Beta: Miral-Romanov

Prompter: Anonymous

By Any Other Name

The Doctor bounced excitedly in his seat, looking around the room with almost childlike enthusiasm before grabbing the amused-looking Clara by the arm and all but shoving her into the seat next to his as other people filed in. The room was made of cool black marble, as was the long table; the lights were dim, giving the room more of an overall utilitarian look; and there was an odd spherical, black object in the middle of the table that was an awful centrepiece in the Doctor's opinion. In front of each chair, all of which were slowly being filled by human board members and the occasional alien ambassador, was a hologram tablet. The Doctor happily picked up his own and started to fiddle with it, wondering if they'd let him keep it.

"Doctor, can I know why we're here now?" Clara asked, picking up her own tablet and letting out an 'ooh' as she traced her fingers over the screen.

"Yes you can." He grinned manically, setting down his tablet, sweeping out his arm to indicate the room and nearly catching the bloke next to him in the face. "This is Pisces Base, a government organisation fifty-one thousand years in your future. They handle cross universal alien influences… you could say celebrities."

He waggled his eyebrows, looking unbelievably smug, and Clara smirked. "Okay… doesn't really answer the question."

"We're here, Clara Oswald, because Pisces Base is hosting a seminar about choice alien influences, and I'm one of them!" He let out a happy giggle, clapping his hands before immediately giving her a sharp look. "Only don't tell anyone it's me. Not s'posed to attend when you're the one on the screen."

"I got the message when you called yourself 'James McCrimmon' and flashed the psychic paper at the front gate," Clara said, leaning back in her seat.

"Yep," he said with delight, patting his pocket.

The already dimmed lights darkened even more, other ones that were lining the table itself lighting up instead. The Doctor made a 'shushing' noise with a stern look in Clara's direction, and she rolled her eyes. The door in the corner opened with a whooshing noise and a human woman stepped in, curvy with a kind of sharp beauty to her, dressed in a military-ish, tight black outfit and holding a remote in her hand.

"Hello everyone," she said in a cool and abrupt voice. "I'm Jocelyn Blake and I'll be hosting this seminar today." The Doctor waved so enthusiastically that he actually did hit the man next to him this time, earning him a glare and a giggle on Clara's end. "So, in introduction—" she paused, clicking the remote so that the black orb in the centre of the table lit up, projecting the Pisces Base logo as a rotating hologram for everyone to see both in the air and on their tablets, "— Pisces Base." Jocelyn smiled. "We primarily research aliens and humans who've had a profound universal impact, that affect the past, present and the future. This seminar is about the more noticeable ones, so there may be a few names in here that you recognise." The Doctor sent Clara another eyebrow waggle, and she rolled her eyes again. "We'll begin with Atrios— the Oculus." Jocelyn clicked her remote again so the Pisces Base logo was replaced by a hologram of a blindfolded, square-jawed man in white robes. "The Oculi are a mysterious alien race who crave attention, but because of their uncontrollable, visually-transmitted telepathy, anybody outside their own race is unable to look them in the eye without fear of instant death by mental implosion. So, to indulge their need for attention, they've been known to appear in films or on television, since telepathy doesn't extend to screens, or, in extreme cases, blind themselves."

The Doctor opened his mouth, no doubt to start up on a rant that would surely get them kicked out, and Clara shut him up with a stern glare and a hissed, "No, Doctor."

"Atrios is an Oculus that we've been tracking for decades," continued Jocelyn, "who left the Oculus colony at the age of seven and rescued a cargo ship of trafficked Indigonian children, all while blindfolded." Impressed murmurs started through the other onlookers. "He's spent the past three hundred years going through the Draconian Galaxy making a name for himself as 'the Patron Saint of Blind Courage'."

There was another scattering of murmurs along with a few claps from others as the Doctor fondly remembered the day he'd met said Oculus, having teamed up with him in his sixth body with Peri Brown to aid a group of Thals on a damaged ship locked on course straight into a sun. Jocelyn moved onto the next couple of patrons — a Kraylor and a Rolyark who broke away from their planets' pointless war over racial supremacy and currently roam the universe promoting interplanetary equality — and the Doctor muttered, "Bravo… bravo," underneath his breath, making Clara grin at him amusedly. After an hour of hearing about the Daleks (he scowled so deeply at that part that the people sitting around him shot him odd looks), the Guardians, and some woman known only as 'Alice' who roamed the galaxy saving planets from various methods of destruction — solar supernovas, planetary-wide pollution — the Doctor began to grow obviously bored, sinking down into his seat and using his tablet to see if he could hack the Pisces Base database and temporarily replace all of their information with pictures of bananas.

"… our second to last person of topic is one of the most fantastic aliens we know about, and one of the most universally known." Jocelyn clicked her remote again, and a hologram of the Doctor's tenth self appeared over the table and on everybody's tablets. "The Doctor." Clara smirked when the Doctor scrambled up straight in his seat, beaming excitedly. "A Time Lord from the extinct planet Gallifrey, the Doctor roams through time and space in what he calls his 'TARDIS', which is in the shape—" Jocelyn clicked her remote again with a grin, and everybody in the room save for Clara and the Doctor frowned when the blue police box appeared as a hologram, "— of a vintage 1950's police box. It's been rumoured to be sentient, although that's unconfirmed. The Doctor, however, has been confirmed to have twelve different bodies that we know of."

"Bodies?" echoed someone at the end of the table confusedly, and several people nodded in agreement.

Jocelyn nodded as well. "Bodies, faces, whatever word you want to use." She pressed another button, and the faces of his second, third, fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth and tenth bodies appeared as holograms. "He has the ability to change his entire body — for what reason, we have no idea — and, as stated earlier, he has twelve bodies that we know of, although we don't have photos yet of four of them, including the newest." The Doctor looked so smug Clara had to stifle a snort. They listened to some more of Jocelyn's monologue, the Doctor making an almost inaudible hum when she noted the hundreds of reported sightings throughout time and space and most of the people he'd helped, before Jocelyn added, "He's also taken on several companions, his first being his own granddaughter. Which brings us to our final person of interest who is arguably the most fascinating anomaly Pisces Base and the Shadow Proclamation have encountered." The Doctor pouted at having not been chosen as the most fascinating, until Jocelyn announced proudly, voice reverberating off the walls, "The Bad Wolf."

His jaw dropped into his lap and he actually jumped so violently his chair toppled backwards, crashing to the floor and sending him with it. Everyone in the room started and stared at him; Clara leaned over in her own seat, staring down at the Doctor in shock. "Are you all right?"

"Fine," he squeaked, scrambling up off the floor, straightening his chair and sitting back down in it so forcefully he nearly toppled it over again. "Carry on."

Jocelyn spared him one last amused glance before clicking her remote again. "Er, yes, the Bad Wolf."

An image of her, still magnificently yellow though significantly less pink, appeared as a rotating hologram just like the others, posed as though halfway through battle with a determined look on her face and a vortex manipulator around her wrist. His breath hitched in his throat at the sight of her, and though he mouthed her name his voice refused to cooperate. Clara frowned at the woman, noticing several things— one: she was human, at least to the naked eye; two: she had what looked a lot like a TARDIS key on a chain around her neck; and three: the name 'Bad Wolf' sounded oddly familiar.

"My personal favourite to research on, the Bad Wolf is just as universally known as the Doctor, though while he's known under several faces, she's known by several names," Jocelyn declared happily. "Although she was born 'Rose Marion Tyler' on Earth, she's known throughout the galaxy as 'the Bad Wolf' primarily, although she's also been known to be called 'Suspiria' in Galactic Cluster V—" a holographic painting appeared, with Rose portrayed as a goddess, "'Arkytior' by the Time Lords—" another hologram, this time of her in Time Lord robes; the Doctor's breath caught in his throat again, eyes wide as coins, "and in some cases, 'the Valiant Child' and 'the Defender of the Earth'. She was born human, but over the years has exhibited near supernatural abilities to the point where the people of Galactic Cluster V mistook her as their deity." Jocelyn smiled as the room erupted in nods and the occasional muttered, 'I've heard of her'. Upon clicking her remote to show a baby picture the Doctor had once seen whilst perusing Jackie's flat, along with several snapshots of her growing up over the years, Jocelyn continued, "She's the easiest to track, thanks to her affiliation with the Time Agency… and a certain Time Agent… so we know she was born in 1986, in Eastern London. She goes off the grid at age nineteen, which our sources indicate that's when her affiliation with the Doctor started."

When a photograph of his ninth self and Rose practically eye-shagging each other appeared as a hologram — the Doctor recognised it as a snapshot Jack Harkness had taken as 'proof' that he'd been arse over elbow for her — Clara turned to the Doctor, gaping at him in astonishment, although he seemed to be glued to the hologram as though nobody else was in the room with him. "You know her?"

He didn't answer her, but he didn't have time anyway— Jocelyn added at once with a brilliant grin, "And yes, ladies and gentlemen, they were very much in love."

Another snapshot, this one of his tenth self wearing a paper crown on his head, he and Rose smiling at each other like nothing beyond them existed— the Doctor remembered from being post-regeneration at Jackie's for Christmas. A collective of sighs and tiny 'aww's echoed through the room; Jocelyn looked immensely pleased with herself for some reason and Clara's entire face fell. "You never said…"

"Unfortunately, the Bad Wolf was reported as being trapped in a parallel universe after three years of travelling with the Doctor, and disappears off our sensors after that," Jocelyn said with clear regret. The Doctor slumped in his seat and all the patrons echoed their 'aww's, this time with sad tones instead. "She reappears centuries later, a few thousand years in our past, on the old Belen homeworld, having led the natives onto the current Belen homeworld away from their suppressive dictator."

A hologram of Rose leading the Belen people onto their new soil, a Belen child on her back, was portrayed next. Clara, who was listening with a kind of pitying sadness, both for her and her Doctor, glanced over to him only to see an adoring smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "Rose Tyler," he murmured under his breath, and Clara just had to smile too.

"She's also well affiliated with the Face of Boe, who appears to be an old friend," Jocelyn added, and a hologram of Rose with a gentle smile on her face, kneeling next to an equally content Face of Boe with her hand placed next to his face on the jar, appeared above the table.

"What are her abilities?" somebody interrupted in the background— a yellow-skinned Promarian. "I've only heard rumours."

When several others nodded enthusiastically, the Doctor being the most eager one, Jocelyn said, "She's exhibited the ability to manipulate time and matter. In specific cases she's healed several people on their deathbeds and, for reasons we can't comprehend, turned an entire weapons base on Jaken's third moon into a banana plantation." The Doctor had to actually stuff his fist into his mouth to choke back the loud laugh he wanted to utter, earning him an odd look from Clara and the bloke in front of him. "She rarely uses it, however, and although we're not entirely certain why not we're hypothesising that too much subatomic and temporal Vortexial manipulation could have potentially drastic consequences, of which she is aware."

"Where—?" the Doctor squeaked, before clearing his throat and continuing tentatively, "Wh-where was she last spotted?"

"In the Varillion Cluster, seventh planet from the sun, coordinates six-eight-seven by mark-two," Jocelyn replied, clicking her remote and showing a hologram of Rose standing straight and looking fierce on a planet with a violet sky.

"And when was that exactly?" the Doctor said with false calmness.

"Approximately three years and nineteen days ago," Jocelyn said.

Everybody jumped when the Doctor launched himself out of his chair, making it topple over again (this time without him in it) and he grabbed Clara's arm and hauled her out of her chair as well. "Well this has been a magnificent seminar. Well done. But I have to leave. Now." As everybody gave him a confused look when he started towards the door, he paused, whirled around and whipped out his sonic. "By the way, I'm the Doctor." Everybody in the room gasped in amazement, not registering the whirring sonic pointed in the direction of the holographic orb, which immediately powered down and plunged the room into semi-darkness. "And I've just downloaded all of your information. Cheers!"

He yanked Clara by her arm down the hall, the two of them breaking into a sprint down the metal corridor as everybody started to chase them— whether it was because he'd stolen all of their data or simply because he was the Doctor, neither of them had any idea. Upon reaching the TARDIS, which was parked behind the building, the Doctor pounded on the controls to pilot them into the Vortex before shouting gleefully to his TARDIS, "LOOK WHAT I'VE GOT, SEXY!" and jamming his sonic into a metal cylinder on the dashboard.

Clara watched from near the jump seat as the monitor started flashing the photographs of Rose, along with information moving too quickly across the screen for her to read; the TARDIS's humming changed into something ecstatic and the Doctor was now dancing around the console, a look of pure excitement on his face.

"Doctor, what're you doing?" she asked a bit worriedly, when he tripped over his own feet and sprung back up at once like nothing had happened.

"We'll bring her back!" he announced with delight, giving the console a whack with his hammer. "Pilot us towards her, old girl! Oh, Clara Oswald, you're going to love her, all pink and yellow and magnificent… chips! You could get chips together, she always loved chips — couldn't get enough of them, really — and then we could all go to the Eye of Orion together! Ooh, but I s'pose I should scan her first, see what's going on with the time and matter manipulation and whatnot, or ask about what happened to the other me, although I'd rather just hug her first, or maybe something else, and—"

"Doctor!" Clara shouted, effectively silencing his babble. "What. Are. You. Doing?"

He gave her a smile so brilliant and so tearful at the same time it could have lit up the room. "We're bringing Rose home."

A/N: Just a lil fic prompted by an anonymous user on tumblr. Prompt was: "Hey can you do a fic where Eleven discovers rose is in the prime universe again but finds out in an unconventional way and doesn't actually see her- he just knows she's there?" I had fun writing this :) Feel free to give me prompts, I like them!

No there won't be a sequel, so don't follow this :3