Chapter Fifteen: Confrontations
'Mental note: Making an Ancient Entity with devilish powers angry is never a good idea unless your name is the Doctor,' Rose thought grimly as she fought to maintain her standing position as the entire mindscape shuddered with the force of Intellivore's roar. "That all you've got?" she asked automatically, before mentally kicking herself for her own daring.
"You are nothing!" It cried, "You are food! You do not matter!"
The Doctor's words came back to her: Did I ever tell you about one of my favorite things about dreams, Rose? I know how to control them. This, she realized, was her own mind – not some construct of the Soul Eater's. This was its ploy into making her give in to its desire to feed. Little did it know just how stubborn Jackie Tyler's daughter could be.
"Then why are you still arguing?" she asked, "Feeling lonely?"
It roared in inarticulate rage.
"That must be it," Rose said, "Why else wouldn't you just accept that you've lost? It's over. Go away."
"Not," Intellivore whispered into her ear as a simulacrum of a hand touched her face in a grotesque parody of a lover's caress, "Without tasting you first, Rose Tyler."
She stiffened reflexively in response.
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Hyperdrive Section
Jack patted Bettie fondly as he regarded the still smoldering tentacles of the entity. "I love this gun," he grinned. A movement from some of the tendrils near Rose and the Doctor caught his attention. Aiming again, he fired. "Sorry, but they're off limits."
"ROSE!" The Doctor's eyes snapped open and he all but collapsed as his knees refused to support his weight after being stiffened for so long.
Jack fired another warning shot into the writhing mass of the entity before he moved to the Doctor's side to offer a supporting hand.
"Doctor?" he asked, putting as many questions as possible into his name. First and foremost amongst them was, of course, 'what the hell is going on? And what the hell is that?'
"Rose!" The Doctor repeated before he recognized that Jack was there with him. This, he decided, was one of the many things that he hated about being forced out of a telepathic communion – he generally had a hard time forcing his thoughts into some semblance of order afterward. "Jack?"
The former Time Agent could count on one hand the things that frightened him. Number one, since meeting the Time Lord and Rose, was seeing the Doctor in the state that he was in now. "Yes, Doctor, I'm here."
"Jack, it's got Rose. It took her..."
"She's right here," Jack replied, gesturing towards the far too still Rose Tyler. Rose's hand was frozen, still outstretched towards the Doctor – her expression one of pure terror. "But she won't respond."
"That's because it's got her. I've got to get her back."
"What's got her? Doctor, what's going on?" Jack asked. One of the tendrils twitched towards the three of them and Jack decided to force his frustration upon the only source he could – he shot the creature again.
"The Soul Eater. I don't have time to explain anymore, Jack. I need to touch her, before I lose her."
Jack's expression must have betrayed his confusion, but the Doctor ignored it in favor of touching Rose's hand.
The Doctor's eyes drifted shut as he attempted to re-establish their earlier telepathic connection. Each time he tried, he was shunted aside - as if someone was purposefully preventing him. 'No' - the word was suddenly seared into his mind and his eyes opened in sudden shock, "She's not letting me in. Jack, she thinks she can do this on her own!"
"Can she?"
The Doctor's eyes were haunted as he looked at Jack. "It took dozens of Time Lords to defeat the Soul Eater before. What chance does a little human ape have?" he asked in a bleak voice.
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Rose pulled away from the Intellivore's touch. "No," she said, repeating her earlier vow, "You can't have me." She smiled as she felt the Doctor's attempt to reach her be brushed aside. This time, she would do the protecting. This time, it was her fight – not the Doctor's.
The entity laughed, "And how are you going to stop me?"
'I,' she admitted to herself, 'Have no idea.'