Chapter Seven

"Rose?"

I think I broke in relief, which was nice to break in something other than sorrow for a change. I crashed to my knees in slow motion, watching the whole world spinning with the Doctor as the focal point. I wonder if my husband felt like that when he died. Vaguely, I could hear the red-headed child's voice ask who I am and what was wrong with me. I wanted to scream out my answer. I wanted to tell her that I'm a monster, that she should run away before she got caught in the crossfire. But, I was evidently still worthy of the name Rose, at least in his eyes. Then again, he doesn't know what I have done, and who I have become. It was still nice, to be called that old name by the one person I wanted saying it.

I watched the Doctor drop beside me, and wrap his arms around me tightly. He kept on asking what was wrong, what had happened, if I was okay, who had done this to me. I wanted to make him happy, not worried. I imagined he would see me and laugh, not be on the verge of tears at my expense. I wanted to answer him, to console him, but the black spots in my vision were taking over, and I didn't know how to stop them.

Then I knew nothing but the black spots.

~Doctor's POV~

I was talking to Amy, laughing, eating fish fingers and custard. Amy Pond, with her fiery red hair and spunk. There was something wrong with this house. I didn't worry about that at that moment, I was happy. Sad, of course, always sad. The sadness was always in the back of my mind, mocking me. I haven't been able to keep it perfectly at bay since, well, since Rose. I still hated myself for what happened to her. I supposed I would never, ever forgive myself for that day. And never ever is a long time when the plausibility of living forever is very much real.

Then again, I hated myself for a lot of things. This was one of many fresh starts, and I intended to hate myself a little less everyday in this body, because, well, I had a new reason everyday. Today's reason was Amelia Pond, and her mystery. It was healthy for me. I was almost proud of myself.

Then I saw her. I saw her and all my thoughts died. I forgot about fish fingers and custard, I forgot about being sad, or happy, or any emotion really, and I forgot all about Amy Pond's red hair. She wasn't supposed to be here. In fact, this was clearly impossible. But it was impossible for her to save my ninth form at the Game Station, so I suppose that was just Rose Tyler for you. I was proud of my impossible wolf. I was afraid, too, because her eyes were glowing, and her hair was glowing, and it looked like she'd been crying. Actually, she looked haunted. Incredibly so, like she recently witnessed a thousand deaths. She looked like she was about to collapse, too, with her whole body all shaky.

"Rose?" I said on instinctive. She started falling, and immediately the fear and concern crushed me. I caught her in my arms as she fell, and I held her there on the floor, and I vowed at that moment, to never, ever let her go again. And never ever is a long, long time for a creature like me. "Rose? Rose, tell me what's wrong, what happened? Please, Rose, please," I rambled a bit more than I probably should have.

When I saw that she blacked out, out of exhaustion, or a number of things most likely, I picked her up. She was cradled snugly to my chest when I remembered Amy. I sighed and hung my head, not really wanting to stay here, but the TARDIS was still a bit too unsafe for traveling.

"Amy, can you show me where I can lay her down?" I asked, hearing the shakiness of my voice startling me into another bout of fear.

The little girl nodded and ran to the living room where she pointed to the old couch sitting in there. I think she knew in this situation, it would be better for her not to speak.

I smiled tightly. "Thanks, Amy. This should be fine." I lied her down, sinking to my knees beside her, doing a body scan with my trusty sonic. The results were as shocking as they were terrifying. She radiated toxic Time Energy, she was practically made of it. I wouldn't be surprised at all if she was eating the stuff for breakfast. No wonder her eyes were golden. I bet I could track everywhere she's been lately with that energy as breadcrumbs. A perfect stream of golden breadcrumbs.

Going over the results more thoroughly, I found the thing that shocked me the most. See, I was told a story when I was younger. A child, really. Everyone on Gallifrey knew it, though it was lost for a quite some time before the war, and no one spoke of it. A story about an entity who could travel through time and raced along the stars whenever they felt like it. They knew all the secrets of the universe, and supposedly she was meant to lead the Time War. She didn't, of course, which caused me to stop believing in it, to even consider it.

The story goes, a human woman was lost in grief. So much so, that a TARDIS or another Time Lord tried to make her a Time Lady. But something went terribly wrong. And she was given so much power, so much power that she was like a walking, talking TARDIS. But unlike a TARDIS, she just could collect and use and bend Time Energy to her will. To create more TARDIS's and travel time. The details vary, like the Time Lord's own little, lost folk tale.

The entity in the story matched Rose's make up. She had quite a story to tell me when she woke up. Hopefully I would hear the story of all the ghosts that swam in her eyes when she miraculously came back into my life.

So this is basically a test chapter to see if I will continue this. Thanks for reading! Please leave reviews!