The door of the cell opened with an almighty clang.
"Right, we have about twenty seconds. Now if I lock onto the generators heat," The Doctor fiddled with his sonic screwdriver just outside the door. "We can find the others,"
They set off straight forward then turning, right, right, right, left, left, right, right and finally left.
"Hello again," The Doctor said stopping suddenly. Three large scaly creatures were stood in front of him. "Would you care to look at this?"
The sonic screwdriver glowed brightly and the creature's back away giving the Hobbit's enough time to drop down.
"How did you know that would work?" Asked Rose as they tried to find the entrance to make their escape.
"Do you really think I spent all the time in that cell "brooding"?" The Doctor asked sarcastically. "I was studying the light fittings. Specially made to fit their delicate skin."
They ran down corridor after corridor and eventually found the entrance hall. The Doctor still didn't like this place. The last time he'd seen it was on Gallifrey and that bought back bad memories.
"Rose, I want you to take the others back to the TARDIS." The Doctor said quietly.
"If you think I'm leaving you then you've got a another thing..." The Doctor stopped her mid sentence. His big blue eyes were full of pain again so Rose bit her lip. "Ok."
The Doctor watched them go; Rose first, then Harry followed by Ron and Hermione (holding hands again) then the four Hobbit's. All eight of them glanced back at the Doctor.
He turned to look back at the high wall in front of him. There were inscriptions written in Gallifreyan that he needed to translate.
"The first to walk out of their cell will be..." He trailed off his eyes widening with every word. He'd sent Rose and the others away so they didn't get caught by the creatures... but in doing so he'd sent them to their death.
"Rose," he whispered to himself still staring at the wall. Then the Doctor regained his senses, turned and began thundering after the others shouting. "Rose!"
Rose and the others were almost out the door when she thought she heard something. She was sure someone had called her name but when she listened she couldn't hear anything.
They neared the door and were on the thresh hold when...
The Doctor continued running. He could see Rose ahead of him but the resistant walls swallowed his shouts.
"Rose! Wait!" But the Doctor's shouts came out in whispers.
Rose turned just as the crew left the building and the Doctor was the last thing she thought off as the glass tank came down around her, filling with a noxious gas.
The Doctor ran forward and started banging on the glass; he could see the others inside falling unconscious one by one. He took out his sonic screwdriver and frantically began trying to break the glass.
"Come on," he muttered to the screwdriver. "COME ON!"
But try as he might he couldn't get the glass to weaken. The longer he stood there the more effect the poison had on the others, the closer they went to death.
He heard a hiss behind him. Several scaly creatures stood there.
"There is an antidote," one of them hissed the TARDIS translating for the Doctor. "We will give it to you. But only if we can have something in return."
"What do you want?" Asked the Doctor showing no hint of fear in his voice, even though inside his body was screaming to get Rose and the others free.
"We want a time vortex energy cell. It's the only thing we need to complete our time machine. We believe you have possession of several." Another creature hissed.
The Doctor's mind raced. The TARDIS had one, but how would they leave without it? His sonic screwdriver had one, but what if the creatures turned nasty? The only other thing he could do was make one.
"Have you got spare light bulbs, some wire and a bit more time?" Asked the Doctor. He would need at least twenty minutes to construct one that wouldn't blow up.
"You've got ten minutes," said the biggest scaly creature as the others went to fetch light bulbs and wires.
"Explosion it is," sighed the Doctor.
The scaly creatures returned and the Doctor set to work trying to create a time vortex energy cell. Easier said than done and, since it's a mouthful trying to say time vortex energy cell, you can imagine how hard it is to create one when the imminent death of your friends is at stake.
"Hurry," hissed one of the scalies mockingly. "They have little over two minutes."
"Done," said the Doctor producing a rather odd looking sphere. He gave it one final tap with his sonic screwdriver and it glowed bright blue.
"Well done," the scaly produced a small spray bottle and caught the Doctor unawares. "It's just a shame there's only enough antidote for eight people. And I think you'll find nine have been infected."
The scalies retreated to the building with their time "bomb". (Excuse the pun ;).) They chucked the antidote at the Doctor who caught it and the glass container, which held the others, was lifted.
He administered the antidote to all of them. He knew he would die, but hey, regeneration wasn't that bad. Except for Rose... Rose would hate it.
"Doctor!" Rose sat bolt upright. The others were coming too as well.
"Rose listen," he said quietly. "You remember our talk about regeneration? Well I'm going to have to do it now. To cut a long story short, I was infected with the poison as well and there was only enough antidote for you lot."
The Doctor tried to smile but he could see the pain grow in Rose's eyes as she began to understand what he was saying.
"But... but..." Rose's gaze was too much. The Doctor knew how much it would hurt her. The happy memories were flooding back into her mind like some cruel mocking joke, he could see it. The Doctor could hear her, in her head she was screaming, writhing with the pain and unfairness.
"That's just not fair!" Rose whispered, hot angry tears rolling down her cheeks.
"It never is," the Doctor replied.
"How long until..." Rose couldn't finish the sentence.
"About a minute," the Doctor replied sighing. The others were checking each other over for injuries. None of them noticed the Doctor and Rose. Rose knew their conversation was just one in a million happening at that second all over the universe, but somehow theirs felt much more important.
Rose bought her hand up to her lips. They were covered in the blue liquid that had saved her life. She looked at her fingers. Her lips were covered with the antidote. She looked up at the Doctor, who seemed to have noticed what she was doing.
"Rose," he warned. It would be too risky to carry out what she was thinking. She might become infected again.
Rose Tyler as everyone who's met her knows, is stubborn yet in a kind way. She always puts others before herself. So really the Doctor had no chance of stopping her.
"I'm not going to sit back and watch my best friend die." She said the tears still rolling down her cheeks. She leaned forward, grabbing the Doctor by his leather jacket. Rose pulled him as close as she could and kissed him.