Well, here it is; the second eagerly anticipated chapter! Not. Whatever. Hope you like it! PS. Please review! x

Chapter 2

Rose stepped out of door, then stopped. The ground beneath her feet was barren; arid. The air was hot and dry. Rose unzipped the jumper she had on, and tied it round her waist. The TARDIS was wedged between two great pillars of rock, towering upwards. It looked like something out of an Indiana Jones movie that she had seen once.

"Great parking," she commented as the Doctor stepped out of the door. He smiled.

"Right," he said, rubbing his hands together eagerly, "let's go." And with that they marched off, arm in arm, towards the high, stone walls of the city.

They eventually reached a large pair of elaborate wooden doors. On either side stood a stern-looking guard, with a solemn expression on his face.

"Hello," the Doctor beamed as he jumped in front of the right-hand guard and waved enthusiastically, "I'm the Doctor and this is Rose." No response.

"Is it all right if we go in? You know, have a look around. "

The guard regarded him warily.

"Are you guests?" the guard enquired.

"Guests?"

"Yes, guests for the coronation," the guard replied blankly.

"The coronation? Um…yes, yes we are," replied the Doctor.

"Do you have an invitation?" asked the guard, raising his eyebrow.

"Erm…," the Doctor fumbled around in his pockets, and eventually found what he was looking for. He wafted the 'slightly physic paper' in front of the guards face. The guard nodded approvingly, and gestured to the other soldier to open the gates.

"You and your physic paper," she mumbled as they passed the guards and walked in through the city gates.

"Slightly physic paper," he corrected. Rose rolled her eyes.

It was like stepping back into the future. Everyone was walking around in white tunics and battered, leather sandals. The buildings, just like the city walls, were made of pinkish sandstone that glowed in the midday sun. There was no glass in the windows, just weather-beaten shutters and thin, sun-bleached curtains. All along the side of the road were market stalls selling everything from fruit to clothing, pots to woven baskets. Rose tugged at the Doctor's jacket.

"Doesn't this feel, like, a little familiar to you?" she asked him.

"What?" the Doctor turned to her, with a confused expression.

"This," she replied gesturing to the busy scene that was being played out around her.

"In what way?"

"Well, they look like Romans," she said. The Doctor looked up, examining the bustling crowd.

"Yeah, I suppose they do,"

"But I thought that we were going to the year 5042,"

"We have,"

"So why do they look like they are from thousands of years ago?" The Doctor snorted.

"What?"

"That's Earth history for you," Rose looked at him blankly, "Just 'cause the Romans are old in terms of your past, doesn't mean that they didn't exist on other planets."

"Oh," Rose could feel her cheeks getting redder. The Doctor nudged her playfully.

"Come on," he said, "let's go and join this party!"

From a dark alleyway, a boy watched the two strangers make their through the sea of people. He watched how blonde haired girl held very tightly to the tall man's hand, and the way that they smiled at each other. He did not like the tall man.

He will ruin our plans if we are not careful. The boy nodded to himself thoughtfully. Then he slipped away into the shadows.

Marcus stood by a window overlooking the palace gardens, which were being decorated for the coronation. What he couldn't understand was why they were all acting like nothing had happened; why there were still servants busily preparing food, cleaning rooms, organising firework displays. He remembered what Chancellor Braxleo had said to him:

"Marcus, we must remain calm. We must not, under any circumstances, let this get out into the open. If anyone, and I mean anyone, other than myself or you and your men, finds out about this the city will be in uproar! Uproar! We will never hear the end of it!"

"Are you expecting a mutiny, Sir?"

"Mutiny, yes, amongst other things," the Chancellor had replied, whilst wiping the sweat from his brow.

Now Marcus frowned. He knew that someone was behind this mysterious disappearance, but he had no idea as to whom. Sure, the boy was only fourteen, yet someone wanted to prevent him from taking his rightful place on the throne?

Marcus moved from his place by the garden window to overlook the main entrance of the palace, just in time to see two figures approach the doors.