CHAPTER 7

I do not own Doctor Who, and I am making no profit off of this.

Verity headed to her final destination as she carried out the Carrionites' plan. She had to go to a certain place in order to speak the spell for it to work. Only a specially built place with the right dimensions would do. The Carrionites had especially appreciated the irony of using this particular place to free their sisters from.

Meanwhile the Doctor and Rose were racking their brains to come up with where Verity could possibly be heading to. They didn't have much time left to stop her from bringing the Carrionites to Earth.

"I've got to think. Where could they have told her to go? It has to be a specially built place for their spells to work. It has to be built to the right proportions exactly and to have fourteen sides. What buildings nearby have fourteen sides?" the Doctor said.

"Where did you say that they cast their spell from before? The Globe Theatre?" Rose asked him as she searched her memory about his adventure with the Carrionites.

"Yes, but it's gone now. It was torn down a long time ago," the Doctor said dismissively.

"They built a new one in a different location though, right? It seems that I heard something about that in school. They rebuilt it as much like the old one as possible," Rose said as she looked at him meaningfully.

"So?" the Doctor said as he looked at her blankly.

Martha immediately got it. She smiled a big, toothy grin at Rose, who returned the smile with one of her trademark face covering grins.

The Doctor looked at them like they were both insane as he tried to understand just what they were so happy about. He didn't understand what a reconstruction of the old Globe had to do with anything.

Rose groaned in irritation as she finally said, "They built it just like the old one, Doctor! They used the same dimensions!"

The Doctor's eyes bulged out as he realized how dense he had been. He had a big problem seeing the forest for the trees sometimes.

The Doctor slapped his forehead and screamed, "The Globe! She's at the Globe!"

"He's a little thick in this regeneration," Rose said to Martha with a grin.

"He was a little thick in the last one too," Martha said with a snicker.

"That is so true. He's always been thick to be honest. He was even worse as a child. It took him forever to realize that I liked him as more than a friend," Rose admitted to Martha.

"That doesn't surprise me," Martha said.

"Oi! We've got a world shattering plot to stop, and you two are wasting time gossiping about me. Why is it anytime any of my family or friends gather together they automatically start talking about me?" the Doctor pouted.

"It's because you're just so fascinating we just can't help ourselves! You're just so interesting!" Rose said with a wicked smile.

"Well, I can certainly understand that. You've got to know when it's a good time to talk about how marvelous I am though. I know that you love to brag about me, Rose; but there's a time and a place for it," the Doctor said with a serious look on his face.

"Is he kidding around?" Martha whispered.

Rose shrugged her shoulders as she whispered back, "Sometimes even I can't tell. He really is very bad at knowing whether I'm being serious or sarcastic sometimes."

"We can't waste time talking about my greatness, Rose. We've got to get to the Globe!" the Doctor shouted impatiently.

He started running in the direction of the Globe only to find himself suddenly right in front of it! He turned in surprise towards Rose who was in full Bad Wolf mode.

"You seem to forget that you have someone around who can instantly teleport you anywhere in seconds. You have to admit that I'm pretty marvelous too," Rose said with a wide grin.

The Doctor looked at her with a big smile on his face as he said, "No, I never forget that! You're even more marvelous than I am, Rose Tyler!"

"He put you above himself! That shows how much he loves you," Martha said honestly.

"I know. The Doctor usually can never admit that anyone is better than him in anything," Rose said.

"Yes, I can. You're better than me at everything. There's only one thing I'm better than you at," The Doctor said.

"What's that?" Rose asked curiously.

"Loving you! I love you more than anyone else ever will," the Doctor said with total honesty.

Rose teleported right in front of him and kissed him passionately.

"I'm sorry for acting so jealous about Joan Redfern. I know it shouldn't bother me. It happened when I was lost, and you had made yourself human so you didn't remember me. I know that it wasn't your fault. I would have wanted you to be happy if I had never returned anyway, but I still get so upset when I think about it," Rose admitted to him.

"There's nothing to be upset about. Nothing happened. I did love her, but nothing ever came out of it. It was totally innocent," the Doctor said with a serious face.

Rose had an inward sigh of relief. She didn't think that anything had happened, but it felt so good to be sure of that now.

"I'm sorry that I got so jealous. It still bothers me to think about it, but I'm working on it. I want to get to a place where this doesn't bother me anymore," Rose said.

"You will. You were all upset about Reinette, but you eventually got over it," the Doctor said confidently.

"Yeah, I certainly did," Rose said with a frown.

Martha could tell that she was lying, and that she hadn't gotten over her at all. Mickey had told her about how jealous Rose had been of Madame de Pompadour. It hadn't sounded like something that Rose would forget so easily.

Even the Doctor recognized her sadness now as he turned to her and softly ran his fingers through her hair.

"Neither of them mean anything to me. You're the woman I love. It's always been you! The only competition you ever had was yourself when I didn't know who you were. Are you going to be jealous of yourself now?" the Doctor said with a grin.

"I will be if I want to!" Rose said with a giggle.

"That's my Rose!" the Doctor said as he hugged her tightly.

"Don't ever forget that!" Rose whispered to him.

"I'd forget my own name first," the Doctor said honestly.

"I hate to interrupt this lovely scene, but I feel I have to remind you that Verity could be ready to speak the spell at any moment if she's even here in the first place," Ileana said.

"She isn't on stage yet. Security's keeping here from getting there at the moment," Rose said as her eyes briefly glowed.

"I knew that Rose would tell me if she were close to the stage yet," the Doctor explained.

"She has to somehow get on stage and read out the spell to get it to work. She'll probably disguise herself as one of the actors in the play that they're holding today," Rose said.

"What play? How do you know they're holding a play today? Did your cosmic powers tell you?" Victoria asked her as she looked at her in awe.

Rose laughed at the 'cosmic powers' question as she said, "No. I just read the sign on the front. It says that they're holding a production of Love's Labour's Lost here today. It's kind of ironic in a way. You said that they tried to use the lost sequel to that play the last time to free their sisters, Doctor."

"Yes they did. I'm sure they appreciated the irony of that particular play being performed here today too," the Doctor said.

"It's like the universe is laughing at us, isn't it?" Rose said with a small smile.

"It doesn't matter to me as long as I get the last laugh," the Doctor said as he smiled back at her.

"Shouldn't we go inside and try to find her before she can disguise herself?" Martha asked.

"I've got Michelle on that. She's watching Verity right now. At the moment, she's doing nothing but biding her time," Rose said as her eyes glowed briefly again for a second.

"Michelle?" Martha asked confused.

"That's the name that Sister of Mine is using now. Michelle Jones." Rose said with a knowing look at Martha.

"She took my last name and feminized Mickey's first name," Martha realized as a surprised look came over her face.

"You two made quite an impression on her. Especially Mickey! I think she had a little crush on him for a while when she first met him until she found out he was your husband," Rose said with a giggle.

"I'm not going to tell him that if it's all the same to you. He's got a big enough ego as it is," Martha said.

"Isn't that the truth," the Doctor commented dryly.

"Pot. Kettle. Black," Rose said bluntly.

The Doctor just looked sulky but said nothing in response. Rose gave him a quick kiss though, and he was immediately smiling again.

Rose! There's something going on here! Verity is shouting out what sounds like a spell. It's doing something to her. She's transforming into a Carrionite! Sister of Mine said to Rose telepathically.

Rose immediately communicated this to the Doctor through their mental link; and he shouted, "We've got to get in there now, Rose!"

Rose had been hoping to do this without causing a panic which was why she hadn't entered by teleporting yet. Now though she had no choice.

Rose teleported herself and the others inside to join Sister of Mine who came out of a reflection in a window that was nearby Verity. They saw that Verity now looked like a Carrionite and was casting spells on the people around her. The crowd was in a full-scale panic as they ran to get away from her.

Rose started undoing all of Verity's spells at once and immediately brought herself to her attention. Verity looked at her with a deadly glare in her eyes. Suddenly she had teleported herself across the room and was standing in front of Rose as she pointed her finger at her.

"You! I know you from somewhere. I've seen you before," the creature that had once been Verity said to Rose.

"No, I'm sure you haven't. I've just got one of those faces. Everyone's always mistaking me for someone else. I often get mistaken for a certain famous actress and pop singer. I don't see the resemblance myself. Mind you, I do have a good singing voice. Care to hear me sing a few notes?" Rose said with a mad look on her face.

"Silence! I tire of your mindless babble! I know you now. You are the woman that he called Rose. The Doctor drew a picture of you in his journal," Verity snarled.

"Give the lady a gold star. That's right. You've got me. I'm Rose. I really do insist that you hear my voice though. Here, listen to this!" Rose said with a suspicious grin on her face.

Suddenly, she sang a couple of notes in Old High Gallifreyan. The sound of them reverberated through the Globe, and then came back as a sonic wave to hit Verity square in the chest! She was bowled over by their impact and knocked to the floor.

"It turns out that the Globe is made just right for me to perform some old Time Lady magic too. This place has the right angles to turn even a simple lullaby in Gallifreyan into a weapon when I stand at the right spot and say the notes at the right tone and frequency!" Rose said with a smug look on her face.

"You won't win, Time Lady! All I have to do is reach that stage and say one spell, and there will be billions more just like me here in moments to destroy you!" Verity said with an evil smile.

"You won't get that chance. I won't let you anywhere near the stage," Rose promised.

"You will not be able to stop me. I'll kill every last one of you if I have to in order to accomplish my mission," Verity said without emotion.

"What have they done to her?" Martha asked Rose sadly.

"They've given a part of themselves to her and remade her into one of them so that she could carry out their plan more efficiently than she could as a brainwashed servant," Rose explained.

"Is it reversible?" Martha asked.

"I don't know. The only chance we might have is to remind her of who she really is. That might snap her out of it and end this peacefully," Rose suggested.

"I don't know her well enough to do that," Martha admitted.

"Of course you do. You knew her for about three months, didn't you?" Rose asked.

"What on Earth are you talking about, Rose?" the Doctor said horrified. He knew what Rose was hinting at, and it didn't make sense!

"She's not Verity Newman, Doctor. She never was. She is and always has been Joan Redfern!" Rose said as she glared angrily at the woman behind so much of her troubles lately.

Next: Joan Redfern's story. How could she still be alive? Also Rose and the others must battle Joan in order to save the world. Will Joan ever be herself again?