Parting's End

Chapter Two: The Children of Time

Moments after their launch, Rose ran through the light and out onto a London street with her daughter in her arms and a weapon on her back. Disregarding the presence of the astonished milkman, Rose noted her daughter’s happy face and skyward focus. Lifting her eyes to the sky, Rose could see why her daughter seemed happy—a mystery to solve and people to help. The girl mirrored her parents too well too often. Rather than the sky at night, the clock on Rose’s device on her free wrist read they should have stood in the morning looking up with not a zeppelin overhead. Well, the pair got the last part right. The world was dark as the middle of the night dusted by the wrong constellations with multiple planets and moons impossibly close to Earth.

“Right, now we're in trouble,” she said as she set her daughter on the ground to power up her gun.

Said child nodded. “The whole multiverse is, Mummy. And it’s only just beginning. He’s not sensed me, Mummy. Should I think to Daddy?”

“Not yet, precious star and moon of mine. We don’t want the enemy to catch us before we find your Daddy. Let’s go look up the information we need.”

After a nod from her child, mother and daughter carefully made their way down the street looking for any technology to link onto for the address the pair needed. Once she noticed her child was nearing the need for a nap from exertion, Rose took them into the subway and found the alert sent the trains on free to get people home or out of danger zones. Great plans on paper with calm and sane humans against alien forces that did not take the Doctor to defeat. Of course, that would never fit with reality anymore than if London were facing a disaster of the natural kind. In time, mother and daughter arrived near where Rose hoped the family she was looking for lived.

The world is invaded by aliens, Rose noted, and the stupid fools of humanity brought their deepest and best idiot choices forward. Young idiots drove drunk without heed for others in the way. Some were in mental shut downs while others were screaming. Then there were the rodents of humanity—the looters. Rose shook her head at the state of her true home world as she and her daughter exited the subway. A drunk called out to mother and daughter. “The end of the world, darlings. End of the stinking world.”

Little wonder most aliens saw Earth and humans as little more than the white trash rednecks of the universe, and those were the kind species. Rose pulled her daughter a little closer as she answered, “have one on me, mate.”

Before the pair got more than a few steps away, the sound of glass breaking heralded another alarm. Luck was with the two females that the shop invaded was Megabite City. This was one of Mickey’s favorite stores and Rose knew the place would have the equipment needed to trace the Noble family. Two young men were stealing what they could get their hands on—computers, televisions, anything of value in normal reality. Here Rose stopped her little girl.

“You watch my back. Shout and run if you see a Dalek targeting me. I’ll clear the store.”

Though the fear and worry shone clear on the child’s face, Rose was proud when her little girl nodded. Walking to the shop and looking inside, the young mother held her gun as her lips ginned before she said to the thieves, “right, you two. You can put that stuff down or run for your lives. Do you like my gun?”

Well, credit granted to the pair for smarts when the situation called for intelligence over bravado. Once she was certain the ground floor was safe, Rose called her daughter in and the pair sat at a computer whose screen showed a series of red blobs coming for the Earth.

“Are those Daleks, Mummy?”

Rose nodded before she called up a second window to search for Donna Noble. Her little girl looked around and on occasion closed her eyes. Then the child whimpered. “Why can’t I feel Daddy?”