Chapter Text
It seemed like an innocent idea at first - just another planet that the Doctor wanted to show Rose. While some journeys of theirs could end up with one of their heads (or both) about to be served on a platter, or the whole universe about to implode, the good majority were harmless. 'Sightseeing' as he called it.
The sightseeing this time was a planet he described as 'absolutely wonderful,' said with great hand gestures and a wide grin to really sell the idea. At this point, he had already set it in as the destination and the Tardis had spun into motion as if there wasn't even any room for debate.
The Tardis had slowly groaned to a halt, the Doctor doing a few laps of the console while rambling before heading to the doors bubbling with anticipation. "This planet is so beautiful, you'll see. It has waterfalls of liquid diamonds and mountains the colours of sunsets."
He turned to her with a gleam in his eye, making sure she followed along and eager to see my reaction. "Oh, I do hope you like it." He paused for a moment with a delicate grin, letting a moment of shared air pass between them.
"You better have gotten the right planet after all this." Rose rolled her eyes and laughed instinctively, heading forward and letting her palms rest on the doors of the Tardis, a push sending them adrift on their axis, revealing exactly what he'd described.
"Oh, Doctor..." Rose stepped out in awe, silent and taking in the sight, her eyes swimming through the masses of amber mountains and deep purple skies, shimmering streams flowing nearby, larger trees than she could ever imagine standing tall in the distance with balconies and huts and giant woven buildings strung together like colonies buried away up high to take in the better view. If she lived here, she'd do the same.
A few people, almost elven-looking, with varying shades of purple skin and thick long black hair noticed and strode closer from the river to the left of the Tardis. The main male stood tall, taller than she'd expected at first, probably around seven and a half foot tall. His hair flowed perfectly down his back and his eyelashes fluttered taking her in along with the strange man and blue box beside her. "You, you're new to this planet?"
He addressed her first, bowing and holding out, taking her hand gently in respect. If the Doctor weren't standing beside her observingly, she might have swooned.
"Oh, why thank you, yes we are." Rose laughed and smiled at the gentlemanly alien. The Doctor watched closely, his arms crossed but his face trying to stay as emotionless and purple observational as possible. His eyes narrowed in the moment the Zanithian man has taken Rose's hand and almost her heart by the way he watched her eyelids flutter, her holding her free up subconsciously to her mouth.
"Lovely to meet you, beauty." He smiled and planted a gentle kiss on her cheek. "My name is Aitau. And you..." The alien man turned to the Doctor, glancing at the box. "Vir inter astra cadet cum gratia, Et inter populos relinquet vestigia stellae."
His face was left with a gentle smile towards the Doctor as he nodded in respect. "Sir, we have waited for you. Please, let us show you and the beautiful lady to the leader of the Zanithians."
He then turned and gestured for us to follow, along with the other man from the river, carrying collections of strange other worldly fish and crystals they'd gathered. Rose, with a lighthearted smile turned to the Doctor and gave a small gestured nod, to discern whether to follow or not. The Doctor couldn't keep up his expression of cold indifference any longer with her beaming at him. "Go ahead." His face softened into a small smile and he let her walk ahead, soon following behind.
"Doctor, what did he say? The Tardis didn't translate it, so it must be an ancient language, right?" Rose mumbled to him, staying behind a bit to talk to the Doctor freely without having to watch what she says in front of the aliens, always treading lightly being unsure of customs on a foreign planet.
He inhaled slowly and translated. "It's an old tale of this planets people, having existed for much longer than most other species we've seen. It roughly translates to 'a man will fall with grace from the stars, and among the people he will litter behind the stardust of space.' The Zanithians have a faith believing that space has a certain matter that will bring immense fortune and luck, and if you see some of the old tapestries and etchings here, you'll find images of the Tardis."
He laughed sheepishly and shrugged, his hands in his pockets guiltily. "I may have crash landed here on accident once back near the dawn of time and let it slip that I dabble in space travelling." He kept his eyes on the sky, only occasionally daring to stray a glance at Rose who he could already tell was burning a mischievous 'of course you did' glare into the side of his head.
"Anyways..." He rubbed the back of his neck as they continued to follow the Zanithians. "Because they heard I've travelled all around space and time, they think I picked up some sort of residue from the space matter and carry it with me like a huge shining star of fortune they prophesied to drop from the sky again some day."
Rose laughed and they joked a little about possible repercussions of having such an effect on a whole species's faith, not realising how much it would soon mean. The consequences of the Doctor's meddling.
Stepping into the trunk of the largest tree she'd seen, Rose gawked in true wonder as the tree trunk laid out an entire city, strung out on different levels with flying vehicles and all sorts she couldn't even dream of traversing the inside of this tree. Stepping into the main building of the city, guards went ahead to forewarn 'the leader' of these people that The Doctor had some back to make a house call.
Apparently she was very eager to hear that. She rushed out, a beautiful seven foot tall woman, a light purple with pointed eleven ears and a sharp jawline, her masses of black locks drawn up into a smart style at the back, a few strands left dangling and framing her face. They failed, however, to soften it, and the harshness that it brought, even more so when she laid eyes on Rose.
"Doctor! Oh, my dear." She called out and stole the Doctors hands to bow and adorn them in a few kisses, her upwards glance speaking enough for Rose as she tried not to recoil, seeing the Doctor turn a few shades darker and glance away from Rose in a sort of embarrassment. "I've waited so long."
"Miraan, it really has been a while. You still look... great." The Doctor tried not to get ahead of himself with Rose beside him but seeing such an old...companion again was something he couldn't help but feel slightly giddy over.
She smirked and drew The Doctor closer, too close, as Rose gritted her teeth and instead tried to focus on anything else but them. They spoke and threw some flirtatious comments back and forth but thankfully, Rose had already let their exchange slip into just being background noise.
She didn't want to hear any more of it, let alone see it. Something gnawed at her insides when she did, something wrong and gross and weird. Something she refused to accept with The Doctor. He was a nine hundred year old alien from another planet, a Time Lord who could just as easily visit her grave in a couple minutes as he could her great ancestors. She was already a ghost to him, a flicker of what once was, at some point in the winding timeline he traversed daily.
She made eye contact with Aitau unintentionally, but ended up grateful for his warming smile, reassuring her when she felt her mood dampened on such a beautiful planet with beautiful rivers and beautiful cities by such an ugly emotion as jealousy. She wouldn't like countless years like Miraan had, she'd soon wither and die and it would pain her too much to know she'd leave the Doctor behind with a gravestone and sullied memories, another name to add to a list of people he'd forget with time, once important but now just a name on very long list.
"You must come, we must discuss things, matters of urgency." Miraan tugged the Doctor closer to what Rose viewed as her private rooms in this building. The Doctor stepped in turn, the hint of urgency setting him off his protective nature whenever he came across any danger. The look on Miraan's face said she had more personal matters she'd like to discuss alongside the Doctor, though he seemed too caught up in his internal analysis to catch on.
Rose stepped to follow, triggering Miraan to snap her head in Rose's direction and gently break out a condescending smile. "Private matters, sweetheart."
Sweetheart. If Rose had any more fire inside of her she thought she'd just about pounce on this overly pretty alien woman and chew away at her until there was nothing left like a rag toy.
"Oh, she's my companion, she goes with me. Anything you need to say to me, you can to her." The Doctor was set off, never fond of stranding Rose by herself on a planet she didn't know. Knowing her luck, he'd find her later with her head on a pike for misreading a custom here or being exterminated by Daleks hidden under the planet's surface. Nothing was impossible.
"Oh?" The look Miraan now stared into his eyes made his fluster and roll his eyes. The Doctor wanted Miraan to speak as little about their past relationship as possible, he didn't want Rose getting the wrong idea with all these past alien lovers from all throughout time... actually, it was just like how it sounded. Regardless, he didn't want to add another to the pile Rose had somehow heard about.
Rose could be tough and fierce and mouthy when she wanted, but for most of it, she was gentle. Rose was calm. He was the oncoming storm and she was the calm after, the serenity and blissful peace after the fight was over, when the future was bright and the moment lasted forever. It was moments like these when he recalled her a few christmases ago, staring up into the sky as the varying snowflakes littered down into her hair and melted on her face, a few getting stuck on her eyelashes as she gleamed. He'd shown her he truly could show her miracles.
This trip was supposed to be a wonderful experience for her, not a rehashing of his past relationships. He wanted this over done as quick as possible so he could hurry and show her the liquid diamond waterfalls and underground caves of littering lights, miniature stars beaming underground in the larger caves. He'd saved off blabbering about that in the Tardis so he could watch her in surprise at it.
Her face held beauty factually, never not, however the complete wonder in her expression, the eye opening awe in her eyes when she saw something so other-worldly, he couldn't see it enough.
"Fine, okay... Rose, stay safe and don't cause any trouble. I won't be long, alright?" Rose seemed so busy already looking around for things to fill her time with that she failed to see the disappointed frown on the Doctor's face. This was supposed to be a trip for her. He soon rushed into the private meeting rooms with Mirian to discuss these so called urgent matters before he'd find Rose sat solemnly outside the Tardis asking to go home. "Alright, what's so urgent?"
He tapped her shoulder the moment the doors echoed shut behind Rose, she was failing to hide her feelings and it was soemthing she wanted more than anything to swallow down. She turned. She knew it wasn't the Doctor, he had 'urgent business,' besides she'd just heard the door shut and not reopen for him to come out to her again yet all she wanted was to see him there, eyebrows furrowed as he rambled on about things she didn't understand and ask her to go see the rest of the planet, just them two.
Even though she knew it wasn't him, she struggled to bite back her expression when she had to readjust her view upwards to see the very tall Aitau. "Oh, sorry... is something wrong?"
He also tried his best to seem indifferent to her clear affections for the Doctor, but the small flicker in his smile read differently. Aitau rested a hand on her shoulder and gently leaned down to her level, gesturing out to the city in the giant tree with a playful smile. "Definitely. We can't have your visit here to be uneventful, can we? Let me show you the city, at least."
No, I want to do that with only one strange alien man, and has all these wonderful stories he'd tell me as we explored, all these wonderfully useless facts, and he would make me laugh more than anything. But he's busy with a woman he used to... know. She paused. "Okay."
Aitau lead her through the city, walking Rode through some streets as she curiously boggled at all the stalls in the streets, the many lights strung up above as vehicles traversed up and down in sky lanes above it all, moving to and from different levels in the trunk city. "This really is amazing, how you have both nature and technology here..."
He watched her with a gentle smile, enjoying her awe and innocence for the city as she got captivated by nearby stalls, taking in smells of some local dishes being sold and twirling her fingers around the many magical lights strung up for sale. He stood near her, slowly guiding her through the city streets as she took in the sights, not actually aware of where they were headed.
It was only when the stalls thinned out and the lights became dimmer, flickering above, and the sounds of the sky vehicles thinned out into a distant hum that Rose actually swallowed and took in her surroundings for a moment. She'd gotten too comfortable. She was used to the Doctor, someone she completely trusts and would happily follow through alien streets, however stuck in her own deluded denial after being stranded by him for his girlfriend, she'd forgotten he wasn't actually here.
"Aitau, where are we?" She spoke slowly. He'd slowed down behind her a bit now and stood at her back. She didn't know whether to run or turn around, he surely would know the streets better if she tried to flee. Maybe he had just taken a wrong turn? She was left with wishful thinking.
She only saw a flash of a gnarling wide grinning set of pointed teeth, ravenously bared at her from Aitau's mouth with an unhinged madness in his eyes. Someone so calm and docile had become a monstrous nightmare so quickly, her brain barely had time to react.
Barely. She had managed to steady her feet and step aside quickly, adrenaline building on her speed despite the Zanithian's seeming to hold superhuman abilities. Even still, she clutched a stray wood-like box from the alley side and swung it right into Aitau's head, knocking him back for a second stunned as she turned to attempt fleeing. She yelled out, screamed for the Doctor, the Tardis, anyone.
It wasn't much use as the once so pretty Zanithian had soon hastily sprinted after her and picked her right up off her feet, one firm grip on her skull with enough strength to raise her up and soon bring it slamming down on the alley wall. She lay dazed and her sight blackening, a sickening ringing in her ear as the once trustworthy man let her body dangle loosely behind him, his talons tearing through her ankle as he tugged her along. It didn't take much for the adrenaline to fade and agonising exhaustion to set in. She was already gone, entirely vulnerable in the dark.