Author's Note: I had to format this chapter a little bit different, making the changing of perspective more pronounced due to Rose and the Doctor being in different situations. So, there is a little bit, er, sorta a lot, of jumping between the two so as to keep both sides of the story on the same time line. Hope you don't mind too much! The -POV- indicates a point of view change.

Rose kept her head looking straight forward as her eyes sought frantically for an exit. The suits of armor were leading her from behind, pushing her whenever she started to slow down. Oh, what did I get myself into this time? She wished the Doctor was near.. If only she hadn't left...

Then they came to a stop, causing her anxiety to increase. They pushed open another door, this time into a room that was full of heavy duty equipment. Her throat grew dry. Then the two suits of armor grabbed each of her arms and pulled her towards a metal gurney type of thing. Her struggles did not even pause them.

"Stop! What are you doing? Let go of me!" Her cries fell upon empty ears as they strapped her in and rotated her vertically. She was breathing heavy as she tugged against the straps holding her in. "My friend will come and he will make you regret this!" She yelled, hoping that whoever was behind this would hear her.

Then a tin man walked into the room, studying her. "Your friend? Is 'he' the same as you?" He asked as he stepped over to a machine that stood opposite of her.

She glared at him. "No, he isn't, - " Then before she could say anything more, a searing pain went through her, causing her back to arch forward. Vaguely, she noted the machine's laser slowly move up her body, and then her vision went black as the only thought in her mind was Doctor.

-POV-

The Doctor stumbled as, for the first time in over 6 years, he heard another time lord. No. A Time Lady...

He let his mind search for where the call originated from, but once again it, she, was gone.

And then he was inside the Museum.

He looked around, grinning at all of the tin people and humans socializing together. Oh what a world..

And then he caught on to one of their conversations.

"She looked just like a human! But something must have been different, because the coat of arms came and took her away before they announced another "live specimen"!"

He immediately arrowed onto the speaker and approached the man. "Excuse me, did you say that there was a new 'live specimen' that just came in?"

"Why yes I did! It looked to be feminine in nature, with a very humanesque stature, and yellow hair! I even got a picture of the thing!"

"Oh really? Could I see it?!" While his voice was excited, resignation began to grow inside of him.

He was right. It was Rose.

On the inside, he groaned, outwardly he grinned. "Oh wow! Where'd you see it?"

"Just right on the bottom floor!"

"Thank you for your time, sir!" Then he raced over to the elevator and pressed the down button. As everyone was just coming up, it wasn't a long wait for him to get onto an elevator going down.

-POV-

As the scanner came to a full stop, Rose hung from the restraints, pain resonating through her body. She could feel the pain in her chest beginning to make itself known again, but she struggled to block that as well.

"So this is what you do when you gain a 'new specimen'. You torture it." Rose's voice might have been weak, but her eyes were furious. She looked at the tin man, anger starting to vibrate within her.

The tin man looked up at her, shock in his expression. "Why, no! I wouldn't dream of such a thing! But the program is unable to categorize you, labeling you as an unknown specimen. It is my job to find out what you are."

"I'm a human girl! Don't your machines recognize humans?!"

"Well, according to this machine, you aren't human."

Shock sparked in her momentarily before she shook her head. "Well your machine must be wrong!"

"I am quite confident that this machine is able to recognize thousands of millions of species without any hindrance. Humans being one of them.

-POV-

The Doctor stepped out of the elevator, glancing around. Then he walked over to a small group of people.

"Excuse me, Do you know which way the 'specimen' was taken?"

"It was taken through those doors over there, but I think they are locked."

"Oh, I work here, I just didn't know which wing they took her to." The Doctor thanked them and stepped over to the doors, where he adjusted the sonic screwdriver to let himself in.

He kept his senses on alert for the suits of armor as he began checking each room for a sign of Rose.

-POV-

"Now we have one more scan to get through before we move on to different tests. This one tends to be worse than the other, though it is over more quickly, so brace yourself." The tin man showed no emotion at torturing her, causing more anger than she already was dealing with.

She had only a fraction of second for fear to speed up her heart rate before the machine turned back on. The blue lazer-like-thing began to move horizontally across her, making her feel like she was slowly being burned from the inside. The pain was slow, intense, and doubled by the pain in her chest expanding to reach all of her now.

She couldn't stop the scream that escaped her before everything went black once again, this time sending her unconscious.

-POV-

The Doctor froze only a moment before racing towards the scream that he had heard. That was Rose... His panic only made him more determined, finding the room within seconds. Anger grew inside of him as he thought of what they could possibly be doing to her.

He threw open the door to find no one inside the room, except Rose. She was hanging limp from a gurney turned vertical. He felt his hearts stop for a second before he ran over to her.

"Rose!" He went first for her pulse, to see if her heart was still beating. Her heartbeat was sporadic, causing his anxiety to increase.

Then he heard the door open, and he spun around to find a tin man entering, a surprised look on his face.

"What did you do to her!?" He was angry. The Oncoming Storm didn't even cover it.

The tin man had enough sense to be afraid. His eyes were wide as he backed away. He reached for the door handle, but not before the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to lock it.

"What. Did. You. Do." He began approaching the tin man, and he was lucky that he didn't have a weapon, or surely he would have done something he'd have regretted. Maybe.

As it was, he was pulled to a stop by a voice behind him.

"Doctor?" Rose's voice was faint.

He spun around moving to stop beside her. "Rose, I'm here." He grabbed her hand before turning towards the tin man. "Make her horizontal, now."

The tin man did as he was told, and then Rose was no longer hanging by the restraints. The Doctor leaned over to listen to her heart, his own dropping when he heard how weak it sounded. "Rose, you hang in there, you hear me?" He began to use his sonic on the restraints, hoping that if he could get her back to the TARDIS and to the med bay...

"Doctor... Need to sleep... Hurts..."

"I know it hurts, but you need to stay awake, okay?" Panic only steeled his resolve to get her out of there.

"Love you..."

"And I love you, Rose Tyler, so don't you give up on me!" He got the last restraint off, and froze only for a moment when he saw how shallow her breathing had become. "Hang in there," He begged for her to stay with him.

He didn't bother wasting time to threaten the tin man, he just picked Rose up and began carrying her out. Before he even got her out of that one hallway, though, he saw her chest stop moving.

The Doctor was frozen, every atom of his existence in denial. "Rose..." he breathed out her name. Then the denial shifted to anger. "Rose! Don't you dare die on me, Rose Tyler! Wake up and Breathe!"

He knelt down, gently laying her on the ground. "Don't give up, Rose. I love you and I need you here, okay?" He started doing first aid to her as he spoke, his voice rough with emotions he didn't have time to sort out. He didn't even notice the tear that slid down his face and on to hers.

And then she breathed.

Relief came first, and then shock as a golden glow overcame Rose. Her eyes opened, and stared into his, the gold shimmering through her.

The Doctor just stared, stunned, as she became golden dust in his arms only to reappear several feat away, looking at something only she could see.

Then she turned back to him. "My Doctor," She spoke, the double tone of her voice echoing in the air around them. He slowly stood up.

"I saw this, our paths. I knew what we would face, the pain we would suffer through, but I also saw what would happen in the end."

Rose once again dematerialized and rematerialized in front of The Doctor, who stood speechless.

"I've looked through past, present, and future; All of the possibilities across the universe. And I found a way. It hurt, but I needed to bind with the time vortex to succeed. To stay with you. My Doctor."

Rose stepped towards him once more, looking into his eyes. "And now I must finish the process. Take me back to the TARDIS, Doctor, and I will be complete."

Then, before the Doctor could even protest, Rose's eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed. The Doctor just barely managed to grab her before she hit the ground. He then watched as she expelled remnants of the time vortex from herself, very similar to what he did when he needed to regenerate.

The Doctor looked around helplessly for a moment, then lifted Rose into his arms and began his journey back to the TARDIS. He ignored any questions or stares. His own look was threatening enough to discourage anyone from trying to stop him.

Author's Note: Okay, so two more chapters, then I am done. That's official. I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading!