A/N: Alright, well, it took rather forever. Sorry. There's all the usual excuses and whatnot, but who knew significant others take so much time? That and I still REALLY don't like rewriting episodes. So there's some abbreviations, but The End of Time took a lot of time. So have an extra chapter, on me.
Disclaimer: Yeah, unfortunately don't own any rights to pretty much any of this.
"Here we are then. The Doctor and Rose Tyler, in the Tardis, just as it should be." The Doctor announced, striding around the console and flipping switches.
"Doctor." Rose smacked him on the arm. "You're going ta miss her. I know it."
The Doctor frowned briefly at her. He shook his head and moved on. Watching carefully, Rose caught his lips moving in a silent "I know."
The Tardis jolted as they landed, spilling Rose and the Doctor in a laughing heap across the floor.
"So where are we, then?" Rose asked.
"1568. England." The Doctor read off the screen, squinting through his specs.
"Right. Better change then. Wouldn't want to start a riot." Rose skipped off into the hallway with echoes of the Doctor's complaints behind her.
Instead of letting Rose go straight to the wardrobe, the Tardis shuffled her into a room with a luminous tree made of metal and bearing glowing eggs. Rose touched an egg and jumped back as it split open under her fingertips. Hand trembling, she reached out to take the slim cylinder in the center of the egg. The grip suited her hand perfectly, feeling neither too warm nor too cold. It tapered on one end and was capped with a pale blue crystal. Rose swallowed. Her own sonic screwdriver. She tucked it into a pocket and hurried away.
In the wardrobe, the Tardis interfered again. Sitting on a table next to a lovely Elizabethan dress was a small wallet containing a slip of psychic paper. Sighing, Rose changed into the dress. She wondered just how long she'd have.
Hours later, Rose and the Doctor sprinted back into the Tardis, barely outrunning the armored troop of men.
Gasping from the run, Rose panted, "Honestly, Doctor, why did you promise her I'd marry that French bloke instead?"
"Well, she couldn't do it!"
"Yeah, well neither can I."
They met gazes and dissolved into laughter.
"Well," the Doctor said, "That's one mystery solved."
"What's that?"
"When Martha and I met Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth was not complimentary of my character." He explained, throwing them back into the vortex.
"I should think not." Rose muttered.
"What do you think? Shall we try somewhere else?" The Doctor's face was lit up and gleeful.
Rose bit her lip and examined her state of being. Only a little tired, she could handle another trip; so long as they didn't end up somewhere too taxing, she thought at the Tardis. She received an agreeable hum from the time machine. "Yeah, alright. But then I'll have to go to bed. Sleep, some of us need it."
"Someplace fun, then! Here we go!" And then he was whirling through the controls once again.
It was a normal flight, bumpy and irregular, but about halfway through, Rose felt the Tardis get knocked around the vortex. Keening faintly in Rose's mind, they landed with a shudder.
"Onwards!" The Doctor cried, jumping down to the doorway and tugging on his coat.
"No." A voice said. Rose recognized it as her own, filled with dread. "Don't go out there."
"Rose, what's wrong?" The Doctor flitted to where Rose bent over the railing, breathing heavily.
"Something happened, we aren't supposed to be here. The Tardis doesn't like it." Rose said. "Please, let's leave."
The Doctor checked the screens and paled. "You're right. We aren't supposed to be here. This is Bowie Base One. The Tardis shouldn't have brought us here."
"She didn't have a choice. It was like something collided with us in the vortex." Rose explained.
The Doctor moved them quickly into the vortex, away from the fixed point in time. "Now what?" He asked. He turned to face Rose with a grin.
Rose was more worried about what knocked them out of the vortex than their next adventure.
"No, hang on." The Tardis console beeped, prompting the Doctor to whirl back to it. "Uh-oh."
"Uh-oh?" Rose said, she peered around him to look at the screen.
"Do you remember the Ood?" He asked.
Rose frowned. "A little too well."
"Well," The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "I ran into them again. Donna and I stopped the humans from using them as slaves. We set them free."
Rose nodded. "And this has to do with the Tardis beeping?"
"Yup." He popped the 'p'. "They're, sort of, summoning us. Me, at least." He glanced over at Rose, his eyes getting shifty. "We don't have to go, not right away."
Rose rolled her eyes at him. "They need help, yeah? Let's help them."
The Oodsphere was frigid, as the Doctor promised, even while Rose huddled in a down coat. Ood Sigma waited for them outside the Tardis doors. He talked with the Doctor, which Rose ignored in favor of listening to the beautiful song in her head. By some magic of space and time, the melody of the Ood harmonized with song of the Tardis, which was never very far away from Rose's consciousness. Tears welled up as Rose listened to the soaring notes. She was so thankful that she was telepathic now. If more people could hear the beauty of the universe, she mused, she and the Doctor would have a good deal less work.
Rose was startled from her thoughts by the Doctor's insistent tug on her arm. She slipped her hand into his and they followed Ood Sigma into a cave where an ominous circle of Ood waited. Rose took a seat next to the Doctor and the song swelled, overwhelming her mind.
It wasn't a bad thing, she realized after a moment of panic, it was just the easiest way for the Ood to communicate with her, especially without the Doctor knowing. The song carried information with it. The first part was a sense of a place and a time, the kind Rose could use in the vortex to navigate somewhere. That was followed by a torrent of scenes. Rose ran soundlessly down the hallway of some kind of space craft, skidding to a stop just as a woman with an eye-patch came around a corner. Rose raised her gun and stunned the soldiers on either side of the woman. The woman raised one eyebrow and awkwardly raised a wrist to type into her vortex manipulator, doing her best not to disturb the swaddled infant she carried. As Rose reached for the baby, the woman vanished. The next scene came with more coordinates and Rose appeared next to the woman. This time she was faster and succeeded in snagging the child. She hopped away. In an open field, Rose kissed the baby's forehead.
"Hello, Melody Pond." She told the child.
The intensity of the song faded and Rose responded to the Ood.
"Something is coming, isn't it?" She thought to them.
"Yes. Rose Tyler. It is returning, through the dark. And the Doctor's song is ending. As all songs must."
Rose sat utterly still. "This Doctor's song. You mean." The Doctor couldn't die. Not now, not for centuries more. And all songs? Surely not River Song, who would be free of the Library after Manhattan and whatever tragedy made River flinch from it.
"You have a long path to tread, Rose Tyler. The Ood will sing for you."
"Thank you." Rose was eased somewhat by the comforting feeling that accompanied their words. She opened her eyes. The Doctor had his Oncoming Storm face on. Whatever the Ood told him, it wasn't good.
"Come on." He said. He stood, pulling Rose along with him. They hurried back to the Tardis.
"What did the Ood tell you, Doctor?" Rose asked as he paused to unlock the door.
The corner of his mouth twisted. "That something bad was coming. They were less than specific as to what."
Rose hid a smile. He never did like it when someone else knew more than he did. She paused, frowning.
"What's that?" She looked towards the console where something was ringing. "Do you have a mobile?"
"Er, yeah." The Doctor ran a hand through his hair and went to search for it amongst the piles of junk. "Martha gave it to me."
Rose rolled her eyes and pulled it from under a stack on the far side of the console from the Doctor. If he'd just use his ears… "Hello?"
"Rose? We need you on Earth." Donna's voice sounded tinny through the mobile.
"Everything alright down there?" Rose asked as she walked the circuit of the console, flicking switches and turning dials as she did so. That was most likely the start of it, whatever the Ood were warning them about.
"I'm not sure." Donna said. "That's why I called."
Rose gave the Doctor a look as he started to object to her flying the Tardis. "Be right there." She told Donna. She pulled one more lever and landed neatly outside the Noble's house.
"How did you do that?" The Doctor sputtered.
"I'm part Tardis, I'd better know how to fly one. Are you gonna keep blathering on about it?" She winked at him and left the Tardis.
The front door of the house opened just before Rose reached it.
"That was prompt." Donna said, "He's never that accurate."
"I drove." Rose explained, "What's going on?"
"Come in. You too, spaceman."
The Doctor was still sulking around the doorway of his time-ship.
To Rose's surprise, it wasn't just Lee and Wilf waiting for them in the living room. Martha and Mickey were there too. She blinked. Dread built in her stomach, making her feel off-kilter and dizzy. The Doctor guided Rose to a seat on the sofa as she stumbled.
"This is an unusually large gathering of my friends. What's gone wrong?" The Doctor asked.
"It's the Master." Martha said. "He's coming back."
"What do you mean, exactly?" The Doctor asked. His voice was tight with strain, fear, and, Rose wasn't sure, hope.
"Well, I was having this dream, about him laughing his head off. Scared me half to death." Donna said, "But then I said something about it, and Lee'd had the same dream. And so had Gramps, and mum. So I checked with Martha, and she'd been having it too. She just didn't think too much out of the ordinary of it." Donna's voice softened.
Rose understood. She knew she would have nightmares about the Master for years to come. Possibly decades. And she hadn't even met the man.
"It's not just us, though." Martha said, "It's everyone. Everyone I've talked to, dreaming the same dream."
"May I see?" The Doctor said, holding up his hands.
Donna leaned forwards toward him, allowing him to settle his hands on her temples.
The Doctor flinched back from the memory with the echoes of the Master's laughter lingering in his mind. His eyebrows shuttered down menacingly. "Something's gone wrong." He muttered.
As if to punctuate his words, a faint boom sounded from across town. Donna dashed to the window, but turned back, frowning, a moment later.
"Turn on the telly." Rose said.
Lee hit the remote and a news channel announced an explosion at Broadfell Prison. Martha drew in a sharp breath.
"What?" Rose asked her.
"That's where Lucy Saxon was." The other girl replied.
Rose's face darkened. "So, something is happening."
"Tardis. Now." The Doctor said through gritted teeth before whirling back through the door.
Rose reached out to Martha as the other woman stood to follow the Doctor out of the house. The moment her skin touched Martha's though, Rose collapsed to the ground.
"Doctor!" Rose heard someone say, somewhere off in the distance. Everything around her was dark and she was falling, falling, falling. The Master, blonder than she remembered and flourishing his madness like a cloak as expressions flickered across his face, rage to ecstasy to sorrow to exhilaration. His eyes met Rose's and he winked. Rose fell again into the darkness before stopping on a well-polished floor in front of a dark, wooden desk. A man sat at the desk, writing with an expensive pen on high quality paper. Painstakingly, he capped the pen, rested it on the desk, and looked up at Rose. His eyes were steady, driven, but by greed and power. Rose shuddered at the look she had encountered too many times before in Pete's World.
The real world came rushing back in full force. Rose found herself looking up into the steady, brown eyes of the Doctor.
"What," He said, "was that?"
"Odd." Rose said. "Some kind of vision? Might be the Tardis, trying to tell me something." She sat up and rubbed her forehead.
"What did you see?" Martha asked.
"The Master." Rose admitted. "And... the bloke on the cover of the book on that coffee table." She pointed toward the living room.
The Doctor retrieved the book in question. "Him?" He queried, dubious. "Joshua Naismith." He read. "He was with the Master?"
"No." Rose said. "But I think he's connected somehow."
The Doctor, and Mickey behind him, grimaced.
"How do you feel, now, Rose?" Donna asked.
"Better than I have since we got here." Rose said, clambering to her feet. "Let's go find him."
"B-b-but what ab-b-bout Naismith?" Lee stuttered.
"If our first lead doesn't pan out, we'll move to the next." Rose informed him.
Rose let the Doctor pilot this time. She didn't want him pouting again. Instead, she watched Donna explain the Tardis to Wilf, who looked around with a combination of awe and skepticism she found endearing.
The Tardis landed with a shudder outside the smoking remnants of Broadfell Prison. Her passengers spilled out of the doors. Rose's head turned sharply as she caught a telepathic burst. The rest of the crew turned the same way as four echoing clangs rang out from that direction. Then the Doctor was running.
Rose was fast, and Mickey faster, from Torchwood training. But neither was close to fast enough to keep up with the Doctor. He was stronger than a human, despite his wiry frame, he only rarely showed it. He was already talking to the Master when Rose and Mickey came around the rubbish heap, panting.
"Well, Rose, he's certainly got stamina." Mickey croaked out.
Rose swatted him in the back of the head.
Mickey laughed, still a little breathless.
Whatever the Doctor said, the Master was having none of it. He launched himself into the air, bounding well out of range of any normal being. His sweat suit clad frame illuminated in midair. Rose's jaw dropped open as a bluish white light showed his bones, even more clearly than an x-ray would. In the next instant, Rose's view went gold.
The Tardis yanked Rose out of place and pushed her through the vortex. Rose landed just in front of the Master. She grabbed the front of his sweatshirt to keep him from jumping away from her again and to keep her balanced. Panting, Rose realized that the Tardis was more terrified about what was going on than ever before. It was bigger than the Master.
"Who the hell are you?" The Master spat down at her.
Along with a rush of noise, a spot light flared down on the pair of them and a team of armored guards surrounded them, hanging from a helicopter.
"Hello, Koschei." Rose said as the guards lifted the pair of them into the helicopter.
From below, Rose could hear the faint yells of the Doctor. The helicopter flew away from the junkyard. Rose had a feeling she was going to meet Joshua Naismith.
Their captors wrestled a strangely cooperative Master into a straightjacket. For Rose, they were content with handcuffs. The Master glowered at her from across the helicopter, but it was too loud inside for him to ask her the questions he dying to ask. Rose smirked. She'd gone through hell because of the Time Lord, and she'd never had a chance to tell him. She was getting her chance, at least.