The storm was coming closer.
Rose peered out the open archway as they were led from the prison through the foyer. It was dark now except for the flash of lightning she caught just before they turned towards the main chamber.
The Doctor and Rose were welcomed into the main chamber by the roll of thunder that followed seconds later. The chamber appeared as it had before with just Lura at one of the tables. The only others in the room were the two Bosthinat guards at the doors and their two Bosthinat guard escorts.
"You're too clever and curious for your own good, Time Lord."
The Doctor stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Could say the same about you."
"I meant to ask you earlier on our date," Lura began conversationally as she kept her attention on what she was doing. "How was breakfast this morning?" When neither of them answered, Lura continued. "It's one of my favourites of what Bosthinatia has available." She turned and flashed her eyes at the Doctor. "But I pumped both of yours full of catalysts."
"Catalysts for what?" the Doctor asked. His face was hard, his eyes wary.
"You're telepathic, aren't you?"
"Why do you ask?"
Lura moved from the table, holding up a vial to the light and swirling it. She grinned as she glided towards the Doctor. "I have something special for you."
"What is it?" the Doctor prompted, his uncertain tone beginning to worry Rose. Lura pointed downward to his guard and the Doctor was forced to his knees. "Oi, careful!" He eyed the vial in Lura's hand warily. "What is that? What are you doing?"
Rose made a move towards Lura, but her guard was ready. "Let me go!" Rose demanded, struggling. "Don't hurt him!"
"Hold him," Lura ordered. The guard clamped its hands over the Doctor's arms, preventing him from being able to stand or lash out at Lura. The tall woman lowered the vial and waved it under the Doctor's nose. He seemed to consider its scent, but after a moment he snorted and jerked his head away, throwing himself back. Thunder rolled outside as if on cue. The Bosthinat restraining him was caught off guard, but it managed to maintain its grip.
"No!" the Doctor cried. "How can you have that? That's impossible!"
Lura appeared to delight in the Doctor's fear. "You recognise it, then?"
"Where did you get yaulup seed?" he asked incredulously. "There's only one planet you could've found that, and it's impossible!"
"I make it my business to know such things, to study them."
"But you can't."
"But I have, Time Lord. Really, haven't you been listening?" Lura attempted to tip the vial into the Doctor's mouth, but he kept his head away. She told the guard to hold him, but it couldn't manage to hold onto the Doctor as he struggled mightily and keep his head still at the same time. One of the guards at the door came forward, and together the Bosthinats succeeded in holding his head back.
Rose was keeping her own guard busy, attempting to break free of its grasp. She didn't know what yaulup seed was, but the Doctor was clearly terrified of it. "Leave him alone!" she yelled, but Lura paid her no attention.
"I'm a firm believer that positive reinforcement is so much better than negative," Lura stated as she poured the vial down his throat. The Doctor choked and spluttered, attempting to keep it out. "That's why I'm also neutralising your pain receptors."
"Doctor?" Rose implored. "What is it?"
The Doctor was coughing and Lura crouched down in front of him, looking to Rose very much like a hungry cat about to pounce, and she finally acknowledged Rose. "Yaulup is a rare aphrodisiac to you and me, but it's quite potent to the psyche of a telepath." Unwilling to look away from the Doctor's response to the potion, Lura tossed the empty vial behind her, and it rolled away across the floor. "It acts as an amplifier." She lightly ran a finger over the Doctor's shoulder and down the front of his jacket. "Your whole body becomes a telepathic antenna, am I right?"
"How did you know?" the Doctor grated out unsteadily as he recovered his voice.
"I have a thing for the ancient races, if you recall." She began to slowly undo the buttons of the Doctor's jacket. "I can't say there's much information to be found about Time Lords, but I combine what I do know with my specialty and have found some rather promising methods of manipulation."
Opening the jacket, Lura unbuttoned his light blue Oxford and pushed them back over his shoulders to reveal his simple grey T-shirt, and the guard used the bulk of cloth as a restraint to keep his arms back. It was very rarely the Doctor removed his jacket. The brown with pinstripes had become a part of his outward self, his identity. To Rose, Lura had just committed a personal crime.
Lura settled a hand on the center of his chest. Her brows drew together in puzzlement. "Your heart beats impossibly fast. Or..." She raised her other hand and placed both on either side, and she looked at him in wonder. "You have two hearts? This is true of all Time Lords?"
"Don't know as much as you thought you did, do you?" the Doctor retorted, and Rose couldn't help but feel it a small victory.
Lura narrowed her eyes at him and lifted his shirt to his sternum, exposing his thin belly. She tested soft caresses through the hair and over his skin. He gasped, his sensory system already on overdrive. She smiled. "You're assimilating it quickly."
"Didn't... have... time..." the Doctor managed.
Lura suddenly closed the distance between them and kissed him. Her hands came up to stroke his jaw and neck, and the Doctor didn't fight it. Rose bristled. What did she think she was playing at? Lura couldn't expect him to reciprocate. It was just another form of torture and Lura doing what she pleased, Rose reasoned, until the Doctor slowly began to kiss her back. Before long, the Doctor was matching Lura's movements and kissing her fiercely. Rose couldn't do anything but stare, perplexed.
It wasn't like Rose had ever seen him kiss anyone. This was very new territory for her. The sight of them full-out snogging chilled Rose to the bone and she found herself looking away. If she were honest with herself, it was also more than a little arousing.
When she looked back, Lura had pulled away and the Doctor stared on vacantly, as if he didn't know what to do. He blinked, the light returning to his eyes, and he started to shake and realise what had happened and how terribly vulnerable he was.
"Doctor?" Rose tried in a small voice.
Lura hovered very close to his face. The Doctor turned his head to Lura's, meeting her eyes just centimeters away. "Take Rose back to the cells. Please," he begged. "Your battle is with me. She doesn't need to see this."
"I'm not going anywhere! What's going on? What's she doing to you?"
"He's mirroring me," Lura said with interest as she idly toyed with the hair above his ears. "My intentions and emotions become his."
"Please!" the Doctor insisted.
"Oh but I think she's fine right there, don't you?" Lura palmed his neck before slipping her fingers behind his head and into his hair. The Doctor shut his eyes and his head fell back as his lungs began to labour in short pants.
"That's right," Lura purred. "Submit to me, Time Lord." The Muramphian arched her back and laved her tongue across the Doctor's throat. The Doctor's own back arched in response, and his head came up. He reached for Lura's neck, and when she receptively closed the distance, he began to explore the taste of her golden flesh. After a moment, though, he stopped and seemed to forget what he was doing. Lura quickly picked it back up, testing different kisses under his jaw. Reminded, the Doctor battled her for access to her neck.
The Doctor was winning at one point, and Lura took the opportunity to speak. "Answer me this, my compliant Time Lord." He murmured his acknowledgement against her skin, and Lura turned to peer at Rose. "What does Rose mean to you?"
He immediately pulled away, and his enslaver took over with the physical attention. "Love her," he responded without pause. "My life. The healer of my soul." Finished with his confession, the Doctor resumed his exploration at Lura's prompting.
"Is this true, human?"
Rose had stopped breathing at the Doctor's words. Her lower lip began to quiver as she was overwhelmed with the situation. It was a shock to hear his words about her with no pretense, no usual Doctor-filter in place. And the fact that she was hearing it now with Lura in the middle was just unfair.
"Is it?"
"Prob—" Rose blurted. She attempted to steady her voice and settled on, "Maybe."
Lura drew back with a single-syllable laugh of accomplishment. The Doctor hung uncertainly for a few moments and finally blinked and raised his head. Scared and trembling, he looked to Lura and then to Rose.
"Catch your breath, my compliant Time Lord," Lura oozed. "You're about to make me very happy."
Rose hated to see the Doctor so afraid, so broken. She had to be strong for him. Rose drew in a galvanising breath and looked him straight in the eye. "You can fight this, Doctor."
"What did I do?" he sought in growing panic. "What did I say?"
Rose's heart cracked a little in her chest, and she offered him a watery smile. "You're gonna be fine. Just hold on. Just fight."
Lura and two Bosthinat guards behind him were pulling his crumpled jacket and shirt down his arms. "Rose," the Doctor pleaded, shaking his head and his voice breaking as Lura closed on him, "Don't let me forget."
Having freed the Doctor's arms and now only having him restrained by the guard, Lura descended on him. The Doctor turned away from her kiss, but she seemed content to settle on just under his ear. His face was now towards Rose, and he caught her eyes. As they gazed at each other, Rose was horrified to see the life suddenly vanish from his dark brown orbs. His dead eyes drifted towards Lura, followed by his head, and in seconds he was reciprocating her every move.
She had held it together for him. Now that he was gone, Rose released a sorrowful sob. Don't let him forget what, what he was doing and saying? What Lura was doing to him?
Who he was?
Rose wished she hadn't been so cruel to him not so long ago. Compared to this it was nothing and they had both enjoyed the playful conflict in their cells, but had she known this was coming she would have chosen to leave him with something more fortifying.
"Let him go," Lura gasped as the Doctor relentlessly pursued her mouth. A sharp crack of thunder shook the chamber walls, and the Bosthinat released his grip. The Doctor practically pounced, his hands going straight to Lura's sleek sides and swathing as much of her as he could with his touch. Lura emitted a feral growl which he returned and allowed herself to be wrestled to the stone floor.
Rose turned her head away, appalled by her body's sympathetic reaction to what she was seeing. She struggled for breath like a fish out of water. The Muramphian's form was so sensually appealing that Rose was half hoping the Doctor wouldn't remember just in case they did get out of this and he found Rose to someday not measure up. The Doctor himself was so gorgeous, more than her dreams had ever managed to capture, except she had always expected to be the receiver of his affections. Even then the Doctor's body appeared mismatched next to Lura's and much more akin to her own human form, like the prideful grace of a lioness dragging the magnificent stallion down by his neck and robbing him of his own natural might.
It wasn't just the heat of arousal that permeated her being. A surging depth of anger welled within her, surprising Rose. The Doctor didn't love Lura. His actions were merely of her reflection, a twisting of her own deceptive inner beauty. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. Yes they had and would in the future be attacked in various ways, their lives threatened and forced into adaptation as they grew and experienced, but why this? Why at such a personal level in a way that was possibly what mattered to the Doctor and Rose most?
Rose's eyes were drawn to the sounds of shifting. Lura had managed to subdue the Doctor, no doubt assisted by his having just absorbed from Lura her own state of submission. Rose wondered if the Doctor was using what he had taught Rose about mental barriers right now, about how to separate one's mind and retreat. The pair rolled again, the Doctor once again dominant, and Rose pursed her lips in frustration. It sure didn't seem that way.
"Stop it!" she shouted, unable to stand it any longer. Her voice lost its power. "Bitch," she added softly.
As if responding just to spite Rose, Lura again pinned the Doctor under her and purred to him. "Doctor..."
"Rose..." the Doctor replied amorously.
Rose's blood ran cold.
Was he speaking to her or Lura? It couldn't be her, not by the way he said her name, the fact that he was responding to Lura. Was he confused?
The Muramphian crowed in amusement, apparently unconcerned and cooed to the Doctor while hiking his light undershirt halfway up his torso and maintaining a steady source of stimulation along his skin with the tips of her fingers. "Tell me, Doctor..."
"Tell you," he murmured while flirting with her lips.
"How do we open the door for the Carrionites?" she sing-songed sweetly.
"TARDIS..." he returned readily. "My ship..."
"Go on..."
"Break... Time Lock... so long ago..."
"Rrr... Show me..."
"Show you..."
"Yes..."
"Dawn of Time... ungh... fish fingers..."
Lura stopped in confusion and panted, "What?"
"Terrible on toast..."
Lura dropped her head and locked the Doctor reciprocally in a fierce kiss. If he was copying Lura, then why Rose's name? The thought of the Doctor possibly resisting Lura and using Rose as a defence mechanism played across Rose's mind. Lura pressed her forehead to his and stared straight into his eyes. "How do you break the Time Lock at the Dawn of Time?"
"King... of the Forest of Wild Endeavor? Antlers as wide as he is long but somehow never snags a tree..."
Lura snarled, forced her hand between the Doctor's legs and squeezed. The Doctor, a mirror of her own rage, roared back at her and attempted to bite any part of her he could reach, but Lura had the advantage above him and kept away.
Deftly spinning off of him, Lura crouched a safe distance away, braced herself on one hand and hissed at the Doctor. His two Bosthinat guards each took a step towards him but stopped, their heads angled toward the Muramphian.
Rose expected the Doctor to pop up and start characteristically running his mouth, but he instead only sat up, his poise anxious. His whole body began to quake and he looked around, out of sorts.
"Doctor?"
He turned his head as Rose called him and blinked. Noticing his shirt askew, he pulled it down with an unsteady hand and began casting his eyes about. "Where's my jacket?"
Lura rose fluidly to her feet. "You clever creature, hiding from me!"
The Doctor turned and tried to stand, but he only got as far as a crouch. "Did I? Good for me."
"I see now how you're going to play, Time Lord." Lura had lost her usual cheek. "Tomorrow, you'll have the pleasure of watching 'the healer of your soul' pay for your games." She flicked a hand, and the two Bosthinats each took the Doctor by an arm and began dragging him out of the chamber with Rose and her guard following.
-^^-W-^^-
Rose deposited herself in the corner of the cell as soon as the door was closed and the guards had turned their backs. She reached to the Doctor's cell, waiting to feel his hand take hers. He gave her hand a quick squeeze before he voiced his frustration, pushed her out of his cell and let go. Rose could hear the Doctor's cell door rattle as he landed heavily against the bars.
"I'm sorry, Rose, but you'll forgive me if I don't want to touch you right now. I'd like to keep my wits about me."
Rose nodded. "Right. Yeah, 'course." She hadn't been thinking, had she? "Are you... are you all right?"
The Doctor didn't answer right away. "I'm sorry, Rose."
Rose shook her head. "No. Don't you dare apologise. This wasn't your fault."
"It wasn't fair for you to see that."
"You say that like you were any better off!" Rose considered. "I mean, you seemed to enjoy it at times, but—"
"Not fair," he broke in crossly.
"I know. Sorry." They sat in relative silence, except for the occasional rattling sound of the Doctor's cell door as a shudder overtook him. "Why you still shaking?"
"Because I'm addicted," the Doctor bit out sourly. "I don't feel the pain, but my body's screaming with withdrawal."
"Pain? That's why... she dulled your sense of pain?"
"Because it hurts. Not being able to shut it off, to have your whole body receptive like that."
"That's awful." Rose grimaced, feeling for him. "I thought you were shaking 'cause you were scared."
"I was. I was." There was a long pause. "I hate to lose control," he said vehemently.
Rose wet her lips tentatively. "What do you remember?" she asked, and he took a moment to think.
"Bits and pieces."
Rose waited. "Like?"
The Doctor sighed. "Doing things... I would never do."
Rose struggled to keep his answer in context, to not let her mind find it disappointing. She understood he probably wasn't talking about avoiding the more exciting things with Rose that he had done with Lura, but the possibility nagged at her. "What sort of things?"
"Does it really matter, Rose?"
"No. I guess not," Rose accepted in defeat. She listened to the soft sounds of the storm outside. Any thunder they could hear was distant, but it still lingered nearby. She looked around the fairly bare cell, her eyes now fully adjusted to the darkness. "When Lura said your name... why did you say mine? Or does the yaulup stuff confuse you?"
"No. That... was me," the Doctor assured her. "That bit is clear."
Rose waited again. "Why my name," she prompted, "and not hers?"
"I couldn't fight the biological effects. I can with a lot of things, but yaulup... I can't. I had to... respond. To her. It's like, my own will was completely subverted. Sometimes I didn't know I had done something until after the fact. Her brain programmed my actions directly, totally bypassing any sort of choice I might have had."
Encouraged to have gotten him talking, Rose continued. "But you could fight her? You said my name because...?"
He spoke slowly, as if giving in. "Yes, Rose, I imagined she was you."
Rose closed her eyes, his words warming her heart.
"In a way it was like fighting it, but actually that's what was tearing me apart inside. I fooled myself. Told myself it was you and not her, and that way I didn't have to fight. It kept me sane."
Finally, Rose didn't know what to say.
"I didn't tell her, did I?" the Doctor asked. "She was upset, so I can assume she didn't hear what she wanted to know. I don't remember."
"You talked about the TARDIS, breaking a time lock, something about the Dawn of Time... but then you fouled it up and she got angry." Rose smiled widely to herself. "I knew you could do it. I knew you could fight it."
"Yeah, you did." his tone implied he was smiling, too. "Thanks."
"Have you actually tried fish fingers on toast? Is it really that bad?"
"Did I say that?"
"Yep."
A pause. "And you neglected to tell me this until now?"
"Didn't seem important."
"Sounds brilliant to me."
Rose giggled.
"Rose."
"Yeah?"
"I'm... going to agree to help her."
She frowned. "What?"
"I won't actually, but she knows about the TARDIS anyway and that I believe there's a chance it would work. I'll tell her where it is, and she can have it brought here."
The idea of having the TARDIS on the same planet she was on sounded brilliant to Rose, but it also made her wary. "But what if she takes control of you again? Makes you use it?"
"She threatened you. I'm willing to take the chance that I'm strong enough. This will buy us time."
Rose couldn't argue with him. The pair of them shouted for the guards. When one finally opened the door, they told it to fetch Lura. A few minutes later, the Muramphian herself visited them in their cells.
Rose stood in the center of her cell, not wishing to give away the fact that they could physically touch since it was clear by their separate cells she wanted them separated. By Lura's eyeline, she could tell the Doctor was standing, too.
"Welcome to our humble accommodations. I think Rose is getting low on soap, though. Another towel or two, maybe a pillow. Oh, and the room service is rubbish."
Lura seemed out of place, too large and clean for the prison, and she wasn't happy. "I'm not interested in your idle chatter, Time Lord."
"My TARDIS is just down the street corner from Sariel's shoppe on Chosthu. It's a tall blue box, says "Police" on it. Bring it here and I'll look into the Carrionites for you."
Lura peered at the Doctor in the dim light. "I'm not in the mood for your games, either."
"This isn't a game. I've given it some thought, and what you said yesterday makes sense. I'm willing learn more about them, to see your perspective. Maybe the yaulup did it, I don't know."
"You expect me to believe after your adamant behaviour, you would change your mind just like that?"
The Doctor's voice lost all politeness and became dangerous. "You threatened Rose. Do you want my help or not?"
Lura studied him for a moment. "Your ship will be brought here. Then, we'll see just how cooperative you claim to be."
The Muramphian left with the guards, and Rose settled down again in the corner.
"Can you reach my hand, Rose?"
She saw him extend his arm out into the corridor and could see he had put his shirt and jacket back on. She reached for him. "Yeah."
"Not now. I... need to sleep. Need to heal."
Rose was surprised, but she supposed she shouldn't be. "How long?"
"Couple hours should do it. If you need to wake me, take my hand, okay? I won't move. I'll be right here."
Rose nodded, feeling better about the idea. "Okay. Sleep well, Doctor. Don't worry about me. Just get better."
"I'll be back to my old self in no time, just you watch." He paused. "Good night, Rose."
