Title: Storm Rising
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Ross Jenkins
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 4, 50ficlets
Prompt: 32, Storm
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the Tenth Doctor or Ross Jenkins, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

The Doctor scowled as he stomped into the Tardis, Ross following right behind him. The young man had never seen the Time Lord so angry; he wasn't sure if he should stay in the control room or go somewhere else until this storm had passed.

Going to the console, the Doctor punched a few buttons, and Ross found himself clinging to the console as the feeling of a slight displacement in time and space overtook him. That was something he was still having a hard time getting used to.

He was also having a hard time getting used to seeing the Doctor in a rage. And he had no idea what could have caused this rising storm that he could sense building within the Time Lord, though he knew that it had something to do with that note.

That was why they'd come to this planet; a note on the psychic paper that the Doctor had said they had to take heed of. He hadn't shown Ross the note, or said who it was from -- but Ross had thought that perhaps the Doctor hadn't known who sent it.

Now, he had a very different feeling about that note. Whatever had been in it, the words obviously hadn't prepared the Doctor for the depth of destruction they'd seen when they had landed and stepped out of the Tardis onto the devastated planet.

There had been more dead bodies in one place than Ross had ever seen before in his life. Even being a soldier hadn't inured him to seeing so much of a waste of life; and it looked as though those people had all died in agonies.

He'd felt like throwing up as he'd looked, unable to take more than a few staggering steps forward. The two of them had seen destruction before this -- but nothing on this level. This wasn't just a race of people that had been destroyed. It was an entire world.

He had watched the Doctor walk through the landscape, looking down at a body here or there. And even though he couldn't see the Time Lord's face at every moment, he could feel the anger that was starting to build in the other man.

This was so much worse than some of the other scenes of devastation he'd seen since he'd begun his journey on the Tardis with his lover. It seemed as though each scene like this that they happened to find was worse than the last, escalating in horror.

Was this deliberate? Ross couldn't help but think that it was. Maybe that was why the Doctor looked so stormy, so ready to go out and wreak havoc on whoever had caused all of this. He obviously knew what -- or who -- was behind it.

Ross knew, as well. He just didn't want to say the name, as though the words would bring the renegade Time Lord here, into their midst, to cause even more destruction. He didn't want to acknowledge what he knew to be the truth, because he didn't want to face that truth.

The Master had caused all of this. It couldn't be anyone else; there would be no other reason for the Doctor to look so angry. This was far too well-planned to be any of the Doctor's other enemies; no Daleks or Cybermen would be this meticulous.

He looked across the console at the Doctor; the Time Lord's face was tight with anger, his lips a thin, straight line, his dark eyes smoldering. Ross could sense that there was a great deal of power just under the surface, held carefully in check.

He'd known that his lover was called The Oncoming Storm, along with many other names. This was the man who could make most species that populated the universe tremble, the man who could strike fear into millions of beings with just a look.

But he'd never seen this kind of a look on the Time Lord's face, a look that spoke of more destruction than the Master could ever hope to rain down upon the world. That look almost terrified Ross; he hadn't realized that the man he loved could be capable of such anger.

"You know who did this," he said softly, the words a statement, not a question. "And you're going after him, aren't you?" He couldn't keep his voice from trembling slightly; he knew that this was the most dangerous situation they'd yet thrown themselves into.

The Doctor nodded, his dark gaze meeting his lover's. "I have to, Ross. This has gone on for long enough. He's been taunting me with all of these deaths, and I should have realised what his game is before now. But it stops here."

Ross nodded slowly, knowing that whatever the Doctor chose to do, he would be right here by the Time Lord's side. He could only hope that the storm the Doctor would unleash wouldn't get them both killed -- and that this would be a confrontation they'd come out of intact.

***