Fic: The Power Of A Shipper 4/5
Title: The Power Of A Shipper
Fandom: Doctor Who
Pairing: Ten/Rose
Rating: Teen
Spoilers: Through Doomsday
Disclaimer: Nope. Not mine.
Summary: You know the universe isn't quite right when you can make jars of marmalade appear in your hand and magic yourself into Rose Tyler's bed.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
“We’re not real.” The words slipped through Rose’s lips in a surprisingly calm whisper.
The Doctor stared at her. “Oh, not you too, Rose! C’mon, we’re real. We’re as real as real can be real!”
Rose jerked her head distractedly in his direction. “Yeah, I know we’re real, in this universe, but to her,” she waved a hand at the girl, “we’re two characters on a television show on BBC One!” He could only stare. She continued, “In her world, we are fictional people. She knows everything about her loves. And somehow, she can manipulate it. She has the power to bend time and space to conjure up twists in our life. But they never really happen, since she’s not on the BBC writer’s staff. But-but, they looked so real…”
It was the girl, not the Doctor, who spoke next: “How’d you get inside my head? You’re not telepathic. I mean, not in canon.”
“What d’you mean, ‘in canon?’”
She rolled her eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Aw, come on Doctor. Even if I’m going crazy and this is a hallucination, I’d thought you’d be a bit more clever. I mean, you always knew what was going on before anyone else in the show.”
The Doctor’s brow narrowed as his gazed shifted to the girl. Rose could tell that he was extremely annoyed-not necessarily at the girl, but the fact that she pointed out: that he did not know what was going on. Rose knew that he would say that his annoyance was because he was so worried, universe tears and all that, but she was sure that he also just didn’t like to be outsmarted by anyone.
“Well, I don’t know, so please tell me.”
“Fan fiction!” the girl shouted, grinning like a madwoman. “I write fan fiction! It’s not real to Rose because it never happened in the show!” She placed her hands on her hips, her smile stretching from ear to ear, rather proud that she had figured something out all by herself.
“So-I’m telepathic? But I’m not telepathic!” said Rose.
“No, you’re not,” agreed the Doctor, leaning over the console, “Something’s gone wrong. Something bad has happened, and made fan fiction into reality. The fact that I ended up in your bed-“
“Wait? You landed in her bed?” asked the girl excitedly. “I wrote that! That’s me! And Rose being telepathic, I wrote that too.”
“Of course it’s you. That’s why you came here after I asked to see the reason of all this. Problem is that when this fan fiction is becoming real, it’s opening new universes, destroying others…it’s tearing time and space apart. But it was never supposed to be like this.”
Rose approached the Doctor. “But we can stop it, right?” She looked unsure for a fleeting instant before she resoluted: “We can always stop it.”
The Doctor refused to meet her determined, hopeful gaze. The force that had reunited him with Rose was also destroying reality. More than likely, if he stopped this, Rose would be transported back into her universe with no memory of any of this. Neither would he. They would be separated again. He met her hazel eyes, and felt the pang in his chest as something cracked.
0000
Wanda Lewandowski was a temp, a temporary worker with no special ability. Even so, she found something very strange in the Fan Fiction server.
Alarmed, she stood up from her workspace and moved out of her cubicle to go report this to Heather, her boss. She didn’t take three steps before a blinding, golden glow consumed her. Two words flashed on her computer screen.
Out of the golden mist, someone’s slightly gilded lips smiled.
0000
“I can stop it,” the Doctor said eventually, “But everything would go back.”
Everything went silent. Even the TARDIS no longer hummed reassuringly in the back of their heads. The girl, who was a bit too arrogant to be observant said: “Because this isn’t canon. It’s not real in this universe, so if you fix it everything would go back to normal.”
“Exactly,” confirmed the Doctor.
Both of their eyes strayed to Rose, who was looking down, and smiling. But her smile wasn’t like the deliriously happy ones that she had recently been smiling: it was one of hopelessness, of acceptance. “I guess you’d better be off and ‘fix it’, then.” Her smile erupted into a bitter laugh.
“Rose…” he began.
“Don’t, Doctor,” she said, not looking a him, “Just do it.”
The Doctor set coordinates and pulled the lever with a solemnity he hadn’t felt in a while.
0000
Wanda woke up to a shrill, distinct whirring. Besides this, she was only aware of two other truths: one, she was on the floor, and two, her head hurt like hell. As she opened her eyes, wincing and rubbing her forehead, she observed that the floor that she had been on was her own office floor. Though this fact was bizarre, even more bizarre was that a big blue box that looked a lot like the TARDIS was in her cubicle. With all of this wonderful evidence Wanda came to a conclusion: she was dreaming.
But then the doors of the nineteen-sixties police box began to open, and brown pinstriped figure with a mop of brown hair stepped out.
Wanda placed a hand over her heart. “Oh my god,” she exclaimed, “It’s bloody David Tennant!”
The man’s brow wrinkled. “David Tennant? Hmm. David Tennant. That’s a good name, I s’pose. I rather like John Smith better.”
A blonde followed him, looking rather grave but an infectious excitement beginning to sparkle in her pupils. “David Tennant, eh? That is a good name for you. You look like a David Tennant.”
He raised a brow. “I do? What, when you first saw me in the TARDIS you went: “Ooh, that’s David Tennant?”
She rolled her eyes and quipped sarcastically, “No, I went: “Ooh! There’s a strange man wearing my best friends clothes who talks about a mole between his shoulder blades!”
The man grinned at the mentioning of the infamous mole. “Oh yup, me and the Mole, we’re good friends you know. Don’t look so bitter, Rose. We all know you’re jealous of our relationship, but cheer up, girl!”
The blonde burst into helpless giggles, and Wanda supposed she must be insane if that television show was infiltrating her reality.
“Okay, are you actually implying that the mole between your shoulder blades and you are in a romantic relationship?” asked the girl.
“Er…yes?”
The blonde laughed even harder, and the mop-haired man turned to Wanda, outstretching a hand. She took it, hoisting herself up. “Hello there, I’m the Doctor. Though I suppose you know that, right? Or do you not watch telly? Gina told me that our show was pretty popular, but you know youngsters. Always exaggerating and lying and doing all sorts of wicked sinny sins.”
“Uh, I’m Wanda. Are you shooting or something?”
“Nope! This is all real. Aren’t you lucky? Meeting the real Doctor and all. Nobody else in this world-well, Gina-has met the real Doctor. All you’ve seen is David Tennant. And sure, he might be good looking and all but he’s not me!”
“Ego, Doctor,” the blonde-Rose?--reminded him.
Wanda stared at the two incredulously. “What the hell are you on about? What d’you mean, ‘the real Doctor?’ You’re a bloody character in a T.V. show!”
The Doctor smiled. “’Course I am. Now if you don’t mind, why is Bad Wolf flashing on your screen there?” He pointed to her computer screen, which was shining gold light.
Wanda turned instinctively toward her computer, simultaneously hearing a gasp from behind her. Spinning back around, she saw a young girl, presumably Gina.
“Bad Wolf,” said Gina, “But that means--”
"I’m doing this,” said Rose, quietly, “It’s me.”
Everything faded to black as she fell to the ground, but only for a second as the light came.
0000
Now, in most television shows and movies that Rose had seen, your mind was a random place in the middle of nowhere with mist and fog all about. Rose was sure that in reality (well, she supposed, relative reality, as her reality was apparently some other’s reality’s fiction), this wasn’t true-humans couldn’t be so smart if there was fog all the time in their heads. However, in the state of Rose’s unconsciousness, she could control her surroundings to whatever she wanted them to be. It was her mind, after all.
So it was misty, so misty that she couldn’t see anything save for the huge golden wolf. Bad Wolf.
“Why?” Rose asked herself.
“I wanted us to be happy,” said the Bad Wolf, though Rose didn’t exactly hear the words. Rather, they appeared in her head. “We are so miserable in Pete’s World. We can only be happy with the Doctor. That’s why you created me on Satellite Five, and it’s why I will bring you back to him now.”
“You’re destroying all of time,” Rose informed the wolf, scathingly. “I could’ve found a way back to him that wasn’t dangerous to all reality!”
The Bad Wolf tossed back her head and let out a guttural howl; a laugh. “No, you would suffer for a long, long time to try to make it safe. And then you would grow too sad and they you’d do exactly what I’m doing, only less effective because you don’t have the power I do. I can see all of time and space! You,” she addressed herself condescendingly, “you are the weaker half of me.”
Rose felt bile rise in her throat like it had done when the Dalek’s blue eyestalks had stared her down emotionlessly. “No!” she shouted, “I am not weak. I am strong. I both create conquer myself! I see you, the Bad Wolf.” She laughed, and the thunder of it seemed to shake the very dust of the fog. “You think you’re so tough! You’re not. It’s all me! You can’t be you without me! Oh, you may be strong, but I am stronger still. I can defeat you, become you but rule over you so you can’t hurt anything else again!” Rose was smiling widely now, her victory in sight. “I can become more than the Bad Wolf, and heal everything! I can save the universes, all of them!”
Without an instant of hesitation her palm cut through the mist with the glow of time, and the light grew until it blinded both wolf and human.
0000
Through the light came the voices.
“…ter…wrong with her?”
“…separating…oh…God…dying.”
“…light…glowing?”
“….Bad Wolf…”
Rose opened her eyes, no longer a hazel color, but a brilliant gradient of gold and lime green. She rose from the floor, and Gina and Wanda and the Doctor rose from their crouching positions beside her. Light was all around.
“You are not the Bad Wolf,” said the Doctor, “Who are you?”
She smiled. “You know, I never learned how to sew. My mum tried to teach me, wanted me to become a proper wife to some bloke or something, but I never got the hang of it. But it’s so easy…”
Then everything disappeared, because it never happened.
0000
Rose wondered what had possessed her to get drunk on a Sunday night. How stupid could she get? Now her head hurt too much to think about and she had a nine o’ clock meeting with Torchwood executives. Fan-bloody-tastic.
Exhaling and then wincing at the pain in her head from the action, Rose gingerly got up from her bed and tip-toed to her adjoining bathroom. She had never had her own bathroom before living in Pete’s world. Even the TARDIS had only one bathroom.
As Rose moved toward the toilet, she saw a flash of green reflect in the mirror that was in her peripheral vision. She slowed, taking a backward step and looked at her reflection directly.
She remembered everything. Chips. Balloon shirts. Fan fiction. Her defeating Bad Wolf. It never happened, her memories weren’t actually memories but just vague images. And yet she remembered them. That didn’t make sense.
And then, hoping against hope, Rose listened for the sound of the TARDIS engines. Nothing came. It would have, she knew, before, because with all that tearing she could just wish for something and pluck it out of all the millions of fan fiction pieces and have it happen.
But now the universes were healthy, and Rose was alone.
Bad Wolf watched on, her heart aching, but she would do nothing. She had learned her lesson.
0000
The Doctor, being a Time Lord, remembered a long while before Rose. He said nothing to the TARDIS, said nothing to himself. He tried not to think about anything, so he couldn’t think about the painful thoughts. However, Time Lords naturally think all the time, so naturally, the Doctor thought about everything anyway.
He almost wished he had never appeared in her bed, so he wouldn’t have had to see her again, and be reminded again of what he was missing. The Doctor knew exactly what he was missing. The big, Rose Tyler-shaped hole in his being spoke for itself.
He sighed and cursed wasted time.
The sound of the TARDIS’s motor startled him out of his morose reverie. Soon they landed, and curious of what the old girl wanted to show him, the Doctor stood up from the Captain’s chair and peeked outside.
London was outside, air tingling with the hum of zeppelins.
The Doctor retreated back into the TARDIS, not wanting to believe the scene outside his ship’s doors.
Why did you bring me here?
A gift, said the TARDIS, like traveling between universes was the most common gift in the world. And it wasn’t even his birthday.
How? asked the Doctor, incredulous.
The TARDIS sighed an old and ancient sigh. Nothing everything, Doctor, needs to be explained for it to work. Not everything is logical.
But they all are. Everything has a scientific reason for it to happen.
No, said the TARDIS, some things just happen. I think you would know that better than anyone after this latest adventure of ours.
The Doctor listened to his ship’s words, contemplated them. Then he purposefully strode towards the doors, throwing them open as he stepped from gloom to light.
Fandom: Doctor Who
Pairing: Ten/Rose
Rating: Teen
Spoilers: Through Doomsday
Disclaimer: Nope. Not mine.
Summary: You know the universe isn't quite right when you can make jars of marmalade appear in your hand and magic yourself into Rose Tyler's bed.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
“We’re not real.” The words slipped through Rose’s lips in a surprisingly calm whisper.
The Doctor stared at her. “Oh, not you too, Rose! C’mon, we’re real. We’re as real as real can be real!”
Rose jerked her head distractedly in his direction. “Yeah, I know we’re real, in this universe, but to her,” she waved a hand at the girl, “we’re two characters on a television show on BBC One!” He could only stare. She continued, “In her world, we are fictional people. She knows everything about her loves. And somehow, she can manipulate it. She has the power to bend time and space to conjure up twists in our life. But they never really happen, since she’s not on the BBC writer’s staff. But-but, they looked so real…”
It was the girl, not the Doctor, who spoke next: “How’d you get inside my head? You’re not telepathic. I mean, not in canon.”
“What d’you mean, ‘in canon?’”
She rolled her eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Aw, come on Doctor. Even if I’m going crazy and this is a hallucination, I’d thought you’d be a bit more clever. I mean, you always knew what was going on before anyone else in the show.”
The Doctor’s brow narrowed as his gazed shifted to the girl. Rose could tell that he was extremely annoyed-not necessarily at the girl, but the fact that she pointed out: that he did not know what was going on. Rose knew that he would say that his annoyance was because he was so worried, universe tears and all that, but she was sure that he also just didn’t like to be outsmarted by anyone.
“Well, I don’t know, so please tell me.”
“Fan fiction!” the girl shouted, grinning like a madwoman. “I write fan fiction! It’s not real to Rose because it never happened in the show!” She placed her hands on her hips, her smile stretching from ear to ear, rather proud that she had figured something out all by herself.
“So-I’m telepathic? But I’m not telepathic!” said Rose.
“No, you’re not,” agreed the Doctor, leaning over the console, “Something’s gone wrong. Something bad has happened, and made fan fiction into reality. The fact that I ended up in your bed-“
“Wait? You landed in her bed?” asked the girl excitedly. “I wrote that! That’s me! And Rose being telepathic, I wrote that too.”
“Of course it’s you. That’s why you came here after I asked to see the reason of all this. Problem is that when this fan fiction is becoming real, it’s opening new universes, destroying others…it’s tearing time and space apart. But it was never supposed to be like this.”
Rose approached the Doctor. “But we can stop it, right?” She looked unsure for a fleeting instant before she resoluted: “We can always stop it.”
The Doctor refused to meet her determined, hopeful gaze. The force that had reunited him with Rose was also destroying reality. More than likely, if he stopped this, Rose would be transported back into her universe with no memory of any of this. Neither would he. They would be separated again. He met her hazel eyes, and felt the pang in his chest as something cracked.
0000
Wanda Lewandowski was a temp, a temporary worker with no special ability. Even so, she found something very strange in the Fan Fiction server.
Alarmed, she stood up from her workspace and moved out of her cubicle to go report this to Heather, her boss. She didn’t take three steps before a blinding, golden glow consumed her. Two words flashed on her computer screen.
Out of the golden mist, someone’s slightly gilded lips smiled.
0000
“I can stop it,” the Doctor said eventually, “But everything would go back.”
Everything went silent. Even the TARDIS no longer hummed reassuringly in the back of their heads. The girl, who was a bit too arrogant to be observant said: “Because this isn’t canon. It’s not real in this universe, so if you fix it everything would go back to normal.”
“Exactly,” confirmed the Doctor.
Both of their eyes strayed to Rose, who was looking down, and smiling. But her smile wasn’t like the deliriously happy ones that she had recently been smiling: it was one of hopelessness, of acceptance. “I guess you’d better be off and ‘fix it’, then.” Her smile erupted into a bitter laugh.
“Rose…” he began.
“Don’t, Doctor,” she said, not looking a him, “Just do it.”
The Doctor set coordinates and pulled the lever with a solemnity he hadn’t felt in a while.
0000
Wanda woke up to a shrill, distinct whirring. Besides this, she was only aware of two other truths: one, she was on the floor, and two, her head hurt like hell. As she opened her eyes, wincing and rubbing her forehead, she observed that the floor that she had been on was her own office floor. Though this fact was bizarre, even more bizarre was that a big blue box that looked a lot like the TARDIS was in her cubicle. With all of this wonderful evidence Wanda came to a conclusion: she was dreaming.
But then the doors of the nineteen-sixties police box began to open, and brown pinstriped figure with a mop of brown hair stepped out.
Wanda placed a hand over her heart. “Oh my god,” she exclaimed, “It’s bloody David Tennant!”
The man’s brow wrinkled. “David Tennant? Hmm. David Tennant. That’s a good name, I s’pose. I rather like John Smith better.”
A blonde followed him, looking rather grave but an infectious excitement beginning to sparkle in her pupils. “David Tennant, eh? That is a good name for you. You look like a David Tennant.”
He raised a brow. “I do? What, when you first saw me in the TARDIS you went: “Ooh, that’s David Tennant?”
She rolled her eyes and quipped sarcastically, “No, I went: “Ooh! There’s a strange man wearing my best friends clothes who talks about a mole between his shoulder blades!”
The man grinned at the mentioning of the infamous mole. “Oh yup, me and the Mole, we’re good friends you know. Don’t look so bitter, Rose. We all know you’re jealous of our relationship, but cheer up, girl!”
The blonde burst into helpless giggles, and Wanda supposed she must be insane if that television show was infiltrating her reality.
“Okay, are you actually implying that the mole between your shoulder blades and you are in a romantic relationship?” asked the girl.
“Er…yes?”
The blonde laughed even harder, and the mop-haired man turned to Wanda, outstretching a hand. She took it, hoisting herself up. “Hello there, I’m the Doctor. Though I suppose you know that, right? Or do you not watch telly? Gina told me that our show was pretty popular, but you know youngsters. Always exaggerating and lying and doing all sorts of wicked sinny sins.”
“Uh, I’m Wanda. Are you shooting or something?”
“Nope! This is all real. Aren’t you lucky? Meeting the real Doctor and all. Nobody else in this world-well, Gina-has met the real Doctor. All you’ve seen is David Tennant. And sure, he might be good looking and all but he’s not me!”
“Ego, Doctor,” the blonde-Rose?--reminded him.
Wanda stared at the two incredulously. “What the hell are you on about? What d’you mean, ‘the real Doctor?’ You’re a bloody character in a T.V. show!”
The Doctor smiled. “’Course I am. Now if you don’t mind, why is Bad Wolf flashing on your screen there?” He pointed to her computer screen, which was shining gold light.
Wanda turned instinctively toward her computer, simultaneously hearing a gasp from behind her. Spinning back around, she saw a young girl, presumably Gina.
“Bad Wolf,” said Gina, “But that means--”
"I’m doing this,” said Rose, quietly, “It’s me.”
Everything faded to black as she fell to the ground, but only for a second as the light came.
0000
Now, in most television shows and movies that Rose had seen, your mind was a random place in the middle of nowhere with mist and fog all about. Rose was sure that in reality (well, she supposed, relative reality, as her reality was apparently some other’s reality’s fiction), this wasn’t true-humans couldn’t be so smart if there was fog all the time in their heads. However, in the state of Rose’s unconsciousness, she could control her surroundings to whatever she wanted them to be. It was her mind, after all.
So it was misty, so misty that she couldn’t see anything save for the huge golden wolf. Bad Wolf.
“Why?” Rose asked herself.
“I wanted us to be happy,” said the Bad Wolf, though Rose didn’t exactly hear the words. Rather, they appeared in her head. “We are so miserable in Pete’s World. We can only be happy with the Doctor. That’s why you created me on Satellite Five, and it’s why I will bring you back to him now.”
“You’re destroying all of time,” Rose informed the wolf, scathingly. “I could’ve found a way back to him that wasn’t dangerous to all reality!”
The Bad Wolf tossed back her head and let out a guttural howl; a laugh. “No, you would suffer for a long, long time to try to make it safe. And then you would grow too sad and they you’d do exactly what I’m doing, only less effective because you don’t have the power I do. I can see all of time and space! You,” she addressed herself condescendingly, “you are the weaker half of me.”
Rose felt bile rise in her throat like it had done when the Dalek’s blue eyestalks had stared her down emotionlessly. “No!” she shouted, “I am not weak. I am strong. I both create conquer myself! I see you, the Bad Wolf.” She laughed, and the thunder of it seemed to shake the very dust of the fog. “You think you’re so tough! You’re not. It’s all me! You can’t be you without me! Oh, you may be strong, but I am stronger still. I can defeat you, become you but rule over you so you can’t hurt anything else again!” Rose was smiling widely now, her victory in sight. “I can become more than the Bad Wolf, and heal everything! I can save the universes, all of them!”
Without an instant of hesitation her palm cut through the mist with the glow of time, and the light grew until it blinded both wolf and human.
0000
Through the light came the voices.
“…ter…wrong with her?”
“…separating…oh…God…dying.”
“…light…glowing?”
“….Bad Wolf…”
Rose opened her eyes, no longer a hazel color, but a brilliant gradient of gold and lime green. She rose from the floor, and Gina and Wanda and the Doctor rose from their crouching positions beside her. Light was all around.
“You are not the Bad Wolf,” said the Doctor, “Who are you?”
She smiled. “You know, I never learned how to sew. My mum tried to teach me, wanted me to become a proper wife to some bloke or something, but I never got the hang of it. But it’s so easy…”
Then everything disappeared, because it never happened.
0000
Rose wondered what had possessed her to get drunk on a Sunday night. How stupid could she get? Now her head hurt too much to think about and she had a nine o’ clock meeting with Torchwood executives. Fan-bloody-tastic.
Exhaling and then wincing at the pain in her head from the action, Rose gingerly got up from her bed and tip-toed to her adjoining bathroom. She had never had her own bathroom before living in Pete’s world. Even the TARDIS had only one bathroom.
As Rose moved toward the toilet, she saw a flash of green reflect in the mirror that was in her peripheral vision. She slowed, taking a backward step and looked at her reflection directly.
She remembered everything. Chips. Balloon shirts. Fan fiction. Her defeating Bad Wolf. It never happened, her memories weren’t actually memories but just vague images. And yet she remembered them. That didn’t make sense.
And then, hoping against hope, Rose listened for the sound of the TARDIS engines. Nothing came. It would have, she knew, before, because with all that tearing she could just wish for something and pluck it out of all the millions of fan fiction pieces and have it happen.
But now the universes were healthy, and Rose was alone.
Bad Wolf watched on, her heart aching, but she would do nothing. She had learned her lesson.
0000
The Doctor, being a Time Lord, remembered a long while before Rose. He said nothing to the TARDIS, said nothing to himself. He tried not to think about anything, so he couldn’t think about the painful thoughts. However, Time Lords naturally think all the time, so naturally, the Doctor thought about everything anyway.
He almost wished he had never appeared in her bed, so he wouldn’t have had to see her again, and be reminded again of what he was missing. The Doctor knew exactly what he was missing. The big, Rose Tyler-shaped hole in his being spoke for itself.
He sighed and cursed wasted time.
The sound of the TARDIS’s motor startled him out of his morose reverie. Soon they landed, and curious of what the old girl wanted to show him, the Doctor stood up from the Captain’s chair and peeked outside.
London was outside, air tingling with the hum of zeppelins.
The Doctor retreated back into the TARDIS, not wanting to believe the scene outside his ship’s doors.
Why did you bring me here?
A gift, said the TARDIS, like traveling between universes was the most common gift in the world. And it wasn’t even his birthday.
How? asked the Doctor, incredulous.
The TARDIS sighed an old and ancient sigh. Nothing everything, Doctor, needs to be explained for it to work. Not everything is logical.
But they all are. Everything has a scientific reason for it to happen.
No, said the TARDIS, some things just happen. I think you would know that better than anyone after this latest adventure of ours.
The Doctor listened to his ship’s words, contemplated them. Then he purposefully strode towards the doors, throwing them open as he stepped from gloom to light.