Author's Note: Now, you DID read ReichWorld first, right? Good.

From this point forward, in any scene with more than one flower, just "Rose" will refer to Our Rose, Jared's bride, the former companion of the Doctor. All other Roses will have other identifiers added to their names, such as Reich Rose, below (from the aforementioned ReichWorld). Scenes with only one flower will just refer to her as Rose, after establishing which one she is. If there's any confusion anywhere, please let me know via review or private message, and I'll edit in a bit more clarity. Deal?

Connections

"Oooookay," Rose slowly exhaled. "Definitely parallel worlds." Some of the six other identical faces exchanged glances at that pronouncement, while one of them perked up and stepped forward.

"Ulva?" she queried.

Rose swung towards her – only in one world had she been called that. She nodded, then gestured back to the speaker, "You're...?"

"Yeah, the Reich." Both women blew out relieved breaths to find one splinter of familiarity in the situation. "Do you know what world we're in?" Reich Rose went on.

"Well, definitely not Beta," Rose replied, thinking it through as she spoke, "because we made two jumps. The first was a time jump, the second was between worlds." Catching the quizzical look on Reich Rose's face, she grimaced. "Experience. There's a slight difference in how it feels. Besides, he controlled the first with a Time Jumper," motioning to her wrist where it would be, "but had to call home for the second. What about you? How many jumps did it take for you to get here?"

"Two," came the reply with a nod. "So we're not in Reich World, either."

"What about the rest of you," Rose turned towards the other mirror images. "How many jumps did it take for you to get here?"

A confused chorus of "two"s came back from most, but Reich Rose turned to another woman standing to one side with a uncomprehending expression, and reposed the question in slow, basic German, then again with many gestures pantomiming the experience. Finally the light dawned, and two fingers were held up. Reich Rose turned back to Rose, explaining, "She doesn't speak English. I don't know what language she does speak – it sounds kind of like Welsh – but she also speaks a bit of a kind of German, so we can talk a little bit."

"How long have you been here?" put in Rose. The other woman seemed to have made quite a bit of progress in understanding the situation.

Reich Rose shrugged. "A couple of hours. I was brought in first, then these others one by one." She turned again and gestured to yet another Rose. "Her English is strange, but still English. The rest of us all seem to speak the same."

"And we were all brought across parallels. So we're either in Alpha, or another one entirely." Rose returned to the main question.

"Why Alpha?"

"Because that's where I'm from originally. I'm Alpha's Rose Tyler. There wasn't one in Beta. Besides, I think I know where we are, anyway – and that's definitely in Alpha." The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that they were in Jack's hideaway under Cardiff.

"And you are a very clever girl," came a male voice from the doorway, and all seven heads swiveled in that direction. They hadn't heard the inset window open.

Their captor's face peered through the bars, his ice-green eyes staring at Rose. "So you are the one who should have influenced me? I'm grateful for your absence."

"Excuse me?"

"I've brought you all here because each of you would have had some sort of influence over the parallel versions of myself at some point in your future, influence I do not wish you to have. Now things will progress the way they should have."

"And what are you going to do with us?" Reich Rose demanded.

"I haven't decided yet. Perhaps I'll keep you around for amusement. You'd make a marvelous dance troup. Or a harem..." Corvantes smiled malevolently – and again, Rose noted it didn't reach his eyes.

Suddenly, an odd sound came from behind Corvantes, a dull thud. His eyes glazed over, and he toppled out of sight of the inset window, knocked out by the blow from a blunt object. The holder of that object loomed up instead, grinning cockily through the window.

"Sorry, buddy, but the only one around here allowed to have a harem is me."

"Where the hell have you been?" Rose yelled, but her answering grin betrayed her relief at being rescued, once again, by the one and only Captain Jack Harkness.

^..^

Jared stared in panic at the spot Rose and the stranger had just winked out from for several long moments before snapping out of it. He turned and thundered up the stairs to their flat, flying back down a moment later with his sonic screwdriver, and swept it across the spot under several different settings. None of them told him anything other than it had been a temporal shift. There was no residual trail his sonic could read.

"Dammit!" Swearing uncharacteristically – a habit the Doctor had never picked up – he shut the sonic off, then, whistling to Tock, he whirled about and headed at a dead run to the Island and the Torchwood facility hidden beneath it. The dog gave a final, questioning whimper and followed at his master's heels.

Bursting through the doors into the old smuggling tunnel now holding the Dimension Cannon, Jared abruptly halted, startled to see it empty of people. Where was everyone? Then he remembered – getting ready for his and Rose's wedding! He checked his watch – it was due to start in less than two hours. And it will, he thought grimly, if it takes the rest of my life to find her and bring her back in time.