Chapter 18:

POV: Rose

Date: July 8, 2013

When I woke on the TARDIS, John already had everything prepared for a quiet day in. He knew as well as I did that today marked the five-year anniversary since my family had been horribly torn apart across dimensions forever. I took it hard every year. While the girls were both as well adjusted as they likely could be to this life, I continued to struggle. I put on a good act for my girls and our extended family, of course, but inwardly I wasn't much better than when I'd first woken up in hospital surrounded by what was left of my family.

I squeezed my eyes shut and forced myself to sit up. Today the ache where the bond with my Doctor should be was especially painful. I reached up and rubbed at my temples in what I knew was a futile attempt to beat back the headache. John, my Doctor's Metacrisis self, had told me it would take years to recover from a broken bond. He did what he could to help me through teaching me psychic blocks and providing specialized medications, and though it all helped and the pain had indeed lessened over time, I still had days like today where it came crashing through front and center.

I moved slowly as I went through the motions of getting ready for the day. Above my head, the TARDIS hummed sadly. I patted her walls as I made my way out of my room into the hallway.

"Don't worry, girl, I'll be fine," I said as I shuffled out to the console room.

John looked up from where he was fiddling with the console. His dark eyes were immediately concerned. "Headache?"

I nodded. "Is it that obvious?"

He came around the console to hand me a cup of tea. "Here. Have a seat. It's mixed with that herb that seemed to help a few days ago."

I smiled as I took the cup from him and shuffled over to the captain's chair. "Thank you," I said as I took a sip.

I knew that Mara and Jenny had felt betrayed when I had married John only three years after we had been left here in Pete's World. Mara especially had been angry when she learned that I was trying to move on from my life with her father. I couldn't blame her—couldn't blame either of them, really, for being angry and confused. There were times I didn't quite understand it myself, but John was good to me, and I knew the value of time. If there was nothing else my life with the Doctor had taught me, it was the value of making the most of the time you had with the people you cared for. Or perhaps I had grown close to John so quickly because, though he wasn't my Doctor, he was still a piece of him. He represented all I would ever have left of the person who had been my best friend for centuries. Perhaps that wasn't entirely fair to him, but I couldn't deny that it was there.

I sighed after I swallowed my tea, and tamped down the familiar feelings of guilt, sadness, and anger. I had contemplated all this for years and had yet to find a good answer for any of it. Ultimately, I knew it was best just to try to live for the moment.

I looked up from my tea when a scanner started beeping. "What is it?" I asked as I set my mug aside and walked over to where John was already squinting at the device.

"A disturbance in space and time," he muttered, and quickly began flying across the controls. "We best take a look."

I nodded and joined him in starting up the flight sequence. My eyes widened when I saw the coordinates for the disturbance. "Is that—?"

"Oh yes," John said as we landed with a thud. His eyes locked on mine with concern. "It can't be anything good."

I reached out for his hand and gave it a squeeze as we turned for the doors. "It's not him. I would know." I reached up to tap my temple.

He nodded. "I know, but anything that comes through here could be a problem."

"I know," I said, and leaned up on my toes to give his cheek a kiss. "Shall we?"

He nodded, and we both turned to walk out onto the beach I had been avoiding for years.

Dårlig Ulv-Stranden was as gray and dismal as ever as we allowed the TARDIS doors to shut behind us. A few yards ahead, a woman was tumbling out of a tear in the vortex onto the sand. A woman in a suspiciously familiar set of red robes.

My eyes narrowed, and I all but ran to her side as she looked up into the sky. "Rose, wait!" John called out, but I barely heard him. My heart was pounding, and blood was rushing in my ears.

"Pythia," I hissed as I came to a stop above the woman.

She let out a loud cackle as she stared up at me with bleary eyes. "Oh, of course, of course! Of course she would send me to you."

"Who?" I spat as I crouched down beside her. Above me, I felt John come to a stop. "Who sent you?"

The Pythia woman coughed. "Your troublesome daughter, of course. Mara." She tried to sit up, but I stopped her by shoving her roughly back down onto the sand. "Oh, come now, Bad Wolf. I am no danger to you. I'm dying."

"What have you done to Mara?" I demanded. "Why did she send you to us?"

The woman chuckled. "I can only imagine she did it by instinct. Her Quo nature is even more unpredictable than yours."

"What have you done to her?" John demanded as he crouched down beside me. "Tell us, Ohila!"

I glanced at him. "You recognize her?"

"Oh yes," he hissed. "I would know her anywhere."

"I'm surprised you don't, Bad Wolf," the woman—Ohila—gasped out, and was pulled into another coughing fit. "I was there when you were formed into the Moment, after all."

I blinked and felt myself briefly become dizzy as memories flashed across my eyes. I shook my head. "Never mind that. What have you done to Mara? What did you do to my daughter?"

Her lips twitched up into a twisted smile. "Such a ferocious little thing; did you think marooning yourself and your daughters here in this dimension would protect them forever? The Time Lords will come, and they will find your girls. And when they do, you will be nowhere to stop them."

I clenched my jaw. This wasn't new information. I had remembered this in dreams long before we landed in this dimension. I remembered meeting my girls with the Doctor when she was a woman. I knew, centuries from now, that they would be reunited, without me.

"I know," I said through my teeth. "I've already seen that." I felt John look at me with surprise but ignored him. "But you are no Time Lord. What did you do?"

Ohila pulled in raspy breaths, and her smile widened. "I captured your daughter, and I forced her to be the weapon that she truly is." She held a device up in her hand. It was a small bit of plastic with a button on top. "And what's more, I created a failsafe should she find a way to escape me. I may have failed to keep ahold of my weapon, but I will have my revenge." Ohila outright laughed then, and the coldness of it sent shivers down my spine. "I did not expect your girl to call him to her, but she did, and I have released him from his prison. The universe will burn, thanks to Ozul—a being from beyond the edge of everything with an axe to grind against your Mara—and when he destroys this universe, he'll take your family right along with it."

I blinked as tears rapidly formed in my eyes. "No," I said as I shook my head. "No, I don't believe you. I'll find a way to stop it. To stop this Ozul."

"You can't, little wolf," Ohila rasped, and coughed again. She was fading, I could tell. "Not as you are now."

I sat back on my haunches in the sand as all the air left my lungs. John reached out with a hand to grab my shoulder. "Rose, we can fix this."

I blinked and looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

Ohila began to laugh again. Loudly. "He means the arch. He can reverse the suppression of your Quo genetics. If you survive the process, that is." Her eyes locked on mine with a cruel glint. "Did you really think you could erase that part of you completely?"

My heart all but stopped at her words, and I stood as she continued to laugh until she succumbed to a coughing fit.

Her breathing was even more labored as the coughing eased, and her face took on a serene expression as her eyes fluttered closed. "Who knew?" she rasped out. "Who knew that I would be privileged enough to be here, after all this time, to leave you with the greatest pain of all?" Her eyes briefly opened to glare at me. "Knowing that, no matter what you do, you will have to return here to die. Alone. Without your precious family." Ohila smiled again as she closed her eyes. "At least…at least I have that."

Tears pricked at my eyes as I stood to look at John. "John, I—"

He took my hand and nodded back toward the TARDIS. "I know, come on."

My heart beat painfully in my chest, and I blinked against the stinging of the mist around me as John pulled us away from Ohila back toward the ship. I knew there was no other choice. If there was a chance that I could save my family from the fate Ohila had described, I would have to take it.

"If I could stay, I would," I said weakly.

John half smiled at me as we stopped in front of the TARDIS, but his eyes told the truth. The eyes always do. "I know, but they need you right now, and I need you to go to them."

I swallowed thickly at his words. "I do love you," I said quietly. It felt lame, even to my ears.

John's lips twitched as we opened the doors to the ship. "Quite right, too. Now, let's get you back home."

POV: Jenny

Date: November 10, 2025

My hearts were pounding in my ears, my eyes locked on the person who absolutely beyond a doubt could not be in front of me.

It was Mum, but it couldn't be. Not a version of her who was synced up with our timeline enough that she could connect with our network. That should not be possible. And yet, here she stood. I supposed I should go back to rule number one—never say never ever.

"Rose?" Dad asked in a gruff voice that was only just above a whisper.

"How could you be here?" Faeter's voice was equally rough as he stared at her. "You couldn't be…" He waved his sonic around her and checked the readings. "And yet, you are."

Mum swallowed. "Ohila found me in Pete's World. She was dying, but she had enough strength to tell me what was happening here. With John's help, I was able to reverse the transformation the TARDIS had done for me when we were sealed off there." Her sadness was a bitter taste in my mouth as she recounted the story. She gave a small, equally bitter chuckle. "As it turns out, you can suppress genetics, but you can't burn them away completely."

"Why would she do that?" I asked.

"Revenge," Mum said simply. "She told me about Ozul, and she knew I would have to come. She knew I would have to hide and wait 366 years before I could reunite with you all, and what torture that would be. She also knew that one day, I would have to leave you all to go back. That I would have to become human again and die in a timeline that has already been written. And that it would destroy me."

My hearts shattered at this revelation. I hadn't realized it, but I had begun to feel hope. I shook my head against the grief I felt for a loss that hadn't even happened yet, and instead walked forward with my arms open. "I'm so glad to see you," I said, and felt tears fall as she pulled me into her arms.

"My Jenny," Mum murmured as she held me close. "I was always with you, even though I had to hide. I've always been here." She tapped my temple and stepped away then to move toward Dad. Both versions of him.

The two of them looked at each other before Faeter cleared his throat. "Ah, so…"

"Hi," Dad said quietly.

A bright, sudden smile broke out across Mum's face. "Hello," she answered, and rushed forward to hug them both. "My Doctor. There's so much to say, but no time to say it now. We don't have any more time to linger, we need to track Ozul and get Mara home."

My fingers tingled with the nervous, familiar, manic energy that abruptly started coming off both Dad and Faeter in waves. "Right you are, Rose Tyler!" Dad shouted as we all turned toward our original destination, the house, and the TARDIS that lay within. "Allons-y!"

Neeklet and I glanced at each other as we followed them. In my mind some muscle I hadn't even realized was tense relaxed as for the first time in centuries I could feel our complete family network. With Faeter added, of course. It had become so unfamiliar it was almost unsettling.

"Mara, can you hear me?" I asked silently as we entered the TARDIS.

It was quiet for a moment. A moment that lasted too long, and then... "Loud and clear. Come get me, would you?"

I couldn't help but let out a snort at her reply, and then rushed to join the dance that was the flight sequence of the TARDIS in the vortex. I couldn't suppress the joy that came with the familiar sight of Mum daintily running around the console, pulling levers and pushing buttons as she did so. I knew there would be so much we would have to talk about after we had stopped Ozul, but somehow, with her here, I knew that it would all be okay.

At least, I hoped it would.