Mickey Smith got off of the train in Cardiff, Wales, and he headed up to Roald Dahl Plass. He caught sight of a familiar blue police public call box stationed in front of a water tower, and smiling, he walked up to it, raising his hand and knocking on the door.

His smile faded instantly when a rather good-looking black haired man in a light blue T-shirt opened the door, blocking him from entering, and the man raised an eyebrow. "Who the hell are you?" he asked.

Mickey blinked, taken aback. "Who the hell am I?" he repeated. "Who the hell are you?!"

"Captain Jack Harkness," he replied. "Whatever you're selling, we're not buying, and I've got two lovely ladies to protect in here, so if you don't mind . . . "

"CAPTAIN!" a two familiar voices shouted, and Jack started laughing.

"Get out of my way!" Mickey snarled, shoving past him to get inside of the TARDIS.

"Oh, don't tell me!" Jack choked out through his laughter. "This must be Mickey!"

"Here comes trouble!" the Apocalypse called from where she was on top of a ladder on the wall, fixing something. She smirked down at him, giving a small wave. "How're you doing, Ricky boy?"

"It's Mickey!" Mickey snapped at her.

"Oh, don't listen to her," Rose laughed, coming around the TARDIS console. "She's winding you up!"

Mickey smiled at Rose. "You look fantastic!" he told her, giving her a hug. She hugged him back, but he noted that it wasn't as tight as it had been before. He narrowed his eyes slightly. Was she with that Captain Jack Harkness, now?

"Aww, sweet," Jack cooed. "Look at these two!" He looked up at the Apocalypse. "How come I never get any of that?"

"Buy me a drink first," the Apocalypse recommended.

He huffed. "You're such hard work," he complained.

"But so worth it," she retorted with a wink.

"Did you manage to find it?" Rose asked.

Mickey nodded, digging in his coat pocket and pulling out her passport. "There you go," he told her, handing it over.

Rose took it with a smile. "I can go anywhere now," she told the Apocalypse.

"I've told you, you don't need a passport!" the Apocalypse told her.

"It's all very well going to Platform One and Justicia and the Glass Pyramid of San Kaloon, but what if we end up in Brazil? I might need it." She grinned her tongue in teeth grin. "You see, I'm prepared for anything."

"And no doubt some information needs updating now, eh?" Jack asked with a wink at the Apocalypse. She merely threw what seemed like a screw at him, and he dodged it easily.

Mickey looked around between the three of them, feeling like he was left out. "Sounds like you're staying, then," he said sadly.

The reaction was immediate. Rose's face froze, and the Apocalypse stopped what she was doing, looking over her shoulder to glare at Mickey, and even Jack stopped what he was doing to consider the black man.

Mickey quickly schooled his expression to mask his disappointment over that fact. "So what're you doing in Cardiff? And who the hell's Jumping Jack Flash? I mean, I don't mind you hanging out with Little Miss Space Girl up there - "

"OI!" the Apocalypse shouted at him, glaring at him as Rose stifled a giggle behind her hand.

"Look in the mirror," he snapped at her, having minor satisfaction at seeing her flinch. Served her right for taking Rose away from her family, where she belonged. "But this guy . . . I don't know. He's kind of - "

"Handsome?" Jack asked smugly.

"Runs in the family, then," the Apocalypse said mildly, and Jack sniggered.

"More like cheesy," Mickey retorted angrily.

"Early 21st Century slang." He looked up at the Apocalypse. "Is cheesy good or bad?"

"It's bad," Mickey interrupted.

"But bad means good. Isn't that right?" Jack asked the Apocalypse smugly.

"Like I said. It runs in the family," the Apocalypse told him cheekily, winking as she hopped down off of the ladder.

"We just stopped off," Rose told Mickey. "We need to refuel. The thing is, Cardiff's got this Rift running through the middle of the city. It's invisible, but it's like an earthquake fault between different dimensions."

"The Rift was healed back in 1869," the Apocalypse continued.

"Thanks to a girl named Gwyneth, because these creatures called the Gelth, they were using the Rift as a gateway, but she saved the world and closed it."

Then Captain Jack Flash jumped in. "But closing a Rift always leaves a scar, and that scar generates energy, harmless to the human race - "

"But perfect for the TARDIS," the Apocalypse continued, smirking as the confused look on Mickey's face continued to grow. "So, just park her here for a couple of days, right on top of the scar, and - "

"Open up the engines, soak up the radiation - "

"Like filling her up with petrol, and off we go!" Rose cheered.

"Into time!" Jack shouted, high fiving the Apocalypse

"And space!" the three of them shouted in unison, doing a huge high five, Rose laughing and slinging her arms around their shoulders as theirs instantly went around her.

"My God, have you seen yourselves?" Mickey asked in shock, staring between the three of them. Jack really was too close for Rose for his comfort, and the way they all seemed so close, period . . . it was just making him uncomfortable. Way too uncomfortable. "You all think you're so clever, don't you?"

"Yeah," the Apocalypse confirmed readily.

"Yeah," Rose agreed.

"Yep!" Jack wrapped up, patting Mickey on the cheek for good measure.

***

"So, she should take another twenty four hours, which means we've got time to kill," the Apocalypse told them as they exited the TARDIS.

"That old lady's staring," Mickey noted.

"Probably wondering what four people could do inside a small wooden box," Jack laughed, clapping the Apocalypse on the back.

"Watch it," she warned.

"What are you captain of, the Innuendo Squad?" Mickey asked incredulously. Jack simply made the whatever sign with his hands and began to walk away. "Wait, the TARDIS, we can't just leave it!" Mickey told them. "Doesn't it get noticed?"

"Yeah, what's with the police box?" Jack asked, turning back. "Why does it look like that?"

"It's a cloaking device," Rose replied with a smile.

"It's called a chameleon circuit," the Apocalypse began to explain. "The TARDIS is meant to disguise herself wherever it lands. For instance, if this was Ancient Rome, it'd be a statue on a plinth or something. But I landed in the 1960s, she disguised herself as a police box, and the circuit got stuck."

"So it copied a real thing?" Mickey asked. "There actually were police boxes?"

"On street corners. Phone for help before they had radios and mobiles. If they arrested someone, they could shove them inside till help came, like a little prison cell."

"Why don't you just fix the circuit?" Jack asked.

"I like it!" the Apocalypse whined, looking at Rose. "Don't you?"

"I love it," Rose assured her, patting the edge of the box.

"But that's what I meant!" Mickey told her with a smirk. "There's no police boxes anymore, so doesn't it get noticed?"

"Ricky, Ricky, Ricky," the Apocalypse sighed, shaking her head before stepping forward to look at him. "Fun fact about the human race. You put a mysterious blue box slap bang in the middle of town, what do they do?" She didn't even give him a chance to answer. "Walk past it." She clapped his shoulders before walking off. "Now, stop your nagging! Let's go and explore!"

"What's the plan?" Rose asked, jogging to catch up and threading their fingers together as Jack caught up to her other side, Mickey behind them all, staring at how close they were and clenching his fists angrily.

"Don't really have one," the Apocalypse replied with a smile, putting her arm through Jack's. "It's Cardiff, early 21st century, and the wind's coming from the east. Trust me. Safest place in the universe."

"Oh, boy," Jack joked, and the three of them burst out laughing.

***

"I swear," Jack was laughing from next to Rose later as he was telling them one of his stories, the Apocalypse and Mickey across from them, even though the younger man didn't look entirely happy with that arrangement. "Six feet tall, and with big tusks - "

"And you're lying through your teeth!" the Apocalypse accused, but she was laughing as well.

"I'd have gone bonkers!" Rose laughed. "That's the word! Bonkers!"

"I mean, it turns out the white things are tusks, and I mean tusks!" Jack insisted. "And it's woken, and it's not happy - "

"How could you not know it was there?" the Apocalypse asked as Mickey tried to understand what they were all saying.

"And we're standing there," Jack continued, "fifteen of us, naked - "

"Naked?!" Rose shrieked.

"And I'm like, oh, no, no, it's got nothing to do with me," Jack continued, and the Apocalypse snorted so loudly a few other people on the jetty turned to look at her. "And then it roars, and we are running. Oh, my God, we are running! And Brakovitch falls, so I turn to him and I say - "

"I knew we should've turned left!" Mickey finished.

The Apocalypse roared in laughter at that, Rose crying from how hard she was laughing, and Jack pointed at Mickey. "That's my line!" he accused.

"I don't believe you," Rose giggled. "I don't believe a word you say, ever. That is so brilliant! Did you ever get your clothes back?"

The Apocalypse looked out of the corner of her eye and saw something that made her blink. She stood and marched over to a man nearby. "Sorry," she apologized before taking his newspaper and reading through it.

"No, I just picked him up, went straight for the ship, full throttle," Jack was saying. "Didn't stop until I hit the spacelanes. I was shaking. It was unbelievable! It freaked me out, and by the time I got fifteen light years away, I realized I'm like this."

The Apocalypse sighed, turning to them. "And I was having such a nice day," she told them, flashing them the head newspaper article.

On the front cover was Margaret the Slitheen, the new Mayor.

***

The Apocalypse and Jack took the lead, Rose right on their heels, Mickey lagging a bit behind. He was trying to figure out just how close these three were. It was obvious that the Apocalypse and Rose were much, much closer than they had been the last time he'd seen them, but how did this Captain Jack Harkness fit into the picture? The way he seemed to be able to read them like a book, know exactly what they were going to do. It actually made him a little . . . jealous.

"According to intelligence, the target is the last surviving member of the Slitheen family, a criminal sect from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius, masquerading as a human being zipped inside a skin suit," Jack rattled off, taking off his gloves and looking around. "OK, plan of attack. We assume a basic fifty seven fifty six strategy, covering all available exits on the ground floor. "Apocalypse, you go fact to face. That'll designate Exit One." The Apocalypse raised an eyebrow, and Rose bit her lip to cover a smile. "I'll cover Exit Two. Rose, you Exit Three. Mickey Smith, you take Exit Four. Have you got that?"

"Excuse me," the Apocalypse told him, quirking an eyebrow. "Who's in charge here?"

Jack smirked. "Sorry." He straightened. "Awaiting orders, sir."

"Right. Here's the plan." The Apocalypse pointed at Jack. "Do what he said. Like he said. Nice plan."

"Thank you," Jack said with a wink.

"Anything else?"

"Present arms."

The Apocalypse pulled out her cell phone. "Ready," she reported.

"Ready," Rose put in, holding hers up.

"Ready," Mickey added.

"Ready." Jack adjusted something. "Speed dial?"

"Yup," the Apocalypse confirmed, popping the 'p.'

"Ready."

"Check."

Jack smirked. "See you in hell."

The Apocalypse nodded as she and Rose headed off straight to cover their exits, and Jack took off to the right. Mickey paused for a second, blinking at the speed they'd taken off with before slowly turning to the left and heading off.

***

"Hello!" the Apocalypse greeted the young man at the desk. "I've come to see the Lord Mayor."

"Have you got an appointment?" he asked.

"Nope," she replied, popping the 'p.' "Just an old friend, passing by. Bit of a surprise." She grinned. "Can't wait to see her face!"

"Well, she's just having a cup of tea."

"Just go in there and tell her the Apocalypse would like to see her."

He blinked. "I'm sorry, the who?"

"Just the Apocalypse. Tell her exactly that. The Apocalypse."

The man looked at her for a second before standing up with a sigh. "Hang on a tick," he told her, heading inside.

The Apocalypse stood there, arms crossed, absently bobbing her head when she heard a teacup smash behind her. She smirked before looking back as the man exited, looking flustered. "The Lord Mayor says thank you for popping by," he told her nervously. "She'd love to have a chat, but . . . er . . . she's up to her eyes in paperwork. Perhaps if you could make an appointment for next week?"

The Apocalypse looked down at the floor before smirking. "She's climbing out the window, isn't she?" she asked.

He winced. "Yes, she is."

The Apocalypse pushed past him through the office before emerging on the balcony to see Margaret climbing down the ladder. She held her phone to her ear. "Slitheen, heading north," she reported.

"On my way," Rose replied instantly.

"Over and out!" Jack answered, sounding like he was running.

"Oh, my God," Mickey sputtered in shock.

The Apocalypse rolled her eyes before turning to wrestle with the man when he emerged after her. "Leave the Mayor alone!"

She karate chopped him in the back of the neck, sending him sprawling on the balcony, out cold. "Sorry," she apologized before jumping down the ladder. "Margaret!" she shouted.

She ran up to see Jack and Rose halting as they watched Margaret run. "Who's on Exit Four?" Jack demanded.

"That was Mickey!" Rose replied.

The boy in question emerged, trailing a bucket with toilet paper hanging off of it. "Here I am," he panted.

"Mickey the Idiot," the Apocalypse mocked.

"Oh, be fair," Rose scolded her. "She's not exactly going to outrun us, is she?"

And Margaret vanished from in front of them. "You were saying?" the Apocalypse quipped.

"She's got a teleport!" Jack complained. "That's cheating! Now we're never going to get her!"

"Jack, you should know by now," Rose told him with a grin. "Caly is very good at teleports."

"Caly?" Mickey asked.

The Apocalypse held up her sonic screwdriver, pressing the button. Margaret reappeared, heading towards them. Her eyes widened, and she turned to run again. The Apocalypse merely snapped open a portal in front of her, sending Margaret through it, making her come out even closer to them. They exchanged it one more time before Margaret was directly in front of them. "You know, I could do this all day," the Apocalypse told her.

"This is persecution," Margaret spat. "Why can't you leave me alone? What did I ever do to you?"

"The charges against Margaret the Slitheen," the Apocalypse began. "She tried to kill the Apocalypse, Rose Tyler, and everyone else by destroying the planet. We find her - "

"Guilty," she and Rose said at the same time before they grinned at each other, Jack snickering at that as Mickey shot the Apocalypse a filthy glare. How could they be joking about this?

"Apart from that?" Margaret asked.

***

"So you're a Slitheen," the Apocalypse began as they led Margaret back into city hall. "You're on Earth, you're trapped. Your family gets killed, but you teleport out just in the nick of time. You have no means of escape. What do you do? You build a nuclear power station. But what for?"

"A philanthropic gesture," Margaret replied. "I've learned the error of my ways."

"Mmhmm," the Apocalypse hummed, clearly not believing it. "And it just so happens to be right on top of the Rift."

"What Rift would that be?" Margaret asked innocently.

"A Rift in space and time," Jack answered. "If this power statin went into meltdown, the entire planet would go shhp - " He made a gesture. "BOOM!"

"I can see the family resemblance," Rose joked. "He likes explosions as much as you do!"

"I don't know if I should be offended or pleased by that," Jack commented.

"But this station is designed to explode the minute it reaches capacity," the Apocalypse finished.

"Didn't anyone notice?" Rose asked. "Isn't there someone in London checking this sort of stuff?"

"We're in Cardiff," Margaret sniffed. "London doesn't care. The South Wales coast could fall into the sea and they wouldn't notice." She stopped. "Oh. I sound like a Welshman." She cringed. "God help me, I've gone native."

"But why would she do that?" Mickey asked, wanting to be of help. "A great big explosion, she'd only end up killing herself."

"She's got a name, you know," Margaret told him.

"She's not even a she," Mickey countered. "She's a thing."

"Oh, but she's clever," the Apocalypse told him. Abruptly, the pieces of the model flew off, making both Mickey and Margaret jump backwards in shock. Rose and Jack didn't even flinch. The Apocalypse grabbed the middle section of the model out and flipped it over into her hands, and she smiled at the electronic device she now held in her hands. "Fantastic," she breathed.

Jack brightened. "Is that a tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator?" he asked excitedly.

"Couldn't have put it better myself!" the Apocalypse told him proudly.

"Oo, genius!" Jack shouted before pointing at Margaret. "You didn't build this."

"I have my hobbies," Margaret told him. "A little tinkering."

"No, no, no," Jack told her. "I mean, you really didn't build this. Way beyond you."

"I bet she stole it," Mickey suggested.

"It fell into my hands," Margaret compromised.

"Is it a weapon?" Rose asked.

"It's a transport," Jack replied before going into technical mode as he took the extrapolator from the Apocalypse and sat it o the ground. "You see, if the reactor blows, the Rift opens. Phenomenal cosmic disaster. But this thing shrouds you in a forcefield. You have this energy bubble, so you're safe. Then you feed it coordinates, stand on top - " He jumped on top with a grin. "And ride the concussion all the way out of the solar system."

"Definitely seeing the family resemblance," Rose laughed as the Apocalypse beamed at the man she called her older brother.

"It's a surfboard," Mickey translated.

"Pan-dimensional surfboard," Jack corrected.

"And it would've worked," Margaret spat. "I'd have surfed away from this dead end dump and back to civilization!"

"You'd blow up a whole planet just to get a lift?" Mickey asked.

"You'd be surprised what some aliens do, Ricky," the Apocalypse told him darkly, not even caring about the glare he sent her. "She nearly did it once. She'll do it again."

"Like stepping on an anthill," Margaret sneered.

The Apocalypse opened her mouth to reply when something caught her eye in the back. She turned slowly, considering the banner on the wall. "How did you think of the name?" she asked.

"What? Blaidd Drwg?" Margaret asked. "It's Welsh."

"I know, but how did you think of it?"

"I chose it at random, that's all. I don't know. It just sounded good. Does it matter?"

"Blaidd Drwg," the Apocalypse murmured.

"What's it mean?" Rose asked.

The Apocalypse slowly turned to her. "Bad Wolf."

Rose froze, and Jack quickly walked over to her before Mickey even had a chance to move. "But I've heard that before," she whispered as Jack put an arm around her comfortingly. "Bad Wolf. I've heard that lots of times!"

"Everywhere we go," the Apocalypse confirmed. "Two words, following us. Bad Wolf."

"How can they be following us?" Rose whimpered.

The Apocalypse considered it, then she quickly turned her mood around when she saw how truly frightened her little sister was. "Nah," she brushed off. "Just a coincidence! Like hearing a word on the radio, then hearing it all day. Never mind! Things to do." She turned to Margaret. "Margaret, we're going to take you home."

"Hold on," Jack interrupted, not moving away from Rose, sending Mickey a dirty look when he tried to approach. No way in hell was he letting the boy near Rosie when he didn't have any clue what was going on. He didn't know much about Bad Wolf, but he knew he'd seen it before as well in the few adventures they'd been on, and Rose had told him about the other times they'd heard the words before. He knew it scared her to death, and Mickey understood none of it. "Isn't that the easy option? Like letting her go?"

"I don't believe it," Rose whispered. "We actually get to go to Raxa - " She cut off, wrinkling her nose in an adorable way that made Jack chuckle. "Wait a minute. Raxacor - "

"Raxacoricofallapatorius," the Apocalypse encouraged.

"Raxacorico - "

" - fallapatorius."

And finally Rose got it. "Raxacoricofallapatorius!"

"That's it!" the Apocalypse cheered, giving Rose a huge hug when the girl let out an excited squeal, Jack high fiving the three of them as Mickey watched them celebrate, a dirty look growing on his face. They were acting like he wasn't even there! The Apocalypse just hated him in general, he could see that, and so did Captain Jack Harkness, judging by the oh so lovely look he'd given him after the name Bad Wolf had been revealed, but even Rose was ignoring him! How could she do that to her own boyfriend?

"I did it!" Rose laughed.

"They have the death penalty," Margaret told them, and the three of them froze, turning to her. "The family Slitheen was tried in its absence many years ago and found guilty with no chance of appeal According to the statues of government, the moment I return, I am to be executed. What do you make of that, Apocalypse? Take me home, and you take me to my death."

"Not my problem," she replied simply.

***

"This ship is impossible!" Margaret gasped as she looked around the TARDIS, seeming genuinely impressed. "It's superb! How do you get the outside around the inside?"

"Well, that's different," Jack commented. "Have you heard that one before, Calypsie?"

"One, don't call me that," the Apocalypse told him, jabbing him in the arm to show she was joking before she pointed at Margaret. "Two, like I'd give you the secret."

"I almost feel better about being defeated," Margaret continued. "I never stood a chance! This is the technology of the gods!"

"Don't worship me," the Apocalypse advised. "I'd make a very bad goddess. You wouldn't get a day off, for starters." She turned to Jack as he ducked down to work on the extrapolator. "Jack? How we doing, brother?"

"This extrapolator's top of the range, sister," he replied, poking his head up to look at Margaret. "Where did you get it?"

"Oh, I don't know," Margaret answered. "Some airlock sale?"

"Must've been a great big heist," Jack remarked. "It's stacked with power."

"But we can use it for fuel?" the Apocalypse prompted.

"It's not compatible, but it should knock off about twelve hours," Jack answered. "We'll be ready to go by morning."

"Then we're stuck here overnight," the Apocalypse sighed.

"I'm in no hurry," Margaret told her.

"We've got a prisoner," Rose realized with a small giggle. "The police box is really a police box!"

"You're not just police, though," Margaret told them. "Since you're taking me to my death, that makes you my executioners. Each and every one of you."

"Well, you deserve it," Mickey retorted.

"You're very quick to say so," Margaret remarked. "You're very quick to soak your hands in my blood, which makes you better than me how?" Mickey was quiet at that. "Long night ahead. Let's see who can look me in the eye."

She first tried Mickey, who failed. She then looked at Rose, who didn't even look at her. Jack met her eyes for a split second before looking away. She turned towards the Apocalypse -

And abruptly, the TARDIS began to vibrate.

Rose's head shot up as the Apocalypse gripped the TARDIS console tightly, staring at Margaret. "Long night ahead," the Apocalypse told her softly and in a deadly voice. "I have my hands far more than soaked. I'm farther than my elbows in blood. I have the blood of every last person in my family on my hands, Margaret. I'm the Apocalypse. I'm the last surviving Time Lady from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I chose my name for a reason. I would hate for tonight to be the day you find out why."

Margaret swallowed, actually seemingly caught off guard, and the Apocalypse nodded, taking a deep breath and moving to help Jack. "Let's go," she whispered.

Jack squeezed her hand, giving her a small one-armed hug before the two of them went to work with the extrapolator. Rose joined them a few seconds later, just . . . crouching there, her hand on the Apocalypse's arm as they worked, knowing she might not be able to help, but knowing that she could just be there.

Mickey observed the three of them, his jaw clenched. That woman had stolen Rose from her own family, and had obviously done something to her. Rose had never paid attention to him this entire time besides when they first got there. And now, instead of passing idle conversation, she wasn't even helping them! She was just there, crouching by them.

He shook his head, heading outside. He didn't know what he couldn't stand anymore. He didn't know if it was the box, or the woman inside.

Or the fact that it looked like his girlfriend had chosen two complete strangers over her real family.

***

Rose watched Mickey leave, then she sighed. "I'll go look after him," she told the Apocalypse.

"Go," she replied. "I think you two need to talk."

"I know," Rose agreed before standing and exiting. She blinked, folding her arms. "It's freezing out here!" she exclaimed.

"Better than in there," Mickey told her, and he sounded colder. Rose approached him, wondering why he was acting this way. "She does deserve it. She's a Slitheen." He rubbed his face. "I don't care. It's just weird in that box."

"I didn't really need my passport," Rose offered.

That seemed to cheer him up a little bit. "I've been thinking, you know . . . we could go have a drink. Have a pizza or something. Just you and me."

Rose nodded. "That'd be nice," she told him. That would be a good time to talk about just who exactly the Apocalypse and Jack were to her.

"And, I mean, if the TARDIS can't leave until morning, we could go to a hotel, spend the night." Rose blinked at that, and Mickey hastily added, "I mean, if you want to I've got some money."

"OK," she said slowly, anything but OK with that proposition. "Yeah."

"Is that all right?" Mickey asked.

"Yeah," she replied halfheartedly.

Either he didn't notice, or he didn't care, or both. "Cool!" He began walking off, and Rose followed a little slower. "There's a couple of bars around here. We should give them a go. Do you have to go and tell her?"

"She knows," Rose replied, looking over her shoulder towards the TARDIS before taking a shaky breath and continuing on. "They both do."

She didn't see Mickey's glare at the TARDIS.

***

The Apocalypse did. "I did say he was an idiot, didn't I?" she asked Jack, swinging the monitor around to face him.

Jack took one look and his face hardened. "Idiot indeed," he agreed before going back to work.

"I gather it's not always like this, having to wait," Margret spoke up. "I bet you're always the first to leave, Apocalypse. Never mind the consequences, off you go. You butchered my family and then ran for the stars, am I right? But not this time. At last, you have consequences. How does it feel?"

"I didn't butcher them," the Apocalypse began angrily.

"Don't answer back," Jack advised. "That's what she wants."

"But I didn't. What about you?" the Apocalypse challenged. "You had an emergency teleport. You didn't zap them to safety, did you?"

"It only carries one," Margaret answered. "I had to fly without coordinates. I ended up on a skip in the Isle of Dogs." The Apocalypse's eyes widened at that, and she giggled, earning a glare from Margaret. "It wasn't funny!"

"Sorry," the Apocalypse said unapologetically before she snickered some more, even Jack chuckling a little. "It is a bit funny, though."

"Do I get a last request?" Margaret asked.

"Depends on what it is," the Apocalypse answered.

"I grew quite fond of my little human life. All those rituals. The brushing of the teeth, and the complicated way they cook things. There's a little restaurant just round the Bay. It became quite a favorite of mine."

"You want a last meal?" the Apocalypse asked incredulously.

"Don't I have rights?"

"Oh, like she's not going to escape!" Jack scoffed.

"Except I can never escape the Apocalypse, so where's the danger?" Margaret quipped. "I wonder if you could do it? To sit with a creature you're about to kill and take supper. How strong is your stomach?"

"Strong enough," the Apocalypse answered shortly.

"I wonder . . . I've seen you fight your enemies. Now dine with them."

"You won't change my mind."

"Prove it."

The Apocalypse folded her arms. "There are people out there. If you slip away just for one second, they'll be in danger."

"Except . . . I've got these!" Jack announced, holding up two metal bangles. "You both wear one. If she moves more than ten feet away, she gets zapped by ten thousand volts!"

The Apocalypse turned to Margaret with a sweet smile. "Margaret, would you like to come out to dinner? My treat."

"Dinner in bondage," Margaret sneered. "Works for me."

***

"Here we are, out on a date, and you haven't even asked my proper name," Margaret observed as they sat down at their table.

"It's not a date," the Apocalypse reminded her as she looked at the menu. "What's your name, then?"

"Blon. I am Blon Fel Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen. That's what it'll say on my death certificate."

"Nice to meet you, Blon!"

"I'm sure," she drawled before pointing. "Look. That's where I was living as Margaret. Nice little flat, over there, on the top. Next to the one with the light on." The Apocalypse turned to look over her shoulder. "Two bedrooms, bayside view. I was rather content. Don't suppose I'll see it again."

The Apocalypse turned around, took note of their wine glasses, before switching them around. "Suppose not."

Margaret glared at her. "Thank you."

"Pleasure."

"Tell me then, Apocalypse. What do you know of our species?"

"Only what I've seen."

"Did you now, for example, in extreme cases, when her life is in danger, a female Raxacoricofallapatorian can manufacture a poison dart within her own finger?"

The Apocalypse raised a hand, and she dart headed right for her face stopped in midair. "Yes, I did," she answered before snapping her fingers and making the dart disappear.

"Just checking," Margaret said sourly. "And one more thing, between you and me . . . " The Apocalypse raised an eyebrow, looking around to see if anyone was listening, before she leaned in to hear. "As a final resort, the excess poison can be exhaled through the lungs."

The Apocalypse pulled out the breath freshener she had in her pocket out and spritzed it in Margaret's mouth when she started to exhale. "That's better," she declared happily as Margaret began to hack and cough. "Now, then, what do you think?" She went back to the menu, smirking as she browsed through. "Mmm . . . steak looks nice." She grinned. "Steak and chips!"

***

"The Apocalypse took me to this planet a while back, and then she took Jack with us as well recently," Rose was saying to Mickey as they walked along the bay. "It was much colder than this. They called it Woman Wept. The planet was actually called Woman Wept, because if you looked at it, right? From above, there's like this huge continent, like all curved round. It sort of looked like a woman, you know . . . lamenting. Oh, my God, and we went to this beach, right? No people, no buildings, just this beach, like, a thousand miles across! And something had happened, something to do with the sun, I don't know, but the sea had just frozen! In a split second, in the middle of a storm, right? Waves and foam, just frozen, all the way out to the horizon! Midnight, right? We walk under the waves a hundred feet tall, made of ice."

"I'm going out with Trisha Delaney," Mickey blurted out.

Rose blinked. Well, at least I don't have to tell him I'd rather stay in the TARDIS now, she thought. "Right. That's nice. Trisha from the shop?"

"Yeah. Rob Delaney's sister."

"Well, she's nice. She's a bit big," she remembered.

"She lost weight. You've been away."

"Well, good for you. She's nice."

Mickey looked at her. "So, tell us more about this planet, then."

"That was it, really," Rose replied with a shrug. "The rest of it is between me, Caly, and Jack."

"Caly?" Mickey repeated.

"Well, I'm not calling her the Apocalypse continually, am I?" Rose quipped at him.

She ignored his disgusted look at they kept walking.

***

"Public execution's a slow death," Margaret told the Apocalypse. "They prepare a thin acetic acid, lower me into the cauldron, and boil me. The acidity is perfect gauged to strip away the sin. Internal organs fall out into the liquid, and I become soup. And still alive, still screaming."

The Apocalypse took a look at her food before shaking her head. "I don't make the law," she muttered, taking a bite of her steak.

"But you deliver it. Will you stay to watch?"

"What else can I do?"

"The Slitheen family's huge. There's a lot more of us, all scattered off-world. Take me to them. Take me somewhere safe."

"But then you'll just start again."

"I promise I won't!"

"You've been in that skin suit too long," the Apocalypse told her, setting her fork down and leaning forward. "You're forgotten. There used to be a real Margaret Blaine. You killed her and stripped her and used the skin. You're pleading for mercy out of a dead woman's lips."

"Perhaps I have got used to it," Margaret told him. "A human life, an ordinary life. That's all I'm asking. Give me a chance, Apocalypse. I can change."

She shook her head. "I don't believe you."

***

"So what do you want to do now?" Mickey asked.

Rose shrugged. "Don't mind," she replied absently, when all she really wanted to do was go back to the TARDIS.

"We could ask about hotels?"

Rose looked at him incredulously. "What would Trisha Delaney say?" she asked.

"Suppose," Mickey admitted. "There's a bar down there with a Spanish name, or something."

Rose shook her head, turning to him. "You don't even like Trisha Delaney!" she accused.

"Oh, is that right?" Mickey asked, turning to her as well. "What the hell do you know?"

"I know you, and I know her," Rose replied, folding her arms. "And I know that's never going to happen. So who do you think you're kidding?"

"At least I know where she is!"

Rose shook her head. "There we are, then," she sighed. She should have known. All those looks he'd been sending them all. He was mad because she was gone, plain and simple. "It's got nothing to do with Trisha. This is all about me, isn't it - "

He cut her off with a yell. "You left me!" Rose jerked back, putting her hands on the railing behind her as Mickey ranted at her. "We were nice! We were happy And then what? You give me a kiss, and you run off with her, and you make me feel like nothing, Rose! I was nothing! I can't even go out with a stupid girl from a shop because you pick up the phone, and I come running. I mean, is that what I am, Rose? Standby? Am I just supposed to sit here for the rest of my life, waiting for you? Because I will."

Rose swallowed. "I'm sorry," she said meekly as she leaned against the railing, but she didn't look at him. She had made her choice a long time ago.

She wasn't leaving the TARDIS.

***

"I promise you, I've changed since we last met, Apocalypse," Margaret tried again. "There was this girl, just today. A young thing, something of a danger. She was getting too close. I felt the blood lust rising, just as the family taught me. I was going to kill her without a thought. And then I stopped. She's alive somewhere right now. She's walking around this city because I can change. I did change. I know I can't prove it - "

"I believe you," the Apocalypse interrupted.

"Then you know I'm capable of better."

"It doesn't mean anything."

"I spared her life!"

"You let one of them go, but that's nothing new," she scoffed. "Every now and then, a little victim's spared because she smiled, because he's got freckles, because they begged. And that's how you live with yourself. That's how you slaughter millions. Because once in a while, on a whim, if the wind's in the right direction, you happen to be kind."

"Only a killer would know that," Margaret countered, and the Apocalypse stopped mid chew. "Is that right? From what I've seen, your funny little happy-go-lucky little life leaves devastation in its wake. Always moving on because you dare not look back. Playing with so many people's lives, you might as well be a goddess. And you're right, Apocalypse. You're absolutely right. Sometimes, you let one go. Let me go."

***

"Why can't you just leave them, Rose?" Mickey asked. "Not forever, but I need a promise that when you come back, you're coming back for me."

Rose swallowed. "I can't," she apologized in a whisper when she heard a rumble. "Is that thunder?" she asked.

"You can't promise me that?" Mickey asked angrily. "Rose, why can't you promise me something as simple as that?!"

"That's not thunder," Rose realized.

***

"In the family Slitheen, we had no choice." The Apocalypse furrowed her eyebrows when she heard something. "I was made to carry out my first kill at thirteen. If I'd refused, my father would have fed me to the Venom Grubs. If I'm a killer, it's because I was born to kill. It's all I know." The Apocalypse frowned, looking around for the source of the noise. "Apocalypse, are you even listening to me?"

"Can you hear that?" she asked.

Margaret huffed. "I'm begging for my life!"

"No, listen," the Apocalypse told her. "Hush."

The glasses on the table began to vibrate, and suddenly the window off to the side shattered.

***

Rose looked around at the exploding street lights, and she wrenched her arm away from Mickey and took off running for the TARDIS. "Oh, go on, then! Run!" Mickey yelled after her. "It's her again, isn't it? It's the Apocalypse! It's always the Apocalypse! It's always going to be the Apocalypse! It's never me!"

"Because you don't know who she is, what she's done, what she had to do, what she's been through!" Rose shouted back, summoning whatever courage she had against Mickey to turn on him. "I know everything about it, Mickey! I know I'm not the first one to be with her, I know I might not be the last. But I'll tell you something, Mickey! The Apocalypse isn't just someone. Caly's my older sister! And I'm not leaving her!"

Mickey stared at her in utter disbelief, and Rose turned tail and ran faster than she'd ever run before.

***

"The handcuffs!" Margaret puffed as she tried to keep up with the Apocalypse.

The woman rolled her eyes, stopping before taking her bangle off. "Don't think you're running away," she warned.

"Oh, I'm sticking with you," Margaret told her. "Some date this turned out to be!"

"It's not a date!" the Apocalypse sighed before stopping when she saw the TARDIS, energy streaming from it into she sky. "It's the Rift," she breathed. "The Rift's opening!"

She ran inside, Margaret behind her, hearing cracks split in the pavement behind them. "What the hell are you doing?!" she shouted at Jack.

"It just went crazy!" Jack shouted back as he darted around the console, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"It's the Rift," she told him. "Time and space are ripping apart! The whole city's going to disappear!"

"It's the extrapolator," he told her. "I've disconnected it, but it's still feeding off the engine! It's using the TARDIS. I can't stop it!"

"Never mind Cardiff, it's going to rip open the planet!"

"What is it?" Rose asked as she ran in. "What's happening?"

"Oh, just little me!" Margaret sneered before pulling her Slitheen arm out of her suit and snagged Rose around the neck. The Apocalypse and Jack took simultaneous steps forward, but Margaret squeezed, and Rose gasped for breath. "One wrong move, and she snaps like a promise," the Slitheen warned.

The Apocalypse growled. "I might have known!"

"I've had you bleating all night, poor baby, now shut it," Margaret snapped before looking at Jack. "You! Fly boy! Put the extrapolator at my feet." Jack looked at the Apocalypse, who nodded. He put the extrapolator down, and Margaret smiled. "Thank you. Just as I planned."

"I thought you needed to blow up the nuclear power station," Rose wheezed.

"Failing that, if I were to be arrested, then anyone capable of tracking me down would have considerable technology of their own," Margaret bragged. "Therefore, they would be captivated by the extrapolator. Especially a magpie mind like yours, Apocalypse. So the extrapolator was programmed to go to Plan B: to lock onto the nearest alien power source and open the Rift. And what a power source it found! I'm back on schedule, thanks to you!"

"The Rift's going to convulse," Jack told her. "You'll destroy the whole planet!"

"And you with it!" Margaret cackled, getting onto the extrapolator. "While I ride this board over the crest of the inferno all the way to freedom. Surf's up!"

The Apocalypse rested her hand on the TARDIS console it cracked open, and bright wisps of gold and white flowed out. "Of course, opening the Rift means you'll pull this ship apart," she told her.

"So sue me," Margaret sniffed.

"She's not just any old power source. She's the TARDIS. My TARDIS. The best ship in the universe."

"It'll make wonderful scrap!"

"What's that light?" Rose asked.

"The heart of the TARDIS," the Apocalypse replied. "This ship's alive. You've opened its soul."

"It's so bright," Margaret whispered.

"Look at it, Margaret," the Apocalypse encouraged.

"Beautiful."

"Look inside, Blon Fel Fotch. Look at the light."

Margaret relaxed, and Rose wrenched herself out of her grip, and Margaret looked up at the Apocalypse and smiled dreamily. "Thank you."

She disappeared, and her suit dropped to the floor. "Don't look!" the Apocalypse ordered, running to the heart of the TARDIS. "Stay there! Close your eyes!" She quickly closed the console up, and smiled. "Now, Jack, come on, shut it all down! Shut down!" He nodded and went to do his job as she turned to Rose. "Rose, that panel over there turn all the switches to the right!"

Rose nodded as well and started flicking the switches, and the TARDIS hummed, stilling. "Nicely done," she praised them. "Thank you, all!"

"What happened to Margaret?" Rose asked curiously.

"Must've got burnt up," Jack guessed. "Carried out her own death sentence."

"No, I don't think she's dead," the Apocalypse denied.

"Then where'd she go?" Rose asked.

"She looked into the heart of the TARDIS. Even I don't know how strong that is," the Apocalypse admitted. "And the ship's telepathic, like I told you, Rose. It can get inside your head, translate alien languages. Maybe the raw energy can translate all sorts of thoughts." She knelt down next to the bodysuit and looked inside before smiling and tossing up a rather large egg with dreadlocks. "Here she is!"

Rose blinked. "She's an egg?"

"Regressed to her childhood!"

"She's an egg?" Jack repeated.

"She can start again," the Apocalypse told them. "Live her life from scratch. If we take her home, give her to a different family, tell them to bring her up properly, she might be all right!"

"Or she might be worse," Jack pointed out.

She shrugged. "That's her choice."

"She's an egg," Rose said blankly.

The Apocalypse chuckled. "She's an egg." She stood to check on the TARDIS. "We're all powered up. We can leave. Opening the Rift filled us up with energy. We can go, if that's all right."

"Yeah," Rose replied. "Let's get out of here."

The Apocalypse eyed her. "Did everything go all right with you and Mickey?"

"He's OK," she replied with a nod. "I'm sure he's gone."

"We can wait for you to go and find him?" the Apocalypse offered.

"No," Rose replied quickly. Almost too quickly. "I'd rather go."

The Apocalypse frowned, walking over to her. "Did he say something to you?"

"Caly, it's fine," Rose sighed. "Can we just . . . go?"

The Apocalypse eyed her, seeing how tense she was. If anything she was not all right. But she let it go, nodding. "Off we go, then. Always moving on."

"Next stop, Raxacoricofallapatorius," Jack announced before chuckling. "Now, you don't often get to say that."

"We'll just stop by and pop her in the hatchery," the Apocalypse decided. "Margaret the Slitheen can live her life again. A second chance."

"That'd be nice," Rose said with a smile as she watched them work.

What Mickey had told her, about telling her to promise that the next time she returned to Eath, it would be for him . . . she couldn't promise that. What if the world just needed saving, like it had today? What if it wasn't Mickey she was returning to, but her mum?

But she knew one thing. Every time she returned to Earth, there would be one place she would return to after that visit.

The TARDIS. The Apocalypse. Jack. She wasn't leaving them, ever.

She promised herself that then and there. No matter what she did in her life, the TARDIS would always be the first place she would go to.

Even if she died trying to return.

***

And there, ladies and gentlemen, is my take on the lovely "Boom Town." And is anybody else hating Mickey Smith right now, or is it just me?

I hoped you liked how it turned out, with the whole TARDIS trio vs. Mickey sort of thing. I really think given how close the three of them are, Mickey wouldn't just let it go as easily as he did in the actual episode.

And the next clue to the next Apocalypse: her actress is under 30 years old. So she's close to Rose's age. :) Does that narrow the field down a little?

"Bad Wolf" is in the progress! Then "Parting of the Ways," the epilogue, and then . . . next book! :D

Who's excited???

P.S.: All of the Apocalypse's past incarnations have been figured out. If any of you want to know what one of them is, tell me which one in the comments, and I'll let you know. ;)