A/N:

Summary: Zombies. What more can be said?

Notes: Today's offering should give a bit of explanation and puts us in a really good place to have some Zombie fun and terrorise old Rassilon for a bit.

The bit with Brax and his "training" ... yeah, that was alluded to in one of my fav BF stories ... I ran with it and put my own spin on it. Next chappy will be fun for me to play with that.

Leela's disdain for Time Lords - she makes no secret of it - so I ran with that, too.

I really do hope you enjoy today's offering!

~~oooOOOooo~~

He didn't like what he was seeing on the monitor – not one bit. Zombies were something that featured only in horror films on Earth – characters that were gross and morbid and absolutely not a real occurrence on any planet at all.

At least not one he'd ever visited. Whatever this thing was, it resembled the horror flick character, but really couldn't actually be the walking dead. At least he hoped not.

"Keep your eyes on it, Rose," the Doctor ordered firmly. "Don't take your eyes off it. Don't blink. Don't shift. Whatever you do, keep your eyes on it."

At his side Braxiatel emitted a very low growl of worry. "Romana," he said darkly. "Tell me I'm wrong. Tell my that my eyes are deceiving me."

"I wish I could, Brax," she breathed out quietly as she brought one of her delicate hands to cover her mouth with horror. "But I am seeing the same thing you are right now."

"I thought that virus had been eradicated," he demanded with a low voice. "That we got rid of it. That we let it die off never to return."

The Doctor looked between Romana and Braxiatel and their opposite expressions. Braxiatel was clearly angry, where Romana looked just horrified and upset by what she saw. "What is it?" he asked urgently. "What is that, and what danger are Leela and Rose in right now?"

"Not as much as we would be if it was us down there," Braxiatel answered with a hard exhale. "But in danger enough, I expect."

"Right," the Doctor drawled with a somewhat perplexed expression of disbelief. He exhaled a hard breath and turned just slightly to properly address both Romana and Braxiatel. "Obviously you've encountered these before. Where?"

"On Gallifrey," Andred offered darkly. His eyes were narrowed and dangerous as he watched the feed from his wife's camera. "During Pandora's reign as President."

"I'm sorry, who?" There was light, but somewhat annoyed incredulity to his tone. Obviously he'd missed something of very significant importance while he was avoiding Gallifrey's airspace after the fall of the house of Lungbarrow. "What did I miss?"

"It's a very long and convoluted story," Romana offered with a look to Braxiatel and Andred before looking back to the Doctor. "It is not excusable for me to forget that you don't remember what happened on Gallifrey before you came back with Rose." She swallowed a lump. "You weren't there for the worst of it."

"Not for any of it," Braxiatel corrected her flatly.

"I remember a civil war," the ventured after a moment. "A war that almost decimated the planet. During which there was a total ban on travel in or out of Gallifrey due to a pandemic of sorts."

"A pandemic in the truest sense," Braxiatel half snarled. "There was nothing of sorts about it."

"One created by a horrible person," Romana growled. "Someone who wore my face and committed the worst atrocity Gallifrey has ever seen."

"Which was?"

"A virus." Andred answered with a wince of anger on his face. "One that we couldn't contain, and one that couldn't be controlled."

The Doctor's eyes were wide and horrified. "I don't remember this."

Braxiatel's face was set in a wince and breathed in, then exhaled a shuddering breath. "You were off planet and non contactable for centuries, so you missed it. You missed everything. All of it." He looked at his brother with a pained expression. "And I am glad you were, Thete. I am. because if you had been there. If you'd been infected…"'

"You were barely there yourself," Romana accused Braxiatel softly.

"Because you exiled me," he accused quietly. "You broke the vow of silence you made to me. Betrayed me to save yourself."

"Don't blame me for that," she snapped in reply. "You exiled yourself by making that foolish decision to take Pandora into your mind."

"To save you," he barked angrily. "To save the woman my hearts beat for. To save Gallifrey." There was clear hurt inside his eyes. "By the Gods, Romana. I was already forced to leave Gallifrey and to never be able to walk beside a Time Lord ever again." He thrust his arm toward the Doctor. "Not even my own brother. You didn't have to add to my heartsbreak by enforcing that exile and taking all that I had left in the universe away from me."

"I had no choice," she vowed with a forced lift in her shoulders. "I had to save Gallifrey as well. If you'd returned, I couldn't have done what I had to do. It was the only way." Her look was one of sadness. "Even when you could come back, you didn't stay around."

"I was working behind the scenes to do what none of you could," he corrected. "I sold off my entire collection in order to procure what I needed to save what could possibly be saved," he defended. "I couldn't very well do that on Gallifrey while fighting not only an invasive and dangerous entity living inside my head, but a murderous virus spreading like fire." He panted with a look demanding understanding from her. "So don't you dare attempt to make me feel guilt with your accusations that I abandoned you all. I did what I did to save you, Romana. You."

The Doctor held up his hands. "You can row about this later, you two. Right now, my mate, my wife, is in danger. Let's focus on that, yeah? Tell me just what she's facing here, so we can devise a game plan to keep her and Leela safe."

"Zombies," Andred answered simply on behalf of both Braxiatel and Romana. "Exactly as it says on the package. Mindless, brainless, former Time Lords ravaged by a virus triggered by regeneration."

"Zombies?" he asked flatly, looking for confirmation that he'd heard correctly. This really couldn't be happening. "Actual walking dead zombies?"

"Walking dead, indeed," Braxiatel answered. He gestured toward the screen, to where the feed showed the same types of creature on all four camera feeds. "And all Rose and Leela can do is kill them. There is no hope at all for any of them that are left." He pulled a phone from his pocket – the device given to him by his old friend back at the Zoo. He thumbed at a contact and carded his fingers across the top of his har as he held the phone to his ear.

"Who are you calling?" Romana asked quietly.

"Narvin," he answered coolly. She saw the tilt of warning in her head. "I have to let him know, Romana," he growled. "I have to have him make sure that this virus isn't at risk of returning to Gallifrey, because if it does…"

"Gallifrey is still recovering from war," Andred agreed. "Our people and our planet are decimated. If this virus makes it back there, it'll destroy what little is left." He looked toward the Doctor. "I won't let that happen. If I have to get out there myself and risk contracting it, I will. But you tell them, both my wife and yours that they have to destroy them. Destroy everything."

"I can't tell them to do that," the Doctor shot back.

"Then I will," Romana said softly. "Because I'm with Andred and Braxiatel. This cannot leave Estrail."

"And how do you propose we do that?" he asked incredulously. "We have two wolves, and a woman with knives. Hardly an explosive combination."

"No, but we know what is," Romana said along a whisper. She looked toward the Doctor, whose face was quickly losing colour. "Don't we?"

The Doctor began the shake of his head slowly. "Oh no," he breathed out as he increased the speed in which he shook his head toward the idea. "Don't you even think about it."

"We must use what options are available to us," she argued with a straight and firm tone of voice. "This is not the time for sentimentality."

"Sentimentality?" he blurted incredulously. "That's my wife out there. She's not some mindless weapon for you to use at will."

"Doctor…"

"And besides," he continued sharply. "Even if I was so inclined to let you utilise it, none of us know how to safely wield that power."

"I do," Braxiatel corrected quietly with a curl in his lip that Narvin still seemed to be ignoring his calls. Despite assurances that Brax should be able to reach him no worries with this phone, it didn't seem to work all that well.

"You're not snogging her," the Doctor snapped. "If that's what you're thinking. And frankly, I'm tiring of everyone deciding that it's perfectly okay to lock lips with my wife."

"There are other ways," Braxiatel said quietly as he pocketed his phone. He looked toward his brother with a tight and narrow gaze. He said only one word, and it was one that punched the Doctor hard in his gut. "Charlotte."

"Don't you dare," he warned along a whisper. Although his tone was quietly hostile, the expression that passed through his eyes was one of regret and upset. "Don't you even dare."

Andred held up a hand. "Ehm. Care to advise the new guy about what you're talking about here?" His eyes flicked to the monitors and then back to the trio that stood at the other side of him. "What power are we talking about, and does it put Leela in danger?"

"Leela is perfectly safe," the Doctor assured him without taking his eyes off his brother. "Because Rose's condition is currently perfectly stable – and will continue to be. Won't it, Brax?"

Braxiatel kept his eyes on his brother but pointed toward the small disk-like device he'd been wiring and soldering over the past half hour. "Is that thing ready?"

"Close enough to it, why?"

"Because I'm going to use it," he informed him flatly. "I'll go make a quick change of clothing to better suit what's out there. Five minutes. Have it ready."

The Doctor shook his head. "If anyone's going to use it, Braxiatel, it's me."

"What, so you can get infected with the virus so that the next time you regenerate – which with your track record is probably less than a half hour from now – you'll turn into one of those zombies?" He gestured across the command deck of his craft. "Of everyone here, I'm the only one who can't regenerate. The only one that virus can't attack."

"But we don't know if you can still get infected by it," Romana said quietly. "You still possess the symbiotic nuclei…"

The Doctor flicked his eyes to Romana. "That's the main infection point?"

"Where it attacks during regeneration," she said with a nod.

"Do you have any information about it in your capsule matrix?" the Doctor asked urgently. At his brother's nod he let one side of his mouth lift in a smile. "Good. Pull up what you can. I'll feed the information down to Phiroi. He and I can work on a suppressor, and antidote, or an inoculation."

"The greatest medical minds on Gallifrey couldn't find a cure," Romana informed him shortly.

"Yes, well the greatest mind of Gallifrey wasn't on Gallifrey at the time, was it?" the Doctor said with a smirk as he tapped his temple. "But it's here now, and if I put it together with old Phiroi, I am sure the two of us will devise some form of antidote." His smirk fell. "Because if this virus is here, then I will suggest it will find its way back to Gallifrey at some point."

"We also have an entire city of Gallifreyans back at the house," Braxiatel offered with quiet concern. "Many of whom have regenerative capabilities. If Rose and Leela bring home any contaminate of it, we put them all at risk." He looked to his brother, then rushed to the console. With a handful of purposeful keystrokes, he'd called up all of the information he had on hand about the virus in its original form, and then in the modified and more dangerous version of it. "There you are. Work your magic. I'll go get changed and head on out to find the ladies." He looked to Andred. "Until I'm able to get back out there, please keep the two of them safe."

"My honour and my duty," he said with a nod of his head.

Romana put her hand on Braxiatel's arm. She held an expression of concern. "Brax. I don't like the idea of you being out there. Your brother is far better suited and experienced with this."

"My hearts," he breathed out with a low sigh. "You don't know how wrong you are about that."

~~oooOOOooo~~

Rose stepped back from the zombie that was slowly lumbering toward her. Its moans and groans were far too like the zombies in the movies back on Earth. She never liked zombie movies, so she certainly wasn't all that thrilled to find herself living one of those movies on a random planet millions of miles from home with only a snarling wolf to protect her from it.

She wasn't a killer. She wasn't a soldier. She couldn't imagine ever taking the life of another – even if the creature in front of her didn't currently possess life.

The capsule feed had gone silent a good long ten minutes ago. The Doctor had warned her to keep an eye on the creature as though it was something looking to kill her, but then went silent.

"Great help you are," she muttered under her breath toward her husband. "Leavin' me all alone with this thing."

Tiallu snarled dangerously and continued to walk the two of them backward and away from the beast. She seemed to be holding in a protective stance rather than try to attack it. As though she was waiting on an order from her to do so.

"Kill it," she growled finally with a wince of distaste on her face at having to issue any such order. "Whatever you have to do, Tia, to keep the both of us alive."

A loud rustle behind her made Rose gasp, but any whimper she was about to emit was overpowered in volume by the loud warrior cry of Leela, who shot out of the brush behind her. The proud and dangerous warrior of the Sevateem ran in a low stoop toward the creature, and with a yell and then a leap through the air, she practically flew past them. She was airborne with knives in both her hands and managed to turn herself in the air to slice her blades in a perfect criss-cross pattern across the zombie's throat. She landed behind the creature into a low crouch, only to immediately launch back up to thrust both blades into it's back – directly into both of the hearts that didn't beat inside its chest.

She growled when she kicked into its back to pull her blades from its body. It fell into a groaning heap onto its belly. Leela stood her feet either side of its head and with a twist of her ankles, silenced it completely.

"Are you alright?" she asked Rose calmly with a wipe of her blades on her skirt.

"There are so many different ways I can answer that question," Rose admitted with a wince. "What was that?"

"The walking dead of the Time Lords," Leela answered her smoothly. "An easy kill, which helps us."

"You've seen this before?"

"I have," she answered with a slow nod of her head. There was a look of disgust on her face. "On Gallifrey. I think Romana called it the Dogma virus." She looked to the creature, still and rotted on the grass. "An illness that the Time Lords can not recover from."

"So if you've seen it before, you can handle them, yeah?"

Leela's brows lifted and she looked to the creature at her feet. Her eyes then lifted to Rose. "Did I not handle that one?"

"You know what I mean," she said with a huff. "I'm guessin' there'll be more of them."

"I have met several," Leela said with a shake in her head. "As has Soliarn. And I will say that your male wolf is a very good hunter."

"He is," she said softly. She swallowed back her fear. "So. Our sentinels back at the capsule have gone all quiet on us."

"I had noticed," Leela said with a nod of her head. "Which does mean that they have secrets they don't wish for us to hear."

"Well that's good to know…"

"We are on our own, Rose." Leela smiled. "But this is a good thing. We will not have them talking their nonsense in our ears, and will be able to work as we work best." Her smile shifted to a grin. "As wolf sisters hunting our prey. Do you still feel caged?"

Rose dipped her head with a smile. "Scared more like." She lifted her head. "I can't fight like you, Leela. When I don't have his voice in my ear, I don't feel as safe."

"You are a mighty warrior," Leela suggested. "You just need to find the wolf inside you and let her free." She took step at Rose's side and slowly they moved deeper into the forest. "You don't need the Doctor to find strength. You already have it." She winked. "You are a woman, and not a Time Lord. They are two things that make you stronger than them."

"You know, for a woman in love with a Time Lord, you don't have many nice things to say about them."

Leela shrugged. "I have spent many years on Gallifrey with the Time Lords. I love my Andred with all of the passion I have. I admire Braxiatel, Romana, the Doctor, and even Narvin. But they are all the same. Time Lords. Cowards full of secrets and lies."

"So why do you fight for them" Rose asked. "And I mean all of them, not just the big four?"

"Because we are not cowards," she answered simply. "And all lives are precious and worth saving. There are many innocent people that live on Gallifrey outside of the golden ball of the city. I have met them. I have lived with them and learned from them. I have also taught them my ways and given them my heart. They are the ones I fight for. The ones that wish to escape the lies of council."

"And yet two of your best friends are the leading minds of the council."

"Romana made changes. She opened the doors of Gallifrey and respected those who are thought to be lesser species than the time Lords." She sighed. "Braxiatel. There is more to him than anyone, even his own mate, knows. He is not a coward. He is very like his brother."

"Don't say that within earshot of him," Rose said with a laugh.

Leela had to laugh at that, herself. "I admire Braxiatel. He makes sacrifices to save the ones his hearts beat for. He is a very … oh how do you say it? Ob-obnox.."

"Obnoxious," Rose offered.

"Yes, obnoxious, very much," Leela agreed. "But when I am away from him. I miss him. I trust him as much as I don't trust him." She looked into the distance. "When we lost him in the Axis. It hurt me deeply. It did Romana and Narvin as well, but they do not admit it. They became selfish and I did not like who they became without Braxiatel. We stopped being friends on that alternate Gallifrey. For a long time, I did not want to see them. And I didn't. I walked away."

"Where was Andred?" Rose asked, noting the lack of mention of her husband during this time.

Leela's eyes darkened with hurt and anger, but she chose not to answer the question. Instead she gestured to the woods ahead of them. "It is best that we keep our minds on where we are right now," she said quietly. "The past is the past, and it is better left there."

"I'm sorry," Rose offered with a small smile. "I don't mean to pry on what is obviously very private for you."

"It is instinct," Leela assured her with a smile. "You wish to know me better. I understand. I wish to know you as well. To know you when you are not with the Doctor. When you can be who you really are."

"I am always me," Rose offered. "With or without him."

"That is not true," Leela said with a sigh. "Together you are one. Three hearts and two minds as one spirit. We are the fire to their ice. And that is as it should be." She turned her head and gave Rose a dangerous smile. "But you as you, as Rose. You are a warrior, a powerful spirit. A wolf. You just need to find her."

As if to punctuate her words, Soliarn called out in the distance. His howl was a broken series of haunting howling barks.

"What is that?" Leela queried.

"Location call," Rose answered. "He wants his mate – and us – to know where he is." She lifted her head to respond in kind, joined in chorus by Tiallu pacing at her side. She continued her call and looked to Leela with a waggle in her brow to encourage her to join in the call.

"Oh, I can not," Leela said with a lightly embarrassed smile.

"Sure you can," Rose urged. "Come on. Where's your inner wolf?"

A heavy rustle in the brush beside them, and Leela offered her a dangerous smile. "My inner wolf is going to kill more zombies. Take my knife, you must learn to use one." She handed one of her knives to Rose, then pulled another from her boot. She quickly palmed her spare blade. "I will be right back."

"Yeah," Rose said with her eyes wide on the sharp blade on a hilt and handle made of what looked to be bone. "I'll, ehm, be right here, then."

Tiallu was attached to Rose's side, walking with a press of her thick fur against her legs. Rose felt comfort in the protection of her wolf and together they made slow movement forward through the brush. As they progressed, and with the sound of Leela cheering, grunting, and fighting in the brush beside her, Rose was able to ignore the mild swooping inside her belly. It was a sense of discomfort that she put down to her apprehension and fear of the unknown that lay ahead of them. But as they pressed on, the sense of dread and foreboding that was putting her stomach at ease began to rise. There was a swooping sensation inside her mind, and she found herself having to stop and shake her head to clear it from her mind.

Tiallu curled around to the front of her to stop her from moving any further forward. She looked up at her mistress and issued a concerned bark. It was a sound that seemed to reactivate the communication from the capsule.

"Rose," Romana asked with an urgent yet soft voice. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," she replied. "Leela's on the rampage with Soliarn and seems to be enjoying herself. Nothing here to be concerned with."

"That's not what your wolf just said," she argued lightly. "I can hear her concern."

Rose clutched at her belly as it swooped and swirled, but she kept her voice straight even as her head started to swim. "It's all good. She's just being over protective, that's all."

"I can see what Tiallu sees," the Doctor cautioned down the line. "You don't seem well, Rose. Are you okay? Do we need to come and get you?"

She narrowed her eyes to her wolf, narrowing them further to see the camera with its blinking red light on her shoulders. "You little tattle tail," she accused. "No. I'm good. This place. It's just got that gross smell of death or something and it's making me queasy," she lied. There was another swoop inside her head, a tired and pained symphony of singing voices chorused across her mind. She swayed and pressed the butt of her hand into the centre of her forehead. "Oh, God… What is that?"

Tiallu let out a bark of alarm and turned back toward the brush ahead of them. She lowered onto her haunch and growled into the distance.

"Rose!" the Doctor barked urgently from his end. "What's happening? You're blocking the camera with your arm. Tiallu's feed is too dark."

"I don't know," she admitted. "Just there's this singing, in my head. Getting louder." She panted lightly and pushed herself forward. "So sad. It's breaking my heart."

"Stay where you are," Braxiatel's voice gruffed over the line. "I'll be there in a moment."

"You can't," she warned him urgently. "They'll attack your mind again…"

"Got a solution for that thanks to Thete," he assured her. "Just don't move from where you are, sweetheart. I'm on my way."

"God. Don't ever call me that again, yeah?" she warned him as she pushed herself forward through the trees. "It's kind've creepy comin' from you." Tiallu remained ahead of her by her shoulders but was no longer trying to stop their progression. She continued to hear the song inside her head in a chorus of pained and devastated voices. "Why are you so sad?" she whispered to herself.

"Rose," the Doctor warned her. "Stay where you are. Don't make me come after you myself."

"Yeah," she answered back distractedly. She could hear light voices of dissent back at the capsule; a discussion of quiet urgency shared between those left behind. She couldn't quite make out what they were saying. "Sure thing, Doctor."

She held a hand upward to push aside tree branches as she pressed forward toward where she believed was the sourse of the singing inside her mind. Each forward step added another voice to the chorus of her mind. Some of them were solemn and sad, others were gruff and out of tune – more of a moan and groan than song. It was a cacophony of sound that was becoming too much for her tender mind to bear, but she pushed forward.

Leela appeared at her side, her breath short and panted. "Rose. The Doctor is talking to you. Why aren't you answering him?"

Rose looked toward Leela, taking care to show her face in the camera. "I'm fine, Doctor. See?" She turned back to the trees. "I just need to see what's over here."

One eye was half-closed and her head was harshly tilted to one side to attempt to fight off the tic in her eye caused by the telepathic song swirling inside her mind. She finally breached the edge of the forest, and with one last swipe of her hand to push aside a tree branch, the scene that lay ahead of them was presented with all of its horrific glory to her and Leela.

Both women held their hands over their mouths in absolute horror. The song inside her mind raised to a fever pitch and she fell to her knees in the soft mud just outside the treeline.

"Oh my God," she half sobbed out, her tears glimmering amber in the light of Estrail's moon. "Doctor. What is this?"

~~oooOOOooo~~

Braxiatel had only been gone from the console room for only five minutes when he emerged again from the corridor. His chino-style trousers and crisp oxford shirt had been replaced by a pair of fatigue trousers and matching button-down fatigue shirt in a shade of red so deep that it may as well have been black. The trousers were tucked into a thick pair of ankle-high boots that looked as though they could take on any terrain and probably step on a landmine without damaging them. He held a large hunting knife in between his teeth as he strode into the room, still tucking his shirt into the open waistband of his trousers.

"What are you wearing?" Andred asked him with wide eyes. "Isn't that the cadet uniform of …?"

"It is," he answered quickly around the blade of his knife before Andred could cite the name of the military academy he'd attended for a century after he'd left the Prydon Academy campus. He took the knife from his teeth and set it on the console as he fastened up his trousers and pulled the belt closed around his hips.

"That's an elite and very rough academy," Andred remarked with slight awe in his tone. "Who'd you have to murder to get that uniform?"

"Every moral I ever had," answered coolly. He looked to his brother, who looked upon him and the uniform he wore with an expression of apology and sadness. "Oh, don't look at me like that, Thete. It might've been your fault I ended up there, but it really wasn't that bad." He cleared his throat. "For at lest five percent of the time, anyway." He gestured to the small button-like device on the counter. "Is that ready?"

"Just another minute," he muttered as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and then leaned down over the console with his soldering iron in his hand. "You took a lot less time than normal to get yourself dressed. Must've opted not to admire your own reflection this time."

"Not while wearing this uniform anyway," he answered with a sniff as he walked past his brother and toward a cabinet against the wall. He hauled it open with both hands and held the doors open with his hands as he surveyed the items within. He felt Romana's presence at his side and exhaled. "Not now," he said softly, knowing the question she wanted to ask him.

"You never mentioned this."

His nose scrunched up. "It's not a particularly pleasant memory," he murmured. "But I did learn a lot." He exhaled and reached into the closet to retrieve a couple of weapons. "More than I needed or wanted to know, of course."

"From what I hear, more than any man or woman should," she offered him gently as she cupped his face tenderly in her hand. "That's why I had the entire program shut down. The graduates that come from that Academy, Brax. They are … altered."

"That's putting it kindly." He kissed her forehead as he tucked weapons in a pair of holsters fastened to the back of his trousers. "At least you know why it is I can handle a weapon as well as I do."

"And are sneaky, conniving, manipulative…"

He exhaled a sigh and lifted his head to the ceiling. "Yes. Of course." He strode to his brother. "Not a positive trait to be mentioned."

"Brilliant," she continued from the cupboard. "Diplomatic. The ultimate strategist. The intensely passionate and loyal man I fell in love with and married."

"The Loyal Betrayer," he huffed with a shake of his head. He held his hand to the Doctor in a request for the gadget he was putting the final touches on. "That will keep my mind clear?"

The Doctor blew at the button to cool down the soldered points as he nodded in the affirmative. "You may need to concentrate just a little. It won't stop everything, but it'll allow your natural instinct to step up and block out the negative telepathic nudging before it can overwhelm you." He pulled a thick circle of sticky gum from the countertop and pressed it into the back of the button. He lifted his hand and used his thumb to press the device in between his brother's brows. "You should feel a slight buzz as the signal calibrates with your own telepathic signature."

"Got it," he said with a wince of discomfort. "And there it is."

"Give it a moment." He exhaled. "Are you sure about this? I can go if you prefer."

"And get infected by a virus that was supposed to have died out a half millennia ago?" he shook his head. "I'm not taking that risk. Not with you." He checked the seat of the device in his forehead with a firm press of his thumb. "Once I know it's safe for you, I'll let you know. Then you can swoop in as her hero and pick us all up."

Andred made a sound of distaste and worry to get their attention. "Something's wrong," he muttered. Rose's camera is shifting more than it should, and the wolf seems concerned."

The Doctor, Romana, and Braxiatel quickly formed a wide line to watch the feed. Indeed, Rose's feed did seem to move with awkwardness as through she was shaking her head, and the feed coming from the wolf showed her looking uncomfortable.

"Rose," Romana asked with an urgent yet soft voice, knowing that if any of the boys were to aske the question it might come off less like friendly concern and more of an urgent demand. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," she replied through the link. "Leela's on the rampage with Soliarn and seems to be enjoying herself. Nothing here to be concerned with."

The image shown on Tiallu's feed showed a different story. No one standing on this command deck read it as anything less than her falling toward distress. "That's not what your wolf just said," Romana argued lightly. "I can hear her concern."

They watched Rose clutched at her belly and struggle to keep her voice straight. "It's all good. She's just being overprotective, that's all."

"I can see what Tiallu sees," the Doctor cautioned down the line. "You don't seem well, Rose. Are you okay? Do we need to come and get you?"

Braxiatel growled under his breath. "Rose isn't telepathic, right?"

"No," the Doctor answered. "Aside from our bond, she has no ability that I'm aware of."

Rose swayed over the monitor, and her video feed blurred as her arm shot up to cover the camera. Tiallu's feed showed her swaying and pressing her hand into her forehead. "Oh God… What is that?"

"Telepathic overload," Braxiatel ventured. "I felt the same way when I was out there."

The Doctor didn't like Braxiatel's assessment, and he certainly didn't like hearing Tiallu bark and then grow over the feed. "Rose!" he barked urgently with a step toward the monitor as though it would bring him closer to her. "What's happening? You're blocking the camera with your arm. Tiallu's feed is too dark."

"I don't know," she admitted. "Just there's this singing, in my head. Getting louder. So sad. It's breaking my heart."

Braxiatel performed a last double-check of his uniform and equipment. "Stay where you are," he ordered firmly. "I'll be there in a moment."

"You can't," she warned him urgently over the comms. "They'll attack your mind again…"

"Got a solution for that thanks to Thete," he assured her. "Just don't move from where you are, sweetheart. I'm on my way."

"God. Don't ever call me that again, yeah?" she warned in a way that made him smile. "It's kind've creepy comin' from you."

He pulled on a pair of fingerless gloves, a thin protective helmet fitted with a camera and communication set and kissed his wife on the cheek as he passed by her. "My hearts beat for you," he vowed firmly. "I'll see you soon."

"And mine for you, Braxiatel," she breezed gently with a touch at his hand. "My universe is you. Come home safe."

"Knowing that you're waiting for me," he said with a smile and a lift of her hand to kiss her knuckles. "How could I not want to return safe?"

"You are a romantic fool," she said with a sigh and an extension of her arm to keep hold of his hand as long as possible as he walked away from her. She watched with her hearts clenching with worry inside her chest as he stepped out of the capsule and into the unknown. With a shake in her shoulders to firm herself up and shield her concern, she returned to the monitor feed to hear the Doctor making demands and warnings toward his wife.

"What is she doing?" she asked after a moment.

"Not listening to me," he growled in reply. "Leela!"

"Yes, Doctor," she answered smoothly. "There is no need to yell, I have heard your conversation with Rose and am on my way to her now."

"I need to know she's safe."

"She will be," Leela assured him. She was heard – and seen – to caution Rose about not answering the Doctor's questions.

Rose moved her face intot he direct line of Leela's camera. There was a look of annoyance in her eyes. "I'm fine, Doctor. See?" She turned away from the camera, and Leela's gaze followed hers. "I just need to see what's over here."

Andred, the Doctor, and Romana watched curiously as the feeds of all four monitors showed a forward trek through the forest. Occasional leaves and branches obscured a camera more than once, but for the most part, they were able to take in the scene quite easily.

"I wonder what has Rose so curious," Andred murmured as he chewed on his thumbnail and watched the feed.

"Braxiatel mentioned a possible telepathic intervention," Romana breathed out carefully, not wanting to further push the already worried Time Lord on her right into throwing everything into hell to follow them all. His brother and his wife – two of the most important people in his life – were out there. It was clear he was barely holding himself inside the capsule. "If she's experiencing even a tickle in her mind, then Rose will investigate."

"More than a tickle, as you call it," the Doctor growled. "It was close to overwhelming her."

"She's not telepathic," Romana reminded him. "Even a tickle against her mind will be overwhelming."

"Then how does she handle the intrusions of my mind against hers?" he questioned. "I'm not gentle in the slightest when I want to settle inside her mind, and she handles that well enough."

"Perhaps she is more able than you believe she is," Romana offered. "Perhaps you should look into her true abilities when she returns."

"A song," he remarked softly. "She described it as singing inside her head. A song, a sad song that was breaking her heart."

"There aren't any species on this planet capable of telepathic communication as far as I know," Romana said with a shrug. "So I don't know…"

"The capsules sing," Andred offered. "I used to hear mine singing to me all the time." He looked upward. "This one and the TARDIS have been trying to reach out to a new mind with playful flirting. Unsuccessfully, I might add," he said with a chuckle of warning to them both. "I am flattered, of course, but I have a mate, thank you."

Romana and the Doctor shared a look of dawning realisation. Their faces lengthened with worry. They hadn't factored in the abandoned and likely suffering time capsules who had lost their pilots and were now grieving their loss.

"Oh dear," Romana breathed out worriedly. "Rose has an intimate connection with your TARDIS, doesn't she?"

"Since she looked into the heart of her, yes," he admitted. "She has connection with this one as well as the medical capsule that Phiroi pilots. The capsules and my TARDIS do tend to acquiesce when she makes minor requests of them." He slumped his head rising to the ceiling and his jaw dropping with slow and heartbreaking realisation. "That means she'll be sensitive to the cries of any ship in mourning."

"And if there are as many Time Lords as Braxiatel suggests there are…"

"Then there'll be just as many capsules in a state of distress." He covered his mouth with his hand. "They won't try to harm her, of course, but it'll overwhelm her mind completely."

Andred cleared his throat to garner their attention. "Yes. Well I think we have the answer," he said with a jut of his chin toward the monitor feeds, all four of them showed a foggy marshy landscape filled with the tattered and rusted remains of hundreds of weak, dying, and dead time capsules.

Rose's voice half sobbed over the communications feed. "Oh my God. Doctor. What is this?"

~~oooOOOooo~~