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Cracked Fairy Tales, Chapter 4 of 5
Title: Cracked Fairy Tales (Chapter 4)
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Rose, Nine, Ten, Jack, Romana, Donna, (Jack/Rose, Rose/Doctor, Jack/Rose/Doctor)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3,190
Disclaimer: Nothing in here belongs to me. Alas
Summary: Not every story is told in a straight line and sometimes one has to follow the bread crumbs in order to get back home.
A/N: Many thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
bounce who took a look at the start and to deathpixie , who beta read this on her vacation. :D This is a direct sequel to my story ‘Composed of Nows’ (linked to the last part because there are links to the first chapters from there) and the nugget of an idea in that story blossomed into this 10k+ story. Ow, my brain. :D And cross posted.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
When the image of Romana faded back into the body of Rose, the Doctor didn't even realize he had landed on his knees next to her, large and calloused hands clasping around her head tightly. He ignored the protesting from her friend and delved inside her head, chasing after the golden light like a man possessed. He didn't know how she'd come to have the Time Vortex in her at one point or had been the key to starting that ... that ... whatever it had been.
But he aimed to find out.
As he fell into her memories, he had one, last rueful thought.
This incarnation of him was really rather rubbish at telepathic contact...
~~
Memories were funny creatures but easily categorized into three types. There were the memories that creatures actually lived through, the ones they remember truly (in one form or another); then there were the memories that are there not because one remembered them but because someone had told the story of it happening so often that it seemed more personal memory than third party; and then there were the ones that linger on the edge of thought, there but not really. Teasing, taunting.
It was the third one he was chasing but he had to go through the first two before he finally found it.
~~
Once upon a time, there was a young woman who married the love of her life. He was no prince but that was just fine since she certainly was no princess and while they fought from time to time (ahem), they loved each other very much. But the one thing they loved more than each other was their little daughter.
In most stories, something would have happened to the little princess - some evil fairy, or witch or just plain, old bad luck, would put her on a path that would create hardship. She would have flowing, gorgeous locks but was locked in some far away tower; she would have a hand for certain skills but one prick on the threading wheel and she and her entire family were put in a deep sleep; in one case, some horrid witch would even tried to eat her.
But that's not the point of this story.
The little not-princess grew up without a father but with a loving, if rather excitable, mother. She had a long lasting, if rather excitable, set of friends and for the most part, she had a good, if rather excitable, slew of boyfriends. With one or two exceptions her life was normal and a bit boring.
But that was before she was introduced to the woodsman, who took her away from her mother's little flat and showed her the world beyond the forests of London. And one could suppose that since she occasionally wore a red hoodie, it was quite understandable that the woodsman had been under the impression that he had found Little Red Riding Hood.
But the woodsman was very mistaken.
She was seven and very upset.
Her mother crouched in front of her, wiping away tears and soothing. "What's the matter, sweetheart? You got the part, didn't you?"
Little Rose hiccuped and threw down the script. "B-but I don't wanna be Red Riding Hood!" she wailed, much to her mother's confusion. Didn't every little girl want to be the hero in the story?
"No? Then what, darling? What did you want to be?"
"I-I wanted to be the Big Bad Wolf!" Rose howled and her mother gathered her close and eyed the shadows in the flat with some apprehension.
~~
"What happened?"
"Don't you remember?"
"It's like ... there was this singing..."
"That's right! I sang a song and the Daleks ran away."
He couldn't sing to save his life. For that matter, neither could she. But it was a song that was built into the very foundation that made up one Rose Marion Tyler and it flooded the Doctor's mental sense. So loud that he could not hear, so heavy that he felt pulled down, so cloying that it clogged his nose and throat, and it bore down with the steady determination of time.
The Doctor could barely stand it and he wondered how this girl, this one tiny human girl, was still sane.
Reaching out, he touched a golden note and it sang so sweetly that he wept from it.
It wasn't just a swan's song; it was the Time Lord's swan song.
~~
The Doctor blinked as he found himself ... inside a chip shop. This, he decided with a scowl, was getting down right bizarre.
"Don't grump, your face'll freeze like that," came a cheerful voice behind him and he spun to see Rose at a table near a window. She'd ordered two servings of chips and two drinks - he approached cautiously as she gestured for him to sit down. "Got it jus' the way you like it, yeah? Too much vinegar for my taste but I'll still swipe a few. Fair warnin' and all."
He sat and poked at the food in front of him as if he expected something to leap out and gnaw his face off. When nothing happened he looked up to see that Rose was watching him patiently as she wolfed down her own food. It smelled real and, after a bite, tasted real, too. This was beyond a simply dream or even memory. This was beyond what a human should be capable of.
"Just eat," she said gently when he looked up to ask about it, "you've the time to question later."
"Suppose so, Time Lord and all," he found himself agreeing as he dug in. They weren't real but it felt rude to turn them down and he kept casting glances her way in between bites. She was a younger version than the one out there. Oh, not so much in regards to her face but her eyes ... her eyes were so young. Young but not quite innocent - he felt a pang as he wondered if he was going to be the cause of the loss of that innocence.
Eventually he sat back in his chair and stared at her. "What's this game you're playin'?" he asked but his voice wasn't as angry as he thought it was going to be.
Fantastic.
Last of the Time Lords and he had been disarmed by a pretty girl and a plate of chips.
...well, they'd been some really fantastic chips.
"One day, soon even, you're goin' to meet me in your future," she said, popping a chip in her mouth. "I'm here ta make sure this happens."
"Why? Why you? Why now? Why ... Romana?"
Rose paused and tilted her head, staring over his shoulder. "Think she should be able ta tell you more on that," she said softly. "'m not so good at that bit but she's got more of the story."
The Doctor twisted in his seat and found himself staring at a copy of the woman he'd just shared chips with. Only, not. She was glowing like Romana had been and there was very little in the way of humanity in her eyes. He glanced back at Rose, who shrugged and stole another of his vinegar soaked chip off his plate.
"What are you?" he asked, turning back, though the question was for the both of them.
"I looked into the the heart of the TARDIS, Doctor, and she looked back. Some will call me the Valiant Child, others have called me Bad Wolf."
Rose behind him added quietly, "Others, jus' Rose. Ta be honest that's what I prefer."
He was kneeling next to the golden vision in a heartbeat, studying her this way and that, reaching for her with his mind. "... Rassilion, you're a Time Vortex shadow," he said after a moment, rocking back on his heels. "But that's not possible." He glared at Rose now. "If I'd been there like you said, I would have fixed this--" He jabbed a finger towards the Shadow. The idea that something like this would happen on his watch, after what he'd done, was almost too much.
"You did," the Shadow responded, turning her gaze on him. He was ashamed to say he flinched. "You took it out, absorbed it, and muzzled the wolf." She leaned forward and whispered, "But the wolf only slumbered. A shadow was all that was left behind, with clear instructions, my Doctor, and I performed them when I could."
When.
When when when when when...
He gaped at her. "You went back in time." It was not a question.
"And forwards, sideways, up, down." Rose sounded rather rueful. "I was apparently very busy."
"Apes, I swear!" The Doctor threw his hands up in the air. "What were you thinkin', absorbing the Time Vortex like that! It could have killed you!"
The Shadow shook her head. "But it did not..."
"Obviously."
"But it changed us, Doctor, for a specific purpose. This was supposed to happen."
He narrowed his eyes, first at the Shadow and then at Rose who was watching both with interest. "And what purpose would that be?"
The Shadow was fast and he didn't even see her move, just felt her hands capture his face gently as she turned him back to face her. "To get you here so we could start the process all over again. To steer you to the path of you being my Doctor because the alternative to that is not one the universe can withstand."
Clothing rustled softly as Rose got to her feet and slipped behind him; she knelt on the floor that wasn't really a floor and slipped her arms around his waist that didn't really exist and squeezed him tight with an embrace that wasn't real. But he could feel the warmth from her body, he could feel the strength from her arms and the floor was hard on his knees. "I'm sorry, Doctor," she muttered into his shoulder, "I'm so, so sorry."
"For what?" he asked, still trying to puzzle out what the Shadow was saying. What she meant.
"For the fact that I was never, ever little Red Ridin' Hood."
And then he realized something. He really was rubbish with the whole telepathic communication thing seeing as he'd left a door to his mind clear open and a trail, like bread crumbs, leading back. The Doctor didn't have time to scream as the Shadow backtracked quicker than thought, eating up the breadcrumbs he'd accidentally left behind until she came to the gingerbread house.
And the Bad Wolf huffed, and puffed and the door caved in.
~~
Once upon a time, there was a little boy and a little girl whose mum and grandmum were the best of friends. And every day, those two would get together and chat away about nothing in particular. Or, at least, that was the case according to the little boy and girl. Now, the little boy and girl were also the best of friends and were rather known to be very good at getting into trouble - apparently, a trait that would stay with them for life.
One day, they decided it was best if they leave the nattering women behind and they ventured beyond the woods of London. She'd brought a dolly, he - being a boy and a rather hungry one at that - brought a sandwich. Which was very wise considering that when they eventually got lost - they were, after all, a little boy and a little girl in a great big wood - they decided to use their heads and left a trail of breadcrumbs.
But they found that some odd looking birds made from clockparts had taken their breadcrumbs (for you see, apparently breadcrumbs make good ship material) and the odd looking birds had also locked away the woodsman behind a mirror.
For five hours, the poor little children were quite lost until they came upon a house made of gingerbread. The boy, being a boy, decided it was best to go in but the little girl was worried. And rightly so because there was a woman in that house and she had developed a taste for cooked children (those that live in gingerbread houses apparently grew tired of eating sweets all day).
And on the stroke of five and a half hours, the woodsman erupted out of the fireplace to face down the witch - and the wolf broke down the door to save both the little boy and the woodsman.
Hmm? What's that? There's no wolf in this story, you say?
Oh my little darlings, haven't you been paying attention? There's always been a wolf in this story.
It's been hiding right before your very eyes.
~~
They were in a room. A cold, empty room with gray walls that went on for eons.
The Doctor was still kneeling with Rose wrapped around him from behind and the Shadow cupping his face, though she withdrew once they were settled. Gritting his teeth, he heaved himself up to stand on his feet though the girl didn't move far away. She simply slipped next to his side and took his hand, natural as day and he didn't shake her off.
"It's empty," he said dully, voice echoing sharply around them.
The Shadow rapped on one of the walls and it thumped quite heavily. "No, Doctor, it is not. Beyond these walls lies a rich and diverse history. Your people are on the other side..." She pressed up against it and crooned softly, smiling when there was an answering shudder from beyond.
Rose rolled her eyes and tugged on his hand until he looked at her. "She's a bit daft," came the apology. "But it's like ... yer the last one, yeah? Nothin' right now that can change that..."
Right now...
"But what you've got is your memory and you were always tellin' me how superior your brain was to us apes, so I know your memories aren't like ours. It's like ... like you carry around your people right here, Doctor. Inside you. And Romana was bettin' on that, yeah?" Rose reached up and cupped his cheek tenderly. "You taught me that as long as one person remembers, no one's ever truly gone."
There was a scowl on his face but it was half-hearted at best. "You burrowed your way into my brain to tell me that?" he asked. "Could have just said it since I'm brilliant, me."
Rose laughed. "You think you're so impressive!"
"I am!"
It felt like a familiar argument. Future memories always gave him a headache.
Both hands were tugging him down and she was whispering against his mouth, "We came here to show you that it'll get better. You have to get better or else..."
He felt frozen in place and time for the first time in his entire life. "Else what?" The Shadow's words about him becoming something the universes couldn't handle came back to him.
She kissed him and she showed him what could be.
She showed him the end.
~~
Once upon a time, the woodsman had a family. They were dysfunctional but they were all good woodspeople - for the most part. They did their duties and even though most of them felt that it was good enough to watch the trees from a distance, the woodsman set out on his own to tend to the trees in his own way. Still, they were his family and disregarding any banishment from the Land, he cared for them in his own way.
Then one day, the three little pigs came back with friends.
And the woods burned.
And in his hands he held the fire that had consumed them all and it consumed him as well. It turned him from a simple, if brilliant, woodsman into a vengeful god.
One that cast his eye on other woods, far off woods, and wondered what it would feel like to watch them burn.
So he did and any part of the good man still left within the shell of that being died.
And in the fire that consumed the woods of London, a wolf cub burned to death before she could grow into a magnificent creature. And that was the beginning of the end for the wolf and the woodsman - and even time itself.
~~
He tried to draw back but she wouldn't let him. The wolf had him by the scruff of the neck and shook him as Rose continued to kiss him.
'Watch', she and the Shadow commanded and he found he could do nothing else.
She kissed him and she showed him what could be.
~~
Memories, hers, flipped through his mind like some sort of demented pop-up book. They were going at a speed no human could follow but, then again, he wasn't human, was he? He watched her glowing face as she ran into the TARDIS after he asked a second time; the tears she wept for her planet as it was reduced to bits and pieces; the way she stumbled over such a simple word - Raxacoricofallapatorius, if you please; dancing around the TARDIS like fools as he accepted that flashy captain into their midst...
She wasn't all good, though. There were tastes of bitterness on his tongue as he sampled the events that nearly destroyed her world. Her anger and fear towards him when he regenerated without warning. Her jealousy towards Sarah Jane (Oh, Sarah Jane). Getting so caught up in their travels that she sometimes forgot those that she had left behind.
But it was tempered as well by the acts of sheer ... well, part of him wanted to call it bravery, the other stupidity. Jeopardy friendly, this one was. He molded her growth, she tempered the parts of him that had been burned and scorched by the war.
He bore witness to the TARDIS being opened and the start of it all. Or was it the end of it? Hard to tell with a cycle like that. She'd gone to save her Doctor - him, of all people - to keep him safe, to save him either from the Daleks or himself.
After all he had done, all he would do, was he even worthy of being saved from those fires he had turned on his own people?
~~
"YES."
~~
The Doctor sat back on his arse with a thump and stared blankly at the walls of the TARDIS as he was forcibly expelled from the psychic connection. It was taking him - him! - a minute to absorb everything that had just happened but considering that the man (Jack) hadn't moved assured him that it had been only seconds since he'd initiated contact.
Rather stupidly, he realized with a sigh.
Jack dropped to his knees, cradling Rose's head as she groaned.
She met the Doctor's eyes and gave him a wobbly smile. "Right, so 'bout that cuppa? And, god, I could kill for some chips..."
He laughed for the first time in ages and it felt fantastic.
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Oh my little darlings, haven't you been paying attention? There's always been a wolf in this story.
Oh, and that line made me shiver. Literally.
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And, hee, that is one of my favorite lines - I'm glad it's resonating so well! Thanks so much, I'm glad you're enjoying this!
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