I am floating in space, blinding light surrounding me, feeling my two Time Lord hearts throb back and forth across my chest. The air is still, and I can hear my won breathing like a storm in my ears. There is complete silence.

With a jolt I realize that I feel very cold all of a sudden, and I shiver violently. On a whim I glance down at myself.

I'm clothed in white, and there's bright red blood streaming down the front of my chest. A dagger is clutched in my right hand.

I scream.

"Hero, it's time to wake up, now..."

I jerked into consciousness, my whole body twitching slightly as I did so, and shook my head slightly. A voice had spoken right beside me, ordering me awake. I slowly looked down at myself and discovered that I was tied rather firmly to a nearly-upright wooden table which held me up almost as if I was standing on my feet. My toes, however, dangled a good yard or so from the ground and my legs felt tingly. My head felt worse.

"Ah... hello again," the voice beside me continued, and I carefully turned my head and realized that he was also trussed up next to me... the Doctor. I sighed in relief at the sight of him, quickly sweeping my eyes over his entire body in search of wounds, missing limbs, anything. He seemed to be all in one piece, at least on the outside, so I quickly looked up again to meet his eyes and smiled in spite of myself.

"Hello," I replied, rather breathlessly, feeling my hearts race a bit faster. I'd actually done it, I'd found the Doctor, and he wasn't dead or permanently handicapped or anything! He was whole and in front of me, grinning like a school boy.

He too looked me up and down, and I resisted squirming under his gaze. "You seem okay, Hero, but the question still needs to be asked..." He met my gaze again, "Are you okay?"

I paused, holding my breath, then answered, "I... I think so, I mean this is a lot to take in all at once... But, yeah. I think I'll be alright." I offered him a small smile, feeling the pulse of my hearts slow a little.

"Alright, then!" He said, and I imagined that he would have clapped his hands if he hadn't been so thoroughly tied, "Time to get away from here before anything... unexpected... happens." He looked rather excited at the prospect of this challenge, and I stared at him a bit incredulously, still a bit awed by how alien he was. Such a tense situation would have been much more taxing for a human to endure, I reasoned, but a second later I realized that I didn't feel very panicky, either... I felt... kind of excited.

Oh dear lord... So this is what it actually feels like to be a Time Lord...

I realized that the Doctor was still chattering on to himself about how we could escape this room, but I interrupted him, "Wait... Doctor..." He turned to me, his blue eyes solemn. I blinked at him for a moment before continuing, "Those aliens... They hurt you, didn't they? Are you okay?"

The Doctor paused for a moment, looking up at the ceiling and then returned his gaze to me. He smiled. "I'm alright, Hero, don't worry." I couldn't bring myself to smile back, not after how much I'd worried about him. "It would take a lot to damage me," he assured me, beginning to wriggle about a bit in his ropes.

Not entirely assured, I too began to test the tightness of my bonds, when an idea struck me.

"Hey, I found the sonic screwdriver, just before they caught me..."

The Doctor looked at me quickly, grinning, "Wonderful! Brilliant!"

"It's in my pocket," I continued, "on your side."

He made a rather comical attempt to reach my pocket, wiggling his fingers rapidly as though he was trying to stretch them longer. This failed rapidly, and he subsided, eying my pocket with interest.

"Hang on..." I pushed my hip slightly to the side, trying to bring the pocket closer to his outstretched fingers. The ropes tightened painfully around my knees and I felt my feet start to go numb. I did, however, manage to move about three inches closer to him, and he once more stretched his wrist out as far as it could go, wiggling as he went.

"Ow, here let me try to... ow! Ow ow ow..." I proceeded to try and reach for the thing myself, pushing a couple of fingers into the pocket and making a small noise of triumph as I managed to seize the top of the sonic. I tugged, carefully, and the shiny object shot out and landed straight in the Doctor's outstretched hand. I cheered silently, and he directed the screwdriver at his ropes. A sharp buzzing sound startled me for a moment as his bindings snapped and fell to the floor. He unfortunately fell the rest of the way down, landing very heavily on his undoubtedly numb feet. He swayed dangerously, grabbing hold of his previous prison for support. After a moment, he straightened and turned to face me. He eyes were shining and a small smile played across his lips.

"Your turn..." he murmured, raising the sonic, and a second later my own bonds snapped free and I tumbled down. The Doctor was ready for this, however, and quickly slung one long arm around my waist to steady me. My feet tingled painfully into life as I allowed him to hold me up, and we grinned nervously at each other. The hard part was now to come.

Or so we thought.

The door of our prison cell wasn't locked. It opened at the lightest touch.

I gulped. "Oh crap..."

"Of course..." the Doctor whispered, frowning slightly, "Of course, this is what they wanted all along."

I turned to look at him, feeling a small wave of fear for the first time in a long time. The Doctor looked concerned and I was starting to freak out.

"I wanted us... to escape," he murmured, looking out the door into the dim hallway beyond, "They wanted us side-by-side... The Time Lord and the changeling."

"...er, what?" I croaked, and then he suddenly gripped my wrist, pulling me close until our faces nearly touched. I was shocked at our sudden closeness, opening my mouth to say something but found that sound had completely failed me.

"Hero, what happens next may not go very well," he whispered fiercely, looking into my eyes, "Remember what I said before, remember to run when I tell you, okay? You must run." I nodded slowly, unable to look away from his powerful gaze. Then he relaxed a little, some of the fire leaving his eyes, and he relaxed his hold on my arm. "I'm very protective of all my companions, Hero, they mean a lot to me..." He was still looking into my eyes, only this time his expression was a pleading one, like he was trying very hard to get me to understand something important, "... every single one. But you're... you're a bit different. These aliens, the vengeful DakTar, they've messed around with your lifestream. They've changed everything, prepared you, made you special. They've made you mean something, Hero, they've made you mean something to me." He stopped talking abruptly, like he'd somehow gone too far. I had no idea how to respond to this, but simply looked back at him with wide eyes. I hoped I didn't look like a total fool.

"I don't care what they do to me," the Doctor whispered, "I probably deserve whatever they've got. But using you as a weapon to get to me... That disgusts me." I cringed inwardly at the sea of memories and sad dislike I read in his eyes, making him seem more distant and ancient than ever. After a moment the pain faded away, though, and he gently released my wrist, lowering his eyes to look at his feet.

"Doctor..." I found myself whispering too, even though it seemed that we were still alone for the time being, "I'm not sure what's happened to me, but I realize now that we're alike, we're the same species, and after what you told me about being the last of your kind... We need each other, we both need to survive, okay? So don't pull any superhero stunts and get yourself killed just to save my skin, got it?" Now it was my turn to look fierce. "We'll escape this together."

He nodded, looked slightly encouraged, and took my hand. "Let's see what they have in store for us, Hero Smith the hero," he murmured, smiling at me faintly. I smiled back, and together we turned towards the prison cell door and stepped through.

A second later, the floor fell away beneath our feet and we floated, weightless, in an endless cavern.