RETURN TICKET.

Chapter Two: Objective: Tyler

She awoke to find herself in a fair amount of discomfort. Her hands

were secured behind the back of the chair and the backs were

throbbing. She could feel a tight metal band around her forehead,

and it felt as if she had nails or large needles digging into her scalp.

Looking down, she could see she was attached to wires, and judging

by the blood on her clothes, some of them were embedded in her

flesh. She was aware of pain all over her body-her back, chest, arms

hands, legs, feet, neck, face and scalp. Following the wires with her

eyes back along their length, she saw they disappeared into various

parts of the TARDIS console. She guessed that the Doctor was

planning to torture her in some way, until she looked at him to see

that he was similarly wired. She winced as he drove a needle-tipped

wire into the skin on the back of his own hand. He noticed her flinch,

and looked up at her.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"We're going to visit some recent acquaintances." He said, continuing

to attach the wires to himself. He had already donned a metal circlet

with a myriad of coloured flexes attached to it. He straightened from

attaching the other ends of the wire to points concealed within the

TARDIS console. "I hope this isn't causing you too much pain, but

this is necessary."

"But why?" she asked. He turned to look at her.

"You ask too many questions. Will you let me get on with my work, or

will I have to find some way of silencing you?" he asked. Anti-Rose

chose to shut up. She knew the Doctor would have several methods

he could use to stop her talking, and none of them were likely to be

very pleasant.

Five minutes later, he finished tinkering with the TARDIS console, and

gripped the edge of it with one hand. He used the other to throw a

lever, and grabbed the console with his other hand as they were

thrown violently one way, then the other. Anti-Rose cried out, and

there was a dreadful screech of machinery from the TARDIS, and an

electrical burning smell began to permeate the air. She felt the

needles in her flesh beginning to heat up, the band around her head

starting to burn, and screamed. The Doctor grunted, but squeezed his

eyes shut.

Anti-Rose blacked out as the world seemed to burst into a thousand

points of light.

She awoke as the Doctor released her from the chair. Dizzily, she

clung to his long leather coat as he lifted her from the chair and set

her down on the grillework. While she was unconscious, he had

removed the metal band and wires from both of them. The TARDIS

lighting seemed dimmer, the hum quieter. The Doctor took her arm in

one of his hands, and started to lead her out of the TARDIS. As they

emerged into the sunlight, anti-Rose blinked at the brighter light, and

then stared.

Whatever the Doctor had planned, she wasn't at all sure it had

worked. They were only a few hundred metres down the road from

where they had started, but were near some shops. It seemed to faze

the Doctor as well, for his grip on her arm loosened just slightly.

It was just the opportunity anti-Rose had been waiting and hoping

for. She jerked her arm from his grip and pelted towards the shops,

not wasting time to see if he would pursue. If she could get to the

shops, among people, he wouldn't try and force her back, it would

attract too much attention.

The Doctor watched her leave with a small smile on his face.

"Rose Tyler, you are too predictable." He murmured. He turned his

back on the fleeing figure, and went back into his TARDIS. Moving to

the console, he checked that the TARDIS was still functional, then set

the controls.

As anti-Rose fled, she heard the sound of the TARDIS

dematerialising. She fled faster in terror that he would repeat his trick

of materialising around her, turning her head to risk a look behind

her. Having reached the ship area, she didn't notice the figure that

stepped out of the shop ahead till she ran full-tilt into him.

"Hey" a male voice said as she nearly over balanced them both. The

other person regained their composure, and steadied her. "What's up,

darlin' you're as white as a sheet. Who're you running from?"

Anti-Rose knew that voice. She hadn't heard them speak in over a

year, but she knew that voice! She turned her head, unbelieving, to

look at the tall black man who she'd run into. He was looking at her

with concern, but no real recognition.

"Mickey?" she gasped in disbelief. It was too much on top of

everything else, and for the second time in an hour, she fainted dead

away.