Warnings: References to torture, blood
Series summary: The TARDIS doesn't always take the Doctor where he wants to go, but it always takes him where he needs to go; Time Lords hold a secret behind their backs, and they have a duty to follow.
Disclaimer: Don't own Doctor Who
Chapter 1 – Blood From Nowhere
It was not the first revolution that they had begun on some far-flung planet. It was not even the first revolution that they had begun since Captain Jack Harkness had joined them on the TARDIS. Yet it was the first revolution that they had begun that had gone so catastrophically badly, and now Rose was running through the dungeons of the castle that they had landed the TARDIS in hours before, trying to fix the mess that they had created for themselves.
The wharl had a class system not dissimilar to that of Victorian England: there was the elite that did not have to work and spent all of their days learning intergalactic languages and playing the androgore – a musical instrument that looked more like a weapon of torture than something used to entertain – and who ruled over the workers who slaved all day for a pitiful wage that they could barely live on.
With the Doctor's help, the workers had been able to make use of their relatively pathetic weapons to overthrow the elite, who – needless to say – were not very happy about that. The problems arose when they decided to show their unhappiness about their being usurped through violence.
They did not, however, concentrate their violence on the working class who had overthrown them. In a strange code of honour, they felt that the revolution had been just, without too much unnecessary bloodshed. Their issue was with the alien who had led the revolution, who had dared to come to their planet and meddle in their affairs.
In short, the Doctor.
He had been missing for approximately two hours and, as Rose and Jack ran through the corridors of the castle, she could only wonder at what horrors her best friend was being subjected to.
"Hurry up!" she yelled at the ex-Time Agent as they raced through the corridor; up ahead, a thin, metal rectangle was visible sticking out of the wall: a fraction of a sliding door that could close on them without warning, as the circuits that controlled such things had been damaged during the struggle for power. She was surprised that Jack was so slow that day – usually he could easily outrun her – but he had been out the night before, and he no doubt had a hangover that was slowing him down.
They were only a few feet away when the sound of metal grating on stone filled the corridor, and the door ahead began to close. Rose surged forward, forcing her muscles to work as hard as they could, throwing herself through the doorway to the other side. She had only taken a few more steps before the clang of the door closing rang through the hall, echoing ominously off of the walls. She spun round on her heel to see if Jack had made it through as well.
He hadn't. He was stuck on the other side, visible through the glass pane in the middle of the door that was high up enough to be level with his head. He pounded angrily against the door twice, as if that would force it to open.
Sighing, Rose jogged back to the door.
"Do you have a TARDIS key?" she yelled, unsure of whether or not he would be able to hear her through the glass.
"Yeah!" he answered, though his voice was slightly muffled.
"Go back to the TARDIS and wait for us there. Don't let any of the wharl follow you inside," she told him. Jack grinned. "What?"
"I like it when you give me orders."
Rose slammed her palm against the door, far too worried about the Doctor to put up with the American's usual antics. Jack instinctively flinched, leaning backwards away from the door as the smile dropped quickly from his face, fear seeping into his eyes as he stared through the door at the scorned woman and he considered how her wrath might manifest itself.
"Just go!" she shouted, not waiting for a reply. She turned around once more and continued down the corridor, looking through the windows of the doors of each of the rooms that she passed to see if she could see the Doctor inside.
It felt like an eternity before she found him, though in reality she had only passed five doors or so and she had been running as fast as she could. Her heart leapt into her throat as relief flooded her veins when she glanced through the window in the door and saw the Doctor inside.
The room was plain and dull: a brick cell with no window except for the one set in the thick, stone door – and even that was barred. The floor was dirty, and the entire space seemed frightfully cold; she was glad that the Doctor was still wearing his leather jacket, for she would have been worried that he would freeze to death if he wasn't.
Not that he looked particularly well anyway. He didn't appear to have any injuries – at least, none that Rose could see from that far away, for the room was at least ten foot long and he was sitting against the furthest wall from the door. Yet he was frightfully pale, and he was slumped, his head lolling to one side and his eyes struggling to remain open. His hands lay limp on the floor by his sides, the fingers of his left hand curled lazily around the sonic screwdriver.
"Doctor!" she called through the gaps between the bars over the window. His brow creased slightly, acknowledging the fact that someone was calling his name, and he sluggishly lifted his head from his shoulder and prized his eyes open. He looked exhausted, but from where Rose was standing, there didn't appear to be anything wrong with him.
The Doctor lifted the sonic a few inches off of the ground, his hand trembling as he did so. The familiar high-pitched sound reverberated off of the walls of the cell until Rose heard the lock of the door click, and he dropped his hand back to the ground again. She threw herself into the room, running over to him and collapsing to her knees by his side. Now that she was closer, she could see that he had small beads of sweat on his brow, and his eyes had begun to glaze over. He had no injuries, but there was a small pool of blood next to him on the ground, which didn't appear to have a source.
Deciding to ignore it – for it was probably that of the last creature that had been held captive in the cell – she reached forward to wrap her arm round the Doctor's middle and help him up, so that they could go back to the TARDIS and reunite with Jack.
"No!" he cried, before she had even been able to touch him. Rose froze in place, unsure of why he didn't want her to help him. Was he ashamed that he hadn't been able to escape on his own?
"What is it?" she asked, as the Doctor squeezed his eyes shut tight then forced them open again, in an effort to stay awake.
"I… can't get up," he gasped, his voice breathy and weak.
Rose glanced down at his legs, stretched out before him, wondering if there was something wrong with them that was causing the problem. She couldn't see that there was anything wrong with them, and Rose was starting to panic.
"Doctor, what's going on?" she asked.
The Doctor dropped the sonic on the ground and lifted his shaking hands, reaching out for her head. Guessing what he was going to do, she leaned forward so that he could reach her, and he placed his fingers on the side of her head. She reached up to his wrists to steady his trembling digits, and – as his eyes slipped closed – she shut her own as well.
In her mind, she saw the door again – the door that she had stepped through to see the Doctor's wings all those weeks ago in the control room of the TARDIS. It opened, as before, only enough to allow her to slip through the gap. She did just that, opening her eyes as soon as she could.
Rose let go of the Doctor's wrists, and his hands dropped to the ground either side of him. The sight of his impressive wings shocked her as much as it had before, and she was once again overwhelmed by their staggering beauty – but her wonderment was interrupted when she saw the reason that he couldn't get up.
A knife had been plunged through his left wing, pinning it to the wall behind him like a butterfly in a case; a thick river of blood was flowing from the entry wound, and dripping into the pool of blood on the ground next to the Doctor.
