Chapter 11 - An end in fire

The Doctor was sitting at one of the desks, using his sonic-screwdriver to get the computer working. Finally the screen flared to life. Hannah was standing behind him and Rose was sitting on the sofa, Tom kneeling down in front of her, inspecting her leg.

"You said you just cut it?" he asked.

"Yeah, when we were crawling through the debris," Rose answered. She tore her eyes away from the Doctor and Hannah and looked at Tom. "What?" she asked.

"Well, because it's almost healed," Tom said. Rose glanced down at her leg. There was a tear in her jeans and blood but Tom was right. The wound was practically healed. "Do you have any idea how that's possible?" Tom asked. Rose shook her head. She had an idea but not one she could share.

"Ah!" The Doctor called. Rose jumped to her feet and hurried over to him, Tom trailing behind. "I found us a route to the surface!" He was pointing at the screen, displaying a map of the building. "We take the stairs up the two floors, then cut through this room, take that corridor, down those stairs, through whatever this area here is to stairwell 4A and hope there won't be anything blocking our way. Simple."

"Yeah, right, simple, nothing to it," Rose muttered, thinking of the Wirrn and who knew what that Annabelle Conn was doing.

The Doctor shot to his feet.

"I saved the schematics to my screwdriver if anything unforeseen should occur." He turned around. "Allons-y." He hurried past them and led them out of the room.

They rushed up the stairs, the Doctor taking two steps in one bound as though he was simply too impatient to do it normally. As they reached the second landing Rose saw what the Doctor had been talking about. There was a big chunk of the stairs missing and the rest looked unsafe to say the least. The Doctor used the sonic to get the door opened.

He walked in carefully, looking around. Hannah followed him. Then Tom and Rose last. The room was pitch-black like everything else. They used the torches on their wrists, shining the beams around. From what Rose could see, the floor, walls and ceiling were all white. They were standing in a sort of corridor. On each side were rooms encased in glass. Rose walked over to one, shining her torch-light inside. It was some sort of lab and in the middle of it was a gurney with a creature strapped to it. Rose shone the light at it. The creature didn't seem to have skin. She could see the muscles, half of its face covered with what looked like bone. Rose realised that she recognised it. She could even name it. Sycorax. She glanced over at the Doctor. He was by another room, looking inside it.

The Sycorax had tried to invade her Earth when he had been new. Just when the Doctor had regenerated. She remembered how scared she'd been. Scared that he was too different to be the Doctor anymore. But he had proved her wrong. He had saved them all and showed her that even though his face was different and even his speech and mannerisms, at the core it was still that same man that she had run away with.

Rose looked back at the Sycorax. It had wires and tubes coming out of its chest. They must have been experimenting on it. Just like Tom had said. Rose didn't have much love for the Sycorax but surely no one deserved that. She turned and walked over to the Doctor where he sat hunkered down in front of the glass of another room. Rose started as she saw what was on the other side of the glass.

It looked like a human woman except her skin was silver. She had horrible burns all down the side of her throat and down her arm and she was blind. Her eyes gouged out. She had her hand pressed against the glass as she lay on the floor. Just like the Sycorax she had wires and tubes attached to her.

The Doctor put his hand against hers on the glass.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm so sorry." The silver woman opened her mouth as though she was screaming except they could hear nothing through the thick glass. But even though they could not hear her they could see the agony through every line of her beautiful, marred face.

"Can't we get in?" Rose asked, her voice unbearably sad. "Can't we help her?"

"These rooms are deadlock-sealed," the Doctor explained, the same sadness in his own voice. "I can't open them."

The woman's mouth went slack, her eyelids dropping down over her empty eye-sockets. Her head fell against the glass and she died while they could do nothing but watch.

Rose reached out and clasped the Doctor's hand, twining her fingers with his. For a moment she felt through the bond all the pain he felt for the dead woman in front of him. For all the creatures hidden away in these rooms, tortured and hurt and alone and she wanted to cry. She gave his hand a squeeze and he returned it instantly. She felt how grateful he was that she was there. That at that moment she didn't abandon him. Rose wanted to tell him that she never would. Like she had promised but she didn't know if that could be true anymore so she said nothing.

The Doctor suddenly bounded up, his hand slipping out of hers.

"Let's go," he growled, not looking at any of them.

They made their way slowly through the room. All the glass-rooms held different creatures. All of them were dead or dying. It must be at least twenty of them. Rose could tell the Doctor was struggling to not start yelling at Rose and the other's, simply to get all his frustration out at not being able to help. Then he stopped dead. He shone his torch at the wall in front of them. Written in big block letter were the words, LAB 7. Which meant there were at least six more of these. The Doctor twirled around. His eyes fixed on Tom.

"You worked down here!" he spat. "You were okay with this were you?!" Tom took a step back.

"I...I..." he stuttered. Rose clasped the Doctor's arm.

"Come on, Doctor," she said. "Yelling at Tom won't help." He turned on her.

"Oh, Tom is it now?" he growled. His scowl was enough to make even the bravest back away but Rose stayed firm.

"Stop it," she told him. "We don't have time for this."

Something made Rose glance past his shoulder and her eyes widened in surprise. "How did that get here?" she asked and shone her torch at a statue that had suddenly appeared behind Hannah. The Doctor twirled around and he froze.

"Hannah," he said, carefully. She looked at him with incomprehension. "Turn around," he said. "Rose keep looking at it. Don't blink. Don't even blink."

"What is it?" Rose asked as Hannah turned around. She stumbled back as she saw the statue that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

"That's that angel thing," Tom exclaimed.

"Everyone, just keep looking at it!" the Doctor ordered.

"What is it!?" Rose repeated with more urgency. It was the statue of an angel, but it looked broken, cracks breaking up the stone.

"A weeping angel," the Doctor explained. "It can only move as long as it's not seen. Keep looking at it and it can't hurt you. But blink and you're dead."

They all began backing away, everyone's eyes fixed on the angel. The Doctor held out his arm, urging Rose back ahead of him, keeping himself between her and the angel. They reached the door out of the room.

"Just keep looking at it," the Doctor told them as he turned around and used the sonic-screwdriver to swiftly unlock the door. He got Rose out of it first. "Come on," he told the other two. They hurried out after Rose, looking at the angel for as long as they could. The Doctor backed out of the room. He threw the door closed and locked it in record time. A bang sounded from the other side and the door shook. The Doctor took a step back. "Run," he said.

They ran through the hallway as the sound of the angel banging against the door chased them. They reached the stairs and ran down them just as the banging stopped. The angel was through it. The Doctor glanced back but did not see it.

"Hurry!" he screamed at them.

Rose skipped the last couple of steps, jumping down and ran for the big metal-door ahead of them. It wasn't locked so she pushed it opened and got hit by a wave of cold air. She turned back to the others and saw the angel on the stairs a hairsbreadth away from the Doctor.

"Angel!" she screamed. She stepped to the side to let the others run past her while she kept her eyes on the angel. It didn't look like it had before. All benevolent. Now its arms were reached out towards them, its nails like claws and its face twisted, razor sharp fangs protruding from its mouth.

The Doctor stopped as he reached Rose and turned around, his eyes on the angel. He clasped Rose's hand and pulled her with him. They backed inside the cold room. Rose reached for the door to push it closed. But just as they were going to slam it shut a stone hand appeared in the opening and stopped them. They had lost sight of the angel only for a second. It moved unbelievably fast.

"Back up, back up," the Doctor urged. "Where are we?" the Doctor asked. Rose looked around while the Doctor kept his eyes on the angel's hand.

"You don't want to know," Rose said as she saw the horror surrounding them.

She had thought it couldn't possibly get any worse after those labs but it could. There were tubes lined up along the walls. Tubes holding creatures that were clearly mixes between different races. She saw one that she thought might be part Wirrn and part human. Splicing, Tom had said. These were all the failed test-subjects, kept fresh for further research in those tanks. Rose fought the impulse to throw up. How could this have been down here and she had never known? How could she have let this happen? She should have looked closer into Torchwood. She shouldn't have been so naive as to think the old regime was dead. How many had suffered at the hands of the Conn sisters? Hundreds? Thousands?

"Rose, tell me!" the Doctor demanded.

"Failed experiments," Rose had to struggle to get the words out. "Preserved in liquid filled tanks."

"How many?" the Doctor asked.

"Fifty? Sixty?" She saw the Doctor's hands clench into fists. "I got the angel," Rose said sadly.

The Doctor tore his eyes away from it and looked around the room. His hearts broke as he looked at the creatures in those tanks. He didn't care what it took. He would burn this place to the ground.

A door suddenly opened at their left. Both the Doctor and Rose turned at the movement on instinct. Annabelle Conn came out carrying a metal briefcase. She stopped dead as she spotted them.

"The angel!" Tom screamed. Rose's head flipped back. The angel was inside the room. "I got it!" Tom called.

"I really didn't think any of you would make it this far," Annabelle Conn was saying. "You really have quite surprised me."

The Doctor rushed towards her. "Your days are numbered!" he screamed at her. But he stopped dead as Annabelle raised a gun, pointing it straight at him.

"Or maybe I should be pointing it at her," Annabelle said and aimed the gun at Rose instead. "I took a look at the security footage from when you murdered my sister completely unprovoked."

"Unprovoked!?" Rose screamed. "She tortured me! She would have killed the Doctor!"

Annabelle leaned her head to the side as she regarded Rose. "What makes you think she would have killed your Doctor? Unless you could read her mind there was no indication she was doing anything but leaving." Rose clamped her mouth shut. "Interesting," Annabelle allowed. "You are an interesting thing Rose Tyler. Maybe my sister was right and you are the key we need."

"You won't get anywhere near her as long as I breathe," the Doctor told her, anger in every line of his face. Annabelle turned the gun back to the Doctor.

"Then perhaps I should just kill you," Annabelle concluded simply, talking about murder as though it was nothing more than grocery shopping.

"No!" Rose called out and got in-between the Doctor and Annabelle.

"Rose, don't," the Doctor warned. Annabelle rolled her eyes at them.

"Honestly," she sighed. "One minute you act as though you can't stand to have him touch you and the next you want to take a bullet for him? Make up your mind."

"It's simple," Rose hissed. "If anyone's gonna shoot him it's gonna be me."

The Doctor clasped Rose's arm, trying to pull her back, but she tore her arm free. Annabelle laughed. It wasn't the giggle of her sister it was a throaty sort of laugh.

"Lovely," Annabelle said, smiling. "But I really must be going now." The smile disappeared from her face. "I don't suppose you would just go with me," Annabelle said, looking at Rose. "Nor that you would let me take her," she said looking at the Doctor.

"No," Rose said.

"Never," the Doctor vowed.

"I guess your test results and blood and tissue samples simply must be enough then." Annabelle indicated the briefcase in her hand.

"You have samples of my blood in there?" Rose asked in disbelief.

"Along with all our other research, yes," Annabelle confirmed. She glanced at her watch. "As I said, I really must be going." She moved towards another door, her gun still pointed at Rose and the Doctor. "And if I were you I'd try my best to be out of here within the next thirty minutes or so," she told them.

"And why is that?" Rose asked. The smile returned to Annabelle's lips.

"Boom," she said and winked at them.

Annabelle was so focused on Rose and the Doctor that she didn't pay attention to Tom and Hannah. Tom jumped her from behind. He desperately reached for her gun, trying to wrestle it out of her grip. Annabelle screamed in frustration and tried to twist free from him. Both Rose and the Doctor ran for them. A shot went off. The loud noise echoed through the large, cold room.

"Get off me!" Annabelle screamed at Tom. But he held on and Annabelle's movements were hindered by her big metal briefcase that she refused to relinquish. Tom knocked her knee out from under her and Annabelle went down. Tom finally managed to wrench the gun away from her.

Annabelle screamed in anger and stumbled to her feet, clutching the briefcase to her chest. "Ignorant, simple minded idiots," she spat at them. "There is so much more at stake than you could ever comprehend!"

Rose's eyes suddenly fell on Hannah. She was lying on the floor, clutching her hands to her stomach. Blood was spilling out between her fingers. That stray bullet. It had hit her. Rose forgot about Annabelle and ran for the girl.

Rose fell to her knees next to her.

"It's alright, Hannah," she said, her voice shaking. "You're gonna be alright." Rose took her head and put it in her lap, thinking she shouldn't have to lie on the cold floor. Rose helped her press down on the wound, trying desperately to stop the bleeding. "You're gonna be alright," Rose repeated. She looked up, glaring at Annabelle Conn who was still backing away from them, the briefcase still clutched to her chest as though her life depended on it.

"You shot her!" Rose screamed at the woman. Annabelle looked over at Rose and Hannah.

"I am sorry about that," Annabelle said. "Human life shouldn't be wasted lightly."

"And what makes human life so much more valuable?!" the Doctor wanted to know.

"Oh, come now Doctor," Annabelle said patiently, just a hint of strain to her voice. "If it is alien it is ours," she said and smiled.

"And what about Clive and Ford!" Rose screamed.

"Casualties are to be expected in order to push the boundaries of science," Annabelle explained simply. She spoke the words as though she had said them a thousand times. Like a mantra.

"Progress is worthless if you have to commit murder to accomplish it," the Doctor countered.

Annabelle sighed. "Semantics."

"I can't decide who is more insane, you or your sister," Rose growled. Annabelle's eyes focused dead on Rose.

"My sister was born to save me," she said, her face betraying no real emotion. "I've been dying since I was six years old. My parents had her only so I could have the perfect donor. Rare blood-types and all that. They were ever so clever." The cold hearted woman smiled at them and Rose felt sick. She clutched Hannah's hand and the girl squeezed it weakly in return.

Dr. Conn might have been a touch insane but she had loved her sister. She had done all these horrible things in order to save her. But why had Annabelle done them? For herself? For progress? Because she simply could?

"You're despicable," Rose said.

"Despicable? No, Rose Tyler I simply know what I want and don't let anyone stop me from fighting tooth and nail to get it." She gave Rosa a mocking smile. "Unlike you."

Rose gaze flickered a moment towards the Doctor when a sudden realisation struck her. Where was the angel? Hannah must have been the one watching it and when she got shot it was free to move. Rose raised her torch, running the beam frantically around the room. It was nowhere to be seen. The Doctor backed away from Annabelle. Back to the others. Something told Rose he knew something the others didn't. Tom was still pointing the gun at Annabelle. The Doctor stopped next to him. He put his hand over the gun, urging him to lower it. Reluctantly Tom did.

"Let her go," he told him. Annabelle narrowed her eyes at them. "Her time's up." Rose lowered her arm with the torch, leaving Annabelle in sudden darkness.

They heard her gasp and the Doctor raised his torch for just a moment. They saw the angel, its arm clasped around Annabelle's throat. Annabelle struggled desperately to breathe.

"I can't die like this," she gasped and the Doctor lowered his torch back down. They heard the horrible sound of bone snapping.

The Doctor scrambled over to Rose and Hannah.

"The angel," Hannah breathed weakly.

"Don't worry about that. It got what it came for," the Doctor said. "It's dying. It won't bother us." The Doctor ran the sonic over Hannah, scanning. Rose caught his eye and he gave her the tiniest shake of his head. Rose swallowed hard.

"It's gonna be okay," Rose told her again. Hannah looked up at her.

"I thought you...you didn't even like me," she said, struggling to get the words out. Rose smiled kindly down at her.

"I was just jealous of you," Rose said softly. Hannah looked at her in confusion. "You were helping the Doctor," Rose explained. "You were doing what I used to do, what I couldn't do. It made me miss it so much more."

"I'm sorry," Hannah breathed but Rose immediately shook her head.

"Don't be sorry," Rose told her. "You were brilliant, ya hear. Brilliant. We would never have made it without you."

"She's right Hannah," the Doctor said softly. "You were absolutely brilliant." Hannah smiled weakly up at them. She turned her gaze on the Doctor.

"You wer... were wrong, you kn... know." And with those words her eyes flutter closed. Her last breath left her lips.

Rose felt tears falling down her cheeks. She hadn't even gotten a chance to know her. But Hannah had been strong. She had made it so far. It wasn't fair. She should have lived. The Doctor put his hand over Rose's while she was still clutching Hannah's.

"Rose," he said softly. "We got to go. You heard Annabelle. This place is going to blow up. We gotta go."

Reluctantly Rose let the Doctor pull her to her feet. The Doctor turned to Tom.

"Run," he said. "I got her. Run." Tom watched Rose for a second than he turned and ran. The Doctor squeezed Rose's blood soaked hand and let his mind bind with hers. Giving her all the strength he could. "Come on," he said. Rose nodded and they ran.

They ran through the broken Torchwood halls, the Doctor clasping Rose's hand in his. Together they ran. They found the door marked Stairwell 4A. They rushed up the stairs, Tom's torchlight ahead of them like a beacon in the darkness.

The first tremor shook the building when they still had two floors left to the surface. Rose stumbled thinking, this was it. They wouldn't make it. The Doctor pulled her back on her feet.

"It's the generators!" he screamed and dragged her with him. "One is set to ignite the next and so on! There's still time!" They ran up the stairs, Rose not caring that her chest was burning with the exertion. There was no stopping. Stopping meant dying. And she would not die in that place.

Another tremor. Bigger than the last one. Suddenly there was nothing but air beneath Rose's feet. She fell as the stairs collapsed under her. She was yanked to a sudden stop as the Doctor clasped her hand. Her legs dangled in the empty air.

"I got you!" the Doctor vowed. Rose looked up at him and saw sweat beading his forehead. She struggled to find some kind of purchase for her feet but there was nothing but air. "Give me your other hand!" the Doctor screamed. Rose threw her arm out towards him and amazingly he caught it.

He dragged her back up. Rose could feel the rest of the stairs crackling beneath them. Another tremor and they were both on their feet running for their lives.

They burst out of the stairwell at ground level.

"This way!" Tom screamed ahead of them. They ran through a corridor, turned left down another and then right. Tom had stopped at a door up ahead. "It's locked!" he screamed back at them. "I don't have my keycard!"

"Move!" the Doctor barked, pulling his screwdriver out of his inner pocket. He shone the blue light at the card-reader, the familiar humming accompanying it.

Then he screamed in frustration and slammed his hand against the wall. "No!"

"Doctor, what's wrong?" Rose asked, her voice desperate. They had to get through that door.

"Deadlock-seal," he growled. "I can't...I can't open it." Both Rose and Tom's faces drained of colour. No. Tom turned and yanked on the door handle, screaming, banging frantically on the door. The Doctor was leaning against the wall, staring up at the ceiling. He lifted his head and his eyes found Rose. She walked over to him. She could see all the agony bleeding out of his beautiful dark eyes.

Tom stopped banging and cursing at the door and slunk defeated to the floor. Another tremor shook the building. Rose took the Doctor's hand. It's alright, she mouthed silently. The Doctor shook his head.

"You need to stop saying that when everything is anything but alright," he said.

"I've said that before?" Rose asked. The Doctor nodded. He reached out his hand and curled a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear. Her hair was coated with dust and she had dirt on her face. She was a mess. The most beautiful mess he'd ever seen.

"When you were dying in my arms," he said. His eyes were so unbelievably sad. "I couldn't understand how you could say that." He took a deep breath, his hand lingering at her cheek. "How could anything be alright if you were leaving me?"

Rose reached up her other hand and curled it around his.

"I'm here now," she said. "I'm not leaving you." The Doctor took her and pulled her into his arms.

He held her to him so fiercely nothing short of Armageddon was going to tear her away from him. Perhaps not even then. Rose wrapped her arms around him.

My Doctor, she thought and if she wasn't mistaken she got a softly whispered,

My Rose from his mind to hers.

She buried her face against his shoulder and waited for it all to end in fire.