Apocalypse Rising (Book One)

Woman Wept

Rose curled up on the captain's chair, staring at the grating as she thought about what she had just witnessed. The Apocalypse just stood watching her before she began her usual way around the console, flipping levers and switches. "Maybe a small break from all of the running and the danger and possibilities of getting killed," the Apocalypse told her. "There's some place I want you to see."

"Where?" Rose asked halfheartedly.

The Apocalypse smiled sadly at her. "The first place I went after I lost everything of my own." Rose's head lifted up, and she looked at the woman curiously. The Apocalypse pressed a final button, and the TARDIS settled. She held out a hand. "Come on."

Rose hesitantly took it, and the Apocalypse led her to the doors. Rose opened them, and her eyes widened, and she let out a small gasp at the planet it front of them. "It looks like . . . " she said breathlessly.

"A woman weeping," the Apocalypse finished, nodding. "And that's what the planet is called. This is Woman Wept. It was the first planet I visited after the Time War, after I watched something that ripped my whole life apart. And there are some things I want to tell you when we get down there. I think you'll like it."

"What you have to say, or the planet?" Rose asked.

The Apocalypse shrugged as she headed back for the console. "Probably down there. I don't know how people take what I tell them sometimes."

Rose frowned as she piloted the TARDIS more. She didn't exactly like the sound of that, but she opened the doors when the TARDIS landed again, and her eyes widened even more when she saw what the landscape was like. "Oh," she whispered. "My. God."

"The waves are frozen," the Apocalypse said as she walked over, her sound of her boots on the TARDIS grating a welcome sound. "Something happened to its sun, causing the entire ocean to freeze over."

"They're hundreds of feet high!" Rose said incredulously.

"I know." The Apocalypse smiled. "I think it's beautiful."

"Me, too," Rose agreed in a whisper.

The Apocalypse stood there for a second before she sighed. "I need to explain some things to you," she said, walking down towards the beach.

Rose closed the TARDIS doors behind her and ran after her. "What are they?" she asked.

The Apocalypse found a rock to sit on and sat down on it, legs pulled under her. "You're not the first companion I've had," she began.

Rose sort of figured that, given her being nine hundred years old and all, but still, hearing it was a pang in the heart. "How many?" she asked.

"I've lost count," the Apocalypse admitted, putting her head in her hand. "My granddaughter, Susan, was my first." She smiled. "Then I sort of kidnapped her school teachers. That's how I started traveling with humans. I decided to kidnap her bloody school teachers."

Rose couldn't help but grin. "I bet that settled well with them."

"Yeah," the Apocalypse agreed.

"How did Susan leave?" Rose asked.

"She fell in love with a human," the Apocalypse replied. "I left her there, so she could be happy."

"Is she?"

The Apocalypse ducked her head. "I don't know," she admitted. "I never saw her after then, but all Time Lords were recalled to Gallifrey for the War. She would have been included. I don't think she would have survived the Moment."

Rose swallowed. "What about the others?"

"Well, there were the two I met when I was exiled to Earth," the Apocalypse told her with a smile. "Jo Grant and Sarah Jane Smith. They never really met, of course. They'd heard of each other, but never met. Two different versions of me. I looked . . . well, sort of similar. Then again, that was back near the 70s." She blinked. "Or was it the 80s?"