Chapter 12

As the doctor's anger grew, the door burst open. Startled, he flicked his gaze to the noise and watched as a blonde girl armed with a sonic screwdriver strode confidently into the room. "Doctor!" She cried and ran to him, wrapping her arms around his torso. The Doctor, momentarily forgetting about Vatra, wrapped his arms around Rose with a sigh of relief and his growing hatred dissipated. "Thank goodness you're alright." He muttered into her ear. Nobody could calm him down like his companions, and there was no better companion than Rose.

Rose, spotting Vatra, stepped back from the hug and turned to the woman, keeping hold of her partner's arm.

With a slightly annoyed look, Vatra commented, "Well well well, what have we here? Seems like my guards aren't as good at their job as I thought." She walked up to Rose, who kept her arm interlocked with the Doctor's. "And I see you brought me the sonic screwdriver as well." She paused for a moment, studying the blonde. "There's something different about you, Rose. Maybe you're worth a study too." The smile she gave frightened Rose, causing her to grip her Doctor more desperately.

Building up her courage, Rose spoke up. "I came here from a different universe."

As expected, this caught Vatra's attention. "A different universe, you say?" She flicked her gaze between the man and the woman. "And I suppose you know how you got through?" Vatra's curiosity proved to the Doctor that once again, Rose had a brilliant idea. "You could show me?" Vatra questioned.

Rose nodded confidently to their imprisoner and Vatra's eyes lit up with excitement. As soon as Rose saw this, she spoke again. "I'll lead you there, but only on one condition." Vatra's smile fell, but her eyes stayed focused on the girl. She thought for a moment.

"What is it?" She muttered, already knowing and dreading the answer.

"I want you to let my friends and me to go free. I'll lead you all the way to the gate, but you have to promise to let us all go."

Vatra thought for a moment, clearly considering the idea. While she would love to know more about the Time Lord, this second universe was intriguing as well. After all, with how comfortable this girl was with the Doctor, perhaps there were more Time Lords on the other side. There could be so many other things in that universe that she could never hope to discover in this one. The possibilities were amazing, and Vatra was enthralled by them.

Her smile widened. "If you bring me to that gate, I promise I'll let all of your friends go free."

Amy and Rory were bored out of their minds. They had been waiting and waiting. At first, they were simply concerned for their fellow TARDIS-mates, but soon they convinced themselves that both Rose and the Doctor could handle themselves. The pangs of worry were still there, but they were pushed to the side. Knowing they couldn't do anything to help the other two, Amy and Rory did other things.

For a while, they considered the strange painting on the wall. It was some sort of abstract art that reminded Amy too much of the exploding TARDIS. Rory thought it looked like an elephant, but he couldn't convince Amy to see it. With a splash of blues, greens, and yellows, they pondered the possibility of an ocean or river, but changed their minds upon noticing the small stripes of red. When, with a sinking feeling, Amy recognized a rose among the chaos, she left the painting alone.

Once the distraction from the painting was gone, Amy sat down on the hard chair in the corner and studied the strange floor. It was made of some type of material not found on earth- It had the distinct feel of a cheap carpet, yet it looked exactly like a hardwood floor. The dark swirls in the caramel brown were fun to trace with her finger, but once she traced for a few minutes, the floor lost its appeal.

Finally, Amy and Rory ran out of things to do in the plain room and just started at the ceiling, waiting for something to happen.

After what felt like an agonizing time (it was actually about 20 minutes) the door opened with a creak and 5 bodies entered. In the front, was, of course, Vatra, followed by Rose and the Doctor, flanked by two guards.

"You're coming with us." Vatra said to the pair. "Let's all go board my ship."

The Doctor stumbled out of the ship after a long ride, his legs cramped and sore from lack of movement. Hastily, he directed his attention to the cargo bay where the crew was lowering down his TARDIS, just as Vatra had promised.

Just like in her parallel universe, Rose stared up at a speckled gray cliff that reached up into the sky. Without her equipment with her, she couldn't tell if there were strange readings from the top, but she prayed that for the sake of her friends that the gate was still there. Vatra motioned to her, and the group gathered back on the ship.

Vatra, wanting to keep her hostages with her until she was sure they weren't lying, got the ship to lift them to the top of the cliff. She drove Rose in front of her and let the Doctor, Amy, and Rory trail behind. "So Rose, where is this gate you mentioned?" She asked sceptically.

Rose glanced around, wondering the same thing for herself. "Well…" She began, "It was right here by this rock." She motioned to the large rock that stood above everyone's heads. She studied the Rock and her Torchwood training kicked in. Subtleties in the rock's surface were trying to tell her something. Slowly, she reached down and grabbed a broken pebble by her foot. Vatra turned to her as she hurled the small piece straight at the boulder.

The pebble disappeared. It did not bounce off the rock, clatter to the ground, or miss. The pebble simply disappeared the moment it hit the surface. Vatra smiled. So the gate was here- it was just invisible. Vatra stepped forward, anticipating this amazing new world. Suddenly however, she stopped in her tracks.

Flipping around to the group, she stared straight into Rose's eyes. "How do I know I'll make it through there safely?" After just a moment's pause, she continued. "Rose, you can go first." It was at this dismaying moment that both Rose and the Doctor realised that Vatra was never planning on letting them all go.

Vatra approached, grasped her arm painfully, and pulled Rose forwards towards the rock with her. Struggling, Rose tried to pull away and return to her Doctor.

With one final shove and a grin upon her evil face, Vatra launched Rose back into the universe she came from.