Disclaimer: Doctor Who isn't mine. I do have a model of David Tennant but alas, that is all.

A.N. Thank for all of you who added this fic to your Alerts and Favourites, and special thanks goes to my four wonderful reviewers. Here's the next chapter as promised! Enjoy!

Chapter Three – Toil and Trouble

Sometimes Rose forgot that the Doctor was a Time Lord. While the whole travelling through space and time never got old, it had become a part of her as much as it had the Doctor and she knew she certainly wasn't the only human who had travelled with him for such a prolonged time – Sarah-Jane had proven that. But the Doctor just looked so human that it made it easy for her to forget that he was over nine hundred (she didn't really believe he was nine hundred and one exactly. When you travelled through time as much as he had, surely you could easily lose track of a year or two.) years old and had the experience and knowledge of someone who lived that long.

And then, of course, there were times when difference was so astoundingly obvious that she felt like kicking herself for forgetting about it in the first place.

Naturally, this was one of those times.

She had fallen asleep the previous night before the Doctor had returned to the hotel. She had woken in the morning to find sunlight streaming in from the balcony and the Doctor trying to force a piece of toast past her lips. Without so much as a 'good morning', he had launched into a tale about water and mysterious chemicals and that his converse were still wet. Rose's sleep-fogged brain tried valiantly to comprehend what he was telling her however all she could really recall later was that the chemical make-up of water was H₂O and that it wasn't to be confused with H₂O₂ which was bleach. To be perfectly honest, she couldn't even remember if this grain of knowledge had been picked up from the Doctor, or Mrs Carey, her GCSE chemistry teacher.

During the "vitally important trip to the TARDIS," she tuned out the Doctor's ramblings and concentrated instead on things she could understand at this unseemly hour of the morning. For example, did the Doctor ever sleep? Surely he had to. No one could survive on tea alone and still have so much energy, even Time Lords. Could they? Maybe he hibernated once every hundred years or so.

And, of course, there was the matter of her brief conversation with Marick the day before. She knew she should really tell the Doctor about it. Puppet governments were more his speciality than hers. But she had promised Marick that she would meet him again without the Doctor and if she did inform him he wouldn't let her go alone. Besides, she mused, it wasn't as if she was really going to get a chance to tell the Doctor anything. He was talking so much that she couldn't get a word in edgeways even if she tried.

The marketplace was teeming with life, though not as busy as it had been when she had walked through it with the Doctor yesterday. People were rushing about, opening stalls and displaying their products with an artful grace. No one paid any heed to the man in the suit who had been sought after as much as any of the items on sale in the stalls only hours ago.

They had finally made it back to the TARDIS and as the Doctor energetically studied the view screen and the content of a couple of test tubes, practically cooing at his finding, Rose hunted down breakfast, not having time to finish what the Doctor had started force feeding her at the hotel. When she had been sufficiently woken up by the infusion of caffeine in her coffee she made her way back to the console room where the Doctor was still muttering away.

"The dear Lady President is a genius!" He exclaimed, turning suddenly to her. "A devious, manipulative genius, but a genius all the same! Rose," he grinned, "do you see what this beauty does?" He brandished a test tube at her.

She looked between the test tube and the ridiculously complex chemical structure displayed on the view screen for a few moments before finally staring at the Doctor. An expression, somewhere between confusion, curiosity and bemusement, graced her face.

He continued to grin at her, before launching into his explanation with a list of chemical compounds that she was pretty sure didn't occupy spaces on the periodic table of her era. Which was when she was reminded of the immeasurable gap between human and Time Lord.

This was how she got to where she was now- stuck between feeling like a child and wanting to kick herself. Normally she could follow the Doctor's explanations and his plans, or at least a portion of them. This, she suspected, required the Time Lord equivalent of a chemistry A-Level to understand.

With a sign of resignation she rose onto her tiptoes and peaked out the small windows on the door of the TARDIS. The sun was rising quickly and if she was to meet Marick at midday she would have to leave soon. She looked back at the Doctor, who was happily flinging complements at the obscure chemical, debating whether or not to tell him.

No. No, she wouldn't. Chemistry wasn't her thing but she wasn't stupid. Now, talking to people, that was something she could do. She was nobody's dumb ape and this was as good a time as any to prove it.

The TARDIS door didn't even squeak as she opened it and she slipped out without a word.

As she approached the fountain she decided that she would soon be able to walk between it and the TARDIS with her eyes closed. Marick had yet to arrive and the heat was almost unbearable. As she scooped up water in her hands to drink she thought on how to convince the Doctor to park the TARDIS in the hotel district of the next planet they decided to visit.

As she sipped water from her cupped hands she never noticed the figures approaching her from behind. Water escaped through her fingers as Marick, the slave fallen from favour, the man she had trusted, grabbed her in a head lock.

"Marick! Marick, it's me, it's Rose! What are you- " Her protests were cut off as Marick squeezed his arm tighter around her throat.

Hands clapped together in applause only a few steps away and Rose found herself being forced to turn towards their audience. Her eyes widened in surprise and she tried to force words through her lips but all that was produced was a pained moan.

"Hello again, Dame Rose," Lady Ardeth sneered at her. "Fancy meeting you here." Ardeth produced a small syringe-like device from a pouch strapped around her waist. Rose's struggles increased as the woman approached her. "Now now Rosie, dear. Don't move around so much! You'd hate for this needle to break while inside your skin."

She grabbed a wad of Rose's hair and brought the needle down, placing it lightly on her neck. "I'm so sorry it had to come to this, my dear. I truly am. If only you had sold that charming slave of yours to me this unpleasant business could have been entirely avoided."

This was about the Doctor? She forced herself to think about him instead of what was in that syringe as Ardeth pressed it down into a vein and the crystal clear solution disappeared into her blood.

Ardeth withdrew the empty syringe, replacing it in its pouch. "You can let go of her now," she dismissed Marick, and Rose had every intention of giving her a face full of her fist as Marick withdrew his arm from around her neck. Before she had even lifted her fist, however, Ardeth spoke. "Stay exactly where you are, Rose."

Rose scoffed inwardly. She had no intention of staying still. She wanted out of this despicable woman's company as soon as possible. She went to take a step forward...

And found she couldn't move even an inch. Her legs wouldn't respond, her arms wouldn't respond, she couldn't even wriggle her fingers or toes. Her mouth, on the other hand, was working perfectly.

"What the hell have you done to me?" Her voice was high with panic and her throat was hoarse from being choked.

Ardeth smiled and a chill went up Rose's spine. "Let me give you a little history less, Rose. Over one thousand years ago, my direct ancestors were the Governors of this city. Emile and Delilah Ardeth ruled together as husband and wife. Emile was a great scientist but eventually he invented his own downfall. You see, he was the one that discovered that little chemical that I injected into you. It makes the brain very weak to the powers of suggestion. For example, I told you to stay where you are, so the chemical stops the electrical impulses from your brain from ever reaching your limbs."

Ardeth paused and stroked Marick's cheek with her hand. "But Emile committed a sin that Delilah never forgave him for. He betrayed his wife and grew lustful after another woman." Rose didn't think it was wise to announce that she, Alexandra Ardeth, was doing much the same thing by buying and selling slaves for her own pleasure. Ardeth continued, "So Delilah preyed on his weakness and administered his own formula to him." Her smile grew, "He may have governed this city, but he only did so under Delilah's command. The formula worked so well that she began administering it to everyone, by introducing it to the water supply. She arranged treaties between the cities so that the whole world was ruled by her. And she suggested to the population that the next President should be her daughter. Naturally, they agreed."

Rose interrupted, "So the position of World Leader was passed down through the generations, and you're next, right?" Ardeth nodded. "So what does that have to do with me? Or the Doctor for that matter?" In the films the baddies always liked to gloat to the hero about their nefarious plan. Rose was banking on it being the same in real life.

"The Doctor? Is that what you call your slave? Very well, I'll tell you. For the Presidential line to continue in our family I need to have a child. A daughter, in fact. Assuming this Doctor is as genetically sound as he looks, I intend for him to be the father."

Rose choked as she heard the words from Ardeth's mouth. "You what?"

"You're not from here. If you die, all your possessions go to the state, including your slave. You see," Ardeth patted Rose's cheek, "you should have just sold him to me. Now," she concluded, "to business.

Rose, I want you to walk straight towards that cliff edge. Do not stop, even when you get there. Keep walking forwards. Do not ask anyone for help." Ardeth's cold eyes met hers. "Goodbye, Dame Rose Tyler."

And so, Rose began to walk. She tried not to. She tried to point herself in a different direction. She even tried to fall flat on her face.

She failed.

All she had left was the power of her mind, but what use was that? If only she had told the Doctor where she was going. If she hadn't been so confident she wouldn't be walking towards her death. Her breathing quickened as she realised that was exactly what she was walking towards. Her death. She closed her eyes, only for a moment. She had to think! Think! How could she get in contact with the Doctor? If only she was psychic! But thinking about the impossible wasn't going to help her now...

Psychic! Of course!

Well, Rose decided, if the Face of Boe could do it, then so could she!

A.N. Phew! What a chapter! Hope you enjoyed it! Next chapter might be the last one, I'm not sure. Anyway, we'll see what exactly the Doctor discovered about the chemicals! I hope to update again soon! Let me know what you think!

~Sweetdeath04