Chapter 15

Roda

'Captain Jack Harkness,' the Doctor said, delightedly. 'What are you doing here? How did you get into the time stop?'

'We used energy from the rift,' he replied, helping Roda up. 'Fried all our equipment, but we'd registered abnormal amounts of energy in it and couldn't not do anything. And who are you?'

'Rodageitmososangsulves,' she gasped, still clutching her side.

'Roda, my little sister,' the Doctor told a bemused Captain.

'I thought all your family died in the Great Time War…' Jack tailed off. 'That's great, Doctor!'

'Isn't it?' the Doctor smiled. Seeing Captain Jack helped him forget all the death and disaster he'd just been running from. Then he heard the great hall doors blow.

'Right, the Daleks are coming now! We need to get to the TARDIS!' The Doctor started running, followed closely by Roda, Captain Jack and two others that the Doctor recognized from Torchwood.

'Daleks? Here? I thought they'd all died?' Jack said.

'Well, these came straight from the great war, through time and space,' the Doctor explained. Jack groaned.

'I hate those things. They were the first ones to kill me, you know.' Roda was slightly confused by this remark.

'The first to kill you?' she queried, 'You mean you've been killed since then? You look very human to me.'

'I can never die,' said Jack, succinctly. Roda opened her mouth to question him further, but the Doctor decided that they needed more energy to run than to speak.

'Jack, tell her after this whole ordeal. We need to get to the TARDIS now, and we can't let the Daleks get there first. It'll give you an incentive to stay alive, Roda.'

'Great, thanks,' she muttered, but she focused her energy into keeping up with the longer-legged men. The two torchwood members were following close behind, and Jack laughed out loud.

'I've missed this, Doctor,' he grinned. But there was no time to reply for the Doctor as they were now at the TARDIS.

'Everyone in!' he ordered, holding open the doors and standing back as they all ran in one by one. Finally he stepped in behind them and closed the door.

'Ok, we've got some time before the Daleks discover how to get in here. What I thought we could do is…'

'Try and focus the time stop on the Daleks? Nope, won't work,' said Captain Jack. The Doctor looked up at him, desperation clear in his features.

'The time stop wouldn't be able to kill them, but it could hold them in limbo for a while…'

'Come on Doctor, you're grasping at straws. You know there won't be enough energy to hold that time stop in such a small area for such a long time! The best we'd get would be about three seconds! And then what?'

'I don't have any other option, Jack,' the Doctor said, his eyes pleading now. 'We have to make this work.'

'All we need is more energy,' Roda said thoughtfully, 'and then we can hold the time stop. If you,' she indicated Jack, 'go in with the Daleks in the time stop and blow them up, we don't need longer than five minutes.'

'But we only have a very short time span, and limited energy from the TARDIS,' said Captain Jack, 'And the energy from the Daleks is most likely encrypted, so we won't be able to get to it.'

'We could, if we had more time,' mused Gwen, who was part of the Torchwood team.

'I can give you a few minutes,' Roda said, firmly. 'The Daleks were going to use me as a power source; why can't we?'

'Because it will kill your consciousness,' the Doctor argued, 'and then you'll just be a body of Time Lord energy! We won't be able to get you back. You'd die, the same as if we shot you and you couldn't regenerate.'

'Not if we only take a little,' Roda argued, but Ianto, another member of the Torchwood team, chipped in.

'I'm sorry for interrupting, but is there any way that you could take the energy out naturally, so it wouldn't drain you if we use it?' Jack looked puzzled, but Roda and the Doctor both broke into grins.

'Well done, Ianto,' said the Doctor. 'What a brilliant idea! It's almost something I could have come up with!'

'Modesty didn't come as part of the package deal with you, did it?" Roda said to the Doctor. 'By the way, I love your accents. It's Welsh, yes?' Both Gwen and Ianto nodded, speechless.

'Well then,' said the Doctor, stretching his hands out and clicking his joints, 'let's get cracking! Ha! A chemistry joke! And people say scientists are boring!'

'Ha, ha,' said Roda sarcastically, but she smiled at the Doctor. She couldn't escape the sadness of watching Luke being buried by rocks, but she tried to focus on the job at hand; it help dull the aching sense of loss in her chest. Everything was happening so fast she hadn't had time to stop and think about what had actually happened, but she knew that if she faltered, she would break down. And we really don't need that now, she thought.

Something was nagging at the back of her mind, though. The Doctor seemed set on this particular plan, not even thinking of a back-up, even when it was doubtful that it would even work. There must be an answer he didn't want to solve the problem with, something that would cause someone pain, maybe even him. Roda knew that the Doctor wasn't a self-centered person, but she also knew that he had lost many of his companions recently, and he would try anything not to lose her, his one remaining family. It must be something really obvious, she thought. But however hard she thought, an answer didn't come.

Focus, she thought, and she managed to keep her mind on what she was trying to do for the better half of a minute, before a robotic voice came from outside the TARDIS.

'The Doc-tor, the Ro-da, we or-der you to come out or we will shoot the hu-man male.' Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and looked towards the double doors.

'The human male?' Roda whispered, hope rushing through her head. 'Is it possible…?' Before anyone could stop her, she began to run outside.

'RODA!' the Doctor called, lunging to catch her, and missing. He then ran after her and almost crashed into her back as she stopped dead just after flinging the TARDIS doors open. The sight before had made her heart jump into her throat.

'Luke…' she choked out, for there, in front of a Dalek's gun, stood the very person she believed dead. The Doctor sighed.

'They caught you, then?' he said, and Luke looked annoyed.

'Yes,' he hissed, kicking the floor with one toe. But then he brightened. 'The others got out ok, though. Hermione saw to it.'

Roda was still staring at him, unable to move or make a sound.

'You're… not… dead,' she managed to get out. Luke looked confused.

'The Doctor knew I wasn't dead. He was the one who told me to stay behind to help the students to escape and to get an energy source from the Room of Requirement. Unfortunately,' he said, glaring at the Daleks, 'they caught me before I could get there.'

'Stop comm-un-i-ca-ting,' screeched one Dalek, waving its plunger in the air.

'Give us the fe-male Time-Lord in re-turn for the hu-man boy,' said the DALEK that held Luke at gun(whisk)point. Roda stepped forwards, despite Luke's vigorous head-shaking at the Doctor behind her holding her shoulder. She had had a blinding flash of an idea, and she knew the only plan that would work.

'Ok. I surrender, but hand him over first,' she said, pointing at Luke.

'Roda, they'll…' Luke protested, but he was silenced by the Dalek.

'How do we know that you will keep your pro-mise?' A Dalek said.

'I swear on my honour as a Lord of Time,' Roda replied, one hand over each heart, in a cross across her chest.

'Ver-y well,' said a Dalek. 'The hu-man male is free to go.' Luke ran forwards, and Roda hugged him tightly.

'I know what I'm doing,' she whispered in his ear, and then she said two words that told him exactly what she planned. 'Paradox machine.' Then she released him and walked towards the Daleks.

'There you go; I'm yours.' She said. A Dalek moved in front of her.

'Kneel,' it commanded. Roda did so, glancing at Luke with an encouraging smile. Then the Dalek connected the black sucker-like arm with her head, and Roda felt her vortex energy being drained out of her. It was dying very slowly, piece by piece. She may have been screaming, but she couldn't tell anything beyond the unbearable pain, before it finally, blessedly, stopped, and her brain shut down.

AN: You know the drill by now… read and review! The end is in sight, people!

Meg