Thank you for all the support so far! Here is the next chapter! Enjoy!

Red Dragon

Chapter Seven

The Doctor's Future

You seem upset.

Rose started. The voice in her head echoed its words. The glare in her eyes were evident as she faced herself in the mirror. She pursued her lips. She needed truth. Answers.

Of course I'm upset, she snarled, What do you take me for? An idiot? After what you made me do, I've lost the one thing that I love the most in this universe. But before you go, tell me this.

What? The Bad Wolf answered, slightly curious.

Why did you do it?

Do what?

Make me betray the Doctor.

Rose saw in her mind a wolf scowling at her, as if she had made the wrong assumption. You did that all on your own.

Rose glared at herself in the mirror. Then why don't I recall doing it, save for the few flashes of memory I have.

The Wolf shrugged. Perhaps you trained yourself to forget when you sent the message. So that you could blame it on someone else other then yourself.

Impossible.

How do you know it is not one of the others? The question was logical.

Because neither Mickey nor Martha knew of you at the time. Rose folded her arms. And I'm not letting you win. Not by a long shot.

Surely, the Bad Wolf began, if you love the Doctor as much as you say, then you would let me help you. It would be unachievable to do so without my guidance.

Yeah, and what can you do that will help me?

I come from the heart of the TARDIS. Woken by your joining with the Doctor. I know the secrets of the TARDIS. With me, I can show you how to use it.

The words shook her to the core. What?

But the Bad Wolf had already faded, leaving Rose to contemplate.

Leaning against the wall, the Doctor kept his eyes closed, his forehead creased in concentration. Since the incident on Delia V with the creature that had sought the TARDIS and his knowledge, the Doctor had been aware of a connection to Rose. She wasn't aware of it as such, but it was definitely within his mind. If he could link with Rose, it might be possible for him to speak to her. He only hoped this wasn't going to do him some serious harm.

His whole body ached. Bound tightly and unable to move, he was feeling pretty uncomfortable. He didn't know long he'd been in here, but it felt like forever.

Rose…are you there?

He could detect a link, but something was blocking Rose's attempts to reply. The Doctor already knew the answer to that particular barrier. The Bad Wolf.

Rose…please just listen. I'm not on Canodi. I have no idea where I am, apart from the fact I'm in a luxury yacht heading to who knows where. It's Derol Flynn. Whatever you do - and this is the last time I can probably give you advice - don't let the Bad Wolf control you, he hesitated before he continued, I have faith in you.

Why did you stop me replying? Rose' anger spread through her like fire.

You did that on your own. The Bad Wolf was cunning, if not very annoying.

You've got something against him, haven't you? Rose accused. It's like you're doing this for your own benefit and not mine. If you truly wanted to help me, you would've let me reply, instead you blocked any form of communication I could send.

Now that's being unjust. Was the Bad Wolf mocking her?

And you should learn to butt out of other people's business, Rose harshly replied.

She sat herself heavily down upon her bed, annoyed by the turn of events. At least, the Doctor was still alive. The main thing was that he had given her some important information. He was no longer on world, which meant their next rendezvous was the Museum. Maybe they could talk to whoever would be in charge during Derol Flynn's absence.

For what it seemed to be the fifth time in one day, the Doctor was once again confronted with Derol Flynn's leering face. He did not react or speak, just watched, measuring his captor up. The silence was unnerving for Derol. He could see it in his eyes. Their was a hint of fear embedded within his soul, as if the humanoid knew what he was doing was wrong, but his popularity overruled that.

Two figures in white stepped forward. In their clawed hands, that was covered in scaly yellow skin, they held a tray between them. They knelt carefully beside the Doctor, the tray set out in front of them. One began fiddling with injectors and the other arranged variant colours of liquid. Seven injectors were filled with different liquids. One wrote the name of each on the side of the injector. Moving forward on their knees, one grabbed the Doctors hair lifting his head up.

Pressing the syringe to his vein, he felt immense coldness coarse through his system, making him feel dizzy and his eyes drifted in and out of focus. He tried to fight against the drug, but another one was already being pumped in, followed by five more after that. The combined effect left him feeling a nauseas and sleepy. What the heck did they just do to me?

Derol answered his unasked question. "I'm not giving you any chances." He looked at his finger-nails. "I have heard that you could have telepathic abilities - to detect others of your kind? I can't risk having any other Time Lords showing up on my doorstep even if you are supposedly the last one. These drugs will keep that blocked off, as long as they bring you no harm. We will be monitoring you. Consider this as a little experiment."

Great. Rose is definitely on her own, even though I had figured Flynn might resort to this.

He felt his head drooping forwards, his eyes closing. The last thing he registered as the drugs took hold was the sound of the door closing. He slumped into darkness.

When the sun rose the following morning, Rose, Mickey and Martha set off for the Extinct Species Museum. They paced quickly through the crowd. Time was at an essence. Since discovering that the Doctor was no longer on the planet, their search was more pivotal. They needed information urgently, and the best place for that was to speak to the acting head of the museum during Derol Flynn's absence.

The streets were quite crowded, even for seven in the morning. Their watches hadn't been adjusted to the time zone, but that hardly mattered as the planet seemed to follow the pattern of Earth. Everywhere around them came shouts of delight and the incessant bubbling of tourists as their eyes focused upon the rich beauty Canodi had to offer.

Within a few minutes, their quick pace brought them to the museum. Surprisingly enough it was open, despite the early time. Striding in, Rose made straight for the back of the large room, ignoring the ticket collectors. They rushed after her, Mickey and Martha, but a simple glance from her had them shrinking back.

Darkness was gripping her soul., sending out a message to anyone that stood in her path. Rose was not aware of it yet.

Without any hesitation Rose palmed the door to open and stepped inside. Facing them was a console - a security one - and the sliding doors were locked. She motioned with her right hand. "Mickey, think you can get us through?"

"If I'm good as you tell me I am, I should be."

"Good," Rose folded her arms. "Stop stalling then."

Mickey gave her a queer look as he passed her but did not comment, instead focusing his full attention on the console as he studied it. Rose watched from behind, feeling impatient as the minutes past. They were losing time. The longer Mickey stalled, the further they were from rescuing the Doctor.

It seemed like forever, but finally Mickey turned away, his face glum. "I can't get through. The security is too tight…layer upon layer. Impossible for me to get through quickly enough to satisfy you."

Rose frowned. "Then we're stuck." She admitted, not liking that one bit.

"Perhaps I could make a suggestion?"

Rose shifted her gaze to Martha. The young woman was standing by the door, leaning against the wall. "Go on then."

"Perhaps we could ask that we'd like to speak to the administrator of this facility. Say it's of important government matter. We have the Psychic paper. The kidnappers left the Doctor's coat, also relieving him of the TARDIS key, the sonic screwdriver and the Psychic paper."

"That means we have to go back out to get it." Rose said, anger evident in her eyes. "We don't have time to muck around."

"I know," insisted Martha. She reached into the red pocket of her trousers and held up the objects. One was the wallet, the other the TARDIS key, and finally the Sonic Screwdriver. She handed Rose the ID. "This is the only thing that we can use, as none of us know what settings to use on the Screwdriver."

"Intuitive." Mickey smiled. "She's good."

"I suppose." Rose replied, stalking out the room, and heading back to the security desk. She lifted up the Psychic Paper, staring hard into the Head of Security's eyes. "Right, is this enough credentials to ensure I get to see who is in charge here?"

The guard ran his eyes over the paper. "It is, Miss Lyons. Please follow me and I was escort you and your personnel to the upper office."

"Good," Rose whispered under her breath. "Now we're getting somewhere."

His vision was slowly coming into focus as he shook his head attempting to clear it. The Doctor shifted his position as best he could. He ached. His arms, his wrists, his ankles….everywhere. He suddenly became aware of a need for water. His mouth was dry, his throat parched. When was the last time I had something? Maybe it's the drugs…he had a sneaking suspicion that it was them making him feel like that. Didn't Flynn say that he wouldn't risk giving me anything? Or am I just getting confused?

The sound of feet was heard and the sudden swish of the doors opening alerted the Doctor that he had visitors. "Flynn."

"Ah, glad to see you are awake." The humanoid responded calmly. "The drugs I authorised to be administrated had no lasting effect on you. At least it will stop any communication going back and forth mind-wise."

Brilliant.

"I suppose this is going to be a regular thing for me?"

"Only if you don't do what I want. The drugs that Alpha used to subdue you before are in common use these days. They have no lasting effect on anyone. Simple drugs that render the senses useless. I had no worries about using that…" Flynn stared at his fingernails. "But I was conscious of the fact that these drugs might have had some lasting effect on you…but having the antidote would have washed it from your system before they could do any lasting damage. Thankfully they are working and any link should remain blocked until the drugs begin to wear off. Then we will administer them again. "

"And it didn't occur to you that if something had happened, the antidote might not have worked?" The Doctor lifted an eyebrow.

"Nonsense. Why would anyone be allergic to both the poison and the antidote? Ridiculous."

"I suppose science isn't without its risks." The Doctor commented.

Derol cocked his head to the side. "What makes you think I'm using you for science."

The Doctor shrugged. "It's quite obvious really. You said you wanted to find out about me but you have no desire to kill me and force a regeneration, if I have any left. In order to do that you must conduct experiments on me, find my weaknesses. Then I would join your museum as the first live species."

"My private collection." Derol replied, lifting a finger. "Not to the public. Only to special, selected people that I know are worthy to know the truth behind my fascination with rare species." He began to turn away, "But more to the point is the fact that people nowadays wish to live longer. I can achieve that through you…as long as you co-operate."

"Which I won't."

Derol turned back, a nasty grin filling his features. "Then we're just going to have to break you. Believe me Doctor. That is what your future will be. Your friends will never find you. You are all alone. You are mine." Then he was gone, his red cloak billowing in the air behind him as he marched smartly from the room.

That man is a complete and utter idiot. Especially if he thinks he can dictate my future and own me.

TBC

Bit of a cliffy, not much, but still, there will be lots more in the coming chapters. Please let me know what you think!

Next chapter is entitled: The Doctor's New Home - I've decided to do little extracts as a preview for the next chapter.

The administrator did not even hesitate. "Master Flynn is taking a break from his duties. He has been busy as of late and decided to take a vacation. Is there a problem with that, Miss Lyons?"

Rose allowed a smug smile to cross her features. "Yes, there is."

Coming in three days time!

Leila-Rose-Bell