THE SACRIFICIAL LAMB
Chapter Six Rory finished putting on his robe and made a face. "Ugh, this thing is heavy," he said to the Doctor. "We have to wear this thing all the time? I think I'm gonna sweat to death." "On the other hand, it acts like a comfy blanket and you can sleep in it," the Doctor replied with a cheeky grin. Rory lay back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling while the Doctor, in the bed across from him, did the same. "So, we find out what this Astra is up to and stop her?" Rory said, glancing at the Doctor. "Yes, but…" "But?" Rory prompted when his friend fell silent and stared up at the ceiling. "Rory, can you keep a secret," the Doctor said, turning on his side. Rory turned on his side and faced him. "Yeah," Rory said. "I need you to keep what I'm about to tell you secret for the moment. You can't tell Amy and River." "Okay," Rory said. "That woman out there, the one who calls herself Astra, I know who she is." "Really? Who is she?" Rory said, raising up on his elbow. The Doctor was about to say something, then had a thought. He held up his finger and put it to his lips as he got up from the bed. He pulled up his robe and reached into his trouser pocket. He took out his sonic screwdriver and did a quick scan. He read the results and nodded. "Okay, no bugs or hidden listening devices or hidden cameras, we can speak freely," the Doctor said softly as he put his screwdriver back in his pocket. "Anyway, the woman's name is Rose Tyler." "Okay," Rory said while the Doctor put his robe back down and lay back down. "Friend?" The Doctor hesitated and Rory frowned at that. "Enemy?" he guessed. "No, she's a friend, traveled with me and…" "And?" Rory prompted, sensing his friend's hesitation. "And…she was my lover," the Doctor said. He turned his face to Rory, gauging his reaction. Rory stared at him in silent confusion. "But…" Rory finally said, pointing to the wall," I thought River was your lover." "I have no idea what River is to me since she won't tell me," the Doctor said, rolling on his side. "Rose, however, is a different story. She and I were a couple until…she got trapped in a parallel universe." He briefly filled Rory in on Rose and what happened to her, finishing up with him leaving her with the clone. Rory listened in a fascinated silence since he rarely heard the Doctor discuss his past, not to mention his love life. "So, you see, I left her there with my clone," the Doctor said. "And I thought the universes were sealed but apparently Rose found a way to get back…again." "And that's a bad thing?" Rory said, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side. "You don't love her anymore?" "I do love her but she can't keep hopping across universes like this. There's a risk she could destroy both our universes if she's not careful. Not to mention the fact that she might have brought that clone with her and the last thing I need is another version of me running loose here. That's why I left her there with him, to look after him and make sure he didn't muck up things. I can't give her the life she wants, Rory. She wants me to be domestic and be there for her the rest of her life and possibly marry her and make babies and I can't do that. I'm a Time Lord, I never age and I told her that. I don't wanna go through the pain of watching her grow old while she wastes away and dies. So, I gave her a half human version of myself because he can give her what I can't but apparently she doesn't want him and wants me, even though this clone is me in every way except for the one heart and the humanity." "But what if she's here against her will, Doctor?" Rory said. "Yes, I thought of that as well and I'm leaning towards that actually since all this is not her style. She would never create some sort of bizarre religion in my name. She's been possessed before by a women called Cassandra. Cassandra took over her body and Rose acted strange when she did which is how I sussed out that there was something wrong. I'm thinking it's happened again because this isn't what Rose would do," he said, waving his arms around. "So, why am I keeping this a secret?" Rory said. "Why aren't you telling Amy and River." "Because I'm afraid if they find out about our relationship, both of them will get jealous and confront her. Especially River since the woman seems to love violence and the last thing I want is for her to put her fist in Rose's face because I love her more than River. Just wait till we find out what's going on before we tell them, yeah?" Rory nodded and the Doctor thanked him while he lay back down. Rory lay down and stared up at the ceiling. Suddenly, he had a thought and rolled onto his side. "So…if Rose is back, are you going to resume your relationship with her?" Rory asked him. The Doctor stared up at the ceiling while he thought that over. "I'd love to, but…" The Doctor let out a frustrated sigh and put his hands over his face. "Augh, it was much easier when my traveling companions were strictly friends," he said through his hands. "Even if I tell Rose no, there's always River to consider. Apparently, she and I might end up married and…" He took his hands away from his face. "I do something in future where I tell River my real name. I don't know what it is but it must be something monumental because I don't tell people my real name. And I know she knows because she whispered my name to me in my ear as proof. So apparently, my future self trusted the woman enough to tell her something I haven't even told Rose." "What if River is a future version of Rose then?" Rory blurted out. The Doctor froze at that and then shook his head. "No, that would be impossible. Rose would have to change her body to look like River and in order to do that, she'd have to be a Time Lady and I assure you, Rose is human." "But what if something happened to change that?" Rory said. "Is it possible for a human to become a Time Lord…or Lady?" "Not that I know of," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "I had a friend, Donna, who turned into half a Time Lord with a Time Lord mind and it nearly killed her. I had to wipe every trace of me and our adventures from her mind just so she wouldn't burn up…" The Doctor suddenly froze. "Burn…up…" he murmured, staring off into the distance. "What is it?" Rory said. Rory gave his friend a confused look when the Doctor got up and paced the floor in front of his bed. "Doctor, what is it?" Rory asked. The Doctor stopped and came over to sit beside him. "When I was in my ninth life, we were trapped on this satellite by the Daleks, I sent Rose away so she'd be safe but she, like always, was determined to get back to me. She managed to open the console and looked into the core which is the heart of the TARDIS. The TARDIS possessed her and she became an entity known as Bad Wolf. She came back and saved me by basically disintegrating the Daleks but it essentially turned her into a god because she had supernatural powers that no human should possess. The energy was starting to hurt her and I took it out of her body and put it back into the TARDIS and taking that energy into my body burned me up and I was forced to regenerate. The thing is, when I took the energy inside me, my body began to break down almost immediately but Rose was able to keep the energy inside her for at least a half hour before it started bothering her. What she did should have killed her outright the way it killed me, but it didn't. And now since you brought up this theory of River, I'm starting to wonder if Rose might be able to regenerate without having Time Lord DNA. Perhaps, the Bad Wolf is all she needs…" The Doctor fell silent again and after a moment, shook his head. "River didn't show any recognition of her though," he said. "If Rose is River's past…" "But River's hidden things from us," Rory pointed out. "You know, spoilers and all that." "Yes, I know," the Doctor said angrily. "Which is why we'll never know for sure, at least not for awhile until it's time for her to reveal those damn spoilers to me. Even if I held her feet to the flames, she wouldn't say if this theory of ours was correct. She won't even say for certain if we're married. So…I'm afraid, Rory boy, that we might have to put this theory on the back burner for now until River finally tells us who she really is. Right now, our priority is finding out if something's happened to Rose and if so, rescuing her from it. Not to mention finding out if my clone is around here somewhere since I haven't seen him yet. Unless, he's behind one of these doors. We're supposed to have a group meeting at 8 tonight so I'm assuming if we all have to go to it so will he." "Do you think if you went and talked to Rose and revealed yourself to her that she might explain what's going on here?" Rory asked. The Doctor thought that over. "I'm tempted to but if she's being possessed by someone, this whole thing might be a trap. That's why we all used aliases. Well, I had to have one anyway but River and Amy are using aliases as well." "Really? I used my real name, d'ya think I did the right thing?" "I think it'll be okay. She doesn't seem to recognize me and if she doesn't, she won't know the people traveling with me right now so I think you're safe," the Doctor said. "But, FYI, I'm James Dodge, River is Marie Smith and Amy is Cecilia Black. So be sure to use those names among these people." Rory nodded and the Doctor patted his shoulder. "Listen, let's have a lie down until 6. That's when they call us for supper. We can chat later on tonight after the meeting." Rory nodded. The Doctor smiled before he got up and went back to his bed. Meanwhile, Rose was in her room, preparing to lie down on her bed for a quick nap. While she was in her bathroom using the toilet, she suddenly heard her master's voice inside her mind calling to her. Her eyes unfocused as she stared at the wall across from the toilet. "Astra," the voice said. "Yes, master?" she said aloud in a dull voice. "I need you to find out all you can about the four newcomers," the voice said. "I have a feeling there's more here than meets the eye. I think they may hold information about the Doctor. I want you to be discrete but find out if they know him." "Yes, master," Rose said. "Good. Go ahead and have a nap but after the meeting tonight, get to know them better and find out all you can about their backgrounds," the voice said. "Especially the one called James. Get close to him, if you can." "Yes, master." "Good. Now obey." The voice faded away and Rose blinked her eyes a couple of times. She frowned, getting the sense that something just happened to her but she couldn't remember what it was. With a mental shrug, she finished peeing, flushed the toilet and went to wash her hands.
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