Chapter Twenty-One

Rose Tyler had seen the Devil, but this, this was hell.

A few months ago, Trafalgar Square had been teeming with people, tourists from all over the world taking snapshots of the various sites, visitors queuing in front of the security check of the National Gallery, people taking a break and basking in the sun. Occasionally Rose had come here as well, whenever she had been particularly frustrated at her lack of progress with her theory about dimension crossing, in an attempt to forget that she was in the wrong universe, even if it was just for a few minutes. After all, Trafalgar Square was one of the very few places in London where the differences were minimal, unlike the rest of the city.

Now the red banners that had hung next to the entrance of the National Gallery were gone, Nelson's Column had fallen and the statue destroyed. The streets were deserted and covered with debris. Occasionally a scruffy figure moved from shadow to shadow, looking for food and water, casting hate-filled glances at the Torchwood SUV driving by.

Rose winced behind the steering wheel, knowing where the hatred came from. The general public, in need of a scapegoat they could blame for the situation, had chosen Torchwood, the part of the government whose sole purpose was to prevent events like this – and they had failed.

It had begun on a completely normal Tuesday, three months ago. Rose had arrived at work, where she was greeted by Tony who had accompanied Pete so Jackie could have a day to herself. Then the aliens had appeared on every TV screen on the planet, simply stating that Earth now belonged to their Empire. They'd never even said who they were; just that Earth should surrender to them.

Immediately afterwards the government had imposed a curfew and proposed negotiations, while Torchwood and every other government agency on the planet dealing with aliens on a daily basis had tried to find out who the invaders were. They had failed, everyone had failed, and then, only a few hours after the first announcement, a trigger-happy politician on the other side of the planet had decided to solve the problem with a nuclear missile that hadn't as much as scratched the coating of the alien command ship.

For another couple of hours the entire planet seemed to hold their breath, everyone hoping against all odds that the aliens had given up. Then the answer came. Military bases all over the planet were attacked first, followed by the capitals of the PRGB, the US, France, Russia, China and New Germany, until the most powerful countries on the planet were left without a functional government and without the ability to launch an effective military attack. To everyone's surprise the aliens had attacked mainly the government districts, leaving other parts of the cities with only minimal damage, mostly from stray bombs, like the one that had hit Trafalgar Square.

In the beginning Torchwood hadn't even realised that something else was going on, too occupied with the more obvious part of the attack and under the impression that the curfew was still effective. Then the first reports about missing people came in from all parts of the country, and they knew what the nameless aliens were after. Humans.

As soon as the invasion had begun, Rose had tried to reach Jackie, hoping that maybe her mum had changed her plans and stayed at home. When she couldn't get a hold of her, she tried to tell herself that it was due to the breakdown of the mobile phone network. At that point she had still hoped that her mum had stayed inside even after the curfew had been lifted. But after a few hours it became clear that she had been among those taken during the first wave.

And it hadn't stopped. The transmats had continued, day after day, and soon people began to realise that the surface wasn't safe anymore. They sought shelter in protected buildings or under the ground, in the Tube or the canalisation. Public life ceased to exist within days. The attack extinguished almost every visible sign of executive authorities, and after a few weeks the set of morals people had been raised with had dissolved into nothing, the veneer of civilisation vanished. What remained was sometimes barely more than an animal, only driven by the instinct to survive. The situation got worse day by day. People were lacking everything, food, clean water, sometimes even the space to lie down for a rest.

Since she had started travelling with the Doctor, Rose had learned to detach herself from the worst of the suffering so she would be able to help, like a doctor treating a patient, but now she was struggling for a bit of distance. More often than not, she failed. Even if this was not the her original universe, this was not just another planet suffering from an alien invasion. This was Earth... And her mum was missing.

The people stranded in Torchwood Tower were better off than most. They had the ability to produce their own drinking water, as long as they kept showers to a minimum, but they were running out of supplies quickly. Since the third day of the attack everything was strictly rationed and prioritised. The focus was on the operative agents and the research teams, since their expertise would be needed to fight the aliens – if they ever discovered a weakness. The children were much further down on the list. They weren't starving, not yet, but what they got was a far cry from what they really needed.

Rose and a few Torchwood employees whose kids had been in Torchwood day care on that fateful day had tried to convince Pete to redirect more of their rations to the children. Pete had shaken his head, the look in his eyes telling them that he knew exactly what his decision might mean for his son.

"I can't. I know it's hard, and I wouldn't do it if I could see any other way, but we have to prioritise. The agents and the lab staff are our only chance to fight the Nameless, and things will only get worse for our kids, for every child on Earth, if we don't find a way to defeat them."

His words had driven home once again that they were at war, that their entire planet was at war, and that the best way to save their children was to work as hard as possible to defeat the invaders. Even though they were still not happy with the situation, the group had shared looks of understanding with Pete and returned to work with renewed determination.

In the beginning Tony had been asking for his mum, every single day. Pete and Rose had agreed not to tell him what had happened, things were bad enough for the little boy already, without them adding to it. Instead Rose had made up a story about Jackie being stuck in another part of London, but had run out of white lies quickly and ignored any further inquiry. She couldn't bear it, couldn't bear the thought that maybe her mum was dead. She clung to the fact that the Nameless had transmatted their victims, instead of just killing them, because they needed the humans for something, but that didn't mean that they would stay alive for long...

Eventually Tony's questions had ceased, but Rose knew he had cried himself into sleep more often than she wanted to think about. Whenever she could she brought him something of her ration, a piece of bread, a slice of an apple – something her spoilt little brother wouldn't have considered worth a second glance weeks before, but now his eyes lit up. It broke what was still left of her heart, every day a little bit more. His sad smiles were killing her.

After Jackie's disappearance Rose had taken a leaf from the Doctor's book and thrown herself into work. She just didn't want to think about her mum. It probably wasn't healthy, but it kept her sane. More or less. She took every assignment that would get her out of Torchwood Tower, because the atmosphere was giving her the creeps. There had always been a faction of directors who called for a less friendly approach towards aliens than the course Pete had adopted, but since the attack the number of their supporters had grown immensely, especially in the scientific departments.

When Mickey and his team had brought the first three prisoners in, Director Powell had demanded them to be dissected, so they could find a potential weakness. Pete had put an end to the budding discussion quickly, allowing the scientists only to interrogate the prisoners and use only non-invasive forms of examination, but Rose doubted it would stay that way. Situations like this tended to bring out the worst in people. It already had begun. Everyone who wanted to could see the signs.

Neither the interrogation nor the examination had brought any insights, and after a few days the calls for more drastic interrogation methods became louder, along with clamours for the blood of their alien prisoners. And it didn't stop with the aliens. Some people in the inner circle were talking about giving steroids and stimulants to the operatives, to enhance their strength and their stamina. Pete was arguing against the idea, but the number of supporters was growing. Many people were already afraid to speak their mind. If this went on much longer they wouldn't need the aliens to defeat them. They'd do it themselves.

Rose shook her head in an attempt to clear it. She was tired to the bones, and her sleep cycle was completely off. She hadn't dreamed for weeks, since before all of this had begun. She survived on catnaps and large quantities of a liquid that barely deserved to be called coffee. The best that could be said about it was that it contained caffeine.

With effort she turned her attention back to her surroundings. Her teammate Daniel and she were on a mission in Westminster. Ever since the attack that had destroyed Downing Street the area had been completely deserted, only stray dogs and a few people in search of water and food moving from shadow to shadow. Even after the Slitheen had attacked her universe's London she hadn't thought she'd ever be afraid in the city at daytime, but this was downright creepy.

Daniel pointed at a roofed gap between two houses. "Let's leave the SUV there and walk. The car might draw attention."

Without another word, Rose parked the car and they got out. Torchwood had received reports that aliens had been seen in this part of the town, so Rose and Daniel had been sent on a recon mission. However, she was almost certain that the aliens were nothing more than human scavengers looking for anything valuable left behind. The Nameless had sent a few teams to the surface, true, but not many, and never to an abandoned area. Torchwood had wondered why they didn't simply invade the planet, their fleet just hanging in orbit while they transmatted people. They hoped that answering this question was a step down the road to get rid of them, but until now the behaviour of the aliens remained a mystery. At least that meant that the people who had sought shelter underground were safe from direct attacks, as long as they didn't venture to the surface.

Daniel and she kept in the shadows in an attempt not to draw attention to themselves. They knew the shadows wouldn't offer any protection against a transmat beam, but chances were that the invaders wouldn't waste any resources on an area where the chances of making more human captives were almost non-existent. More important, however, was to avoid being seen by humans. Even if most of them were harmless, just struggling to support their families, there were others that thrived on the legal vacuum that had formed, stealing from fellow humans, killing for a cup of water. There were even rumours of cannibalism.

When her mobile rang it was almost a shock. She hadn't received a call on her phone since just before the invasion - since her mum had called to ask if she wanted her to bring her some groceries, in fact. She had only brought it out of habit. All operatives used their radios for official communication with Torchwood Tower, and most of the network had been destroyed by the invaders. The caller ID surprised her even more. Mickey and she had argued about not telling Tony what had happened to Jackie and not talked about anything not business-related ever since.

"Shut it off!" Daniel hissed. "They'll hear us."

She ignored him and answered the call. If Mickey went out of his way to call her in the first place and used her superphone it had to be important.

Mickey's tone was brisk, and his news chilled her to the bone. "Tony's run off. We think he's entered the sewers."

It took a moment for the message to sink in, then her mind went into overdrive. 'Bloody hell' summed it up rather nicely. If she wanted to she could also use words from at least half a dozen alien languages that covered the situation and which the TARDIS would refuse to translate. It took her a few seconds to realise that her mind was stuck on rambling, and she concentrated on the call.

"Why would he...? Never mind. I'll be right back."

"No! Whatever you do, don't come here, Rose. You'll end up in front of a court martial," Mickey told her.

"I don't care."

"Rose…" He sounded concerned.

"I don't care, Mickey! He's my brother."

"I know. But you can't."

"Meeting point?"

"Rose, no. You can't. You're already under surveillance because they think you're too alien-friendly. If you leave your post they'll degrade you or kick you out. You know how it is outside, and Pete can't protect you, or he'll lose what is left of his influence, and that'll make everything worse for everyone."

"Do you really think that matters to me? I can't lose Tony." Not, after her mum… She stopped herself firmly from finishing that line of thought. She couldn't afford to think about that now.

She heard a sigh. "Somehow I knew you would say that. Bank Underground Station."

"Are you serious? Through the tunnels that's almost five miles from the headquarters. He's not even four. He never would have made it that far on his own. Did you trace his transponder?"

Since a few days after the initial attack, every person in Torchwood Tower had to wear a small transponder that controlled access to certain parts of the building and constantly reported the current position of the bearer. Rose normally considered this a massive intrusion into her privacy and she had tried to talk Pete out of it when one of the tech geeks came up with the idea, but this once she was glad about it.

"I tracked him as soon as we realized he was missing. The signal was moving in that direction until we lost it under the Thames."

"Okay. Five minutes."

"Understood. Oh, and Rose? Remember, they can trace your transponder as well." With that, Mickey hung up.

Rose pocketed her phone and turned to Daniel. "I've gotta go. I'll be back as soon as possible."

He stared at her as if she'd been speaking an alien language. "Where are you going? They gave us an order."

She nearly snapped at him. Every second she wasted was a second too much. After all that had happened she couldn't lose her little brother. Not like this. She just couldn't. She had lost too much already. She took a deep breath and organised her thoughts. Her training had enabled her to summarise a situation in a few concise sentences. "My brother has vanished and Mickey thinks he's entered the sewers. I have to go and find him."

Her partner considered her for a moment. "I'll come with you."

She simply nodded, turned on her heel and took the direct route back to the SUV. After three steps she broke into a run.

She took the driver's seat, started the engine, ignored the constant beeping telling her she should use her seatbelt and sped up. Only when Daniel cursed because she took a bend almost too fast she realised that he was in the car. Buildings blurred into a wall of stone and glass, and for once she completely ignored the view that normally felt like a punch in the gut - the empty spot on the other side of the Thames where the London Eye was situated in her own universe. Four minutes and thirty-five seconds later she stopped with squealing tyres in front of the tube station. Twenty seconds later another SUV arrived, and Mickey jumped out, followed by Jake.

"Right. Where's the tracking system?" were her first words. No time to lose.

"Did you agree on a story why you left your post?" Mickey asked while handing her a small hand-held computer.

"No time. And I honestly don't care."

He gripped her at the shoulders and shook her, forcing her to look at him. "Rose, I need you to listen. You have to think before you act. You know what's going on in the meetings. Pete is losing more and more ground. You know what will happen if the majority of the directors decide that they're no longer interested in keeping this country a democracy. It's bad enough that we didn't get rid of the curfews and the zone system before all of this started, but when Powell and his friends get the upper hand it's going to get worse. Even if we stop the aliens this will be even less a free country than it is now. We fought too hard against Lumic to let that happen again."

"But since we know you better than you think, we've got a plan," Jake cut in. "In Westminster you saw two Nameless on what looked like flying motorcycles. You followed them here, where you met us."

"It's our free shift and I dropped a few words in the ready room that we might go looking for supplies, so nobody will wonder that we're outside," Mickey added.

Then Jake continued, "We decided that Daniel should go back to Westminster with me and make sure that there are no other Nameless around, while you and Mickey go down into the tunnels, because Daniel and you saw them vanishing here. And if you happen to run into your little brother in the meantime…" He looked at her meaningfully.

Rose nodded. "Sounds good to me. It would have been against Torchwood policy to leave a single team member behind, especially without transport, so it makes sense that Daniel and I went both. Also, with the CCTV out of order, they don't know we just invented the aliens."

"And what are your flying motorcycles supposed to look like?" Daniel asked. He looked a lot more comfortable since Jake had said that he should return to Westminster with him.

Despite the situation, Rose grinned suddenly. "Easy. Just vaguely describe the speeder bikes from Star Wars and make them brown. No one's going to notice. After all, people are stupid."

Mickey laughed outright at that.

"She's right," Jake said, noticing that Daniel still looked uncertain. "You can always explain away any differences in your description with your surprise and them being extremely fast. Just stay vague enough."

Daniel nodded slowly.

Rose smiled at Mickey and Jake. "Thank you."

"Anytime, Rose," Jake gave back, then turned to Daniel. "Let's go."

Ten seconds later, the SUV was gone.