THE WOLF
Chapter 1
Series 2, "I'm the Wolf."
The Runaway Bride
She was half-way through those important words when she stopped, the projected image of the beach fading from her mind.
She was frozen in place.
She didn't care that her shirt was getting wet from all the tears or that the corner of her eyes were starting to hurt from having wept so much. She didn't care that her heart felt so still and a deep burning cold feeling had overtaken her chest. She didn't care that the TARDIS was trying to talk to her, words she couldn't hear; wouldn't hear.
She could have been frozen in place for 5 seconds or 5 hours. She didn't know and didn't care.
When she moved, it was more because she collapsed against the side of the console, gripping it tightly as sound added its voice.
She didn't notice the golden glow from near the doors.
She didn't notice that she was no longer alone, nor that her present company was in a wedding dress.
Or that, as she curled her legs up to her chest, her arms wrapping around them, that her present company in a wedding dress had moved up to her without a word and started stroking her back.
She didn't notice any of it, until the TARDIS gave her a big mental prod.
She looked up at the person, and confusedly, asked, "Who are you? How'd you get here?"
--
The TARDIS, travelling through time, flies into the distance of the blue tunnel. It reappears, only for the tunnel to stop and reverse, suddenly turning the tunnel red with hints of green.
Overlaid, the two names fly up and past the camera,
Billie Piper
Cathrine Tate
Followed by a spining eye-shaped plaque with the words,
What Wolf
Then words fade in.
THE
RUNAWAY BRIDE
By Russell T Davies
Adapted by Alex F
Mcpherson
Beta'd by Tasha Hosie
--
Rose gulped as she stood up, and after a moment it had been like a light switch had been flicked, for she suddenly looked quite different and yet the same. Gone was the sad teared-up eyes, slouched heart-broken Rose Tyler, and in her place was the Wolf, standing up straight, her expression speaking only of curiousness, her hand idly wiped the tears away as though she had just gotten a bit of muck on her face.
She looked at the door, then back at the woman, and asked, "What's your name?"
"Donna. Are you alright?" The woman in the wedding dress, Donna, replied.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She said, and inwardly cringed when her voice waivered slightly. To distract herself from what had happened before, she pulled a tool-belt off of a nearby railing, and asked, "How did you get here, Donna?"
Donna frowned, but held back her first impulse to claim that she had been kidnapped. When she, well, appeared in this strange room she had almost shouted at Rose. However she had caught the distraught cries of someone who had just lost someone quite easily. So instead of that, she merely answered with, "I dunno."
The Wolf took in her appearance, and asked, "Were you… getting married or something?"
Donna rolled her eyes, but nodded. "Where am I?" She asked, looking around the room with curiosity.
"You're inside the TARDIS." The Wolf replied simply as she looked at the tool-belt, and started pulling various devices out, looking for a specific one or specific ones.
"What?" Donna asked, incredulously.
"Inside the TARDIS." She repeated, as she went to the console, started using them to do something that Donna had no idea about.
"What?" Donna asked a bit louder.
"The TARDIS." She added with extra emphasis.
"That's not even a word!" Donna exclaimed.
The Wolf rolled her eyes, "It's short for, 'Time And Relative Dimension In Space' but introducing it with that is a bit of a mouthful." The Wolf gave her a grin, one that didn't light up her eyes though.
"So. T, A, R, D, I, S. Tardis?" Donna asked, making sure.
The Wolf nodded.
"Strange Acronym. What's that then?"
"It's…" The Wolf began to answer, but stopped when she noticed Donna going for the doors. She ran over, but she was a little late. Donna had opened them, and almost stepped out of the TARDIS into clear space but had caught herself.
The Wolf walked up to and stood beside her, gazing out of the open doors at the remains of the supernova.
"We're… in space." The Wolf began. "That's… That's a supernova. And you're, in my space ship." The Wolf paused to tell the TARDIS, 'Hope you don't mind, but introducing you as the living creature I live in would seem fairly, weird for a first timer.'
'No problem, Rose.' Came the reply.
The Wolf held back a retort that she wasn't Rose anymore, instead she continued talking to Donna. "It's called the TARDIS."
"How am I breathing?" Donna asked after a moment, in her shocked stupor.
"The TARDIS is protecting us. Watch." The Wolf pulled out a scrap bit of paper from a pocket and threw it out through the open door slowly, and Donna saw the slightly ripple along the exposed surface that indicated the slight atmospheric shield/bubble holding the air in.
Donna was quiet for a moment, before she asked, "Who are you?"
The Wolf took a deep breath, and smiled, as for the first time she answered that question with, "I'm the Wolf. So, Donna? Donna what?"
"Noble." Donna answered.
"Husband or fiancee?" The Wolf asked.
"Sorry?"
"I mean how far into the wedding were you before you… were brought here?"
"Oh. Fiancee." Donna replied.
The Wolf hesitated to ask, but decided, what the hell; and asked, "Human?"
Donna frowned, but answered. "Yeah. Why, is that optional?"
The Wolf took a moment to think of something he would say, and somewhat joking answered, "It is with me."
After a few more moments, Donna stated. "You're an Alien."
The Wolf grinned internally, and answered, "Nope."
"What?"
"Human, like you." The Wolf told her.
"Oh. So you're not an alien who looks much younger than you really are?"
"I'm 20, if that was your way of asking me."
Donna chuckled, but commented, "It's freezing with the doors open."
The Wolf closed them, then walked up to the console, and commented, "This should be impossible. I don't understand it. No human being can lock him or herself onto the TARDIS, and transport themselves inside." The Wolf looked at Donna, then got the tools she had been holding before and asked, "Mind if I scan you, Donna? Just in case there's something even you don't know about that could cause this?"
Donna shrugged, but nodded. The Wolf proceeded, and after a minute, "Some sort of… hold on." The Wolf stopped, pulled out a book from inside her coat which caused Donna to raise eyebrows, and she flicked through before she mumbled, "Subatomic connections. Right. Maybe." After that, Donna didn't know what the hell the Wolf was saying.
After a minute of it though, Donna slapped her out of impatience.
"What was that for?!" The Wolf asked, hand rubbing her sore cheek.
"You were mumbling technobabble." Donna told her.
"Oh. Right, sorry. Yeah." The Wolf mumbled, and went back to her reading and intermittent scanning, this time with her mumbling much quieter.
"Know what caused me to pull a scotty?" Donna asked after another minute went by.
"Scotty?" The Wolf asked absently.
Donna had to say, "Star trek? Alright Spacegirl, don't tell me you-"
"Oh right sorry yeah that. No I don't." The Wolf answered, still absently.
Donna sighed, and asked, "Would it be too much for me to ask you to get me back to Earth?"
The Wolf shook her head, and asked, "Right then. Earth. Where were you getting married? Might have some time left." The Wolf put her book away and tools back in the belt, which then got put over a railing.
Donna smiled slightly, "Saint Marys, Chiswick."
She smiled slightly, and started with the flight. Then the Wolf asked, "What day is it on earth? For you I mean?"
With a slight confused frown, Donna asked, "Christmas eve."
The Wolf sighed. She wasn't sure if she could pull of the slight temporal shift along with the space one. She took a barely-noticed glance at Donna's watch, since she didn't want to make it obvious that Donna was in a time machine. Generally, the inside-is-bigger was enough of a shock to some, or so the TARDIS told her.
"Hold on tight then, Donna."
Donna did, and wondered why for a moment. She held on tighter when the TARDIS began to rattle and shake about.
When they landed, she commented, "That wasn't so bad."
The Wolf shrugged. "Should have seen me when I took the TARDIS to the Supernova. Thank god for space bruise cover-up."
Donna smiled slightly, and asked, "Want to come to the wedding?"
The Wolf smiled, and for a moment, Donna thought she looked like a different person, like someone was inside trying to get out. But just for a moment. "Why not." The Wolf commented, and followed her out.
Then frowned when she saw where she was. "Damn."
"I said, Saint Mary's. What sort of Martian are you?"
The Wolf didn't pay her any attention, since someone else had it. 'What's wrong?'
'Don't know.' Came the odd thought from the TARDIS. The Wolf thought she sounded a little ill, like she had a bug or something.
"Oi, Space Dumbo!"
"Yes yes wrong place I know." The Wolf told Donna shortly, with a little bit of anger. Donna backed off a bit, and the Wolf sighed. "Somethings' wrong with the TARDIS, like she's… I dunno, recalibrating or something." The Wolf stepped upto the door, and lightly stroked the frame.
"Or Something?" Donna asked.
The Wolf rolled her eyes and asked, "Would you mind finding out exactly where we are while I go see whats wrong with her?"
Donna nodded, and mumbled, "I thought only men called their cars and ships 'her'."
The Wolf smiled slightly as she saw Donna walk off in a huff, before she went back in.
"Okay, what's wrong?" She asked aloud, as she started going through the controls and other things.
When Donna came back five minutes later, the Wolf saw her expression and nodded, "Bigger on the inside, I know. Hey Donna, you haven't had any contact with aliens? Or any strange things? Lights in the sky or… Who are you getting married to? Is he human? He's not a bit overweight with a zip on his forehead is he?"
The Wolf stopped when Donna slapped her again. "What was that for?"
"Babbling again." Donna pointed out, even pointed her finger.
"Oh. Right. Sorry." The Wolf apologised, though she did roll her eyes.
And Donna brought them back to the topic of the moment. She looked the Wolf in the eye, and asked. "Your space ship is, bigger, on the inside?"
The Wolf nodded.
"Your space ship, is bigger, on the inside." Donna summarised a little louder.
She nodded again, and smiled a little.
"You're mental."
She shrugged, still smiling.
"Well, aren't you going to say something?"
She sighed and shrugged again.
Donna looked around and noticed something. When she picked it up, the Wolf was working at the console again, so hadn't seen her do that.
"Who's is this? looks like a mens coat." Donna wondered.
The Wolf looked up, lost her slight smile, and gazed dispassionatly at the coat. "That's my friends'."
Donna had caught the gaze. "Where is your friend? Was he out on a space walk or something?"
"No, he's gone."
"Gone?"
"Lost."
Donna stopped, and put 2 and 2 together. She didn't say anything on the matter, she simply put the coat back over the rail where she found it.
"So."
The Wolf looked her in the eye, thought for a second, then said, "Come on, let's get you to your wedding. Can't take the TARDIS, she's recalibrating. Can't move her for an hour or so."
Donna nodded, and made for the door.
"One second though Donna."
Donna waited while the Wolf disappeared through another door, and when the Wolf returned, they stepped out together, the Wolf showing her her wallet. "If I asked you if you had money, what would you say?"
Donna chuckled, and said, "Well, for starters, I'd have shouted that, 'I'm in my wedding dress. It doesn't have pockets. Who has pockets? Have you ever seen a bride with Pockets?! When i went to my fitting at Shaze Alison, the one thing I forgot to say was 'Give Me POCKETS!''"
The Wolf was laughing, and nodded, "God, your a laugh. Glad I didn't ask if you had a mobile on you."
Donna chuckled, but stopped, and asked, "You?"
The Wolf shook her head. "Not yet, need a new one. Lost mine a month back and never really had the chance to get one."
Donna just gave her a look as they got up to a cash machine.
The Wolf opened her wallet and tried to find a credit card she knew would work, but no luck.
"Damn, and I don't carry money. Too many questions when I show up with the wrong currency." The Wolf mumbled, and looked at her.
Donna looked back and shrugged. "Pockets." She reiterated with a slight smile.
"Well, let's see… here we go." The Wolf pulled out her Sonic Screwdriver, and with short work, smiled as about a hundred quid came spewing out.
"Call it a Christmas and Wedding present." She said as she handed the cash over. "Now, let's find a taxi."
--
The Wolf growled as she spotted the Taxi take off with Donna. Donna had gone ahead to get one, and had said she would tell the driver to wait for her, but obviously, the driver hadn't. And the Wolf believed Donna had said to him to wait.
'Oh well, onwards, upwards away, as they say.' She thought, and hightailed it back to the TARDIS. 'Alright for flight?' She asked.
'Of the 'up up and away' kind.' Came the sarcastic reply.
'Oi, that was private!' She thought back, but without much care.
'Yes and I'm a star, I'm a star, I'm a shite brining Star.'
The Wolf stopped to stare. at the glass tube in the middle of the console.
'Er, I mean, Bright Shining Star?'
The Wolf shook her head, but was smiling.
She thought she heard a whispered snicker of, 'Mission accomplished!'
--
'OW!' Was the repeated thought coming from the TARDIS. 'Where the heck did you learn to fly?' Came after the Wolf accidentally-almost crushed a car.
She ignored it in favour of rigging a system to let her fly by wire - literally - while at the door of the TARDIS.
'Ow-OWW Damnit Rose!' The TARDIS exclaimed after another explosion.
'Sorry!' She apologised shortly, but with meaning.
She steadied the TARDIS so she could open the door. When she did, she saw Donna, who mouthed, 'You. Have. Got. To. Be. Joking.' Trapped in the Taxi.
"OPEN THE WINDOW!" The Wolf shouted.
'What?' Donna mouthed.
"OPEN. THE. WINDOW!" The Wolf shouted louder.
Donna tried it, but then mouthed 'I can't!'
The Wolf pulled her screwdriver out, and used it to unlock the window. Donna pushed it down, and shouted, "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE JOKING!"
"Open the door!"
"I can't. Robot Santa locked it!"
She barely had a thought to look at the driver, and sure enough, as her flash from months and months ago, the driver was a santa robot.
A quick use of the screwdriver and the door was unlocked. Donna opened it, and pointed out, "I can't jump that far! I'M IN MY WEDDING DRESS!"
"I KNOW, YOU LOOK BEAUTIFUL, NOW COME ON!" The Wolf shouted quickly. She momentarily had the mental image of the Doctor in her place, shouting the very same thing. She shrugged it off, so she could take the TARDIS as close to the Taxi as she dared.
Leaving a metre gap. Just enough, as proved by Donna landing on the Wolf with an 'Oof'.
The Wolf pushed her off, got up and ran to the controls and took the TARDIS up and away from the motorway, rubbing her hands whenever they were free, the controls hot from the earlier explosions.
A final explosion though caused her to gulp.
"Donna, hold on, we're gonna land and it wont be pretty!" The Wolf told her passenger.
Donna gulped as well, from her place on the floor. As she looked out the still-open doors, she gulped again, and quickly shut them with her feet.
--
Donna shook her head, as she noticed the time. She glanced back at the TARDIS, where the door was half open and the Wolf was using an alien version of a fire extinguisher to fire jets of something like foam at the console from the safety of just outside the TARDIS.
After a minute, the Wolf approached her.
"For some reason, I don't think she does that much actual flying."
"Isn't 'she' a space ship?"
The Wolf nodded, but said, "Actually, she disappears from one place and reappears at another. Like… Transporters. Better give her a couple of hours, I've got most of the damage that she can't repair herself fixed. The rest has to wait till she's done."
"You talk like it's alive." Donna pondered.
The Wolf nodded, but corrected, "She is. TARDIS's were grown, not built. She's alive, has her own personality, memories, the works. She communicates with me through a form of Telepathy. She can project thoughts to me. I can't do the same though, but she just hears what thoughts I have that I want her to hear."
Donna nodded, and asked, "How did you get her if you're human?"
She smiled faintly, and said, "For the first 19 years of my life I was just your average girl in London; lived in a flat with my Mum, didn't do that well at school, although that was just me being lazy, ended up just working in shops. Then one day, my job gets blown up by this man, this wonderful man. He could be sweet yet rude, arrogant and ignorant yet be modest and knowledgable, all at the same time. He could piss you off yet endear himself to you in the space of seconds. It was him and the TARDIS, and I was just along for the ride."
The TARDIS interrupted, 'You weren't 'just along for the ride' Rose.'
Her smile strengthened for a second, and she continued, "Once he sent me back here to keep me safe from danger." She grinned, and added, "I was having none of that. Did something others thought stupid. Went back and saved him. And the TARDIS has been my home ever since. She became part of me, and I like to think, I became part of her. We're connected and that just deepened over time until we could communicate as I said we do."
She turned and looked at the TARDIS with an odd look. Donna asked, "What happened to him?"
She looked at her, and instead of answering, asked, "Did we miss it? Your wedding?"
Donna understood that it was too painful for her to talk about, so let her change the subject. "Yeah."
"You can always book another date. Still got the honeymoon. Morocco, was it?" She asked.
"It's just a holiday now." Donna replied, looking away.
"Yeah. Sorry." The Wolf shrugged.
"Still, it wasn't your fault." Donna told her, and glanced at her and smiled for a second.
The Wolf gave her a sad smile, and together, they looked out off the rooftop the TARDIS had been parked on, over the London skyline.
Donna quietly said, "Wish you had a time machine, then we could go back and make it right."
She heard the TARDIS laugh in her head, then said, 'I could send you back in a few hours but by then you'd probably do something to make that inadvisable.'
The Wolf frowned fractionally, and sent back, 'Oi, what did he expect, taking me back twice to see my dad die?'
'Point.' The TARDIS conceeded.
"Wolf? You there?" Donna asked, and poked her.
The Wolf rubbed her arm, Donna having poked quite hard. "Yeah, just thinking. Heard it's impossible to go back on someone's personal timeline." She silently added, 'Seen and know, are two different things.'
Donna sat down on a bump in the roof, near the edge, and rubbed her arms. The Wolf ran back into the TARDIS for a moment, and came out with the Doctor's jacket. "Here. You must be freezing in that dress."
"Yeah." Donna pulled the jacket, and frowned, "God, this wouldn't fit a rat, how skinny was this bloke of yours?"
The Wolf just smiled and joined her. In reply, she said, "Never noticed, really. Anyway, business for a minute. You never answered me before, anything possibly alien in your life?"
"No."
"Well, they were after you. Maybe- yeah. Donna? Don't take this the wrong way, not trying to rub it in or anything, but I need to put a biodamper on you. You're probably being tracked, what with how they found you so quickly after we landed. It'll hide you from their scanners." With that, she pulled a ring out of her pocket.
Donna smiled faintly, and held out her ring finger.
Repeating words that the TARDIS humorously fed her, she said, "With this ring, I thee biodamp."
"For better or for worse." Donna added. "So come on, Captain Janeway, what's with the robo santas?"
"Well, they're scavengers. The Santa stuff is just a disguise. They're trying to blend in. Met some last Christmas."
"Why, what happened then?" Donna asked, clueless.
The Wolf just stared at her for a second, then answered, "Space ship hovering over London, you didn't notice?"
"I had a bit of a hangover."
"Oh. I spent that Christmas at my Mums, the Powell estate. Not far from your church. My friend even joined us, once he woke up. He- well. My mum's gone now too."
Donna put an arm round her and rubbed her back as Rose made a slight appearance in her expression. But within a few moments, she was gone.
The Wolf turned to her, and continued. "What I don't get, is how you got into the TARDIS. I mean, you didn't do it yourself, not intentionally at least. And she assured me that however you got in would be incredibly rare, like, I dunno, one chance in a trillion trillion trillion."
"Lucky me."
"Yeah. And why would those robot santas' be after you?" The Wolf pondered that for a second, then asked, "What's your job?"
"I'm just a secretary." Donna dismissed.
She pulled out her screwdriver and started scanning Donna, and mumbled, "Not connected, not powerful, not important - I mean as far as I can see, doesn't make you any less of a person- Ow! What's that for?"
"Babbling again?"
The Wolf just whimpered slightly, before she continued her scan for a she stopped, she asked Donna, "What kind of secretary?"
"I work at H.C. Clements. Where I met Lance. I was temping. It was all a bit posh, really. I had spent a couple years at a double glazing firm; so I thought, I'd never fit in here. Then he made me a coffee. That just doesn't happen. Nobody gets the secretaries a coffee, and Lance, he's the head of HR, he didn't need to bother with me. But he was nice, funny. And turns out he thought everyone else was really snotty too. That's how it started, me and him. One cup of coffee."
The Wolf looked out over the skyline, thinking about what Donna was saying, occasionally she would have to smother a laugh though, thinking, 'I bet it was Donna who did the begging, not Lance.'
"I think I've heard of them, sounds familiar. What does H.C. Clements do?"
"Security Systems, like entry codes, ID codes, that sort of thing. Ask me, I'd say its a posh name for locksmiths."
That made her wonder. "Keys."
"Anyway, enough of my C.V., it's time to face the consequences. Oh this is gonna be so shaming."
The Wolf grinned at her, "Oh, if they try anything, I'm sure we can shout them up together."
Donna chuckled. "Yeah." Donna helped the Wolf get up, and said to her, "You can do the explaining, Martian Girl."
The Wolf shook her head, and replied to that jibe, "Yeah, I'm not from Mars."
"Venus? How would that sound? Venuian Girl? Venian?" Donna commented as they set off for the building's fire escape.
"Venucian sounds more up my alley." The Wolf answered.
--
The Wolf stopped just outside the reception, and shared a glance with Donna.
"Now come on, Mount Donna, try and keep calm. Can't embarrass them if you blow."
"Oh shut up, Venucian Girl." Donna replied and walked in.
She smiled faintly, and shook her head before following her in.
Just before she reached the doors herself, however, from the other side she heard over the music, "YOU HAD, THE RECEPTION, WITHOUT ME?"
The Wolf opened them quietly and stepped in. As the music stopped, Donna said the same, but louder.
"YOU HAD THE RECEPTION, WITHOUT ME?!"
The Wolf tapped her on the elbow, "Yeah, Donna. They heard."
An old woman stepped forward, and the Wolf got the distinct impression that she was Donna's mother. "Well what were we supposed to do? And what the hell happened? How did you do it?"
Suddenly, everyone began to talk, and both Donna and the Wolf were getting a bit overwhelmed and not a tiny bit pissed off at this.
And then, Donna whispered to her, "Watch this." No one noticed.
Donna put on a worthy and realistic performance of being rather upset.
Her wink to the Wolf when her mum had enveloped her in a hug made the Wolf smother a grin.
"You go girl." The Wolf whispered as Donna turned it all around and the party started back up.
She drifted over to the bar, and borrowed a guys' phone and began a search - conventiently the phone got wap connection with no cost at all (well, the sonic screwdriver may have had something to do with it) and after a few minutes, her slight smile from glancing over at the dancing Donna faded completely.
"Oh you have got to be joking." She mumbled.
The phone said: "H. C. Clements. Sole Prop: TORCHWOOD."
She decided quickly, then gave Jack a ring. A prod from the TARDIS, 5 city blocks away, made her wonder for a moment, but she followed through.
A familiar voice answered, "Captain Jack Harkness."
"Hey Jack, it's Rose." The Wolf smiled slightly as she said that. More because it was good to hear his voice, than using her proper name.
"Rose? So that was you on the M4?" Jack had to ask.
"Yeah, had a bit of trouble with robot santas." She informed him offhandedly.
"Oh, I heard someone was in that taxi, and jumped into the TARDIS? You travelling with someone now?" Jack had to ask.
The thought made her pause, and that pause was telling to Jack. Not that he'd say anything. "No, just a friend I met recently. Anyway, she works at H.C. Clements - and I did a search. It's sole proprietor is Torchwood."
"Really? Not heard of it. Might have files on them though. You going to drop by?"
The Wolf shook her head, then caught herself, since Jack couldn't exactly see her. "No, just tell me what you can. Jack, she appeared inside the TARDIS. Unintentionally. Not 12 hours after I left in the TARDIS."
"It's only been 12 hours for you since you left Sarah Janes?" Jack asked, his raised eyebrow somehow coming through in his voice too.
"No, about 16 or so now." She corrected.
"Well it's been 4 months for us." Jack told her.
She asked, "What have you got?"
As though his voice came from off to the side, she heard him asked, "Ianto, could you bring up the H.C. Clements, London files?"
And faintly, she heard this Ianto' guy reply, "I'm afraid we have no local copies, sir. All the computer files were wiped out by the Cybermen."
And even more faintly, she heard a woman, who sounded, vaguely, familiar, "Cybermen? You never did explain that to us Jack."
She heard mumblings about paper copies from the phone, and rolled her eyes, they'd be a few minutes. She looekd around and spotted a guy with a camera filming the party, which made her wonder about the Wedding. It was like a lightbulb went on above her head.
Ianto seemed to be taking longer than she thought it would take, since he only got them to Jack after the Wolf had got a copy of the wedding tape, and a TV hooked up to a VCR into which the tape and camera-to-vcr tape adapter went. After rewinding the tape and pressing play, she heard Jack tell her that he had the files.
As Jack gave her a H.C. Clements-Torchwood 101, she watched the tape. When it got just a few minutes into it, she frowned when it showed Donna disappear in golden whisps of light.
"Hold on Jack, mind stopping a second. Your phone recieve video?"
Jack was curious, and asked, "Yes, why?"
"Maybe you could tell me what this is?" Then she switched to the video call, and played the video.
Jack thought for half a minute, before he replied, "Well, I've got a few guesses. Took a gander in the Library just before we dropped miss slitheen on Raxicor'. That looks like what one Gallifreyan book described as Huon Particles."
The Wolf growled, and she heard the TARDIS chide her for doing so in her head quite loudly.
To both, she spoke and thought, "But Huon Particles, that's impossible. That's ancient. Huon energy doesn't exist anymore, not for billions of years. It's so old that-"
"That what?" Jack asked.
The Wolf growled louder. "That a bio-damper wont hide it."
The Wolf ran out to a window, and spotted the approaching robot santas.
"Jack, I might have to call you back. Those robot santas I told you about? They've found my friend."
"Good luck!"
--
3 months ago, Cardiff.
Gwen Cooper started, "The thing is, I just don't understand-"
Jack cut in, "No, I'll tell you what I don't understand. You're gonna rattle on with that 'How can this be true' shtick. What's it gonna take for you people. If you want evidence of aliens, how about that great big space ship hovering above London on Christmas day? What about the battle of Canary Wharf, a Cyberman in every home."
She smiled faintly as she replied, "My boyfriend said it's like a sort of, terrorism. Like they put drugs in the water supplies. Psychotropic drugs, causing mass halucinations and stuff."
"Yeah well, your boyfriend's stupid." Jack snapped, although it was more at the not-present boyfriend than at Gwen.
"I know." She agreed.
That made him pause. "What?"
"Yeah, I have this friend, well not a friend really, she comes and goes and only met her proper the once… anyway before the battle of Canary Wharf, she said it was all true. Even met some of them, she said."
His interest piqued, he asked, "Who's this not-really friend of yours? How'd she meet aliens?"
Gwen shrugged and smiled, "You wouldn't believe me, even with all this alien stuff."
"Try me." He simply countered.
"She said, she travels with an Alien. Thought she was bonkers, until Canary Wharf."
Jacks' eyebrows rose, and he asked, "Her name wouldn't be Rose, would it?"
Gwen shook her head, and answered, "Never knew her real name. She used some sort of gang-name, 'The Big Bad Wolf'."
Jack looked off in the distance. He was sure that had been Rose, but Rose calling herself 'The Big Bad Wolf' didn't sound like her, and the incident at the Torchwood estate - well, she made it sound like they just got some facts wrong.
And then he realised that the Ret-con pill he gave Gwen was starting to take effect. And he began to feel the whispers of regret, he wanted to know more about this, 'Big Bad Wolf'.
--
London.
She took cover on the stage, behind the sound system.
And she got an idea. She thought back to what setting would make the Robots stop working, and grinned when she remembered. She stood, and shouted "Santas! If there's one thing you should do when attacking someone with a sonic screwdriver, is never let them near the sound system."
With that, she jammed the tip of it into an audio input jack port, and switched it on.
Strangely unaffected, she smiled grimly, like the wolf that caught the canary instead of the cat, at the robots as they fell apart.
Once they had, she stopped it and ran over to one of them. As she took the remote, she glanced at everyone, and assured herself that any injuries were merely superficial.
"They alright, Donna?"
Donna came over and nodded. "Just bruising if anything. What were they doing?"
"Using the decorations, as weapons." She held up the remote control, and she thought it rather looked like a modified dreamcast controller. "Remote control for them but look at this," She picked up one of the not-so-destroyed heads and showed an open panel with a blinking light, "This is a remote control transciever. They were being controlled themselves. They're not scavengers anymore. No, this is something different."
"Why were they trying to kill me?"
"They weren't, they want you alive, they're not exactly subtle these santa robots. Attacked me in the open last christmas eve, in a street full of shoppers - although they were jut scavengers then after the biggest thing they found. No, they want you alive. The decorations are all inactive now, and didn't harm anyone, not one bit."
"So… they attacked because they want me? Why? What for?"
She sighed and answered, "That's what I'm going to find out."
The Wolf used her Sonic screwdriver, and commented, "Got a singal, if I can just trace it."
With that, she ran out, and barely heard Donna's mum ask, "Donna, Who is she?"
Donna caught up with her outside, and the Wolf told her, "There's someone behind this, directing the roboforms. If I can find the controller, I can find out what they want with you. Ooh… Hang on. It's coming from… it's up there." The Wolf pointed her sonic screwdriver at the sky. "Something in the sky. Spaceship?"
Suddenly, it cut off. "Oh, crap. Donna, we gotta go. The signal just stopped, and I think I know why. We need to get to the office - H.C. Clements." She turned to the man who seemed to be Lance. "Lance was it? could you give us a lift?"
"Sure. But… Whats going on?"
The Wolf just looked at him, he gulped.
He didn't get an answer, the Wolf just gazed at him for a few moments, before they set off.
--
Entering the office building, she started a literal running commentary, "You lot might just be locksmiths, but 23 years ago H.C. Clements was bought up by the Torchwood Institute."
"Who are they?" Donna asked.
The Wolf looked at her as they reached the top of the staircase to the 2nd floor, "They were behind the battle of Canary Wharf." The Wolf explained. They reached a computer, and she got to work on it. She glanced at Donna, who was quiet, and saw she was still confused. "Cyberman invasion." Still confused, "Skies over London, full of Daleks?"
Donna shrugged it off with, "I was in Spain."
"They had Cybermen in Spain." The Wolf added, looking at Donna incredulously.
"Scuba diving." Donna finished, as though it explained all. Probably did.
The Wolf just turned back to the computer with a chuckle. "That bigger picture, Donna, you keep missing it. Anyway, Torchwood was destroyed, but H.C. Clements stayed in business, the new Torchwood isn't even connected to them. I think, that someone else came in and took over the whole operation."
Donna pointed out the obvious, "But what do they want with me? I'm just a temp from Chiswick."
That brought the Wolf up short. She wasn't sure, and her uncertainty was plain to Donna. "Somehow, I think, you've been dosed with Huon energy. Which is a problem, a very big one, because Huon energy hasn't existed since the Dark Times. The only place you'll find a Huon Particle now, is a remnant in the Heart of a TARDIS." She had a thought, and as Donna absorbed that, she asked the TARDIS, 'And me?'
The pause from the TARDIS was telling. 'Perhaps.'
'You don't sound sure.'
The TARDIS made a sound almost like a sigh, and replied, 'I'm not.'
The Wolf explained further, seeing that Donna still didn't make the connection. "Like the positive and negative of two magnets; The TARDIS is positive and you were negative," She paused to let Donna chuckle at that rather apt description of her, she also picked up a cup and pencil. "Somehow, you 'activated' the Huon particles in your system," She twirled the pencil around, "Making them sort of, magnetise, and bob's your uncle, you got pulled into the TARDIS." She put the pencil in the cup.
"I'm a pencil inside a mug?" Donna asked with a simple eyebrow-raise.
The Wolf chuckled. "Hmm, 4H. Personally I thought you'd be a 2B."
Donna chuckled, "Shut up."
The Wolf turned to and asked, "Lance, what was H.C. Clements working on, anything top secret? Special Operations? Do not enter?"
"I dunno, I was in charge of Personnel, not a Project Manager." Lance paused, then asked a little too loudly, "Why am I even explaining myself, What the hell are we talking about?"
The Wolf rolled her eyes, and said, "You make keys, that's the point. But there's something hidden, I dunno what but…" She brought up the plans for the building on the computer.
"Hold on, Where's the lower basement?" Donna asked.
The Wolf looked at the plans, and then at Donna's catch, which made the Wolf smile. "You're right."
Lance looked clueless. "There is no lower basement."
Donna added, "I've used the lifts many times. I know there's a button marked 'Lower basement'."
The Wolf stood and the two followed her to the lift. When it opened, she got in and pointed at the button. "So what's down there then?" She mumbled.
"Are you telling me, this building has got a secret floor?" Lance asked incredulously, clearly not believing them or something.
"Yes. A whole floor not on the official plans. Good catch, Donna." The Wolf winked at her.
"Thanks."
"Anyway, no, I'm not telling, I'm showing that this building has a secret floor." The Wolf told them, and her hand went into her jacket pocket.
Donna looked at the panel, and stated the obvious, "It needs a key."
The Wolf shrugged and, ignoring her comment, said, "Anyway, thanks you two, I can handle this. See ya later."
Donna didn't budge. "I'm going with you, Venucian girl. You're the one that keeps saving my life, I'm not letting you out of my sight."
The Wolf smiled lightly, and nodded.
Donna asked, "Lance?"
"Maybe, maybe I should go to the police?" Lance hesitantly said.
The Wolf just continued to smile, and thought that Jack would probably be watching H.C. Clements by now. Any call to the police would be intercepted.
Donna however, was having none of that and just commanded, "LANCE. Inside."
--
The Wolf looked at the door sign.
"The T made from Hexagons. That's the Torchwood symbol." She told Donna. "This is probably an access to the surface. Stay here, just need to get my bearings."
Donna nodded, and The Wolf accepted that, and went in and up the ladder. As she got 10 rungs up, Donna shouted at her, "You better come back!"
"I couldn't get rid of you even if I wanted to!" She shouted back, her smile coming through into her voice.
When she returned, she informed them, "Thames flood barrier, right on top of us. Torchwood snuck in and built this place underneath."
"What, there's a secret base, hidden right underneath a major London landmark?" Donna asked.
The Wolf grinned predatorily, and said, "Well, there's a not-so-secret alien-derived weapon with emitters spread across Mayfair, Southwark and Lambeth. It was used to destroy the Sycorax ship last Christmas."
"The Christmas invasion that I didn't know about?" Donna asked.
The Wolf shrugged and nodded with a sarcastic smile. "Yeah." With that, she ran off down a side corridor, right into a lab, where Donna caught up with her in time to see her looking around at the equipment in a sort of awe.
"Wow, this is… brilliant this is. Particle extrusion - Manufacturing energy particles. Huon Particles to be precise. The Time Lords got rid of Huon Particles; they unravelled their atomic structure."
"Time Lords?" Lance asked, a strange tone to his voice.
Donna however, asked, "But how did they get inside me?"
The Wolf looked over the equipment, and after a moment, replied, "Using the River. Extruding them through a hydrogen base, end result in Huon Particles bound to liquid form."
Donna started to glow when the Wolf picked up and turned the knob on a container of the liquid.
"But in Liqiud form, the particles are inert… Hold on I'll work it out… Yes! No! YES! Being inert, they need to be inside something living to catalyse, saturate then body and then become active! The WEDDING!"
"What?"
"So far they'd been inert in you, then you get married, big emotional day! And the most emotional point for you was walking up the aisle! You're a battleground of chemicals! adrenalin, acetylcholine, Wham! Go the endorphins. You're like a pressure cooker, oven, microwave, churning away, and SHAZZAM-OW! What've I done this time?"
Donna stared at her, dictionary definition of 'I am not amused.' "Are you enjoying this?"
The Wolf settled down a little, and about to deny being so, stopped and shrugged, "A little. Discovery and all that."
Donna gave her a hard look and asked, "Now just tell me. These particles, are they dangerous? Am I safe?"
"Yes." The Wolf assured her.
And it didn't work, because Donna pointed out, "Wolf. If Time Lords got rid of Huon Particles, Why did they do that?"
The Wolf closed her eyes for a moment, before she answered, "They were deadly."
"Oh god."
"Don't Worry. As I said, Time Lords unravelled their subatomic structure. The TARDISs were grown on the Time Lords' planet and kitted out with lots of technology gizmos, one should be able to unravel them in you. So, I can reverse it. Somehow."
"Oh, she is long since lost." A voice announced, sounding like it was being projected.
Suddenly, half the wall started to raise, revealing a large room, groups of the robots, this time in simple black robes, doting the walkways around it.
"I have waited so long. Hibernating at the edge of the universe. Until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to waken."
The Wolf stepped in and looked down the hole that took up most of the floor.
"Oh, drilled by laser. Very Torchwood. Looks deep. How far down does it go?"
"Deep down, all the way to the centre of the Earth."
"Really? Wonder how they protected the wall of it through the magma layers. Seriously, what for?"
"Dinosaurs." Donna guessed.
"No Donna, those were buried quite close to the surface, relatively speaking." The Wolf countered.
"Oh, what such a sweet pair."
The Wolf stopped wondering for a moment, and with a wink at Donna, began, "Only a madman talks to thin air, and trust me, you don't want to make me mad." Unnoticed to both the Wolf and the speaker, but not to Donna, one of the Wolf's clenched hands glowed slightly, and Donna thought it rather resembled the glow she had emitted for that brief moment, several minutes ago. "Where are you?" The Wolf asked.
"Oh so high, floating in the sky, on Christmas night."
The Wolf thought for a second, before she jabbed, "Hiding your face? Isn't that a bit… Raxacoricofallapatorian?"
The voice hissed slightly. Donna just stared at her, confused.
"Do not insult me, Human child. Those pestulant pigs are nothing like me and me people."
"Come on then, don't go all Slitheen on me, show us your face!"
"Who are you, to have such command at such a young age?"
She smiled internally at her new introduction she would use for the second time. Externally she just appeared rather pissed off. "I'm the Wolf."
"Well Sharpen your Teeth, Bad Little Wolf. For…"
Donna interrupted, "Get on with it then!"
Suddenly, a large spider-scorpion like creature appeared on the other side of the room.
It took a few moments for the Wolf to recognise it - and refering to one of the books she carried around, before she muttered, "Hold on, the Racnoss died…"
"I am the Empress of the Racnoss."
"If you're the Empress, where are the rest of the Racnoss? Or, are you the only one?"
"Such a sharp mind." The Empress complemented.
By way of explaining to Donna, the Wolf handed her the open book and tapped the entry of the encyclopedic book of alien races that was about the Racnoss. "Carnivores, Omnivores, they devour whole planets."
The Empress hissed, and attempted to justify, "Racnoss are born starving! Is that our fault?"
Off to the side of and behind the Empress, the Wolf noticed Lance appear. She could have rolled her eyes at that.
"H.C. Clements, did he wear those black and white shoes?" The Wolf asked Donna upon noticing something above the hole.
Donna nodded, and was about to make a comment when the Wolf pointed up at the spot. There were feet sticking out, with black and white shoes on them.
"Christmas Dinner." The Empress cackled.
"You shouldn't even exist." The Wolf started, and paused when Donna passed her the book back, to put it back in her pocket. To Donna, she added, "Way back in history, the fledgling empires went to war against the Racnoss, they were wiped out."
"Except, for me." The Empress inserted.
Donna noticed Lance, and both noticed he had an axe.
The Wolf did roll her eyes this time. And as Donna started on the distraction, she couldn't help but wonder. He often seemed to be performing, but also seemed to put up an effort to tolerate Donna. She smiled grimly when she realised what that meant, along with Donna's initial comment about him.
And then it was revealed to Donna.
"What?" Donna started.
"I'm sorry." The Wolf began.
"Sorry for what? Lance, don't be so stupid, GET HER!"
"God she's thick." Lance insulted her, "Months, I've had to put up with her. Months. A woman who can't even point to Germany on a map."
"Oi!" The Wolf cut in, "Don't insult my friend. You'll make me cranky. And I'm in the middle of a certain time for me, so you really shouldn't make me cranky. You won't like me when I'm cranky." The Wolf could have chuckled at the pop culture reference, and almost did when Lance didn't seem to get it. Neither did the Racnoss, but for more obvious reasons.
"I don't understand." Donna lowly said.
"How did you meet him?" The Wolf simply asked her. "He made you coffee."
She hinted at her, to let her come to the conclusion on her own given the pieces, by looking over at the particle extrusion equipment behind them.
"Huon particles bound to liquid form. You gave me coffee, everyday." Donna began, and sounded heart-broken. "You poisoned me? But we were getting married?"
"I had to say yes, didn't want you running off!" Lance explained. "Then I was stuck with a woman who thought the height of excitement was-"
"OI! Approaching crankiness!" The Wolf warned.
Lance backtracked a bit, and finished off, "Well, I deserve a medal for putting up with that fountain of fat stupid meaningless trivia."
The Wolf had enough. "Oh, you getting the Medal for being completely stupid and rude? Is that what she offered you? You her henchman?"
"It's better than spending a night with her." The wolf didn't even need to see to feel the sheer anger that was starting to roll off of Donna in waves. "It's like you said, Wolf. The big picture? What's the point of it all if the human race is nothing? That's what the Empress can give me, the chance to, go out there. To see it, the size of it all. I think you understand that, don't you Wolf?"
The Racnoss had enough of not knowing, and asked, "Who is this little cub?"
"She said," Lance answered, waving his hand at Donna, "Venucian."
The Wolf shrugged and sort of corrected, "Well, I'm sort of homeless. Anyway, what's this hole for? What's down there? What's going to help you 4,000 miles down?"
"I think she wants us to talk." Lance commented.
"I think so too." The Empress agreed. "All we need is Donna. Kill the Wolf."
"Don't you hurt her!" Donna started, and stood in front of her.
"No, Donna, it's alright."
"I won't let them."
"At arms!" The Empress commanded, and the until-then inactive robots turned to directly point their weapons at the duo.
"Ah, now, except!" The Wolf began.
"TAKE AIM!"
"Well, I just want to point out the obvious. Just a tick, just a moment, a few seconds is all I ask." The Empress paused and gave a short nod. "Now, if you think about it, the particles inside Donna activated, and drew her inside my space ship, like negatively charged magnet to a positively charged one." With that, the Wolf held up her hand, and hoped to god this would work. 'Come on come on work.'
'I think it will' Came the reply, just as she finished, "So. Reverse it, and the space ship comes to her." With that, she went deep down, into the place where she found the power inside her, that brought the dimension shifter to her hand. Her hand glowed, and at the same time, Donna did too. And around them, the TARDIS materialised.
"FIRE!" The Empress ordered, but too late.
Inside the newly-appeared TARDIS, the Wolf smiled at jumped at the controls. "Well then, off we go. Into space first, get away from that pesky Racnoss."
Donna watched her work, and when it seemed like she had finished, asked, "Hold on, you could of used that Sonic Screwdriver of yours, how did you do that with just your hand?"
The Wolf looked at her.
"And before, your hand glowed aswell… have you-?"
"Long story short, I said the Heart of the TARDIS holds a remnant. Well I think that just proves it, when I took in a part of the Heart of the TARDIS, part of me still holds a bit of the remnants. As it is only a remnant, it's not deadly since that was about 9, 10 months ago and if it was deadly, I'd be dead already. But you, you have fully formed particles which are the dangerous type. Now, before, your comment about a time machine? well, I kind of lied - I have, it is, and we're now going to use it. Need to find out what the Racnoss is digging up, to do that we need to go right back to the formation of the Earth-"
The Wolf stopped speaking, although she didn't stop working on the time trip, as she noticed Donna had her back to her, and she could feel the wave of emotion from her.
When the TARDIS exitted the Time Vortex, she finally moved over to Donna and hugged her from behind. "If it's any consolation, I don't think the Empress is going to follow through with the promises she made to Lance." Donna chuckled, but the chuckle sounded empty. "Anyway, we've arrived, and the monitor's a bit small, I think the old ways' best. Going to join me?"
"Okay. Thanks."
The Wolf didn't need to say it, her slight squeeze of Donna said it all; that Donna had been there for her when she needed it, and she was returning the favour.
The Wolf let her go, and led her to the doors, where she opened them. "No human's ever seen this." She began. "Don't even know if the Doctor ever saw this. He'd have loved it though. Donna Noble, welcome to the creation, of the Earth." The Wolf told her, as they watched various rocks slowly strike each other. "We've gone back, four point six billion years. There's no solar system. It's just, gas, dust, rocks. And is it beautiful."
"Yeah." Donna agreed with a whisper.
"You, Donna Noble, are looking at what the Earth was before it was a planet. The dust, gas, rocks you see before you. And that light over there, that on Earth in our day would be blinding if you looked at it too long, but not for now, is the sun. New. Just beginning to burn."
"Puts the Wedding in perspective." Donna sarcastically commented, but quietly with only little inflection.
"Yeah. Lance was wrong. We humans aren't tiny. We may never get to see that bigger picture, but we're a part of it. And that's what we do. We advance, learn space travel, go out and explore the stars. I've been to the end of the Earth, then to the world they took as a replacement after this one was burnt up during the sun's expansion. I've been to humanities history and it's future. Some would say we're like a virus, we can never be killed off. Other races, they come and go, but we humans, as a race? We go on. Making sense out of all that chaos you see in front of you. Others would say it's just rock striking rock, swirling in a dust cloud of gasses. But we humans, we can see just how beautiful it is."
They watched, for several minutes. When a large rock passed close to the TARDIS, Donna joked, "I think that's the Isle of Wight."
The Wolf grinned, and after a moment, began, "Eventually, one rock, bigger and so heavier, pulls the others in and those pull more in."
"Gravity?" Donna guessed.
"Exactly. More pulls even more in and on the process goes, on and on and on, dust, gasses, all piling in."
"And then you've got the Earth." Donna finished.
The Wolf nodded, and looked out for another minute in silence, then she mused, "But, question is, what rock is that?"
"What do you mean?" Donna asked, turning slightly to look at her.
"What I mean is, all I can see are the regular boulders of planetary creation - on their own, their gravity is so weak, they are not 'genesis rocks' if you will. Where is that first larger rock?" The Wolf waved her hand at the rocks, emphasising her point.
Suddenly, out of one dust and gas cloud, a ship appeared. The Wolf tensed. Neither said anything. The Wolf simply walked over to the TARDIs console, and manipulated them so that time for them inside slowed down - or should that be, outside, time sped up? She walked back just in time to see the ship begin to pull in rocks. They watched as the ship pulled in more rocks, many more rocks, dust and gasses.
"The Racnoss. A ship, hiding from the war. They didn't just bury themselves in the core of the Earth, they became the core. They acted as that genesis rock." The Wolf mused, disturbed at that.
"Ironic, don't you think?" Donna commented
"How's that?" The Wolf asked, as she shut the door.
Donna smiled at her slightly. "You said they devour planets. Well, we just saw one create one."
The Wolf looked at her, and commented, "Oh, I like you."
Suddenly, though, everything went wrong.
"Oh, shit." The Wolf mumbled.
"Language!" Donna chided her, as she held on to the railing tightly.
"She's pulling us back! Told you she'd not keep her promise!" The Wolf growled, angry at her TARDIS being forcibly moved about.
"How'd you mean?" Donna asked.
"Without you, she needs another key! And like I reversed it to bring the TARDIS to you…"
"LANCE!"
"And she can use him to get us back there! But, I have a trick up my sleeve. Remember I told you I took in the Heart of the TARDIS? And, I activated the particles in you in a specific way. Well; I hope to god this works."
She concentrated, and when the TARDIS appeared in the large room, she grinned, and released her power, ever so slightly.
Before the TARDIS had reformed in the room, it disappeared, and reformed in the tunnel. That act, however, had tired the Wolf out immensely. "Bloody hell." She ground out. The two stepped out, and she approached a door. As she started to babble, Donna was pulled away.
After a minute, she stopped with, "-And You haven't slapped me for, babbling… on."
The Wolf turned to the door, and hit her head on it intentionally. "Ow." She mumbled.
--
From just outside the room she could feel, even stronger than she had Donna's emotions, the movement of the huon particles now that she had consciously tapped into their power through the Heart.
It barely took her half the concentration she had needed to jump the TARDIS in it's particle-induced trip 200 yards. The particles stopped their motion down the tunnel, and instead moved over to the TARDIS, where upon the TARDIS rather gleefully did her job to dismantle their atomic structure. The Wolf, after ensuring they were deconstructed, entered the room again, and took the disguise of the black-robed Robots. She had gotten up to the 2nd level of the walkways when she was caught.
"-So you might as well unmask yourself, my clever illustrious little Wolf girl." The Empress finished. The Wolf hadn't really paid much attention to her words up till that point.
"Nice try. Stuffy robes though." She mumbled as she pulled it off, and returned her hands to the pockets of her jacket. She brought out her left hand, and in in her palm lay her Sonic Screwdriver, and used it to release Donna, who then used part of the webbing to swing to safety. Intending for her to swing into her arms, the Wolf had miscalculated, and Donna swung right into the wall below her.
'Ouch.' Came the sarcastic comment from the TARDIS.
"Sorry." The Wolf said with a slight wince.
"Thanks for nothing." Donna just retorted.
The Empress commented, "The Wolf girl amuses me."
The Wolf looked over at her, and simply said with command, "I give you one last chance, Empress. I could give you and your children a place in the universe to co-exist. Take this offer and end this now. One time only deal."
The Empress just chuckled slightly, "This girl is so funny. Oh, but I'm afraid, I have to decline."
"Then what happens next is your own doing." The Wolf finished.
"AT ARMS! TAKE AIM!"
"And, disarm." The Wolf interspersed, and the robots disarmed themselves.
"What?" The Empress asked, blinking in shock.
The Wolf looked down at Donna, and with a wink, said, "Guess what I've got, Donna. Pockets!" With that, she pulled her other hand out of one, revealing the remote control joypad thing she had taken from a robot at the Wedding reception.
"How did that fit in there?" Donna had to ask.
"Like the TARDIS. They're bigger on the inside." The Wolf told her, and returned her gaze to the Empress.
"Roboforms, are not necessary." The Empress began. "My children will feast, on the Venucian flesh."
"Oh, but I'm not from Venus." The Wolf mused, and chuckled slightly at the slightly confused look that crossed the Empress face for a second.
Whom asked, "Then where are you from, little girl?"
She knew that to tell the truth to the Empress wouldn't make the creature afraid of her, but that was what she needed. And she knew one planet name that would ensure it. "Oh, a long way from here." The Wolf mused, her smile turning up a notch.
"Where?!" The Empress half-shouted in command.
The Wolf took a moment to grin mischeviously, and when she answered, her grin was down-right predatory. "Gallifrey."
The Racnoss hissed and shook from anger and fear. Oh, so much fear that the Wolf could smell it. "THE LORDS OF TIME! THEY MURDERED THE RACNOSS!"
The Wolf's grin faded and she told her, "I warned you, Empress. What happens next is your own doing."
With that, the Wolf dipped her hand with the Sonic Screwdriver into her coat pocket, and when she pulled it out it was holding several of the bobble weapon decorations. She threw them up, and did so several times for quite a few of them. They immediately activated, to hover in place.
Then using the remote, she used the bobbles on the walls of the bunker. Water came flooding in through the holes that the exploding babbles created.
"MY CHILDREN!" The Empress shouted when she realised the water then began to flow down the hole.
"Oh I've got news for you, Empress." She started. Her eyes glowed, catching the Empress attention. "Those Huon Particles didn't make it to that ship at the core of the Planet."
The Empress made a guess. "You are infected with them! YOU WILL DIE!"
"Ah but see that's not true. I have remnants of the particles in my system, not the particles themselves. All the benefit, none of the danger. Huon Particles can never exist again, Empress. And I did warn you."
With that, the Wolf used the remaining babble bombs to cause even more water to flood the bunker, this time though, the water flowed into the hole. She watched, dispassionately through the fire and water spray, as the Racnoss mourned the loss of her children, and teleported back to her ship.
"Wolf!" Donna called. "You can stop now."
The Wolf looked down at Donna, and after a moment, nodded. "Come on, I know the way out."
--
The Wolf and Donna stood atop the Thames flood barrier, beneath which laid the room with the hole and the huon particle extrusion equipment.
They laughed as they watched the destruction of the Empress' ship.
Then Donna pointed out, "There's just one problem."
"What?"
"We've drained the Thames."
The Wolf looked down and smiled. Together, they both laughed.
"Oh, come on, I think we should scamper before the Police get here." The Wolf chuckled, and left.
Donna nodded, and together they left.
--
Donna pulled her down another street, toward some shops.
"Come on, Christmas present." She said with a wink.
"Oh?"
Donna nodded, and went into a carphone warhouse shop that was still open at that late night, causing the Wolf to smile.
When Donna came out, she handed her the box, and said, "Merry Christmas."
The Wolf hugged her. "Thank you."
"Normally I don't like Christma- hold on, what about the TARDIS?" Donna asked.
The Wolf shrugged, and just waved a hand. "Oh, she'll be around somewhere. Told her to make herself scarce."
"She can do that?"
The Wolf shrugged, and added, "With those Huon particles deconstructed, with only remnants remaining and going into her heart, strengthening her for the time being, yep. Won't last long, her self-control. But I'm sure she's - yep, she's enjoying the freedom." With that, the Wolf pointed up, and Donna laughed as they watched the TARDIS do a sort of, jiggle in the sky. "Shame I wouldn't be able to produce more." The Wolf added with a sigh.
Donna looked at her and asked, "Why not? I mean, other than a person needed in the mix?"
The Wolf shrugged. "Don't know how to create them. I can recognise a particle extrusion machine, but not create one. Like you can recognise a Mac from a computer, and so on, but you wouldn't know how to make one from simple ro-Ow! what-s. Oh. Babbling again. Sorry."
Donna just chuckled. "Now you're learning, Venucian Girl." Something occured to her. "You said you're human, but in there. You said you were from, Gallifrey."
The Wolf sighed, and nodded. "That was for the Empress. She needed to know just what she was playing with." She muttered.
"I'll say." Donna added, quietly.
"Hmm?"
"Nothing. Come on then, if the TARDIS won't take me home, we can at least find a bus. And no, no Taxi's for me thanks."
The Wolf grinned at her.
--
Just as the pair made it up to the gate to Donna's Mum's, the TARDIS slowly descended and landed.
"Wow." Donna mumbled.
"Yeah."
"I can feel the happiness coming from it-I mean, her." Donna said.
The Wolf smiled at her correction. "Yeah. You enjoyed that didn't you." She said to the TARDIS, and both smiled wider at the answering humm.
"Any Huon particles left in me?" Donna asked.
The Wolf held her hand up to Donna, and for a moment, just that hand glowed. When the glow faded, the Wolf smiled and shook her head. "All gone. No damage. You're fine."
"Yeah, well apart from that, I missed my wedding, lost my job and became a widow, all in the same day. Sort of."
"Couldn't save him." The Wolf said.
"He deserved it." Donna said, with not much heart. The Wolf looked at her, just looked, none of the other looks she had given Lance, or any one else throughout that day, just a look. "No he didn't." Donna finished, quietly. Then she looked at the window, and commented, "Better get inside, they'll be worried."
"Best Christmas present they could have, oh wait - didn't you say you don't like Christmas?"
Donna nodded. "Oh no, not one bit."
"Even if it, snowed?" With that, the Wolf looked at the TARDIS, and Donna smiled as she saw the Wolf obviously communicate without words - verbal words anyhow - and the TARDIS responded by a ball of light exploding and shooting up into the atmosphere, from the lantern on the top of the TARDIS.
The light exploded high up, and moments later, snow began to fall.
"Oh, I can't believe you did that!" Donna exclaimed happily.
"It's just, basic, excitation of the atmosphere. Simple even for me." The Wolf said, small smile on her face.
Donna looked at her, and with feeling, said, "Merry Christmas."
"And you." The Wolf returned, and pulled her into a hug. When she released Donna, she moved over to the TARDIS, and opened the door. She stopped in thought though, and just lent against the edge of the other door. "So, what will you do with yourself, now?"
"Not get married, for starters." Donna joked. "No, I'm not gonna temp anymore either. I dunno. Travel? See a bit more of planet Earth. Walk in the dust. Just go out there and do something."
The Wolf looked down, and heard the TARDIS egg her on to do what she just thought about. "Well, you could always…" She stopped, and thought for a second, she looked up, and finished, "Come with me?"
For a moment, she thought that Donna would accept her offer, but just for a moment. "No."
The Wolf, to cover her disappointment, shuffled and nodded. "Okay, that's fine. I get it-"
"No but really, everything we did today, you live your life like that?"
The Wolf looked down for a second, and when she looked back up, Donna could see a trace of the woman she had first seen, before The Wolf, all that time ago when she first appeared in the TARDIS. "Not all the time." The Wolf replied.
"I think you do. And I couldn't. It's beautiful." Donna said with a smile, but then her smile faded, "And it's terrible. That place was flooding, and burning, and they were dying, and you stood there, like… I don't know. A stranger. And then you made it snow! You scare me half to death!" Donna finished, half-serious, half-chuckling.
"Right."
"Tell you what, though. Come on inside, Christmas dinner."
She hesitated. After a moment, she replied, "I don't do that sort of thing."
"Oh come on, you must have done it with your mum each year-" Donna wished she could take her comment back, because for a moment, for a split second, the glare she had seen The Wolf give others, had appeared and was directed at herself. "You might as well," She said, changing tracks, "Mum always cooks enough for 20."
The Wolf thought for a few seconds, then glanced at the TARDIS. "Oh alright. But you go first, better warn them. And don't, please don't tell them that I'm from Venus. I'm just gonna, go park her properly. She might drift off to the middle ages. See you in a minute."
The Wolf entered, and closed her eyes. For a split second, she wondered if she should in fact go have christmas dinner. But she thought no. She barely started the process of dematerialising the TARDIS when a rather loud voice starting to cry Wolf.
She reversed it and stuck her head out of the TARDIS.
"BLIMEY you can shout!"
Donna just gazed at her and asked, "Am I ever gonna see you again?"
"If I'm lucky." The Wolf replied.
"Just, promise me one thing." The Wolf stepped all the way into the doorway, still in the TARDIS, but visible. "Find someone." Donna told her.
"I don't need anyone." The Wolf replied.
"Yes, you do." Donna told her. "Because, sometimes, I think you need someone to stop you."
The Wolf just looked at her, and slowly, but surely, The Wolf faded from view and was replaced with the girl she had met. The girl whose name she didn't know.
"What's you're name?" Donna asked when she thought enough of The Wolf had faded.
She got her answer, "Rose Tyler." Rose replied. "Have a good life, Donna Noble. Be magnificent."
"I think I will."
Rose was halfway into closing the door when Donna called out again. "Yeah?"
"Your friend, he was a Time Lord, wasn't he?" Rose nodded. "And he was more than a friend to you." Donna stated. Rose nodded, tears welling up in her eyes. "What was his name?"
"The Doctor. Just, the Doctor." Donna simply smiled, and Rose smiled back, although it didn't make it into her eyes. She slipped into the TARDIS, and Donna stepped back and watched the TARDIS dematerialise.
Once it was gone completely, she wiped the corner of her own eyes, and whispered, "Good luck, Rose Tyler. Good Luck, and I hope you find him again."
--
Coming Soon
Sarah Jane Smith shared a look with her adopted son, Luke.
"Do we really need her?" He asked. "I mean, who is she?"
Sarah Jane nodded. "Yes." She didn't reply to his last question. Sarah Jane got out her mobile, and rang a number from her contact list.
When it was answered, a woman on the other end said, "Hello?"
--
The Wolf bid goodbye to the U.N.I.T. people and their… scientific advisor.
"I said I'd call." Sarah Jane told her.
"And I said I'd run." Rose Tyler replied, stepping into the TARDIS.
"I'm sending landing location details on a frequency piggybacking this one. The TARDIS should be picking it up."
"Got it. And I'm running for you now."
"See you soon."
Rose Tyler sighed as she looked at all the informaton sent along. Strange weather patterns spotted over a hospital several times a month, but getting successively stronger. And an odd pattern to them.
She put her head in her hands for a minute, and when she looked up again, it wasn't Rose Tyler, but The Wolf.
--