A/N

Disclaimer: I love Doctor Who. I also don't own it. I have money, but I don't gain money by writing this. I'm not going to bother explaining the sadness I feel when I wake up each day to find I don't own Doctor Who. I'm also not going to bother mentioning the fact that there is sarcasm present above. You can figure that out by yourself.

So, I'm back again! This chapter I've decided to dedicate to all my reviewers- I've gotten over one hundred! Thanks so much!

And, as promised, here's chapter ten. Read. And enjoy.

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Rose gave a shaky sigh, and restlessly shifted her position against the cold wall, inadvertently gaining her the attention of everyone else in the cell. She stared back at them, not wishing to speak.

As if following Rose's lead, Jake also switched positions. Rose didn't really blame him; the cold concrete of the wall and floor were more than any normal discomfort.

She guessed that she had only been down here, wherever here was, for about ten minutes, give or take, but still; it didn't make the wall any more comfortable.

She wondered briefly whether the Doctor was alright.

Phantom hadn't said anything to them; but the way he'd smirked at them, a horrible, cruel smirk, she could tell that whatever had happened to the Doctor couldn't be good. She briefly wondered if all the Time Lords here were evil. But she dismissed it soon after; if they were all evil, they wouldn't have needed to keep the Officer alive prior to Rose and the Doctor's arrival.

This brought her back to the Officer's death, a place where she really didn't want to dwell. But the memories rushed back anyway.

Blood.

Lots of blood, spreading around the clear hallway like darkness creeping up on light. Flowing around her as she held a hand desperately against his wound. Blood on her hands…

She glanced down at her hands. No blood there; she'd already washed it off. Phantom had allowed her the chance to wash the blood off, for which she was grateful, even if Phantom was the one who had stabbed him. It didn't really help, though; she could still feel it; the sticky sensation of the blood as it hardened on her hands, the feeling of it running across her palms like water. She brushed her hands to get the invisible bloodstain off, although knowing it was futile. She couldn't really help it; the feel of the blood leaving a dirty imprint on her hand, showing the death of the Officer, was more than she could bear. His blood in her hands. His life in her hands.

She wondered how the Doctor could trust her enough to place his life in her hands.

She couldn't save the Officer.

How could the Doctor expect her to help save the world?

"Rose?" a comforting voice intruded her thoughts.

She looked up; Jackie's concerned face was filling her vision.

She swallowed and then moistened her dry lips. "Yeah?"

Jackie scrutinised her carefully. "Are you okay?"

Rose gave a nod, "Yeah," she reassured her Mum, "I'm fine." Mentally, she gave her thoughts a little shake, intending to replace them with something far happier, like the kiss she had shared with the Doctor. And how she'd love to do it again.

She leant back against the wall and sighed. The other occupants of the cell were staring at her, which wasn't really much of a surprise, considering there was nothing else to stare at.

The cell wasn't underground- they'd never been forced to climb stairs or hop into escalators, and there wasn't any hill where they had been shepherded.

Yep. They had been herded like sheep, directed on all sides by Torchwood personnel that Rose both knew and respected. And she still had no idea why they had changed allegiances; her father, reinstated in his role as Torchwood head, had been just as surprised as Rose. Mickey and Jake, a part of the Torchwood elite team, hadn't known either.

Which could mean one of two things; one: the Torchwood elites didn't know anything about this, and they were still on Earth's side, or an option that was far more likely: the Torchwood personnel had been told specifically not to mention anything to anyone who was acquainted to Rose.

The only flaw in the latter theory was that, for the entire Torchwood base to be switched, the plan for the world getting destroyed had to have begun before Rose and the Doctor returned, but after Rose had left this universe. And the only reason for that would be to get to the Doctor. Which meant that capturing Rose, her family and her friends was just a way to prevent the Doctor from getting help.

And that could only bode worse things to come. That Rose and everyone in the cell would not be a part of.

So, all in all, Rose was slightly happy to be locked up. It proved she wasn't about to be killed. And, since the Time Lords, however many were with Phantom, wanted the Doctor, it meant she could still assist him, still be there, if only as a voice.

And Rose took that opportunity to finally inspect everyone else in the prison room.

Pete was leaning against the bars, one hand wrapped comfortingly around Jackie's shoulders. Rose realised with a jolt that she'd forgotten all about Heather; who knew what had happened to her little sister? The comfort Pete was giving Jackie wasn't because Jackie was stuck in some dark cell, but because she had no idea where Heather was.

Hopefully, the maids would continue to look after Heather until her mother returned. They were good maids, but both Rose and Jackie had preferred doing things for themselves; they'd done that their whole lives, so why stop now? It was the first time ever Rose had to hope that the maids were there.

And the first time ever Jackie had to hope the same thing.

Rose locked eyes with her mother, and gave the tiniest of nods. It wasn't much, but it was a comforting gesture, and her mother responded with another nod, grateful, before shifting closer to Pete.

Rose shifted her gaze onto Mickey and Jake, who, ironically enough, had traced out a tic-tac-toe board on the dusty ground, and were having a game, completely ignoring their current predicament.

Rose gave a little snort of amusement in their honour.

Mickey glanced at her just after his turn, saying irritably, "You know, you never did say goodbye to me."

There was a pause as Rose processed this. She didn't say goodbye, but she asked her mother to say bye for her. "And you think of now to say it?" Rose responded, just as edgy.

"Ha!" Jake cried joyously, startling the guards outside the cell, "I won!"

"Rematch," was Mickey's immediate reply, temporarily forgetting about his conversation with Rose. And, probably, Rose reckoned, forgetting about the fact that he was stuck in a cell, surrounded by Torchwood agents who weren't on their side, and the world was currently in danger of vanishing due to a Time Lord weapon that wasn't supposed to exist.

Oh well.

At least he was distracting himself.

She let out another sigh.

At that moment, there was a scuffle, and the sound of something being dragged reached Rose's ears. She stood up quickly as Jorax passed her, dragging a body.

A familiar one.

Jorax dumped the Master's limp form into the centre of the cell next to hers. She couldn't help but stare in shock, even if she knew that Jorax wasn't exactly good. "Jorax," she called out, but he just glared at her and continued walking back the way he came with a flick of his dark brown cloak.

She returned her attention to the Master. His chest was rising and falling, so he was still breathing. He was still alive. Unconscious, maybe? She walked over to the bars that separated both cells and called out, trying to wake the Master up. "Master."

She looked up again as another dragging sound came, but this time it was Phantom. And, being dragged along behind him, was the Doctor, eyes closed, hair splayed out in all directions, and looking for all the world like he was about to start snoring.

"Doctor!" she tried to wake the shape sprawled on the ground.

Phantom gave her an ice-blue glare, and dumped the Doctor roughly into the same cell as the Master. Rose ran to the edge of the bars in anger. "What did you do to them?" she shouted, voice ringing through the room, an echo following it. But she didn't pay any heed; she was focused on Phantom's face, concern for the Doctor and the Master her priority. He responded to her by walking up to her cell, making himself eye level to Rose, and giving her a huge wink and a grin.

Her response was to slap him as hard as she could through her cell bars. It wasn't like her to do that, but she had seen red when Phantom had winked, and it had finally sunk in.

Phantom and Jorax, and possibly Loranos, were bad. And they had betrayed the Master's trust, the Doctor's trust. Her trust. And the Officer's trust.

"Why did you kill the Officer?" she snarled at him, brown eyes narrowed dangerously, as he pulled himself together after her abrupt slap.

He advanced, seeming to tower over her even with bars separating them. "Because he would've stopped us," Phantom snarled back, voice lowered so no one but her could hear.

Rose stared at him closely, looking for any signs of remorse, or guilt, or sadness of the death of the Officer. "You… you don't regret it," she stated flatly, too shocked to sound angry.

Phantom made a swift movement with his hand as if to hit her. Almost instinctively, Rose flinched, and Phantom grinned manically again. "Consider, Rose," he whispered to her, blue eyes gleaming, mouth twitching up in the start of a smile, "I have other priorities."

She glared back at him, despite the fear she felt begin to churn in her stomach.

Phantom winked at her again, turning around and swaggering away.

Rose leant against the bars, spent. She closed her eyes, ignorant of the concerned gazes of those stuck in the same cell. The Officer had died. Phantom had killed him, right in front of her. And he showed no remorse. No guilt. No gut-wrenching churning in the pits of his belly that signified something was wrong. Nothing. Nothing at all.

She shook her head slowly, breaking herself out of her stupor. Glancing back at the Doctor and the Master, she made a vow to be strong- how could she be weak if the world was at stake? If her family's lives were at stake?

She forcefully pushed herself up from the bars, taking steps towards the conjoining cell. There, she sat down, focusing her line of vision at the Doctor and silently awaiting his return to consciousness.

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Hazy. Did he have fluff in his brain? Or maybe chestnuts. Chestnuts in his brain. That would be interesting. He recalled a time where he'd been captured by aliens, had an implant or something like that put in his brain, and it turned out to be a cashew. Chestnuts in his brain? Or was it just foggy? Foggy brain. Chestnut brain. Foggy chestnuts.

He hated chestnuts.

It all came back to him in a rush of memories. Loranos' body… the Master's honesty… the Master wasn't bad… the blue gas… the Master was just unconscious… the TARDIS… destroyed…

He bolted upright, and gave a groan as his head decided to tell him that shooting up was a bad idea. He placed his head on his hands, suddenly unsure if he could keep his head held up without support.

He heard muffled voices, then footsteps as they neared his position. He concentrated on them. Even… rapid pace… perfectly balanced… the Master.

"Doc?" came a lowered voice somewhere to his right.

"Hi," he groaned back.

"Doctor!" another voice cried out happily, one that the Doctor recognised.

"Rose!" he exclaimed back, surprised at how shaky his voice was. He blamed the foggy blue stuff for that.

"The foggy sensation goes away after a while," the Master told him.

He nodded.

More muffled voices, ones that he could recognise.

"Jake!" the Doctor greeted, voice growing stronger. "Mick-Rickety-Mickey!"

"That's me," Mickey responded, a strange note of relief in his voice.

There was another pause as the Doctor shook his head, his face screwed up in annoyance, eyes still tightly closed. "So," the Doctor sniffed the air. "Smells…" he started coughing. "Well, that's a load of dirt, isn't it?" he announced to no one in particular. "Dirt in the air!" he continued. "Dirt! Dusty… so we're in a cell. Or more."

"Two cells," Rose summarised for him. "One with you and the Master, the other with me, Mickey, Jake, Mum and Dad."

"Pete and Jackie?" the Doctor translated, confused. "Jackie? What's Jackie doing here?"

"Oi. The same reason you are," was the irritated reply. "We were captured-"

Another voice intruded. "By us."

The Doctor opened his eyes for the first time since he had woken. He made out the shapes of Jorax and Phantom, standing in front of both cells, and looking completely at ease. Phantom was grinning widely, but Jorax was the one that had spoken.

"Jorax," the Doctor stated. Jorax stared at him, darkened lavender eyes glittering dangerously, and the Doctor remembered with growing anger the vial of liquid Jorax had poured into the TARDIS.

"You destroyed the TARDIS," the Doctor snarled, voice so threatening that Jorax actually took a step back. "You killed the TARDIS."

"What?!" the Master exclaimed, glancing at the Doctor in a mixture of shock and horror.

The Doctor continued to glare at Jorax, but responded to the Master. "He poured in Heliox solution."

The Doctor felt the Master bristle with fury, and he couldn't blame him. The Doctor was probably trembling with rage too.

"Heliox solution?" Rose inquired.

The Doctor answered this as well. "Heliox solution. A way to put old TARDIS' out of their suffering," it was said dangerously low, as the Doctor advanced towards Jorax menacingly. Unfortunately, that action was put off by the fact that the Doctor was behind bars.

"He put the TARDIS to sleep?" it was Mickey speaking this time.

"No," the Master shook his head, and advanced level to the Doctor. "Heliox solution… it was like acid to TARDIS'. Acid that slowly crept in… slowly and painfully tore you apart." By this time, the Master was spitting the words out, glaring at Jorax. "It was banned by the Time Lords, but scientists were still allowed to experiment with it."

Mickey wisely chose not to speak again. From behind the Doctor, and somewhere to his right, he sensed Rose trying to think of something to say, and silently urged her not to. This fight was for Time Lords. To his relief, no one from the joining cell spoke.

"You destroyed the TARDIS," the Doctor started. "You killed Loranos."

"And the Officer," the Master supplied.

The Doctor glanced at him in shock. "The Officer's dead?"

The Master nodded, hints of betrayal obvious in his sad eyes. "Rose told me while you were still out. Phantom stabbed him."

"And I enjoyed it immensely," Phantom told them in Gallifreyan.

"You-" the Master growled furiously, and the Doctor had to hold him back to prevent him from attempting to get to Phantom. The Master struggled for a second, before sagging into the Doctor's grip.

The Doctor released the Master, turning back towards Phantom. "What do you gain by attacking Earth?" he interrogated his captors in Gallifreyan. He wasn't sure if the humans would appreciate, or even understand, the answer.

Jorax spoke up, talking to the Doctor, continuing to speak their language. "The satisfaction of watching your face as your life crumbles around you."

"This is to pay back the Doctor for what he did," Phantom explained as if that justified everything.

The Doctor wasn't really shocked. People tried to hurt him as a form of primitive revenge, but this was completely different. He wasn't the Doctor that they knew. He wasn't the one that saved the lives of those Time Lords; he was the one that had killed all the Time Lords. "I'm not the same Time Lord," the Doctor tried.

Phantom nodded towards Jorax, who reached into his pocket and pressed a device, or, to be more precise, a button on the device. And the bars separating the captors from the captives wavered out of existence. The Doctor stepped forward, using this to his advantage. "I wasn't the one who did whatever's making you look for revenge," he placated.

Phantom punched him, knocking the startled Doctor to the floor and prompting a cacophony of noise from the others that were captive. Phantom glared at the downed form with rage in his blue eyes. "Well, ironically enough, the Doctor from this universe is dead. So, I found someone else. And believe me, you will pay."

The Doctor touched his already healing split lip tenderly. What had this universe's Doctor done that would have been so bad?

"Doc didn't do anything wrong," the Master argued. "He saved our lives!"

This time Phantom backhanded the Master, sending him sprawling over the Doctor and ending with a harsh knock against the wall. "You," Phantom hissed. "You, who practically worshipped the Doctor. Do you know how many times I wished to slash that thought from your head? You hope to one day repay a debt to the Doctor. You are as pathetic as he was. And he still is."

The Master stared at Phantom in shock, and the Doctor could feel the dismay and overwhelming sadness radiating off him. But the Doctor didn't speak, just gave a knowing glance at the Master before resuming his glare at Phantom.

No second chances. That was the kind of man he was. No forgiveness. Except for the one time he forgave the Master from his universe. Could he forgive again, if only to not become like Phantom?

Even if he could, he was in no mood for niceties, or for his normal exuberant speech. He felt the Master begin to glare at the two Time Lords, and knew instinctively that Rose had begun to glare as well.

Which reminded him of the Officer, and his death.

The Officer had died because the Phantom had stabbed him. Had it been in front of Rose and Jackie?

The Doctor glanced at Rose, and immediately recognised the haunted look in her eyes; the same one that he saw if he looked into a mirror. Rassilon… Rose had been there as Phantom stabbed the Officer. As the Officer had died.

And it was the Doctor's fault. If he hadn't come…

He was responsible for this.

And he had to stop it.

"You're going to be stopped," the Doctor vowed. "I'll stop you. I don't care what it takes."

The Master nodded from his position near the Doctor.

Jorax pressed a button again, and the bars wavered back in front of them. He grinned at them. "I doubt it," he breathed.

The Doctor stood, pressing his face against the bars. From the other cell, Rose imitated him.

"So should we start on Britain?" Phantom asked Jorax.

"No!" Jackie gasped.

Jorax stared at her for a second, before turning back to Phantom. "I think we should."

"No!" it was Rose this time.

Phantom mocked them by waving a goodbye. "See you later!" he gave them his custom wink.

The Doctor felt as opposed to saw Rose growing frustrated, and silently offered her his hand. She glanced at him in surprise, but took his hand in her own. And the Doctor suddenly considered how well their hands fit together, even through the bars of a cell.

Jorax swished his cloak, and the two began to walk away.

Rose was the one that stopped them, asking a question that no one had thought of until now. "Why is Torchwood helping you?"

Phantom turned around, facing Rose. "Because they wanted their families to survive."

The guards shuffled awkwardly, looking everywhere but Rose.

"Isn't it great?" Phantom exclaimed happily, grinning as he turned around and sauntered out after Jorax.

The Doctor felt himself bristle, and he tightened his grip on Rose's hand.

Rose squeezed back reassuringly.

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TBC…

A/N

So, you like?

And, again, another cliffie- well, sort of. But it'll come together soon. Now, there is a part in this chapter that does mention something about the Master's and the Doctor's similar but different past (subtle as it is). Can anyone guess what it is?

And, again, not much romance this chapter- but, honestly, the first thing you'd think about when the world is being destroyed most definitely isn't to kiss and pronounce your undying love to whoever you… undyingly love. You'd probably panic first, I'd imagine.

Thanking people time!

Okay, first of all, to all my excellent reviewers: QuiteRightToo, VampMistress, NewDrWhoFan, gaiafreedom21, Iriahm, OfficiallyObsessedwithPyro, Erikstrulove, Kuro the Spork Queen (who reviewed chapter 6 too), Talia-Taylor, CSITribe, M64, x-EmilyTennant-x, tylerfan23, MythStar Black Dragon and The Chibi's Are Stalking Me.

Second, thankyou to the people who put this story on your favourites: Draco167, DramaQueen1133, I'mTheMasterOfWhatever, Iriahm, JeMS7, Kaia-S, Mara Jade Snape, Princess of the Fae, QuiteRightToo, Rose Tyler, Rosie-Jess, Sunny angel, Talia-Taylor, The Chibi's Are Stalking Me, Tigerprime, VampMistress, Wanabee, artistgirl727, awesomepwincess123, captaincatch, caromac, enneisilee, gaia-x-goddess, gaiafreedom21, jimmybeam, sparks733 and tylerfan23.

Third, a huge round of applause and an exclusive offer to meet any of the cast of Doctor Who to the people who added me as a favourite author: Draco167, I'mTheMasterOfWhatever, johnny-B-reading, Mara Jade Snape, QuiteRightToo, Rosie-Jess, Talia-Taylor, The Chibi's Are Stalking Me, tylerfan23, VampMistress and Wanabee.

Thanks also to those who added me to their author alert lists and who added this story to their alerts.

So, I'll update soon, don't you worry!

SnowFox3