Hello! Back again. This chapter actually took me AGES to write. I've been writing it on my breaks at work, and in my notebook, I've almost finished the next chapter. I was kind of procrastinating in writing this chapter, but once I got over a specific spot, I was off and away. Just goes to show that Mr Martin has some good tips after all.

Also, there's a little thing I've done in this chapter that I hope you catch. Just to help out I'm going to give you one hint.

Word play.

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Breaking Through Hell

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"Rose? Rose? Hey, Rose, look at me. Come on, open your eyes." The voice tugged at her, pulling her up out of the darkness. She knew that voice oh so well. And it brought her back to the light.

Ow! The light. God, it hurt. She winced as her eyes opened the tiniest bit, and the light seared at her eyes. A groan escaped her lips and soon a water bottle was pressed to them. She drunk greedily.

"Good girl, that's it. Come on."

"Is it over yet?" she croaked. "Are we back."

"Not quiet yet, hun." She let out a groan that sounded more like sob. She opened her eyes a little more and watched as the Doctor's figure swam before her.

"But... this was supposed to be the last one... We were supposed to..."

"I know. I know." She felt his hands run through her hair soothingly. We must have missed something. Not something we've forgotten to do, just something we still... Oh! The centre one! The centre point. Hit that one and the whole thing shatters."

"So, there's still one more to go?"

By now everything was coming back into focus and she could sit up. Her head span for a moment before it calmed down.

"Yes, but on the bright side, you seem to be recovering faster than usual. We should be able to do this later today."

"I want to do it now," she told him.

"Now?" He looked at her in surprise. Rose nodded firmly, then held a hand to her head as it caused the world to spin again.

"I want to get this over with. I want to go home. To the TARDIS."

"Alright, then," he agreed. He stood and then helped her up, leading her towards the car. She noticed that he was looking around warily. "We should probably get out of here, anyway."

"Is it the Verastis?"

"I don't know, but it's a possibility. Pete is certain they are tracking us somehow."

"Are they still arguing?"

In between looking after her, the Doctor had been negotiating with the Verastis and attempting to placate them. He never told her anything that was happening with them, not wanting to stress her out further.

"Yep," he replied. "Still claiming we're hiding it from them. I'm managing to calm them down, but they won't talk to anyone else. They think everyone is clueless."

Rose snorted. "Most of them are."

"True." He gave her a small cheeky grin before putting the bag back in the boot. "What are they going to do without me."

?...DW...?

Rose watched as the scenery flew by, changing from cityscape, to fields and trees. But she barely paid attention. She was focusing on her mind. She could feel her energy coming back to her, not much, but more than it had before. It had been happening the last day or so, but she'd barely noticed it.

One thing she had noticed – though she was yet to tell the Doctor – was that she was starting to remember things. Things from when she went all Vortex-y. Once again, it had only been for the last day or so. Only really small snippets. And most of it was just a haze of gold. This time she could remember a little more. She could remember seeing golden energy shooting up to the sky from her hands. She could remember the Doctor's worried face as he went to her, ready to catch her when she stopped.

It was just a little bit... but it was good, right? The Doctor had said that she would be able to remember things when her brain adjusted to being able to hold the Vortex. She knew that she was getting worse, but right now she felt better than she had in days.

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It was just over half an hour later that they pulled into the car-park of the nature trail. Getting out of the car, she looked about. There was still scene tape around some of the trees, flapping pathetically in the wind where they had been broken off. It had only been a week since she was here last. Looking about, it seemed like nothing had changed. But everything had.

Once again, her life had been completely flipped about.

She jumped slightly as the boot slammed shut and she turned to see the Doctor hoisting her bag onto his shoulder. It was the bag she was taking with her. He had managed to make it trans-dimensional, so that it could carry a lot, as well as be light enough for her to carry. Inside were some of her things that she could not bare to part with, some items that the Doctor thought he might be able to use to attempt to make cross-dimension calls, some clothes, his sonic-screwdriver, she even had a decent collection of things that she thought the Time Lord Doctor would adore; things that were only in Pete's World. But most importantly, it had a file full of things. It had some pictures of her and her family, the test results from when she had passed out, and a few letters. One was addressed from the Doctor to the Doctor, explaining what had been going on. Rose had argued, saying it was pointless. Her Doctor had more or less forced her to take it, saying that things may not work out the way she had planned. But they would. She knew they would.

She wouldn't feel this confident about it if it didn't... would she?

Seeing her looking around in apprehension, the Doctor gabbed her hand and rubbed circles on it with his thumb. "Come on," he said gently.

They walked along the path till they came to the spot. Once again, it seemed like nothing had really changed. The grass was still blown out from where she'd stood. And specks of gold could still be seen here and there. Most of it must have been blown away, because it wasn't half coating the ground like someone had had a massive glitter party anymore.

"I hope they closed the area down for the whole week, because this looks a little hard to explain."

"It is hard to explain. And they did, but I'm guessing some people didn't listen going by the ripped tape and the pictures that have been popping up on the net." He pulled the bag off his shoulder and handed it to her. His head was down as she hoisted the straps over each shoulder, but then he raised his head to her, a serious look on his face. "Rose, are you sure that you're okay to do this so soon?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I feel okay enough. I mean, I'm getting better with this... Vortex stuff. But the longer I stay here, the worse I get, yeah? So lets do this. Save me, save the other Doctor. I have to do it now."

The Doctor nodded. "Alright." He leant in and pulled her to him, enveloping her in his arms and kissed the top of her head. He stood there, holding her. That feeling was back. Rose was so sure that he would be going with her. But he didn't think that was possible.

"So this is where it is!" The gruff voice that had spoken surprised them, and they jumped apart.

Surrounding them were about ten aliens. They all stood at about seven foot, and were mostly humanoid. Their skin was an odd colour, it was mottled in a strange sort of dusky peach and rose. Parts of their skin were scaled and instead of hair, they had light teal feathers. Their eyes were larger than a humans, and the amber irises even bigger, slits for pupils. Some of the bone structure on their face jutted out at odd angles. They had a long smooth tail, and through the gear they were wearing, she could see that they had only four taloned fingers on each hand.

And every one of those hands was holding some sort of weapon at them at them. The weapon was shaped like a crossbow, only a foot long. They were black, so it was easy to see that what it fired was not an arrow. Where the arrow should have been nocked, was instead a glowing redish orange bar. It looked like a stick of molten lead. Instinctively, the Doctor tried to step in front of Rose to protect her. A futile attempt, seeing as they were surrounded. But he recognised the one in front of them as Tarander. The Verastis had come.

"What are you doing here?" Rose asked boldly. Her ability to understand other languages had never gone away. "You haven't been granted planet access."

"We were tired of waiting," Tarander said. "We have been monitoring and tracking the energy for the last few days. We believed the humans were incompetent. Now we see that you just wanted to keep the source for yourself!"

"No, no, we're not. You see-"

"Where have you hidden it?" he cut the Doctor off. "Give it to us now, or the female dies."

"I can't," the Doctor said. "It isn't hidden, and it's not for you to take." When he said this, one or two of the aliens took out a small device and waved it about. "We can't just hand it over. It's not a thing, it's a person."

"It's the female," one of the others said. "The energy is coming from her."

"Then we will take her," Tarander growled.

"No! You can't!" he cried, standing in front of her even more, his arms held out as some of the guns were held higher. "She's sick. Any other time I would happily escort her to your planet to help. But it takes a toll on her. And her body is unable to hold it all. We need to get her to a place that will stabilize her now, or she'll die."

"And if we do not take her, our planet will die. Now step aside, Doctor."

"No."

"Resistance is futile. We have you surrounded and outnumbered. Give her to us. Now!"

"Never! You want to take her back to Hedidronis, but with those ships of yours it would take three weeks. Rose won't last one. It's killing her. She has to leave now. Because I will not let the woman I love die."

"If she only has that long left, then we will have to move fast," he said. "Take her."

"Stop!" the Doctor cried as two of the aliens advanced. "Don't you touch her!" They pushed past him, smacking him to the ground and grabbed Rose roughly by the arms.

"Get off me!" she growled as she struggled to escape their grasp, but she was still too physically weak to do anything other than jostle them.

Snarling, the Doctor stood and ran at them. He grabbed the one on her right and twisted so he was thrown off, stumbling to the ground. He made for the other one, but by now more of the Verastis were closing in around them.

Bang!

A shot rung out and Rose screamed in shock at the noise. She hadn't been expecting guns. They had bows, right? But under he sounds of her scream, she had heard the Doctor grunt. He was looking at her now, his eyes wide and full of fear. Slowly he looked down, moving a hand to touch the hole burnt through his side. Blood was on his fingers and was slowly seeping out into his shirt.

She saw movement behind her and looked up to see Tarander nocking the bow again. And he instantly shot.

"No!" she cried.

Bang!

It was too late. The burning bolt had shot forth with a bang, disappearing as it burnt a hole right through the Doctor's chest, right here his second heart used to be. He cried out in pain, falling to his knees. "Stop! No, please stop!" she screamed. "Doctor!"

Still, Tarander aimed a third time and shot.

Bang!

The Doctor was almost curled in a ball and she didn't see where he had been shot, but she could see him shaking, see him struggling for breath and coughing. She was struggling and screaming and crying, yet her guard held tight. The vial alien nocked a fourth bolt and slowly walked over, his heavy footsteps crushing the grass with final sounding thuds. He lifted the weapon and pressed it at the base of the Doctor's scull.

Bang!

She cried out, her eyes closed tight. Fresh tears leaking from her eyes. She couldn't open them. She couldn't look. She could stand to see...

There was an outraged cry from behind her and she was thrown down to the ground. Her eyes snapped open in surprise at the impact. A grunt was torn from her and she gasped as she tried to fight back for the air that had been knocked from her lungs.

All around her was a blur of chaos. In her peripheral vision she could see figures moving about around them, running around... fighting. She could hear the voices of both Verastis and humans alike. She could have sworn that that was Jack shouting out orders. But all she cared about was what lay right before her.

The Doctor lay on the grass, his eyes half shut, but he was looking at her. His breath was coming in short ragged pants, punctuated by coughs that left specks of blood on his lips.

"Doctor!" she cried, scrambling up. She went over to him, gently rolling him onto his back and supporting his head with her hands. He tried to look about at bit, but stopped, squeezing his eyes closed tight. "No, no, no, no, no. This- this isn't right. We have to fix you, we have..."

"Rose," he whispered, trying to quieten her.

"But – but... No. you can't go. You can't leave me. Please, Doctor! I need you! I – I can't do this without you. I can't – I can't – I can't – I can't-"

She couldn't breathe.

As deep a breath as she took, it seemed like the air wasn't reaching her lungs. The world was spinning around her as panic and fear took her over. A strange sensation crawled over her skin, her vision going gold at the edges. Something rose up within her and she let out a scream of anguish.

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She blinked at the silence.

Air was filling her lungs with every deep breath. That was the only sound she could hear. There was no shouting and yelling, no sounds of fighting and gunfire, no screaming. Not even the background noise of the trees and birdsong. There was nothing.

Around her, instead of grass, a lake, forests, and raging aliens and people... she was surrounded by buildings. She was on a small street, houses all around the lane. The concrete was hard on her knees and palms. Her bag was by her side. People lay on the ground, unconscious... their faces all the same.

She'd seen that face before. It was the man from her dreams. The man with the drums in his head. The Master.

"R-Rose?" She sat up and looked to see the source of the voice. A woman she new well was staring at her in concern and bewilderment.

"Donna?"

Donna? She was with Donna? ...She was back in her own world. She had done it? She had brought them back?

But the Doctor had... She looked around frantically as if expecting him to be one of the bodies on the ground. He wasn't there. He was still back in the other universe... and... and maybe he was okay. Maybe Jack had managed to get to him on time and patch him up. The one on his side would be fine if they got to him before he lost too much blood. Maybe the shot through his chest hadn't been so bad. He didn't have two hearts anymore, so it missed that. It wouldn't have hit his heart now, it just went through his chest where... his lung was. She remembered the bright red flecks that had splattered across his lips, his gurgling breaths.

Oh god, there was no way he could have survived that. He was human, he couldn't regenerate, he... he was gone.

Heat washed over her skin while she froze from the inside. She felt dizzy and it seemed like the world was spinning around her. She wanted to puke. She could feel her breath coming hard, struggling to make it. She was suffocating again. A chocked sob rose in her throat and she fell back down to her hands and knees, tears spilling down her cheeks. She was weak and trembling, and now she felt as if her heart were about to shatter into thousands of fragments of ice.

Cries wrenched their way from her lips, and she felt warm arms entwine around her.

"He – he's gone," she sobbed. "They – they killed him. They shot him!"

"Shh, shh," Donna whispered, rubbing a hand up and down her back. She didn't say anything for a long time. She didn't dare tell her that it would be alright. But eventually she spoke. "I'm so sorry. Oh, Rose..."

She didn't need to ask. She knew who Rose was talking about. She was feeling a pain that couldn't be healed by anyone, not by a friend or a doctor... Or, actually... maybe just by one.

Maybe a Doctor.

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Okay, yeah, cheesey ending. But writing is hard and I'm bad at endings.

A lot of feels in this one, I know I was a little mean. On the bright side, we got Donna back!

Did you catch the play on words? I was quite happy with that little idea.

Hope you liked it!