This is my first fanfic, so go easy on me. Any constructive criticism is welcome, and any help or advice is welcome too.
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who
Rose looked around at their new surroundings. It looked human, only most of them were bulkier than the average human.
She turned when the door of the blue box behind her opened, and glared accusingly at the man who came out.
'This doesn't look much like China to me.'
'Ah...well, close enough.'
She raised an eyebrow. 'Close enough?' She guestured to her surroundings. 'Doctor, This is about as far from China as you can get!'
'Oh come on now, Rose. You should know better than that. I could take you to the edge of the universe if you wanted further from China.' The Doctor paused for a moment as he surveyed the town. 'Hang on a minute!' he exclaimed quite suddenly. This isn't Earth!'
'I figured,' snorted Rose. 'So, who are they?'
His face hardened as he realised what they were. 'We should go now,' he replied.
'Why?' she asked.
'They're Seroscats. They build cities, based on Earth. Only they got their designs from slaves- human slaves. But that's better than you lot, I suppose. You lot took your own species as slaves!'
'Would they capture us if they saw us?' she asked quietly.
'No. They would think we were vistors- they trade with the Earth.'
'And Earth does nothing to stop it?' she asked, eyes ablaze with disbelief.
'Nothing much they can do. Besides, it's almost a favour. They take the homeless, the orphans and the criminals.'
She looked into his eyes and saw the pain there, pain and fury which grew as he watched a young boy, no older than ten, forced to carry something more than half his own size.
'Can we go now?' she asked, not wanting to pain the Doctor more.
He spun around and into the Tardis without a word, and Rose soon followed.
The Tardis materialised again, this time in an corridor- presumably someone's home.
'What!' he exclaimed in confusion. 'We're still on Syscrat! Something's keeping us here, and we can't leave.' he went back into the Tardis, then popped back out, frowning. 'And it's not machinery.'
'So what is it?' asked Rose.
'I don't know.' He grinned at her. 'Let's find out!'
She grinned back at him. She loved the way he was like a little child. Every new adventure- every mystery was like a new toy. Luckily for him, every day was and adventure, every day Christmas.
They strolled off togethor, through a variety of corridors that never seemed to end.
'This is like a maze,' she commented, trusting his uncanny ability to find the way, and remember it. It reminded her of a homing pigeon.
'Yeah, I noticed.' replied The Doctor drily.
As they rounded the corner, The Doctor found himself nearly tripping over a small girl. She looked up at him with an expression of fear and shock, and immediately turned and ran.
'Oi! Wait!' He called, and then ran after her, Rose at his heels.
She turn left at the next corner, immediately followed by a thud, a whimper, a yell of rage and then a cry of pain from the girl.
The Doctor and Rose turned the corner to find a Seroscat standing over the girl who was huddled on the floor, about to deliver another blow.
'Woah there, big fella,' said the Doctor, gaining the alien's attention.
The alien looked up in surprise. 'Who are you? And what are you doing in my house?' he demanded.
'Hello, I'm The Doctor. And I've come here to buy her,' he added guesturing to the girl.
'How much?' he asked, interested now.
'Name a price.'
'500.'
'200.'
'400.'
'250.'
'300.'
'275.'
'Done.'
The doctor rummaged around in his pockets and pulled out a wad of notes. He counted 275 and handed it over, then turned around and walked back the way he came from. He realised the other two weren't following so he turned around and said 'Well come on you two.'
The girl obeyed immediately, and Rose, who had been waiting for her, followed too.
Rose studied the girl carefully as they walked. She always kept her eyes lowered carefully to the floor, and was so silent you could barely notice her. She had black shoulder-length hair and black eyes and a little smaller than middle-sized. She looked about 11-12yrs and was quite skinny, but that was probably due to the lack of food.
They eventually got to the Tardis. The Doctor, who got there first, went inside. The girl stood around uncertainly, unsure whether to follow when Rose ushered her inside. She let out a gasp, which was the first sound they had heard from her since they bought her.
As they got inside, The Doctor finished pressing a few buttons, and the familiar sound of the engines broke the silence.
'Where are we going?' asked Rose
'Where we first landed,' replied The Doctor. 'Now, first things first.' He walked over to the girl and crouched down to eye level. ' What's your name?'
'T-Tara, Master,' she replied, shaking
'Just call me Doctor,' he asked. 'So, Tara, how old are you?'
'13, sir' she replied again.
'Doctor,' he corrected again. He paused 'You know, don't you?' he asked, pressing his face closer to her. 'You know something strange is going on.'
'Y-Yes, Master.' she replied, now terrified.
He stood up suddenly, startling her. 'Doctor. Just Doctor.' he said in an experated voice.
'Doctor!' chided Rose.' You're scaring her to death!'
She pulled him out of the way and gently walked over to the terrified girl, who had shrunk back, pressed against the Tardis, looking on the verge of tears.
'It's ok, we're not going to hurt you,' she soothed, hugging the girl. She didn't seem any calmer.
'That's not going to help,' he told her. 'She'll have heard that before. That's how they do it, how they break the children, and the less... spirited. They sooth them. Until they have their trust. And then they jump in and shatter it. Shatter it in into a million pieces. Which is what makes it so hard to heal them. We've got to pick up every piece and put it back in place.'
He was gritting his teeth and staring into space, wearing the expression he always did when he was angry. Very angry.
Rose looked at Tara again. She was still cowering in the corner, looking even more afraid, if that was possible.
'Well then, let's get to work.' she said in a business like way, standing up.
'I'm sorry?' he asked.
'Well you said we'll have to peice it back togethor, so lets do it.'
It was that that he loved best about her. Her spirit, the fact she was always willing to help anyone, no matter how hard it sounded.
'Well then, let's do it!' he said, and gave her one of his heart-melting grins. He disappeared somewhere in the back of the Tardis, and bought out some food and drink. Water, roast chicken, potato and gravy... and chips.
Rose grinned. She'd be surprised if there weren't any chips. She had no idea what he loved so much about chips, but he always seemed to want them.
'Dig in, everyone.' he muttered through a mouthful of food.
Rose grabbed a leg and started eating. Then she paused and offered another leg to Tara. She accepted it, nibbled a bit, then stopped.
'Aren't you hungry?' asked Rose.
She shook her head.
'It's called hunger block- no not hunger block... but something like that. It's when a person... Well, I suppose it when a person 'gets used to' a lack of food. Then, if presented with alot of food, the body won't be used to it and she'll feel full.' He got out his sonic screwdriver and prodded around her head with it. Suddenly she felt ravenous. She finished the leg in seconds, then looked longingly at the rest of the food.
'Help yourself,' said The Doctor, guesturing to it with a half eaten chicken wing. 'Just don't take the other wing.'
She took some chips, ate them, then took some more.
'Leave some for me,' he teased.
She abruptly stopped.
'No, sorry, keep eating- I've forgotten the Seroscats don't have a sense of humour.'
Rose grinned. 'Well, looks like you've found someone who loves chips as much as you.'
The Doctor smiled back at her.
After they finished the food, the Doctor escorted Tara to one of the...er... how many spare rooms are in the Tardis? An infinite number, I suppose. He escorted Tara to one of them. She looked a little surprised.
'For me?' she asked tentatively.
'Who else?' he asked. He gave her a moment to take it all in. 'Well then, goodnight,' he said and closed the door.
Rose looked up questionling as he re-entered the control room.
Fast asleep,' he assured her.
'There's something on your mind,' she observed.
'When I looked around in her head with my screwdriver, something else got my attention. That kid has a signal in her brain, reflecting off the corpus callosum and the glial tissues, into the cerebral hemispheres, where it is beeing amplified into the world, creating a sort of cross between a telepathic field and a psychic network, with a radius of about...hm... one kilometre or so. It's brilliant! The thing is, though, it's not human.'
The babble about the brain thing was intirely made up, and I'm pretty sure impossible. Only the names of the bits of the brain are true, so... well... it's not true- well, not in real life.
