A/N: You know what sucks? When that one thing, that scene, that one bit you want to write, really want to write, you end up not being able to write because getting to that point would basically require an act so OOC that you may as well just assassinate the characters. So how in the bloody hell do I get to where I want to go? How?! DAMNIT!

So that said, I literally had to make this up as I went along and then add some players that I really didn't want to add. Sorry. But, oh well, hopefully plan B will get me to the starting line well enough. I think I'm good from here.

~~oooOOOooo~~

It took a moment for the TARDIS to come to life, and for the hologram of the interface to appear at the main console. The image of Nine looked troubled.

"Good morning, Rose."

"It's morning, but I wouldn't class it as being particularly good."

Nine's brow tightened as he moved toward her. His head had the telltale tilt of question and concern. "Why do you feel different to me, Rose? Why can I sense Time Lord inside you?"

On any other moment, Rose would have had a couple of very witty answers for that question. Time being of the essence, however, she made do with immediate truth. "Apparently the Grand Master felt it was necessary to give me full Time Lord consciousness and regenerative powers." She pressed her hand onto the top of the console. "The Doctor's Mum is here, and apparently she was tasked by Rassilon to give me to deluxe package."

"Oh," he answered with a crease in his brow. "And the Doctor, does he know?"

"Yes. Both of them do, actually."

"And?"

"Thrilled," she stated flatly. "But we have much bigger problems, several of them in fact, and we can't waste time with explanations right now."

He folded his arms across his chest, tight, and leaned slightly backward as though to give himself more height. "Right-oh, then. What's this about stepping up the schedule?"

"What's the probability of getting you fully active in, say, oh, the next little while?"

"If the next little while is about three months or so, then we're in good standing."

"By tonight?"

He shook his head. "Impossible."

"Nothing is impossible," she said with tightly pursed lips. She drummed her fingers on the counter. "I've defied impossible more than once." She wandered around the console and licked at her lip as she pulled the keyboard toward her and started running calculations. "You've grown enough that we can move toward the Block Transfer process."

"No. I'm not…"

"Are you telling me that your computer is glitching, TARDIS? Because this says you're good to go."

His jaw shifted. "But you're not ready. The Doctor and I haven't yet completed our calculations to make this work and keep you safe." He saw her fierce determination and shook his head with urgency. "Bring in the Doctor, we will discuss this. We go no further unless he is here."

She opened her mouth to speak.

"I'm not letting you even attempt to try anything without him being here." He pointed sharply in her direction. "And you should know better just how he'll react if you go ahead and try. The fact you're even considering it will get you a decent glare."

She slouched backward and nodded in agreement. "You're right," she acquiesced gently. "I can't do this without him." She tapped at her teeth. "How about trying to get a message across time and space? You and I can do this, yeah?"

"Oh, you're going to push this, aren't you?"

She held her finger and thumb a mere millimeter apart. "Just a little teenie tiny bit." She slumped at his look of no. "Just one little hypercube, that's all."

He raised a finger. "One. That's it." He moved to stand beside her at the console. "Who are you trying to reach, the other Doctor?"

Her lips pursed. "No."

"Who," he muttered with a warning tone. "There aren't any other Time Lords who can intercept the cube."

"I need you to throw it back a few years."

"You say that as though it is such an easy thing to do."

She grinned a toothy smile, and stroked the console in a loving manner. "I have such faith in my beautiful baby girl. If anyone can do it, you can."

"Yeah," he chuckled with a shake of his head. "And there are times, you know, that all the flattery in the universe will still earn you a negative response." He winked. "But I can try. Who are we looking for then?"

"Rassilon."

"Absolutely not!"

Her mouth gaped. "Well that was an awfully quick shut down."

"You don't want to go messing about with him, Rose," he warned darkly. "I won't facilitate any form of communication between you and that Time Lord. He's too dangerous. Not even the Doctor can protect you from him."

"Yeah, well like it or not, I think we're going to need him." She rubbed at her brow and winced. "I've got a very unsettling feeling, and I don't know that the Doctor's going to be able to get me through this without help."

"Believe in him."

"I do."

There was a strangled yelp from the doorway. Both the interface image of Nine and Rose twisted their bodies and glares toward the sound. Rose's jaw dropped more in annoyance than shock to see Marcus' right hand soldierman standing in the doorway, swinging a half-sized nightstick around his finger.

"Oh, you have to be kidding me," she snarled under her breath. She strode a step forward to address him. "This is a restricted area, Jackson. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Not going anywhere," he slid back with a laugh. He made a point of looking around. "Wow. This is something else, isn't it? I was told that you might be working on something good in here, but I never thought for an instant it would be this good."

"This is none of your business, now please leave." She leaned around him. "Spencer! Call security and have this man removed from my Lab."

Jackson leaned down with a sneer. "Yeah. He's slightly indisposed right now."

She backed up quickly to the console. "What did you to do him?"

"Nothing," he said with a shrug. "He tripped and fell. Banged that nerd head of his. Not much I could do."

Rose immediately sprung into a run to check on her assistant, but was caught by the collar of her shirt. She yelped as she was pulled with her back into the chest of the Soldier and held firm on place by his arm across her neck.

"Oh, you're making such a monumental mistake," she growled as she lightly gave a struggle against his hold.

"Why, because your Doctor will get mad?" He laughed. "But he's not here, right now, is he? He's tied up in a meeting, Rose. One of those ones that he can't get out of." He ran the night stick down her cheek. "Just so we're clear, I'm not scared of him," he purred darkly into her ear. "I don't fear the Time Lord."

She remained in place and shared a look with the TARDIS interface image. "Oh, but maybe you should give some thought to the danger posed by a Time Lady," she grunted as she threw head backward to crash hard against his nose. As he stumbled backward, she held both her hands together, and spun to smash him across the jaw.

She jogged a couple of steps away, and toward the console. She shook her hands violently as she whimpered. "Oh God, that hurt so much more than I was expecting it to."

Jackson spat bloodstained saliva at the ground. "Feisty, aren't you?"

Rose was rightly confused. "What are you doing," she snarled. "Why are you behaving like a comic book bag guy going after the hero? What's your purpose of coming in here and behaving like a dickhead?"

"Because this thing you're working on, it's alien tech and we want it."

"Who is we?"

The Assistant Director strode into the vault and set his hands on his hips. "We, would include me."

"Oh-Kay," she breathed. "And just who are you, exactly? Because I'm just going to hazard a guess and say that you're not who we think you are."

"Quite right," he said with a smile. "I'm an old acquaintance of your Doctor."

She staggered back up against the console. "Oh for the love of God, please tell me that you're not the Master?"

Marcus raised his head and laughed. "Oh, why no." He dropped his head to look back down. "But he was my pupil." He moved to within only a foot of her. "As was your Doctor."

"You can't be Time Lord," she challenged. "He would have known. The Doctor would have felt your presence. You've worked together for twelve months now, he would have known."

"Well, that's the thing with regenerations," he countered. "You can hide if you need to." He leaned down to her. "Especially when you're pretending to be dead."

"This is the part where I say oh shit, and cry out for the Doctor to help me, isn't it?"

Marcus laughed. "The fearless Rose Tyler, Bad Wolf, the child who inhaled the whole of the Time Vortex and wiped out an entire Dalek Fleet with the wave of her hand, reducing herself to calling to her Doctor for help?" He tsked loudly. "I am very disappointed in you."

"Well," she ventured with only a small shake in her voice. "It's such a good thing my goal in life isn't to impress a creepy Time Lord, isn't it?" She swallowed hard and looked to Nine for assistance. "Do something," she hissed. "I can't take on a Time Lord by myself."

"I am nonfunctional," Nine injected quickly. "If you're looking for a TARDIS to escape, I'm not going to be able to assist you. I have no access to the Eye of Harmony for the final Block Transfer Protocol to make me fully operational. Leave her alone."

"The energy is here," Marcus snarled as he grabbed her wrist and twisted it to drive her to her knees. "I can feel it running through your veins." He held up a small knife. "But am I going to release that power?"

She eyed the knife and weighed the potential scenarios through her mind. The blade glinted in the light of the TARDIS coral and she gaped with horror. "Rassilon, help me."

~~oooOOOooo~~

Spencer stirred from his heap on the floor. He let out a moan as he rubbed at his head and slapped together a dry tongue to the roof of his mouth.

"What the bloody heck happened?"

He looked up quickly to the open vault door and to the voices he could hear inside. He didn't scuffle to the door – he didn't have to. There was only one thing that he could do. He pulled out his phone and dialed for help.

~~oooOOOooo~~

The slow life. Wake up. Eat. Work. Sleep. Wake up again.

Was this what he had really signed up for? After almost a millennium of freedom to travel all of Space and Time and experiencing the wonders of the entire universe. Endless miles of adventure and freedom.

…And now here he was sitting in a meeting with the Torchwood financial Board discussing the economic future of the Alien Weapons Research Division. If he had a knife right about now, he'd probably end it all.

He was slouched so deeply into his chair so as to have only the very rise of his butt sitting on the very edge of the chair, and the tops of his shoulders on the backrest, but he watched the discussion with mild attention. Ultimately, the outcome of the meeting would directly affect his department, so he had to at least feign interest.

He sorely needed an out to this hell. Something. Anything. Oh Rassilon send an invading alien army.

There was a vibration in his jacket pocket, and he covertly popped in his earpiece.

"Rose" he whispered hoarsely. "Save me. If you truly love me you will find a way to get me out of this meeting."

"Doc, it's Spencer. Buddy, you gotto get down here to the lab."

"Still in Hell right now, Spencer. But I've been assured that I can get the bus out of here in a half hour. What's up?"

"It's Rose."

He sat up fast. "Is she okay? He held up a hand to silence a querying Board Member.

"No, mate. She's not. Seems like there's a Time Lord party going on that you weren't invited to."

"Meaning?"

"Borusa and Rassilon – those names mean anything to ya, man?"

The Doctor was out of his chair immediately. He made no apology as he blasted out of the room. "Do what you can to keep her safe. I'm on my way."