A/N:
Summary: Rose has to get Braxiatel back to his capsule. Romana needs to answer her phone!
Notes: Mental note: Don't listen to Jeff Wayne's version of War of the Worlds while writing (effing brilliant though it is)... it really does mess up the flow a bit. too many times over this past two hours I've paused to just listen...
Anyway: My Friday offering that I will hope will be able to cover you across the weekend until I can return in a couple of days to keep going.
One thing that I've determined I really like about holographic communications is that you can put everyone in the same room at once - even when they do happen to be millions of miles apart. Gawd, that makes it so much easier to write.
There is one section here that I know will roll some eyes and have people huff and say "Really? Again?" My response is, yeah. Really AND again... I quite like my running themes, and this just might end up one of them...
No, not really... it was just something that felt like it worked. Couldn't think of anything else, so ran with what I know. HA! And hey, what's good for Brax must be good for others, right?
I really hope you enjoy. I also hope I managed at least one gasp or snicker for you in this chapter. Next chapter will be fuuuuuuuuun to write, can't wait!
~~oooOOOooo~~
Rose Tyler wasn't often terrified. She had been fairly well desensitised to it as a youngster on the Estates, sneaking in horror movie showings when her mum was out, or sneaking into to R-rated showings with Mickey of Shareen. Travelling with the Doctor had only further desensitised her to what lurked in the shadows. In fact, thinking back, she couldn't remember the last time she truly felt a sense of fear – at least not since the day she'd stumbled into the wrong TARDIS and had her hand and her heart taken by the man within…
…But now? Right now, at this very moment, Rose Tyler had to admit to herself that she was scared. No, worse than that: She was properly terrified.
Irving Braxiatel was probably one of the strongest, fearless men she had ever met. In the almost fourteen years that she'd known him, she'd only ever seen him walk tall with pride and unwavering strength. His broad shoulders and confident gait exuded as much power as his mate's much more delicately proportioned figure did. When he spoke, people listened. When he gave an order, people jumped. What he wanted, he got. He could cut someone down to a cower with a simple look. The only person in the universe he would ever back down to was Romana, and even then, he stood tall in the shadow behind her – content and proud to be there. Her silent and viciously protective sentinel.
Not once had she seen the man brought to his knees. She'd never seen him cry out in anything less than anger or frustration. So, to see him now, on his knees with his arms wrapped around his head and crying out with agony, that completely terrified her. If Brax couldn't stand up to whatever was attacking him, then who could?
She skipped from foot to foot with indecision and worry as to whether or not it was safe to attend to him. Her head flicked back along the path they'd taken to this point in search of his capsule. Darkness was falling quickly, and all she could see of the ship from this distance was the glint of the sun off her silver-steel shell. She considered rushing back to see if she could work out how to reach out to the Doctor or Romana to come help, but quickly remembered she had absolutely no idea how to operate any part of that complicated console of his to even try. She looked back to her brother on the ground and instead decided to try all that she could to try and help him on her own.
He didn't shrug her off at all when she dropped at his side and tried to lift his head from the dewy blue grasses, but he didn't release the hold of his arms around his head, either. The cries that continued to erupt from his throat were becoming hoarse, and the man struggled with each inhale barely able to draw in enough breath to power his cries.
"God, Brax," Rose whimpered pathetically. "What's happening? How can I help?"
One of his arms flailed urgently toward her. It searched the space between them and finally slapped a hard strike against her arm. His hand struggled to find her, and when it did, Braxiatel clutched her arm tightly. He pulled hard on her to try and pull him out of his pained position.
"Help me," he pleaded through his gulping breaths when he was able to finally look into her face. His eyes were soaked with tears, his face as red as magenta fruits, and his expression so pained and in agony that he was barely recognisable. "Screams, Rose. They're all scream…" his back stiffened upward, then arched back as he let out another cry. Both hands flew to his temples and he clutched at his hair with both fists.
Rose knew she had only the one singular option right now. Although he wasn't necessarily a big lad, he still had at least a half foot of height and sixty pounds of weight over her. She had to very quickly devise a way to be able to carry him back to the capsule.
She did her best to curl her arms around his chest and let out a long grunting groan as she tried to pull him toward her in a levering action that might haul him up to his feet. "I need your help," she moaned out loudly. "C'mon, Brax. We have to get you to your capsule."
"My head," he cried out with a thrash of his chest that pulled him away from her. "They're tearing it apart."
"Yeah," she grit out. "And if you don't help me here, they will and you will die." She pulled him against her again, slowly and awkwardly getting up onto her feet. She leaned over him and held her forearms underneath his armpits. "And you're not leaving me here alone to die, Brax. You promised me!"
He was more than a dead weight to her. His thrashing under the pressure inside his mind fought against her. "I can't," he grit through his teeth. He let out another cry. His back arched back so far that he pulled from her hold completely. He fell forward onto his knees into the grasses, his rump was up in the air, his chest on the ground. His arms curled around his head once more.
Rose stood over him in a lean, and while it would have been perfectly understandable for her to fall into defeat, she allowed anger and frustration to rise instead. She let out her own yell before she stomped her foot hard on the ground. "For Gods, sake, Brax. Stop this nonsense and get up on your damn feet." She stomped her foot again and pointed behind her toward the capsule in the distance. "You're a Time Lord, A damn Cardinal in the high council of Gallifrey, mate of her Lady President Romana. This behaviour is a disgrace to you, to your status, and to your mate. So find your balls and get up off the floor, right now!"
His hand swatted out behind him in search of her. Rose rushed forward and took his arm. "Come on," she urged through her teeth as she gave a grunt and finally levered him to his feet. He slumped heavily against her, which made the both of them stumble off to one side. She caught them before they could fall and curled herself around him. "I've got you," she assured him with a strained voice. "But I'm really going to need you to step up and help out."
He managed to find his footing, but there was really no strength to it. His face was still heavily set in a wince of agony, and his breath was short as he fought against it. His lean on her was heavy and extremely awkward for them both.
"Are you okay?" she asked him as they made the slow and painful trek back to the capsule. With each step away from the pit, Braxiatel seemed to make strides toward fighting off whatever was in his head. He still stumbled and weighed heavily on her, but it was easing. "I – I'm sorry about…"
He gasped wetly through an open mouth and shook his head. "It. It was the right…" he gulped then let out a moan. "What I needed to hear." He panted out with a lift of his lip and a pained tilt in his head. "But, we … we will talk … about what you said about my balls later," he grit out.
"Yeah. Let's not, ta," she said with a moan.
Rose pressed her hand to the capsule door and wasn't surprised that it opened easily underneath her palm. "Almost there," she assured him gently. "Just a couple more steps." She turned in the doorway with her back to the console to help support him through the doors.
Braxiatel dared take a last look in the direction of the pit before he accepted her help to get inside. He saw a shimmering blue mist rush across the grasses toward him. There was no time to duck and cover before it was upon him. His arms splayed outward and his back arched deeply as though his chest was being pulled upward into the air. Once again, a long cry was ripped out through his throat.
Before he could be driven to his knees once more, Rose rushed from the capsule and ran around him. With a cry of her own, she rushed him. Rose braced her shoulder and collided with him hard. Braxiatel was driven from the misting cocoon that had enveloped him and landed on his hip and shoulder in the doorway of the capsule. Rose leapt over him and grabbed hold of the shoulders of his Oxford. She let out a long grunting cry and hauled him across the floor.
"Close the doors!" she demanded of the ship. "Keep whatever that is away from him!"
Immediately, the doors slammed shut. The snick of the lock to secure the doors was like a gunshot across the deck. Rose dragged Braxiatel to beside the centre console. Her effort was such, that when she finally let go of his shirt, she stumbled and fell backward onto her butt.
"God, you're a heavy one," she cursed under her breath as she quickly scuttled around him. He was out cold. His face was a pallor of grey and white, his breathing rapid and short. Rose quickly held her hair back over her shoulder and dropped her ear onto his chest, first to the left where she felt the slow but strong beat of one heart, and then to the right. All she could hear was the thump from the left side of his chest.
She knew how to deal with this. Phiroi had taught her back in the early days of their work relationship. It needed to be kick-started with a good and solid punch to his chest. Oh, but she'd never had the full strength to do it back in the medical capsule. She also couldn't imagine herself capable of hitting this man that hard.
"Life or death," she muttered to herself as she leaned over him and cradled both of her hands together and lifted them above her head. "Got no choice. I'm sorry, Brax."
She brought her hands down as a single fisted mallet onto the right of his chest. There was nowhere near enough force in her strike to have broken a single one of his ribs. She didn't feel enough of a depression in his chest to believe that it did any good. She dropped her ear and listened against his chest. Nothing. She tried again, and then tried a third time. There was still no response and the only thing she seemed to achieve is to bruise up her wrists.
Finally, she rested her ear against his chest, feeling the sharp and shallow rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. The lack of thumping underneath her ear was too unsettling.
One heart was a survivable condition, though, she thought with a flash in hr eyes. If she could get him back to the house, then Phiroi and his teams could get that second one going well enough. She looked toward the console with hope in her expression; hope that quickly fell when she realised that she had no idea at all how to fly the ship or even try to use its communication features. She still hadn't been taught how to use it.
She slumped and then moved back over the unconscious Time Lord. "Brax," she said softly in urging. "Wake up, please? I need you."
He remained silent on the floor, his head awkwardly turned to one side.
"Braxiatel, please?" she pleaded. "Please wake up. I don't know what to do." Tears welled in her eyes, blurring her vision and she began to gently shake him. "Please, Brax. Please. You promised me. Safe till we get home, yeah?" She dropped and pressed her forehead against his temple, hoping he could feel her worry and upset. "I can't get us home without you."
His breath drew up as a hitch, but he didn't wake. A shudder rocked him from head to toe, but it stopped with him slumping into an even deeper pile on the ground. There was a quiet thud at his hip, and Rose dropped her eyes. His sleek black phone had fallen from his pocket and for the first time in what felt like an age, Rose began to feel some hope.
She snatched the phone from the ground and flicked it upward, holding it over his face to unlock the screen. With a fast swiping of her fingers, she flipped through windows to get to his contact listing. She ignored the amount of times his name appeared with a number next to it – his other selves, she assumed – and scrolled fast to find the first recognisable name she could.
"Hearts," was the first of such, and it actually made her smile a little. She had expected him to put his wife in as "Romana", and to see her so affectionally listed as Hearts made her whimper just a little for him.
"You romantic fool," she breathed out with an affectionate look toward him as she thumbed the contact and held the phone to her ear. She lightly ran her fingers through the short hair around his temples and along the side of his head. "Don't worry. I'll get us home. I promise you. Just hold on, okay?"
~~oooOOOooo~~
Romana juggled a tray of hot beverages and a box filled with pastries as she entered the front door of the house. Once the children were safely at school and daycare, she'd made a stop at the local bakery to pick up some goodies for the ladies and lords who had so diligently answered her husband's call for clean up. It hadn't been a pleasant scene for any of them to have to wander into, let alone clean, and she felt that some Earth treats would be a pleasant and welcomed reward for their efforts…
…And Omega knows she felt like some sticky sweet treats herself. Not as much of a fan of pie as her husband and brother in law – in fact she really didn't like magnolia fruit all that much to begin with – she didn't think it entirely fair that it was just the men of the house that got to experience a treat like that.
She wore a smile of expectation as she dropped the car keys into a dish just beyond the door and set the tray of coffee and tea beside it. She shrugged off her coat with a shake of her shoulders and let it drop to her wrists. With a flourish and a flick of her hand, she hung it from the hook beside her husband's coat. She took a step forward and lowered her nose against the thick cashmere fabric of his coat, drawing in a deep breath of the light cologne he wore.
She'd admit it to no one, even him, but she really did revere and adore that man on an exceptionally extreme level. Any moment spent without him drew a pain within her hearts. He was her rock and her saviour. Even when he was at his absolute worst, she still saw him at his very best. Both of her hearts beat for him, and she'd gladly give up all of her remaining regenerations to save him.
A jaunty Earth tune, an old number from the twentieth century that Rose had set as the ring tone for the man in question sounded from her phone. Brax truly and honestly hated the song and turned his nose up with disgust when he discovered it was his very specific tune. Romana, on the other hand, loved it. She'd always hold that few additional seconds to hear the old Disco song. She sang along to the song, curious as to why she was being called when he was home. With a look to where his capsule was typically parked, she noted that it was gone. In her annoyance to discover that he wasn't home as she expected him to be, she folded her arms across her chest and very deliberately allowed the phone to ring out.
"Oh no," she huffed out with annoyance. "I'm not talking to you right now."
"Everything okay, Romana?"
"Yes, Doctor. Perfectly so, thank you." she called back as she pocketed the phone in the hip pocket of her trousers and walked to the table. With clear frustration, she dumped the tray at the centre of it.
The Doctor scuffled back just slightly to dodge the splash of one of the cups and looked up at her. "Yeah. Not quite feeling that from you right now." He lifted his eyes. "What's he done, then?"
Daddy Cool sounded through the phone again. Romana ignored it buzzing and singing at her hip. "Why would you think your brother had done anything?"
"You not answering his call for one," he answered with a backward slouch in his chair. "And while I might sometimes enjoy the music of Boney M from time to time when I've had a few rather strong beverages, I do prefer to hear a song in its entirety rather than short sounbites looping over and over."
"Let me silence it then," she offered with a very sweet voice and smile. She flicked it to silence mode and tossed it into the middle of the table. "So? What did I miss?"
The Doctor flicked his fingers between two men. "Nothing new, just these two extending the argument that was already in play when you left." His eyes dropped to the phone as it started to buzz and jump on the table. "He's being pretty insistent, Romana. Perhaps you should answer."
"As he usually is when I ignore him," she said with a sigh. "He will give up soon enough."
"He's with Rose," he said with dryness settling along his tongue.
Her eyes widened. "He's with Rose?" She shot forward and snatched the phone from the table. "Where did they go?"
"I really don't know," he answered. "Just said he needed to have a word with her."
She swept her thumb across the face of the phone and held up her finger to him to order silence when she answered the phone. She tried to keep the worry out of her voice when she answered – hopefully hey were only at the store and he was asking if she needed anything.
"Braxiatel," she said with forced flatness in her tone.
"Romana!" Rose's voice answered with relief. "Thank God you finally picked up!"
The shock in her voice was unhidden. "Rose?" Her eyes flicked toward the Doctor as he quickly rose to a stand. She held up her hand to him to ask for calm. "Why are you using Braxiatel's phone? Where is he?"
There was a stammer at the other end of the line, and Rose spoke so quickly with a voice so full of fear and panic that Romana could barely understand her.
"Rose, Rose," she urged with a worried look toward the Doctor. "Calm down. I can't understand you. What's happened?"
"What's going on?" the Doctor asked urgently.
Romana held her hand up to him. She wasn't looking at him, instead she looked off to one side to concentrate on the other end of the conversation. "What's wrong with Brax? Slow down, Rose. Take a breath." She inhaled a deep gasp and her eyes flew up to the Doctors. "Telepathic assault and now he's down to only one heart? Is that right?" She looked with desperation toward the Doctor. "The connection is terrible. Can we call the capsule from your TARDIS?"
He stalked quickly around the table. "Phiroi, come with me." He pointed toward the others at the table. "Calling a break. Go to your corners and splash your face with water, spit out blood, or whatever else you need to do."
"Rose," Romana assured quickly. "I'm going to hang up, but the Doctor will contact Braxiatel's capsule directly from the TARDIS. "We can produce a holographic image of the two of you that will help us to help you. Okay? Just wait. Hold on. We're on our way."
The phone disconnected and she jogged to keep up with the Doctor as he stalked into his TARDIS, Phiroi not too far behind him.
"What happened?" the Doctor asked sharply as he ran up the ramp toward the centre console.
"Rose was difficult to understand," Romana answered him. "But it does appear that your brother has been seriously hurt. Only one of his hearts are still beating, and Rose can't restart the other."
"I heard you say telepathic assault," he said dangerously as he spun and flicked levers and dials on his console. "Is Rose okay?"
"Terrified," she answered. "But otherwise alright as far as I can tell." She swallowed thickly. There was worry in her eyes. "Doctor. Your brother. He doesn't have any regenerations left."
"I know," he whispered.
"Whatever's happened…" She drew in a shaking breath. "I can't … not without him."
Phiroi put his hand on her arm, his voice was calm and supportive. "It won't come to that, my Lady. Rose is a gifted nurse. Have faith in her."
His brows lifted, although his face was angled down to the console. "Phiroi is right, Romana. Rose is with him," he assured her. "And she's familiar with treating injured Time Lords." He still didn't look up. "She won't let him die." He gave a growl of cheer, and held the rotor column in both hands, leaning forward to give it a big, loud, kiss. "Oh, you beautiful ship! You found him." He pointed near the jump seat. "They will appear over there," he advised her. "Remember, image only, but at least we're in the same room – of sorts – for this conversation."
Romana looked toward where the Doctor indicated with hope in her hearts. As promised, a flickering image appeared and slowly solidified into a stable image. Braxiatel was clearly unconscious. He was on his back on the floor, his head rolled off to one side. Rose was on her knees just off frame, but quickly crawled back on her hands and knees over to him. She looked toward them all with desperation in her eyes.
"Help me," she whimpered out. "I can't .. I don't have the strength to get it started."
Phiroi moved across quickly, dropping into a crouch at her side. He looked over Braxiatel with a critical, analytical eye. He then flicked his eyes to Rose, who looked to him with hope. "What was the cause of this?" he asked her.
Rose lifted her face to watch as both the Doctor and Romana dropped into crouches beside the Time Lord Medic. "I'm really not sure," she admitted. "He.. I mean something got into his head. Something bad, like a thousand screaming voices he said."
Phiroi looked over Braxiatel's head and shoulders. "Telepathic assault, or telepathic overload?"
"Overload, I think," she said with a little more strength in her voice. She ran her hands over her hair and drew in a couple of breaths. "When we got here…"
"And where are you?" the Doctor asked.
"Not right now," Phiroi snapped. "Bigger things to worry about." He looked back to Rose. "Please go on."
"When we landed, and walked out." She swallowed. "He said that he was feeling foggy in his head, like he was walking through molasses or something. I was fine. Didn't feel anything in my head at all."
"Not an attack, then," Phiroi offered. "Otherwise, you would have been assaulted as well."
Romana shifted to sit on her hip at her husband's side. She didn't like the fact she couldn't touch him at all, but was at least able to see him for herself. "What else, Rose?"
"We came across a cliff, or a ravine, or something. Brax said he could smell Lindos and Artron, and lots of it." She paused when three sets of eyes shifted from Braxiatel and focused tightly on her. It made her feel quite small underneath all of their glares. "And. I. Ehm. Well, I thought it might be injured Time Lords, and said we should help. But Brax, he wasn't too sure. Said it was too much, that the air was too saturated."
"He's more sensitive to it now," Phiroi advised the other two Time Lords seated either side of him. "Without being able to produce Lindos himself, now, he's identifying it far more sensitively than before. If he's sensing atmospheric saturation, then…" He shook his head. "I don't want to consider it."
"Get's worse," Rose admitted. "We were going to go down and take a look…"
"Without calling me first?" the Doctor growled sharply. "Rose. You should have called me if either of you thought something was wrong. Neither of you have the power to regenerate…"
"Get mad at me later," she snapped in reply. "Right now, I don't need your snip, yeah? Brax needs help." She looked to Romana and Phiroi. "Anyway. When we looked over the edge into the pit or ravine or whatever it was, Brax got upset. Said something about Time Lords, thousands of them, all in pain and screaming. Inside his head." She panted. "It dropped him to his knees, and he was screaming in pain…"
Phiroi held up his hands. "Okay. That's enough, I think. Thanks, Rose." He looked between both Romana and the Doctor. "He's had a telepathic overload. That many voices all screaming at him at once, he's lucky his mind held out at all. Give me a moment to work out what to do with him."
"He's strong," Romana said quietly. She looked at Rose. "And you managed to get him back to the capsule? All by yourself?"
Rose nodded. "He still had a bit of fight left in him," she answered softly. "But then, when we managed to make it back, something else attacked him. I think that's what did it." She looked to the Doctor, whose face was set in a hard and angry frown. "Can you come get us, please? Bring the TARDIS?"
"Where are you?" he answered shortly.
She shrugged and shook her head. "I don't know. Australia or something…"
"Australia?" he asked with a creased face.
"No, not Australia on Earth," she replied. "We're on another planet. I don't know. Somewhere that only has one month of summer or something – I really wasn't listening to him all closely due to him handing me a gun I didn't know how to use…"
"He did what?"
She pointed to the console. "Have the TARDIS find us! She's a smart girl, she knows how to locate him."
"His capsule is untraceable," the Doctor growled. "No one, not even the TARDIS, can find him. Wherever you are, you're alone until you can get him conscious again."
"I don't believe you," she growled in challenge. "You're the Doctor. You're in the TARDIS. Don't tell me there's nothing you can do. Follow the lines of transmission you're using for this call – surely that will give you a general idea of where we are, yeah?"
"By the Gods I love that you thought of that," he said with admiration inside a growl. He shook his head. "But I can't. He.." he pointed to Braxiatel. "Has that capsule of his locked tight. No one can pilot it, no one can find it. No one, but him."
"We need to get that other heart going, and force him to rouse," Romana ordered. "Whatever you think it will take, Phiroi. You tell her to do it. Bring my mate home to me."
"There is one option," Phiroi said with a light wince. "He's had a telepathic overload, which has knocked out a couple of key biological functions. He needs a decent shock to the system to kick it all into gear."
"Electric shock?" Rose asked. "Like an AED? Does he even have one in here?"
"You'll take out his other heart if you use that," Phiroi said gravely. "You'll end up starting one, shutting down the other, and so on, so forth."
"More superior with two hearts, yeah, right?" Rose grumbled. "Make it more difficult, more like."
"So what, then?" the Doctor asked. "I can't find them for retrieval while he's out cold."
"Kiss him," Phiroi ordered sharply. "Pucker up, Rose, and give him the best one you've got."
Her face flatlined at that. "You can't be serious." She looked toward Romana and the Doctor, who hadn't issued any form of incredulous objection themselves. "Aren't the two of you going to say something."
"It could work," Romana said carefully. "The bond guard activated."
"That'll kick start anything," the Doctor agreed with a nod.
"No!" Rose snapped at them. "I am not doing that. Think of something else."
Romana looked to her with pleading in her eyes. "It's a good idea, Rose. I support it."
"Well I don't," she barked. She gestured to Braxiatel with both hands. "Don't get me wrong, Romana. Its not like he's not a fit bloke, but come on. It's Brax. I can't kiss him, that's like kissing my brother."
She looked at her with a straight glare. "Why not. He's kissed you before." She looked back to her husband's face. "For much the same reason."
"Hardly for the same reason," the Doctor disagreed. He looked to Rose. "But yes. You have my permission, Rose. I won't hold this against you in the slightest."
Rose looked disgusted. "He kissed me? Brax. Him. He kissed me? When? And how did you not kill him for it, Doctor?"
"I punched him for it, if that makes you feel better about it," he answered with a sniff of disgust.
Her eyes widened as she considered their conversation back at the house, and his abject horror at the mere suggestion of anything more existing between them than there should be. "No. I don't believe any of you. If he did that, and I got a decent bond-guard-activating snog from Irving-bloody-Braxiatel, I think I'd remember it." She looked at him, considered it, then looked back to them with a shake in her head. "But no. I can't. Please think of something else."
"Do you want him to die?" Phiroi asked.
"No, I don't," she argued. "But that shit hurts, okay? It hurts a lot."
"Please?" Romana pleaded softly. "I'm asking you as a friend and as family. Please help him."
"You know, for an emotionally, affection-retarded society of peoples, it certainly does seem that snogging is the answer to most of your problems. Might want to investigate that, yeah?"
"Rose, please?" she pleaded.
She lifted her eyes to the sky and whimpered out. There was a shake in her shoulders as she bounced her knees, much like a child who was close to tantrum about not wanting to do a chore or go to bed. "Just don't watch, okay?" she looked to the Doctor. "Please?"
She didn't bother to wait for a response. Instead she took a deep breath and leaned down to Brax. With a light touch, she coaxed his head toward hers, then used the pad of her thumb against the middle of his chin to slightly gape his mouth. Then, with a whispered apology, sealed her mouth over his.
Cooler than the Doctor, and with a taste much more spicy, his mouth was initially unresponsive underneath hers. But as she closed her eyes, stroked her fingers down along his cheek, then cupped his jaw, and deepened the kiss with the touch of her tongue against his, she felt his response. She gasped, her eyes flared wide and she pulled back just slightly from him, separating their mouths for just long enough for him to sleepily breathe out the name of his mate. Then his arm snapped up, his hand curled around her head, and he pulled her down to draw her into a kiss of such incredible passion that threatened to drive into her soul.
A whipcrack of light and pain shot across both of their minds, and as his eyes blew wide with dawning horror to look into Rose's equally stunned and horrified expression, they both separated with long cries of pain. He rolled onto his side to curl into a ball, she shuffled backward on her backside into a seated ball of shuddering pain.
"What, in the name of all in this universe that is holy, just happened?" he demanded angrily toward her, still on his side and still clutching at his belly. "I. Am. Mated!" he yelled. "And so are you – to my brother!"
She wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand then gestured toward the others. "They told me to," she said with a whimper.
He rolled over to see Romana, Thete, and Phiroi watching over them with flattened and definitely not amused expressions. "You?" he growled. "Why? She's my sister, for Omega's sake." He quickly shot up to a seat as the situation began to dawn on him. "And how are you all here?"
"Hologram," Phiroi answered. "Now, Cardinal, if you don't mind, can you please advise if you have two hearts beating inside your chest?"
"Of course I do," he snapped angrily as he finally drew himself to a stand. His hand dropped with invitation for Rose to take it to be lifted to a stand. When she shook her head in refusal, he gave his hand a flick to insist. Again, she refused, so he set his hands on his hips instead.
"Please check, if you don't mind," Phiroi asked again.
"Capsule, body scan pilot," he said with a dark glare and held out both arms. "Cardiological request – ECG, both hearts."
"Rhythm of both hearts functioning within acceptable range, Lord Cardinal," a computerised voice answered. "Do you require a deeper scan?"
"That will be fine, thank you," he answered the ship. He gave a dramatic and very facetious bow. "Happy?"
Romana watched Rose slowly draw to a stand and then walk toward the console with her arms wrapped around herself. There was disappointment in the Time Lady's eyes. "She saved you," she warned her husband on a low voice. "As you are too guarded to allow any of us to find you when you run away, Braxiatel, the only option she had available to her was the one she used." She lifted her chin as he flicked his eyes toward her. "Now, if you will, please provide us with your temporal coordinates so that we can ensure Rose is brought home safely."
"Good idea," he stated as he walked through the hologram of his brother and Phiroi toward the console. "Please bring Leela and the wolves with you." He looked up at his monitor. "I need them."
"For what reason?" Romana asked. There was less hostility in her voice and more concern.
He was refusing to look back at any of the holograms, or toward Rose. "Because whatever is occurring on the planet needs to be stopped." His shoulders lifted and then fell with a deep breath. "I'll need her help to do that."
"Are you insane?" Rose barked at him with anger. She pointed at the doorway, her arm straight and taut. "I just pulled you from that out there. I had to practically drag you here. You almost died, Brax!"
"Now I know what to expect," he answered without looking at her. "I'll be better prepared."
"How can you be prepared for that?" she demanded. "You can't! I am not going to let you back out there."
He smiled a condescending smile at her then looked back to the console. "How absolutely adorable that you think you can stop me."
"Don't think I can't," she growled threateningly. "I've dropped bigger men on their arses than you, you know. The Emperor of the Daleks and all of his battle forces, got rid of them as easily as snap my fingers." She snapped her fingers, which made him flinch just slightly. "I shot the Devil himself into a sun and ended his evil reign, too. You reckon you're anywhere near their class of bad guy, Brax?" She cracked her knuckles. "I'm willing to find out."
A smile stretched across his face, but he didn't look at her. "Looks like I wasn't the only one who found their balls," he said with amusement.
"Boobs, thanks," she corrected.
"Boobs then." He let his smile fall and hit enter on his keyboard. He spun to face the three Time Lord holograms. "I've lowered a security protocol on my capsule to allow your TARDIS to locate my capsule," he said to his brother. "A one time only offer; I hope you know. Bring Leela and the wolves. Bring Andred, too, if you must."
"I'll see if they're interested."
"They will be," he assured him. "Because what's out there, Thete." He blew out a breath through pursed lips and shook his head. "You and me. We can't do it. Rose and Leela will have to go in with the wolves and put an end to this."
"Now hold on," the Doctor argued with a huff. "Rose isn't taking part in anything. Not without me."
Braxiatel shook his head. "No choice. What's out there is far too dangerous for you, me, Romana, or anyone with even an ounce of telepathic ability." He exhaled. "It'll be particularly dangerous to Time Lords."
"What's out there?" he asked quietly. "What is it that has you so spooked?"
"The separated incarnations of tens of thousands of Time Lords," he answered quietly. "Thirteen souls per man and woman. All of them tortured and screaming a telepathic tsunami across this planet." He flicked his eyes upward. "Whatever is holding these souls here has to be stopped. I'm not leaving a single one of them here to suffer like that for the rest of eternity."
~~ooooOOOOooo~~