Hi everyone!

I really don't have anything to say, so I won't keep you guys any longer.

Please enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter 7

Rose Part 3

June walked straight through the console room, not slowing nor stopping for a moment. She walked blindly into a hallway, not knowing how long it would take her to reach her room. The TARDIS would move and change the hallways around, either making if very easy or very difficult to get where she wanted to go. This time, the TARDIS led her straight her to her room.

Her room sat at the end of a long hallway full of other doors. June could only guess that all the other doors led to bedrooms. She had only managed to look into one because the rest were locked. The room she had looked into just seemed to be a girl's bedroom. When she had returned a little while later, the door had been locked.

June walked into her room and slouched against the closed door. The walls of her room were bright yellow and on them hung framed retro Disneyland attraction posters. Her bed sat against the back wall in the middle of the room, a complete unmade mess with bags and hats hanging off the metal rod frame. She had a TV in front of her bed, a nightstand on its right and a lamp on its left. There was a desk that doubled as a vanity against the right wall and a large mirror that hung over it. Next to it were glass doors that opened onto a small balcony which looked out on anything June wanted it to. In the corner was a grand piano she had named Dixie and the stands for her other instruments when she hadn't shoved them in her backpack. On the right wall were white doors, one leading to a bathroom, one leading to a small walk-in closet, and one leading to a soundproofed room where she could record music and upload it to the internet to make at least a little money. It was June's little corner in a box that went on forever.

June threw her backpack onto her bed and wandered over to her desk, kicking off her sneakers. She set the TARDIS key down and looked at her own reflection for a moment. She sighed to herself and ran a hand through her hair. She took a moment to feel her head wound and was happy that she had stopped bleeding.

When she looked down, she realized that her makeup, pens, and guitar picks had been pushed out of the center and off to one side. Instead, a long silver chain sat there. She had never seen the chain before, but the TARDIS sometimes left things around for people. She picked it up and let it dangle from her finger. There was no charm or anything at the end. It was just a plain chain. She could put something on it but didn't have anything. And that was when it hit her. She grabbed the TARDIS key and threaded the chain through it. She clipped the chain and its new charm around her neck and let it hang. A new necklace. June looked up at the ceiling. "Thanks," she said, not actually sure if the TARDIS could hear or understand her no matter how the Doctor insisted that it could.

The familiar wheezing of the TARDIS filled the room. June jumped for a split-second thinking that it was a reply but realized that the Doctor would just be back in the console room and that the machine was just taking off. June patted her desk and left the room, wondering when dealing with the Autons would finally be over.

When June walked into the console room, the Doctor seemed to be attaching something to the console. June furrowed her eyebrows and walked up the console, wondering what he was up to. She turned around the console and looked down at the plastic arm. The Doctor was busy attaching wires and clips to the arm while occasionally glancing at the scanner. "So, you kept the plastic arm," June said.

"I did," the Doctor said, not bothering to look up at her. "Why'd you run off?"

June sat down on the tattered seat, resting her arm over its back. "You were rambling. I wanted to come back to the TARDIS." She shrugged. The Doctor didn't say anything. He gave her a once-over before going to look at the scanner. "That's why," June said, catching his suspicion. "You ramble a lot and most of it is nonsense. So, I just came back to the TARDIS."

"Alright." He sounded like he didn't believe her. But, he quickly changed the subject. "New necklace?"

June ran her thumb under the chain and looked down at it. "Yeah. The TARDIS left the chain in my room. But, why'd you keep the arm?"

"I should be able to follow the signal back to the transmitter, which should lead me to the Nestene Consciousness," the Doctor explained, not tearing his eyes away from the screen.

June crossed her arms and slumped in her seat. "How long is it going to take?" she asked.

"Dunno," he said, tapping the screen. "The signal is weak. It might take a while."

"Alright." She nodded and slid off the seat and walked across the room.

"Where are you going?" the Doctor called after her.

"We made a bet!" she called back before disappearing down the hallway.

The TARDIS led June to the massive library. Bookshelves towered over her the moment she walked into the room. She dodged a cushy armchair and walked on layered carpets. June looked up towards the ceiling. "Make this easy for me."

The TARDIS shuffled the books on the shelves. It was impossible to look for a specific book if the TARDIS didn't help. June wasn't sure if the library was infinite or not. It seemed like it could go on forever. The TARDIS usually helped June find whatever she was looking for because if it didn't, June was afraid that she wouldn't be able to find her way out.

This time was no different. Every cheesy YA novel June had ever read were stacked together on one single shelf. This was the only genre she knew that the Doctor would never willingly touch or pay attention to at all. June scanned the spines for a while before realizing that all the books were all similar and very similarity bad, so it didn't matter which one she picked. She ended up pulling out a cheesy romance novel that she had read in high school. It had been terrible. She left the library, flipping through the pages, and grinning to herself.

June walked back into the console room and tossed the book over to the Doctor. "There you go. Do your super-fast reading thing. Tell me the ending."

The Doctor grimaced at the book cover and turned it to her. "This looks awful," he said.

June leaned on the console next to him. "It is. It's incredibly awful. But, I know how it ends. And if you really can read super-duper fast, you shouldn't suffer for long."

The Doctor gave her an unamused look, rolled his eyes, and then flipped through the book. He closed it and tossed it back to her. He immediately looked back at the scanner. "They drive off into the sunset and have a happily ever after."

June glanced at the last page, scanning the last sentence. She could easily remember the ending considering how out of the blue it was. "Nope. They both die in the end, actually. I win."

"You don't even know for sure," he pointed out, nodding at how she looked at the last page.

She shook her head. "Did you even read it?"

"I tried," he said. "But it was awful. How did you ever read that?"

"I was in high school, thought it was a good idea," she said, looking at the cover. "And I hated it. But I still win." She walked around the console, tossing the book onto the seat.

"Alright," the Doctor said. "After this, we go wherever you want to go, no complaints, no insisting that there are much more interesting places to go."

June smiled. "Thank you." She leaned against the console. "How do you feel about going to the World's Fair?"

The Doctor shrugged and nodded. "Not the worst destination, I'll give you that," he said. "It just can't be the 1964 World's fair."

June stopped and frowned. "Damn you." He laughed a bit. "But," she walked around the console, "that wasn't the only part of our bet." He crossed his arms, raising his eyebrows. "You've got to tell me about the face thing."

"Is that what you're calling it?" he asked. "'The face thing'?"

June nodded. "Well, I don't know the real name for it," she said. "You could tell me and explain why you look like you're not used to your face."

The Doctor half-smiled. "It's complicated."

June rolled her eyes, tired of the same non-answer. "Well explain it in a way that I can understand, even with my tiny human brain." He gave her a look. She frowned at him. "Come on," she complained, grabbing one of his crossed arms and trying to shake him. "I won the bet. You have to."

"Technically I just didn't pay attention to the book," the Doctor argued. "You still don't know if I can read super-fast or not."

"Two things," June said. "One," she held up a finger, "the bet was about you telling me the ending of a book, so it doesn't matter that you didn't pay attention. Two," she held up another finger, "like I've said many times before, you can't just keep everything from me."

The Doctor sighed and went silent for a moment. "Alright." June grinned and jumped on her heels. She raced around the console and sat down on the seat, tossing the book somewhere off behind her.

The Doctor leaned against the console across from her, his arms still crossed. "Time Lords have this way of cheating death," he began. "It's called regeneration. Every Time Lord has a certain amount of regeneration energy. It's enough for about eleven to twelve regenerations. Twelve or thirteen incarnations of one person. But whenever a Time Lord regenerates, everything about them changes." That made June's eyebrows furrow. She leaned closer, swinging her legs. "Their face, body, voice, personality."

June thought about it for a moment. The Doctor that stood right in front of her wasn't always the man she knew now. He had been completely different before. "So, you've just regenerated recently?" she guessed.

"Yep." The Doctor nodded. "Not that long before I met you."

"So, how many times have you regenerated?" she asked.

He gave her a quizzical look and started around the console towards the scanner again. "You assume this isn't the first time?"

"You seem like the type who would cheat death often," she smirked.

"You're not wrong," he told her. "This is my ninth face."

June gaped at him. She wasn't sure what to expect from him, but nine faces seemed too high. "Ninth?"

"Yup." He hit the side of the scanner roughly and frowned at it.

"But doesn't that mean you only have like three or four more bodies to go through before you die for good?"

"Nice to see you understand." He seemed for focused on the scanner. "But I've lost the signal."

June sighed and bit her lip. "Sorry," she muttered.

"Not your fault," the Doctor told her. "The signal was too weak to follow anyway. And at least I got rid of that arm before it attacked anyone else."

June frowned. "It's gone?"

The Doctor pointed to the part of the console the arm had been attached to. June leapt off the chair and walked over to it. All the wires and clips were now loose and a small bit of melted plastic stuck to the console. "Damn," she muttered. "What now?"

"Track another Auton, take a better piece of it and try to track down the transmitter," he said. "It'll probably take a while for another Auton to pop up, so we have a while to lay low."

"When you say a better piece, what are we talking?" June asked. "A leg?"

"Nah," he shook his head. "It might be better than the arm, but still not strong enough."

"What about a torso?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, that could work. A head would too."

June snickered to herself. "This conversation would be really bad out of context." They laughed a bit. "I'm going to eat some lunch. I think it's around lunch time. Be back in a minute."

"Alright. Have fun."

June laughed, grabbed the cheesy YA novel, and left the console room. She returned the book to the library, quickly shoving it into a random spot on a random shelf and then went off to the kitchen. She looked around the cabinets and fridge for anything she could eat without having to cook. She hit the jackpot when she opened the freezer and saw a small box of dinosaur nuggets. She thought that she could question why the time machine decided to give her dinosaur nuggets, but she decided to just go along with it. She grinned and, laughing to herself, microwaved a plateful of nuggets. She squirted some ketchup onto the plate and then left the kitchen.

The Doctor gave June a confused look when she walked into the room with her lunch. She smiled at him and settled back down on the seat. She happily took a bite of her first nugget. She hadn't had them since she was a kid. The Doctor walked over and frowned at her plate. "Really?" he asked.

"The TARDIS is full of surprises." She swallowed a bit of nugget. "And today I got Dino-nuggets. Don't be so critical." She grinned and took another bite. The Doctor took one off her plate and walked off with it. "Ah, what the hell, man?" June complained, mouth full.

"You should protect your Dino-nuggets better," the Doctor told her before biting into the food. "We could go see some dinosaurs after this."

"We might get eaten," June said. "You know, revenge for the nuggets of the future."

"I could convince them not to."

"How?"

"I speak Dinosaur."

"That's bull."

"I speak everything, June."

"Let's make another bet."

~*O*~

A few hours without any signs of any Autons went by. June had finished her lunch. She and the Doctor had a small conversation in French just to prove to each other that they could both speak the language. June had tried to plug her phone into the console so she could play music throughout the room and the Doctor hadn't helped her at all. Then she had zoned out and played on her phone while the Doctor explained how he tracked the Autons with the scanner. And then June had asked the Doctor about his past faces. The Doctor had changed the subject and taught her how to plug her phone into the console. They had just agreed on a song to play when a new signal popped up on the scanner.

The Doctor set the TARDIS into flight. June dashed out of the console room, put on her sneakers, and slung her backpack over her shoulders. The wheezing died down after a moment and she sprinted back into the console room where the Doctor was waiting for her.

They exchanged grins and left the TARDIS. They stood in a backlot of some sort of building. Though it had become night, June felt wide awake. "Where are we?" she asked.

"Restaurant," the Doctor told her. "The Auton's just inside. Come on." He took her hand and they walked up to the restaurant. He used the sonic screwdriver to unlock the back door. They snuck past the employees in the kitchen and ducked into the dining room. They hid behind a half wall that surrounded the main dining room, peaking over the top of it to see.

The restaurant was full of people, just sitting and not suspecting that a living plastic creature sat amongst their midst. June scanned the crowd but could see nothing out of the ordinary. She turned to the Doctor. "So, where's the Auton?' she whispered.

The Doctor glanced down at his sonic screwdriver, which beeped increasingly, and scanned the people at the restaurant. "There at the center table." He pointed in its direction.

June soon spotted the table he pointed out. A blonde girl and a dark-skinned guy sat there, talking to each other. June could have sworn that the blonde looked familiar somehow. She narrowed her eyes and looked closer at her. "That's Rose," she realized.

"Oh yeah, it is," the Doctor said absentmindedly.

"How'd you not notice?" June asked.

"I was a bit busy looking at the Auton," he said. He looked down at the sonic screwdriver and then back up at Rose and the other guy,

"What's she doing with an Auton?" June asked.

"Dunno," the Doctor said, looking back at the kitchen. "Wait here."

June frowned and watched him disappear into the kitchen. A moment passed and he walked back out, now holding a bottle of champagne. Oh, he was going to walk right up to them. June wondered if he was crazy. Rose and the Auton were not the only people in the restaurant. It would be better just to lure the Auton outside so there weren't any witnesses around to see the living plastic creature. But, June didn't have the time to stop him. He smiled as he walked past her, holding the champagne up so she could see it. June shook her head but he descended down into the dining room anyway.

June watched over the half wall as the Doctor walked right up to Rose and the Auton's table and held out the champagne bottle. They ignored it. The Doctor stepped around the table and presented the champagne bottle again. They rejected it. But, he kept trying to give them the champagne. He kept trying to be noticed. June rolled her eyes.

Then, the Auton finally looked up at him. All the annoyance on his plastic face melted off, turning into a grin. June quickly pulled her baseball bat out of her backpack and started carefully down into the dining room.

The Doctor shook the bottle of champagne. June felt very aware of the weird looks she was getting as she walked across the dining room with her baseball bat resting on her shoulder. She scanned their confused faces, wondering why, with a living plastic creature in the room, she was the one being stared at. Suddenly, there was a loud pop. June looked over just in time to see the cork from the bottle shoot into the Auton's forehead. Its face stretched and its eyes went crooked. June and the Doctor exchanged looks.

The cork disappeared into the Auton's forehead as its face molded back to normal. Its jaw moved as if it was chewing and it spat the cork out at the Doctor. June couldn't help but snicker. "Anyway," the Auton said. It stood and its hand morphed into a large flat mallet. Rose bolted from the table just as the Auton raised its hand above its head and slammed its brand-new weapon onto the table, making it break in half and collapse. June jumped back and Rose grabbed her arm, pulling her away from the violent creature.

The Auton turned to smash something else, but the Doctor hurried over and, much to June's surprise, put it in a headlock. June pulled out of Rose's harsh grip and ran over to the Doctor. He had begun to pull on the head as the Auton attempted to fight back. "I can't believe you put it in a headlock," June said, grinning at the Doctor.

"Impressed?" he asked, taking a moment to look at her.

June snickered. "It'd be no fun if I was."

The Auton's head separated from its body with a loud pop. People screamed and June jumped away. The Doctor stumbled forward, still holding the head. He turned it around in his hands and looked down at it. June watched over his shoulder. The head was completely still. And then its eyes snapped open. "Don't think that's going to stop me." It seemed like something out of a cheesy horror movie.

The body slowly rose on the other side of the room, its arms flailing around, perfectly happy to hit anything it could. June held her bat over her shoulder and ran towards it. Rose hit the fire alarm and wailing filled the room. June slammed her baseball bat into the body's stomach, sending it toppling backwards.

"Everyone out!" Rose shouted. "Out now!"

June backed away from the body as it stood on its feet again. Even though it didn't have a head or a face, it was clearly angry. The Doctor still held the motionless head and grabbed June's hand, pulling her out of the dining room. She, the Doctor, and Rose ran through the back of the restaurant as the crowd of customers panicked around them. Rose yelled, "Get out! Get out! Get out!" as they ran through the kitchen.

The back exit was soon in sight again. When June glanced over her shoulder, she was surprised to see the body not too far behind them, smashing and destroying everything in its way. The trio sped through the back door, the Doctor slamming it shut behind them.

"Sonic it!" June yelled at the Doctor. They had to keep the destructive body at bay for as long as possible. The Doctor tossed the head of the Auton to June. She dropped her baseball bat and fumbled but caught it. It felt almost gross holding the head of a seemingly human person in her hands. She could feel that it was plastic and she knew that it was just the Auton, but it looked like a real person. She wanted to drop it right there but held on to it as the Doctor soniced the door shut.

Rose had run all the way across the lot to a large gate. She hammered on it, but it seemed locked. She turned to the Doctor. "Open the gate!" she shouted at him. The second the Doctor had put away his sonic screwdriver, June tossed the Auton's head back to him and picked up her bat. "Use that tube thing. Come on!" Rose yelled.

The Doctor and June walked back to the TARDIS. "Sonic screwdriver," the Doctor corrected, holding it up for her to see.

"Use it!" Rose shouted.

"Nah," the Doctor said. June put her bat back into her backpack. She took the chain off from around her neck and used the key to unlock the TARDIS. "Tell you what, let's go in here," the Doctor said.

June raised an eyebrow at him, slipping the chain back around her neck. She guessed that Rose knew too much about the Autons not to become completely involved, but it still felt odd. The Doctor just nodded and they stepped inside the TARDIS.

June knew that there was no point in asking him if he was sure about introducing Rose to his world. Of course, he was sure. June still felt uneasy about it. It felt like this moment was going to be much bigger than just a quick trip in the TARDIS to escape a crazy plastic creature. This was a change. June wasn't sure if she was ready for a change. She was comfortable and happy. Strangers threw everything off. But June knew that none of this was ultimately up for her to choose. It was the Doctor's TARDIS and the Doctor's life, only he could control who got close enough to see who he really was.

Rose ran inside of the TARDIS. She froze in place, her eyes growing wide. And then, she sprinted right out again. June gave the Doctor a look. "She'll come back in a second," he said. He turned and began to attach the Auton's head to the console.

Rose ran back into the console room, shutting the door behind her. "It's going to follow us!" she shouted.

"The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door," the Doctor said, not bothering to look up from his work, "and believe me, they've tried. Now, shut up a minute."

"Bet that's an interesting story," June said. She glanced at Rose's shocked face for a moment. "You meeting Genghis Khan."

"I'll tell it to you later, now shh," he said. June rolled her eyes and sat down on the tattered chair, letting her backpack fall off her shoulders.

"You see, the arm was too simple, but the head's perfect," the Doctor explained as he attached more wires and cables to the head. "I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source." He turned to Rose. "Right." He shoved his hands into his pockets. June slid off the seat and walked over to stand next to him. She hated feeling so far away. "Where do you want to start?" he asked the blonde.

Rose was quiet. She stared around the console room with wide eyes. "Er, the inside's bigger than the outside?" she asked.

"Yes," the Doctor said.

"It's alien," Rose said.

"Yeah," he confirmed.

"Are you alien?" Rose asked.

There was a pause. "Yes."

Rose looked at June. "Are you alien too?" she asked.

June shook her head. "Nope. Human. I am from the future, though."

"Is that alright?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah," Rose said quickly. She looked at June again. "The future?"

"Mhm," June nodded.

"It's called the TARDIS, this thing," the Doctor explained. "T-A-R-D-I-S." He turned to June. "Remember what it stands for?"

June frowned. "What, are you quizzing me?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, smiling.

"Time and Relative Dimension in Space," June recited. She smirked. "Don't underestimate my memory, thanks."

Rose burst into tears. June stumbled, stunned by the sudden outburst. She grabbed the Doctor's arm and gave him a wide-eyed look. The Doctor looked just as awkward as June felt. "That's okay," he attempted. "Culture shock. Happens to the best of us."

"Did they kill him?" Rose asked, wiping her eyes and looking up at the two of them. Her question was met with momentary silence. "Mickey?" June guessed that Mickey was the guy she was supposed to be sitting with. "Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?"

The Doctor gaped at her for a moment. He glanced at June out of the corner of his eye and she gaped right back at him. Neither of them were exactly sure what to say. He looked back at Rose, his eyebrows furrowing. "Oh. I didn't think of that."

June sighed. Saying that 'he didn't think of that' did not make him sound good. She hit his arm softly, grabbing his attention. She shook her head, attempting to tell him to be careful with what he said. He could try to sound a little more sensitive. An 'I don't know' would've worked much better.

Rose glared at him. "He's my boyfriend," she snapped. June sighed and looked between the two of them. "You pulled off his head. They copied him and you didn't even think?" No one spoke. "And now you're just going to let him melt?" she asked, gesturing to the console.

"Melt?" the Doctor asked, spinning on his heels. The head was melting on the console. The arm hadn't melted that fast, so why was the head? "Oh, no, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor shouted. He sprinted around the console, pushing and pulling controls. The room filled with the familiar wheezing sound of the TARDIS taking off.

"What are you doing?" Rose asked.

"Following the signal. It's fading," the Doctor said. "Wait a minute, I've got it." He stopped in front of the scanner. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" June frowned and held onto the railing as the TARDIS jerked around. She watched him run around the console frantically. She really didn't want to lose the signal for a second time that day. She was ready to get the Auton thing over it. "Almost there," the Doctor said. "Almost there! Here we go!"

The TARDIS landed and the Doctor wasted no time running to the door. June grabbed her backpack and ran right after him, hot in his heels. Rose, however, stayed put. "You can't go out there. It's not safe!" she yelled after them.

They stepped out onto a bridge overlooking a river. June didn't know exactly where they were. Somewhere in London, she assumed. The Doctor paced in a circle, his hands shoved in his pockets, clearly frustrated. June knew immediately what had happened. He would only be upset if they hadn't been able to find the signal. She sighed and when the Doctor looked at her, she shrugged and gave him the best sympathetic look she could. Rose ran out of the TARDIS a moment later.

"I lost the signal," the Doctor grumbled. "I got so close." He leaned against the railing, staring down at the water.

"We've moved," Rose gasped. "Does it fly?"

"Disappears there and reappears here. You wouldn't understand," the Doctor said.

Rose looked at June, furrowing her eyebrows, looking for a clarification. June gave Rose a sympathetic smile and shrugged. There was no way to clarify. June leaned on the railing next to the Doctor. "If you got so close, it means that it's somewhere close around here. I bet we could find it."

"Maybe," he grumbled. "Doubtful. It's probably invisible."

"If we're somewhere else, what about that headless thing?" Rose asked. "It's still on the loose."

"It melted with the head," the Doctor said, pushing away from the railing and walking past the blonde. "Are you going to witter on all night?"

June frowned and quickly caught up to him. "Hey." She tugged on his jacket sleeve, catching his attention. "I know you're upset, but it doesn't mean you get to be rude." He rolled his eyes at her.

"I'll have to tell his mother," Rose sighed. The Doctor frowned at her, clearly confused. "Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you just went and forgot him, again!" By the exasperated look on the Doctor's face, it was clear that he didn't care. June hit his arm. He didn't even look at her, he could picture the disapproving look she gave him. "You were right, you are alien," Rose snapped at him.

"Look, if I did forget some kid called Mickey—"

"Yeah, he's not a kid," Rose interrupted.

"—It's because—" June groaned as he continued talking, "—I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering on top of this planet, alright?" he snapped back. Ape. It made her blood boil. He had no right to call humans apes. She hated the insult more and more every single time he used it. He couldn't just go around thinking that humans are uncivilized animals and that other species were beneath him. He could just drive her up the wall sometimes.

"Alright!" Rose shouted back.

"Yes, it is!" the Doctor yelled. Rose shook her head. The Doctor glanced down at June and, upon noticing her glare, he rolled his eyes. "Now, don't give me that look, Harlow. We've talked about this before," he grumbled.

"Call humans 'apes' one more time and you'll get to see how bad my baseball bat can hurt," she spat at him through gritted teeth. He gave her a look of frustration. June just stepped closer and gave one in return. She wasn't intimidated by him. She never would be. He rolled his eyes at her and turned away, crossing his arms.

"If you are an alien, how come you sound like you're from the North?" Rose asked. June narrowed her eyes at her. Out of everything to say in that moment, she asked about his accent.

"Lots of planets have a north!" the Doctor exclaimed. June couldn't help but wonder if his accent had come with his new face.

"What's a police public call box?" Rose asked.

The Doctor glanced between the blonde and the TARDIS. "It's a telephone box from the 1950s." He grinned again and put his hand on the box. "It's a disguise.

"A broken disguise," June grumbled.

The Doctor gave her a look. Though he had gotten over his fit of anger, June still glared at him. He put his arm around her and pulled her into a side hug. He smiled down at her and she rolled her eyes.

"Okay. And this living plastic," Rose continued. "What's it got against us?"

"Nothing," the Doctor said. "It loves you. You've got such a good planet." He wandered over to her, pulling June along with him. "Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!" He mimed eating with one hand.

"Any way of stopping it?" Rose asked.

The Doctor pulled a tube of blue liquid out of his jacket and held it up. June narrowed her eyes at it. She had seen it before. The Doctor had shown it to her. She didn't exactly remember the name. "Not plastic or something?" she guessed.

"Anti-plastic," he corrected.

"Anti-plastic," Rose repeated.

"Anti-plastic!" the Doctor beamed, point at the tube. "But first I've got to find it." He wandered away, letting June out of the side hug in the process. "How can you hide something that big in a city this small?"

"Hold on," Rose said. "Hide what?"

"The transmitter," the Doctor and June chorused. The Doctor grinned at June. "Someone's been paying attention." June smirked and shrugged. The Doctor put the anti-plastic back in his jacket and continued, "The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."

"What's it look like?" Rose asked.

"Like a transmitter," the Doctor said.

"Real helpful there, Doctor," June scoffed. "Wanna specify?"

"Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London," he said. He walked past a pillar. The girls followed his aimless wandering. "A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel." The Doctor stopped and faced them. Behind him stood the London Eye, glowing bright against the night and the rest of the city lights. June and Rose exchanged looks. It was completely obvious. They had found the transmitter. But the Doctor still continued, "Radial. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible."

June gaped at him, shocked that he didn't see it. Rose gaped at the London Eye just behind him. If he followed Rose's eyeline, he would surely get it. "What?" the Doctor asked. Rose nodded to the London Eye and June crossed her arms, waiting for him to see it. The Doctor turned around and then looked right back at them. "What?" he asked. June stared at him, just wondering how he didn't see it. Rose nodded at the Eye again. The Doctor turned around, looked right at it, the turned back to them. "What is it? What?"

June sighed and rolled her head on her shoulders. "Oh my god," she groaned. "You're such an idiot sometimes." The Doctor frowned at her. "Look behind her!" She held an arm out towards the London Eye.

The Doctor turned around again and then spun back. "Oh," he said. He looked back at it, then back at them. He grinned. "Fantastic!" He ran off, leaving June and Rose to sprint after him.

June managed to catch the Doctor's hand while they ran across the bridge. The London Eye kept getting closer into view. She exchanged semi-nervous, semi-excited looks with Rose. The Doctor still grinned wildly. They ran down a few steps and across concrete, only stopping when they were under the Eye.

"Think of it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive," the Doctor said. "The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables."

"The breast implants," Rose added.

June laughed. "So, just about everything," she said. "Even the smallest toy dinosaur. Plastic bags, too?" She shrugged to herself.

"Still, we've found the transmitter," the Doctor said. "The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath."

"Aren't we surrounded by water?" June asked as Rose ran off.

"Kind of, yeah," the Doctor said.

"What about down here?" Rose called to the two of them.

The Doctor grabbed June's hand and they ran to where Rose stood, looking over the side of the bridge. There was a set of stairs that led to a manhole entrance sitting on the shore. "Looks good to me," the Doctor said.

They ran down the steps and stepped onto a metal box. The Doctor crouched down and twisted open a small, circular hatch. A bright red light seared and steamed from underground. June winced. "Yeah, that looks about ominous enough."

The Doctor didn't hesitate a moment before descending into the ominous red lighting. June took a deep breath and stepped onto the ladder after him. The thought of going down there made her anxious, but she moved on. The air around her became thick as she climbed down further and further, wondering what waited on the other side.

How'd you guys like the chapter?

The next chapter is the last chapter of Rose! Then we move on to the End of the World!

I think I'll be updating soon, so expect the next chapter in maybe a week.

Reviews, follows, and favorites are very much appreciated!

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

~ C.C.