"First of all," Rose pointed furiously at the old man who was cornered in his velveted high-back chair and glared at him furiously, "you drug me, then you kidnap me," her voice rose, "and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man." Her fierce gaze caused the man to deflate a bit before pulling his shoulders back once the Doctor's sniggers reached his ears.

"I won't be spoken to like this, young lady!" he spat.

Aria rolled her eyes as Rose plowed on, ignoring him. "Then you stuck me in a room full of zombies!" Her hands exasperatedly slapped against her thighs. "And if that ain't enough, you swan off! And leave me to die!" Aria thought she would be great at anything from interrogating prisoners to guilt-tripping kids who had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "So come on, talk!"

If the old man, Mr. Sneed, as she'd been told he was called, hadn't answered the hot-blooded Londoner, Aria was certain he would have had a candleabra held threatenly under his chin. Not that she would've had any problem with such an action...

"It's not my fault, it's this house!" He paused, eyes widening as he quickly glanced at the other occupants in the room, realizing he was caught. "It always had a... reputation." A shadow flickered across his face. "Haunted." He shivered. "But I never had much bother until a few months back. And then the stiffs..." Sneed quickly ammended himself once he caught sight of the angry and offended expression on Charles Dicken's face. "...the er, dear departed started getting restless."

"Tommyrot." Dickens snorted. As Aria hadn't witnessed the event, she couldn't give her opinion on it. But, knowing how trouble was a magnet for the Doctor, she believed 100 percent that what was going on was real. It amused and saddened her to see Dickens dismiss the fact that there were many unknowns to the world, however it did make sense. It was something the Doctor would truly never understand.

Sneed huffed in annoyance and amazement at his persisted denail. "You witnissed it! Can't keep the beggars down, sir!" He leaned forward and lowered his voice to a conspiritional level. "They walk. And it's the queerest thing that they hang on to scraps..."

Aria's attention on the conversation was broken as the servant girl, Gwyneth, the watch whispered, brought over two cups of tea on a platter to her and the Doctor in the corner where they stood. "Two sugars, sir, just how you like it." The Doctor peered at the girl curiously over the teacup he now held; Gwyneth avoided his gaze by cleverly turning to hand Aria's hers. "I know you don't prefer tea, but this always helps soothe me after a rough encounter." Aria's eyebrows rose in surprise at the girl's statement. It wasn't that she was wrong, but she shouldn't have known such a fact. The two travelers watched the brunette as she retreated, both trains of thought along the same line.

"Telepathic?" Aria whispered without turning to look at him.

"No," the Doctor mused, sipping on his tea in delight. "Possibly psychic. She's definitely human though." He looked up back towards the old men. "Oh, Charles, you were there." Aria sensed that the writer was once again dimissing the possibility of other worldly inhabitants.

Dickens huffed vexedly. "I saw nothing but an illusion. A trick of the mind, which I wouldn't be surprised if you set up."

The Time Lord clenched his jaw, and inwardly Aria groaned in frustration. "If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time. Just- just shut up."

The room fell into stunned silence as they all stared at the man in the leather jacket. Aria could tell that Rose was a bit shocked by his curtness and that she hadn't seen this side of the man.

Deciding the awkwardness had stretched long enough, she lifted the tea cup to her lips and asked, "What about the gas?" before taking a long sip.

Sneed replied in his wavering voice. "I've never seen anything like it before, miss. It's new."

"The rift's getting wider..." Aria heard the Doctor say before she felt a warm shock enter her chest from her watch.

Be ready... it whispered.

'But for what?' Aria thought.

For her death.

Aria had never been in such pain as she stood under the archway in the morgue's basement, desperately trying to force the Gelth back into the rift where they were slowly dying. Her eyes were open wide, arms out to each side and mouth stretched in a silent scream as the spirit-like creatures poured through her into their universe. She had pushed Gwyneth out of the way when the ghostly figures had beckoned her to save them, and she had no regrets for her actions...

But she did feel absolutely terrible for the Doctor's horrified expression when he saw what her actions had accomplished. Rose didn't warrant a glance, not when so much energy was being spent trying to close the bridge between worlds that she had become. She saw the Gelth enter the deceased bodies. She saw them kill Sneed and corner Rose and the Doctor into a small alcove behind bars. In the back of her mind, she wondered why none harmed them still body of the servant girl.

None of her thoughts could distract her from the agonizing fire that ran through her veins, attacking every nerve in her body. She wondered if this was how regenerating felt to the Doctor.

The Doctor.

She couldn't let him down.

Aria screamed his name, and the walls of the rift came crashing shut around her, shoving her back into the oblivion of the Time Vortex.

She knew that students at the Academy on Gallifrey stared into the Vortex at a young age. Some grew from what they saw. Some when mad. Some ran.

The Doctor ran.

Aria couldn't.

The swirling chaos wrapped around her and tore her apart at the same time, sending her tumbling. She felt like a kitten in a tornado, helpless. Her scream was torn from her throat as she hurtled through time and space. She didn't notice that the watch hanging around her neck was glowing a bright gold and was burning to touch. She didn't notice that her lacerations from falling on the steps earlier had spirals of gold matter flowing into them, entering her circulatory system. She couldn't tell that her irises were now rimmed in gold.

Aria only knew she was on fire.

She called out to the only person who cared.

The world stilled.

The pain stopped.

Aria's eyes shut in relief and she lost herself in darkness once more, but not before hearing some cry out her name from somewhere in the distance.