
She took one last look around the room, eyes lingering on Martha, Jack, and the Doctor as the last seconds of the time bubble grew nearer and nearer. And then she dematerialized, ending it.
She rematerialized just a few miles away from the Valiant and settled near the ground to wait.
We did it, Rose thought.
We did, Tardis agreed.
And now… Oh, God, I'm scared. I don't want to leave him. You saw his face at the end, he was saying goodbye!
Perhaps. But those words he said to you…do you know what they were?
I could understand him.
But do you know what they meant? …That was part of a vow, usually spoken during or before a binding ceremony and only between two lovers. He has promised to never love another as he loves you for the rest of his existence.
But I—I want him to be happy one day. I don't want him to spend the rest of his life pinin' over me.
My little one, he and I have been together for centuries. I have seen many faces come and go and while he cared for all of them, there were a few for whom his feelings went further. I would call it love but it was never like the love he feels for you. By uttering those words, he was acknowledging that aloud. And, truly, if he was able to say them to you, he must believe he will never love another after you.
Rose was silent, shocked and humbled by the sheer amount of devotion those words had carried and that she would never have known if Tardis hadn't explained.
He knew I would know what they meant, Tardis told her. Even if you did not. Would you like to know the appropriate response to his vow?
Do we have time?
Time enough, Tardis assured her. Then she quoted her the full version of the vow that the Doctor had given her. Each person says two lines at a time and then the last part together Ask him to explain the symbolism. If you lose these memories, I will return them to you myself.
Thank you. Rose said empathetically. For everything.
I thank you as well. There is no other I would wish to be bonded with in such a way. You are a good soul, Rose Tyler, and I do not believe this is goodbye, but if you do not return then I hope you find rest. I will take care of him until he joins you in what awaits beyond.
But don't let that be too soon, yeah?
Of course not. The universe has need of him yet. …The Captain is inside my console room! Tardis realized suddenly and immediately began pulling against the strands binding them together. She had to let go or she, too, would fall away. Rose assisted her, pulling against her own bindings as much as she could but she lacked the purchase that Tardis did.
They both felt a physical jolt as the paradox machine's central control was attacked, felt the sting of each individual bullet that pierced metal, the burns as it exploded. And suddenly nothing was holding either of them to life and the pull of death suddenly returned with all the force it had once used to pull Rose from her body. Time began to stir around them. Tardis gave one last mighty tug and broke free
and Rose spiraled away into