CHAPTER 2

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

For Rose, this story takes place shortly after the end of my story, War Of The Guardians. I will avoid putting any spoilers to the end of that story in this one. For Ace, the events of this story occur right after Survival, the final story of the original show.

"Listen, people, I am not the Doctor!" Rose said as her patience started to wear out.

Ace believed her. She had known the Doctor for years. She knew that there was no way that this woman could be him.

Everyone else though thought differently.

"Why do you keep denying it, Doctor? There is only one Time Lord left alive and it's you. Your life signs show that you're a Time Lord," Colonel Mace said as he pulled out an alien scanning device that UNIT had adapted for its use.

"The human has a point. You cannot deny who you are now, Doctor," The leader of the Sontarans said.

"There are other Time Lords now, and I am one of them. I am not the Doctor!" Rose persisted.

The Sontaran continued to look at her, and then his expression changed as he started to doubt himself.

"If you are not the Doctor, then we have no reason to fear you. An anonymous alien female holds no fear for us. The Doctor was the only thing keeping us from killing these pathetic excuses for soldiers. Very well then, destroy them!" The Sontaran leader shouted to his men.

Rose knew that she had to act quickly. She pulled out her sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the guns of the Sontarans. All of the guns that had been pulled instantly caught fire and refused to function!

The Sontaran leader looked at her with a smirk now! He was convinced that he had been right all along.

"At last, you show yourself, Doctor! I knew that if I attacked your precious humans that you would defend them! Now, surrender to us, or we will kill your companion. We want there to be no interference from you in our conquest of this planet," The alien leader said.

Rose decided that she needed to give up trying to fight their misconception. She couldn't use her powers here because she wasn't allowed to interfere in the affairs of others. She couldn't fight them as herself because these blokes had obviously never heard of her and were not impressed. She was going to have to change that someday. She had to pretend to be their worst foe though for now and somehow use that against them.

"All right! You've got me! I am The Doctor! I've regenerated again, and this time I decided that I'd like to be a girl. I mean, why not? I look pretty too good too, don't you think?" Rose said as she tried to act as vain as the Doctor.

"Your outward appearance is irrelevant to us. We are not influenced by such things, Doctor!" The Sontaran leader said with a look of disgust.

"No, no. Of course not to you but appearances matter a great deal to other beings. They judge you based on how you look, fairly or unfairly," Rose said as she hoped that she was getting the Doctor's speech patterns right.

"Appearance do not matter. All that matters is the strength of the inner warrior. An ability to win battles is what matters to us," The Sontaran leader said.

Rose actually looked surprised at this reaction.

"It looks like you and I agree on more than you thought. We actually agree with each other to a point," Rose said.

The Sontaran leader looked at her with skepticism.

"I mean that we agree about the whole what matters is on the inside thing. Not the whole inner warrior, winning battles, and generally pretty much fighting the most useless war in all of history stuff. I mean, really, don't you ever stop and think,"Hm! If we haven't won in this long, maybe we're not going to!" It's common sense! That reminds me of meeting Thomas Paine! He wrote Common Sense, you know. Oh, he was a wonderful chap! He and I once had this remarkable adventure in France. We stopped a Sycorax invasion with a kettle and a bag of string. Really! I mean it. It actually worked!" Rose babbled and stopped with a huge grin. She was loving this.

The Sontaran leader, however, was definitely not.

"Silence! You will come with us now, or we will kill the girl!" he shouted.

"All right! All right! No need to get all loud and shouty! When are you lot going to stop being so rude? I'm one to talk though. I'm often very rude. I'm still rude and not ginger!" Rose babbled some more.

The Sontarans pointed their guns at Ace, and Rose immediately relented.

"Fine! Come along, McShane!" Rose said as she gestured for Ace to go with the Sontarans.

Ace just looked at her like she had totally gone bonkers. That wasn't the Doctor that she knew. She was doing a terrible job of imitating him in her opinion; but the Sontarans seemed to be swallowing it hook, line, and sinker.

That's because I'm not impersonating your Doctor. I'm impersonating mine. He's the one that these blokes all know, both UNIT and the Sontarans. A voice said in Ace's head that she instantly knew must be Rose.

Ace didn't like her thoughts being invaded and said so back to Rose in her own head.

Sorry! I just wanted you to know what was going on. I don't usually send my thoughts to anyone without permission. This time though it seems to be necessary. Your expression is going to give me away. Just play along, Ace! Rose thought to her.

Ace just nodded and agreed to go along with her little act if it seemed to be working.

"You will meet with the representatives of Earth, and tell them that they must surrender within twenty four hours; or we will take your planet by force. Make sure and tell them that we have the Doctor as well," The Sontaran leader said to Colonel Mace.

Then, all of the Sontarans vanished as they, along with Rose and Ace, transmatted back to their command ship up in orbit above Earth.

Rose frowned at their leaving before fighting.

"Is that some new tactic for you lot? You usually go in all guns blazing! Are you some group of pacifist Sontarans that I've just never heard of?" Rose asked.

"Our actions do not concern you, Doctor," The Sontaran leader said with no change of expression on his face.

"Oh! I think that they do though! Sontarans not fighting?! There's something very wrong with that. Why wouldn't you fight though, eh? It must be because there's something that you want on the Earth down below. Something that you realize might be damaged in a battle. Something too precious to put at risk, is that it? It's a thing. A great, big thing of ultimate doom and destruction! Oh, I love great, big things of ultimate doom and destruction! Tell me I'm right! Am I right? I bet I am!" Rose said, talking like she was totally mad.

Ace looked at her like she was, and began to wonder if she was crazy for listening to her.

"Take them away!" The Sontaran leader shouted.

As they were led to a prison cell, Rose smiled. She knew that she must have hit the nail on the head. What were they after though? That was the question. She had to get herself and Ace out of this cell and back onto Earth to find out.

As soon as they were alone, Ace began pulling aerosol cans full of her homemade Nitro-9 explosive out of her jacket.

Rose looked at her with widened eyes and sheer disbelief.

"You're walking around with explosives in your jacket, and you look at me like I'm crazy!" Rose said with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey! I know what I'm doing, okay? I don't think that you have a clue what you're doing!" Ace said with a frown.

"I do too! I've just gotten valuable information out of them. They're looking for something down below. It's something that we have to get out of here and find before they do," Rose said.

"I thought you'd never ask!" Ace said as she grinned evilly.

She put the cans of Nitro-9 on the outside of the door, and then moved a bed in the cell over her and Rose for protection. They were on a timer now and were slowly counting down to their detonation.

"Do you know what you're doing? You're going to get us killed!" Rose said in fear.

"Relax! I've been handling explosives my whole life! I'm an expert. They'll be going off now in 5…4…3 – " Ace was instantly cut off by a huge explosion that blew open the door and set alarms off all over the ship.

"I may be a just a little bit off on the timer, though," Ace side with a shrug.

Rose just glared at her.

"I see why he likes you now. You both love to blow things up! I should tell you about how he blew up my job once!" Rose said with a wicked smile.

Ace looked at her in fake shock.

"Really! Mister "Don't Carry Nitro-9 except when I ask you to without actually asking you to" loves to blow things up?! I'm shocked!" Ace said with a grin.

The two girls then walked out of the cell, still laughing and talking, as they evaded the Sontaran patrols and made their way to the transmat.

Next: Rose and Ace start to unravel just what is actually going here. What do the Sontarans actually want?