Wander of time: Darkness within (doctor who)

Chapter 32: Friend Departed

As Wanda slowly felt herself come to, her whole body ached. Every muscle screamed in pain and exhaustion. It almost hurt to expand her chest out to breath, let alone trying to focus on opening her eyes. It was almost déjà vu in the sensation as she remembered feeling this way before when she had first arrived into this universe. Arriving on the cold ground of a grave, her whole body feeling that of a giant bruise. It was strange in how similar she felt again. She could even feel the coldness of the ground she laid upon now. Had she jumped to another time again? Where was she? Why was she so sore? And why . . . why could she not remember what she had been doing beforehand?

Her mind tried to begin processing on where or when she was. It tried diagnosing what exactly had been done to her body to make it so weak and tired. It also tried recalling what exactly she had been doing moments before. But her head throbbed so much from a painful headache that it was difficult to even try to think. The sharp ringing in her ears was not making the situation any better. The main issue she wished to focus specifically on though was why . . . why could she not remember? She wanted to remember. She gritted her teeth as she forced her mind to focus on every detail of what had happened before she found herself lying on the cold floor of . . . wherever she was now. But try as she might, nothing came to her. All she remembered was . . . Daleks. The Cult of Skaro. They came out of the Sphere and then . . . No wait—someone was talking.

"When will she wake up?"

"I don't know."

"How are we going to explain the cuts all over her body?"

"I don't know."

"And the Cybermen and Daleks?"

"I don't know."

"Is she going to be all right?"

"Rose, for the last time, I don't know."

Wanda's brows furrowed as she realized she was hearing Ten and Rose arguing. Figures. They always bloody argue. Well, no wait—she took that back. They did not always argue. Ten and Rose mostly just had a row whenever stress levels were high. When each one felt extremely pressured and were on high tensions with everything around. Which then resulted in them taking out their stress on each other from time to time. Though, not that they truly meant these spats as a way to be cruel to each other. Only, in a strange way, to help each other relieve some stress and feel better about the situation at hand. Which meant something bad must have occurred before Wanda had her blackout. But that just led her to her earlier question: Why could she not remember what she had been doing?

"Oi, you two, no need for a spat when the world is coming to an end," Wanda grumbled as she finally made herself open her eyes. Though it was still a struggle to do for her lids felt so heavy from exhaustion. Blinking, she saw the Doctor and Rose both next to her. Rose sat beside her on the ground, holding onto one of Wanda's hands, while the Doctor remained standing up with his hands in his pockets.

Wanda noticed instantly how something was wrong. Very wrong. The way Rose looked visibly shaken, and the deadpan expression the Doctor held on his face . . . Something terrible must have happened. Wanda glanced at Rose, squeezing the girl's hand as a sign of reassurance. But when she made this gesture, the companion's reaction was not that of being comforted. Instead, Rose flinched. Wanda blinked, greatly taken back by the way Rose appeared torn in remaining seated next to Wanda and seemed to rather move away all together. But when the companion saw the confused and wounded expression cross over Wanda's face, Rose instantly shook her head as if snapping herself out of something and smiled at the Time Lady in an assuring manner that everything was fine.

Feeling at a loss from how Rose appeared so unsettled by something, Wanda looked to the Doctor, hoping for some comfort or explanation from him. But when she looked into his brown eyes, all she received was a distant stare. As though he were not truly looking at her, but instead staring past her, through her, examining her. It was a stare he would normally give to someone who . . . someone who was not on his good side. A stare given to that of unfriendly company.