Well, well, well, here they all go. Trying to find a message or something from Rose's Doctor. (If I just refer to the Doctor in the following chapters, you should be able to work out which one I'm talking about by the context). Hope you like what Talia does in the end!

Chapter 20: Passwords

Less than an hour later we had reached our destination and were climbing a rather rickety ladder up to the surface. No-one had spoken for about ten minutes; the nerves of our group were running high. I couldn't say for anyone else, but my thoughts were focussed on the pressure weighing down on me.

I had only had Time Lord energy inside me for a month and I had no idea what it could do or how I could control it or anything! What if nothing happened and we all got slaughtered?

My stomach twisted uncomfortably as I pulled myself up the ladder into what I quickly realised was Rose's old bedroom. The others all scurried up behind me before a series of dull rumbling thuds echoed as the tunnel collapsed. Mickey stood and stared back down the hole we had climbed up, where a pile of earth now blocked the tunnel completely.

"Well, we've only got one way out now." He commented, before going quietly over to the window. He pressed himself up to the wall and slowly pulled a corner of the curtain back, peering out. "There's three on this side of the block, there might be more over the other side."

"We'll look on the way out." Martha whispered, before turning to Rose. "Now, are we looking for something?"

Rose nodded. "I'd say he would have left a note somewhere, giving a clue as to where he was. They'll be several ways he will have hidden it from the Xenomorphs, should it have been found. I know they would have searched the flat."

"Any ideas?" I asked.

She shrugged. "A few, but I could be wrong. We'll start here in this room. Don't look anywhere obvious but do look in places that the Xenomorphs can't easily get to; small enclosed places."

We all nodded and, trying to be as quiet as possible, started scouring the room. I started on the bed, opening pillowcases and the duvet cover, unscrewing bed knobs and seeing if there was anything scrunched up inside, even feeling inside the mattress.

Nothing. From the sound of it the others had come up with just as much. I got down on my stomach and started filtering through the underside of her bed.

"Rose!" I hissed. "Your bed reminds me of mine at home."

"In what way?" she whispered back.

"I used to shove all my old stuff underneath it too."

She laughed quietly as I started pulling out old toys, a keyboard, password diary, recorder, Barbies, and loads of other items that must belong to some toy somewhere else. Then I found more teenage items such as nail polishes, lipsticks, a bra, etc.

"Wait!" Rose gasped, making us all turn. Mickey, who had his head behind a chest of drawers, cursed loudly as his head hit the wall trying to stand up.

"What is it?" I asked, pulling myself out from under the bed more delicately.

She went and picked up, to my surprise, the password diary. "I know it's just a simple human child's toy, but that's the point! The Xenomorphs are equipped to deal with the best Earth has got to offer! And unless they knew me, they couldn't guess the passwords!"

We all stared at her.

"You have got to be kidding me." Martha said.

"Yeah, sorry, Rose, but I don't think so." Mickey agreed.

I, on the other hand, could see her logic. I thought it was a dim possibility, but it did make sense. "Open it."

She nodded and pressed the button. "Now remember, I had this when I was six."

"Welcome to MyFirstDiary. Please answer the following three security questions." A woman's voice, far too bright and happy, chimed. "What is your favourite colour?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Rose, anyone could guess that."

"That's only one." She said, but a slight colour appeared in her cheeks. "Pink." She answered.

There was a pause. "Correct. What is your most prized possession?"

"My singing hairbrush." At everyone's look she added, "I was only six!"

Mickey tried and failed to hide a laugh. "A singing hairbrush. Haven't come across that yet."

"Because it was thrown out, shush!" Rose snapped as the woman spoke again.

"Correct. What is the name of your favourite stuffed animal?"

Rose really blushed now, closing her eyes before saying, hesitantly, "Tiddlywinks."

We couldn't contain our laughter this time.

"Shut up." She grumbled as the diary popped open, revealing several pages.

And on one of them…

"It's in Gallifreyan!" Martha moaned. "He really wanted layers of security! I knew River should have come!"

Sure enough, written on the first page in the circular script of the Time Lords was, as far as I could tell, one or two words. I wished I had enough Time Lord in me so I could read it, as my curiosity burned, but I knew we had to wait until we got back.

"At least we found it." I said, trying to sound upbeat. But I, like everyone else, knew that this was the easy part.

"Now we've just got to get out of here without turning into surrogate mothers for Xenomorphs. Piece of cake." Mickey muttered. Trust him to remind us all of the Doctor's execution. (sorry Argetaie).

We crept out of Rose's flat, which was unlocked, and towards the main front door. We were lucky that the Xenomorphs hadn't thought to post any guards within the Estate itself, although that was probably because they thought we had no chance once we got out. I had to admit, similar thoughts were going through my head. I could feel none of the golden warmth of the Time Lord energy and wished the others would speak so I could partially distract my mind from that emptiness, but everyone was silent.

We stopped at the front door. I started to feel slightly ill. Mickey and Martha checked their guns, while Rose pulled a small alien blaster out of her pocket.

"Where'd you get that?" I asked.

"The Doctor gave it to me a long time ago." She said sadly. "It's small, but it packs quite a punch."

"But the problem is, guns will only distract them unless we can get a shot in their mouths. Everywhere else is like armour." Mickey warned.

I nodded. He didn't say it, but I knew he was thinking So it all depends on you.

I took a deep breath, hoping that the fear and fury of battle would ignite something, and pushed open the door.

The three Xenomorphs stationed around the front of the Estate turned as one.

"It's them!" one screamed.

"Attack!" another screeched just as loudly, and they ran at us.

Mickey and Martha started blasting them back, but true to what was said, they recovered almost instantly and the exploding bullets left no mark on their shiny exoskeleton. Rose's laser blaster, too, did little more.

I dodged out of the way and tried to summon something of the energy, but nothing happened. I started to panic. Even if we ran for it, I could see that the Xenomorphs were fast. We would never make it to an entrance to a tunnel. The nearest one, Rose had told me, was a street away.

To everyone's horror, two more Xenomorphs appeared from the other side of the Estate. One of them joined the fray with a wordless battle screech, but the other saw me, standing off to one side, and ran towards me.

I froze.

At the last second, my mind started to work again and I threw myself out of the way as the alien launched its head downwards and its second mouth came shooting towards me as quick as a bullet. It missed my head, which would have surely killed me instantly, regeneration or no, but I felt the small teeth bite into my side just below my ribs. I screamed and rolled to the side.

That's when I felt it. A warmth blossomed in my chest and head. Everything took on a golden tinge. I got to my feet. The Xenomorph didn't attack and I realised that it was quite shocked, staring at me. Dimly, I realised I also had developed a golden aura.

In that moment, I wasn't Talia. I was something like the Bad Wolf, but not quite as powerful. I raised my hand towards the Xenomorph in front of me and, unconsciously, blasted a sort of shot of amber light towards it.

On contact, the Xenomorph's outer shell cracked, then exploded with an ear-splitting screech. All that was left after a few seconds was a burned patch of ground.

I turned and saw that the others were still struggling to hold their own. Martha had a nasty cut on her arm, but everyone else seemed unharmed for the moment.

I walked towards them and, just as I had the other one, destroyed all four other Xenomorphs. A load of whooping and cheering sounded from the others.

I looked down at where the Xenomorph had attacked me and saw that my healing abilities were still working…to a point. The injury had stopped bleeding and closed up, but it still hurt a lot and I realised that most of the internal damage hadn't been healed. I realised in the back of my mind that must be because of the different energies in this dimension, like the Doctor explained in The Rise of the Cybermen.

Just as suddenly as it appeared, the energy faded away. As it left, a blinding headache replaced it, and the pain from my side became more pronounced. I sat down tiredly, barely aware when the others reached my side.

"You did it!" Mickey crowed, only to be told off harshly by Martha.

"You'll attract more! But well done, Talia."

"Come on, let's get you back home where you can rest." Rose added.

Honestly? All I wanted was to go back to the TARDIS, but I knew that I wasn't exactly life-threateningly injured, so she wouldn't be bringing me back…yet. But, I supposed, being surrounded by friends who couldn't stop praising you…could be worse.

Rose and Martha pulled me to my feet. I told them not to fuss over my injury, but did let them know about my headache.

"It'd probably be because of the energy." Rose said slowly. "I remember the Doctor telling me that my head hurt while I was in Bad Wolf mode. Humans and Time Lord energy don't quite go together."

I nodded. That made sense, and the Doctor had said much the same to me.

"We need to get back." Martha warned. "They're going to play the psychic video any minute now."

I groaned. I had no desire to see that again, and I didn't think I could handle it in my present state. If only I could pass out. But my banging head kept me conscious as, one of my arms wrapped around Martha (which reminded me, with a shiver, of the Mimisa incident), we walked over to the tunnel entrance and slipped back down into safety.

Yes, you will find out what's on the note next chapter. Any guesses? Any guesses on where he is? Review, please!