Title: Siren's Call

Summary: AU. The Doctor didn't survive the time war. Instead, Romana the last remaining time-lady did. What happens when she comes across the young Rose Tyler as well as a mad fleet of Daleks and a handsome conman. But why does she keep hearing somebody calling her name?

Note: My 4th incarnation of Romana looks like Samantha Barks. See in the picture for reference.

Romana sighed as she walked down through the corridors. Autons. How did she guess? Their home-planet had been destroyed in the Timewar along with her own and the next best target was Earth to carry on with their food sources. The timewar did more damage than good and she winced slightly, pushing back her long brown hair. Knowing that she was one of the main reasons for destroying their home planet whilst she acted as President.

She was now in her fourth incarnation but really she hasn't had a proper chance to look at herself yet. With Gallifrey and her people destroyed, she regenerated in her old friend, the Doctor's, TARDIS before that landed on earth to rebuild itself, damaged and battered from the war.

She heard movement from the other-side of the door and she stopped, her battle instincts slowly kicking in. She was in an underground of a huge London shop, somewhere in the year 2005 and she listened more closely, not wanting to ruin her movements of her plan.

"Wilson? Wilson!" She heard a young woman shout from the other side of the door. "Oh you're kidding me." She shook her head. Humans. Always too damn curious. "Is that someone mucking about? Who is it?"

Romana heard the autons move slightly on the other side of the door. She knew Wilson was dead. She had just passed his body on the way here, trying to find the exit. Humans were so vulnerable. Except Leela wasn't. She was the opposite.

"Yeah, you got me very funny. I've got the joke. Who's idea was this? Is it Derek's? Is it? Derek is that you?" Romana could hear the panic in the human's voice as she heard the autons advancing in on her and the human backed away down near where she was and Romana, without even thinking twice grabbed the human's wrist.

"Run!" She demanded, grateful that she has got on the correct running gear. Not like she had when she was travelling with the Doctor. She learnt what to take now thanks to the timewar. She dragged the human through the basement and into a nearby lift. The lead auton put its arm through the closing doors and after a few tugs, Romana managed to put it of just as the door closes, grinning to herself.

The human looked baffled at her. "You pulled his arm off!"

Really, humans could state the obvious sometimes. "Yup, it's plastic."

"Very clever. Nice trick! Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?"

Romana looked at her, as if studying her. "Why would they be students?"

The human shrugged. "I don't know."

"Give me a reason. You're the one that stated it."

"'Cos to get that many people dressed and being silly they got to be students."

Romana rolled her eyes. "Humans. Always going for the obvious answers." She shook her head. "No.. They're not students." Romana frowned. "Did you mention someone called Wilson back in there?"

Rose nodded. "Yeah, he's the Chief electrician. As soon as he finds out about this he's going to call the Police."

Romana snorted. "Wilson's dead."

The human looked slightly sickened at her. 'That's not funny! That's sick!"

"Do I look like a funny person to you?" Romana asked, looking deadly serious and Rose shook her head.

"Whatever. I've had enough of this now." Romana ignored her as she got out her sonic screwdriver and disabled the lift mechanism. "So who are you then and who's that lot down there? I've said, who are they?"

"I've heard you the first time!" Romana snapped. Really, she didn't see why the Doctor favoured these humans so much. They could be incredibly impatient and very rude. "They're made of plastic. Living plastic creatures. They're being controlled by a relay device in the roof, which would be great big problem if I didn't have this." She showed the human the small bomb she had made earlier. "So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up and I might well die in the process but to be honest, I don't really care. Now a word of warning to you-don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed."

Romana slammed the door on her before opening it again. "I'm Romanavoratrelundar by the way, what's your name?"

"Rose." Rose blinked rapidly, trying to process all the information in.

Romana gave her a curt nod. "Nice to meet you Rose. Run for your life!" This time, she left the door open and left the room, running hurriedly up some stairs.

Romana sighed as she went back into the TARDIS. She had just blown up the shop and had only just made it out alive. She shook her head, trying to ignore the flash backs of the time war and clenched her fists on the TARDIS's console, her body shaking slightly and the TARDIS sent a gentle hum to try and calm her down and she smiled gratefully at the old girl.

The type-40 TARDIS was still in the same shape as a Police box and Romana hadn't had the hearts to change it. She knew how much her old friend loved this daft old box and she loved it too, it was a second home to her and now it was her only home.

She heard something bleeping at the computer screen and raised her eyebrows. Something was going on and she had no doubt it was the autons that were involved.

"Mum, you're such a liar. I told you to nail that cat flap down. We're going to get strays!" Romana heard Rose call to her mother as she messed around with their cat flat for a bit, her sonic out and examining it. Something was off.

"I did it weeks back!"

"No, you thought about it." Romana moved the flap and saw Rose on the other side before she opened the door.

"Not looking for a new job?" Romana asked, her arms folded.

"You only just blew my job up last night."

Romana frowned and looked at her sonic screwdriver. Her sonic screwdriver was never wrong. "I must have got the wrong signal. You definitely don't look plastic."

"You. Inside. Right now." Before Romana could protest, Rose grabbed her by the collar and with her instincts, she wanted to slap or even worse, punch the human away but Rose quickly let go and walked back towards the kitchen.

"Who is that?" Rose's mother called.

"It's about last night. She's part of an inquiry, just give us ten minutes."

Rose's mother tied her dressing gown. "She deserves compensation!" She shouted. Romana followed Rose into the living room, looking around and taking everything in. She shook her head and her lips curled up in disgust. Everywhere was a mess.

"Don't mind the mess. Do you want a coffee?"

"Black, two sugars please." Romana called as Rose walked into the kitchen. Romana picked up a magazine and flicked through it. "That won't last, he's gay and she's an alien." She stated before chucking it behind her.

"I'm not blaming you, even if it was just some sort of joke that went wrong." Romana heard Rose say but she wasn't really paying attention. Romana picked up a book and rolled her eyes before chucking it behind her. "Sad ending."

"They said on the news they've found a body."

Romana spotted a mirror and walked up to it, seeing her newly regenerated body for the first time and gave a nod of approval. "Could of been worse right Doctor?" She looked up and sighed. Her mind feeling empty with no other time-lords there. She was so used to having them there, especially her time as President. She looked back at the mirror and straightened her long, black military coat. She was wearing black knee length boots with khaki pants and a plain white tank top. She peered in the mirror more closely. "Fresh body." She nodded again. "Least I didn't turn into a man."

"I want you to explain everything." She heard Rose say.

"Maybe not." She heard the cat flap rattle and Romana turned on her heels, looking alert. "Have you got a cat in here Rose?"

"No." Suddenly, an Auton arm flew out of nowhere and grabbed Romana by the throat, taking her by surprise.

"We did have, but now they're just strays. They come in off the estate." Rose comes in, not seeing Romana struggling to get the auton arm off her throat, thinking Romana was just messing with her."I've told Mickey to chuck that out. Men. They're all the same. Anyway, I didn't even catch your name properly. You're not from around here are you? Are you from abroad or something? Roman- what?" With great effort, Romana managed to throw the arm of her throat and rubbed her neck, only her eyes widened with horror as the arm stopped in mid air and grabbed Rose's face instead. She pulled at it hard, but Rose pulled down on top of her and both fell down into the coffee table, luckily Jackie didn't notice as she was too busy drying her hair. Romana got out her sonic screwdriver from her top pocket and jabbed it into the autons palm and the arm suddenly stopped moving.

Romana sighed with relief. "It's all right, managed to stop it. There you see? Armless." She gave a slight smile at the joke.

"Do you think?" Rose asked, slightly irritated and hit her with the arm.

After that sorting the business with the auton's arm, Romana madeher way to the staircases of the flats, Rose at her heels. "Hold on a minute. You can't just go swanning off."

Romana snorted. "Yes I can. Here I am, swanning off. You humans love control don't you? This is me, swanning off."

"But that arm was moving. It tried to kill me!" Rose protested as they made their way further downstairs.

"No it didn't. It tried to kill me."

"But you just can't walk away. That's not fair. You've got to tell me what's going on right now."

"No I don't. And who said life was fair?" She sent Rose a dark look before throwing the doors open and headed outside.

"All right then. I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone. You said that if I did that, I'll get people killed. So your choice, tell me or I'll start talking."

Romana sniggered at Rose's minor threat. "Was that meant to be a threat?"

Rose looked offended. "Sort of."

"Doesn't work on me I'm afraid. It's very hard to make me feel threatened."

"So who are you then?"

"I told you. I'm Romanavoratrelundar. Romana for short."

"Where are you from them, some high class estate?"

"As a matter of fact, I was."

"So come on then, tell me. I've seen enough. Are you the Police?" Romana turned a corner, going back towards the TARDIS.

Romana shook her head. "No, I'm just passing through. Very long way from home." She stopped and looked off in the distance for a brief moment as though lost in a memory.

"But what I done wrong? How come those plastic things keep coming after me?" Rose asked, not seeing Romana stop. Romana turned to face her and scoffed.

"Oh and suddenly the entire world revolves around you. You were just an accident, nothing special. Just got in the way really."

"It tried to kill me!" Rose protested.

"Like I said before, it tried to kill me, not you. Last night in the shop, I was there when you blundered in and almost ruined my whole plan. This morning, I was tracking it down and it was tracking me down at the same time. The only reason it focused its attention on you is because you met me."

"So what you're saying is, the entire world revolves around you?"

"Basically yes."

Rose ran a hand through her hair. "You're so full of it. But all this plastic stuff, who else knows about it?"

"No one. Well, a close friend of mine once did but he's dead now. Died a long time ago." Romana shook her head.

"What, so you're on your own now?"

"Well who else is there? I mean, you lot, all you do is eat, sleep and watch television. While all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on. Perhaps two wars."

"Okay. Start from the beginning. I mean, if we're going to go with living plastic and I don't want to believe that, but if we do, how did you kill it?"

Romana wanted to explain it properly and intelligently, but knowing this human in front of her wouldn't even the simplest of sciences, she shook her head and went for the simplest option. "The thing that's controlling it projects life into the arm. I cut it off and the signal goes dead."

"So that's radio control?"

"Thought control. Getting it?"

"Yeah. So who's controlling it then?"

Romana gave a heavy sigh. "It's a very long story."

"But what it's all for? I mean, shop window dummies, what's that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain?"

"Close but not correct. It's a price of war. They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you. Do you believe me?" Romana looked at her seriously.

"But you're still listening." She pointed out.

"Really, though, Romana. Tell me, who exactly are you?"

Romana closed her eyes, letting the sun warm her face for a brief moment before opening them and turning to Rose before grabbing her hand, entwining her fingers through Roses. "Just before we were saying about the Earth revolving? It's like when you were a young child and the first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand mils an hour and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour and I can feel it. We're falling through space and are clinging onto the skin of this tiny little world and if we let go." She lets go of Roses hands and places her own hands at her side. "That's who I am. Now forget me Rose Tyler. Go home."

Before Rose could say anymore, Romana went back into the TARDIS and sets the controls, listening to the TARDIS gentle humming as she lay in her thoughts.

"Romana..."

She snapped her eyes open and looked around the room before looking disappointed as she realized that nobody else was there.

She was alone.