The Beginning
Rose looked at him, tears in her eyes.
"– I love you."
He smiled sadly and replied hesitantly,
"Quite right too."
His hesitation and the conflict on his face made Rose step closer.
"And I suppose, if it's one last chance to say it, Rose Tyler-"
His body disappeared and Rose ran back and hugged her mum, tears streaming down her face.
This is her fate... Not her, please. Rose...
PROLOGUE
Her eyes snapped open and she let out a startled cry. Pressing her face to her hands, she wasn't surprised to find she was crying. The headache that had plagued her for days had disappeared, and with it, the screams. Thea steeled herself and noticed the paint on her hands. It had happened again. The canvas before her was filled with the image of her best friend's grief, the end of Rose Tyler. It was hard to see the things she did; Thea knew she could never change no matter how much she wished they could, but this dream... It was so hard. Stumbling to the blue tiled bathroom she turned the shower on, huddling herself under the burning hot water, clothes and all. She needed to root herself in reality, before she lost herself again.
The dreams had ruled her life for as long as she could remember. And he... he was in almost every one of them. Sometimes the same, sometimes different. Running, always running…
"It's not real. Keep it together Thea, come on."
The sound of her echoing voice ripped her back into reality and she absently added some cold water as the shivers slowly faded. It was all in her head, the dreams were just that, dreams.
I'm still here. You can't pretend that I'm not forever.
The words sounded like they were whispered in her ear, like there was another girl next to her. With great practise Thea kept her expression blank and pushed the voice back in its prison, in the depths her mind. Steeling herself she pulled out a memory to calm down;
"You have to keep it hidden." The lady with the eye patch knelt in front of her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Be a good girl, soldier." The little girl laughed and hugged her. "Yes Mummy."
Thea watched as her hands gradually started to stop shaking as the water washed the dream away. The Doctor couldn't be real. If he was, then wouldn't he have saved her by now? Turning the shower off, she heard her ringtone chiming back in her room.
Once upon a time there lived a girl,
She knew what she wanted from the world,
In her brown eyes, they could see,
Fire that burned like summer heat.
Wrapped in a towel with a cloud of steam following her, Thea ran and answered without looking at the caller ID.
"Marhaba?"
Her best friend's voice dryly commented on the other end.
"You know I have no idea what you said right?" Thea laughed and held the phone with her shoulder as she hunted for clothes.
"Rose, why did you call me?"
Pulling out the ruffled black dress she had worn for last week's fashion shoot, she began to get ready. Rose was chatting her ear off on the phone and it was only when she was pulling her striped socks on that she unveiled her reason for calling.
"Can you come to work with me today? I haven't seen ya for ages and you know my boss adores you. Please come Thea?"
Snorting and lacing her knee boots up, Thea moved to the makeup vanity mirror and began to untangle her wild ebony locks. She needed a haircut soon, but her hair often refused to cooperate during haircuts. Either way it haloed her face like a lion's mane. Now all I need is to be a ginger. She raised a hand and observed the warm gold tan and corrected herself. And white.
"You know he only lets me come to better his reputation right?"
Thea could almost see Rose rolling her eyes.
"I'll come, but only because those security guys give me free piggy back rides. What's the time?"
Rose laughed at her and replied,
"Lunch. Can you bring me some chips?"
Thea agreed quirking a smile at the mirror before hanging up. The smile fell away and her strange greyish silver eyes darkened. She didn't deserve Rose. Rose was bright and happy, not so utterly broken like she was. Well, that’s not quite true, the dark voice inside her whispered. Locking it back into the depths of her mind, Thea finished her make-up, grabbed her leather jacket and sketch bag before clasping her skull necklace around her neck. She took a deep breath and marched out of her messy bedroom and through her paint room to the door.
Her home was a warehouse at the edge of the city. The distance from civilisation had never been a problem; it allowed her to do whatever she wanted without anyone complaining. Plus she didn't want anyone to see her paintings. They dominated the space, canvases littering the room. Haphazardly hung on the walls were the works she had done when she was awake; the landscapes of the alien planets she saw, a woman with fiery red hair as crazy as hers, and a strange blue police box that she had labelled Sexy. On racks pushed in the corner covered in blankets were the things that were painted when she was in the midst of a vision. A doctor turned soldier, a man who could never die, the Girl and Boy who waited. And now Rose. It was still on the stand, so as she left, she threw a sheet over it. No more thinking about what she couldn't change. No more.
.
When Thea pulled up on her bike, she knew something was up. Everything looked normal but she could almost sense it. Sniffing, around the aroma of chips she could smell... Burnt plastic? Well, that's new. Rose caught sight of her and gave that tongue between the teeth grin that she had had since they were kids. Why does it have to be you? Strolling in and flicking her sunglasses up, Thea raised her package of chips with a half grin of her own.
"I bring sustenance!"
Her friend let out a laugh and hugged her warmly.
"You already met with Ricky right?"
Rose corrected her automatically,
"It's Mickey."
Thea smiled softly and hugged her back. She usually didn’t let anyone else get this close to her so the warmth was both new and familiar. Rose pulled back, took the chips with one hand and linked her other arm with Thea. She didn't unlink with her until the end of her shift.
How does she always know when I'm sad?
"Just have to pop down to the basement to give this to Wilson. Gonna follow me?"
Rose asked as she walked to the lifts. Thea grinned and wandered over next to her, blowing her hair out of her face,
"Of course I'm coming, you'll probably get kidnapped or something!"
They shared a laugh and Rose shook her head.
"By who? The dummies?"
Thea felt like ice had been shoved down the back of her shirt.
You’re not meant to be here! You're not meant to interfere!
But she pushed the screeching in her head back behind the barrier and let out a fake smile, which Rose thankfully didn't notice as she was fiddling with the lift buttons.
Not Rose, never Rose. If she is lost, who will keep me from going crazy?
The lift stops and Rose rushes out with Thea sauntering behind her.
"Wilson? Wilson, I've got the lottery money. Wilson are you there?"
When they finally found a door proclaiming the office of H P Wilson CEO, Thea stopped and asked Rose incredulously,
"You have money in that bag and you're giving it to the creepy dude who lives in the basement? Have I taught you nothing?"
Rose snorted, ignoring her friend's ranting and calling out,
"I can't hang around 'cos they're closing the shop. Wilson! Oh, come on."
Both of their heads snapped up when they heard a cluttering noise further down the corridor. Thea peeked over Rose's shoulder and followed despite beginning yet another rant;
"So we hear a noise down the corridor, what do we do? Follow it! The wisdom in this action is too much! I can't go on!"
Pretending to swoon, she moved into another bend of the corridor, planning on helping Rose find Wilson. Thea heard Rose call out for him again,
"Hello? Hello, Wilson, it's Rose. Hello? Wilson?"
She grinned and murmured to herself,
"Why does she think that he'd answer? It's like the suspenseful part of a really bad horror movie."
Wandering around some more she found Rose walking into a room and followed her, poking her in the back so she could get through the door. Rose jumped before giving Thea a look to which the latter held her hands up in surrender. Flicking the lights on to see dressed dummies and boxes of clothing, Thea wandered ahead with Rose's voice following her,
"Wilson? Wilson!"
Thea cheerily added to the summons by hollering,
“Where are you, you glorious bastard?”
She was too far to hear Rose anymore when she stopped as she saw something move in the corner of her eye. Turning slowly, she found the shop dummies had moved around her in a circle, blocking her off.
Dread filled her and she tried to back away but they grabbed her and began to drag her away.
"ROSE!"
She heard footsteps coming around the corner as she struggled frantically, somehow managing to rip of a leg of one of them and fending them of as if it was a sword. One lurched at her face and Thea smashed it in the neck, causing it to fall backwards into the wall.
You need to get us out of here!
Thea rolled her eyes, internally sassing back,
Oh I’m sorry, do you want to take charge?
Thankfully Rose ran around the corner, a man in a leather jacket following close behind. The man raised something (a metal wand?), a noise came from whatever it was and the dummies stop moving long enough for Thea to slip from their grip and barrel into both her friend and the stranger, pulling them the other way.
"Lifts should be this way!" She hollered.
While they sprinted Thea took a moment to observe the newcomer. He was tall, handsome despite his big ears and nose; he looked like someone to trust. His eyes flicked to hers and she barely concealed her shock. Old. He was older than he looked; his eyes were dark and filled with emotion.
Who is he?
They were followed by the dummies until they finally got into a lift and it was closing. Then one stuck its arm between the doors. The man and Thea pulled the arm until it snapped off then they were going up, elevator music tinkling as they rose back up to ground level.
Thea started giggling and the man gave her a weird look.
"Are you alright?"
His voice was slightly concerned.
Ooh he's from the north! "Care to give me a leg up?"
Rose let out a laugh and shook the offered foot. The man – Why did he look so familiar? – grinned as well, somehow causing Thea's heart to skip a beat.
At least I'm not depressed anymore;
She thought inwardly wincing at the anger she felt from the words. It wasn't Thea's anger, it was
Hers. Don't do this, don't change this!
You’re the one who told me to get out! I’m not going back down there just so this can stay the same.
She pushed the voice back in time to hear Rose state,
"You pulled his arm off."
He shrugged and said,
"Yep, Plastic."
She gave Thea an incredulous look and said,
"Very clever. Nice trick!-"
The sarcasm level in her words nearly made Thea high five her, but she managed to restrain herself. It was too serious a mood not to.
"Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?"
Thea and the man gave her a weird look and Thea input,
"I pulled its leg of Rose. Am I carrying a real leg around? Or was my dummy a cripple student?"
He gave her an amused glance and asked Rose,
"Why would they be students?"
She shrugged. "I dunno,"
"Well you said it. Why students?"
He asked again. Her face lit up and she burst out,
"`Cos to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they got to be students."
Thea subtly high fived her and laughed. The man praised,
"That makes sense. Well done."
Rose grinned and said,
"Thanks."
Then he burst her bubble by stating, "Their not students."
Huffing Rose declared,
"Whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's going to call the police."
The man- Was he ever going to tell them his name? - asked who Wilson was. Thea replied,
"Chief electrician. He's a good bloke; the police should be on their way by now."
The man put a hand on her shoulder and the startling warmth of his hand made her so surprised that she didn't move away.
"Wilson's dead."
He moved away after dropping that bombshell and moved out of the elevators.
Thea's face grew blank for a second, her mask falling in her shock. The nice old man who she had brought cookies too, the man who had grouched at her to stop trying to recreate the Frankenstein movies with the electrical wires, he was gone.
Rose will be gone soon too. You can't save them all.
The strange reassurance she got from the voice calmed her enough to pull the mask back on although she couldn't do anything about the paleness. Rose grasped her hand and spat,
"That's just not funny. That's sick!"
Thea pulled Rose out of the elevator as he took out the weird device and said,
"Hold on. Mind your eyes."
It buzzed and glowed blue for a second as he pressed it against the elevator controls. Thea spoke up,
"What's with the buzzy thing? What's it doing?"
He stashed it in his jacket –maybe he's a drug dealer too-and told her,
"Nothing you need to be concerned about."
Thea snorted at that and gave him a look that clearly described what she thought about that comment.
Rose interrupted their silent communication by asking,
"Who are you, then? Who's that lot down there? I said who are they?"
They began to rush to the doors as he explained,
"They're made of plastic. Living plastic creatures. They're being controlled by a relay device in the roof, which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this."
He held up a bomb. Thea burst out laughing, and they both stopped and looked at her weirdly.
"Sorry, but no chance you're a gangster is there?"
Even Rose quirked a grin at that. They kept walking and Thea gestured for the man to continue.
"So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up, and I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me. No, you go home. Go on. Go and have your lovely beans on toast."
Making a gagging noise, she scrunched up her face and declared,
"Beans are for wimps! I eat snausages!"
The man grinned again and her heart skipped a beat.
Quit it heart, or I'll get a refund.
With what seemed to be a great effort, he pulled the smile off his face and finished,
"Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed."
As they were now outside, he slammed the door in their faces. Rose looked around before he opened the door again, a sly grin on his face.
"I'm the Doctor, by the way. What are your names?"
Her heart stopped completely. I'm the Doctor. Okay, she was dreaming. Thea stated,
"I'm Thea, she's Rose."
He looked at her and something in his eyes flickered. But before she could analyse what it was, it was gone and he replied,
"Nice to meet you, Thea, Rose. Run for your life!"
And with that he popped back inside. Rose pulled her away and then they were both running. Hands clutched tight they both sprinted away, across the road, nearly being taken out by a homicidal taxi driver who Thea made a rude gesture to. Then the building blew up. Thea ripped her hand from Rose's who kept running and twirled around, feeling the heat even from where she was standing.
Did he get out? Is he safe?
The thoughts nearly overwhelmed her as fear struck her heart. She turned her head slowly away and caught sight of a deep blue phone box.
Hello old friend.
The light at the top of the phone box flashed and Thea pressed a hand to the door, feeling the unnatural warmth thrum beneath her palm. Her phone chimed, ripping her from whatever trance she was in and she turned on her heel prancing after Rose after whispering,
"Hello you sexy thing."