As VIP members, they were entitled to a private lift. Rose managed to hold off all her questions until they were safely inside the lift and the doors had slid smoothly closed.

"Van Statten? But we know he left his place, he went missing! Just… disappeared!"

"No one just disappears, Rose," the Doctor reminded her as he pulled the sonic screwdriver out and squinted at the controls on the lift. Or, more accurately, lack of controls. He ran the screwdriver over the grill where, ordinarily, there would be buttons to take whoever was in the lift wherever they pleased. "Automated."

"That's a bit sinister," Rose remarked.

"Why do you say that?" The Doctor put the sonic screwdriver away and looked over at her.

Rose shrugged. "I don't know. I've always thought automated things are a bit sinister. Out of our control." She looked at the grill. "Can't you override it?"

"I hardly want to draw attention to the fact that my screwdriver can do a whole lot more than put flat-packs together," the Doctor pointed out. He shook his head. "Anyway, where would we go?"

Rose shrugged. "Anywhere."

"We need to find out where we are." The Doctor shoved his hands into his pockets. "This all feels so familiar, what is it?" He was getting more and more irritated by his inability to remember what exactly it was that made him certain he'd seen this place before. Too many memories to search through. He was getting old.

Rose tentatively brought up the issue again. "But… Van Statten?"

The Doctor ran a hand over his face. "It must be a different person."

"Well, duh! It's hardly going to be the same man unless he's found himself a timeship…" Rose's eyes widened in horror. "Oh my God, what if he has?"

"No, he wasn't interested in traveling," the Doctor insisted. "He just wanted things to come to him, cold and dead and sterile. He wouldn't cope with reality."

"But still… Van Statten."

The Doctor sighed heavily. "A great-great-great-great etc. grandson? Daughter? Distant relative? You're right. Too much of a coincidence. It just gets better doesn't it?"

Rose squeezed his hand tight. "Were you expecting anything else? It's us."

The Doctor smiled. "Good point. But I still don't get what this place is…"

The lift doors glided open. In front of them was a doorway, with a screen in the front of it. The Doctor walked towards it.

"'Please swipe your ticket here,'" he read. "Wow, they're security conscious here." He swiped his ticket. On the screen flashed up "Welcome Sir Doctor." The Doctor nodded. "I could get used to that title." The door opened.

Rose followed suit and they both ducked through the door quickly, anxious to stay together. They found themselves in another room, with another door at the end of it. The thing they both noticed as they stepped into it was the overpowering whiteness of the entire room.

"Wow, they must have some awesome cleaners," Rose remarked as they stepped into it further. The walls, floor and ceiling were all perfect white, like an advert for paint. It almost hurt her eyes to look around. The only spots of colour in the room came from yet another long queue of people waiting in the room. This time there was no second queue to join with the help of the psychic paper; it was a free for all here. The good, the bad and the rich joined together.

"Curiouser and curiouser," the Doctor remarked as they joined the queue. "I know you humans enjoy queuing but this is getting a bit ridiculous."

"Look." Rose pointed. "People are coming out that door as well as going in." She was right; the door at the far end was more like a revolving turnstile than a real door. As one group of people entered it, another group came out, initially looking annoyed, and then blinking furiously, confusion coming over their faces, before circling the room and joining the queue again at the end. Without failure, every group that had entered in the short time they had been in the room had returned through the door only minutes later. The queue was moving quickly, and within a few minutes, Rose and the Doctor found themselves at the head of the line, where a screen told them to "Please wait".

"Well, this is jolly." The Doctor pulled a face. "You're right, automated things do feel sinister."

"You know, that's twice in the last few minutes you've said I'm right," Rose remarked. "I could get used to it."

The screen suddenly flashed: "Sir Doctor, Dame Rose, you may enter."

"In we go." The Doctor led the way and pushed through the door. "Okay, is this place just a whole load of mirrors?" he demanded as they came out in another white room, just like the one they'd left, except for a table, also white, in the middle of the floor which had three caskets on it. One was made of gold, one of silver and one of lead.

"Is this some sort of reality TV show?" Rose asked, looking around and trying to find a video camera hidden in a corner of the room. "Is Jeremy Beadle going to jump out in a minute? Or, you know, great-great-great grand-nephew Jeremy Beadle?"

"No. I think it's an adventure park." The Doctor slipped his glasses on to read the screen inset into the table. "Listen. 'Welcome to Realm 1, The Realm of Riches. In front of you are three caskets, one of gold, one of silver and one of lead. Choose wisely and progress. Else, face the prospect of déjà vu.'"

Rose looked at the caskets in front of them. "What do we have to do? Choose one?"

"Well, not any one. The right one. Or we have to go back out and try again. I assume."

"A one in three chance. That's not too hard, I mean, after you've got it wrong twice, you won't get it wrong again," Rose said, looking at the caskets again.

The Doctor frowned. "Yeah. Except… well, what's the point in that? It's hardly a big tough task is it, you have to do it again. Big wow."

Rose shrugged. "How hard do you want it?"

The Doctor looked around. "I don't know, I just… I don't get a good feeling about this place, do you?"

Rose looked around too, and she had to admit that the stark white walls and the bright lights were a little intimidating. "I don't know. It's not a very fun place."

"Exactly! And yet people are bring their kids here, it's a family fun-day out!" the Doctor agreed. "Can you imagine if we brought…?" He tailed off, much to Rose's dismay. He looked her in the eye, his brown eyes clearly showing his own regret at not being able to say what had been on the tip of his tongue. "Anyway, like you said, it's not very fun. That's what's getting me about it, it's so…" He struggled for the right word.

"Creepy," Rose supplied it.

"You can say that again." The Doctor looked again at the screen. "It's that word. Déjà vu. Do you know what it means?"

"Sure. You've seen something before."

"It means you feel like you've been somewhere before, somewhere entirely new to you." The Doctor glanced back at the door and walked over to it, placing his hands either side of the door-frame and sniffed at it deeply. "Hello. This is familiar."

Rose started anxiously. "Oh, Doctor, don't-" She slumped as his poked his tongue out and ran it along the wall. "-lick the wall. Seriously, that's a real problem you've got, you should really see someone about it."

The Doctor appeared not to hear her as he thoughtfully tasted his tongue. "That's…No! No, it can't be!" He stepped back from the wall. "No no no no no no! This place is worse than we thought!"

"What is it?"

"Retcon. A memory loss drug, it's been outlawed all over by this time in history, forced onto the black market." The Doctor wiped his tongue on his hand. "And yet they're using it here, make people forget they were ever in this room. That explains why people looked so confused as they stepped outside."

"But you've just licked it," Rose pointed out. "Won't it affect you?"

"Not that small amount. It was condensation. They must be giving it them in gas form." The Doctor shook his head. "People could end up stuck out there forever, just doing this same Realm over and over again."

"For how long?"

The Doctor looked at her. "Forever. Every time they step back out there, they get Retconned again."

Rose gulped. "Then…we better get it right."

At that moment, an impersonal American voice broke into their thoughts. "One minute left to complete this Realm."

Rose looked at the Doctor in alarm. "What? There's a time limit?" She darted to the screen and noticed the count down timer in the corner of the screen. "Doctor, how did you not notice that?"

"I can't be expected to notice everything!" the Doctor said huffily.

"What are we going to do? We can't go back out there!"

The Doctor stepped forward. "Let's think. Okay, pick one, easy, but which one?" He walked round the table, pacing like a caged animal.

"The lead one! We did this at school, in some play. It was the lead one, it's always the one you least expect." She made to lunge towards the lead casket, but the Doctor intercepted her.

"No, that's what they want you to think. Shakespeare's enjoying a revival around about now too, everyone knows that all that glitters isn't gold." He frowned. "But this place doesn't."

"What do you mean?"

"You heard what Courtney said, the golden was just the silver with a few minor extras. They think if they put a gold sticker on something it makes it more valuable." The Doctor hesitated, his hands hovering over the golden casket. "This is the one. I'm certain."

"How certain?" Rose asked, as she saw the timer flick down to ten seconds.

"Well, hopeful," the Doctor corrected himself. "Ready?"

Rose caught at his arm and nodded. "Do it."

The Doctor pulled the lid off of the golden casket. The lights flickered, but nothing else happened.

"Is that… good?" Rose asked in a small voice.

The American voice broke in again. "You chose the golden casket."

"Yes, and?" The Doctor said impatiently.

"That was…."

"Oh God I hate it when they do this!" Rose grimaced.

"…the correct answer. Congratulations. You may advance to Realm 2."

A door they hadn't even noticed on the other side of the table slid open.

"We did it." Rose's jaw dropped. "Oh my God, we did it!"

"No need to sound so surprised, Rose." The Doctor stepped forward calmly towards the door. "I had it under control."

Rose caught up with him. "Yeah? Well next time, try and be a bit more obvious about this under controlness, yeah?"

"Rose, have I ever let you down?" The Doctor turned to her suddenly, as the door closed behind them.

Rose scoured her thoughts. "Well, you did manage to get lost for the first five years of-"

"Yes, alright!" The Doctor interrupted her. "That was a mistake anyway. But apart from that."

Rose shook her head slowly.

"And I'm going to get us out of here." The Doctor took her hand firmly in his. "So. Come on. Realm 2."

"Bit repetitive this place," the Doctor remarked as he scanned his ticket again and the familiar welcome message flashed up. "Even without the Retcon added in."

Rose pushed him through the door, a little annoyed at his still slightly flippant tone after everything they'd seen already. As he'd predicted, the room they found themselves in was as glaringly white as the last one, with an almost identical queue of people and the same revolving door at the end. To her dismay, there was even the same play of emotions on peoples' faces as they came out of the door. More Retcon.

"If this is a theme park, I prefer Thorpe Park," Rose decided. "At least it's a bit more creative. And there's sunlight, my head's killing me with all this artificial light."

As if he'd been lurking by them all along, a vendor with a cart suddenly piped up, "Drink of water, ma'am?"

Rose glanced at the Doctor, who shifted his head slightly, meaning no.

"I'm fine thanks." Rose gave the man a cheerful smile. She looked at the cart, laden with all sorts of food and drink. "Have you got to shift all of that today?"

The man looked at the cart. "Oh, that's not all of it."

Rose's eyebrows flew up. "There's more? Are you giving it away?"

"No." The man looked at her as though she'd gone mad, something Rose was slowly getting used to in this place. "I've got to get on. Sorry ma'am." He pushed the cart on and almost immediately sold a family of two parents and five children a host of sweets, sandwiches, crisps and drinks.

"Must be made of money," Rose remarked. "Did you see the prices he was charging?"

The Doctor nodded. "I wouldn't fancy eating or drinking anything here though." He wiped his tongue on his hand again. "You know, even diluted, this stuff tastes awful."

"How comes people don't notice?"

"You humans. Oblivious to all but the obvious."

"No need to take your annoyance out on us, though," Rose retorted. Abusing other species when he was angry was something he'd never grown out of.

Again the line moved quickly as people answered whatever task lurked behind that door in a matter of moments, only to be flung back out again, with no memory of ever having been in there. Within minutes of arriving in the room, the Doctor and Rose entered the room at the far end. It was in darkness as they stepped in, Rose keeping close behind the Doctor. It wasn't that she was scared of the dark, it was just… well, she didn't entirely trust it. She knew how Tala felt sometimes when she woke up in the dead of night; being able to see what was coming at you was always better than not.

"Do you… do you think there's been a power cut or something?" Rose whispered, burying her nose slightly in his shoulder, breathing in the warm scent of him. Just the smell of him carried her far away from this moment now, so far from home and everything she knew. It reminded her of summer evenings in the park, watching as Tala played on the swings, and Sunday afternoons curled up on her mum's sofa after a particularly large lunch. It brought back memories of winter mornings when she'd slip under the duvet and snuggle closer for just five more minutes sleep. The almost entirely normal life they'd lived for the last two years. She'd loved every second.

The Doctor didn't have a chance to answer before the lights flickered on, in all their white glory.

And Rose screamed at what she saw.

Next time: Decisions, decisions

"You know, I hate it when they say that."

Owen almost jumped out of his skin, his feet slipping off of his desk, as Jack spoke from behind him. He hastily leaped to mute the television feed he'd been watching on his computer.

"I thought you'd gone out," he said sheepishly.

Jack seemed not to notice. "I mean, 'hottest April on record'. They should add 'yet' on the end. Because 2069… that April is a killer."