#(also theta was the one who blew up the desk)

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

Imagine being an average Gallifreyan, just minding your own business, watching the news when the president is assassinated. You can’t believe that just happened, but you keep watching because you want to see if they figure out who did it. As you watch you hear some names that sound vaguely familiar. It takes you a while, but you remember where you recognize them from. It’s those two weird kids from the academy that constantly cheated off of each other and one of them blew up your desk once. And now apparently they’re assassinating the president? You hope they don’t show up to the class reunion

[doctor-who-hears-a-horton]

Above Ground (Ten x Rose)

Rating: Teen

Summary: On Gallifrey, the humans who were born there are subjected to live below the surface in an underground society, separated from the Gallifreyans. School teacher Rose Tyler aims to change things, even if it costs her her own life.Prince Theta of Gallifrey has always thought there was more to the humans than meets the eye... And Rose Tyler proves him right.

Chapter 1/?

Read it on AO3 here!

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She didn’t mind taking care of the children.  Quite the opposite, actually.  But, often times she wished she could take them above ground and show them what the sky was like. 

Gallifrey wasn’t completely awful, but for humans, it was close.  The humans who ended up on Gallifrey or were born there were forced to live underground and regulated to wear certain colors and perform certain jobs.  Rose Tyler was an assigned teacher and lived in some pretty detestable living conditions.  She liked the children and her job was good enough, but she often felt that she could be doing more.  And simulated sunlight, she was told, was no match for the real thing.

“Rose?” Rose snapped up from the staring off that she was doing and looked over at Martha Jones, the teacher of the grade above her.  Rose realized she’d been sitting at her desk and staring blankly for the better part of two minutes.  She looked to Martha and offered a smile.  “Ah… Sorry, Martha, I was daydreaming.  Did you say something?”

“Not really, was just curious as to what you were up to- you’re usually on time in the lunchroom.”

“No, I’m just… I was just thinking.”

“Do you want to talk about it?  We can go for a walk after school.”

Rose blew out her cheeks.  “That would actually be great, thank you.”  

Martha nodded and smiled to her friend before disappearing from the doorway.  Rose looked down at the papers she had to grade.  They were on the history of Gallifrey.  Rose knew plenty about it, knew almost everything after teaching it for so long.  But she was sick of teaching it.  Sick of telling these children that the people who were keeping them captive were the greatest species, the most powerful, the most admirable.  Every once in awhile a Gallifreyan would come down to check on them and make sure no one was thinking about staging a rebellion.   Unfortunately, rebellion was something Rose thought about all the time.  Constantly, really. 

After classes were finished for the day, Rose met up with Martha outside the school.  Sometimes it felt like they were moles, living in grey tunnels in the dirt.  The high ceilings and the fake ‘outdoor’ sections almost tricked her sometimes. 

Martha and Rose walked to one of those outdoor sections, feeling the wind touch her face and wondering if the real thing was cooler or warmer.

“I wanna go up,” Rose said suddenly, looking to Martha.  I want to go up to the surface.”

Martha’s eyes widened.  “You what?”

“I’m twenty one years old and I’ve never seen the sun.  I want to go up and see exactly what it is they’re keeping from us.  They should let us go off world, let us go home.”  

“This is the only home we have,” Martha protested.  “What- You sound like you’ve been planning this, and I don’t even know what to think of that.”

Rose pursed her lips, staring at some flowers ahead of her. “I’m… I’m so unhappy.  And I just think that someone has to start it, you know?  I’ve been thinking, that elevator that brings the officers from the Gallifreyan services down here, you don’t need any special access for it.  You can just come or go.  I want to just try it.”

“They could kill you!” 

“But they might not.”

“Rose…”  She sighed.  “I already know I can’t stop you.  But I’m not sure that I can help you either.”

Rose shook her head.  “I would never ask you to.  I just know that this is something I have to do.  I’m restless and miserable and if I can fix that, then I will.  And even if it kills me,it might open the door for somebody else, and that would be… If I could be the start of something-”

A gentle hand laid on her shoulder.  “I get it,” Martha said softly,  “I get it.”

*****

Above ground, crown prince of Gallifrey, Prince Theta - stared off at the clouds.  Since his crowning, he’s been forbidden from travelling off world. He couldn’t risk getting killed and he was enough of a flight risk that Rassilon didn’t want him to do anything risky.  It was starting to make him antsy; he’d spent his teenage years flying around the galaxy and enjoying himself, saving people.  

“Hey, Koschei, do you ever wonder what the humans are doing?” He asked his friend.  “You know, they’re just underground, I can’t help but wonder-”

“It’s where they belong, your highness,” Koschei responded firmly, sitting down in the grass next to him.  “They’re the inferior species.  That’s where they’re supposed to be.”  

Theta pursed his lips. “I… I’m just not sure I agree with that.”

“What, are you thinking about releasing them?” Koschei laughed.  “They have excellent conditions here-”

“They live underground.”  Theta frowned.  “I- it’s not- I feel like it’s not about that,” he stared down at his hands. “These people, they’ve never felt the sun.”

Koschei snorted.  “Come on, your highness.  You know they have sunlight simulators down there, they’re fine.”

Even so, Theta couldn’t stop thinking about it for the rest of the day.  Why were the humans underground?  The Gallifreyans weren’t using them for anything, and there was no real reason for it.  He couldn’t ask Rassilon.  All they did was learn about in school was the fact that humans were there at all.  No one felt like humans were worth anything, really, but Theta was always curious.

He’d been to Earth.  He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone that, and he’d been very careful to make sure that Koschei didn’t find out, especially.  He’d be absolutely livid.  

But the humans he had met… For the most part, they had been kind.  He’d been able to form genuine bonds with them. In some cases, he missed them. Unfortunately, he had a duty to become king after Rassilon, since he had been chosen to succeed him.  Sometimes Theta wished he’d been able to say no, wished he’d been allowed to say no.  

Days later, Theta was still thinking about the humans.

***

Days later, Rose was planning.  She’d been talking to the children about going to the surface, and the response had been overwhelmingly positive. She hadn’t heard anything from the parents, but she hadn’t told the kids to keep it a secret.  She took at that as the ‘go ahead’ nod from the public to get the ball rolling.

She’d investigated the elevator too- there were no security locks.  The Gallifreyans were just trusting them to behave, and she was about to break that trust.  She tried to keep her plan as secretive as possible, but if she was  honest, she wasn’t too bothered by the idea of it getting out.  She wasn’t sure if people would want to join her, but she had a feeling that there were many people who felt the way she did.  

Besides, she was fairly certain that she would be the only one to die if things went south.  

“Miss Tyler?”  A little girl from her class tugged on her grey skirt, large eyes peering into hers.

“Hm?” Rose looked down.  “What’s wrong, Jenny?”

“I just- When can we go up? I want to see the sun.”

Rose smiled a little.  “Tomorrow.  It’ll be a field trip.”

She wanted to see the sun too.

When the time came, martha watched Rose and her class leave the school.  She was terrified for her, but she also knew that she couldn’t stop her.  Rose Tyler was a woman who was too strong and too stubborn for her own good.  But if anyone could do this, it was her.”

The elevator was a huge metal cage, and when Rose stepped into it, she could hardly believe what was happening.  Her heart thundered painfully in her chest as she stood with ten children around her in the open space.  She pressed the button that was at the top of the selections.  She couldn’t read Circular Gallifreyan, but she had a feeling it was the right one.  As the elevator ascended, she stared forwards, her hands shaking slightly on two of the children’s shoulders.  

The doors opened.  

She could only hear her own heartbeat.  

She squinted into the sun.  She couldn’t help but smile.  Snapping her eyes down, she stared out at the Gallifreyans who had frozen and were staring at her, mouths agape.

Right in front of her was a tall man with dark hair who was staring at her as though he’d never seen another person before, eyes wide.  He was dressed in extreme finery, and Rose thought immediately that he must be someone very important.  She tilted her chin at him, heart thundering wildly in her chest.

The man stared at her, and Rose felt herself starting to grow nervous.  Someone could kill her, now.  She almost wondered why no one was.  Everyone was just staring at her, looking at her like they weren’t even sure what to do.

Finally, a man who wore the same uniform as the guards who came to check on the humans cut out into her line of sight, lifting a sword. Rose clenched her jaw and furrowed her brows, trying to remain as strong as possible.  She put her hands in front of the children.

“We have every right to be up here, or leave the planet if we so choose.  You can put a sword to me but don’t you dare put it towards these children.”

“You’re a teacher down below.  You would think that above all people, an educator would know her place,” The guard drew his sword back, and Rose closed her eyes, heart thundering.

“NO!”

A shout broke through the sound of her own heart beat and the man dressed in finery from before stood in front of her now.  “This is the first offense, Rubro.  The humans have done nothing wrong before right now.  Don’t let a murder of one be on your record and on your hearts.” Rose blinked, and the guard lowered his sword.  This man must be incredibly powerful if a few words from him were enough to get him to listen.  The man in question turned back to Rose, eyes full of worry.  “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m just fine,” Rose said, “I chose to come up, I could’ve handled-”

“He was about to kill you,” The man said, furrowing his brows.  “You would’ve been willing to die?”

Rose gestured behind him. “I got to see the sun.”

The look that the man gave her looked like she had just shattered his heart, and she didn’t fully understand why.  She tilted her head to the side. “Well, if no one is going to murder me, what are you going to do?” “Your highness, I would suggest putting her in the dungeon until further notice.  The children can go back.”  The guard, Rubro, she remembered, said finally.  

“Your highness?” Rose inquired.

“Hardly important.”  The man waved his hand at her and turned back to the guard. “I’ll take her.”

Rubro gritted his teeth.  Apparently he was not a fan of this idea, but as the man was seemingly royalty, he would not be allowed to object to him.

“Miss Tyler!” Jenny cried, tugging at Rose’s skirt.  “Are we in big trouble?” Rose bent down to be on the little girl’s level.  “I am, but you’re not.  You lot will have to go home.”

The children all crowded around her, chattering loudly.  Rubro came through and stood in the elevator, ushering the children further in and Rose and the other man out.  Rose followed without questioning, and the man took her by the arm.  

“It doesn’t look like she’ll struggle, Rubro. I’ll take her from here.”

“Don’t do anything funny, your highness.”

“Never.”

The elevator closed and descended again, the children inside calling out for Rose.  She felt her heart break a little, but she had accomplished something.  She was on the surface.  She could feel sun on her back, and real wind touching her hair.  

“Are you going to kill me?” Rose asked, looking up at the man.

“No,” he replied, tugging on her arm.  “I’ll take you to the dungeon, because I’ll get in an absolute load of trouble if I don’t.  But… Let’s take the scenic route.”