A/N: This is the point in the story were I have no idea how to get from point A to point B, which mean a crap, short chapter. But hey.

Chapter 9 – Resetting In Progress

Neither of them were sure how long they stood there in each other's embrace – but whatever it was, it wasn't long enough.

In a typically Rose way, she'd first made sure his wound scratched up his arm was completely bandaged before they moved on. It still throbbed manically and it desperately hurt to move it, but the pain was still manageable in context.

Rose still didn't know exactly how she'd come back from the dead and the Doctor wasn't extremely compelled to ask. He did like a challenge, yes, but he was fed up being here. Every single door he opened was one more snap on his patience and he couldn't take it for much longer.

He still didn't know how he'd got here and he kept getting flashes of feelings he had no reason to have making his hormones more bouncy than a kangaroo on a trampoline.

And that dream…that brief dream through a splatter of unconsciousness was extremely surreal. He could find no plausible explanation to it apart from the knock to the head. Something his mind had thought up? Or was it something more?

He began to get a feeling again as he as Rose walked side by side, trying to find a way out. The corridor was dark and seemingly endless.

He stopped in his tracks, jerking Rose to a halt whom had been holding his hand. She cried out in surprise, turning to face him, annoyed.

"Hey! What…" she started, but then trailed off as she registered his expression, one of shock. "Are you okay?" she asked, nervously.

His teeth started to chatter as he hugged himself tight, suddenly going extremely white.

"I'm…s-so…c-cold…" he stuttered, and the shaking suddenly increase from his teeth to his entire body. "Fr-freezing…"

"Doctor, it isn't cold in here…" Rose said gently, stepping forward to rest the back of her hand on his forehead. She instantly gasped and withdrew the hand, surprised as the coldness of ice touched her skin. "What the Hell?!"

He was starting to turn blue, she realised. His hands were beginning to surface unhealthy orange spots whilst his body temperature continued to rapidly decrease. It was just aswell his clothes had dried out, else he would be on the floor in seconds.

Rose quickly whipped off the Doctor's jacket she seem to have acquired somehow, draping it over his shoulders and hugging him tight. Whatever freak of nature this was, she was going to beat it.

Just as he thought he was going to collapse, he suddenly found to his complete delight he was unexplainably and rapidly warming up again.

Though the warming didn't stop.

Now it was accelerating to the skies. His inner core temperature playing havoc as it pumped straight up through the sixties, seventies…eighties…

"Rose…" he panted, moving away from her with sweat clinging to his forehead. His face was flushed and he was bent over, trying desperately to control his breathing.

"Doctor what the hell is goin' on?" Rose demanded to know, getting quite worried now.

"I need…water…" He was going to shrivel up and die at this rate. "Hydration…"

"There's no water around here…" Rose said gently to him, still hugging him tight.

It was over a hundred now, and still accelerating fast.

"Don't do this to me!" Rose screamed manically at him, "you can't do this to me!"

"Rose…it's burning me up…" he grunted through the agony, falling to his knees. "Help me…help me…"

Alarmed, Rose thought the white shadow on his face to begin with was just a pure hallucination, but she was not the one currently with their temperature comparable to the Sun.

"Doctor…there's somethin'…"

She watched at the white figure looked ghostly real on his face, distinct enough now for her to see it was…an oxygen mask.

Flash.

She could see the Doctor…floating helpless…wired into machinery…

Flash.

She was back in the manor.

What the Hell was that?!

She wasn't here in reality. This wasn't reality. She was here on a mission, she realised. But a mission to do what? If only she could remember…

Bingo.

"Doctor! Look at me! Look at me!"

She watched him slowly raised his head, beads of sweat trickling down his brow as he gasped for air and water.

"Listen to me. You can fight this."

"How?" he groaned, head dropping to face the floor. She immediately grabbed his head and pulled it up to look at her, holding him firmly by the shoulders.

"You can fight this because this isn't real. None of it is real. This isn't real because it's a video game and you're trapped inside!"

"What?" Disbelief was plain on his face.

"Trust me. I don't know what's happenin' right now but I know whatever it is, it's not real! I've seen it Doctor, you have to believe me!"

"I believe you Rose…" he gasped, clutching at his burning chest. "But I can't…I can't…"

This is the moderator. You have broken the game rules. Your access to this game with be terminated immediately and the game will be reset.

"No!" Rose screamed, clutching onto the Doctor desperately. "I won't let you carry on with this sick game!"

"Rose…" the Doctor gasped once more, trying to clutch onto her t-shirt as it turned to nothing beneath his fingers. "You're fading…"

"I won't let you down, Doctor! I'll get you out!"

"Please…don't leave me…" he whimpered, suddenly feeling incredibly dizzy as she watched his eyes roll backwards in their sockets, eyelids fluttering closed.

"Not if you leave me first," Rose whispered, holding her arms out to catch him but he passed straight through her flesh as if she were a ghost, hitting the floor with a thud.

Resetting in progress.