Sweet as Sugar
folder
1 through F › Doctor Who
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
43
Views:
11,326
Reviews:
19
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
1 through F › Doctor Who
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
43
Views:
11,326
Reviews:
19
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Dr. Who, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
32
Sweet as Sugar Chapter Thirty Two
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather is a wondermous beta and truly the BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™ lol. The previous chapters are listed below and will all be up on AFFN by the end of the week. This chapter contains spoilers for the whole series thus far, even THE BIG ONE. ;)
“Doctor,” Rose panted, her feet aching from running barefoot on the stone floor but her legs forcing her onward, the sound of scraping metal and hissing, sibilant breath filling her ears, “I’m starting to think… you get off on this…”
“On what? Running for my life?” He paused, slowing his steps only a little bit as they rounded yet another corner, moving now along the outer edges of the labyrinth like corridors around the tomb proper. “Maybe. Mostly, it just keeps me healthy.” His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist as they reached a dead end, the pale stone seeming to glow in the dimness of the hall. “Oh, bugger me…” Glancing quickly at Rose and seeing her worried, pinched expression, he assayed a tight smile. “I’d forgotten, some of these end in these…” he wave vaguely to the corridor around them, taking in the looming wall as well. “Dashed inconvenient, walls…”
Rose huffed a nervous laugh, her eyes darting from the Doctor to the far end of the hall, the sound coming towards them no longer metallic and grating but rather heavy, plodding and laborious. “They serve their purpose,” she hazarded, pressing closer to him and twisting her wrist in his grasp until their fingers met before she realized what she was doing. His warmth was comforting, seeping through her nerves and rising confusing, finding her center and holding her firm. “Doctor, if you don’t tell me what this is…”
“Gotten really cocky since you figured out dimensional rifts, haven’t you?” he teased, unable to stop the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Others had come and gone, left their mark on him, some deeply, but none were her. “The truth is that I’m not quite sure WHAT it is, aside from the fact it’s coming from the heart of the tomb.” He fished his ever-present screwdriver out of his pocket and held it up triumphantly, grinning as he turned and began running it along the seams of the wall blocking their egress.
“So for all we know, we’re running from a giant dustbunny or something?” she demanded, her eyes riveted on the dark at the end of the corridor. “Or something…?”
“Whatever it is, it’s not supposed to be here. None of this is supposed to be here!” He frowned and straightened, poking at the stone wall with one long finger. “This isn’t right… less right than I thought it was a moment ago anyway…”
“Doctor!” Rose gripped his arm tightly, the dark shifting and seeming to coalesce into a shape. She felt him stiffen beside her but he did not move, did not speak. The shape resolved itself into a man, clad mostly in black with glints of silver at the collar of his robe and on his fingers as rings. “It’s…it’s a man…” She paused, her lips puffing in helpless wonder. “Or man-shaped…”
“It’s no man,” he replied tightly, moving in front of Rose in a gesture she would have found insulting coming from anyone else. “It’s a Time Lord.”
“Oh, do get over yourself,” the stranger said flatly, his dark eyes flicking over Rose’s form. “You’ve done well for yourself this time, Doctor. Never did care for the whinging ones that seemed to gravitate towards you as if you were the sun.” He smiled, a thin and humorless expression, and took a step forward. He stank, Rose realized, of age and dust and decay, like a thing long unused, and also of ozone. “The Rani was kind enough to…return me…to my rightful state of being…”
“Last I recall of you,” the Doctor retorted, voice low and rough with anger as he pressed Rose more tightly behind him, tensing as she hissed in a breath. He could feel her straining to see around him but he would not let her, moving as she did, blocking her from the sight of the Master. “You were dead. I brought you to Gallifrey to bury you.” He paused, brows arching ever so slightly. “We both looked a mite different then, as I recall… seems you went for the flashy options on your new body.” He raked his gaze over the Master, taking in the highly defined cheekbones and olive skin. “Went younger, I see.”
“As did you,” the Master mused, sounding vaguely bored already. “The Rani has resurrected our home, Doctor. The Time Lords are set to rise again, rise from the ashes of our destruction! The destruction,” he paused, stepping closer to the Doctor and Rose, “that you witnessed. That you caused, if I recall correctly. The Rani told me,” he added, “you helped to destroy the Daleks along with the Time Lords. Really, Doctor, I know you had problems with authority but I never thought you would take it so far…” He had been moving forward the entire time and was now just out of the Doctor’s arm’s reach. “I don’t rightly recall that part, seeing as how I was dead…”
“I did it,” Rose said suddenly, twisting free of the Doctor’s grasp and moving to stand beside him, fingers seeking fingers as was her unconscious, comforting habit. “I destroyed the Daleks AND the Cybermen! I am the Bad Wolf!” she practically shouted, throwing down her trump card with a small, delicious grin of triumph. The same smile that slipped seconds later when the Master fixed her with a blank look, seeming to look through her rather than at her. “Bad Wolf,” she repeated. “You know… Bad Wolf?” The urge to giggle nervously nearly overwhelmed her as the Doctor heaved a heavy sigh beside her, pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger.
“He was dead, Rose. He rather missed that part of things.” His gaze fixed on the Master and his entire bearing changed. The Doctor drew himself to his full height and seemed to fill the space rather than exist in it. He felt Rose shiver beside him, just a fraction of a second of movement, but he knew she was, for just that time, afraid of him. She had never seen him come over all Time Lord before, as Teagan had once put it. “You are a spawn of the Rani’s sick mind. You’re not the Time Lord you once were. I saw you dead, I buried you myself.”
“What is cut shall rise,” the Master said sternly. “And what rises, shall be cut.” He spared Rose a glance and smiled, winking at her. “You know that better than any of us, don’t you dear?” Stone scraped on stone and all eyes turned, the Doctor and Rose shifting to face the wall behind them as it moved, sliding into recessed pockets set in the corridor. Light flooded the hall and blinded them for seconds as the wall settled into it’s hidden slots, Rose’s vision clearing even as the Doctor hissed a breath, swallowing a curse at the sight before them.
“Doctor, what is that?” she asked, not so much fear coloring her voice as wonder. “It’s… it’s beautiful!”
“That,” a now familiar voice intoned, the Rani stepping to stand beside the Master, joining them in the hall for her moment of triumph, the moment she had been waiting for since the Time War tore her world apart, “is the heart of our race.”
“That cannot be the Eye of Harmony,” the Doctor spat, whirling to face the two other Time Lords. “It was never kept here! Not in the tomb!” His hearts were racing, pounding so hard that he felt faint even as Rose gripped his elbow, supporting him without thinking about it. “What is this? What have you done?”
“It was hard work,” the Rani replied softly, sounding almost maternally proud as she slid her hand up the Master’s arm, curling her fingers around his elbow in a very loving gesture. “We both exerted ourselves to the point of death on more than one occasion. We had planned, planned for so long, to seize power from the ineffectual leaders of our world but we were too late… Gallifrey died. You,” she added, her eyes locking with the Doctor’s, “killed it. And you did not even truly destroy the Daleks, did you? It was all for naught. You shall be remembered in the annals of our people as a genocidal maniac, Doctor.” She smiled at Rose, adding, “And you as his accomplice.”
Dark forms came through the light, hands grasping and pulling, the Doctor shouting incoherently to Rose’s ears as she felt herself pulled back, feet stumbling as she struggled to remain upright in the hands of her new captors. Mass murder, her brain screamed. The Doctor was being accused of murder, of genocide… “LET ME GO!” she screamed suddenly, belatedly. “LET GO OF ME!” She twisted and pulled, serving only to set herself off balance and wind up being dragged along behind the two robed figures. She heard the Doctor shouting but could not see him through the blinding light emanating from the center of the space. “DOCTOR!”
“Rose Tyler of Earth,” the Rani’s cultured tones carried through the burgeoning chaos, “your trial has been waived. You have proven yourself to be cunning and intelligent, strong and brave. You have been chosen by me, the ruler of Gallifrey, to serve as our Mother.” Blinked rapidly as the light blinding her was blocked by the Rani’s body, the tall female peering down at her with a perfectly neutral expression. “Take her to the throne room. Wait for us there.”
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather is a wondermous beta and truly the BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™ lol. The previous chapters are listed below and will all be up on AFFN by the end of the week. This chapter contains spoilers for the whole series thus far, even THE BIG ONE. ;)
“Doctor,” Rose panted, her feet aching from running barefoot on the stone floor but her legs forcing her onward, the sound of scraping metal and hissing, sibilant breath filling her ears, “I’m starting to think… you get off on this…”
“On what? Running for my life?” He paused, slowing his steps only a little bit as they rounded yet another corner, moving now along the outer edges of the labyrinth like corridors around the tomb proper. “Maybe. Mostly, it just keeps me healthy.” His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist as they reached a dead end, the pale stone seeming to glow in the dimness of the hall. “Oh, bugger me…” Glancing quickly at Rose and seeing her worried, pinched expression, he assayed a tight smile. “I’d forgotten, some of these end in these…” he wave vaguely to the corridor around them, taking in the looming wall as well. “Dashed inconvenient, walls…”
Rose huffed a nervous laugh, her eyes darting from the Doctor to the far end of the hall, the sound coming towards them no longer metallic and grating but rather heavy, plodding and laborious. “They serve their purpose,” she hazarded, pressing closer to him and twisting her wrist in his grasp until their fingers met before she realized what she was doing. His warmth was comforting, seeping through her nerves and rising confusing, finding her center and holding her firm. “Doctor, if you don’t tell me what this is…”
“Gotten really cocky since you figured out dimensional rifts, haven’t you?” he teased, unable to stop the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Others had come and gone, left their mark on him, some deeply, but none were her. “The truth is that I’m not quite sure WHAT it is, aside from the fact it’s coming from the heart of the tomb.” He fished his ever-present screwdriver out of his pocket and held it up triumphantly, grinning as he turned and began running it along the seams of the wall blocking their egress.
“So for all we know, we’re running from a giant dustbunny or something?” she demanded, her eyes riveted on the dark at the end of the corridor. “Or something…?”
“Whatever it is, it’s not supposed to be here. None of this is supposed to be here!” He frowned and straightened, poking at the stone wall with one long finger. “This isn’t right… less right than I thought it was a moment ago anyway…”
“Doctor!” Rose gripped his arm tightly, the dark shifting and seeming to coalesce into a shape. She felt him stiffen beside her but he did not move, did not speak. The shape resolved itself into a man, clad mostly in black with glints of silver at the collar of his robe and on his fingers as rings. “It’s…it’s a man…” She paused, her lips puffing in helpless wonder. “Or man-shaped…”
“It’s no man,” he replied tightly, moving in front of Rose in a gesture she would have found insulting coming from anyone else. “It’s a Time Lord.”
“Oh, do get over yourself,” the stranger said flatly, his dark eyes flicking over Rose’s form. “You’ve done well for yourself this time, Doctor. Never did care for the whinging ones that seemed to gravitate towards you as if you were the sun.” He smiled, a thin and humorless expression, and took a step forward. He stank, Rose realized, of age and dust and decay, like a thing long unused, and also of ozone. “The Rani was kind enough to…return me…to my rightful state of being…”
“Last I recall of you,” the Doctor retorted, voice low and rough with anger as he pressed Rose more tightly behind him, tensing as she hissed in a breath. He could feel her straining to see around him but he would not let her, moving as she did, blocking her from the sight of the Master. “You were dead. I brought you to Gallifrey to bury you.” He paused, brows arching ever so slightly. “We both looked a mite different then, as I recall… seems you went for the flashy options on your new body.” He raked his gaze over the Master, taking in the highly defined cheekbones and olive skin. “Went younger, I see.”
“As did you,” the Master mused, sounding vaguely bored already. “The Rani has resurrected our home, Doctor. The Time Lords are set to rise again, rise from the ashes of our destruction! The destruction,” he paused, stepping closer to the Doctor and Rose, “that you witnessed. That you caused, if I recall correctly. The Rani told me,” he added, “you helped to destroy the Daleks along with the Time Lords. Really, Doctor, I know you had problems with authority but I never thought you would take it so far…” He had been moving forward the entire time and was now just out of the Doctor’s arm’s reach. “I don’t rightly recall that part, seeing as how I was dead…”
“I did it,” Rose said suddenly, twisting free of the Doctor’s grasp and moving to stand beside him, fingers seeking fingers as was her unconscious, comforting habit. “I destroyed the Daleks AND the Cybermen! I am the Bad Wolf!” she practically shouted, throwing down her trump card with a small, delicious grin of triumph. The same smile that slipped seconds later when the Master fixed her with a blank look, seeming to look through her rather than at her. “Bad Wolf,” she repeated. “You know… Bad Wolf?” The urge to giggle nervously nearly overwhelmed her as the Doctor heaved a heavy sigh beside her, pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger.
“He was dead, Rose. He rather missed that part of things.” His gaze fixed on the Master and his entire bearing changed. The Doctor drew himself to his full height and seemed to fill the space rather than exist in it. He felt Rose shiver beside him, just a fraction of a second of movement, but he knew she was, for just that time, afraid of him. She had never seen him come over all Time Lord before, as Teagan had once put it. “You are a spawn of the Rani’s sick mind. You’re not the Time Lord you once were. I saw you dead, I buried you myself.”
“What is cut shall rise,” the Master said sternly. “And what rises, shall be cut.” He spared Rose a glance and smiled, winking at her. “You know that better than any of us, don’t you dear?” Stone scraped on stone and all eyes turned, the Doctor and Rose shifting to face the wall behind them as it moved, sliding into recessed pockets set in the corridor. Light flooded the hall and blinded them for seconds as the wall settled into it’s hidden slots, Rose’s vision clearing even as the Doctor hissed a breath, swallowing a curse at the sight before them.
“Doctor, what is that?” she asked, not so much fear coloring her voice as wonder. “It’s… it’s beautiful!”
“That,” a now familiar voice intoned, the Rani stepping to stand beside the Master, joining them in the hall for her moment of triumph, the moment she had been waiting for since the Time War tore her world apart, “is the heart of our race.”
“That cannot be the Eye of Harmony,” the Doctor spat, whirling to face the two other Time Lords. “It was never kept here! Not in the tomb!” His hearts were racing, pounding so hard that he felt faint even as Rose gripped his elbow, supporting him without thinking about it. “What is this? What have you done?”
“It was hard work,” the Rani replied softly, sounding almost maternally proud as she slid her hand up the Master’s arm, curling her fingers around his elbow in a very loving gesture. “We both exerted ourselves to the point of death on more than one occasion. We had planned, planned for so long, to seize power from the ineffectual leaders of our world but we were too late… Gallifrey died. You,” she added, her eyes locking with the Doctor’s, “killed it. And you did not even truly destroy the Daleks, did you? It was all for naught. You shall be remembered in the annals of our people as a genocidal maniac, Doctor.” She smiled at Rose, adding, “And you as his accomplice.”
Dark forms came through the light, hands grasping and pulling, the Doctor shouting incoherently to Rose’s ears as she felt herself pulled back, feet stumbling as she struggled to remain upright in the hands of her new captors. Mass murder, her brain screamed. The Doctor was being accused of murder, of genocide… “LET ME GO!” she screamed suddenly, belatedly. “LET GO OF ME!” She twisted and pulled, serving only to set herself off balance and wind up being dragged along behind the two robed figures. She heard the Doctor shouting but could not see him through the blinding light emanating from the center of the space. “DOCTOR!”
“Rose Tyler of Earth,” the Rani’s cultured tones carried through the burgeoning chaos, “your trial has been waived. You have proven yourself to be cunning and intelligent, strong and brave. You have been chosen by me, the ruler of Gallifrey, to serve as our Mother.” Blinked rapidly as the light blinding her was blocked by the Rani’s body, the tall female peering down at her with a perfectly neutral expression. “Take her to the throne room. Wait for us there.”