Remnant Who
By ReaderWarrior
I do not own Doctor Who or RWBY.
Boom Town (B)
Beta'd by: -
As always, please comment! It honestly makes my day to read your thoughts and opinions.
Tell your friends!
Guest: Lo siento, me temo que no entiendo.
KillSwitch: My pleasure! I always try to respond. I am aware of the story, I just haven't had the time (or money) to read it yet. And I try to treat everything that isn't in the show as soft-canonicity unless directly referenced. Neo's story is also one I want to read and your recommendation makes me even more excited! And yes, Qrow is gay. Bisexual, most likely, with his love of girls in skirts.
JellyBaby: No, I will not. I'm already swamped with what I have. But you should write it!
Honorary (dead) companions:
Clive, Raffalo, Moxx, Jabe, Sneed, Gwyneth, Ganesh, De Maggio, Suki, Pete Tyler
'Bigger on the inside!'s:
2 (Rose, Jackie)
Fantastic's:
11
Harriet Jones' greetings:
6
Exterminate!'s:
8
Later that night, outside of the T.A.R.D.I.S, Mickey watches the water cascade down a large, rectangular water tower. He watches the water cascade down it, shimmering over his reflection in the glass obelisk, as Rose walks up to him.
"Where is this?" Weiss asked. "It's beautiful."
E.L.I, when the Librarian had no answer, chirped. "Roald Dahl Pass. It's named after the man with the same name who was a popular author of children's stories. The square is home to the Senedd building housing the Senedd, the Welsh Parliament, and the Wales Millennium Centre, a performing arts center. The bowl-like shape of the space has made it a popular amphitheater for hosting open-air concerts. At the north end of the plaza is the Water Tower, which stands at approximately 70 feet (21 m) high with an intermittent stream of water running down the metallic fountain."
"Perhaps we could visit one day? One of the versions of it."
"It's freezing out here," the blonde says.
Mickey turns around. He looks over her shoulder and toward the blue box. "Better than in there. She does deserve it, she's a Slitheen, I don't care. It's just weird in that box."
Fiddling with her scarf, Rose smiles and says "I didn't really need my passport."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Ruby asked.
Yang patted her on the shoulder. "She's trying to make him comfortable. Get his mind away from it. And she's trying to be flirty."
"But isn't Rose already going out with Jack or the Doctor?"
"Not officially," the blonde corrected. "Besides, he's still her boyfriend."
She covers her face with the cloth as Mickey laughs. They playfully push each other for a moment. "I've been thinking, you know, we could go have a drink. Have a pizza or something, just you and me."
"That'd be nice."
"And, I mean, if the T.A.R.D.I.S can't leave until morning…" Mickey stares into Rose's eyes, who doesn't look away at all.
Blake's face turned red.
"You imagined all four of them together, didn't you?" Qrow asked after leaning over. She nodded. "Yeah. Me too."
"We could go to a Nextel, spend the night," Mickey continues. "I mean, if you want to. I've got some money."
"Okay, yeah."
"Is that all right?"
Rose giggles. "Yeah."
"Cool." He smiles back. "There's a couple of bars around here. We should give them a go." Mickey waves at the T.A.R.D.I.S. "Do you have to go and tell him?"
"It's none of his business," she says, holding out her hand for him to take. He does and they quickly turn around.
"That's cold," Yang muttered.
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "She's going out with her boyfriend. Besides, they haven't had any, ahem, personal time together for a year."
"Of course, you wouldn't think so," Yang commented with a perfectly-placed eye roll.
"What's that supposed to mean?! You're the one who didn't notice Blake casting glances at you all semester!"
"She was?!"
"You saw?!" Blake gasped.
From his console screen, the Doctor watches as Mickey and Rose walk away.
"So, what's on?" Jack asks.
The Doctor quickly types at the keyboard and wipes away the footage. "Nothing, just…" He sighs.
"Why can't you just tell her how you feel?" Ruby gasped.
"He's a guy!" Qrow and the Librarian yelled back.
Margaret, stuck sitting in a corner of the T.A.R.D.I.S, looks up. She doesn't even bother looking back at the ship's pilot. "I gather it's not always like this. Having to wait. I bet you're always the first to leave, Doctor. Never mind the consequences, off you go. You butchered my family and then ran for the stars, am I right? But not this time. At last you have consequences. How does it feel?"
"I didn't butcher them," the Doctor says back.
Ruby almost jumped out of her seat. "Unlike what you did to the real Margaret!"
"Or the Prime Minister," Weiss added.
Blake nodded. "And General Green."
"Not to mention who knows how many others," Yang snapped. "You're the butcherer!"
"It's 'butcher'," Qrow corrected.
"Don't answer back," the ex-Time Agent says. "That's what she wants."
"I didn't."
The Librarian shakes his head. "Technically. But it's still a rebuttal. I'll allow it."
"Are you the Lawyer now?" Weiss scoffed.
"I took a few classes."
The Doctor then turns his voice to Margaret. "What about you? You had an emergency teleport, you didn't zap them to safety, did you?"
"It only carries," she counters. "I had to fly without coordinates. I ended up on a skip in the Isle of Dogs."
"There's an island full of dogs?!" Ruby's eyes practically shot out rainbows of excitement.
"It's called the Isle of Dogs," E.L.I explains. "It's a large peninsula bound on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London."
"Awww."
"There is the Isle of Man that has talking trains in some universes."
The light in Ruby's eyes that had flickered for a moment returned. "Really?"
The Librarian nodded. "Sodor. I'll be sure to add it to our travel list."
The Doctor laughs.
"It wasn't funny," she says.
"Sorry." He continues to chuckle as Margaret turns around. "It is a bit funny." He and Jack start to laugh and slowly Margaret smiles.
"Why's she smiling?" Yang frowned. "It's her family."
"She's trying to empathize with them. Make them like her. I bet she's going to start asking for favors now." Qrow leaned back and sighed. "Guilt hasn't worked so now she needs to make it more difficult."
"Don't know why she's gonna try. The Doctor isn't going to fall for it."
Qrow shrugged. "Hope will do strange things to people. And aliens."
"Do I get a last request?" she asks.
Jack glances at her over the Doctor's shoulder as he says "Depends on what it is."
"I grew quite fond of my little human life," Margaret adds. "All those rituals. The brushing of the teeth and the complicated way they cook things. There's a little restaurant just 'round the Bay. It became quite a favorite of mine."
Confused, the Doctor turns around and walks over to the Slitheen. He leans over one of the coral stems. "Is that what you want? A last meal?"
"Don't I have rights?"
"No"s and "yes"s filled the room and it was quickly, once again, split into sides. Ruby and Blake fell into the former camp while Yang and Qrow were confident with their "No"s. But the Librarian and Weiss kept silent, for two different reasons.
Weiss just couldn't make up her mind. She looked to her left where Yang was already waving at the screen in anger. Then to her right, where Blake had shaken her head and Ruby began to make an inspirational speech. As she looked over, she caught the Librarian's eye.
'It's fine,' his gaze seemed to say. 'You don't have to decide the lesser of two hypothetical evils.'
But I do need to be ready for it. Weiss closed her eyes, exhaled, and relaxed - a technique Winter taught her. When she opened her eyes, the fighting had stopped.
"Oh," Jack scoffs, "like she's not going to try to escape."
"Except I can never escape the Doctor, so where's the danger?" Margaret snaps, rising to her feet and scowling at Jack. Then she turns to the Doctor and gives a sickly smile. "I wonder if you could do it. To sit with a creature you're about to kill and take supper. How strong is your stomach?"
"Strong enough."
She tilts her head. "I wonder. I've seen you fight your enemies. Now dine with them."
"You won't change my mind."
"Prove it."
"There are people out there," the Doctor says, turning back towards the center console. "If you slip away just for one second, they'll be in danger."
Jack perks up and smiles. "Except, I've got these." He holds up two small bracelets. "You both wear one. If she moves more than ten feet away…" He makes a sharp buzzing sound before adding "She gets zapped by ten thousand volts."
"Why is he just carrying that?" Blake gasped.
Ruby was staring at the bangles. "He probably got them just in case. Like if they needed to make sure she needed to stay close by. I wonder what kind of battery they use…"
As she takes a step back in fear, the Doctor turns around and smiles. "Margaret, would you like to come out to dinner? My treat."
"Dinner in bondage?" Margaret looks from Jack, who was holding up one of the bracelets, to the Doctor and gives a familiar, yet alien, smile. "Works for me."
"I wouldn't mind," Yang purred.
Qrow turned to his niece. "Excuse me?"
"Nothing, Uncle Qrow!" the blonde yelped.
"Good." Because I already called it first.
And so the group breaks off. The Doctor, holding hands with Margaret to keep their bangles as close as possible, escorts her into Bistro 10 where they wait to be seated.
Rose and Mickey walk along the Quayside, laughing back and forth. She places her head on his shoulder and he smiles.
Leaving Jack in the T.A.R.D.I.S to try and connect Margaret's tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator to the blue box's console.
"It almost feels… too easy," Weiss realized.
Yang frowned. "What d'ya mean? We got the bad alien."
"True. But she's not resisting. She stayed in her human outfit. And she could've tried to fight her way out." The Schnee Heiress leaned against her folded hands. "There's something that doesn't make sense. She's stalling. But why? And why come here? Couldn't she have built this reactor anywhere else?"
"It's been bothering me too," Ruby agreed.
"She built the thing here because this is where the rift was to blow up the planet!" Yang cried. "And she's trying to stall and escape. Or convince them to let her go."
"The bracelets…"
Yang turned to Blake. "What?"
"If she wanted to escape, why didn't she fight to not wear the bracelets?"
"I… Because she doesn't have a choice."
"Or does she?" Weiss asked.
"Here we are," Margaret says as she and the Doctor sit down at a table, looking at a menu, "out on a date, and you haven't even asked my proper name."
"It's not a date," the Doctor scoffs. He glances back at the menu. "What's your name?"
"Blon. I am Blon Fel Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen. That's what it'll say on my death certificate."
"Nice to meet you, Blon."
"Nice to meet you, never," Yang adds.
"I'm sure." Margaret sets down her menu and points out a window. "Look, that's where I was living as Margaret. Nice little flat, over there, on the top. Next to the one with the light on."
With the Doctor's back turned, Margaret unclasps her ring and opens it. She quickly pours some powder hidden inside into his wine glass.
"Look out!" Ruby yelled instinctively, then quickly covered her mouth and gave a shy smile. "Sorry."
Blake frowned. "Hopefully, the Doctor knows better than to drink from a glass near his enemy."
Then, when the Doctor turns back around, she continues her story with a smile. "Two bedrooms, bayside view. I was rather content. Don't suppose I'll see it again."
"Suppose not," he replies before swapping the two wine glasses.
"Thank goodness," Weiss smiled.
Yang wiped her forehead dramatically. "Good thing he can just tell when his drink has been spiked."
"We know he has better-than-human senses. Perhaps he could smell the poison?"
Margaret smiles sweetly at the exchange. "Thank you."
Giving his own overly-cheery smile, the Doctor says "Pleasure."
"Tell me then, Doctor. What do you know of our species?"
"Only what I've seen."
"Did you know, for example, in extreme cases, when her life is in danger, a female Raxacoricofallapatorian can manufacture a poison dart within her own finger?" Margaret flicks her hand at the Doctor, sending the aforementioned poisoned dart directly at the Doctor.
Without even looking up, the Doctor catches it and tosses it to the side. "Yes, I did."
"Damn," Qrow smirked. "That's cool as hell."
"Why were we even worried?" Ruby smiled. "He's the Doctor! He's got this."
"Just checking," Margaret smiles. The Doctor does so in return. "And one more thing, between you and me…" They look around to check for who might be listening before she leans forward toward her captor, who does so too. "As a final resort, the excess poison can be exhaled through the lungs."
The Slitheen drops her jaw and begins to exhale. However, the Doctor quickly squirts a breath freshener directly into her mouth, causing her to close her mouth and pause.
"That's better," he says. The Doctor looks back down at his menu and gives a satisfied hum. "Now then, what do you think? Mmm, steak looks nice. Steak and chips!"
Margaret, with no better option, picks up her menu, practically rips it open, and prepares to find a dish to order.
"There's so much sass coming from him," Weiss smiled.
Yang nodded. "Not to mention the confidence," she purred. Blake elbowed the blonde, who laughed. "You've got it too! It's just he's fighting an alien with his mind right now. Even I have to admit it's cool."
"The Doctor took me to this planet a while back," Rose says as she walks down the quayside with Mickey a few steps behind her. "It was much colder than this. They called it Woman Wept. The planet was actually called Woman Wept because if you looked at it, right from above, there's like this huge continent, like, all curved round. It sort of looked like a woman, you know, lamenting."
Qrow winced. "This is just painful to watch."
"Why?" Blake frowned.
"Because all Rose is doing is talking about the Doctor," the Librarian said. "Mickey hasn't seen Rose in who-knows-how-long and all she can do is talk about her 'new' boyfriend."
She pauses as they reach the bottom of the stairwell to pull her boyfriend(?) over to a railing that overlooks the wharf. "Oh my God, and we went to this beach, right? No people, no buildings, just this beach like a thousand miles across. And something had happened, something to do with the sun, I don't know, but the sea had just frozen. In a split second, in the middle of a storm, right, waves and foam, just frozen, all the way out to the horizon. Midnight, right, we walk underneath these waves a hundred feet tall, made of ice."
"I'm going out with Trisha Delaney," Mickey blurts.
Rose freezes and, for the first time in their walk, looks Mickey in the eyes. "Oh, right… that's nice. Trisha from the shop?"
"Something tells me Trisha might be waking up to a bucket of Woman Wept snow being thrown on her face," Blake muttered.
"To be fair," Ruby said, "Mickey was the one who started dating her. And everyone did think that Mickey killed her… so it's kind of impressive he found someone still waiting to date him."
Blake shrugged. "But they proved she was alive."
"Still dating Mickey?"
"… Huh. Ruby, when did you suddenly start understanding relationships?"
"Yeah," Mickey nods, "Rob Delany's sister."
"Well, she's nice. She's a bit big."
"She's lost weight."
"Don't know why that matters," Qrow frowned. "Big women are great too."
"She's jealous, Uncle Qrow," Yang said, giving him a jab with her elbow.
"You've been away," he explains.
"Well, good for you. She's nice."
"So, tell us more about this planet, then."
"That was it, really," Rose mutters. With a vacant expression, she pulls herself away from the railing and starts walking down the boardwalk."
The Librarian shakes his head. "The best way to pull someone out of a fantasy is a sharp dose of reality. And there's nothing more real than having your relationship put in jeopardy."
"You say that like you're speaking from experience," Blake frowned.
"Everyone who's had their heart broken does."
"Public execution's a slow death," Margaret explains. "They prepare a thin acetic acid, lower me into the cauldron… and boil me. The acidity is perfectly gauged to strip away the skin. Internal organs fall out into the liquid, and I become soup. And still alive. Still screaming."
Yang, even though her face was turning a bit green, spat "You deserve it."
"It's one thing if it were a painless execution, but that is inhumane," Weiss frowned.
"She's not human!"
"She looks like one right now. She's been acting as one for a good while. What if she is?"
"Then she should have changed," Yang snapped.
"I don't make the law," the Doctor says.
"But you deliver it," she counters. Then, as his face falls, she adds "Will you stay to watch?"
"I would," the Librarian said, earning the shocked look of Ruby and Weiss.
"Why?" they cried.
He folded his arms. "A librarian doesn't throw away a book because you disagree with the story or its author. We aren't Nazis. Her story, though wrong, can also serve as a warning. And I'd need to see it through to the very end. Someone needs to write it down."
The Doctor avoids the question. "What else can I do?"
"The Slitheen family's huge. There's a lot more of us, all scattered off-world. Take me to them. Take me somewhere safe."
"But then you'll just start again."
"I promise I won't."
"You've been in that skin suit too long," the Time Lord says. "You've forgotten. There used to be a real Margaret Blaine. You killed her and stripped her and used the skin. You're pleading for mercy out of a dead woman's lips.
Blake, ever the book lover, couldn't help but shudder. "That is a great line." She grabbed Yang's arm. "Write that down, write that down!"
The blonde rolled her eyes but pulled out her scroll and typed it in on her notebook app.
Margaret blinks. "Perhaps I have got used to it. A human life, an ordinary life. That's all I'm asking. Give me a chance, Doctor. I can change."
"I don't believe you."
"Me neither," Qrow said.
"I do," Ruby countered. "She's been human for all these months. If she wasn't able to cause a Rift-plosion, couldn't she become good?"
The Huntress turned to the student with sober eyes. "How would you even keep it that way? Is there any way to keep her from trying to kill? Are you going to have the Doctor stay by her side for the rest of her life?" He leaned forward. "Are you going to tell the family of her next victim that you let their brother, sister, husband, wife, or friend die because you wouldn't stop a monster from getting what she deserved?!"
Ruby shied backward. "…" When she opened her mouth, no words came out.
"Breathe," the Librarian said. He waited until Ruby took a breath before grabbing Qrow's shoulder, pulling him back into his seat, and telling him to do the same.
The blonde traveler leans over the railing as Mickey sits behind her. They face opposite directions as she stares out over the water.
"So what do you want to do now?" he asks.
"Don't mind."
"We could ask about hotels."
Rose blinks. "What would Trisha Delaney say?"
"Wait, he offered to take her out knowing he was seeing another woman?" Weiss realized. "Was he leading her on that entire time?"
Blake frowned and cocked her head. "No… I think he might have been testing her."
"Testing her?"
"It's possible that Trisha doesn't even exist," the Faunus girl theorized. "Or it can be fairly new. But I think he wanted to see if she would break away from the Doctor to have time for him. And she didn't. Now he is either telling the truth or making up a way to get back at her."
"I suppose…" He points down the boardwalk. "There's a bar down there with a Spanish name-"
"You don't even like Trisha Delaney!" Rose snaps, whirling around.
Mickey scowls. "Oh, is that right? What the hell do you know?"
"I know you and I know her and I know that's never going to happen. So who do you think you're kidding?"
"Why do you even care?" Yang asked. "You've got two hot guys in a time machine to pick from. What's so special about Mickey?!"
"He's her anchor," the Librarian said, "or her lifeline. She might enjoy running around with the Doctor but she's got to be scared of the day it might end. And Mickey was what was keeping her safe. If he's leaving her, what does she have?"
Yang rolled her eyes. "A time machine. And two really hot guys."
"At least I know where she is!"
"There we are, then," Rose whispers, nodding slowly. "It's got nothing to do with Trisha. This is all about me, isn't it?"
Mickey leaps to his feet and puts himself right in front of Rose's face. "You left me! We were nice, we were happy. And then what? You give me a kiss and you run off with him, and you make me feel like nothing, Rose. I was nothing! I can't even go out with a stupid girl from a shop because you pick up the phone and I comes running. I mean, is that what I am, Rose, standby? Am I just supposed to sit here for the rest of my life, waiting for you? Because I will."
"Why can't he just let go of her?" Weiss asked.
"Because he loves her." The Librarian, Qrow, Yang, and Blake all shared a glance as their words matched each other's.
Taken aback, Rose says "I'm sorry." She then tries to grab his sleep but he pulls it away, taking a few steps away from her as he leans against the railing.
Margaret continues her plea at the Bistro 10. "I promise you I've changed since we last met, Doctor. There was this girl, just today. A young thing, something of a danger. She was getting too close. I felt the blood lust rising, just as the family taught me, I was going to kill her without a thought. And then… I stopped. She's alive somewhere right now. She's walking around this city because I can change. I did change. I know I can't prove it-"
"I believe you," he whispers.
"Then you know I'm capable of better."
"It doesn't mean anything."
Ruby slammed her hands onto her armrests. "It means everything! If she can't prove herself, then what is the point? She let that reporter go. She didn't kill her. There is a woman and her baby out there because she changed! How far does she have to go to prove it?" She turned to her uncle. "What's the point if there is no chance that someone might change? Why even capture the bad guys if you're not even going to let them try again?"
"Kiddo," Qrow said, rubbing his forehead, "the world isn't like that. Not everyone changes-"
"Exactly! If not everyone changes, then some people do. Should we just punish everyone because the really bad ones are bad?"
"I spared her life," Margaret all but hisses.
The Doctor shakes his head. "You let one of them go, but that's nothing new. Every now and then, a little victim's spared. Because she smiled. Because he's got freckles. Because they begged. And that's how you live with yourself. That's how you slaughter millions. Because once in a while, on a whim, if the wind's in the right direction, you happen to be kind."
"Only a killer would know that." The Doctor's cheery expression vanishes completely at her words.
"But the Doctor isn't a killer," Yang countered.
"What about Cassandra?" Blake asked. "The Slitheen family? Gwyneth? The Dalek?"
"The Time War," Weiss whispered, earning a nod from the ravenette.
"Exactly. The Doctor might not be a murderer, but his hands are as red as blood. Not all of it is his fault directly, but he's still dipped his hands in their lives." She sighed. "I'm worried that one day Rose's blood will join the others." Or if he will even be able to tell her's apart.
"From what I've seen, your funny little happy-go-lucky little life leaves devastation in its wake. Always moving on because you dare not look back. Playing with so many people's lives, you might as well be a god. And you're right, Doctor. You're absolutely right. Sometimes… you let one go. Let me go." Her eyes fill up with tears as she begs for her life.
"I'm not asking you to leave him," Mickey explains as he holds Rose's hand, "because I know that's not fair. But I just need something, yeah? Some sort of promise that when you do come back, you're coming back for me."
"She could at least promise him that," Ruby muttered.
Before Rose answers, she hears a loud rumbling. Her head whips around and she looks back towards the city. "Is that thunder?"
Mickey frowns. "Does it matter?"
"That's not thunder."
Blake, who had started to tense at the word 'thunder', started to feel a bit angry at the blonde. "Who cares about the thunder? Mickey is trying his best for you."
"They weren't right for each other even before the Doctor," Weiss frowned. "Perhaps that'll help Mickey realize that."
"In the family Slitheen, we had no choice. I was made to carry out my first kill at thirteen. If I'd refused, my father would have fed me to the Venom Grubs." As she talks, the Doctor begins to tilt his head. "If I'm a killer, it's because I was born to kill. It's all I know."
A soft rumble echoes throughout the Bistro 10.
"Definitely not thunder," Weiss said.
Margaret frowns. "Doctor, are you even listening to me?"
"Can you hear that?"
"I'm begging for my life!"
"No, listen," he says, holding up a hand. "Shush." The Doctor watches their wine glasses begin to shake and wave before the glass window shatters violently. People start to scream and duck for cover.
Streetlights explode along the quayside. Mickey ducks and covers himself as sparks shower around him. People run around him in fear as he rises, looking for Rose. He notices her far off, running back to the T.A.R.D.I.S.
"What the heck, Rose?!" Yang snapped.
"She just left him?" Ruby gasped. "With everything that's happening?"
Blake frowned. "She's running to the danger, but she could've brought Mickey."
"Then that's it, right?" Weiss asked. "He has to realize she isn't good for him."
"If he doesn't, then it's his fault," Qrow nodded.
Mickey's anger rose as he watches her leave him, once again, without turning back. "Oh, go on then, run! It's him again, isn't it? It's the Doctor! It's always the Doctor! It's always going to be the Doctor. It's never me!"
The Doctor flies down the stairs from their restaurant and back toward the Pass. People run all around them and Margaret struggles to keep close.
"The handcuffs!" she yells, holding out her arm.
He stops and turns around to grab the wrist. "Don't think you're running away," he says as he takes them off.
Margaret keeps his grip firm on her hand. "Oh, I'm sticking with you. Some date this turned out to be!"
Qrow shrugged. "I've had worse."
Together, the two push past panicking pedestrians, falling debree, and shattering glass from window stalls and street lamps. When they reach the center of the Pass, the Doctor freezes at the sight of his blue box. Light was streaming out of the top and reaching for the sky. Or, where the sky would be if a large wound wasn't visible above the clouds.
"It's the rift," he realizes. "The rift's opening!"
"But they stopped it!" Blake said.
"Something must have gone wrong," Ruby thought. "Maybe with the T.A.R.D.I.S or the Gelth are pushing their way back out?"
"That doesn't explain why now."
Inside the time machine, Jack is trying his best to control the situation. The Time Rotor and console spark violently and the futuristic surfboard glows brightly.
"Get to safety!" Qrow yelled.
"And where is that?" Yang yelled back. "If this is as bad as the Doctor thought, it's the end of the world. Again."
The door opens and the Doctor and Margaret fall inside. "What the hell are you doing?" he asks.
Jack struggles to stand as the shaking continues. "It just went crazy!"
"It's the rift," the Doctor explains. He struggles with the controls, trying to turn off whatever was happening but the console keeps showering him in sparks and clouds of smoke. "Time and space are ripping apart. The whole city's going to disappear!"
"Where will they end up?" Weiss asked. "If it's a tear in space and time, wouldn't that mean it acts like the T.A.R.D.I.S?"
The Librarian frowned. "Possibly. Or they could end up in the void between universes. Or they could be smashed down to the sign of a molecule before being thrown to the end of time at the furthest edge of the galaxy."
"Neither is good," they both summarized.
Rose stops for a moment to watch the destruction and spectacle before her. The light shining from the T.A.R.D.I.S has grown more violent, now bursting with light from all its windows. The beam shooting up into the rift was growing faster, making more and more cloud-like ripples of energy roll-out.
She stumbles as the ground becomes more unstable. The shaking begins to cause cracks in the cement that reach up along the entire Pass.
"Even if they stop the Rift, this is going to hurt a lot of people," Qrow said.
Blake nodded. "I'm surprised no one has been hurt yet."
"It's the extrapolator." Jack pulls wires off the device as it shines brightly. More and more sparks fly as he and the Doctor try to stabilize the ship. "I've disconnected it but it's still feeding off the engine! It's using the T.A.R.D.I.S. I can't stop it!"
"Never mind Cardiff, it's going to rip open the planet!" the Doctor adds.
Rose enters the ship in a hurry and almost immediately falls to the side. "What is it? What's happening?"
"Just little me." Before the Doctor can stop her, Margaret throws off a piece of her ski suit, her right arm, and wraps it around Rose's neck. The giant, green appendage bulges as she pulls Rose in front of her. "One wrong move and she snaps like a promise."
"She did this?" Weiss gasped. "She planned all this?!"
"I told you! They should have thrown her in a jar of pickles when they had the chance," Yang snapped.
Ruby shook her head. "I should've seen it. I just… She-"
"She wasted her second chance," Blake finished. "All that talk about change and she was lying through her teeth, buying time for this."
"Some people can't change. They're too set in their ways." Qrow swirled his flask and threw some of the liquid inside down his throat. It burned - he welcomed it.
"I might've known," the Doctor mutters.
Margaret pushes Rose forward so that they can stand right at the console. "I've had you bleating all night, poor baby, now shut it. You, flyboy. Put the extrapolator at my feet."
There was a moment of hesitation from Jack but he quickly picks up the device when the Slitheen's hand squeezes tighter around Rose's throat. The Doctor gives him a nod as it's placed at her feet.
"Just do as she says," Ruby said.
Yang cracked her knuckles and growled. "If she leaves a bruise, the Doctor's going to make sure she gets extra-executed."
"Thank you." She smiles sweetly and giggles. "Just as I planned."
"I thought you needed to blow up the nuclear power station," Rose gasps.
"Failing that, if I were to be arrested, then anyone capable of tracking me down would have considerable technology of their own. Therefore, they would be captivated by the extrapolator. Especially a magpie mind like yours, Doctor. So the extrapolator was programmed to go to plan B. To lock onto the nearest alien power source and open the rift. And what a power source it found. I'm back on schedule. Thanks to you."
Weiss' eyes grew wide. "She played them all completely. That's why it felt too easy - she was stalling for this!"
"I don't even think she wanted a chance at redemption," Blake agreed. "If they let her go, she would've just been destroyed along with the planet. It was all a lie!"
"The rift's going to convulse, you'll destroy the whole planet," Jack accuses.
"And you with it!" Margaret whirls her hand to the side, and Rose along with it, as she places herself on top of the extrapolator. "While I ride this board over the crest of the inferno, all the way to freedom. Stand back, boys. Surf's up."
As the lights outside grew brighter, the ones inside dim completely. Then, one of the console modules opens up and golden energy begins to shine upon Margaret's face.
The Librarian's eyes widened. "Uh oh."
"'Uh oh'? This is already an 'uh oh' situation," Qrow snapped. "How can this get any more 'uh oh's?!"
"The core. It's open."
"What does that mean?!" everyone yelled.
"Of course opening the rift means you'll pull this ship apart," the Doctor says calmly.
"So sue me."
He shakes his head. "It's not just any old power source. It's the T.A.R.D.I.S, my T.A.R.D.I.S. The best ship in the universe."
"Second to ours!" E.L.I chirped.
Margaret glares into his eyes. "It'll make wonderful scrap."
"What's that light?" Rose asks, trying to pull herself away from the Slitheen's claws-filled grip."
"The heart of the T.A.R.D.I.S," he explains. "This ship's alive. You've opened its soul."
"What does that mean?" Yang gulped. "Is it going to attack her?"
A flicker in Margaret's eyes brought her gaze to the core. She isn't able to look away. "It's… so bright."
"Look at it, Margaret," the Doctor whispers.
"Beautiful."
"Look inside, Blon Fel Fotch. Look at the light."
Margaret's eyes do not blink. They do not falter. They do not pull away even for a moment as she stares even further into the golden engine of the Time and Relative Dimension In Space ship.
But her grip does.
With a gasp, Rose drops to the ground before scrambling over to Jack, who wraps his arms around her comfortingly.
"Thank goodness," Blake gasped, holding onto Yang's arm the same way. "She's safe."
"Is she?" Yang asked. "What's going on? What is that light? And why isn't the Doctor stopping her?!"
They all watch as Margaret begins to smile, tilting her head back and forth as if she were seeing something. She looks up and gives the Doctor a true, honest smile.
He does so in return.
"Thank you," Margaret whispers as the light overtakes her body. The skinsuit falls onto the board, the Slitheen inside gone, before the Doctor starts to run back to the console.
"What just happened?" Qrow frowned after a moment of stunned silence. "Where'd she go?"
The Librarian whispered "The end of her story was written. But perhaps there might be a new one in store."
"Don't look," he warns. "Stay there, close your eyes!" The Doctor shuts the panel and the light disappears. Then he starts directing everyone, saying "Now, Jack, come on, shut it all down. Shut down! Rose, that panel over there, turn all the switches to the right."
As the trio works together, sparks fly once more. But as they work, it becomes less sporadic and the shaking begins to die down. The energy outside is extinguished and the Rift begins to close once more.
"That's problem number two solved," Weiss said. "At least now they don't have to worry about the Earth being sucked into nowhere."
"But where did Margaret go? Did she escape?" Ruby asked. Was I wrong? Should they have just taken her away?
"Nicely done," the Doctor says as stability returns and the normal T.A.R.D.I.S illumination fills the room. "Thank you, all."
"What happened to Margaret?" Rose asks.
Jack shrugs. "Must've got burnt up. Carried out her own death sentence."
"No, I don't think she's dead," he says.
"Then where'd she go?"
The Doctor looks down at the skinsuit of the real Margaret Blaine. "She looked into the heart of the Tardis. Even I don't know how strong that is. And the ship's telepathic, like I told you, Rose. Gets inside your head. Translates alien languages. Maybe the raw energy can translate all sorts of thoughts." He squats down over the body and his companions quickly join him as he moves the suit aside and pulls out a fairly large green orb with dreadlocks poking out of the top. "Here she is."
"She's an egg?" Rose and everyone else asks.
"It is time energy," Ruby nodded. "I guess it does make sense…"
"But won't she have her memories?" Weiss asked.
Blake frowned. "Maybe not? Time set her back, not just her body."
"Doesn't that mean she died?" Yang wondered. "If the Margaret that was here no longer exists, I mean."
Qrow rubbed his forehead. "I told you time travel was going to give me a headache."
"Regressed to her childhood," the Doctor explains.
Jack mimics Rose's confusion. "She's an egg?"
"She can start again. Live her life from scratch. If we take her home, give her to a different family, tell them to bring her up properly, she might be all right!"
"Or she might be worse," the former Time Agent says."
The Doctor strokes the egg. "That's her choice."
"You both win," Weiss realized. She points at Ruby then Qrow, then Blake, and Yang. "She got her punishment but she also was given a second chance. A way that allows her to live outside of her past mistakes. To be a Raxa-whatever that doesn't get pushed to make her first kill as a child."
The Librarian nodded. "Good job. There is always another option, a new way to think outside of the parameters given."
"Still doesn't change that she might become a monster," Qrow countered.
Once again, RWBY's team leader shook her head at her uncle. "But she might not. And hope is more important than skepticism. She deserves her chance."
"She's an egg," Rose says.
"She's an egg," the Doctor smiles.
The blonde's eyes widen and she leaps to her feet. Oh, my God, Mickey," she whispers before bolting out the door.
"He's long gone!" Yang snapped. "You shouldn't have left him!"
"She went to go help the Doctor stop the rift from tearing the world apart," Blake said.
"She could've brought him! Or at least said goodbye instead of just running off!"
As Rose runs back to the Quayside, she passes the wreckage and destruction caused by the Rift. Cracks still lay in the ground, fires burn from trash bins, and lamps were knocked to the ground with shattered bulbs. Police and emergency services were already on the scene. She passes them all, stopping to look for Mickey along the docks but he wasn't there.
Instead, he watches from the sidewalk above with a fire crackling beside him. Mickey watches her ask a paramedic something but he shakes his head.
Ruby held her hands to her chest. "She's looking for him. Why doesn't he show that he's okay?"
"She hurt him, Ruby," the Librarian said. "He gave her his heart and she left it without even looking back."
Black sniffled. "I hope he is able to understand what she couldn't say."
And Mickey walks away - just as she did so many times before, without saying goodbye and leaving a mess without helping clean it up.
"We're all powered up," the Doctor says as soon as Rose walks back through the blue doors. "We can leave. Opening the rift filled us up with energy. We can go, if that's all right."
She nods. "Yeah, fine."
"How's Mickey?"
RWBY gasped. "He actually used his name!" they cried.
"He's okay," she says. "He's gone."
The Doctor looks up and notices her fallen expression. "Do you want to go and find him? We'll wait."
"No need. He deserves better."
"Damn right!" Yang yelled, raising her fist.
"Off we go then." The Doctor smacks his lips and smiles at Jack. "Always moving on."
Jack nods and starts working on the console. "Next stop, Raxacoricofallapatorius. Now you don't often get to say that."
"We'll just stop by and pop her in the hatchery." The Doctor smiles. "Margaret the Slitheen can live her life again. A second chance."
As the T.A.R.D.I.S begins to make its music, Rose stares at the egg. Preserved in a glass nest atop the console, she turns and looks back at the door. "That'd be nice."
"That… was a bit tough," Ruby said as the screen darkened. "There wasn't much action-"
"But my heart is still racing," Weiss agreed.
"I can't believe that she was able to cause so much trouble and turmoil for the Doctor," Blake added. "She was just one woman."
"But she was one woman that attacked who he was," Yang realized. She rubbed her arm. "He's supposed to help people. Save them. Give them hope and keep the monsters away. But then one of the monsters turned - was turning - good. And he needed to decide between helping those who might get hurt or helping the families of those who already were."
Qrow raised an eyebrow at his niece's words of wisdom. "This job isn't simple. There's a bunch of stuff like this. Do you save an important family or an entire village? Do you kill one Nevermore while dozens of Beowolfs are attacking? Or the other way around? That's why…" He rattled his drink.
"Then what would you do Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked. "If you had a reset and could change your past, what would it be?"
Images flashed in his mind. Arguments with Raven after joining team STRQ years ago. He didn't want to betray them but she wanted to 'follow their mission'. One older than that, when he made his own first kill in the woods outside of Mistral. And a more recent one where his scroll was left on a counter, ignored, as he drank his fifth glass of the night.
It was the last time he ever got a call from Summer Rose.
"I don't know, kiddo."
The Librarian gave a goofy smile. "You know what I would change?"
"What?" Yang smirked. "Gonna rethink that outfit?"
He zipped his jacket zipper up and down. "This is style, by the way. Maybe you should rethink yours. Maybe a bandanna around your leg. And overalls."
"Why would I ever wear overalls?"
"But I'd go back and just do it all again. I'd sit in this theater and teach people like you that the best weapon a person can have is imagination and ingenuity." He patted his watch. "What you have planned for will never be able to account for everything. The Doctor didn't plan for the T.A.R.D.I.S engines to be opened, but he used it to get what Margaret, Blon, at her core, wanted.
"Never restrict yourself. Always look for a new path." And don't ever lose hope.
Weiss nodded. Then Ruby, Blake, and Yang. Qrow simply sighed. "Can we just get on with it?"
"You know the words."
"Hobey-ho," he grumbled.
Then RWBY, with a loud cheer, "Hobey-ho!"
Huge, huge, thanks to my Pat. supporters:
Helpful - Dalek2150
Nice Guy - David Padgett
I wasn't planning on doing this chapter next but with the next update of this Fic being on its birthday (hopefully), I wanted to try and do the entire episode like I've done the past few times. So please enjoy my blood, sweat, and tears, hahaha.
This chapter focused more on the nature vs nurture argument rather than execution/life sentencing. And I've got to say, that is really awesome. This was really fascinating to write, especially to have such a divide among the group. Ruby's hope, Yang's tendency for violence, Blake's past, and Qrow's experience. The only wildcard was Weiss, who I let shine as a sort of mediator.
Also, I don't want to just write everyone as 'Ruby = tech/plans, Weiss = Aristocracy/change, Blake = book/segregation, and Yang = violence'. So allowing them to change is, to me, an actual part of their character. They did all make it to Beacon, after all.
As I was saying before, I did change up my schedule. I'm going to spend the next week focusing purely on My Mistborn Academia for its return. Then I'll try (TRY) to do both A and B of Bad Wolf. I can't promise anything. And, after that, I will do some more work on Metal like Roses. So we should (hopefully) be wrapping everything up this year! Wow! I cannot wait to finally get to a regeneration. It's going to be so much fun.
As always, I'd like to ask everyone to comment on this chapter (whether or not you are reading this as it updates or a year from then). It helps me improve and gives me, even more, drive to write!
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