Breaking Point

Nightmares

The Doctor was in the infirmary late one night after Rose had gone to bed. He sat there, going over the scans he had taken of Rose one more time. He had the scan from her healing bruise, the scan from her good shoulder for comparison, and the full body scan he had done a few days prior.

He compared the long lines of data gleaned from it. The data was fairly conclusive. She scanned as human, mostly. Her muscle and bone density were changed, they were much stronger now. The results were comparable with his other self's muscle and bone density. The scans from her healing arm showed incredible cellular regeneration. Basically, she was stronger, faster, and would live longer. How did this happen?

He wondered what he would find if he had a proper blood sample. Would he find the mutations that caused aging? He had the mutations, slower than a full human, yes, but he still had them. Even his other self had similar mutations. He aged slowly over time. It could be a thousand years before he looked old, if he could keep a body for long enough to do so that was, but he did age..

A multipurpose scan could never be anywhere near as good as running several more specialized tests with actual samples.

He hid the scan results away in a spot the TARDIS made for him to do so, where his other self wouldn't find them. He didn't even ask, he was just going to keep the results in his pocket, but the sentient time ship insisted, and she was as stubborn as Rose.

He pushed his glasses back up his nose, and proceeded down the hall towards his and his counterpart's room. On his way, the TARDIS shifted corridors and took him to Rose's room, where the door was cracked open. Curious why he would be brought to her room, he pushed the door open, and looked in.

She was obviously in the throes of a nightmare. Face screwed up, a sheen of sweat over her, tears in her eyes. It was a state he knew all to well. No wonder she didn't want to sleep. She had come up against so many things that could cause a lesser woman nightmares like this, but had never seemed to have nightmares before they had been separated. Bad dreams, yes, but not nightmares of this caliber. He wondered what she was dreaming about as he stepped into the room and towards her bed.

XxXxXxXx

She's fighting in an earthen room, with a sword in hand and red cloaked, masked creatures surrounding her. She's fighting for everyone she has left. She wins her battle, but these creatures have no honor and try to destroy everything anyway. She runs outside just as a flash of green light hits.

She runs outside into a forest at night, fog surrounding her, running, and running, and running. She has no clue what she's running from, until she looks back and sees everything being swallowed by an inky Darkness.

Trying to outrun the Darkness creeping ever closer. She broke free of the fog and found herself in a clearing, full moon overhead, turning everything into a silvery color. The Darkness still coming, faster now.

She realizes she's in the wrong clearing. It's empty, dead, the people she loves are there, but they are misshapen, twisted, wrong. She runs right through the clearing, back into the forest, still being chased by the ever present blackness. She comes to another clearing, but this one is burning, on fire, the people long gone and rock like beings live everywhere.

She leaves that clearing, running through the forest again, running to new clearings where everything is wrong, desperate to find a clearing where things make sense. She's been running for so long now, and she's so tired, but she can't stop, she can't slow down, the ever present blackness behind her is getting closer and closer. She's terrified of what may be inside of it. The Darkness is calling for her, calling out, reaching out. Tendrils of evil trying to stop her from taking more steps.