Day Three

Rose

One of the most twisted things about MSFM is the false sense of security. They convince you that you're safe here, that your friends will be safe. Lies, all of it. We were fools for believing them.

I had just gotten out of class when it started, Increasing the Full Potential of Powers (IFPP), with Mr. Gates. Nothing out of place, nothing odd. David and I were walking down the hallway, chatting about who knows what. It didn't matter. What matters is that he was there.

In our next class we passed notes the whole time (well I did, he just got annoyed because he cared about the classes even though he most likely knew everything anyways). It reminded me of before I came here, when I was normal. I hadn't even known about my powers until I got here. It was a real shock. Swore I was dreaming. Then I met David, and I was positive I was dreaming. Why would someone as smart as him want something to do with someone as 'intellectually inferior' as me, I still don't know, but I know it's genuine.

After our last 'class' we went to the common room to chill out, there wasn't much 'homework' at this school. They said our powers worked best if they didn't stress us out, but David and I think that that can't be true, since we use them during our free time without any side effects.

"I'll be back in a second," he promised. I thought he would be, I bet he thought he would be too. Alas, Torchwood can't be trusted. They never can be.

It had been an hour and half and David wasn't in the common room, where he said he would meet me for a date he had planned. I heard a 'whoosh' of the door sliding opened and I turned around quickly, biting my nails, hoping it was David. Instead it was Clara (I guess she got her handprint registered with Torchwood), rushing inside looking worried.

"Hey have you seen David anywhere?" I asked her.

"No, sorry," she bit her lip, "Have you seen Matt?" I shook my head and she sighed.

"Maybe he went to his room, he did seemed to get annoyed earlier." I shrugged. "Um, Rose do you know where his room is?"

"Yeah," I said, "He's in room A113, with Rory." Right across from David, I remembered, taking a mental note that I could check on him too, hopefully.

Clara was perplexed for a second, "I don't think I've been down that hall yet, could you show me?"

"Of course," I said. I was going down there anyways, what's the harm? I picked up my bag and scanned my hand so the doors would open. Clara followed me, in a hurry. We turned left and followed the route I had been down so many times.

"There," I pointed to A113, "You might want to knock first, I saw Amy in there earlier." Clara made a face as if to say seriously? Hey, you pick that stuff up from hanging around Jack for too long.

Clara knocked on the door, hurting her knuckles in the process. Not only were these doors sound proof, but they were made from a titanium alloy. She glared at me. I laughed, remembering that David had done the same to me, I needed to find him.

"What now?" Clara asked.

"Here," I said, waving my hand over a motion sensor. The door opened. I waved at Clara. "Good luck, I hope you don't get scarred for life." Clara only made a face at me and I giggled. Like I said, been hanging around Jack for too long.

"Who is it?" I heard Amy yell.

"Relax," I said as Clara and I walked in, "it's just us."

Her face washed over with relief, "Oh I thought it was…" she trailed off.

"Who?" I asked.

"Not important," she said, "anyways what brings you here?" She was gathering her stuff, smuggled magazines, a sweater, et cetera.

"Have you seen Matt?" Clara chimed in. "He was in my class this morning,"

"Mine too," Amy said, "I think he went with River and Sarah Jane." Clara's eyes narrowed, her jealousy was blatantly obvious. "Not like that," Amy promised. Clara was a little relieved.

Rory shrugged, "Don't worry, he's probably in the common room."

"Just checked there," I said. Clara was getting worried again.

"Where else would he be?" she asked. "I mean, we're not allowed to be anywhere, but the common room and our rooms. Matt wouldn't break the rules." Amy rolled her eyes.

"Are we talking about the same Matt?" she asked. " 'Cause otherwise, you clearly don't know him." Amy's voice had an almost possessive tone to it, which made Clara have a hard time maintaining eye contact with her.

"Look," Rory interrupted, "he's probably with River and Sarah Jane, like Amy said."

"Oh great," Clara said, faking a smile (not very well though).

"What's the matter?" Amy asked, insincere. "Are you jealous?" she asked teasing Clara about her obvious crush on Matt.

"No!" Clara squeaked defensively, as her face turned bright red.

"Guys," I said, "please stop fighting, it's not gonna get us anywhere." I took a deep breath. "Besides has anyone noticed that David is missing too?"

Rory's brows furrowed and Amy frowned. Clara seemed to be thinking about something deeply.

"Maybe Chris knows where they went?" Rory suggested. I hesitated at the idea to talk to Chris. It wasn't that I didn't like him, but it was awkward. He… well I got the vibe that he liked me. In a creepy way. Also, he'd been arrested for crimes before, using his temporary cloning ability to confuse police officers.

Amy left for a minute, checking David and Chris' room. She came back in, looking like she was trying to figure something out.

"He's not here either," she frowned.

"Great," Rory deadpanned, "some of our best friends are kidnapped and one of which is a wanted criminal and all of them are mutants. Great." Amy rolled her eyes.

"We don't know if they've been taken somewhere," Clara pointed out. She's smart, she knew she was lying to herself. It was more her hope speaking than anything else.

"Where else would they be?" I asked, trying to be helpful. "Besides, this place has always been sketchy. We're better than that." I paused remembering David. Remembering all the things he taught me, all the things he showed me. All the things he was going to show me.

"They were all better than that." Everyone nods in agreement.

"Clara Oswin Oswald." A drone flies into the room. "Will Clara Oswin Oswald please report to Ward 42?" I feel dread growing in the pit of my stomach.

Clara tried to hold her own, she really did. It was a good three minutes before the robotic arm of the drone injected her with God knows what, and wheeled her into wherever Ward 42 was. I silently vowed to get her back. Amy and Rory were soon called out as well. We know better than to fight them, Clara was the exception.

Ten minutes I spent waiting. I didn't know what else to do, everywhere else seemed to be guarded beyond reason. So I just sat there and thought. Thought about life before MSFM, thought about life after MSFM- if there was one. Finally, I heard the drone return.

"Will Rose Marion Tyler please report to Ward 42." It's robotic voice was echoing in my ears for seconds after.

I followed the drone into the ward, after all I had nothing to lose.

The brief bit of mildly toxic gasses was to be expected. I saw Clara, she saw me, I passed out. Standard Torchwood. Y'know, sometimes I wonder if they knock us out for fun.

I wake up, hearing distressed noises from across the room. I sigh, nightmares were a regular occurrence at MSFW. I mean, they experiment on us, trying to push us to our boundaries and trying to figure out our limits with no care for the backlash we end up having.

I slide from my bed, feet touching the cold floor. I walk to Clara's bed and shake her. She only responds to me by trying to hide, rolling away from me. I frown. Whatever they did in there was obviously traumatizing to her and she was having bad after effects.

"Clara," I shake her once more, "Wake up." She only curls up into a ball, and I can hear her whispering hurriedly under her breath. She must be having a terrible nightmare. She lets out a shriek and I jump slightly.

"Clara," I try again, this time getting really close to her ear, "Matt is waiting to go to class with you. Wake up." Clara ceases her muttering and slight shaking that she had begun to do.

"Matt's missing, you know that Rose."

"I know, but you looked like you needed to wake up." Clara sighed and sat up. "You looked like you were having a nightmare."

"Oh, I…" Clara trailed off, "It's normal." I frown at her trying to brush it off.

"Normal, how?"

"I got them ever since I can remember." It seems like nightmares were a backlash of her eidetic memory I guess. Having had eidetic memory all her life, she's probably had countless nightmares, or maybe she got lucky, and was spared from the side effects.

"Backlash?" Clara questioned. I stopped for a second, not realizing that I had been voicing my thoughts.

"All Mutants have backlash." I explained, "The effects have a range for some people, but for someone like me, it's always exactly the same."

"What is your backlash?" she asked.

"My power is healing. Whenever I heal someone, I get their injuries," I explain. "If someone had a cut on their right arm, I would get a cut on my right arm."

Clara seemed to be thinking about it. "Can you heal… cancer?" Stupid question we both knew, it had been eradicated for the most part back in 2019, but it's still used as a standard for disease.

"I dunno, Torchwood hasn't made me do that yet. I'm not even sure if I can," I shrug.

"But if you could heal someone with cancer, and they made you heal someone with cancer at a normally incurable stage, or heal someone with an amputated leg for instance…" she trails off. I shudder as I think about that. Thankfully Torchwood hasn't made me attempt to heal anything on that scale, though I wouldn't put it past them.

"Like I said, Clara, I dunno," I turned to face her, "I promise we'll get them back though."

She turned to face me, raising an eyebrow. "You don't really believe that, do you?"

Her eyes were red as if she'd been crying. Though I'm a huge believer in superstitions, I personally thought it was a little bit obscure how Clara and Matt found "true love" so quickly.

"No," I admitted, "but who's there to stop us from trying?" I joked, Clara was clearly not amused.

"Torchwood," Clara stated, "and Moffat, whoever he is."

An idea popped into my head, an odd one, for sure, one that would most definitely not work, but if it did- "Remember, we're Mutants."

"So?" she gave me a look, "that just means half the world wants to experiment on us, and the other half wants us dead."

"Well that is true," I did acknowledge her statement, my dad was eager to give me up for the 10,000 pound reward. 'But we're anomalies, they're trying to learn about us. They don't know our strengths, our limits. That's the whole point of Moffat's School for Mutants. Imagine what we could get done if we all worked together. We could free them- heck- we could probably free ourselves."

Clara was inspired by my 'speech'.

"Really?" I nodded. "How?" she asked, clearly intrigued at the prospect of gaining freedom.

"First," I said, "We're going to need some help." Clara rolled her eyes as I signaled for her to get out of bed and follow me. We walked a few doors down the hall to my friend, Sarah Jane's room.

"What do you want?" she responded, clearly irritated that she was woken up in the middle of the night.

"David's missing," I said.

"That's it?" she asked, getting angrier.

"Matt and Chris too," Clara added, but it clearly didn't help.

"That's old news," Sarah Jane snapped. "Is that seriously what you woke me up for?"

She was about to slam the door on my face. "We think we can save them."

Her countenance shifted from angry to intrigued. "Go on," she said gesturing for us to enter her room.