Chapter Three
Rythym
"Listen, you can't let them find me in here!" the Doctor urged, his grip on her arm quickly slacking. "I'll try to shield myself, but that's no guarantee that- that..."
His mouth bobbed ajar, still trying to weave thoughts into halfway coherent sentences, but it was clear with his heavily labored breath that he was in no state to speak. In fact, Rose knew precisely what was happening. She'd lived through this nightmare before. His regeneration took such a toll on his system that his body was shutting down to recharge, at the worst possible moment in their lives: when all of creation was at stake. Quivering, her fingers sought out his own, lacing between them. A wordless promise and a plea.
I'm still here.
Please, don't let go.
"Doctor? Doctor!" Jack said, gently shaking the Time Lord's shoulder. "Try to stay awake! Fight it!"
"What's wrong with him now?" Donna asked, hovering between her and the two men.
Rose watched, helpless, as he wildly scoured the console room with the desperate intensity of a dying man. The glassy, distant look in his eyes spoke volumes. They locked with hers, widening as if transmitting some sort of urgent message she was supposed to intrinsically understand. His hand dropped from hers as his head lulled forward into the murky throes of unconsciousness.
Her palms grew clammy at the realization that they were on their own now. Alone, with no plan, and no backup against the entire might of the Dalek empire. If she possessed even a vague inkling as to how to deal with this, maybe she could pull up a fearless facade. Offer reassurance. Improvise her way to a victory. The others were looking at her for leadership in lieu of the Doctor, she knew they were. Their gaze practically bored into her, through hardened layers of age old insecurity she genuinely didn't know still lingered until now. The universe needed genius, a strategist, hearts filled with ceaseless courage.
But she was no Doctor.
She was only Rose.
Human, woefully unprepared, and afraid. So terribly afraid.
The red haired woman she'd only recently met brushed the fringe out of his face. "Doctor?" she whispered shakily. Tears built up at the corners of her eyes, glistening like star systems reflected in the watery deep, and with what Rose knew about the tenacious, brave Donna Noble, the fact that she'd been knocked to the edge of her wits almost shook her more than the regeneration itself. She rest her ear to his chest. "Oh god, no..."
Jack paled. "Is he alive?"
She looked up, and the grim expression pulled taut across her lips was all they needed in answer. "One heart is beating. Only one."
"Unconscious healing state?" Rose suggested with a half hearted shrug. She hugged her arms around herself, feeling a sudden chill settle over the TARDIS in the Doctor's absence, or perhaps due to whatever chronon thing the Daleks had ensnared the ship in. Not like she'd know the difference. "But he poured a ton of his regeneration energy into that hand, so that's bound to have some effect."
"And I'm assuming that's not something he, uh, normally does?"
"No," she shook her head at her. "The first time this- this happened, the first one I saw, he just stood upright. Didn't even try to avoid it. I have no idea how this'll change things."
"But you're still the one with most firsthand experience out of all of us," Jack said. "Surely there might be something-"
"Fine, yes," she snapped, the muscles in her hands visibly tight as she gesticulated, a trait she couldn't help but note she'd picked up from the Doctor. "Yes, yes, so you're right! I've been through all of this before, but last time he changed he was burning with a fever for hours, and nothing me, or my mum, or Mickey, or anyone thought to do could drag him out of that, okay, so if you're looking to me for some sort of miracle or whatever, don't. I don't know what to do!"
The TARDIS became eerily silent with that grim revelation. Rose turned away and crumpled, dropping her head between her arms and letting the console support her weight. Her chest shuddered as she sighed, allowed the knots constricting her from within to unwind, just a little. She dared not move for a good long time, not wanting to confirm whether her friends were still staring at her in misplaced pity or if their gaze had long since drifted away. She didn't know which she'd consider worse. Her tongue, stiff and heavy in all the emotion entangled within her, began to move, transmitting her innermost thoughts into audible word, tiny and strained.
"There's just... not enough time."
Jack quickly glanced between Donna and her, catching their eyes. He thumbed at his coat pockets, with the edge of a frayed hemline there.
"Well. Time or not, we should make our move quickly. We either have to escape or step out there."
Donna raised her hand. "Personally, my vote's on escape."
"Do you still have your dimension jump?" he asked, placing a hand on Rose's shoulder.
"It needs another twenty minutes, we can't use it."
"What about the TARDIS, though?" Donna said. "Locked doors, shielding, I mean it is Time Lord technology. The Doctor always said this place was impenetrable. Wouldn't we be safe in here? At least for a while longer?"
"In any other scenario, yes, probably. But they're Daleks," Rose said, her subconscious calling up all sorts of terrible memories and nightmares at their very name. "Do we really want to take that chance?" She scrunched her lip up to her nose as she thought. Clasping her hands together, she turned to Jack. "What about you? You teleported to us. Vortex manipulator?"
"Went down with the power loss. Sorry, Rosie."
The briefest of a smile flickered over her lips at the familiar old nickname only he used. "Okay," she breathed, trying to retain her wits among the stress, though the worry was obvious in her stiff body language. "I think our best bet is outside, then. Better to exit on our own terms than by force."
"We'll have to leave the Doctor behind."
"As much as I hate to say it, I think that's safer. He's unconscious, and he said giving them access to a recently regenerated Time Lord was dangerous anyways."
Her friend nodded in agreement, and immediately moved to pick up the gun he'd brought on the ship and laid on the metal grating, the one he used to shoot the Dalek down. Rose held up a hand, signaling his pause.
"Uh- I'd leave your gun here, if I were you. God knows Dalek rule on Earth is strict enough. Here, they'd probably shoot us on sight. Remember, without the Doctor, out there we're dispensable."
"That's what they think," he muttered under his breath. He pressed a kiss to the barrel of his prized blaster, and placed it back on the floor with a dramatic sigh.
The three leveled their attention to the doors, and to the intimidating battle cries of the Daleks growing more fervent in the far distance.
Donna followed directly behind Jack and Rose, and yet distant all the same. Her steps were sure, (for now), but her mind felt... clouded. Fuzzy, like static. She wouldn't be at all surprised if she woke up the next morning to find the events of this day almost entirely missing, like a repeat of last New Year's, when her girlfriends convinced her to join them in hopping from pub to pub in a wild misadventure that ended with the distant drunk memory of sobbing over absolutely nothing on the loo in Nando's, a half-eaten kebab still clutched in her hand. At least her friends seemed as unsure about their actions as she was.
She'd tried at least, to pay attention, she really did. But halfway through their "what now" discussion, this pulsing, almost hypnotizing beat assaulted her mind, squeezing out any and all capacity for focused thought:
Thu-thump... thu-thump... thu-thump...
It was a single heartbeat.
If she dared focus too long on anything otherwise, or— heaven forbid— attempt to scry the true nature of this pounding in her head, the beat pulverized the nebulous thought into mere scattered impulses. It was fine, though. She was fine, she was- she only had to not think about anything too hard and the headache beginning to pulse behind her temples would eventually fade away. Probably. It was only worry about the Doctor and his missing heartbeat.
But it couldn't be that simple, because this also happened before everything fell to pieces, back at the Shadow Procla—
The static resumed with a vengeance, pulsing neuron to neuron. The dull ache radiated through her jaw, commanding her to full silence.
In front of her, Rose and Jack opened the wooden doors and slowly advanced out. She took in the full horror of the Dalek empire from just inside the one safe place in the universe she had left, her roving eyes never pausing to focus on any one golden drone. They were spread throughout the air like a raging disease, only living to hover in uninterrupted rhythm from one post to the next.
"Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks!" a large red Dalek suspended on a pedestal prompted. The other Daleks quickly took up the ominous chant.
"Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks! Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks!"
The magnitude of their roar was immense, and her gut churned at the mere concept of how many tinny voices it took to produce a racket that loud. Before her foot could lift from the ground to step out of the ship, the heartbeat's pace quickened in her ears, downing out the Daleks entirely. It pinned her to the metal grating like a butterfly to a board. Her mouth ran dry.
Helpless to call attention to her plight, Donna's sights locked on the monstrosities laid out before them, tethered by a force unknown.
Thu-thump... thu-thump... thu-thump... thu-thump...