Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of its characters.

"Um, Doctor?" Rose asked, holding something behind her back.

"Yep?"

"When we were leaving Cardiff just then, some bloke came up to me and handed me this letter," Rose held out a light purple envelope, with strange writing on the back.

"But this is..." He took the envelope and stroked the symbols on the back, "Gallifreyan, who could have sent me this?" He opened it carefully, pulling out a piece of paper that was folded neatly. Rose read it over his shoulder.

"Terunia, 4370, The Castle." Rose read aloud. Is Terunia a planet?"

"Yes, very close to Earth actually, and the inhabitants and quite friendly, but why, and more importantly how did they get this letter to us?" He grinned at Rose, "Only one way to find out!" He pulled the lever and the TARDIS whooshed.

"This is probably a trap you know," Rose said as he walked toward the door.

"Rose, this is a formal invitation, we have to be polite!"

They exited the TARDIS to find a large room. It had shiny wooden floors, a door in one corner, and an unlit fireplace in the middle of one wall. Other than that it was completely empty, ceiling, walls and all.

"Is this the castle?" Rose asked.

"I believe it is, and if my history is correct, because we're in the year 4370, it's still being furnished. They haven't even done the basic plumbing or wiring yet, that electric fire place won't work." The Doctor led her through the door and into a completely barren hallway. There were four doors leading to different rooms, including the one they were just in. But strangely enough, no door led out of the building itself.

Suddenly, Rose heard a familiar voice, "ROSE!" It was the Doctor, no doubt about it, but she looked over at him, and he acted like he hadn't heard or seen anything. "ROSE! IT'S FAKE! LOOK CLOSE!" His voice got muffled after that.

"What are you talking about?" She asked him, thoroughly confused.

"Huh? I didn't say anything Rose," He replied.

Something was wrong. She looked around the hall and remembered what she heard him say, 'Look close.'

"Wait a minute, Doctor," She walked into the room with the TARDIS in it, "This room is empty." He nodded at her, waiting for her to get to the point, "And the fireplace isn't lit, there aren't any lights, so how come I can see?..."

And with that sentence, the world collapsed. First, the Doctor disappeared, then the TARDIS was gone, the fireplace was gone, and even the floors and a walls melted away. Rose screamed in confusion, and woke up strapped in a chair, the Doctor across the room in the same situation, with a gag in his mouth.

"What?! Where are we?! Doctor?!" She shouted, struggling with her tight rope bonds and her eyes darting frantically around. It was a very dark room, there was a light above her head and one above the Doctor's, and whirring machinery to her left. She couldn't see the door, if there was one.

A tall, thin man with long blonde hair pulled the gag from the Doctor's mouth.

"Stop doing this to her!" The Doctor shouted at the man, "You'll drive her insane eventually. Rose, Rose don't worry you're safe, focus on me, focus on my voice alright? Try and remember how we got here, okay?"

Rose was still breathing heavily, "Oh my god... We... We got a letter and we got trapped here and... They have these machines Doctor..."

"Good, keep remembering! Focus, you can do it!"

"The machines... They design a reality and throw you into it, make you believe it, and they started with me... How did I not notice? That wasn't really you in there..." Rose started crying, even though he could tell she was trying really hard not to.

"Don't cry Rose I'll get us out, okay?" He promised, and then turned his eyes to the man. "What is it you want? Tell me NOW."

"We just want to learn about you, Doctor. I'm paid generously for everything I learn." The man had a deep, gruff voice with no mercy in it.

"Then why don't you just ask me questions?! And paid by who?"

"We need to learn about your reactions, we already know everything that could be answered with a question, well, except..." His voice trailed off noticing that he had gone too far.

"Paid. By. Who?"

The man smiled and walked over to his machinery, "You can call me Samuel, by the way."

"Doctor, what's he going to do?" Rose asked, still trying to stay strong for him.

"Just stay calm and remember to pay attention! You won't know it's a fake reality when you're in it."

"But... Last time I heard you," She said.

Samuel spoke up, "That was because your friend over there found a way to throw out his little gag, won't happen again, don't you worry."

"Shut up and let us go already," She said.

"I will, but first we need to see how the Time-Lord will react to a situation like..." Samuel pushed a few buttons, "This."

The Doctor started thrashing about in his chair, trying to resist the machine that was taking him. "Rose.." He said to her, his eyes starting to shut against his will. Samuel put a gag in Rose's mouth to prevent her from shouting at him.

The Doctor opened his eyes again, only it was obvious that he didn't see the room they were actually in, but another reality. His eyes narrowed like he was looking at something, trying to understand it, but then he started screaming and kicking. "NO! STOP NO! Im so sorry! That's not true no it's impossible! STOP IT!" Rose had never seen him in this state. His eyes were full of pure fear and uncontrollable tears were streaming down his face. She fought with the gag in her mouth but it was no use. She saw Samuel calmly writing things down on his clipboard. After a minute of the torture, he pulled a lever and the Doctor came back to reality slowly.

"Oh... Oh what happened... Where am I?"