A/N: Probably got about two or three chapters left on this, I'm not sure as yet. This story is very organic and keeps growing out of the plans I set down. I may make this a three part series but I'm not sure if I can yet. I'll let you all know. If you have any ideas for a third part then I'm always open to suggestions.
I own nothing as usual, especially the red bull featured further on which is from the Last Unicorn.
Science Fiction: Double Feature
Rose felt her eyes drifting as she lay back against the bow of the small boat they had found but forced herself to stay awake, finding herself concentrating on the Doctor as he stirred them through the water, perched on the other end of the boat. She heard him singing to himself and giggled at the subject matter.
"What's the matter?" he said, looking up at her.
"You, singing Rocky Horror while we're floating on a river to good knows where in a world were anything can happen," giggled Rose, "You'd better be careful or you'll end up dressed head to foot in fishnets. Can just imagine you in six inch stilettos!"
"Well I've definitely got the legs for it," said the Doctor, stretching out his long legs before him and examining his shoes as if he was admiring said stilettos, "Anyway, whose to say I've never been head to foot in fishnets before?"
"That's not an image I really want in my head," said Rose, "Although, I could imagine you dressed up like Rocky, gold underwear, very fetching."
"Imagining is all you'll be doing," said the Doctor, "Underwear that tight just isn't natural."
"Underwear at all seems unnatural to you," said Rose trailing her hand in the water and then thinking better of it as her fingers came out covered in black. She quickly wiped them off on her top before looking back up at the Doctor.
"Any idea how much further?" she asked.
"About two feet," said the Doctor, "Sit up."
Rose did as commanded and was pleased she had done so when the boat settled softly against a grimy grate that would have left her hair less than savoury if she had leant against it. The corridor hadn't much changed since they'd started their journey, large and cavernous with nothing but a thin path either side of the water. Now however a small jetty had appeared to their left, leading into a tight dark passage.
The Doctor climbed out of the boat and turned to offer Rose his hand. She took it and pulled herself over the edge and onto dry land, looking down in alarm as the boat faded from view the second she left it.
"I'll never get used to this place," she said, "Guess we're swimming back."
"We'll see," said the Doctor, "Right, nice tight dark passageway, wanna risk it?"
"No other choice," said Rose, "Its that or the water and I don't fancy getting soaked again. I'm barely dried out as it is. You can go first though."
"Nice to know you care about me so much," said the Doctor, squeezing himself into the small gap, having to move sideways to get through, "Not much space."
"I don't think I'll get through there," said Rose.
"You're plenty skinny enough," said the Doctor, disappearing from view as he ventured further into the blackness, "And it gets a bit looser the more you move in."
"Okay," said Rose, following his lead and wishing she'd been one of the girls at school who had never got out of their training bra, "At least you don't have boobs and hips, this was clearly not designed for a woman."
"Trust me if I had them you wouldn't be with me and we can't have that," came the Doctor's voice, "And they look so much better on you. Ah here we go freedom! Its only a few feet wide Rose."
Rose struggled through the small gap, the Doctor's figure once again apparent the other side, "I'm going on SlimFast when we get home," she said, wriggling to get through the small gap, "No more chips and that's final."
"Who'd I share mine with if you gave up chips, chips are our thing," said the Doctor, examining the new corridor they had entered, "Besides I don't want you to lose weight, I like something to grab onto."
"Doctor!"
"What? I mean it, you're lovely the way you are. I hate all those size zero creatures in your magazines. I might not speak for all men but personally I do not want to be making love to a skeleton, borders far to close to necrophilia for my liking. I like your curves, especially where your waist meets your hip, you have absolutely no idea what…"
"Doctor!"
"Hmm?" said the Doctor turning and seeing Rose still struggling to free herself from the passageway.
"Sweet as your ramblings are I wouldn't mind a little help freeing those favourite curves of yours before I'm rendered unable to ever have children," said Rose, reaching her one free arm out to grab him and pull him nearer. The Doctor helped her release herself from the close space with little discomfort on her part. As soon as she was free he returned silently to his studies of the new corridor. Rose frowned at the change of him, his manner being so talkative a moment before.
"You alright? Doctor?"
"Do you want children?"
"Huh?"
"Children, do you want them?"
Rose rolled her eyes and came to his side, taking his hand before leaning back against the nearby wall and fixing his gaze, "That was just a figure of speech Doctor," she said softly, "We're hardly the most likely couple to have children now are we? I'm not going to get all broody on you and demand you impregnate me with you alien babies. Don't get all quiet about it."
"Sorry, its just…"
"You need to give up worrying that I'm going to get all domestic on you," said Rose, "I'm in love with you and that includes the life you lead. You've been a Dad, you've been a Grandad, to all intents you've earned your stripes in the family department. Now you get to have a little fun and that means you and me, racing around the universe without a care in the world and being able to do whatever we please in whatever room on the TARDIS we choose."
"You know we still haven't properly tried the Control Room," said the Doctor.
"Precisely," said Rose, "and if we had some noisy little half Time Lord baby running round we'd never get the chance so stop worrying over silly things like that and let's get back to said Control Room. Now if you haven't been too busy to notice, doesn't this corridor seem familiar to you."
The Doctor looked around the corridor, much smaller than the one they're come from and going straight forward with low lighting along the walls, "Corridor…nothing particular about it."
"Imagine that you're looking at it through a computer screen."
The Doctor squinted and then his eyes brightened as realisation hit him, "The Mantodean strong hold you got zapped into that time. It does look a bit like that doesn't it. Must be one of us manifesting it, you been thinking about this recently at all."
"Not really," said Rose, "but I suppose its always there in my mind, was pretty scary, not being in control of my own body, especially when the person in charge of it was you."
"Oi! I did a rather fine job I think you'll find!" said the Doctor taking a few tentative steps along the corridor, "We'd better keep our eyes open, from what I remember from the game pits and such open up without warning and I don't reckon we'll get such a happy landing this time."
"I don't get any of this," said Rose as they made their way along the pathway, her hand held securely in the Doctor's, "Why doesn't this whatever it is just manifest some nasty big baddy to finish us off and be done with it? Why all this sculking about, making us fight, showing us alternate realities to make us forget each other? Why doesn't it just kill us?"
"I don't think it can," said the Doctor, "It relies on us to feed it images. I've currently shut off as many bad memories as I can so hopefully we'll avoid some of the more unsavoury nasties of the galaxy for a while. I'm afraid I can't teach you to do the same. Just try to think nice thoughts."
Rose smiled at his back as several nice thoughts she couldn't possibly voice outside their bedroom came to mind. Her thoughts were cut off however as she heard the sound of insect like feet not too far ahead. She walked into the Doctor's back as he stopped suddenly, straining his ears for the sound once again. His hands sought Rose's out, pulling her close against his back and moving backwards down the corridor. The sound echoed behind them as well and Rose felt herself turned quickly, the Doctor desperately trying to keep her from the oncoming threat. The sounds grew louder and louder but nothing came into view in the dim corridor. The Doctor began once again to walk them forward, the sonic screwdriver in his grip as if it would prove a useful weapon.
"When I tell you to drop you hit the floor like your life depended on it?" he whispered over his shoulder to Rose, "Drop and stay there you understand and don't move a muscle."
"Okay," said Rose, nodding her affirmative even though he couldn't see her. She kept close to the Doctor's back, her hands in a vice like grip around the material of his jacket. The sounds of giant mandibles opening and closing still echoed around them, some even accompanied by the swish of air over their heads as the breeze stirred up their hair. Rose could feel the Doctor's body coil beneath her hands, his muscles tensing as they always did when he was preparing to face an enemy.
A flash of putrid green came into view before she heard the Doctor shout the command to drop and she obeyed. She stayed as still as possible as she heard the sharp snick of claws high above her. She dared not open her eyes until she felt something grip the back of her T-Shirt and drag her bodily across the floor. She fell unceremoniously into a pinstripe clad chest and a plimsolled foot missed her leg by millimetres as the Doctor kicked out. She was pulled flush against him as she heard the heavy thud of a door closing and then nothing but his heavy breathing, his arms holding her close to his chest and allowing her to feel his fast paced heart rates.
Finding the courage to open her eyes she turned to the scene behind her. The way they had just come was blocked in the most part by a heavy wooden door that had appeared out of nowhere. It was what lingered at the base though that forced Rose to choke back the rising bile in her throat. She recognised the praying mantis form of the Mantodean but it was broken as a twig, crushed beneath the door. A sticky blue substance flowed from where it had been hit and it twitched in the final throes of life before falling still. Wrenching her eyes from the scene they fell upon the Doctor's foot, still resting lightly against the barely perceptible button that had released the door.
She felt his arms tighten slightly around her middle, "You alright?" he said against her hair.
"Yeah, bit close though," said Rose letting her head fall back against his chest, "Thought I was gonna end up in bits."
"That's why I told you to get on the floor, he wouldn't see you down there with all his attention on me. Decided I didn't have much of a chance to fight him off either so I imagined the door and the button and brought it down on him," said the Doctor, "Sorry if I was a bit rough with you."
"Better that than being mantis chow. You alright?"
"Perfect as usual," said the Doctor helping her to stand and brushing off his own clothes, "Although my clothes have seen better days."
They continued their path, nothing more jumping out on them from the dimly lit corners. Again boredom began to set in, the journey long and tedious. Rose began hopping from stone to stone, avoiding the cracks as she hummed an old children's nursery rhyme to herself. It wasn't long before the Doctor joined in two, the pair of them trying to over balance each other as they continued side by side. Rose wobbled precariously as the shove she had tried to inflict on the Doctor back fired on her and caused her to rely on the wall to hold her up. She felt the wall give beneath her hand and gave out a shriek of alarm as she toppled onto her side, only just managing to roll out of the way of the four foot spikes that had shot up from the ground. She heard the Doctor's cry of alarm and rushed to her feet, seeing him grasping his arm, blood seeping between his fingers through his sleeve.
"How very Indiana Jones," he managed to hiss through clenched teeth, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and swiftly bandaging his arm.
"Are you alright?" asked Rose, the spikes blocking her path to him.
"Its just a scratch," he said, "I'll be alright, problem is how do we get you across this thing? By the way before you ask I think this is my manifestation, I remember encountering a trap similar to this a few hundred years ago. Ended up pretty beat up there to and this corridor reminded me of it."
"Well glad to know its not a product of Mickey's horror movie fixations," said Rose, "I really don't want to encountering Freddie Kruegar while I'm down here."
"Oh you won't, Freddie was tried and convicted on his home world years ago. He's locked up in the back of beyond with no way of reaching Earth."
Rose's mouth fell open in shock at the Doctor's serious tone as he examined the metal spikes. She wished she could get passed them and smack him as he broke into peals of laughter. She folded her arms across her chest and huffed.
"You're really not funny," she said, feeling her own smile quirk at her lips.
"You really need to stop being so gullible," said the Doctor sobering slightly, "I can't see a release mechanisms for these things and there's no way I can lift you over, they're too high."
"Well I'm not just going to stand here," said Rose, "We'll have to find some way to break them down."
"They're solid steel and at least four inches thick," said the Doctor, "It would take more juice than the sonic screwdriver has possibly got to get through even half of them. Don't suppose…"
"Suppose what?"
"You could do your bird thing again, fly over."
"I can try," said Rose, shutting her eyes the way she had seen the Doctor do before and wishing with everything she had. It only took her a moment to release nothing was happening, "I have a feeling it only works when I'm in trouble. Its like I can feel it wanting to change me whenever something threatens me."
"Well I really don't want to have to wait for something to come and decide to threaten you," said the Doctor, "And I have a feeling we're both limited to the forms we change into and wolf or no, I can't hop you over that thing, plus you seem a lot better at changing back. I don't want to get stuck again."
Rose sighed, reaching a hand over the high spikes to ruffle his hair, "We'll think of something, we'll…"
"What is it Rose?"
Rose was silent as she shut her eyes and turned to the corridor behind her. The Doctor watched on in alarm as the blue haze of a pre-manifestation materialised down the corridor before forming into the shape of a giant, fiery bull. It turned its attentions to Rose and snorted violently, scraping a foot against the floor and lowering its giant horns. Rose opened her eyes and gave a squeak of alarm at the sight, at once terrified and revelling in the fear it instilled in her.
"Rose this isn't good!" cried the Doctor, "You need to get out of there fast."
"I'm not scared enough yet!" said Rose over her shoulder, keeping her eyes on the bull waiting to charge, "But I will be, this thing always terrified me when I was a kid."
"And how by Rassilon do you come across a fiery bull in Peckham?!"
"I watched it on a cartoon when I was five," said Rose as the bull began to advance on her slowly, "I can't remember what it was called, something about Unicorns and wizards but the bull seriously screwed me up. Even have nightmares about it now."
"Jesus! Daleks, Cybermen, Gelth and you sleep like a baby. Cartoon bulls and you're terrified? Huney we need to work on your priorities, the first one being getting the hell out of there, that thing's gonna kill you!"
"Give me a minute!" hissed Rose as the thing began to charge towards her, the corridor rushing passed it faster than she'd anticipated. She shut her eyes tight, begging her body to transform into the winged creature she had been before. She heard the hammering of the hooves growing louder and louder, the Doctor cursing and crying out to her as the tiny sonic screwdriver protested in vain against the bars. Nothing was happening and each moment the shake of the ground beneath her feet got stronger. She could feel the heat from the fiery form of the bull begin to burn her as it grew closer and she could smell the acrid stench of sulphur and brimstone on its breath. As she felt the earth give a final tremor she opened her mouth to scream, only opening her eyes when a majestic shriek left her and she felt her body rising.
She looked down to see the bull crumpled against the spikes, impaled on the thick steel and the Doctor the other side frantically waving and cheering as she soared over to him. Rose couldn't help but admire the view, heading on a little further along the corridor with the Doctor running beneath her.
"Come into landing Miss Tyler," said the Doctor, watching the play of the dim light on the gold feathers of the eagle above him and finding the form fitting for the young woman he knew, free and majestic. He heard her give a shriek of affirmative from above before she managed a small circle, landing at his feet. Although bigger than a normal eagle would be she still had to look up at him. The Doctor lost himself for a moment in the golden eyes, the memory of how Rose looked before his regeneration coming to the forefront of his mind.
"I'm impressed," he said, tracing a finger over the soft, downy feathers on her head, "You do feathers so well but how about changing back again, you'll wear yourself out if you keep up the transformation."
A hard beak nipped at his finger before one feathery eyebrow was raised in defiance. Rose closed her eyes and the Doctor waited to see the light of her transformation surround her.
"Oh no," he muttered causing Rose to open her eyes and look up at him imploringly, "You can't do it can you?"
The pitiful shriek he got in response shot pain to the centre of his hearts.
"And unlike me, you can't speak to me can you?"
The Doctor watched the mournful shake of Rose's head, a tear appearing at the edge of one large, golden eye and running over the delicate feathers beside her beak. Even without words her look told him how frightened she was. He knelt down beside her and lay a hand on the fold of her wing, trying to give her as much comfort as possible.
"Its alright," he said, holding her eyes with his, "We'll think of something and you'll be able to get away from danger a lot quicker this way. Just stick by my side and I'll take care of you."
He could see her desperate wish to say something but knew there was no way he could communicate properly with her. He had the power to enter her mind but feared what damage he could do when it was so altered under her transformation.
"Rose, you'll be alright," he said, smoothing his hand over her wing as it drooped at her side, "We'll just have to go for yes and no answers from now on. One shriek for yes, two for no, can you do that?"
He was answered by one piercing shriek that set his ears ringing before he noticed the arch expression on the eagle before him.
"Very funny," he muttered, "Well, you can be of some use while you're all fluttery. Rose Tyler, the eyes in the skies."
The Doctor wasn't sure if eagles could naturally snort but they could now if the indignant response from Rose was anything to go by as she pushed up off the cold, stone floor and back into the air. The Doctor almost felt the temptation to cower as he noticed for the first time the magnificent talons she'd armed herself with but he knew even in her worst moods Rose would never intentionally harm him. He kept his eyes ahead, searching for openings that lead off the corridor or anything to end the monotony of the straight line they travelled. He occasionally glanced up to see Rose soaring a little further ahead, her eyes alert and more sensitive to any movement below. Once or twice she caught him looking and performed a loop, or some other impressive feet of flying that had him smiling at her but still wishing that she could change back into the form he knew.
He was pulled from his musings as she settled on a plateau above him, peering through a gap above one of the corridor walls and shrieking for his attention.
"What can you see?"
The look he got was a withering as anything Jackie Tyler had ever thrown at him and he quickly rephrased his question.
"Can you see something the other side?"
The shriek he got came as an affirmative.
"A room?"
Again he received the same response and he began to check the wall for any release mechanisms to let him into the adjoining room. Rose soon hopped down from her perch to his side and began to search with him, her head bobbing in such a way that the Doctor had to restrain his laughter at the images of pigeons in Trafalgar Square that came to mind. He was so distracted by his mirth that he didn't notice the girl beside him launch herself forward and press her beak against a loose stone on the wall. Instantly the panel began to drop to reveal the chamber behind.
The Doctor let out a low, appreciative whistle at what he saw. Room did not do what lay before him justice, he wasn't sure cavern did either. The room glittered with an unnatural midnight blue light, shimmering off some sort of mineral deposit in the walls and surfaces. The room must have stretched almost a hundred feet across with no visible floor save for the interlocking bridges of granite that lead from plateau to plateau, crumbled away in places through age. The Doctor looked down and swallowed hard, not daring to guess where the drop ended and feeling grateful at least for Rose's wings.
"This one of yours?" he asked the girl beside him, not taking his eyes off the view. The double shriek he received shocked him.
"Well its not one of mine," said the Doctor, "I've never seen anything like this before but that means that this is dangerous. We must be coming into the place where the entity is strongest, as always the place we want to go but the place we never want to be. Oh well, best get on and…"
The sharp peck at his leg caused the Doctor to quiet and the look he received told him that despite not being able to speak Rose didn't need the running commentary of their adventures.
"Sorry," he muttered before stepping onto the granite bridge at his feet. He heard the crack of stone beneath his feet and gladly felt two strong taloned feet grab his arms and haul him back to the safety of the corridor.
He felt himself shoved to one side by a strong wing before Rose stood between him and the entrance to the cavern, her back to him. She opened her wings and gave them a couple of test strokes before turning her head towards him and motioning him over to her. The Doctor raised an eyebrow in confusion before Rose shrieked and her eyes darted down to her feathered back in invitation.
The Doctor held his hands up in protest, "Rose you can't carry me, I'd be too heavy, you'll fall."
The shriek came again and the same motion, more insistent than before. Rose flapped her wings, causing dust and debris to fly up from the ground at her clawed feet. She stepped out onto the granite bridge and it collapsed completely beneath her, leaving a gulf of at least ten feet that would prove impossible to jump. She kept herself in the air and turned to him with a defiant stare before returning to the corridor and repeating her offer.
"You drive a hard bargain," said the Doctor, tentatively wandering over to her and settling against her majestic back. He swore he heard an impossible shriek of laughter as Rose pushed off the ground and free fell below where the bridge had stood, causing the Doctor to grip on a little more tightly around her neck. She soon opened her wings and flew them back up to level with the bridge, clearly enjoying hearing him squirm with each dip and twist of her flight. She followed the twirling pathway of the bridges, the Doctor finally relaxing and directing her as to the direction of travel they needed. They landed at several points where there seemed to be corridors leading off but were met with dead ends, immediately turning back to the cavernous room and circling once more. They had reached almost the top of the chamber when they finally found a corridor worthy of investigation.
The Doctor slipped back onto his feet, glad to feel terra firma once again as Rose played on his healthy respect for heights and managed several impressive loops before her landing. He felt like threatening her with a trip to a Bernard Matthews Processing plant for their next adventure but decided better of it as the click of her talons on the stone floor reminded him of their presence. The corridor was too low to allow Rose to glide so she walked beside him, her fascinating golden eyes shining like a beacon in the gloom. At a loss of what to do with his hand without Rose's to hold the Doctor laid it against her back, the contact enough to comfort them both in the growing blackness.
The darkness grew, Rose's eyes for once proving more useful than the Doctor's as her eyesight remained for a short while after his had failed. He kept his hand against her back, letting her lead him through the winding passage way. Before too long she stopped.
"Can't you see anymore?"
He was answered in the affirmative and his hand tightened slightly against the feathers on her back, "Then we have to go on blind. I've been trying to dream up a torch but its not working and if we go back now we'll never get anywhere."
Rose again answered in the affirmative, striding on bravely as the corridor began to chill and the walls grow tighter and damper. She felt the fingers at her back stretch and flex in agitation and wished desperately for her human form so as only to take his hand and still it but the transformation didn't come. She stumbled and shrieked in alarm as she tumbled down several stairs, her folly at least saving the Doctor the same fate. The light was a little brighter here, nothing strong enough for them to see properly by but enough to let them see that they were in a large, circular room marked with archways and gothic decoration, a large steep staircase stretching up the back in the centre.
"You wanna shout huney I'm home or shall I?" said the Doctor, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Is that you, Doctor?"
The Doctor turned to the figure beside him, seeing her still in eagle form, "You can speak?"
Rose shrieked a negative and looked passed him to one of the archways, both their eyes adjusting enough to allow them to see the bars blocking their entrance and the girl behind them. Pale and sallow with her jet black hair in soaked mats at the side of her head and her throat marred by a thick rope. She reached through the bars to them and both Rose and the Doctor instantly went to her side.
"You came?"
"Oh God," said the Doctor, feeling the cold fingers close around his own, "Grace what has happened to you?"
A/N: And just to be mean I will leave it there.
Please review.