Hello! I'm back! I have my new laptop back! Still missing quite a few things from my old one, which makes me sad, but I have ALL my fics.

I still may get these out annoyingly slow. I now live with my boyfriend in a flat with one of my very good friends, and they both seem to like my attention. But I will do my best not to be distracted from my quest!

Anyway, a few weeks ago I went to the Armageddon Expo up in Auckland. (It's basically Comic Con for New Zealand and Australia). First time I've been, it was AMAZING! I met lots of new people, like my awesome 'Jack Daniel' (his name's Daniel, he dressed as Captain Jack). And I met someone who knew who I was, THAT was awesome. If you want to take a look, there's some pictures of me dressed as Rose and Fem10 on my Facebook page.

But, onto the story. Sorry, it's short and unedited, but I hope you enjoy anyway!

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Fire's Footsteps

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Rose grabbed Donna by the arm and dragged her out of the way. It was clear by the look on the older woman's face she wasn't happy, but neither was Rose.

"Hey! She was almost believing me!" Donna said.

"No she wasn't, she was terrified!" Rose told her. "Honestly, what were you thinking, Donna. We've already told you, if you go about it like that, people will think you're crazy."

"I told her you said it. She said you were an oracle, she had to believe it."

"She is promised to a sisterhood that believe in the prophecies of one woman. They see the fact that they have such clear foresight a gift from the gods, but they don't see that far. Anything that goes against what they see, or what the Sybil saw, is wrong. Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"Killed?" Donna said.

"We're in Ancient Rome…"

"Good point… But how can you just stand here and do nothing! All these people are going to die. She's only seventeen. She's barely had a life, let alone lived it."

"I don't like it Donna. But there's nothing I can do to change it. It's a fixed point in time, which means that no matter what you do, that volcano will always erupt and kill everyone in this city! The only reason we're still here right now is that the Doctor is so damn curious!"

Rose winced as pain shot through her. She had no idea what it was, but she didn't like it. She was getting increasingly more uncomfortable and jumpy. Was it this place?

"You alright?" Donna asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. "Look, Donna. I want to help these people, I really do. But I can't. And scaring them isn't going to help."

"Yeah, well, I'd hide this family in the TARDIS if I had to."

Rose smiled at her. "Yeah? Well, if it comes down to it, I'll help you."

?...DW...?

The Doctor tried not to wince as he felt the pain go through him. Damn, it was so strong already. He had never remembered it being this bad. He wondered how Rose was doing. He really ought to have told her it was like this… he was just struggling to figure out how to do it.

Instead he focused on what he was doing. He grabbed the next tile and carefully hoisted it up.

"You put this one… there," he said. He grabbed the last one from Quintus. "This one… there. Ugh… keep that one upside down. What have you got?" He turned back to Lucius who'd been standing there quietly for the entire time he'd been rearranging them. It had taken a little talking to convince him to hear him out, rather than kill him on the spot.

"Enlighten me," the pompous man said.

"What? The soothsayer doesn't know?" he grinned, rocking on the balls of his feet.

"The seed may float on the breeze in any direction." Yep, another vague, 'prophetic' line to make the man sound knowable. He didn't like to admit that he had no idea what it is.

"Yeah, I knew you were gonna say that," he said. "But… it's an energy converter."

"An energy converter of what?"

"I don't know," he grinned, swaying about. "Isn't that brilliant. I like not knowing. Keeps me on my toes." He went over to stand beside Lucius, ignoring the man's expression of disgust as he invaded his personal space. "It must be awful being a prophet. Waking up every morning, 'Is it raining? Yes, it is. I said so'. Takes all the fun out of life. But who designed this, Lucius? Hmm? Who gave you these instructions?"

"I think you've babbled long enough!" he snapped.

"Lucius, really, tell me. Honestly, I'm on your side. I can help."

"You insult the Gods!" Lucius cried. "There can only be one sentence. At arms!" A bunch of guards burst in behind him and the Doctor skittered back over to Quintus, taking off his glasses as he went.

"Ooh! Morituri te salutant." Those who are about to die salute you.

"Celtic prayers won't help you now."

"But it was him, sir. He made me do it! Mr Dextrus, please don't," Quintus begged.

"Come on now, Quintus! Dignity in death. I respect your victory, Lucius… Shake on it?" The Doctor held out his hand to the man. "Come on." He wiggled his fingers at the man, like he had to Rose when he had regrown his hand. He had to pause a moment as another strong stab of the almost constant pain overcame him, but he did not let it show on his face. He kept his firm gaze locked with Lucius. "Dying man's wish…"

When it became obvious that Lucius was not going to bite, he made his move. At first, when the man had refused to shake Caecilius's hand, he had thought it was just arrogance. Then he noticed that he never moved the cloak from over his arm. He kept the whole thing hidden and never seemed to movie it.

So the Doctor lunged forward and grabbed the arm beneath. When he felt the rough texture in his grasp, he knew he had been right, and jerked down on it hard, breaking it off. The stone came away and he stepped back with the arm that looked like it could have come off a statue.

"But he's…" Quintus started, but was unable to finish, due to shock.

"Show me," the Doctor said. With a glair, Lucius threw back the cloak to reveal the stump of the stone arm.

"The work of the gods," he said bitterly.

"He's stone!" Quintus finally managed.

"Armless enough, though. Whoop!" He tossed the arm back at Lucius, who then became to preoccupied catching the arm to stop him. He began to run. "Quintus!"

Quintus followed his lead and threw the torch at one of the guards before sprinting off behind him. Quickly the Doctor reached back and sonic-ed the circuit slabs, causing them to fall to the ground and hopefully shatter at least one. If that happened, it would at least delay what ever was happening.

"Out, out, out, out, out!" He pushed Quintus in front of him before jumping out of the window himself. They were followed by the sound of Lucius's outraged cry, but that did not stop them. They just ran. They had to get back to Caecilius's villa now. And the sooner the better. He really wanted this pain to stop. "Run!"

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After running a good few blocks, the Doctor realised that they weren't being perused and stopped a moment. Quintus skidded to a halt beside him, panting slightly.

"No sign of them," he said. "Nice little bit of allons-y. I think we're alright."

"But his arm, Doctor! Is that what's happening to Evelina?" Quintus said.

The Doctor looked at him a second. Rose had told him about Evelina's arm, how it was turning to stone. It was most likely that it was breathing in the vapours that was doing it to them, somehow planting a seed in them and turning them to stone. He could only hope there was a way to reverse it for this family…

No, he couldn't think like that. They lived in Pompeii. Tomorrow Pompeii would be destroyed and them along with it, and there was noting he could do about it.

Just then, there was a loud thumping noise and the ground shook. "What was that?" he asked.

"The mountain?"

No. He knew what an earthquake felt like. This was not that it was something else… "No, it's closer." He noticed that it had a bit of a rhythm to them as he watched baskets and things on the street fall over. And it wasn't just the ground shaking… it was in the ground! "They're footsteps."

"It can't be."

"Footsteps underground!"

"What is it? What is it?" Quintus cried in fear.

"Rose!" the Doctor shouted, realising the direction the footsteps were heading. He put his arm behind Quintus to speed the boy along as he turned and ran. As they ran, steam blew up around them, like geysers as the ground became hot.

He had to get back and stop whatever it was. He had to make sure Rose was okay.

?...DW...?

Rose slowly sat up.

She had to admit, she didn't have a very high pain tolerance threshold. And whatever was happening, it really stung. It was like her hearts were slowly being wrenched from her chest. Not long after she and Donna had their little argument, she had felt it worse, coming in little bursts and getting worse every second.

She had been sitting on one of the chases for the last few minutes with her head on her lap, trying to breathe deeply. Donna was panicking, and had gone to look for the Doctor only to find him gone. And Rose couldn't find him either.

It was almost as if she had gone blind. She could feel him, she knew he was there… but she didn't know where. And she couldn't even contact him. She was only able to send her voice into his head if their skin was touching, but she could send emotions and images from afar, she had tried to send him her distress, but it was like there was a block on them. Nothing could get through.

Now she was starting to feel better. The pain in her chest slowly decreasing.

"You feeling better?" Donna asked, rubbing her back.

"Getting there," she said weakly. The feeling was starting to disappear very quickly now.

"You really should tell the Doctor about this."

"I will," she said. "When we find him. Where is he?" Just then they felt faint thumps. An odd echo was in the distance, like thunder… but the booming noise was too close together.

"What was that?" Donna sad. "Oh, god, please don't be the volcano."

"That's not till tomorrow," Rose told her. " But listen… it has a rhythm. What is that?"

"What is that?" Evelina said, coming out of her room. It was the first time that she had talked to them since the incident. "Look at the water!" she said, pointing to the small pool they had in the room. The two women looked to see that it was bubbling with steam rising from it… it was boiling…

"What is it? What's that noise?" Metella said as she and her husband came in.

"It doesn't sound like Vesuvius," Caecilius said.

At that moment, the Doctor and Quintus ran in as the thumping became deafeningly loud. "Caecilius!" he said. "All of you, get out! Rose!" He ran right to her and grabbed her tightly. She heard him breathe a sigh of relief and did the same. She had been so worried with him gone, but now he was here, and she could feel him again. She could feel his emotions racing through their bond. The relief, the fear, the guilt.

"Doctor, what is it?" Donna said.

"I think we're being followed." They all ducked as the grille over the hypocaust blew into the air as a geyser of steam shot from it. "Just get out!"

A loud growling was heard and they all froze. No one moved as they watched the hypocaust crack and be smashed up from underneath. They could only watch as a large creature of stone and magma forced it's way through the hole it make, shrugging way the debris.

"The gods are with us," Evelina said fearfully.

The Doctor looked at her. He almost wished they knew better. This was no god. It was a creature of fire… Fire. Right. "Water! We need water. Quintus, Rose, all of you. Get water! Donna!"

He kept his eyes trained on the creature as the three of them left the room to get something to carry water in. he didn't even notice as one of the servants walked forward in wonder.

"Blessed are we to see the gods!" he said in awe. And with no other provocation, the creature opened its fiery maw and incinerated the man. The Doctor didn't really know what to do. He could only stall for time until someone came with water. He was usually very good at stalling people. But it had just killed for no reason.

What was the likelihood that he would be able to reason with it? It was worth a try anyway.

"Talk to me!" he shouted at it, carefully getting closer with his hands in the air. "That's all I want. Talk to me. Tell me who you are. Don't hurt these people." He felt a sudden jolt of surprise and fear from Rose, but he didn't have time to look at her considering he was a little preoccupied with the creature that was roaring at him. He couldn't afford to lose eye contact with it. "Talk to me. I'm the Doctor. Tell me who you are."

The creature refused to listen. It opened it's mouth, ready to kill him. Then, before anything else could happen, Quintus quickly dashed in with a large pot, scooped some water from the pool and chucked it at the creature.

It growled and hissed as it looked at its hand a second. Then, as it moved, the fire began to fade from it. It began to turn cold and then it fell to the ground and shattered, causing everyone to jump back.

"What was it?" Caecilius said as the dust cleared.

"A carapace of stone. Held together by internal magma. Not too difficult to stop, but I reckon that's just the foot soldier."

"Doctor, or whatever your name is," Metella said, casing him to turn. "You bring bad luck in this house."

Oh, he was almost sick of these people's superstition. It was utterly brilliant, but it was really starting to get on his nerves. "I thought your son was brilliant," he said. "Aren't you going to thank him?"

It seemed that reminder made her realise exactly what had happened and what was important, and in the next second, Quintus was in her arms.

"Still… if there are aliens at work in Pompeii, it's a good thing we stayed, right Rose?" No reply. "Rose!" he called a little louder, figuring she was off in another room… for… some… reason… He turned to see that she had not popped out from anywhere, and Donna was nowhere to be seen either. "Donna?! Rose?!"

Now that most of the adrenalin had calmed down, he was able to feel things that he hadn't in the heat of the moment. Like for one, once again, he could not sense Rose… not like he usually could. And that horrible nagging pain was back again, like his hearts were being pulled from his chest…

Oh shit.