A few quick stops on Earth later and Koschei was guiding the TARDIS to Galliterra. He prayed that his suspicions were right and that his sister would be there waiting for them. She was part TARDIS, after all. If anyone could survive the Time Vortex, it would be her. And, her last words had been that she wanted to go home. Focusing his thoughts on the tiny presence in the back of his mind that was her, he wished he could sense something from it. It was still there but muted. He had no idea what that portended and no wish to instill false hope or false fear in her friends aboard the TARDIS. The universe alone knew how they would take it. Most of them were quiet. Martha was trying to hold back her own tears and Jack was staring around in anger. The tapestries that Vairë had woven and hung all over the ship were poignant reminders of her life and her presence. Mickey was studying them with a mix of awe and sorrow. Even Sarah Jane, who had never been terribly close to Vairë – having only met her once back when she was still a human – was quiet and withdrawn. However, she was at least offering sympathy, compassion, and silent strength to the others who were definitely feeling the woman’s absence aboard the ship she’d piloted for so very, very long.
The TARDIS rematerialized in her spot in Koschei’s garden. He could feel his wife’s presence flare to life in his mind and he could sense that their children were running to greet him. Squatting down, he roused Jackie Tyler and the Doctor from the telepathic sleep he and Donna had put them under. The Tyler matriarch reached up and slapped him immediately and the Doctor scrambled to his feet and balled his hands into fists.
“Where are we?” the Doctor demanded.
“Where the hell is my daughter?” Jackie shouted at the same time.
“Calm down!” Koschei said loudly. “I’m taking you to her home now. Please, calm down,” he added more gently.
“Is Vairë alive, then?” Martha asked, confused.
“She can’t be,” the Doctor growled. “She took in the Time Vortex again. And this time, it killed her.”
“We’ll see about that soon enough,” Koschei grimaced. “For now, please, all of you, let me show you Vairë’s home. The world that she built for me, for the Doctor, and for herself.” Moving quickly to the doors, he flung them open and gestured for the others to follow him.
Gasps of awe and amazement filled the air. The Doctor looked as if he’d been hit over the head. Red grass covered the gardens in front of houses. Gently cobbled streets cut through the considerable city and were filled with people going about their business. Pleasant smells that reminded him of the baking district on Gallifrey reminded the Doctor that he’d not eaten in quite some time. The trees with silver leaves shone brightly in the midafternoon suns’ light. Two suns. And at least two moons from what he could see. “Gallifrey?” he asked in confusion. “But it burned!”
“Galliterra,” Koschei corrected. “Gallifrey is gone, brother, but her memory remains. My sister went toe-to-toe with Rassilon himself when she discovered that he was using my madness to try to pull Gallifrey out of the Time Lock. She offered him and the rest of Gallifrey a chance to live on through others. She offered him Galliterra and he took her up on it.”
“So, Rassilon, the Council, my family…they’re here?” the Doctor asked.
“No, Theta. They died. But their memories, their knowledge, that lives on in the people of Galliterra. Vairë saw to it personally. She used to lecture at the Academy. Gallifreyan and Terran History as well as Temporal Ethics were her preferred subjects. Her lectures were very well attended until she gave it up because she got tired of dealing with the Q&A sessions,” Koschei chuckled.
“Is this her home?” Jackie asked, taking in the impressive mansion behind them. It was nice but it wasn’t exactly what she imagined Rose would have for a home.
“This is my home, actually,” Koschei replied. “And, I think you’re about to meet the rest of the Oakdown clan.”
The door at the front of the mansion flew open and three children ran out screaming at the top of their lungs. “Dad! Dad! You’re back! Is everything okay? Did you find those missing planets! Who are all these people?”
“Whoa. One at a time!” Koschei said. “Where’s your mother?”
“She’s on her way back from Aunt Vairë’s,” his oldest son answered. “She went out there last week with our new cousin. How come you never told us we had a cousin, Dad?”
“Wait, what? Who?” Koschei asked.
“What does your cousin look like, Tevin?” Donna cut in.
“She’s really pretty and grown up. She’s got blonde hair and green eyes. Her name is Jenny. She came here in a big rocket ship, Dad. She said that if Aunt Vairë didn’t ground her for the rest of her life, she’d take us out flying in it. Can we go, Dad? Please?”
“But Jenny died…” Martha whispered. Donna nodded.
“Oh, yeah, she said she’d been shot but that the terror farming thing made her get better,”
“Terraforming,” Donna corrected.
“Anyway, Mum took her out to Aunt Vairë’s but wouldn’t let us go with them!”
“I suspect your mother had good reasons for not letting you go out there right now,” their father said. “Now, do you three think you can pretend to be civilized? I brought some new people to see Galliterra and to visit your aunt.”
“We’ll be good,” Tevin promised.
“Yeah, really good!” his daughter, Kara, nodded.
“You’ll be the death of me yet,” Koschei growled teasingly. “Aunt Donna, keep an eye on these beasts and make certain they don’t sneak on the TARDIS, would you?”
“Sure thing, Prot. Kids, with me!” the red head shouted.
While the family had been reuniting, the Doctor and the others moved into the garden further. The Doctor was amazed to see plants and flowers thriving when he thought he would never see their like again. How had Rose done it? How had she even met Rassilon, let alone gone toe-to-toe with him as Koschei claimed? And building an entire world? How? It was impossible!
“This is amazing,” Wilfred Mott said, pulling the Doctor from his thoughts. “I’m finally out here meeting aliens! Look, Sylvia! All those people are aliens!”
“They look human to me, Dad.”
“Actually, you humans look Time Lord,” the Doctor muttered.
“Oh, now look at that! That is a proper alien! Donna, Donna? Donna, introduce me to that alien there?” Wilf asked.
“What is an Ood doing here?” Donna wondered.
“Is that his name? Ood?” Wilf asked. “Hello, Ood!”
“It’s Ood Sigma,” Donna muttered. “His name is Ood Sigma.”
“That’s a proper alien name!”
“Dad, don’t be rude.”
“Donna, I want to get out there and meet all them aliens!”
“Sure thing, Granddad,” Donna laughed. “Oi! Prot! I’m taking your little beasts down to the market square. You need anything?”
“Not particularly. You don’t want to go to the island with us later?”
“Yeah. Hold the boat for us.”
“Doctor, Madam Tyler, the rest of you,” Koschei said to the others, “would you like to see more of Galliterra or would you prefer to visit my sister’s home?”
“I want to see my daughter,” Jackie said hoarsely. The Doctor nodded in agreement.
“Then follow me.”
~*~*~*~
The Doctor and the others were silent as they followed Koschei through the streets that wound through a small village and down to a beach. In the distance to the north, the Doctor could see the spires of the Academy rising over the city that surrounded it. It looked much like the Academy back on Gallifrey but lacked the dome that protected it from the elements. He wanted to ask about it but decided to bide his time. Koschei was very different from the man he’d remembered, more like the young man he’d been before the revolution. Or rather, the man the Doctor had seen him becoming had he not been driven insane. Martha, Jack, Mickey, Sarah Jane, and Luke were full of questions about the world, about the people – the people whom the Doctor could sense in his mind, filling the emptiness that had existed there since the end of the Time War – and about Rose. Koschei seemed reluctant to say if Rose was alive or not. Only that he was taking them to her home. Not to her. To her home.
“This is amazing,” Jackie said softly as she gazed out over this alien world. “And my Rose made it.”
“That she did, Madam Tyler. My sister is a most amazing woman.”
“How is she your sister?”
“Adoption,” the Doctor muttered. “Still, it’s hard for me to believe that you would adopt anyone who wasn’t Gallifreyan, Master.”
“I haven’t been called Master in a long time. Not since Galliterra was born. I took a new name. Protector. Of course, Vairë still calls me Koschei or Prot or annoying prat whenever it suits her. I guess if you don’t know what she did for me, how she helped heal my mind and got me to turn my back on my lust for power and dominance, then it would be hard to believe I’d adopt her. But, I did make her my sister. She’s a daughter that the Oakdowns can be proud of.”
“Oakdowns?” Jackie muttered.
“That’s his House,” the Doctor sighed. “I was a Lungbarrow.”
“Does Rose live on the beach, then? Is that why we’re going this way?” Jackie asked.
“Look out across the waters,” Koschei said, pointing. “Tell me what you see.”
“There’s something out there,” Jackie muttered, shielding her eyes with a hand. “An island? Oh, but it’s gone. A mirage?”
“Perception filter,” the Doctor gasped. “It’s an island shrouded in a perception filter.”
“It’s the home of the TARDISes. It’s where they are born and grown. And, since Vairë is half-TARDIS herself, it’s where she felt the most comfortable living. The Untempered Schism is out there as well. Usually the only people on the island are Vairë and my kids – she’s not one for company – but occasionally a student who goes mad during his initiation will be kept out there with healers and specialists helping him to get better.”
“How do we get out there?” Jackie asked. “And is Rose out there now?”
“I can’t say for certain if she is or is not.”
“If you adopted her, then you can sense her,” the Doctor said flatly.
“I can sense something but I don’t know what to make of it,” Koschei replied. “That’s why I’m not making any promises. Vairë might be out there. She might not be. Obviously her daughter is there right now…”
“When did Rose have a daughter?” Jackie demanded.
“Jenny was generated from Vairë’s DNA and grown on Messaline,” Martha replied. “But, Vairë took to her immediately. It broke her heart when Jenny died in her arms in the temple there.”
“So she’s like a clone, then? Not a proper daughter?”
“Not a clone and if Vairë is around, don’t let her hear you say that Jenny isn’t her daughter. Her mother or not, she’ll slap your molars out,” Donna said as she walked up to join the others. “Your kids decided to stay the night at a friend’s house, Prot. I decided to let the little beasts terrorize someone else for a while and give you and Lucy a break.”
“So, I’m a gran now,” Jackie said flatly before shaking her head. “I’m not even forty-five and a gran.”
“Oi, don’t get all sad over your age. You’re young compared to your daughter,” Donna teased. The Doctor and the Protector gave her identical glares that warned her not to push the Tyler matriarch any further. Neither one of them wanted to receive a Tyler slap or deal with Donna after she’d earned herself one. “So, we going?”
“Yeah,” Koschei sighed. The Doctor looked over to the dock and was surprised to see a boat materializing there. Then he watched in shock as his TARDIS materialized in the boat. He could feel his ship’s eagerness to get back to the island through the bond he had with her. She was humming contentedly. The Doctor let his old friend and enemy led him to the boat and then climbed in. There were no oars or engines. Once everyone was settled in, the boat began to move on its own, headed directly for the island.
“Does this island have a name?” the Doctor asked curiously.
“Yeah. Vairë named it the Tol Eressëa. The Lonely Isle.”
~*~*~*~
The Doctor was amazed at the island. It was a microcosm of Earth. Green grass. Magnolia trees. Terran plants and insects. If he had been raised on the mainland, he could see how this island would be a place of mystique and mystery to him. No wonder Rose felt so at home here. And, from what Koschei had said about her being a celebrity and every one of her classes ending with marriage proposals, he could understand why she would feel the need to retreat to such a place just to get away from it all. It was far enough away to be peaceful but near enough to remain a part of things. The Doctor sighed in contentment. It was a place he could easily be happy in himself.
Martha and the others had wandered off with Lucy and some other women dressed in grey cloaks to see some of the orchards. Only he, Jackie, and Koschei walked on to Rose’s house. The minute he saw it, he knew that it belonged to Rose. The TARDIS being settled in the front garden was a clue but the house looked like exactly what he would have imagined Rose building for herself. It was deceptively simple, built with grey, undressed stone. The gardens were filled with a riotous array of flowers. Small fountains, ponds, and miniature waterfalls gave the area around the house a restful feel. Once he was over the shock of seeing the house there, the Doctor ran towards it, throwing open the front door and calling for Rose. Jackie Tyler was not far behind him. Together, the two of them raced through the rooms – the house was bigger on the inside – but with each empty room, their fear grew higher and their hope faded. Confused and defeated, they returned to the front room where Koschei was talking to a young blonde woman.
“Looking for my mum?” the girl asked. She rolled her eyes in a gesture that made the Doctor’s hearts constrict. It was an expression she could only have gotten from Rose. “She’s not in the house.”
“Where is she?” Jackie demanded. The Doctor glared at her. He’d been about to say that himself.
“Oh, she got sick of being cooped up so she badgered the healers until they let her go out. Once they did that, though, they realized there was no way in hell they were getting her back inside. Mum’s too sneaky for them.”
“Where is she?” the Doctor asked. “You’re Jenny, aren’t you? Her daughter?”
“Yeah, I’m Jenny. And Mum’s in the grove. You can see her but don’t wake her. She’s still not well. Oh, and are you the Doctor?”
“I am.”
“Think you could talk Mum into ungrounding me? As soon as she saw me, she told me I was grounded for the next five years and she took the keys to my ship off me! How was I supposed to know she’d leave Messaline before I woke up?” Jenny demanded, sounding like any other aggrieved teenager.
“I’ll…see what I can do,” the Doctor said slowly. “Why don’t you show your gran and me where this grove is?”
“Sure,” Jenny said, leading them out of the house. They walked for several minutes in silence. The Doctor could hardly believe that he was going to see Rose. He couldn’t get the image of her burning in the Vortex out of his head. He would not let himself believe she was alive until he saw her with his own eyes. “So, if you’re the Doctor, should I call you Dad?” Jenny asked.
“Let’s see what your mother thinks of that,” the Doctor said hoarsely. The last time he’d seen Rose, before she’d fainted, he had seen a storm of emotion rush across her face. He didn’t know if she would be able to forgive him for what he had done, especially since, for her, it had been centuries that he’d been gone.
Jenny led them to a stand of trees. It formed a rough circle with enough space between the trees for the suns’ light to get through. Though the suns were setting now, it was still warm. A few long wooden seats with comfortable padding were arranged in the center of the grove. The Doctor swallowed hard as he spied a blonde head lying on one of the seats. He and Jackie walked over to stand in front of the seat together and stared down in awe. Rose lay there, stretched out on one side, her head on a pillow and a thick woolen blanket covering her from shoulders to feet. She was wearing a dark blue sleeping gown with thin straps that went over her shoulders. Her chest rose and fell with deep, even breaths. “She looks so peaceful lying there like that,” Jackie whispered.
“She looks a lot better now than she did when we found her a week ago,” Jenny sighed. “If she will just rest, she should be fine in another few weeks.”
“How did you find her?” Jackie asked quietly. The Doctor was squatting down so that his face was level with Rose’s. He lifted a hand to reach up and stroke her face.
“Don’t wake her!” Jenny hissed at him. “She flew out of the Untempered Schism,” she said to her grandmother. “I had just gotten here myself. Something told me I needed to be here. Aunt Lucy brought me out here thinking that I could stay in Mum’s house until Mum and Uncle Koschei got back from where ever they were. She was showing me the cave where the Untempered Schism is and warning me not to look into it without preparation when we heard Mum scream and then saw her come flying out of it. She was pretty badly burned. Aunt Lucy went to the mainland and came back with healers who went to work on Mum straight away. The worst of the burns are gone now but it took a lot out of Mum. Her lungs and throat were burned as well so she has to take it easy. No running for her life for a while and no kids over until she’s completely healed. The healers were afraid that she’d catch pneumonia even with all of the treatments they’ve been giving her.”
“How could she fly out of the Untempered Schism?” the Doctor asked quietly, never taking his eyes off Rose.
“The same way I found Galliterra,” Jenny replied. “Mum’s half-TARDIS. Like me. No matter where she is in space and time, she can sense other TARDISes and the Untempered Schism. My guess is that she drew on the Vortex that’s part of her naturally and then pulled herself here. The TARDISes still growing out here probably helped to pull her in as well.”
“Half-TARDIS,” the Doctor mused. “I’d love to run some tests to see how much you have in common with a TARDIS.”
“Well, we don’t exist in eleven dimensions like they do but we are aware of more dimensions than most four dimensional creatures,” Jenny said brightly. “I know that I can perceive up to seven dimensions and that I can fold time and space under certain situations. Of course, that wears me out but it makes it very easy to get out of a sticky situation. Also, my telepathy is a little stronger than that of the average Galliterran. They’re touch telepaths but, according to Aunt Lucy, I’m more like Mum in that I don’t need to touch you to pick up your thoughts or to project my own into your mind. Granted, I generally ignore what I ‘hear’ so that people can have privacy. Mum does the same, I think. Oh, Gran, when will I get to meet Uncle Tony and Gramps? Uncle Tony is so cute! I wonder what he’ll think of me.”
“Never,” the Doctor said. “With the walls of the universe back up now that the Reality Bomb never happened, your Gran is trapped here. I’m sorry, Jackie.”
“Why can’t she just go through the Eye of Harmony?” Jenny asked. “They just finished it a few months ago. Of course, Aunt Lucy said that they are still mapping out the parallels and the perpendiculars but there’s no reason why Gran couldn’t go through it to get back to her parallel Earth.”
“They rebuilt the Eye?” the Doctor gasped, finally looking away from Rose to regard her daughter.
“Yeah. It’s a present from Uncle Koschei to Mum. He knows that she misses her family so he started working on it so that she could eventually go and visit them. They just finished it a few months ago but Mum’s been off-world training Aunt Donna.”
“Jenny, I’m going to ask you to be quiet,” the Doctor sighed. “If you spring many more surprises on me, my hearts might just stop.”
“Yeah, Mum is something, isn’t she?” Jenny laughed.
“She certainly is,” he agreed, reaching out a hand to stroke Rose’s hair. “She’s an impossible thing.”