The Valeyard pulled Rose down a flight of stairs, his grip tight on her wrist. This was not part of her plan but she needed to give Nick a little more time to get the Doctor out, she had only managed to deactivate the deadlock seal. She hoped that that was enough.

The Valeyard continued to drag her along until they reached the back of the palace. He turned left at the junction and stopped at the end of the hall to open a door. He pushed Rose inside the room. It looked a bit like a laboratory but Rose thought that the phrase torture chamber suited it better. She had been in here once before and her memory of that time was a bit fuzzy but there was no mistaking the machine in the centre of the room. It was the Valeyard's so-called "Chameleon Arch".

It suddenly dawned on Rose what he had meant by taking "a little test" and she realised that she had missed her moment to escape... but that wasn't going to stop her from trying. As the Valeyard walked past her, she stuck her foot out, causing him to trip and fall face-first to the floor. Wasting no time, she spun around and ran towards the door only to, quite literally, run into a young woman in a white coat. The pair fell to the floor in a tangle of limbs. Rose unscrambled herself from the young woman but not quickly enough to avoid the Valeyard's hands grabbing her shoulders and pulling her to her feet. He shoved her into the chair of the Chameleon Arch and held her in place.

'Nice work, Lidia,' he said. 'Now if you could fasten the restraints, that'd be great.'

Lidia did as she was told and fastened the leather straps around Rose's wrists. Rose recognized the woman's glazed expression and felt a stab of pity for her.

'It's okay,' she said, looking the woman in the eye. 'I understand.'

For a moment, Rose thought she saw a spark of something in Lidia's eyes. Gratitude, maybe? A cry for help? Whatever it was, it was gone as quickly as it had come and Lidia continued to fasten Rose's restraints.

Once he was sure that Rose wasn't going anywhere, the Valeyard let her go.

'That was quite a convincing act,' he said. 'Still, it won't do you any good now.' He stepped towards the controls of the laboratory machine and inserted a vile of red liquid into the slot provided and pressed a few buttons.'Have the settings been changed since our last attempt?' he asked Lidia.

'No, Minister.' replied Lidia. 'If you try again now, the test will almost certainly have the same conclusion as the last one.'

'What happened to the last one?' asked Rose though she was already pretty sure of what had happened.

'His mind burnt,' replied the Valeyard without a hint of remorse. 'Quite literally, it's going to take me forever to get the smell out of the room.' He pressed another button and the machine whirred into life. He moved towards Rose and lowered the headphones to her head.

'Sir,' said Lidia, 'Are you sure you want to waste the Time Lord DNA? This will only result in her death.'

'Oh, it will result in a lot more than that,' he replied, stepping back towards the control panel. 'It will hurt the Doctor, and that is worth every bit of DNA in that vile.'

He pressed a big red button and suddenly Rose's head felt like it was on fire. She may have started screaming, she wasn't entirely sure. All she knew was the red-hot pain that was going through her skull.

It may have been a few seconds or a few hours but eventually the pain ended. Just before Rose slipped out of consciousness, she heard a vaguely familiar singing and she could have sworn that she had seen a bright golden light.

oOoOo

The Doctor was halfway down the hall when the screaming stopped. He didn't allow himself to consider what that meant. He just kept running.

He burst through the door at the end of the hall and stopped short at the scene in front of him. Rose was sitting in the makeshift Chameleon Arch, the Valeyard leaning over her, checking her pulse. She wasn't moving.

'Amazing,' said the Valeyard, seemingly to himself.

The Doctor moved towards him, about ready to pummel the bastard.

'It worked,' said the Valeyard and the Doctor stopped in his tracks.

'What?' he said.

The Valeyard turned to him, a triumphant smile on his face. 'It worked,' he repeated.

'It can't have,' said the Doctor, pushing him aside. Did he dare hope that Rose had somehow survived?

The Valeyard moved back and gave the Doctor some space. He nodded to Lidia and she left the room but the Doctor didn't notice, he was too focused on the blonde in front of him.

He knelt beside the unconscious Rose and took her pulse. The double beat was unmistakable. He would have to run a few tests in the TARDIS to find out the extent of her transformation but that didn't matter right now. She was alive.

'It must have been the huon energy left over from taking in the time vortex,' he said absentmindedly.

'Huon energy, of course!' said the Valeyard. 'How did I not get that?'

At his exclamation, the Doctor snapped out of his daze and turned to the Valeyard angrily.

'You tried to kill her,' he said, his voice dangerously low.

'Well,' said the Valeyard, drawing out the word. 'Maybe just a little bit but look at her! She's a Time Lord! Or Lady, I should say. Now, I'll give you Rose so you two can spend the rest of your lives together and I'll leave in the TARDIS. How's that for symmetry?'

'You're not leaving in the TARDIS,' growled the Doctor, stalking across the room. 'Actually, you're not leaving here at all.'

He was almost to the Valeyard when two pairs of hands grabbed his arms, pulling backwards.

The Valeyard smiled smugly. 'You were saying?'

The Doctor struggled against the Valeyard's guards but it was no use. Suddenly, the sound of an explosion echoed down the hallway and two people appeared at the door.

'Mickey the idiot,' said the Valeyard distastefully.

The guards let go of the Doctor and advanced on the newcomers but they were a little too slow. Jedda already had her gun ready and had fired at the first guard before he had even taken two steps.

Mickey didn't raise his gun; obviously thinking hand-to-hand combat was more appropriate.

The Doctor refocused his attention on the Valeyard who was running along the back of the room, seemingly towards a solid wall. He pressed his hand on a small panel on the wall and a secret door slid open.

'No. No. No. No!' cried the Doctor as he chased after the man but he was too slow. The door slid shut with a thud. The Doctor tried placing his palm on the panel like the Valeyard had just done but nothing happened.

Cursing, the Doctor abandoned the wall and moved over to where Rose still sat and started undoing her restraints.

Mickey had managed to successfully knock out the second guard and moved to help the Doctor with Rose.

'Is she…?'

'No,' said the Doctor. 'She's alive but she could be out for a while. I need to get her to the TARDIS.'

'Martha should be bringing it to the hotel.'

'Can we hurry up a little, please,' interrupted Jedda. It's amazing we even got in here, it won't be long before we can't get back out.'

The Doctor nodded and scooped Rose up into his arms. 'Lead the way,' he said.

They had barely made it out the door when they saw a man running towards them. The man skidded to a halt when he saw them, fear evident on his face.

'Simmons,' spat Jedda.

Simmons took this as his signal to turn around and flee back the way he came but Jedda obviously wasn't going to let him get away that easily.

'Get back here you cowardly shit!' she yelled, chasing after him.

'Wait!' shouted the Doctor but she had already disappeared around the corner.

'Leave her,' said Mickey. 'She can handle herself. We need to move.'

Miraculously, they made it out of the building and into a car. Mickey drove while the Doctor sat in the backseat, still holding Rose.

'Is she gong to be okay?' asked Mickey.

'I don't know,' replied the Doctor honestly.

'You can fix her, yeah? Whatever he did to her, you can fix it?'

The Doctor didn't answer. He could use the TARDIS Chameleon Arch to change her back into a human but she wouldn't be Rose anymore. Rose would be locked inside a fob watch. Even if he could change her back, he wasn't sure he wanted to. He hated himself for thinking it, but part of him was overjoyed at the possibility of Rose being a Time Lord. He was a bit more selfish now and for just a moment he allowed himself to imagine travelling the stars with her again. Only this time there would be nothing to hold him back. The curse of the Time Lords was now a gift… but would she still want that?

Mickey took his silence as a "no" and nobody spoke for the rest of the drive.

oOoOo

Entering the hotel's car park, the first thing the Doctor noticed was his magnificent blue box standing in the far corner.

'It must have taken a bit of work getting it out of that alley,' he said, getting out of the car and carrying the still unconscious Rose to the TARDIS.

'I can't get to my key,' he said once they had reached the door.

Mickey rolled his eyes and knocked on the TARDIS door. 'Martha, you in there?' he shouted.

The door swung open and Martha rushed out of the door and embraced her husband.

'You made it,' she said.

'I'm okay, babe,' said Mickey, placing a kiss on her temple.

The Doctor carried Rose over the threshold, ignoring the couple. Anna was standing at the console, staring in wonder at the central column.

'This is unreal,' she said excitedly. 'I mean, you really are an alien! It's all – oh my God, is she okay?'

Anna moved to help the Doctor with Rose but he walked straight past her.

'If you want to help, you can open that door,' he said, nodding towards the door at the other end of the room.

Anna didn't need telling twice. She rushed over and held the door open for him. He nodded his thanks and continued towards the med-bay. He needed to know how much Rose had changed. Was she a Time Lord or did she just have two hearts now? He still wasn't quite sure which answer he was hoping for.