Chapter 13: The Hunted

Time herself, riding on your shoulder, traveling far and wide, darting out of my reach, with life in your hands and death forever trailing behind. –Howling at the Eternal Moon (Me)

She couldn't move, and it wasn't for want of trying either. She wasn't so much angry as she was scared. She knew why she couldn't move. She just couldn't understand why the Doctor now acted as if she hadn't existed at all.

Reinette barely registered the Doctor and the black man moving about, didn't even blink when the Doctor handed Mickey something that looked very sharp and very, very dangerous—she knew it wasn't meant for her; he had asked her along after all, kissed her even—but the moment the Doctor laid down on the floor of the time ship, she knew something very bad was about to happen. And she really didn't want to watch it happen, but for the life of her, Reinette could not even close her eyes. She raged silently at this Tardis, unable to blink let alone open her mouth.

And her stomach turned over as the black man brought the long weapon down into the Doctor's left eye. She screamed internally as the Time Lord jerked in pain and fell back unconscious. She didn't even notice the console glowing nor did she hear the soft lilting song filling the room. Instead, she did what the women of her time did best—she fainted.

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Mickey pulled the Lyrane device away from the Doctor and dropped it on the ground. Swallowing his nausea and his fear, Mickey knelt down beside the unconscious Time Lord as light filled the room and a song permeated the still air. He reached out a hand to check the Doctor's pulse and was relieved beyond words to find a strong—albeit disturbing—steady double pulse. Chancing a glance up at the Doctor's face, he was surprised to see that a river of blood was definitely not running down from his left eye. Sighing, Mickey shook his head a little and grinned weakly to himself. Watching all that football that been good for his aim after all.

Suddenly, everything was very funny. Too funny. His light chuckle grew until he was guffawing, rolling around on the metal grating, clutching his stomach. He laughed wildly until tears filled his eyes. His hysteria faded as soon as the tears slid down his cheeks. He took a deep breath and wiped away the wetness on his cheeks. Rose was still out there somewhere, stuck and in so much danger. And now, so was the Doctor.

Mickey reached into his pocket and took out the sonic screwdriver the Doctor had handed to him earlier. He checked it to make sure it was on the proper setting before going over to the time rotor.

He pulled down the screen and stared at it blankly for a moment. It was covered in swirls. He hadn't a single clue was he was looking at; they were random circles. Must be his language. Mickey blinked. What do I do?

As if just waiting for him to ask, the Tardis hummed softly in response, and at once, the screen was covered in a language he could understand. Thanks, he thought, secretly amused that he was talking to a ship. The room glowed soft yellow and he understood that she was happy.

Shaking his head a little, Mickey held up the sonic screwdriver and pressed the little blue button, hoping not for the second time that all hell was not about to break loose… again.

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"That is who you are, little human, big Bad Wolf. You are the beginning without end, and I am death."

"But what do you want?" Rose retorted, trading her fear for impatience. "And what does all that rubbish even mean?"

The voice, so full of dark and velvet laughed maliciously. "It means, Rose Tyler, that within you, Time herself lies dormant and hidden, disguised as" it said, and the world around them glimmered. "Bad Wolf." Suddenly, she could see, with such amazing clarity as she had been able to only once before, and a set of bottomless, dark eyes glinted down at her from the sky. As if those two words were a magical incantation, she remembered the few minutes of her life when she had harbored all of Time within her mind, bringing death and life simply because she wished it to be so.

"And finally, you awaken."

She glanced up into the eyes of Death.

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He hadn't really expected he would get it right on the first try. Really. But obviously, a certain Mickey Smith really was in great need of a new nickname. The Doctor glanced at the horrific landscape around him, growing more and more disconcerted by the moment. It was as if death had ravaged everything as far as he could see in every direction that seemed to stretch on into eternity. Not only that, something was very, very wrong with the flow of time; the main problem being the lack thereof. "Impossible," he muttered, squinting around, until suddenly, he realized exactly what he was looking at, or more correctly, who.

"Rose…."

A smile almost ghosted his features before he realized that her eyes were shimmering gold and the sky she was glancing up at was most definitely not just a sky.