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She stood, staring off into the distance, her mind adrift with memories from so, so long ago that still rang fresh as though they had occurred just yesterday. She could still hear the faint humming echoing around her; feel the grating, solid, under her trainers; her hands clinging to the edge of the console as she was flung about during one of his usual landings; her eyes taking in his manic grin as he danced about the console, barely keeping his feet under him.
Every sensation rang, loud and clear, with one word: Home. It didn’t matter that three centuries had passed for her since she had last set foot in that magnificent ship, it still felt like just yesterday, still felt like home.
She missed Them. She had missed him since he left her for the one adventure that she apparently couldn’t follow him into. Her solace in this world that didn’t feel quite right, that never truly had. Her only comfort since she couldn’t be with Him.
They had had a great life together; a life full of love, adventure and excitement, other worlds and other times, discovering new places and exploring the differences between this world and their proper one. So many grand adventures; so many near deaths. They could easily have been killed so, so many times but they hadn’t.
No, old age is what took him from her in the end. The one enemy they couldn’t defeat; the only threat they couldn’t outrun. He had been ninety-eight when he went in his sleep. Not the exit he would have dreamed of, but they had been together; she had been able to hold his hand as he slipped away.
She closed her eyes as a familiar sensation crept in from the edge of her mind. A song, soft but growing stronger filtered through her mind as she relaxed and let herself go.
She knew this song.
It had always been there, dancing through her blood, just beyond her conscious notice. Behind her closed lids words blazed, bright gold: I Am The Bad Wolf.
In a barely audible, breathy whisper Rose finished, “I create myself.”
She felt her atoms pulling apart, with what her mind registered as a tingling sensation. The feeling only lasted a short time before she felt herself reassemble in what she knew was another location. She heard the people bustling about her, their various accents thick on the air, and knew where she was before she even opened her eyes.
For the first time in three centuries the ground felt completely solid under her boots; her equilibrium fully restored. Opening her eyes, she wasn’t really surprised to find herself staring into the zeppelin free sky over her proper universe’s Cardiff.
She chuckled quietly, of course she would be drawn to the rift as a landing point. The Time energy flowing through her veins would naturally be drawn to the familiar leakage of the Rift.
She turned her head slowly, taking in the sight, sounds, and smells. Time’s metallic tang hovered in the air, drifting up from around her as though embracing her sudden arrival. After a moment she felt the sensation dancing through her blood drift away, like the fog lifting from the bay in the morning light, leaving her mind clear and sharp once more.
She knew she should be worried; panicking over how she had managed to relocate not just through space, and, judging by the clothing around her, time, but across universes, yet all she could feel was a sense of… Right. This was as it was meant to be; where she was meant to be.
The sensation of being watched nudged its way into the forefront of her mind and she turned, her eyes narrowing in on a camera high above her head and pointing directly at her. A small smile slid across her face; of course, they would have seen her. She would have tripped their proximity alarms as soon as she landed.
Torchwood Three.
One of her favorites in the other universe. She knew them well from her time as director of Pete’s Torchwood.
Tilting her head, another feeling nudged her, distant but strong: Life. Not just normal life, but life linked to her. Which meant… Jack. She didn’t know how she knew all of this; it was as though she just Knew on a subconscious level that this is what the feeling meant and that they weren’t coming from some outside threat, but from within.
Three centuries was plenty of time to get to know yourself thoroughly, and Rose knew the feeling of her own mind better than most alive. She would have known in a heartbeat if something foreign were affecting her mind.
Unable to resist, Rose raised her hand and waved cheerily toward the camera with a cheeky little smile. She knew she would only have to wait a minute or two before someone came up to investigate.
She bit her lip to suppress a giggle as she felt the Chameleon circuit flair to life behind her, signaling that someone was indeed coming up. With one last cheeky, tongue-in-teeth grin to the camera, she turned and looked directly at the spot from which Gwen was slowly rising to pavement level.