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wordsablaze · 4 years ago

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Revolutionary Embrace

When it's just the two of them left in the tardis, Thirteen and Yaz finally get round to the just as awkward but much softer and sincere reunion they both deserve...

A/N: happy new year !! thought i'd start 2021 with a lil thasmin fix-it because i just want our space girlfriends to be happy <3

“It’s okay to be sad.”

Yaz doesn’t take her eyes off the Doctor, not even after the tardis doors quietly click shut and both of them are left standing in silence, save for the quiet thrumming of the tardis around them.

Thirteen sighs and turns, finally taking her eyes off the doorway but still unsure how to approach the dangerously soft look in Yaz’s eyes, the one she’s seen so many times before, the one she’s regretted causing in the first place so many times before.

“Yaz, I…”

When she doesn’t continue, Yaz sighs, walking over so she’s leaning on the railing directly beside the Doctor. “It’s okay. I’m sure they won’t mind if you visit every now and then.”

Well, that’s really not what Thirteen had thought she’d want to talk about. She blinks, then shakes her head, grinning sheepishly. “I’m not very good at timing the whole ‘now and then’ thing.”

The tardis seems to thrum louder at that, perhaps in sympathy or perhaps in outrage, and both of them laugh awkwardly. Yaz leans a little closer, gently nudging the doctor with her elbow. “Hey, did you really mean to come back as soon as you’d left?”

Ah, so they are going into that after all. Thirteen sighs, letting her head drop as she exhales. As much as she appreciates the way Yaz is waiting patiently for an answer, she hates the quiet between them. It feels cold and wrong and nothing like the way things should be. Not for the first time, she wishes she could turn back the clock and try again.

“Yes,” she answers eventually. “Yes, of course, I really thought I set the coordinates right. I didn’t mean to be gone so long, I swear.”

Yaz hums in acknowledgement. “You, uhm, you were smiling. When you got back, that is. Was that just for our benefit then, so we wouldn’t know how long you’d been gone?”

It’s almost frightening, the way Thirteen doesn’t even know who she is anymore but Yaz can still read her like an open book. Maybe it’s the new body, she thinks, and there’s something about her face in this regeneration that makes her easier to decipher. Maybe it has something to do with Yaz being the first person she really interacted with in this new body, she thinks, and something had blossomed between them because of that. Maybe-

“Doctor?” Yaz asks softly, pulling her out of her musings.

Thirteen lifts her head up again and offers Yaz a smile. “Gold star for Yaz.”

“How long were you in... space prison?” Yaz asks, her voice somehow even quieter than before, so quiet that even the tardis seems to pause her thrumming so none of the words get lost in the mostly but not entirely metaphorical distance between them.

She thinks of the tally marks, the endless strikes of white against uncaring stone walls, and the way she could navigate her daily walk or narrate every creature she goes past even in her sleep by the time Jack had made his way inside. She thinks of every time she’d wished she could leave and every time she’d wished she could see her lovely team back on earth again. She thinks of the clothes she’d been made to wear and how they were so impersonal, nothing like the outfit she’d picked out for herself with the help of the others, and how she’d felt so unlike herself in them.

Turning to face Yaz properly, Thirteen sighs. “Too long, Yaz, too long.”

“I’m sorry,” Yaz murmurs as if any of this could possibly be her fault.

Thirteen shakes her head. “It’s not your fault. Seeing you all again was the only thing that mattered. Did you guys miss me?” she half-jokes.

Yaz chuckles but her fingers are clenched into fists and her eyebrows are furrowed into a strange frown. Without thinking, Thirteen reaches for Yaz’s hands, covering them with her own and waiting as Yaz’s eyes widen in surprise before she looks up, something like hope shining in her beautiful brown eyes.

“I missed you. Every day. All of you! My wonderful, brilliant fam…” She trails off as the hope inside Yaz’s eyes fades into something darker, something more dismal and disappointed, but she doesn’t stop talking. “I knew Ryan and Graham would be there for each other, they’re great when they’re not bickering! But I’d hoped- well, I’d hoped I could be back before you... I didn’t want to leave you alone, Yaz.”

Yaz’s fingers slowly unfurl but instead of moving closer, she shakes her head and steps backwards, her hands slipping out from under the Doctor’s as she blinks slowly, clearly trying to calm herself down. “I wasn’t alone, Ryan and Graham came by a lot and I- I didn’t always notice how much time had passed, you know? Must be something to do with being inside the tardis, I guess.”

Thirteen nods. “Yeah, the tardis is pretty great, she’s… she always seems to know what to do.”

The tardis seems to thrum in approval but then she goes quiet again and Thirteen can literally feel the way that’s just to let her know it’s her turn to comfort their human now. She just wishes she knew how.

“So what do you say we celebrate the new year in the Meringue galaxy anyway?”

Yaz slips her hands into her pockets and nods slowly, half a smile blooming on her face. “Yeah. Yeah, okay, that sounds nice. I don’t even remember the last time I ate one of those anyway so it should be fun.”

Thirteen smiles back, hesitating for only a moment before reaching her left hand out towards Yaz. She hadn’t predicted the way Yaz’s expression seems to crumple but before she can panic about it, Yaz has thrown herself forwards, this time not to shove her away but to pull her close, Yaz’s arms looping around the Doctor’s neck almost desperately as she bites back a sob.

Her breath hitches but Thirteen lets herself relax into the embrace, slowly curling her own arms around Yaz and letting her eyes slip shut as she breathes in the scent of leather and lavender, a genuine smile growing on her face as the air around them fills with warmth, a warmth she’d almost forgotten could even exist.

“I missed you too,” Yaz mumbles into her shoulder, her voice thick and on the verge of breaking. Thirteen pulls Yaz closer in response, tightening her grip as the tardis thrums happily above them.

“I’m sorry for disappearing,” Thirteen whispers, “but I promise to try and never let you down.”

Yaz sighs but shows no sign of wanting to pull away, her fingers staying firmly curled around the Doctor’s jacket as if trying to physically anchor them together, as if she doesn’t believe they’re not going to be separated again, as if she expects Thirteen to disappear as soon as she lets go.

It’s not like Thirteen is complaining. She loves the feel of Yaz in her arms, she loves the way the rest of existence doesn’t seem to matter as much when she has Yaz’s arms around her, and she loves the way they fit together so well. It seems a shame they’ve waited so long to do this and for a moment, Thirteen wishes she could go back in time and do it earlier, before the whole mess of ten missing months.

“Thank you for coming back,” Yaz says after what feels like forever, pulling back just enough for their eyes to meet but still mostly wrapped around one another. “I was worried we’d never see you again.”

Thirteen shakes her head. “Oh, Yaz. The tardis and I couldn’t stand to have this universe without you, or any other universe really. I honestly can’t think of a single universe that wouldn’t want a Yaz!”

This time, Yaz’s smile fills her face, small crinkles emerging beside her eyes and a soft blush dancing across her cheeks. “I think I’ll just stick with you, Doctor.”

The tardis thrums in agreement.

“Well, I can’t argue with that!” Thirteen grins, pleased with the way Yaz laughs brightly and making a note to have more moments like this in the future.

When they finally, finally pull themselves apart from their warm embrace, Yaz carefully slides her fingers between the Doctor’s. Thirteen beams at her, squeezing her hand before going to start both the tardis engines and their journey to celebrate the new year properly.

It won’t be same as the last time they’d all gone to see nineteen different fireworks displays but somehow the change doesn’t seem so bad anymore, not when Yaz is smiling like her dreams have come true and the tardis is thrumming as if the whole universe is at peace and Thirteen finally feels like she’s truly back home.

Robertson may have been majorly wrong about the daleks being revolutionary but Thirteen can safely say she has no doubt that Yaz most definitely is.

this was very self-indulgent tbh but hey, maybe someone else can find a lil enjoyment in a thasmin hug :)

thanks for reading !! masterlist | doctor who blog: @thasmine

#thasmin #thirteen x yaz #doctor who #revolution of the daleks #fanfiction #thirteenth doctor #yaz khan #yasmin khan #fix it fic #fanfic #fluff #hurt comfort #hugs #everyone needs a hug #everyone gets a hug #if bbc won't give us cute thasmin content then i'll write it myself #my writing #re #no beta we die like daleks

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infernoleo9 · 2 years ago

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Aleksander of Hohenberg/Deryn Sharp Characters: Aleksander of Hohenberg, Mr. Roland, Deryn Sharp Additional Tags: dalek week 2022, dalek week, Genderfluid Character, Trans Male Deryn Sharp, leo leviathan screenwriter?, Alternate Reality, it gay, Novelization, Leviathan the Movie, Alternate Universe, Leviathan Movie-verse, yes a novelization of a fan-written script, POV Third Person Limited, deryn is referred to as dylan in the script, hence movie-deryn is simply not cis, First Meetings, Meet-Cute, Friendship/Love, no beta we die like tesla, convusling and in agony, In Medias Res Series: Part 1 of Dalek Week 2022 Summary:

Day 1: Alternate Reality

Leviathan Movie-verse (as from Leo’s (me’s) screenplay adaptation), but novelize-ified.

“Swiss” boy Alek hikes across a glacier to an airship’s crash site and meets a surprisingly boisterous and concussed midshipman, Dylan Sharp. It doesn’t go well.

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ao3feed-riversong · 3 years ago

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The Trouble with Hope

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3AmTsk6

by ClarionGlass

... It's hard to resist.

In the centuries since the Time War, many have sought to occupy the power vacuum left by the Universe's two most ruthless forces. On thousands of worlds, the name of the Doctor has come to mean hope in the face of the greatest odds. On thousands of other worlds, the monotone drawl of a Dalek inspires that same defiant hope, as Jackie and his Companion seek to mend the damage caused by their former allies.

Centuries have passed since the Doctor last laid eyes on his first companion--his apprentice, and once dearest friend. Still, perhaps foolishly, he has never stopped looking, despite the insurmountable wedge between them. As these forces collide, the Doctor and his former apprentice cross paths once more. But with a rift between them stretching back to the Time War, it doesn't... go too well.

Words: 1719, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Series: Part 2 of The Spaces Between the Stars

Fandoms: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who & Related Fandoms

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen

Characters: The Doctor (Doctor Who), Twelfth Doctor, Original Time Lord Character(s) (Doctor Who), Original Dalek Character(s) (Doctor Who), River Song, Martha Jones, Mickey Smith (Doctor Who), Jack Harkness, Missy (Doctor Who)

Relationships: The Doctor/River Song, The Doctor & Original Time Lord Character(s) (Doctor Who), The Doctor & Original Dalek Character(s) (Doctor Who), Martha Jones/Mickey Smith, The Doctor & Missy (Doctor Who), Missy & Original Time Lord Character

Additional Tags: Angst, dramatic space idiots being dramatic space idiots, time lord disasters, Hurt/Comfort, Song: Bohemian Rhapsody, Space Vigilantes, the master's a+ parenting, no beta we die (and live again) like jack harkness, Mentioned Rory Williams, Flashbacks, Time War (Doctor Who), hell let's combine these as a tag, time war flashbacks

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3AmTsk6

#ao3feed #fanfic #river song

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malicerewatchesdoctorwho · 4 years ago

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The Evil of the Daleks - Episode Seven (Old Version)

Written by – David Whitaker Director – Derek Martinus Producer – Innes Lloyd

Part 7

(“I’ve given them all the human factor!” – The Doctor about switching over the Dalek factor into the human one making more Daleks with the human factor and starting a Dalek civil war.)

Likes

- How Alpha, Beta and Omega were used to their purpose. They got the Daleks in a position in which a lot more began questioning, and it was done because of the Doctor making them. Heee. Too bad they died.

- The Doctor playing his recorder to be able to think more clearly. Stimmy Doctor is best Doctor.

- The Doctor and Victoria’s conversation about the lives of the five of them not being worth that of the entire civilisation of Earth.

- The Doctor not being affected by either the human factor (he already had all those qualities) and the Dalek factor (which was set to work on humans only) it was stated earlier in the story that the Doctor is a) not from Earth, which was brought back up in this episode to Victoria. And b) he wasn’t human himself (well, it was stated that he was more than human which is true XD)

- Dalek civil war started by the Doctor. And once again he has the genocide of the Daleks notched onto his belt. This time by using the experiment against the Emperor and the Black Daleks by changing the Daleks into ones with the human factor.

- Dizzy Daleks!

Dislikes

- I really disliked that Kemel immediately went to Maxtible and died because of it. I knew he worked for Maxtible, but I didn’t know he was a thoughtless slave under hypnotism. He was shown as being a lot better than that through 4 episodes. This one really, really pissed me off. It’s not only offensive to people who can’t speak and need to find other ways of communicating (Kemel had gestures and the written word), but also comes across as racist too (he was Turkish).

- Fighting doesn’t come across well at all. Why do they have to have such awesome sounding fights in lost episodes?

- Why exactly did the Dalek city explode like that?

Awesome

- The Dalek Emperor is seen from different angles in this one.

- The sound effects.

Shitty

- It’s missing.

- Bad recon. Again there were a few shots that just didn’t make sense to me.

In Conclusion

Apart from a few points, I really liked the ending of this story. I liked that the Doctor managed to get more Daleks questioning and that they realised that because they did, they will most likely die if they don’t defend themselves.

I like that Victoria is ready to question others and ask important questions. She also will die if it means saving a lot of lives, which is pretty brave.

It slipped my mind completely, and I was honestly surprised by how Kemel died, because of the hypnotism used on him.

And Waterfield got to go out a hero and made sure his daughter was safe before dying.

Death count – 3 plus another genocide of the Daleks. Waterfield is killed by the Daleks as he saves the Doctor’s life. Kemel is killed by Maxtible, because Maxtible is an insane villain who is also part Dalek by this point. And the Dalek Emperor goes here too for being a VIP. He got killed by the human factor Daleks shooting him in his throne room. Ad of course, the rest of the Daleks are killed as the city explodes for...unknown reasons.

The Evil of the Daleks as a Whole

I really enjoy this story. The start with the mystery turned over to a Victorian adventure. And ended on a different planet with an evil race of aliens we all know and hate dearly.

We get the introduction of the Dalek Emperor, the introduction of the newest companion in Victoria and the first ever Dalek human hybrids (going both ways!) So quite a few intros in this one seven part story. It’s one of the reasons I chose this one as one of the podcasts on the Watchathon of Rassilon. The other also introduces something important to the show and has the best use of a companion ever.

#Classic Doctor Who #doctor who #the evil of the daleks #episode seven #old version #epic rewatch #Second Doctor #Jamie McCrimmon #Victoria Waterfield #daleks

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ao3feed-ninexrose · 5 years ago

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by Captain_Wolfy

Rose’s thoughts during the end of Dalek.

Words: 251, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler

Relationships: The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler

Additional Tags: Canon Compliant, Episode: s01e06 Dalek, i don’t know how to tag, this is my first fic, i wrote it in an afternoon and didn’t rewatch Dalek before writing, No Beta, We Die Like Men, Drabble

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #ninexrose #nine x rose #ninerose #9rose #9 x rose #doctor who #ao3

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hellostarlight20 · 7 years ago

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Tau Theta 2/

From wikipedia: In ancient times, tau was used as a symbol for life or resurrection, whereas the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, theta, was considered the symbol of death.

Part of We Are Never Alone, but can be read as a stand alone 50th rewrite. (Established Ten/Rose relationship)

Rose thought she was meeting her daughter’s new girlfriend when she blinked and ended up on Karn right as the Eighth Doctor was about to drink from the chalice the Sisterhood of Karn offered him.

Time is in flux, people are trying to change the Doctor’s timeline, and Rose refuses to allow any of that. Even if she has to fight all her Doctors to stop it.

Awesome pict below by @fadewithfury for the equally awesome @aeonish, both of whom agreed to let me use it for this story. A million thanks to Mrs. Bertucci for the beta!

AO3 and TSP (If they’re every working again that is!) and Part 1 on Tumblr

Rose ignored the tingle of awareness, the draw to this rather sexy Doctor, and focused. She really needed to, after all—the man before her wasn’t supposed to regenerate from a Pythian concoction. She knew exactly when he regenerated and from what, and it wasn’t some forced nasty-smelling brew.

“Regenerate into whom? Why force a regeneration?”

The Doctor shrugged, that negligent roll of his shoulders her first Doctor was so very good at. It was his ‘I know but am not telling’ look. He glanced over his shoulder, but no one entered the room. Why not? Did they leave him to regenerate alone? Did they not wish to witness their own work?

Fury surged through Rose. Anger for leaving him to regenerate alone, for forcing this on him for whatever unknown reason. And at him, her precious Doctor, for going along with it when he questioned every other damn thing in the universe.

Ice settled in her veins with such surety it rocked Rose where she stood.

“They’re manipulating timelines. They want to force a regeneration on you—and believe me when I say we’re having words about this, Mister I question the universe except when it comes to me. This makes no sense. If they gave you that drink.” Rose jerked her chin at the chalice, eyes on his. “Then why not witness their handiwork? Why not see you’ve actually regenerated?”

“I said I’d drink it. Don’t need a witness for that.” But his smooth voice sounded harsh now, angry and sad and defeated. Already defeated.

“But what if you didn’t?” Rose looked around. “There’s another exit, why do they think you wouldn’t leave?”

She motioned to the small door on the opposite end of the room, barely noticeable. If there was one thing she learned in her years of traveling with the Doctor, it was to locate each and every exit within moments of entering a room.

Saved time on escaping later.

“And why do they want you to drink it anyway?”

“I’m already dead.” The blunt words startled her. “Died crashing into the planet. They just staved off regeneration until they got their way.” The bitter words hung between them, angry and heavy and all that loathing directed at himself.

“But they didn’t,” Rose whispered. “I know they didn’t because you never said anything about this.”

“Oh?” Once more his gaze flicked to her ring. Rose’s hand automatically rested on her pendant, hidden beneath her thin jumper. She quickly dropped her hand, but those keen eyes already saw her movement. “Talk a lot about the War, do I?”

“You…don’t seem surprised I’m from the future,” she ventured. Rose pressed her fingers into her thigh instead, to stop from reaching for him. “Or that I know if you’d talk about this.”

“I’ve seen stranger things.” The Doctor nodded to her ring, her pendant. He tapped his temple.

“Hmm, yes,” she murmured in agreement. Then, frustrated asked, “But I still don’t understand why. Why do they want you to regenerate? Why do they want…oh. A warrior. They want a warrior. Not the Doctor.”

He flinched. Though she didn’t see timelines like her family, Rose knew. She’d traveled with the Doctor a good long while, she knew paths, choices, options. The divergence lay before her. Was this a circular paradox? Or some other paradox? Or was the Sisterhood manipulating timelines. But why? For what purpose?

“The Doctor doesn’t fight. He makes things better.” He snorted and again the bitterness lay heavy in the action. “Or I try to. Not sure what ‘better’ I can make things anymore.” He ran a hand down his face. “Or if I ever did.”

“But you don’t need to fight to make things better.” Rose stepped forward, slowly so as not to startle him though he didn’t look skittish. Only resigned. She raised her left hand and took his, naked, left hand and held tight. “You were there, you saw everything.”

Suddenly angry, the Doctor demanded, “Who are you?”

“You know,” she whispered.

She licked her lips again and slowly, brick by brick, lowered her mental defenses. When she reached for his mind, the Doctor didn’t seem surprised, though he did jerk as if she slapped him. Despite the dank darkness of the cave and the desolation coming off the Doctor, the instant their minds connected bright warmth flowed over her. Silver-blue light she instantly recognized. Embraced.

“My Doctor,” Rose said, voice low. “I do know what happens because you told me.” She grasped both of his hands in hers. Lifting them to her arms, she held them over her marriage tattoos, currently hidden by her jumper.

It didn’t matter her jumper covered them from the rest of the world. The instant he closed his hands around her biceps, he jerked as if an electrical shock jolted through him.

The Doctor opened and closed his mouth a couple times, then shook his head. Rose wanted to run her fingers through his hair, not the long curls she’d seen in photos or TARDIS video, but the shorter and just as lovely curls he now wore. She wanted to kiss him, taste this Doctor, feel his body against hers.

Never let it be said she hadn’t meant her vows about loving him no matter the body.

“It has to end,” he snapped the dropped his hands as if she burned him. Maybe she had. “If I don’t end it, the entirety of creation will die.”

Rose slowly shook her head and once more reached out to take his hand. Though she did her best to keep their future conversations about the Time War firmly behind her telepathic walls, she did let loose a hint of future happiness.

“That’s true.” She watched his eyes widen. “But who do you want to be when you do that? A warrior? Or the Doctor?”

“Who are you?” His voice, harsh and rough choked with emotion. He didn’t let his own mental shields crumble, but there was a part of him that reached for her. He also, she was pleased to note, did not release her hand.

“You know,” she said in a clear voice.

“That’s impossible,” he said instead of agreeing with her statement.

Rose grinned and tilted her head to the side. “Not impossible, just a bit unlikely.”

The Doctor snorted. His hand tightened around hers and for a moment Rose wanted to tell him everything. She swallowed it all back and carefully rebuilt her shields.

If he regenerated now, would she still meet her first Doctor? If he drank that retched potion, would Rose find her family on Laracopa? Or would they—her Doctor, her children, the universe she knew—be wiped from existence? And what of her? What happened to her?

“If you do it, if you drink that horrid thing, we’ll never meet.” She shook her head. “Life is complicated,” Rose amended. “But I’m sure you know that better than anyone. We, this you, and I, were never supposed to meet.” She tilted her head and raised her had to finger the soiled and torn cravat around his throat. “But I have to say, I love the scarf.”

He snorted. “A remnant of a different part of my life, I’m afraid.” He paused and eyed her.

“Nope!” Rose grinned at his unspoken question. “Not gonna happen. I know better than that.”

She stroked the scarf, dirty and torn, but still so him, then trailed her fingers up his cheek to brush his curls off his forehead.

“Oh, yes.” She nodded, one long nod, and didn’t bother to hide her smile. “Definitely sexy.” Rose tilted her head and let her tongue tease the corner of her mouth.

She was not disappointed when the Doctor’s gaze narrowed in on it. Arousal buzzed through her blood, but Rose—admirably—refrained from doing anything more than cupping his cheek.

“If you’re meant to be dead,” she said slowly, “and if the Sisterhood stopped you from regenerating, when does that wear off?”

“Eh?” He shook his head, captured her hand to his cheek and closed his eyes. As if starved for physical affection. He held her hand for only for a moment, then dropped his hand but didn’t straighten from her touch. “No idea. Didn’t give it much thought.”

And she heard the sorrow, the deadness in his tone. Her heart broke for him and suddenly Rose remembered being a nineteen-year-old running to the Doctor and his TARDIS, running into a life with a broken, devastated man.

“Why would they stave off regeneration?” Rose wondered. Jaw clenched she tried not to give into the pain. It bloomed behind her eyes, even though they touched. Much as she loved her family, she really wanted them silent at the moment. “Because they’re after something else. What?”

“What else do I have to give? I’ve helped where I could, running supplies between stations, conveying Dalek movements to Romana. Now I’ve agreed to fight…” but the Doctor trialed off, too. “If I give up a regeneration, I’m shortening my life.”

“But if you’re already dead—”

He closed his eyes, presumably doing an internal check on his body. The Doctor slammed his hand on the stone table in frustration. Rose didn’t drop her hand from his cheek and sent all the love and comfort she had through that physical connection.

“I can’t tell.” She felt his gratefulness at her touch, but his voice remained hard and angry. “My body feels like nothing.”

“How can they stave off regeneration?” Rose demanded. She pressed the heel of her other hand to her eye but it did little to alleviate the pain.

The Doctor brushed his fingertips over her temples, and the pounding lessened. She had a feeling the pain was from being so far from her family—being out of time. More, it was the pain of one Doctor shouting for her in panic with another standing right before her.

Or maybe not, same mind, yeah? Rose had no idea. But it hurt like hell.

“How is that even possible?” Rose wondered.

He shrugged. “It’s Karn. Who the hell knows?”

“You’re not dead.”

“No, I’m not. I think you’re right.” He sighed and scrubbed his hands down his face. When he did that, he looked so much like both incarnations of the Doctor Rose loved, it twisted something inside her. “But why bother? Why use me like that?”

“Why change your timeline?”

His head shot up. “It’s not my timeline they’re changing or not only my timeline.”

“It’s mine, too.” Rose swallowed. Damn it, she knew timelines were at stake. They always were. Cold, terrified for herself and her family, Rose pushed her fear to the side and did her best to concentrate on not letting that timeline happen. “If you regenerate now, what does that do to the rest of your regenerations? What does that do to your life? What does that do to…us?”

“Shortens it.” His lips twisted at the thought. “Each of my regenerations lives a short enough time as is. I’m afraid I’m not very cautious with my own life. But if I run out of regenerations before I get everything finished…”

“It doesn’t matter. Even if you didn’t, if they’re trying to change your life. Me, our family our…children.” The Doctor started at that, but Rose ignored him, mind racing. “All of it. If they change that—but why would they want to?”

“There is a balance to the universe.” The new voice startled Rose and she swung around. “You’ve upset the balance.”

Rose snorted. She didn’t know who the woman was, with her wild greying hair and tattered robes, or why she thought balance was so important, but she didn’t care.

“No one threatens my family,” she snapped.

“The wolf is at the door.” The woman spat the words like a curse.

#Eight x Rose #ficandchips #Ten x Rose #50th fix #50th rewrites #romance #adventure

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tenscupcake · 7 years ago

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electrostatic potential (35/?)

ten/rose. teen this ch. i’m back!!! see ao3 for notes. thank you oodles to @aroseofstone for the beta!!! summary: as the doctor and rose traverse time and space looking for adventure, they slowly fall victim to a mysterious energy that can manipulate their emotions. though confused and unnerved by the cerebral affliction, neither of them understands its cause, or realizes that it could jeopardize their friendship. what will it take for them to discover the truth? this chapter on ao3 | back to chapter 1 on ao3

“We've got two separate worlds,” the Doctor explains, growing increasingly animated. “But in between the two separate worlds, we've got the Void. That's where the Daleks were hiding. And the Cybermen travelled through the Void to get here. And you lot, one world to another, via the Void. Oh, I like that. Via the Void. Look!”

As soon as the Doctor places the flimsy paperboard glasses on her face, thousands of green and red particles swarm loosely around him. The particles move independently and randomly, yet they’re contained to a certain area around his figure. They follow him through some invisible force of physics as he sways from side to side, lagging only slightly behind.

“I’ve been through it,” he continues. “Do you see?”

“What is it?” Rose asks. She reaches out to try to touch the particles, but they pass right through her hand undetected, further proof of their immaterial existence.

“Void stuff,” the Doctor answers.

“Like, er...” Rose quickly rifles through related terms she’s learned in the past couple years. “Background radiation?”

“That’s it.” He nods, and whirls her around. “Look at the others.”

Mickey, Pete, and Jake are all surrounded by the same speckled cloud of coloured particles, but they are conspicuously absent in the vicinity of her mum.

“And the only one who hasn't been through the Void,” the Doctor continues, pointing his index finger obnoxiously in her direction. “Your mother! First time she's looked normal in her life.”

“Oi!” her mum interjects.

“But the Daleks lived inside the Void,” the Doctor continues, unfazed, running towards the empty wall on the other side of the room. “They're bristling with it!” He gestures wildly with his hands. “Cybermen, all of them. I just open the Void and reverse. The Void stuff gets sucked back inside.”

“Pullin’ ‘em all in!”

“Pullin’ ‘em all in!” the Doctor repeats with enthusiasm, tugging down on the air with his fist.

“Sorry,” Mickey interrupts. “What’s the Void?”

“The dead space,” answers the Doctor. “Some people call it hell.”

“So, you’re sending the Daleks and Cybermen to hell.” Mickey smiles appreciatively, and looks over at Jake. “Man, I told you he was good.”

But something suddenly dawns on Rose, bursting the bubble of excitement they’d just created.

“But it's like you said,” says Rose. “We've all got Void stuff. Me too, because we went to that parallel world. We're all contaminated. We'll get pulled in.”

“Well,” the Doctor crosses his arms. “I imagine you lot will want to head back to Pete’s world.” He nods his head towards the other four. “Hey, we should call it that! Pete’s world. Anyway, you’ll be safe there. The Void’s only opening from this side.”

“I’m not goin’ anywhere without Rose!” Her mum steps out of line with the others, separating herself from the theoretical return group.

“I know, Jackie, I didn’t mean you.” The Doctor looks to be barely containing an eye roll.

Her mum sidles up next to her.

The Doctor takes a deep breath, obviously contemplating something.

“But you could both go with them,” he suggests softly, shrugging. “To guarantee your safety. Well, yours, Rose,” he amends. “Jackie will be safe either way, as long as she steers clear of the Daleks, but...” he raises his eyebrows, searching both their faces for feedback.

“That’s not gonna happen,” Rose says, chuckling at the ridiculous suggestion.

The Doctor smirks, just a little. He does look instantly more relaxed, but not yet like he’s completely accepted this decision.

“Are you sure?” He asks after a long moment, staring into her eyes, looking very much like he wishes they could hold a private telepathic conversation right now. “The Tyler family, back together again...” he trails off, glancing over at Pete.

Her mum glances over, too.

Pete’s formerly hard glare in the face of their circumstances softens into one of longing as he steps closer to the both of them.

“I really don’t want to lose you again, Jacks.”

Her mum shakes her head. “If Rose is stayin’, then I am, too.” Her tone is resolute.

Pete takes a deep breath, running his hands down his face.

“You’re gonna make this world safe again?” he asks the Doctor.

“Or die trying,” the Doctor assures him.

Rose never appreciates his apparent disregard for his own life, but knows that’s simply how he is. She knew what she signed up for when she made a commitment to him: he’d put his life on the line for one random stranger any day. The whole planet? There’s no limit to the risks he’ll take.

“’S like you said,” Jackie says. “Your ideas worked in that world. You’ve got money. You go back. I’ve had twenty years without you. I’ve learned how to cope on my own.” She stands a bit straighter and puffs out her chest. It’s not easy to watch, her mum talking to a man who looks and talks exactly like her father with something so close to rejection. But Rose understands: she doesn’t want to put herself in a position of vulnerability. To open herself up to be disappointed again.

“Yeah, I’ve got money,” Pete agrees. “But... I’m not happy. Haven’t been for a while. And, I dunno, this just feels like... a second chance. And it feels stupid to squander it.”

“Whatever you’re doing, you’ve got to decide now.” The Doctor hustles past them to one of the computer systems, hurriedly punching in some numbers on the keyboard. “We’ve got to open the breach before it’s too late. Whether or not the Daleks and Cybermen are distracted from world domination by fighting each other, either way the whole planet’s about to be caught in the crossfire of a mutual genocide.”

“I could stay,” Pete blurts out, alternating his glance between Rose and her mum. “If you want.” He shrugs. “We could give this a go.”

Her mum’s tough façade finally begins to crack again, and her eyes well with tears. “I’d like that,” she admits. “But I’m not askin’ you to. I don’t want you to regret it later. If you do stay, it’s your decision. Only yours.”

“Rose, I know I’m not your dad,” Pete address Rose in a rush, trying to obey the Doctor. “But I could be. Or I could try to be. If you want. I don’t want to stay if you don’t want me, too.”

“I want Mum to be happy.” She holds back her intense desire to have a second chance at having a dad, trying not to sway his decision either way. She wants this decision to be between the two of them, not something he does out of misplaced guilt for a daughter he never actually had.

“I want that, too,” Pete agrees. Jackie glances between them both. “That’s it, then. I’m staying.”

“Get to the TARDIS, then,” the Doctor demands. “She’s strong enough to protect the lot of you. Mickey, Jake, get ready to use your dimension jumps for the last time. Now! I’ve got to get this system back online.”

“You two are acting directors now,” Pete says to the two young men, removing the yellow button from around his neck. “The paperwork’s already drawn up. I decided this a long time ago, if anything ever happened to me.”

Both the boys nod, solemn. They exchange gruff handshakes and pats on the back with Pete, and then Rose gets a turn to hug each of them. It happens so fast; none of it feels real.

“Never thought I’d have to say goodbye to you twice,” she murmurs to Mickey, trying to swallow down the lump in her throat as she savours the two seconds she has to hold him tight.

“Me neither,” he mumbles back.

“Thank you both,” The Doctor addresses them, setting a hand on each of their shoulders. “Run that Torchwood better than this one. Please. Take care of Pete’s world.”

Jake addresses him like a military commander. “Yes, sir.”

Mickey nods. “You take care of her.” He nods toward Rose. “Bye, Rose,” he adds only to her, much softer.

With that, they press their buttons and vanish.

Rose doesn’t have time to grieve Mickey’s loss again.

“Rose, take them to the TARDIS,” the Doctor orders. “But then come back here. Turns out I need your help.”

“Doctor, how’re we not gonna get sucked in?”

“I’ve got these.” He walks into the next room and picks up a giant black clamp half the size of his body. “Once we open the breach we’ll just have to hold on tight for a few minutes. The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff, in the end it’ll close itself.”

Rose isn’t convinced those clamps will keep them safe – she’d rather have a pair of full-body harnesses bolted to the wall – but she nods anyway.

“Now go,” he commands, shooing them toward the stairwell.

Rose leads both her parents down several sets of stairs to where she knows the TARDIS is sitting, waiting for them. She commands her to open without even using the key, and once they’re both safely on the other side of the doors, she hugs her mum tightly and tells them both she’ll be right back.

“Don’t you dare go gettin’ yourself killed, Rose,” she commands, thrusting a finger at her.

“I won’t, Mum, the Doctor knows what he’s doin’. He’ll keep us safe.”

She’s back in the white control room with the Doctor in only a short minute. The giant clamps have been installed on the walls, each next to a lever.

“All right!” the Doctor shouts, running into position beside the farther of the two levers. “You take that one.” He nods to the other lever. “We’ve got to push them both at the same time for the breach to open. As soon as they’re engaged, grab onto your clamp. And hold on tight or it’ll suck you right in! Ready!”

“Ready!” she says, getting into position.

“Push!” the Doctor commands.

It’s no ordinary lever: its heavy, old-school interior mechanisms provide a level of resistance to movement she has to use her whole body weight to counteract. After a few seconds of straining themselves, both their levers lock into position with a click and a hiss of air.

“Online,” an artificially generated female voice echoes from the computer.

In that moment, a bright, gaping hole tears itself into the empty opposite wall, and suddenly the Earth’s gravity is no longer the only force acting on Rose. The breach now has its own gravity, tugging her back towards it with a gust of wind. She dashes straight to the clamp on the wall, clinging onto it with both arms as the force pulling her towards the breach increases with each passing second. Glancing towards the Doctor, she sees him glancing her way, too, ensuring she’s safely holding on.

A cluster of three Daleks smashes through the building window, their robotic squeals hurtling through the air with their metal hulls until both are sucked clear into the breach.

“The breach is open!” the Doctor yells. She can barely hear over the whirring of the equipment and the fierce wind being sucked into the Void, but he does sound rather chuffed. “Into the Void, hah!”

The force gets stronger and stronger as more and more Daleks and Cybermen pour through the broken glass and whip through the room en route to the Void. Eventually, it outweighs gravity in its potency, and she has to plant her feet on the base of the lever to take some of the strain off her arms.

The Daleks and Cybermen continue to shout as they plunge horizontally to their eternal prison, passing by in blurs of silver and gold, thicker and thicker... there must be hundreds passing them by every second now.

A long minute passes them by in this manner, her muscles and ligaments and bones aching from the effort of holding onto her clamp and maintaining her balance on the base of the lever. The blaring noise of the torrent of wind, machinery, and the cyborg screams feels like it’s gone on for so long she might have permanent hearing damage.

Until one moment, when one word is evident amongst the incoherent squeals, a familiar and harrowing word: exterminate.

A bolt of blue laser emanates from somewhere in the tornado of doomed Daleks and Cybermen, aiming straight for the Doctor.

But it doesn’t strike him.

The blast instead strikes the lever next to him, and bluish electricity surges down the length of the lever before disappearing in a flash. There’s a hiss and a heavy click and then...

“Offline...”

The current of the blast disengaged the lever. It’s slowly retreating to its default position, inching its way towards the floor ever so slowly.

She glances up at the Doctor, terror in her gaze. The determined look in his eyes confirms her worst fear.

He has to re-engage the lever. It’s like she had just thought to herself: with the entire planet in danger, there’s no limit to the risks he’ll take. Mere seconds have passed with the system offline, and the pull into the breach has already lessened significantly. Rose barely has to hold on to resist being pulled in. Any less, and the wind tunnel carrying the evil into the Void will cease and they’ll all clatter to the ground in this very room. For attempting to thwart their plans, she and the Doctor may well be the first victims of their renewed killing spree, but the rest of the world would quickly follow suit.

The Doctor lets go of his clamp, ducking behind the base of the lever for what support it can offer as he reaches his hand out for the descending lever. His fingers just wrap around it, and he plants his feet at the base of the lever and reaches back to grab onto his clamp with his other hand. He can barely reach across the distance, his long limbs being stretched with the effort to hold onto the lever. With a groan that’s audible even over the continued ruckus of the sentient metal husks flying around them, the Doctor pulls back on the lever. And slowly, an inch at a time, it moves back into position.

With a few seconds of intense exertion, and it clicks and hisses back in a vertical position.

He’s done it. He’s got it.

“Online...”

The Doctor reaches back, trying to twist around enough to grab onto his clamp with his other hand and regain a firmer grip on it, but the blast of strengthened wind and renewed gravity of the breach as the system kicks back into high gear doesn’t allow him to. He struggles to maintain his foothold on the base of the lever, holding onto the clamp for his life with merely one hand. It’s hard enough for Rose to hold on at this point, as the torrent rushing into the breach feels stronger than ever, and she still has both her arms around her clamp.

One of the Doctor’s Chucks slips on the gold surface of the base of the lever. As he tries to fix it, the hand on the clamp slips just slightly. He’s barely holding on by his fingers now.

“Doctor!” Rose yells.

She expects him to offer some small reassurance, some faith that he’s got this, that they’ve got this. He always does. He’s always got some clever trick up his sleeve to narrowly escape death while saving the world. But when he turns his head to her, his eyes are wide with pain and dread, and terror drops like an anvil into her gut.

“Hold on!” she screams, all her sense of calm lost in an instant. The force required to hear her own voice over the wind tears the lining of her throat.

The stream of villains seems to be thinning out. Turning back to the building windows, there’s only an intermittent Dalek passing through it. He only has to hold on a few seconds longer, and she’s sure that once there’s nothing left to devour, the breach will close itself, like he said. He’ll be safe.

One last Dalek tumbles through the air towards the wall, and there’s nothing but air being sucked into the breach for a second... two... it’s got to close now, right?

Rose glances over to the Doctor again. He’s still looking over at her, his face twisted up with his struggle to keep his grip. He’s barely holding on now, and his eyes are almost resigned. Like he’s... no.

Rose. His voice is suddenly in her head, clear as day.

They’d discovered they could do this from a distance several days ago, but he’s never taken advantage of it. There hasn’t been anything pressing enough to require it.

Doctor, whatever you’re thinking, don’t, she answers him, the words slurring together even in her head. Don’t, y’hear me! Just hold on!

His fingertips slip from the clamp.

“NO!” Rose screams louder than she’s ever screamed, reaching out her arm as though she can catch him. One of his feet is still vaguely balanced on the base of the lever, but the pull of the void is too strong for that to hold him: his ankle gives way.

It all happens in slow motion from there: his arms flail for a grip on the lever, but he can’t get a hold on it. Instead, he merely hits his shoulder on it as he falls past it. The impact happens to twist him around such that she can see his face as he falls away from her. Falls toward the wall just like the Daleks have been since it opened, falls straight toward hell. Meeting her eyes, he finishes the sentence he’d started in her mind.

I love you.

In his fleeting moment of emotional distress, the sentiment is carried across the growing distance between them, exploding in her mind in a soft, warm red. The eternal promise embraces her heart in a way so reminiscent of how he holds her, so gentle but so secure. He’s always loved her and always will. But instead of filling her with joy as she often dreamed they would, the words course through her veins like ice, because he’s waited until his final seconds of life to finally confess them to her.

Her only response is the continued scream ripping from her throat.

But just behind the Doctor, the giant shining hole into the Void begins to shrink. Quickly. Before the Doctor has fallen the length of the room, it’s swallowed itself up entirely with a sickening slurp. In a fraction of a second, the breach is gone, and the Void isn’t looming anymore. But it’s already too late for the Doctor. The momentum has already been built, and there’s no stopping it.

The white wall ripples violently as it solidifies back into solid concrete and drywall and paint it was before the breach was opened. As soon as it does, the Doctor collides with it, one loud thud of his body and one heart-stopping crack of his head.

He crumples to the floor, completely lifeless.

As soon as Rose’s feet hit the ground, she’s running to him, screaming incoherent pleas to the universe as tears stream down her face.

She skids to her knees on the floor next to him, pressing her fingers into his neck to feel for a pulse.

She breathes out a sigh of relief that it’s there. Weak, and slow, but there. She places her hand under his nose, next, and there’s a soft, steady stream of air hitting her fingers.

Okay. She nods to herself. He’s alive. He’s breathing. His hearts are still beating.

“Doctor, can you hear me?” she says loudly, but receives no response.

He’s good at healing, isn’t he? He probably just needs time to recover from this. But how long should she give it?

She pulls back one of his eyelids to look at his eye, even though she has no idea what she’s looking for. She does notice that his pupil is blown wider than it usually is, and, pulling back the other one, it’s pointing in a different direction than the other one was. But she has no idea what either of those things means.

A thin stream of blood drips out of his right ear and onto his suit.

Oh, God. This is bad. The Doctor hasn’t been unconscious like this before. Not from a head injury. He’s going to wake up, right? He has to.

Rose takes off her jacket, and gently places it under his head as she carefully rolls him on his side so she can get a look at the back of his head.

She can’t see anything except for his hair and some blood, so she gently rests her hand on the back of his head, trying to feel for anything unusual. There’s not a detectable crack in his skull or any brains oozing out or anything, so she thinks blood isn’t so bad. But when she pulls her hand away, and his blood is dripping down her fingers, she starts to panic anyway.

Oh, god.

“Help!” Rose shouts, unthinkingly, turning to face an empty room. But everyone that once worked in this building is either dead or evacuated. Her mum and Pete are back in the TARDIS, completely out of earshot. But even if they were here, what could they do? Neither of them is a doctor.

She’s got to call someone.

She reaches into her pocket for her phone, but just as she pulls it out, the Doctor starts convulsing.

Rose curses, her phone clattering to the ground as she reaches for him, trying to hold him steady. He’s on his side, already, at least; she’d read somewhere that’s the best position for someone to be in when they’re having a seizure. But this is bad. From what few medical TV shows she’s seen, head trauma followed by a seizure means that without immediate medical intervention, the patient faces death.

He should regenerate. He should be regenerating right now. But he’s not conscious – does he have to be for it to work?

She could drag him down the stairs back to the TARDIS, hope the ship can tell her what to do. Heal him somehow. But by the time they got there, he might already be dead.

Rose sobs merely thinking that to herself.

Does she call 999? Risk him being found out as an alien and locked in a cell, or worse, taken away for experiments? That is if they can find a way to save him?

Once she’s certain he’s stopped seizing for the moment, she checks his pulse and breathing again. His hearts are still beating, but he’s stopped breathing now.

There’s no time left. His biology is equipped with respiratory bypass, but from what he’s told her, that will only last him a few minutes. There must be a way to get through to him, force him to regenerate.

Slowly, carefully, she rests her fingertips on his temple, closing her eyes and trying to communicate with him the only other way she knows how.

He’s in here, she can tell that much. His mind is still very much alive, even if his brain is struggling to function. But none of it feels right. Where normally she’d need to obtain his permission to reach beyond his automatic mental barriers before connecting with him, this time she slips right inside his mind. Where normally he’d greet her instantly and warmly, inviting her in closer, in this moment he’s not consciously here to welcome her. In fact, he doesn’t acknowledge her in any way.

He doesn’t know she’s here at all.

The surface of his mind is completely empty, devoid of thought and feeling and speech, and yet she can feel him, somehow, somewhere...

She concentrates on following that feeling. Delving deeper inside his mind.

In a few moments, she finally reaches a place where the Doctor’s cognitive faculties seem to be still operating. Visions are racing through his head so fast she can hardly focus on them. They’re all short scenes of the Doctor: here in the Torchwood building, back in the TARDIS... alone.

Rose quickly realises these aren’t memories. These things haven’t ever happened. This incarnation has never been on his own like this – she’s been beside him the whole time.

Is he having visions of the future? A future, rather?

Concentrating harder, it does feel jarringly similar to the other night, when the Doctor showed her the ominous vision of the ‘storm’ his time sense had conjured up beneath the fireworks. The progression of events is hauntingly realistic, threatening him with its feasibility, but not set in stone.

Rose would say it doesn’t matter what he’s seeing in here, and all that matters is getting through to him, because he may have mere seconds of life left. But it does matter, because from her vantage point, it seems like the Doctor doesn’t know these are mere mirages of an alternate timeline. She can sense the permeating fear and grief dominating this corner of his mind as it clings to life, as though he really believes he’s living out these choppy visions. And given the fact he still doesn’t recognize her presence, Rose fears the damage to his brain is even worse than she thought. His time sense has gone haywire, he can’t tell reality from these comatose visions, and many of his neurological faculties have shut down completely. Most gravely, it seems, his respiratory system and his connection with her.

She’s got to get through to him.

DOCTOR! She yells from inside his head.

Suddenly, she’s standing opposite him on a cold, unfamiliar grey beach.

“Rose? What’s wrong?” he asks. He looks distressed, but more out of confusion than his own impending death. He doesn’t look injured, or to be in any pain. His suit and hair are perfectly intact.

“You need to regenerate!” she commands, convinced she doesn’t have time to start from the beginning.

He looks around, clearly scanning the otherwise empty coastline for some evidence of danger to his life.

“Rose, what are you on about?” he asks, his brow furrowing. “I’m fine.”

“Doctor, whatever this is you’re experiencing in here, it’s not real,” Rose insists.

This seems to properly upset him. His face distorts into a sad frown as though she’s rejected him.

“Rose, I know I’m not here properly. Not physically, but… I had to say goodbye.”

His injured brain is so lost in this delusion. She has to snap him out of it.

“No, Doctor! Don’t say goodbye!” She lunges forward and grabs onto the lapels of his suit, shaking him just slightly, trying to break the illusion. The Doctor’s eyes widen in some sort of fear, staring down at her hands in shock.

“Rose,” he gasps out, breathing heavily. “How are you doing this?” He hesitantly reaches his arm up, touching her shoulder like she’s a ghost, like he expects his hand to pass right through it.

“Look, you’re hurt.” Rose gently puts her hands on either side of his face, forcing him to look at her. If she can’t break him out of this spell, maybe she can at least rely on the fact that he trusts her. Or, he once did. “You’re hurt really bad. You hit your head. You need to regenerate.”

“What’re you… agh!” Before he can finish whatever the sentence was going to be, his legs give out under him and he drops to his knees, replacing her hands on his head with his own.

“Rose,” he grits out through clenched teeth. “What’s happening?”

“Doctor, you need to stay with me.” She kneels down with him, fighting desperately for his full attention. “Can you feel the regeneration energy?”

“No,” he blurts out, frustrated.

He looks up at her, his eyes slowly going out of focus until they more closely resemble his lifeless eyes in the real world. “Rose, we don’ ‘ave much time. Just… needt’ tell you…”

“Doctor!” she shouts, bending down to his level. She can’t give up. “Listen! We’re not on this beach, okay? We’re at Canary Wharf. You’re about to leave me forever. You’ve got to trust me. I can feel it. The fire in your veins. You need to surrender to it.”

The Doctor’s eyes go blank as he suddenly directs his attention inward, trying to search, to focus, trying to follow her guidance.

The end result of this search, it seems, is more agony. The reality of his injuries catching up with him? The regeneration energy? Both? Whichever it is, he groans loudly as he hauls himself to his feet. She looks down at his hand at the same moment he does, watching the golden glow slowly saturate his fingers, radiating light onto his suit.

He gasps for air, and Rose knows she has to get out of here. Fast. Given the violence of his previous regeneration, she thinks holding onto him while this happens is likely to get her killed, instead. She recedes from his mind and jumps to her feet as soon as she’s back to the real world, scrambling away from him as the light bathing his still-unconscious figure burns ever brighter. She turns around and sprints for the other end of the room, sliding onto the floor behind one of the computer desks just as the explosion hits her ears.

A few seconds later she hears him, yelling in protest of the brutal process. It carries on for what feels like forever, and her heart aches for him. She doesn’t remember him being in this much agony the first time around. And that’s when it finally begins to hit her: the first time around. When he changed everything about himself and became the man he is now. Or was. He’s going to be a completely different man when she stands up to face him. And she had no time to prepare herself for that.

Still, it’s far better than no Doctor at all. They’ll get through it.

At long last, the pulsing and yelling ceases and the only sound is the Doctor gasping for air.

She stands up cautiously, peering over the desk to get a glimpse of him.

He’s still lying on the floor next to the wall in his tight brown suit, limbs sprawled out, panting, staring at the ceiling. But more than that: he’s still him. Perfectly styled and touchable brown hair, sideburns, gangly limbs.

“Doctor,” she calls softly, and he whips his head in the direction of the sound instantly, his eyes wide.

“Rose!” He bolts upright and leaps up onto his feet. But after he takes only two steps towards her, he loses his balance and belly flops flat on the floor with an ‘oof!’ With a groan, he gives up trying to move any further, content to wait for her to approach him.

She helps him sit up, and joins him on the floor, wrapping her arms around him tightly despite the awkward positioning.

“Rose, I’m... it’s me,” he says, clearly trying to reassure her. “I regenerated, but... it’s me.” He doesn’t realise it yet.

“Doctor, look.” She grins, making an effort not to outright giggle. She runs a hand through his hair, and grabs his hands and holds them up. He stares at one hand for a long moment, turning it around to view both sides, then runs his hand through his hair like she had. He shifts in his clothes, wriggles his feet inside his shoes. And, for good measure, he twists his arm behind him and reaches his hand up the back of his shirt. The moment he feels the mole between his shoulder blades is evident. Ecstatic, his jaw drops and his eyebrows shoot up on his forehead.

“It worked!” he exclaims. “It worked!”

“What worked?” she asks, genuinely puzzled by how this is possible.

“Rose, you did! You were there, when I was about to regenerate. You didn’t want me to change. I didn’t want to change. It was all I could think about.” He pauses, shaking his head. “Still, I think Bad Wolf is up to something again. This has never happened before.”

“But you said it could?” she counters.

“Honestly, I was just trying to make you feel better,” he admits. “It may have been technically possible, but I didn’t think it ever would.”

Ordinarily, she might slap him in the head for pulling a stunt like that, but it doesn’t seem appropriate at the moment.

Instead, she hugs him again, so glad that her previous hug with him several days before hadn’t been her last. She came so close to losing him.

“I know I said you might end up burning through your regenerations quickly, but this is a bit too fast,” she says, wiping tears of joy from her eyes. “We might be evening the odds too much.”

The Doctor chuckles despite himself, running a hand over his cheek, seeming as thankful it’s unchanged as she is.

“Only got one left now,” he says, his tone oddly light given the subject matter. “Maybe it’s time to retire, then.”

“Nah,” says Rose, laughing along with him this time.

“What was goin’ on in your head, Doctor?” she asks after a moment.

He takes a deep breath, blowing it out through his mouth exaggeratedly.

“I was having visions, premonitions, maybe.” He certainly seems more cogent now; she’s glad brain damage was healed just as well as bodily damage during the regeneration. “Possible timelines. Or maybe just one timeline. With the trauma to my brain, it seems like the tissue itself was having a tough time handling a Time Lord consciousness crammed inside. My time sense was going mad, and for whatever reason, that’s where it decided to send me in my final moments. I couldn’t remember what happened though. Acute amnesia, or perhaps delirium from the intracranial pressure, or some combination was making it impossible for me to tell it wasn’t real. But it did feel... off. I could tell something was wrong, I just couldn’t pinpoint what it was. It was like I was trapped in the Matrix, but couldn’t get out.”

“God.” She’d been so focused on saving him, she hasn’t paused for long to consider how terrifying it must have been for him. How long did it feel like he was trapped in there, before she got to him? Time is such a subjective thing.

“Until you showed up,” he adds with a crooked grin, nudging her with his elbow.

Rose chuckles, content to go along with his attempt to lighten the mood. “I was your red pill.”

“You were. Thank you for saving me.”

“Anytime. Anyway, it was only a few days ago you saved my life.”

“Quite right, too.” He grimaces, like he instantly regrets saying it.

“What?” she asks. The words seem innocuous enough.

“Something about that phrase is putting me off.” He frowns, trying to figure out why with more effort than it seems he should. “Hmm.”

“All right, let’s go, Time Lord,” Rose says, getting to her feet and holding out a hand for his. “You need some rest. You’re gonna get loopy on me again like last time.”

“I am not.” But he almost falls when he stands up, and Rose has to wrap her arm around his waist and support half his weight on her shoulders in order for him to stay upright. “All right, maybe a little dizzy, then,” he admits. “You try regenerating, see how you feel afterwards.”

“Would if I could,” she teases.

They slowly make their way across the length of the room, Rose taking care to avoid the broken glass and other debris littering the room so the Doctor doesn’t stumble again.

When Rose opens the door to the stairwell, both their shuffling feet stop dead in their tracks.

There’s a man waiting for them at the top of the stairs.

A tall, handsome man in a blue trenchcoat.

“Rose!” the man exclaims, smiling from ear to ear. “And... Doctor?” he says, shock distorting his features as he takes in the figure of the man she’s supporting.

Rose gasps. “Jack!”

“Jack?” the Doctor asks at the same time, his tone coloured far more with disgust than excitement.

#ficandchips #ten x rose #i hope this is worth the wait!#it's such an important chap #i've been waiting to write my take on this fix it for literal ages #hence my high anxiey and putting it off #(though arkham knight did properly distract me to be fair)#anyway #written by yours truly

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ao3feed-doctorxrose · 2 years ago

Text

Déjà Vu

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/bBtqYVL

by Marvelous_Melody

Rose Tyler thought her life was over when her gripped slipped from the lever and she was pulled into the void. However, the TARDIS gives Rose one last chance to do things differently in order to have forever with her Doctor. Unfortunately this meant that Rose wouldn’t just being going back to when the Cybermen first showed up as ghosts. Instead she’d be back in a department store basement surrounded by show window dummies and a hearing the word that started it all.

“Run.”

An alternate universe where Pete Tyler doesn’t catch Rose before she falls into the void and in order to avoid this fate she must relive her life with the Doctor.

Words: 1011, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Doctor Who (2005)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Tenth Doctor (Doctor Who), Rose Tyler, The Doctor's TARDIS, Sarah Jane Smith, Jack Harkness, Jack Harkness | Face of Boe, Mickey Smith (Doctor Who), Jackie Tyler, Dalek(s) (Doctor Who), Cybermen (Doctor Who), The Slitheen (Doctor Who), Lady Cassandra O'Brien.Δ17, Rose Tyler | Bad Wolf

Relationships: Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Doctor (Doctor Who) & Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler & Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith & Rose Tyler

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Time Travel Fix-It, Slow Burn, Fluff, Angst, Season/Series 01, Season/Series 02, Bad Wolf, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Meddling TARDIS, Science Fiction, no betas we die like Captain Jack

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/bBtqYVL

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #doctor who #nine x rose #ninth doctor #9 x rose #rose tyler

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ao3feed-doctorxrose · 5 years ago

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Hard to say I love you

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2nxC4tk

by Captain_Wolfy

Rose’s thoughts during the end of Dalek.

Words: 251, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler

Relationships: The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2nxC4tk

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #doctor who #nine x rose #ninth doctor #9 x rose #rose tyler

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ao3feed-doctorxrose · 2 years ago

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Déjà Vu

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/bBtqYVL

by Marvelous_Melody

“Run.”

An alternate universe where Pete Tyler doesn’t catch Rose before she falls into the void and in order to avoid this fate she must relive her life with the Doctor.

Words: 1011, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Doctor Who (2005)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Relationships: Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Doctor (Doctor Who) & Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler & Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith & Rose Tyler

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/bBtqYVL

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #doctor who #rose tyler #tenth doctor #ten x rose #10 x rose

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chocolatequeennk · 7 years ago

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Forever and Never Apart, 38/42

Summary: After taking a year to recover from the Master, the Doctor and Rose are ready to travel again. But Time keeps pushing them forward, and instead of going back to their old life, they slowly realise that they’re stepping into a new life. Friends new and old are meeting on the TARDIS, and when the stars start going out, the Doctor and Rose face the biggest change of all: the return of Bad Wolf.

Series 4 with Rose, part 7 of Being to Timelessness; sequel to Taking Time (AO3 | FF.NET | TSP)

Betaed by @lastbluetardis, @rudennotgingr, @jabber-who-key, and @pellaaearien. Thank you so much!

This fills several Bad Wolf prompts on @doctorroseprompts

AO3 | FF.NET | TSP

Ch 1 | Ch 2 | Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Ch 7 | Ch 8 | Ch 9 | Ch 10| Ch 11 | Ch 12 | Ch 13 | Ch 14 | Ch 15 | Ch 16 | Ch 17 | Ch 18 | Ch 19 | Ch 20 | Ch 21 | Ch 22 | Ch 23 | Ch 24 | Ch 25 | Ch 26 | Ch 27 | Ch 28 | Ch 29 | Ch 30 | Ch 31 | Ch 32 | Ch 33 | Ch 34 | Ch 35 | Ch 36 | Ch 37

Chapter Thirty-eight: Bad Wolf Reborn

The TARDIS wrapped herself around Rose, using the huon particles that had been left behind to form a full link between them. Knowledge surged through Rose, all the knowledge and memories of a being with millennia of experience—including the knowledge of what exactly had just happened.

Oh, that’s why we left those huon particles. They were kind of like a backdoor, so we could become Bad Wolf again.

That’s right, my Wolf.

Rose blinked when she heard the TARDIS in her mind, speaking in full sentences. Even though she never had a problem understanding the ship, their conversations were usually more of a flow of understanding as they each shared ideas rather than actual dialogue.

A tinkle of laughter felt like gold light in the back of her mind. Yes, when we are one, we can speak in full sentences.

And they were one. It was odd, Rose thought with some detachment. She could feel the TARDIS in her mind, and Bad Wolf, and herself… and yet somehow, all three were also one.

But about the huon particles… Rose said, leading them back to the original topic of conversation. Is this going go leave me feeling all tired and worn out for a week?

No. It was only the addition of the Time Vortex that left you dependent on me. This time when we separate, the huon particles in you will stabilise, and if we’re ever apart, you won’t get sick again.

Rose held her hand up and observed the tinge of gold running underneath her skin. Why didn’t you tell me that before?

Too much foreknowledge is not good for a temporal being. You saw your entire life when you held the power of the Vortex. You saw it all, and then you locked the memories away, to be unlocked only when they became relevant.

Rose sighed, but that was fair enough. And truthfully, she’d rather have some surprises left in her life, instead of having it an open book laid out in front of her.

She knew the exact moment the Doctor realised what had happened, and braced herself for his fear or disapproval. Instead, she was met mostly with confusion. She’d done what she’d hinted at over a year ago and become Bad Wolf without looking into the Time Vortex, and he couldn’t understand how.

We are the Bad Wolf, she said simply, the plural coming naturally. We cannot be uncreated.

It took him a moment to process that, then his confusion was replaced with something more like pride and hope. Everything they’d been told about Bad Wolf in the last year helped him understand that they had always been coming to this point, and that Bad Wolf was the only way to save the universe.

Rose ducked below the console a moment before she heard shattering glass and realised the rest of the roundels and the glass in the door had just exploded from the pressure of floating on a sea of Z-neutrino energy. The hint of prescience that came with being Bad Wolf was an odd sensation, but since it had just saved her life, she wasn’t going to complain.

While she waited for the turbulence to smooth out, Rose deepened the bond with the Doctor so she could eavesdrop on the conversation on the Crucible. When the Supreme Dalek gloated over their imminent deaths—the death of Rose, and the death of the TARDIS—the Bad Wolf couldn’t help but smirk.

Time tugged at her, and she got to her feet and pressed a series of buttons that Rose Tyler didn’t quite understand yet. But as the TARDIS—as the Bad Wolf—she knew they would time the flight of the TARDIS to the moment the Daleks’ countdown ended. The ship would disappear from their monitor exactly when they expected, but instead of dissolving into atoms, it would rematerialise outside the Crucible, undetected.

Rose pressed the final button when the countdown reached four, and she felt the moment the TARDIS left the heart of the Crucible. The Doctor could feel it too, and they allowed themselves just a moment to celebrate together, before they each focused on the separate tasks they needed to do before they could be reunited.

oOoOoOoOo

Despite all the hints of Bad Wolf that they’d gotten in the last year, the Doctor had remained firmly in denial. Bad Wolf had killed Rose once, and her suggestion that it might be possible without risking that danger seemed… remote, at best.

And yet he could tell she’d kept her promise and not looked into the Time Vortex. With a full bond between them, he would have witnessed the power of raw time along with her. And while the idea of ruling the universe beside her as the god and goddess of time had some appeal, the awareness that their physical bodies couldn't withstand the power killed his interest.

He shoved his trembling hands into his hair and tugged, vaguely aware that he still needed to present a picture of an angry, grieving husband to the Daleks.

The sharp pain in his scalp focused his thoughts. How had Rose merged with the TARDIS so completely? Taking an eleventh dimensional matrix and folding it into a flesh body shouldn’t be possible, and if it were, it should be putting far more strain on the physical form than it seemed to be.

We are the Bad Wolf, Rose reminded him. We cannot be uncreated.

It was incomprehensible to him, and yet it was obviously true. The Doctor growled and shoved his hands into his pockets as he straightened up to stare at the Daleks. Rose was safe, but they couldn’t know that.

“Your TARDIS and your mate,” the Supreme Dalek crowed, not realising how prophetic his words were. “You are connected to them both—now feel them die.”

The golden light in the Doctor’s mind felt amused as it listened to the words of the Daleks through their connection. The Doctor was able to channel his confusion and shock into something he hoped still looked like fear and anger.

“Total TARDIS destruction in ten rels,” a Dalek announced. “Nine, eight, seven, six, Five, four, three, two, one.”

The TARDIS disappeared from the screen, but she didn’t disappear from his mind, and neither did Rose. The Doctor bit his lip to hold back his cry of victory. Oh, the Daleks had done it now. Because the last time a fleet of Daleks had gone up against Bad Wolf, they had been dissolved to dust.

If it were possible for a Dalek to smirk, the Supreme Dalek was doing it now. He waved his death ray and plunger arm in excitement. “The TARDIS has been destroyed. Now tell me, Doctor. What do you feel? Anger? Sorrow? Despair?”

Hope. The Doctor felt hope. Because Rose had flown the TARDIS out of the Crucible and was hiding somewhere, while she and the TARDIS worked on a plan. And if there was one thing that would always give him hope, it was the idea that Rose and the TARDIS together could do almost anything they set their minds to.

The Doctor pressed his lips together, hoping he looked like he was holding back tears instead of laughter. He looked at the blank screen, summoning up the empty tone of voice he’d used the last time Rose had been killed. “Yeah.”

Jenny’s grief buffeted against him. The Doctor frowned hard enough to get a headache between his eyes—couldn’t she feel Rose still alive? His eyes widened after a moment when he realised that Bad Wolf felt different enough from Rose to confuse a young telepath.

He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. Pressing a kiss to her temple, he used the brief connection to project calm and hope to her. He couldn’t tell her what had happened, but he couldn’t let her go without some kind of comfort.

“Then if emotions are so important, surely we have enhanced you?” the Supreme Dalek taunted.

“Doctor?”

The Doctor turned slowly to meet Mickey and Jack’s disbelieving looks. “Rose was there… with the TARDIS,” he said, grinding out the words so they sounded painful. He met each man’s gaze directly, holding it for a moment until he thought they understood. They both knew what Rose could do with the TARDIS.

Jack’s gaze flicked over the Doctor’s shoulder to look at the Daleks. He set his jaw, then pulled his service revolver out and ran past the Doctor.

“You want emotions?” Jack challenged. “Then feel this!” He fired the weapon at the Supreme Dalek. The bullets made no dent in the polycarbide casing, but that hadn’t been Jack’s goal.

“Exterminate!”

The Doctor carefully shielded Jenny with his body as the Supreme Dalek fired on Jack. Should the red menace get the idea to let his death ray go astray, he didn’t want it coming anywhere near his daughter.

A moment later, the Doctor shuddered when he felt the wrongness that accompanied one of Jack’s deaths. Donna didn’t know about Jack’s trick though, and she darted forward to bend over him.

“They… they just killed him,” she said, her voice numb. “First Rose, now Jack.”

The Doctor let go of Jenny and bent down to pull Donna to her feet. “I know. I’m sorry,” he said, apologising more for not being able to tell her the truth than anything else.

“Escort them to the Vault,” the Supreme Dalek ordered.

Donna stood up, still staring down at Jack’s currently-dead body. The Doctor rested a hand on the small of her back as a Dalek rolled forward to escort them into a lift.

“There’s nothing we can do,” he told Donna. But as they walked away, he glanced over his shoulder just in time to catch Jack’s wink.

“They are the playthings of Davros now,” the Supreme Dalek gloated, unaware that the enemies he thought he was eliminating one by one were actually escaping his watchful eyestalk and forging plans for his eventual defeat.

oOoOoOoOo

Martha’s trek through the German forest was cold and fraught with danger. More than once, she was nearly spotted by a Dalek patrol, but each time she managed to duck behind a convenient tree just in time.

Still, by the time she reached a clearing and spotted the large stone castle, illuminated by spotlights, her nerves were shot. A voice called out to her, and Martha looked up at the old woman climbing down from the ramparts.

“Hier ist niemand. Was immer Sie wollen, gehen Sie fort. Lassen Sie mich in Ruhe!”

Martha sighed; she sympathised with the woman for wanting to be left in peace, but she didn’t have that option. “Ich heisse Martha Jones,” she stated clearly, giving her identification to the woman she knew was an operative, despite her appearance. “Ich komme von UNIT. Agentin fuenf sechs sechs sieben eins, von der medizinishen Abteilung.”

The woman stopped and stared at her from the top of the hill the castle had been built on. “Es hiess Sie kaemen vorbei. That accent. That is London, ja?” She tilted her head and her lips twisted into a half-smile. “I went to London. Long time ago.”

Martha ignored the attempt at casual conversation. There was something wrong here. “I thought this place was supposed to be guarded.”

“They were soldiers. Boys.” The woman scoffed, and Martha knew what had happened before she finished the story. “I brought them food every day. But when der Albtraum came from the sky, they went home—to die.” Her voice cracked, and she pressed her lips together and swallowed hard before speaking again. “But not you,” she said after a moment.

“I’ve got a job to do.” Martha didn’t have the luxury of being able to leave and let the nightmare from the sky play out. It was her job to stop it.

She climbed the stairs and the woman let her into the castle. Even though Martha had never been to this particular site, she’d been shown pictures when they’d first told her about the Osterhagen key and how it worked. She knew exactly how to get to the secret station, hidden behind the castle walls.

The old woman watched her as she strode through the unused rooms and found the tapestry hanging on the wall that concealed the keypad. Martha yanked it down and pressed her hand to it.

While she waited for it to give her clearance to enter, the woman continued her story. “London. In those days, to see it. So much glamour. I was so young. I heard the soldiers talking many times. They would speak of the Osterhagen Key. I think London must be changed now, yes? But still, the glamour.”

Martha’s handprint checked out, and she pulled the heavy door open. Then, to her surprise, she heard the distinctive click of a safety being removed on a revolver, and she turned around to stare at the woman who had not actually been caught in nostalgic memories, but had been slowly sussing her out.

“You will not go,” she said, but though the words were spoken fiercely, the weapon wobbled in her hands and Martha knew she was not in any true danger.

“I’ve got no choice.” The words came out pleading, asking the woman to understand that she would never think of using the Osterhagen Key if there were any other way. Her stomach was tied in knots at just the thought of what she was attempting, but the fate of the universe was in the balance.

“I know the Key.” The woman’s eyes were wide with horror. “What it does. Sie sind der Albtraum, nicht die anderen, Sie! Ich sollte Sie umbringen, am besten gleich jetzt!”

The Doctor’s voice whispered in her ear that the woman was right—Martha was the nightmare. The idea of setting off a string of nuclear warheads in the surface of the Earth rather than fighting until they had exhausted every option… it was wrong. It was against everything the Doctor had taught her, and it went directly against her medical training to do no harm.

But she had an order. “Then do it,” she challenged. The woman stared at her for another interminable minute, then finally she dropped her hand.

No longer under threat, Martha nodded once, then turned and stepped into the lift.

“Martha, Zur Hoelle mit Dir!” the woman cried after her.

Martha pressed the button. “I know.”

As the lift took her to the lower levels, Martha tried to shrug off the face of the old woman who had just told her to go to hell. She had an assignment, no matter what Harriet Jones or old German ladies thought.

But again, the Doctor’s voice suggested that maybe there was another way. That maybe, she should start by giving the Daleks a choice. Didn’t he always give his enemies a choice, a chance to do the right thing before he followed through on whatever plan he’d come up with to stop them?

The first hint of an idea formed in the back of her mind. Earth was one of twenty-seven planets. What if…

The lift stopped, and the doors opened directly onto a small station, big enough for one person only. As Martha unstrapped Project Indigo, the lights came on and the door shut behind her. Her breath caught in her throat; she had never felt more alone in her life.

She thought briefly of Tom and their ill-fated relationship. Did she feel alone partly because she’d broken up with him, or would she feel more alone if they were still together and she had to keep this from him? The same image that had convinced her to break up with him came to her again—Rose comforting the Doctor after the death of the Face of Boe. If she couldn’t have that, she would rather be alone.

She squared her shoulders and strode towards the desk chair, the Osterhagen key in hand. The rules were clear: there must be three operatives at three stations with three keys to activate the Osterhagen Key. That gave her time to come up with an alternative to blowing up the Earth.

Martha pressed the button for the secure comm link that connected the stations positioned strategically worldwide. “This is Osterhagen Station One. My name is Martha Jones. Is there anyone there? Over.”

A staticky pop and buzz came over the speaker. Martha pursed her lips—it was time to think like the Doctor, not just a doctor. There was always an alternative, if you looked for it hard enough.

oOoOoOoOo

The first thing Jack registered was heat. Much heat. Very hot. His eyes flew open, and he realised he was in an incinerator. Not the worst way he’d woken up after dying, but definitely not the best.

Thankfully, no one expected people to climb out of an incinerator, so the door didn’t lock and he was able to slide it up and roll out before he died again and had to think of a new plan.

Using the scanner on his wrist comp, Jack was able to get a rough schematic of the Crucible. He punched a few more buttons and managed to get it to show Dalek activity—which was pretty much everywhere.

He eyed the plans and sighed. “Ventilation shafts it is,” he muttered to himself and opened the nearest access point.

oOoOoOoOo

Sarah Jane, Pete, and Jackie followed the line of humans being led through the Crucible.

“Prisoners now on board the Crucible,” a Dalek said. “They will be taken for testing.”

“Testing?” Pete muttered. “I don’t know if I like the sound of that.”

Sarah Jane shook her head, then took a quick look around her, hoping to spot someone she recognised. “One step closer to the Doctor,” she said resolutely.

oOoOoOoOo

Rose leaned back and surveyed the console room when she got the last bits of debris swept up. The TARDIS had repaired herself when they had left the Crucible, but there had still been a little bit of picking up left for Rose to do. And honestly, she didn’t mind—it gave her time to think about what had just happened.

The moment they’d rematerialised, she’d felt the timelines settle around her in one solid path forward. She knew what she needed to do, and she knew with a certainty that was unnerving what had happened—no, what would happen.

Rose put her hand on the console and frowned down at the ship. “Can you try to think linearly when we’re connected like this?” she said, the sudden headache giving the words some bite.

The lights in the console room flashed, and the voice of the TARDIS in her mind apologised, though not without a hint of laughter. To the TARDIS, time was as natural a part of her environment as air was to humans. And like humans wouldn’t separate out the individual elements that made up the atmosphere, it was unnatural to her to divide past from present and future.

Rose rolled her eyes and brushed her hair out of her eyes. The glint of gold under her skin caught her eye again, and this time, it reminded her of something else. She’d seen that same gold at the edge of her vision in moments when the Doctor was threatened, or when they were in danger. She was the Bad Wolf, as she was meant to be.

And yet…

Rose brushed her hands over the controls on the console. “The Master said this wasn’t the prime timeline,” she said slowly. “That the most likely sequence of events after Canary Wharf was for me and the Doctor to be separated. So how… Did I…”

We saw all of Time, my Wolf. With the Vortex running through our mind, we saw it all. We saw the possibilities, and we found a timeline we preferred. And then, like a strand in a tapestry, we took that thread and wove it into our story.

A hazy memory shifted in the back of Rose’s mind. She’d done this. She’d set them on this path, or at least made it a possibility. Because this was how it was meant to be—the Doctor and Rose Tyler, in the TARDIS, forever.

oOoOoOoOo

As the Doctor and his companions were led to the Vault, he quickly ran over his hidden assets. There was Jack, who had faked his death so he could hopefully get away from the Daleks and run free through the Crucible.

Sarah Jane had been on that conference call earlier, and if he knew Sarah, she would not be content to sit at home, watching the world burn around her. The Doctor didn’t know what exactly she would be doing, but he expected her to appear at some point—likewise with the brilliant Martha Jones.

And, of course, there was Rose. Rose and their TARDIS, currently merged in the form of the Bad Wolf, listening in on the conversations going on and making plans that the Daleks absolutely would not be expecting.

Everyone would play a part, he knew. But his gut told him that the salvation of the universe would come at the hands of the Bad Wolf.

The Daleks who had delivered them to the Vault rolled back to the lift and returned to the main level of the Crucible. The Doctor stood in the middle of the room, with Jenny, Donna, and Mickey close by, and waited for Davros to speak.

“Activate the holding cells,” the mad scientist said, and the Doctor saw a glimmer of light as energy shields went up around each of them.

Jenny reached out and touched hers, and it flickered blue for a moment. “That’s weird,” she mumbled, then pressed her hand more firmly to the barrier.

“Excellent,” Davros rejoiced. He hit a button on his chair and rolled closer to the Doctor. “Even when powerless, Time Lords are best contained.”

The Doctor flicked his finger against the shield. Davros’ words made it clear he knew who Jenny was, and it struck him suddenly that his daughter was completely defenceless against his old enemy.

“Still scared of me, then?” he taunted, hoping to keep Davros’ attention focused on him.

Davros ignored his attitude. “It is time we talked, Doctor. After so very long.”

The Doctor shook his head quickly. He knew exactly where that conversation was going, and it was the last one he wanted to have with Davros. “No, no, no, no, no. We’re not doing the nostalgia tour. I want to know what’s happening right here, right now.”

He scanned his surroundings as he talked. It had not escaped him that they’d taken the lift down to get to the Vault, and now, a hilarious possibility occurred to him. “Because the Supreme Dalek said Vault, yeah? As in dungeon, cellar, prison.” He spun in a slow circle as he ticked off the synonyms. “You’re not in charge of the Daleks, are you?” He smirked at Davros. Davros stared at him, grim-faced, and he knew he was right. “They’ve got you locked away down here in the basement like, what, a servant? Slave? Court jester?”

“We have… an arrangement,” Davros conceded reluctantly.

“No, no, no, no, no.” The Doctor rocked back on his heels and laughed at the ceiling. “No, I’ve got the word. You’re the Dalek’s pet!”

Davros jerked the joystick controlling his chair and wheeled over to Jenny, and the Doctor cursed under his breath when he realised his plan to keep Davros’ attention focused on him had failed.

“So very full of fire, is he not?” Davros asked Jenny as he rolled to a stop in front of her. “Oh, I see the same fire in your eyes. You are indeed the Doctor’s daughter.”

A growl built in the back of the Doctor’s throat, but before he could hurl useless threats against Davros, Donna’s voice drowned out his protest. “Leave her the hell alone, you big old… Skeletor look-alike.”

The Doctor covered his mouth to hide his smirk. Davros really didn’t look much like Skeletor, but he loved Donna’s creativity.

Davros’ head swivelled between Jenny and Donna, trying to decide who he should stare down. “She is mine to do as I please.”

Jenny tilted her head back and crossed her arms over her chest. “Then why am I still alive?”

The Doctor stared at the floor for a moment, working to choke back his anger and helplessness. Jenny was so much like Rose—the same fearless defiance that always terrified him at times like this.

“You must be here. It was foretold.”

Davros’ raspy voice held a note of reverence that caught the Doctor by surprise. Who exactly had the scientist found to revere?

“Even the Supreme Dalek would not dare to contradict the prophecies of Dalek Caan.”

Davros pressed a button on his chair, and a light clicked on over a Dalek mollusk lounging in his open casing. “So cold and dark,” Dalek Caan said, his tentacles moving in time with his singsong voice. “Fire is coming. The endless flames.”

“What is that thing?” Mickey asked, while Donna gasped and put her hand over her mouth.

The Doctor sighed. “That is a Dalek, Mickey. A Dalek removed from his polycarbide shell.” He looked at Donna, still staring at the grotesque mollusk-like creature with wide eyes. “Rose and I told you about them, remember?”

Donna shook her head. Her eyes were fixed on the tentacles, waving in the air. “Yeah, but you said they had… metal and stuff. That’s just…”

“This is the true Dalek form,” the Doctor explained. “What they all look like beneath the metal casing. And Dalek Caan is unique. He flew into the Time War, unprotected.”

“Caan did more than that,” countered Davros. “He saw time. Its infinite complexity and majesty, raging through his mind. And he saw you. All of you.”

The Doctor frowned, wrinkling his forehead. He knew someone else who had looked into all of time and been changed by it. Looking into the Time Vortex had revealed the true desire of Margaret the Slitheen’s heart—he could only hope that a similar experience had given Dalek Caan the same change of perspective.

“This I have foreseen, in the wild and the wind. The Doctor will be here as witness, at the end of everything. The Doctor and the Bad Wolf, and their precious Children of Time. Oh, but now the Wolf has been silenced.”

The Doctor’s hearts stuttered, and he choked on a gasp as he swayed slightly on his feet. The last time he’d been warned that the Wolf would be silenced, he’d gone without Rose and their bond for five months—three of which he’d thought she was dead.

Rose?? he called frantically, even though he could still feel her in his head.

I’m fine, Doctor, she promised. But silent, like a submarine in the movies—running silent.

The tension drained out of him, and his shoulders sagged in relief. Then another thought occurred to him, and he shoved his hands through his hair. There was no way the phrasing was an accident, not if Dalek Caan could see Time. And that meant the Dalek knew Rose was alive.

He couldn’t let anyone else pick up on that fact though, and he immediately fell back on the anger and hopeless desperation he’d felt when the Supreme Dalek had dropped the TARDIS and Rose into the heart of the Crucible.

“Was it you, Caan?” he spat out. “Did you kill Rose? Why did the TARDIS door close? Tell me!” His volume rose with each demand, until he screamed the final words. The diatribe had started as yet another way to deflect attention from Rose, but talking about how much danger she was in brought his earlier fear back to full force.

“Oh, that’s it,” Davros cried victoriously. “The anger, the fire, the rage of a Time Lord who butchered millions. There he is.”

The Doctor felt Jenny’s gaze on him, could feel her confusion in the face of his rage. Across the room, Donna and Mickey looked on sympathetically, but Jenny had never seen him out of control like this. He took deep breaths and reminded himself that Rose wasn’t actually dead—she was only silenced, as Dalek Caan had said, biding her time until it was the right moment for her to save them all.

“Why so shy?” Davros said, his voice low and taunting. “Show your companion. Show her your true self. Dalek Caan has promised me that too.”

“I have seen. At the time of ending, the Doctor’s soul will be revealed.”

The Doctor ignored Dalek Caan’s latest prophecy and focused on his daughter instead. Her eyes glinted with tears, and he realised his outburst had convinced the wrong person of Rose’s death.

“Jenny…” His mouth worked uselessly as he tried to think of some words he could offer to reassure her that wouldn’t tip Rose’s hand to the Daleks.

He shook his head, but that had the opposite effect he’d hoped for. Instead of realising he meant Rose wasn’t actually in danger, she interpreted his head shake to mean Rose was gone. A tear tracked down her cheek, and the Doctor had to choke back the reassurances that would ruin Rose’s secret plan.

He looked back at Dalek Caan before he could say the wrong thing. “What do you mean, my soul will be revealed?” he demanded.

“We will discover it together,” Davros whispered. “Our final journey. Because the ending approaches. The testing begins.”

“Testing of what?” Dread settled in the pit of the Doctor’s stomach like a lump of over-kneaded bread.

Davros had half-turned away from him, but at the question, he spun back around. He tilted his head, and his voice was chillingly matter-of-fact when he answered. “The Reality Bomb.”

oOoOoOoOo

Heavy double doors flew open in front of the group of human prisoners, and they were led into an open chamber with high ceilings. “Prisoners will stand in the designated area,” a Dalek said as they were herded towards the centre of the room. “Move! Move!”

Sarah Jane stiffened when she took in the room’s stone walls and dirt floor. To most people, they would have seemed very out of place on an advanced spaceship—the overall aesthetic was more what you’d expect to find on an archaeological dig. But there was something in the design that hailed back to Skaro, and a wave of memories she’d tried to bury came back to her.

A gasp of pain pulled her back to the present danger. Sarah Jane twisted her head, trying to find the woman and perhaps offer help, but she couldn’t see over Pete’s shoulders.

“You will stand!” the Dalek ordered.

Sarah Jane realised two things in an instant: what must have happened, and that the Daleks’ attention was focused on this woman who had unfortunately fallen to the ground.

“I can’t,” the woman whimpered.

“You will stand!”

As the woman continued to plead with the Daleks, Sarah Jane scanned the room and spotted a smaller door off to the side. The Daleks hadn’t taken her sonic lipstick from her when they’d been brought on board, so unless the door was deadlocked, she had a way out.

“On your feet, on your feet!”

Sarah Jane shoved her hand into her jacket pocket as she ran for the door, pulling out the lipstick. She heard the distinctive fire of the Dalek death ray when she reached the door, and assumed the Daleks had taken another victim.

Her hands were shaking as she pointed her lipstick at the lock. Please let this work, she begged the universe. She let out a breath when she heard the latch unlock, then she looked over her shoulder while the door slid open. “Pete, Jackie!” she whispered as she left the room.

Pete stared straight ahead with his hands locked behind his head as ordered. He was so focused on Tony and Jackie and everyone in his universe that he was letting down that he almost missed Sarah Jane whispering his name and Jackie’s.

He let his gaze drift away from the Daleks to search for the Doctor’s friend, and his eyes widened when he saw her standing on the other side of an open door. Hope coursed through him. After sparing the Daleks a quick glance to make sure he wasn’t being watched, he carefully shifted to the side of the room, trusting Jackie to follow.

He only looked back when he reached the door, and his stomach clenched in hard knots when he realised she was directly in front of the Daleks and couldn’t move. He pivoted, but before he could go in after her, a hand clamped on his wrist and dragged him out of the room.

Pete glared at Sarah Jane as the door slid shut. “What the hell are you doing?” He reached for the button. “I’m not leaving my wife behind!”

In response, Sarah Jane dragged him to the floor. Pete caught a glimpse of a Dalek patrolling just the other side of the door before they were safely out of sight.

oOoOoOoOo

The booming, grating voice of the Supreme Dalek reverberated around the Vault. “Testing calibration of Reality Bomb. Firing in ten rels.”

The Doctor furrowed his brow. Reality Bomb? He stared at Davros, trying to understand what he was talking about.

“Behold.” Davros’ voice was shivering with anticipation. “The apotheosis of my genius.”

The view screen turned back on, revealing a crowded room full of humans. The Doctor’s gaze flicked between the screen and Davros, as he wondered what exactly the Daleks had done now. Davros bristled with pride, and the Doctor knew that whatever the Reality Bomb was, it was bad news from the humans trapped in that room.

The Supreme Dalek’s countdown reached zero. “Activate planetary alignment field!” he ordered victoriously. The image on the view screen switched from the holding chamber to a quick glimpse of the configuration of twenty-seven stolen planets.

The final piece slid into place when the planets started to glow. Twenty-seven planets, like cogs in a gear, and a space station with a heart of Z-neutrino energy.

“That’s Z-neutrino energy, flattened by the alignment of the planets into a single string,” he muttered. The image switched back to the prisoners, and the Doctor’s hearts thudded painfully in his chest as the final piece fell into place.

“No!” he breathed. “Davros, you can’t!” He pressed his hands to the containment field and hissed when a charge went through his body. “You can’t!” he insisted, his shoulders heaving as he struggled to breathe.

This was why the stars were going out in that parallel world. Reality was being literally undone. The people in that testing room, all of them, were about to be reduced to atoms.

And it wouldn’t stop there. Everything and everyone would be reduced to nothing. No one was safe, not even Bad Wolf.

oOoOoOoOo

Pete paced the corridor, rubbing his hands over his bald head. Jackie was in there, and whatever the Daleks were planning on testing, he didn’t think it was a new line of beauty products.

Another Dalek with a deeper grating voice came over the tannoy, counting down to something. The tension stole the last of Pete’s patience, and he reached for the door controls again. And again, Sarah Jane stopped him.

“I can’t just stand here and wait for the Daleks to kill her,” he whispered harshly.

Sarah Jane shook her head. “I know you want to save your wife,” she said, cutting off his protests. “But if the Doctor can’t stop whatever the Daleks are doing in there, we’re all going to be dead by the end of the day anyway!”

Those words reminded Pete of Jackie’s pragmatic reason for leaving Tony behind to come to this universe and help the Doctor and Rose. He took a deep breath and nodded, knowing it was what Jackie would have wanted. Choosing his son’s life over his wife’s was torture, though, and he couldn’t bring himself to watch.

Something beeped, and for a moment, he thought the weapon had fired. Then he realised he knew that sound, and he reached frantically into his pocket for his dimension hopper. The light was on, and he ran to the door.

“Thirty minutes,” he told Sarah Jane as he held the yellow button up to the window. “It’s recharged.”

He pounded on the glass porthole, hoping the sound would be enough to get Jackie’s attention. “Come on, Jacks,” he muttered, and finally, she looked up at him. “Use it,” he mouthed deliberately, pointing at the button. “Get out of there, love. Come on!”

Jackie’s eyes widened, and she slowly lowered one hand to slip it into her pocket. Pete saw her turn to the woman she was standing next to and whisper something, then she disappeared.

A second later she was in his arms. “Pete!” She clung to him. “Oh, my God, Pete! I thought I was dead!”

The exhilaration of a narrow miss coursed through Pete’s veins, and he threaded his fingers through Jackie’s hair and tilted her head back so he could press his lips to hers. Tears burned under his lids as he kissed his wife fiercely, trying to convey exactly how grateful he was to have what was now a third chance at a life with her.

Sarah Jane tugged on his sleeve, and he reluctantly pulled away from Jackie to look through the window. The room was being flooded with bright greenish yellow light. Pete’s eyes widened as one by one, the people left behind were vaporised, existing one minute and reduced to atoms the next.

The woman Jackie had tried to help was the last to go, and Jackie turned her face into his chest and whimpered when she was gone.

Even Sarah Jane’s voice shook when she said, “Come on. We’ve got to find the Doctor.”

oOoOoOoOo

Rose was still reining in her anger at the way Dalek Caan had heartlessly played with the Doctor’s worst memories when the TARDIS monitor clicked on. She took a deep breath, then moved around the console to look at it. There was a diagram of the twenty-seven planets at the centre of the screen, with a report of what was happening scrolling across the bottom. She read along with the text, distantly aware that the words were in Gallifreyan, but setting aside that fact to think about later.

“Single string Z-neutrino compressed…” She sucked in a breath. Rose Tyler wouldn’t know what that would do, but the TARDIS did, which meant Bad Wolf did. “No,” she breathed, touching the screen as if she could reach through it and stop the Daleks.

You cannot save those people, my Wolf, but you can save the rest of the universe. Are you ready?

It was hard to contain Rose’s compassion, but ideas were already brewing in Bad Wolf’s mind. “I’m ready.”

oOoOoOoOo

The image on the view screen flared with bright light. When the light faded, the room was empty. Jenny looked from the view screen to her father, who was trembling with rage behind his forcefield. He bared his teeth and turned away from the screen, his hands raking through his hair.

His reaction to the loss of those strangers made one thing very clear, even if she didn’t understand anything else she’d just seen.

Mum was still alive.

That was the only way the Doctor could possibly be more upset over a room full of strangers than he was over Rose. And if he was pretending… they must be working on a plan together.

Jenny carefully hid her relief and asked the other question baffling her. “Dad, what happened?”

Davros answered before her dad could, his crackly voice breaking slightly over the syllables. “Electrical energy, Miss Tyler.”

The creepy man wheeled his chair back over to her, and Jenny shuddered when he leered at her.

“Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field,” he explained, his voice warbling over the syllables. “The Reality Bomb cancels it out. Structure falls apart. That test was focused on the prisoners alone. Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter.”

“The stars are going out,” Mickey said from his holding cell.

Jenny looked across the room at Mickey. That’s what had started this whole adventure, she remembered—in another universe, the stars were going out. And it was all because Davros and the Daleks had shut off the electrical signal that bound the atoms together, and had fired their weapon across time and space, and even dimensions.

“The twenty-seven planets,” the Doctor bit out. “They become one vast transmitter, blasting that wavelength.”

“Across the entire universe,” Davros crowed. “Never stopping, never faltering, never fading.”

A twisted smile curved up the corners of his mouth, and he started speaking faster and faster until the words were spilling out one on top of the other.

“People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing.” He lowered his voice, letting the ominous tone echo around the Vault. “And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation.”

A vicious light entered Davros’ eyes, and he pointed at the empty room on the view screen. “This is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The destruction of reality itself!”

#ficandchips #ten x rose #dwfic #fic by Nancy #doctorroseprompts #cq's fic: forever and never apart #series: Being to Timelessness #bad wolf!rose is important to me #so important #and this is my vision for a true merging of Rose and the TARDIS #ahhhh i'm so excited!!!#i hope you like it

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