Seuls - Chapter 12
Apr. 15th, 2009 08:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtemplar_ficTitle: Seuls
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mtemplar
Rating: Adult
Characters: The Doctor (Tenth), Rose Tyler
Disclaimer: I do not own 'Doctor Who' and am making no profit from this fanfiction.
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Graphic Sex, Graphic Violence, Romance
Spoilers: Set mid Series 2
Author's Notes: This story follows the events in To Have And Not To Hold (first chapter of that story is here) and Not Here (the first chapter of that short follow-up is here). It is loosely based on the Fourth Doctor serial 'Image of the Fendahl', and contains elements from the 1996 TV movie and the novel 'The Taking of Planet 5'. Huge hugs toprincipia_coh for the amazing icon and banner!
Betas: Many, many thanks toplatypus and garpu!
Summary: The Doctor and Rose have been mysteriously diverted to the ice planet Seuls, located within the constellation of Canthares. It soon becomes apparent that things are not at all as they should be, and the newly-formed bond between them will be tested as the trap of an ancient enemy is sprung.
Previous Chapters:
One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven
Crossposted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
time_and_chips, dwfiction, Teaspoon and The Zero Room.
Chapter 12
Time Lord.
Rose slowly blinked her eyes open, rubbing at them when she found her vision was still blurred. Her movements were slow and jerky, as if she were trying to wade through jelly. She looked at her arm and her eyes widened as she realized that she could see blurred afterimages of her movement, almost as if she were in a dream, instead of merely inside her head. What was happening?
Time Lord.
She was surrounded by a thick, icy fog that flowed past her in waves. Every so often, she could just make out walls of glimmering gold in the distance. Beyond the walls was... nothing. Just empty black space.
And she wasn't alone.
Human. Female.
Rose tried to get to her feet, but her actions were being impeded. Another wave of thick fog drifted by her face, obscuring the golden walls in the distance. She began to cough as the cold air hit the back of her throat.
Female. Hot blood coursing through veins. Breathe in. Moving.
Alive!
Rose managed to get to her knees, grabbing at a single rose petal that tumbled near, blown across the snow by the stinging wind. A wave of dizziness passed through her body as she again attempted to stand, making her unsteady and unsure of her balance. White hot pain suddenly flared in her ankle for no reason that she could discern, and her eyes began to tear. Stumbling with the pain, she again fell to her knees. The rose petal she still clutched tightly felt real enough in her hand, as real as the rapid beating of her heart. She took in a shuddering breath of cold air, and that felt real too - right down to the cold ache she felt in her throat as she swallowed painfully.
Something about her body felt strange to her, as if it were moving of its own accord. Nausea and dizziness flooded through her again, and she closed her eyes, willing herself not to be sick.
She could suddenly see a dreamlike image of the Doctor, his eyes wide in panic. His feet slipped in the packed snow as he tried to push himself to a stand against the icy hull of the frozen longboat. Her eyes snapped open - to reveal the same icy fog and golden barriers. The Doctor wasn't there.
This is happening, he's out there. I know he is, she thought. She wondered how long the barriers would last before closing her eyes again.
Time Lord.
The Doctor was floundering, trying to haul himself to his feet using the chain that still bound his right wrist. Blood still dripped from his wrist and elbow to stain the snow below. His face was ashy pale except for the gash on his forehead that still oozed rusty blood, and the dark purple bruising marring the skin over his temples. Wide brown eyes met hers.
"Rose?" he said in a dry and frantic voice.
Could he see her? Did he know she was there? The thought lifted her spirits, and she allowed herself to hope that she might somehow survive this ordeal after all.
Then her arms were moving of their own accord, hands moving upward to trace her fingertips over his bruised temples before pressing hard. The Doctor hissed in pain, his body going rigid.
Submit.
Panicked, Rose desperately struggled to regain control of her body, managing to jerk back her arms from the control of the creature the Doctor had called the Fendahl. Pain flooded through her and she screamed in agony, the phantom body around her spasming.
"Rose!"
The Doctor's voice - she could still hear him! She tried to keep her legs from moving, but to no avail. Searing pain from her injured ankle marked each sluggish step. The gait of her phantom body was jerky, and she took some small satisfaction in knowing that she could at least slow the creature down. Maybe if she really concentrated....
"Rose, don't fight it!"
She raised her eyes to his - he looked more fatigued now than panicked, at least. "Why?" she managed to whisper.
"It'll only drain you more quickly. Rose, please... please don't fight it," the Doctor murmured. "The Fendahl will have to retreat soon enough to regain its strength - controlling you is a huge drain on its energy reserves. Just hang on - don't fight it!"
"Can't... can't let it... hurt you...." She was racked with pain, her phantom body tightening like a bowstring before again spasming.
"Rose, please!" the Doctor implored, pained eyes holding her gaze.
She nodded, relinquishing control to the creature as cold terror squeezed her heart. And yet, buried deep within, burning warm, was hope. Hope that they'd find some way to defeat the creature and get out of this mess they were in. She had to hang on.
Submit or die.
Rose suddenly found herself sitting in the fog-shrouded winter of her inner mindscape again, the rose petal that had been in her hand crushed beyond recognition. She let it fall to the snow, her palm smeared with pink. A tear trickled down her cheek, leaving a freezing trail in its wake. She couldn't do this. No matter what the Doctor had said, she couldn't just sit here and let the creature use her to hurt the Doctor. Taking a deep shaky breath, she closed her eyes again.
"All you have to do is submit, Doctor... and all of this will go away. Perhaps your companion will be spared."
That was the strange woman Rose had seen before - what was she doing here? Rose tried to angle her head to look around the room, but searing pain prevented her from doing so. She turned her head back, and met the Doctor's wide eyes. She was nose-to-nose with him, the front of her body pressing to his. Her eyes burned painfully as her hand moved of its own accord to encircle the Doctor's left wrist.
He swallowed hard, turning his head to address the other woman in the room. "The Fendahl is lying to you. Whatever it's promised you, believe me - it won't deliver. It's manipulating you," the Doctor said simply, holding himself still as Rose felt her possessed body shift against his. "And it won't spare my friend," he added softly, bowing his head and not looking at Rose.
"Very well, then," the woman was saying from somewhere quite near. Rose tried again to turn her head to see where the woman was, but to no avail. "We'll just have to do this the hard way."
"I've shut down my capacity to regenerate," the Doctor said, eyeing Rose nervously. "You won't get past my barriers that way."
"Shall we put that to the test?"
"I'm warning you," the Doctor said, his voice low and dangerous. "I'm the last. Last of the Time Lords. If you kill me, your master will be trapped forever. Do you want to take that chance?"
Rose tried desperately to release the Doctor from her grasp and move away, but she was only able to shift backward on her injured ankle, and she gasped in pain.
"Rose?" the Doctor murmured anxiously.
"She will not last long, Doctor," the woman said, laughing cruelly. "And perhaps neither will you."
Rose whimpered as her sluggish legs moved of their own accord, the pain in her left ankle flaring with each small movement. The Doctor's eyes darted to hers as her body pressed itself flush against his, his wrist still encircled by Rose's hand. "Doctor... " she whispered, as a single tear coursed unhindered down her cheek. Her eyes hurt, and she squinted against a sudden blinding glare of light that seemed to originate from within herself.
The Doctor watched her warily before his eyes suddenly widened. "Rose, your eyes... the transformation... it's already started! You've got to hold on - stay behind the barriers!"
"Can't... c-can't let it hurt you...."
"Rose, listen to me," he said quietly. "You have to let go. Conserve your strength. Please - the Fendahl's control shouldn't last much longer."
"You sound quite sure of that, Doctor," the unseen woman taunted from a distance. "I think we might have discovered another weakness."
The Doctor scowled briefly before turning his head from Rose, his face a careful mask of indifference. The chain tethering his right arm jingled as he pulled at it.
"Am I correct?"
"It makes no difference to you," he muttered in the general direction of the icy floor. Rose could feel him trying to shift his body away from where it was pressed to hers. "Please, let her go."
"Interesting," the woman murmured. "I don't recall you making any such plea for my life. In fact, I don't recall you doing much to save my life at all."
Rose looked up with difficulty to see the Doctor glaring over her shoulder, where the other woman presumably stood.
His eyes narrowed in contemplation. "Who are you?"
"You haven't worked it out yet?"
"Doctor - " Rose interjected, her hand tightening around his wrist. She felt him twist in her grasp, then stroke his fingers reassuringly along the inside of her forearm. She shivered. "I f-feel so cold."
"You're still hiding something, Doctor, aren't you?"
"Stop it, she's dying," the Doctor muttered.
"And I will watch as the life runs out of you." The woman laughed again, the sound echoing eerily in the chamber. "You will be one of us. Very soon."
"Doctor...." Rose couldn't halt the movements of her body as the presence of the creature pulsed sickeningly in her consciousness. She could just make out where the Doctor's body pressed to hers as tiny tendrils of foreign mass filmed over her eyes and muffled the sounds that reached her ears. Her heart pounded in her chest, and her voice congealed in her throat in a silent scream....
"Hang on, Rose... please! You've got to hang on!"
Submit, Time Lord.
Intense hatred flooded through her veins. The enemy was here. She could smell his fear. He would submit. She began by breaking his left wrist. It was difficult to do with her borrowed, frail body, but surprise was on her side. The Time Lord cried out in pain, and a smile quirked at the corner of her mouth.
The ocean roared in the distance.
***************
Rose blinked her eyes, the residual vestiges of what seemed like a horrible dream slowly dispersing. Confusing images danced before her eyes, conflicting with her perception of reality. The Doctor was hurt, injured - but he had done something, something terrible to bring this upon himself. He deserved it? No, wait - that wasn't right. Where had that thought come from? Rose shook her head, trying to clear the fog. Then she realized she was quite cold. Where had she left her coat? And for that matter, where was she?
She blinked again, and the room slowly swam into focus. Blue-green kaleidoscopic light glittered above, and two large, bulky men were hauling a lifeless, pinstripe-suited form back up onto the surface of the icy longboat. The strange woman was there, directing the men as the Doctor was rechained, his feet and wrist returned to their manacles. She glanced over to where Rose lay, and Rose quickly shut her eyes, pretending to be unconscious and trying to keep from panicking.
Rose lay absolutely still as the woman murmured her satisfaction before returning to the metallic podium, pressing a few buttons before exiting, the two men following in her wake. She waited a few more seconds before cautiously sitting up. The Doctor hadn't moved, and Rose gaped at the amount of blood staining the snow to the side of the vessel. He had to still be alive, he had to be!
A small whimper just behind her startled her out of her shock, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Turning quickly, she saw a small, bundled girl, trying to press herself out of sight in a indentation in the snow of the wall behind her. "K-Kate? Is that you?" she asked softly, her voice unnatural and hoarse to her ears. "You nearly scared the life out of me!"
The little girl raised tear-streaked eyes to her. "That w-was my m-mom," she whispered.
Author:
mtemplarRating: Adult
Characters: The Doctor (Tenth), Rose Tyler
Disclaimer: I do not own 'Doctor Who' and am making no profit from this fanfiction.
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Graphic Sex, Graphic Violence, Romance
Spoilers: Set mid Series 2
Author's Notes: This story follows the events in To Have And Not To Hold (first chapter of that story is here) and Not Here (the first chapter of that short follow-up is here). It is loosely based on the Fourth Doctor serial 'Image of the Fendahl', and contains elements from the 1996 TV movie and the novel 'The Taking of Planet 5'. Huge hugs to
principia_coh for the amazing icon and banner!Betas: Many, many thanks to
platypus and garpu!Summary: The Doctor and Rose have been mysteriously diverted to the ice planet Seuls, located within the constellation of Canthares. It soon becomes apparent that things are not at all as they should be, and the newly-formed bond between them will be tested as the trap of an ancient enemy is sprung.
Previous Chapters:
One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven
Crossposted to
time_and_chips, dwfiction, Teaspoon and The Zero Room.
Chapter 12
Time Lord.
Rose slowly blinked her eyes open, rubbing at them when she found her vision was still blurred. Her movements were slow and jerky, as if she were trying to wade through jelly. She looked at her arm and her eyes widened as she realized that she could see blurred afterimages of her movement, almost as if she were in a dream, instead of merely inside her head. What was happening?
Time Lord.
She was surrounded by a thick, icy fog that flowed past her in waves. Every so often, she could just make out walls of glimmering gold in the distance. Beyond the walls was... nothing. Just empty black space.
And she wasn't alone.
Human. Female.
Rose tried to get to her feet, but her actions were being impeded. Another wave of thick fog drifted by her face, obscuring the golden walls in the distance. She began to cough as the cold air hit the back of her throat.
Female. Hot blood coursing through veins. Breathe in. Moving.
Alive!
Rose managed to get to her knees, grabbing at a single rose petal that tumbled near, blown across the snow by the stinging wind. A wave of dizziness passed through her body as she again attempted to stand, making her unsteady and unsure of her balance. White hot pain suddenly flared in her ankle for no reason that she could discern, and her eyes began to tear. Stumbling with the pain, she again fell to her knees. The rose petal she still clutched tightly felt real enough in her hand, as real as the rapid beating of her heart. She took in a shuddering breath of cold air, and that felt real too - right down to the cold ache she felt in her throat as she swallowed painfully.
Something about her body felt strange to her, as if it were moving of its own accord. Nausea and dizziness flooded through her again, and she closed her eyes, willing herself not to be sick.
She could suddenly see a dreamlike image of the Doctor, his eyes wide in panic. His feet slipped in the packed snow as he tried to push himself to a stand against the icy hull of the frozen longboat. Her eyes snapped open - to reveal the same icy fog and golden barriers. The Doctor wasn't there.
This is happening, he's out there. I know he is, she thought. She wondered how long the barriers would last before closing her eyes again.
Time Lord.
The Doctor was floundering, trying to haul himself to his feet using the chain that still bound his right wrist. Blood still dripped from his wrist and elbow to stain the snow below. His face was ashy pale except for the gash on his forehead that still oozed rusty blood, and the dark purple bruising marring the skin over his temples. Wide brown eyes met hers.
"Rose?" he said in a dry and frantic voice.
Could he see her? Did he know she was there? The thought lifted her spirits, and she allowed herself to hope that she might somehow survive this ordeal after all.
Then her arms were moving of their own accord, hands moving upward to trace her fingertips over his bruised temples before pressing hard. The Doctor hissed in pain, his body going rigid.
Submit.
Panicked, Rose desperately struggled to regain control of her body, managing to jerk back her arms from the control of the creature the Doctor had called the Fendahl. Pain flooded through her and she screamed in agony, the phantom body around her spasming.
"Rose!"
The Doctor's voice - she could still hear him! She tried to keep her legs from moving, but to no avail. Searing pain from her injured ankle marked each sluggish step. The gait of her phantom body was jerky, and she took some small satisfaction in knowing that she could at least slow the creature down. Maybe if she really concentrated....
"Rose, don't fight it!"
She raised her eyes to his - he looked more fatigued now than panicked, at least. "Why?" she managed to whisper.
"It'll only drain you more quickly. Rose, please... please don't fight it," the Doctor murmured. "The Fendahl will have to retreat soon enough to regain its strength - controlling you is a huge drain on its energy reserves. Just hang on - don't fight it!"
"Can't... can't let it... hurt you...." She was racked with pain, her phantom body tightening like a bowstring before again spasming.
"Rose, please!" the Doctor implored, pained eyes holding her gaze.
She nodded, relinquishing control to the creature as cold terror squeezed her heart. And yet, buried deep within, burning warm, was hope. Hope that they'd find some way to defeat the creature and get out of this mess they were in. She had to hang on.
Submit or die.
Rose suddenly found herself sitting in the fog-shrouded winter of her inner mindscape again, the rose petal that had been in her hand crushed beyond recognition. She let it fall to the snow, her palm smeared with pink. A tear trickled down her cheek, leaving a freezing trail in its wake. She couldn't do this. No matter what the Doctor had said, she couldn't just sit here and let the creature use her to hurt the Doctor. Taking a deep shaky breath, she closed her eyes again.
"All you have to do is submit, Doctor... and all of this will go away. Perhaps your companion will be spared."
That was the strange woman Rose had seen before - what was she doing here? Rose tried to angle her head to look around the room, but searing pain prevented her from doing so. She turned her head back, and met the Doctor's wide eyes. She was nose-to-nose with him, the front of her body pressing to his. Her eyes burned painfully as her hand moved of its own accord to encircle the Doctor's left wrist.
He swallowed hard, turning his head to address the other woman in the room. "The Fendahl is lying to you. Whatever it's promised you, believe me - it won't deliver. It's manipulating you," the Doctor said simply, holding himself still as Rose felt her possessed body shift against his. "And it won't spare my friend," he added softly, bowing his head and not looking at Rose.
"Very well, then," the woman was saying from somewhere quite near. Rose tried again to turn her head to see where the woman was, but to no avail. "We'll just have to do this the hard way."
"I've shut down my capacity to regenerate," the Doctor said, eyeing Rose nervously. "You won't get past my barriers that way."
"Shall we put that to the test?"
"I'm warning you," the Doctor said, his voice low and dangerous. "I'm the last. Last of the Time Lords. If you kill me, your master will be trapped forever. Do you want to take that chance?"
Rose tried desperately to release the Doctor from her grasp and move away, but she was only able to shift backward on her injured ankle, and she gasped in pain.
"Rose?" the Doctor murmured anxiously.
"She will not last long, Doctor," the woman said, laughing cruelly. "And perhaps neither will you."
Rose whimpered as her sluggish legs moved of their own accord, the pain in her left ankle flaring with each small movement. The Doctor's eyes darted to hers as her body pressed itself flush against his, his wrist still encircled by Rose's hand. "Doctor... " she whispered, as a single tear coursed unhindered down her cheek. Her eyes hurt, and she squinted against a sudden blinding glare of light that seemed to originate from within herself.
The Doctor watched her warily before his eyes suddenly widened. "Rose, your eyes... the transformation... it's already started! You've got to hold on - stay behind the barriers!"
"Can't... c-can't let it hurt you...."
"Rose, listen to me," he said quietly. "You have to let go. Conserve your strength. Please - the Fendahl's control shouldn't last much longer."
"You sound quite sure of that, Doctor," the unseen woman taunted from a distance. "I think we might have discovered another weakness."
The Doctor scowled briefly before turning his head from Rose, his face a careful mask of indifference. The chain tethering his right arm jingled as he pulled at it.
"Am I correct?"
"It makes no difference to you," he muttered in the general direction of the icy floor. Rose could feel him trying to shift his body away from where it was pressed to hers. "Please, let her go."
"Interesting," the woman murmured. "I don't recall you making any such plea for my life. In fact, I don't recall you doing much to save my life at all."
Rose looked up with difficulty to see the Doctor glaring over her shoulder, where the other woman presumably stood.
His eyes narrowed in contemplation. "Who are you?"
"You haven't worked it out yet?"
"Doctor - " Rose interjected, her hand tightening around his wrist. She felt him twist in her grasp, then stroke his fingers reassuringly along the inside of her forearm. She shivered. "I f-feel so cold."
"You're still hiding something, Doctor, aren't you?"
"Stop it, she's dying," the Doctor muttered.
"And I will watch as the life runs out of you." The woman laughed again, the sound echoing eerily in the chamber. "You will be one of us. Very soon."
"Doctor...." Rose couldn't halt the movements of her body as the presence of the creature pulsed sickeningly in her consciousness. She could just make out where the Doctor's body pressed to hers as tiny tendrils of foreign mass filmed over her eyes and muffled the sounds that reached her ears. Her heart pounded in her chest, and her voice congealed in her throat in a silent scream....
"Hang on, Rose... please! You've got to hang on!"
Submit, Time Lord.
Intense hatred flooded through her veins. The enemy was here. She could smell his fear. He would submit. She began by breaking his left wrist. It was difficult to do with her borrowed, frail body, but surprise was on her side. The Time Lord cried out in pain, and a smile quirked at the corner of her mouth.
The ocean roared in the distance.
***************
Rose blinked her eyes, the residual vestiges of what seemed like a horrible dream slowly dispersing. Confusing images danced before her eyes, conflicting with her perception of reality. The Doctor was hurt, injured - but he had done something, something terrible to bring this upon himself. He deserved it? No, wait - that wasn't right. Where had that thought come from? Rose shook her head, trying to clear the fog. Then she realized she was quite cold. Where had she left her coat? And for that matter, where was she?
She blinked again, and the room slowly swam into focus. Blue-green kaleidoscopic light glittered above, and two large, bulky men were hauling a lifeless, pinstripe-suited form back up onto the surface of the icy longboat. The strange woman was there, directing the men as the Doctor was rechained, his feet and wrist returned to their manacles. She glanced over to where Rose lay, and Rose quickly shut her eyes, pretending to be unconscious and trying to keep from panicking.
Rose lay absolutely still as the woman murmured her satisfaction before returning to the metallic podium, pressing a few buttons before exiting, the two men following in her wake. She waited a few more seconds before cautiously sitting up. The Doctor hadn't moved, and Rose gaped at the amount of blood staining the snow to the side of the vessel. He had to still be alive, he had to be!
A small whimper just behind her startled her out of her shock, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Turning quickly, she saw a small, bundled girl, trying to press herself out of sight in a indentation in the snow of the wall behind her. "K-Kate? Is that you?" she asked softly, her voice unnatural and hoarse to her ears. "You nearly scared the life out of me!"
The little girl raised tear-streaked eyes to her. "That w-was my m-mom," she whispered.
