"Doctor!"

He could hear Nick's muffled cries amidst the dull clangs of the pipe against the door.

The Paresh stood in front of it. The Doctor cursed himself. Teleportation device—why hadn't he thought of that? Because the Paresh aren't smart enough to develop that kind of technology, he thought, answering his own question.

"Hmm." She glanced back at the door. "Doctor, are you? You know, the last one I had called himself the Caryani, if I can recall correctly."

Anger and desolation flashed through him. "Where is he? He's the one that made the teleporter for you, isn't he?"

"Indeed, he did, and many other things as well. But I lost him ages ago. I neglected to remove him from a planet before it went up. I was so sad to have lost him, but it made such a pretty display as it broke apart."

The Doctor ground his teeth together and forced back the nausea churning in his stomach. "When did you lose him?"

"Oh I don't know. A little bit after your ridiculous Time War I suppose. Haven't been able to find another one of you since."

A predatory smile grew over her face. On the other side of the door there was a loud smash and then a wrenching noise.

"Little spat smashed the controls," the Paresh muttered, looking at the door. "What a pet you have. She's trying to force the door open. No matter. She won't be able to do anything by the time I'm finished with you." She turned her eyes on him. The green glittered and danced in the light as she walked toward him.

He backed against the other door, options flying through his mind. But he was weaponless, idealess, the door was deadlocked. He was going to end up like all those other Time Lords in the asylum on Gallifrey.

The pipe clattered beyond the door and he heard Nick yell at him: "Doctor! You're smarter than her! You'll always be you! Remember that!"

Fear stabbed his heart, not for himself, but for Nick. He stared straight into the Paresh's flickering eyes.

"What will you do to her?"

"She can be my new toy. I had my last Time Lord create some nerve-cepter bonds for me that I've been sure to keep every time I needed to move.

The Doctor's eyes grew wide with horror even as his mind seemed to go fuzzy. His shout was for both of them—his own weakness and the torment of knowing what lay ahead for Nick.

Nick heard the Doctor yell an her breath caught in her throat. Then she banged on the door with her fists and open palms, bruising them on the metal.

"Doctor! Stay strong! Stay with me!"

Suddenly an idea came to her like a slap in the face. The vents! She dove to the ground and yanked the grating off the wall, pulling the pipe after her just in case. She heard him shout a few more times and then all was silent. She scrambled through the vents, hoping to reach either the area the Doctor was locked into or the control room. Sliding right, she saw an area ahead glowing in blue. She kicked the panel free and climbed out, only to see the Paresh standing ten yards to her right, the Doctor at her side. Nick sucked in a breath and gripped the pipe until her knuckled went white.

His face was blank, devoid of any emotion—empty. A film covered his eyes, pale and pushing back the color that always showed his spark for life. What had she done to him? He just stood there, staring at…at nothing. She'd wiped him clean! Taken over his mind! This couldn't be him—not her Doctor. Not the one she had pretended to marry on Dralacott-6. Not the Doctor that had taken a raspberry pie directly in the face during that massive pie fight in 1965. Not the one she had held less than an hour ago.

"Doctor! Doctor! Doctor!" She had to snap him out of it. He had to wake up if they were going to make it out alive. Maybe if she shook him, slapped his face, maybe that would help.

"It's no use darling," that silky, deadly voice said. "He's mine now. I've overridden the electronic synapses in his cortex. He won't do a thing for you."

"Give him back," she said, doing everything she could to keep her voice steady. She brandished the pipe. See if she can take it from me this time!

"Well now," said the Paresh, saccharine.

"GIVE HIM BACK! You monster!"

The Paresh's smiling face dropped into one of darkness. "I think not."

Nick had anticipated the Paresh's move and just as she disappeared, Nick spun around, swinging the pipe and heard a loud thunk as it slammed into the side of the Paresh's skull. She howled and staggered back, putting a hand to the area, which began to leak a brown liquid. She glared at Nick and disappeared, reappearing behind the Doctor.

"You foul little creature! Let's see how you do against your precious Time Lord! Won't harm him, will you?" She jabbed the Doctor in the back. "You! Get her!"

The Doctor walked toward Nick. She backed up, but held the pipe ready.

"Don't do this Doctor," she said. "I know you're still in there, whatever she's done. It can't last forever." He didn't stop. "All right!" Maybe this will wake him up, and if it doesn't, maybe it'll knock him out and then I can take out the Paresh and then find some way to open the doors and drag him into the TARDIS. Don't be angry with me later, Doctor!

She swung at his head, but to her surprise he ducked and made a grab for her. She managed to dance away, brought the pipe around again, but he ducked once more. This time he looped an arm around her midsection and swung himself around so he stood behind her, fumbling with her hands and arms in an attempt to get the pipe away from her. Animal panic surged through her—he fought with no change in his expression at all, but he was still much stronger than her. Damn you and your two hearts! She thrust the end of the pipe back and struck him hard in the ribs before flinging her head back to his him on the nose. But neither attack stopped him and he had a firm grip on the pipe now. Tears of frustration sprang to her eyes as she struggled against him. With one of her hands tangled in one of his, he used the other to jerk the pipe free and it clattered to the ground. Nick bent over and tried to throw him over her shoulder, but she didn't have a good enough grip and he hauled her back up, clasping her against his chest. Both her hands were caught in his right, his left arm wrapped tightly around her waist.

"Did I not tell you?" Paresh strolled forward. "He feels no pain now. Truss him up all you like, he would still come back for more."

Nick tilted her head to try and look at his face. "Doctor, remember what we talked about? How she's nothing but a fat waste! Don't let this slug tell you what to do!"

"Put her in the cepter bonds." The Paresh moved behind the control panel.

The Doctor dragged Nick to two cuffs suspended from the ceiling. They weren't metal and were marked blue and white—completely different from the rest of the ship. She kicked and struggled the entire way. He managed to snap one shackle around her wrist and after more of her thrashing, the other snapped on as well.

"Good. Now get back." The Doctor obeyed the Paresh's orders, standing several feet away from Nick but not facing her. The cuffs allowed her to keep her hands comfortably at her side, which she found somewhat disturbing. She kept her eyes on the Doctor and jerked on the cords.

"Doctor! Wake up! Wake up! Doctor! Doctor!"

He only stared ahead, a statue, lost in his own body. How much of him was still his own?

"Give it up sweetheart." Don't call me sweetheart, you old hag. "He's going to be very busy building me a nuclear flash drive, and you, well, you won't be as busy. Instead, you get to be my new toy, as I told your Time Lord before snatching him up." Nick's stomach churned. "It's been so long since I've had a toy. The last one only survived 13. I wonder what you'll be able to take."

Nick glared at her, but not for long. "He'll hear me. He's a Time Lord. You can't just override a Time Lord's brain. Doctor! It's me! Wake up!

"That's it!" the Paresh snapped. "I'll not have you making an annoying ruckus while I work." She flipped a few switches. An unpleasant humming grew within the room. The Doctor still faced forward, emotionless, empty.

"Doctor, wake up! I know you're in there! Doctor!"

"Enough!" The Paresh spun a dial and power surged through the cepter cords, into the cuffs, and through Nick's body. She screamed, but only for a moment and out of surprise. It hurt, but not enough so she couldn't focus past it.

"Doctor! Wake up! Wake up!"

The Paresh spun the dial more and suddenly the pain tripled. Fire and lightening ripped at her muscles, sizzled over her skin. She was drowning, unable to breathe as all her breath left her in screams. It wouldn't stop! She couldn't stop screaming, but she needed help! She needed the Doctor! He had to stop her! He had to help!

"Doctor!" It was a shriek of desperation and determination. Desperate that he should hear her. Determined to undermine the Paresh's control. The dial turned again.

She jerked in her bonds, trying to escape the bone-burning agony, forcing the cuff edges into her wrists until they bled. Needles slithered under her skin. She needed more air, needed it to scream, the only release there was.

Far away, words were shouted. "You're up to 10 now, my dear! You've escalated much father than you should have, but if you don't stop that annoying pleading for him, it will only be worse!"

Then she had no energy left and fell to her knees, would have collapsed to the ground if the bonds hadn't kept her suspended. Tears streamed down her face as the pain faded. The Paresh had turned it off at long last, but how long had it really been on? Just a few minutes? She shivered, breathing in pained gasps, her eyes shut tight and tears pattering the floor.

"There now. All you had to do was be quiet. Was that so difficult?"

Nick choked on a little sob, but forced herself to regain her composure. This was no time to weaken. She was still alive—it had been pain, nothing more. The Doctor needed her help. She craned her neck to look up at him with blurry eyes. Nothing. He remained motionless. She tasted blood in her mouth and realized she must have bit her lip. It trickled down her shin. Shouting with pain and effort, she climbed to her feet and staggered a few steps toward him. The cepter cords didn't let her get too far, and she leaned forward, reaching out to him, digging the cuffs deeper into her wrists, but compared to the Paresh's inducement, it was nothing. More blood ran down her arms and dripped from her elbows.

"Doctor. Look at me. Babe, it's Nick. Look here. The Paresh has you in a mind lock. You said so. But I know you can break out of it. You're the Doctor, aren't you? Please—"

"That is enough!" The Paresh's face was wild. "You're a hard-headed thing, aren't you?"

Nicked turned to her, glaring, and bared her teeth. "Go suck a uranium rod."

"Let's see how you like 11!"

A shock of agony ripped through her and her legs buckled. She swung back, oblivious to everything but the knives in her skull, the peeling of her flesh. Spikes of pain drove themselves into her heart. Her nerves curled in on themselves, screamed and crawled, aflame. I'm dying. I'm dying. Oh God, let it end. Then a tiny part of her mind, so small and weak she barely heard it, said, No, I must save him. I must live. He cannot be her slave forever. He cannot do things he isn't meant for.

Time ceased to exist. She began to accept the pain, repeated a mantra in her head, It could be worse, it could be worse, oh God, it could be worse.

Suddenly it was gone as fast as it had come. Hair clung to her sweat-dampened face, her head hung as she tried to breathe.

"That's enough of that. I don't' think you'll be talking for a while and I don't have time to play with you anymore. I must get my good Doctor here to the reactor room so he can begin his work. Don't fret though—I'll be back for you soon enough."

Nick spit blood onto the floor and watched the feet of the Doctor and the Paresh walk away. Damn. Damn, damn. Every time she said something, the Paresh tortured her. Not the Doctor was going somewhere she couldn't even appeal to him. How was she going to get free? It couldn't end like this—the Doctor creating planet explosives for the Paresh to use, with her stuck here, for further torture until she died of it. Damn! She couldn't even move; her body shook from the trauma of the Paresh device. Her lip and wrists throbbed. Somehow, she had to break free. She had to trick the Paresh. She had to reach the Doctor. She had to stay alive. Had to stay alive. Had to save him. Had to wake him up. Had to stay alive.

She repeated those words to herself until the clip-clop of shoes on the rusted metal froze her thoughts solid.

"Now then. He's happily at work, so that gives me some quality time with you my dear. What do you say we start at 1 and work our way up this time, hm?"