Here's part three... finally! I fell soooo guilty that it took so long, but the past few weeks have been HELL and I haven't had as much time to write as I would've liked. That's one reason why the chapter is so short- but it's also because it was hard for me to write such a raw, emotional part of the series. I could practically FEEL their emotions as I planned out and wrote this chapter, but couldn't quite find the right words for the emotional roller coaster I'd strapped them onto. Since the content SURROUNDING the little excerpt was so much different from how I originally had it, it had to be changed drastically as well. I'm still not sure how I feel about that... Anyway, tell me what you think!

The Doctor took a wary glance around the corner and waved for Alice, strolling out into the hallway. She peeked around the spot he had been before with shifting eyes, rolling around the wall and pressing her body against the wall with her arms outstretched. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye. His lips were raised in an amused smirk, his hands tucked into his pockets. She blushed and shrugged, leaving the wall and standing beside him with a self-conscious expression. He stared down at her with laughing brown eyes, and she shrugged. "What? It always looked like fun in the films!" He chuckled to himself. She gave him a look of extreme annoyance and strode off down the hall, her chin raised haughtily. The overall effect was somewhat diminished when she tripped on her heel and stumbled forward. She cursed, kicking the blasphemous objects off of her feet. She looked back at him for a second, not missing his entertained expression, and turned her back on him again.

Eventually they reached a locked door; he stepped in front of her and quickly unlocked it with his sonic screwdriver. Irritated though she was at the moment, the noise still sent the thrill of adventure coursing through her, giving her an urge to forget her cumbersome dress and run, his hand in hers and their throats bubbling with laughter. She cast him a look, drinking in the sight of him crouched over the doorknob with tousled hair and a concentrating expression, then blushed scarlet and returned her eyes to the door as it swung open. The Doctor crowed happily and bounded through the doorway into a dark hall. After a moment of hesitation, she followed him, lightly placing her feet so as not to inadvertently hurt her exposed flesh.

They continued through the dark hall with only the soft blue light of his sonic to guide them until they reached a larger room, at the end of which stood a pair of solitary lifts, rusted and contorted. It took both of them pushing to clear one folded door away from the treasure inside, and by some miracle the lift rested inside. She squealed and clapped her hands, not knowing exactly what was going on but sure that it would bring a great adventure for her. She took a sure step inside, turning to face the Doctor.

He lingered behind for a moment, the sonic screwdriver held up in the air. His face was raised to something above the lifts, and after a quick flick across whatever was there with his eyes, his expression crumpled and he closed his eyes in pain. Alice could only barely make out his face, and couldn't see the horrible emotion plastered on his features, but his hurt seemed to radiate across the thin bond they'd formed in the short time she'd known him. She shuddered, and moved to wrap her arms around his thin frame, but in the short time it'd taken her to shift he'd steeled himself and entered the lift with her, holding the sonic against the lift buttons. He turned to her, a grin pasted on his face though his eyes still held pain, and held out his free hand. She accepted it, entwining her fingers in his and squeezing.

"So, Alice," He said, his voice unwavering despite his obviously unhappy visage. "You may want to hold on tight." She gave his a sideways glance but gripped the rail along the side of the lift with one hand, the other still wrapped in the Doctor's. He held the sonic closer to the button panel; with a screech and a halting movement, they started upwards, gaining speed. They reached a pause, then shot upwards with an unbelievable speed. Eyes streaming uncontrollably, Alice tucked her face into the Doctor's shoulder as he whooped and laughed manically. He counted off numbers as the button panel dinged, until he was well up into the two hundreds and it dinged too quickly for him to follow. Alice shrieked and pressed herself closer to him, her bare legs freezing from the frigid air that whooshed past. He cackled and pressed a kiss against her forehead, surprising her. She tensed, then smiled into his shoulder and clenched her eyes shut.

The lift ground to a halt. Her skirt swirled up for a moment, and she pressed it down, self-consciously aware of the Doctor beside her, though his eyes were all on the lightly glowing button beside the empty doorway. His face was a mixture of conflicting emotions, almost too many for her to even comprehend. He swallowed hard and brushed his fingertips against the button. His chin wavered for a short second, then he set his jaw and sharply turned his head away from the button. Alice glanced at the little knob, curious as to how such a tiny number could nearly bring the Doctor to tears. 500, the button read, with peeling letters that were only barely discernible from the light behind them. She thought it reminded her of something, but when she couldn't remember exactly what she shrugged and slipped a hand into her companion's, forgetting about her curiosity in an instant.

"So, Doctor," She smiled up at him, her tongue peeking out from between her teeth. He jerked his face to her, looking like he'd completely forgotten about her being there with him. If it'd been at any other time, this probably would have pissed her off, but seeing what a delicate state he was in, she ignored his lapse, instead focusing on the wavering, but genuine, grin he directed at her. "Are we going to get off this creaky old lift and go exploring, or what?" She tried to put an annoying amount of tease in her tone, to distract him from whatever dark corners his mind had fled to. It worked; he gave her an amused half-smile, one eyebrow raised, and rolled his chocolaty eyes.

"Wellllll…" He paused, raising a hand to his hair and yanking on his earlobe with a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. He let his silence carry on just long enough to be awkward, then shrugged, breaking out into a blindingly bright beam. "If you put it that way… I suppose we've got to!" She whooped and started to pad out of the lift on her toes, but he snatched the back of her dress, pulling her backwards into him. She yelped and blushed, her neck heating not unpleasantly. Then she had to shove off of his lank form for decency's sake, giving him a (very, very fake) frustrated glare. He raised his hands. "I think I should go first!" She narrowed her eyes, not having to fake this time. "What? Don't give me that look… You never know! There might be booby traps or something!"

She rolled her eyes, exasperated. "This isn't some sci-fi show, Doctor, there aren't-"He ignored her, taking a giant step (though for him it wasn't all that giant) over the threshold of the lift and into the hallway. "-any booby-" She froze mid-sentence, a cry tearing from her lips as a surge of white-hot electricity pulsed from the floor into his legs, sending him sprawling across the ground, unconscious or dead she didn't know. She rushed forward to grab him and smashed into an invisible barrier, crumpling against it. Her head hit it hard enough to split, blood dripping from a tiny cut on her forehead, above her eye. She didn't even notice the slight pain, so focused was she on the Doctor's body. Tears streamed down her face, mixing with crimson blood and falling off her chin onto her dress. She banged her fists against the glass, her arms soon aching from the fruitless effort. A sob escaped her and she let her hands fall into her lap, leaning the uninjured side of her forehead on the glass. Her whole being trembled; she cried like she'd never cried before, though she'd only known this man, this man now slumped on the ground in front of her like a morbid doll, for little over a day. Her eyes were riveted to him, swimming with shed and unshed tears. She punched the invisible wall once more, half-heartedly, then closed her eyes and bowed her head, her golden hair falling in front of her face in curls. She cried for what seemed like hours, until she was gasping for breath. Her heart felt like it'd been wrenched out of her chest and broken into tiny little pieces, tiny little pieces on the other side of the wall that wasn't even there. She slammed her hands onto the ground, cursing everyone and everything, curling her fingers into her palms and pressing until her sorrow had dissipated enough for pain to show through.

But, worst of all, was the pressure.

A terrible, burning pressure had begun to push against her temples, light at first but slowly gaining. At first, she just thought it was a migraine from all of the crying, but it soon turned into a pain like none she'd ever felt before. She couldn't even think clearly for the pain, tears falling anew from her clenched eyes as she desperately projected her thoughts, on accident, towards the nearest living thing in the room: the Doctor.

On the other side of the barrier, he stirred, thoughts that weren't his own bombarding his mind. Please… Oh, please, make it stop! Oh, God, It hurts! Please! It hurts… A wave of unbearable pain swept across the link from which the distressed thoughts came, momentarily crippling his mind. Then the pain was over, just moments after it began, and the same voice was projected into his mind again. Please! Help, oh, please help me! Make it stop! I-I can't- PLEASE! DOCTOR! DOCTOR, PLEASE! He started, pushing his arms under his body and pushing himself up with shaking hands. He looked around, but his vision was too blurry and spotted for him to see much more than vague colors. He blinked and pushed himself onto his hands and knees. Doctor… Doctor… Doctor! Please! Doctor, TARDIS, Mum, SOMEONE! Please help me, it hurts! His mind reached out to the plaintive voice, gently sending a comforting feeling across the thin link. I'm coming. He said to the consciousness. It's all right, the Doctor is here. The frantic thoughts from the other being slowly trickled to a stop, the link dwindling. Before he was left completely alone in his head, one last whimpering call reached him: Doctor… I'm sorry. Then the voice was gone. The voice he knew… The voice of a girl just a foot away from him.

He whipped his head up, staring wide-eyed across the floor to the lift he'd practically just stepped out of, though he had no idea how long he'd been unconscious and could well have been there for days. Alice was curled up against an invisible wall, sweat standing out against her pale- even for her- skin, her body shaking uncontrollably. Her hands were curled into tight fists, and when her trembling caused her hand to shift slightly he could see that her nails had left little pink crescents in her palm. Her bottom lip was pulled into her mouth, savaged by her clenched teeth. Her eyes- her beautiful, full green eyes that made his hearts melt and had had him twisted around her little finger in an instant- were squeezed shut, salty tears streaming from them and down her quivering face. He gasped and tried to jump up and to her aide; his feet couldn't quite hold him and he crumpled to the floor, unable to reach out and pull her into his arms like he wanted to. Oh, how he wanted to. He wanted to clutch her to him and comfort her and never let go, never let anyone hurt his precious Alice Tyler ever again. She was too fragile, too innocent, too beautiful… He never should have asked her to join him on the TARDIS, his life was too dangerous for such a delicate creature. He regretted it with all of his might, wished someone had been there to stop him from ruining her like he'd ruined everyone else.

Then a tortured scream escaped the bubble Alice was confined in, shattering his thoughts. His hearts ached, his inner voice yelling for him to help her, and he dragged himself to the invisible wall. He pressed a hand towards her, closing his eyes so he wouldn't have to see his fingers fall short of their mark.

Instead he felt warmth.

His eyes flew open, gasping as his hand closed around her arm. Without warning, she slumped over onto his lap with a whumph, her eyes fluttering. He was briefly reminded of earlier, when the drug had knocked her out, then concern pushed the thought away and he pulled her closer. He folded his legs underneath himself and slowly pushed himself onto his feet, his legs threatening to fall out from under him again before he regained his balance and shifted Alice in his arms, taking a step further into the hallway.

oOo

The Doctor was reminded yet again of the last two times he'd come to this cursed place as he peeked around a corner. The rows of computers were gone, replaced with reddish stone spikes that reached up from the ground or down from the tall ceiling. He couldn't quite see the raised platform he remembered, but that didn't matter to him anyway, riveted as he was on the decorations.

Floor to ceiling murals spotted the walls, lit with specifically placed lights. The first held his gaze for the longest- it was Rose Tyler swinging on a wire towards a plastic dummy. His past self, his ninth reincarnation, stared up at her with surprise written in his icy blue eyes. Her face was twisted into an expression of extreme concentration and something else, something bright and alive. It was the same look Alice had had on her face when they'd ran from the dining hall.

He barely skimmed over the next few, passing over his past with Rose like he was simply comparing unimportant items at an auction, when in reality the scenes pinched at his soul. He paused when he got to the one of him regenerating into the body he wore now, staring with watery eyes at Rose's confused and slightly scared face. He glanced down at the unconscious girl in his arms, comparing her to Rose, and mentally filed away the similarities before returning his gaze to the pictures.

He reached a picture of Rose crying on a beach in front of a shimmery figured of him, and half expected the pictures to end, or to show his last adventure with the redhead, Donna. Instead, he was surprised that the pictures showed a more detailed, more complex story. His eyes flicked across the pictures and his mouth fell open. What?!

He heard a cackling laugh behind him and spun around, clutching Alice to his chest. "Kitten," He growled, glaring at the tiny child. "How could you?"

Did you like? Sorry if the crazy-wild emotions were too much for you, but it had to happen for the rest of the series to even remotely make sense! R & R!

~CTST