Golden Death

1 - Breaking

"Rose Tyler?"

The voice was calm, musical. Her name sounded like the ripples on the surface of crystal clear water; the syllables spilling from those lips as if they ran down a slope of satin.

"Rose Tyler? Are you alright?"

Her eyelids drifted open, and she was immediately assaulted by a mass of screaming white and blue, the soothing colours worming into her brain and setting her optic nerves ablaze. A soft moan of pain escaped her lips, and she screwed her eyes shut once more.

"I apologise Rose Tyler. The light is sometimes startling to those newly accepted. You will become used to it."

What? Accepted? Accepted into what?

Her eyes flew open and she focused on the angelic face floating above her; hanging in the air with nothing to support it. A delicate smile graced the being's features. "Welcome Rose Tyler," it greeted.

She blinked. Once, twice. And then…

"Where's the Doctor?"

The face took on a frown, a miniscule hint of disapproval. "Who is the Doctor?"

It was lying. She could just tell. A little tickle in the back of her mind that told her this being knew exactly where the Doctor was.

With a jerk she pushed herself up into a sitting position, her gold-flecked eyes suddenly hard as she stared at the being before her. "Where is the Doctor!"

A sympathetic smile. "He left you. Do you not remember?"

"What?" Her eyes went wide, part shock, part astonishment. "He wouldn't!"

"I am sorry Rose Tyler." Sympathy. Genuine? She didn't think so. "It must be hard to accept."

No. It was lying to her. The tickle became an insistent itch.

"You're lying. The Doctor would never leave me."

The sympathetic smile remained on the angel's face, but its eyes were no longer soft and accepting. "You should have believed. It would have been better for you. Much better." A sigh, more mental than audible. "You will have to be persuaded in other ways."

A frown crossed her forehead.

And then she was screaming.

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"Doctor?"

The room was a dull red; the crimson glow coming from the walls and the ceiling and the floor. It was oddly pleasant on the eyes, and the Doctor sighed, stretching out his arm, reaching for her…

And coming into contact with only empty air.

He sat bolt upright. "Rose!"

There was a ghostly red figure sat crouched before him. "I'm sorry Doctor. We were too late to reach her."

The Doctor's dark eyes darted around the room, searching, scanning, filing away. "Where is Rose?" he bit off fiercely.

There was genuine sorrow on the red being's face. "I'm sorry. She was taken."

"Taken by who?" He was angry now, so angry; every word infused with rage and fear. He needed Rose back. Now.

"Heaven."

The Doctor blinked. That threw him. "Heaven?"

"Yes." The red being cocked its head to one side. "You are in Hell."

"Ah." He looked around, more for appearance than anything else. "I thought it would be more…" He searched for the right word.

The being sighed. "Firey?"

"Yeah."

"I get that a lot."

"Sorry." The Doctor shook himself mentally. "Rose."

The being nodded, melancholy once more. "Yes."

"Who took her? You said Heaven, but…"

"Not Heaven exactly," his companion supplied. "The inhabitants of Heaven." It shook its head. "And they are not all they're cracked up to be."

The Doctor raised his eyebrow subconsciously at the almost-human turn of phrase. "What d'you mean?" he asked. "And what do they want Rose for?"

"Oh, they don't want your friend" it replied. "They want the being that is newly awakened within her body."

"What?" He frowned. "Why?"

"They search for power," the being answered calmly. "Your friend carries possibly one of the strongest entities ever created within her."

"Stop talking about her like that," the Doctor suddenly snapped.

The being jumped slightly. "Like what?"

"Like Rose is just some vessel for this power," he bit off, suddenly illogically angry. "She is far more. Far more. Do you understand me!"

The being nodded mutely.

The Doctor jumped up, incapable of sitting still any longer. His feet carried him in concentric circles around the red being and the bed he'd woken up on. "And anyway," he rambled, "it can't be separated from Rose. She is it; it is her." He paused for a second, a slightly dreamy smile tracing his lips.

"It is true; the power cannot be separated from Rose Tyler," the being acquiesced. Its head was bowed, facing away from the Doctor. "But she can be turned."

The Doctor's head shot up. "What?"

"They can torment her mind until she believes whatever they tell her." The being looked up at the Time Lord. "She may be powerful, but she is still human," it whispered.

yes. human, and vulnerable. A memory. His own mind talking to him.

"Human and vulnerable." The words fell from his lips in a whisper.

"Yes. Vulnerable because of what she feels. They will take advantage of her feelings, her passions."

"Their greatest strength but yet their greatest weakness." His voice was a murmur, barely audible.

"It is what they do; the Angels." The red being stood, facing the stricken Doctor. "They take power, no matter who they must rip apart to do so." It placed its hand on the Time Lord's shoulder in comfort; its red hand a stark contrast to the brown pinstripe.

"How?" The Doctor's voice nearly cracked. What only seemed like yesterday, she drowned. Today her mind was to be torn to pieces.

He had been right. He shouldn't have let this happen; shouldn't have let her love him. They would use her love for him to corrupt her beautiful soul, and he wouldn't be able to catch her as she slipped and fell.

The red being frowned. "How what?"

"How do I save her?" Determination. Blazing determination. Save her.

He might have been foolish to allow her to get this close, but he had, and she had wound her way into his heart. This time he couldn't afford to run away. He couldn't sacrifice her; he wouldn't sacrifice her.

He was the Doctor, and he would save her.

"You cannot." The red being was sorrowful. "It is impossible. I can only offer you a place where you cannot be reached by her screams." Its fingers fell away from the Doctor's shoulder, its face betraying pain of its own. "I am sorry," it whispered.

At those words, something inside him broke with a crash loud enough to stun him into silence. No…

He was the Doctor, and he would save her.

Or at least, that was the plan.

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