#kate just standing there at first not daring to go in the tardis...

[lonelyzarquon]

[6-and-7]

I’ve rather been wanting to do one of these things eventually, so thank you @madfanboyinablueblog​!

Favorite Doctor: Probably Six. I enjoy his bluster and haughtiness because of the two hearts of gold hidden underneath. Every time he gets to be Sof I just melt. Also, I too love cake, singing, big words, cats, and The Coat, so I just really vibe with him.

Favorite Master: I’m always glad to ‘Say something nice’ about Missy. She’s just so much fun! She dabs, she does dramatics, she introduces herself by singing, she takes the mickey out of everything (”I’m that mysterious traveler in space and time known as Doctor Who, and these are my expendables, Thing One and Thing Two.”), and she’s just absolutely marvelous.

Favorite Sonic: I don’t really know. I’m rather partial to the design of Three and Four’s, with the wheel at the top. I don’t really know why.

Favorite Companion: How dare you make me choose among my babies. Uhhhh I’ll go with Donna, because her chemistry with Ten made me like him much more than I otherwise would have. She helped to redeem him for me, as it were.

Favourite Episode: Hmm, another very difficult one. I think I'll say... The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances. Nine was my first Doctor, and I have a soft spot for all his episodes. This two-parter stands out to me for the raw terror that the Empty Child still inspires in me, the introduction of Jack, the tenderness and chemistry between Nine and Rose, and of course, “EVERYBODY LIVES!”. That scene still warms my heart.

Favorite Soundtrack: I’m not super good at picking them out. I’m going to cheat and say ‘Jo is Making a Thing’ from The Scorchies, because that song is both a bop and a jam.

Dream Actor/Actress for the Next Doctor: Bold of you to assume that I know any actors who haven’t been on Doctor Who already. Uhh, it says ‘dream’, so I’m just gonna say Catherine Tate as the DoctorDonna.  

Dream Composer: ????? I have no names. Literally all I’ve got is David Bowie. Which, again, it was ‘dream’ composer, so why not.

Dream Story: I have many. Off the top of my head... 1. A musical story in which the Doctor goes to Broadway and encounters Iris Wildthyme, who has been cast in a play. But things go terribly awry as critics and divas alike start dying, and Iris and the Doctor discover that the Scorchies intend to use this musical to take Manhattan -- literally. Panda is there and must engage in psychic combat to keep his mind from being taken over by the evil puppets. Lin Manuel Miranda makes a cameo. 2. Literally just a remake of “The Year of Intelligent Tigers” by Kate Orman. No changes to the dialogue or plot. You can’t improve on that. ... I considered letting Karl and the Doctor kiss, but I fear that might ruin the Yearning. Please Mr. BBC, let me see Paul McGann in a slapdash tiger costume, playing the violin. 3. The Doctor and the Master are trapped in a deadly gauntlet of traps and must work together to escape. They eventually confront the mastermind behind it all, who reveals herself as the Rani. She just wanted to force them to sit down and break the sexual tension that’s been there since the Academy. 4. The Doctor and her companions meet P.G. Wodehouse in early 20th century London and have an amusing comedy of errors involving a prize pig, a thrice-stolen diamond necklace, a foreboding Aunt, and absolutely no aliens whatsoever, it’s just a nice, goofy pure historical, the likes of which we haven’t seen for damn near forty years. So basically Black Orchid, but it’s Wodehouse. 5. Faction Paradox tries to mess with the Doctor’s timeline, end up asking her if she’s alright and if she needs a hug. The companions enter the TARDIS to find the Doctor crying on the shoulder of an increasingly uncomfortable woman in a skull mask. The companions exit the TARDIS. 6. Season-long arc of two-parters in which the Doctor must once again search for the six segments of the Key to Time, while Faction Paradox agents seek to trip her up and stop her from assembling it and returning the universe to harmony. I could go on, but I don’t think I could stop if I didn’t make myself.

I’m gonna tag @achairwithapandaonit, @banrionceallach, and @braddersbangerz

[frolwriting]

Aliens in London Part 2

Hey guys!  Look who's keeping up with their schedule!  As promised here is the next part of Through Time and Space.  Go to my masterlist to see the other chapters.  Alright here we go!

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"Doctor, where are we?" I asked as the TARDIS landed roughly.

"Albion Hospital. This is supposedly where the alien was taken." He said opening the doors. "Come on, we have a mystery to solve." I smiled and followed him out in a store room that was definitely in a hospital. He unlocked the door with his sonic screwdriver. "Shush!"

"Doctor, yelling at your sonic screwdriver is not going to help anything." He gave me a slight glare. We made our way into a room that had a bunch of guys with weapons in it. We just stare at each other for a moment, then the soldiers grabbed their weapons and pointed them at us. Something then bursts out of the cooler, and the doctor lady screamed.

"Defense plan delta! Come on! Move! Move!" He led the soldiers out of the room to where the screams were heard. I followed suit. We made our way to the Mortuary, where the doctor lady was cowering by her desk.

"It's alive!" The lady said.

"Spread out. Tell the perimeter it's a lockdown." The doctor said, but the soldiers didn't move.

"My god, it's still alive." Even though I knew what was going on, I didn't know what I should do.

"Do it!" The doctor yelled. "Kate, take this first aid kit. She's bleeding. Stay here and don't leave please." He said heading out as well. I went over and knelt down next to the lady.

"Hi, my name's Kate. What is your name?"

"Dr. Sato." The lady said.

"Nice to meet you, Dr. Sato. Your wound doesn't look too bad luckily. Looks like you just need a bandaid. Is anything else wrong?"

"No." I cleaned her would and put a bandaid on it. Just then the Doctor came back in. After I was done, I sat down next to her.

"Dr. Sato, if you don't mind will you tell me what happened?" I asked putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I swear it was dead." Dr. Sato said.

"Coma, shock, hibernation, anything. What does it look like?" The Doctor said as we heard some metal clattering. "It's still here." The Doctor went over to the door and gestured to a soldier who was standing by the door. "Watch over her please. Kate come here." I stood up and went over to him. Just then we noticed there was a pig-like creature behind a filing cabinet. "Hello." Just then the pig ran out on its hind legs. The weird part was it was wearing a spacesuit. The soldier raised his gun.

"Don't shoot!" Me and the Doctor yelled in unison. Just then a different soldier shot the pig.

"What did you do that for? It was scared! It was scared." I just glared at the soldier.

"I thought that was the alien!" The soldier said. "If that wasn't the alien, then what was it?" The Doctor went on to explain the meaning for the pig being like it was.

"I just assumed that's what aliens look like, but you're saying it's an ordinary pig from Earth." Sato said.

"More like a mermaid. Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid. Now someone's taken a pig, opened up its brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb. It must've been terrified. They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke."

"That is just awful." I said looking disgusted.

"Kate, can you tell me anything?" The Doctor looked at me hopeful.

"No, sorry I can't tell you. It might mess something up." I said sad.

"So, this is a fake, a pretend, like the mermaid. Aliens are faking aliens, but why would they do that? Doctor?" By the time she said that, we had left to go into the TARDIS. We then dematerialized from the hospital.

"Where we going now?" I asked. He didn't say anything. We materialized and after a bit Rose, Mickey, and Jackie walked into the TARDIS.

"All right, so I lied. Me and Kate went and had a look, but the whole crash landing's a fake. I thought so. Just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben. Come on, so I thought let's go and have a look. Didn't I, Kate?" I just nodded my head. No sense in arguing right now.

"My mum's here." Rose said.

"Oh, that's just what I need. Don't you dare make this place domestic. The only domestic allowed is me and Kate." He said putting his arm around me.

"You ruined my life, you two. They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you!" Mickey said.

"You see what I mean? Domestic. There's only room for me and Kate and a companion in this TARDIS." I just rolled my eyes.

"I bet you don't even remember my name."

"Ricky." The Doctor said.

"Oh, I know!" I said excitedly. "Its Mickey!"

"Well, okay you know." Mickey said still mad.

"See, she always knows. She remembers so I don't." The Doctor said doing something with the console. Just then Jackie started walking out of the TARDIS.

"No! Mum!" Rose said as she started chasing after her mother. After a minute, Rose came back in. "So, that was a real spaceship?"

"Yep." Me and the Doctor said.

"So it's all a pack of lies? What is it, then? Are they invading?"

"Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert."

"Good point! So, what're they up to?" The Doctor then started to go under the console to do something. "So, what're you doing down there?"

"Ricky."

"Mickey."

"Ricky. If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even begin to understand?"

"I suppose not." Mickey walked over to where Rose was standing, and I walked over to the Doctor.

"Doctor, play nice." I said crossing my arms.

"I am! I'm just stating a fact."

"At least get his name right."

"I'm pretty sure its Ricky." I just rolled my eyes. After a bit, the Doctor popped up from under the console. "Got it! Ha, ha! Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship. Here we go. Hold on. Come on." The Doctor said as he was trying to fix the camera radar thing on the screen. He then pointed at the spaceship that was on the screen. "That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see. Except, hold on. See? The spaceship did a sling shot around the Earth before it landed." The Doctor said playing the video.

"What does that mean?" Rose asked.

"It means it came from Earth. It went up and came back down." I said.

"The question is, what have they been doing?" The Doctor asked. After that, me, Mickey, and Rose were looking through the channels on the scanner thing while the Doctor was doing something.

"How many channels do you get?" Mickey asked.

"All the basic channels."

"You get sports channels?"

"Yes, I get the football. Kate that means soccer for you."

"You yanks and your soccer." Rose said sounding slightly disgusted.

"Hey, don't diss where I come from." I said crossing my arms. She just rolled her eyes. "I miss baseball. That's my favorite. You guys' baseball doesn't come close to good ole American baseball." I said going over to where the Doctor was because I felt very offended. Just as I had walked over, Mickey flipped the channel to the news.

"It is looking likely that the Government's bringing in alien specialists- those people who have devoted their lives to studying outer space." The lady on the tv said.

"UNIT. United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people." The Doctor said. I nodded my head.

"How do you two know them?" Rose asked.

"'Cos they've worked for them. Oh yeah, don't think I sat on my backside for twelve months, Doctor. I read up on you and Kate. You look deep enough on the Internet or in the history books, and there's their names, followed by a list of the dead." I felt really sad that in the future I may cause lots of deaths. The Doctor noticed my behavior and pushed me behind him in a protective way.

"You can say anything you want about me, but don't drag Kate into anything that was and will be my fault. She hasn't done anything. This Kate is new to everything. You two keep bashing her, and I don't appreciate that." The Doctor said then went back to the console. I stood as close as I could to the Doctor. I grabbed his hand, and he gave a gentle squeeze letting me know he was there for me.

"If you know them, why don't you go and help?" Rose asked.

"They wouldn't recognize me. I've changed a lot since the old days. Kate looks a lot younger since the last time she saw them." I gave him a confused look. He just gave me a look that said don't ask. "Besides, the world's on knife-edge. There's aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix. I'm going undercover, and er, I'd better keep the TARDIS out of sight. Ricky, you've got a car. You can do some driving."

"Where to?"

"The roads are clearing. Let's go and have a look at that spaceship." We walked out of the TARDIS into a helicopter spotlight. The Doctor tightened his grip on my hand.

"Do not move! Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads." A policeman said. We were surrounded. The Doctor just held onto my hand. Mickey ran off, and Jackie came out of the flat.

"Rose!" Jackie yells trying to get to Rose, but a policeman held her back.

"Raise your hands above your head. You are under arrest." I let go of the Doctor's hand and raised my hands. The Doctor did the same.

"Take me to your leader." He said as I rolled my eyes. Me, the Doctor, and Rose were crammed into the back of the police car with the Doctor in the middle.

"This is a bit posh. If I knew it was going to be like this, being arrested, I would have done it years ago." I rolled my eyes.

"Getting arrested isn't always like this." I said.

"And plus weren't got being arrested, we're being escorted." The Doctor said.

"Where to?" Rose asked.

"Where'd you think? Downing Street." The Doctor said.

"You're kidding."

"He's not." I said.

"10 Downing Street?"

"That's the one." The Doctor said.

"Oh my god, I'm going to 10 Downing Street? How come?"

"I hate to say it, but Mickey was right. Over the years, me and Kate have visited this planet a lot of times, and we've been, er, noticed."

"Now they need you?"

"Like it said on the news. They're gathering experts in alien knowledge, and who's the biggest experts of the lot?"

"Patrick Moore?"

"Apart from him."

"Oh, don't you just love it." Rose was still acting like I wasn't there.

"I'm telling you. Lloyd George, he used to drink me under the table. Who's the Prime Minister now?"

"How should I know? I missed a year." We finally got to Downing Street and there was a ton of press taking pictures of us. "Oh, my god." We were escorted into a waiting room of some sorts. After a bit, a man came in.

"Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene?" We moved towards the man. "Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right, and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times." He hands me and the Doctor an I.D. I was very surprised that I got one. "Here's your ID cards. I'm sorry, your companion doesn't have clearance." I looked at the Doctor, and he gave me a look that said he'll explain later.

"We don't go anywhere without our companion." The Doctor said. I nodded.

"You two are the code nine, not her." Wow I'm a code nine? "I'm sorry, Doctor, Kate. It is the Doctor and Kate isn't it? She'll have to stay outside."

"She's staying with us." The Doctor said frustrated.

"Look, even I don't have clearance to go in there. I can't let her in and that's a fact."

"It's all right. You two go." She said putting a hand on the Doctor. Jealousy went through me again. Just then I noticed a very important woman, who won't let you ever forget her name come up.

"Excuse me. Are you the Doctor and Kate?" Harriet Jones said.

"Sure." Me and the Doctor said.

"I just need a word in private."

"I suppose so. Come on Kate." He pointed at Rose. "Don't get in trouble." We left but Harriet didn't go with us. We entered the briefing room, and the Doctor started looking at some of the papers.

"What do they say?" I asked.

"Not a whole lot of anything of importance. Can you tell me anything?" He said looking at me hopefully. I just shook my head. He sighed. "I don't remember a whole lot of this adventure. Something doesn't feel right though." He then looked at me with wide eyes.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention, please." A man at the front of the room started saying. "As you can see from the summaries in front of you, the ship had one porcine occupant." I grabbed the Doctor's hand in fear.

"Of course, the really interesting bit happened three days ago, see, filed away under Any Other Business. The North Sea. A satellite detected a signal, a little blip of radiation, at one hundred fathoms, like there's something down there. You were just about to investigate and the next thing you know, this happens. Spaceships, pigs, massive diversion. From what?" The Doctor asked. I was even more terrified remembering what was happening. "If aliens fake an alien crash and an alien pilot, what do they get? Us. They get us. It's not a diversion, it's a trap." He squeezed my hand tightly and pulled me closer to him. "This is all about us. Alien experts. The only people with knowledge how to fight them gathered together in one room." There was a fart from the guy up front. "Excuse me, do you mind not farting while I'm saving the world?"

"Would you rather silent but deadly?" The man asked. The general removed his cap and unzipped his forehead. Suddenly the room was filled with blue light and the Slitheen wriggled out of his human suit.

"We are the Slitheen." The general said.

"Thank you all for wearing your ID cards. They'll help to identify the bodies." I had already took my ID card off and threw it behind me. I didn't know if I would survive the shock. Green held up a switch, and everyone's ID cards emit electric shocks to everyone wearing them. The shock going through the Doctor went through the hand I was holding and went through me too. Everything went black after that.

[chasingthecosmos]

By Any Other Name

Fandom: Doctor Who Rating: T Pairing: The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Eleventh Doctor/Rose Tyler (The Doctor/Clara Oswald, Eleventh Doctor/Clara Oswald) Chapters: 27/32 Read on AO3 here.

“Rose Tyler was dying - or, at least, she was relatively certain that that’s what was happening …” A Season 7 AU where Rose returns to her home universe only to find that 100 years have passed and nothing is quite the way that she remembers it. She wakes up with a new body, a new life, and a new Doctor. What has the Bad Wolf gotten her into this time? The 50th Anniversary will be included in this story.

Fortunately, the Queen of England ended up not being a red alien from space covered in suckers. Unfortunately, that meant that Rose had to sit through a wedding in which the groom happened to be (strangely enough) both her late and current husband.

Rose couldn't decide if she was more angered or depressed by the odd situation that she found herself in, so she settled for staring blankly at the unusual wedding ceremony going on around her while her current Doctor fidgeted awkwardly next to her.

"Is there ... a lot of this in the future?" the youngest Doctor asked curiously.

"It does start to happen, yeah," Rose muttered sardonically.

You love it, Rose's Doctor reminded her, tugging pointedly on the mental connection that linked them together as he flashed her a playful smile out of the corner of his eye.

Alright, fine, it's not all bad, Rose admitted, immediately mirroring his flirtatious grin.

The Doctor in pinstripes pulled away from the deep, passionate kiss that the queen had trapped him in with a roll of his eyes and flashed a distinctly annoyed look in their direction before immediately darting back into the welcome safety of his TARDIS.

As Rose and the other two Doctors moved to follow him, she noticed for the first time that the old ship looked oddly battered and rough around the edges. The TARDIS greeted her with the same warm welcome as always, but there was an odd, minor chord to her usual melody that Rose wasn't used to hearing. She flashed her Doctor a questioning look as they all crossed the threshold onto the old time ship, but he simply shook his head silently in her direction, making it clear that he would explain later.

"You let this place go a bit," the Doctor in leather grumbled as they finally let the TARDIS doors close shut behind them.

"Ah, it's his grunge phase," the Doctor in the bowtie replied blithely, "he grows out of it."

"Don't listen to them," the Doctor in pinstripes cooed as he lightly patted the old, green time rotor.

"I love it," Rose piped up, smiling widely as she danced across the familiar metal grating and ran her hands adoringly across the old control set-up. "I think it's fantastic."

She fell into contemplative silence, then, as she was sharply reminded once more of the one face that was missing in this line-up of Doctors. Rose ached for the man who had first invited her to stay - the one who had opened her eyes to the stars and all of the majesty that the universe held. The one that she had originally fallen in love with.

When the moment of silence reigned for just a moment too long, Rose glanced up to see that all three men were watching her carefully. Her current Doctor's eyes were wide and sad as he silently absorbed Rose's distant longing and attempted to soothe her thoughts with promises of love and devotion that outlasted his many, changing faces. The Doctor in pinstripes was eyeing her with renewed interest, paying particular attention to the way that she ran her hands across his ship's controls with easy familiarity. The youngest Doctor in leather was still watching her as though he were attempting to work out a particularly difficult-to-solve puzzle, his brows furrowed in concentration.

Before Rose could come up with something to say in order to break the awkward tension, there was a bright flash of light as the console sparked. The old TARDIS desktop blinked around them and suddenly they were all standing in a completely different room. When it blinked a second time, Rose was able to make out the sleek, metal surfaces and the blue-green time rotor of her Doctor's current TARDIS.

"Oh, you've redecorated," the Doctor in pinstripes muttered, casting an unamused grimace at their new surroundings. "I don't like it." He met Rose's gaze from across the room and she flashed him an amused smile, which only grew when he answered her with a playful smirk of his own.

--------------------

Rose wasted no time in directing the three men back to the Black Archive, but Kate and the zygons made sure that it would be impossible to land the TARDIS there as they had planned. Instead, the youngest Doctor reminded them of the spare stasis cube that they had picked up from Queen Elizabeth, and the four of them entered into the secure, underground archives in a blaze of fire and explosions that could only ever come from having three Doctors together in the same place.

After the trio of Time Lords had managed to save the planet (with five seconds to spare) and ensured that peace talks between the zygons and the humans would go ahead as planned, the group finally had a few moments to breathe and reorganize themselves.

Rose found that she immediately felt herself gravitating towards the one Doctor who she still hadn't been properly introduced to yet. He was sitting alone, staring off into space with a gloomy expression that Rose immediately recognized from his future regenerations. She knew that it wouldn't do for him to be by himself when he was in such a state, so she decided to keep him company, just as she always did when he was in these kinds of moods.

"Hello," she greeted him quietly, pulling up a chair as close to him as she thought she could safely get away with.

"Hello," he replied, flashing her a weary smile as he propped his chin up on his free hand.

"I feel like we sort of skipped over introductions today," Rose muttered with a small, apologetic shrug. "I'm ... well, it's complicated ..." She furrowed her brow at the ground as she searched for the right words to say. She didn't want to lie to him - she had done far too much of that already - but she knew that she couldn't tell him the truth, either, and risk causing some sort of disastrous paradox.

However, the Doctor simply sighed and shook his head as he replied, "I find that these sorts of things often are."

"Sorry?" Rose asked in quiet confusion.

"Tell me, my dear," he muttered quietly, "when do we meet? It's clear that you're part of my future. Do I ... really have to wait four hundred years?"

Rose flashed him a small, sad smile as she slowly shook her head. "No, not four hundred years," she replied gently. "But it does take some time."

"You've never met me before," the Doctor sighed, nodding dejectedly as he put together the words that Rose couldn't quite bring herself to say. "Not this face, at least. Could be another century or more until ..." His words trailed off and his brow furrowed as he stared hard at a spot somewhere over Rose's shoulder.

When she turned to follow his gaze, she noticed the invisible woman who was still wearing Rose's own nineteen-year-old face and leaning casually against the wall behind them. "Who is she, then?" Rose asked curiously as she narrowed her eyes on the strange creature.

"I thought you knew her," the Doctor replied dismissively.

"I know the face that she's wearing," Rose admitted, shivering slightly despite herself as the Bad Wolf-woman flashed her a knowing smile.

"She's a weapon," the Doctor admitted quietly, his voice little more than a whisper. The odd, dark tone that entered into his voice immediately captured Rose's full attention, and she turned back to meet his eyes once more, completely ignoring the strange other woman.

"You're still in the Time War," she murmured in disbelief as she scanned over his weary expression.

The Doctor's eyes - brown, this time, though the color had never really mattered to her - were filled with a sadness and fear that she hadn't seen in a very, very long time. "You don't have to do it, you know," she reminded him quietly. "I know what you're planning, but you don't have to do it."

"You're very sure of yourself," he muttered, the hopelessness in his tone telling her that he had absolutely no faith in her words.

"We meet not long after, you know," Rose continued, hoping to stir up some small seed of hope within him. "Well, not long for you, anyway - a lifetime for me. But I remember those early days. I remember them well. I remember how sharp and painful your regret was then, and I know how it still haunts you, even now."

"How many worlds has his regret saved, do you think?" the younger Doctor asked pointedly.

Rose shook her head slightly as she replied, "Hundreds, thousands - who knows?"

"And you think I should change all of that?" the Doctor asked quietly, looking deep into her eyes as though he were begging for her to help release him from this awful, terrible burden. "You think I should put my own people above all of them?"

"No, Doctor," Rose replied, shaking her head sadly as she forced herself to meet his gaze with as much earnestness as she could manage. "But you don't have to do it alone."

"Oh, no, my dear," he sighed, leaning forward and hesitating for just a moment before he allowed himself to bridge the space between them and take her hand in his own. "I would not dare. Out of all of the people in all of the worlds, I suspect that you, most of all, must be kept safe."

He flashed her another small, sad smile, before he turned to look at the young blonde woman behind her once more. "I'm ready," he stated resolutely. And then, in the blink of an eye, they were both gone.

--------------------

Rose was on her feet immediately, wasting no time in gathering up both of the remaining Doctors and forcing them into their TARDISes in order to chase after the man who was about to make the worst decision of their collective lives.

"We can't stop him, you know," the younger Doctor reminded Rose grimly. "He has to do this - it has to happen this way."

"Doctor, I know that you have no reason to trust me right now," she replied tersely as she watched him hesitate outside of his ship's doors and quietly regard her, "I know that you don't know me, but I know you. I know that, despite what you may wish, you still remember that day that you did it. And I know that, more than anything, you wished that you hadn't had to make that decision alone."

The younger Doctor's jaw tightened as he cast another long, thoughtful look in her direction. She was pleased to note that some of the suspicion had left his brown eyes, but it was clear that he still didn't quite trust her. However, he finally seemed to accept the wisdom of her words and he nodded resolutely as they both stepped into their respective TARDISes and set their destination for Gallifrey.

"Thank you," Rose's current Doctor muttered quietly as their old ship whirled and groaned around them, adding her own heartbroken lament to the Doctor's suffering.

"For what?" Rose asked, eyeing him hesitantly from where she stood across the console from him. His head was hung down between his hunched shoulders and she couldn't quite catch his expression, but she could feel the deep ache in his thoughts through their bond.

"For being there," he replied, finally glancing up to meet her eye so that she could clearly see all of his heartfelt gratitude. "It's coming back in pieces, the memories of this day," he continued thoughtfully. "I didn't give you a single good reason to help me, but you still did - you still are."

Rose flashed the Doctor a small, sad smile as she crossed the space between them and gently pressed her lips to his cheek in a quick kiss. "Always," she vowed quietly as she stepped back and looked deep into his eyes, making sure that he understood the depth and sincerity of her commitment.

The TARDIS had come to a quite halt around them, as though she were attempting not to shatter the moment as the Doctor and Rose stared warily at the ship's doors, both of them hesitating to be the first one to open them.

Rose could feel the fear and sadness that seemed to fill the atmosphere the small, sunlit barn that they had touched down in the second that she took her first ever steps onto the one planet that she had never expected to visit. She could feel the Doctor's wild, terrified thoughts clambering through their bond, and she knew that the same sensations were echoing through two other versions of himself as well.

Rose bit the inside of her cheek in order to keep herself still and silent as she watched the Doctor with tracks of helpless tears spilling from her eyes. She listened intently as they all quietly regarded one another and her mind desperately reached for any other alternative that wouldn't have to end in this.

Help them, she thought desperately, casting her glance towards the blonde-haired woman who was sitting on a nearby crate and looking down at them all with quiet interest.

"I have," the creature responded cryptically, her eyes flashing gold in another imitation of the Bad Wolf.

Rose gritted her teeth in annoyance as she forced her gaze back to the three men in front of her. Well, if no one else was going to do anything, then she supposed that she would have to ... She forced her limbs into action as she rounded the big, flower-like red button that stood in the center of the room and placed herself firmly in front of the one remaining opening, standing directly across from the Doctor in leather, and in between the two different versions of her husband.

"What are you doing?" her current Doctor asked in concern, but Rose silenced his words as she quickly filled their bond with the overwhelming amount of love and trust that was currently filling up her chest and making it hard for her to breathe. For once, neither of the other Doctors complained about their telepathic communication as all three of them sighed and let the tense lines of their shoulders relax slightly.

However, the small moment of relief was quickly put to an end as the Bad Wolf-woman instantly turned their surroundings into a waking nightmare - showing them the cities of Gallifrey burning and the families screaming in fear as war raged through the skies around them. By the time that her vision had come to an end, all four of them could feel a grim, stubborn determination settling across the tense atmosphere of the barn.

"You're not actually suggesting that we change our own, personal history?" the Doctor in pinstripes asked in disbelief as he furrowed his brow at his future self.

"We change history all the time," the Doctor in the bowtie reminded him flippantly. "I'm suggesting far worse."

As realization slowly began to dawn on each of them one at a time, the Doctor in leather threw up his hands in excitement as he exclaimed cryptically, "She didn't show me any old future, she showed me exactly the future I needed to see!"

"Eh?" the Doctor in the bowtie asked in confusion. "Who did?"

"Oh, Bad Wolf girl, I could kiss you!" the youngest Doctor continued loudly, ignoring the way that the other two Doctors instantly paled and turned to stare at him with wide, shocked eyes.

"Yeah, that's gonna happen," the blonde girl atop the crate replied gleefully.

"Oi!" Rose hissed under her breath, flashing a glare in the other woman's direction. "Spoilers!"

But Rose had to admit that it was worth it, just to see the wide-eyed looks that the two older versions of the Doctor were currently casting at their younger self. Timelines were funny, sometimes, and Rose found that she quite enjoyed being on the right side of them for once.

[chasingthecosmos]

By Any Other Name

Fandom: Doctor Who Rating: T Pairing: The Doctor/Rose Tyler, Eleventh Doctor/Rose Tyler (The Doctor/Clara Oswald, Eleventh Doctor/Clara Oswald) Chapters: 24/30 Read on AO3 here.

“Rose Tyler was dying - or, at least, she was relatively certain that that’s what was happening …” A Season 7 AU where Rose returns to her home universe only to find that 100 years have passed and nothing is quite the way that she remembers it. She wakes up with a new body, a new life, and a new Doctor. What has the Bad Wolf gotten her into this time? The 50th Anniversary will be included in this story.

"So, where've we landed now, then?" Rose asked brightly as she skipped up the console room steps towards the TARDIS doors.

"Should look a bit familiar," was the Doctor's only cryptic reply as he traced her footsteps at his own leisurely pace.

Rose smiled wide as she threw open the ship's doors, eagerly awaiting their next adventure, but her grin quickly faded as she gazed out in confusion at the nondescript, grassy plains that surrounded them. "You sure about that ...?" she asked curiously as she took a second skeptical look at their surroundings. It seemed that the Doctor had parked them at the very edge of a long country road without a single house or car in view for miles.

The Doctor grumbled as he came up beside her and furrowed his brow at the scene before him. "That's not right," he declared moodily. "We're supposed to be at Trafalgar Square ..."

"Doesn't really look like how I remember it," Rose muttered sarcastically as she scanned the great expanse of sky that stretched out above them.

"But I'm sure that I got the coordinates right ..." the Doctor murmured in bewildered confusion.

The TARDIS was making an odd, stuttering noise that hinted at bemused fondness as the Doctor leaned his forearm against the ship's doorway over Rose's head and glared out at the countryside with a sour expression.

"And why were you trying to take us to Trafalgar Square, anyway?" Rose asked as she crossed her arms against her chest and smiled up at him in amusement.

"I didn't try anything," the Doctor replied, casting her an irritated look that did nothing to dim the mischievous spark in his eyes, "I did ..."

But the rest of his prideful statement and a good portion of his ego were cut off as the TARDIS gave a great lurch, sending them both stumbling awkwardly against the edge of the doorway. Rose blinked and suddenly the ground was moving very quickly away from them as the ship ascended up into the air. They both cried out in surprise and the Doctor used both of his arms to pin Rose protectively against the doorframe as the ship rocked violently back and forth.

"Doctor, what's going on?" Rose shouted against the deafening sound of rushing wind that suddenly surrounded them.

"No idea!" he yelled back, not even attempting to hide his wide, excited smile as he glanced up and examined the helicopter that seemed to have picked up the TARDIS with some sort of crane-like mechanism.

The Doctor quickly ushered Rose back into the safety of the ship and then reached out to begin dialing the police box phone, bracing himself in the doorway with his free hand to keep from being jostled out. Rose couldn't hear the conversation that he was having over all of the noise, but the call was quickly cut short as the helicopter took a hard right and suddenly the Doctor went barreling out of the ship's open doors.

"Doctor!" Rose cried out in panic as she immediately rushed forward and grabbed his knees before he could slip away completely. You're enjoying this way too much, she chided him over their newly-formed bond, but the Doctor refused to be scolded as he swung back and forth through the open air with all of the joy of a child on their favorite rollercoaster ride.

When his wiggling became too much for her grip and Rose felt his legs slip through her fingers, she had one brief flash of absolute panic before she realized that the Doctor was now hanging on to the bottom of his ship by his hands. Rose spent the rest of their turbulent flight over London filling his mind with all of the curse words that she knew that he wouldn't be able to hear her shouting at him over the noise of the helicopter.

When they finally touched down onto solid land once more, the Doctor leapt forward excitedly, his adrenaline echoing through Rose's thoughts and making it difficult for her to maintain her irritated scowl as she watched him bound into action. "Trafalgar Square!" he shouted grandly as he swept his arms around and met her gaze eagerly. "Told you I'd get us there!'

"That was even worse piloting than normal," Rose groaned as she stumbled ungracefully out of the TARDIS, which was still swinging unevenly a few feet above the ground. She noticed belatedly that they now seemed to be surrounded by a small squad of soldiers dressed all in black and outfitted with helmets and guns. Standing in the center of them all were a middle-aged blonde woman in a long black coat and a young scientist wrapped up in a layered, multi-colored scarf.

"Doctor," the blonde woman greeted them, proving herself to be the one in charge as she quickly stepped forward and took control of the situation, "as Chief Scientific Officer, may I extend the official apologies of UNIT ..."

"Kate Lethbridge Stewart, a word to the wise," the Doctor cut her off heatedly, "as I'm sure your father would have told you - I don't like being picked up!"

"'Lethbridge Stewart'?" Rose repeated, glancing from the Doctor, to the woman, and back again in confusion. She recognized the name from stories that her husband had told her over the years. "'UNIT'?" she added, recognizing that name, as well.

"I'm acting on instructions direct from the throne," the woman - Kate, it seemed - replied evenly as though neither of them had spoken. "Sealed orders from her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the First."

"Oh, Doctor," Rose sighed with a sarcastic roll of her eyes. "You do get around, don't you? First Queen Victoria, now this. So what is it this time? Were you knighted or exiled? Or was it both, again?"

The Doctor's only response was a heaved sigh and a meek, apologetic tug to her thoughts over their mental bond, which instantly raised her suspicions and did nothing at all to reassure her.

Kate - ever the professional, it seemed - ignored their silent exchange and ushered the two of them forward with promises of credentials as she led them up the steps towards the National Gallery.

"Been working with UNIT again, then, have you?" Rose muttered quietly under her breath as she warily scanned the line of soldiers that seemed to follow them wherever they went. She had heard stories about when the Doctor had worked for UNIT, but she had a hard time picturing him being on the same payroll as this lot. However, Rose didn't know whether it was the organization that had changed over the years, or if it was the Doctor, himself, who had changed.

"We've run into each other a few times recently," the Doctor replied with a casual shrug. "They investigate alien stuff, after all. We're bound to cross paths every now and then."

"Only you would consider hanging from a helicopter 'crossing paths' with someone," Rose muttered sarcastically.

"They were just giving us a lift," the Doctor murmured, completely unrepentant and unruffled by their death-defying trip over London.

Rose opened her mouth to continue ribbing him, but her words were cut short as a pair of armed UNIT soldiers pulled back the large sheet that had been covering a single piece of art in the center of the room before them. The Doctor and Rose both instantly froze in place as they gazed up at the revealed oil painting in varying states of wonder.

Rose's own amazed awe was brought up short by the stab of fear that swept through the Doctor's thoughts and nearly took her breath away. Her gaze immediately snapped to his profile, all thoughts of the strange painting before them quickly disappearing as the Doctor's odd reaction instantly demanded her full attention.

"Elizabeth's credentials," Kate announced, seemingly unaware of the Doctor's sharp, visceral reaction.

"Doctor?" Rose asked in concern, her gaze never once leaving his face as she counted his quick, panicked breaths.

"No more ..." he muttered quietly.

"That's the title," Kate agreed matter-of-factly.

"I know the title," the Doctor hissed angrily.

"Also known as 'Gallifrey Falls'," the blonde woman continued simply, seeming unaffected by the Doctor's mercurial moods.

"This painting doesn't belong here, not in this time or place," the Doctor muttered quietly as though to himself. "It's the fall of Arcadia, Gallifrey's second city."

"Doctor, what is it?" Rose asked gently. "How is it doing that?" She finally dared a look back at the painting and eyed the depicted flames and smoke of the city that seemed to pop off of the canvas in stunning, impossible 3D.

She attempted to take a step closer to get a better look, but the Doctor's hand immediately reached for hers, quietly urging her back to his side. Rose could sense through his thoughts that he didn't want her anywhere near this painting and all that it portrayed. The urge to run was welling up within him, and it was taking all of his strength and willpower to remain standing there, blinking at the destruction that he had hoped he would never have to see again.

Rose called his name silently over their bond, attempting to ground him and offer him her own strength and confidence in order to ease his troubled mind.

"He was there ..." the Doctor breathed quietly, not taking his eyes off of the burning spires before them.

"Who was?" Rose asked gently.

"Me," he replied darkly. "The other me - the one I don't talk about. I've had many faces, many lives. I don't admit to all of them. There's one life I've tried very hard to forget. He was the Doctor who fought in the Time War, and that was the day he did it." The Doctor nodded his head pointedly towards the painting as he squeezed Rose's fingers just a little bit tighter and didn't try to hide from her the wave of guilt and shame that swept through his mind.

"The day I did it," he continued quietly. "The day he killed them all. The last day of the Time War - the war to end all wars, between my people and the daleks. And in that battle there was a man with more blood on his hands than any other - a man who would commit a crime that would silence the universe. And that man was me."

All of the UNIT agents throughout the room had gone completely, preternaturally silent as the Doctor finished his morose declaration. Rose had to fight the urge to pull on the Doctor's hand and force him back into the safety and comfort of the TARDIS where she knew that she would be able to protect him from these dark, unwelcome memories.

"Why have you brought him here?" Rose demanded quietly, her tone like ice as she narrowed her eyes on Kate and hugged the Doctor's arm protectively to herself as though she could somehow shield him from the pain with her body alone.

"The painting only serves as Elizabeth's credentials - proof that the letter is from her," Kate replied, her voice softening slightly for the first time since Rose had met her. "It's not why you're here."

The Doctor heaved another small sigh as he finally broke his gaze away from the painting before them and looked down at Rose with an expression of apprehension. She gave him one small nod of encouragement, then released her tight grip on his hand so that he could open the sealed envelope that Kate had placed in his hands upon their arrival.

The letter provided no real information, however, and Rose narrowed her eyes suspiciously on the words "gentle husband". After just having said goodbye to River, and then completing her own alien marriage ritual, Rose wasn't exactly eager to meet another one of the Doctor's wives.

"What happened?" the Doctor asked, ignoring Rose's sharp, annoyed thoughts and casting a curious look in Kate's direction as he and Rose finished reading the old letter.

"Easier to show you," the blonde woman replied, motioning for them both to follow her as she lead them towards the secret Under Gallery - a restricted area that just so happened to be sectioned off by another great oil painting, this one depicting Queen Elizabeth the First herself in all her regal glory sitting alongside a tall, skinny bloke wearing the face of Rose's dead husband.

"Oh, Doctor ..." Rose groaned in resignation as she looked up at the happy couple with a pained expression, "please tell me you didn't ..."

It ended up being one of the UNIT soldiers guarding the secret passageway alongside the old, secret painting that quietly muttered under his breath what they were all already thinking - "So much for the 'virgin queen' ..."