Disclaimer: I don't in any way own the series Doctor Who. Those are the sole property of the BBC.
Return to Satellite 5 AU: "Bad Wolf", "The Parting of the Ways" and "Born Again".
Note 1: Many thanks for the reviews, alerts and favorites. They all keep me writing.
Note 2: This chapter has not been betad'.
Chapter Nine: Wolf Moon Rising
The Len-bot turned and in modulated synthesized British tone addressed the remaining couples. "Now for the finale, both couples will be dancing the same style." The rectangle monitor began scrolling for the last time through the dance names. The flashing lights slowed before coming to a stop on the Samba.
"Well ladies and gentlemen it appears that you are in for a bit of frivolity." The droid's arms gestured out to encompass the four people. "Before you go to put choreography together and practice there's been a change to the manner in which the dancing will be displayed."
Rose looked over to her partner not sure what the robot was on about. She was surprised to see that normally arrogant man was pale of face and fidgeting in place. His eyes were wide and Rose silently was disturbed that whatever the change was it seemed to put Rick in a downward spiral.
"You'll be doing a dance duel. You are allotted fifteen minutes to change costumes and then an additional ten minutes to come up with a routine and practice." The droid's cheerfulness set Rose's teeth on edge. "And you start now."
The other team was off like a shot, scrambling to get to the area that Rose vaguely remembered was where she'd been 'transformed'. At that same moment Rick practically dislocated her shoulder as he pulled her bodily in the same direction. "Oi, you mind not injuring your partner!"
"Well you certainly weren't moving very fast." He shouted back even as his hand released hers.
"Bugger off." Rose spat pushing past the arrogant arse. She'd came up to a pair of women that were almost identical with their bizarre uniforms, height and similar faces, with the exception of their hair one was blonde with pink highlights while the other was blonde with blue highlights.
"All right dearie let's get you stripped then." The one with pink in her hair practically commanded.
Rose was glad that the two didn't talk at the same time cause that would be just too much but at the woman's words she pulled back not liking the sound of them. "This part is not on the telly is it?" Rose couldn't remember if there had been any cameras when she'd first gotten there but she didn't put it past these people to do just that. Maybe as some sort of best of moments type of thing.
The two smiled eerily at the same time. They quickly caught her up, and hustled her behind a set of curtains. The blue-blonde haired one spoke rapidly. "Don't be silly that's for 'What Not to Wear' this programme about dancing." The woman's voice held the hint of a giggle even as she seemed to chided Rose.
Rose was surprised at the two's strength as they pulled her along. She was uncomfortable about stripping in front of the two unknown females. She hadn't done that since school and that was with girlfriends not complete strangers.
As soon as she could Rose avoid the women and removed the ballroom dress herself. She kept the silk wrist bands, as the one still held her locket.
On a medium size screen the two dressers debated the choices of outfits. "Oh, no. Not that one. Her legs aren't long enough to pull that off." The one with blue-highlights immediately shot down.
"Oi!" Rose cried but was ignored.
"But Ami, she'd look so good in it." The pink high-lighted haired woman continued to encourage her idea.
Ami just shook her head not even giving the busty top and tasseled fringed harem pants a second look. "No Ina, this would work wonderful for both her stature and skin tone."
"Maybe the color but really it's too fluffy." Ina groused not liking the fluffy like feathers.
Rose hadn't liked either one. What the two put together next: she didn't know how it would even stay up. It was a cloth choker around the neck and a band across the breasts connected with a small scrap of material from neck to breast and then from breast to hips, flaring out with tasseled beading, longer in the back and shortening in the front. A billowing filmy gauzy cloth connected the back of the neck choker and satin wrist bands.
"Oi, I'm not wearing that." Rose declared in no uncertain terms.
The two turned with identical maniacal gleams in their eyes. "Unfortunately dearie we don't have time to argue."
They advanced, with claw like hands, on Rose who had nowhere to run as she was only in her yellow and pink knickers. Through several pained shouts and a couple of indignite squeaks Rose came out from beyond the curtain dress in a pink and yellow dress that wasn't much of anything. The former shop girl crossed her arms in embarrassment. She had a brief spark of memory or at least that's how it came across but Rose wasn't sure as it was a feeling rather than a full on image in her mind. The material of the dress had left the blonde woman feeling very exposed and it had felt like… well like it wouldn't be the first time. Like she had already been put on display to many eyes watching her for entertainment, and it had nothing to do with when she been a child in the gymnastics meets.
In the fight with the dresser's Rose had only been able to retrieve her locket. It had been the only battle that Rose had felt she'd had the upper hand in. No matter that it wasn't stylish it belonged to her. She wasn't going to let anyone take or toss it out.
"Step right up sweetie. It's time for your make-up." It was the same person from when she'd first arrived. She still couldn't tell if the make-up artist was male or female.
Rose slide into the chair. As the process of freshening up her make-up, the flush she'd had from the embarrassment of the changing clothes quickly washes away. The awful sick feeling returns with a vengeance but she stays put afraid of what else could go wrong.
Rose easily came to the conclusion that it wasn't just Rick causing her illness from before. She had to struggle with herself to not jump out of the chair to get away. Since the two female dresser's hadn't induce any of the symptoms it was apparent that her reactions were from the proximity of men. That meant that the person doing her make-up was a guy, Rose was certain that the make-up artist and Rick didn't wear the same cologne so it wasn't allergies that was causing her discomfort.
"Stop twitching." The man instructed in a hard voice.
Rose was glad when the torture of the chair was over she made to get up but was pushed back down. "Oi, what?"
"You're not leaving just yet darling it's my turn. Just look at that rat nest." The newest man said with a sigh.
The blonde woman groaned in both resignation and dismay. She looked in the mirror and was once again shocked at her appearance. She had hot and cold chills race through her, humiliation warred with sickness. The person that looked back wasn't Rose Tyler.
As Rose suffered through another person manhandling her, she suppressed a whimper of pain and revulsion. The Stylist paid her no attention as he put the final touches on the blonde woman's hair. "There darling you are now more presentable."
The former shop girl made no comment as she slipped off the chair. She was trying to recover from the 'Ballroom X's' apparent need for the final showdown to be spectacular. After receiving their last dance type, where they were also informed that it would be a dance off, which was the Samba the Len-bot had been gleeful in its supposedly random selection. Then both teams were hustled off to change. The experience had actually been worse than when she first arrived. At that time Rose had just went with the flow not really understanding what had been going on. Now she was aware of the camera's and that the programme hadn't gone to commercial. She had been saved the mortification of undressing in front of billions of viewers, but there were still the shows costumers, stylists and makeup people.
Rose had no time to digest anything as her dance partner was saying something a motioning her to follow. It was probably about how slow she was and that they didn't have time to be lollygagging.
The lift doors opened and Jack took a quick look around satisfied that there weren't any guards he strode out. The brown haired man checked for the Doctor's signature and followed the devices direction.
"Did you miss me handsome? And it doesn't look like Rose is with you." Jack didn't take much notice of the space outside the observation deck that he'd found the Doctor standing in. It just figure that he'd had to come down about two hundred and fifty floors before finding the alien man and that the Time Lord had another lost soul tagging along. Though what surprised Jack was that she kinda resembled a different blonde woman of their acquaintance.
The Doctor for once was extremely glad to see the 51st century man. The thing was that the situation was starting to on the vague resemblance to another adventure they'd been on recently… and that hadn't ended to well. "So you were able to track me down, how about Rose?"
Jack didn't take offense to the Doctor's brusqueness as he also didn't like the fact that once again Rose was in danger. "Well normally I would have but these rooms are all shielded. And that bit of jiggery pokery that last time you did on my wrist unit can't seem to get past them. So I'd have to say that she's still inside one of these games."
"Yeah, she more than likely is in one of those idiotic games. The answers are in this computer if I can just get it to work." The Doctor used both his fingers and prodding the device with his sonic screwdriver. He didn't worry that Rose was still alive as he still continued to have bouts of sickness though with his biology he was starting to get used to it. All his speculation on the subject was working in the back of his mind so that when there wasn't the urgency of finding his 'jeopardy friendly' companion and fixing the problem of the Fourth Great Human Empire he'd have time to mull over the facts and have a better reason than the one that kept coming to mind at the moment.
Jack couldn't help being impatient now that he knew what kind of trouble the Powell Estate girl could get into. "They maybe idiotic but they have killer endings. So, you might want to speed things up a bit."
"I know that Jack. What does it look like I'm doing? I not takin tea." The Doctor snapped frustrated he knew it was his fault that they were there. Somehow when he and Rose had left last time what the Time Lord thought had been sorted out really hadn't. Maybe it had been because his mind was clouded by the betrayal of the damn pretty boy that Rose had vouched for the Doctor couldn't even remember the fool's name.
Jack backed down he could see that it was going to be Sarkios all over again. He unstrapped the wrist-device and held it out to the Doctor. "For a while now, I put your and Rose's biological signatures in there." The ex-con man knew he didn't have to add when he done it.
The Doctor quick took the device not bothering to tell Jack that he should of asked for that information. Now wasn't the time to berate the man for his habit of taking things that didn't belong to him.
"I'm sure that if you plug it in it'll have better luck at getting past the shielding." Jack was just glad that the Doctor hadn't immediately started lecturing him on privacy.
The Doctor didn't have it in him right then to be nasty with the Captain. "Thanks Jack. We'll talk later about this."
Jack nodded then turned his attention to the blonde woman who had been quiet the whole time he and the Doctor had been at it. He held out a hand taking the smaller one into for a companionable shake. "Hello!" Jack just couldn't resist lowering his voice into a more allure tone.
Lynda was a bit awe struck as the beautiful man noticed her. "Um. Hi!"
"The names Jack, Captain Jack Harkness since the Doc isn't much on introduction." Jack smiled baudly at the woman waiting to see if she would reciprocate.
Lynda couldn't help smiling back, "I'm Lynda, Lynda Moss. That's Lynda with a y."
Jack blue eyes sparkled with interest and a small amount of sexual intent. "Well, Lynda with a y it very nice to meet you!"
The Doctor rolled his eyes even has he continued to work on the stubborn computer system. "If you two want to want some privacy you might want to try outside." He suggested as it wasn't only Lynda making him now he had to contend with Jack. Humans for the 51st century tended to also use their innate hormones to talk. The Doctor thought that Jack didn't have a shut off switch in that department even though he'd been trained by the Time Agency.
"Really Doctor I'm just introducing myself." Jack said grumpily.
The Doctor snorted. "Your normal state is flirting."
"Hey I wasn't protesting." Lynda tentatively got between the two men. She smiled and patted Jack on the chest.
Jack returned her smile and took her hand kissing the back in thanks. "I certainly glad about that."
"Oh you're a charmer you are." Lynda laughed giddily.
The computer system let out loud beeping and bleeping noises in protest. The two looked over to where the Doctor was continuing to work on the stations computer trying to find his blonde companion.
The Doctor growled in anger and frustration "What is wrong with this damn system? Nothing is working it won't conform even with the sonic."
The Time Lord tossed the wrist-device to the blonde pigtailed woman. He bent using the sonic screwdriver on casing and then began wrenching the front of the computer away. Jack stepped up and lent his help with pulling the part off. On the third pull the inside of the system was exposed wires sticking out. The Doctor caught the wrist-device that Lynda tossed back at the alien man when he signaled that want it.
"It's bizarre the satellite should be your average broadcaster. But the systems had been upgraded to a ridiculously complicated level. Oh this station's not just transmitting television feed… there's something else to it." The Doctor said as he worked with system to broaden the wrist unit's range.
Jack looked at the Time Lord in confusion "What do you mean? Like a subliminal?"
The Doctor used the sonic once more getting further agitated and feeling that time had suddenly had become of the essence, Rose needed him… them. "Jack I really don't know, but Bad Wolf has been following me since… well since I've had Rose with me. This isn't the first time an entity or group has manipulated my life. I have the feeling that we're caught in a trap and Rose had been dragged into it."
TBC…