A/N: I KNOW I said I'd reply to all reviews last chapter but I'm in an awesome mood from LotTL (OMG THAT WAS AWESOME! Well, when he (Long prolonged beeping) and then (Long prolonged beeping) it was as though he (Long prolonged beeping) which made me say "HOLY (Long prolonged beeping)!") and I wanted to give you the next chapter of this as a doggy treat XD Mainly coz it's the only one I've finished. Efficient, aren't I.

Chapter 7 – The Perfect Cell

Her jaw dropped to the floor.

There were millions of monitors, computers, bleeping lights and high pitched whines of high-powered machinery all stacked high around the outside of the room, as if they were wallpaper, not actual machines. The floor trailed with multi-coloured wires, some thick, some thin, and some so large they could easily be mistaken as snakes.

But none of that was important.

Because sitting in the centre of the room right there and then, was the most scandalous thing of all.

The Doctor.

There was the Doctor, the real Doctor: the real, living, breathing Doctor. He was quite plainly in a deep sleep, clothed in his usual garments and hovering in the water of a clear pod in the centre of the room with an oxygen mask over his face; pads on his temples to monitor his brainwaves and machines all around him, keeping him alive. There was a heart rate monitor, a brainwave monitor, a tube that pumped sedate and a tube that fed him food whilst another took the waste away.

It was a perfect little cell.

Soundlessly, Rose stepped towards the clear glass shell, resting a palm on the outside.

"Doctor?" she whispered to the sleeping man, his hair waving out like reeds in the water that contained him, making him seem angelic. She found herself grinning at him, pressing both palms to the glass. "I knew you were real."

It was all flooding back now. They'd been wandering around the streets of Zodonia looking at market stalls when as she had been prying around in a jewellery stall, she had turned to find the Doctor had completely disappeared right under her nose.

So okay, she had thought. He wandered off a lot and she decided not to panic just yet.

But when he still hadn't returned to the TARDIS after five hours, she knew something had happened.

For two months she had looked. There was nothing else she could do. For starters, she couldn't fly the TARDIS anyway, and to hell if she was just going to abandon the Doctor like that. Every day for two months she searched for her Doctor, following false clues and endless trails, only to lead back to the same familiar door of failure.

Of course she had heard about the new games coming out, Zodonia was a gaming planet, you couldn't move for publicity of new material. 'Revolutionary' they had said about the latest game, Time Catcher.

Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined the title was a gloat for the fact the developer, Zender Жemnas, caught the Time Lord and kept him hostage for money inside a game. Her Doctor. Trapped in a video game.

So she had gone straight to the Жemnas complex, and searched anywhere and everywhere for any sign of the Doctor. She had seen the posters, the billboards. He was advertised everywhere.

Just when she was close to giving up, she had found him. She had cried. Not only for sadness at what had happened, but also undivided joy that she had found him at last. Right where she was standing now. However, there was absolutely no way she could get him out without entering the game – so that was exactly what she did.

She still had some Zodnia, the global currency, so had bought a ticket on a month waiting list. She visited him everyday during the month, making sure for herself he was alive and well, reassuring him she was working on getting him out even though she knew full well he couldn't hear her.

People came and went in the game – the Doctor just treated them like a faithful companion every time, as if unable to see their true form. The scenario they were placed in was randomly generated each time a person entered the game, for variety. It was actually fun to watch – like a movie, but every time it was unique.

And then came her turn.

She had intended to enter the game to tell the Doctor what had happened and get him out of there.

Of course, she had completely forgotten to take into account the memory filters.

But now, she was here.

She had found him once more.

And she wasn't going to lose him again.

"I'm gonna get you out of there, Doctor. Whatever it takes."

She watched his content face for a moment longer, almost imagining the twitch of a slight smile break out from his lips. Thank you. She imagined his tender voice echo inside her head. But looking at him now, so peaceful, so helpless, it fuelled her anger to what had happened. He was their component. They had to keep the game running because it would mess up the Doctor's brain to keep resetting it. Hewas their lousy component. They'd even resorted to wearing quarantine suits around him…

Disgusted, Rose ripped off her overalls and threw them harshly onto the floor. She gazed at the Doctor in slumber, so still, so…unDoctorish. Finally she gave herself a chance to glance at the clipboard she'd been given, seeing for the first time a record of heart rate, brainwave patterns and measured amount of sedate they were pumping into him. He was linked directly into the game with a memory wipe, so to him, as it had been for her – it was reality. Three months he'd been trapped in this same glass cage, sleeping. He hadn't seen light for that long and probably a little more.

They were just using him, and Rose was going to stop this.

But first she had to get past the memory filters so she could re-enter and tell him.

"What would you do?" she asked the sleeping man, but he remained silent and still. "How the hell would you get past memory filters?"

He would reprogram the game. Of course he would. He was brilliant with computers – but she wasn't.

If only Mickey was here.

She allowed herself to tear her eyes away from him, moving around the pod and machines to try and see what fed the game. There were millions of wires and monitors, and all the while she could hear the Doctor's heartsbeat beeping a steady tone in her ears.

There was absolutely no way she could do this. She had to get help.

In the form of one questioned provoked employee.