Fandoms: Doctor Who

Characters: Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness

Prompt: How did Rose end up with Jack's gun? (Or a Jack's gun, anyway?)

Prompt Made By: I. H. Scribe

Disclaimer: I don't own the following series(es) or any character(s) that follow, and unless I. H. Scribe is listed after Prompt Made By chances are I don't own the idea for this story either.

A startled Rose Tyler was dropped into the universe in front of an equally startled Jack Harkness. Rose's face lit up.

"Did I make then!?"

Jack stood slowly, the shocked look still on his face, and placed a hand on her cheek.

"Jack? What are you doing? Aiiie!"

Jack pulled her into a crushing hug, repeating, "You're alive! You're alive!"

"You died at Canary Wharf," Jack explained.

"No, I just got stuck in the parallel world."

"You may have gotten stuck there, but our Rose Tyler died that day. Struck down by the Cyberman that was once Yvonne Hartman."

"What about the Doctor? Is he alright? Well? Tell me!"

"He changed."

"What, you mean regenerated? But he's alright otherwise?"

"No, not regenerated. He still wears the same face. I mean he changed personality. He wasn't our Doctor anymore. You dying broke something in him, and he changed for the worse."

Rose shook her head in denial.

Jack continued, "The Doctor disappeared for a while afterwards, but there was this other Time Lord. I don't know which one, but here he was Saxon, Harold Saxon. He became Prime Minister, then killed the President and was about to enslave all of humanity or kill them all, I don't know, but the Doctor came.

"I thought he was going to save us. He didn't. Saxon had been prepared for him, had an aging device of sorts, and a cage for him, but the Doctor turned it back on him. And then he turned on us. He's set himself up as the Emperor of Earth. 'Has to make sure all the stupid little apes don't hurt themselves anymore,' he said."

"But why? Why would he?"

"Because, Rose, you died. You died because one of us stupid little apes messed with something we shouldn't have, and now he's making sure no one else suffers the same fate."

"Why hasn't someone stopped him? Slapped some sense into him!?"

"None of us are you."

"Why hasn't he gone back in time to try and stop my death, if it affected him so badly?"

"He did. It's what caused your death. You were distracted by him and so you didn't see Yvonne."

"We have to stop him."

"Yes, we do. I have something to show you."

"This is the Hub. We're in Cardiff right now, or under it anyway. It's a lot bigger than it used to be, but then we have more people right now," Jack said. "All these people you see here, are the remnants of the Resistance. We're all that's left. We've been planning to mount one more attack, fire everything we've got at him."

"How?"

"We've finally got enough teleporters for everyone. The Valiant, that's the ship he's on, will be stopping in one place, as planes carry fuel up to it. The Valiant gets refueled once a month; it's the only time she's still in one place for long enough for the teleporters to lock on to."

"I'm going with you."

"Rose-" Jack began to object.

"One last chance, Jack. It was his way. The bad guy gets one last chance to change his ways. He might take it if it comes from me."

"You are to stay behind me, understand," Jack told her, before showing her his revolver. "If I fall, you are to take this and make sure he stops this. Rose if he doesn't take your offer, I need you to be able to pull that trigger. Can you?"

Rose nodded.

"I hope so."

"So do I."

Running with the Doctor, even at the battle of Canary Wharf, Rose had rarely been in life-threating danger, so sure that her Doctor would save her.

The Battle for the Valiant was something else entirely. Humans fought against humans, all at the behest of a madman that had taken the place of the Doctor. Soldiers on both sides dropped like flies around them as Jack charged through the battle with her hot on his heels.

A red blast to the floor in front of them sent them sprawling. When they gained their bearings, they saw a large gun being reloaded by something glowing a fiery red. Rose didn't know what it was, but whatever it was terrified Jack.

"He made it. He actually made it. Take this and go," Jack said, shoving his revolver into her hands.

"What is it?"

"Go! It's the only thing that can kill me permanently! Go, Rose, run!"

Rose ran.

Her path to the Doctor remained clear after that. She wasn't even sure if she was in the right place, but everyone must have been fighting elsewhere since there wasn't anyone around to stop her.

Finally, finally, she heard his voice. Whereas hearing his voice before had actually calmed her down and even made her excited (in more ways than one) sometimes, now his voice was making the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stand up.

She couldn't hear what he was saying, but the tone of his voice she could hear, and that was more than enough. She walked into the room. His back was to her, torturing someone she couldn't see. Tears streamed down her face at the horrible thing the Doctor had become. A wrinkled creature in a cage – the other Time Lord – shook his head at her, his eyes pleading with her to leave.

Rose shook her own head, and raised the gun. Getting shot in the chest drew the Doctor's attention from the woman – Rose barely recognized Martha Jones. She was so different from the UNIT soldier that Rose had met in her brief return to her home universe.

"Who'd dare!?"

"I did," Rose said, holding the revolver as steady as she could.

"R-Rose? My Rose?"

"Rose, Rose please. You have to come with me right now."

"Doctor?" Rose asked, confused. "But?" She glanced back into the other room where his past self was, safely out of view of his current self.

"Rose please, it's important. I need you to come with me."

"I don't understa-"

Rose was shot by a cyberman. Right in front of him. Again.

"Rose!" his scream was covered by the same scream coming from his past self. The Doctor fell back into his TARDIS. He couldn't save her, because he was the reason she hadn't noticed the cyberman.

It was his fault.

And now she was here! His beautiful Rose had returned to him.

"One chance, Doctor. I'm giving you one chance. Leave this planet peacefully, and don't come back."

"Oh, Rose. My beautiful Rose. I won't ever let you go again. We'll rule side by side, just you and me," the Doctor said, before being engulfed in regeneration energy. Rose closed her eyes, let out a sob, and pulled the trigger again.

The Doctor fell to the floor.

"The drums!" the other Time Lord rejoiced. "The drums are gone!" The Master was no longer capable of being on the path that would lead to the drums being forcibly placed into his mind.

A few hours later, Toshiko was rubbing her shoulders through the blanket around them. Rose held on tight to her tea cup but hadn't drunk from it yet.

"What do I do now?" the other Time Lord murmured. "I'm the last one now. The last one and the never-ending drums are gone."

Rose moved her head to look at him, and said, "Isn't it obvious? You go out there, in the TARDIS, and you make sure this never happens to anyone else."

"Is that what I do? Are you sure?"

Rose stared at the words someone had painted on the wall – Bad Wolf – and nodded, "I'm sure."

Toshiko, being the last living member of Torchwood, had left to fix what she could, and get some form of Torchwood back up and running. The remaining members of UNIT went with her. The Master used reversed the Paradox Machine, and after multiple apologies to the TARDIS, and a visit from Rose, had left in her to travel the universe.

The majority of the human race would never know what had happened on the Valiant. Too many would remember the terror all too well.

"I'm going to make sure this doesn't happen again," Rose promised herself. "I won't let my Doctor become this. Even if I have to..." Rose's teardrops fell on Jack's old Webley revolver.

It was time to find a different rift. She had to get home.

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I. H. Scribe