PREDATOR AND PREY
Chapter Four Amy, Rory and River watched Rose while she studied the Doctor. "You regenerated," she finally said. "Yes. And this time there was no severed hand to save me," the Doctor said. "You're younger. You keep getting younger each time you do it. Is that s'posed to happen?" Rose said. "Um…no, not necessarily. I like to keep myself young now, especially since I am so old," the Doctor said. "So, how many of his lives have you seen?" River asked. "Um…three now. I started with his ninth life. But this is the first time I've seen him this way," Rose said. "Wow. We've only seen this life," Amy said. "You're not missing anything. He looks like Frankenstein in his other lives," Rose said. "Oi!" the Doctor said as Rose sniggered. "So…I take it you approve of this body?" Rose looked him up and down. Her eyes settled on the bow tie and she raised her eyebrow at that. She opened his jacket and looked at his braces for a moment before letting go. "It'll do," she said. "Gee, thanks, Rose," the Doctor said dryly while the women giggled. "Now that you've gotten over the shock of seeing me again, suppose you tell us why you're here?" Rose told him what she told the others. Amy, Rory and River noticed he stiffened when she said the Valeyard and he got a stricken look on his face. Rose noticed the look and stopped talking. "You know him?" Rose said. "Bollocks. I shoulda known!" the Doctor said, throwing his hands up in the air. "Huh?" Rose said. "Shoulda known what?" "That my clone would turn bad and become the Valeyard," the Doctor said. "What? He's not the Valeyard," Rose said. "He's not?" the Doctor said. "No. Why? Was he s'posed to become the Valeyard?" Rose said. "Um…perhaps. The Valeyard is a possible future version of myself, an evil version." "Like…the Dream Lord?" Rory said. "Similar to him but he looked different," the Doctor said. "But…my clone…he's stable? Hasn't turned evil?" "No. I mean…we've had a few arguments because we're trying to sort out everything since you left us behind but he's not evil and he's certainly not the Valeyard." "Hmm, interesting," the Doctor said, scratching his cheek thoughtfully. Okay, I have an idea. TARDIS, project a holographic image of the Valeyard into this room so Rose can have a look at him." A beam of light came down from the ceiling behind the Doctor and they saw a 3D hologram of an older man dressed in black robes with a black skullcap. "Is this him, Rose?" the Doctor said, pointing to the hologram. "No, looks nothing like him. He's a bit older than you but he has thinning hair and…actually, he has an outfit similar to yours except darker colors." "TARDIS," the Doctor said with a sinking feeling, "show an image of the Dream Lord." The image switched to the Dream Lord and Rose's eyes bugged out. "Yes, that's him!" Rose said, pointing. "But you said he wasn't real," Rory said. "It was some projection from your mind when that stuff got on the console." "Yes, that's true. But…most universes have subtle differences to them," the Doctor said. "In this universe, the Dream Lord was a mental image but in her universe, he's apparently a flesh and blood man. And you said, he was after the TARDIS coral?" he said to Rose. She nodded and finished explaining what happened to them. The Doctor's eyes flashed anger when she mentioned John leaving her behind when he left to hide the coral. "He left you behind so you could be at the mercy of a madman?" the Doctor said. "No, I made him leave me behind. He wanted me to come with him," Rose said. "I stayed behind with Torchwood to try to buy him some time and try to stop the Valeyard and the Valeyard ended up attacking the building and took me hostage." "He took you because of my clone?" the Doctor said. "Does he know who my clone is?" "You mean, does he know he's a clone of you?" Rose said. "Yes." "I don't think so. I don't think there's another Doctor over there. He was after us because he learned that the TARDIS is a time machine," Rose said. "So…he doesn't know about the TARDIS, apart from it's a time machine," the Doctor said. "Yes." "So…he's not even an alternate version of me. It just happens to be someone that resembles the Dream Lord who calls himself the Valeyard. Like I said, alternate universes, they can be fascinating sometimes. So…he captured you and you managed to escape?" "I used the dimension cannon. He took control of Torchwood and held me captive. I got free and got to the cannon before he could capture me again. But I didn't have time to do a proper lock on the TARDIS so I set the coordinates for this universe and just hoped for the best," Rose said. "Rose, you can't keep doing that," the Doctor said. "I'm sorry but I had to find you. You're the only one who can help us," Rose said. "I'm sorry I risked the universes again but I couldn't think of anything else besides finding you." The Doctor glanced at his companions who had been listening silently to their conversation. He sighed and laid a hand on Rose's shoulder. "I should keep on lecturing you for doing this but I am glad you found me," he said. "The main thing we have to do now is find a safe way back so we can stop the Valeyard before he gets the coral away from John. Hopefully, John got it and your family far away from him. The TARDIS is trying to find a way to get back but the problem is we need a way to keep the TARDIS in the other universe without her dying on us. She can't function for long when she's out of her own universe so we need a way to boost her power so she can survive there. That is another thing we'll have to look for. And…you need to recover from your injuries. That shouldn't take long, however. Rory, can you keep an eye on Rose for a moment while the rest of us try to find a power source and a way to get back to the other universe." Rory nodded. "Rory's a nurse so he can look after you. I'll be back soon. In the meantime, we need to get this show on the road because I'm sure the Valeyard won't wait for us to get over there before he tries something. Amy, River, come with me. Rory, keep Rose company." "And change that bow tie," Rose said as the Doctor headed for the door. "Bow ties are cool!" the Doctor, Amy and River yelled back as they ran out the door.
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