I'm back! Yep, listening to music nonstop for weeks and weeks and weeks on end have gotten me off of my writer's block and out of the Void of Imagination. Sadly, I have pulled someone else into it. And she has set a Chibi!Joker on me. It's a good thing that Ermintrude's not a picky eater...

Disclaimer: I only own Davenport!Eleven, Alt!Pheonix, Gwen and John. Not the show. .

The Doctor and Jack ushered the twins out as Rose went to bed, after a weak argument with the Doctor about her having a long day and needing rest (and her losing said argument.) What was he going to do? The Doctor honestly had no idea what to do about the (his, his two previous selves interjected) children. What could he do? Traveling with he and Rose in the TARDIS was almost out of the question (all of his previous selves agreed), but simply leaving them here in Torchwood with Jack and Martha and the others was almost as bad!

"Oh no...." Jack mumbled the second they stepped outside the TARDIS doors. The Doctor blinked as the twins gave little gasps of surprise and tore away from them.

"Auntie Pheonix!" The woman that they were running to turned, her eyes widening in surprise as the twins tackled her. She looked stunning, to put it simply. Her brightly dyed red, orange, and yellow hair was put up in a twist similar to Martha's, looking like a stylized flame. Her light blue turtle-sweater clung snugly to her body, stopping an inch above her olive jeans.

For some strange reason, she seemed so familiar to the Doctor. She reminded him of someone, someone he used to know a long time ago, but the name was on the tip of his tongue! She looked at the Doctor, and he saw her dark maroon eyes. They stood there, staring at each other for a minute.

"Auntie Pheonix! Do you know who this is?" John tugged at the woman's sleeve. Pheonix raised an eyebrow, keeping eye contact with the Doctor.

"No, I don't. Why don't you two introduce us?" she said, her voice amused. Her eyes seemed to be searching the Doctor, as if she were trying to figure out what he was. John's grin widened.

"This is the Doctor!" he said. Pheonix blinked, looking from Gwen, to John, to Jack, and to the Doctor, before repeating. A disbelieving smile tugged at her lips.

"Is that so?" she tilted her head "...He doesn't look like much."

~*~

Rose stares at the ceiling of her old room in the TARDIS, covers pulled up to chin and hands behind her head. Her eyes felt incredibly heavy, but she couldn't sleep. So much was going through her mind, so many thoughts, so much activity was going on in her head that her brain wouldn't allow her body to rest.

Were those children really hers? How? It's true the girl looked kind of like her but...how? They looked more like the Doctor than anything but, once again, how? It was just...weird. Actually, "weird" didn't even begin to cover any of the bases. It was just...something! Rose gave a frustrated sigh as she rubbed her eyes (nearly poking one out in the process.) She knew she was tired, and she wanted to sleep, but she just couldn't stop thinking!

The TARDIS sent calming feelings to Rose's mind, helping her mind settle so she could sleep. Rose mumbled a quiet thanks before slipping into a peaceful sleep. Once she was in a deep enough sleep, the TARDIS entered her sub-conscious, setting out to find what the Doctor could not.

~*~

Pheonix sat at the table across from the Doctor, continuing to watch him intently. He was charming, in a round-about sort of way. His green eyes were gorgeous, but who in their right mind would wear a blue suit with a multi-colored, marbled waistcoat and checkered tie like those? He almost reminded her of an actor she worked with in the other universe when the High Council wasn't too pleased with her (how was she to know that the President was allergic to earth tulips? His regeneration didn't look that bad...) when she was posing as a historian. She got good pay for that pirate movie...

The Doctor kept careful eye-contact with Pheonix, digging through the archives of his memory to recall who it was she looked like. It was about to drive him mad! They had called her Auntie Pheonix, so her name was Pheonix? His hearts thudded in his chest as he recalled something John had said earlier.

"Yep! But we've only met two: Pheonix and Koschei. Koschei was a bit of a git though, I don't really like him..."

"So..." Pheonix finally broke the silence. "You're the Doctor."

"Yes I am. And you are...?"

"They call me Pheonix."

It finally clicked in the Doctor's head. That's why this woman looked so familiar. She was the alternate version of the Pheonix that he knew a long, long time ago, back when he was what human's termed a "teenager". He was on her hit-list when he left Gallifrey. If she was the alternate Pheonix, then did that mean that Koschei...

"So, you're the Terrible Two's father. I'm guessing that they take after your previous bodies?" she asked lightly. The Doctor was slightly shocked at how casually she talked about regenerations, but then remembered that she herself was a Time Lady. He nodded.

"My ninth and tenth, yep," he nodded. Pheonix's eyes widened in a mix between surprise and alarm.

"What body are you on?!"

"Eleven. I seem to run through them rather quickly, but one regeneration wasn't my fault. It was the High Council that forced it before banishing me to Earth for a while."

"Really? That happened to you too? What'd you do?"

"Just some 'interfering'. Total bollocks. They were out to get me. Why? What'd you do?"

"Accidentally killed the President," she shrugged. The Doctor stared at her. "I didn't know he was allergic to Earth tulips!"

~*~

A non-existent breeze fluttered through the old-but-young woman's white hair, her pale skin contrasting harshly against her flowing blue robes. The woman smiled, wrinkles appearing at the corner of her mouth as she looked at the chained door before her. She took a step closer, and the golden chains shimmered.

The old woman held up a hand and touched a delicate finger to the large lock on front of the door. It disintegrated into golden dust, the golden chains fading away once the lock was gone. There was a large and echoing click, followed by many more faint clicks as more unseen doors unlocked themselves.

The TARDIS's smile grew as she heard a faint wolf's howl behind the door.

The Bad Wolf was awake...

~*~

The Doctor discovered that this Alternate Pheonix wasn't that different from himself. They were both travelers, banished from their planets at a young age, and know-it-alls. She even loved jelly babies for Rassilon's sake! As much as she was like him, he couldn't help but be amazed at how much of a polar opposite she was to the Pheonix he knew when he was younger. She was fierce, aggressive, brilliant, loud...almost like Donna Noble (except for the fact that Donna wasn't over nine thousand years old.)

They talked for hours into the night, each telling stories to entertain the twins and opening up to each other. The Doctor was quickly falling in love with the two five-year-olds. Why shouldn't he? They were his children after all. His previous uneasiness was gone, and he had accepted them as his own.

The Torchwood team had left for their homes earlier, and Jack left for his office with the following words of departure: "If you keep me awake with your talking, I'm gonna find out exactly how many regenerations you people have." (To which Pheonix joked that he was acting like he was on a period, earning laughs from the Doctor, a glare from Jack, and confused looks from the twins.)

Pheonix had finished telling them a story involving her escape from an angry family of Badgermoles on some planet ("I now know that they do not like sonic noises at all.") She suddenly had a thoughtful look on her face.

"Doctor?" she asked to get his attention.

"Yes?"

"Did Jack show you their medical scans?" she nodded her head at John and Gwen to show who she was talking about. The Doctor nodded.

"Did you happen to notice anything...interesting about them?" There was a strange twinkle in her eyes. The Doctor blinked. Interesting? Besides the fact that they were his children?

"No...Not really. I was in a bit of shock to the simple fact that they were my children. Why?" Pheonix shook her head. The corners of her mouth were ever-so-slightly tilted up.

"I won't tell. I don't like ruining surprises," she shrugged. Both of the twins and the Doctor were looking at her with raised eyebrows. John cast a quick look at the Doctor, biting his lip.

"Dad?" he asked. The Doctor looked at him automatically, surprising himself at how quickly he responded to them.

"Yes?" John started pulling on his ear, a motion the Doctor recognized. After all, he did that quite a lot in various lives.

"Gwen and I were wondering...Could we come with you and Mum?" John's brown eyes were alight with hope. Gwen's gaze was lowered, focused on her shoes. Pheonix looked at him with a raised eyebrow. They were watching the Doctor, waiting for his answer. He had kind of hoped that they wouldn't ask. After all, it was too dangerous.

You would refuse them just because it was dangerous?

The Doctor's eyes widened in alarm as he heard Pheonix's voice drift through his mind. Pheonix smiled.

Just because your mental shields are raised in this dimension doesn't mean that one from a different dimension could easily slip in through a crack. I'm a ninja like that.

The Doctor glared at her, raising his mental barriers until he couldn't feel her presence anymore. She narrowed her eyes in irritation, but said nothing. The Doctor sighed. He honestly didn't know what the right answer was. He wanted them to come with him, but he didn't want to endanger their lives. If something happened to these two children -his children- he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

"I would have to talk it over with Rose when she wakes up," he finally sighed. The twins gave identical groans of disappointment. There was a few moments of tense and awkward silence before Peonix's face suddenly screwed up into one of discomfort. The Doctor looked at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Pheonix stared at him as if he had grown a second head.

"What do you mean 'What's wrong'? Didn't you feel...nevermind..." she waved her hand in a way that irked the Doctor to no end. He gave her another glare before he looked back to the twins. They looked at Pheonix, concern and confusion in their eyes. She shot them a look, and their eyes widened. Huge grins then broke over their faces as the looked at the TARDIS, who was humming happily behind them all. The Doctor felt so out of the loop, it wasn't funny.

"What is going on?" he demanded. Pheonix smirked.

"If you let down your mental barriers, you would know Doctor."

He watched her carefully, wondering what she was up to. Why did she want him to lower his sheilds? He didn't ponder the question long, for his curiousity got the better of him. He lowered all barriers to his mind abruptly, and gasped as pain exploded throughout his head. His eyes rolled back into his head and he passed out.