A/N I own nothing from the source material, songs, or oc's from MyraValhallah's story. Just doing this for fun.

This story is rated M from now on due to a situation in this and subsequent chapters.

Nothing unduly naughty happens you lechers but I don't want anyone getting their knickers in a twist over language or 'hand holding' and getting this pulled from the site. I've heard it happen before.

Chapter 16

"She said you were selfish and something about a moment. What is she talking about?" Rose was now in the Doctor's room pacing outside of the open TARDIS door.

"I don't know." Came the clear but distant voice of the Timelord. There was a sound of Converse on grated metal and the Doctor's head poked around the frame. "And I really don't like not knowing."

Rose stared after him as he disappeared back into the TARDIS saying something about a book, a council, and magical whatnot. She really wasn't happy that their conversation was interrupted by more adventure. She did have to admit that she had missed all of the running and cleverness. He had said she wasn't trained but she hadn't been looking into anything that would cause her mind to snap, so, it couldn't be that bad.

Jareth was running a cool cloth along Sarah's heated brow when the tremors started. She was sweating profusely and he wondered whether it was better to leave her dressed or to remove the drenched blouse she was wearing. The gentleman and the man inside of him battled until he decided letting her develop chills had to be worse then dealing with her ire at him removing her shirt. He kept telling himself that he was innocent. He was innocent. He picked her up gently and cradled her with one arm. Innocent. His hand touched the hem of her damp top, fingers brushing lightly against the skin of her lower belly and she shifted in a way completely independent of her tremors. He was innocent! She moaned softly as he pulled it over her stomach and rucked it up with his hand at her back. Completely innocent. He was up to the under-wire of her bra when the door slammed open. He dropped her gently back to the divan as-is and stood trying to cover her with a wide stance his hands in the air at shoulder height. "I'm innocent!"

The way he shouted it made Rose wonder and she followed the Doctor around the King of Whence. She didn't like the way her Doctor was staring down at the young woman but realized exactly what had enamored him when she followed his gaze to the girl's left side. Written latterly along her ribcage was a tattoo of one phrase. Two words. Rose read it aloud.

"Bad Wolf."

Sarah sat up immediately and her eyes shot open. Jareth was noncommittal on his stance of her shirt returning to it's original non-rucked status and the Doctor stepped closer so as not to miss whatever Sarah might say. She didn't speak though. She just looked at the three relative strangers and smiled. The smile she gave to Jareth nearly melted him into a puddle of goo. "Why am I here again?"

Jareth started at the sound of her lucid voice and smiled at the content. "Again? Do you remember this place?"

"No," she saw that the statement brought a kind of despair to the King's face and she amended her words as not to hurt him, "I remember something like a dream. Did it really happen?"

Jareth's first reaction was to answer yes, that it did happen that her strength had caused him to love her and want to protect her and to pull his punches. That when she had whirled back into his life all he did was realize how much stronger she was being nearly completely cut away from the family she had fought so hard for. How much more in love with her he had grown when he thought he might lose her. Then he thought of what could happen if he told her she was still dreaming. That if he cast a charm to let her sleep and return to her world that it might be better for her. His deliberations were for not though when a cog seemed to turn in her head. A light bulb glow over her chestnut hair.

"Were you...were you undressing me?" Jareth's eyes went wide as saucers and he had to fight the urge to cower in front of the Timelord who was now glaring daggers and pointing an, until now, unnoticed plunger at him.

"I'm innocent!" He shouted but Rose didn't care. She and the Doctor had come to some terrible realizations without needing to confirm that Jareth was a bit of a pervert.

The plunger wasn't a plunger at all. It was part of a Dalek they had needed to defeat on the way here. Just one, there wasn't any evidence of others but they had run to Sarah nonetheless. Sarah sat next to Jareth rather comfortably for someone who had just accused him of indecency. Which he was not guilty of. Her knuckles grazed the back of his hand when Rose finished describing how the blast of the metal shell had scared three goblins and most likely caused an uncleanable mess in the hall. Jareth couldn't care less about the mess because the Daleks sounded like some terrible news especially after the Doctor admitted that they were the reason he was now a man without a planet. Jareth couldn't afford to let creatures like that enter Whence. It would be unsightly.

Sarah looked at the man who she had heard humming to her as she had faded in and out of sleep and wondered what kind of connection they shared. She distinctly recalled him telling her he loved her. He had called her his princess. She didn't feel enmity toward him but she knew that whatever their relationship, he carried the heavier torch.

"What does all of this mean?" Sarah asked breaking the small silence that had descended over the quartet.

"Well," Rose offered. "There is the fact that my species-changing benefactress has gone and disappeared after our little chat and so has the woman with her."

The Doctor looked at Rose wondering why she hadn't mentioned another women before. He voiced his concern. "Her name was Rin but she had this eerie quality about her just like Tara. It wasn't too difficult to figure out that Tara was the TARDIS when I heard her make a weird wheezing noise and excused herself passing it off as a cough. She muttered 'stupid old thief' under her breath. When you admitted to taking the boys out for a spin at just that time it clicked in my head. The TARDIS had used my face before but Tara gave off the same sense as her. The TARDIS that is. The woman with her was wearing a copper gown and was rubbing elbows with Christine all afternoon."

The Doctor threw up his hand, "What?"

Rose was confused at being interrupted, "What?"

"Describe the woman in the copper gown, please." She did and it matched perfectly with the description of the woman who had stopped his regeneration. He did not want to talk about this right now but decided that there really was no better time than the present. He explained that he had chosen one more adventure in his TARDIS, one more chase, before he changed his face and lost another part of himself. Rose stood up and slapped him one good. It was bad that he was starting to expect the abuse, wasn't it?

"How could you do that?" She yelled. "After telling me over and over again that you're the same person in there you go and make a deal to keep your face. You're still as vain as you were during the Meta-crisis debacle. No wonder Sarah's become all wonky in her head you mutton-headed dolt. I'm Gallifreyan and Sarah's missing a part of her mind," She ignored Sarah's indignant 'hey' for the moment, "because you didn't want to go?"

"Rose," The Doctor rubbed absentmindedly at his smarting cheek, "I'm sorry." He looked down at Sarah, a human in his charge, who had been hurt because she was just part of the deal. Her hand had found Jareth's when the Doctor had mentioned how the woman had made him promise to choose her as his companion. "I'm so sorry to all of you, because, I'm afraid that my selfishness has caused something dire to occur." He pulled the piece of paper from his trench coat and held it out to the three of them. "When you mentioned the moment I wanted to ignore the memory it stirred. I wanted to forget for just a little while longer." They looked at him each goading him to go on. "The Moment is a weapon not an actual moment in time. The Daleks fought me during the Time war and I made a choice. I was forced to change my face then to fulfill a prophecy but now I have refused to change my face and quite possibly have caused a rip in time and space that not even my travels could scab over."

Sarah looked at the paper and the diagram of the moment drawn on it. Then she noticed the paper it was drawn on. There was writing underneath it. "Where did you get this paper?"

"From an old book in the library in my TARDIS. It fell out when I was searching for a way to help you. Why?" He stood next to her and tried to read the words.

"It mentions a final battle and the closing up of a great evil and powers that be. It says that their must be a champion." Everything clicked for Sarah then. She remembered everything said in that garden before the women had taken her memories. Sarah looked at Jareth who had turned paler than a sheet. He loved her. It was clear in his fear for her. She felt for him but she didn't know how much. All she knew was that he was in her heart. "It was left in the TARDIS and in that book on purpose. I can feel it. Do you know what that means?"

Rose and the Doctor looked between the two who had been sitting on the divan. Sarah knelt beside Jareth as he dropped his head into his hands. She placed a caring hand on his knee and he looked into her eyes before making brief contact with the rooms other occupants. The answer only cemented his fears that he wouldn't be able to protect her. "You're the Champion of Whence, luv. I gave you certain powers."

A/N: This chapter is probably the longest I've ever written for a chapter fic. I hope you all enjoy. The story is coming to a head and let's all remember that Rose is very hurt from all of the secrets but that she still loves the Doctor terribly and he loves her. With nearly all the secrecy out of the way I'm sure they'll have smooth sailing.