Bows to readers My most humble apologies for not updating for so long! The production I'm in, RENT, started on February 22, and I haven't had a moment to myself since. The week before was spent doing lat minute jobs and the like, and I've basically been at the theatre every night for about two weeks (I'm a complete devotee to theatre, so I was helping the crew and technical boys as much as I could as well as being in the cast). On a positive note, it's going really well – we got some really good reviews, and every one's happy.

Almost cooler still – I started Uni a few days ago! WOOT!

Oh, and about the characters…they're still in their boxes, in perfect condition. If they were mine, they'd be broken by now from too much play.

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There was a definite pause, before Jack said, "Darkness. Original."

Rose grinned, but the Doctor was stony silent beside her. "Darkness is to space what silence is to sound – the interval. That was said by a nice man by the name of Marshal McLuhan. Canadian sociologist," he added, seeing Rose's enquiring look.

Jack poked his head into the room. "There are some dim lights, and I can make out walls of some kind. He stepped in, becoming a shadowy figure to the Doctor and Rose. There was another moment's silence, before Jack gave some kind of sound, a cross between a shriek and a laugh, and re-appeared in the doorway with a gun.

Rose was instantly reminded of the typical sci-fi gun she had used a few games ago. This one even seemed to be made out of plastic, with fake lights. Jack fired into a wall – a bolt of dim red laser hissing into its target and leaving a singe mark behind. Rose shook her head slowly. "That looks like the ones in the old Star Wars movies. Like, exactly."

"The thing is," said the Doctor, giving her an understanding glance, "You're right. They do…"

"Reminds me of Laser Quest!" Jack grinned. "I was so good at that as a kid."

"Laser Quest?" asked Rose.

"Two teams, you run round in a dark room, shoot the members of the opposing team on these special packs which register how many times it's been shot. At the end, it's the team with the least points who wins, as they've been shot the least amount of times."

The Doctor had been listening closely to Jack's explanation, his mind figuring the game even before he was informed by the computer on his wrist. "Well, what do you know…" he murmured, half to himself, but loud enough to get the attention of the others. "Jack, for once, you're right…"

Round eight. Laser Strike. Eliminate the eight members of the opposing team without being eliminated yourself. Only one may be left standing.

Jack whooped as he read, grabbing his gun. Rose, by now, had made her way into the entrance of the darkened arena and found two more guns, one for herself and one for the Doctor. He walked over the room threshold and took it from her as the door closed and they were plunged into darkness.

It took a moment, but the dim lighting was made more pronounced as their eyes adjusted and they could see walls and obstacles were scattered around. The room was quite large, and apparently deserted. The Doctor edged forward, his gun raised.

"So the guns are real, right?" Rose whispered. "And if we get seen, we get shot, and if we get shot…" she didn't need to finish.

The Doctor nodded. "Concealment with guns. More dangerous."

Rose swallowed, fear knotting in her throat. So they had been right – the snakes and ladders had been merely a device to throw them off, so they would be unprepared for this.

Together they crept around the edge, searching in vain for their 'opponents' – but there was no sign of anyone. The feeling of unease – and that they were being watched – was growing, and it got to the point where Jack was restless with the amount of non-action going on.

"I'm gonna head off in the opposite direction, just in case we're being followed." Seeing Rose's look, he added. "Sweetheart, I'm immortal. I'll be fine." And he grinned cockily as he turned and jogged away into the semi-darkness. Rose bit her lip as she watched him go. Immortality did mean he was, well, immortal, but he still felt the pain and she didn't want anything to happen to him anyway. The Doctor took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"He'll be fine."

The words had hardly left his mouth before there was the sound of laser-fire, and a triumphant whoop from the direction Jack had come from. The Doctor grinned reassuringly at Rose. "See?"

She smiled, her fear for Jack subsiding. Turning a corner, her and the Doctor came face to face with one of the opposition.

It was impossible to tell the gender of the figure. They were dressed in black with a black mask over their face, hiding all identity. The movements, as their gun was raised, were quick and jerky. The Doctor pushed Rose and himself back around the corner as a laser bolt thudded into the wall.

Without a moment's hesitation, and reminding Rose of how changeable he was and how steeled he could be, the Doctor swung his own gun around the wall and fired rapidly, features unreadable as there was a thud – something – a body – falling to the ground.

"Are you alright?"

Rose nodded in answer, and slowly followed the Doctor to where he was kneeling down next to the still figure. His hand paused at the edge of the mask, before curiosity got the better of him and he swept it aside. Beneath was a familiar face, one seen very recently, and Rose brought a hand up to her face as the Doctor dropped the mask back in place, concealing Magpie's face.

"Magpie?" Rose whispered, horror across her face.

"It's not him, it just looks like him. It's not even a memory, like the labyrinth, just an image. I wonder who else might be walking around this place?" The Doctor caught Rose's eye, caught the resilient glint and the horror therein. He stood, placing a hand on her cheek. "Rose, we have to keep going. These are not the people we have met and helped, they only look like them to try and throw us off. We have to keep going, we must complete this game."

She nodded, sadness and steel mixing in her eyes. She walked past the body of 'Magpie' without giving it a second glance, and the Doctor followed her, hoping that she would be all right.

oooooooo

Jack bent and removed the mask of his first opponent. It was a girl, with dark curly hair and clear eyes. There was something old-fashioned about her, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

Dropping the mask and standing, Jack cast his eyes around, seeing a taller structure, which would prove an excellent vantage point for the game. Grinning, he began to jog towards it.

oooooooo

Rose lowered her smoking gun, as the figure, who had crept up on them, sank to the ground silently. She had acted without thinking, protection over the Doctor taking over and making her react instantly. He would have been shot without her. Rose, personally, never knew she could move that quickly or with such ruthlessness – she was worrying about who was under that mask – before she hadn't had time to think.

The Doctor gave her a brief hug in thanks and comfort, before bending down to the prone figure and lifting the edge of that mask towards himself, away from Rose. She watched his brow furrow for a moment, and then he sighed and replaced the mask.

"Who is it?"

"I didn't think you would want to know," the Doctor said to her, as they walked away, deeper into the darkness.

"I do."

He hesitated before answering. "It was Sir Robert."

"What, from Torchwood house?" Her voice was low, barely more than a whisper.

"Yes."

Rose cast a backward glance over her shoulder, towards the still figure with Sir Robert's face. Would she have pulled the trigger had she known who it was?

oooooooooo

There was one guarding figure outside the tower-structure. Jack removed them without much worry, but his mistake was pausing, out of curiosity, too see what the victim looked like.

He almost cried out when he saw the identity of the dead figure, a face he recognised from memory, as he dropped the mask and tried to walks away, pretending he hadn't seen Lynda's eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

Lynda with a Y. Sweet little Lynda, from the Gamestation. She had been his eyes and ears during the Dalek invasion, watching on a screen. She had died. He had heard her scream – they all had.

The shock of recognising his own victim had begun to wear off and he calmed down as he climbed a small spiral staircase to come out on a balcony above the room, which gave him perfect view of at least half of the arena.

Logic was telling him it wasn't her, just something with her face, another trick of the Toymaker's to try and make them fail. It still scared the hell out of him, in that split second where he was sure he had killed her. He shook his head to dislodge the thought.

Casting his eyes around the floor below him, he spotted two figures moving together, and a smile crept over his face. No prizes for guessing who they were.

Someone was tailing them, though. A third shadow, moving swiftly up to them – in a matter of moments both the Doctor and Rose would be in their sights, and all it would take was a squeeze of the trigger. There was another approaching form the other direction. They would be trapped, the odds of escape slim. Unless, of course, someone from above helped them.

Jack rested his gun on the edge of the balcony, aiming towards the figure behind his friends. It took a few shots for the figure to fall – and not without both alerting the Doctor and Rose and having to duck a few retaliation shots from his target.

Beneath him, both the Doctor and Rose pressed themselves against the wall when the firing started, and watched the figure who had been sneaking up on them fight an unseen foe before getting hit not once, but twice and falling.

Exchanging a glance, the Doctor moved towards the figure, but a movement out the corner of her eye halted Rose from following. Had she seen a flicker of a shadow from a corner ahead?

Quietly she snuck forward, peeking around the edge of the corner. There was a figure there, the typical lethal gun in their possession, and mask in place. Steeling herself to do the deed, Rose pulled the trigger, dismissing the nagging thought – who is it?- and fired.

She almost missed, and her first shot wasn't fatal, thanks to the angle she was on. It took two more shots to cause the target to fall, and she lowered the smoking gun, not wanting to know who it might be.

The Doctor was back beside her by now, looking around the corner at her handiwork.

"Who was it?" Rose asked motioning, with her gun, behind them.

"Uh, Jake. From the parallel earth. I think Jack was responsible, from up there…" He pointed to the tower.

Nodding, Rose moved to her victim, feeling as it as her shot, it should be her to see who it was. She only had to lift the edge to recognise the face beneath, and immediately dropped the mask, moving back, tears in her eyes. She couldn't look at the Doctor, not now. Not since she was responsible for the death of Sarah-Jane.

"Who is it, Rose?"

She shook her head in answer, tight lipped. She didn't know if she could say it. It took a moment before she croaked out the answer. "Sarah-Jane."

She brought a hand up to her face, covering her eyes, blocking out the body before her. Then, there was hand pulling her up and away, as she lent into the Doctor and wished she hadn't looked, that her curiosity had stayed hidden. He was silent and strong beside her, before quietly telling her that it only looked like Sarah-Jane, and it wasn't her fault, and she was beautiful and brave and it was the Toymaker's twisted world.

oooooooo

Jack met them at the base of the tower. Lynda's body had gone, and all three were quiet and thoughtful as jack led the way to the white door, which he had seen from his high position.

There were two before the door. Rose couldn't do it anymore – not after 'Sarah-Jane' and so let the boys deal with it. Rose caught glimpses of both victims, and had to forcibly remind her self that these two only looked like Adam Mitchell and Harriet Jones, and neither were really real.

The door was locked. After a quick tally, the three players and accounted for their eight opponents. So why was the door still locked?

It was Rose who remembered the last piece of the message. Only one may be left standing. She reminded the Doctor and Jack of this, who nodded with grim faces. How could they do this? If they died, they lost.

"There's always a way around this." the Doctor said, as they tried to work it out. "I mean, Jack, you're basically okay, right?"

"Yeah, shoot me."

Rose couldn't help but grin at him for that comment. It was harder, though, in the next few minutes when she had to watch him die – again. He offered to shoot himself, an offer which was accepted readily, so with a cheeky wave and flash of a smile, he put a laser hole in his heart.

Rose flinched as his body hit the ground, the skin sickly and pale. She couldn't bring herself to look at it – she thought she might be sick if she did. There was a more pressing problem, though, one which needed dealing with quickly.

"Shoot me," she said quickly, before the Doctor could start talking. "You're more important than me."

He said nothing, but kissed her forehead. "Not true. And I can't, anyway. I literally can't, could never bring myself to. And the Toymaker said we both have to survive this."

"Then how can we do it?"

"I think…" he paused, and Rose could see he was choosing his words carefully. "I think you have to shoot me, so I regenerate. That way you're left standing, but I don't die."

Rose shook her head. "No. You need to keep you lives safe, and I'm not having you change on me again. And I can't do that to you. I love you, remember?"

"It's the only way, Rose." His head was bowed as he said it, and he didn't want to meet her eyes.

Rose refused to believe that, and put her head in her hands, thinking. "What about wounds? Would that count?"

The Doctor looked up at this, realisation in his eyes. "Possibly…or maybe we could get away with unconsciousness…that would…yeah, that would do it…"

He grinned, running a hand through his hair. "Hit me!"

"No." Rose had though it would be obvious that she wouldn't.

He bit his lip, frowning slightly at her. "Well, I can't do it alone."

Rose crossed her arms determined to be resolute. "I'm not hitting you. At all. So you have to do it to me."

He rolled his eyes. "You know what I'm going to say. So, we're at a stalemate. Although…there is a way to make people pass out…risky, but it would work…" he grinned up at her, mind going at hundred miles an hour. "Ever seen a bad kung fu film, where the hero smacks a guy on the neck and he goes down? It is possible, really it is, provided you know how to do it. And it just so happen, that I do."

Rose nodded. "I'll bet you can't do it to yourself, though."

"Uh, no, not really…" he looked put out. Rose grinned – the end was sight.

"So you can do it, I can't, and it can't be done on yourself. I think we have reached an answer."

He opened his mouth to reply to her, but instead closed it and nodded in defeat. She came and stood in front of him, ready to leave him as the only one standing. He put his hands on either side of her face first, though, and kissed her gently, passionately, and then wrapped his arms around her.

"I need you to trust me."

She kissed him softly one last time, saying softly, "I've always trusted you."

She turned, putting her back to him. His hands were warm and gentle on her neck, and she felt his fingers dig in at a certain point, and darkness descended.

The Doctor caught her as she fell, letting her slide gently to the ground, lying her beside the still form of Jack, and bringing to mind the Doctor's worst nightmares. He smiled slightly as he looked her, lying still, looking like an angel, and was remained of the last scene of Romeo and Juliet. Knowing that she couldn't hear, he whispered, "Oh my love, my wife, death that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty…"

Behind him, the lock clicked and the door opened.

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OK, so I don't know if it is actually possible to do the passing out thing, but it is here! Anyway, cheers if you're reading and haven't given up on me, I'll update when I next have time.