"That's not fair!" Rose protested. "How can they design new bodies? You can't tell me they're doing the whole, kid imagination game again?"
"Psycho graft," the Doctor replied. "You remember what happened on New Earth with Cassandra."
"Don't remind me," Rose said blushing. That was an embarrassing escapade.
"Well the Cynrog used that to take over the bodies of these dragon type creatures from the planet Komodo," the Doctor continued. "And they've crushed whatever was in the creature's mind before, effectively making it the Cynrog's body."
"So, what do we do? Fight fire with fire?" Rose asked dubiously. The Doctor wandered round the console and picked up the little metal blob that had created the force field around the cloud.
"Almost, we're going to fight fire with water," he said grinning. "Fancy taking out Joshua and Jacob?"
"They're out there? Let me at them!" Rose said diving for the door, but the Doctor caught her arm.
"Let me go first," he said gently. She nodded and he stepped out the TARDIS, Rose following after a few seconds.
The room they'd landed in was like a castle hall. A large throne stood a few feet away with a very large lizard like dragon in it. At either side stood Joshua and Jacob who shrank back when they saw the Doctor and Rose return again. There were signs of burns on their faces where their boss had obviously been extremely mad with them.
The dragon growled and opened her mouth to blast them with fire again but the Doctor held up the black cloud causing the dragon to swallow down the fire again, which must have been extremely painful.
"I would not try to kill us again," the Doctor said quickly. "Unless you want Lord Balor destroyed."
"You wouldn't dare Time Lord!" The dragon hissed.
"Oh wouldn't I?" The Doctor took a step over to a window and glanced out. "It's a long way down-" he looked at the dragon again- "and this force field can self destruct in less than three seconds, killing whatever it contains. That means Lord Balor would die, but no one else gets hurt. It's good how it does that isn't it?"
He held his hand out airily over the drop. The dragon looked decidedly uncomfortable.
"No," she hissed. "Don't!"
"Why shouldn't I?" He asked.
"Because I will kill the humans," dragon replied, smiling. The Doctor looked at Joshua and Jacob.
"As much as I wouldn't mind you getting rid of them, I can't let you kill them," the Doctor sighed. "I'll make you a deal-"
Rose frowned and made to say something but the Doctor held his hand up.
"If you leave here and got o the furthest reaches of the universe I will free you from the curse of Balor," he finished.
The dragon seemed a little surprised. The Doctor only hoped the offer was enough. Dragon pulled itself up to her full height.
"Why should I dessert Lord Balor?" She asked, her eyes narrowed, a difficult feat for a dragon to achieve.
"Because he will only kill you if he returns," the Doctor replied a hint of sadness in his voice.
Dragon seemed to see sense because she slowly walked towards them and then disappeared further down the hall and towards the staircase. A few minutes later there was the sound of space ship engines.
Rose frowned. Somehow that didn't make sense. Surely she had been protecting Balor for a reason? Why had the Doctor been able to persuade her to abandon him so easily? The Doctor seemed to sense Rose's burning question because he turned to her.
"Balor placed a curse upon certain Cynrogs a long time ago. If he dies, they die with him," the Doctor explained. "That's why she didn't want him tossed out the window. However now that she's free-"
The Doctor pressed something on the force field generator and chucked it out the window. Only a loud pop gave any sign that it had destroyed itself. He turned back to Rose and held out his hand for her. She took it without hesitation.
"I think we can leave Joshua and Jacob to clear up their own mess, don't you?" He said quietly. Rose nodded, smiling mischievously.
"Just let me do one thing," she said skipping over to them.
She stood in front of one of the twins and slapped him hard.
"That's for trying to break me and the Doctor up," Rose growled. She turned to the other and he backed away, but not quick enough. She whacked him to. "And that's for being total idiots thinking you could break us up."
Rose strode back to the Doctor and the pair of them disappeared into the TARDIS leaving Joshua and Jacob slightly stunned.
Back inside the TARDIS the Doctor pulled Rose into a big hug which she gratefully returned. She ached all over, despite having a days rest and she really needed to sleep properly, but there was just one more thing she had to do before she could let herself collapse.
"Doctor?" he said quietly when they pulled away from each other.
"Mm?" The Doctor wandered towards the console and began to set the coordinates to hover in the vortex.
"It's never going to work is it?" She asked, looking at her feet. The Doctor glanced at her for a moment before shaking his head.
"No, it really can't. It's against so many Time Laws and I'll outlive you by centuries," he replied sadly. Then he looked up and smiled wryly. "But I've never been one to live by the rules."
Rose looked up.
"So we could..?" She asked almost not daring to hope.
"We can, as long as you understand the implications," the Doctor nodded. Rose didn't say anything else, simply grabbed the Doctor and pulled him in for a kiss.