The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday – Chapter 16
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, if I did, I would learn how to use a gun from River Song.
A/N: Here's the next chapter of The Runaway Bride. I plan on making all the specials around three chapters long, because they're longer than the usual episode. So, there should be another chapter after this to finish off The Runaway Bride. Anyway, I hope you like the chapter and I hope you like the interaction between Rhea and the Doctor and Rhea and Donna in this chapter.
Notes on Reviews:
Beulah2013: Oh, she will, I think she'll be getting a little bolder with the Doctor, this is just her normal flirty nature, but as she gets closer to him, she'll definitely start doing more racy things with him. But, I think she's definitely seeing him in a new light, and her growing feelings for him will be shown in a future episode, one coming up very soon.
Haleyrayxx: Sorry, I'm not doing The Doctor's Wife yet, it won't be for awhile, because I wanted Rhea to kind of forget what happened in The Runaway Bride, so Rhea's reaction to getting hit will be very interesting. Plus, I'm glad it's 'almost', I'm still waiting for Rhea to actually hit someone important.
LilGreenearth97: I'm glad you liked the way I characterised the characters as well as Rhea. Wow, that's really nice praise, another element of adventure, was not expecting that! I'm very glad you liked Rhea and the story.
Romanadvoratrelu: I'm glad you like her in this story!
Warnings: Swearing, sexual innuendos.
Italics – Rhea's thoughts/The Doctor's thoughts
The Runaway Bride: Black Widow
Sylvia spotted Donna first and froze, the rest of the room soon following suit until all was silent and all eyes were on Donna, the Doctor and Rhea.
"You had the reception without me?" Donna asked, slowly.
"Donna…what happened to ya?" A dark-skinned man in a tuxedo stepped forward and asked. Rhea guessed that this must be Lance.
"You had the reception without me?" Donna asked again, her voice raising up a notch.
There was an awkward pause as the guests hid their faces in shame and embarrassment.
"Hello! I'm the Doctor and this is Rhea." The Doctor introduced himself, cheerfully, trying to break the pause.
Rhea elbowed him in the side and smiled at everyone. "Not the time, honey." She muttered.
Donna turned to them. "They had the reception without me."
Rhea took a step forward so that she was closer to Donna. "Yes, we gathered." She said, placing a comforting hand on Donna's shoulder.
"Well, it was all paid for, why not?" A blonde woman in a purple dress said, derisively.
"Thank you, Nerys." Donna hissed at the woman, spitting out her name as if it were a piece of food she hated.
Rhea eyed Nerys. "Oh, is that Nerys?" She gave the woman a disdainful smile. "I totally get it now, she's a bit Plastic, don't you think?" Rhea asked Donna, who grinned at her.
Sylvia approached Donna. "Well, what were we supposed to do? I got your silly little message in the end. "I'm on Earth"? Very funny. What the hell happened? How did you do it? I mean, what's the trick because I'd love to know-" Sylvia started angrily ranting.
Rhea frowned at the woman. This was Donna's wedding day and the poor woman was being treated like a serial killer.
The whole room started talking at the same time, until all Donna could hear was the incomprehensible babble of a hundred people scolding her. The only thing left to do was to burst into tears, at which all the guests' anger melted into pity. Lance reached out and pulled her into a hug and she continued to sob into his shoulder. Everyone started applauding at the show of the happy couple and Donna turned slightly, looking Rhea and the Doctor in the eye, before winking through the onslaught of her fake tears. Rhea turned around, so no one could see her face other than the Doctor, grinning at him.
"Oh, she's good." Rhea said, winking at the Doctor, who smirked back, agreeing with her.
The reception continued as it did before, now with Donna included with the dancing. The Doctor and Rhea, leaning against the bar, smiling as they watched her.
Rhea frowned as she stared at Donna's mother, leaning closer to the Doctor so that she could speak to him. "Is it just me, or did no one seem that worried that Donna disappeared from the wedding?" Rhea muttered to the Doctor. "I mean, if it was my wedding, and I had disappeared right up the aisle, my mother would have called the freaking army and marched across the country, looking for me. It's like they didn't even care, at least not until she started crying." Rhea commented, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Different people. They've had different lives. Your mother would act differently in a situation like that." The Doctor said, lightly.
"She's her daughter." Rhea argued, shaking her head.
"I'm going to need your phone." The Doctor said, holding his hand out, and Rhea dug into her pocket and gave it to him.
The Doctor, putting on his glasses, did a search for H C Clements on the internet. He casted a furtive look around the room before using his sonic screwdriver to hack into the website.
"Are you hacking into the website?" Rhea asked, glancing at the phone and taking a sip of her margarita.
He looked up and he gave her a sheepish look.
"Oh, you delinquent you." Rhea teased.
He frowned at the glass in her hands. "Are you sure you should be drinking?"
Rhea laughed. "Oh, honey, it'll take more than one margarita to get me drunk."
He looked back down at the phone, blanching when he saw the words 'Sole Prop. TORCHWOOD' displayed on the screen. The Doctor closed the phone, hurriedly, and gave it back to Rhea, who raised an eyebrow.
"What did you find?" Rhea asked.
"I'll tell you later." The Doctor said, looking around the dance floor.
Rhea shrugged and turned her attention back to the people dancing and Donna and her beaming smile, in particular. She saw a woman in a grey dress dancing with a man in a tuxedo and she leaned back against the bar, memories rising to the surface. The man threw the woman backwards over his arm, dipping her, and she laughed as she came back and rested her head on his shoulder. Rhea swallowed hard, remembering cold, wet skin, a bow-tie and floppy hair on a Soviet submarine, when she had tripped on the slippery wet floor and fallen into her mystery man's arms. She remembered him holding her up against his body, millimetres away from his body, and staring at the droplets of water in the locks of his hair and on his face. She remembered the urge she had to run her fingers through that floppy, brown hair. She shook her head of those thoughts, turning back to the Doctor who was with her now, who was currently looking at the cameraman in the corner, who was currently recording the proceedings.
"Wonder if he caught anything unusual." Rhea said, slyly, to the Doctor.
"What would I do without you?" The Doctor asked, smiling at her.
"Crash and burn." Rhea said, seriously, before grinning at him, giving him a saucy wink.
The Doctor reached out and grasped her hand, pulling her in the direction of the cameraman and asked the man to show them the tape of the wedding.
"Hi, we were late for the ceremony and we feel absolutely horrible about it, do you mind if we take a look at the footage?" Rhea asked the cameraman, sweetly, making him blush.
"I taped the whole thing, they've all had a look. They said "sell it to You've Been Framed". I said "more like the News". Here we are..." The cameraman told them.
He played the tape and the video was zoomed on Donna's face, mouth wide open in a scream, as she disintegrated into golden dust.
The Doctor was alarmed. "Can't be! Play it again?"
"Clever, mind! Good trick, I'll give her that. I was clapping."
The Doctor watched the video again, brow furrowed incredulously.
"What is it?" Rhea asked him, worried after looking at his expression.
"But that looks like... Huon Particles!"
"What are huon particles?" Rhea asked the Doctor.
"They're particles of energy that hasn't existed since the Dark Times. The only remnants of the energy would exist in the heart of the TARDIS." The Doctor explained, his face retaining the alarm. "It's impossible, they're…ancient! Huon energy hasn't existed for billions of years."
Rhea had a growing thought that scared the living daylights out of her. "Are they so old that a biodamper wouldn't hide it?" Rhea asked the Doctor, quietly, praying that the answer was 'no'. However, Rhea could practically read the negative in the Doctor's eyes as both of their eyes were drawn to the gold ring on Donna's finger.
"Fuck." Rhea hissed as they ran to the nearest window. And sure enough, there were the robot Santas, making their way slowly to the reception hall. They ran the other way, back to Donna.
"Donna! Donna, they've found you." Rhea said, placing a hand on Donna's arm.
"But you said I was safe." Donna said, panicking and looking between the two of them.
"The biodamper doesn't work. We've got to get everyone out." The Doctor growled out.
Donna looked around with growing horror. "Oh my god, it's all my family."
"Out the back door!" The Doctor shouted.
The trio ran out the back door, only to be confronted with two of the Santas.
"Maybe not." Rhea murmured.
They ran back inside. The Doctor darted over to another window and saw more Santas.
"We're trapped." Donna whispered.
"Yeah, I think that was their intention." Rhea said, looking at all of the windows. Figures, the one day I forget to take my gun with me.
The Santas were holding some sort of remote control in their hands, which they raised. The Doctor looked back at the huge Christmas tree that stood in the middle of the hall.
"Christmas trees…" He murmured.
Rhea looked at him. "What about them?"
"They kill." The Doctor said, roughly.
He ran into the crowd. "Get away from the tree!" The Doctor shouted at everyone.
"Don't touch the trees!" Rhea warned the guests.
"Get away from the Christmas trees, everyone get away from them!" The Doctor shouted again.
Rhea helped Donna usher away a group of little girls from the Christmas trees.
"Out! Lance, tell them!" Donna shouted at her husband-to-be.
"Stay away from the tree!" Rhea screamed.
The Santas pressed a big red button in the middle of their remotes.
"Stay away from the tree!" The Doctor shouted for the third time.
"Oh, for God's sakes, the man's an idiot! Why? What's a Christmas tree gonna... oh!" Sylvia trailed off as she observed the baubles float away from the tree like some sort of strange dance. The Doctor and Rhea watched them mistrustfully as they hover above a few people's heads. Everyone chattered excitedly until the baubles started dive-bombing around the room and causing small explosions. Everyone started screaming and running from cover as they were attacked by the Christmas tree decorations. Donna pulled Lance down to hide under a table with her. The Doctor and Rhea raced over to the DJ's table and the Santas were lined up opposite.
"Oi! Santa! Word of advice: if you're attacking a man with a sonic screwdriver..." He spoke into the microphone. "...don't let him near the sound system." He held the sonic screwdriver next to the amplifiers and it made a horrible, high-pitched screeching sound, like nails on chalkboard, forcing everyone, including Rhea, who bore the brunt of it since she was standing right next to the Doctor, to cover their ears and the Santas to vibrate violently until they fell to pieces. The Doctor pulled away his sonic screwdriver and checked over Rhea briefly until she waved him off and told him she was fine, and then ran to examine the mechanics of the Santas. Everyone began to get up off the floor.
Donna ran over to two of the children. "Michael? Connie?"
The Doctor picked up the remotes which the Santas were holding.
"Oh Senita, do something useful." Donna remarked.
"But what is it?" Sylvia asked, pointing at the Santas. "What were they?"
"Just stop wittering, just help 'em." Donna snapped.
"Look at that, remote control for the decorations," The Doctor showed Donna the hand held remotes. "But there's a second remote control for the robots." He examined the head of one of the robots. "They're not scavengers anymore. I think someone's taken possession."
Donna shook her head. "Never mind all that, you're a both doctors, people have been hurt." She said, looking at them both, helplessly.
"Nah, they wanted you alive, look!" He threw a bauble at Donna. "They're not active now."
"All I'm saying, you could help." Donna said.
Rhea frowned at the nonchalant behaviour of the Doctor. This isn't like him. Rhea reached out and stopped him by gripping his hand and pulling him back. "No, Donna's right, we need to help these people, first. Then we can chase after the robots."
"Nah, gotta think of the bigger picture... there's still a signal!" The Doctor said, holding the head of the robot to his ear.
And with that, he took off and Rhea ran after him. Donna made to follow them but she was held back by her mother.
"Donna... who are they? Who is that man and woman?" Sylvia asked her daughter, worriedly.
Donna didn't have an answer for her mother. She didn't know quite herself. She followed the Doctor, leaving Sylvia and Lance staring after her.
"That was wrong." Rhea told the Doctor as he scanned the helmet with his sonic screwdriver. "Donna was worried about her friends and family. We should have made sure that they were all right. There were children in there."
"We don't have time for this, Rhea. We need to find where this signal leads or a whole lot more people than just Donna's family could get hurt." The Doctor told her, not looking her in the eye.
Rhea threw her hands up in the air, exasperated, and was about to lay into him when Donna joined them, running up to where they were standing outside.
"There's someone behind this, directing the robo-force." The Doctor told both of the women.
"But why is it me? What have I done?" Donna asked, pushing a few strands out of her face.
"If we find the controller, we'll find that out. Oh!" The Doctor raised his screwdriver into the air. "It's up there. Something in the sky." He paused. "I've lost the signal. Donna, we've got to get to your office, H C Clements. I think that's where it all started. Lance, is it Lance? Can you give us a lift?" The Doctor said, turning to Donna's fiancé, and darted off without waiting for an answer.
The Doctor, Rhea, Donna and Lance arrived at H C Clements. They ran into the building and then into Donna's office. The Doctor went straight to a computer.
"This might just be a locksmith, but H C Clements was brought up twenty three years ago by the Torchwood Institute." The Doctor said, darkly.
"Who are they?" Donna asked, frowning.
"They were behind the Battle of Canary Wharf." The Doctor said, looking up.
Rhea tensed when she heard that. What's Canary Wharf? Why does the Doctor sound so dark and sad at the same time? Is that where he, we, lost Rose?
Donna's face was utterly blank.
"…Cyberman invasion." The Doctor tried.
"Wait, what? Cybermen?" Rhea asked, horrified, turning to the Doctor, remembering the amusement park and Mr. Clever.
Donna just stared at the Doctor, inquisitively.
"Skies over London full of Daleks?" The Doctor tried.
"What are Daleks?" Rhea asked, frowning.
The Doctor reached up and cupped her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. "See, this is how I know it's very early for you."
"Oh, I was in Spain." Donna told the Doctor.
The Doctor paused. "They had Cybermen in Spain."
"Scuba diving." Donna explained.
Rhea had to stop herself from laughing when she saw the Doctor's face. "That big picture, Donna…you keep missing it." The Doctor said and darted over to another computer. "Torchwood was destroyed, but H C Clements stayed in business. I think... someone else came in and took over the operation." He whacked the computer.
"Is that your solution to everything? Just hit it and hope it works?" Rhea asked, folding her arms. The Doctor smiled at her, answering her with that one look.
"But, what do they want with me?" Donna asked, looking between the two.
"I'd like to know that myself." Rhea said to the Doctor.
The Doctor turned to the two women, giving them his full attention. "Somehow you've been dosed with Huon energy. And that's a problem because Huon energy hasn't existed since the Dark times. The only place you'd find a Huon particle now is a remnant in the heart of the TARDIS. See? That's what happened. Say... that's the TARDIS." He showed Donna a mug. "And that's you." He picked up a pencil. "The particles inside you activated." He shook the pencil. "The two sets of particles magnetised and WHAP!" He threw the pencil into the mug. "You were pulled inside the TARDIS."
"I'm a pencil inside a mug?" Donna asked, weakly.
"Yes, you are. 4H. Sums you up." The Doctor said. He turned to Lance, who had just been standing there, quietly, the entire time. "Lance? What was H C Clements working on? Anything top secret? Special operations? Do not enter?"
"I don't know, I'm in charge of personnel. I wasn't project manager." Lance said, defensively.
Rhea turned to Donna. "You okay, Donna?" Rhea asked, gently, placing a hand on Donna's shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Donna said, smiling weakly at the other woman.
Rhea smiled, understandingly. "Don't worry Donna, we'll figure something out, I promise." Rhea said, earnestly, squeezing the woman's shoulder. She didn't know why she liked the redhead so much. She supposed it was because she saw a lot of herself in Donna as well. Kindred spirits, and all that.
The Doctor held his sonic screwdriver to the screen of the computer and it instantly displayed the page he was looking for.
"Why am I even explaining myself? What the hell are we talking about?" Lance asked.
"They make keys, that's the point. And look at this..." The Doctor gestured to a 3D plan of the building on the screen. "…we're on the third floor."
The Doctor, Rhea, Donna and Lance waited for the elevator to come down to their floor, impatiently. Rhea had to keep her hand on the Doctor's arm to stop him from fidgeting like crazy.
"Underneath reception, there's a basement, yes?" The Doctor asked Donna and Lance.
The doors of the elevator pinged open and Rhea and the Doctor went inside, the latter looking at the controls with great observance.
"Then how come when you look on the lift, there's a button marked 'lower basement'?
"Lower basement, huh? Well, that doesn't sound suspicious at all." Rhea said, slyly.
The Doctor nodded at her. "There's a whole floor which doesn't exist on the official plans. So what's down there, then?" The Doctor mused, winking at Rhea conspiratorially.
Rhea snorted. "What is this, Dollhouse?"
"Are you telling me this building's got a secret floor?" Lance asked, incredulously, looking at the couple.
"No, we're showing you this building's got a secret floor." The Doctor said, looking at Lance.
"It needs a key." Donna pointed out.
Rhea and the Doctor smiled. "We don't." The Doctor said, using the sonic screwdriver to unlock the button that was labelled 'LB'. "Right then, thanks you two, Rhea and I can handle this, see you later." The Doctor said.
"No chance, Martians. You're the two who keep saving my life, I ain't letting you two out of my sight." Donna said, joining them in the elevator.
Rhea smirked at her. "Come on then, Red." Rhea said, winking at her, using the nickname she had used to refer to Donna during the Sontaran invasion.
"Red?" Donna asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Yeah." Rhea looked her over, stopping at her very red hair. "It suits you." Rhea said, softly. Donna smiled at her, heartened by the nickname.
"Going down." The Doctor said, pressing the button.
"Lance?" Donna said, pointedly, facing her fiancée.
"Maybe I should go to the police." Lance said, hesitating and shaking his head.
"Inside." Donna ordered.
Lance meekly joined them in the lift.
"To honour and obey." The Doctor asked, understandingly, looking down at Rhea, who glared at him, fiercely.
"Tell me about it, mate." Lance deadpanned.
"Oi!" Donna shouted.
Rhea elbowed him in the side. "Watch it, time boy."
The door closed and the elevator descended.
The elevator pinged when it reached the lower basement and the Doctor, Rhea, Donna and Lance stepped out into a long, dark and dank corridor, dimly lit with an eerie, green light.
"Where are we? Well, what goes on down here?" Donna asked, looking around the corridor, in shock.
"Let's find out…" Rhea murmured.
"Do you think Mr. Clements knows about this place?" Donna asked them both.
"The mysterious H C Clements? I think he's part of it." The Doctor said, and then his eye was caught by something. "Oh, look, transport."
The Doctor, Rhea, Donna and Lance trundled down the corridor, each standing on their own segways, all looking extremely hilarious. Donna and Rhea looked at the Doctor and burst out laughing at the same time. The Doctor joined in, but Lance just stared at the trio with a confused expression, not getting it.
They came to a door which had 'Torchwood: Authorised Personnel Only' written across it, so naturally, they abandoned their scooters and the Doctor turned the wheel that would open the door, which revealed a ladder. The Doctor and Rhea peered upwards.
"Wait here. Just need to get my bearings. Don't..." The Doctor pointed at Donna and Lance. "…do anything."
"And don't wander off." Rhea said, warningly.
They started up the ladder, Rhea behind the Doctor.
"You two better come back." Donna told them both, anxiously.
Rhea smiled at Donna, while the Doctor paused his climbing to grin down at her. "We couldn't get rid of you if we tried."
Donna smiled at them both, and she and Lance watched the two climb up the ladder, keeping her eye on them both to make sure they wouldn't fall.
"Donna... have you thought about this? Properly? I mean, this is serious! What the hell are we gonna do?" Lance complained, looking at Donna, wondering why she wasn't more worried about their situation.
Donna wasn't really listening, just staring up the ladder at the two strangers with worry and affection. "Oh, I thought July." She said, turning to Lance briefly and smiling brightly, then turned her attention back to the Doctor and Rhea climbing the ladder.
The Doctor and Rhea reached the top of the ladder where they were faced with the underside of a manhole. The Doctor opened it and they climbed out into daylight. They stood on top of a barrier, overlooking the Thames.
They quickly went back down, both of them jumping off the last rung as it came to their turn.
"Thames flood barrier! Right on top of us. Torchwood snuck in and built this place underneath." The Doctor told the soon-to-be married couple.
"What, there's like a secret base hidden underneath a major London landmark?" Donna asked, incredulously.
Rhea snorted. "Yeah, cause, that's never happened before."
They entered some sort of laboratory, full of massive test tubes, high as the ceiling and bubbling away, and chemistry equipment.
"What is Torchwood?" Rhea asked the Doctor, quietly.
"They're like UNIT, but more racist." The Doctor told her, smiling wryly at her grimace. He noticed what exactly was going on inside the test tubes.
"Oh, look at this! Stunning!" The Doctor breathed, walking around.
"What does it do?" Rhea asked the Doctor, looking at the equipment, wondering who exactly had this much power and was the public aware of it.
"Particle extrusion! Hold on…" The Doctor said, gazing at the test tubes. Rhea was reminded of how he had reacted when he had seen the inside of Luke Rattigan's genius factory. The Doctor ran over to another test tube and rapped on the glass with his knuckles. "Brilliant. They've been manufacturing Huon particles. In case my people got rid of Huons, they unravelled the atomic structure."
"Your people?" Lance asked, sticking his head out. "Who are they? What company do you represent?"
"Oh, we're freelancers. But this lot are rebuilding them. They've been using the river! Extruding them through a flat hydrogen base so they've got the end result…" He pulled out a smaller flask that was full of the liquid Huon particles from the bottom of one of the test tubes. "Huon particles in liquid form."
"And that's what's inside of me?" Donna asked, nodding at the flask.
The Doctor gentle turned a knob at the top of the flask, making the liquid start to glow gold and they watched in awe as Donna's body began to react, glowing gold as well.
"Oh, my God!" Donna exclaimed, looking down at herself.
"Because the particles are inert, they need something living to catalyse inside and that's you. Saturate the body and then..." The Doctor's eyes widened. "HA!"
Both Rhea and Donna jumped out of their skin at the sound of the Doctor's outburst. Rhea closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down. I hate it when he does that. She looked back at him to see all mad enthusiasm all over again.
"The wedding! Yes, you're getting married, that's it! Best day of your life, walking down the aisle, oh, your body's a battleground! There's a chemical war inside! Adrenaline, acetylcholine, WHAM go the endorphins, oh you're cooking!" Rhea watched Donna's face, smirking, knowing that Donna was about to blow anytime soon. "Yeah, you're like a walking oven! A pressure cooker, a microwave, all churning away, the particles reach boiling point, SHAZAM!"
Donna reached out and slapped him across the face for the second time that day.
"What did I do this time?" The Doctor asked, confused and indignant.
Rhea rolled her eyes at his obliviousness. "Are you enjoying this?" Donna asked, her hands on her hips.
The Doctor looked ashamed and sheepish, relaxing. Donna paused for a moment then walked towards him, breathing heavily due to her distress.
"Right, just tell me, these particles, are they dangerous? Am I safe?" Donna asked the Doctor, frightened.
"Yes!" The Doctor answered, unconvincingly.
Donna could see right through his façade. "Doctor... if your lot got rid of Huon particles... why did they do that?"
The Doctor pursed his lips, knowing that he would have to tell the truth this time. "Because they were deadly."
"Oh my god." Donna breathed, looking down. Rhea hesitated for a moment and walked over to the terrified woman in white and wrapped an arm around the woman's waist, trying to comfort her the best way she could. She squeezed the woman tight, rubbing her back, feeling Donna lean into her embrace just slightly.
"We'll sort it out, Donna. Whatever's been done to you, we'll reverse it. We're not about to lose someone else." The Doctor leaned in and said, solemnly.
However, they were distracted by crashes and bangs that seemed to come from all around them.
"Oh, she is long since lost." A loud, hoarse, feminine voice called out.
One of the walls slid upwards to reveal a secret chamber with an enormous round hole in the ground.
"I have waited so long, hibernating at the edge of the universe..." The voice continued.
The three of them didn't see Lance, eyes widened in horror, hurriedly retreat through the door.
"... until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to waken!" The voice finished.
The walls of the chamber were lined with the armed robots, who were wearing black hoods to conceal their faces. The robots turned to face the trio, aiming their guns at them.
The Doctor and Rhea moved to the edge of the hole, peering down. "Someone's been digging... oh, that's very Torchwood. Drilled by laser. How far down does it go?" The Doctor asked the voice.
"Down and down, all the way to the centre of the Earth!" The voice replied.
"Really?" The Doctor asked, incredulously. "Seriously, what for?"
Donna shuffled forwards, so that she was standing next to the Doctor and Rhea. "Dinosaurs." Donna offered.
"What?" The Doctor and Rhea turned to look at her, confused.
"Dinosaurs?" Donna tried again.
"What are you on about, dinosaurs?" The Doctor asked.
"That film, Under the Earth, with dinosaurs." Donna paused. "Trying to help!"
"That's not helping." The Doctor said.
"Hey! Don't be rude!" Rhea told the Doctor. She turned to Donna. "Sorry, Donna, no dinosaurs down there." Rhea said, looking down the hole, anxiously. The voice wanted whatever was down there for a reason, and a part of her didn't want to know what for.
"Such a clever trio." The voice hissed.
The Doctor spun around to face the direction from which the voice was coming from. "Only a madman talks to thin air and trust me, you don't want to make me mad. Where are you?" The Doctor asked, angrily, tensing slightly.
"High in the sky, floating so high on Christmas Night."
"I didn't come all this way to talk on the intercom! Come on, let's have a look at you!" The Doctor shouted.
"Who are you with such command?" The voice asked, angrily.
"I'm the Doctor." He growled.
"Prepare your best medicines, doctor-man, for you will be sick at heart." The voice hissed.
There was a flash of light on a platform above them and a massive red spider with a feminine face and many eyes appeared. Rhea recoiled back pulling Donna as well, both women staring at the giant spider, with an upper body of a woman, with blunt shock, but the Doctor stood still, shock and recognition etched on his face.
"The Racnoss... but that's impossible, you're one of the Racnoss!" The Doctor said, stunned.
"Empress of the Racnoss." The Empress corrected.
"Heinous bitch suits you better, I think." Rhea muttered under her breath.
"If you're the Empress, where's the rest of the Racnoss? Or..." The Doctor paused. "Are you the only one?"
"Such a sharp mind." The Empress hissed.
The Doctor nodded. "That's it, the last of your kind." He turned to Rhea and Donna, who were still a bit shocked by the sight before them. "The Racnoss come from the Dark Times, billions of years ago, billions. They were carnivores, omnivores, they devoured whole planets." The Doctor explained.
"Racnoss are born starving, is that our fault?" The Empress asked, angrily.
Rhea took a step forward, irritation thrumming inside of her. "Hey! Don't try and reason mass murder. There isn't a defence that exists that would work." Rhea shouted at the Empress.
"They eat people?" Donna asked, looking at the Doctor.
The Doctor paused. "H C Clements, did he wear those, those erm, black and white shoes?" He asked Donna.
Rhea looked with horror at the web on the ceiling, seeing a figure wrapped in the slimy string with shoes sticking out, shoes that matched the description that the Doctor had just uttered.
"He did! We used to laugh, we used to call him the fat cat in spats." Donna said.
The Doctor nodded and pointed to where Rhea's gaze was concentrated on. A pair of black and white shoes still attached to the unfortunate H C Clements could just be seen poking out.
"Oh my god!" Donna exclaimed.
"Mmm, my Christmas dinner." The Empress said and cackled.
"You shouldn't even exist! Way back in history, the Fledgling Empires went to war against the Racnoss, they were wiped out." The Doctor said, shaking his head.
Lance appeared on a balcony above the Empress', unbeknownst to her. Donna and Rhea spotted him, the latter frowning in suspicion, and Lance motioned for Donna to stay silent.
"Except for me." The Empress replied to the Doctor's statement.
"But that's what I've got inside me, that Huon energy thing. Oi! Look at me, lady, I'm talking." Donna shouted at the Racnoss Empress in a bid to distract her. "Where do I fit in? How comes I get all stacked up with these Huon particles?"
Lance descended the stairs, an axe at the ready.
"Look at me, you! Look me in the eye and tell me." Donna shouted.
"The bride is so feisty!" The Empress hissed.
"Yes, I am! And I don't know what you are, you big..." Donna struggled to find the right word. "Thing. But a spider's just a spider and an axe is an axe! Now, do it!" She shouted at Lance.
Lance swung the axe. The Empress swung around and hissed at the last moment. Then Lance stopped. He glanced around at Donna and started to laugh and the Empress laughed with him. Rhea closed her eyes, realising that her suspicions were the truth.
"That was a good one. Your face!" Lance said to the Empress, laughing.
"Lance is funny." The Empress said, hoarsely.
"What?" Donna asked, her face a picture of confusion.
"I'm sorry." The Doctor said, quietly, Rhea having come to the same conclusion as the Doctor had.
"So sorry, Donna." Rhea said, breathing out heavily.
"Sorry for what? Lance, don't be so stupid! Get her!" Donna shouted.
Lance just stared at the bride, pityingly. "God, she's thick."
Donna looked right back at him, she was so confused.
"Months I had to put up with her. Months. A woman who can't even point to Germany on a map." Lance said, scathingly.
"I don't understand." Donna said, still uncomprehending.
"How did you meet Lance, Donna?" Rhea asked her, gently.
"In the office." Donna answered.
"He made you coffee." The Doctor said, softly.
"What?" Donna looked between the two of them, still trying to come to terms with it all.
"Every day, I made you coffee." Lance said, slowly, as if he were addressing an idiot.
Rhea let out a loud growl, her eyes were wrathful and she took a step forward and her hands shook at her side, itching to rise, as if she were about to snap his neck at that very moment. I'm going to rip his fucking head off.
"You had to be dosed with liquid particles over six months." The Doctor explained.
Donna understood. "He was poisoning me." She said, quietly.
The Doctor turned to the Racnoss Empress and Lance, furious as well. "It was all there in the job title, the Head of Human Resources."
"This time, it's personnel." Lance said and he and the Racnoss laughed.
"Oh god, he didn't…did he?" Rhea moaned out. She turned back to the Doctor with an incredulous look. "Tell me he didn't." She turned back to Lance. "You didn't just use one of the most overused movie quotes of all time and then pun it." Rhea shook her head. "That's a whole new level of pathetic."
"But…we were getting married." Donna whispered.
"Well, I couldn't risk you running off. I had to say yes." His voice started to raise. "And then I was stuck with a woman who thinks the height of excitement is a new flavour Pringle." Lance rolled his eyes in an expression of exasperation. "Oh, I had to sit there and listen to all that yap yap yap, "oh, Brad and Angelina, is Posh pregnant?" X Factor, Atkins Diet, Feng Shui, split ends, text me, text me, text me, dear God, the never ending fountain of fat, stupid trivia." Lance's tone was scornful by the end of his tirade.
Rhea watched as Donna listened to Lance's torrent of abuse with an expression of increasing hurt and confusion. Rhea reached over and gripped the woman's hand in her own, offering her some comfort.
Who's going to love you now? You'll never be good enough. Rhea closed her eyes, willing those words away.
"I deserve a medal." Lance said, panting slightly.
"Oh, is that what she's offered you? The Empress of the Racnoss? What are you? Her consort?" The Doctor asked, incredulously.
"It's better than a night with her." Lance said, looking pointedly at Donna.
"But I love you." Donna murmured, stricken by the turn of events.
Rhea snorted. "Oh yeah, because you're such a prize catch." Her tone turned icy. "You stupid, stupid son of a bitch." She took a step forward. "What do you think is going to happen now? Are you going to become King of the Racnoss?" Rhea asked, mockingly, then thought of something. "Did you seriously fuck a spider? Really? I mean, how could you possibly compare her and Donna?" Rhea asked, her voice harsh and her face wrathful. "Donna's beautiful, funny, loud, caring, maybe a bit bossy, temperamental and slightly dense, but she's got a good heart and she cares for people. Who the hell are you to say that you deserve better? From what I can see, Donna was the one slumming it. You were lucky that she wanted to marry you, dumbass."
The Doctor walked forwards and wrapped one of his arms around the angry woman's waist, pulling her back. She turned on him, angrily, but he looked at her, silently asking her to calm down.
"Leave it alone for now, Rhea. You said what you needed to say." The Doctor murmured in her ear and relaxed when he felt her tense form loosen up, feeling extremely proud and in awe of the strong woman in his arms.
Lance just seemed to ignore Rhea's diatribe and accusations. "That's what made it easy." Lance said, maliciously, answering Donna's grief-stricken words. He turned to the Doctor. "It's like you said, Doctor, the big picture, what's the point of it all if the Human Race is nothing? That's what the Empress can give me. The chance to... go out there. To see it. The size of it all. I think you understand that, don't you, Doctor?"
"Who is this little physician and his woman?" The Empress cut in.
"What she said, Martian." Lance told her.
"Oh, we're sort of…homeless. But the point is, what's down here?" He asked, pointing down at the hole in the Earth. "The Racnoss are extinct. What's gonna help you four thousand miles down? That's just the molten core of the Earth, isn't it?"
"I think he wants us to talk." Lance said, condescendingly.
"I think so too." The Empress hissed.
"Well, tough! All we need is Donna!" Lance said, triumphantly.
"Kill this chattering little doctor-man and his mate!" The Empress screeched.
Donna moved so that she was standing in front of the Doctor and Rhea, hooking her arms in theirs. "Don't you hurt 'em!" Donna shouted, feeling fiercely protective over the couple who had saved her life more than once today, especially over the woman who had spoken so confidently and passionately to Lance in Donna's defence.
"It's okay, Donna." Rhea said, soothingly.
"It's all right." The Doctor told Donna.
"No, I won't let 'em." Donna said, frightened but determined.
"At arms!" The Empress called out.
The robots reared back and pointed their guns at the Doctor and Rhea.
"Ah, now. Except." The Doctor tried to stall the Empress.
"Take aim!" The Empress ordered.
"Well, I just want to point out the obvious—" The Doctor started.
"They won't hit the bride. They're such very good shots." The Empress cut in, smirking.
"Just, just, just, hold on, just a tick, just a tiny, just a little, tick. If you think about it, the particles activated in Donna and drew her inside my spaceship. So, reverse it..." He pulled out the tiny test tube that held the liquid Huon energy and twisted the knob at the top, causing both the particles in the tube and in Donna to glow. "The spaceship comes to her."
"Fire!" The Empress screeched.
The robots fired their guns, but it was too late, the TARDIS had already materialised around them and the Doctor, Rhea and Donna were safe from the assault inside.
A/N: Well, I hope you all liked this chapter. And Rhea is definitely attracted to the Eleventh and the Tenth Doctors, she's fantasised (a bit) about both of them in this chapter. And the Doctor's getting a bit upset at Rhea not knowing what happened to Rose, I think it's getting to him, the whole out-of-order thing. There were a few sweet moments between the two in this chapter. I debated whether having them dance at the reception, but I went against it, thought it would be better to have Rhea have a flashback instead of the Doctor. However, it begs the question of what happened on New Earth. Was it Rose that got possessed by Cassandra? And Rhea and Donna, I think they're going to be very good friends, like sisters eventually. Rhea sees a lot of herself in Donna, in a lot of ways, that's why she got so angry and protective with Lance and was so vehement in her vitriol. There will be a lot of comforting and advice in the next chapter between the two women, Rhea understands how Donna's feeling. I wonder what those words that Rhea remembered were all about. Who could have said that to her? And will Donna be able to stop the Doctor when he floods the chamber in the next chapter? And what role will Rhea play?
And I want to ask my readers a question, I brought up Rose and River before in a previous chapter, before I actually posted an episode with Rose in it. Most people said they didn't like Rose very much, and some said they didn't like River much either, I want to know what your reasons are exactly. Some people hate her because she's a "chav" and working class, but I wanted to know some really good reasons to dislike Rose.
Anyway, Read and Review!