A/N: On to chapter 3! Here is the point in the story where the light torture comes in. It isn't terribly graphic but if that sort of thing makes you uncomfortable, be warned.
Chapter 3 – Ten and Rose
Rose doesn't know what to think. The blokes in combat gear are reassuring, telling her over and over that the tests are for her safety, just a precaution, but something in the way they won't give her any specifics makes her skin crawl. She's been sitting on a padded table in a stark white room for almost an hour while they draw blood and take scans of her body. She misses the Doctor.
Taking a deep breath, Rose musters all her courage and stands, edging towards the door.
"Listen, guys, thanks for the concern, but I think if something were wrong we would know by now. So I'm just going to go…"
Rose is stopped by a hand curling tightly around her elbow. A commando with blonde hair and cold blue eyes pulls her back towards the table.
"Sorry Ms. Tyler, you can't leave just yet. We have to be thorough, fate of the earth and all that. It'll just be a minute or two more," he says. Rose tries to discreetly pull herself from his grasp, but his fingers only tighten until it's all she can do not to whimper. He pushes her down on the table, hard.
"Look, you can't just keep me here without telling me anything. I'm human, my blood tests told you that. All the scans told you that. If you haven't found some alien parasite yet, you're not going to, so you can bloody well sod off." Rose fights hard to make sure she doesn't raise her voice. Behind her, the door opens and quickly clicks shut. She hears the heavy deadbolt lock slide into place and fear spreads like ice through her veins.
"There's one place we haven't looked yet." And with that cryptic statement, the man attaches a cuff to her wrist. She yanks on it, trying to wiggle free, but it's as good as an iron shackle.
"Oi! Let me out of this right now!" The man ties her other wrist while a second commando comes forward to trap her legs. Rose pitches her body as hard and as fast as she can, but they're stronger than her and in moments she's secured to the table with barely enough slack in the restraints to bend her elbows.
"She's all yours," the first bloke says to someone at the head of the table. A face leans over Rose, with translucent, smoke grey eyes and skin tinted light blue. Long, slender fingers move towards her temples.
"No!" Rose shouts, twisting and turning her head, trying to dodge out of the way. "I don't give you permission to go inside my head!"
"I don't need permission, child. They're going to reward me for my services either way. There's no way for you to resist, so why don't you be a dear and just lie still while we see what kind of beastie you really are. If you're lucky, maybe you'll be something useful, like me."
Fingers settle at her temples and white hot pain explodes through her skull.
After a moment that feels like eternity, the fingers fall away and the telepath stumbles backwards, breathing heavily. Rose blinks, trying to clear her blurry vision, but pain spikes through her head again, like the worst migraine she's ever had times one hundred.
"Not human…"
"Powerful…too dangerous…"
"…harness it?"
"Wolf. Bad Wolf."
And then there's only blackness.
#
Something is not right. The Doctor knows it like he knows the stars in the sky. Rose has been gone too long, and there's a current of malice in the air, a certain superiority that only humans bent on destruction and domination can exude. It skitters across the Doctor's skin like a swarm of invisible insects, making him shudder.
He loves the human race for its resilience, its ability to evolve and grow, and most of all for its capacity to love, but he has seen all too often how easily this beloved race of beings becomes corrupted by ambition and power. He always feels this same sense of foreboding in the air when that happens.
As the Doctor makes his way towards the doors marked "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY," he has one thought: he should have given Rose a damn bio-damper.
#
When Rose wakes, she's still tied to the table, but this time the table is adjusted so that she's sitting up, and there's a commando seated in a chair before her. He's holding a large remote in his hands, twisting and turning it, passing it from hand to hand. Drawing Rose's eye to it.
"What are you?" he asks. Rose knows, despite the lingering pain in her head and the fear in her heart, that she can't tell him anything. Not a single thing, no matter what. Even if it kills her. They can't get their hands on the Doctor.
"Human."
"That's a lie. Our telepath confirmed that you are part human, but part something else as well. What is it?"
"I'm one hundred percent human. My mother is a human, my father was a human, my gran and granddad on both sides were human. I am a human," Rose insists.
"Ms. Tyler, this is not going to go very well for you if you don't tell us the truth. We're trying to help you."
"No you're not. You've got me strapped to a table! Your blasted telepath invaded my mind, without my permission, and gave me the worst bloody migraine I've ever had in my life. You expect me to believe that you're trying to help me? Don't be so daft. I'm telling you, I'm human. Completely."
The man presses a button on the remote and an electric buzzing fills the room. The current hits her a scant moment later. Her muscles seize and her teeth clamp down hard as the charge runs through her. Rose can't think beyond the pain.
As suddenly as it started, it's gone. Rose slumps boneless on the table, her breathing harsh. She's shaking, but she can't help it.
"What. Are. You?"
"Human," Rose gasps. He presses the button.
"How do you control your power? Our telepath says it's vast, that you could probably destroy the planet with a snap of your fingers. What's the trigger? How do you use it?"
"You talk too much," Rose says, even though it takes all of her strength to be sassy. He presses the button again.
"Tell me!"
"I'm telling you the truth, you bloody wanker! I'm human. Whatever your telepath saw, or says it saw, I don't know anything about it. I don't know what you want. I'm human."
The door flies open and a figure in brown pinstripes stumbles into the room. Rose sucks in a breath. They can't get their hands on the Doctor. If they think a stupid ape like her is powerful enough to torture, she can't imagine what they'll do to the Last of the Time Lords.
"Doctor," she breathes. His head snaps around and his eyes lock with hers. She can see his shock, the way he practically turns to stone right in front of her. He's utterly still, staring at her like his impressive Time Lord brain can't process what's before him.
The man with the remote turns to look at the Doctor, and Rose knows he has to escape. Now.
"Doctor, RUN!"
The Doctor leans forward like he's going to lunge for her, but Rose shakes her head, despite the jarring pain, and screams at him.
"No! Go, Doctor! Go now!" The man runs to the intercom, ready to sound the alarm, as the Doctor flies to her side.
"Rose, are you okay?" The Doctor fumbles with her restrains, and she fights him every step of the way. She doesn't matter. Saving his life matters.
"Doctor, these people are evil. Something is going on here. I think they're looking for aliens with power. You have to go. If you don't, they'll hurt you too. I'll figure out a way out of this, but you have to take the TARDIS and leave. Go where they can't find you. To the end of the Universe, anywhere, please!"
"Rose…"
His body bows violently and the Doctor falls to the ground, unconscious. The commando stands behind him with some kind of Taser in his hands, still aimed at the spot where Doctor's right heart had been.
Terror sweeps through Rose like a hurricane as men in combat gear swarm through the door and surround the Doctor. Rose struggles, bucking and twisting and fighting to get free, to get to the Doctor before they can harm him. The table rocks with the force of her movements, but the restraints don't give.
One of the men reaches towards the Doctor with a cattle prod and Rose knows that if they manage to stop his hearts, he might regenerate. Or die completely. Neither is an option.
Something warm floods her veins, chasing away the fear and filling her with strength. There's a strange song in her head, a song that tells her these men are nothing. Nothing compared to her strength, her power, her love for the Doctor.
"Don't touch him."
The men turn towards her, eyes wide and fearful.
And then yet again, the world goes black.
A/N 2: As always, feedback is much appreciated! See the button, right below this? It's right there. You should click it.