Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?

Chapter Summary: Xan gives the Doctor the location and the three of them go there. They receive a very nasty shock when they find it.

Okay, I know this is a really bad chapter. I have an excuse, I've been really busy and ill this week. Anyway, I wanted to get to the end of this chapter so as I can post up the last chapters which I have already written…because I rarely write in chronological order…

Chapter Twelve: Falling Into Place

'She's dead.' The Doctor looked up at Rose. 'I'm sorry.'

'She was shot,' Xan said flatly.

'She knew something so they killed her,' Rose said quietly. 'How could they?'

The Doctor sighed. 'You know the answer to that,' he said gently, touching her shoulder comfortingly. 'Come on. Let's go stop them.'

Rose didn't move. She was staring down at the young woman crumpled on the floor. Whoever had killed her had simply tossed her on the floor, hadn't even bothered to try and hide her body. Just left her, like she was a piece of worthless rubbish.

'Who did this?' she whispered.

Gently, the Doctor drew her to her feet and said softly, 'We'll find them, Rose.'

'Then let's hurry up and do so,' Xan said irritably.

'Shh!' the Doctor snapped.

Xan gestured around the huge room. 'There's no one here.'

They both stared at him.

He scowled back, suddenly slightly embarrassed. 'Telepathic, remember?' he muttered sheepishly.

'Show us the way, then,' the Doctor said.

'It's through here.' Xan gestured that they follow him and started up a narrow flight of stairs, spiralling upwards, made out of rusty metal. He moved far quieter than the other two; in fact, if they hadn't been able to see him, neither of them would be known he was there, he moved so silently.

'I'm not sure this is a good idea,' Rose whispered.

The Doctor didn't reply for a moment, and then said, 'What choice do we have?'

'I know, we don't. I'm just saying – '

'I'm sure we could deal with him,' he said. 'If we had to.'

Rose pulled a face, which of course the Doctor couldn't see. 'Right. Oh yes, we could definitely deal with him. Are you crazy?'

'I was trying to remind you we've dealt with worse,' the Doctor replied quite calmly.

'True, but Doctor, he's fast and he's telepathic – '

'I've dealt with telepaths before and people who are fast.'

Rose sighed irritably through her teeth. 'You know the point I'm trying to make.'

'Rose, how do we normally deal with things?'

'Well…' She considered. 'Usually by charing in head-long and running around shouting and making it up as we go along.'

'Right. And that method has not failed us yet, has it?'

'No.'

He turned his head and smiled at her over his shoulder. 'There you are, then.'

She returned the smile.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Xan had obviously been waiting for them to catch up. 'Finished talking about me?' he inquired.

The Doctor folded his arms. 'Anyone tell you it's rude to simply listen into other people's thoughts?'

Xan gave a one-shouldered shrug. 'I can't help it. It's not as if I choose to hear what people are thinking. Unfortunately, I appear to have lost the ability to 'hear' only what I want and when.'

'How do you lose that ability?' the Doctor said, confused. 'Granted, when someone begins using a strong natural telepathic ability it can be tricky – '

'I don't really want to talk about it,' Xan said, rather shortly. 'Come on. I suggest we be a little quieter now. There's someone in this area of the building. Not too close, but not far enough away for my liking. The labatories are this way.'

'Labatories?' Rose said sharply.

Xan nodded, his expression hardening. 'Come on,' he said again.

They followed him. It was amazing, Rose thought, that he seemed to know his way perfectly around the labyrinth of rooms, stairs and doors so perfectly he clearly was not going to get lost. She had already lost her sense of direction. Maybe the Doctor would find it easier to navigate his way around this place than she did. After all, he navigated his way across time and space, even if he did occasionally get it wrong – '

There was a crash and a large shape lunged out of the shadows. It was human shaped, covered in shadows so no one could see exactly what it was, and it moved like a snake.

The Doctor grabbed Rose and hauled her backwards, out of its way, and they saw it. It was a man, very big, heavily muscled, with half his face missing. It wasn't bleeding, simply a mess of raw flesh with the skin simply stripped away. He snarled, one eye staring sightlessly at them whilst the other rolled crazily in the socket. His mouth was filled with broken teeth, dripping saliva and blood where the fangs sliced his lips open.

'Oh, crap,' Rose said.

'Move!' Xan yelled at them both. The monster man half-turned at the sound and was met by Xan's fist coming the other way. Despite the fact that the man was a lot bigger than Xan, the blow rocked him back on his feet. He roared in pain and lashed out furiously. Xan ducked easily and returned with two sharp, stunning blows, one to the man's stomach and the other to his face. These blows didn't quite drop the monster, but sent him staggering back in obvious pain.

'I suggest you move,' Xan said calmly. He stepped forwards, waiting for the man to get up. The Doctor pulled Rose further back, although the man had apparently forgotten about them. He was staring at Xan, his single eyes fixed on the hybrid with an expression of senseless loathing and bloodthirst.

He lunged.

Xan side-stepped neatly, turning slightly as the man rushed past him and moved to trip him. The man crashed to the ground with a howl of pain as he went headlong into a metal wall. He whirled and raced forwards then stumbled to a stop.

Xan had gone.

Even the Doctor hadn't seen where he had gone. One moment the young man had been there, the next he had gone. The massive man started around in confused astonishment, his breathing loud and ragged. He growled, a totally inhuman sound and finally remembered the other two creatures. He turned towards them and leapt for them.

Xan simply appeared out of shadows, now armed with a length of metal pipe. He swung, throwing his entire weight behind the blow, and aimed with deadly accuracy.

The end of the pipe buried itself in the giant man's head with a sickening cracking sound. Blood ran down his face. He stopped sharply, swayed, and crashed to the ground.

He lay still.

Xan stepped back, still holding the pipe tightly in one hand.

'I don't think you need that anymore,' the Doctor said, rather coldly, to him.

Xan's eyes narrowed. 'I'm sorry? You had a better way of dealing with that situation?'

The Doctor simply looked at him. 'Where were you taught that violence is the only solution, Xianfrith?'

Xan met the Doctor's hard stare with his own. 'When I'm fighting for my life.'

'Don't tell me you were fighting for your life – '

'No, I killed him to save yours and hers,' Xan retorted. 'See, I could have made it away from him, no problem, but you two – you're too slow. He'd have caught you. And you're going to tell me you would have done any different?' He gestured at the fallen body. 'Look at him. He's been turned into something like a dog – abuse it long enough and it'll bite anyone. No reason, no rationality, just survival because everything is out to hurt or kill you. I'm sorry I had to kill him and I wish I hadn't had to. Happy?' The last word was said with bitterness.

'No,' the Doctor said, but his tone had softened. 'All right, Xan. I think we understand each other – '

'No one understood him,' Rose said, nodding towards the man. 'What happened to him?'

'I don't pretend to know,' Xan said. 'Maybe you do, Doctor.'

The Doctor crouched down and examined the body silently, then he straightened with an expression on his face that Rose recognised as meaning trouble for someone. The kind of trouble that ends up with slime on the carpet.

'This way,' Xan said. 'The laboratery is just this way.'

The lab turned out to be a dingy little room filled with glass pods. They were large, oval shaped-chambers set into the walls, the doors made of dark, dirty glass. Rose shivered; they were remarkably similar to the pods that had housed the humans in the hospital on New Earth. Even though she hadn't been in control of her body at the time, she recalled the little disease chambers and she wondered uneasily if this was the same kind of thing.

The Doctor gasped. Rose turned and saw all the colour drained from his face. He was holding his head, eyes closed in pain or maybe horror.

'What's wrong?' she asked, concerning, hurrying over.

'You mean you don't know?' he gritted between his teeth. 'You really can't feel it – how can you not?' He cried out angrily in pain. 'Stupid humans – can't feel anything, must be like living inside a bubble – '

'Don't be offended,' Rose said to Xan who watched silently. 'He tends to be rude about other species when he's under pressure – '

'I'm not human,' Xan said mildly.

The Doctor straightened and glowered around the room. 'What has happened here?' he demanded in a furious voice. 'Can't any of you feel it? Something terrible, something horrific, has been happening here. There's death, there's darkness, there's sheer terror – '

'We know,' Xan said. 'Something terrible. Why do you think I brought you here?'

'What was going on here?' Rose demanded.

The Doctor strode to a pod, wrenched it open and a body crumbled out. It was obviously human, but had been ripped apart in places. There were massive holes in the remains of the flesh and it looked as if parts of the body had simply been torn out. He looked around. There were other pods that had clearly been broken open from the inside.

'This is a badly built and maintained facility,' Xan said. 'No wonder some were able to escape.'

'This is a building lab,' the Doctor said, running his eyes over equipment on the tables and on the shelves, examining wiring on the pods and the remains of bodies in the other pods. He was animated, running and scuttling around the room, but it was the kind of engery that is caused by sheer fury and would eventually explode.

'Building?' Rose said quietly.

'Building species. Someone has been dismantling human bodies, hybrid bodies, other alien bodies, but all humanoid. They've been taking bits of them – you can see from the state of these remains. Only bits of them, and my guess is, from everything that's in here, someone has been trying to build another species.' He looked disgusted, angry and very sad.

'What are we going to do? Find out who it is?'

'We're going to shut this place down, then we're going to try and figure out who has been doing this,' the Doctor said harshly.

'How are we going to shut it down?'

The Doctor tossed the sonic screwdriver. 'Xan, I reckon you could probably find the main power source for this building, couldn't you?'

'Yes, give me some time and I'll find it,' he said.

'Good. Rose, you got with him and use the sonic screwdriver to do whatever you can to screw up the main power source and stop it working. That should switch all the power off.'

'Won't that shut down the pods?' Xan asked.

'Will that kill anyone alive?' Rose added.

'Places like this usually have a generator, right?' the Doctor said.

Xan nodded in understanding. 'The generators are emergency power – they'll keep the life-support in the pods going.'

'But will make sure that no one can use the other, dangerous equipment in this building,' the Doctor finished.

'What are you going to do?' Rose asked.

'I'm going to see if I can find anyone still alive and see if I can do anything for them,' the Doctor said.

Rose and Xan disappeared. The Doctor heard them clatter off down the stairs. Or rather, he heard Rose's footsteps and Xan's voice as they faded away. He took another look around and then set to seeing if there was anyone he could help. Most of the victims in the pods were either dead or heavily sedated. There was nothing he could do for them until the authorities were informed, and if he did help, he could run the risk of harming them further.

'I'm sorry I can't help you all now,' he said aloud in the silent room. 'But I promise I'll make sure someone comes who can help you.'

Then he set to dismantling the equipment, to make sure no one could use it again. Although he didn't have the sonic screwdriver, he found a hammer and set about simply destroying it. He was unaware of how much time had passed when, finally, the lights in the building dimmed. The main power had been shut off.

He smiled.

Then he heard the soft sound of footsteps.

'Well,' a voice said behind him. 'I must congratulate you on finding me out.'