A/N The Doctor and Rose journey ahead on their own, but soon face another unexpected obstacle.

Chapter 14

Pete Tyler was not a happy man.

"That idiot!" he bellowed over the radio. "That bloody alien idiot! And for Rose to just go along with this! She knows better than that. They're both idiots! I should have gone with my instinct to split them up." He took a minute to calm himself before speaking into the radio again. "Team Two, have you heard anything more from them whatsoever?"

"Negative," Jake Simmonds answered.

"How close are you and Mickey to making it back?" Pete questioned.

"Nearly there," Jake confirmed. "The road is within sight up ahead."

"Good. When you get here, everyone is to stay put until reinforcements arrive. That's an implicit order."

"Understood."

In little time, Torchwood converged on the area with additional personnel who had been on standby. The prior plan of proceeding quietly and inconspicuously was now shelved in favor of quick and efficient. Half a dozen specialized ATVs were brought in to the scene, fitted with navigational equipment, as well as energy flux scanners to detect lifeforms.

They were soon underway, plowing through the wooded terrain. All mobilized ground teams spanned out in a westward direction, the zone where Team One had gone missing and the area now presumed to be the location of the entity. This time they had an advantage, the zone narrowed to one single, clear direction.

Or so they thought. All navigational instruments indicated that they were on the right course. What no one realized was that along with tampered readings, the terrain which passed was being altered by shifting visual illusions, masking the fact that they were covering familiar ground. It was subtle, but enough to throw them off course. The psychic being was holding them at bay, which meant those who had been taken, along with Rose and the Doctor who were still somewhere out there, were on their own.

-:-:-:-

The Doctor and Rose continued further into the thick, black forest, moving as swiftly as the rough, uneven ground permitted. The night air was growing increasingly muggy as distant thunder drew closer. Rain was not far off. Rose loathed the thought. The last thing this mission needed was another impediment.

"Are we still headed west?" she questioned the Doctor. The only thing they had to rely on for direction on this dark and cloudy night was their equipment, but known disruptions had already taken place out here, and she didn't trust the reading's accuracy.

"Yes," the Doctor confirmed, the whir of the sonic once again buzzing to life. "But the directional readings have begun to fluctuate increasingly the deeper we go. If I wasn't staying on top of the modifications to keep it in check, we'd no doubt have been thrown off course by now." He looked over at Rose, trying to assess her current state in the dark. It was late, the trek was strenuous, and she'd already been through a trying day – the latter of which he felt another stab of guilt over. His questioning voice was gentle. "Are you doing alright, Rose?"

"I'm fine," she asserted, sparing him a glance. "Takes more than a middle-of-the-night walk in the woods to wear me down. I've been through worse. Much worse."

He momentarily stopped and turned to her, eyes deep and contrite. He'd never meant for her life to take this arduous path she'd had to carve on her own; never meant for her to be trapped here; never meant to lose her. The Doctor internally stopped himself before the list of regrets became too long, and offered simply, "I'm sorry. I can imagine how difficult it's been here for you."

Rose drew in a long breath as some of the struggles she'd faced in this world played in her memory. "I s'pose it wasn't easy for either of us," she finally concluded. "But the experiences I've had here are a part of who I am now."

He gave a contemplative hum, eyes studying her shadowed face. "You've changed. Everyone does, of course. Time changes people and places and anything that stands in its path. But there are differences to who you are now that I might not have noticed as keenly if I'd been there through the process."

Rose wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to this question, but it was an important one to her – one she had entertained many times in his absence, imagining what he might think of her life and the woman she had become. "And what do you see now…when you look at me?" she inquired, voice subtly hesitant and unsure. She was the one who'd wanted honesty from him. Might as well start here.

His eyes were intense and penetrating, even in the engulfing darkness. "You're older, not so much in appearance but in spirit. You've grown fully into the woman you've always had the potential to be. You were always self-assured, but now even more so, because you've had to be self-reliant. You were always strong, but now you're so much more aware of that strength. It gives you an added air of…not cockiness but confidence. And that's…"

She swallowed. "Yeah…?"

"Brilliant," he breathed. "That's brilliant. You're brilliant. Always have been. Always will be."

She held his gaze for a moment before having to break it. What he saw was here and now, but he hadn't seen everything in between. "Sometimes," Rose admitted, a bit reluctant but sick of things being hidden, "not all the time, mind…but sometimes it's hard to remember exactly who I was before. I feel so much…harder some days. The things I've seen, the work I've done, the decisions I've had to make – it's changed me."

"But you're still you," he insisted, voice impassioned. "That compassion, that drive to take what's wrong and make it right is exactly where it's always been – inside of you." She could hear the vulnerability in his voice as he spoke his next words. "I'm still the same person too, Rose. How I feel hasn't changed."

A piece of that protective wall around her heart fell, and she was that little bit more receptive to his words. "I know," she answered back quietly. "But some things do need to change. There's still so much we need to talk about when this is over."

The Doctor wordlessly nodded. He knew she was right, even if the thing that needed to be done was the thing he tended to avoid most.

They continued moving, both absorbed in thought. Her next step faltered and breath hitched as Rose felt a sudden, unexpected probing sensation in her mind. It had been so long since she'd felt a presence there – not since losing the Doctor. She couldn't stop the soft gasp, which he immediately noticed.

"Rose? What is it?"

"Did you just…touch me?" His eyes flicked down to their empty, un-joined hands. "In my mind, I mean? Did you…touch my mind?"

He opened his mouth, hesitated, but then spoke with bare honesty. "I wish I could say yes. Because it's taken all my restraint not to ever since I laid eyes on you again," he admitted, momentarily catching her by surprise by the open statement. His countenance then darkened. "But it wasn't me. You felt something in your mind?"

She nodded. "Yeah. It was faint. But it was definitely there. Sort of like a subtle probing sensation."

The Doctor focused all of his concentration inward for a few seconds. "There is something there," he recognized. "I feel it, too. It's barely even detectible because it can't get past even the first layer of my mental barriers."

"It's the Consciousness, isn't it?"

He nodded warily. "Yes."

Her hand reached up to tap the small psychic dampening device behind her left ear. "Is this still working?"

"Let me see," he spoke softly. The Doctor moved closer. So close, in fact, that any semblance of her personal space evaporated. She could smell the achingly familiar hint of wool and spice as he leaned in, and though his temperature was always slightly cooler, she could nevertheless feel the heat radiating from his body, so close to hers. His fingers lifted to the side of her neck and softly swept aside her hair. She involuntarily shivered as the pads of his fingertips contacted her skin in the barest of touches, skimming behind her ear and causing her skin to tingle.

If not for the cloak of darkness, a hearty flush would have been visible upon her cheeks. In that moment, it would have been so easy to give in to the physical desires stirring to life. But that didn't always solve their issues, as they had learned their very first time.

She barely registered the sound of the buzzing sonic amid the rushing in her ears. He then moved back a trace, eyes finding hers.

He cleared his throat, but his voice still sounded husky and affected. "It's still working. But I don't think it will be enough." He paused for a beat, eyes now studying her. "Rose, do you trust me?"

She paused. "I…"

The hurt was evident in his eyes at her hesitation, but he went on to explain. "I need to strengthen your mental barriers. Yours are already stronger than most, and I could teach you to enhance them further, but that would take time. We need to do this quickly. Is that alright?"

Rose nodded, trying to take personal feelings out of the equation. She might not have felt ready to fully offer her mind up to him just yet, but that wasn't what this was about. At her nod of approval, the Doctor again moved closer. He lifted his fingers to her temples and let them settle there as his eyes fell shut. Both let out a small gasp at the contact. It had been so long, and the absence of this touch, this closeness, this intimacy had been a literal ache for them both.

Rose sensed his affected state and could even feel his fingers trembling slightly, a tremor she felt rippling through her own veins as his mind nudged the periphery of hers. This was always one of the most intimate of experiences, and now was no different, even if it was just a trace of their former connection.

As for the Doctor, it was a battle to simply maintain his concentration. A difficult task, considering he found himself flooded by all things Rose, even though just on the outskirts. She felt amazing – her intoxicating vibrancy that breathed life into his bones and lit a fire in his marrow. The golden touch of her mind to his was indescribable. He wanted to immerse himself in her essence and her glorious, potent emotions that were right there, so close to overtaking him. But he had to stay focused. And he would not take advantage of this connection. He would not connect deeper until Rose allowed it. He clung to the hope that she would allow this again. But even if she had been ready here and now, there were still shrouded issues in his past that needed to be faced before he could even think about connecting with her fully again.

For now, he focused on the purpose of this task. He quickly sought out her mental shields, and augmented them with additional blocks and barricades, driven by the fierce desire to keep her protected, keep her mind sheltered – this place that only he had ever been allowed entry and union.

With a shuddering exhale, he removed his fingers and broke the connection. Their eyes opened and met. Rose drew a few uneven breaths, and he took an unsteady step back.

"There," he spoke in a slightly shaky voice. "That should help. It won't stop the Consciousness from presenting outside illusions, but it shouldn't be able to get inside your head and control you."

Rose nodded, not quite trusting her voice.

He took another steadying breath, eyes skipping ahead toward the dark expanse before them. "We must be getting closer."

Still trying to regain her focus, Rose shone her torch down to her scanner. "It's still not detecting anything"

The Doctor flicked on the sonic. He swore under his breath. "The calibrations have been altered again. I let myself get…distracted."

"Oh?" she couldn't help but respond, voice as casual as she could manage.

His eyes snapped up to lock with hers, his own glittering but dark. "As if you didn't notice…" He schooled himself and focused back on the scans. The Doctor reconfigured the calibrations with the sonic, and was then able to get a more accurate reading. "This isn't right," he observed.

Her brow furrowed with concern. "Are we still headed in the right direction?"

"Yes, but probably not for long if we had kept going." He shone the beam of the sonic up ahead. "What do you see beyond us if we continued straight?"

She shone her own torch forward. "Well, trees." She peered intently, trying to make out the terrain in the dark, occasionally lit by flashes of lightning. "And then...it looks like a steep rocky cliff just a little ways beyond. We'll have to go around it."

"And that's exactly what it wants us to do. But if the readings I'm getting are correct, I suspect that the cliff ahead isn't what it appears to be." The Doctor crouched down to the forest floor and unearthed a small stone from the ground, then stood. "Watch this, and then tell me again what you see…" He flung the stone about twenty feet in front of them. It seemed to hit an invisible obstruction, creating electrical ripples out from the impact point, like waves undulating through the air.

Rose lifted her eyebrows, her brain going into rapid analytical mode. "What was that? A type of force field? Or was that just an illusion, too?"

"Both," he replied, walking toward the curious phenomenon. The Doctor waved the sonic screwdriver up and down as Rose moved to stand alongside him. After thoroughly scanning the area, he confirmed the results. "It is a type of force field that's isolating what lies beyond, but it's also emitting a visual projection, masking what's really behind it."

"Which is…?"

"Let's find out, shall we?" He ran the sonic screwdriver in a circular pattern about three feet in diameter, creating a sort of window as the visual projection was temporarily deactivated within that select circumference. They both peered through to the landscape beyond. The sight revealed the continuation of the forest, minus the steep cliff that had appeared previously.

Rose wrinkled her forehead in utter puzzlement at the sight. "It's hard to know what's even real anymore. Is what we're seeing on this side or that side the illusion?"

"What we're seeing through this portal where I disrupted the illusional field is the real terrain. And I'm guessing we're now extremely close to the ship to be encountering this. It's the final line of cloaking precautions. But this isn't just emitting an illusion. It's also a type of force field, like you said. The illusion is to divert anyone away from the force field itself."

Realizing how near they were to its domain, Rose couldn't shake off an eerie feeling encroaching upon her. "You'd think we would have encountered this creature by now if we're this close. I know we felt it probe our minds, but…it didn't seem to give much of an effort to take us over. Even now, there's nothing rushing out to confront us. Why?"

The Doctor's voice was grim. "Because it doesn't have to. With the latest victims, I'm afraid it might have what it needs now. Most of its focus now would be on storing up vital energy, not expending it. If it can keep us away with this force field alone then that's all it needs to achieve. But still…it was seeking information when it tried to probe our minds. Which means it might not be done putting up illusions to divert us."

"So what do we do now?"

"We need to deactivate this field if we're going to get past it."

"Can you just make a bigger window?"

"It will take more power to deactivate the force field itself than it did to disrupt the illusion. We're going to have to create a disruption field at either end," he replied. "As far as I can tell by scanning, this forms a cube, and this section of the field stretches for about fifty meters in both directions. We'll need to set off a disruption wave simultaneously at two corners. That's where it's the weakest and will have the most effect."

"Alright, so…I'm assuming you can use the sonic screwdriver to create one of the disruption waves," Rose surmised. "But what about the other? Can you…I dunno…maybe modify my weapon?"

He momentarily beamed at her quick thinking. "Yes, that's exactly what we'll need to do. I can recalibrate its energy setting to emit the type of power needed. Can I see it for a moment?"

Rose unholstered her weapon and placed the cool black metal in his open palm. She didn't miss the clench of his jaw as his fingers curled around the potentially-deadly device.

"I never used it if there was another choice," she offered in a somber tone.

"I hope there was always another choice," he responded back, equally somber.

"Sometimes," she answered. "Someone once taught me to always look for the other choice."

His eyes flicked up to hers briefly.

"Done," he finally stated, as he placed the weapon back in her hand.

"We're gonna have to separate, aren't we?" she realized.

"Temporarily. We'll each need to be at opposite ends to activate the disruption simultaneously. Count off fifty meters. I'll watch for your signal with the torch to let me know you're ready. Two blinks. Then I'll do the same." Despite his sure planning, trepidation could be heard in his tone.

"Well then, the sooner we get this done the sooner we can meet back up and keep going," she concluded optimistically.

Rose turned, but briefly stopped as the Doctor snagged her hand with his, long fingers curling securely around her own. Her heart sped at the touch which encompassed more than just their joined hands. "Be careful, Rose."

She offered a faint smile. "Yeah. You too."

He released her hand with visible reluctance. Rose turned and headed away, counting the steps as she made her way down to her designated position.

Once there, she reached out a hand to be sure she was still directly in front of the force field. A tentative touch and subsequent undulation in the air confirmed it. She took out her weapon, confirming the new setting. In the tense solitude, Rose thought she heard something and paused to listen. The only discernible sound was that of occasional rain drops pattering on the ground as a light sprinkle began.

She was just about to signal through the trees with her torch to let the Doctor at the other end know she was ready, when she was suddenly startled by his unexpected voice from behind.

"Rose?"

She jumped and whirled around to see the Doctor standing there. She clutched a hand to her chest above her pounding heart. "Blimey! Don't sneak up on me like that. What is it? What's wrong?"

In contrast to her startled state, his own voice was calm and smooth. "We're going to have to keep moving. We need to go around this instead."

Rose shook her head. "But…there is no going around it. You said the ship must be somewhere within this field, so we have to get through. Otherwise we'd just be going in circles."

He took a step forward. "I was wrong. I now believe the illusion is merely a distraction, making us think we need to get inside. But in reality, we should go around it to get to where we need to be." He moved even closer, crouching slightly to bring his eyes level with hers. "Come with me."

She couldn't seem to tear her eyes from his. They were deep, seductive and mesmerizing. Unsettlingly so, like the power cast by a dark spell. "I…I don't think that's the best way," she managed to say, voicing her unsteady objection.

She watched as his right hand lifted to touch her cheek. She shivered as he made contact. Not because she felt the intense sensation that normally accompanied his touch, but because she didn't. It left her cold inside, even as his voice whispered out like a soft caress.

"This is the best way, I assure you." His hand moved from her cheek to trace over her lips, his thumb following the curve of the supple flesh. "You know I adore you more than life itself, and I wouldn't lead you astray, my love."

The skin between her brows crinkled to a frown. Not that she would have ever complained about hearing such endearments from the Doctor before, but this smooth romantic before her just didn't fit his character. Something was definitely wrong here. A chill ran down her spine as the Doctor's past words flashed in her mind.

'This race is capable of being masters of deception… Once you're out there, even if somewhat protected, nothing may be what it seems.'

She captured his hand in hers, and cradled it to her as she whispered. "Tell me something?"

"Anything at all," he breathed out intensely.

Okay, now she knew this wasn't right. She unceremoniously dropped his hand, then raised her other which held the weapon, pointing it at the apparent man whom, under normal circumstances, she never could have imagined taking such action against. But these days it seemed nothing about her life could be classified as normal.

Her voice was low and threatening as her eyes held him in place. "What have you done with the Doctor?"