Here's another chapter for you guys. I'm glad you're all loving it so far ^_^
My roommate is currently sobbing fangirl tears over there...I'm a little concerned. Not about this (not yet XD) but something. Hmm. So far my attempts at getting an answer have been met with a wordless grrraaaaaawwwwrrrraaaaaah... Oh well, here's the chapter while I coax the answer out of her.
Light, rapid footsteps caught Rose's attention and she saw Martha hurrying towards her. The black woman motioned towards the door. "Quick, inside!"
Rose stepped backwards into the door, shoving it open with her shoulder, and turned around. The Doctor was at work examining a computer with the sonic screwdriver. She stepped over a fallen chair and leaned forward to peer over his shoulder. Windows flicked across the screen rapidly but from what she could tell there was nothing on them.
Martha entered the room behind her. "They've reached the third floor," she informed him. They didn't have long, then. She noticed the screwdriver. "What's that thing?"
"Sonic screwdriver," the Doctor said absently.
"Well, if you're not going to answer me properly."
He stopped scanning for a moment and turned. "No, really, it is. It's a screwdriver, and it's sonic." He held it up for her to see. "Look."
The Doctor went back to scanning and Martha laughed. "What else have you got? A laser spanner?" she asked sarcastically.
"I did," he said matter-of-factly. "But it was stolen by Emily Pankhurst, cheeky woman."
Rose blinked. "Emily Pankhurst? When was this?"
"Two regenerations ago. I helped chain her to 10 Downing Street." He stopped scanning and whacked the screen. "Oh, this computer! The Judoon must have locked it down. Judoon platoon upon the moon." He muttered to himself as rubbed his chin, his shoulders stiff with frustration. Rose put her hand on his shoulder and felt the muscles relax beneath her touch.
"Why does it always have to be London?" he complained. "Cause we were just here for chips and to visit her friend, I swear, Martha. We weren't looking for trouble, honestly—but that's never helped us before, eh Rose?" He ran his hand through his hair agitatedly, mussing it up even more than it already was. "But I noticed these plasma coils around the hospital, and that lightning, that's plasma coils, they've been building up for two days now, so we checked in to check it out. I thought maybe there was something in here that shouldn't be, something causing them. Turns out the plasma coils were the Judoon up above."
He leaned forward and began to type and Rose put her hand on his shoulder again. They'd barely started and he was already getting too close to the line he always toed in this body. The line he dared not cross but loved to test. He came closest to stepping over in matters regarding her, specifically her safety. Right now, she was as safe as anyone else in the hospital, trapped on the moon with a limited oxygen supply.
"You said they were after an alien? But how could there be an alien here? Someone would've noticed, right?" Martha asked.
"Not if it looks human and there are a lot of species that resemble your kind, Martha Jones."
She folded her arms. "Like you. Apparently."
"Like me. But not me." He promised. "Not Rose, either. She's human."
"But—and I'm not saying I believe you—but I don't see why you'd be in danger. Don't they have a photo?"
"Might be a shape-changer."
"Whatever it is, can't you just leave the Judoon to find it?"
Rose took a step away from the Doctor, looking at the door. A single patient ran by, evidently in a panic, followed by a nurse. A fresh wave of terrified screaming from floors below reached their ears, probably a new group of humans being scanned by the Judoon. "She's got a point, there, Doctor. Maybe we should go up to the roof and wait instead of mucking about down here."
He shook his head immeditaly. "If they can't find who they're looking for then they'll declare the hospital guilty of harboring a fugitive and it'll be sentenced to execution."
"All of us?" Martha's eyes widened. "But we haven't done anything!"
"You don't have the time to prove that and they probably would even listen—OH!" He exclaimed angrily, smacking the computer and pushing himself away, causing the two women to jump back in alarm. "Do you see? They're thick! Judoon are thick! They are completely thick! They wiped the records! Oh, that's clever." His hands went to his hair again.
"Doctor, what are we looking for?" Rose asked.
"I don't know!" He said through his teeth. "Any patient admitted in the past week with unusual symptoms."
"Like severe abdominal pains?" Martha muttered but the Doctor didn't seem to hear her, grabbing the computer screen and muttering something about a backup drive. "Just keep working. I'll go ask Mr. Stoker, he might know."
The Doctor didn't even acknowledge her. He turned the screen around, peering at the sides and the back. He picked up his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the screen, tongue clamped between his teeth.
Martha looked at Rose who nodded. "Hurry."
Not a minute after she left, the Doctor let out an excited shout. "Ha! Thick but not thick enough!" He jumped out of the chair. "Come on, we need to get up higher. I'm going to need a few minutes to sort through this stuff."
Rose nodded and the Doctor paused in his grim glee to examine her. He put his hands on either side of her face and asked softly, "Are you okay?"
"'m fine," she replied quietly.
"Are you having any trouble breathing?"
She shook her head.
His eyes were pained but he managed to keep his voice level. "You will soon. All these terrified people and hundreds of Judoon, they're eating up the air like piranhas. Do you remember how I told you to breathe with low air?"
She nodded, covering his hand with one of her own.
"Good." He managed a genuine smile and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "The last thing we need is Jackie Tyler breaking the walls of reality to come after me because I let you die on the moon."
Rose half laughed at that and the Doctor took her hand, leading her out into the hall. They rounded the corner and the same time Martha burst through a door and careened into them. The Doctor let go of Rose to steady the medical student.
"I've restored the backup," he announced.
Eyes wide with panic, she blurted, "I found her!"
"You did what?"
The door Martha emerged from was shoved forward, falling to the floor with a thud that made everyone nearby shriek, and a tall figure in black leather wearing what appeared to be a motorcycle helmet leaped through. Whatever it was, it was too thin to be a Judoon, but definitely not friendly.
The Doctor's eyes widened, "Run!" he grabbed their hands and took off down the hall with the leather man hard on their trail. They passed patients and doctors alike who leaped away to avoid getting hit or were simply huddled against the wall. He let go of their hands to push the door to the staircase open and they immediately bounded down, and Rose was wondering why they weren't going up and away from the Judoon when, lo and behind, the humanoid rhinos appeared beneath them, marching up the staircase to the fourth floor.
The Doctor swiveled around, grabbing the women to steady them, then pushed them towards the exit.
They ran down an empty staff corridor lined with carts and cleaning supplies here and there along the walls. Panels were crooked in the ceiling, or missing altogether, and wires hung from the holes left behind, a result of the violent tremors from the H2O scoop.
A quick glance over her shoulder showed the Leather Man pursuing them determinedly. "What did you do to this guy, Martha?" Rose gasped.
The medical student let out a breathy whimper, struggling just to keep up with them.
They ran along the corridors with the Doctor seemingly picking turns at random, which resulted in a lot of skidding and pushing off the walls and banged elbows. The Doctor stopped abruptly, catching Rose and shoving her down a side hall. Martha was just far enough behind that he managed to push her as well and then he bolted after them. Their momentary pause had reduced the Leather Man's distance by several feet, and he was practically on top of them when the Doctor opened a door, jostled both women in and following before slamming it shut in Leather Man's face, locking the door with his screwdriver. That wouldn't hold him for long.
They were in an x-ray room with someone's scans still hanging on the boards, a testament to how normal things had been just an hour ago. The Doctor grabbed them both, yet again, and pushed them into the control room. "When I say 'now', press the button, Martha!"
Martha's hands flailed around uselessly. "But I don't know which one!"
"How do you not know?" Rose cried. "You're a doctor!"
"Yeah, but I'm not a radiologist!"
"Well you better start learning!" The Doctor barked and withdrew from the room, heading for the machinery.
Martha stared down at the controls in dismay and Rose looked around the room for something that would give them any clue on what to do. Did they expect the employees to just have this memorized? "Aren't there any instructions? A how-to or something?!"
The Leather Man started to ram against the door.
"Oh, yes!" Martha grabbed a book from the counter labeled Operator's Manual. She wrenched it open, flitting through the pages desperately for something, anything that'd give her a clue how to work the damned machine, and wishing she'd opted to take a radiology course in med school, and vowing that she would find a way to if she survived this. Rose stood in front of the control panel with her hands ready to act.
Then the door gave way under the assault, crashing to the floor and Martha gasped. The Doctor had the X-ray machine pointed like a gun at the doorway and the fast-approaching Leather Man.
"Which button?" Rose screeched as the Doctor shouted, "NOW!"
Martha shook her head, sending up a silent prayer that this would work, and pointed to the big yellow button that was higher than the others. Rose slammed her hand down on it and they both flinched away, squeezing their eyes shut against the near-blinding white light, not unlike the light of the H20 scoop. An odd buzzing sound filled the air that reminded Rose of the sonic screwdriver as massive amounts of radiation exploded into the air. She could almost feel it in her bones, the power being released onto the poor bastard that had pursued them. And then it was over and the light and sound and sensations disappeared like they'd never been there, save for a residual tingle in the air. The Leather Man fell face forward to the floor and for a moment the room was silent except for the tiny jingle of his zipper. Breathing heavily, Rose gripped the control panel for support. The Doctor let go of his impromptu weapon and took a step towards the body on the floor.
"What did you do?" Martha asked.
"Increased the radiation by five thousand percent." The Doctor explained. "Killed him dead."
"Nice," Rose remarked under her breath, looking at the thing on the floor. Whatever it was it must've been bad if the Doctor—the man who believed everyone deserved an opportunity to cease and desist, the man who preferred to fight with wits and words—chose to kill it without even giving it a chance.
"But isn't that gonna kill you?" Martha asked, setting the manual down.
"Nah, it's only roentgen radiation. We used to play with roentgen bricks in the nursery."
Rose snorted with laughter and Martha looked at her like she was crazy. The Doctor frowned, twitching oddly. "What?"
"I'm sorry…but I can just picture a mini-you with…big ol' ears and a diaper playin with glowin' green blocks," she chortled.
"Oi, I'll have you know, I did not have big ears when I was a baby. And diapers are only for very young infants. Unlike you apes, we learn how to control our basic bodily functions fairly quickly."
Rose continued to laugh, giddy with the relief that came from the adrenaline rush during the chase combined with her adorable mental pictures. The Doctor gave her a smug look, still twitching oddly, and said, "I seem to recall you playing with some odd things when you were a baby."
Rose frowned indigently. "Hey, when did you go lookin' at me when I was a baby?"
"It was Jack's idea," he explained sheepishly.
"Hey!" Martha shouted. "Would you two stop it for a moment and focus? What's wrong with you?" she asked the Doctor. "Why are you…" she made a face and gestured at him with her hands, "…twitching?"
"I absorbed all the radiation," he explained. "It's safe for you to come out…I just need to…ah, ah…expel it."
He bounced on his toes, hopping from foot to foot, shaking his limbs. Both women cautiously exited the control room. Rose tried to get closer to him, only to be stopped by Martha who shook her head. She wasn't a specialist, but she knew enough about the radiation currently in the Doctor's body to know it wasn't something Rose should be exposed to on that scale.
"If I concentrate I can shake the radiation out of my body and into one spot." He shook his head, looking down at his left foot and held it aloft, hopping up and down on his right foot. "It's in my left shoe. Here we go, here we go, easy does it..." He kicked his foot. "Out, out! Ow! Ow! Ow!"
Martha stared at him completely nonplussed and Rose's shoulders were shaking with barely constrained laughter.
"Ah, ah, ah, ah! Itches, itches, itches, itches, oh! Ah, hold on!" He grabbed his shoe and pulled it off, sock and all. Lifting the lid of a yellow bin, he tossed them both inside and slammed it shut.
"Done." He announced.
"You're completely mad," Martha realized. Rose sputtered out a laugh.
"You're right," he said seriously. "I look daft in one shoe." He leaned down, plucked the other sock and shoe off and chucked them in the bin with their counterparts. Martha gawked at him. "Barefoot on the moon." His teeth clicked together.
That was all Rose could take. She roared with laughter, leaning against the wall for support as her body shook with the force of it and her legs felt like they'd give out. The Doctor chuckled right along with her, grinning broadly, and Martha shook her head.
"Mad. Completely mad. Both of you!"
That just made them laugh even more and Martha sighed, looking down at the dead Leather Man. She waited until their laughter had subsided before bothering to speak.
"If you two are quite done, do you want to explain to me what the hell that thing is and where it's from? The planet Zovirax?" She crouched down next to the corpse to examine it.
"It's just a Slab," the Doctor said, crouching opposite of her. "They're called Slabs. Basic slave drones."
"Basic slave drones? Sound a bit familiar, Doctor?" Rose asked tightly.
He glanced up. "Not like the Ood." He assured her. "It wasn't alive, not really. Look, solid leather all the way through. Someone has got one hell of a fetish."
"Like someone else I know." Rose teased.
The Doctor huffed and went to retrieve his screwdriver. "Different me."
"It was that woman, Miss Finnegan." Martha said. "It was working for her just like a servant."
"Sounds an awful lot like an Ood," Rose commented.
There was a hiss as the Doctor removed his sonic screwdriver that, sadly, appeared to not have made it through the increase of radiation unscathed. "My sonic screwdriver!" he exclaimed quietly.
Unaware of the significance, Martha continued right on, "She was one of the patients, but—"
"My sonic screwdriver!" he repeated. Rose peered at it and frowned. It wasn't just damaged; it was fried.
"—she had a straw like some kind of vampire!"
"I loved my sonic screwdriver! Rose, look at—"
"Doctor!"
"Sorry!" He apologized, tossing his beloved screwdriver over his shoulder like yesterday's garbage. It hit the wall and clattered against the floor and Rose rolled her eyes. The Doctor grinned. "You called me 'Doctor.'"
"Anyway." Martha said pointedly. "Miss Finnegan is the alien. She was drinking Mr. Stoker's blood."
"Poor bloke." Rose muttered.
"Funny time to take a snack. You'd think she'd be hiding." He mused, then his eyes widened. "Unless—no. …Yes, that's it! Wait a minute… YES! Shape-changer! Internal shape-changer!" To Rose he said, "Remember that plasmavore on Srensto? The little boy who tried to drink you blood with that curly straw?"
Rose made a face and shuddered. "Oh God, don't remind me. I still can't even look at those things…"
"Miss Finnegan must be a plasmavore. She wasn't drinking the blood. She was assimilating it! If she can assimilate Mr. Stoker's blood, mimic the biology, she'll register as human."
"And if she does that—"
"Then I'll be the only thing in this hospital that doesn't register as human and unless they know they're after a female, they'll assume it was me. We've got to find her and show the Judoon. Come on!"
They ran from the room but the Doctor froze almost immediately. Unprepared, Rose crashed into him and Martha just managed to avoid causing a dog pile. "Doctor?" Rose gasped.
"Ah, tchhh, shh, shh!" He held up his hand, listening inteltly to something they couldn't hear. "Down!" He hissed, pulling them against the wall, and crouched down in a doorway behind a water dispenser.
"What is it?" Martha whispered.
"Shh!" He hissed fiercely, his teeth bared in a snarl. Rose put her hand on his cheek and gazed at him, begging him with her eyes to calm down.
A door opened down the hall and closed. The trio waited, holding their breath, as the sound of footsteps and leather moving against leather came closer to them. An identical duplicate of the body they'd left in the room walked by. It didn't pause or even glance their way, continuing on down the hall. Martha's breathing was shaky when she inhaled again.
"That's the thing about Slabs," the Doctor explained quietly once it was out of earshot. "The always travel in pairs."
"What about you two?" Martha asked.
The Doctor frowned. "What about us?"
"Do you two always travel together like this? Just each other's backup for this go-round, full-time partners, or are you more than that?"
"We're friends," Rose said, "and yeah, we do travel with each other full-time."
"Humans," the Doctor scoffed. "We're stuck on the moon, running out of air, with Judoon and a bloodsucking criminal, you're asking personal questions. Come on."
He stepped out, keeping low and watching the way the Slab had gone in case it came back.
"I like that," Martha muttered. "'Humans.' I'm still not convinced you're an alien."
So focused on watching for the Slab, the Doctor didn't notice that he'd stepped out in front of a troop of Judoon until he turned and found the blue light of a scanner shining in his eyes.
"Nonhuman," the masked rhino declared and Rose swore softly.
"Oh my God, you really are!" Martha murmured.
"And again!" The Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and the three of them booked it.
Behind them, the Judoon drew their guns and they whined as they powered up. There was a distinct noise as they fired and the three of them barely ducked in time to avoid getting vaporized. Martha shrieked once. Wrenching the door open, they darted into the stairway and headed up this time. Rose found she had to agree with the Doctor's view on hospitals: the only thing good about them were the shops. She was beginning to feel the shortage of oxygen, too. It was harder and harder to get a good lungful of air. They were running out of time.
They went back onto the seventh floor and Rose took point, leading them around corners and through doorways while the Doctor remained in the back, locking doors behind them the old fashioned way. It wasn't much, but it'd slow any Judoon after them for a few moments. They emerged into a corridor, walking briskly past people who were slumping to the floor, trying to breathe in the thinning air. Some were lucky enough to have oxygen masks strapped to their face, but those tanks were like Titanic lifeboats. They could save them for a time, wouldn't last long if they weren't rescued.
"They've done this floor. Come on. The Judoon are logical and just a little bit thick." the Doctor explained. "They won't go back to check a floor they've checked already. If we're lucky."
Martha noticed her friend kneeling by a patient with an oxygen mask and she stopped, kneeling beside her. Julia gave her a look of despair, but she was calmer now, having accepted their location and what had to be done.
"Doctor, I don't know if you noticed, but we're usually not lucky." Rose pointed out tersely, then realized Martha was no longer with them and paused. "Hold on, wait."
The Doctor turned around. "What?"
She pointed to Martha and Julia, the latter was rubbing the arm of a black woman in a sky blue robe who had an oxygen mask on her face.
"How much oxygen is there?" Martha asked.
"Not enough for all these people," Julia replied quietly. "We're gonna run out."
"How are you feeling?" the Doctor asked Martha. "Are you alright?"
"I'm running on adrenaline."
"Welcome to our world," he muttered then looked at Rose. "And you?"
"Been better," she said, taking deliberate, slow breaths. "Been worse."
"Rose."
"I'll be fine, Doctor. Let's just not run anymore marathons, yeah?" She said seriously. "But what about the Judoon?"
"Ah, great big lung reserves. It won't slow them down. Where's Mr. Stokers office?"
"Just down here," Martha pushed herself to her feet and walked past them. The Doctor followed.
Rose hung back for a moment. Julia's eyes were resigned and sad as if she'd already accepted her fate. "We're all going to die, aren't we?" Julia asked calmly.
"No," Rose shook her head. "We're gonna make it, I promise you."
Julia shook her head as well. "Don't."
Rose knelt down beside Julia and the patient who was now looking at Rose as well. "Listen to me." Rose ordered. "Do you remember the aliens at Christmas? The Cybermen? And the ship hittin' Big Ben? Everyone thought the world was gonna end, right? Well, it didn't. You know why? 'Cause we stopped it, me 'n him. We stopped that then, and we're gonna stop this now. I'm not mad, I swear. Just keep up what you're doin. Alright? Be a doctor." She gave both women a reassuring smile then followed after the Doctor.
Just down the hall were the double doors the Slab had come bursting out of and she could hear the Doctor talking from within. She carefully stepped over the fallen door into a large office with pictures of human anatomy and Mr. Stoker's credentials in frames. Mr. Stoker himself was on the floor, dead, his skin a gross shade of gray. Rose made a face.
"—right. She is a plasmavore."
"What's she doing on Earth?" Martha asked.
"Hiding, on the run. Like Ronald Biggs in Rio de Janeiro." He frowned. "What's she doing now? She's still not safe. …The Judoon could execute us all. Come on." He rose and headed for the door, grabbing Rose's hand as he passed.
"Wait," Martha said suddenly. She walked over and knelt respectfully beside her former instructor, sliding his eyelids shut with her fingers. Rose and the Doctor looked on solemnly. Martha stood up and exhaled, nodding.
The Doctor pulled Rose out into the hallway. "Think, think, think!" he said to himself. "If I was a wanted plasmavore surrounded by police, what would I do?" He looked up and froze, his muscles tense. Rose followed his gaze to a red sign with white letters that read 'MRI' with an arrow pointing left.
"Aaah… she's as clever as me. Almost."
"What do you—" Rose started to ask, but a door down the hall banged open and people screamed. Heavy footsteps and a gruff voice echoed loudly over the human cries, "Find the nonhuman. Execute."
The Doctor put his hands on Rose's shoulders. "Rose, stay here with Martha. I need time. You've got to hold them up."
"No," she shook her head. "No, she can hold them up. I'm not leavin' you."
"Rose," he said seriously. "Trust me. I need you to stay here. I've got a plan, but if you're there, it might not work. Rose, please."
Rose gritted her teeth and glared at him. He stared back and for once it seemed he would not be swayed and they didn't have time for arguing. The Judoon could reach them any second. So she exhaled angrily through her teeth to let him know her displeasure and nodded.
"What do I do?" she asked.
"Stall." He said, cupping her face in his hands. "Then lead them to the MRI room."
"Okay," Rose nodded. "How should I—?"
He leaned forward and kissed her full on the mouth, his hands tightening on her face, then he broke away and ran down the hall away from the Judoon without looking back. Rose swallowed, her lips trembling as she sucked in a breath. It wasn't the first time he'd kissed her but was definitely chaste compared to some of the kisses they'd shared.
"Just friends, eh?" Martha muttered.
Rose swallowed. "Best mates." She looked down at the ground and noticed, for the first time, an oxygen tank lying empty near the wall. Someone had scrawled the words Bad Wolf with a black marker onto the metal container. After all this time, Bad Wolf was still looking out for their Doctor.
Martha followed her gaze to the random words on the tank, probably written by some delirious or terrified patient. But the sight of those two words seemed to stir something in Rose. Her mouth tightened, her eyes narrowed, she squared her shoulders and when she spoke it was with an authority she didn't have before. "Come on. We'll head them off."
They retreated to the hallway where Julia was and stood between the oncoming Judoon and the Doctor. Martha's breathing was shallow and she was trembling, a sharp contrast to Rose, who was standing eerily still, her shoulders squared, and her chin lifted.
"Find the nonhuman. Execute!" The unmasked Judoon roared.
"Judoon!" Rose shouted. "Judoon! Listen to me! We know who you're lookin' for! She's here, in the hospital."
The Judoon stopped in front of them, but Martha couldn't tell if they were going to listen or sweep them out of the way.
"She's this woman, she calls herself Florence." Martha explained, her voice surprisingly level. The Judoon Chief pulled out his scanner and shined it in Martha's face.
"Human." He declared and grabbed Martha's hand, marking it with a thick black X, before he turned the scanner on Rose. This time it beeped out a slightly different report. "Human. Wait. Nonhuman trace suspected."
Behind him, the masked Judoon drew their guns and pointed at Rose. "Nonhuman element confirmed. Authorize full scan."
"Listen to me—" Rose's gaze hardened and she started to lift her arm, but the Judoon caught it, twisted it, and she inhaled loudly, her face contorting in pain as he backed her against the wall.
"Rose!" Martha shouted.
"Keep back." Her gaze was hard, despite the moisture in her eyes, and she stared down the monstrous alien.
"What are you? What are you?" the Judoon demanded.
"That's the question, ain't it?" She asked through her clenched teeth without a trace of fear. Martha stared at the blonde woman like she'd never seen her before. There was something in Rose's eyes, something dark and ancient and feral and Martha found herself wondering exactly how human Rose was.
Julia put her hand on Martha's arm and she turned to her friend. "What did it mean, 'nonhuman element?' Is she an alien?"
"I don't think so, but…" But what human could stare down a Judoon like that especially when in that much pain? "I don't know. I just don't know anymore."
The Judoon stepped back, releasing Rose, and she brought her injured arm to her chest protectively. He grabbed her other hand and marked it with an X, declaring, "Human. Traces of recent facial contact with nonhuman and older contact with multiple nonhuman species on multiple areas of the body."
"I could've told you that," Rose muttered.
"Continue the search," he ordered the troops, then handed Rose a thin piece of white plastic. "You will need this."
"What's that for?"
"Compensation."
Rose peered at it with interest, like she was actually able to understand the strange writing on it. "Blimey, is this for standard credit?" She muttered, pocketing the white piece of plastic, and followed after the Judoon.
Martha and Julia stared, dumbfounded, but Martha recovered first. "Keep on, Julia."
"But…" Julia stared after her friend, but made no move to follow her, Rose, or the Judoon. Whatever had happened to Martha in the last hour, Julia wanted no part of it.
Martha hurried to catch up with Rose who was insisting that she knew what they were after. "You said it yourself! Multiple nonhuman traces! I know what I'm talkin' about!" She turned to Martha and said under her breath, "Thickheads. I think they broke my wrist."
"Human. Where is the nonhuman?" the Judoon Chief demanded.
She pointed at the sign that said MRI. "Follow the signs."
The Judoon took off quickly and Martha and Rose were barely able to keep up. Rose's wrist was already darkening with bruises and Martha could hear her hiss softly in pain as it was jostled around. They were trailing behind when the Judoon reached the room and arrived in time to hear the Chief, whose scanner pointing at a familiar man on the floor, say, "Confirm—deceased."
Rose froze, completely and utterly, and then she let out shriek that wasn't human and threw herself forward, only to be restrained by one of the Judoon. "NO! Doctor! Doctor!" she screeched.
"Case closed."
"Let go! GET OFF ME!" She shouted, looking up at the woman with a feral look, an odd gleam of yellow in her eyes. "It wasn't him! It was her! She killed him!"
"She did," Martha added, trying to get past. "She murdered him like she murdered Mr. Stoker!"
"Judoon have no authority over human crime," the Chief responded.
"She's not human!" Rose spat at the plasmavore.
"Oh, but I am. I've been catalogued." Florence Finnegan said, holding up the back of her hand, showing the thick X inked onto her skin.
"But she's not!" Martha protested. "She assimi—" she stopped mid-sentence, eyes widening as she realized what the Doctor had done. "Wait a minute. You drank his blood—the Doctor's blood?"
Rose made a noise of rage and struggled again to get at the plasmavore, but the Judoon held firm. Martha grabbed a scanner off one of the Judoon and shined it at Finnegan.
"Oh, I don't mind!" The woman tittered. "Scan all you like."
The scanner beeped its result. "Nonhuman," the Chief declared.
The woman's amusement vanished. "What?"
"Confirm analysis."
A half dozen scanners were pointed at the plasmavore and Rose's face twisted into a vicious smile, finally understanding the Doctor's idiotic plan.
"Oh, but it's a mistake, surely!" she tittered nervously. "I'm human. I'm as human as they come."
"He gave his life so they'd find you." Martha, for her part, was amazed. The Doctor didn't know any of these people and yet he'd died for them, like some sort of scrawny super hero.
"And if they don't kill you, I will." Rose vowed. Martha's eyes widened and she looked at her. That hadn't sounded like Rose, not the Rose she knew. There'd been a faint echo to her voice, almost like someone else starting to speak with her. More frightening were her eyes, definitely more golden than brown, and murderous. The only thing keeping that vampire-alien alive right now was, ironically, a Judoon.
"Confirm—plasmavore." The Judoon declared and all traces of humanity vanished from the woman's face. "Charged with murdering the child princess of Padrivole Regency Nine."
"Well, she deserved it." The plasmavore growled. "Those pink cheeks and those blonde curls and that simpering voice. She was begging for the bite of a plasmavore."
"Do you confess?"
"Confess? I'm proud of it!" She shouted and retreated behind her bodyguard "Slab—stop them!"
The drone moved to do just that, but before he could do more than take a few steps towards them, a Judoon fired his gun and a red beam of light shot into the Slab. It turned red, disintegrating into the air. Finnegan was already at work, messing the wires in the control room and Rose and Martha noticed the machine for the first time, fizzing and crackling with power.
"Verdict—guilty," the Chief said. "Sentence—execution."
With a savage grin, she shoved two chords together and an alarm began to blare, the words 'magnetic overload' flashing in red on a sign.
"Down!" Martha gasped, pulling Rose to the floor as the Judoon drew their guns. The plasmavore was shouting at the Judoon but her words made no sense to Rose as she struggled forward on her elbows and knees, ignoring the pain in her broken wrist, to reach the Doctor.
"Doctor," she whispered, touching his cold cheek. The Judoon fired and she felt the heat from the beams but she didn't look up. The plasmavore died with a shriek. Martha crawled over to Rose and the Doctor.
"Case closed." the Chief announced.
"What did she mean, 'burn with me?'" Martha asked then pointed at the buzzing machine. "The scanner shouldn't be doing that. She's done something."
The chief drew his scanner and approached the fizzing machine. It beeped warningly. "Scans detect lethal acceleration of monomagnetic pulse."
"Well, do something! Stop it!"
The Judoon stepped away from the machine. "Our jurisdiction has ended. Judoon will evacuate."
"You can't just leave it! What's it going to do?"
"All units withdraw!" The Chief ordered into a com device and they did just that, filing out in an orderly fashion, the same way they'd come.
Martha chased after them into the hall. "You can't go! That thing's going to explode and it's all your fault!" she screamed.
The Judoon continued their march and, defeated, Martha reentered the room with the ticking time bomb, the dead alien, and the distraught supposed-human. Rose was still kneeling next to him with her hands on his chest, her mouth moving soundlessly. As she got closer, Martha realized she was speaking softly to the Doctor.
"…and you promised me we'd go back to Barcelona and see the dogs with no noses. Remember? I...I was gonna try an' talk you into lettin' me keep one this time. A proper pet, not a daft bloke who nearly gets us killed. And we were gonna go back an' find Jack after he's had time to rebuild everythin' and we could be all together again. And…and…" her voice broke and she let out a sob, slapping his chest with the hand that wasn't injured. "Come on, regenerate! Please, Doctor, I love you… You promised…"
He's pale…but not as pale as Mr. Stoker was! Martha realized. There might still be a chance. "Rose," she knelt next to the Doctor, across from her. "Look, he's not like Mr. Stoker. I think he's still got blood in him. Maybe it's not too late. Has he got normal lungs and stuff?" Rose nodded.
Martha didn't waste any time, pinching his nose with one hand and opening his mouth with the other, and breathed into him. She started compressions on his left heart, counting out five, then she breathed into his mouth again. She started compressing his left heart once more and Rose realized that they'd never mentioned that one little difference between Time Lord and human anatomy.
"Martha, you're not doin' it right."
"What do you mean?"
"He's got two hearts."
Martha gawked, her breathing labored, and stopped compressing. "Two hearts? How can he—"
She was wasting precious time and air asking stupid questions!
Rose shoved her hands out of the way and did the compressions herself, ignoring the excruciating pain racing up her right arm. It wouldn't matter that her arm was broken if the Doctor didn't come back. Her life wouldn't be worth living. Not that she had long to live with the magnetic machine going apeshit behind her. Fresh tears filled her eyes and she blinked them away, drawing in a big breath of air, and blew into his mouth.
The Doctor inhaled sharply. His eyes flew open and he coughed, gasping for air, sucking the precious life force from around them. He lifted his head, gazing at Rose, and she smiled at him through her tears. The pain combined with lack of oxygen was too much and her limbs gave way, collapsing to the floor next to him.
"Doctor," she breathed.
"The scanner." Martha choked out, slumping to the floor as well. "She did…something."
Coughing and gasping, the Doctor looked at the MRI. Martha's eyes drifted shut as she lost consciousness. Blackness swam at the edge of Rose's vision and she knew she wouldn't be far behind. She thought she might have said, "Hurry," but she wasn't sure if she even had the oxygen left for that. The Doctor touched her briefly then crawled for the control room, coughing and gasping the whole way.
Rose's head swam and the world around her blurred as she lost consciousness, fading into soft, golden light…
Turns out my roommate's spazz was Glee related. Something about Chris's book and Klaine. Idk.
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ANNNDDD if you haven't already voted for the Doctor/Rose in Hypable's ship-battle GO DO IT. You can vote once a day and it ends tonight. So go.
www*hypable*com/2012/12/03/hypable-battleships-the-final-battle-glee-doctor-who/