Chapter Text
London had not seen the sun in years. Instead, it had been continually shrouded in the thick dark unrelenting clouds that doused it in alternating mist, cold winds or sleet. This blanket of gray extended hundreds of kilometers from the city center, although, those on the perimeter of the cloud coverage zone were blessed with a few rays of sunshine every now and then. Such a gloomy atmosphere affected all those who lived in the city. As the trees and plants died or adapted to the climate change, metamorphosing into almost different species, the same could be said of those that lived in the city. Coats, hats, rain gear and warm clothing were part of everyday life all year round. Buildings with greenhouses with elaborate systems to mimic the lost sun were for the wealthy and elite. Those not so fortunate, could hope for a glimpse of what London used to look like in museums which now included man made green spaces to remind people of what once existed, what people once took for granted until it was gone.
No one knew why this gloom had settled over the city. Scientists had theories but nothing they could prove. Some said it was God's punishment for human kind's sins on Earth. Others, blamed aliens and declared it the apocalypse. The truth was far more complicated and yet simple at the same time. One person knew the answer to why the city had been cloaked in a gray mantel of despair and gloom. A tall man with brown disheveled hair walked the streets and alleyways of the city dressed not unlike the Londoners who called that place their home. He always wore a brown pinstripe suit and a long brown coat with worn and muddied trainers. He looked like any other person on the street except if anyone looked into his eyes, they would see something ancient, cold and dark. This man was no man at all. He was something from myth and legend long forgotten by the sentient beings on Earth. If they knew what walked among them and they had any sense, they would run.
He called himself the Doctor, not that he ever really helped anyone. Once, long ago, his name meant something more, healer, protector, defender against those who would prey upon the weak. Now, it was almost an irony that he still called himself that title given his apathy for life in general. Very rarely did he even interact with the people on the street, maintaining an air of almost invisibility. It was as if most people couldn't or didn't want to see him. As for the Doctor, he seemed almost passive, observing those around him as they raced to and fro to their homes, jobs and any small amount of joy they could squeeze out of their short lived lives. He had existed for millennia and regarded humans as mayflies, existing for a blink of an eye, never knowing how precarious their lives were or what really controlled this planet. His people were the true sovereigns over all of creation. They were gods of the universe. At least, that's what the humans on this planet used to call them.
Of course, that was a time before the war which destroyed his people, when he had become a warrior and fought not just alongside his people but against them as well. He was the sole survivor, at least, that he was aware of. He had not found one hint of any others and Gallifrey, his people's Olympus or Valhalla was gone forever and he was to blame. His penance was walking alone on this world, watching the humans scurry around the wet and muddied streets of this city he once enjoyed. His existence was pain and darkness and thus he dragged this place down with him into his own purgatory. The humans could never understand his misery but he could give them this glimpse. He would share his suffering and so he walked the streets, sidewalks and alleys of this cursed city, his dark mood radiating around him causing people to give him a wide berth.
Each day was the same as he wandered the city, watching, disdaining and judging those around him. Sometimes he would venture inside one of their entertainment venues, listening to concerts, watching films or consuming their limited resources. It was all bland to him. Everything was boring or useless. It did occur to him to end it all with the humans, destroy it all and perhaps himself along with it. He was too much a coward for that.
It was another dismal day as he walked down the crowded, dirty and rain-soaked streets watching the throngs of people push and shove as they tried to make their way to their destination as quickly as possible when something changed. He felt it before it happened, a tremor in time, a moment of chance when the world would shift one way or another. He quickened his pace pulling his coat tighter around him and wiping his drooping brown locks off his face and into even more disarray. His double hearts began beating harder as he followed his senses to find out what was about to happen. It had been centuries since such an occurrence and despite his foul and miserable mood, he was intrigued. He had just turned a corner when someone on a motorcycle splashed him with dirty water coating his already doused and mud caked coat. He stopped and directed furious brown eyes at the cyclist who had the misfortune to hit a slick in the road and skidded into a nasty crash. The brown coated man smirked at this and then continued on his quest, traversing an alley filled with bins overflowing with trash, rats scampering for cover and a few homeless denizens seeking shelter in cardboard boxes that afforded little protection from the weather.
He emerged in a less affluent part of town. It wasn't the same bustling atmosphere he had just left. There were a few groups huddled outside of shops, mostly younger people. Shouting could be heard over the din of music and automobile traffic in the distance. He scanned the area and could feel the disturbance not far off. He walked by a chip shop where the scent of grease and fried food enveloped him triggering memories of a time when he used to enjoy some of the finest cuisine the universe had to offer. That's when the temporal reverberations practically smacked him in the face. Whatever this was, it was near that spot and that's when he saw them, humanoid figures dressed in typical dark clothing. They were pale with hooded coats obscuring any features that would set them apart, show that they weren't human. They appeared to be stalking human prey…on his world. Fury raged through him. No one hunted on his world, invaded his territory without permission and he very rarely allowed any off worlders to trespass his domain.
He followed them into a vacant park littered with the skeletal remains of what used to be magnificent trees but now was nothing but gravel, mud and bare and decaying limbs reaching upward toward the grey sky as if trying to claw their way to the shrouded sun. His anger and overconfidence was his first mistake. They were waiting for him. He cursed as they tackled him to the ground and then pulled him up snarling and hissing, "What have we here? Could this be the great Doctor, the Oncoming Storm and Destroyer of Worlds?"
They knew him and he couldn't deny those cutting titles. It's who he was.
One held his arms back while another punched him in the gut and face. "We lost our world because of your kind! You abandoned us to the darkness that swallowed everything we were!"
He spit out red blood and looked at their faces. "This is my world and you don't have permission to be here," he said in a deceptively calm voice as one of them hit him again.
"You know what we are? What we were?" one of three creatures demanded after another kicked him in the abdomen.
He coughed and looked at that them again, his eyes dark and unsympathetic. "You're the Gelth or what remains of them."
He endured a few more blows before they spoke again. "What remains of us is your fault! Our planet was lost and our bodies are dying, decaying from the power you unleashed! We were forced to find compatible species to save us. You turned us into scavengers when we were once one of the revered worlds of the seven systems! Look at what you've done!"
They pulled their hoods down to show not just pale skin but translucent and deteriorating. They were hairless and he could see veins pulsing beneath their thin almost sickly skin. It was like their flesh was disintegrating or dissolving. The one hitting him had sunken milky eyes and a concave jaw with flesh hanging off. "Take a good look at what you caused," he growled out. "You did this to us, made us who we are now."
"Your world was part of the war as much as mine. Did your people hesitate or turn away at the battle of the Nightmare Child? Did they flinch at Arcadia. No. They destroyed and murdered as much as anyone in that war. They suffered as much as they made others suffer over and over again. I did what I had to in order to end it."
Another stepped forward. "We were used! Disposable warriors for your people! We had no warning until you used the final sanction, uncaring of who was hurt in the process of winning the war. You didn't care who you hurt. So now, Doctor, we do not care. We take what you covet here on this primitive festering world filled with this dirty, primitive species. Their inferior flesh will make us whole and you will watch as we take back what was stolen from us!"
He stared at them coldly. They felt triumphant thinking they were hurting him. Little did they know that he could wipe them out, end their miserable existence in the blink of an eye. He'd done it before. Memories of the war, the inferno destroying his home world and the scream and telepathic feelings of terror and pain filled his mind. He felt no sympathy toward these creatures even if they were victims. They had broken the violated this world that was his and he was about to pass judgment on them.
At least he was, until a certain blonde otherwise known as the temporal point in flux he had been tracking down, showed up. He felt her before the Gelth even knew what was happening. One minute they were beating him and gloating over their perceived revenge and the next his little blonde savior was tossing them to ground and easily dodging their cumbersome attempts at defending themselves. She was quick and strong, knowing where to hit her opponents to incapacitate them. Well, incapacitate them if they were human. Lucky for her, the Gelth were already weak and suffering. A few well placed kicks from her likely shattered their fragile bodies leaving them a groaning heap on the muddy ground. She grabbed his hand and yelled, "Run!"
The moment her warm hand clasped with his, he felt a jolt and then she was tugging him away. Humans rarely looked at him much less touched him, and yet this slip of a girl was charging in to the rescue. He was helpless to resist and ran beside her until she tugged him into the chip shop he'd passed earlier. She was panting slightly as they slid into an old worn booth and she slipped the pink hood off her head and looked at him. "You all right, mate?"
He found himself hesitating. She couldn't have been more than nineteen with shoulder length blonde hair, creamy skin and the most luminous hazel eyes he'd seen in a long while. Time wasn't just in flux around her, it curled lovingly around her in ribbons. She was important in a way most humans weren't. If his people had been around, she would have been plucked off this world and secreted back to his home world for study. But, his people weren't here, he was. After gazing into her eyes a moment too long and a frown furrowing her brow, he realized he hadn't responded to her.
"I'm all right. Just ran into a bit of trouble in the park."
She smiled then and it was like the sun broaching the blanket of clouds over the city. It was quite possibly the most luminous smile he'd ever seen and that was saying something.
"Only a bit? Looked more like a lot to me," she said, still smiling and showing a hint of mischievous tongue.
She was flirting with him. Once he got over the fact and noticed a chippy employee at the counter was glaring at him, he spoke.
"Yes well, might have been more than just a bit and then you did come barreling in to intervene on my behalf like the blonde avenger. Kind of dangerous that, and why are we in a chip shop?" he asked his brow furrowing.
She giggled. "'Cos I'd like some chips. Always have chips after a bit of excitement. It's like a rule here on the estate."
"Is it? Well, I suppose I could do that…"
Rose looked amused. "Well, I did save you so I think you're buying today. I'm Rose by the way, Rose Tyler," she said and held out her hand.
He gazed into her eyes and saw something sparkling in their depths. Slowly, he reached over and took her warm hand in his cool one and gently squeezed. "The Doctor."
She cocked her head to the side. "Just the Doctor?"
He nodded.
"Think you're impressive, do ya?" she teased.
He sat up straighter. "I am impressive."
She laughed again. "Well impress me with some chips then."
He felt a smile just barely emerging, but shoved it down. He was not allowing her to amuse him. He was dark, dangerous and eternal and she was just some pink and yellow human, barely a blip to his existence. She would never understand his burden. He reached into his pockets and then shrugged at her. "No money."
She laughed again. "Well, you're a cheap date. Fine, I'll buy the chips this time." She stood up and walked to the counter and ordered for them.
He watched her, puzzled. She saved him in the park from what she assumed was a dire situation and now she was buying him chips.
As Rose had ordered chips for the strange bloke she'd just saved from a beating in the park, she couldn't help but think of lectures her Mum had given her about getting involved in other peoples troubles. Her mum would be furious if she knew what Rose had done. Rose, herself, was a little surprised that she was here in a chip shop buying chips for the unhappy looking stranger. For all she knew, he could have deserved getting pummeled or that she interrupted a drug deal gone wrong. She looked back once over her shoulder to find his sad brown eyes examining her. No, she thought, that wasn't who he was. She turned back and stared at the worn blue plastic counter which had names etched on its surface. This Doctor didn't have the look of a drug user or even a bloke that was perpetually pissed.
There was something different about him. He wasn't the typically lost soul or suffering from the London blues. More important than how he looked, which to be frank, was a bit fit, was that there was something drawing her to him. She didn't understand it but she wanted to help him even if he seemed to not want it and maybe that was the point. Everyone needed a hand at some point. Rose remembered her own mucked up life until she went home to her mum. That had been a low day and she was still digging herself out. Still, it was just an hour or two from her day off, she could spend it with a stranger if she wanted. There was nothing wrong with doing a good deed, especially for someone who looked like him. Her mind made up to get to know this Doctor better, she carried their chips and drinks over and sat down opposite him.
His eyes followed her as she doused her chips with vinegar and dug into them closing her eyes as she ate as if they were ambrosia. He was fascinated just watching her.
As she ate, she was aware of how intensely he observed her. It was unnerving her. She looked up and arched a brow. "Not hungry?"
"What?" he said, startled that she'd noticed him watching her.
"You're sittin' there watchin' me. Chips are best hot and these…" She paused and ate one looking like she was in ecstasy. "are gorgeous," she finished and looked at him expectantly.
A smile quirked through his normally bland face. It felt odd as it had been so long but he couldn't help it. She just brought it out of him. The absurdity of the situation did not elude him. She had stopped him from destroying the pathetic refuge Gelth and left them with a beating they wouldn't soon forget and now she was feeding him chips. Him, the Oncoming Storm, a lord of time, over a millennia old living amongst mortal humans, and she wanted to feed him. Without another thought he ate one. His body was capable of analyzing the chemical composition of the chip but for once, all he did was enjoy the taste and she was right, it was good. It shocked him. He ate another and another while she looked on in amusement.
"You act like you haven't had chips before or haven't eaten in a while. Is that it? You homeless?"
He looked up at her, a mouth full of half chewed chips and swallowed. It almost stuck in his throat as he thought about her innocent question which had so much truth in it. "Yeah, you could say that."
Compassion oozed out of her and wrapped around him in a way that he revolted against. He didn't deserve it. "Don't feel sorry for me!" he snapped. "It's my fault, my responsibility."
The warm look that had briefly flickered in his eyes vanished. Rose sat back and watched him retreat into a dark, hardened shell. She'd seen people like this before. They hid from the world, afraid of the pain of becoming involved, or risking their heart.
"Well, if you need a place to stay, there's a shelter nearby run by a friend of mine, Wilf Mott. They won't preach at you much over there but they will give you a safe spot out of the cold. If you need it, that is."
"I told you, I'm all right." He leaned back and stared out of the smudged, dirty window of the chip shop at the rain falling outside. "I'm always all right."
Rose snorted. "Yeah right, 'cos you look so perfectly fine covered in dirt and blood. Well, it's you're choice. Anyway…." She didn't finish her sentence but instead continued eating her chips. Her mobile rang and she looked down at it and cursed, gathering up her chips to take with her. She stood up and zipped up her pink hoody. "I've got to go. Look, it was nice meeting you, Doctor. Take care and…try to avoid walkin' into dangerous parks, yeah?" As she walked away she paused and looked at him. "You're worth more than you think. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise." She turned and exited the chip shop.
He sat there for a few minutes, stunned. Who was this Rose Tyler? Why did he suddenly feel just a bit lighter? She was human and yet something about her was different. Being around her was like a soft echo of his home. It sparkled in her eyes tantalizing and taunting him. He had to know more. He finished the chips and licked the salt off his fingers as he thought of her. He left the chip shop and the rain had diminished to a mist. He saw the three Gelth from earlier shove a girl in an alley muffling her screams. A darkness fell over his face as he stepped into the street oblivious to the chaos his presence caused as vehicles skidded and crashed into one another. His coat flared about him as he stalked into the alley. He could have cared a less about the screaming girl. This was about making a point.
"I told you, this is my world and you don't have permission to be here," he said in a soft voice that should have warned them. They looked up at him baring their teeth like animals.
"You should have run when you had the chance!" one snarled.
"No, you should have. No second chances, that's the kind of man I am." That was the last thing they heard as he pulled time into, around and through them, turning them into nothing but dust washed away down the dirty street as a terrified girl cut and bleeding watched in terror. Later, she would tell a story, about a howling wind screamed through the alley and blew her assailants away. It was the only way her mind could process what had really happened.