Chapter Twelve

The Doctor gasped as he woke up. Immediately, he jumped to his feet and noticed that Rose was awake and looking at something over in the corner. He turned and saw someone lying in a heap on the floor. His eyes darkened when he noticed the dirty red and green sweater, brown trousers and brown fedora.

"Krueger," the Doctor snarled as he advanced towards him.

He sensed Rose starting to get up and follow him.

"No, stay back, I'll handle this," he said, looking back and holding out his hand to stop her.

Rose nodded and sat on the side of the bed, watching with a worried look on her face while the Doctor walked over to Freddy who appeared to be motionless. The Doctor kicked his side.

"Get up and face me," the Doctor growled.

Freddy jerked his head up and the Doctor was amazed when he saw that Freddy's face was no longer burned. Freddy sat up and the hat fell off, revealing short curly blonde hair. He glanced down at his ungloved hand and noticed the flesh was also pink and unblemished.

"You became normal again," the Doctor said to him.

"Yes," Freddy said in a soft voice. "It's because I'm real again. If I had those burns out here, I would never survive."

"Get up," the Doctor said coldly. "Rose, leave the room now!"

"Doctor…wait…"

"Do as I say," the Doctor barked without turning to look at her.

"You can't do this," Freddy said meekly as he got to his feet. "You can't kill me."

"I can and I will," the Doctor said coldly. "I don't care if you've gone back to normal out here, you're still a killer and I'm not gonna let you go free to terrorize the real world again."

"Doctor, please, listen to me. The dream demons are gone. They left me when you pulled me out here."

"Oh please, Krueger, what do you take me for?" the Doctor said. "I know you can change your body, I saw you change into Rose. This is just another trick to try to make me feel sorry for you and let my guard down and then you'll strike!"

Freddy gnashed his teeth and let out a roar as he lifted his finger knives. In that instant, he became his normal self again and he charged at the Doctor. The Doctor tried to sidestep him and grunted when Freddy grazed his arm with the finger knives on the way past. To his horror, the Doctor noticed that Rose had gotten up from the bed but wasn't out of the room and Freddy was now making a beeline for her while she ran out.

"ROSE, RUN!" The Doctor said. "TARDIS, HELP ROSE AND STOP FREDDY!"

At that instant, an invisible wall was thrown up between Freddy and Rose. Freddy grunted when he smacked into it and he let out an enraged yell when he saw a hole open in the wall on the other side of the barrier and Rose run through it to safety. He spun around and saw the Doctor standing behind him with a smirk on his face.

"You're inside my TARDIS, Krueger, now you're in my world and my ship responds to my commands just like your dream world responds to you," he said smugly.

"You think you've won, Doctor, but I'll be back. Even if you kill me, the dream demons will resurrect my body and I'll keep on killing."

"Then I'll have to put you somewhere where you'll never harm anyone ever again," the Doctor said.

"Oh yeah," Freddy sneered, "where?"

"The void."

"The what?" Freddy said.

"Come on, Krueger, look into my mind and find out what the void is. Or…you can't do that now that you're real, can you? Out here, you're nothing but a normal human."

The Doctor took a step towards him.

"I'm going to kill you in order to release all these souls inside you and then I'll find a hole in the fabric of time and space and put your body inside the void. Once I seal it up, it won't matter if these dream demons bring you back to life because you'll be trapped forever between universes and there'll be nothing there for you to kill. You never shoulda messed with me, Krueger. You shoulda run and hid the moment you figured out I'm not an average human. You think you're humanity's worst nightmare? Well, I'm yours. Because when I get through with you, you'll wish you'd never been born."

Freddy roared and lunged at him and smacked into another invisible barrier the TARDIS threw up. The Doctor watched, smirking, as Freddy banged on it and cursed at the top of his lungs, demanding to be set free. The Doctor watched him dispassionately as Freddy continued to bang on the barrier and scream curses at him. Then Freddy heard a hissing sound over his head and looked up as white smoke began to seep into the tiny space between the barriers.

"What's that?" Freddy said to the Doctor.

"Cyanide gas. I'm going to kill you, Freddy, but not in the way you've killed others. You're simply going to be poisoned."

"You think you've defeated me," Freddy snarled at him. "I'll find a way back from this "void" and then I'm coming for you and nothing you love will be safe and that includes Rose!"

The Doctor watched, uncaring, as Freddy began to cough and choke on the gas.

"Goodbye, Krueger, your reign of terror is at an end," the Doctor said, putting his hands in his pockets.

He watched silently while Freddy fell to his knees, gagging as the poison smoke filled his lungs. He kept on watching while Freddy fell over, gasping for air and clawing at the barrier with his knives. Then ten minutes after the gassing began, he heard Freddy breathe his last and his eyes glazed over as he stared up at the ceiling. The Doctor smiled when at the moment of his death a large white mist came out of his chest and he could see the happy faces of the souls he had captured including Janette's rise up to the ceiling and vanish from sight.

"Rest in peace, Janette and everyone else, you're free now," he said softly as he stared at the spot where the souls escaped.

He looked back down at Freddy's body with disdain.

"TARDIS, keep the barrier around him, just in case," he said to his ship. "And find a gap somewhere where I can jettison him into the void."

The TARDIS grunted an affirmative and the Doctor took one last look at Freddy before turning and heading back to the console room.

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Rose tentatively walked into the console room and found the Doctor standing at his monitor watching the screen. She noticed his jacket was off and she could see a white bandage through the rips Freddy had made in his shirt. She neared closer to him and he glanced her way and smiled warmly when she got within ten feet of him.

"Hello there," he said.

"Freddy, is he…"

The Doctor's eyes darkened.

"He's been taken care of," he said, turning his eyes back to the screen. "He's dead and I put the body somewhere where he won't be able to hurt anyone if he's somehow revived."

Rose wanted to ask where but she had a feeling the Doctor wouldn't tell her so she instead came closer to him. The Doctor glanced her way for a second and then began to circle the console flipping switches and pressing buttons.

"So, where to next?" he said cheerfully. "Wanna try 2, 2, 2 now?"

"Doctor, what about Janette?"

"I'm taking her back to her house. We'll lay her in her bed and I'll ring the police and make an anonymous call to let them know she's there. By the time they get there, we'll be gone."

"You don't wanna stay…for her funeral?" Rose asked.

The Doctor shook his head.

"Nah, I'd rather not. I'd rather just move on and sally forth to the next adventure," he said. "She'll be fine. I'm sure she has family who'll give her a proper burial."

He grabbed the handle of his vortex loop and began to pump it while he looked at Rose. He noticed how unhappy she looked.

"Rose, I tried to save her but in the dream world, there was nothing I could do," he said.

"I know. I know you tried. There's something else though."

"Oh? What?"

"What you said. What Freddy made you say when I was chained up."

The Doctor stopped pumping and lowered his eyes to the console. Rose bit her lip and came around towards him.

"Doctor…"

"Rose, listen…"

"No, I wanna know if you meant that or did you say it just because you were trying to save me?"

"Rose, please, can't we just pretend it never happened?"

"Then you don't love me?" Rose said sadly.

The Doctor kept silent while he stared down at the bicycle pump handle. Rose came up beside him, gently grabbed his chin and turned his head so he would look at her.

"I love you, Doctor. I don't know what Freddy said to you when he was impersonating me but what he did say, I completely agreed with."

"Rose…"

"Doctor, I know it makes you uncomfortable to hear me say that I love you so I won't keep saying it but I just want you to know that I do and I'm so glad you chose me to travel with you and I'll be with you for as long as you want me here."

The Doctor smiled tenderly and wrapped his arm around her. He gazed at her lovingly as Rose laid her head against his side and closed her eyes. She smiled when she felt the Doctor's lips gently press against her scalp and then deciding not to press her luck, she stepped back and looked into his eyes. Her heart pounded in her chest when she noticed his eyes were filled with love for her and he gave her shoulder a squeeze before he headed back to his monitor.

"So…" he said, glancing at her. "We take Janette home then so she can have a decent burial and the TARDIS can sort out her room?"

Rose nodded.

"Yeah. And hopefully she's with her husband and daughter somewhere and they're all happy."

The Doctor smiled at that and nodded. Rose neared close to him and watched quietly while he punched a few more buttons and then she felt the TARDIS turn and smiled when the Doctor wrapped his arm around her and held her close while they waited for the timeship to land.

THE END.