Gift for who_in_whoville
To: who_in_whoville
From: doctahr
Title: Titans
Characters and/or Pairings: Rose, Mickey, Pete, Jackie, Jake, the Doctor, Martha, OC. Rose/Doctor
Rating: K
Summary: A dimension hopping wolf leaves a mystery for the Doctor and Rose, both on other sides of the void. Can they make it back to each other alive?
Author's Notes: I planned this story all out. It's nothing like my outline now.
Happy holidays, Who_in_whoville! Hope this OS what you'd wanted!
Word Count: 5,632
Rose stuffed her hands into her pockets, letting out a low breath to watch it curl away from her mouth. She hopped up and down, switching feet every jump, in an effort to warm herself up.
“Ugh,” She muttered, “This London’s bloody colder than the first.”
As if the winter wasn’t bad enough in her old London, the zeppelins greatly contributed to the severity of this universe’s Global Climate Change.
Bright headlights cut through the snow as a black SUV finally rolled up the curb. Rose wasted no time to run around the side and hop into the passenger seat.
“Took you long enough.” She said, shooting a glare at the driver.
“The roads are slipp’ry!” Mickey shot back, “Don’t want me to crash, do ya?”
“You could stand to go a bit faster!” She said as he slowly turned onto the main road, “What if some alien shoots a bunch of people while you’re driving ten miles under the speed limit?”
“The call was made by an old lady. She prob’ly ‘ad ‘er glasses off and reported a truck as a spaceship because of paranoia over the recent alien reports in the news.”
“An old lady who lives right by that spike of rift energy Tosh noticed yesterday.”
“Whatever.” Mickey grumbled, pushing a bit harder on the gas pedal. “I just wanna know why all the alien reports have to come from creepy fields on dark foggy nights.”
Rose frowned as a thought occurred to her.
“Have you noticed we haven’t passed any cars coming the opposite way?”
“We must ‘ave.” Mickey rationalized, thinking over the last ten minutes and realizing she was right. He turned his head to look at her. “This close to the city, there should be tons of cars.”
Rose’s eyes widened and she leaned back in her seat, one hand flying to the window, and the other to grab his arm in a strong, terrified grip.
“MICKEY, look out!” She yelled as he turned to look at the road in front of him.
A large dark beast was galloping towards them. It would have been impossible to see through the fog if not for the large machine on the left side of the grass next to the road casting an eerie red light on the surroundings near it.
Mickey cursed, wrenching the steering wheel to the right and slamming on the brakes. The tires lost their grip, and Mickey shut his eyes as time seemed to slow down around him and the car lost control.
It spun around before reaching the end of the road and tipping onto its left side.
Mickey shut his eyes to the sharp sting of glass falling onto his head. Everything around him was now eerily quiet, a drastic change to the loud noises he’d heard just a moment before. All he heard now was a soft hum from outside and the occasional tinkle of glass.
“Rose?” He said, coughing when his voice came out raspy, “Rose?”
No response. He opened his eyes, looking next to him.
She was still, her eyes closed and her head resting on the shattered remains of what was her window. He couldn’t see much, but the grass around her head was stained red.
Head wounds bleed a lot, he reminded himself, fumbling for his cell phone in the pocket of his jacket. He would have liked to unbuckle himself, but he knew he wasn’t currently capable of anything other than falling onto Rose at the moment, so he just switched his phone to his left hand after dialing Torchwood and grabbed the handle on the ceiling of the car to steady himself.
The phone beeped once, signaling a lack of service needed to complete the call. He’d have to use Rose’s superphone.
Just as he reached over to try and fish it out of her pocket, the car shook.
Mickey yelped in surprise and looked up at the side of the car where a large beast had its head stuck in. Hot drool dripped from its mouth and landed on the side of Mickey’s head.
“Bugger!”
He swung the door to the back of the van open before unlatching his seatbelt and pushed himself off to land in the doorway and not on Rose. Next he reached over and unbuckled her, dragging her into the back of the van while the beast sniffed around curiously.
It looked like something straight out of a sci-fi film. It had a rounded forehead with no eyes, a short, black nose, and large mouth with sharp black teeth, a blue tongue, and a flat jaw. It had short, grey, messy fur, and long legs that ended with 7 sharp, long, black claws. Its long, wolf-like tail thumped against the side of the car excitedly. Most of all though, the alien was huge. It was almost half the size of the car. Luckily for Mickey, that meant it couldn’t enter through the side windows. It could fit through the windshield though, so instead of waiting for the beast to figure that out, Mickey grabbed one of the guns he had stored in the back.
The beast’s head suddenly appeared through the space where the windshield used to be.
Panicked, Mickey fired, catching it in its broad forehead. The creature yelped in pain, lounging towards Mickey. As its claws tore through the metal separating him from the beast, Mickey dropped the gun and grabbed an alien-looking one, firing twice. A low growl sounded from the beast before it staggered forward and collapsed. Fur stuck up in tufts between the claw-shaped tears in the metal.
--------
“I present to you… The great city of Grrth!” The Doctor exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air next to him as he stepped through the doors of the TARDIS, his excited companion following in his wake.
Martha gasped at the sight in front of her. Great glistening buildings shimmered in the sunlight of two red suns overhead. They were mostly bluish in color, with some less bright grey buildings, slightly different in design, in the mix. Distinctly alien creatures of all shapes and sizes passed by her without sparing either of them a glance.
“This is wonderful!” Martha said, turning to the Doctor with a wide grin. He grinned back at her.
“Grrth is a busy city a little bigger than London. It hosts the largest trading center in the galaxy, a beautiful market a few miles from here. Like America, but more so, you’ll find very few old buildings in Grrth. In fact, all the blue buildings are only a few years old. They like to be in tune with the latest architectural fashion. Any grey buildings you see are left over from the latest fad.” The Doctor said.
“They replace their buildings that often? Sounds expensive.” Martha said.
“Every few years is a bit longer to them than it is for you. A year on Galtar- this planet- is equal to about 3.455467 of your Earth years. It’s still not a very long time to replace their buildings, but the economy is good. Let’s have a look around, shall we? We’ll find a restaurant. The food here is very different than the food you’re used to, but it’s delicious.”
Martha grabbed his offered arm, letting him lead her through the busy streets.
---
Rose drew on the spots of her Barcelonan dog. She quickly turned the notepad over as the door to her hospital room swung open.
“How are you feeling, dear?” Jackie asked, coming over to Rose’s side to straighten her pillow, hand her water, and generally fuss.
Rose put the water down on her side table and held her hands up.
“Mum. I’m fine. Thanks for the concern, but I’m just ready to go back to work.”
“Nonsense!” Jackie tutted, “You need your rest!”
“Did you finish your statement?” Pete cut in, grabbing the notepad from Rose’s lap.
He paused, turning it around to show her the nose-less puppy doodle at the bottom of her report.
“Where’s its nose?” He asked.
“It doesn’t need one.”
“Then how does it smell?”
“Terrible.” She answered with a sad smile as she remembered running around on Barcelona- the planet, not the city- and repeatedly making the joke.
“I- You wrote your statement,” He conceded, “so I’m going to ignore the fact that you doodled a nose-less dog on an official Torchwood report.”
“Ta.”
“Also, you’ve been released, so we’re driving you back to your flat. The nurses send instructions to change the bandage on your wrist every night for three days, then you can take it off, and to come back if your head hurts too much or if you feel dizzy, okay?” Rose nodded, and Pete added, “You shouldn’t come back to work for at least two weeks.”
Jackie nodded behind him.
Rose opened her mouth to protest, but Pete held three fingers to his chest and mouthed, “Three days- no less.”
“Fine.” Rose sighed. “Where’s Mickey?”
“Jake drove him back to his flat earlier this morning.” Pete said, offhandedly as he read her report. “Yours matches Mickey for the beginning anyway, but I’ve been meaning to tell you- the team Jake sent to look at things after he picked you guys up said they found no trace of any aliens. The car was where you left it, and they said there weren’t any claw marks, alien wolves or spaceships like Mickey mentioned.”
“The ship is gone?”
“Appears so. Left nothing behind. Grass isn’t even trampled where you guys said the spaceship was.”
“What? It was huge! No way they could have covered that thing up!”
“Well, they did, I guess. Don’t think about going down there. You need your rest. No good to run around after you’ve got a concussion.” Pete said.
Rose sighed in defeat, passing her parents out the door to head for the car.
Three days. She could do that.
---
“Ooh, Martha! Look at this! Gorgeous piece of technology. Converts simple things like rocks and dust into fuel. Not that we need it; the TARDIS converts the energy of the universe into fuel.” He dropped the heavy instrument back onto the table. “Much more impressive. What’ve you got there?”
Martha held up the necklace she’d just bought from a vendor with orange skin and dark green eyes. It sparkled magnificently in the light, and was shaped like a crescent moon.
“Gorgeous. That’s a rock called creth. Sparkles in the light, and glows in the dark. Grows naturally in caves, too. They’re a gorgeous thing to see at night. Imagine it- a cave filled with radiant stalagmites that let off a warm green glow- I’ll have to take you some time.”
“Brilliant!” Martha said, grinning widely.
Suddenly, the Doctor’s expression changed to one of shock and disbelief.
Martha followed his gaze. He was staring at a tall man with a fedora on his head. Next to him was a large alien wolf. It had a rounded forehead and no eyes.
“What?” She whispered.
He glanced at her for a second before his gaze drifted back to the man.
“See that animal? It looks just like Vídd Úlfur. Icelandic for dimension wolf. It‘s a common fairytale in Iceland around the 4500s. Supposedly, it can travel through time and across the void into different universes, as well as smell time. ” He blinked, shaking himself out of his reverie. “Could be anything, though.”
The man and the wolf turned a corner, and Martha found herself following after the Doctor, who was following after them.
“Could be anything,” he said, as they disappeared in a flash of light, “but I’ll bet you it’s not.”
---
So she couldn’t do three days. You couldn’t really blame her. A day and a half isn’t that bad, just flopping around the flat with a headache and a sprained wrist. Enough was enough though. There are only so many episodes of Sherlock, Top Gear, and Merlin you could watch in one sitting without going crazy. She’d gotten bored enough at one point that she doodled a little Slitheen on her coffee table.
In the end, she got in her car and went for a drive. She was heading back to the crash site, and no one could stop her. Instead of going the normal route, she went the long way. It added almost half an hour to her journey, but ensured that no one from Torchwood saw her. She parked half a kilometer away, and then began the trek to the site.
She wasn’t quite sure how she was going to stay hidden once she got there, though. She was the boss’s daughter, and she’d appeared in many magazines, not to mention the fact that a large bruise covered her left temple. It wasn’t like she could just slip in unnoticed.
She darted from tree to tree, feeling a little bit ridiculous and not certain that at least one person hadn’t seen her. As she peeked around the tree, she was taken aback. The ship was still there. Large and imposing, it wasn’t exactly something one could miss. She stepped out from behind the tree and walked confidently over to one of the four Torchwood officers milling around.
“So, what can you tell me about the ship Miss…?”
“Um… Evans, Ms. Tyler.” The woman looked a little terrified. “I was told to tell Mr. Tyler if you came here…”
“Sure, tell him. But first, tell me what you know about the ship.”
“Only what you and Mr. Smith wrote in your reports, ma’am… No one except for you two saw it…”
“It’s right there!” She said, gesturing to the ship.
Evans glanced behind her before looking back at Rose, her fearful expression now intensified.
“There’s nothing there, ma’am…” She said. “I’m aware you hit your head in the crash…”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous!” Rose said, marching over to the ship, “There’s nothing wrong with me!”
A burly man grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back before she could reach the large structure.
“M- Oh, Miss Tyler…” He looked uncomfortable, but didn’t release his grip.
Rose heard Evans radioing that she was at the crash site.
“Do you see a ship?” Rose asked.
The man shook his head, as did the other man standing next to him.
To prove his point, the second man walked over to where the ship was. He walked through it, back out, and then waved his hand through the wall.
Rose gaped at him, unsure of what to think.
“Miss Tyler, why don’t you have a seat? We can call you an ambulance…”
“I don’t need an ambulance!” She snapped, wrenching herself out of his grip and running towards the ship. She cautiously reached out to touch it, and instead of her hand going through it like the other man’s, she touched a hard, cold surface.
“Ha!” She yelled, running around to the side of the ship, where she could see ladder rungs affixed to the wall.
She pulled herself up, climbing until she reached the top. She looked down to the shocked faces of the four Torchwood officers.
Evans grabbed her radio.
“Update. Miss Tyler has just managed to climb what I assume is the nonexistent spaceship.”
---
The Doctor was a blur around the console as he jumped around it, jabbing buttons, pulling levers, and occasionally checking his screen for results.
“Major energy boost at that site. While I can normally track a teleport- through space or time- I don’t have a clue where he went. He seems to have disappeared off the face of the universe.”
---
Rose grunted as she heaved the heavy hatch on top of the ship open.
She dropped into a ship that resembled a mix Jack’s Chula ship and an RV.
It had grey walls and a captain’s chair of front, along with a complex set of controls and a windshield. She remembered seeing it from the outside; only it was tinted, so she couldn’t see in. Behind the captain’s chair, there were diner-like booths up against the wall, and a set of bunk beds against the back wall. On the floor directly behind the captain's chair was another hatch.
She dropped down it, and appeared in a room that contained a kitchen against one wall, two more sets of bunk beds against another, and two doors in the corner. One was revealed to be a closet, filled with fairly human looking clothes mixed with alien ones. The other door opened up to what she recognized as an alien bathroom from her travels.
She climbed through the hatches and back onto the roof.
“OI!” She called down to the burly officer. “Could you still see me when I went in there?”
He shook his head.
“Do me a favor,” She said, crawling to the edge of the ship, “wave your hand right there.”
He did so, and she could see his hand going right through the wall.
“Good, keep doing that.”
She dropped back into the ship, and scrambled down to the lowest level.
Slowly, she walked over to where she could see his hand coming through the wall, waving back and forth. She reached out a hand to touch his, and… nothing. His fingers went right through her palm like it wasn’t there.
She recoiled, jumping back. Quickly she climbed back up onto the roof, signaling for the man to stop waving, and saw several cars pulling up. One she recognized as Pete’s, and another as Jake’s.
Pete hopped out of his car, followed quickly by his assistant, Linda. Mickey, Jake, and Toshiko Sato came out of another car. Random Torchwood personnel that she wasn’t familiar with, and a few that she was piled out of the last two cars.
Rose stood up on top of the ship. Time to test a theory.
“Will anyone who can see this ship please raise their hand.” She said.
Pete, Mickey, Jake, and a couple of operatives she recognized as those who came to stop the Cybermen in her home world raised their hands.
“Well there you are, then.” She said, “Anyone who has crossed the void.”
Excitement bubbled up inside her.
“Hope that means what I think it means.” She said, dropping back into the interior of the ship and shutting the hatch behind her.
Her hands hovered over the buttons for a moment, before she recognized something that looked almost identical to the fast-return control on the TARDIS.
She held her breath as she flipped the switch, unaware of the alien and his wolf materializing on the deck below.
---
The Doctor scanned for any other traces he could find of the man and his wolf. The energy signature was unique enough that he could trace the man’s personal timeline through the universe. The TARDIS bleeped before dematerializing, and the Doctor whooped with joy.
Martha stumbled into the control room, clutching the book the Doctor had sent her to retrieve from the library.
“What is it?” She asked.
“I found a trace!” He exclaimed happily, “This one is massive. What did you learn about our new friends?”
Martha flipped the book open to the page she had reserved.
“The wolf, Vídd Úlfur, is also believed to be the son of Fenrir, a monstrous wolf from old Icelandic myths dating back to the Middle Ages. He can apparently smell time, hop dimensions, and appear and disappear at will. His owner is said to either be the son of Hel, the ruler of the Icelandic version of the underworld, or, less commonly, the trickster Loki. Generally, he is called Lodi, named after Loki by Hel, or the name Loki chose for himself to keep his identity while hiding it. Lodi is said to be a merciless killer, and can also appear and disappear at will.” Martha summarized, “Usually, when the man and the wolf disappear, no one can see them, but one man was recorded as able to see them no matter what. He called himself the Prophet, and drove Lodi away from earth in 4511, when he destroyed a small Icelandic town.”
“The Prophet was a Time Lord.” The Doctor said, eyes wide. “In school, they taught us about him. He was a rule-breaker. He liked to tell people of their futures, giving them clues just vague enough to not change the timeline, but to make sure they remembered them. He was mistaken as many sorts of gods, or they were invented after people met him. Occasionally, he saved people, but usually, he let things run their course. In the end, the Time Lords executed him, and put a rule in place forbidding any such acts.”
“Do you think the Prophet has anything to do with Lodi aside from beating him?” Martha asked.
The Doctor shook his head.
“I doubt it, but you never know.” He said, turning toward the door.
---
Rose groggily opened her eyes to the world spinning around her, and the headache from before pounding like no other.
“Nice nap?” Growled a deep voice from next to her.
Rose vaguely remembered hitting the fast return switch, hearing footsteps, and then turning around to… blackness.
Suddenly, she saw two boots, and four furry paws come into her line of vision. She pushed her upper half off of the floor and squeezed her eyes shut as the world went dark. She opened them a second later, and found herself looking into the strange face of the wolf from the other night.
Suppressing a yelp, Rose grabbed the captain’s chair and hauled herself to her feet.
“Who are you?” She asked the man in front of her.
She said man, but she was pretty sure he wasn’t one. He had tan skin, dark brown hair, and stood at about 6’8”. His grin revealed a set of wickedly sharp teeth, and his eyes were a pale blue.
“I’ve had many names in my lifetime. I assume you’re from earth, though?” When Rose nodded, he continued, “Then you’d best call me Lodi. Who might you be, and why were you trying to fly my ship? Actually, how did you even know it was there? I’ve only met one other person who could see it when it was breaching the void.”
“Rose Tyler, going home, and I’ve been through the void. Answer your questions?”
“Well enough,” he grumbled, leaning against the wall, “I’m not really sure what to do with you now, but you fascinate me.”
“Why?” Rose asked.
“You’re a time traveler. Kelp here told me as such, but when I looked in his head to see how much travelling you’ve done… What did you do? Swim in the time vortex?”
“Something like that.”
“I’ve only met one other person who came close to having that much time surrounding them, and he was a Time Lord.”
Rose’s cool expression faltered for a moment, and Lodi noticed.
“Do you know him?” He asked.
Rose shook her head.
“I doubt that. His name was the Prophet. Ring any bells?”
“Oh.” She said, surprised at hearing a name other than the Doctor. “No.”
“But you do know of a Time Lord, then?” He grinned in a way that suggested he knew something she didn’t. “Come on. I’ll show you where you brought us.”
---
“There’s his ship.” The Doctor breathed, eyes wide with awe. “I can just feel the power resonating off of it… It’s breaching the void.”
“What ship? And it’s what?” Martha asked.
“You can’t see it, can you? The void- that’s where-” He stopped, turning to Martha. “Go back to the TARDIS.”
“What? Why?”
“Because. This is dangerous, and unless you’ve been through the void, you probably won’t be able to see him anyway. I’ll be back in no time.”
The look in his eyes told her not to protest, but Martha knew she sure as hell wasn’t going to stay in the TARDIS for very long.
---
“Time traveler.” Lodi whispered, grabbing Rose’s arm as Kelper froze. “That must be the one who followed us here.”
She followed his line of sight through the small crowd of people walking through the town they had landed in. Of all the aliens, there was only one human, a short, pretty, dark skinned girl with hair pulled up in a bun and a frown on her face walking towards them. Rose bet that’s who he was talking about.
“Hello,” Lodi called, his deep voice rumbling in an almost hypnotic way, “Were you looking for me?”
The girl froze, meeting his pale blue eyes with her dark brown ones.
“You’re Lodi.” She said. At his nod, she continued, “and that is your pet, Vídd Úlfur. And she- I don‘t really know who she is, she‘s new.”
Lodi laughed, a low rumble that sounded from the back of his throat.
“Vídd Úlfur? This is Kelper. I do not call my friend ‘Dimension Wolf‘, you know. ” He said, “And this new one? She is new. Meet Ms. Tyler. She tried to steal my ship, but she fascinates me, so I’ve decided to keep her along. My question for you is- who might you be?”
“Martha Jones,” she answered shakily, “And you should consider not trying anything because of all these people.”
“They can’t hear us!” Lodi said, thrusting his arm through the chest of a nearby alien. The arm went right through, and the alien didn’t so much as blink. Lodi dropped his hand back by his side. “You and I, Miss Jones- and Rose and Kelp- currently exist outside of this dimension. It’s a special skill of mine. Complicated stuff. You wouldn’t understand.”
Martha laughed nervously. “You sound like my friend.”
“Yes, your friend. Where might he be? Snooping around my ship? Why don’t we have a look?”
---
Martha Jones decided this was all completely mad. Yet- at the same time- she felt calm. There was something about Lodi that made all of her worries dissolve into nothing. She wasn’t quite sure why she was just following him- or why he wanted her to- but that didn’t matter at the moment. She shuffled after him with nary another thought.
The Rose girl next to her seemed in the same boat as her. She didn’t look all that panicked, either. That could be for a number of reasons, though, Martha noted as she took in the large bruise and cuts on the side of her face, the dilated pupils, and what looked like a new black eye forming on the other side of her face. Martha guessed the girl had a concussion, and the scratches and bruising on the left side of her face reminded Martha of the patients she’d seen come in after a motor vehicle accident.
The more Martha thought about the girl, the clearer her head became, and the more panicked she got.
Lodi halted, holding a hand up for silence and meeting her eyes with those pale blue ones.
Martha was calm again.
---
The Doctor examined the console in front of him. It was beautiful- this must be a magnificent ship, and from what he could tell, it seemed to be breaching the void safely, reaching across to either side and acting somewhat like a tunnel.
He could use this ship…
The Doctor’s thoughts were interrupted at the sound of footsteps above him. He didn’t turn as he heard Lodi drop in behind him.
“Wotcher, Lodi.” He greeted without turning.
“Time Lord.”
The Doctor turned, meeting the other’s eyes.
Lodi laughed, and the Doctor felt the hypnotic wave that his voice and eyes sent off. He put a wall up in his mind.
“Very nice. Better than your companion out there. I told her to wait next to the ship, and I suspect that’s what she’s doing.”
“Leave her alone.” The Doctor growled.
“I haven’t hurt her.” He snapped, and the wolf appeared next to him, “But Kelper might if you don’t do what I say.”
“What do you want?”
“The universe, Doctor. You and me, last of our kinds, with god-like capabilities. We could rule it together. Imagine what a team we would make.”
“How do you know who I am?”
“You’re the last of the Time Lords! How could I not?”
“What species are you?”
“My species is known as the Titans.” He said. “We’re like the Time Lords of the next universe over. Only, we don’t see timelines or control time. We’re the masters of dimensions.”
“What happened to the rest of your kind?” The Doctor asked.
“Lost to the void,” he sighed, eyes hard, “They died to protect both universes. We had traveled the dimensions too often, tampered with it too much. We sealed the dimensions from the inside, but we left cracks. You sealed the rest up with that incident with the metal men. I managed to escape, and left a permanent breach on the void with my ship. Now I can travel back and forth. I also monitor the walls, make sure they don’t crack.”
The Doctor blinked, tears forming in his eyes at the memories brought up by Lodi’s story.
“I’m so sorry.” He said.
Lodi laughed. It was harsh this time, no longer hypnotic.
“I found Kelper on this planet. That’s where the void had opened up. The other spot was on a parallel earth.” He said, “Kelp could time travel. He took me where I wanted, and we’ve formed a bond. We’re able to communicate telepathically now. I got him to take me to random points in time in space. I first arrived on earth, early in the humans’ history. I destroyed their small towns, calling myself by my original name, Kronos the Titan. Eventually, my story got morphed, and Titans became the destructive parents of the gods, Kronos the worst. After destroying a few more towns on a few more planets, I travelled to Iceland, and my destruction was stopped by a Time Lord named the Prophet. He opened my eyes. My species didn’t save this universe for me to destroy it. So I stopped.”
“Then why take over the universe?”
“Because, over the past few centuries, I’ve been observing both universes. There is war and destruction and death. My species didn’t save the universes for that, either.” Lodi said, “Together, we could stop the pain and suffering.”
“We can’t just do that.”
“Yes we can! We need to change people’s attitudes. Kelper accidently drove a car off the road the other day. I was in my ship, asleep, at the time, but he went to help them, make sure they were okay… The man shot him. Assumed he was some big bad wolf, and tried to kill him. The first bullet didn’t penetrate his skull, and the next gun the idiot picked up was a stunner, thank god.” Lodi said, “But we can make a universe where that doesn’t happen! Where people don’t choose death.”
The Doctor considered him for a moment. He liked Lodi. The idea was a good one, but he had the wrong idea of how the universe worked.
“Lodi-”
“Come with me,” he said, “I have something I want to show you.”
He climbed back onto the roof, and the Doctor followed. They reached the ground, and Lodi pointed to the side of the ship.
“Turn the corner.”
The Doctor warily turned the corner and saw Martha, staring at him calmly. Next to her was Rose, she was bruised and cut up, but as gorgeous as he remembered her. Her eyes met his, and the calm expression snapped off her face in an instant.
“Doctor?” She whispered, quietly enough that he had trouble hearing her, even with his superior Time Lord hearing.
“Rose.” he replied, a grin lighting up his face.
They ran forward and met in a hug. He wanted to hold her forever, but he could tell she was having trouble breathing, so he loosened his grip.
“Hi.” She said, grinning, eyes watery.
“Hello.” He repeated.
They locked eyes, and she slowly rose up onto her tippy-toes and threw her arms around his neck.
She kissed him, and he felt better than he had in years. Centuries. Maybe ever.
“Thought she might be yours.” Lodi said with a laugh. “Will you help me? You can make the whole world feel as good as you do right now.”
The Doctor slid out of Rose’s grip, but grasped her hand tightly.
“I can’t do that Lodi. We’ve got to let them sort themselves out, stupid as they may be.”
“But-”
“Do this for me. I travel around this universe, making it better, helping people, stopping the truly evil ones. You can do the same in that one. Make Kronos a positive name there. Let them know the sacrifice of the Titans. For you. For your people.” The Doctor said, “Make them proud.”
Tears fell from Lodi’s eyes, but he closed them and nodded.
“I will.”
“Good.” The Doctor said with a wide grin. “Be brilliant, Kronos.”
“Oh- Rose.” Kronos said, “Kelper says he is truly sorry for running you off the road.”
“Thanks. I’m sure Mickey is very, very sorry for shooting him.” Rose replied.
“If you wish to see your friend again, the ship will always be here, and on that earth. You’re free to use it as a gateway whenever you wish. Just hit that button you pressed to get here, and it will take you back and forth.” Kronos said, “Also, Doctor, I hope to meet you again soon.”
“Me too.”
Kronos nodded, and he and Kelper disappeared in a flash of light.
---
The next time Rose, Martha, and the Doctor went to Pete’s world for a visit, they checked for Kronos’s name in the books of mythology. He was praised as the magnificent Protector of the Universe in every book they found.
From: doctahr
Title: Titans
Characters and/or Pairings: Rose, Mickey, Pete, Jackie, Jake, the Doctor, Martha, OC. Rose/Doctor
Rating: K
Summary: A dimension hopping wolf leaves a mystery for the Doctor and Rose, both on other sides of the void. Can they make it back to each other alive?
Author's Notes: I planned this story all out. It's nothing like my outline now.
Happy holidays, Who_in_whoville! Hope this OS what you'd wanted!
Word Count: 5,632
Rose stuffed her hands into her pockets, letting out a low breath to watch it curl away from her mouth. She hopped up and down, switching feet every jump, in an effort to warm herself up.
“Ugh,” She muttered, “This London’s bloody colder than the first.”
As if the winter wasn’t bad enough in her old London, the zeppelins greatly contributed to the severity of this universe’s Global Climate Change.
Bright headlights cut through the snow as a black SUV finally rolled up the curb. Rose wasted no time to run around the side and hop into the passenger seat.
“Took you long enough.” She said, shooting a glare at the driver.
“The roads are slipp’ry!” Mickey shot back, “Don’t want me to crash, do ya?”
“You could stand to go a bit faster!” She said as he slowly turned onto the main road, “What if some alien shoots a bunch of people while you’re driving ten miles under the speed limit?”
“The call was made by an old lady. She prob’ly ‘ad ‘er glasses off and reported a truck as a spaceship because of paranoia over the recent alien reports in the news.”
“An old lady who lives right by that spike of rift energy Tosh noticed yesterday.”
“Whatever.” Mickey grumbled, pushing a bit harder on the gas pedal. “I just wanna know why all the alien reports have to come from creepy fields on dark foggy nights.”
Rose frowned as a thought occurred to her.
“Have you noticed we haven’t passed any cars coming the opposite way?”
“We must ‘ave.” Mickey rationalized, thinking over the last ten minutes and realizing she was right. He turned his head to look at her. “This close to the city, there should be tons of cars.”
Rose’s eyes widened and she leaned back in her seat, one hand flying to the window, and the other to grab his arm in a strong, terrified grip.
“MICKEY, look out!” She yelled as he turned to look at the road in front of him.
A large dark beast was galloping towards them. It would have been impossible to see through the fog if not for the large machine on the left side of the grass next to the road casting an eerie red light on the surroundings near it.
Mickey cursed, wrenching the steering wheel to the right and slamming on the brakes. The tires lost their grip, and Mickey shut his eyes as time seemed to slow down around him and the car lost control.
It spun around before reaching the end of the road and tipping onto its left side.
Mickey shut his eyes to the sharp sting of glass falling onto his head. Everything around him was now eerily quiet, a drastic change to the loud noises he’d heard just a moment before. All he heard now was a soft hum from outside and the occasional tinkle of glass.
“Rose?” He said, coughing when his voice came out raspy, “Rose?”
No response. He opened his eyes, looking next to him.
She was still, her eyes closed and her head resting on the shattered remains of what was her window. He couldn’t see much, but the grass around her head was stained red.
Head wounds bleed a lot, he reminded himself, fumbling for his cell phone in the pocket of his jacket. He would have liked to unbuckle himself, but he knew he wasn’t currently capable of anything other than falling onto Rose at the moment, so he just switched his phone to his left hand after dialing Torchwood and grabbed the handle on the ceiling of the car to steady himself.
The phone beeped once, signaling a lack of service needed to complete the call. He’d have to use Rose’s superphone.
Just as he reached over to try and fish it out of her pocket, the car shook.
Mickey yelped in surprise and looked up at the side of the car where a large beast had its head stuck in. Hot drool dripped from its mouth and landed on the side of Mickey’s head.
“Bugger!”
He swung the door to the back of the van open before unlatching his seatbelt and pushed himself off to land in the doorway and not on Rose. Next he reached over and unbuckled her, dragging her into the back of the van while the beast sniffed around curiously.
It looked like something straight out of a sci-fi film. It had a rounded forehead with no eyes, a short, black nose, and large mouth with sharp black teeth, a blue tongue, and a flat jaw. It had short, grey, messy fur, and long legs that ended with 7 sharp, long, black claws. Its long, wolf-like tail thumped against the side of the car excitedly. Most of all though, the alien was huge. It was almost half the size of the car. Luckily for Mickey, that meant it couldn’t enter through the side windows. It could fit through the windshield though, so instead of waiting for the beast to figure that out, Mickey grabbed one of the guns he had stored in the back.
The beast’s head suddenly appeared through the space where the windshield used to be.
Panicked, Mickey fired, catching it in its broad forehead. The creature yelped in pain, lounging towards Mickey. As its claws tore through the metal separating him from the beast, Mickey dropped the gun and grabbed an alien-looking one, firing twice. A low growl sounded from the beast before it staggered forward and collapsed. Fur stuck up in tufts between the claw-shaped tears in the metal.
--------
“I present to you… The great city of Grrth!” The Doctor exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air next to him as he stepped through the doors of the TARDIS, his excited companion following in his wake.
Martha gasped at the sight in front of her. Great glistening buildings shimmered in the sunlight of two red suns overhead. They were mostly bluish in color, with some less bright grey buildings, slightly different in design, in the mix. Distinctly alien creatures of all shapes and sizes passed by her without sparing either of them a glance.
“This is wonderful!” Martha said, turning to the Doctor with a wide grin. He grinned back at her.
“Grrth is a busy city a little bigger than London. It hosts the largest trading center in the galaxy, a beautiful market a few miles from here. Like America, but more so, you’ll find very few old buildings in Grrth. In fact, all the blue buildings are only a few years old. They like to be in tune with the latest architectural fashion. Any grey buildings you see are left over from the latest fad.” The Doctor said.
“They replace their buildings that often? Sounds expensive.” Martha said.
“Every few years is a bit longer to them than it is for you. A year on Galtar- this planet- is equal to about 3.455467 of your Earth years. It’s still not a very long time to replace their buildings, but the economy is good. Let’s have a look around, shall we? We’ll find a restaurant. The food here is very different than the food you’re used to, but it’s delicious.”
Martha grabbed his offered arm, letting him lead her through the busy streets.
---
Rose drew on the spots of her Barcelonan dog. She quickly turned the notepad over as the door to her hospital room swung open.
“How are you feeling, dear?” Jackie asked, coming over to Rose’s side to straighten her pillow, hand her water, and generally fuss.
Rose put the water down on her side table and held her hands up.
“Mum. I’m fine. Thanks for the concern, but I’m just ready to go back to work.”
“Nonsense!” Jackie tutted, “You need your rest!”
“Did you finish your statement?” Pete cut in, grabbing the notepad from Rose’s lap.
He paused, turning it around to show her the nose-less puppy doodle at the bottom of her report.
“Where’s its nose?” He asked.
“It doesn’t need one.”
“Then how does it smell?”
“Terrible.” She answered with a sad smile as she remembered running around on Barcelona- the planet, not the city- and repeatedly making the joke.
“I- You wrote your statement,” He conceded, “so I’m going to ignore the fact that you doodled a nose-less dog on an official Torchwood report.”
“Ta.”
“Also, you’ve been released, so we’re driving you back to your flat. The nurses send instructions to change the bandage on your wrist every night for three days, then you can take it off, and to come back if your head hurts too much or if you feel dizzy, okay?” Rose nodded, and Pete added, “You shouldn’t come back to work for at least two weeks.”
Jackie nodded behind him.
Rose opened her mouth to protest, but Pete held three fingers to his chest and mouthed, “Three days- no less.”
“Fine.” Rose sighed. “Where’s Mickey?”
“Jake drove him back to his flat earlier this morning.” Pete said, offhandedly as he read her report. “Yours matches Mickey for the beginning anyway, but I’ve been meaning to tell you- the team Jake sent to look at things after he picked you guys up said they found no trace of any aliens. The car was where you left it, and they said there weren’t any claw marks, alien wolves or spaceships like Mickey mentioned.”
“The ship is gone?”
“Appears so. Left nothing behind. Grass isn’t even trampled where you guys said the spaceship was.”
“What? It was huge! No way they could have covered that thing up!”
“Well, they did, I guess. Don’t think about going down there. You need your rest. No good to run around after you’ve got a concussion.” Pete said.
Rose sighed in defeat, passing her parents out the door to head for the car.
Three days. She could do that.
---
“Ooh, Martha! Look at this! Gorgeous piece of technology. Converts simple things like rocks and dust into fuel. Not that we need it; the TARDIS converts the energy of the universe into fuel.” He dropped the heavy instrument back onto the table. “Much more impressive. What’ve you got there?”
Martha held up the necklace she’d just bought from a vendor with orange skin and dark green eyes. It sparkled magnificently in the light, and was shaped like a crescent moon.
“Gorgeous. That’s a rock called creth. Sparkles in the light, and glows in the dark. Grows naturally in caves, too. They’re a gorgeous thing to see at night. Imagine it- a cave filled with radiant stalagmites that let off a warm green glow- I’ll have to take you some time.”
“Brilliant!” Martha said, grinning widely.
Suddenly, the Doctor’s expression changed to one of shock and disbelief.
Martha followed his gaze. He was staring at a tall man with a fedora on his head. Next to him was a large alien wolf. It had a rounded forehead and no eyes.
“What?” She whispered.
He glanced at her for a second before his gaze drifted back to the man.
“See that animal? It looks just like Vídd Úlfur. Icelandic for dimension wolf. It‘s a common fairytale in Iceland around the 4500s. Supposedly, it can travel through time and across the void into different universes, as well as smell time. ” He blinked, shaking himself out of his reverie. “Could be anything, though.”
The man and the wolf turned a corner, and Martha found herself following after the Doctor, who was following after them.
“Could be anything,” he said, as they disappeared in a flash of light, “but I’ll bet you it’s not.”
---
So she couldn’t do three days. You couldn’t really blame her. A day and a half isn’t that bad, just flopping around the flat with a headache and a sprained wrist. Enough was enough though. There are only so many episodes of Sherlock, Top Gear, and Merlin you could watch in one sitting without going crazy. She’d gotten bored enough at one point that she doodled a little Slitheen on her coffee table.
In the end, she got in her car and went for a drive. She was heading back to the crash site, and no one could stop her. Instead of going the normal route, she went the long way. It added almost half an hour to her journey, but ensured that no one from Torchwood saw her. She parked half a kilometer away, and then began the trek to the site.
She wasn’t quite sure how she was going to stay hidden once she got there, though. She was the boss’s daughter, and she’d appeared in many magazines, not to mention the fact that a large bruise covered her left temple. It wasn’t like she could just slip in unnoticed.
She darted from tree to tree, feeling a little bit ridiculous and not certain that at least one person hadn’t seen her. As she peeked around the tree, she was taken aback. The ship was still there. Large and imposing, it wasn’t exactly something one could miss. She stepped out from behind the tree and walked confidently over to one of the four Torchwood officers milling around.
“So, what can you tell me about the ship Miss…?”
“Um… Evans, Ms. Tyler.” The woman looked a little terrified. “I was told to tell Mr. Tyler if you came here…”
“Sure, tell him. But first, tell me what you know about the ship.”
“Only what you and Mr. Smith wrote in your reports, ma’am… No one except for you two saw it…”
“It’s right there!” She said, gesturing to the ship.
Evans glanced behind her before looking back at Rose, her fearful expression now intensified.
“There’s nothing there, ma’am…” She said. “I’m aware you hit your head in the crash…”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous!” Rose said, marching over to the ship, “There’s nothing wrong with me!”
A burly man grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back before she could reach the large structure.
“M- Oh, Miss Tyler…” He looked uncomfortable, but didn’t release his grip.
Rose heard Evans radioing that she was at the crash site.
“Do you see a ship?” Rose asked.
The man shook his head, as did the other man standing next to him.
To prove his point, the second man walked over to where the ship was. He walked through it, back out, and then waved his hand through the wall.
Rose gaped at him, unsure of what to think.
“Miss Tyler, why don’t you have a seat? We can call you an ambulance…”
“I don’t need an ambulance!” She snapped, wrenching herself out of his grip and running towards the ship. She cautiously reached out to touch it, and instead of her hand going through it like the other man’s, she touched a hard, cold surface.
“Ha!” She yelled, running around to the side of the ship, where she could see ladder rungs affixed to the wall.
She pulled herself up, climbing until she reached the top. She looked down to the shocked faces of the four Torchwood officers.
Evans grabbed her radio.
“Update. Miss Tyler has just managed to climb what I assume is the nonexistent spaceship.”
---
The Doctor was a blur around the console as he jumped around it, jabbing buttons, pulling levers, and occasionally checking his screen for results.
“Major energy boost at that site. While I can normally track a teleport- through space or time- I don’t have a clue where he went. He seems to have disappeared off the face of the universe.”
---
Rose grunted as she heaved the heavy hatch on top of the ship open.
She dropped into a ship that resembled a mix Jack’s Chula ship and an RV.
It had grey walls and a captain’s chair of front, along with a complex set of controls and a windshield. She remembered seeing it from the outside; only it was tinted, so she couldn’t see in. Behind the captain’s chair, there were diner-like booths up against the wall, and a set of bunk beds against the back wall. On the floor directly behind the captain's chair was another hatch.
She dropped down it, and appeared in a room that contained a kitchen against one wall, two more sets of bunk beds against another, and two doors in the corner. One was revealed to be a closet, filled with fairly human looking clothes mixed with alien ones. The other door opened up to what she recognized as an alien bathroom from her travels.
She climbed through the hatches and back onto the roof.
“OI!” She called down to the burly officer. “Could you still see me when I went in there?”
He shook his head.
“Do me a favor,” She said, crawling to the edge of the ship, “wave your hand right there.”
He did so, and she could see his hand going right through the wall.
“Good, keep doing that.”
She dropped back into the ship, and scrambled down to the lowest level.
Slowly, she walked over to where she could see his hand coming through the wall, waving back and forth. She reached out a hand to touch his, and… nothing. His fingers went right through her palm like it wasn’t there.
She recoiled, jumping back. Quickly she climbed back up onto the roof, signaling for the man to stop waving, and saw several cars pulling up. One she recognized as Pete’s, and another as Jake’s.
Pete hopped out of his car, followed quickly by his assistant, Linda. Mickey, Jake, and Toshiko Sato came out of another car. Random Torchwood personnel that she wasn’t familiar with, and a few that she was piled out of the last two cars.
Rose stood up on top of the ship. Time to test a theory.
“Will anyone who can see this ship please raise their hand.” She said.
Pete, Mickey, Jake, and a couple of operatives she recognized as those who came to stop the Cybermen in her home world raised their hands.
“Well there you are, then.” She said, “Anyone who has crossed the void.”
Excitement bubbled up inside her.
“Hope that means what I think it means.” She said, dropping back into the interior of the ship and shutting the hatch behind her.
Her hands hovered over the buttons for a moment, before she recognized something that looked almost identical to the fast-return control on the TARDIS.
She held her breath as she flipped the switch, unaware of the alien and his wolf materializing on the deck below.
---
The Doctor scanned for any other traces he could find of the man and his wolf. The energy signature was unique enough that he could trace the man’s personal timeline through the universe. The TARDIS bleeped before dematerializing, and the Doctor whooped with joy.
Martha stumbled into the control room, clutching the book the Doctor had sent her to retrieve from the library.
“What is it?” She asked.
“I found a trace!” He exclaimed happily, “This one is massive. What did you learn about our new friends?”
Martha flipped the book open to the page she had reserved.
“The wolf, Vídd Úlfur, is also believed to be the son of Fenrir, a monstrous wolf from old Icelandic myths dating back to the Middle Ages. He can apparently smell time, hop dimensions, and appear and disappear at will. His owner is said to either be the son of Hel, the ruler of the Icelandic version of the underworld, or, less commonly, the trickster Loki. Generally, he is called Lodi, named after Loki by Hel, or the name Loki chose for himself to keep his identity while hiding it. Lodi is said to be a merciless killer, and can also appear and disappear at will.” Martha summarized, “Usually, when the man and the wolf disappear, no one can see them, but one man was recorded as able to see them no matter what. He called himself the Prophet, and drove Lodi away from earth in 4511, when he destroyed a small Icelandic town.”
“The Prophet was a Time Lord.” The Doctor said, eyes wide. “In school, they taught us about him. He was a rule-breaker. He liked to tell people of their futures, giving them clues just vague enough to not change the timeline, but to make sure they remembered them. He was mistaken as many sorts of gods, or they were invented after people met him. Occasionally, he saved people, but usually, he let things run their course. In the end, the Time Lords executed him, and put a rule in place forbidding any such acts.”
“Do you think the Prophet has anything to do with Lodi aside from beating him?” Martha asked.
The Doctor shook his head.
“I doubt it, but you never know.” He said, turning toward the door.
---
Rose groggily opened her eyes to the world spinning around her, and the headache from before pounding like no other.
“Nice nap?” Growled a deep voice from next to her.
Rose vaguely remembered hitting the fast return switch, hearing footsteps, and then turning around to… blackness.
Suddenly, she saw two boots, and four furry paws come into her line of vision. She pushed her upper half off of the floor and squeezed her eyes shut as the world went dark. She opened them a second later, and found herself looking into the strange face of the wolf from the other night.
Suppressing a yelp, Rose grabbed the captain’s chair and hauled herself to her feet.
“Who are you?” She asked the man in front of her.
She said man, but she was pretty sure he wasn’t one. He had tan skin, dark brown hair, and stood at about 6’8”. His grin revealed a set of wickedly sharp teeth, and his eyes were a pale blue.
“I’ve had many names in my lifetime. I assume you’re from earth, though?” When Rose nodded, he continued, “Then you’d best call me Lodi. Who might you be, and why were you trying to fly my ship? Actually, how did you even know it was there? I’ve only met one other person who could see it when it was breaching the void.”
“Rose Tyler, going home, and I’ve been through the void. Answer your questions?”
“Well enough,” he grumbled, leaning against the wall, “I’m not really sure what to do with you now, but you fascinate me.”
“Why?” Rose asked.
“You’re a time traveler. Kelp here told me as such, but when I looked in his head to see how much travelling you’ve done… What did you do? Swim in the time vortex?”
“Something like that.”
“I’ve only met one other person who came close to having that much time surrounding them, and he was a Time Lord.”
Rose’s cool expression faltered for a moment, and Lodi noticed.
“Do you know him?” He asked.
Rose shook her head.
“I doubt that. His name was the Prophet. Ring any bells?”
“Oh.” She said, surprised at hearing a name other than the Doctor. “No.”
“But you do know of a Time Lord, then?” He grinned in a way that suggested he knew something she didn’t. “Come on. I’ll show you where you brought us.”
---
“There’s his ship.” The Doctor breathed, eyes wide with awe. “I can just feel the power resonating off of it… It’s breaching the void.”
“What ship? And it’s what?” Martha asked.
“You can’t see it, can you? The void- that’s where-” He stopped, turning to Martha. “Go back to the TARDIS.”
“What? Why?”
“Because. This is dangerous, and unless you’ve been through the void, you probably won’t be able to see him anyway. I’ll be back in no time.”
The look in his eyes told her not to protest, but Martha knew she sure as hell wasn’t going to stay in the TARDIS for very long.
---
“Time traveler.” Lodi whispered, grabbing Rose’s arm as Kelper froze. “That must be the one who followed us here.”
She followed his line of sight through the small crowd of people walking through the town they had landed in. Of all the aliens, there was only one human, a short, pretty, dark skinned girl with hair pulled up in a bun and a frown on her face walking towards them. Rose bet that’s who he was talking about.
“Hello,” Lodi called, his deep voice rumbling in an almost hypnotic way, “Were you looking for me?”
The girl froze, meeting his pale blue eyes with her dark brown ones.
“You’re Lodi.” She said. At his nod, she continued, “and that is your pet, Vídd Úlfur. And she- I don‘t really know who she is, she‘s new.”
Lodi laughed, a low rumble that sounded from the back of his throat.
“Vídd Úlfur? This is Kelper. I do not call my friend ‘Dimension Wolf‘, you know. ” He said, “And this new one? She is new. Meet Ms. Tyler. She tried to steal my ship, but she fascinates me, so I’ve decided to keep her along. My question for you is- who might you be?”
“Martha Jones,” she answered shakily, “And you should consider not trying anything because of all these people.”
“They can’t hear us!” Lodi said, thrusting his arm through the chest of a nearby alien. The arm went right through, and the alien didn’t so much as blink. Lodi dropped his hand back by his side. “You and I, Miss Jones- and Rose and Kelp- currently exist outside of this dimension. It’s a special skill of mine. Complicated stuff. You wouldn’t understand.”
Martha laughed nervously. “You sound like my friend.”
“Yes, your friend. Where might he be? Snooping around my ship? Why don’t we have a look?”
---
Martha Jones decided this was all completely mad. Yet- at the same time- she felt calm. There was something about Lodi that made all of her worries dissolve into nothing. She wasn’t quite sure why she was just following him- or why he wanted her to- but that didn’t matter at the moment. She shuffled after him with nary another thought.
The Rose girl next to her seemed in the same boat as her. She didn’t look all that panicked, either. That could be for a number of reasons, though, Martha noted as she took in the large bruise and cuts on the side of her face, the dilated pupils, and what looked like a new black eye forming on the other side of her face. Martha guessed the girl had a concussion, and the scratches and bruising on the left side of her face reminded Martha of the patients she’d seen come in after a motor vehicle accident.
The more Martha thought about the girl, the clearer her head became, and the more panicked she got.
Lodi halted, holding a hand up for silence and meeting her eyes with those pale blue ones.
Martha was calm again.
---
The Doctor examined the console in front of him. It was beautiful- this must be a magnificent ship, and from what he could tell, it seemed to be breaching the void safely, reaching across to either side and acting somewhat like a tunnel.
He could use this ship…
The Doctor’s thoughts were interrupted at the sound of footsteps above him. He didn’t turn as he heard Lodi drop in behind him.
“Wotcher, Lodi.” He greeted without turning.
“Time Lord.”
The Doctor turned, meeting the other’s eyes.
Lodi laughed, and the Doctor felt the hypnotic wave that his voice and eyes sent off. He put a wall up in his mind.
“Very nice. Better than your companion out there. I told her to wait next to the ship, and I suspect that’s what she’s doing.”
“Leave her alone.” The Doctor growled.
“I haven’t hurt her.” He snapped, and the wolf appeared next to him, “But Kelper might if you don’t do what I say.”
“What do you want?”
“The universe, Doctor. You and me, last of our kinds, with god-like capabilities. We could rule it together. Imagine what a team we would make.”
“How do you know who I am?”
“You’re the last of the Time Lords! How could I not?”
“What species are you?”
“My species is known as the Titans.” He said. “We’re like the Time Lords of the next universe over. Only, we don’t see timelines or control time. We’re the masters of dimensions.”
“What happened to the rest of your kind?” The Doctor asked.
“Lost to the void,” he sighed, eyes hard, “They died to protect both universes. We had traveled the dimensions too often, tampered with it too much. We sealed the dimensions from the inside, but we left cracks. You sealed the rest up with that incident with the metal men. I managed to escape, and left a permanent breach on the void with my ship. Now I can travel back and forth. I also monitor the walls, make sure they don’t crack.”
The Doctor blinked, tears forming in his eyes at the memories brought up by Lodi’s story.
“I’m so sorry.” He said.
Lodi laughed. It was harsh this time, no longer hypnotic.
“I found Kelper on this planet. That’s where the void had opened up. The other spot was on a parallel earth.” He said, “Kelp could time travel. He took me where I wanted, and we’ve formed a bond. We’re able to communicate telepathically now. I got him to take me to random points in time in space. I first arrived on earth, early in the humans’ history. I destroyed their small towns, calling myself by my original name, Kronos the Titan. Eventually, my story got morphed, and Titans became the destructive parents of the gods, Kronos the worst. After destroying a few more towns on a few more planets, I travelled to Iceland, and my destruction was stopped by a Time Lord named the Prophet. He opened my eyes. My species didn’t save this universe for me to destroy it. So I stopped.”
“Then why take over the universe?”
“Because, over the past few centuries, I’ve been observing both universes. There is war and destruction and death. My species didn’t save the universes for that, either.” Lodi said, “Together, we could stop the pain and suffering.”
“We can’t just do that.”
“Yes we can! We need to change people’s attitudes. Kelper accidently drove a car off the road the other day. I was in my ship, asleep, at the time, but he went to help them, make sure they were okay… The man shot him. Assumed he was some big bad wolf, and tried to kill him. The first bullet didn’t penetrate his skull, and the next gun the idiot picked up was a stunner, thank god.” Lodi said, “But we can make a universe where that doesn’t happen! Where people don’t choose death.”
The Doctor considered him for a moment. He liked Lodi. The idea was a good one, but he had the wrong idea of how the universe worked.
“Lodi-”
“Come with me,” he said, “I have something I want to show you.”
He climbed back onto the roof, and the Doctor followed. They reached the ground, and Lodi pointed to the side of the ship.
“Turn the corner.”
The Doctor warily turned the corner and saw Martha, staring at him calmly. Next to her was Rose, she was bruised and cut up, but as gorgeous as he remembered her. Her eyes met his, and the calm expression snapped off her face in an instant.
“Doctor?” She whispered, quietly enough that he had trouble hearing her, even with his superior Time Lord hearing.
“Rose.” he replied, a grin lighting up his face.
They ran forward and met in a hug. He wanted to hold her forever, but he could tell she was having trouble breathing, so he loosened his grip.
“Hi.” She said, grinning, eyes watery.
“Hello.” He repeated.
They locked eyes, and she slowly rose up onto her tippy-toes and threw her arms around his neck.
She kissed him, and he felt better than he had in years. Centuries. Maybe ever.
“Thought she might be yours.” Lodi said with a laugh. “Will you help me? You can make the whole world feel as good as you do right now.”
The Doctor slid out of Rose’s grip, but grasped her hand tightly.
“I can’t do that Lodi. We’ve got to let them sort themselves out, stupid as they may be.”
“But-”
“Do this for me. I travel around this universe, making it better, helping people, stopping the truly evil ones. You can do the same in that one. Make Kronos a positive name there. Let them know the sacrifice of the Titans. For you. For your people.” The Doctor said, “Make them proud.”
Tears fell from Lodi’s eyes, but he closed them and nodded.
“I will.”
“Good.” The Doctor said with a wide grin. “Be brilliant, Kronos.”
“Oh- Rose.” Kronos said, “Kelper says he is truly sorry for running you off the road.”
“Thanks. I’m sure Mickey is very, very sorry for shooting him.” Rose replied.
“If you wish to see your friend again, the ship will always be here, and on that earth. You’re free to use it as a gateway whenever you wish. Just hit that button you pressed to get here, and it will take you back and forth.” Kronos said, “Also, Doctor, I hope to meet you again soon.”
“Me too.”
Kronos nodded, and he and Kelper disappeared in a flash of light.
---
The next time Rose, Martha, and the Doctor went to Pete’s world for a visit, they checked for Kronos’s name in the books of mythology. He was praised as the magnificent Protector of the Universe in every book they found.