AN: Sorry for the delay. Thanks to everyone whose reviewing. I promise to try and have my updates set to a regular schedule from now on. The chapters a bit longer than usual to make up for it and I even threw in a teaser for the next chapter at the end. Now on with the story...

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The air had grown thick with tension.

Rose hated it.

The Doctor's brown was furrowed so low that Rose half feared it would soon become permanent, Jinx looked like she was on the verge of running – towards what, Rose wasn't sure of – and she, herself, felt simply clueless. It wasn't as if anyone was stepping forward to offer any clues.

The Doctor strode forward ahead of them, and Rose noticed that Jinx had edged closer to her.

"You shouldn't worry. I'm the one who put him in a bad mood. He saw something that he really shouldn't have seen. It was my fault."

"What did he see?"

"It was nothing." Rose raised an eyebrow at her, "Nothing to concern yourself with." Jinx amended, and Rose resisted the urge to glare. She was not an idiot. There was something going on, and she knew – she didn't know how she knew – but it had something to do with her.

"I know about the diary by the way." Jinx offhandedly commented, quickly diverting the course of the conversation. Rose noticed, but said nothing. She wouldn't get anything out of Jinx; not now, at least.

"The diary?"

"The fake one you gave the Doctor, the same one that made him pretty much obsessed over the fact you may or may not be in stalker-like love with him. I know you're not psychotically in love with him, although there is love between the two of you. I've seen it." She motioned towards her head, "In here."

Rose wanted to enquire further, but Jinx had continued talking before she had a chance to.

"It was an ingenious idea. I would've stuck in a few sexual fantasies if I had written it, because he just seems like he'd squirm if he read those."

"Did you read all of it, all the way to the end?" Rose asked.

Jinx waved a hand slightly, "Yeah mostly, I gave up around the time you started rambling on about wedding dresses and honeymoons. For the life of me, I always get bored as soon as someone mentions eternally pledging vows of love dressed in white whilst surrounded by a the living nightmare of a little girl's fantasy."

"So not the marrying type?"

Jinx shook her head, "Not when it involves…what was it? White doves and unicorns? Really? I have no idea how he hasn't caught on yet. I mean it's so glaring obvious that only a dunce like him would be blind to it." She laughed lightly, "I'm not the marrying type, but love…" Her voice softened, "I get that. I just never understood why it needed all the extras. I like things like that simple."

Jinx looked away. There was sadness in her eyes that Rose empathised with. She had even considered reaching out, but it would have been a pointless action. Jinx did not seem like the person who liked to be comforted.

"You were on about the end of the book. Tell me I didn't miss out on some gooey dooey gold." She said sarcastically.

Rose stopped herself just in time from bursting out in a fit of laughter, "Gooey dooey?"

Even Jinx looked horrified by her choice of words. She swallowed back a grimace. "Sorry, I lost myself for a minute." Shaking her head, because she really needed to stop talking before thinking, she quickly added, "It won't happen again." Even though she was sure it would; it was a force of habit with her. "Go on."

"Oh, it's nothing…"

"Oh, please, the look on your faces screams everything but that." Jinx replied, "If you don't want to tell me then that's fine, but don't say it's nothing."

"I might have copied out a passage from a romance novel and pretended it was my own fantasy."

Jinx smirked, "Does this passage involve sex by any chance?"

Rose's cheeks tinted red.

"I'll take that as a yes." They both laughed, and for a moment Rose couldn't help but like Jinx.

She may not have trusted her motives completely; there was still something about her that made her wary and with both her and the Doctor keeping secrets then it wasn't a giant leap in logic that would bring about that distrust.

Yet in this moment, Jinx didn't seem so bad, and Rose missed having a girl to talk to. She had had many friends back home, but none of them who she could even talk to about the Doctor. Her former life at the Powell estate had never known anything about aliens, save for what could be seen in the Ridley Scott classic.

"Priceless. If only I could get a picture of the look on his face." Rose nodded in agreement, and they laughed again.

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The Doctor could hear them laughing behind him. A part of him wanted to shake his head, and mumble something about clucking chickens which of course, would've brought his thoughts to Cluksville, which was only a few planets shy of Barcelona – the planet, obviously – and had blue chickens which three beaks. They could cluck like a choir, a clucking choir obviously but with three different clucks each, he had rarely heard anything as cluckety as a clucking chicken choir.

He shook his head, pushing that part of him away. The other part of him was worried. Extremely worried.

Jinx's visions were usually set in stone. She was one of the few people who could alter time without risking numerous paradoxes in the future, but even the benefits of her species had an end. Paradoxes were still a risk, but to a much lesser extent. And even she knew that fixed events were not allowed to be altered; just like every other species knew. He could not tell from her vision, if what he had seen was a fixed event.

There was just no way he could tell.

Yet there had to be a way to avoid it. He couldn't allow Rose to be lost. Rose was…

Rose had saved him and he needed her. She kept him sane; kept him feeling alive after everything in his life had died. She had been his salvation…

She had saved his life.

And Jinx had prophesied their separation. And that hurt. It did. It really did. Pain ebbed when he had glanced at Rose after having seen what he had seen. A part of him wanted to keep his eyes solely trained on her, to make sure she didn't just disappear, but the bigger part of him refused him this. Logic told him better than that. Logic told him to look away and think clearly, but all he could think was that he didn't want to lose Rose.

And Jinx told him that there was only a few weeks left. Maybe months? That wasn't even remotely enough time to formulate a plan, to work out the variables, to figure out if it was a fixed event or otherwise. He needed time. Lots of it. And to a time lord, a lack of time wasn't usually a problem. In that department he was usually golden, but now…

The Doctor froze.

Golden…

His eyes widened, and he glanced back at Jinx momentarily.

Of course!

The gold that had been in her eyes; that was not of Jinx's doing. He had recognised that power; it was the power of the bad wolf, and like a sponge she had absorbed the power through the psychic link - a warning from the seams of time.

That meant that there was still time. He had been issued a warning from the most unlikely of sources.

"Doctor!"

He turned back as Rose called his name. He blinked, "Huh?"

"Where are you going? The elevator's here."

He frowned, "Sorry, what?" Rose nodded towards the wall.

Jinx was slipping the ring on to her finger. She closed her eyes, pressed the ring into the whole and under her breath, muttered, "Left, left, right, left, in, out, in, right, left, left, out." Each direction spoken was soon followed by the action itself.

Within moments, the elevator was revealed from its hiding place.

"Open sesame." Jinx said with a smirk, as the doors opened.

"Do you always do that with opening doors?" The Doctor asked. Rose threw in a questioning look. She, too, had heard the words spoken from Jinx before.

Jinx merely shrugged, "Pretty much when it opens because of my doing."

"Right…" The Doctor nodded.

The trio stepped on, and the doors slid shut behind them.

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Elevator music was being played once again.

Jinx frowned, silently cursing the irritating jingle being played. Rose, oblivious to the music, waited anxiously. And the Doctor smiled, moving to the music.

The elevator gave a ding, and the doors opened.

Three mouths hung open in surprise as they took in what they were seeing.

They stepped out of the elevator, each of them consumed by their own form of shock.

Jinx broke the silence.

"That is such a cliché." She said, as she took in the obnoxious creation in front of her, "If you're going to create a secret society, then who in their right minds puts up a giant statue of…"

Rose's face fell as she took in the statue's appearance. She turned to the Doctor, "Does that look a bit like Elvis to you?"

"…a deity then you might as well…" Jinx stopped talking, and raised a questioning eyebrow, "Who?"

The Doctor tilted his head, and squinted, "It does a bit." He said to Rose. "If you squint…not too hard though because then it looks like a giant blur and blurs resemble blurtanians and you can't distinguish between them at all."

"Who's Elvis?"

The Doctor and Rose shared a look. Shock was nothing compared to what they were feeling.

"What? Stop looking at each other like that. It's disturbing in a 'you-know-something-I-don't' kind of way."

Rose gave a small smile and said, "It just is a bit of a shock." She admitted.

"A big shock." The Doctor added.

"I mean, it's Elvis. He's the king of rock and roll."

"Thank you very much." The Doctor said, impersonating the man himself. He ran his hands through the edges of his hair, and had put his brainy specs on in place of black sunglasses.

Rose grinned at the Doctor. Jinx merely looked more confused.

"Yeah, I don't know who he is so this, whatever this actually is, is pretty much pointless. Let's move on and away from the statue."

Jinx moved to walk away, and Rose and the Doctor followed; the latter singing 'I ain't nothing but a hound dog' until enough elbow prodding convinced Rose to join in

Jinx looked back at the duo, and rolled her eyes. There were in the territory of the enemy and they were singing. Ridiculous.

After a few minutes, she came to a stop suddenly and the Doctor and Rose just barely managed to stop themselves from colliding into her.

They stopped singing.

"Jinx?" Rose questioned.

"Two hallways up on the left, large door. Inside they're preparing for the ceremony. In two minutes, Edmund-"

"It's Edward." The Doctor said.

Rose shook her head, "No, it is Edmund."

"Really?"

She sighed, "Yes."

"Edmund," Jinx continued, her voice louder this time, "is going to be brought in and tied to the ceremonial table. They'll chant for seven minutes, before one of them will come forward and an additional two minutes will result in a knife being plunged into Edmund's side."

"Ok, how do we stop it?"

"We need to get inside." The Doctor said. "Unnoticed, preferably."

"Oh come on! How are we all meant to get in there unnoticed? There are three of us." Jinx pointed to Rose, "She got kidnapped by them." Then at herself, "I got stabbed by one of them." And she brought her hand towards the Doctor before letting it drop half heartedly, "And well…I'm not even going to start on you."

"Oi! They haven't even met me."

"That's the point! You'll drive them insane."

"I do not drive people insane." Jinx and Rose shared a look, each resisting the urge to laugh. The Doctor turned around to Rose, "Rose, do I drive people insane?"

She took a moment, looked at Jinx, looked at the Doctor's pouting face before she said, "No, of course not." In the straightest manner she could muster.

The Doctor turned to Jinx, triumphant, "See, I do not drive people insane."

"You're like a restless puppy in the backseat. You'd drive anyone but a five year old insane."

He gave her a short pout, "I'm the Doctor."

"Really?" Jinx over exaggerated a gasp, "And here was me thinking you were the Nurse."

The Doctor ignored her while Rose stifled a giggle, "If anyone can do it then I can. Where's your optimism, Jinx?" he asked in a tone of voice that was on the verge of scolding.

Without missing a beat she stuck up her thumb and pointed in a direction, "About a few planets over that way. It got lost on the way to Neverland."

Rose smiled beside her as the Doctor rolled his eyes, "She's got a point though. We won't all be able to go in."

"You see, she agrees." Jinx smiled, "She makes sense." Her smile slid off, "So…"she drawled out, "Which of us is going to take the plunge?"

"The plunge?"

"Well, one of us has to be bait. I would normally offer but, well," She pointed to her side, "Stab me once, fool on me; stab me twice…then I'm an even bigger fool the second time."

"I don't remember that saying going that way." Rose said with a grin.

Jinx feigned ignorance, "Really? I could've sworn it did. Are you sure?"

Rose nodded.

The Doctor looked on amused.

"Well, I opt for the Doctor to be bait. If we're lucky you'll annoy them to surrender."

"Oi!"

"It does make the most sense." Rose amended, as the Doctor pouted again.

"Yeah," Jinx continued, "Rose can create a diversion while you're distracting. Then I can climb over to the balcony on the other side and once the distracting and diverting are in full swing then I can get down and release Edward."

"Edmund." Rose amended.

"I thought it was Edward." The Doctor said.

"It's Edmund."

Jinx let out a frustrated sigh, "Oh, they're practically the same. Does it-"

Rose interrupted, "Hold on, you said you'd climb across to another balcony."

"Oh, did I not mention? The room has two upper balconies. One of which is placed directly above Edmund. The door to it is too heavily guarded for me to make it over there in time, but the other one is easy enough to get into. All I have to do is get across."

"Can you do that?"

"I'm a professional thief." She replied with confidence, "Of course I can."

"Won't that hurt?" Rose asked, motioning her hand over Jinx's injury.

"I'm still drugged up. I'll be fine." She turned to the Doctor, "Can you keep talking long enough for me to get across unnoticed?"

Rose snorted a bit, but quickly covered it up with a cough, "Sorry."

"Oh, of course you can." Jinx said with a smile.

"Ok, so Rose will set off a cue. It'll be loud. I'll climb down quickly and get Edmund free and then…"

"We run?" The Doctor suggested.

"Yeah, pretty much." She closed her eyes, sensing what little time they had left, "Ok, we need to hurry. Rose will come with me upstairs to the balconies. You go down there. Wait for two minutes after they take Edmund in then you make your entrance. Try not to get caught."

The Doctor threw her a grin, "Aye aye Captain."

Jinx moved away for a moment, letting them have a moment to say their good lucks.

The Doctor and Rose looked towards each other, and smiled. "You better come back in one piece, alright?"

He nodded, "Wouldn't have it any other way. I prefer my appendages firmly attached."

"So do I."

They grinned, "Be careful, Rose. Your mother would have my head…well, she'd probably have my head for dinner, and the rest of me as leftover for the next week."

Rose laughed, "I will."

He reached forward and gave her a quick hug before he turned and pointed at Jinx, "Remember no revenge schemes. I will not have any blood on your hands."

Jinx rolled her eyes, and gave a wane smirk, and walked away with Rose without saying a word.

To Be Continued...

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AN: Ah I've got part of the next chapter written - almost a thousant words - so I'll give you a little teaser.

Open-mouthed, knife raised in hand, Sleev looked across the room and asked, "Who are you?"

"Well, that's what I said, but did they listen?" The Doctor shook his head, "Oh no, they didn't. No, they just tied me to a post naked."

lol...Well, with that image I leave you. Review if you enjoyed. :D