F/O: sings Guess who's back, back again, Firey's back, bring a friend...
Yes, I'm in a bizarre mood. My physics teacher once described me as 'surreal'. g
More fic for you, as promised. It's long, and it kicks ass!

Chapter Eight

"Oh God." At Rose's voice, his head snapped round, to see her face pale and her expression shocked. Glancing across at what she was staring at, he frowned.

"Rose?" he whispered quietly, hoping no-one would hear. She seemed to start, but didn't look around.

"Rose? Rose!" Finally, she turned to look at him. He suddenly wished she hadn't. Her eyes, her beautiful soft brown eyes that had smiled at him so many times, were blank. Empty. Devoid. And so desperately alone.

"Right, let's get this show on the road then, as they say." His attention was dragged away by the man in front of him, and he had to suppress the urge to growl. Rose was still dazed, but seemed to be paying some attention to her surroundings, though she continued to keep her eyes on the other brunet. Haverlake motioned to the guards, and they stepped forwards, shouldering their weapons and undoing the bindings that held Rose to her chair. As soon as they came within range, Rose was kicking and struggling with all her might, but she was no match for the burly two. In desperation, the Doctor tried to free himself, tried to go to Rose. He had to save her, he had to. What they could do to her… he had to.

"Let her go! She hasn't done anythin' to you!" he yelled loudly, even as the metal cords bit into his wrists and shoulders.

"Don't be so pointless, Doctor," Haverlake sneered to him, walking closer. The Doctor glared at him with 900 years worth of experience, and fought harder. Looking across, he was dismayed to see that one of the guards had knocked Rose over the head, and was pushing her dazed form into the heavy clasps on the chair, whilst (while) the technician complained about possible brain trauma.

"Come now," he continued, drawing the Doctor's attention, "you're a man of science, surely you wish to see the effects of my little experiment?"

"Experiment?" the Time Lord spat, but any further discussion was prevented by a loud noise coming from the other side of the room. The engines were starting up.

"Rose!" the Doctor yelled, helpless. It was all going wrong, his entire fault. He couldn't do anything and now Rose was going to be lost – all because of him.

"Sir!" the technician called, his brown eyes alight with malice. "We're nearly powered up!"

"Perfect!" Haverlake called, a grin lighting his face. "Set it in motion!"

"Doctor!" Rose yelled, fighting against the heavy metal brackets that bound her in place as a cradle lowered over her head.

"NO!" came another voice, shockingly familiar. But too late.

As Jack ran into the room, face bloodied and wielding a gun, the technician pressed the button and all the energy of the chair was released.

Everything happened in slow motion. Rose screamed just once, high-pitched and full of pain, sending chills into the hearts of the two men. The Doctor struggled harder, his eyes moist. Jack took in everything quickly, and turned, shooting the technician from the doorway, then firing bursts into the two guards.

The three men slumped to the ground, and Haverlake, who was quicker off the mark, ducked, throwing himself behind the computers. Jack turned to fire at him, but the Doctor yelled out first.

"No! We can't touch the equipment!"

Panting heavily, Jack walked forwards slowly, his pilfered gun still trained on where Haverlake had gone, and stopped next to the Doctor's chair.

"I thought I might be seein' you again, Doctor," Jack said evenly, sparing him a glance before quickly dissolving the bindings on the chair with a quick burst of energy from his gun.

"Spare the introductions," the Doctor said shortly, ignoring the angry red marks around his wrists, spotted by blood where the harsh material had dug in to skin. Standing, he steadied himself on the chair and advanced forwards, with Jack behind him with covering fire.

"You want to see the power of the vortex?" the Doctor called out, a murderous glint in his eyes. "You want to see the power of a Time Lord?" His eyes narrowed. "Then so be it."

There was a split second of normalcy, then the Doctor's expression fell into deep concentration. He closed his eyes as he gathered his will.

You want to see time, and you presume to hold it in your hands like a plaything? he called out, making his mental voice loud and clear, so that even Jack could hear it.

Then so be it. With that, he threw himself mentally at Haverlake, pulling with him the full force of his anger and pain. At the academy, so many years ago, a patient teacher had told his class of the dangers of allowing emotions into mental instruction. How irrational or unknown the consequences could be. And in that instant, the Doctor threw it all away, tearing with lethal precision at the other man's mind.

Screams were ringing in his real ears, but they were dimmed by the distance between his body and his mind, and he continued, shredding and ripping through Haverlake's barriers and mind.

"Doctor!" Jack yelled eventually, having clamped his hands over his ears at the loud screams. "Doctor! You have to stop!"

Still he continued, his blood pumping with the need for vengeance on this puny man who had dared to try to take Rose, his Rose, from him.

"Doctor! We need to help Rose!" Wait, Rose needed his help. Rose was being hurt. Rose was dying. With a rush of feeling, he flew back into his own mind and took a deep, gasping breath, feeling himself reel slightly. He looked up. Jack was standing by the machine, looking desperately over the controls.

Gathering his thoughts, he strode across and brushed Jack aside, knowing exactly what to press. The one piece of information left from the broken mind of one of the world's leading psychologists, it blazed in the Doctor's memory as he worked feverishly to stop the machine.

Finally, he hit a button and leapt up to tear the helmet-device off of Rose, pulling it right out of the rest of the machine in his haste. Jack quickly moved backwards and the Doctor moved aside as he fired at the clamps holding her down, and they smoked as both men pulled her out and gently lay her on the floor.

Jack looked up at the Doctor, and felt true fear for the first time in a long time as he saw silent tears slip down his face. The Doctor looked up and met his eyes, before taking Rose's hand, and reaching out with his mind once more.