The Storm and the Wolf • Doctor Who

Chapter 19

Soon after, the pair of self-named "universe savers" decided to sort out what the hell was going on in their beloved universe. Well, it was more like this:

"Doctor, even though I sort of know what's going to happen soon with this whole mess, 'cause of the parallel world, but I'm still kind of lost," Rose had admitted to him.

I don't really remember how the TARDIS got to the Shadow Proclamation HQ, to be honest, the Doctor thought to himself. Ah, the forgetfulness that comes with age.

But this didn't mean he was going to confess that he was confused himself. Oh no, not the mighty, all-knowing Time Lord; he was going to pretend he knew what was happening, and pretend to explain it to Rose while figuring it out himself.

"Well, my small-minded human, let me educate you!" The Doctor bounded downstairs, down under the console. Rose, who was watching him curiously from the top, saw him run back up with a small lap-sized chalkboard in one hand, a thin white chalk length in the other.

Rose raised an eyebrow as he plopped himself onto the jumpseat and gestured for her to sit as well. He hurriedly began to scribble on the board, causing the occasional screech and scrape of the chalk-and-board friction. Unable to make sense of what he was drawing up, Rose toyed with a strand of brown, un-dyed hair that fell down from her neck and peeked out from her other longer and blonder strands.

After a few minutes of the Doctor muttering to herself, and Rose not questioning it,-"Aha!"- the Doctor had figured something out.

"This is how it goes... or went... or will be... you know!" He said as he turned the chalkboard and himself to face her. "First, the planets start to mysteriously disappear from the sky. It's been counted up to be about twenty-seven," he pointed to what was possibly the missing planets in the form of twenty-seven white dots in the left corner of the board, along with a circular Gallifreyan symbol next to it, most likely indicating the number.

"Wait, how do you know that's the count?" Rose put in before he could go on.

"That's where my next point leads," he continued. "Why twenty-seven? That we don't know yet, but I'm sure there's a reason for that exact number. How do I know that's the exact number? I've been keeping track of planets and stars I've heard to be missing over the past few years, because it did seem like suspicious activity."

"Was drawing twenty-seven dots necessary?" Rose asked with a laugh.

"I wrote a Gallifreyan number for myself, so I figured I'd draw something for you to understand too," the Doctor shrugged.

With a chuckle, Rose said, "Alright, explain the rest."

They resumed their evaluation of the chalkboard scribbles. The Doctor pointed out all his circular writing with someway-connected drawings next to them and explained his thoughts to Rose. The whole "lesson" lasted several minutes, considering that the two got off topic a few times.

"So what I'm getting is... someone stole the planets, and not just for the fun of it. Then when the Shadow Proclamation found out, they turned all Atilla the Hun and decided to battle it out to get them back, with you as their general. And all of this is a paradox-no, I'm a paradox- because I wasn't supposed to come back before you met someone else who would be important in this whole mess," Rose thought aloud, getting confirmation that she understood what the Doctor was trying to understand/teach her.

"'These truths we hold to be self-evident'," said the Doctor. "That's a quote from the United States Constituion. Helped Tommy Jefferson write it. I wrote a couple lines in myself while he practiced signing his name." He shook his head out of the reminiscing. "Anyway, I think that's right."