A/N: BBC, why didn't you offer me the rights to Doctor Who for my birthday? :(

Quietly, Rose stepped outside, finding herself in a spacious cabin on what had to be a cruising ship, elegantly decorated in deep wood themes, lined with gold, impressionist paintings and boasting a very appealing-looking bed. A replica of a life buoy identified the ship as the Titanic.

The young woman blinked, and fished inside her pocket for the ticket she'd mistakenly handed over to Ian and Barbara. "Is that actually my cabin?" Rose locked the TARDIS door and briefly stepped out into the thickly carpeted corridor, checking the gilded number on the heavy wooden panel against her ticket. "It is actually my cabin!"

Rose grinned. She shut the door and took a running jump towards the bed, flipping in the air so she'd land flat on her back onto what proved to be a highly comfy mattress. "Fantastic."

Then there was a high pitched whirring, and Rose jumped up into a sitting position, and spun herself so she'd face the opening door.

The protest she was about to make against the intruder died on her lips the moment she saw him properly. Of course, it had been years for her, and her sight and senses had become radically different from what they had been while she was human, but there was never going to be a way Rose would forget that face, that nose, those ears on that man in black shoes, black pants, a black leather jacket and a jumper, and she barely managed to suppress a squeal when she heard the familiar northern burr.

"Great rendition of the noise" the Doctor said with a manic grin as he stepped in, pulling the door shut behind him. "Oh, and will you look at that beauty of a copy!" he added, half-running to the TARDIS and gently running his hands on its blue panels. "You've even got the texture right."

The Doctor spun around, taking in the sight of a Rose grinning wider than she could ever remember having. "Nice of you to have kept your own haircut, hair and eye colour and underwear, with the replica of the TARDIS and rest of your clothes also being a near-perfect copy of mine, that's already the creepiest cosplay version of me I've ever seen."

"And hello to you too, Doctor" Rose said merrily, following up with a tongue-in-teeth grin. "I'd never have guessed I'd be meeting with you here."

"Yeah." The Doctor grinned back. "Who are you?"

Rose's grin slipped a bit. "We haven't met before?"

"Pretty clear you're one of my biggest fans."

"Right. So that's when you are."

"Yeah, and that leaves you literally speechless, doesn't it?"

Rose blinked. "I'm really not?"

"Tell you what, I'll give you a trick" the Doctor said at a very rapid clip. "Take a couple of very deep breaths, and then use your belly to push and give a big shout. Then you can repeat all you tried to say without actually managing to voice it."

Rose gave him a flat look. "I've been using my voice for every sentence and can hear myself perfectly fine."

"Oh, right, stupid me." The Doctor's grin slipped as Rose's smile returned – and disappeared again instantly: "you're actually mute, and you know I'm a lip reader."

Rose's foot started to tap on the bed. "Alright, really, Doctor, this is getting annoying, and yeah, I know this you really, really likes being rude."

The Time Lord's grin returned. "No, better explanation! I'm the one who doesn't have a voice, so you're imitating the way I talk." He stumbled and barely caught himself against the TARDIS. "Wait a minute, I'm the one who doesn't have a voice, that's new."

Something clicked in Rose's mind, and she couldn't help a snort. "Sorry, I know it's not that funny, but the Doctor not getting to enjoy the sound of his own voice almost sounds like poetic justice."

At the same time the Doctor's expression darkened. "Maybe it's a form of karma for what I've just done, not getting to hear myself talk anymore when it's something I rather enjoy." He took one of his hands off the TARDIS and waved it in front of his face, and almost toppled. "Hold on" he said weakly, "I could have seen that hand only fifteen seconds ago."

Rose pushed herself to the edge of the bed nearest to the Time Lord and stood up, a shocked expression on her face. "Doctor."

"Listen, if you still can hear my voice, I don't want you to misunderstand me going to lie down on your bed. You creep me out a bit, and I'd really rather nothing happened", and his knees buckled, "while I am unconscious…"

The Doctor dropped, but Rose had already closed the distance in a few quick steps, and caught him before he had time to crumple on the floor. The Time Lord was out like a light and oddly warm to the touch, and-

"You're a bit heavier than I remembered, Doctor" Rose said strenuously, "or maybe it's just you're dead weight right now."

She dragged him over to the bed and lay him down there, facing up.

"Okay…"

A plume of golden energy escaped from the Time Lord's mouth, and Rose's mouth fell open.

"… WHAT?"

Doctor Who – The Wandering Wolf

VI. Voyage of the Damned

One of the shortest descriptions one could made of Astrid Peth was "disenchanted Stoian waitress", and every shift she worked in the Titanic's main lounge made her regret her decision to apply a little more. The novelty of watching a different set of stars through the porthole of her small cabin had also quickly worn off, and now, those unknown stars had become yet another regret: Astrid had only found out after the Titanic had left the spaceport that her employer hadn't been able to afford the costs of insurance to cover their personnel's shore leaves.

She was also discovering to her discomfiture that despite being almost exclusively made of members of the wealthiest classes on Sto, the clientele of the Titanic were often just as rude with the waitresses as the ordinary space workers on shore leave at a station diner, and on top of that, many of them made a point of looking down on her, and sometimes even were openly aggressive, just like the particularly spiteful Stoian in a genuine Earth jacket who had just bumped into her.

"You'll be sorry when the cost comes off your wages, sweetheart" he sneered. "Staffed by idiots. No wonder Max Capricorn's going down the drain."

There was nothing for Astrid to do but lower her gaze and hope her tormentor wasn't irate enough to actually follow through right now, which – small mercy – he turned out not to be. Holding back a sigh, the waitress went down to collect as many shards from the broken glasses that had fallen from her tray as she could.

Astrid had not expected the woman in a completely out of place leather jacket who crouched opposite her and started picking up her own share of the glass. The waitress opened her mouth to protest, but the newcomer winked at her and cut her off.

"Faster with two, yeah?"

The waitress blushed a little. "Thank you, Madam, but you really don't need to help me with that."

Her helper grinned. "I like it when people call me Madam. Makes me feel mature. Don't you love feeling mature?"

Astrid couldn't help a sad little smile. "Whether we like it or not, we don't really have a choice, do we?"

"Of course we do" the other replied matter-of-factly, giving Astrid a long look from her pair of unsettling golden eyes. "Don't like being mature, me, not when I can help it. Tray."

Astrid extended it almost automatically, and she was surprised to notice her helper drop nearly all of the glass that had spread on the floor. Then the stranger fished out a cylindrical tool and flashed it over the stained carpeting, and the waitress watched with astonishment as the stains from the drink and the tiny shards embedded in the red fabric appeared to vanish.

"How are you doing that?" Astrid blurted out, and her helper grinned.

"Sonic screwdriver. Not sure why the Doctor ever felt the need to program the stain removal and the silicate de-structuring features, but they do save a girl quite a bit of cleaning."

This time, the waitress' smile was genuine. "You've certainly saved me a good few minutes, Madam…?"

"Just call me Rose, no need for the Madam thing" the other replied, pocketing her sonic screwdriver and almost jumping back up. "And you are?"

"Astrid, ma-" She blushed again and stood up with her glass-filled tray. "Astrid Peth."

"Lovely name, Astrid Peth." Another grin. "To be honest, I was being a bit selfish just now – need a cup of the strongest tea you can get me delivered in suite 1B."

Astrid stared at Rose. "You're one of the passengers that booked the Maxxed suite? They told us neither of you had boarded."

"Had to space-hop mid cruise. Long story, which I'd love to tell you later, but right now, I badly need that cup of tea. Or actually, any really strong infusion of free radicals and tannins would do, that's what my partner needs right now."

"We do have tea. One of our most expensive drinks, seeing as how they have to smuggle it from a level five planet, but if you can afford the Maxxed suite you'll probably think it's cheap."

Again, Rose surprised the waitress, this time with a blush of her own and awkward words. "Not sure I've got any currency you'd accept, actually. I'm from one of those level five planets you were talking about, not sure where this ship comes from. Would have made tea on my ship, but she's freaking out a little at the moment and I don't think I should push her."

"You've got a living ship on board?" Astrid croaked, and Rose made a shushing mimic.

"Just don't pay too much attention to the blue wooden boxes with 'police' on them in my suite and wherever my partner's stumbled – his TARDIS is the one that's making my TARDIS freak out, and I should have seen it coming, really."

"TARDIS?"

"Time and relative dimension in space. Tell you what, Astrid Peth, I'll tell you all about it after I've gotten my partner back on his feet, and I really shouldn't be leaving him unattended longer than I have to. So now, can you make then bring that tea over ASAP?"

"I'll put it on the house" Astrid breathed, not certain this strange person named Rose had heard her, having already whirled around and began to stride out of the lounge.

The scalding sensation from the hot tea dripping down his throat woke the Doctor with a start. Fortunately, the woman who'd been making him drink the tea was ready and had already moved the cup out of the way, and she didn't miss a bit either when the Time Lord reached to swipe the tea off her hand and drink it hungrily, burning his throat but knowing it would heal almost instantly.

"How did you know tea was what-" He stopped mid-sentence, having looked up to take in the sight of the leather-clad, white-haired woman from earlier, and this time, he did recognize her, and with that recognition, the floodgates of memory opened.

"You followed me here" he said hoarsely and almost desperately. "Why did you follow me here?"

"Complete accident," Rose replied – her name was Rose, he now remembered, "I just happened to find a ticket for this suite loose in my pockets, so I figured I might as well check it out. Never expected to see you here."

"You don't- You aren't-"

"I didn't live through it with you, but I know exactly when this is for you" the young woman replied sadly. "I knew you'd remember meeting me, I know what regeneration is like, and I know what you just had to do. And I know it's not worth anything, Doctor", and her voice quivered, "but I'll say it anyway: I am so, so sorry you had to do this on your own. I would have done it with you in a heartbeat if I could."

The Time Lord was shaking now, the cruel irony of the situation forcing itself upon him. "You really think you know?" he said with anguish, and the young woman's voice shook with held back tears as she replied.

"I do, Doctor. Gallifrey or the universe. Nobody's ever had a harder choice to face, and you were so unbelievably brave to face it."

At this, the Doctor broke down. He barely noticed himself being cradled in the young woman's arms as he cried and lamented for his mother, his brother, his sisters, his granddaughter and her son, and all those other Gallifreyans he couldn't count right now but knew he would as soon as he possibly could, reading them from the last census he'd saved from Gallifrey before he'd made it burn.

He didn't know for how long he cried, but distantly, remotely, the Doctor registered that the young woman who was being his lifeline was shaking with what must be her own silent tears. And in a small corner of his fracturing mind, he knew that even if she wasn't the person who had been there with him for the terrible instant he'd activated the Moment and eradicated his people from existence, and even if he knew he'd be forgetting her once more once he and this young woman remade with parts of him parted ways once more, there was nobody in the universe he'd have picked over Rose Tyler to hold him as he let out all the pain from having burned everyone and everything he'd loved.

Some moments later (Rose's time sense would have allowed her to know the exact duration, but she really didn't care), the Time Lord, worn down from all the despair and anguish he'd been letting out, had fallen unconscious again, his still-regenerating body giving out once more on him, and Rose was able to gently let him back down on the Maxxed suite's bed and to clean up the traces of her own tears, and then drag a chair back to sit at his bedside.

"I think this now counts as the worst moment of my life" she murmured to herself, leaning over so she could come to rest on her jointed hands, her forearms propped up on the mattress. "And I really, really hope you don't have to go through this again after our shared genetics make you forget this go."

She sighed and went on with her train of thought, half-closed eyes trained on the bereaved Time Lord. Or maybe you'll remember just enough on some subconscious level that when you meet the younger me you feel you really need to make me want to come with you? Did your brains leave you no other choice but to fall in love with the girl who's fluked into being the first person you met right after you've ended the Time War?

The latter one was making Rose feel no small amount of guilt, and she nervously drummed on her chin with her fingertips. Have I really been such a manipulative little egotist as Bad Wolf that I made sure you'd never even dream there could be another hand for you to hold than my own?

"I know for certain from my past memories you'd never have done that for yourself" the Doctor's voice said weakly.

Rose looked at him again. The Time Lord's eyes were still closed, and his breathing was calm and shallow as he lay still on the bed.

"Doctor?"

"I can hear what you're thinking. Never heard anything so clearly in my head. It's empty, now, they're all gone. You're the only one who's there."

"I know" Rose replied quietly. "I met an earlier you who told me I couldn't control myself, that I was projecting a lot of mental screaming. I wish he or that other you had told me how to block it."

"I'm glad he didn't. Even it's only scrambled feelings from a sad and broken kid in pain, at least there's someone. Better than immediately having to adjust to there being no one at all."

Rose was chewing on her lips. "I'm from your future. I've seen lots of pictures of this you, and this version of me was never with you. I can't stay with you for long, and when we part you're going to forget all about me. You won't remember I was ever in your head. You'll only know being alone."

The Doctor clenched his fists. His eyes were tightly closed. "I should be alone. I deserve to be alone. I've just killed every single Time Lord who might have had a chance of surviving the Time War. I didn't give any of them a chance, not even my own flesh and blood. I turned against every principle that made me the Doctor."

"You didn't have a choice" Rose countered as she reached for the Doctor's closest fist, wrapping her hands around it. "I know what your High Council were trying to do. I know about the Final Sanction. I've got that memory. You had to do this, and you couldn't take the chance anything or anyone might break the time lock from outside, even if it was only to save one of their loved ones." She squeezed on the Time Lord's hand. "And I know you, Doctor. I know you both from your past and from your future. You always give them a chance in the end. You're a better person than I am. You're rude and not ginger, but you're the best person there is, and the best person there ever will be."

An incredulous expression formed on the Doctor's face. "You actually believe it."

"I know it." Rose smiled. "Years of first-hand experience."

The Doctor had a little scoff. "You really are still a kid, aren't you?" The young woman squeezed his hand, but she didn't say anything, and the Doctor sighed. "I know you're far from clueless" he said. "And apparently you already know about regeneration, and I'm still early into this one. Is this place safe? Or should I get back on my TARDIS right now?"

"I think she's too busy mourning too." Rose had a small, strangled laugh. "In fact I think she's busy consoling herself – my version of her won't let me in, and she's shutting me out mentally."

"Figures. Got a few hours to kill, then. Might as well spend them with you, less risky fresh off regeneration." The Doctor opened his eyes. "Where are we, then? Space liner of some sort?"

Rose looked in the direction of the replica buoy with the ship's name, and the Doctor followed her eyes. He grimaced. "Fantastic. What year is this?"

"Christmas Eve, 2008 in Earth years."

"Could have been a worse day."

Rose snorted. "I don't want to jinx us, Doctor, but I haven't had a single normal Christmas since we first travelled together, no matter the year or place – and I don't just mean the day, even worked for a town named Christmas. They'd once endured a siege for six hundred years, and a battalion of Cybermen stayed behind, buried themselves and put themselves in power-saving mode. Guess who the one who accidentally dug them up is?"

"Bloody fantastic." The Doctor grimaced. "That one didn't sound quite right. It's probably the new teeth. Rather like having a full set, I've been missing that." He sat up suddenly. "Do you mind if we get a drink? First fifteen hours of regeneration allow quite a bit of self-mending, but they don't regrow lost fluids."

"Could do with one myself" Rose admitted. "Plus I should really talk to Astrid."

"Companion?"

"Waitress." Rose smiled. "Owe her one for the free tea, it's supposed to cost an arm and a leg."

"I could probably spare those if you're quick enough."

"I'm already partly built out of one of your spare hands, don't need other pieces, and don't want a DIY Doctor kit on my TARDIS, so keep your limbs, will you? If we really need a trick to get the drinks, we've both got psychic paper."

"Spoilsport."

The Doctor got up and took an unexpectedly steady walk to the door. He opened it and held it for Rose. "Shall we?"

"Sure."

The young woman exited the cabin, the Doctor following in her wake. Or he would have had he not missed the opening and walked face-first into the door jamb, forcing Rose to hold her laughter.

"I can hear you in there" the Doctor glowered, and Rose returned a grin.

"Points for trying, though. How about a bit of gender equalization? You held the door for me, I hold out my arm to support you."

"Pretending to be a gentlewoman, are we?"

That one got a tongue-in-teeth grin. "Not pretending. Dame Rose of the Powell Estate, at your service."

"Spiffing fantastic." Another grimace. "Didn't sound right either."

"You'll figure it out. Shall we?"

"Don't start."

The lounge was quite a bit fuller than earlier, and Rose quickly went from looking around for an empty table to searching for empty seats. She spotted a few at a table heavily laden with various assortments of food, at which were seated a couple of thickset people whose purplish-blue fancy garb looked even more out of place than hers among an Edwardian-dressed crowd.

"Just ignore them" the man muttered to the woman as the two time travellers reached the table.

The Doctor grinned maniacally. "And she says I'm rude" he said gleefully, earning himself a glare from the seated man.

"We're already getting enough of that from the table over there" the man grumbled, pointing behind his back with his thumb.

Rose looked in that direction, and grinned mischievously. "Do you know what I'm thinking?"

"Tell me you're not going to" the Doctor replied flatly.

"But they'd really like some champagne, and like you said, you know me, I'm a kid who likes to be helpful."

She drew her sonic screwdriver and pointed in the direction of the magnum stood in a bucket on the table of the people the thickset man had pointed at and quickly activated it, its sound drowned by the shrieks as the cork burst out and the three bullies found themselves showered in champagne.

"Super-duper fantastic. No, I sound like an idiot."

"Did you do that?" the seated woman asked Rose.

"The champagne was feeling lonely."

The woman laughed. "I like you."

"So do I" added her companion. "Sorry for earlier" he added for the Doctor, "they've been heckling us for over an hour. I'm Morvin Van Hoff, and this is my good woman, Foon."

"I'm Rose Tyler."

"And I'm the Doctor."

"Oh!" The woman sighed. "That's lucky. I think I'm going to need a Doctor, time I've finished with that buffet." She held out a plate. "Have a buffalo wing. They must be enormous, these buffalos. So many wings."

"Land ones weigh over a ton" the Doctor supplied. "Not sure there's winged ones."

"Well, obviously there must be" Foon said.

Any further repartee was lost as a steward called for attention. "Attention please" he called, "shore leave tickets Red Six Seven activated. Red Six Seven."

"Red Six Seven" Foon repeated. "That's us. Are you Red Six Seven?"

"Might as well be" Rose said.

"Rose, I'm not-"

The young woman cut the Doctor off. "You're coming along, and I'm not taking 'no' for an answer. Not today."

Rose got up and walked in the steward's direction, followed by Foon, while the woman's husband and the Doctor exchanged looks.

"Whipped by the wife too?" Morvin asked with a grin.

"Not married."

"Even more whipped, then."

"I don't do domestics."

The two men went to join the women in front of a small podium, at the foot of which an elderly-looking man in tweed was holding a sign up with the mention 'Red 6-7'. "This way, fast as you can" he called out.

"What are you looking for?" the Doctor asked Rose, following her searching gaze.

"That Astrid I told you earlier."

"Leggy waitress? Blonde?"

"Bit coarse, but yes."

"She's over there", and the Time Lord nodded in her direction.

Rose snorted. "Faster than me at spotting something in this body, there's a change. Stay with these two, I'll get her as a plus one."

She went over to Astrid, closing the distance in a few quick strides.

"Can I do something for you, Madam?"

"I told you, it's Rose", and the white-haired woman grinned. "We're going down. Fancy coming with?"

"I'll get the sack" Astrid squeaked, but Rose caught hold of the waitress' arm and began to pull her towards the line.

"They won't after I've given them a piece of my mind. Come along, Astrid."

The two women got back to the man in tweed, and a quick presentation of Rose's psychic paper convinced him to hand out two teleport bracelets. Then they joined with the Doctor and the Van Hoffs, just in time to hear the elderly man's spiel about the upcoming trip.

"To repeat" the man said, "I am Mister Copper, the ship's historian, and I shall be taking you to Old London in the country of UK, ruled over by good King Wenceslas."

"God shaved the King?" Rose muttered, and the Doctor rolled his eyes at her as Mister Cooper went on.

"Now, human beings look like us Stoians from the outside, but their culture is a bit more primitive. They worship the great god Santa in the country of UK, a creature with fearsome claws, and they also pay homage to his wife Mary."

"Has she got claws too?"

This time, the man had heard Rose, and he looked a bit hesitantly at her. "That's a subject of debate among scholars." He returned his attention to the whole group. "Now it's Christmas Eve, a particular time of the year, and it's the time the people of UK go to war with the country of Turkey. Then they eat the Turkey people for Christmas dinner like savages."

"Which scholars did you learn all this from?" Rose prompted, feigning to be serious.

"From a prestigious university. I have a first class degree in Earthonomics. Now everybody stand by."

A little alien ran up to the group. "And me! And me!" it said excitedly. "Red Six Seven!"

The Doctor and Rose exchanged looks. "Think the savages of London will notice a Zocci zooming along the streets?" the Doctor said, and Rose played along.

"Well, they're a bit primitive, and those streets are going to be packed with shoppers and parties, and-"

The young woman stopped mid-sentence, noticing they were now standing in the middle of an empty shopping street.

"Well, that's new" the Doctor said.

"I told you I hate Christmas" Rose groused. "Guess this year's festivities start with investigating why the empty streets. Hopefully whoever's behind it this time didn't think sewers beat the roofs, I've done enough spelunking lately."

Mister Copper was calling for attention again, waving a piece of plastic. "Now, spending money" he said. "I have a credit card in Earth currency if you want to buy trinkets, or stockings, or the local delicacy, which is known as beef. But don't stray too far, it could be dangerous. In four or five hours they start boxing for a whole day."

"I'd love to see that" Astrid said from beside Rose. "This is beautiful!"

"No snow on Sto?"

"I've only gotten to see some from high orbit."

"Rose" the Doctor called, "if she wants beautiful, how about we nip to the pyramids or New Zealand?"

"But you don't get it, Sir…"

"Doctor."

"Doctor. I'm standing on an alien planet, in an alien street, with lots of concrete and real alien shops, no stars in the sky, and it smells. It stinks!" She pirouetted with glee, and went to hug Rose tightly. "This is amazing! Thank you so much!"

"Er, you're welcome?" the white-haired woman replied with a hint of surprise. "Anyway, I'd like to peek around the streets, find out why they're empty. Fancy a stroll?"

"On an alien planet? Absolutely!"

Astrid squealed and swarmed into Rose's arm, catching the other woman completely off guard. Then she pulled away and dragged the time traveller by her wrist, leaving behind a baffled Doctor, an indulgently smiling Foon and a laughing Morvin. "I think someone fancies your girlfriend, mate."

"Not my girlfriend, and not your mate" the Doctor grumbled, and he walked after Astrid and Rose.

He didn't have to go far; the two women had stopped in front of an open newspapers booth manned by an old man with a red cap who looked at least fifteen years past the age of retirement. Rose had already engaged him in conversation.

"Evening, Sir" she said pleasantly. "Sorry, bit of a silly question – where's everybody gone?"

The old man gave a hearty chuckle. "Oh ho, scared!"

The Doctor couldn't help butting in. "Scared of what?"

"Where have you been living, lad?" the old man said with surprise. "London at Christmas? Not safe, is it?"

"Why?"

"Well, it's them, up above. Look, Christmas before last, we had that big bloody spaceship, everyone standing on a roof. And then last year, that Christmas Star electrocuting all over the place, draining the Thames."

"The Thames bit wasn't the Christmas Star, that was me" Rose mumbled, and the old man squinted.

"Hold on, knew I'd seen your face somewhere. You're that girl that showed up with Donna at her wedding reception, and again after the funeral."

Rose's face lit up. "Donna, as in Donna Noble?"

The old man smiled. "She's my granddaughter. I'm Wilfred Mott."

"Great to meet you, Wilfred Mott" Rose said with a huge grin, detaching herself from Astrid to reach out and shake his hand. "How's Donna?"

"Well, you know, copin'" the old man said with a grimace. "Went off to China – that was quite the row with my daughter, but really, they needed a bit of space between them. When Geoff went, one lost a husband and the other a father, and they both think they have it worse. Better they don't fight over it."

"Can't argue with that" Rose let trail. She turned to the Doctor and Astrid. "Sorry, getting you involved in my domestics, that's not what either of you are here for."

The Doctor did look uncomfortable. Astrid, on the other hand, was delighted. "You're from this planet!"

"You're not?" Wilfred said with surprise.

"Neither she nor I" the Doctor said with a tight grin. "Is that alright?"

The old man smiled fondly. "Well, if you're friends with Rose here, then yes, it's alright. Doesn't matter that you're aliens, you must be two of the good ones."

The Doctor returned a pained grimace. "I'm really not."

"That's nonsense, lad" Wilfred said gruffly.

"You're only saying that because you don't know what I've done."

"But Miss Tyler knows, doesn't she? And she's still here, isn't she?"

"I am" Rose confirmed, and she walked over to the Doctor and lay her hands on his leather-clad shoulders. "And right now, I'm not going anywhere."

She was; at that precise moment, the teleport bracelets activated, and the wandering trio found themselves back on the Titanic with the rest of their group.

"When I said 'right now', I didn't mean 'but I'll actually be teleporting in a couple of seconds'" Rose groused.

"Something's gone wrong" the Doctor said matter-of-factly, disengaging himself from Rose and looking around. "Oi, steward! Why did you bring us back on board?"

"I'm sorry, Sir." The steward raised his voice. "Apologies, ladies and gentlemen, and Bannakaffalatta, we seem to have suffered a slight power fluctuation. We invite you to hand your bracelets back to Mister Copper and return to the festivities. And as an apology on behalf of Max Capricorn Cruiseliners, free drinks will be provided."

"Fat lot of good that's going to do" the Doctor grumbled. "Rose?"

"Yes, Doctor?"

"Want to help me investigate?"

"Love to. Allons-y!"

Astrid, however, was in Rose's way. "Sorry, I'll return to my shift. I just wanted to say…" She hugged Rose tightly again. "Thank you. That was the best. The best!"

"You're welcome" Rose said, and she nodded in the Doctor's direction. "Need to go."

"Tell me if you need anything."

Astrid let go of Rose, and the pair of time travellers made their way back to the reception lounge, stealing towards the least crowded side and walking over to a talking advertising portrait of the Max Capricorn they'd just heard being mentioned. The Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver, and Rose was surprised to see the exact same red light flashing from it as did from hers.

"Didn't see that one coming." Then she frowned as the display changed from Max Capricorn's aged, bald, gold-toothed face to a summary of the ship's status. A glaring mauve warning informed her that the particle shields were offline. "Doctor."

"I know."

"Think we can access the sensors?"

Another whirring of the Doctor's screwdriver, and the status display was replaced by a three dimensional projection clearly showing incoming meteorites.

Rose sighed. "I hate Christmas."

"I think I can relate" the Doctor said moodily.

"Let's raise the command crew." Rose drew her own sonic screwdriver and waved it over the projection, replacing it with a view of the bridge, complete with view of a distinguished old officer and a far younger midshipman. "Captain" she ventured, "sorry for the interruption, but you've got a meteorite storm coming in, direction-"

"West zero by north two" the Doctor filled in.

The Captain just frowned. "Who is this?"

"He's the Doctor, I'm the Bad Wolf, and it's not important that we aren't crew – Captain, you haven't just got that storm coming, your shields are down. You've only got a few minutes to get them back up or change course."

"You have no authorization to contact us" the Captain replied in an aloof manner. "You will clear the comms at once."

"Yeah, we'll do that, just take a look to starboard if you don't believe us, and then do your goddamned job before somebody gets killed."

"Madam, Sir, you need to come with me" a steward said from behind Rose, and she spun around – and for the first time, she paid attention to the gilded angel statues in plain white robes that were ubiquitous on board: a pair of them were flanking the steward, both holding cuffs.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"I'd rather not need to have those put on you" the steward said sternly, "and I won't have to if you come quietly."

"Ruddy fantastic" the Doctor growled. "Barely four hours in, already getting myself arrested. And it still sounds wrong."

"You're overcomplicating things" Rose groused, bringing the full weight of her golden glare on the steward. "Take us away if you must, but first get your crew and customers to clear off the starboard side, that's where the danger is if your shields don't go back online."

"That's none of your business, Madam" the steward said stiffly.

The Doctor brought his own glare to bear on the man. "Excuse me, there's a meteor shower about to wreck this ship and kill your passengers, and it's none of our business?"

"The situation is under control. Now, come!"

Rose had other ideas – she darted around the golden statue nearest to her, ducking under its arm and headed for the middle of the lounge, high-pitched voice clarioning.

"Everybody, listen to me, get to the life- Mfff!"

She'd run into another of the golden statues which had muffled her. The young woman tried to fight against its grip, a vain effort made hopeless when yet another statue grabbed her from behind and the two robotic angels dragged her out of the lounge, the other two and the steward pushing the Doctor after her.

They didn't leave alone. Pell-mell, Astrid, Morvin, Foon and the Zocci named Bannakaffalatta followed, either vouching for the pair of time travellers or offering excuses, or, for Morvin, protesting that all the teleports had gone down. Then the rude businessman in the Edwardian jacket from earlier showed up, angrily shouting at the steward.

"Did you incompetents even notice your shielding is down? A small meteorite just nearly burned my shoes!"

"Look, ladies and gentleman" the steward began hotly, "everybody needs to calm-"

"Information. You are all going to die" the angelic statue nearest to the steward cut him off, and it proceeded to grab hold of the man, locking his arms behind his back.

The Doctor sprang into action, whipping out his sonic screwdriver and circling around both steward and statue, applying the device on the robotic angel's neck and causing it to short circuit.

"Doctor!"

He ducked just in time to avoid the heavy swing of a golden fist – but it was enough to make him lose balance and nearly crumple forward. The sonic slipped out of his hand and rolled on the corridor floor – until a golden foot fell down on the device and smashed it.

"Now that's unfair!"

He rolled on the floor to get out of the trajectory of that statue, eyes falling upon Morvin in the process; the thickset man was doing his hardest to hold back the second of the three angelic hosts still active, while a little further Rose was manoeuvring around the third one, one of her wrists still locked in its grip, the other held back until she could swing around and press her own screwdriver on the statue's neck, deactivating it.

It was the moment Mister Copper chose to walk in on the scene. "What in Vot's name is going on here?"

"Everybody get down!"

That was Astrid, and just in the nick of time; the living participants in the fight barely had time to flatten themselves on the corridor floor when a brutal impact shook the ship, followed by a second and then a third one that shorted out the gravity temporarily, and the entire party were flung towards the far side of the corridor from the lounge; the two angel statues left active, which had already picked up considerable momentum, outright smashed into the wall.

Then gravity reasserted itself, sending everyone back on the floor, and the ship seemed to stabilize.

Rose was the first to push herself. "SS Titanic. Lousy name for a ship" she groused, going to help the closest person to her, who turned out to be Astrid. "You alright?"

"I think so" the waitress said weakly. "Madam, your partner."

The Doctor was crumpled on the corridor floor, unmoving, Foon hyperventilating as she tried to rouse him.

"He put himself between the wall and me."

"He does that" Rose said between her teeth, approaching to kneel at the Time Lord's side and gingerly scan him with her sonic, grimacing as she discovered the results.

"I'll get someone from the infirmary" the steward said, making his way to a hatch.

Rose barely had the time to yell a "Don't open it!" that the man did just that – and got sucked into open space before the oxygen shields had time to compensate, the scream of escaping air fading to a hiss.

"Rose" the Doctor gasped from where he lay. "Rose."

"Sorry, Doctor, you're going to be out of commission, too much internal damage" the young woman said grimly. "Still, you're from before my time, means your version of the old girl hasn't been tampered with, and she'll answer my call. I'll bring them and you down and then come back to get things sorted here."

"You, a little nobody who can't even afford a proper dress?" the businessman said snidely.

"Me, the Bad Wolf" Rose said coldly as she stood up. Her eyes flared, and the familiar whirring of the TARDIS echoed in the corridor as her familiar control room materialized around the astonished passengers, including a gobsmacked businessman.

"What are you doing?"

"Calling my ship" Rose answered. "Well, technically, his ship, she's the version from before he gets lost to a parallel universe."

"What?"

"Stop gaping and make yourself useful – help Astrid, you two grab hold of the Doctor, hang onto something, and don't let him go. Everybody else, just hold onto something that isn't the controls, this is going to get bumpy."

Rose went about the TARDIS' controls, ignoring the various questions and protests, and launched the ship into a trip that definitely was on the rough side and landed them back in the almost deserted street, right next to a gobsmacked Wilfred Mott's newspaper stall.

"Twice in the same night?" he choked out as Rose stepped outside, followed by the rest of her party, minus the Doctor of course.

"Sorry, bit of an emergency up above" the young woman replied in a rush. "Can I ask you for a favour?"

"There's no need" a clear woman's voice made from the other side of the TARDIS. Around stepped a small, mousey woman dressed entirely in long black robes, head and neck wrapped in a shawl, flanked by two policemen whose skin texture looked entirely too smooth to Rose's enhanced senses to feel natural.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Mayor Me, from Trap Street" the woman introduced herself, her voice crisp and business-like. "We detected the malfunctioning teleports earlier and came to investigate. I didn't know the Bad Wolf was already on the scene."

"Well, seeing as you already know me, might as well skip to the part where you tell me what you've found out."

"That there's a spaceship on a collision course with Earth, headed for an impact with Buckingham Palace."

"Oh my Lord" Wilfred made from inside his booth. "They got it right, all those people who said to stay hidden tonight."

"They didn't" Rose said harshly, "not if I have anything to say about it."

"You're also about to cause a riot" the woman in black said calmly. "Most of the aliens you brought here would fit in, but not a Zocci."

"Bannakaffalatta!" the little red alien protested.

"Bannakaffalatta" the woman repeated, and she returned her attention to Rose. "I can take charge of them. We have a refuge here in London."

"I refuse" the businessman said flatly. "I demand to be transported back to Sto as soon as possible. I can pay – handsomely."

"Can we be taken home too?" Morvin asked hesitantly, and the businessman rounded angrily on him.

"You're not my problem, the rest of you can find ways to pay for your passage for yourselves."

"I'm certainly not making them pay for a trip back to Sto" Rose said snidely, and she turned her attention back to Mayor Me. "Can you take them off the streets while I get the Titanic sorted? Just tell me where to collect them."

The mousey woman shook her head. "That will not be possible. Trap Street exists only for refugees, it's not accessible for anybody else. Not even you."

"Fantastic" Rose said sarcastically. "Are you going to offer them passage back home?"

"I can't guarantee that. But you have my personal promise I will do all I can so they get a fair chance of securing their passage back home."

"Best they're going to get, I suppose" Rose said, and she turned back to the refugees she'd brought with her, looking at each of them in turn. "Well then… Foon… Morvin… Bannakaffalatta… Mister Copper… Rich Snob (Hey!)… Astrid. It was nice meeting you all."

"I'm staying with you" Astrid replied, her voice quiet but her expression resolute. "You'll need someone with you who knows the ship."

Rose looked at her. "Are you certain? It's going to be very dangerous – possibly deadly. I can't guarantee your safety up there."

"You can't guarantee yours, and you're still going, Madam" the waitress said. Rose winced, and Astrid smiled apologetically. "You shouldn't go alone, and I can help, so I'm helping."

Rose hesitated for an instant, looking at the young woman from Sto. Then she nodded. "Alright."

"Bad Wolf" the Mayor said calmly, calling Rose's attention back to her. "We're going. I'll let you retcon the human's memory."

"What? No way!" Wilfred protested from his booth.

"Not doing it" Rose said harshly. "Humans have known about aliens since the Slitheen, and apparently you're convinced your refuge is hidden so well not even I can find it. He's not going to."

"He could speak to the wrong people."

"If you can hide from a TARDIS, they can't find you either" Rose said with a note of finality. "You clearly recognize my authority; I've told you my decision."

"I will respect it as long as it doesn't endanger Trap Street." The Mayor turned to the refugees. "Let's go." She swept off, the five refugees and the two off-feeling policemen following her, leaving Rose and Astrid alone with Wilfred.

"Thank you" the old man said.

"You're welcome" Rose replied, and she turned back to Astrid. "Still got that teleport bracelet?"

"I didn't have a chance to return it" Astrid said with a blush.

"Keep it on hand, but don't put it back on" Rose instructed her. "I need a few minutes inside the TARDIS, got to send the Doctor back on his way. I'll be right back."

She swept back inside the ship, leaving behind a bewildered Wilfred and a chilled Astrid.

"I'm getting a bit old, but did I see things right? Is that box bigger on the inside?"

Astrid grinned at him, her teeth chittering. "It's bigger on the inside."

"Gracious me." He suddenly moved to the side, opening a door to the booth. "You're going to catch a cold out there. Come in, I've got a heater. Not ideal, but it's better than nothing."

They passed the next several minutes in companionable light conversation, the waitress and the old man exchanging on what their respective lives were like, both marvelling at the other's experiences. Then Rose exited the TARDIS again, and the time and space ship activated and vanished behind her.

"He's on his way" Rose said, her face closed. "It's going to be hard for him, being all on his own, but he's going to be alright in the end. He'll have me."

"Doesn't make too much sense" the old man pointed out.

"Time travel rarely does."

Wilfred seemed to take that one in stride. "You two will be off, then" he said.

"Got to."

The old man smiled. "Tell you what. When you're done, you come back here. We weren't going to celebrate Christmas, what with Geoff just gone, Donna in China, and Sylvia and me alone, but we can have ourselves a bit of eggnog, you and me, and we'll call Donna. Should be morning in China by then, she'll be delighted."

Rose smiled back. "Sounds like a great idea, Wilfred."

"Oh, just Wilf."

"Wilf the Just sounds a bit immodest."

The old man laughed, and turned to Astrid. "Your ride's here, Miss. It was great meeting you. My first proper chat with an alien, and it was wonderful."

"Can I come back too later on?" Astrid asked hopefully, and the old man chuckled. "Course you can, if that Mayor of alien Diagon Alley lets you."

Rose blinked. "You've read Harry Potter?"

"Course I did" Wilf said gruffly. "Just because I'm eighty doesn't mean I can't enjoy a good story. Great ending, too, what with-"

"Don't spoil me" Rose cut him off. "The Doctor kept saying I shouldn't peek at my own future, so I never read book seven while I was with him, and never got the chance after that."

"I'll fetch it for you" Wilf said. "Now, off you pop – ship crashing, Buckingham palace?"

Rose returned a tongue-in-teeth grin. "Donna comes by it honestly. Wish I'd met you when you were younger. Astrid?"

The waitress exited the booth, and followed Rose's example in putting the teleport bracelet back on. The time traveller took her sonic screwdriver out and tampered with both bracelets.

"Right, should take us back to the corridor where we were. Know more than one route to the bridge from there?"

"I do" Astrid replied, worrying her lip. "But how are we going to know which routes are safe?"

"Still plenty of electronics working on board, I'll run checks." Rose pocketed her sonic. "Alright. Ready, Astrid?"

"No?" the waitress replied with a weak smile. "Let's go anyway."

The two women rematerialized in the corridor near the reception lounge, and Rose immediately made off for the closest information panel, whipping her sonic screwdriver out again.

"Bridge… Bridge… Bridge…" she muttered, her tool whirring. "Ah, here we go! Bridge, this is deck, er…"

"Twenty-two" Astrid supplied. "Bridge, is the Captain here?"

"This is the bridge" a pained male voice made. "The Captain's dead."

"Brilliant" Rose said tartly. "How many people left on the bridge, and what d'you got access to?"

"Not much. There's an override protocol that's locked the steering." The man hissed, and Rose frowned.

"Are you injured?"

"Not badly. I tried, I did try to stop it, but I was too late."

"Captain did it, right?" Rose said, and Astrid looked at her with surprise.

"It was deliberate" the man confirmed.

"Thanks for stopping him, then" Rose said. "What's your name?"

"Midshipman Frame."

"Nice meeting you, Midshipman Frame. I'm the Bad Wolf. What type of engines do you have on this ship?"

A strangled noise came through the comms. "You're the Bad Wolf?"

"Not that Bad Wolf" Astrid said, raising her voice. "Her real name's Rose Tyler."

"Also the Bad Wolf" Rose groused. "How about those engines?"

"Nuclear storm, Madam."

Rose groaned. "Oh, not you too. Status?"

"They're cycling down."

"Brilliant. Nuclear storm engines, they have containment fields, don't they?"

"Got to, plasma containment."

"But now the engines are cycling down, takes less energy to keep the containment holding, doesn't it?"

There was a moment of silence, then: "Are you insane?"

"Yes" Rose said. "I've also got a knack for improvising in a pinch. Not looking for a permanent fix here, Midshipman Frame, just need enough time to get to the bridge and help fix the steerage. About twelve million sentients and the financial heart of the biggest market of a level five planet on the line, got to do something about that."

"Us blowing the ship in orbit certainly would save them" the midshipman said, hissing.

"Yeah, not keen on that until we've saved all the people we can on board – got contacts down below that can take charge of survivors. How many?"

"A couple hundred, and dropping. The Host have turned on everyone, crew and passengers. I've had to lock myself inside the Bridge."

"The Host?"

"The angel statues that normally help the passengers. They've gone on a killer rampage."

"And who controls the Host?"

"Highest authority on board. No idea who that is, since it wasn't the Captain, but that's certainly not me."

"We'll see about that. Bad Wolf, over and out."

This left Rose alone again with Astrid.

"Are you actually called the Bad Wolf?" the waitress asked hopefully.

"Oh yes – nifty little name I gave myself, and spread it across all of time and space, 'cause I'm narcissistic that way."

"Well, you don't look like a Goddess – not that I think you're ugly, far from it" Astrid added with a blush. "I just mean, you do act a bit weird at times, but it feels like you are one of us, not like you're a Goddess."

"Not a Goddess, me, just a freak" Rose mumbled. "Come on, we've wasted enough time already."

Being of relatively small size was a boon for both women, making it easier to make their way through the debris and across the weakened sections. It was still rough going, and it gave Rose a bit of time to think.

"Say, those Host things, Midshipman Frame said they obeyed the highest authority on board" she inquired, at the same time she was pulling Astrid atop a teetering pile of metal.

"They do" Astrid breathed out; the young woman clearly wasn't as used to this type of exertion as Rose had become. "Why did you want to know?"

"Because I'd like to know if there's some kind of central command node somewhere."

"Not really" Astrid said as she reached the top, panting. "Sorry."

"No worries. We can use that panel as a slide, go first. I'll be right behind you."

Astrid went and Rose followed; once both women had gone down, the time traveller made for the next control panel she could reach. "Where are the Hosts stored and maintained?"

"Deck thirty-one?"

"Deck thirty-one…" Rose chewed on her lips as she used her sonic again, returning a failed scan. "Will you look at that… These things give info about even sections that have been entirely destroyed by the meteors, but nothing for deck thirty-one. Whole level is shielded from scans."

"What does that mean?" Astrid asked, and Rose frowned.

"I'd love to know. Let's see – ah. Midshipman Frame, Bad Wolf, do you copy?"

"I do" the man's voice said tensely. "Engines are holding, but you've got to hurry. The Hosts are sweeping through and killing everyone they find. Can't be long before you run into them."

"I was thinking of taking a shortcut, actually" Rose said. "Those teleport bracelets, would they work for in-ship jumps or do they have a minimum range?"

"You have teleport bracelets?" the midshipman said with bafflement.

"We do?"

"Why didn't you say so in the first place? We could have saved ten minutes and got you here already!"

"Yeah, well, I didn't activate my Goddess mode" Rose groused. "Next question, can the Hosts teleport about?"

"No, physical travel only, but they can fly, and there's shortcuts so they can travel faster between decks."

"Wonderful. Last question: does teleportation work to deck thirty-one?"

There was a silence, both from comms and from a horrified-looking Astrid.

"You can't" the waitress whispered at the same time as the midshipman uttered a "you're insane."

"Got to get there somehow" Rose replied. "So I guess this is where I'll be leaving you, Astrid. I'll teleport you to the bridge and get myself down to deck thirty-one, see if that's where the answer to all this lies, and it's got to be."

"What if the Hosts try to stop you?" Astrid asked with evident worry.

Rose smiled at her self-deprecatingly. "Oh, you know, the usual. Have some fun, run for my life."

"You make it sound like you do this kind of thing all the time."

"Kinda-sorta."

"But your planet is down there. Don't you have a family there? Or friends?"

Rose's smile turned sad. "No family left, me. Only got the four friends – maybe five, with Wilf, or six, with you – and none of them have known me for more than a few weeks. All I really am is just a traveller."

"With that Doctor we helped earlier?"

"I can't be with him." Rose shook her head as Astrid was about to speak. "Long story, ask me again later."

"So you're on your own."

"Yeah."

"Because I was thinking, if you're this lonely, you need someone to take care of you. And me, I'm going to have nothing left after this. No work, no family waiting on Sto – just me. So what do you think? Can I come with you?" Astrid asked hopefully.

Rose chewed on her lip. "It's dangerous, lots of days like this one."

"And you're sending me away from my own protection, so I know you'd be caring for me. Please?"

Rose sighed. "Well, she's not wrong. Maybe it's time I really got a companion of my own" she murmured, and then she raised her voice again. "Alright, then. When this is over, you can come with me."

The waitress' face broke into a wide grin. "Thank you."

"For now, hold over your arm, got to send you on your way."

"Hold on" Astrid said with a blush, "first, there's an old tradition on Planet Sto."

"Is it a long tradition?"

"It won't take a minute."

And Astrid pulled Rose into a tight embrace and planted a kiss on the time traveller's lips, and deepened it when said lips opened in surprise. She broke off the kiss after a few seconds, smiling at a bewildered white-haired woman.

"Yeah, er… Very old tradition" Rose mumbled, blushing deeply. "I'll, er, send you off to the bridge" she added, disengaging herself and focusing on the teleport bracelet, which presently offered a very welcome distraction.

"I'll see you later" Astrid said once Rose was done, smiling radiantly, before vanishing in a sheath of light.

"I did not see that one coming" the time traveller mumbled.

The door ahead of her opened, and one of the golden Hosts crossed through, its metallic voice repeating a litany of "Kill, kill, kill".

"Now that's familiar territory."

The Host grabbed the disc crowning its head and threw it towards the young woman, who ducked just in time.

"Hold on, hold on, override" she shouted, and then rolled out of the way of the returning disc. "Security protocol one, two, three, four, fi-"

"Override accepted" the Host made, stopping any hostile movement. "Information. State request."

"Okay, that's good" Rose made, getting back on her feet. "What are the highest authorities on board?"

"Information. Max Capricorn. The Bad Wolf."

"I'm one of the highest authorities?"

"Information. Correct."

"Fantastic." Rose groaned. "Should have just told the Doctor to ditch the adjective. Then again, I suppose he'll get there."

"Information. State your third question."

"Do I only get three questions?"

"Information. Correct. Your three questions have now been used."

The young woman face-palmed. "Stupid, stupid, stupid Rose, of course it counted as a question."

"Information." The statue readied its disc again. "Now you will die."

"Yeah, no, got other plans, me. Do you know what's my own security protocol one?" Rose said, taking her sonic out and applying it on her teleport bracelet.

"Information. Irrelevant. Your three questions have been used. Now you will die."

"I won't, because protocol one is always know how you're going to escape."

The young woman activated her bracelet, and found herself transported on a bridge that opened on a chasm which seemed to lead straight down to an open energy containment barrier. The bridge was wide-open and almost empty, save for retooling and powering stations, a couple of fork-lifts, and a thick-looking door with complex security controls on a far wall – and four Hosts who turned towards the newcomer.

"Information. Kill."

"Information. Override. Security protocol one" Rose replied in the same tone, and the four Hosts stood down.

"Override accepted. Information. State request."

"Take me to your leader."

"Information. This order contradicts another order from higher authority."

Rose smiled nervously. "Now we're getting somewhere, and I didn't even use an actual questions, just an order – and you will only answer my next question if that analysis is correct. Question: what order was my own order contradicting?"

"Information. Hosts are ordered to kill all crew and passengers, except for highest authority."

"Except I'm both. This very order contains a contradiction, and you can't resolve it on your own, so you've got to turn to the highest authority for clarification. So for the purposes of this order, you will exclusively categorize me as highest authority."

"Information. Order not acknowledged."

"Damn." Rose grimaced. "And how come you can't accept my orders despite me being highest authority?"

"Information. Bad Wolf is only second highest authority. Order comes from first highest authority."

"Meaning only the first highest authority can clarify how to interpret your order, which means I was right to ask in the first place: take me to your leader."

The Hosts gestured for Rose to take place in between them, which the young woman did with a grin. "And I did it with one question to spare. Am I good, or what?"

"Information. You are good."

Rose face-palmed again. "Twice, I did it twice."

"Information. Your three questions have now been used. Now we will take you to our leader."

"You know what? This sounds stupid when others say it."

The Hosts led her to the doors, which turned out to be extremely thick and doubled at the other end of a small hallway which had to also double as an airlock. The equally thick doors on the other hand were also opened by the Hosts, who then led her inside an overloaded space, filled with equipment of all sorts, a large part of which had been damaged after the collisions. It too opened on a deep chasm, which the young woman supposed also led down to an energy barrier. And at the far end, behind another set of doors…

Rose quirked her eyebrows. "Very nice. Omnistate impact chamber. Could sit through a supernova in one of those, certainly not going to be scratched by such a trifle as a multiple-core fusion explosion that only glasses a couple thousand square kilometres' worth of a planet's surface. And there's really only one person who could have the power and the money to get this thing on board and order the Hosts to make sure the ship crashes and nobody else survives, am I right?"

One of the Hosts pushed a command, and the final doors opened, letting out a cube-ish life support machine on wheels much taller than Rose herself, with the head of an old man Rose instantly recognized, down to the gilded tooth.

"Max Capricorn, I presume."

The head ignored her and addressed the Hosts directly. "Who is this?"

"Information. The Bad Wolf."

The head's eyes opened wide, then narrowed again, and the head's mouth curled into a cruel smile.

"No, she's not. The Bad Wolf was an incredibly beautiful and ageless woman with zero fashion sense from seven thousand years ago."

"You missed pink and purple chav with too much make-up and white-haired freakazoid dressed in black because she can't be bothered, for starters."

"And why would I care?" the head spat.

"Because they, and the version you know, are all me, Rose Tyler, sentient of varying genetic composition, also known as the Bad Wolf."

The head let out a grating laugh. "Oh, ho, ho. I like a woman of character. No one's stood up to me for years."

"Can't imagine why" Rose drawled.

"Don't push it" the head hissed. "I've run a company for a hundred and seventy-six years, I know how to put people down."

"Took its toll, you seem to be missing a few limbs" Rose said flippantly, earning herself a growl.

"Like I had another choice. I depend on a primitive life support system in a society that despises cyborgs. I've had to hide away for years, running the company by hologram."

"Poor billionaire Max, so lonely and unloved. I'm going to cry."

"Silence!" The head's attention turned back to the angel statues. "Host, situation report."

"Information. Titanic is still in orbit" one of the Hosts reported.

"We should be plummeting to the surface by now – what's gone wrong?" The head turned around, and its expression turned alarmed. "The engines are still running! They should have stopped!"

"Sorry, my fault, gave Midshipman Frame a crash-course in hullabaloo" Rose grinned. "You were heading straight for a very densely populated capital city – twelve million dead, global economic upheaval, all on a level five planet. Would have made quite the scandal with the Shadow Proclamation."

"That was the point!" the head said angrily. "I wanted the scandal!"

Rose grimaced. "Sinking Max Capricorn Cruiseliners along with the Titanic. That doesn't make much sense, why sink your own business unless- oh!"

"Yes, my own board voted me out" the head growled. "When they found out what I am, they stabbed me in the back."

"Back of the head, and because you no longer have a back" Rose mumbled. "That's why you're looking to cause a catastrophe and are getting rid of all possible witnesses" she continued at a normal volume. "Such a disaster on a level five planet, bound to be an inquiry, and when they retrieve the black boxes they'll know it was deliberate. The whole company crashes, and the board get tarred with the scandal. You must even have a retrieval crew for after you've sat through the crash in your Omnistate. That's clever."

"Nobody gets away with slighting Max Capricorn."

"And I suppose that when this is all over, you make a mint over your former competitors' share prices soaring, go where they can make you a nice cyborg body and enjoy a nice retirement at some ideal vacation resort."

The head leered. "Penhaxico Two. Sunniest beaches in this arm of the galaxies, and I'm told the ladies there are very fond of metal."

Rose winced. "Really didn't need to know that."

"I could have offered you an exclusive deal rather than seek my chance with the local female population. You seem to be hiding very nice looks under the non-gendered clothes. But you're far too clever. All that banter, hiding you know exactly which buttons to push and when - I could never be sure I could control you, no matter how hot. So it's over for you now, Miss Rose Tyler."

"Is it?" Rose quirked her eyebrows. "Titanic still hasn't sunk, has it?"

The head sneered. "I can cut the power from here. Free fall into the oceans. Less dramatic than crashing on a capital, but contaminates the entire ecosystem. So many more primitives dying. Oh, the scandal."

"You are not going to do this" Rose said icily.

"Oh ho? I don't see anyone here that can stop me."

"Yeah? Well let me tell you a little story, Max Capricorn. Once upon a time, there was this human girl. She'd fallen in love with the most beautiful person in the entire universe, a man hurting so much from the grief of having had to destroy everything he held dear, because the fabric of all of time and space themselves was threatened and his own people left him no other choice, and she decided she would never, ever leave this wonderful man alone."

"I don't see how your little sob story is going to change my mind, but by all means, go ahead" Max said with a sneer. "We're not trying for a pinpoint collision course any longer."

"There's a little bit more to this tale than a sob story" Rose replied with a scowl. "Because you see, the human girl was so desperate to save that incredible man, to make sure neither of them would ever leave the other behind, and so selfishly convinced that only she could do something, that she forged a connection with the Time Vortex itself, becoming a literal Goddess with the power to reshape anything, anywhere, anytime, in all of reality. And because by pure happenstance they were the closest words with power behind them lying around where her presence was centred, the human girl made Goddess took those words as inspiration and called herself the Bad Wolf."

"I still don't see why I should care about any of this or how it's supposed to convince me to save the Titanic" the head growled.

"I'm getting there. Because, you see, there was this other, very selfish alien, a Time Lord of incredible intelligence but driven insane by the constant pounding of the drums in their head. He took notice of what the foolish human girl had done, of the changes that had happened to her that made it possible for her to endure a connection with a source of power of such magnitude it would have destroyed anyone else in a matter of seconds. So the Time Lord captured the girl and transformed her, mutilating her, reengineering her biology and creating a portal inside her head, which could be opened at any time he could force the girl to, restoring her ability to connect with the Time Vortex and erase anything she wanted erased from existence.

"That's what this has to do with convincing you to save the Titanic" Rose said, her eyes bursting into golden light. "I'm the Bad Wolf, that selfish creature with God-scale power over all of time and space, and I'm telling you, right now, that either your plans to crash this ship into the Earth are going to cease to exist or you will."

"Rose, please don't!"

The light went out of the Bad Wolf's eyes, and Rose turned towards where the shout had come from. It was Astrid Peth, driving one of the fork lifts the time traveller had noticed earlier.

"You called me Rose..."

Max Capricorn's head also turned in her direction, and he let out a grating laugh. "See? Even my personnel want my scheme to succeed."

"This has nothing to do with you" Astrid said angrily. "This is me not wanting the only person I've got left hating herself for what she was about to do to you!"

"Astrid, don't!" Rose cried out, at the same time as Max's head shouted a loud "Hosts! Kill them!"

But the Hosts didn't kill Rose immediately. Two of her seized her arms, while a third came in from behind her and forced her onto her knees, stopping her from interfering as Astrid rammed the fork lift into Max Capricorn's heavy life support machinery. Two engines roared to life as both struggle to push the other machine back.

"Duck!"

The fourth Host had just launched its halo at the waitress, who barely got out of its way after hearing Rose's warning. The deadly implement cut through some controls in a shower of sparks, and suddenly the fork lift seemed to get the upper hand.

The disc flew back to its owner, and the fork lift displaced Max Capricorn's machine, pushing it against some of the heavier clutter and causing it to overturn just enough that the fork lift's arms slid under its wheels.

"Astrid!" Rose cried out again as Max Capricorn's blocky was lifted, and the fork lift pushed past the obstacle, headed straight for the chasm.

Rose was desperate enough to let out the Wolf, but before she could, she saw the waitress' face, leaning outside of the cab, her eyes locked onto the time traveller's and her mouth saying words the Time-Lord augmented senses could filter underneath the engines' roars.

"Don't be the Bad Wolf. Be Rose Tyler. I love her, forever."

"ASTRID!"

The Hosts held her down, and there was nothing Rose could do but watch as both machines crashed through the thin guard rails and toppled into the chasm along with Astrid Peth and Max Capricorn.

And Rose knew the exact moment it was over. At that precise instant, the Hosts loosed their hold, and one of them spoke.

"Information. Awaiting orders."

Rose ignored them for an instant, walking over to the guard rail, and letting out silent tears as she watched down where an impossibly brave woman from Sto had just died, not to save her life, but so Rose herself would not lose control and destroy another.

"What the hell must I be turning into, that you felt you had to die to stop that?" Rose said, her voice catching in her throat.

But there wasn't any time for mourning at the moment. The ship's computer made that painfully clear in one of those impersonal announcements only computer voices could deliver: "Engines disconnected. Titanic falling. Voyage terminated."

"Not if I have anything to say about it" Rose growled as she whirled around, and her next words were yelled. "Hosts! Spread around the whole ship! Order the attacks to stop! Help all the survivors!"

And with a raging gesture, she whipped out her sonic screwdriver and activated the teleport bracelet again, flashing herself to the bridge. She arrived just in the nick of time to see one injured man fighting for his life against two Hosts which apparently had crashed through the bridge's doors.

"Hosts, stand down!" she snapped. "And you too spread around the ship and order all other Hosts to stop attacking and to help any survivors!"

The Hosts let go of the man they'd been about to kill. "Information. Orders received."

The angelic statues left the bridge, leaving behind a bewildered man trying to catch his breath and a cold Rose Tyler, the handle of her sonic drumming against her teleport bracelet.

"Midshipman Frame, I presume" she said unemotionally.

"Yeah" the man said hoarsely. "Who are you? How come the Hosts are obeying you?"

"We talked earlier. I'm the Bad Wolf. Where are the engine controls?"

"Console over there", and the midshipman nodded in that direction, "but they aren't working. They're stating only the highest authority can make any input."

"Convenient." Rose pocketed her sonic and strode towards the console she'd been showed. "Get yourself to steerage, we're redirecting course. Is your ship still viable enough to get to the closest space dock?"

"There's a hyperspace ribbon starting just outside the heliosphere."

"Fantastic" Rose replied in a tone that said it was anything but. "Allons-y, Midshipman Frame."

"Alonso" the man said from the post he'd taken at the wheel, and Rose stopped imputing commands to turn and give him a look of disbelief.

"Seriously?"

"I'll pilot the Titanic back to dock, but I'm resigning the moment we touch down."

"No, seriously, your first name is Alonso?"

"What of it?"

Rose sighed. "Nevermind." She returned her attention to the engine controls. "There, you have power. Can you activate communications?"

The midshipman nodded and pressed a few commands by the wheel. "Here you go."

"Hosts, this is the Bad Wolf. Override: clear all existing orders. New orders: save and help any survivors on board. Instruction: from now on, your second highest authority is Alonso Frame. Over."

The midshipman cut the communications. He was now looking at Rose with awe. "You truly are the Bad Wolf" he said with reverence. "The genuine article."

"I'm really not sure I want to be" Rose replied grimly. "Astrid Peth just died so I wouldn't have to."

"She's dead?"

"It was Max Capricorn who was trying to sink the Titanic. She sacrificed herself to stop him. All of the survivors on this ship owe her their lives."

"There's thirty-four people left alive on board" the midshipman said quietly. Ahead of him, the viewports shaded as the ship steered in a direction that made the sun cross their lines of sight.

Rose made a noncommittal noise. "How many were there when you left port?"

"Two thousand four hundred and one."

Another grunt, and an uncomfortable silence, which Rose eventually broke. "Mind if I keep the teleport bracelet?" she asked quietly.

"Not at all" the man said.

"Good, because I saw earlier my cabin was part of the section that got smashed, which means my ship must have homed in on the nearest habitable planet – that's Earth."

The man had a small chuckle. "Your ship was on board? What were you, a stowaway?"

"Actually, for once, I had a legit ticket – just got no idea where it came from."

The midshipman snorted. "That would explain the whimsicality in the legends of the Bad Wolf."

Rose couldn't help feel a bit curious. "There's legends about me on Sto?"

"There's history about you on Sto. A tradition, too, dating all the way back from Queen Vot: be it in government or in businesses, or anything with a hierarchy, the Bad Wolf is always named as the second highest authority."

The young woman had a humourless chuckle. "Figures. Don't tell me anything else, hasn't happened for me."

Rose didn't have the heart to return to see Wilf that night back on Earth. She couldn't face having to explain to the kind and enthusiastic old man why Astrid no longer was with her, let alone talk about what had just happened before reconciling just how it was possible for a young woman who had just met her to have sacrificed her life out of love for her, and not even to save Rose's life. Just to stop her from using the powers of the Bad Wolf.

"But why?"

And there was no one in the slowly re-animating streets of London who could have answered.

She followed the link still connecting her with her time and space ship, and found her version of the TARDIS in the very same side street where she had once picked Martha up. It had only been some months ago in linear time, but with how much Rose had changed since then, even from the human with slight huon-infused powers, it might as well have been forever. The memories of that young woman – not Martha, who had suffered but was still human, but the memories of herself, the blonde girl full of life and playing a cheap time travel trick with her pink headband – only added to the bitterness and melancholy Rose was feeling on what was pretty much her worst Christmas ever.

The TARDIS seemed to have tuned to that mood, her lighting dimmed and her humming quieter than usual as Rose made her way back inside. The young woman walked straight to the console, leaning her hands on one of its boards and letting out a deep sigh, closing her eyes.

"Rose."

She jumped. It was impossible that she was hearing that voice, the voice of her first Doctor. And yet…

She turned around slowly, and when she saw that the voice had only come from a holographic projection by the door, she didn't know how to feel about the Doctor not being there.

The projection gave her a little smile, and spoke with the painfully familiar northern burr. "I never got the chance to say all of this, so I programmed this message while our time streams still coincided closely enough that I haven't yet forgotten. I hope it's not coming at the worst possible timing, but I couldn't think of another."

"You've never been good at timing no matter your regeneration, Doctor" Rose muttered, but she had a small, crooked half-smile playing on her lips.

The hologram went on. "You've met other versions of me before, so I have some idea of when this is in your timeline, and I wanted to say I'm sorry for all that happened to you. We've barely spent time together, and I haven't even met you properly for the first time in your own timeline, but I already know you're absolutely unique, utterly wonderful, and one of the most beautiful souls existing in this universe, even broken as you are now feeling." The Doctor's image grinned in a way that sent a pang through Rose's heart. "Even hurting as much as I am right now, I wouldn't be surprised if I end up falling in love with you within weeks of properly meeting you, even if I don't remember all you've already done for me later on in your timeline."

"But I never got to hear you say you love me even once" Rose whispered, not remembering she in fact had.

The TARDIS hummed, sending the telepathic equivalent of a hug, and Rose felt a deep sentiment of gratefulness for her space and time ship. She thanked the old girl silently as she went on watching the Doctor's message.

"I also wanted to thank you" the hologram was saying with another bitter-sweetly familiar smile. "On behalf of the people you saved first by not staying stuck with me. You were right to send me away, it would have taken me a couple of hours to return to more or less operational function and it would have been too late, the Titanic would have already crashed on London. You and me, we'd have survived, but not the rest of them."

"Did save the people here, but on the Titanic it was less than one in sixty" Rose mumbled.

"And I wanted to thank you for being there at this exact moment in my life" the hologram Doctor added, this time with no trace of a smile. "I was crashing down badly, had no idea where I was going, and hearing your version of the TARDIS materialize gave me a lifeline, somewhere to go where I could find someone to help me through the very first realization of what I've just done, and that it's all real. I've survived that, and it's all thanks to you. It's still going to be horrible having to live with that, but you started me on it slowly getting better."

The Doctor's 'I'm alright' smile followed. "I'm not going to remember you helped me at my worst, but I know it's going to make me subconsciously want to confide in you. I hope I won't make you want to run away, what with how hard it's going to hit me that I'm the last of the Time Lords, that there isn't anybody left in my head, not even you, and that I'm now alone."

"And I'll tell you you're not when you bring it up, I'll offer comfort and say there's me" Rose whispered, a tear rolling silently down her cheek.

"I also know what's going on in your head, and I'm so sorry, there's nothing I can do" the Doctor stated, adding a little more to Rose's sadness. "But that doesn't mean no one can. I've programmed some coordinates for when this message is done playing. They'll take you to Karn. It's one of the few allied worlds to Gallifrey that survived the Time War. Look for Ohila. She's ancient, and not a trustworthy person – most of the Sisterhood aren't – but she can teach you to block your telepathic projections, and she will be desperate to. Too many people would want to lay their hands on you and try to extract your power if they could hear what's going on in your head, Ohila will want to prevent any chance of that happening."

"Yeah, one Master was enough" Rose said bitterly.

"One last thing" the Doctor said seriously. "People like me and you, we are different from the rest of the universe. We live longer. We endure more. We sense a lot more. We are cleverer. And whether because of our skills, knowledge or innate abilities, and because we can tamper with time, we've got a lot more power. We can literally decide who will live or die."

"I know we can."

"And we must not. Everything has its time and everything dies, and we must refrain from tampering with that. We feel like Gods, and at times it's almost true, or we know how to actually make that true, but we can't do that. It's because we can that we must never allow ourselves to decide who will live or die. When we do, there's nothing that can stop us, and we become real monsters. That's who the Time Lords became, deciding who had a right to exist or not in all of creation. That's why I had to stop them."

"And that's why Astrid sacrificed herself" Rose whispered, tears now flowing freely. "I'm the supernatural being with powers over time and space, and I didn't realize. She was just an ordinary waitress, but she understood that."

Distantly, Rose had registered the Doctor's holographic presence stating it had reached the end of its message.

"But before I go and forget all of this" the Doctor was saying when she caught on, "I wanted to say one more thing", and he grinned again, triggering yet more tears. "Rose Tyler, you are fantastic."

The hologram vanished, and Rose let out a sob. "And you know what, Doctor? So are you."

Rose sat down on the floor, back resting on the console, and hugged her knees to herself, burying her face in them. And the young woman cried, just like the Doctor had in her arms only a few hours before, mourning all that she and he had lost, with the TARDIS doing what she could to comfort her.

To be continued…

A/N: We're reaching the end of the "inter-season". One intermission coming, going back to New York, and then it's onwards to Partners in Crime. Want to write me some Donna Noble!

RizkyBiznoose, glad to have time to write again, and that so many of you are still reading! :)

Owlqueen08, er, surprised? ^^ Hope you didn't mind Nine getting less "screentime". I'm not done with him (!), he'll be back before this season ends.

ELinkA, thanks again for the kind words! Damn, that's beginning to be a long read, and I'm not even a quarter of the way done…

, sorry, non-English speaker here as well. If anyone else wondered, Twelve and Rose are still together in his timeline, although you might have guessed he's Twelve from right after Kill the Moon. Who knows what 1,100+ years old Rose thought about that one?...

nrynmrth, damn, now I have to try and stay on the same level xD Thanks for the kind words, and hope you enjoyed this one.

LadyHopeofGallifrey, thanks for all your reviews, and welcome on board! Oh, and can I steal "Donna Luppa"? :D

Thanks to you all for reading. And if you've enjoyed this, please leave a review!