Chapter 9

Kari yelled out in pain – not her own – and surprise. She grabbed one of the extinguishers and put out fires before going to her friend's side. Setting the canister down, she knelt next to Rose and looked her over. Her right hand was covered in burns and there were burns and scorch marks all over her torso and legs. Rose groaned and tried to stand up as she started to regain consciousness. Kari put a careful hand on her shoulder.

"Shh, don't move, you hit your head pretty hard and you're badly…burned?"

Rose carefully opened her eyes and frowned at the confused expression on Kari's face. "What? What's wrong?"

Kari watched in awe as the severe burns healed before her eyes.

"Rose," she whispered, "your burns are healing themselves."

Rose picked up her injured hand and looked at it, her eyes widening as she, too, saw the burns heal quickly. "Oh my," she breathed, turning her hand around.

Kari looked up at the door when she heard Donna crash into the Doctor as she jumped in the ship. Getting to her feet, she looped Rose's uninjured arm over her shoulder and carefully pulled her up.

"Come on."

Rose nodded carefully and went with Kari.

"Now where are you two off to?" the Doctor asked, frustrated as he piloted them to safety.

"Infirmary," Kari shot over her shoulder, trying to keep Rose's burns from view. "We got a few small burns and scratches. Nothing serious."

He frowned. "Why not just use the sonic?"

Kari waved a hand as they disappeared into the hallway. "No need. We'll be fine."

She got them to the infirmary and sat Rose down on a chair before closing the door. Sitting across from her friend, she watched as the last of the burns healed and Rose's eyes gained more focus while the concussion she sustained healed.

Rose looked at her hands in awe. Just moments before, one of them had been covered in burns; now they were both smooth and pink.

"Has this ever happened before?" Kari asked, watching her friend with concern.

Rose shook her head slowly. "No, not that I'm aware of."

Kari nodded. "Well, you seem to be fine now. How's your head?"

The other woman put her hand up to feel the spot that had made contact with the wall, flinching slightly. "Tender and sore."

Looking up, Kari saw the Doctor slowly opening the door. She placed a hand on Rose's knee. "I'll be right back." She jumped up and intercepted him. "How's Donna?" she asked, trying to be casual.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You're lousy at hiding things, you know that?"

Kari sighed and lowered her eyes. "Doctor, we're fine – Rose is fine – you don't need to worry about us right now."

He frowned but relented. "Alright, fine, I'll drop it – for now." Sighing, he ran his hand through his hair. "Besides, I need to figure out what's going on with Donna." Realization dawned on him and he looked at Kari pointedly. "Unless you know what's going on."

She smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I do, but it's been so much more fun watching you deal with it."

He narrowed his eyes, though there was no malice behind them. "Don't suppose you want to offer any insight?"

Kari tilted her head. "Well, when you leave the reception, take the TARDIS instead of having Lance drive you."

"That's it?"

She nodded. "For now, yeah, it is." She grinned broadly.

"Thanks." He said dryly.

"No problem!" She put her hands on his shoulders and turned him around. "Now, you go continue to deal with Donna. She has a lot of questions and is on a rooftop. We'll be here." She gave him a small wave as she closed the door, grinning as he did his best fish impression. Sighing, her grin fell as she turned back to Rose, who was now lying on one of the beds. "You okay?"

Rose looked at her from under her arm. "Yeah, just got a little dizzy from the concussion healing so quickly." She moved her arm back over her eyes. "Everything okay out there?"

"Hmm? Yeah, it's fine. He knows something is up, though."

Rose nodded, groaning slightly. "Oh, my head."

Kari moved to the cabinets and found the human-safe pain killers and gave some to Rose before sitting down in a chair. She ran her hands down her face.

"Rose, have you noticed other…odd things happening to you since Game Station?"

Rose propped herself on her elbows and furrowed her brow. "Not really, no. Granted, my concept of 'odd' has changed a lot since traveling with the Doctor."

Kari nodded and sighed, smiling up at her friend. "Well, you're fine now, and that's what's important. We can try to figure this out later when there isn't a giant spider to deal with."

Laughing slightly, Rose sat up. "It's weird to not be helping with this." She slowly stood up, holding on to the bed for balance.

Kari stood and put out an arm to help steady Rose. "Yeah, but we'd just get in the way right now. We'll be able to help once they're done at the reception."

Slowly, the girls headed back out to the control room, being jostled slightly as the Doctor piloted the TARDIS to said reception. They came in just as the door closed, barely catching a glimpse of the Doctor and Donna's retreating forms.

Rose gingerly sad on the jump seat. "And now we wait some more!"

Sometime later, the Doctor, Donna, and another man came running into the TARDIS, the new man stopping at the bottom of the ramp, looking around in awe.

"Oh, snap out of it, Lance! It's bigger on the inside, alright?" Donna snapped, grabbing the man's arm and pulling him up the ramp.

Both girls looked up from their activities and smiled.

"Welcome back!" Rose exclaimed, setting her book down. "Where to now?"

"H.C. Clements to see what Torchwood is up to," the Doctor replied, doing his usual frantic dance around the console.

Rose frowned. "Torchwood? Doesn't Jack work there? Maybe he knows something."

He shook his head. "Probably not. This is London and he's in Cardiff. Don't think they know a whole lot about what the other locations are up to."

"True."

Donna cocked her head at the younger woman. "How the hell would you know? You've been in this box the whole time!"

Kari smiled softly. "That is a very long story." She turned to look at the Doctor. "If you can, land us in the sub-basement."

The Doctor nodded slightly as he made some adjustments to their destination. While the landing wasn't one of the worse ones, it still wasn't the best. Donna and Lance ended up in a heap on the floor while Kari and Rose's heads crashed together, causing them both to groan and grab their heads.

"Everyone okay?" the Doctor asked, heading toward the door.

"Blimey, space man, where the hell did you learn to drive?" Donna scolded as she pulled herself and Lance up and followed him out.

The girls followed Lance out, giggling as he stumbled out and looked up at the police box. He looked at them in disbelief. "I…what…how?" he babbled out.

Rose patted him on the cheek as she walked passed him. "Come on, mate, no time to explain right now."

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Donna exclaimed.

"No, I am not kidding you, Donna! We need transport and these are transport," the Doctor explained, waving at a bunch of Segways.

She gestured toward the TARDIS. "You have a bloody spaceship! Transport us there!"

Kari walked up and inspected one of the two-wheeled vehicles.

"You've already seen how well he can get you to where you want to go, Donna. Just be glad he got us in the right building." She grinned at the Doctor's glare as she climbed onto a Segway. "Shall we?"

Rose looked around and frowned. "There're only four of them."

"You can ride with me." The Doctor took her hand and put her in front of him.

"No mixed signals there," Rose mumbled under breath.

"What was that?" he asked as he maneuvered the vehicle down the corridor.

"Nothing," she squeaked, shaking her head and shooting a glare at Kari who was giggling.

"Seriously, what is it with you two?" Donna asked, having finally relented and was now beside the Doctor, Kari, and Lance.

Rose and Kari both looked at her, confused. "What do you mean?" Kari asked, being the closest to her.

"You two have done nothing but giggle and disappear. Now, all of a sudden, you're out here helping! What, you get bored in that box?"

Rose snorted. "Hardly! Well, maybe a bit." She smiled. "We would've been in the way before."

"But how do you know that when you haven't been doing anything?"

Kari smirked. "I told you, Donna, it's a long story."

Lance leaned forward. "Who are you?"

Kari smiled tightly. "I'm Kari, that's Rose. We travel with the Doctor."

He nodded and leaned back, eyeing her warily.

"Is he the fiancé?" Rose whispered, shooting a quick glare at the man when Kari nodded.

The Doctor frowned. "What am I missing now?"

Kari looked up at him. "It's not exactly something we can talk about right now."

"Oh, now you lot are talking about us! Just wizard!" Donna exclaimed.

Kari turned back to her and smiled softly. "I'm sorry for all the secrecy, Donna, I am. Everything will make sense soon, I promise." She paused as she tilted her head. "Well, mostly make sense."

"You're not helping, Kari," the Doctor mumbled.

"Sorry." She took a deep breath. "Donna, there's no way for any of us to really explain what's going on right now. I know all of this is complete madness, but I assure you that knowing what's going on doesn't make it any less mad."

"Wait! You're American, aren't you?" Lance asked, still in a bit of a daze.

Rose rolled her eyes. "He's a quick one, innit he?"

The Doctor nudged her. "Now who's being rude?"

She turned and beamed up at him. "I learned from the best!" she laughed and ducked away at his glare.

They came to a stop in front of a door with the Torchwood emblem on it. The Doctor opened it to a ladder.

"Stay here, I'll be right back."

The other four watched him climb up, Kari smirking at the look on Rose's face. She nudged the other woman with her shoulder.

"Enjoying the view?"

Rose's head snapped to look at her friend, a fierce blush on her face. "What're you talking about?"

"Oh, please, I only just met you and I can tell you were checking out spaceman's arse," Donna said, causing Kari to cover her mouth to hide the giggling. Donna looked back up the ladder. "No idea what you see in that skinny bit of nothing. Looks like you'd get a paper cut just hugging him."

Rose was blushing and glaring at Kari, who was practically doubled over in laughter, when the Doctor came back down. He frowned at his two traveling companions before addressing the group.

"We're under the Thames."

Rose nodded and tried to hide her red face. "Imagine that, a secret government base under a major landmark."

"Seems to be a theme, yes."

Kari and Rose fell back a bit, allowing Donna and Lance to get ahead of them. Rose shoved her hands in her pockets and frowned.

"Is it really that obvious?" she asked her friend.

Kari turned and raised an eyebrow. "What? Oh! That. Yeah, it's obvious to everyone but him."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Of course it is."

"Though, it's possible he'll start to notice now."

Rose sighed. "Even better."

The two stood back and watched as the Doctor showed a vial of liquid to Donna before turning a dial on it, causing it and Donna to glow gold. Kari glanced at Rose and could've sworn she saw a glint of gold in her eyes that wasn't a reflection, but it was gone in a blink of the eye. She turned back to watch what was going on in front of her and grinned.

Rose leaned over to her while watching the Doctor going on about Donna being a pressure cooker. "She's gonna slap him again, isn't she?"

Kari just nodded.

SMACK

Both girls giggled briefly before getting a glare from Donna.

"You lot enjoying this?" She looked around at the three, who were now looking very sheepish. "These particles? Are they safe?"

"Yes, of course!" the Doctor exclaimed, trying to be reassuring.

"Doctor, if they're safe, why did your lot get rid of them?"

He closed his eyes and blew a breath out. "Because they're deadly."

Before Donna could respond, a hissing voice came from overhead and the wall in front of them started moving up, revealing a giant hole in the floor and droids with guns. They all stepped up to the hole and looked down.

"Oh, how very Torchwood, drilled by laser. How far down does it go?"

"Center of the Earth," Kari responded from one side of him.

"The Earth girl is clever!" the hissing voice said from around them.

"Yeah, she is, but why the hole?" he asked.

"Dinosaurs?" Donna offered.

"What?"

"Dinosaurs, like in that film 'Under the Earth,'" Donna said with a shrug. "Trying to help."

"That's not helping."

"Rude," Rose mumbled, nudging him with her shoulder.

He cleared his throat. "Right. Yes. Thank you, Donna, but it's not dinosaurs."

"Such a lovely group!" the hissing voice said.

"Only a mad man talks to thin air, and trust me, you don't want to make me mad." The Doctor continued to look around the room for the source of the voice.

Kari tuned out after a while. She looked around them and tried to figure out if there was a way to end this better than he had originally. Granted, his original plan had been fueled by anger and sadness from losing Rose. She jumped a bit when the Empress of the Racnoss showed up and got a jolt of fear and surprise that wasn't hers. She frowned slightly as she tried to figure out why that kept happening. She was pulled out of her thoughts by Rose's voice.

"I don't like Lance," she whispered.

Kari nodded her head. "Yeah, he's a bit of a dick."

"What's down here?" they heard the Doctor ask.

"I can answer that," Kari said as she stepped up.

The Empress hissed. "Ah, the clever Earth girl who thinks she knows all the answers."

Kari shook her head. "No, just most of them." She smirked before turning her attention to the Doctor. "Her children are down there. Millions of them."

He frowned. "What? How?"

"The Racnoss are the center of the Earth. They showed up just as our solar system was forming and the planet formed around their ship."

Realization dawned on him. "Oh! And she needs the Huon particles to wake them!"

"Right you are, doctor-man," the Empress hissed.

"But if you wake millions of Racnoss children, they're going to be starving!" he exclaimed. "They'll devour the planet!"

The Empress laughed. "Such a clever little man!"

He stepped forward, serious. "I can't let you do that, Empress."

"And who are you to think that you can stop me?"

"I'm the Doctor."

"None of your medicines can help you here, doctor-man."

"I'm not a doctor, I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. And I'm giving you a choice: I can find you and your children a planet. Take that offer and end this now or I will end it."

The Empress paled slightly at the mention of the Time Lords, but refused to relent. "Sorry, Time Lord, but I cannot take your offer. The Earth is so full of life! It will be an amazing first meal for my children."

He took a step back and turned toward Kari slightly. "How'd I deal with this before?"

"Poorly." She frowned. "Do you have any of those exploding tree ornaments and perhaps the remote?"

He frowned as he looked directly at her. "Yes. Why?"

She nodded toward the pit. "Explode them in there & collapse the pit."

"And that's better than what I did before?"

"Yup."

"Blimey."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the ornaments and remote, throwing the ornaments down the hole. He looked back up at the Empress.

"One last chance, Empress, take my offer or I collapse this pit."

The Empress laughed and addressed Lance, ignoring the Doctor's offer. "Bring me the bride and shoot the rest."

"Oh, that's just great," Rose mumbled as she eyed the droids aiming guns at them.

The Doctor tossed the vial he'd been holding earlier to Rose. "Take this. Get out of here, all three of you. When you get out to the corridor, turn that and it should pull the TARDIS to you."

"I'm not leaving you," Rose asserted, handing the vial to Kari.

The Doctor shot a quick glance at the droids with guns. "Rose, please, go. I won't be far behind."

"Rose, come on, we need to go," Kari pleaded, grabbing her arm.

Relenting, Rose ran out with Kari and Donna, noticing that some of the droids were following them.

Once in the corridor, Kari turned the knob on the vial, causing the TARDIS to materialize around them.

Kari blew out a breath as she sat down on the jump seat. "And now we wait."

Rose shot her a look. "You wait all you want. I'm going back out there."

Kari sighed. "Be careful."

Rose nodded before running back out into the corridor.

Kari watched her leave before turning her gaze on the bride, who was absently wandering around the console. "Donna? Are you okay?"

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine."

Kari stood up and went over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For all of it: the confusion, Lance, the giant effing spider."

Donna gave a short laugh. "I should've known it was too good to be true. I'm just a temp."

Kari took Donna by the shoulders and turned her to look her in the eye. "Donna, you are so much more than a temp. I know it's hard to believe that, but you are."

Donna gave Kari a half smile. "And just how do you know that?"

"It's part of that very long story."

Donna shook her head and looked at Kari bewildered. "Who are you? You say you're human, but you're even more confusing than the Martian."

Kari laughed. "First off, he's not a Martian. He's not from Mars. Second, I truly am sorry that I can't explain myself right now. One thing about traveling with the Doctor is that life becomes very, very complicated."

They both jumped and turned toward the door at the sound of an explosion. Kari's heart jumped to her throat. She watched the door, willing her friends to come back. After what felt like forever, the Doctor and Rose came bursting through the door and Kari blew out the breath she'd been holding.

The Doctor had them in the Vortex before anyone said anything. He leaned on the console briefly before standing up, a smile that didn't reach his eyes on his face.

"Right, Donna, let's get those particles out of you."

She frowned. "How?"

He scrubbed his hands down his face as he leaned against the console. "That is an excellent question."

Rose & Kari sat on the jump seat while the Doctor figured out what to do. Kari leaned over. "Everything turn out alright?"

Rose shrugged. "As alright as it does with us. He collapsed the pit and she took off." She frowned and looked at Kari. "What happened before?"

Kari took a deep breath. "He flooded the pit instead, and would've flooded the whole sub level if Donna hadn't stopped him."

"Where was I?"

Kari just turned very sad eyes on her friend.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

They turned their attention back to the other two, the Doctor now flying around the console as Donna asked him questions. He rushed over to her and moved her to a spot on the floor near the hatch to the heart of the TARDIS. Kari and Rose's eyes went huge when they realized what he was going to do.

"You're not going to open the hatch, are you?" Rose asked, her voice slightly shaky.

He nodded as he flipped some switches. "Yes, but only a little bit; only enough to pull the Huon particles out of Donna."

They both nodded and ducked their heads to block out the bright light. Once again, out of the corner of her eye, Kari was fairly certain she saw a glint of gold in Rose's eyes. Again, it disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared, causing Kari to wonder if she was seeing things.

Closing the hatch, the Doctor beamed. "There! All gone."

Donna looked down at herself in disbelief. "Are you sure? Am I safe now?"

He nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Yep."

The bride looked around. "Where's that vial thing? I want to make sure."

Kari pulled it out and turned the dial, but she wasn't paying attention to Donna. She watched Rose's eyes to see if the gold came back. It flashed quickly, going away as soon as she turned the dial again.

"There, see, all gone. Safe as houses now." She heard the Doctor say as she mulled over the reasons why Rose's eyes kept doing that.

Donna straightened her dress. "Good. Don't want any more of that glowing business."