Wolf Moon: Chapter Five
Jan. 28th, 2008 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberfocus Wolf Moon: Chapter Five
“No!” Rose stood up so fast she knocked the chair over. She backed away from the table, her eyes wide and frightened and the flecks of gold rose up within the amber. “No, no, no,” she said, shaking her head in denial. “No!” She made for the kitchen door only to find it gone, a solid wall in its place.
“Let me out you…you…ship!” She hollered, pounding on the spot where the door had been.
“Rose, calm down,” the Doctor said, his eyes focused on the suddenly distraught woman.
“You don’t understand,” she told him. “Bad Wolf killed him. Killed him when he looked like you. If you see her here…I’ve got to get away from you! I can’t kill you, too!” She clawed at the wall now. “Let me out!”
He rose and grabbed at her hands, catching her wrists in his hard grip. He stared down at them dispassionately, ignoring the sparking and her struggling against his hold. “You’ve shattered your nails. They’re bleeding.”
He tugged her back towards the table, depositing her in his chair and moving to the sink. He pulled a cloth out of a drawer and wet it, bringing it back to her. He righted the chair she’d knocked over and brought it next to her, sitting down and reaching out for one of her hands. Carefully he cleaned away the blood and then brought out his sonic screwdriver to reverse the damage, before repeating the process on her second hand.
When she finally looked up at him she found him watching her, his eyes calm but wary. “Why did you call me that? How can you know?” She turned towards him, her knees banging against his.
“Your name. Rose Tyler. Rose Tyler is the Bad Wolf,” he said slowly, as if trying to trace a painful memory. He shook his head as the thought flitted away to hide in his mind. “Tell me. Tell me what the Bad Wolf did.”
“I told you. She killed him.”
“I don’t think that’s possible,” he told her.
“You weren’t there,” she snapped at him.
“Rose. Tell me.” The steel was back in his voice, the tone he’d used on her last night when he’d told her off for flirting with him, and she raised her eyes to his.
“He sent me away. Sent me away to keep me safe, but I knew that he would die, that the Daleks would kill him--.”
“Daleks?” He hissed.
“They escaped the Time War,” she said in a shaking voice, watching the effect on him as the words fell like bricks between them. “It almost shattered my Doctor to find that out. They hid in the dark spaces and rebuilt. And they came to destroy Earth in the distant future. So he put me in the TARDIS and sent me away, sent me back home to my time, sent me back to my mum. He wanted me safe. But I knew that meant he would die. He’d die alone, without me, without the TARDIS. And I knew I had to get back to him.” Her voice fell into a strange rhythm, almost trancelike as she relayed the rest of it.
“I found a way to open the console and I looked into the heart of the TARDIS and she looked into me,” Rose told him. She seemed unaware of his sharp gasp. “We became one for that moment and then she took me back to him. And together we saved him; together we wiped the Daleks from the sky and destroyed the emperor. We were the Bad Wolf. But the power was too strong. It was killing me.” She was lost in the memory now, unaware that the Doctor’s hands were once again gripping her wrists.
“I couldn’t let go of it and so he had to take it out of me. He drew it out of my body and he returned it to the TARDIS. Somehow he was able to reverse the damage to me, but it killed him. I never understood that. I was a mere human and yet it didn’t kill me, after all. It only killed him. He was forced to regenerate and I lost the Doctor I had first met forever.”
She came back to herself, her eyes glancing up to meet his, stunned by the emotion she saw glittering there. “I killed him when all I meant to do was save him.” She pulled her arms away and pushed her chair back so that their knees were no longer touching.
“You don’t understand at all,” he told her gently. “You didn’t kill him. Having the Vortex inside you for that long, it would have killed you, but not him. You were already dying when he took it out of you. When he did that, he put something else into you. He didn’t just sacrifice his life to save you, Rose. He gave it to you.”
“What do you mean gave it to me?” She asked curiously.
“He’s a Time Lord, Rose. He’s been exposed to the Vortex since he was eight years old. A minute of holding it inside him would never have been enough to trigger regeneration. But gifting you with that life would have,” he said carefully.
“Gifting me?” She repeated in a tiny voice.
“You must have been very special to him, Rose, for him to do that,” he told her.
“No,” she said. “That’s not…no.”
“How did he take the Vortex out of you, Rose?” The Doctor asked her pressing forward against her disbelief.
She flushed and looked away from him. “He…” She hesitated then blushed. “He kissed it out of me.”
The Doctor smiled at her. “Yeah. There are other ways. He wouldn’t have needed to do that, Rose, if all he was doing was taking the Vortex out of you. He could have done that by going into your mind and pulling it out in a mind transfer. But if he kissed you, he transferred his life force into you while pulling the Vortex out. To do that he needed intimate contact.”
“So Bad Wolf didn’t kill him?” She said desperate to believe that. “The Vortex didn’t hurt him?”
“No. He must have been…so in love with you.” Her eyes met his with shock. She didn’t say anything, couldn’t say anything to that. She had known when she had lost her second Doctor, that he loved her. But she had never been sure of him in the first form she had known. Had he really loved her then?
“How long were you together after he regenerated?”
“I don’t know. Living in the TARDIS is pretty timeless. At least a year,” she told him.
“And he was…affectionate with you after the change?” The Doctor prodded.
“Yeah. A lot more so than before. Always holding my hand, always hugging me. I mean, he had before, but after, it was like he didn’t want to let me go for any longer than he had to.”
“Do you know how rare that is, Rose? For one of my species to hold onto emotional ties after a regeneration? That only ever happens with the deepest love. There’s no doubt in my mind now,” the Doctor told her. “He loved you. And if he could… That makes the legend true.”
“Legend?” She looked up at him through the tears in her eyes. “What legend?”
“It’s old. So old,” he said in a faraway voice. “She told it to me, right before she died. It was in the hidden texts, ones she’d discovered as president of Gallifrey. Ones even I had never learned of. It’s how I had the courage to do it. To do what she asked and end the Time War. I knew it wouldn’t be the end of everything. Not forever. She told me Bad Wolf. She told me Rose Tyler.”
“What? What are you talking about?” She asked him.
“The Bad Wolf was meant to mate with the last of the Time Lords. She was meant to bring us back.”
“Oh, no,” said Rose. “There wasn’t any mating. Believe me, we were never like that! Not that I... And he never said anything about any legend. Never once reacted to my name like you did. Was always saying it, too. Rose Tyler this and Rose Tyler that. Nothing,” she said.
“Did you love him?” He asked her.
“What’s that got to do with anything?” She asked him clutching at the side of the table so hard her fingers were white.
“I just need to know. Well, I want to know. Did you love him?” The Doctor asked her intently.
“He was my world,” she said bluntly. “Of course, I loved him. But it didn’t matter. Because in the end we were torn apart, separated by the barrier of the Void and he couldn’t cross it again to get back to me. So how I felt about him or how he felt about me, it doesn’t matter because I’ll never get it back!” She raged.
“But you’re sure he knew nothing of this legend? Nothing at all?” He questioned.
“I told you that already, didn’t I?” She said fiercely. “He didn’t know. It’s not something he would have kept from me.”
“You’re one hundred percent sure of that?”
“Will you stop it? You’re like a kid picking at a scab; only it’s my scab, so stop picking at it!” She said angrily. “I’m sure.”
“Could be a reason for that, you know,” the Doctor said softly.
“What? What are you talking about?” She said glaring at him.
“Maybe he wasn’t the last of the Time Lords the Bad Wolf was meant to mate with,” he said off-handedly.
“Oh? What about your legend?”
“It’s my legend. Not his. Maybe you’re meant to mate with me.”
Rose stood up and walked over to pound on the wall of the kitchen. “You will let me out of this room right now or I’m going to cross wire you’re dimensional stabilizers to your gravitational override circuit and give you one hell of a headache the next time we’re in orbit around anything and don’t think I can’t!”
The lights went out briefly and when they came back on again the door had reappeared. “Thank you,” she said sharply as she walked through it. She spun on her heel and glared at the Doctor. “And don’t even think about following me you...you…great big bloody Time Lord.”
The Doctor watched her storm off in something akin to awe but with a deep underlying amusement. That one had a temper on her. “Well, that went well,” he said to his ship.
“Your skills at seduction have rusted, I think,” the ship said.
“Who asked for your opinion?” He snapped. “And anyway, I wasn’t trying to seduce her. I was making an observation.”
“‘Oh, Rose, mate with me’ is an observation?”
“It wasn’t like that!”
“I was right here,” said the ship.
“Oh, will you shut it? I don’t have any intention of seducing or mating with the woman. She’s a human and I’m--.”
“An old idiot?” Asked the TARDIS. “She’s not human anymore than you are. She hasn’t been human for a while.”
“I don’t need a matchmaker, thank you,” he said sharply. “Especially one who doesn’t have my best interests at heart.”
“I know about the legend. I know more than you do,” she told him.
“Oh, really? Just what is it that you think you know?”
“You were closer than you can ever imagine. There are reasons he doesn’t remember and you do. There are reasons why he was with her before you, why he loved her but never took her to wife, why she loved him. But there are also reasons why she is with you now. I can see what you cannot. I can’t tell you what lies ahead in your own timeline. But I can tell you that she is a part of it.”
“And am I? Meant to mate with her? Restore the line of my people?” He asked.
“I would suggest,” the TARDIS said firmly, “That you brush up on your courting skills.”
“Oh, Rassilon,” he muttered putting his face in his hands. “I am so not doing this.”
“I think,” said the TARDIS snippily, “That you rather are.”
Ch. 6: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/5526.html
Legend Tells
“No!” Rose stood up so fast she knocked the chair over. She backed away from the table, her eyes wide and frightened and the flecks of gold rose up within the amber. “No, no, no,” she said, shaking her head in denial. “No!” She made for the kitchen door only to find it gone, a solid wall in its place.
“Let me out you…you…ship!” She hollered, pounding on the spot where the door had been.
“Rose, calm down,” the Doctor said, his eyes focused on the suddenly distraught woman.
“You don’t understand,” she told him. “Bad Wolf killed him. Killed him when he looked like you. If you see her here…I’ve got to get away from you! I can’t kill you, too!” She clawed at the wall now. “Let me out!”
He rose and grabbed at her hands, catching her wrists in his hard grip. He stared down at them dispassionately, ignoring the sparking and her struggling against his hold. “You’ve shattered your nails. They’re bleeding.”
He tugged her back towards the table, depositing her in his chair and moving to the sink. He pulled a cloth out of a drawer and wet it, bringing it back to her. He righted the chair she’d knocked over and brought it next to her, sitting down and reaching out for one of her hands. Carefully he cleaned away the blood and then brought out his sonic screwdriver to reverse the damage, before repeating the process on her second hand.
When she finally looked up at him she found him watching her, his eyes calm but wary. “Why did you call me that? How can you know?” She turned towards him, her knees banging against his.
“Your name. Rose Tyler. Rose Tyler is the Bad Wolf,” he said slowly, as if trying to trace a painful memory. He shook his head as the thought flitted away to hide in his mind. “Tell me. Tell me what the Bad Wolf did.”
“I told you. She killed him.”
“I don’t think that’s possible,” he told her.
“You weren’t there,” she snapped at him.
“Rose. Tell me.” The steel was back in his voice, the tone he’d used on her last night when he’d told her off for flirting with him, and she raised her eyes to his.
“He sent me away. Sent me away to keep me safe, but I knew that he would die, that the Daleks would kill him--.”
“Daleks?” He hissed.
“They escaped the Time War,” she said in a shaking voice, watching the effect on him as the words fell like bricks between them. “It almost shattered my Doctor to find that out. They hid in the dark spaces and rebuilt. And they came to destroy Earth in the distant future. So he put me in the TARDIS and sent me away, sent me back home to my time, sent me back to my mum. He wanted me safe. But I knew that meant he would die. He’d die alone, without me, without the TARDIS. And I knew I had to get back to him.” Her voice fell into a strange rhythm, almost trancelike as she relayed the rest of it.
“I found a way to open the console and I looked into the heart of the TARDIS and she looked into me,” Rose told him. She seemed unaware of his sharp gasp. “We became one for that moment and then she took me back to him. And together we saved him; together we wiped the Daleks from the sky and destroyed the emperor. We were the Bad Wolf. But the power was too strong. It was killing me.” She was lost in the memory now, unaware that the Doctor’s hands were once again gripping her wrists.
“I couldn’t let go of it and so he had to take it out of me. He drew it out of my body and he returned it to the TARDIS. Somehow he was able to reverse the damage to me, but it killed him. I never understood that. I was a mere human and yet it didn’t kill me, after all. It only killed him. He was forced to regenerate and I lost the Doctor I had first met forever.”
She came back to herself, her eyes glancing up to meet his, stunned by the emotion she saw glittering there. “I killed him when all I meant to do was save him.” She pulled her arms away and pushed her chair back so that their knees were no longer touching.
“You don’t understand at all,” he told her gently. “You didn’t kill him. Having the Vortex inside you for that long, it would have killed you, but not him. You were already dying when he took it out of you. When he did that, he put something else into you. He didn’t just sacrifice his life to save you, Rose. He gave it to you.”
“What do you mean gave it to me?” She asked curiously.
“He’s a Time Lord, Rose. He’s been exposed to the Vortex since he was eight years old. A minute of holding it inside him would never have been enough to trigger regeneration. But gifting you with that life would have,” he said carefully.
“Gifting me?” She repeated in a tiny voice.
“You must have been very special to him, Rose, for him to do that,” he told her.
“No,” she said. “That’s not…no.”
“How did he take the Vortex out of you, Rose?” The Doctor asked her pressing forward against her disbelief.
She flushed and looked away from him. “He…” She hesitated then blushed. “He kissed it out of me.”
The Doctor smiled at her. “Yeah. There are other ways. He wouldn’t have needed to do that, Rose, if all he was doing was taking the Vortex out of you. He could have done that by going into your mind and pulling it out in a mind transfer. But if he kissed you, he transferred his life force into you while pulling the Vortex out. To do that he needed intimate contact.”
“So Bad Wolf didn’t kill him?” She said desperate to believe that. “The Vortex didn’t hurt him?”
“No. He must have been…so in love with you.” Her eyes met his with shock. She didn’t say anything, couldn’t say anything to that. She had known when she had lost her second Doctor, that he loved her. But she had never been sure of him in the first form she had known. Had he really loved her then?
“How long were you together after he regenerated?”
“I don’t know. Living in the TARDIS is pretty timeless. At least a year,” she told him.
“And he was…affectionate with you after the change?” The Doctor prodded.
“Yeah. A lot more so than before. Always holding my hand, always hugging me. I mean, he had before, but after, it was like he didn’t want to let me go for any longer than he had to.”
“Do you know how rare that is, Rose? For one of my species to hold onto emotional ties after a regeneration? That only ever happens with the deepest love. There’s no doubt in my mind now,” the Doctor told her. “He loved you. And if he could… That makes the legend true.”
“Legend?” She looked up at him through the tears in her eyes. “What legend?”
“It’s old. So old,” he said in a faraway voice. “She told it to me, right before she died. It was in the hidden texts, ones she’d discovered as president of Gallifrey. Ones even I had never learned of. It’s how I had the courage to do it. To do what she asked and end the Time War. I knew it wouldn’t be the end of everything. Not forever. She told me Bad Wolf. She told me Rose Tyler.”
“What? What are you talking about?” She asked him.
“The Bad Wolf was meant to mate with the last of the Time Lords. She was meant to bring us back.”
“Oh, no,” said Rose. “There wasn’t any mating. Believe me, we were never like that! Not that I... And he never said anything about any legend. Never once reacted to my name like you did. Was always saying it, too. Rose Tyler this and Rose Tyler that. Nothing,” she said.
“Did you love him?” He asked her.
“What’s that got to do with anything?” She asked him clutching at the side of the table so hard her fingers were white.
“I just need to know. Well, I want to know. Did you love him?” The Doctor asked her intently.
“He was my world,” she said bluntly. “Of course, I loved him. But it didn’t matter. Because in the end we were torn apart, separated by the barrier of the Void and he couldn’t cross it again to get back to me. So how I felt about him or how he felt about me, it doesn’t matter because I’ll never get it back!” She raged.
“But you’re sure he knew nothing of this legend? Nothing at all?” He questioned.
“I told you that already, didn’t I?” She said fiercely. “He didn’t know. It’s not something he would have kept from me.”
“You’re one hundred percent sure of that?”
“Will you stop it? You’re like a kid picking at a scab; only it’s my scab, so stop picking at it!” She said angrily. “I’m sure.”
“Could be a reason for that, you know,” the Doctor said softly.
“What? What are you talking about?” She said glaring at him.
“Maybe he wasn’t the last of the Time Lords the Bad Wolf was meant to mate with,” he said off-handedly.
“Oh? What about your legend?”
“It’s my legend. Not his. Maybe you’re meant to mate with me.”
Rose stood up and walked over to pound on the wall of the kitchen. “You will let me out of this room right now or I’m going to cross wire you’re dimensional stabilizers to your gravitational override circuit and give you one hell of a headache the next time we’re in orbit around anything and don’t think I can’t!”
The lights went out briefly and when they came back on again the door had reappeared. “Thank you,” she said sharply as she walked through it. She spun on her heel and glared at the Doctor. “And don’t even think about following me you...you…great big bloody Time Lord.”
The Doctor watched her storm off in something akin to awe but with a deep underlying amusement. That one had a temper on her. “Well, that went well,” he said to his ship.
“Your skills at seduction have rusted, I think,” the ship said.
“Who asked for your opinion?” He snapped. “And anyway, I wasn’t trying to seduce her. I was making an observation.”
“‘Oh, Rose, mate with me’ is an observation?”
“It wasn’t like that!”
“I was right here,” said the ship.
“Oh, will you shut it? I don’t have any intention of seducing or mating with the woman. She’s a human and I’m--.”
“An old idiot?” Asked the TARDIS. “She’s not human anymore than you are. She hasn’t been human for a while.”
“I don’t need a matchmaker, thank you,” he said sharply. “Especially one who doesn’t have my best interests at heart.”
“I know about the legend. I know more than you do,” she told him.
“Oh, really? Just what is it that you think you know?”
“You were closer than you can ever imagine. There are reasons he doesn’t remember and you do. There are reasons why he was with her before you, why he loved her but never took her to wife, why she loved him. But there are also reasons why she is with you now. I can see what you cannot. I can’t tell you what lies ahead in your own timeline. But I can tell you that she is a part of it.”
“And am I? Meant to mate with her? Restore the line of my people?” He asked.
“I would suggest,” the TARDIS said firmly, “That you brush up on your courting skills.”
“Oh, Rassilon,” he muttered putting his face in his hands. “I am so not doing this.”
“I think,” said the TARDIS snippily, “That you rather are.”
Ch. 6: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/5526.html
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Typo
Date: 2008-06-19 11:44 am (UTC)Rose stood up and walked over to pound on the wall of the kitchen. “You will let me out of this room right now or I’m going to cross wire you’re dimensional stabilizers to your gravitational override circuit and give you one hell of a headache the next time you're in orbit around anything and don’t think I can’t!”
I remember you saying that one of your pet peeves was poor grammar. Not that I'm saying you have poor grammar in the slightest! It's just....you're should be your, should it not? Just trying to help. Love your stuff!
Re: Typo
Date: 2008-06-22 04:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-18 10:26 am (UTC)I love all the doctor/tardis interaction.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-21 08:55 pm (UTC)^_^ *Rolls around*
Date: 2016-04-03 07:34 am (UTC)Re: ^_^ *Rolls around*
Date: 2016-04-06 01:55 am (UTC)