Beta: Miral-Romanov
Chapter 14
Ammunition
It was a lot harder for Rose to manoeuvre through her corridor with a probable concussion and the insane urge to flop down onto the floor and sleep. Martha did her absolute best to keep Rose from giving into that urge by chattering about complete nonsense, from what she'd had for breakfast before being kidnapped to an upcoming film she'd been excited to see.
"… and this one time, when I was sleepin', I wake up and I find all the chores done!" Martha snorted. "Considering he avoids cleaning like the plague, it was bloody shocking."
"Sounds like something Mickey'd do," Rose panted, unaware that her words had made Martha tense up. "Used to clean his flat on national holidays only for when his mum came over and then be a slob the rest of the year." Head spinning like a top and stomach churning, Rose paused in her steps and leaned against the wall, trying to steady herself and labour her breathing so she didn't get sick. "Could we just stop a mo'? Feel like 'm gonna pass out."
"Yeah, no problem." Rose crouched down near the floor, lowering her head to rest on her knees and groaning a little. Martha fidgeted for a brief moment before saying, "Rose?"
"Yeah?" she croaked in response, neck straining with the effort of keeping her head mildly upright.
"I sor' of… neglected to tell you this," she said hesitantly, "but I might've… married Mickey."
"Did you really?" Rose said in amazement, lifting her head up as best she could. There was nothing but delight in her voice when she added, "Oh, Martha, that's wonderful."
"Really?" Martha said, sounding reassured.
"'Course. If there's anyone that'd be best for him, s'you."
Martha beamed, clutching her clasped hands to her chest in relief. "Thank you."
Rose grinned too, a bit weakly but a grin nonetheless. "Anytime."
This time she didn't even pause before blurting out, "We've got a little boy." Rose's jaw dropped open at once, eyes wide. "Seven months old."
"What's his name?" Rose asked quietly.
"James Alex Smith."
"That's lovely."
Martha hummed. "When we get out of here… maybe you could stay in this universe and see him?"
Rose shook her head despite knowing Martha couldn't see her. "If anyone's gettin' out of here, it's you, Martha." Martha stayed silent, even though Rose had to take a couple of moments to catch her breath again. "Don't exactly reckon I'll be making it with my head split in half."
"Don't talk like that, Rose," Martha ordered.
Rose opened her mouth to retort, but the nausea she'd been feeling suddenly increased tenfold and she managed to gasp out, "Think 'm gonna—" before doubling over and throwing up what little she had left in her stomach by the wall.
"Are you all right?" Martha asked.
Rose took a moment to cough violently, spitting out residual bile and grimacing at the utterly horrid taste in her mouth. "Fine," she wheezed, curling in on herself to try and settle her churning stomach, far away from the puddle of sick. "My mouth tastes like death though."
"Throwing up's usually a symptom of a concussion," Martha supplied, a little unhelpfully.
"I know," Rose breathed out, coughing again. "I've had my fair share of concussions."
"You have?"
"Soldier, remember?" Rose chuckled mirthlessly— at least, she tried to, but it came out as more of a wheezy exhale. "Can't tell you how many times I've been whacked over the head with a two-by-four. Bet my skull probably looks like a patchwork quilt."
"That sounds horrible," Martha said in a tiny voice, suddenly seriously regretting telling Rose about her brilliant family life.
"Is what it is," Rose shrugged. Stomach finally settling, Rose lifted herself out of her crouched position and scooted backward to sit upright against the wall. Blowing out air through puffed cheeks, Rose added, "At least this time it doesn't hurt as much. Last time, there was this Krellat field officer that came outta nowhere and literally blew up the foundation of the building I was in. Whole thing came down on top of me."
Martha gaped. "How'd you not die?"
"Dunno. Woke up at the camp like two weeks later. God, my whole head felt like it'd been pieced back together with tape." As Martha tried not to also be sick as she pictured Rose's story, Rose stood up off the ground as carefully as she could and exhaled, "We should probably start movin' again."
"Er, right."
Despite Martha's earlier habit of chattering out nonsense to keep Rose alert, the both of them continued their trek in uncomfortable silence. Martha watched the floor as she walked, chest heavy with pity as she imagined the most horrible of possible scenarios that Rose must have gone through. Her experience as the Doctor's companion had been less than stellar, mostly because he'd been seriously grieving her loss and had constantly compared her to Rose, making her feel inferior and as though she were living in the other woman's shadow. Upon actually meeting Rose when the stars were going out, though only for a brief moment, she couldn't exactly see what was spectacular about her— sure she had a big gun and talked tough, but she'd seemed relatively normal and there didn't seem to be anything special about her, besides when both the blue-suited Doctor and the brown-suited one had taken turns staring at her longingly when her back was turned.
Add into the throng Mickey Smith's explanation about his ex-girlfriend and Martha had felt thoroughly ashamed of herself for the chip she'd carried on her shoulder. Learning that Rose Tyler had been nothing more than a lower-class shop girl who'd been scammed by a boyfriend and hadn't even finished high school shattered whatever goddess-like image Martha had remaining in her mind. She'd eventually come to the conclusion that, for some reason only he could explain, the Doctor had fallen arse over teakettle for the blonde, and he'd just taken out his grief on her.
Then she was forced to reacquaint herself with Rose, and learned that Rose had managed to actually become the tough-as-nails soldier picture Martha had once imagined her to be, and it was horrible. If there was anything Martha Jones ever wanted to be wrong about, it was Rose being forced to become exactly what she'd become.
After all… a bloody building fell on top of her?
Rose's footsteps paused beside her, making Martha freeze as well. "I know what you're thinking."
"What's that?" Martha said.
"Rose Tyler, becomin' a soldier," she said a bit bitterly, and Martha hung her head in shame. "How the hell did that happen, right?"
"Would be lying if I said I wasn't," Martha admitted.
"S'all right," Rose said, warmth in her voice. She sighed, flexing her aching shoulders for a moment. "To be honest, about four years into the war I stopped one day and realised it too. Just thought to myself, 'Holy shite, I'm a bloody soldier'." Martha let out a completely humourless laugh. "Y'don't even notice it when it happens, an' when you do, it's the most surreal thing ever. Think about it— after you joined Torchwood, did you ever have a moment where it properly hit you that you're an actual government agent?"
"Yeah, I did actually," Martha said, an amazed smile in her voice. "About six months in."
"S'weird, right?" Rose said, grinning a bit as well.
She took a step forward to resume her trudge, only to gasp out in pain and jump back when a sharp pain suddenly shot up her cheek. She froze in place, lifting a hand to her cheek to press against the stinging spot and frowning when her fingers came back stained red yet again, though there was a significantly lower amount of blood than there had been earlier.
"What is it?" Martha asked worriedly.
"I dunno. Got cut on my face somehow."
Rose took a couple more steps back towards a safer distance, ignoring the remaining throbbing in her head and ducking down a bit to try and examine what looked like a completely empty corridor. The second she moved there were several silver flashes that shot in diagonal directions before her eyes, like she was seeing stars, and Rose frowned, reaching her hand out towards one of the flashes only to gasp out in pain again and yank her hand back abruptly. Her fingers had encountered what felt like the thinnest but strongest string ever created, which had sliced through her fingertips so easily it was almost frightening.
"This is new," Rose muttered.
"What?"
"Beratt's set up some kind of maze of string."
"String?" Martha said, scoffing.
"S'like some kind of weird alien string that's really thin and has the ability to slice me into cheese cubes if I try and go through it," Rose elaborated, swiping at her bleeding cheek again with the back of her wrist.
"Use the knife," Martha suggested.
Rose frowned with confusion. "What?"
"The knife, the one Beratt said you found in your boot. You can use it to cut through the string things."
"No," Rose said at once, but before she could say anything further Martha said insistently, "Yes, Rose. It's the only way you're gonna get through that thing. And technically it is fair— you've got a serious injury, which means you're at a disadvantage, so usin' it would level things, yeah?"
"No," Rose repeated stonily.
"Rose, use the damn thing," Martha ordered just as callously.
Rose sighed loudly but obediently lowered herself to the floor — slowly so it wouldn't worsen her headache — before unlacing her boot and slipping out the Swiss army knife. She flicked the blade out of the hilt and carefully approached the near-invisible string maze, blindly running the blade through the air from the ceiling to the floor, hearing high-pitched little twanging noises when the strings snapped.
"Is it working?" Martha asked, as Rose took another tentative step forward and repeated the motion, hoping she wasn't missing anything that'd dig its way into her face.
"Sounds like it," Rose said.
She repetitively continued the action over and over again through the strings; a bizarre thought occurred to her that, the way she was posed with the knife outstretched in front of her, she felt a bit like she was fencing. Thankfully it wasn't long before she was swiping her knife in front of her and she found there were no more strings to cut, much to her relief.
"Think that's over with," Rose said, relaxing her stance
"That's good," Martha replied, sounding relieved.
"Yeah." Rose lowered herself onto one knee again, pocketing the knife in her boot. "Wonder how Beratt expected me to get through that without the knife."
"Maybe he didn't," Martha reminded her.
"That's true," Rose snorted, raising herself up and starting to walk again.
There was a foreboding clicking sound that made Rose tense up yet again, and she glanced down quickly at her feet to see if she'd stepped on another rigged tile, but the floor beneath her was smooth and normal.
"Martha? Did you hear that?" Martha didn't answer, which made Rose swallow hard. "Martha?"
There was a pause, before Martha said in a tiny voice, "I-I stepped on a tile."
Horror permeated Rose's guts, but she noted in as calm a voice as she could muster, "Nothing's happened, though."
"I don't think it's like the one that Liz woman stepped on."
"D'you see anything around you?" Rose asked her urgently.
Martha paused for another moment, before a sharp gasp nearly made Rose jump out of her shoes. "I think it's a weight sensor."
"What?"
"Th-the tile."
"Why would you say that? Martha, what d'you see?"
"There's a line of arrows in the walls right next to me," Martha revealed, sounding terrified. "Didn't see them, they're so far in. I think if-if I try to move, they'll—" She didn't finish her sentence, but Rose knew full well what it meant. Tears sprang to her eyes again— Martha was all she had left. "Rose," Martha said, voice thick but firm. "You've got to save the Doctor."
"No." Her lower lip trembled, eyebrows arching upward. "No, Martha."
"Rose, I'm serious," Martha said loudly. "It's up to you. There's no way I'm makin' it out of this alive."
"You've got to try, Martha!" Rose stomped her foot, tears splashing down her cheeks, the salt of them making her cut sting. "You can't just give up!"
"Rose," Martha started to say in a warning tone, but Rose cut her off, now properly sobbing.
"I said no!" Gulping in a lungful of air, Rose choked out, "What about Micks? And your baby? James, you said his name was, yeah?" Martha let out a muffled sob, spurring Rose on. "You've got them to live for, Martha. I don't!"
"Wh-what about the Doctor?" Martha whispered, tears in her voice.
Rose's heart cracked a little. "Martha… I've got nothing. It should be you getting out of here alive, not me— you've got so much to live for."
The two women cried in each of their corridors, both of their sobs reaching each other. Martha pressed her lips together to tamp down her tears and said, in a voice so quiet it was almost inaudible, "I'm sorry."
Rose flinched violently when there was a quiet thudding noise, followed by the sound of something whooshing through the air, a loud bang and then silence. Heart pumping so quickly it was making her dizzy, Rose whispered in terror, "Martha?" There was no answer, and Rose let out another sob before screeching, "MARTHA?!"
Silence stretched on, and just as Rose let out a pathetic-sounding whimper the speaker above her crackled, Beratt's excited voice ringing out seconds later. "Congratulations, Miss Rose Tyler— you've won the game! You'll be transmatted out of your corridor shortly, so stand by!"
Another sob burst from Rose's lips, and she crouched down onto the floor, cradling her head underneath her arms to try and block out his voice.
A/N: TA-DA! The winner has been chosen! Were you surprised? :3 If you were, you should probably consult a doctor, cos you're dumb (pft) Sorry about it being a couple of hours late, I usually post at noon but now it's 8 pm :x Sorry if you were spam-refreshing your email like I do. I kind of forgot about this because NEW ONCE UPON A TIME EPISODE TONIGHT (eh ma gahd Rumple). Hope you'll all be watching it too. Thanks go to MirrorFlower and Darkwind, MusicOwl29, emotionallycompromisedwhovian, alias093001, HalfSquirrel (how can anyone be half a squirrel? Just a question :3), Dsnynutz, TheDoctorandRoseLover, DeepBlue-sama, TheEvilAshleyness, Infinities Lover, shvartzit, Hediru, Kathryn Hart, The Doctor 1-12, moviemaniac217, IWantColoredRain, Miral-Romanov, Nova, The APA, two Guests and the EpicGuest.
Next chapter will be the long-awaited concept: Rose rescues the Doctor. How will he react? :3 Tell me what you think he'll do, I'd love to hear your theories.