A/N: Been a bit busy lately, also doesn't help that I have seven thousand stories on the go O.O Two chapters maximum left.

Chapter 5 – A Turn For The Worse

Rose couldn't believe this was happening. Something in death had warped his brain, right? He was under the influence of the Devil or whatever. But this wasn't the Doctor. It couldn't be, right?

But here he was, standing in front of her holding the gun he'd almost shot her with, and already had Jack. His expression was one of determination, though not psychotic. Was he in there? Somewhere?

"Give it to me," he demanded again, jerking the gun in their direction. "NOW!"

Gwen stepped forward, pretty used to staring down a gun by now. "The TARDIS isn't here," she said in her vibrant Welsh accent. "Jack told you that."

"You're all lying!" he yelled, and Gwen could see by the fury in his eyes he was perfectly willing for them to eat lead. "Tell me!"

"Please, Doctor…" Rose suddenly started softly. "Think about this…"

"I won't warn you again!"

"Rose step back," Gwen ordered, possibly appearing a tad braver than she felt.

"No," Rose replied shortly, taking a bold step forward.

"I warned you!" he yelled, raising the gun. Suddenly it went flying as a hand came up from the floor, grabbing the Doctor's wrist and yanking it around. To everyone's complete astonishment Jack was alive, pinning the Doctor's wrist behind his back and hooking an arm around his neck, immobilising him.

"Don't fight!" Jack yelled, dragging the Doctor with him roughly towards the direction of the cells. The Doctor struggled against his grip, almost pulling away a few times.

"Jack don't hurt him!" Rose cried, reaching out a hand to the Doctor in desperation. "Please!" Jack didn't reply as he disappeared into the cells. Rose pushed past Owen and followed Jack and the Doctor, arriving just in time to see the Doctor scream in rage as they passed the cell with the TARDIS locked inside. Jack almost wrenched the Time Lord's arms out of his sockets as he maintained his grip, reaching the end cell and throwing the Doctor inside.

Rose heard a loud thud followed by the sounding of a collapsing body, knowing that the Doctor had just hit the wall, hard. She ran down the corridor and peered into the cell as Jack locked the door, seeing the Doctor get up off of the floor and run towards the clear wall, screaming appalling curses in English at the ex-Time Agent.

"Calm down, Doctor!" she screamed, her voice easily heightened over the chaos in the cell, but the Doctor wasn't willing to compromise. Jack gripped Rose's arm firmly, as if scared she'd try to release the Doctor.

"Let's go, Rose," he said firmly, pulling her away gently. She could hardly take her eyes off of the Doctor, who by now had pulled away from the glass and had sank dejectedly to the floor. Her heart was aching, but she let herself be pulled away.

"What're we gonna do?" Rose was asking Jack again and again, staring at the Doctor still curled up on the floor in the foetal position, rocking back and forth on the cold cell floor.

"I don't know," Jack sighed, glancing at the monitor Rose was staring at. "It's like he's a completely different person."

"We can't just abandon him," Rose said instantly, "we have to find a cure."

"We don't even know what's wrong though," Jack countered, "and until we find somethin' we can't find a cure."

"I know, I know…" she muttered, still watching the monitor. The Doctor's shoulders were shaking now. Was he…? "But he'd never abandon us Jack, we can't abandon him."

Jack looked over at the monitor, seeing what Rose was seeing. "Well whatever's happened, it's driven him mad."

"Which is why we can't give up." Rose reached out to the screen as the Doctor lifted his head, and she could see tears falling down his cheeks. She began to get anxious. "I want to see him."

"You can't, Rose," Jack said firmly, "he's dangerous."

She sighed. "I don't care Jack, look at him." Jack did so, watching the Time Lord he had previously thought to be the greatest man and friend in the Universe break down in tears. All he was missing was a strait jacket. "I just wanna speak to him. Just for a moment. I'll find out what's goin' on inside his head, I'll try and fix it."

Jack knew arguing with Rose over the Doctor was going to get him nowhere.

He took Rose down to the cells, bringing up a chair from the side and placing it infront of the shield separating her from the Doctor. She sat down, placing a hand on the screen.

"Doctor?" she asked in a whisper and he looked up, tears coursing down his cheeks. Rose gave him a smile.

"Hey," she said simply. He looked back up again, but Rose could only feel sympathy as he didn't even reply. She wanted nothing more than to take him into her arms and hold him tight.

"Rose," he whispered, voice weak. "Rose…help me…"

She instantly leant forward. "What's wrong?"

"Screaming…all the screaming, Rose. The cold. The blackness. It's hungry. It's…evil, Rose, deceptive…blinded…I can't fight it Rose, it's so strong…" He hugged himself, glancing up around him as though he could see dark shapes all around him. "So cold…" he whispered through shattering teeth, staring at the floor once more. "So cold…so lonely…so much pain…"

"Let me in there," Rose stated more than asked to Jack, arms folded resolutely.

"Rose…" he started, ready to reel off one hundred and one reasons why she couldn't possibly go in there but she had a reason to defeat them all.

"Please. I love him."

He sighed, unlocking the door for Rose to enter. "Five minutes."

Rose didn't bother looking up at him, simply dropped to the Doctor and pulled him close, cradling his head. She could feel him shaking.

"Jack, go get some blankets, he's freezin'."

He paused for a moment, and then nodded. "Alright. I'll be back in twenty seconds."

"Okay," Rose replied, holding the Doctor tighter as Jack jogged out the far door.

"Thank you," the Doctor whispered as Rose pulled him to him feet, taking him over to the bed. "I'm so sorry, Rose…I really am…"

"I know," she spoke softly to him, brushing back his hair.

"I couldn't stop it. It was taking control of me but I couldn't do anything…like it was control me."

"I know," she repeated, pulling back a little to wipe the tears from his cold cheeks. He smiled, and she gave one back.

"I couldn't bear it if you couldn't trust me," he was getting stronger with each sentence, but Rose found her eyes starting to water. "You do trust me, don't you? I'm just a little out of my head right now, you know that." He tentively reaching forward towards her face and cupping her chin. "I would never hurt you."

A tear slipped silently down Rose's cheek as she nodded, sniffing and only just about managing to look him in the eye. He gave her a gentle smile, and that was when Rose realised something was wrong. There was a smile, yes, but that wasn't his smile. His smile gave a twinkle in his eye, a twinkle he saved only for her. There was no twinkle this time…and all Rose saw was a fake smile, hiding a fake man.

This wasn't the Doctor.

"No!" Rose tried to scream but his hand was already clamped over her mouth, muting her painfully and his other hand pushed her forcefully backwards, pinning her to the wall. More tears fell down her cheeks, terror cascading right through her. She screamed against his grip, trying to pull away…but he was too strong.

"Rosie, Rosie, Rosie," he said, panning her body up and down for a moment, taking in her enticing scent of honey and rose petals. "Why are you struggling?I'm the Doctor, I'm the man you love…"

He was speaking with the voice of a man who knew better. Rose screamed again, thrusting up a knee to catch him between the legs, but he was cleverer than that. He sidestepped, laughing heartily at her pathetic efforts to escape.

"You humans are so ignorant, so thick and easy to manipulate. I just slid right in and took his place under all your noses and you didn't even notice!"

She struggled once more, managing to dislodge his hand slightly from her mouth. "JACK! HELP ME! JACK!!! JAC-" His hand reassumed its position once more.

"No point calling out for your boy toy now Rosie, by the time he gets here it'll be too late." He wrenched her off of the wall and threw her onto the cot in the cell, jumping down onto her and pinning her down once more. She was screaming and thrashing around, trying to get free but to no avail. "Why are you screaming, Rosie? Isn't this what you've always wanted? Hell, the Doctor would be thanking me for finally doing this for him!" He yanked her hands above her head and held them easily down with one hand whilst the other lingered near the hem of her trousers.

"Let me GO! JACK!!! JACK!!!"

"Kiss me Rose, isn't this soromantic?!"

"HELP ME!"

But Jack was too far away.

"Jack!"

Jack paused in his gathering of blankets, hearing Tosh's voice. She'd been checking the security footage…had she found something? He ran to Tosh at a crowd of computers, who was on her feet transfixed to the screen.

"What you got?"

"Camera footage," Tosh replied instantly in delight as Owen and Gwen ran up behind the two. "I checked the London security database, categorised Bucknall House, checked the archives and there's a recording at 9:31pm. It's a bit fuzzy and corrupted but…" Tosh tapped a button on the keyboard, and an image of the area outside Jackie's flat came into focus. The Doctor was strolling out of the flat, hands in pockets and fresh from his argument with Rose. He turned left to get to the stairs, staring at the ground as if absorbed in his own thoughts. Suddenly a black-cloaked figure appeared in the camera's vision, Jack taking in a breath as it walked straight into the Doctor.

But it didn't shoot. Not yet.

The Doctor's head indicated an apology and he walked on, the black-clad figure suddenly stopping dead in its tracks and swinging around with a gun raised in its palm, its hood flying off momentarily before the camera suddenly fizzed, and went dead.

"Bingo," Jack murmured. "Backtrack a few frames, get a match."

Tosh did so; pausing on the frame the assailant's head was most in focus. She tapped another button and a small square was set on the man's face, enlarging it. They all waited with baited breath as the computer started its search, and to them all it felt like an age before a match was found.

It brought up the profile, and everyone leant forward.

"Name, Ethan Miller…" Jack informed the gathered crowd, "age 34…Londoner…" he suddenly trailed off, staring at the screen in shock. "Uh oh. We have a problem."

Gwen had spotted it too. "He couldn't have murdered the Doctor. He died…two weeks ago."

Everyone suddenly went very cold.

Tosh was already tapping at the keyboard once more. "I'll double check. There must be a fault somewhere…" But although they all wanted to believe it, they knew it wasn't going to be possible.

The same thing that had possessed the man who had assassinated the Doctor now possessed the Time Lord.

That man down in the cells wasn't the Doctor.

And Rose was alone with him.

Jack began to run.