Rose shifted against the bars, resting her elbow and then her forehead against the one she had most recently been filing. She was so tired. And she was worried about the Doctor and Mickey. Unsure of exactly how much time had passed, Rose couldn't know for sure, but she could only think of one time when she thought they had been separated this long before.
They'd been on another planet on the cusp of a civil war and the Doctor had needed a part he said could only be obtained there. He'd meant to land them forty years in the future during a time of unrivalled peace but, as usually happened with them, he'd missed. A bit. He tried to mask his concern but they desperately needed...whatever it was they had come for...so he'd set out to get it.
The Doctor had ordered her to stay in the TARDIS and to, under no circumstance, leave for any reason. He'd even left Jack there with her and threatened to find a way to send the TARDIS into the vortex if she didn't swear to him that she wouldn't leave.
After four day/night cycles on the TARDIS without his return, Jack had set out after him. The Captain made her swear the same things the Doctor had and then he'd kissed her full on the mouth, laughing and sauntering toward the doors of the TARDIS telling her the kiss was something for her to dream about while he was gone. Rose had grabbed him before he made it out and reminded him that it was going to turn into a nightmare for him if she told the Doctor when he got back. Jack had just laughed merrily and said he'd just invite the Doctor in.
When several hours passed and Jack didn't return, Rose had had enough. She packed her bag with a few supplies and strode purposefully to the TARDIS doors, intent on rescuing both of their silly arses, only to find...the Doctor had managed to make the TARDIS lock her in. She banged on the doors, pleaded, cajoled and ranted but nothing could convince the Timeship to let her out. In retaliation, with a tear-soaked face, Rose camped herself out in the console room. She wouldn't have eaten or slept, nearly sick from worry, except that the TARDIS was rather insistent. Finally, after several days (she lost count in her frantic haze), the door to the console room had banged open and in swept a dirty, scruffy, tired-looking Time Lord and an equally disheveled Captain. Without a single word, the Doctor had strode up the ramp to where she was and grabbed her closely in a fierce embrace. She'd felt the desperate tattoo of his rapidly beating hearts against her and felt the raspy stubble of his unshaven face against her cheek and neck as he whispered frantic, jangling alien words against her skin. And then he'd just as abruptly let go and stormed off into the bowels of the Ship, emerging an hour later freshly showered, clothed and shaved and babbling about taking her to Japan.
Lost in her memories, Rose started as a large hand came in contact with hers, easing the file from her fingers. She blinked and then smiled up (and up and up) at Albeorn's enormous form looming over her. He helped her ease down to sit with her back against the bars and took over filing, his presence large and warm beside her. Eventually, he came to sit down beside her and the two of them silently watched Waltha and the prince in the corner. Waltha was sitting on the edge of the bed holding the man's hand, her eyes closed and her brow furrowed in concentration. She'd explained to Rose one night that she was helping to focus his emotions, pushing out the negative ones and replacing them with the growing hope of the Biliniskis around them. Each cell surrounding them, filled with the previously forlorn Empaths, now had bright-eyed, if a bit battered, men and women readying to fight to take their planet back.
Rose and Albeorn sat together silently watching the pair across the cell. "What's it like?" Rose asked quietly, her eyes still locked on the prince and his caretaker. Several of the other Bilaniskis around them, including Amicus, were also sitting very still and murmuring the same words as Waltha to help her. She heard Albeorn shift beside her slightly and moved her eyes up to meet his. His head was inclined gently to the side in a way Rose had come to understand was permission to continue her question. "Being an Empath, I mean," she clarified. "Sharing all those feelings."
To her surprise, his large, luminous eyes flashed with something like hurt and something else entirely like longing before he snapped his head forward and stared down at his hands.
After a long moment, his shoulders rose and fell incrementally in an approximation of a shrug. Staring straight ahead again, he shook his head once and then went back to remaining perfectly still.
Understanding flooded through Rose and she inhaled sharply when she realized what he meant. He was the prince's Protector. He had to be able to hurt someone to keep his prince from harm which meant...he couldn't be Empathetic himself. No wonder he didn't speak.
"I'm sorry," Rose said, quietly and, across the room, the prince stirred as the sincerity of her concern radiated through the dungeon. "That must be very difficult for you."
Albeorn moved to look at her once again, his eyes shining at her in gratitude and he nodded once in acceptance, when Rose spoke again, "Humans aren't Empathetic, at least not in the way your people are, but we still share and support each other. Usually like this," she finished, reaching out and entwining her fingers with hers. They sat there awhile, silent and unmoving, a small, battered pixy and an enormous, lonely giant just sharing in one small moment of peace and connection in what had become a cruel world.
Suddenly, above them, the sound of scuffling broke out. Rose struggled to her feet, assisted by Albeorn, who immediately moved to his place beside the prince but watched her with concerned eyes. They could hear muffled shouting and the sound of explosions high above and Rose's heart surged with hope. It was time! The Doctor was here! He would save her, he would save all of these people!
And then she'd slap him.
But first, he was here!
At that moment, a wild-eyed Rathbourne came into view at the top of the stairs to the dungeon. "Bring me the girl!" he screamed and four red-coated men sprung forward to drag her out. Both Amicus and Albeorn moved forward against their bars, Amicus shouting for her but Rose was already out of sight.
Everything around her was chaos, loud explosions and shouting men, when Rathbourne turned and took her by the shoulders, shaking her. "He's taken her! He's taken her!" he shouted, before backhanding her across the mouth. Rose tasted iron and oh, her shoulder should not be shaken like that. But it didn't matter. The Doctor was here, the Doctor would save her...
And then, everything went silent. People still moved around her, still shook her, still shouted, but it was as if the world around her was moving in slow motion, as if someone had turned the universe on mute. Rose fell to her knees of her own accord and swung her head wildly to the side, not seeing the chaos around her.
Because the silence wasn't around her. It was in her head.
The TARDIS.
The TARDIS was gone.
Several hours earlier
"What is the matter, my lord? You seem...distracted," Reinette purred, coming up behind Rathbourne and winding her arms around him.
He made a frustrated noise and stepped from her grip but she followed him. "You can tell me," she tried again, this time wending her arms a bit lower.
"It's the girl," he growled, throwing his hands up in frustration.
Reinette fought the urge to roll her eyes. What was it with men being fixated on the chav? "What about her, my lord?" she asked, sweetness back in her voice and innocent curiosity replacing the scorn in her eyes as he turned back to her.
"I cannot break her. I have take this entire planet, turned its people useless, crippled its prince and yet that stupid, simple girl defies me!" he roared, picking up a nearby chair and tossing it across the room.
Reinette regarded him coolly a moment. "Perhaps, my liege, you have simply not been using the correct things against her," she said. "Every woman has a breaking point and something that will push her over it...you simply must find the correct impetus."
He turned slowly to face her, dropping the lamp he had been going to toss. "And I suppose you, my devious little minx, you know what hers will be?" he purred, his voice dropping seductively, moving to pull Reinette against him.
"The Time Lord, my liege," she responded. "And..." she paused, waiting for him to pull his head off her neck to look her in the eye.
"And?" he asked.
"Me," she finished with an evil smile, pulling him down for a deep kiss.
Later, as she walked her long fingers across his bare torso, he spoke up once again. "What do you suggest we do?"
"Convince her she means nothing to him. You must make her believe he has come and left again, saving only me," she replied. Oh, this was working out far better than she'd ever planned.
"How? Her blind faith in him is complete. She would not believe my words."
"Then we must find some other way to make her believe," Reinette replied. "Did you not say that the box communicates with minds somehow?" she asked.
"Legend states that the TARDIS communicated telepathically with their pilot and crew members, yes," Rathbourne replied. And there had been a spike of untraceable telepathic energy picked up by his Thought Modulator when the TARDIS had been brought to the palace.
"She has been onboard much longer than I and I have seen her stroking the walls. Surely the girl communicates with the machine," Reinette deduced. "Make her believe the box is gone...the Time Lord with it."
"What of the other man?" Rathbourne asked, his eyes lighting up. Blocking the telepathic signal would be easy and there were several of his more irritating servants he wouldn't mind 'losing' in a simulated battle with a nonexistent threat.
Reinette gave an arrogant sigh and studied her nails. "The dark boy follows her like a pup. She would never believe he would leave her...tell her he is dead."
"You are brilliant," Rathbourne said, leaning down and kissing her fiercely again. "I shall go make it happen now."
"I'll be behind the observation glass watching," Reinette said, stretching and leaning back against the copious pillows of his bed.
Rose raised weary eyes to meet the black pits of her tormentor. Everything hurt. Her ribs and chest hurt, her head and back hurt, her arm and collarbone hurt. Her world had been this haze of pain for days and days and now Mickey was dead and even the TARDIS was gone. Her comforting song, her gentle presence, her healing touch...all gone. And there was only one way that could have happened. She didn't think the TARDIS would have let him leave her but he'd forced them here, hadn't he? Forced Her into a landing sequence against Her will. She just had to face it. He had left her. Taken That Woman and left her. Had he thought she was dead? Hadn't he promised her mother he'd bring her home? Had he given up on her? Forgotten her?
She couldn't run, couldn't escape, couldn't get away from this cesspit of a planet with its pain and its suffering. She was battered and broken and it hurt. What more did she have to fight for?
"Your precious Doctor is gone, taken my golden angel and fled. Is he coming back for you?" Rathborne asked, malicious joy lighting every single one of his words, wielded like knives into her soul. He could practically taste his victory. And it was delicious.
Her eyes battered closed before she forced them to open once more. "No," Rose answered softly, so softly, the words pulled from her very soul.
Rathborne's eyes danced with glee as the monitor in front of him lit green. He had sworn that he would break her, this wild, willful woman who had defied him. One more...one more question and he would crush her.
"And what do mean to him?" he queried, using Reinette's words, knowing they would finish off the girl, allowing his eyes to dart momentarily to the one-sided glass wall where he knew the courtesan was watching his victory.
Rose stared unseeing in front of her: not seeing Rathborne or the monitors or the white, white room any longer. Instead, her pained and tortured mind saw closed elevator doors, damp cells and broken mirrors. She pictured turned backs, cold shoulders and hands grasped with fingers that weren't hers. She'd overstayed her welcome. He had been trying to tell her for months. He had moved on. She was...
"Nothing," came the reply and then Rose closed her eyes and sank into blissful blackness.
In their cells deep below the white room, the Bilanskis all cried out in horror as the brave incendiary of their raging Hope-fire blinked out. In a small, tattered bed in the corner of a shared cell, a long-unconscious man suddenly sat up and, feeling his people and planet cry out with more despair than had ever been felt before, Prince Fortis of Bilanisky awoke.
"Rose," he breathed, staggering to his feet to grasp the bars at the edge of his cell in tandem with Waltha and Albeorn.
Every Bilanski, poised for action at their prince's command, moved to mirror his position against the bars of their cells as the dreaded sound of Muro's heavy footsteps echoed down the stone staircase followed by what could only be a body.
Fortis' fists clenched around the bars and he looked to his right to see Albeorn mimicking his position as Muro finally came into view pulling Rose's inert body by what they both knew was her bad arm. Rose did not seem to be responding in any way. Fortis and the others could feel the deep waves of hopelessness and defeat radiating from her, not to mention the diminishing signs of biological life. Their brave Wolf, source of their hope, source of their resistance, had given up.
"Look at your precious saviour now!" Muro leered, circling Rose and landing a well-placed, heavy kick to her ribs, which made a sickening snapping sound. She made no noise or movement. "Not so tough now, is she?" he snarled, lashing out again with a blow that connected with yet another nauseating crunch in the same spot. "Give up, you worthless, simpering fools. You'll never win. And now, I think it's time for my reward," he finished, his eyes taking on a crazed light. To the horror of every Bilaniski in the dungeon, his filthy hands went to the clasp on his trousers and he used his foot to kick Rose over onto her back.
An outraged cry went up from them all, helplessly rattling and shaking their bars. They couldn't get to her. This precious girl who had given them back their lives needed someone, anyone and none of them could get to her. Then, a voice, which none of them had ever heard before, rang out loud over the top of the din.
"No," it stated, calmly but fiercely, in a tone that left nothing to question.
Every eye, including Muro's turned to face the large, strong, previously-silent man who had spoken it.
"The great giant speaks!" cackled Muro, dancing closer to his bars, his trousers now undone. "But it doesn't mean anything. You can't stop me! Do you know what I'm going to do, Protector?" he spat out that last word mockingly. "I'm going to fuck her. I'm going to hurt her. Then I'm going to kill her. Right in front of you. And there's nothing you can do about it. What do you have to say to that, big man?" he mocked, laughing cruelly.
"No," repeated Albeorn, his voice the same eerie calm it had been before. Then, before anyone, especially Muro, had even registered his movement, the huge man grasped the bars he'd watched Rose so carefully file the past few weeks and pulled them apart like toothpicks. Muro just had time to switch his expression from mocking cruelty to desperate fear before a pair of large, sure hands snapped his neck just as easily as they had the bars.
"No," he said once more, dropping the man's body to the side before bending down to Rose's unmoving form.
Waltha and Fortis tentatively stepped from the cell and all eyes were on the pair in the center of the room, on the small, broken body in the arms of their Prince's Protector. They could all sense the faint flickering of life in her, barely there at all. One small gust and she would be gone. Waltha removed Muro's keys from his belt and quickly began to unlock the cells of the other prisoners, who gathered around the Prince in the center of the room, standing on the spot where they had so often been beaten down by the dead man at his feet.
"Today we rise up to take back our kingdom," Fortis said, quietly, his voice infused with strength and barely restrained fury. His emotions surged through the gathered crowd, who murmured in agreement. "Rathbourne's grasp on our people has grown tenuous. Thanks to her," he nodded to Rose, still and pale in Albeorn's arms. "So today, we fight. For Hope!" he yelled and they responded, repeating his words. "For the future!"
"For Rose," came the deep unfamiliar voice none of them had ever expected to hear in the first place, carefully cradling the human's delicate form in his arms.
"For Rose!" the crowd echoed, surging forward up the steps of the dungeon just as, just a few floors above them, all hell broke loose of its own accord.
Or well, of the Doctor's accord, anyway.