Rose looked over at a great tower set apart from the city. People wondered around her, dressed in strange clothes, all high ornate collars and dragging skirts. The planet was beautiful she thought, but something about it seemed so sad. Perhaps it was the song in her mind, sweeping and melancholy. She heard the strange name in her mind again. Theta. It whispered so softly and she felt an eerie calm fall over her once more. The sight of the planet disappeared from view and she became aware once again of the rolling carriage around her, the pendants held in her mouth. She ran her tongue along the three remaining stones, praying whatever it was that was controlling her knew what it was doing. Rose had been loathed when she had felt herself breaking the precious necklace but the voice had soothed her soon after.

'He will understand, he loves you. He is good, he was always good but now he is sad, sad for me, sad for us.'

'Who are you?' thought Rose, trying to peer through the darkness to see her possessor.

'Hush, do not speak.' Said the voice before Rose felt herself move once more and send another stone to the ground beneath the carriage.

'Tell me who you are,' said Rose, fighting against the growing quiet as the voice tried to lull her again with songs.

'You will know in time, everything has its time.'

'You sound like the Doctor.'

'That's because the Doctor sounds like me,' giggled the voice, almost childishly.

The voice faded away once again as the carriage halted. Rose heard her captors' voices but they remained muffled. The carriage door was opened and she was roughly pulled out, impacting with the ground so hard all the air left her lungs. She was on a bridge she realised, she could feel the breeze and smell the water. She couldn't move to run even though she knew she wouldn't get far if she did. She felt hands tugging at the material of her dress, pulling it from her and leaving her in just a petit-coat and chemise. She felts hands on her then, searching her, violating her. She wanted to scream but could produce no sound. She heard the voice in her head crying out against the touches and her body began to move, thrashing at her assailant. She heard the men's voices again and the contact was broken but she could feel the blood running down her thighs, she felt filthy, damaged. She heard a fumbling beside her and the men heaving something heavy over the side of the bridge, it landed in the water with a loud splash and Rose felt a cold fear wash over her. She was bundled roughly back into the cart and again it began to roll away. She felt hot tears burning her eyes but they could not fall.

'I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry,' wept the voice in her mind, 'I didn't know they would…Rose forgive me for he shall never forgive me now. Theta will find you, will heal you. Rose forgive me.'

Rose couldn't answer. Too many riddles, too many names. She was cold and frightened and wretched. She tried to push the possession from her mind but it held fast.

'Please, please let me go.'

The Doctor had collected up five of the dropped pendants, the path easy to follow but slow. On foot the Doctor could run for hours but Jackie and Mickey hindered him. His anger didn't flare towards them though, they had been brave to follow him and they were making good time considering they were following a coach as the hoof and tracks confirmed. They had been following Rose's trail for three hours and the Doctor was praying it would end soon. He longed to see Rose's face again, have her safe beside him but he was scared. The creatures in the prison were not human and that meant that whatever had Rose wasn't human. Whoever had taken Rose had done so for a reason, perhaps to get at him, an old adversary out for revenge. Perhaps he was walking straight into a trap but it didn't matter, only Rose mattered.

The sonic screwdriver beeped as they walked onto a bridge across the Thames. He looked down at his feet and saw one of the small stones. He was getting closer. Mickey wandered passed him, further onto the bridge as the Doctor fixed the pendant back onto the chain before putting it back in his coat pocket, wishing he'd not decided to go native as it offered much less protection than his trusty leather.

Mickey's cry of horror pulled the Doctor's attention and it drew both him and Jackie to the side of the bridge, casting their eyes down to what had caught Mickey's, the mud flats left by the retreating water. The Doctor closed his eyes and stepped back from the bridge, bile rising in his throat the sight.

"Rose! God no!"

A body lay face down and motionless in the mud and silt, blonde hair saturated and purple dress in tatters. The Doctor found the steps that led down to the jetty and clambered into the thick mud, not caring as it clung mercilessly to his clothes. He called to Mickey to keep Jackie back as he reached the body, barely able to see through the tears welling in his eyes. The girl's face was buried in the mud, suffocated. Refusing to accept the finality the Doctor scooped up the lifeless form and carried her back to the jetty.

"Rose!" cried Jackie running down to where the Doctor had laid her. Mickey held her back as the Doctor felt for a pulse, the body was cold, dead for at least half an hour. His whole body convulsed with tears as he gathered her to his chest, crying into the soaked hair.

"Please no, not her, not my Rose. Not my beautiful Rose."

Jackie and Mickey clung together, shaking and sobbing with grief, unable to reach out to comfort the desperate man before them. The Doctor calmed himself as best he could, clinging to sanity with his fingertips. He was intent on cleaning the mud from her once beautiful face, he could not have her marred even in death. He brushed the mud from her lips, remembering their kisses, fresh tears springing from his eyes as he saw them choked and withered by the water. The sludge came away easily. He ran a hand over her right eye and stopped, blonde eyebrow, blonde eyelashes.

"Its not Rose," he said more to himself than anyone as he brushed away the rest of the mud, "Rose is a natural brunette, her eyebrows are brown."

He needed confirmation. He pulled back the top of her dress to reveal her collar bone, no mark lay there. His mark wasn't upon the body in his arms.

"Its not Rose!" he cried, letting the body slip from his arms and covering his face with his hands, whooping with joy and dispersed anguish. He turned his eyes back to the body in front of him and solemnity returned to him, this was no time for joy, "This poor girl died as her."

"You mean they faked it?" said Mickey, wiping his eyes on his shirt sleeve.

"Dressed this poor creature in her clothes and drowned her for us to find. Poor child," said the Doctor crossing the girl's arms across her chest, "Jackie may I have your cloak?"

Jackie handed him the heavy garment as the Doctor lay two Victorian coins on the girl's eyes for the boatman before placing a small purse next to her to pay for a good funeral. He covered her with the cape, tucking it around her so nothing would corrupt her flesh until she was found.

"She'll be given a proper burial," said the Doctor turning to his companions, "We have to hurry, whoever killed this poor girl has no mercy and I fear with Rose's temper we may not be so fortunate next time."

The coach rolled to a stop and Rose felt herself spit out the last of the stones. She heard once again the voice of her captors as they came round to unlock the coach door. She knew not to run, she wouldn't get far and she had no more clues to leave for the Doctor. The birds singing around her told her it was dawn and she wished for something to eat as her stomach growled.

'Theta is coming, he is close.' Said the voice in her mind.

Rose heard the bolts slip back and the door swing open. She was hauled out once more and immediately marched away. Doors opened and closed and she was led through corridors and up stairs. She could feel cold fear falling over her as a clinical smell began to fill her senses along with something she knew was not of earth. She felt shadow. She couldn't explain it, how could anyone feel shadow, but she could feel the dimensions shifting around her, as if she'd crossed the threshold of the TARDIS for the first time. Spatial displacement she'd heard the Doctor call it.

She stopped dead in a room and she could hear voices, not a language she knew and the TARDIS failed to translate for her. Two hands untied her bounds and only then did she feel the blood begin to flake from where she'd writhed them. Her blindfold was loosened but darkness remained save for a red glow that her eyes could still not adjust to. When they did adjust she prayed for darkness once more. Black, slim, tall figures stood around a table, she could almost see through them, so much like smoke and shadow. On the table lay a human girl, no more than fourteen, tied down. The shadowy forms began to take shape, becoming human. Their clawed hands became fingers and their bodies filled out to become men of the time. One held a knife. Rose felt her eyes wanting to close against the scene but she fought the possession in her mind and this time she won. The knife came down onto the screaming girl, slashing her face, her abdomen, her chest. Blood flowed like water onto the floor below and the monsters seemed not to care, they were breathing rhythmically, breathing in the screams of the girl, their eyes glowing red and the shadows swirling around them faster and faster.

Rose felt herself retch and proceeded to lose what little contents her stomach offered. The macabre ritual ended, the girls mutilated body now lifeless on the table. What felt like a hundred pairs of eyes turned on Rose and she froze.

"Good evening Time Lord," said one of the men, moving towards her, "We have been expecting you."