Authors Note: (SORRY ITS SO LONG!) I haven't really published anything in a while, but I have about 7k words on this story currently and I quite like the idea behind it, so I decided to publish it as a way to keep myself motivated. So if I don't post for a while, go ahead and shoot me a message and I'll probably continue it. It's not going to be terribly long- I'm aiming for 20k but we'll see if I can keep motivated.
Keep in mind, this does not occur in canon Doctor Who. It is a modern Torchwood AU which sort of incorporates all the aspects of Torchwood into a Doctor Who ship story, haha. I do love my Doctor/Rose fiction. Torchwood in this universe/The Rift is located in London, just so you know. Not Cardfiff/Wales.
There's probably tons of mistakes since I don't have, nor do I know how to acquire a beta. And some of it probably doesn't even make sense, it's just for plot purposes I suppose. Hope you guys don't mind. Also, feel free to correct any British terminology/slang that I use because I am very, very American and I'm sure it's quite obvious that I don't know like anything about the UK.
Tension hung thickly in the air, engulfing the Torchwood team with an iron grip. Rose kept her lithe form pressed against the building. She felt the rough, gritty texture of the bricks rubbing against her shoulder blades. It felt like sandpaper through her thin, skintight jacket. Her finger darted out to her earpiece, and she murmured, "Jack? Are you ready?"
A dreaded moment of silence passed. Jack was already inside the building, along with Gwen, hunting down a dangerous and wildly hostile alien threat, while she remained outside. The alien was nameless, but it did have a very notable appearance. She'd been shown a picture of the (rather unsettling) creature's head. Bony looking cheeks framed it's dark face, but the skin around it's eye and neck sagged like a mutant Shar-Pei dog. Rows and rows of sharp, pointed teeth lined its jaws, similar to a shark. Elongated limbs and quick, darting arms gave it a speed and reach advantage as well. On top of that, it was known to have extremely volatile, hostile behavior. To put it simply, it spelled bad news for the Torchwood team. Rose didn't like how risky it was for Jack and Gwen. She'd volunteered herself to tag along, but Jack had flat out refused. Something about her being 'too young to die.' Well, Gwen was only a few years older than her. Not only that, she had a husband. Jack had argued that she was the 'Vitex heiress' and he didn't want the press involved, but he knew exactly how she felt about using her social status to disallow her to assist them.
Cold seeped into her back from the chilly bricks. Rose had herself flattened against the side of a universities laboratory, a rather unusual hunting ground for a predatory alien. Given that it was nearly four am, there would be no students out and about, which gave her a small amount of relief.
A wistful sigh escaped her lips. Rose had been on a fast track to uni when an untimely encounter with an alien life form roped her into the Torchwood team. She'd met Jack, who had noticed her curiosity, resilience, and intelligence, and shortly after he had asked her to join. At that time she'd been desperate to make a difference and hadn't hesitated accepting. Soon after, she'd discovered that Torchwood was a branch of her father's very own company- and that he knew about it all along. That was three years ago, when she had just turned eighteen.
Rose braced herself for Jack's signal. It didn't come. Instead, she heard an agonized shriek, and the sound of glass shattering against a solid surface. Wasting no time, she sprang into action, dismissing any need for a signal as she raced to help whoever was inside. Presumably, it was Jack or Gwen, which sent her heart racing in her chest. She couldn't stand to lose her teammates. They'd been the only people she could talk to about the extraterrestrial, and they'd been her friends too. While she had other friends, like Martha, Amy, and Clara, the three of them remained blissfully unaware of the presence of aliens on planet Earth. Her breath ghosted out in white plumes as her heart rate increased and her breath quickened.
"Jack, I'm going in." She said into her earpiece. "I may need backup." Assuming that it wasn't Jack inside, that is. The audio rasped and crackled and the disjointed voice of Tosh responded,
"Rose-" A fuzzy noise buzzed through the earpiece and Tosh's voice cut off. Tosh was surely going to forbid her from entering by herself, but if she could possibly prevent someone from getting killed, there was no way in hell she was going to listen.
When Rose reached the door, she frantically jiggled the handle but, unsurprisingly, it didn't budge. She let out a frustrated hiss, trying to keep the panic from overwhelming her. Okay, breathe. This wasn't her first time doing this. She was Rose Tyler, and she could manage an alien threat by herself. Quickly, she regained her composure. It wasn't like her to lose her cool.
Giving the door an experimental kick, she realized it would be futile to try entering through it, so Rose looked around for another way in. As a high tech lab for the university, they had taken extra security precautions. Way more than necessary, it seemed. Cursing under her breath, the Torchwood agent whirled around, looking for an entrance. The screaming had gone silent. Oh shit.
She was too late. What if they were dead? Please don't be Jack or Gwen, she found herself quietly pleading. Instantly, she felt a pang of guilt at the very thought. Shame crept into her over her selfish thoughts. No. No one was going to die.
Windows. Rose surged back into action, skirting the perimeter of the lab, looking for a possible way in. There were no windows on the bottom floor that weren't barred off. Blimey, was this school a prison or something? Looking up, she saw a set of windows one floor up. Her heart lurched at the thought. Was she really going to do this?
She already knew the answer. Someone's life was at stake, maybe one of her friends. Taking a running leap towards the wall and buried her fingers into a crook between the bricks. A pained howl echoed through the chilly night, coming from inside the lab. It didn't sound like Gwen or Jack, but the sound spurred her on regardless. The person was alive, at least for the time being. And Rose was hell-bent on keeping it that way. There was still a chance she could save a life tonight.
Rose's fingers curled around a niche in the bricks as she deftly vaulted herself up the side of the building. Her muscles shook with exertion but she couldn't stop, not when someone was in fatal danger. That's when she made the mistake of looking down. She was already at least fifteen feet in the air. The height instantly made her stomach drop and her heart stutter in terror. Way to remind yourself of your fear of heights, Rose, she chastised herself, but pushed onwards.
She was gripping the window sill now. As quick as possible, she hauled herself up onto it, and took her gun - her tranquilizer gun - out of her holster, and rammed it into the glass. It shattered into a glittering display of glinting fragments. Shards blasted into the room and Rose swung herself in. Her thigh caught on a sliver of glass as she vaulted in, slicing a long, deep slicer into her leg. Adrenaline was pumping through her veins so she couldn't feel more than a shallow ache, nor could she realize the extent of the injury yet.
Squinting in the darkness, she noticed rows of neatly placed computers surrounded her. So it was a computer lab she had broken into, she mused. A veil of darkness blanketed the room, making it difficult for her to maneuver anywhere. She clicked on her torch and went to the door as quick as possible.
Locked. Damnit! At least this time the door was a lot less sturdy. A solid kick, and it gave way. Rose pushed past it as she heard the sound of violent struggle. Something large and heavy crashed against the floor, making her cringe. The source of the noise was the same as before. Oh god, what was going on? She hoped nobody was suffering.
There was a staircase to her right. Rose's feet were silent but quick as she descended to the first floor. Something shattered, giving her an idea of the location of the scuffle.
She burst into the room, watching as a tall, dark figure was hurled into a wall by something that looked vaguely like the picture she had been shown of the alien, but it was too dark to tell- the lights had all been broken. The person that had been thrown by the creature sagged against the wall with a pained moan.
She could see why the lab was so high security. There was countless numbers of ultra-expensive laboratory equipment in here, rows of chemicals and flasks. A few large machines Rose couldn't identify stood in the corners of the room. It vaguely reminded her of the lab at Torchwood, but their lab was still significantly different, maybe a bit more advanced even, if she did say so herself.
Rose raised the tranquilizer gun with no hesitation and fired a shot into the alien. It whirled around with an intensely annoyed, throaty growl. Eyes flashing, it snarled at her. With it's baggy, hairless skin, boney shoulders and pronounced cheeks, it was truly hideous, like some beast out of a horror movie, but was clearly the alien from the picture, now that she shined the torch on it's face. It's form was something like that of a bear, but more hunched over.
Sharp claws rasped against the floor as it lunged at her, jaws snapping. It's rows of wicked sharp teeth narrowly missed her throat, grazing against her shoulder. She barely noticed the crimson liquid spreading across her collarbone. Blood flowing from her shoulder and leg, Rose staggered back, trying to put distance between herself and the hostile alien as it thundered around the room, leaving devastation in it's wake. It had knocked over most of the tables already and splinters of glass covered most of the floor.
The person in the corner struggled to get to their feet. Rose realized it was a man, and a badly wounded one at that. Clutching his chest with his fingers, which were slick with blood, he stumbled forward. Rose was sure he was headed straight for the door. Instead, and to her completely and utter astonishment, he tried putting himself between her and the beastly alien. Time seemed to slow.
Rose shoved him out of the way as it rushed towards them. The man's lithe form keeled over as he fell to his knees. Growling ferociously, the alien barely breezed by him, forcefully colliding with Rose. It's curved, but rigid claws dug into her stomach, and she was absolutely certain she was taking her last breaths as it pushed her into the floor. Shards of glass dug into her spine as it forced the air out of her lungs, pressing its heavy, hairless paws against her chest.
The edges of her vision darkened as she gasped for air, but was unable to take any in. The huge, lumbering alien hovered over her, violet colored saliva and froth dripping from its jowls.
Twenty one years old, and she was going to be killed by a giant, hairless space bear. Figures.
Stars swam in her vision and she slipped from consciousness just as three shots rang out in the air.