Through the fog of pain, Rose heard Jack's voice, and the words spoken. Trying to leap to her feet and retaliate, she could only murmur drowsily.

"My name ain't Rosie," She grumbled. "Rosie is a puppet on a narrowboat," Jack made a mental note to ask her who she meant later.

"Are you alright?" Rose raised a hand to gingerly touch her tightly closed eye.

"That thing did something to my eye," Rose rubbed her head. "Feel a bit odd." Jack pulled her hand out of the way; Rose's right eye was bloodshot, red veins standing out from the too-pale skin surrounding it. He muttered a dark curse and pulled her to her feet while she swayed unsteadily.

"Come on. Back to the TARDIS, and we'll get you looked at."

He looped an arm around her waist to support her, and they made their way back to the TARDIS, Rose wincing at the growing pain in her head. Unbeknownst to her, and while Jack was looking away, the red veins in her eyes flashed gold briefly, oddly enough resembling tiny wires. It was gone as soon as Jack looked back at her, flirting nature displaced in the face of brotherly concern. She smiled weakly in reply to an unanswered question, and they were both glad when the familiar blue box came into view, Jack shoving open the door while trying to keep a dizzy Rose on her feet.

"Doctor?" He yelled, relieved when the clanking stopped and the Doctor appeared from under the console, back to them, sliding on his jacket while complaining good-naturedly.

"Get bored already? Or did you get into trouble again?"

"The latter," Jack said tightly. The Doctor turned, took in Rose's condition and was at their side in an instant, supporting Rose easily while talking to Jack.

"What happened?" The Doctor swept her up and carried her down the corridors to the Medical Bay, ignoring her dazed protests.

"We were in the street, and Rose just looked at something behind me and collapsed. She had me scared, I thought she was dead," Jack's voice wavered slightly, revealing his worry. Inwardly, the Doctor smiled slightly. Jack wasn't the hard-hearted conman he had appeared when they first met.

"Rose?" He put her gently on the table, hand resting on her cheek "C'mon love, open your eyes for me."

"Doc...tor?" Her eyes flickered open slowly.

"I'm here," he ran the scanner over her, frowning at the readings. "That's odd, it says nothing it wrong with her, but-"

Both the Doctor and Jack stared as the healthy glow returned to Rose's skin, eyes losing their lacklustre appearance and returning to the familiar sparkle of before. She stared at them as they stared at her, and spoke in her usual voice.

"Something wrong?"

"Are you alright?" The Doctor clasped her hands gently, watching her carefully. Her gaze met his, and he relaxed on sight of normal soft brown eyes with an amused twinkle burning away in them. She looked perplexed, and glanced at her surroundings.

"How did I end up here?"

"You got shot, remember?" Jack reminded her gently.

"Yeah...and I remember telling you I felt odd," she paused. "But nothing after that."

"Probably shock," the Doctor dismissed it "You might remember later."

But over Rose's head, the Doctor and Jack looked at each other, both thinking the same thing. They were going to keep a very close eye on Rose for quite a while yet.

----------------

3 streets away from the TARDIS...

"Did you complete your task?" The speaker had a grating mechanical voice, and it was directed at a young man standing in front of a large computer. The man nodded and spoke, as if in a trance, in the same kind of mechanical voice.

"Yes. I came across a human female with enough strength to withstand the transition, but weak enough not to resist," a pause. "She is yours."

"Good." There was a silence; as if the first speaker was thinking. "And you will leave, and forget." The young man nodded and went up the stairs and out the door, in the same trance-like state. He walked into the street, and then started as if just waking up. He looked around in a daze, and walked away back to his home, with no memories of what he had been doing for the last five days.

Back in the building, the speaker gave a mechanical chuckle, and the screen lit up, data flashing across it.

"Initiate."

--------------------------

Back in the TARDIS, curled up around the Doctor, Rose's eyes snapped open, exposing blank eyes with gold lines running through them. In the same movements the young man had been moving with, she rose, dressed and padded down the corridors, unbeknownst to her two friends.

"I obey."

And it seemed like the TARDIS shivered from the mechanical voice.