Slowly Shining (Book Two of The Creators Saga)

Prologue

Rose Tyler sighed and helped her mother put Christmas presents under the tree. Ever since the Alchemist had disappeared with the TARDIS, she'd tried desperately to get past the idea that she'd been left behind. The Alchemist wouldn't do that, not to her, she knew that . . . unless it really was too dangerous. It had been months since they'd seen the TARDIS last, but given how long it had been last time they'd arrived -

She cut off her thought process when she heard a familiar whooshing sound. Her eyes widened and she looked at her mother before dropping the last present under the tree, grabbing her coat, and running out of the building.

She ran through the Powell Estate to see Mickey run up as well. "Rose!" he shouted.

"Mickey!" she called back.

"Rose, it's the TARDIS!"

"I heard it!" Rose squealed. "That means they're alive!"

"I told you so, didn't I?" Jackie asked excitedly. "Didn't I?"

Rose looked around, furrowing her eyebrows. "Where are they?"

There was a huge bang above them, and they looked up to see the TARDIS bounce off of a block of flats, the Time Vortex visible slightly in the air above it. The TARDIS barely avoided a post office van, and it finally crashed into a set of waste bins. Rose blinked. "He's not that bad of a driver!"

But she gasped when an unfamiliar man opened the door, looking around, dressed in the Doctor's closed. "Here we are, then!" he cheered in a Southern London voice, hair brown and messed up like he'd been stuck in an electrical socket. "London, Earth, the Solar System! We did it!"

"Did we?" a familiar voice from inside muttered: the Alchemist's. "That's a miracle."

Then the man noticed the three of them, and brightened. "Rose! Jackie! Mickey!" he cheered, walking over. "Blimey!"

"Who the hell - ?" Rose began to ask.

"No, no, no, no," the man shook his head, holding up his pointer fingers. "wait there. I've got something to say. There was something I had to tell you. Something important. What was it?" Rose and Mickey exchanged suspicious looks. Who the hell was this guy? "No, hold on, hold on. Hold on. Shush, shush, shush, shush." He brightened. "Oh, I know! Merry Christmas!"

There was a flash of black that ran out of the TARDIS, and as the man collapsed, the Alchemist caught him. "Blimey, you're still an idiot," she groaned, lying him down on the ground before sitting back on her heels, head in her hands.

"He just collapsed!" Jackie shook her head.

"Ali, where's the Doctor?" Rose asked. "Did you get there in time?"

The Alchemist closed her eyes. "Yeah, I got there in time," she answered. "I saved him. But then he saved me."

"What happened?" Rose asked, looking into the TARDIS. "Is he here?"

The Alchemist sighed. "This is the Doctor," she answered, looking down at the man between them. "Right in front of us. This is the Doctor."

"What?" Rose protested.

"That's not him!" Mickey agreed.

"What do you mean, that's the Doctor?" Jackie asked suspiciously. "Doctor Who?"

"Isn't that the question," the Alchemist sighed.

***

And now we're back into Ali's time! Killer Christmas trees and the Sycorax and regeneration, oh my! And how is Rose going to react to everything, and just what part will the Alchemist play in this?

Well, you'll find out whenever I get "The Christmas Invasion" up. :P See you then!