Sorry for the long update, I'll try to be quicker next time.

Jack's back! Can't wait until the next episode (two weeks?! This is an outrage!!), but in the Radio Times it said he was back in episode 9. Confusing. Only time will tell...

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.

xxx

Rose couldn't believe her eyes. For a second she didn't believe them and had to blink several times before staring at it again.

What she saw in front of her wouldn't have been so amazing to most people; they'd comment that there was some clever light reflections going on in the middle then move on. But she knew better.

What she was looking at was a small sphere slightly smaller than a football, made of what looked like glass. The surface seemed so shimmer and sparkle as if it was a drop of water suspended in the air. But it was what was inside the sphere that amazed her most.

In the centre was a golden light, small rays sparkling like glitter. She recognised it instantly. It was the time vortex.

She didn't know how, but she seemed almost attracted to it. As if she recognised it. In a way, she supposed she did, after absorbing the time vortex all those years ago. All she remembered of that time was a bright golden light, just like what was inside the ball. Before she could stop herself, she was walking forward towards it, as if hypnotised. She stopped in front of it, staring into the very centre of the ball.

"Don't touch it," one of the scientists reminded her, but she wasn't listening. She already knew she shouldn't touch it, but she couldn't seem to stop herself as she found her hands reaching out towards it…

xxx

Martha sighed. The Doctor was still working underneath the consol, muttering things to himself under his breath every now and again. She bobbed Aurora on her knee as she gurgled quietly to herself. Martha had given up playing with her, as the fact that whenever she spoke to her Aurora tended to speak back and a talking six month old had started to creep her out. She sighed again.

"OW!" The Doctor suddenly shouted, shaking his hand and put a finger in his mouth as the wires he was fiddling with sparked and burnt his skin. "That's it I give up," he sighed, pulling himself out. He stood next to the consol and ran a hand over the surface. "What's wrong with you, old girl?" he said quietly, looking at his ship in worry.

"Maybe it's just 'cause we're in a parallel universe," Martha suggested, "you said the TARDIS won't work properly."

"I know, but…" he trailed off, shaking his head. "I dunno," he ran his hand through his hair. Just as his hand reached the back of his neck, he looked around slowly. "What's that…?" he said as his eyes flicked around the room.

"What?" Martha asked, also looking around. She looked back at the Doctor as he began to frown intensely. Aurora stopped gurgling. "Doctor, what is it?" she asked nervously.

xxx

Rose couldn't stop herself as her hands rested gently on the sides of the orb.

xxx

The Doctor and Aurora suddenly screamed out in pain, so suddenly that Martha nearly fell off the chair. The Doctor fell to his knees clutching his head, crying out in agony, as if being tortured by an unseen enemy.

"What the hell?!" Martha gasped, as she fell to her knees in front of him, holding Aurora close to her body. She was at a complete loss for what to do.

xxx

Rose cried out as her heard flung backwards and her vision was filled with distorted images. Vague sounds filled her mind, people crying and screaming, the sound of ships and explosions, voices talking in hushed tones. She saw fire and death, a black sky filled with ships, people talking with each other. The voices became more urgent, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. She saw people in long robes mixed with others running across a war-torn desert within an inch of their lives, she saw ships burning and crashing in the sky and rips in time itself.

Then, just as suddenly as it started, it was over. She fell backwards onto the floor gasping and reeling, her head spinning. Above her she saw the orb, the inside glowing brightly, then dimming down again. People gathered around her firing questions that she couldn't understand. She felt light-headed and was overcome by dizziness, and everything faded as she fell backwards and lost consciousness.

xxx

The Doctor and Aurora stopped screaming suddenly. Martha stared in confusion as the Doctor collapsed in front of her. She put Aurora, who was still crying but not screaming, on the ground and crawled to the Doctor's side but found that he was still conscious.

"What happened…?" he gasped, trying to focus on Martha.

"I was going to ask you that!" she replied, helping him sit up. He rubbed his head blearily. Everything seemed to be spinning, and he shook his head violently. Then he looked up, alert.

"That's not good," he muttered, before jumping up.

"I could have guessed that," Martha said, picking Aurora up as she joined him by the consol. He looked at the screen as symbols appeared on it, twisting and rotating. "So what was it?" Martha asked, trying to comfort Aurora.

"I don't know," he replied thoughtfully, "but whatever it was it's very very bad."

xxx

Rose sat in a chair, shaking slightly, staring at the orb in the centre of the room. She'd quickly regained consciousness, but had refused to answer any questions. She was still trying to piece together what she'd seen and make any sense of it.

She looked up suddenly as the door opened, and Mickey walked into the room.

"Rose!" he said, running up to her and grabbing a chair, "you ok? What happened?" he asked as he sat next to her. For a moment she didn't answer, and continued to stare at the sphere.

"There was… these voices and…" she paused, and stared at him for a moment. "Oh my god you don't know do you?" she said suddenly.

"I know you touched the orb thing and-"

"No no not that," she interrupted, beginning to smile, "he came back," she said happily, "the Doctor, he found a way back through!" she laughed as Mickey stared at her in disbelief.

"You're kidding me," he said, and she shook her head. "How'd he get through? He said it was impossible."

"He's said that before," Rose replied.

"So why isn't he here now then?" Mickey asked.

"He's fixing the TARDIS…" Rose replied distractedly, looking back at the orb. "I should tell him," she said distantly.

"You haven't told me yet," Mickey complained. Rose bit her lip.

"I don't really know how to describe it," she said. She then reached into her pocket and pulled out the phone, selected a number then held it to her ear, looking back at the orb. Mickey sighed and leant back in his chair.

"It's always him, isn't it?" he muttered, but Rose didn't hear.

"Doctor!" she said suddenly as he answered his phone, "you've got to come down here! … No, I don't care you… but something really weird just happened! … This is worse … I can't really describe it, but…" she lowered her voice, making sure that no one else could hear, "I think it's something to do with the Time War," she said quietly. There was a pause, before she smiled and hung up the phone.

xxx

The Doctor stopped searching the TARDIS for answers as his phone rang.

"Not now," he muttered, holding it up to his hear. "Rose! … I can't, I'm busy … Rose, just stop … something really weird just happened to me too! … well what happened?" there was a pause, as his expression changed from anger to realisation. "I'll be right there," he said, hanging up. "I've got to go to Torchwood," he said, facing Martha.

"What? Why?" she demanded.

"Something's happened, you stay here with Aurora," he ordered, walking around the consol and grabbing his coat, "go find Jack or something," he put his coat on and headed for the doors.

"But what if that happens again?" Martha asked as he reached the doors.

"Then I'll be tortured in Torchwood," he said, opening the doors, "oh I like that," he said, pausing, "tortured in Torchwood," he gave her a grin, the pulled the door fully open. "Bye," he waved, then went outside as the doors closed after him.

xxx

Rose watched the doors eagerly waiting for the Doctor. She'd cleared it with security to let him through and it was now jut a matter of time. Mickey was sitting next to her, waiting patiently, as usual.

Yvonne grabbed a chair and put it next to Rose sitting on it.

"So?" she asked, "what happened?" Rose shifted uncomfortably. She wanted to wait for the Doctor before she told anyone, just to know for sure what she'd seen was real.

"I don't really know…" she said quietly, "What did you see?"

"We saw you touch the orb, then… there was this light. Bright, yellow light coming from the orb, and it spread across you, like you were glowing. You were screaming in pain but we couldn't get near you," Yvonne explained. Rose nodded slowly, looking back at the orb.

Just at that point, the Doctor came bursting into the room. Rose grinned as she saw him, but his attention was on the orb.

"Oh I don't believe it!" he exclaimed, running up to the orb. The scientists watched him in confusion as he put his glasses on and walked around the sphere, inspecting it. He frowned intensely as he whirred the sonic screwdriver at it. He then put the screwdriver away, and wiped his glasses off. He looked up at Rose who was walking up to him. "Did you touch it?" he asked.

"Um… yeah," she answered somewhat hesitantly. He nodded and looked back at the orb.

"Thought so," he said quietly, then looked back up again. "It's Mickey!" he announced with a grin, "good to see ya."

"You too," Mickey replied, and the Doctor's attention was instantly back on the orb. He walked up to it until his face was inches away, and stared at it.

"Tell me everything you know about it," he said to no one in particular. Before Rose could answer, Yvonne stepped forward.

"It fell to Earth and we sent out gravitational waves to attract it here. It was coming from the direction of the sun or more specifically Venus. The few readings we can get say it's emitting an unknown radiation, it has a very high heat and mass, even though we can't feel any heat coming off it and the machines can lift it easily. But these are only rough readings because as soon as the computers register it, any data on it is then erased as if it's giving off some sort of virus."

"Just like in Cardiff," the Doctor said quietly to himself.

"The first person to touch it started glowing and disintegrated, we had no way of saving him," Yvonne continued sadly, "Rose managed to touch it and she survived, but we don't know how," she stopped, and folded her arms as she looked at the Doctor, "and who are you?" she asked.

"I'm the Doctor," he answered, briefly looking up at her then back at the orb. "Nice to see you again Yvonne." She frowned at him.

"I'm sorry do I know you?" she asked in confusion.

"Nah, doesn't matter, don't mind me," he said suddenly, moving away from the orb.

"So? What do you make of it?" Yvonne asked. The Doctor continued to stare at it for a long moment, lost in thought.

"Well, it shouldn't exist for one," he said finally, taking a deep breath and putting his hands in his pockets. "It should have died along with everyone else," he added sadly.

"Who?" Yvonne asked.

"The Time Lords," the Doctor answered.

"It's Time Lord?!" Rose gasped in disbelief. The Doctor sucked in through his teeth as he walked around the orb.

"It's a sort of communication device, used for sending messages that only Time Lords can read. It's made by physically duplicating parts of the vortex that are wanted. That's what you can see in there, that light. It's read by touching it, the person would get visions of the message. They were used in the Time War to stop the Daleks from reading the messages as they can only be read by someone with Time Lord DNA in them, otherwise whoever tried to read it would die."

"But I touched it and I'm still alive," Rose said, "I saw all these images but I couldn't make out what they were."

"The message would have been garbled because you're not a Time Lord, it would be too much for your brain to take."

"But hang on, I touched it and I'm still alive. Shouldn't I have died?" the Doctor turned around to face her, thinking through the possibilities.

"Looks like you've got Time Lord DNA in you," he said thoughtfully, "I mean I only have to kiss you and you'll have trace amounts of DNA on you. But that shouldn't have been enough, you still should have died…" he looked back at the orb. "That person that died, what happened to them?"

"They started to glow bright gold then disintegrated," Yvonne answered. The Doctor said nothing for a moment, deep in thought.

"Just like Bad Wolf," he said finally.

"What?" Rose asked. He looked up at her.

"When you killed the Daleks, they glowed and disintegrated. You'd absorbed the time vortex, and that's basically what this is," he turned back to the orb. "Maybe…" he leaned in closer, "it could sense that. Maybe somehow it knew and that's why you're still alive…" he trailed off in thought, then stood back up again. "Did you know when you touched it that someone had died?" he asked Rose, who nodded. "Then why the hell did you touch it?!" he demanded.

"I don't know! It just sorta felt… right," she looked at the Doctor desperately trying to get him to understand what she meant. "Like I was meant to touch it."

"Like it was calling to you," he suggested.

"Yeah, just like that!" He nodded and looked back at it.

"I know the feeling," he said, folding his arms. "It's calling to me because I'm a Time Lord. Maybe it had a similar effect on you because you'd absorbed the vortex," he took a small step closer towards it, and lifted his hands.

"Don't touch it!" Yvonne warned, and he looked up at her.

"I'm a Time Lord, I'll be fine," he said with a grin, then looked back at the orb as he placed his hands on it's surface.

Suddenly his mind was filled with images and sounds, people talking, screaming, crying. Desperate voices ran through his head as his vision was blurred with images of an all-too-familiar war.

Bystanders could only stare in awe as the Doctor's body started to light up. But this time it was different, not a bright, violent light, but a dim glow, calm over his body. He didn't scream in pain like the others who had touched it did, he simply stood with his eyes closed, as the gold light inside the orb glowed peacefully with him.

Then suddenly it was over as he pulled his hands off and looked down at it.

"That's not good," he muttered.

"What? What did you see?" Rose asked.

"Nothing recognisable… nothing I could make sense of…" he ran his hand through his hair."I need to get it back to the TARDIS, maybe then I can fix it and see what it's trying to say."

"How are you going to do that if you can't touch it without seeing stuff?" Rose asked.

"Easy, I just need to turn it off." He lifted his hands up and held them an inch from the surface of the orb and closed his eyes. As he did so, the light inside glowed brightly for a moment, before dimming down and disappearing altogether. His eyes snapped open and he grinned. "There we go!" he said happily, "Deactivated it," he picked it up and tossed it between his hands. Rose watched the orb which now looked simply like a hollow glass ball. "Back to the TARDIS," he said cheerfully, heading for the door.

"Hang on!" Yvonne shouted, "You can't just take that!"

"Yes I can," the Doctor replied simply.

"That's property of Torchwood," she argued.

"No it's not it's property of the Time Lords which makes it property of me. And don't give me that 'if it's alien its ours' thing 'cause it really isn't. Bye!" he headed for the door again.

"Stop him!" Yvonne ordered, and the Doctor stopped suddenly as a number of guards ran to the door blocking his exit. Slowly, he stepped back into the room.

"I see," he said, "well if it's going to be like that…" he walked towards Rose and took her hand. "You know Rose I think there's only one thing we can do in this situation."

"And what's that?" she asked, already knowing his answer.

"Run!" in a flash of movement he pointed the sonic screwdriver at the nearby computers, which suddenly exploded in a poof of smoke and sparks, distracting the guards just long enough for the Doctor to pull Rose out of the room.

The two of them bounded down the corridor, hand in hand, as they heard the guards running after them. Seconds after they'd exited the room, an alarm went of accompanied by a female voice saying, 'warning, intruders'.

"This is stupid!" Rose shouted over the noise, "I work here I can reason with them!"

"I think it's a bit beyond that Rose!" the Doctor shouted back as he pulled her down a flight of stairs. They came to a clumsy stop as they saw a group of guards coming up after them, and quickly headed back the other way. They reached the top of the flight and carried on down the corridor, just in front of the guards.

They ran haphazardly through the twisting corridors, skidding around corners and swerving to avoid the stunned bystanders. Around another corner they slid and ran back the other direction as a group of guards appeared in front of them. The Doctor pulled Rose through a door and slammed it shut behind them, quickly pulling out the sonic screwdriver and locking it. He spun around and scanned the room for anything of help. There was no one else there, just piles of alien machines.

"Phone Jack see if he can get any sort of distraction," the Doctor ordered as he began to inspect the machines. Rose pulled her phone out, dialled a number and held it to her ear.

The Doctor sifted through the piles of machines as they heard bangs coming from the door as the guards tried to get in. He angrily threw the machines aside: none of them were any help.

"He's not answering!" Rose said, holding her phone helplessly. The Doctor looked around the room again as the door began to weaken under the guards' blows. He ran towards another pile of machines, desperate for anything that could help. "There's no other way out of this room," Rose said desperately. They could jump out of the window, they were 25 floors up. "Can't we teleport back to the TARDIS or something?" she suggested, but the Doctor shook his head.

"Not while she's broken," he said, still rummaging through the pile. Rose looked nervously towards the door.

"We're trapped," she said quietly.

"Well," the Doctor said thoughtfully as he picked a smallish, melon-shaped device from the pile, "there's always one thing we can do."

xxx

Rose felt her mind fall out and her body scream as she tumbled through the air. It wasn't the first time this had happened and probably won't be the last, but she could never get used to it.

She tried to hold in her screams as the Doctor fiddled with the device in his hands, with one arm wrapped around her waist. They'd jumped out of the window just as the door had burst open, and were plunging helplessly through the air.

"Bloody thing!" the Doctor complained as he whirred the sonic screwdriver at the device in his hands.

"Hurry up!" Rose cried, anxiously watching the rapidly upcoming ground.

"Aha!" he laughed as the device started to beep.

"Hello sir, what can I do for you today?" a mechanical voice said.

"Up!" the Doctor ordered, "Go up!!" There was a grinding of gears from the device as suddenly they drastically slowed down, but were still falling at an alarming speed. "Come on go up up up!!" the Doctor shouted desperately.

"Not… enough… power…" the voice said quietly as it struggled against the weight. The Doctor clung onto it, clutching it against his chest as Rose clung to him. They carried on falling disturbingly fast, and it wasn't long before they could make out groups of guards standing at the bottom waiting for them.

"Oh great," Rose muttered, "if we don't get killed by the fall we get captured by the guards." The Doctor chose to ignore her and concentrated on the device in his hands.

"UP!" he shouted at it, "Up! Go up! Or at least… significantly across…" he tried to scan the ground for a place they could land, but by now they'd gained rather a large audience, and the guards had spread to anywhere in landing distance. He felt Rose hold him tighter as they fell closer and closer to the ground. "That's it… self destruct! Down!" he ordered, throwing the device downwards.

"Self destruct? What the hell do you want that for?!" Rose shouted.

"You'll see," he said confidently, holding her with both arms. He kicked against the side of the building and they went flying sideways as the ground rushed up to them closer and closer.

Next thing they knew was a bright, white light, followed by the sound of an explosion as they were blasted upwards, flying rather dramatically across the streets.

Rose held tightly to the Doctor and didn't dare look out as she felt them falling and awaited fearfully for the ground to hit them.

There was an almighty splash and she suddenly found herself underwater, thrashing around, desperately trying to find some air. She felt herself pulled up by someone and gasped for air as she broke the water. Her eyes snapped open and she saw the Doctor looking back at her, his expression similar to her own: a mixture of fear, relief, exhaustion and sheer excitement.

"You ok?" he asked with a grin, relaxing his tight grip on her slightly.

"Oh, fine, yeah," she replied half sarcastically, and they swam to the edge of the fountain they'd landed in, trying to ignore the surprised looks of the people around them.

As they reached the edge, the Doctor pulled himself out and grabbed Rose's hand, pulling her out after him.

"Right," he said as they dizzily found their feet, "back to the TARDIS."

xxx

The Doctor stood by the consol leaning on it watching the screen as water dripped from his sodden clothes to the floor. His hair was plastered to his face, trails of water running down his neck.

Rose squeezed her dripping hair and shook the water off her hands. The Doctor had said that the TARDIS would be fine if they got water beneath the grating, so she didn't have a problem with trying to dry herself off a bit. She watched the orb, placed on a section of the consol and linked to it via various wires. It was activated again now, the inside once again glowing with the vortex, almost hypnotising.

But she was interrupted as the door opened and Martha entered the room, Aurora in her arms.

"You're back!" she said happily, then her smile faded as she looked between them. "What the hell happened to you? You're soaking wet!"

"Ooh we decided to go for a midday swim," the Doctor said distractedly, "highly refreshing. Bloody thing!" he hit the side of the screen angrily, and ran a hand through his hair, leaving grooves where the water left it stuck up. He then shook his head and sent water droplets flying from his head.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked.

"It's not working. The TARDIS hasn't got enough power!" he kicked the consol and slumped into the chair.

"What's that?" Martha asked, looking at the orb.

"It's a message," the Doctor answered, "from the Time Lords. But I can't make out what it's saying and the TARDIS doesn't have enough power to fix it." He put his elbows on his knees and rested his head in his hands, staring at the screen, deep in thought. He then looked downwards as his fingers ran through his hair.

Martha watched the orb for a few moments, mesmerised by it.

"Where'd you find it?" she asked.

"In Torchwood," Rose answered, "they found it falling from the sky. The Doctor and I kinda stole it," she gave a small, nervous laugh. The Doctor wasn't paying attention, he was busy muttering to himself, staring at the screen.

"So what's the message saying then?" Martha asked. Rose shrugged.

"No idea," she muttered. The Doctor stood up to the consol and fiddled with the controls. There was a series of beeps from the consol and a slight smile appeared on his face. "Aah, now that's more like it!"

"You got it working?" Rose asked excitedly.

"Well, got a bit more power, should be able to make out something," the Doctor answered, walking around the consol pressing various buttons and dials. "Right, let's see what we can see," he said, closing his eyes and resting his hands on the orb. Martha watched through wide eyes as his body began to glow with a gold light, the inside of the orb shining brightly.

Moments later it was over as he pulled his hands off and stared down at the orb.

"What did you see?" Rose asked. He didn't answer for a long moment while he continued to stare at the orb.

"I don't think it's a message," he said quietly, walking over to the screen and pressing buttons on the consol.

"What is it then?" Rose asked as she watched him. He looked up at her, a solemn expression on his face.

"I think it's a cry for help," he said sadly. He quickly looked back at the screen. "But that doesn't make any sense," he thought out loud, "if it's a message from the Time Lords to other Time Lords to come and help… why weren't those Time Lords already in the War? They'd all be on Gallifrey anyway, it can't be that different here."

"Maybe it's a message to species other than Time Lords?" Martha suggested, but the Doctor shook his head.

"It can't be, only Time Lords can understand that, it kills anything that tries to read it that isn't a Time Lord."

"What exactly did you see?" Rose asked.

"From what I could make out, it was pretty much the same as in our universe. The Time Lords were losing the war and were having to take drastic measures. I think that's why they sent this out, to find any other Time Lords that might be able to help… but by that point surely they'd already have all the Time Lords in the war…" he rubbed the back of his neck, staring intently at the screen. "I don't know," he said finally, sitting back in the seat. "If the TARDIS had enough power I could figure it out easily but…" he trailed off, as his expression softened in realization. "Oh but that's it!" he shouted jumping up off of the chair, "Whoever's taking power from the TARDIS doesn't want us stuck here, they just don't want me to read the message!" He grinned a manic grin at his companions, "Which makes me want to read it even more!" he ran back to the consol and attacked the controls, now more determined to figure out what the orb was trying to tell him.

"But if someone doesn't want you to read it," Rose said, "doesn't that mean it's a message for you?"

"Quite possibly," the Doctor said as he worked, "maybe somehow the Time Lords knew I would come and sent me this. Usually I'd say it's impossible but I think I've given up on that word recently. I like improbable – I don't look so stupid that way when what I say can't happen happens," the consol sparked as he ran across it, "it's improbable that the Time Lords could send me a message. Highly highly improbable. But possible." The TARDIS shook again as he pulled a lever. "YES!" he shouted happily, "If I channel the unneeded power into the orb I can figure out exactly what it's trying to tell me. Only thing is it'll then be ages before we can go," he looked back at Rose and Martha, "but I don't think that matters does it?" he said with a grin. He then looked back at the screen. "Should be a couple of hours before this is done." He said.

At that point, Jack came swanning into the room.

"Good morning everyone!" he greeted loudly.

"Good afternoon, Jack," Rose greeted back. He looked at her.

"Has it been raining?" he asked, looking between her and the Doctor.

"Only for us," Rose muttered. Jack was about to ask what happened when he noticed the orb on the TARDIS consol.

"What the hell's that?" he asked, walking up to it.

"Don't touch it," the Doctor advised, still looking at the screen.

"Ok, but what is it?"

"It's a message from the Time Lords, we stole it from Torchwood. Actually," he looked towards Rose, "that means they're probably after us doesn't it?"

"Probably," Rose agreed.

"Right then!" he slapped his hands on the consol as he straightened up. "We need to get Aurora to somewhere safe, if they get hold of her God knows what they'll do."

"Probably the same thing they'll do if they get hold of you," Rose said.

"Exactly, so we need to get her somewhere safe," he walked towards Martha and took his daughter from her arms. "Looks like we need to pay a visit to Jackie," he turned to Jack, who was standing by the consol, "Jack stay here and protect the TARDIS if Torchwood come. Rose, Martha, let's go. Allons-y!"

xxx

The Doctor, Rose and Martha strolled back to the TARDIS. After a rushed explanation to Jackie as to what was going on, they were finally on their way back.

"When we get to the TARDIS, I need to put a blocker on it, stop Torchwood finding it. It wont stop them completely but it'll slow them down," the Doctor said, as they neared the place they'd parked. "Then I think we need some food, I dunno about you but I'm starving." Rose and Martha nodded enthusiastically in agreement. They turned a corner to where the TARDIS had been parked.

It wasn't there.

"Oh no no no no no!" The Doctor cried, running into the centre of the square. Rose and Martha glanced around themselves in surprise.

"What's happened to the TARDIS?" Martha gasped.

"We're too late," the Doctor said quietly, "they've already taken it. Which means…" he looked up at his companions in horror, "They're here waiting for us."

Suddenly groups of guards appeared from behind the buildings and ran towards them. "Run!" The Doctor shouted, following Rose and Martha as they ran out of the square.

Suddenly he felt large hands on his back as he was pulled backwards. They held him by the arms as he struggled against them, kicking and fighting.

Rose spun around and stared for a second in terror as the Doctor struggled against his captors. She tried to run back to help him, but was caught herself. She struggled vainly against their strong grip, screaming and clawing at them.

Martha stood at the edge, unsure of what to do. She couldn't just run and leave them, but she knew she couldn't help them either.

"No! Rose!" the Doctor shouted, watching helplessly. Somehow he managed to find the strength to pull away, ripping himself from their grip. He stumbled forwards towards Rose, and tried desperately to fight off the guards holding her. He grabbed her and pulled her away, as they tried to run. But they weren't quick enough, as the guards were soon on top of them again. "Rose, just run!" he ordered as he tried to push her away, "don't come back just run!" He managed to push her out of their grip and pushed himself into them. "Run!!" the Doctor shouted at her as he was pulled back.

Rose stood, just staring as the guards advanced on her. She knew the Doctor was telling her to run, but she couldn't just leave him…

Suddenly the decision was made for her as she felt someone grab her by the arm and begin to pull her away. She looked round to see Martha running in front of her, dragging her along.

"No! I've gotta help the Doctor!" she shouted, trying to go back, but Martha wasn't going to give up.

"We've got to go! Come on!" she pulled Rose back again and the two of them ran, feat pounding, hearts racing, through the streets of London. Gradually, they heard the shouts of the guards behind them fade as they managed to pull away.

Finally, they came to a stop and stood for a few moments, panting, as they looked behind them, expecting to see the guards come running around the corner. But nothing happened. For a few moments, all they could do was stare as they realised they were… alone.

xxx

The Doctor struggled against the guards, flailing his legs and arms at them in an attempt to escape. He was relieved that Rose and Martha had run, but he just hoped that they managed to escape and didn't get captured.

More guards gathered around him, securing his legs and body until he could scarcely move. He tried to struggle but it was no use, and he could only watch as one man approached him with what looked like a syringe in his hand. The Doctor tried to pull back as the man lifted the syringe to his neck, but couldn't move enough and soon felt the cold metal pierce his skin, squeezing his eyes shut as he felt the unknown liquid enter his blood.

He opened his eyes again as the needle was removed, but could only stare at the men in front of him for a few moments before his vision started to blur and he felt his limbs grow heavy. His eyelids slid closed as he felt a wave of tiredness wash over him and he slipped into unconsciousness.