Disclaimer: No profit, no gain, not mine.
Author's Note: Since y'alls have been so patient, here's another one.
The Brigadier raised an eyebrow. "And who would that be?"
"Your old friend and scientific adviser. The Doctor."
He downed the brandy. "You were a companion of the Doctor. I'm sorry to tell you, but he's dead. If you're trying to protect timelines by not telling me your name, there's no point."
"You are good. I see why he likes you." Rose smiled. "And technically right, but this is wrong. This reality is a causal nexus that's been distorted. Someone is messing with time and that caused the Doctor's death. I'm not supposed to be here and this nexus is fragile. The wrong word could destroy the whole thing. Plus, you should know better than most that names have power."
"As much as I would like for this not to be real, I'm afraid I'll need a bit more proof."
"I've been to the future, the Doctor's future. He was supposed to meet Martha Jones today and save the Royal Hope Hospital."
"Yet the hospital was returned, nearly all the occupants unharmed."
Rose blushed.
"Ah." The Brigadier said, "I suppose it's a fairly strong sign of good faith if you save over a thousand people."
"That wasn't why I did it." Rose said hotly. "My friend was in there, I couldn't let her die. Especially when she told me the story of how the Doctor saved the hospital."
"I want to believe you, missy, I really do. But you have no id, no money, and no name. Is there any way you can prove that I can trust what you say?"
Rose thought for a moment, then smiled. "You have the Tardis, right? I've got a key. And she'll recognize me."
The Tardis was happy to see Rose, exhausted as she was. She flashed her lights gently and the rotor moved, gratingly, up and down just as the Brigadier followed the mysterious girl into the old blue box.
"He's changed the desktop."
"I love it." Rose said. "I don't really think the Doctor has a lot of say in the matter. It's up to the Tardis, really." She grinned.
The Brigadier nodded. "Well, my dear, I believe this proves that I can trust you. What would you have us do?"
The smile dropped from Rose's face. "You need to get the Tardis and everyone you trust out of London. Establish a temporary base in Leeds."
"Something bad is going to happen to London? Why can't you stop it?"
"I don't know how. I was able to save the Royal Hope because Martha from the future told me about it, told me everything that happened. But what happens next, I can't guarantee that I could get out alive and there are things in the future I must be there for." And, she added to herself, it might be difficult to convince Donna to change things unless it was a pretty bad situation she found her in. She wasn't really dooming everyone in London to death, she was saving them, by correcting the timeline. It still hurt to think about though. Those deaths happened, whether anyone remembered them or not. Same as with the Toclofane.
"You don't want a mass panic either, so we can't order an evacuation. You're planning on undoing whatever it is that happened to kill the Doctor, which means everything that happens here will be undone."
Rose's jaw dropped.
The Brigadier smiled. "I've had many years of practice trying to keep up with that man. It's become quite a chore."
Rose laughed. "Well, Brigadier, thank you for your assistance. I'll see you in Leeds in a few months." She saluted and hopped, disappearing from in front of him in a burst of golden light.
She landed in the mouth of an alleyway on a dark London street in a surprisingly rough landing. She stumbled forward into the street, getting her feet under her again.
"Blimey! Are you alright?" She heard behind her, "What was that, fireworks?"
"I dunno, I was just walking." Rose said, turning to face the ginger woman.
"It's you! From Christmas!"
"Donna, Donna Noble, right? How are you, how've you been, what are you up to?" Rose asked, but feeling her eyes drawn to Donna's shoulder.
She could see it now. Being inside the Tardis had steadied her temporality and now Rose and the creature were at the same rate of temporal flux. All Rose could see of it from where she stood was a thick, black, claw like appendage that made her feel ill.
"Sorry?" She asked, realizing Donna had been talking.
"You're doing it again. Looking at my back. People keep doing that!" Donna said shrilly.
Rose sighed. She calmed the other woman down a little and mentioned the holiday weekend from the raffle ticket. She was just mysterious enough that she thought Donna would take her advice. As soon as the older woman looked away, Rose hopped.
Another dark London street, though later in the evening. Rose leaned against an old brick building and watched the restaurant entrance where a scene was unfolding. A tawdry, overdressed blond stalked away followed by a big black man Rose assumed was Martha's dad, Clive, who argued with the blond, Annalise, to stay, that 'she' didn't mean anything by it. Martha and Tish tumbled out the door, followed by their mum, Francine, who seemed to be pursuing the fight.
"No wonder she slapped 'im." Rose murmured to herself, recalling Martha's story of the Doctor's first meeting with her mum.
Martha seemed to be miserably caught in the middle, which no one in her family was giving her credit for, and the fight eventually led to Clive and Annalise leaving while Tish led Francine back inside. Martha stood in the street, eyes closed, just breathing for a moment. As her eyes opened, they landed on the blond up the road. She glanced back at the restaurant, but none of her family were watching. The blond, when she turned back, was gone. Jogging, Martha approached the corner where she had been.
"So, we went to the moon today." Martha said when she found the other woman, leaning against a different wall.
"Bit quieter than down here. Blimey, do they always row like that? I couldn't stand it." Rose said.
Martha just smiled sadly. "So who are you? You never told me your name."
"I'm a friend, Martha Jones, do you believe that?"
Martha nodded. There was something peculiar about the woman that made her want to trust her.
"Good. Now I'm telling you, as a friend, that you should get out of London next Christmas. You, Tish, Leo, your mum and dad, bring Annalise if you have to. But get out of London."
"Why? What's happening at Christmas?" Her new friend didn't answer. "I don't know if I can take it that long." Martha joked looking back towards the scene of the last argument. It was only one of many she'd had to deal with that day, let alone over the span of a holiday. Briefly, the street was illuminated by a flash of golden light. "Hold on, how do you know all their names?" She turned back but the blond woman was gone. Martha blinked stupidly down the road before trudging back to the restaurant, an awful lot on her mind.
Months later, Donna and Sylvia Noble and Wilfred Mott stood on the lawn of the bed and breakfast watching the mushroom cloud rising from London alongside all the other guests and workers.
"Blimey Martha," A young black man holding a toddler said to a girl who looked to be his sister, "If you hadn't insisted we all come out here..." He trailed off.
"Yeah," Martha replied, her voice hollow, "If only."
Donna understood. She'd dragged her family out too, on the mysterious suggestion of the blond girl. But everyone else they knew was dead. More than that, they were just... gone.
Rose appeared in the UNIT base in Leeds a few months after the Titanic crash.
"Excellent, let's get to work." She said, strolling towards the Tardis in the center of the warehouse. She froze and her hands went up automatically as the echoing click of many guns being armed reverberated through the metal base.
"At ease, soldiers. This woman saved all of your lives." The familiar voice of the Brigadier called out.
"Sir." Rose saluted as the soldiers relaxed. The Brig ambled over to her, her sharp eyes belying his casual walk.
"You're time traveling still, as well as teleporting." He said when he reached her.
Rose raised her eyebrows, feigning surprise she knew he wouldn't buy.
"You're wearing exactly the same clothes." He explained.
"Sharp as ever." She told him.
"Ah, Captain. This is our mysterious savior." He called to a woman hovering nearby.
She saluted Rose. "Captain Erisa Magambo, ma'am."
"Oh, don't salute." It had taken weeks to get her Torchwood team to stop.
"What do you need from us, my dear?" The Brigadier asked.
She grinned at him. "We're going to build a time machine." She delved into the Tardis storage room. The old girl had obligingly moved one close to the console room with a soft groan.
"She's dying." Rose said softly. Without her Doctor, the Tardis was dying. Rose was tied to the Tardis though... She examined the part of her mind tied to the Heart of the Tardis and found it too, withering. That was potentially dangerous. With that connection gone, Rose didn't think her mind alone would be enough to sustain the Tardis DNA intertwined with her own. She shivered. She was sure the Tardis would hold on long enough to get the Doctor back. "Right, to work."
Rose handed stacks of equipment to the UNIT soldiers who followed her into the Tardis, loading them down with all the appropriate equipment she could find.
Back outside the Tardis, she arranged the various gadgets and components and took a careful inventory. All the crucial parts were there, so long as the Tardis could contribute the catalyzing energy. But, there were more... structural elements missing. She made a list and handed it to Captain Magambo.
"Captain, here's what we still need. You should have these in a month. I'll be back then and we'll build our machine." She saluted and vanished.
"A month? Does she realize how hard it is to get supplies these days?" Magambo cried out in astonishment, turning to the Brigadier.
"I think you'd better do as she says. Besides, when this works, everything will go back to normal. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have my retirement to return to."
"What?"
"It seems you have everything well in hand here. I've left UNIT, Captain Magambo. They just haven't left me."
Rose hopped a month forward and was rewarded by the sight of brown paper wrapped packages neatly stacked alongside the elements the Tardis contributed.
"Brilliant." She whispered, running a hand over the stack of what she assumed were the mirrors.
"Exactly a month." A voice said from behind her.
"Rather empty in here, isn't it?" Rose asked, turning to talk to Captain Magambo.
"My men are out fighting vehicles apparently operating themselves. ATMOS vehicles. I don't suppose you know anything about that."
Rose swallowed. It was possibly the hardest event for her to swallow. Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, dying aboard the Sontaran ship; Jack, gone, teleported back to Sontar. "It'll be taken care of." She told the captain who was, in that moment, very much not her captain just when she wanted him safe.
Captain Magambo nodded but didn't ask questions. "I assume you'll need some help. I will call in some staff to assist."
"Thank you. Where's the Brigadier?"
"Back in retirement." Magambo said sourly, "He was called back in after the Doctor's death, but after your last visit he said it looked like the crisis was over."
Rose grinned. Indomitable old man. "Good for him. To work, then?"
With the help from UNIT staff, Rose assembled a large, circular structure with mirrors reflecting into the center.
Rose stood with Captain Magambo, admiring it after they finished.
"In three weeks, I need a UNIT truck at this address." She wrote down Donna's address for the Captain. "A ride for me and my friend."
"Who's your friend?"
"Donna Noble."
"And who is she?"
"The woman who can set this all right."
Magambo nodded and Rose was gone.
Down the road from where Rose stood, UNIT soldiers shouted for someone to turn around. After a while, she heard Wilfred, Donna's grandad, shout back at them and the faint sound of heeled boots on pavement clicking towards her.
"Hello." Donna said.
Rose smiled at her. "Hi." Donna looked exhausted, like the fight in her was nearly gone.
They walked together in silence and sat down on a park bench where Rose explained some of what was going on. Donna seemed terrified when Rose talked about the Doctor, the way that Donna may have dreamed about him, but Rose was certain that she was nearly convinced.
"Three weeks Donna, and I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but you're going to die." Rose was nothing if not fair. Donna would end this world of suffering, but she'd have to give her life to do it.
Three weeks later, Donna stood with her grandfather, watching the stars go out. "The Darkness is coming." She whispered and spun around. The blond woman was waiting for her. "I'm ready." She said, squaring her shoulders and trying desperately to erase the tremor from her voice.
Rose led the trembling ginger woman to the UNIT truck. Captain Magambo met them at the warehouse.
"Ma'am." She saluted.
"I told you, don't salute." Rose strode past her to examine the computer readouts and run analyses of her own.
"Well, if you won't tell us your name."
"What? You don't know it either?" Donna interjected.
"I've crossed too many realities, this causal nexus is fragile, the wrong word in the wrong place could destroy the whole thing." Rose said.
"Captain Erisa Magambo, thank you for this." The Captain introduced herself to Donna.
"I don't even know what I'm doing." Donna replied.
Rose straightened. "Donna, come 'ere." She led the other woman to the Tardis and let her see inside it on her own for a moment before stepping inside the little-big box she called home.
She told Donna all about the Tardis, and the Doctor before Donna caught her staring at the thing on her back again. Rose had seen it now, the whole thing. It was a giant black beetle that made Rose queasy to look at.
"Would you like to see it?" She asked.
It took some time to calm Donna down after she'd seen the creature and Rose couldn't blame her. A giant insect that no one could touch and only a few could see clinging to your back for over two years... Rose shivered at he thought.
"So what do I have to do?" Donna asked plaintively.
Turn left, Rose thought, examining Donna's timeline again. She explained the time machine to Donna and Captain Magambo gave her a variety of gadgets to help out.
"It's a time machine." Donna cried joyfully as the golden light of the Tardis flooded around her.
"It's a time machine." Rose agreed with a grin.