INT. SUB-LEVEL 15 CORRIDOR

The elevator doors open to reveal Rose being held at gunpoint by Paula and the three armed guards. Paula pushes Rose in the back, forcing her out first. They walk the silent, dark, corridor.

ROSE
Do you even know who Daga is? He's a maniac. He tried to use mind control to enslave the human race as part of some intergalactic business swindle. To him, we're just cattle. No, worse, bugs.

PAULA
Are you describing Daga or my brother? Because they sound an awful lot alike. This way.

She directs Rose around a corner.

ROSE
And now you're using me to try to buy your freedom. I'm sure you would make him very proud.

PAULA
I'm nothing like Henry. He didn't even trust me with the command codes to override the level one containment. If anything ever went wrong, and he wasn't here, he was content with letting everyone in the facility rot down here and die.

They reach Van Clive's office and Paula reaches for the door lever. It's locked.

PAULA
Daga, you have to open the door.

DAGA (V.O.)
I'll unlock the door under one condition. Only you are allowed inside.

PAULA
That wasn't the deal.

DAGA (V.O.)
I'm changing the deal.

Paula seeks out the nearest surveillance camera and presses Adam's ray gun to Rose's head.

PAULA
I won't be separated from Rose. She's my only guarantee you won't hurt me.

A beat.

DAGA (V.O.)
Very well. You and Rose can enter the office, but your men stay in the hall.

We hear the door unlock.

PAULA
You men stand watch. Rose, inside.

Paula opens the door and then backs away to let Rose in first. The three guards take up defensive positions outside the door.

INT. VAN CLIVE'S OFFICE

Paula shuts the door, then immediately lowers her weapon and heads for the desk. She grabs one of the sonic screwdrivers and puts it in her pocket. She tosses the second one to Rose.

PAULA
We don't have a lot of time. Hide that on you.

ROSE
What's going on?

PAULA
Look around. There aren't any surveillance cameras in here. My brother didn't like the idea of his own security personnel spying on him, probably because of his compulsive pornography addiction. Why he even bothered when he could have had any woman in the world, at the same time, is anyone's best guess. Hell, I would've slept with him if it got me into his will.

ROSE
Ew. That's your brother.

PAULA
And he's that rich, which is why he thought anyone explicitly named in his will would try and kill him, paranoid son of a bitch. Now, you're a time traveller. You can prevent any of this from ever happening if we can get you back to your time machine, am I right? Adam, Daga's takeover, everything.

ROSE
The Doctor's the only one who knows how to operate the Tardis.

PAULA
You've got to be kidding me. He didn't teach you how?

ROSE
No.

PAULA
Well, what kind of crap is that? After everything you've been through together, you never learned?

ROSE
We've only been together for a few days, my time.

PAULA
But... your file... I...

They hear banging coming from the door and hurry over. They pull on it, but it's locked.

ROSE
He locked us in.

PAULA
Why would he do that?

Rose thinks.

ROSE
He said he had control of the ventilation system. Would that include this room?

PAULA
No. My brother's office is totally isolated from the rest of the facility. No security, different ventilation ducts... Oh no.

Behind them, Van Clive's personal computer turns on. We see a surveillance camera view of the three guards out in the hall as they pound on the door to get in, holding their breath so as not to breath in a strange gas filling the corridor.

Rose and Paula notice the computer screen and walk over. They watch as, one by one, each man falls over dead from the gas.

ROSE
Oh my god. What's happening to them?

PAULA
That's redrozozine gas. Poison. They're dead.

A retro-style turn dial phone on the desk rings three times before a stunned Paula can bring herself to answer it. Despite its appearance, there is a speakerphone feature, which Paula elects to use.

PAULA
Hello.

DAGA (V.O.)
You seem to be under the impression that you're in control here. I hope I've corrected the error in your line of thinking, but if I haven't, there are two hundred people on the various levels of this facility, and I can release redrozozine gas on each one of them. It will take approximately seven minutes for the ventilation system to recycle the air on sub-level fifteen to where it reaches breathable levels. If you and Rose are not on the elevator in seven minutes and twenty seconds, every single person still alive in this facility will die.

Dial tone. The computer monitor goes dark.

ROSE
What do we do now?

PAULA
Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to have to go with the original plan.

Paula points the ray gun at Rose. Rose sulks.

INT. BRIG

The Doctor looks up. Daga steps inside and grabs the cell key from the dead guard on the ground. He aims his rifle at the Doctor and then tosses him the key.

DAGA
Open the cell and walk out slowly. We're going for a walk.

DOCTOR
If I refuse?

DAGA
Come now, Doctor. You and I both realize I'm committing the cardinal sin of not shooting you when I have the chance. Is now really the time to test my patience?

The Doctor reaches his hand through the cell bars and opens his own cell door. He steps out, slowly, with his hands raised.

DAGA
Come on. Let's go.

Daga escorts him out.

INT. VAN CLIVE'S OFFICE

Paula and Rose wait by the door as the clock on the wall clicks down the seconds.

PAULA
Two minutes.

ROSE
This is ridiculous. I thought you were helping me.

PAULA
That's when I thought you would help us. Now, I realize even you and the Doctor are just like my brother.

ROSE
I don't know what you're talking about.

PAULA
I had your file. I know what happens to you.

ROSE
What do you mean, "what happens to me"?

PAULA
You said you've only been with the Doctor for a few days, but we were able to confirm at least six sightings of you with the Doctor throughout history. But if you haven't done any of those things yet, it can only mean you're going to do them in the future. So, you make it out of here alive.

ROSE
That's a good thing. It means I can go back and save everyone.

PAULA
But you don't, Rose. Adam's dead. My brother is dead... I think. Those three men outside the door are dead. And we're still dealing with Daga. Which means when you escape, you and the Doctor go off on your merry way, and everything that's happened here stays the same.

She looks at the clock.

PAULA
One minute.

At the sound of Adam's name, Rose looks down at her shirt and hands. His dried blood is still on her. She doesn't understand, or know what to do.

ROSE
Paula, I promise, when the Doctor and I leave here, the first thing we're going to do is go back in time and figure out a way to stop Daga, to stop all of this from happening. The Doctor is a good man. The Tardis is good. They won't let this happen.

PAULA
You're lying to save your life. Thirty seconds.

ROSE
I'm not lying!

PAULA
It's already happened! I've been living my life under someone else's boot my whole life. I won't do it anymore. This is my chance. With my brother gone, I can do something with my life, be my own woman. I'm going to make it out of here, whether your help me or not, whether the Doctor helps me or not. It's time I take control of fate. It's time I make something out of myself. From here on out, I'm in charge of me, not my brother, not Daga, not you! I'm getting out of here and I'm going to live!

They hear the door unlock. Rose reaches for the lever and opens the door. In the same second, a shot rings out. Paula's head snaps back, a new hole right in the center of her forehead. Rose screams, ducks, after the fact, but it's reactionary. On the ground, she turns around and sees Paula's body fall backwards onto the floor.

In the corridor, Daga stands behind the Doctor, his rifle still in position from where he sniped Paula dead.

DAGA
Some people really need to come to the realization that not everything is about them.

The Doctor ignores the fact that Daga still has a gun pointed at him and moves to Rose's side. He sees the blood on her shirt and hands.

DOCTOR
Are you all right? Are you bleeding?

ROSE
It's... I'm...

DOCTOR
Rose!

He grabs her face and forces her to look him in the eyes.

DOCTOR
Are you all right?

ROSE
Adam's dead.

He kisses her forehead and holds her a moment.

DOCTOR
I'm sorry.

A shot rings out. Both Rose and the Doctor jump at the sound.

DAGA
Okay, all right. Very heartwarming. Now, back to the elevator.

The Doctor takes Rose's hand and they walk together at gunpoint.

INT. UNDERGROUND MUSEUM

The elevator doors open and Daga motions Rose and the Doctor forward.

DAGA
Here we go. Sub-level 53. Go.

They walk through the maze of alien artifacts. We see meteorites, metal fragments, weapons, ancient artifacts, etc…

DOCTOR
What are we doing here, Daga?

DAGA
You're going to teach me how to operate your time machine, the thing you call the Tardis.

DOCTOR
Not bloody likely. And the Tardis is a living being, with a mind and soul all its own. It won't respond to a despot's commands, even if I showed you how.

DAGA
You're a living being, with a mind and soul, and you're pretty much doing everything I tell you to do. A rifle can be a pretty convincing motivator. But, even if that doesn't work, it's just lucky for me I'm pretty good with technology and getting my way.

ROSE
You're going to try and install yourself in the Tardis.

DAGA
Careful, Doctor, she's a few steps ahead of you.

They approach the blue telephone booth of the Tardis' cockpit and the Doctor stops. Rose follows suit.

DOCTOR
No, I won't assist in your quest to butcher time for your own personal gains.

DAGA
That's very interesting coming from you, since that's pretty much all you're about, isn't it? You're a selfish being, Doctor. At first, I thought it was just that you placed your self-righteous sense of morality above the will of the rest of the universe. I had you pegged as the pinnacle of arrogance, to set yourself atop a pedestal and massage the course of nature into your picturesque dream. But you're worse than that. You're a hypocrite. For all your evolved sensibilities, you are nothing more than a critic! You create nothing, but manipulate everything. You are a reaction! Your very existence is dependent on there being something to judge, something somebody else created, and because you sit in the big chair, you think yourself above it all. But I know the truth. I know your weakness. And I know who you really are, deep down. You're a failure. You're just someone who couldn't cut it in the real world, who couldn't create, and collaborate, and support an independent thought if it bit him the ass, and so you persecute others between the lines.

ROSE
(whispers to the Doctor)
What the hell is he talking about?

DOCTOR
Haven't the foggiest.

DAGA
Don't lie! Don't make fun of me and don't lie! I won't let you lie anymore! Now, I am judge and jury, and I pronounce you guilty as charged.

Daga walks over to the glass case with one of his Bluetooth headsets inside and he keys in a code to unlock it. The glass case ascends and he pushes over the block with the display stand. He then drags the Doctor over and restores the case, locking the Doctor inside.

DAGA
I spent twelve years being tortured by the American government. They shocked me, cut me, beat me, injected me with poisons like fire in my blood. They drowned me, exposed me to intense lights and sounds, to endless solitude and darkness. They starved me and withheld water until my lips cracked and bled and I drank my own blood. I watched my sister die in front of me. I watched them do everything they could think of to destroy me, to break me, but they couldn't!

Crying, Daga grabs Rose and slams her against the glass. He slaps her across the face.

DAGA
They couldn't break me. I beat them. They wanted my secrets, but I held on to them no matter what they did to me, even when all I wanted was for them to kill me. I reached into the sky, and I prayed to whichever gods would listen, and I begged for them to strike me down. I repented. But there was no one to listen. There was no rescue, and do you know why, Rose? Because there is no justice. There is none in space nor time, not for those of us who really stand for something. And yet you side with him!

ROSE
What do you want from me?!

DAGA
I want you to know!

He throws her to the ground and points the rifle at the Doctor.

DAGA
I want you to know that, for twelve years, the man you put behind a cage for having the audacity to try and make this world a better place, while you went off gallivanting across time with your savior, your hero, I didn't break! But he did!

Rose looks at the Doctor, confused.

DAGA
That's right. Because it wasn't just me and my sister they had trapped in that prison. It was your Doctor, too. And they didn't even have to try hard, either, before he was singing like a kithcat to a double moon. Where do you think they got the sonic screwdriver from? It was his. He gave them everything, showed them how to use technology, told them everything they wanted. That's the truth about your Doctor, that he's weak.

Daga steps back, raises the head of the rifle.

DAGA
His real secret is that underneath the leather jacket, neatly pressed shirt, and handsome façade, all the ethics and all the scruples and all the integrity simply melts away, and all you have to do is hurt him...

Daga points the rifle right at Rose's head.

DOCTOR
Daga, don't.

DAGA
… just a little...

Daga leans over, sets his sights on his target.

DOCTOR
Don't hurt her!

DAGA
… right where he's really vulnerable.

Daga's finger tightens around the trigger. Rose closes her eyes.

DOCTOR
I'll kill you! So help me, Daga, I swear to every god you ever prayed to, if you hurt her, I'll-

Daga fires!

- To be Continued...-