Chapter 6: Screaming Memories

The Doctor lowered Rose gently onto the seat and propping her leg up, while staring at it closely with his glasses on, the great brown orbs taking in every ruin skin cell and every drop of blood. Then he stood up and surveyed the grey face of his companion.

"Well, it looks worse than it really is, though you might be left with a scar that looks slightly like a mini France." He said, trying to make he grin. He was rewarded with a small smile.

"I'll just go and grab the wound healing thing which tastes dreadful." He said, suddenly frowning and placing his hands on his hips and looking up at the endless ceiling above them. "Now, I might have left it in that compartment next to the ballroom or in the boiling system." He shrugged. "I'll find it. Now, just stay put, don't try to do anything that includes effort, or else you'll bleed over the TARDIS. And we wouldn't want that, now would we?"

"No of course not." Rose said sarcastically, rolling her eyes at the Doctor, who grinned widely and dashed off with a backwards glance. She sighed and looked down at her French looking cut. Sometimes, she had to wonder what the Doctor was seeing in his eyes. She recalled that he spotted a pineapple that had apparently looked like a member of the Galactic Council of the Left Regions of the Right tentacle people.

Now she glanced over and saw the girl staring round.

"Hey." She said, raising a weak hand to her. The Girl looked over and raised a shaky hand back.

"I'm Rose." Rose said, trying to smile, but the stinging sensation was suddenly making her feel queasy.

"I'm Tess. Or, at least I though I was anyway. I don't even know who I am now." She replied. She walked towards her and Rose could suddenly see that there was no fear in her eyes, but some look of dim awareness.

"I can imagine." Rose said. "So, do you...you know...remember much?" Tess glanced up at her and suddenly her deep eyes seemed suddenly intense with a bitter sorrow.

"Very much so." She muttered.

"Sorry, Tess, I didn't mean to make you upset or anything." Rose said. Tess seemed suddenly close to tears but she brought it all back, as though bottling it away to be opened some other time.

"All of this," Tess murmured sadly, sitting down by Rose and staring down at the floor, "All of this is so unreal, yet it all makes sense." She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "Why didn't anyone tell me this before? Why leave it 'til today?"

Rose put a comforting arm around her shoulders. Tess could only just sit there, with her head in her hands, looking as sadder then ever and her heart feeling like a stone, sinking deeper and deeper into the lake of her soul.

"Tess, don't feel angry." Rose said quietly. "The Doctor didn't know you even existed, no offence or anything." Tess sighed lowly. "But, he thought he was the last of the Time Lords, he really did. If he had known you were out there, or here," She paused and smiled. "He would have been there in a minute flat. Trust me on this." Tess merely nodded. She couldn't do more. The memories had begun yet again.

They were screaming. Not out loud, but inside, their souls were screaming like never before. They could see the end, so far yet so close. Hands gripped her shoulders as she twisted her head this way and that, worry flicking at her mind like a pestering fly. There was no way out. Not for them. But for her, there always was.

She'd been so young, yet she took this all in as though she were an adult. Tears spilled silently down her face as her own parents piloted the spaceship off the home planet, whisking her away to the further reaches of the time and space dimension.

The great whirring of the machine stopped suddenly and her parents lent away from the controls and looked sadly over at their daughter, who was sitting and crying. Her mother came forward and swept her off the ground and held her in a warm embrace. Tears trickled down her face and landed softly into the hair of her child, who wept into her shoulder and held her tight, never wanting to let go.

Her father came to her side, prizing her slowly from her mother's arms and he looked intently down at his daughter, his only child, a blessing so young, yet with a mind so progressed. He lowered his lips and kissed her gently on the forehead. There were no tears on his face. But she could see the pain, the bitter agonizing pain in his deep blue eyes, could hear his two hearts beating madly and could almost smell the anxiety in the air around them.

Then her mother came by her husband's side and they walked slowly out of the spaceship. There, they lowered their child down on the doorstep of a large house. She bawled for her parents once more, but they had turned their backs on their child. Her mother's red eyes glanced over her shoulder and more tears caressed her cheek and she turned away, walking back into the spaceship. The soft whirring began again and slowly the shape disappeared.

Tess jerked put of her dream with a start and stared around. Rose's arm was still around her shoulder and she was staring worriedly down at her. Tess looked forward and came face to face with the Doctor. Her was looking serious, no grin present on his face and his hands were on her shoulders. A shot of embarrassment ricocheted through Tess. She must have fallen asleep. She merely shook her head and brought the hand up again.

To her surprise, the Doctor grinned. But it didn't meet his eyes.

"How you fell asleep with Rose Tyler sat next to you, must be one heck of a miracle." He exclaimed. Tess gave him a small smile, to Rose as well. He nodded his head and stood.

A sudden occurrence came to Rose's mind.

"Doctor?"

"Hello."

"What about her parents?" Tess raised an eyebrow.

"They weren't my parents." She muttered. "I was adopted."

"They weren't even human." The Doctor said brightly. Tess and Rose looked up at him. He shrugged at them. "Garthes. Merely using some skin copying devices." Rose gaped at him. Tess suddenly shook her head.

"No. You're wrong. They couldn't have been; they were humans. I would have seen it." Tess said defiantly.

"Not if you had matured into your powers, Tess. You've had these, for what, an hour? You've spent you're natural, artificial to be correct in fact, human life with them. You would have never noticed. They would have done anything to do with their alien sides when you weren't there. Plus, Garthes do have the odd occurrence to be able to make them selves invisible." The Doctor said, leaning against the glowing control panel. "Very sophisticated race, surprised they managed to find you, before me of course. I might have given them a head start of course, without me knowing that you were even here."

"So, what happened to the humans?" Rose asked. She didn't need to really ask though, she knew pretty well what was coming.

"They're dead." He said quietly. Tess looked up in alarm, but then something must have clicked in her head, because then she saw what he meant. Knew what they would have done to the real Wilson family. They were dead alright. And no one would have seen or heard. The silent dead.

The space ship was large, metal and illusion armoured. One minute it was a tree, the next a building or a shop, with a closed sign in the window or door. The people who saw the door open saw a business man carrying a suitcase and looking very prompt. No one saw them come out. Not even the security camera's dotted around.

It was part of the basic defensive mechanism of the Garthes ship. Every time it changed, it sent out a pulse charge to disrupt all technology around. There'd be a short fuzz on the screen and then it'd just return to normal.

Of course, the companies that owned the CTTV cameras sent out a technician to try and sort out these odd breakages in the film, but when reported back, it was said that there was nothing wrong whatsoever with the appliance and that it was in basic top shape.

Now, three business men entered the building, not looking prompt at all. Their ties were lose down their chest and a few bruises were visible on their hands as the opened the doors. One of the businessmen had a great gash on the left side of his head, but no one about managed to spot it.

As the door close behind them, the vacant building around them faded away, revealing a great line of buttons and controls. A small flight of stairs led up to the main controls, which were glowing a soft orange with the odd blur of red.

There was loud grunt as the three businessmen suddenly faded away to revealing the great hulking Garthes, which growled and stomped heavily up the stairs, their hooves banging noisily on the stone floor.

They all stood at the controls and scanned the screens intently.

"What shall we do now?" The middle one growled, whacking his red fist hard on the console. "Both Time Lords lost and nothing from our objectives has been gained!"

"Calm yourself, Brother." The tallest one said, his voice low but calm. "It is not over yet. They have yet to move on before we can track them. Patience is our pain, but yet it can be the greatest of gifts."

"But what if they don't move off again, Tarok?" Tarok frowned at his brother, his amber eyes confused and baffled at his statement.

"Valhalla, I have never heard such nonsense come off you tongue!" He exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air, as though about to strike. "They'll have to move if the want to get away, do you not see? These Time Lords and their pet human, they move for safety. But, what they don't understand is that when the very moment their engines are revived, a wave is sent through the land. We can see this wave, so that we can track."

It was the third's turn to talk now, as he lifted his horned head and opened his mouth.

"Tarok, these Time Lords, they have intelligence beyond the stars, beyond ours in fact. They will not be as so blind as to not notice such a plain trap." He said, his fluffed ears flattening.

"Fear is what drives the enemy out." Tarok replied. "They'll be more afraid of staying then using their advanced intelligence. It is only sense, Karok."

"But...I have heard things about these Time Lords, from many a solider. They have their ways. All that I suggest, Tarok, is that you perhaps have some idea other than that so that when, perhaps, the trap is missed, you shall be able to fall back on the idea and take us to victory!" Karok said, exasperatedly, blowing an added amount of smoke out of his nostrils and tossing his head.

"That will not be needed. This will work, this will lead us to victory. This will take us home with two slaves worthy of the King." Tarok snarled, a short spout of flame accompanying each word. He suddenly looked drained. "We have little time left, Brothers. And if we are too late, it will only be the embrace of death for when we return."

The Doctor, Rose and Tess all sat in the TARDIS, wondering what they're next plan of action would be. Rose was the big mouth, as plain usual, but Tess also had a valid say in the whole conversation.

"Why...why don't we just get to another time period?" Rose asked, her eyes on her rapidly healing wound as she suggested this. The Doctor shook his head.

"No use." He said, shrugging lowly. Tess nodded.

"Why would that be?" Rose asked, looking up. The wound healing thing, which tasted of rotten cabbage with slimy caviar eggs, was certainly doing what it said it was doing. It looked as though a tiny army of skin was running across the wound, covering it completely as it charged over it. It rippled when it touched the ends of the cut, blending brilliantly in with the tattered skin around it. It only took minutes before her leg was restored to its normal state.

"Well, as far as I know, Garthes pursue their targets. Dunno how, but they do until they get what they want." He said, muttering this as he thought.

"Maybe...Maybe they can read something when the engines start up." Tess said, thinking about this thoroughly.

"True, but that'd mean they'd have to have something a few feet underground if they were measuring vibrations. Then, once we're off the ground, they'd loose us. No, it' something else, something spaceships do when they take off." He said, but not unkindly.

"Sonic boom?" Rose put in. Tess looked up. The Doctor frowned.

"Not a sonic boom...But a sonic transmittance." He grabbed rose and held her in a hug. "I think you must be getting smarter each day!" Rose rolled her eyes at this.

"What, it was a compliment!" The Doctor exclaimed, leaping up and fumbling with the TARDIS controls, Tess beside him.

"If I, the genius of all things great and beautiful," A cough from Rose rained on his parade. "I will be able to manually stop the TARDIS from transmitting the sonic transmittance, then the Garthes won't be able to find us...I hope." He grinned broadly and hopped down underneath the controls of the TARDIS, the sound of the sonic screwdriver echoing around the spaceship. Rose sighed and nodded towards the door, indicating Tess to come.

Both walked out, closing the door carefully behind them. Breathing in the fresh air, Rose stretched her arms, almost yawning as she tipped back her head to sort out her hair. Tess merely peered around, although she was looking for someone that looked suspicious and deadly. Shrugging on her findings that there was no one about, she sat down on the bench next to Rose.

"So, um, where do you come from? On Earth I mean." Rose asked after a short lapse of silence. Tess leaned back in her seat and stared at the sky for a moment, before finally asking.

"I was adopted from a care home in Manchester when I was two, by the Wilson family, well, now the bunch of Garthes. I grew up in London. Near the Powell Estate I think." She replied, looking out onto the houses and flats that looked down on the park. Rose stopped and looked round.

"Powell Estate?" She asked. A sudden uncalled for surge of guilt rushed through her. The Doctor had been looking for years for another Time Lord, but Rose had been near one for the whole of her life. But she shook this away. There was no way they could have told she was there, the Doctor had said about all the things he had done to try and find another of his kind, but of course, people who went round houses asking 'Hello, are you a Time Lord?' were considered to be just that tad bit strange.

Well, this is the longest chapter I have ever written. Sorry about using the grey line between different scenes. My totally awsome stars aren't allowed on here. The next chapter will be usp ASAP, but please do keep in mind I'm trying to get them as long as this one! Please review, they are greatly thanked for! Thanks to all the guys that have been reviewing, please continue doing so!