They raced back the way they'd come, past houses of stone and wood, and only now did Rose become aware of all the flammable straw roofs around her. 'Can it breathe fire?'

'Column of smoke!' he reminded her.

Everyone was running. Some led their families to safety, others carried precious goods, and the bells kept chiming ahead. Despite it all, Rose still struggled to believe that there was an actual dragon heading for the village.

Her doubts disappeared when the massive roar repeated itself – almost directly behind them. A sound like the hiss of hellfire lashed out at the village, followed by cries of panic, the splinter of wood, and the crackle of a massive conflagration. A wave of heat came at them from behind. Rose tried to look, but the Doctor's pull was too strong.

'The people are defenceless!' Rose protested. 'We have to do something!'

The Doctor gritted his teeth, looking at the panicking people. 'There's nothing we can do!' he replied. 'Unless… do you have a megaphone and a persimmon with you?'

Rose thought about her nifty Torchwood tool belt, but none of her futuristic equipment was helpful in a real-life-dragon sort of situation.

They turned a corner and for one moment, Rose glimpsed a giant shadow flying above the town. 'Oh my god,' she gasped, horrified.

The Doctor pulled her along. Ahead of them, the angel was running alongside the red-haired girl, his wings folded behind him. They were ushering a small group of people through the street, a child no older than ten among them. They seemed to have a better plan than either the Doctor or Rose, so the duo decided to catch up with them.

There was deafening rumble, like thunder shattering wood and breaking stone. Rose was convinced it came from everywhere at once. She looked to the side and saw the bell tower crumbling; the giant bell dropped from its fixture, crushing the wooden framework with its weight. Then, the monstrosity was revealed in its full, terrible magnificence: two expansive wings carried a large, but slender torso covered in red scales. Its long neck ended in a horned, reptilian head.

It was an actual dragon, as if taken straight out of a movie.

The monstrous creature landed on the side of the collapsed bell tower, slowly descending on its crumbling corpse. Once it found stable footing, it retracted its wings and raised its mighty head high above the village like a tyrant. Rose counted six impressive horns on its head, each of them long and curved, like a savage ivory crown.

Its gaze was piercing, blazing like lava. It turned its head as if searching for something, its slim pupils focusing.

Focusing on Rose.

The Doctor's pull made her snap out of it. They had merged with the small group, and were heading outside the town. 'It sees us!' Rose shouted, and, after another glimpse over her shoulder: 'Oh, you're kidding me!'

'The well! Quickly!' the red-haired girl shouted, gesturing at a round circle of stone at the side of the street. It wasn't very wide; the new TARDIS wouldn't have fit inside.

'I'll distract him!' the angel said, before he jumped into the sky, flapping his wings.

'Virgil, no!' the girl called, but her winged friend already ascended toward the oncoming monster. The father of the little family grabbed her by the waist and crudely hoisted her into the well. Her cry echoed from inside, followed by a splash.

One by one they followed her into the well, first the boy, then the husband and wife. But when it was their turn, Rose found that the Doctor was still standing metres away. 'Doctor!'

He was transfixed by the creature, staring as it glided through the air like a giant demon, the draught in its wake ripping wagons and roofs apart. Its scaly chest grazed and shattered a building, causing debris to splinter against the creature's belly from underneath. The angel was nowhere to be seen.

The dragon's terrifying jaw opened, its maw now blazing with fire.

'Doctor!' Rose screamed, and the Doctor unfroze and dashed for the well. Together, they jumped.

Not a second too early. An inferno swept above their heads as they fell. The townspeople's hands expected them, directing their plunge away from heads and bodies. Rose was grateful her Torchwood equipment was waterproof as the cold water matted her clothes to her skin.

When she emerged again, she felt like she was stuck inside a very crowded elevator. She could barely keep herself afloat without bumping into someone else. Their frightened faces were all looking up to a blue sky that had taken on an orange glow. Burning bits and pieces were floating through the air, ash particles driven upward by the heat.

They all tried to keep silent, but the sound of heavy breathing and burbling water mixed with someone's weeping. Rose's elbow jabbed two people as she wiped the water out of her eyes. 'What is that thing?' she whispered to nobody in particular.

'I have no idea,' the Doctor answered, looking up with his mouth open. 'But it's beautiful.'

'Are you stupid?' the red-haired girl scolded him, and the woman who Rose assumed was the mother in the family said sternly, 'It's Felgorn, the Punisher. By the king's name, you travellers are all the same. Ignorant fools, looking for adventure.' She reminded Rose of a teacher with very little patience.

'Mary, Mary!' the boy was quaking at the girl, trying to get her attention for a while now, 'Why isn't the king repelling him? Did he lose his power?'

'How should I know?' the red-haired girl snapped.

'You're friends with Virgil,' the boy whined back.

'So? I only know what he tells me!'

'Children,' their father hissed, 'Can't you behave even now?'

'Waitwaitwaitwaitwait,' the Doctor interrupted their squabble. 'Your king has an actual means to chase it off?'

Mary scoffed at him. 'You really do know nothing, do you? I rather think you should leave this part of the Dale as soon as you can. For your own safety.'

The well shuddered, and they all fell silent. For several tense moments, their ears were pricked for any sound beyond the water dripping from their hair and chins, beyond their rattling breaths and careful floating movements.

There was another tremor, a little stronger this time, accompanied by a muffled thumping from above the well. They looked up to the round disc of sky above.

'It's time to go,' Mary said.

'But I can't!' the boy protested, suddenly very fearful. 'I won't make it!'

'You have to try!' Mary urged him on.

'Anthony,' his mother said, shoving the Doctor aside to put her hands on the boy's shoulders. 'You can do it,' she said. It was obvious she was trying to stay calm and speak softly, but she failed to hide the urgency in her tone. 'Just take a really deep breath, and don't stop until you're there.'

But Anthony shook his head, white-faced.

The well shuddered again, stronger this time.

'Excuse me, where are we going?' the Doctor asked.

'The wells are connected underground,' said Mary, 'but you have to hold your breath for some time.'

'I can't do it!' Anthony insisted.

Thump.

Rose was already fumbling with her submerged tool belt. 'Here, take this!' she said, giving him a small device which looked like a boxer's mouth guard with a small ball at its end. That ball was filled with liquid oxygen that would enable anyone to breathe for over an hour underwater.

'Put it into your mouth,' Rose said. 'You'll be able to breathe underwater.' She demonstrated how to use it, and handed it to the boy, who gave Rose a surprised smile as he inhaled fresh air from it.

'Ah, that's brilliant,' the Doctor said, flashing a grin at Rose. The boy dove and was gone.

'Thank you,' his father said, endless gratitude in his eyes. 'We will repay the favour, I swear it!' He then shared a glance with his wife. They both inhaled deeply, and disappeared.

Thump!

'We'll see you on the other side.' Mary said, and dove as well.

But when Rose looked at the Doctor, she saw a wide-eyed expression that didn't inspire much confidence. 'What is it?'

'I don't know how long I can hold my breath,' he said simply.

THUMP!

'You're kidding me!'

The sunlight flickered away, and when Rose looked upward, she saw straight into the dragon's face. Its glowing eyes sparkled dangerously, almost gleefully at having found its prey.

'Why are they glowing?' the Doctor muttered, brows deeply furrowed. The dragon raised its head and opened its maw.

'DIVE!' Rose shouted. They both took a deep breath and went under.

The flame hit only a moment later. The heat travelled fast, chasing them, making the water around them boil. It bit into their legs as they pulled themselves deeper, and for a moment, Rose was sure they would be cooked alive like lobsters in a pot. All she saw were stone bricks, covered by roots, painted in the orange light of the dragon's fire. Rose didn't think about an underwater tunnel; she dove deeper, desperately trying to get away from the rapidly increasing heat.

A hand grabbed her arm, and she saw the Doctor's blue suit, gleaming brightly. He was drawing her attention to a black spot in the well's wall. They both made for it.

Soon they were surrounded by cool darkness. Rose quickly opened another pocket and pulled a miniature torch from her tool belt and put it into her mouth. The tunnel was narrow, rocky, and littered with patches of moss. There was no sign of the others, or of an end to the tunnel.

Rose swam quickly, feeling her muscles flex, feeling her lungs bursting for air. She was confident she could make it. She had completed various survival courses as part of her service in Torchwood, and swimming had been a regular item on the agenda.

But what about the Doctor?

She turned to see he wasn't far behind, giving her a cheeky wave with his hand, and gesturing for her to keep going. No troubles, then, she thought.

The tunnel turned a corner; there was still no ending in sight. Rose felt a strain in her lungs as they urged her to breathe, and she regretted how she'd just given the breather away, without coordinating its use in the group. They could have all stayed down here playing underwater charades for a good fifteen minutes if they just kept passing it around. She took a precious moment to look back, and found that the Doctor had fallen behind. With iron discipline, he kept pulling himself through the dark water, gesturing for her to keep going. But when she looked again, some ten seconds later, he was almost not in her sight anymore.

Alongside her rising fear of suffocation came an even greater terror.

Not thinking straight, she turned and swam back toward him. She took the torch from her mouth, grabbed his lapel, and pulled his lips into hers.

It felt strange. Wrong. As if that breath of air was a confession to herself. The real Doctor wouldn't blunder like that; he'd be the one saving her and everyone else, not the other way around.

He looked at her wide-eyed as she exhaled into his mouth, then she yanked him ahead. Together they fought the blackness, the resistance, the crushing water that tried to suffocate them. They kept going, pace after pace, metre by metre.

Another corner. Again, no light in sight. Rose began to panic as her lungs strained, urging her to breathe. She knew she had no other choice but to try and make it on her own; then she could get the breathing tool back to the Doctor.

If he hadn't drowned by then.


The Doctor had miscalculated a lot of things. For one, their departure had definitely been too early. The new TARDIS had probably been drawn to the weirdness of this world, throwing them all into a proper mystery – which had turned out to be properly dangerous.

Usually, that wasn't an issue at all. For the past nine hundred years this had been a typical Wednesday morning. But– and this was the second point – the Doctor wasn't his usual self anymore, as his new body kept reminding him. Not only did he now require sleep, healthy food, and exercise; his lungs also couldn't store oxygen like they used to. He still knew how to expertly suppress the urge to breathe, but the lack of oxygen impacted his thoughts, clouding his mind and dragging him into a dangerous darkness. Taken together, these points made for quite a blunder.

But the thing that surprised him the most was Rose – and the fact that she was saving his life not even half an hour into their first adventure. He barely noticed the glow of her torchlight. The touch of her fingers on his face, opening his mouth and inserting something metallic. The breathing device! He inhaled slowly, then went on to sucking the air greedily out of the thing. He messed it up almost right away, and the first wonderful influx of fresh air was followed by well water, making him choke.

How she had changed.

He had always wanted her to be happy, to not waste her days hoping she might see him again. But those days clearly hadn't been wasted, and that innocent wide-eyed girl had turned into a seasoned adventurer. She had always been a healthy counterbalance, like an electron to a proton, keeping the charges balanced. And now even more so: Everything he lacked, she brought to the table.

With her help, he eventually emerged inside a second well, wheezing and coughing while grasping around to find purchase on something. 'Come on, Doctor,' Rose urged, gesturing toward a number of metal steps in the wall. 'We have to get going!'

The Doctor looked around; Mary's family must have already ascended.

He climbed the ladder quickly, trying to cough and wheeze as little as possible. He regretted not being able to joke about how close he came to sounding like the ancient engines of his old TARDIS.

The Doctor peeked up from the lip of the well and found himself next to a street he recognised; it was the one they'd taken into the village. The TARDIS was close by, on the meadow right behind the thin strip of forest. Mary's family was heading in that direction.

'Is it still there?' Rose asked from underneath him. A mighty roar resounded all over the village, answering her question. The dragon was still in a punishing mood. 'Right. Got a plan?' Rose asked.

The Doctor had a plan, but his lungs were still straining and his throat was still burning. He coughed, and coughed, and finally managed, 'TARDIS!'


Rose chased after the Doctor who managed to keep up a decent speed despite still coughing his head off. Apparently running legs don't get lost in a human-Timelord Metacrisis.

Mary's family had been slowed down by her father, who seemed to have swallowed some water as well. Rose shouted for their attention, and waved for them to follow.

'Do you have a refuge?' Mary was asking. Rose pointed ahead of them, where bright sunlight reflected from a silvery surface, glinting through the trees. There was the TARDIS, slap-bang in the middle of the meadow, right where they'd left it.

Behind them, the dragon's angry bellow reverberated in the air. The Doctor reached the TARDIS and proceeded to tap it three times. It opened up and he turned around, holding out a hand to gesture for them to get inside – but they were all transfixed by the sight of the creature.

Even through the dense canopy, they could see it sitting on the broken stump of the bell tower, looming above the town. It wasn't in motion; it just sat there, watching the devastation it had caused, seemingly with satisfaction.

No, she realised: it was looking for something. Its horned head turned left and right, its long neck bending. Like a giant bird of prey, Felgorn was scanning the city for something to kill.

The dragon seemed to have found something, because its head lowered, and movement rippled through its body. It leapt from the wrecked remains of the bell tower, crushing it completely, and with a massive flap it hurled itself over the town and after a small point in the sky which fluttered hastily on tiny, feathered wings.

Mary gasped, putting her hand in front of her mouth. 'Virgil…' Her face was frozen in shock, and Rose felt powerless. She looked at the Doctor for a solution, but he had already entered the TARDIS. She couldn't even begin to imagine how he was going to sort this one out.

That wasn't exactly new for her. But usually she felt a sort of tense anticipation, knowing the Doctor was going to sort it all out. No matter how dire the situation – Slitheen, Cybermen, Daleks – he had beaten them all in the end.

Except all this had been the other Doctor.

And instead of anticipation, Rose was afraid she might have made a mistake ever wanting to go back out again.

The angel danced through the air, dashing and looping, his flight swift and energetic. He was perhaps just a tenth of the dragon's size, but that seemed to work to his advantage. Twice, the mighty jaws snapped, trying to crush him, but Virgil proved too nimble.

He aimed his escape toward the trees, away from the village. He was protecting it, Rose realised. 'Quite a guardian angel, your Virgil,' she said, trying to cheer Mary up. But then she realised where Virgil was headed.

He was leading the dragon straight to them.

Felgorn's wings covered the tree line like a sprawling nightmare. It lurched with a mighty flap, its head retracting as if to inhale – and then a torrent of flames shot from its maw, burning the forest, but missing the angel narrowly. Fluttering desperately, Virgil came closer and closer to the little group.

'Everyone, inside the metal ball, now!'

But they just kept on staring, so Rose began grabbing them by the shoulders, dragging and pushing them into the triangular opening while their eyes were glued to the spectacle. The father put up a small protest, saying the metal refuge was too small, but Rose talked him down with quick commands.

She expected Mary to struggle against her efforts, but the girl quickly hastened into the TARDIS on her own. When Rose turned around, she understood why.

Felgorn wasn't chasing after Virgil anymore; it was shooting straight at them.

Virgil had realised his error and was desperately trying to get its attention back, trying to lead it away from the TARDIS. But his efforts were in vain: nothing would change the monster's mind. With a long flap, it shot above the meadow, heading for its new prey.

Rose turned toward the Doctor. 'Tell me she can withstand this thing!'

'She can!' he said from inside the TARDIS, where he frantically pressed buttons, pulled levers and switched dials. Rose looked out at the oncoming dragon, its head like the image of a vengeful demon, its eyes glowing with blind rage. She saw razor sharp teeth, and a spark of fire igniting in its throat.

She prayed there was still enough Timelord in the Metacrisis Doctor for them to survive this.

The door slammed shut with a metallic bang. Not a moment later, the chaotic turmoil of a frightened infant TARDIS unfolded itself upon everyone.