Walking in fast, deliberate strides, Rose couldn't contain the excitement and thrill of adventure that ran through her entire being. All that was missing was a familiar hand to hold, but she pushed that thought back into the recesses of her mind where it belonged. This was as good as she was going to get on Earth, and in this universe so she'd take it. Checking her watch, she followed the co-ordinates set there to a simple side street. Nothing out of the ordinary visible, but the scanners were going crazy, and Rose let out a yelp as sparks flew from it, one landing on her hand, causing her to shake it off with a grimace.
"Bloody hell, that's strong time energy," she muttered, her eyes wide.
"Everything okay, Rose?" Mickey asked over the earpiece.
"Everything's fine," Rose assured him, picking up the readings. "But this energy is really strong; it's making the scanners go crazy."
"Any snail trail?" Mickey asked, and Rose let her lips curve into a half smile as she moved the scanner around before perking up slightly.
"Yeah!" she replied enthusiastically. "I'll follow it – see where it leads."
Ignoring Mickey's repeated warning to be careful, Rose trained the scanners on the residual energy that led away from the side-street, and began to follow. She noticed it got weaker the further she moved away, just like Mickey said it would, but she hoped she'd find at least something, lest this whole trip be pointless. The trail led to up to the main road before dying out, and Rose let out a noise of frustration, feeling the familiar numbness beginning to creep back over her again.
She opened her mouth to report to Mickey when loud screaming caught her attention. Spinning, Rose stuffed the scanner into her holster and felt the numbness break away to adrenaline. Someone was in trouble. Without a second thought, Rose immediately began to run towards the source of the trouble, and skidding around the corner, she saw it.
"They just appeared out of thin air!" A woman was saying hysterically, clutching onto her young daughter, trying to pull her back from the huge alien creatures. They seemed to be a type of reptilian race, stood on two legs, extremely tall, larger than any human Rose had seen. Their scales ranged from dark green to a musty blue, and they had long, forked tongues that consistently flicked in and out of their mouths. Pulling out her scanner, Rose aimed it at the aliens, not recognizing the race, but the scans told her everything she needed to know.
"Ablox." She said quietly, and the leader's eyes snapped to her, recognizing its own name. "Mickey, I'm switchin' off the communications to get the translator," she said hurriedly, hand reaching up to her ear to fiddle with the device.
"No, Rose wai-"
Rose cut him off before he could finish, talking a slow, wary stop forward.
"Identify yourself." The tallest Ablox demanded, observing her with cold amber eyes. Ever since the breach between universes had closed up, Rose hadn't been able to understand any language like she had been able to before. As such, Torchwood's translators usually did the job just fine. The voice of the Ablox before her had a sort of hissing quality but it was still understandable.
"Captain Rose Marion Tyler of Torchwood industries," Rose said flatly. She hated using her full title, but with aliens, they needed to know straight away that she held some power at least. The leader studied her for a moment. "You are the Ablox from Sector fifty-four in the Omega Quadrant. Why are you on Earth?"
"We are searching for a new home," The head Ablox replied, and Rose furrowed her eyebrows slightly.
"What happened to your old one? I mean, from our records, Abloxium was thrivin'." She said slowly, trying to understand what could have happened to this culture.
"The darkness," Was the response of the Ablox. "It covered the planet, destroyed everything in its path. Stars went out, disappeared from the skies. We had no choice. We will settle here and repopulate."
"Now, jus' hang on a sec," Rose said clenching her fists slightly. "This is a protected planet – ya can't just come and claim this planet as your own!"
"We will take it by force if necessary." The Ablox hissed, and Rose felt her eyes narrow.
"Oh no you won't," She said quietly. "Not accordin' to Shadow Proclamation Convention fifteen." She flexed her fingers slightly. "This planet's under the protection of the Shadow Proclamation, so you better watch it."
"That is unimportant," The Ablox said dismissively. "We need a home, and we choose Earth."
Rose felt frustration wash over her suddenly. "You can't! There are innocent people on this planet! We can help ya find somewhere new if you need it, but you can't take over our planet – We won't let you walk over us. It'll end up in a fight, and I don't want any blood to be shed over this. No more fightin'."
"Witness, Rose Tyler of Torchwood." The Ablox said coldly. "You will be the first to sacrifice your life energy to the greater empire." He raised an arm, and Rose tensed, noticing the laser weapon strapped to his wrist.
"Oh no you don't," Rose breathed, waiting for the right moment. As the Ablox fired, Rose dived to the left, landing hard and rolling slightly as a hole was blasted in the hole where she had been stood, some smoke rising from it. Almost immediately, the people who had been watching the exchange began to scream and run for cover, and the Ablox began the hunt. Pushing herself onto her feet, Rose turned, and began to run, the head Ablox fast in pursuit. Pressing at the device in her ear, Rose let out a yelp as a blast narrowly avoided her head. "MICKEY!"
"Rose – what's happening?" Mickey demanded immediately.
"Uh- Hostile takeover from the Ablox, there's only five of 'em, though," Rose replied, somewhat breathless. Despite the fear that pounded in her chest, and the worry for the people of the planet, Rose couldn't stop a small grin forming on her face. This was what she lived for. She loved the running.
"Sending your team for backup," Mickey said immediately. "Initiating protocol four – getting the people safe."
"Good!" Rose panted, ducking another blast and with some reluctance, she pulled out a small gun from her other holster attached to her other leg. Skidding to a stop, Rose turned, cocked the gun and aimed it at the alien, who continued to run at her. Rose didn't flinch. She had to wait until the last moment – she had to give him the chance to stop. "Don't do this – please! Let us help you!"
The Ablox didn't stop, and Rose's eyes hardened. "I didn't want to do this." She said simply, and fired.
A burst of fire left the gun and the small capsule slammed hard into the Ablox with great force – enough to knock it completely off of its feet. It wasn't a fatal bullet – Rose wouldn't kill. She refused. That wasn't who she was. It was an extreme stunning bullet, but she still wanted to avoid using it all costs. Sighing, Rose tucked the gun back into her holster and walked towards The Ablox, who stared up at her with half-lidded eyes.
"Who…are…you?" he demanded, trying to keep his eyes open.
"Didn't ya hear me mate?" Rose asked; her voice deadly calm. "Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth."
She didn't realise she hadn't switched her translator back on.
Jackie had brought her son down to meet them, and The Doctor had to admit, though his head full of messy red hair clearly came from Pete, when he saw the child's big brown eyes, all he could think of was Rose.
Despite how uncomfortable she had seemed in the house, Martha was immediately taken with Tony, and he with her, and he had been playing with her thick hair for at least ten minutes now. It was pretty amusing to watch at first, but The Doctor was beginning to feel impatient, and it took all of his self control to not start pacing around the floor. For all he knew, that would irritate Jackie, and the last thing he wanted or needed was another Tyler slap.
"Rose just adores him, she's the perfect big sister," Jackie said in a fond voice, watching as Martha carefully cradled Tony in her arms.
"I can imagine," The Doctor mused, tapping his thumbs together, considering once more if he should just run on over to Torchwood and find her there.
"She was plannin' to tell him all about you, you know." Jackie said absently. "About the man who took her to see the universe."
The Doctor started slightly, and he felt something warm fill him up inside. It was nice to know that Rose hadn't forgotten – that she wanted to remember, enough to want to tell her younger brother about him. It touched him, more than he could ever admit out loud.
Jackie glanced up when she heard the phone ring and frowned slightly, standing up to get it.
"Hello?" she asked, and frowned. "Pete? What's going on? No – I've got guests over – you'll never guess- What do you MEAN you'll be late?" she demanded, narrowing her eyes. "No, you listen to me Pete Tyler," she warned. "How many times have you come home late this week? I'm not having it."
"Jackie Tyler – Scary woman." The Doctor said to Martha in an undertone. The medical student managed a small smile, and continued to play with Tony.
"Whaddya mean, alien invasion!?" Jackie practically screeched, and The Doctor cringed before perking up slightly, watching the woman intently. "Is Rose okay? She better be!" Jackie sighed slightly. "Okay. Stay safe!"
By the time she had hung up, The Doctor was by her side immediately.
"What happened?" he demanded, worry for Rose stirring in his gut.
"Some aliens tried a hostile takeover or somethin' – Torchwood's dealing with it now, but Rose was in the middle of it." Jackie replied, looking at him intently. "Great Peter Street."
"Martha, come on!" The Doctor said immediately, running past Jackie and out of the house. Martha stood, carefully handing Tony back to his mother.
"Sorry," she apologized with a small smile. "Nice meeting you!" she called out, before taking off running after The Doctor.
"We can't take 'em prisoner, and we're not killin' 'em!" Rose snapped, glaring at the man in front of her, arms folded. "I'm not having it! They're living creatures – the last of their kind, killing them off is GENOCIDE."
She was furious, to put it lightly. Torchwood would be perfectly able to handle this on their own. They'd make arrangements – settle this peacefully, but then the guns just had to get involved. She was doing all of this work on The Doctor's behalf – in his name. She wasn't going to let some stupid apes like this – Rose paused. Since when did she start calling people stupid apes? God, The Doctor really had rubbed off on her, hadn't he?
"They tried to harm innocent civilians, ma'am." The Colonel said stiffly. "This is beyond you now."
"Oh don't even start with that." Rose said dangerously, stepping forward. "They were scared; their whole planet had just been wiped out. They didn't know what else to do! I bet, if ya just gave them all a chance we could convince them to find somewhere else, but no, not if you go in all trigger happy like a moron!" Her voice had risen dangerously, and Pete, who had been watching nearby looked wary.
"Stand. Down." The Colonel said, his voice a snarl, and for a moment, a sort of golden hue flashed in Rose's eyes, and when she spoke, her voice was a low growl.
"No." she said simply, hands clenched into fists. "Listen to me, and listen good, Colonel. If you kill 'em, you're a murderer – there's a chance for peace here – a chance for Earth to start to move up in the universe – we're getting' more and more noticeable every day, and going around shootin' first and askin' questions later is just making it even worse. Soon, worse things will come like, god knows, warrior races like the Sycorax or somethin', and we'll be no match! You just think that wipin' off an alien race will make Earth look powerful, but it won't. It makes us look like monsters."
Satisfied that she had laid into him enough, Rose turned and began to walk away, trying to calm her breathing. As she did so, The Colonel narrowed his eyes and nodded as his troops, who aimed their large weapon at the five disarmed Ablox. He gave a signal, and Rose spun around, her eyes widening in horror as she saw the aliens go up in flame, unable to even flinch or writhe, simply forced to scream inside of their minds as they died slowly and painfully.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" She screamed, running at the Colonel, her hand lashing out to slap him hard across the face with no regard to her own safety. "YOU MURDERER!"
Pete grabbed her around the waist and began to drag her back as Rose tried to lash out at him. "THEY WERE DEFENCELESS AND YA KILLED EM! YOU COWARD! YOU COMPLETE COWARD!"
Rubbing his cheek, The Colonel turned to his troops, looking grim. "We're done here."
Still struggling, Rose glared furiously at him, her heart beating erratically in her chest. She'd never felt so angry before. Tears built up in her eyes and began to slip down her cheeks as she stared at the burning pile of alien bodies, her legs finally bucking underneath her.
Pete held her up as best as he could, and nearby, Rose's team were all in shock, exchanging wary glances as they watched their Captain begin to break down over her failure to save the aliens.
It shouldn't have hurt her as much as it did, but all she could really think of was that an entire species of alien had been completely eradicated, and that only served to make her think of The Doctor. He always tried so hard to give everyone a chance, and she had tried, she had tried so hard, but she had completely been shot down.
"It's okay, Rose, it's okay…" Pete murmured, drawing her to his chest, and she pressed her face against him, clutching at the lapels of his suit and silently cursing whoever gave Colonel Gregory any power within the military. "You lot!" Pete called out, nodding his head over at the group who were simply watching, uneasy and unsure. "Stay here to clean up – I'm taking Captain Tyler back to the base."
"Yes sir," The group replied simultaneously, and Rose pulled back, sniffing and rubbing at her eyes, feeling like a complete loon for having broken down the way she did.
"M'fine, dad, really…" She mumbled, raising a hand to offer a half-hearted wave to Mickey, who had arrived with her team during the attack.
"Yeah, well, I still want you back at the base. We need to talk."