Rose panted for breath, her heart pounding in her chest as she peeked around the corner of the cave wall. She just had to get the third key in the lock and she would be able to rescue the Doctor. The four women had already opened the first door together, and then split up.The others had managed to get their keys in place, but Rose had run into some very unpleasant guards. She had spent the better part of twenty minutes ducking in and out of caverns trying to lose them. Finally, she had reached the cavern she had been looking for all along. The map Kema had given her had been lost when she had to cross over that incredibly deep ravine. She looked up, surveying the walls of the cave. They were jutty and full of crags, so she knew she shouldn't have too hard a time finding places to get her feet into. It was going to be a challenging climb, but she knew she could do it. And at least she would have some help.
Taking off the grappling hook that was slung over her shoulder, she letting the rope drop to the ground. She looped the cord into her hand, twisting it slightly and then holding it in place. After making several loops, she held it tightly in her fingers. She then took the rope at the end of the hook into her hand. After stepping on the end of the rope, she began to whip the hook around in circles, putting her shoulder into it. When she had a good enough momentum going, she released the hook and sent it flying into the air. It landed near a small ledge high up the wall. It successfully gripped the edge and stayed put when she gave it a strong tug. She braced a foot against the wall and pulled herself upward as she began to climb the wall.
Rose timed her movements so that she was never carrying her own dead weight. Thankfully those years of Torchwood training had provided her with plenty of strong muscles and increased physical stamina. It wasn't long before she had scaled half the wall, but then found her foot stuck in a narrow crevice. She wrenched her ankle in order to pry her boot loose, cursing under her breath as a stabbing pain shot up her leg. Despite the wave of pain, she continued on until she reached the landing at the top. Rose oofed softly as she pulled herself up onto the landing. There at the top was exactly what she was looking for. She grinned and pumped her fist at the sight of the fifth and final door. Rushing to it, she pulled out the triple headed key and promptly stuck it into the lock. With some effort she was able to turn it, disengaging the lock.
Throwing the heavy door open with all her might, Rose stormed into the high security cellblock. There were rows upon rows of cells, but all of them were empty. Where was he? The security footage showed him in this area. (Not that she had long to look. The small explosion she had caused only provided a few minutes diversion.) Grumbling to herself, she turned around and headed back for the door. All the time they had spent opening those bloody doors! Who hid prisoners in a super secret mountainside prison, anyway? Apparently this lot did.
Ever since they had landed here this morning, things had been going all pear shaped. At first, the inhabitants welcomed them with open arms. They were treated with kindness and even a bit of reverence. That was until The Doctor wielded the sonic to re-light their sacred flame, and they deemed him a sorcerer. Magic was not held in a positive regard on this planet, so he was seen as an immediate threat. Several hulking Androgonians had tackled him and wrestled him to the ground. Rose and the others made a plea to the council of elders to have him released, promising they would leave immediately. (Well, Donna more or less demanded they release him.) After a great deal of discussion and pleas of desperation, they finally convinced the elders to let them run their gauntlet trial. If they succeeded in opening the five hidden doors, they would find the Doctor
They provided them with one tool each, and let them choose from an assortment. Donna chose a bright lamp, Kema a map, Hikari a compass, and Rose chose the grappling hook. The catch was that they would be hunted, and if they were caught by the guards, they too would be imprisoned indefinitely. Were they to succeed, the lot of them would be allowed to make a run for the TARDIS. Mind you, they were still going to be hunted as they made a run through the jungle. But they would worry about that when the time came. Right now, she needed to find the Doctor. Something was telling her that the Androgonians weren't going to play fair.
Rose stood looking around the cellblock. Something seemed funny. Why was this entire block empty? From what the council had said, releasing prisoners was almost unheard of. They had seemed like fair people, even if a bit primitive in their beliefs systems. But things were not always as they seemed. She had definitely learned that from both her life with the Doctor and working for Torchwood.
"Think Tyler, think! What am I not seeing?" Rose coached herself, looking around again. She was scanning for any detail that she might have missed. What was escaping her attention? Had the images of the Doctor in a cell been a ruse? Had something altered her perception of things? And then it hit her. Perception filter. "That's it!
She whirled around frantically, looking for some insignificant little detail that looked slightly out of place. Then it came into her line of vision- a tiny light that was lit up in front itty bitty panel. Rose rushed to the panel and pulled a small knife out of her pocket. Wedging the tip of the knife at the edge of the raised surface, Rose pried off the front of the panel. Inside was a circuit board and a mess of wires. She stared at it for a moment, uncertain as to which wire to cut. Green..green wires were usually for disengaging locks. Or was it blue? No...no, definitely green. Using the blade of the knife, she cut the offending wire and suddenly the lighting in the room completely changed. There were people in the cells, but they were imprisoned behind what looked like thick sheets of glass. She turned around and was met with the sight of the Doctor grinning brilliantly. He waved at her from behind the clear wall and pointed to a small keypad on the border of the door.
Rose approached and leaned in to get a closer look at the keypad. There were tiny buttons with strange symbols on them. She frowned a little, wondering why the TARDIS translation circuit wasn't working. It had worked fine on auto-translating the spoken language and bits of writing Rose had seen during her time here. The Doctor was gesturing wildly, trying to convey a message to Rose. She frowned, unable to decipher what he was trying to say. He was pointing to the keypad and started using BSL. It was a good thing she had taken that sign language course for extra credit!
She held up her hands, motioning for him to slow down. He smiled sheepishly and mouthed a "sorry". Then he began to spell again, but slower this time. She followed his movements, piecing together the words. It a couple of minutes, but the Doctor got out what he was trying to say and stopped signing.
"Pictures...Okay? Directions. What in the bloody hell does that mean?" she mumbled. She sighed audibly, arms crossed over her chest. Leaning in close again, she peered at the keypad. There were sixteen total buttons, but there was no rhyme or reason to them. Suddenly she noticed that four of them had arrows on them.
"Ohhh, directions! North, East, South, West," she murmured. And then she noticed that four of the buttons looked like a flower, a sun, a leaf, and a snowflake. "Seasons!" She looked up at the Doctor again and saw he was holding the little display screen of the sonic up to the glass. "West, Winter, Up, Apple." She saw that there were buttons corresponding for each and pressed them in that order. There was a loud whirring noise and the glass began to move. It lifted slowly, revealing the Doctor behind it.
"Ah Rose Tyler, you're brilliant! You figured it all out!" he cried, beaming at her as he pulled her into an embrace.
"I thought you didn't have the sonic," she said with a laugh as she hugged him back. "Why didn't you just let yourself out?
"Ah, wellll, I may have shorted it out. Well, not completely. The display still works, as you saw," he said, pulling back a little to look at her face. He stared down at her for a moment and caressed his thumb over the apple of her cheek.
She smiled as she nuzzled his hand. "I'm glad you're okay," she said softly, her eyes shining with unshed tears. Then she laughed. "This is lark, innit? Me saving you. Of course the ladies deserve their fair share of the credit." She flashed him that classic Rose Tyler tongue touched grin, and he shook his head at her.
"I think it's fair to say that you're a hero today, Rose Tyler," he said with a chuckle, tucking a stray lock behind her ear. "But I think right now-" He was interrupted mid sentence by the sound of blaring alarms. They both looked toward the door and then back at each other.
"Donna!" they said in unison. Just then he offered her a hand, grinning at her.
. "Should be easy to get out of here. We're pretty good at running." She grinned at him and winked.
"I don't know, Rose," he whispered back, his brows knitted together. "I have a bad feeling about this
"Since when are you the timid sort?" Rose chided, smirking at him. "S' gonna be okay, Doctor. We just need to find Donna and the others and get out of here." She smiled and squeezed his hand.
"You're right. I'm worrying," he said quietly, nodding.Then his countenance changed as he flashed her a bright grin. "Allons-y Rose Tyler!" Their hands clasped together and made their way out of the cellblock and to the outer door. The Doctor looked down at the drop, eyebrows raised. "Just how did you get up here?"
Rose grinned. "Had to use a grappling hook to climb the wall. Good thing I'm in pretty good shape." She laughed then and nudged the Doctor playfully. He grinned back at her and then nodded.
"Okay, why don't I go down first? That way if you run into any trouble, I'll be right there," he said, motioning to the rope.
"Alright, that's fine. Go on then," Rose said with a nod.
The Doctor proceeded to easily rappel down the steep wall until he reached the ground safely. He looked up at Rose, grinning like an idiot. He had a bit of fun with that. Now he was waiting down below and motioned for her to start down. Rose eased herself down and began to propel down the side of the wall. Suddenly there was a raucous down below and she could hear the Doctor shouting.
"Prisoner escaping! Prisoner escaping!" a guard cried.
She could hear the woosh of arrows being shot in her direction. Three landed near her, the sharp steel tips wedged into the tight crevices of the rock face. She was trying to descend as quickly as possible when something struck her in the back. Red-hot searing pain shot through her lower half, reaching every nerve ending in her body, radiating from her back.
"Rose! No!" she heard the Doctor scream.
Rose was only slightly aware of the spreading warmth of blood seeping into her clothes as her head began to spin. Unable to remain fully conscious any longer, her arms gave out and the rope slipped from her fingertips. And then suddenly, the whole world went black.