Mistressnmoon: So... I didn't post this as early as I wanted to, but I did come through on getting this out before/on the 12th! Let's see... I have many Doctor Who related things to talk about in my life. Feel free to scroll past this if you just want the story~
I finally started watching Torchwood last week. I watched all of season one, and about half of season two. So. This means that 1. I'm planning to have a bit of a cross over for one or two things. And 2. I'm going to be writing a Torchwood story, totally unrelated to this one, and eventually putting it on here.
So, I'm quite the geek. I was playing Harvest Moon, and somehow I ended up deciding to name everything after Doctor Who. So my character is Doctor, and it pleases me greatly. Also, I'm going to Otakon this year, and have a Rose costume all together. I'm pretty pleased with my life at the moment. Um... I want to say that's the major, exciting, things going on that I wanted to share. (This is why I should post things at 5am, after staying up all night. I need to get a real life.)
Oh, and I was wondering if anyone wanted to beta this story? I'm not too worried about it, but it'd be awesome for someone to read over my stories before I post them~
Shara Raizel: I'm glad you liked that, I found it oddly appropriate for her xD And thank you for the input! I'm pretty sure that's what I'll do, it also seems easier
aandm20: Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far, and I hope this lives up to your expectations!
Chapter Five
I grinned while we all ran around the TARDIS, even though it was shaking something terrible. Apparently the first part of the rescue mission to rescue Rose was to… Well rescue her. I then noticed that the TARDIS's extrapolator was working, and looked at the boys before opening my mouth to tell them,
"Hey boys, the extrapolator is working. We have a fully functional force field now." Jack gave the Doctor and I a cheeky grin while he responded with his usual nonsense that brought a smile to my face.
"Try saying that when you're drunk..." The Doctor continued to operate the TARDIS he told us,
"And for my next trick..." I grinned as I saw a faint image of Rose, and unfortunately a Dalek, appear in the TARDIS. As soon as I saw the Dalek I shouted over to Jack,
"Jack, the Defabricator!"
"On it!" I grinned as he grabbed the large gun, and Rose became more visable.
"Hit the deck Rose!" Not a moment after I shouted at Rose, who seemed to flounder for that moment, the Doctor shouted out,
"Get down, Rose!" As Rose tossed herself towards the ground, as the Doctor and I had told her, the Dalek stated,
"Exterminate!" I watched the Dalek shoot at Jack, who simply used the Defabricator to reflect the beam back at the Dalek. I grinned at the smoke that was billowing out of the destroyed Dalek, only looking away when Rose gleefully shouted,
"You did it!" The Doctor was quick to pull Rose into a tight hug, probably the happiest that she was alive out of the three of us.
"Feels like I haven't seem you in years."
"Told you I'd come and get you." The two pulled away from each other, just barely, as Rose responded,
"Never doubted it." My grin matched the Doctor's as he shouted out,
"I did! You all right?" Jack and I shared a look, both of us grinning, sharing our excitement with each other silently.
"Yeah. You?"
"Not bad. Been better!" The Doctor finally released Rose, and made his way over to dead Dalek. Jack and I quickly made our way towards Rose. I chuckled as Jack asked,
"Hey, don't Iget a hug?"
"Ahh, come here!" I let out an unattractive snort when Jack gestured towards the Doctor telling Rose,
"I was talking to him." After a moment I joined Rose and Jack in their laughter, pulling Rose into a tight hug.
"Don't forget about me Rose! I missed you!" I squeezed her tight for a moment before whispering to her, "You were so brave, and so very brilliant." I released Rose from my hug, and after I stepped back Jack spoke and I spoke at the same time,
"Welcome home!"
"Ohh, thought I'd never see you three again."
"Oh, you were lucky - I was just a one-shot wonder." I let out a chuckle, and jerked my thumb towards Jack before explaining what he meant to Rose.
"He drained the gun of all its power supply. It's simply a piece of junk now, won't be doing us any good." Rose gave a small nod, before turning her attention back to the Doctor; who was currently scanning the dead Dalek with his sonic screwdriver. I made my way over towards the Dalek, with Rose and Jack following me over, curious about how much damage the gun had done on the Dalek. I looked at the damage, and saw that the battle armor was completely destroyed, and that the Dalek didn't look anything like a Dalek was supposed to. It was somehow mutated, a shell of what a real Dalek was.
"You said they were extinct. How comes they're still alive?"
"One minute they're the greatest threat in the universe, the next minute they vanished out of time and space."
"They went off to fight a bigger war... the Time War..."
"I thought that was just a legend."
"No matter how old the legend, there's always some amount of truth to it."
"I was there. The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords. With the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them." My brain scrambled for a moment, trying to think of something to say that could be considered comforting, before the Doctor interrupted my scattered thoughts, "I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing."
"There's thousands of them now. We could hardly stop ONE. What're we gonna do?" I gave a glance at Rose, wondering if she already knew about the Doctor since she hadn't said anything near comforting, before I muttered out,
"Well at least these are mutated Daleks… That could possibly help us a little bit."
"No good stood round here chin-wagging! Human race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have got the answers - let's go and meet the neighbors."
"Somehow, that doesn't sound like a good idea." Jack gave me a small nod of agreement as we watched the Doctor head down the ramp. As the Doctor was opening the door, Rose shouted at him,
"You can't go out there-!" There was a short moment in which we all stared at the door the Doctor had just walked out of in shock, before I started down the ramp stating,
"Welp. We might as well go out, it's not like any of us can drive the TARDIS without the Doctor; and I want to see what's happening." I grinned as I made my way out the door, winking at the Doctor when I saw him. I heard the door of the TARDIS open, before the Dalek's started shouting,
"Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!" I flinched when the Dalek's shot at us. My frown quickly faded when the beams were reflected by the TARDIS, and the Dalek's stopped shooting at us. I even let out a chuckle as the Doctor raised his hands in a mocking surrender as he stated,
"Is that it? Useless! Nul points." The Doctor leaned against the TARDIS, telling Jack and Rose that the TARDIS was protecting us, "It's all right, come on out. That force field can hold back anything."
"Almostanything." I hit Jack's arm, not looking away from the Dalek.
"Pretty sure we don't need the Dalek's to knowing that."
"Sorry…" I frowned at the Dalek's, wondering why they weren't doing anything, it was almost like they were staring at us.
"D'you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Homeworld? The Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all your emotions... but I reckon that right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left. And that's fear." I noticed the Dalek's eyepieces twitching, as if they were nervous. So maybe I was right then, maybe they are mutated after all. "Doesn't it just BURNwhen you face me? So, tell me - how did you survive the Time War?"
"They survived through me." I looked towards the deep, clearly not Dalek, voice; not liking where this was going. When I turned around, facing the direction that the voice had come from, I saw a giant metal machine. The machine was clearly Dalek technology, it had a Dalek head on top of all the metal, and there was a Dalek resting in the middle of the machine.
"Rose... Robin… Captain... this is the Emperor of the Daleks."
"You destroyed us, Doctor. The Dalek Race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive." I rolled my eyes at the Dalek Emperor as he repeated what we already knew,
"I get it." Suddenly the Dalek's all started shouting,
"Do not interrupt!" Jack and Rose both flinched at the Daleks, while the Doctor just looked annoyed. I flinched lightly, not expecting the Daleks to say anything, before I eyed them while wondering how they seemed so irritated.
"I thinkyou're forgetting something. I'm the Doctor. And if there's one thing I can do - it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got one way of stopping me. So if anybody's gonna shut up, it's YOU!" By the time the Doctor finished speaking, you could hear the anger in his voice. An anger that made the Dalek's jump back in what seemed to be fear; something that made me wonder just how far mutated these Daleks are. "Okey doke. So, where were we?"
"We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth. Harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed - they all came to us. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted." My face dropped in horror when I realized what the Dalek Emperor was saying, the reason that the Dalek were reacting as if they had emotions was because at one point in time they did. At one point in time these Dalek were human. "The seed of the Human Race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured."
"So, you created an army of Daleks out of the dead." I muttered out to the others,
"That's why they react as if they have emotions."
"Doesn't that make them... half human?"
"Those words are blasphemy!" All the Dalek suddenly started spazzing out, shouting,
"Do not blaspheme!"
"Everything human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek."
"Then why do they have a concept of blaspheme? If they were pure then they wouldn't have such a thing."
"I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the God of all Daleks!" I looked around, shocked, when the Daleks suddenly started yelling,
"Worship him! Worship him! Worship him!"
"They're insane! A hundred years hiding in silence - that's enough to drive anyonemad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity. You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever." The Doctor then turned towards the Dalek Emperor to tell him, "We're going." When the Doctor finished speaking, I made my way towards the TARDIS, stepping next to Jack and Rose. The Doctor was right behind me, and was about to enter the TARDIS when I heard,
"You may NOT leave my presence!"
"Stay where you are!" The Doctor turned around to look at the Daleks, before he closed the door on them; which made them all yell,
"Exterminate!" I watched as the Doctor leaned his head against the door, showing me just how hopeless he felt. Clearly the Doctor was upset, and had no clue what to do. I glanced towards Rose and Jack, wondering what we should do, when Rose softly asked,
"Doctor… What do we do now?" When the Doctor turned around, he had a large grin on his face.
"Now. Now we go back and save the day!" The Doctor then started to run around the TARDIS console, hitting random buttons and flipping random levels, before we suddenly landed. I gave the Doctor a frown, which he either didn't notice or didn't care to respond to, before I followed him and the other two out of the TARDIS. When I finally exited the TARDIS, I saw that the Doctor had made his way towards the controls and was telling the workers,
"Turn everything up. All transmissions, wide open, full power. Now! Do it!" I watched the male programmer, Davitch, as he followed the Doctor's instructions, clearly confused why he was doing what he was doing.
"What does that do?" I grinned at the man, before I told him,
"That, my dear Davitch, will stop the Daleks from transmatting on board."
"Robin's right. How did you get on? Did you contact Earth?"
"Well, we tried to warn them, but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programmes."
"And the planet's just sitting there, defenseless. Lynda, what're you still doing on board?" I glanced towards where the Doctor was looking, and saw the bubbly girl that had left the games with the Doctor; Lynda. The Doctor quickly turned towards Davitch, a little bit angry. "I told you to evacuate everyone."
"She wouldn't go."
"Didn't wanna leave ya." I gave the girl a small smile; she really was sweet little Lynda. I noticed that Rose didn't seem to share my opinion, as she looked Lynda up and down with an unimpressed look on her face.
"There weren't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here... we've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero."
"Oh, my God. The Fleet is moving. They're on their way." The Doctor quickly snapped to work, as he started to randomly pull wires from the console. I exchanged a confused look with Jack, before turning my confused look back towards the Doctor. And as if he felt all of our confused looks, the Doctor suddenly started to explain himself,
"Dalek plan - big mistake. Because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, come on - it's obvious. A great big transmitter - this station." I gave the Doctor a frown while telling him,
"There's a hell of a lot you could do with a transmitter this big. You're going to have to be a little more specific."
"Okay then, if I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it - anyone?"
"You've gotta be kidding."
"Seriously Doctor?"
"Give them a medal!" I gaped at him for a moment, before I spoke in unison with Jack,
"A Delta Wave?"
"A Delta Wave!" I gave Rose a brief glance as she asked,
"What's a Delta Wave?"
"Well… It's a wave of Van Cassadyne energy. It'll fry your brain, if you stand in the way of a Delta Wave then your head will get barbequed. No questions asked." I turned and gave the Doctor a frown; it could take days to create a delta wave that would wipe out the Dalek and not wipe out the entire Earth population.
"And this place can transmit a MASSIVE wave! Wipe out the Daleks!" I watched from the corner of my eye as Rose opened her mouth to say something, only for Lynda to speak first; probably irritating the hell out of Rose.
"Well, get started and do it then!"
"Problem is, Delta Waves can take awhile to create." The Doctor gave me a mild look of surprise before he continued with my line of thought,
"She's right, with a wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about - ooh - three days? How long till the Fleet arrive?" I watched Davitch check the computer; he then looked back towards the Doctor and told him,
"Twenty-two minutes." The Doctor quickly returned to pulling out wires, when he suddenly turned towards us with a large grin. He then turned his attention towards Jack and I, still grinning when he asked,
"You two, think you can set up a force field?" I glanced up at Jack, while he looked down at me, before a matching grin stretched across our faces.
"I think we can manage that."
"I still don't trust you with wires, Red." Before I could stop myself, I hit Jack on the arm with a complaint on my lips.
"This is something I can do. And now isn't the time to make fun of me Jack." I stuck my tongue out at Jack while we quickly made our way towards the computer. After about ten minutes of the two of us rewiring the wires, and typing into the computer, we managed to get the force field up. "Doctor, we got the force field up!" I turned to give him a grin as he continued with his wires, as the others gathered around the computer that Jack and I had been working with. "Now they can't blast us out of the sky." I gave the others a small grin, which faded when Jack told them what I already knew,
"But that doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading."
"Do they know about the Delta Wave?"
"They'll have worked it out at the same time as the Doctor, I would imagine." Jack nodded in my direction before he continued with the same line of thought,
"So, if they want to stop the Doctor, that means they've got to get to this level - 500." Jack then gestured towards the image of the station, "Now, I can concentrate the extrapolator around the top six levels, 500 to 495. So, they'll penetrate the station below that at level 494 and fight their way up."
"Who're they fighting?" I gave Davitch a sad look, already knowing who the Dalek's were going to be fighting.
"Us."
"And... what're we fighting with?"
"The guards had guns with bastic bullets - that's enough to blow a Dalek wide open."
"There's SIX of us." I glanced at the woman, who sounded particularly skeptical of the fact we could do anything.
"Rose, you can help me. I need all these wires stripped bare." My face curved into a small smile as Rose quickly made her way over towards the Doctor, glad that Rose wasn't going to be joining the battle.
"Right! Now there's FIVE of us!"
"Then let's move it! Into the lift! Isolate the lift controls!"
"Hey Jack…" I paused, waiting until Jack was looking at me, before I continued with what I was saying. "I'm going to stay, while you go recruit more people, but I'll be there to help when you need me." My smile faded, and my eyes widened when Jack suddenly pulled me into a hug, before placing his forehead against my own.
"It was a mistake of a lifetime, standing you up." And for a moment Jack's lips met my own, before they were gone. "Be careful Robin." After gaping at Jack for a moment, my face fully flushed, I finally responded,
"You're the one that needs to be careful, stupid! And you, my charming friend, are taking me out for a drink after all of this is over." Jack gave me his standard grin while he pulled away from the embrace.
"It's a date, Red." Once again I hit Jack on the arm, before we moved towards the others.
"It's not a date until you show up Jack, until then it's you treating me to a drink." I stuck my tongue out at Jack, until he gave me a pointed look that made my tongue dart back into my mouth. When we reached the Doctor and Rose, Jack told them,
"It's been fun!" The Doctor gave Jack a smile before Jack became serious about his goodbye. "But I guess this is goodbye."
"Don't talk like that. The Doctor's gonna do it. You just watch him." I watched Jack turn towards Rose when he heard her speak, ready to say goodbye.
"Rose…" Jack then cupped Rose's face in his hands, and stared her in the eyes, "You are worth fighting for." He then placed a short kiss on her lips, making me kick down the spark of jealous I felt, before he turned towards the Doctor. "Wish I'd never met you, Doctor!" He then placed his hands on the Doctor's face, almost the same way he did for Rose. "I was much better off as a coward." The he also kissed the Doctor, making that same spark of jealousy spark again. Jack let go of the Doctor, before he pointed towards the exit telling us his final goodbye.
"See ya in hell." My lips curved into a frown as Jack made his way out of the doors, hoping that he would be okay.
"He's gonna be all right..." Both the Doctor and I gave her a look, but we didn't give her an answer. "…isn't he?" Once again we stayed silent, before the Doctor and Rose started working on the wires again. After another moment of silence I decided that I should get to work on my own project.
"Doctor, I'm going to go see about getting that Defabricator working again. If I can get it charged then it might save somebody's life." Not waiting to hear the Doctor's response, I darted into the TARDIS to find the room that the Defabricator was in. Once I had found the Defabricator, I started working on it in an attempt to get it working again so that I could go help Jack and the others fight the Dalek's. I didn't stop working on the gun until I heard Rose from the console room,
"Doctor, what're you doing? Can I take my hand off? It's moving." I frowned towards the console room, before I decided to go see why the TARDIS was making so much noise. As I made my way towards the console room I heard Rose shouting again, "Doctor, let me out!" My scowl deepened when I reached the console room and saw Rose banging on the doors of the TARDIS, "Let me out! Doctor, what've you done?" After a few moments of watching Rose repeatedly hit the TARDIS doors, my frown deepening by the moment, I finally spoke up,
"Rose, what's going on?" She twirled around, her surprise barely visible under her distress, when she heard me speak.
"The Doctor… he… he…" Before Rose could finish her stuttered explanation, a hologram of the Doctor appeared.
"This is Emergency Programme One. Rose, now listen, this is important. If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing." Rose stared at the hologram with wide eyes, as the hologram continued speaking. "We must be in danger. And I mean fatal. I'm dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape."
"No!"
"And that's okay. Hope it's a good death." I shook my head in disbelief, not ready to believe that the Doctor would just give up so easily. "But I promised to look after you, and that's what I'm doing. The TARDIS is taking you home."
"I won't let you." Rose rushed up the steps, while the hologram simply stared ahead, attempting to get the TARDIS to go back.
"And I bet you're fussing and moaning now - typical. But hold on and just listen a bit more. The TARDIS can never return for me. Emergency Programme One means I'm facing an enemy that should never get their hands on this machine. So this is what you should do: let the TARDIS die." I frowned while looking around the TARDIS, who the hell could he even suggest letting the TARDIS die? It was such a beautiful ship, and I'm sure there's someone out there that can fly her. "Just let this old box gather dust. No one can open it; no one will even notice it. Let it become a strange little thing standing on a street corner. And over the years, the world will move on and the box will be buried. And if you want to remember me, then you can do one thing. That's all. One thing." I watched the hologram turn towards Rose, almost as if he knew that she was there, and the Doctor's voice started to sound distorted, "Have a good life. Do that for me, Rose. Have a fantastic life." The hologram slowly flickered away, before it disappeared entirely.
"You can't do this to me." I watched in silence as Rose made her way over towards the console, obviously upset. "You can't." Rose started hitting every button that she could, yelling, "Take me back! Take me back!"
"Rose…" She ran out of the TARDIS the moment it landed, I suppose having forgotten that I was even there. With a sigh, I started plugging in the coordinates for the time and place that the TARDIS had just left into my watch, planning to go chew the Doctor out for sending the TARDIS back without warning me. But instead of pulling me into the time vortex, my watch shocked my finger. I stared in shock at my watch, wondering why it wasn't working; sure my watch had never worked that great but it had never shocked me like that. My thoughts were suddenly broken when Rose burst back into the TARDIS, and started playing with the TARDIS's buttons.
"Come on, fly. How do you fly? Come on, HELP ME!" I quietly made my way towards Rose, giving her a gentle hug.
"The TARDIS can't do anything on her own Rose." The look on Rose's face was heartbreaking as she suddenly started to cry. "Come on Rose, why don't we step outside for some air, and figure out what to do from there." I tugged gently on her shoulder, before leading her out of the TARDIS. Staying in here wasn't doing her any good, if we wanted to get back to the Doctor then we needed to be thinking clearly, and if being in the TARDIS made Rose this upset, then we wouldn't get anywhere. The two of us stood against the TARDIS doors for several minutes, with Rose crying while she avoided making eye contact, until her somewhat boyfriend Mickey came rushing towards us and the TARDIS.
"I knew it! I was all the way down Clifton's Parade, and I heard the engines and I thought 'there's only one thing that makes a noise like that'." I leaned over and hit Mickey's arm, as he finally noticed that Rose was visibly upset. "What is it?" Rose didn't give Mickey a verbal response as she reached forward and hugged Mickey tightly, her eyes screwed shut as she continued to cry.
We had somehow made our way to a fish and chip place, after an awkward meeting with Rose's mother Jackie. I sat next to Rose, silently watching the pigs slowly revolve in the oven, while Rose silently stared out the window.
"And it's gone up-market, this place. They're doing little tubs of coleslaw, now. It's not very nice. Tastes a bit sort of clinical." I noticed Mickey give Rose a glance before he responded to Jackie,
"Have you tried that new pizza place down Minto Road?"
"What's it selling?"
"Pizza."
"Oh, that's nice. Do they deliver?"
"Yeah!" It seems that Jackie finally gave up on trying to pretend that everything was normal, because she started begging Rose to eat something,
"Oh, Rose. Have something to eat..." I continued to stare at the rotating pigs, until I heard Rose's voice trembling as she told the others,
"Two hundred thousand years in the future, he's dying, and there's NOTHING I can do."
"Well, like you said - two hundred thousand years - it's way off!" I gave Jackie a frown, fully ready to explain why this didn't make a difference, when Rose finally looked at her mother and angrily told her,
"But it's not! It's now! That fight is happening right now, and he's fighting for us! For the whole planet, and I'm just sitting here eating chips!"
"Listen to me." I noticed that Rose reluctantly went silent, listening to what her mother had to say.
"God knows I have hated that man, but right now, I love him - and d'you know why? Because he did the right thing. He sent you back to me."
"But what do I do every day, mum? What do I do? Get up - catch the bus - go to work - come back home - eat chipsand go to bed? Is that it?"
"God that sounds terrible…" Mickey gave me, and Rose, a small glare at our responses. It's not my fault that I'm from the future and can travel in time, staying in one place long enough to have a real job just sounds so… boring.
"It's what the rest of us do."
"But Robin and I can't!" I gave Rose a surprised look, not expecting her to include me.
"Why, 'cos you two are better than us?"
"No, I didn't mean that!" Rose paused for a moment, trying to calm herself down before she explained. I hesitated for a moment, wanting to explain what Rose had meant, how the Doctor just made you a better person; but in the end decided that her family wouldn't listen to anything I said. This would have to come from Rose, not me. "But it was... it was a betterlife. And I - I don't mean all the travelling and... seeing aliens and spaceships and things - that don't matter. The Doctor showed me a better way of livingyour life." As she paused, only for a moment, she made eye contact with Mickey. "You know, he showed you too. That you don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no. You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away, and I just can't—" When she broke off, she kicked the table in frustration, before she stood up and ran out of the shop. Jackie and Mickey looked at each other, clearly worried about Rose.
"Listen, the Doctor is the type of person who makes you stop and think about what you're doing, he makes you a better person. And it's incredibly difficult to adjust to a normal life when you're off traveling, helping save people's lives. You're going to have to give her time before she'll be back to normal, now why don't you two go find her?" When the two gave me an odd look, instead of going to find Rose, I let out an annoyed sigh before standing up and walking out of the shop. After leaving the shop, I quickly started making my way towards the TARDIS. Since this wasn't my own time, the TARDIS was really the only place I could go that was familiar to me. A frown stretched across my face when I saw the TARDIS door slightly opened, but I quickly decided that Rose must have come back here when she was upset.
"Rose… You in here?" I glanced around in mild confusion when I didn't see the blonde anywhere in the console room.
"Ah, there you are Robin! I didn't think you'd ever come back to the TARDIS!" Out of reflex I grabbed my sonic hair stick from behind my head, and pointed it towards where the voice had come from; not that it would do me much good against a human. "Whoa, down girl. It's just me." The voice was teasing, almost joking, but I couldn't place the voice, even as the blue-eyed woman walked towards me. I slowly lowered my sonic hair clip, as I tried to place where I knew her. It wasn't until I saw the brown hiking boots that I recognized her. She was wearing the same black leather jacket, black jeans, and brown hiking boots that I saw her wearing the time I met her.
"Electra." The woman smiled happily,
"Bingo! I'm glad I got it right, I was worried about that." I eyed the woman for a moment, once again wondering just who she would be to me, before I blatantly asked her,
"How did you get into the TARDIS? I locked it before I left with Rose." She didn't faulted as she easily responded,
"I have a key." I continued to eye the woman, before I stated,
"Okay. Then we know each other because of the Doctor? And we all make it out of this, assuming everything goes the way it should?" Electra's smile fell, before a soft smile appeared on her face.
"That, my dear, is what we like to call a spoiler." There was a silent pause, before I told her,
"Fine." There was another short, but silent, pause as the two of us stared at each other. This time I noticed that the woman had a small nose piercing, something that wasn't there the last time I saw her. I also saw a barely visible marking on her neck, one that was just barely sticking out of the edge of her jacket. I stopped observing the woman, to ask her, "So why are you here?" Once more her smile fell, and Electra suddenly became very serious.
"You can't go back for Jack." My eyes widened, as I gasped at her in shock. Who the hell did she think she was?
"Bull shit. He's my best friend, I'm not just leaving him there." Electra shook her head, while her eyes showed a spark of sadness.
"I know. But because of Bad Wolf… well you can't get there in time with that watch of yours. It's something that just has to happen, and if it doesn't then you'll majorly fuck up the time stream. I can't tell you what's going to happen, but you should know, Jack doesn't blame you."
"I can't just leave him there!" Electra continued to give me her sad expression, even while I gave her an angry glare.
"You have to, there's no possible way to join him. Your watch won't ever take you there, you tried it again in the future, or rather you will try it again in the future and it won't work. But you will see Jack again, I'm certain of that."
"But… what do you mean it won't work? The only place that it won't work on is Gallifrey, or other planets that have a time-lock on them."
"Look, I don't know why it doesn't work, only that it has something to do with Bad Wolf." The glare on my face dropped, knowing that my time watch hadn't taken me back earlier, and that she was probably telling the truth because of that.
"Okay, then tell me… What's Bad Wolf?" For the first time, Electra paused before she answered; almost as if she didn't want to answer me.
"That. That is something you'll have to find out on your own." Only a few seconds after Electra finished speaking, I heard the TARDIS door opening. Out of reflex I turned towards the door, seeing Rose opening it with an excited grin on her face. My eyes went back towards Electra, only to see her gone with an envelope on the ground where she had been standing. I walked over and picked the envelope up, curious about what it said; but had to fold it and put it in my back pocket when Rose exclaimed,
"Robin, we can get back to the Doctor!" My face quickly morphed into a look of shock as I stared at Rose, wondering just what the hell she was talking about.
"How? And… And what makes you say that?" My look of confusion didn't seem to phase Rose, as she explained what she was thinking,
"There's a message Robin, it's telling me that we can get back to the Doctor!"
"And what exactly is this message?" I gave Rose a small frown, still not entirely sure what she was talking about.
"Bad Wolf. I've heard it everywhere since I started traveling with the Doctor, no matter when or where we were, and it has to be telling us that we can get back to the Doctor!" I frowned when I heard the words… Bad Wolf. Hadn't Electra just said something about Bad Wolf?
"And how exactly are we going to get back?"
"I don't know, but all we need to do is have the TARDIS make a return trip. Just... reverse." I nodded my head in mild agreement when Mickey told Rose,
"Yeah, but we still can't do it."
"The Doctor always said the TARDIS is telepathic. This thing is can listen."
"Rose, dear, the TARDIS she is telepathic, but she can't fly us on her own no matter how much she wants to."
"Then we need to get inside it. Last time I saw you Mickey, with the Slitheen, this middle bit opened..." I thought back to the first time that I had met Mickey, and that bright glowing light that the TARDIS had released that had made my head hurt; the TARDIS's heart. "And there was this light... and the Doctor said it was the heart of the TARDIS. If we can open it, we can make contact. I can tell it what to do!" I opened my mouth, ready to tell Rose how horrible that idea was since Margaret had turned into an infant, when Mickey muttered out,
"Rose…"
"Mm?"
"If you go back, you're gonna die." I gave Mickey a look of pity, not liking the way this conversation was going, but somehow I felt like it was one that had to happen.
"That's a risk I've gotta take. 'Cos there's nothing left for me here."
"Nothing?"
"No." I watched, saddened, as Rose avoided eye contact with Mickey. We all knew just how much that comment hurt him, but I knew it was something that had to be said. And to Mickey's credit, he kept his dignity when he responded with,
"Okay, if that's what you think... let's get this thing open."
"I can see about finding some normal tools that aren't a hammer, but I have a hunch that isn't going to do us much good." Mickey looked at me for a moment, before he suggested,
"Or we could hook it up to my car, and yank it off." I gave Mickey a grin as I told him and Rose,
"Or we could do that." After what happened last time, that was probably the safest option. Mickey didn't waste any time in leaving to go get his car.
"Rose… even if this doesn't work,"
"It'll work, it has to." I gave a small frown when she interrupted me, before I continued to speak.
"Even if this doesn't work, I'm not going to let the TARDIS die. I'm going to keep her alive as long as I can, but she won't fair too well once her Timelord is gone." Rose gave me an odd look for a moment, before she asked me,
"How do you know so much about Timelords?" I faltered for a moment, not sure what to tell her, before deciding that the truth was always the best in situations like this.
"Well… My mother, she traveled with a Timelord. Not the Doctor mind you, but this man… He liked humans so much. So he ended up taking my mother with him, she would never tell me much about this man and how she met him; except for when she'd had a bit to drink. I think that's because she met my father when she was traveling with that Timelord, but she had to leave him to go back home when the Time War started. By the time she got back home, she found out that she was pregnant with me, but couldn't get back to my father. To be honest, that was part of my reason for joining the Time Agency, to go find my father and bring him back to my mother. But that didn't work out so well, so I gave up on it for now." I let out a soft chuckle, before adding, "So long story short, my mother told me about Timelords, which is how I know about them."
"I think that's the most you've ever told me about you're past."
"Eh, I'm not normally a very sharing person, but I think that as my friend, you deserve to know."
"Does… Does that make you part alien then?" I gave Rose a broad grin, leaning in closer to whisper,
"Do you want to know a secret?" I paused for a moment, waiting for Rose to give me a nod. "I have a second heart."
"Wouldn't that make you a Timelord?" I smiled at Rose's disbelief, understanding how she wouldn't really believe me.
"Nah, my second heart is way too weak to actually function on it's own. Not to mention that the Time Agency wouldn't have allowed me to join, or leave, if I were part Timelord. Remind me to borrow a stethoscope from someone after all this is over, and let you hear my second heart." I noticed the shocked look on Rose's face, before asking, "You okay?"
"Yeah…"
"Ready to hook her up?" I turned in shock when Mickey suddenly appeared at the TARDIS door, holding the end of a thick, strong looking, chain. And a few minutes later that chain was hooked up to the TARDIS's grill, and Mickey's car, while Mickey was in his car. From my spot at the TARDIS doors, I could hear Mickey yell out,
"Come on!" I watched in frustration as the car tires just spun in a circle uselessly.
"It's not moving!" I glanced back at Rose, before yelling to Mickey,
"We need more gas!" I watched the chain become taut, and just as my hope started rising the chain broke. I heard Rose yelp in frustration, just as I wanted to do, before she kicked the console. When I turned back around, I saw that Rose was leaning on the console. She seemed almost… defeated. I chewed on my lip, before I walked forward and rubbed circles on her back.
"Rose, dear, it'll be okay. We just need to think of something else is all." I waited for a moment, but I didn't get a response. "Rose, I'm going to go find us something to eat, the food might give our brains a jump start."
It took me nearly an hour to find somewhere, get the food, and get back to the TARDIS; and when I did I saw Rose and Mickey exiting the TARDIS.
"Rose, Mickey catch!" I tossed them both a bag with French fries in them, not having money enough to get much else. "I only got us fries, or chips I suppose, since I'm a little low on this currency. But it might feed our stomachs, and our brains."
"She's right. There's gotta be something else we can do." I gave Mickey a smile, as my own opinion of him continued to go up.
"I agree, we just need to think of what it is. We're going to get back there Rose, trust me."
"Rose I'm not having you just- just give up now. No way. We just need something stronger than my car... something bigger... something like that!" I smile morphed into a grin with in milliseconds as I heard the roar of a large engine, and saw a huge recovery truck drive around the corner being driven by Rose's mother Jackie. When it came to a halt, Jackie climbed out of it and strode towards us.
"Right. You've only got this until six o' clock, so get on with it."
"Mum, where the hell did you get that from?"
"Rodrigo. He owes me a favor." Must be one hell of a favor… "Never mind why, but you were right about your dad, sweetheart. He was full of mad ideas, and this is exactlywhat he would've done. Now, get on with it before I change my mind." I gave Jackie a grateful look, having the feeling that I had missed an important conversation between the two of them. Jackie tossed the keys at Mickey, and we all wasted no time hooking the chain back up. Once the chain was hooked up again, Rose and I rushed into the TARDIS. With Jackie by the TARDIS doors this time, I stayed close to Rose and the TARDIS console.
"Keep going!" Jackie was quick to relay what Rose had shouted,
"Put your foot down!" When that didn't seem to do anything I shouted out,
"Faster!"
"Give it some more, Mickey!" Rose and I made eye contact when the metal started to creak, before we both shouted,
"Keep going!"
"Come on, come on!" I bite my lip, worried, as the metal became taut, and started to creak even loud in protest to the abuse we were giving it.
"Keep going!"
"Give it some more!" Mere seconds later the catch ripped off, making the panel fly open, releasing a blinding light. The moment I saw the light, my head started to ache. I struggled to keep my eyes open, and follow Rose as she stepped closer to the light. It didn't take very long before my head stop hurting, but I still avoided looking directly into the light since I was afraid of what it might do to my head. Instead of looking directly at the light, I focused on Rose. The way the light was reflecting off of her face made her look like she was glowing gold, and it almost looked light the golden light was going into Rose's eyes. I took a deep breath, about to ask Rose if she was okay, when there was a sharp pain in my chest. My second heart suddenly started to beat faster then it ever had, as if I had just had a shot of straight adrenalin. I clutched at my chest, until I heard the TARDIS land, and I followed Rose to the TARDIS doors. I leaned on the inside of the TARDIS, next to the doors, breathing heavily. I was glad that the pain in my chest seemed to lessen, but my happiness faded when I heard the Doctor ask Rose,
"What've you done?"
"I looked into the TARDIS. And the TARDIS looked into me."
"You looked into the Time Vortex - Rose, no one's meant to see that." The heart of the TARDIS was the Time Vortex? Well crap. That really can't be good.
"This is the abomination!"
"Exterminate!" My eyes widened, and before I could stop myself, I was outside of the TARDIS, standing next to Rose. I watched in astonishment as I saw the frozen bolt reversing into the gun. I noticed the Doctor staring at Rose intensely, and I quickly turned my attention back to Rose.
"I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words..." I watched, amazed, as the words Bad Wolf Corporation rise from the wall. "I scatter them in time and space." Rose waved her hand, and the letters all floated away. "A message to lead myself here." I bite my lip, thinking to myself that this was Bad Wolf, and that it needed to end her before Rose cause serious damage to herself.
"Rose, dear, you have to stop this. And it needs to be stopped now." Rose seemed to ignore me, as she continued to stare ahead. This seemed to make the Doctor even more concerned then he was before, which made me even more worried.
"You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're gonna burn."
"I want you safe." I wasn't entirely shocked, but the tears running down her face raised flags in my mind. "My Doctor. Protected from the false God."
"You cannot hurt me. I am immortal." Had it been a better time and place, I would have scoffed and said something incredibly sarcastic, but it wasn't. Rose was slowly burning up, and some stupid Dalek was playing god.
"You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space - every single atom of your existence, and I divide them." When she waved her hand, the Dalek in the centre was separated into tiny golden particles. "Everything must come to dust... all things. Everything dies." Rose looked to the side, and the Dalek's lined up all turned to golden particles. "The Time War ends."
"I will not die. I cannot die!" And then all there was were gold particles. I stared at Rose as she stood with her arms raise, her eyes staring ahead of her, while she shook violently.
"Rose, you've done it. Now stop. Just let go."
"How can I let go of this? I bring life..." My entire body quivered, and I somehow knew that Jack was alive again. And suddenly the pain in my chest increased, making my gasp silently and clutch at my chest again. What the hell was going on?
"But this is wrong!You can't control life and death!"
"But I can. The sun and the moon... the day and night. But why do they hurt...?"
"The power's gonna kill you and it's myfault." I tried to tell the Doctor that none of this was his fault, that Rose and I had made our own choices. But I couldn't. I couldn't get a damn word out due to how fast my heart was racing.
"I can see everything. All that is... all that was... all that ever could be." The Doctor suddenly stood up, looking at Rose as if he understood what she was talking about, and he probably did.
"That's what I see. All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?"
"My head…"
"Come here."
"…it's killing me…"
"I think you need a Doctor." I watched the two step around, until they were facing each other. The Doctor gazed into Rose's eyes, as he gently leaned down and placed his lips on hers. As I watched the vortex leave Rose, and enter the Doctor, the pain in my chest gradually lessened until it was just a dull pain. The two parted slowly, before Rose suddenly passed out in the Doctor's arms. The Doctor handed her to me, before he stood in front of the TARDIS. When he exhaled slowly, the Time Vortex left his body and went back to the TARDIS. I watched silently as the doors closed quietly, and the TARDIS looked as normal as ever. The Doctor smiled, before he turned back towards Rose and I.
"Doctor… Jack can't come with us, can he?" The Doctor gave me a mildly surprised look, before it morphed into one of pity.
"No. He can't." I bit my lip, wanting to stay behind and help Jack, before I remembered that Electra had told that it would mess up the time stream.
"Do… Do you think he'll ever be able to die? I mean, if Rose brought him back to life, was it indefinitely?" Once more the Doctor gave me a surprised look, as if he didn't think I would know any of this.
"Don't know. But he's a fixed point in time. So I doubt he'll die any time soon." I forced out a chuckle, not wanting to cry. Crying wasn't something I did often.
"Somehow, that seems oddly fitting for Jack." The Doctor gave me a slightly forced chuckle in response, as we carried Rose into the console room, and placed her gently on the floor. The Doctor then went around hitting buttons, and flipping levers, in order to work the TARDIS. My eyebrows furrowed when the Doctor suddenly snapped his head towards me, as if he just realized something. I shifted nervously for a moment, before the Doctor asked,
"You didn't look into the Time Vortex, did you?"
"Well… Not directly, the light hurt my head too much for me to do that."
"Good." I rushed over to Rose when she started waking up.
"What happened?" I gave Rose a look of surprise, while the Doctor only looked a little surprised by the fact she didn't remember what happened.
"You don't remember, Rose?" I helped her sit up, and she sounded very confused about what was happening.
"It's like... there was this singing..."
"That's right! I sang a song and the Daleks ran away." I chuckled at the Doctor's response, secretly wishing that was what had happened.
"I was at home... no, I wasn't, I was in the TARDIS, and..." I looked towards the Doctor, wondering if I should fill in those gaps or not, when I saw him looking down at his hand. I followed the Doctor's eyes, looking at his hand, and was shocked when I saw his veins shimmer with a golden light for a brief moment, before disappearing. "I can't remember anything else..." I noticed the Doctor giving us uneasy looks, like he was nervous about something. Rose finally noticed the Doctor staring at us, making him smile. "Rose Tyler. Robin Williams." The Doctor let out a small laugh before he continued, "I was gonna take you to so many places. Barcelona - not the city Barcelona, the planet. You'd love it. Fantastic place - they've got dogs with no noses." The Doctor laughed at his joke, while Rose giggled and rolled her eyes at him. I didn't laugh. I gave the Doctor a frown, the way he was talking was that he was going to die. Timelords don't die, they regenerate. "Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it's stillfunny!"
"Then, why can't we go?"
"Maybe you will. And maybe I will. But not like this." I frowned, knowing that he was changing. Without thinking about it, I stepped closer to the Doctor, and gave him a quick kiss, whispering just so he could hear me,
"Goodbye." I then stepped away; barely noticing the annoyed look Rose gave me. I did notice that she stood up, before telling the Doctor and I,
"You're not making sense! And you're acting really strange!" I shrugged, not wanting to tell her that this version of the Doctor was dying.
"I might never make sense again! I might have two heads. Or no head!" He laughed, while Rose gave him a nod with a bemused smile on her face. "Imagine me with no head!And don't say that's an improvement... But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're gonna end up with—" I watched as he was propelled backwards with a blast of gold light. I chewed on my lip in worry as the Doctor clutched his stomach, almost as if someone had punched him in the stomach. Rose rushed forward, concerned for the Doctor.
"Doctor!"
"Stay away!" Rose stopped, and stared at him wide eyed in confusion.
"Doctor, tell me what's going on." The Doctor tried to keep his tone light, I guess trying to keep Rose from panicking too much, despite the pain he seemed to be in.
"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that!" His eyes screwed up in terrible pain, making Rose and I give him both matching looks of concern. "Every cell in my body's dying."
"Can't you do something?" Rose sounded so horrified, so scared, that in the end he still might die. I stepped closer to Rose, as the Doctor told her,
"Yeah, I'm doing it now! Time Lords have this little trick, it's... sort of a way of cheating death. Except..." The Doctor made eye contact with Rose, as he told her, "It means I'm gonna change." I continued to frown as Rose shook her head, clearly not understanding what was happening. "And I'm not gonna see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face." The Doctor laughed in an attempt to not scare Rose. "And before I go…"
"Don't say that."
"Rose… Robin…" I forced a smile onto my face as I stared at him, not really ready for him to go. But Rose and I can't both be freaking out, and I know a little more about what's happening then she does, so she deserves to be the one freaking out. "Before I go, I just wanna tell you both, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic." Rose looked at the Doctor, no trace of a smile on her face, as she stared at him upset and confused. "And d'you know what?" I smiled a very small, very real, smile as Rose shook her head and the Doctor told her, "So was I." Finally Rose gave the Doctor a smile, and nodded her head. The Doctor smiled back at the two of us, before he suddenly convulsed and orange energy explodes from his skin. I watched, slightly fascinated, as the energy came out of the neck of his shirt, the sleeves of his jacket, and the bottom of his pants. Rose and I both watched as the Doctor's hair lengthens, and his face changed. When the energy finally died down, an entirely different man was standing where the Doctor use to be. The man, the Doctor looked surprised for a moment, before he turned to look at us. "Helo! Okay—oo." I watched the new Doctor gulp, and run his tongue over his teeth. Although I thought that the old Doctor was a fairly attractive man, I have to say that the new Doctor was quite a looker. "New teeth. That's weird. So, where was I? Oh, that's right! Barcelona."
Mistressnmoon: I hope everyone enjoyed the new chapter! And I hope no one thought Robin is Mary sue-ish? I worried about that a little bit, and think that she was okay, but I'd like to know what everyone else thinks! And let me know if you found anything confusing, or found any errors, I was writing this a little bit late ^~^"
