Rose frowned and sighed, taking a sip of champagne. Someone—she couldn't remember who—had taken the microphone from Pete and was making a speech, but she hadn't paid attention to any of the first bit of it and was now completely lost. She sighed again and returned to her reverie.
"So you convinced him to come, I see," Jack said with a lewd grin.
"Oh, hush, Boe," she responded, swatting at his shoulder lightly. A patron at a nearby table glanced curiously over at them, but didn't comment.
"You know you love me," Jack answered cheekily. "Wolf Girl and Storm Boy. Sounds like an American cartoon."
John snorted derisively. "I'd thank you if you found another nickname besides 'Storm Boy', Boe Face," he said, emphasizing the name.
Jack just grinned. "I could make an exception, if you'd come to bed," he told John with a bright gleam in his blue eyes. "Could make it very worth your while."
"No," John said decisively. "Not happening."
"Why not? It'd be fun."
"Jack," Rose said, rolling her eyes. "When was the last time you were told no?"
"Before this?" Jack paused a moment, thinking. "When I propositioned you."
Rose and John both began to laugh. "What?" Jack exclaimed. "Most people are not immune to my charms! I don't know why I continue to torture myself with you two!"
Rose grinned teasingly. "'Cos you jus' can't stay away from me. 'M too much fun."
Jack laughed and toasted her. "Amen to that."
"Rose?" A voice intruded on her memory, and Rose blinked, refocusing on the dinner party. Jackie was hovering near her.
"Hey, mum. What is it?"
"Pete's 'ere, an' he's got Tony," Jackie said in an undertone, nodding at the back entrance to the large room. Rose's eyes lit up at the sight of her younger brother, who'd been away at boarding school for several months.
"Tony!" she exclaimed, rushing across the room to engulf the young blonde boy in her arms. "'M so happy to see you!"
"Nice to see you to, Rose," Pete said drily, grinning down at her.
"Hi, Rose," Tony said, beaming brightly. "I'm ten now, didja know?"
"'Course I did, sweetheart," Rose said, smiling. "You think I'd jus' forget my favorite brother's birthday?"
"But Rose, I'm your only brother," Tony said plaintively, staring up at her with childish innocence.
"Thank God for that," Pete said fervently. "Don't think I could handle Jackie Tyler pregnant again."
"Oi!" Jackie shouted from across the room. "I 'eard that, I'll 'ave you know!"
Everyone laughed, and the festivities moved into full swing. Rose danced with a few men, chatted with Martha and Reinette for a while, and was moving over to talk to her old friend Shareen when she noticed a familiar logo inscribed on the simple black uniform of a tall blonde woman. Torchwood.
"Dad," Rose said quietly, moving up to stand beside Pete. He looked down at her.
"What is it, Rose?"
"Who's the blonde?" She indicated the woman with a slight head motion.
"Oh, that's Yvonne Hartman, Director of Torchwood One. She was one of our backers when Vitex was first starting, and now I return the favor. She's got some incredible new research going on in the labs that could revolutionize everything. She's been telling me a little bit about it. It's quite fascinating."
"You support Torchwood?" Rose hissed, barely managing to keep her voice down. She was shaking, in anger and fear. "How could you? Don't you—" she stopped herself just in time.
"Don't I what?" Pete asked mildly. "Rose, what's wrong with you? Torchwood is a wonderful research facility. They're trying to create an artificial intelligence, and they've just had a breakthrough. We may have fully intelligent computers by the end of this year. Isn't that amazing?"
"'Course it is, Dad," Rose said hollowly. "'M not feelin' very good. Think 'm gonna head back to the flat. I'll come by an' visit Tony later this week, m'kay?"
"Are you sure you're alright?" Pete asked, watching her with concern in his eyes.
"Yeah, 'm fine. Jus' had too much to drink," Rose lied. As soon as was possible, she rushed from the gathering. Upon reaching her flat, she stripped out of the fancy attire and pulled on her black clothes, tying on her mask. Before she could sneak out the window, however, she realized abruptly that there was someone else inside the flat.
"Hello?" she called nervously.
"Rose, what the hell is goin' on?" John exclaimed as he climbed through the window. "You were broadcastin' anger, fear, an' anxiety halfway across the city! Lucky for you there aren't many people who can sense psychic waves, or you'd be in a hell of a lot of trouble right now."
"My father is a financial backer for Torchwood," Rose said, her voice trembling. "Jus' found out. The Director of Torchwood One was at the dinner tonight."
"Rose Tyler," John said. "As in Pete Tyler's daughter, heiress to Vitex?"
"That's me," Rose said softly.
John whistled. "Girl, you have got to be careful."
"I know, I know," Rose said. A thought occurred to her and she grabbed her phone suddenly. "Jack!"
She hurried to dial the man's number, sighing in relief when he answered. "Rosie, what's wrong? Are you alright?"
"Yeah, 'm fine. I jus' found out that Dad's a backer for Torchwood," Rose whispered.
"Pete? Why would he? Doesn't he—" Jack paused. "Oh. He doesn't know, does he?"
"No one does. Jus' me an' you."
"And John," Jack answered. "Rosie, you sound like you need a drink. Your flat or out?"
"Out," Rose said firmly. "John's comin' too, he's already with me. Didn't know I was broadcastin' but guess he heard me."
"Right. Ten minutes, and if you aren't here I'm coming to look for you."
"Okay," Rose said with a sigh, rolling her eyes.
OoOoO
After spending the night partying, Rose took the next day off to recover from the amount of liquor she'd imbibed. Later in the afternoon, she texted John, and met him at his flat to practice telepathy. In the evening, the two of them met Jack and got into trouble. This quickly became a regular routine. By the next Saturday, Rose had also spend a good deal of time with Donna Noble, John's sister, and she and the sassy ginger had become fast friends. On this particular day, Donna had been called into Torchwood, where she worked as a secretary, and Rose, John, and Jack were about to implement a plan to sneak into the Torchwood archives to see what information was stored down there about their various aliases, with Rose being the primary distraction.
Just before they began, John received a text from Donna. Torchwood's being weird. Secretive. There's some sort of testing happening. Said it's for the Genesis Project, whatever that is. I'm going in for testing soon. I'll try and find out more info. Tell Rose to be careful.
John showed Rose and Jack the text, and both of them paled. "Any idea what the Genesis Project is?" Jack asked.
"No, but it doesn't sound good," John said.
"Should we go see what's going on?"
"Lead the way, Boe Face. Comin', Rose?"
OoOoO
Donna sighed as she was ushered into the lab. Whatever the testing was, it had apparently been successful, as she'd immediately been hustled off, surrounded by white coats. "What is your name?" one of the scientists asked her.
"Donna Noble. I'm a secretary," she answered.
"Yes, of course, I know that. You're expendable."
Donna tensed. "S-sorry, did you say expendable?"
"But of course. Let me explain." The technician nodded to a couple men, and they moved to secure her tightly so she could do nothing but walk where they wanted her to. "The Genesis Project is Torchwood's attempt to create an artificial intelligence unit. We discovered that we need to merge a human mind with the computer in order to create the effect."
"You want to put me in a computer?" Donna exclaimed. "Bloody hell no! I've got a life outside this hellhole. Only work here 'cos—" she cut off abruptly as she realized what she was about to say.
"Because why? I assure you, Mrs. Noble—"
"Miss," she interrupted. "Not married."
"Our records state that you live with a John Noble."
"He's my brother, dumbo," Donna snapped caustically, rolling her eyes. She tried to wrench her arms free from the men securing her, but met with no success. They maneuvered her into a room with a massive computer and several cables. Wires were hooked all over the place, and a steel headset was primed and ready to be activated. She was forced under the headset, her arms still pinioned behind her back. "Oi, listen to me! Let go! I'm not gonna turn into some bloody computer!"
She might have said more, but then the headset was turned on, and she knew no more.
OoOoO
Rose gasped and put her hands to her head as a powerful wave of something slammed into her mind. She whimpered, staggering, and felt John's hands steady her. "Easy," he whispered in her ear. "Keep it together until we find Donna."
"What…" she licked her lips, swallowed, tried to regain some semblance of control. "What is that?"
"I don't know," Jack said, "but I can feel it too."
John's face grew stony. "I know what it is."
"'S from—Gallifrey, isn' it?" Rose asked. "I remember bein' in your head, somethin' about—" she frowned. "'S scramblin' my brain. Can't think."
"Not quite," John said darkly. "The Final Sanction. You may have seen a little bit about it, but the reality was far worse. I didn't know it was still happening here. Our founder, Rassilon, wanted us to be immortalized, and when he heard of Torchwood's plans, he decided we would partake." John gritted his teeth, his eyes flashing dangerously. "Come on.
Jack helped Rose as they rushed down sterile white hallways, looking for the source of the wave. They found it, in another sterile, white room with massive amount of monitors and cables. A large computer took up one wall, and in the middle of all the equipment, eyes closed, a silver steel headset resting on her ginger hair like a crown, was Donna Noble.
John lifted one booted foot and kicked the windowed door inwards, rushing inside. The white-coated lab technicians stared, open-mouthed, at the trio. Donna's blue-green eyes opened, and suddenly, John, Rose, and Jack were forgotten.
"No, no! This cannot be happening!" One of the technicians cried desperately. He ran to one of the monitors and began to hit keys.
"Oh, don't even try," Donna said. "It won't work." She looked around, taking in all the gaping mouths. "What, you mean to tell me you hadn't considered the 8.249 % chance that the process would work in reverse? Dumbos." She shook her head. "This technology will never work in this way again. Oi, Spaceman! Don't just stand there looking pretty, let's get out of here!"
As they left, Rose heard someone say, "That's Rose Tyler. Pete Tyler's daughter. Bad Wolf is Rose Tyler. And look at these readings! Yvonne needs to see them right away."
The first security camera they passed, Donna grinned cheekily at it and waved, but every camera after that was shut off.
"We'll never get out of here," Jack said. "Wish I had a drink to toast you with."
"You of little faith," Donna said with a snort.
"How're you doin' that?" Rose asked, fascinated. "The cameras are jus' shuttin' off!"
"I'll explain later. Come on, we need to move!"
OoOoO
As it turned out, later was holed up in Jack's tiny flat about an hour later, waiting for word on the situation with Torchwood. "They wanted to merge my consciousness with that of the fully intelligent computer. You see, true artificial intelligence can't happen, because it needs that spark of human ingenuity that comes from having a soul." Donna frowned. "I sound like a bloody talking computer!"
"Well, you make it sound like you are one," Jack said. "Mentally only, of course. No metal visible. I could do a more thorough check, if you wanted."
"Stop it, Jack," Rose snorted, rolling her eyes.
"It was just an offer," he responded.
Donna's frown suddenly deepened. "This is gonna take some getting used to," she muttered. She closed her eyes briefly, the dark blue diamond on the front of the headset she still wore lighting up. The TV flickered on to a news broadcast. It showed pictures of Rose, both with and without her mask, as well as of John, without his mask, and Donna, without the headset.
"… reports that Rose Tyler, the Vitex heiress, who also uses the alias Bad Wolf, has with the help of the man and woman pictured, identified as John and Donna Noble, stolen the most promising scientific experiment of the century, one that could potentially completely revolutionize modern technology. Currently, the Tyler family is being brought in for questioning. Anyone with knowledge pertaining to the whereabouts of these three people, please contact this number."
The TV shut off. Silence fell thickly over the small flat as they stared at the TV, then each other. "Oh, no," Rose whispered suddenly.
"What?" Jack asked.
"Tony's home from school." She paused, then added: "An' he's got a gift."