I woke because of the cold. It felt like I was sleeping in the middle of a blizzard in the middle of winter in the middle of the night. I crossed my arms over my chest in a desperate attempt to warm myself up and found that my insides hurt like hell. I doubled and a hot rag was slapped onto my forehead. Mist sizzled off of my forehead, like what happens when you pour hot water over ice. It felt good, so I laid back and eyed the man that had put the rag on my forehead. He was grimy and dressed in rags but he was smiling and holding what looked like a kettle, steaming from the spout. "Wha-what's going on?" I whispered, the mist curling out of my mouth. The man gently patted me on the shoulder. "I'm Janeth. I'm part of a... Rebel group. Against the Daleks," he said plainly. "Where's the Doctor? Rose?" I coughed, and even more mist flew from my mouth. He patted my forehead with the hot rag and shushed me. "Don't talk. We're trying to get you better." I took another breath. "Where-?" I croaked, and even more mist flew from my mouth. "They're on a mission. Now don't talk." He said a bit firmer. I sighed a little and rolled my eyes a bit, then closed them. However, I couldn't sleep. It was too cold. Way too cold. "Cold." I rasped. He came back over to me and froze - I know, not the best metaphor for the situation. I looked down at myself and coughed with surprise, scattering flecks of ice all about. My skin had a delicate layer of frost racing up it. I looked like I was wrapped in lace from the tips of my fingers to my shoulders and growing up my neck. "What the hell?" I choked. Janeth reached down and touched the ice gently before recoiling. "It's the last stage." he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "What?"

"So far, once ice starts forming on your skin… you're gonna die soon."

"Get an-another r-rag and-d put s-some hot-t water on-n m-me." I shivered violently as I felt the frost forming on my face. He looked at me helplessly and I reached up to grab his grubby shirt. "G-go g-get me s-some h-hot wat-t-ter!" I shouted as loudly as I could. He broke away from me and shook his head. "That won't help. Ice is forming over you because you're freezing inside-to-out!"

"I don't fucking care why. H-help me!"

"I don't know what to do!"

"P-please. I-I'm s-so cold. Please, I need the h-hot water." I whispered. Tears started to slide down my face, which I tried to stop. "I-I d-don't - I don't want to d-die…" I whispered finally, feeling the icy tears saturate the frost. As I said this, my vision tunneled. I started to flail out of panic. This can't be it. I can't die here. No, please… please… I don't want to die.

And then?

Nothing.

The troop arrived at the mines and they hid their weapons under their clothing, pretending to work. While they did that and avoided attention from the Daleks, they spread the word about the rebellion. Several people nearly volunteered but just hearing a Dalek's voice from nearby scared all of their fighting spirit out of them. As their mission came to an end, they hadn't gotten any more volunteers. It'd seemed as though the Daleks had been purposefully scaring the mine workers more than usual to stop them from wanting to rebel. It had worked. The rebels shimmied back into the ventilation systems and pulled their weapons back out to be prepared. Suddenly, the whole line stopped. They were at a stand-still. "What's happened? Is everything okay?" the Doctor called up to Mello. She struggled to look back down at him. "I dunno." she turned back around. "Hey! Assbutts! What's going on up there!"

They barely heard Rip say, "Daleks ahead!" from the front of the procession. The Doctor's hearts dropped and Rose felt as though her stomach was forcing its way up her throat. "Doctor? We'll be okay, right? Blue's okay?" she whimpered. The Doctor took a deep breath. "Yeah, we'll be okay. Blue's fine."

"Are you lying?"

"I'm the Doctor, aren't I? Of course I'm lying."

"Thanks."

"It's alright, Rose."

"That's a lie?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Good. Right, let's do this."

The team started moving again but the dread was tangible as they exited the ventilation systems. They all crawled up into the center of a circle. Around them were Daleks, excitedly aiming their gunsticks. "PRISONERS I-DENT-I-FIED AS HU-MANS."

The Doctor sighed. They hadn't seen him. "PRISONERS ARE THE REBEL TASKFORCE. YOU WILL BE EX-TER-MINATED! EX-TER-MINATE! EX-TER-"

"Hold on a minute!" the Doctor said, his hands in his pockets. He sauntered through the people to the Dalek that was speaking. "THE DOC-TOR! IT IS THE DOC-TOR! EX-TER-MINATE!" The Doctor sighed and rolled his eyes. "'Exterminate' this, 'exterminate' that - it's getting a bit old, you know."

"CEASE TAL-KING! THE DOC-TOR WILL REMAIN SI-LENT!"

"Will he, then? And, erm, why exactly would I do that?"

"THEY WILL BE EX-TER-MINATED!"

"Oh, really? Well, go ahead. I won't stop you. I barely even know these people. Go ahead, then. Exterminate them. They're rebels. Rebelling against the great Dalek Empire!"

The Dalek was silent, doubtful. The Doctor smiled, touching the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth. "Good." he said softly, with a nod. "Now. I want to know who helped you build all this in only three years."

"DA-ALEKS DO NOT RE-QUIRE ASS-IS-TANCE! DA-ALEKS ARE SU-PREME!"

"Yeah, you say that, but when has that ever been proven? As far as I can tell, Time Lords are the supreme beings. After all, the last one is always beating you to the chase, hm?"

"THIS PROVES NOTHING. DA-ALEKS WILL SUR-VIVE! DA-ALEKS ARE SU-PREME!"

"All this blathering about Daleks is turning my brain to soup! Now, be a doll and tell me who helped you build this."

"NO ONE."

"And, you're sure?"

"YES."

"You're lying."

"NEG-A-TIVE."

"Why would you tell me the truth?"

He'd caught the Dalek red-handed - or, rather, red suckered. It stumbled over its own words, and the Doctor nodded again. "That's it! Who was it, then?"

"THE DA-ALEKS WILL NOT REVEAL IN-FOR-MATION TO THE DOC-TOR! YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE DA-ALEKS! YOU WILL BE EX-TER-MINATED!"

"Well, you'll tell me someday. You always do. You always end up telling the 'Doc-tor' your master plan and the 'Doc-tor' always ends up foiling your plan to exterminate the Universe."

"NEG-A-TIVE."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, you will." he assured them. The Daleks simply looked at him. He could tell that they were getting angrier than they already were, which was a considerable amount of anger as it was. The Doctor strolled around the circle with his hands behind his back innocently. "RE-LEASE YOUR WEAPONS!" the Daleks finally said. Everyone seemed to look at the Doctor for direction, and he gave them a small nod. They all released their weapons and let them drop to the floor. "DOC-TOR."

"What?"

"RE-LEASE YOUR WEAPONS!"

"Oh, come off it. You know me! I'm the Doctor, not the Soldier! I don't carry weapons."

"DATABASES SHOW YOU HAVE ONE WEAPON WHICH YOU ARE NEVER WITHOUT. IT HAS CAUSED THE DOWNFALL OF THE DA-ALEK EMPIRE MANY TIMES."

"I've no idea what you're talking about."

"YOUR SON-IC PROBE."

"Oh! Oh! Oh, that old girl? She's not a weapon. She's a screwdriver."

"YOU WILL GIVE IT TO THE DA-ALEKS."

"Erm… no, I won't."

"NEG-A-TIVE."

"No, I won't. It's my screwdriver. Get your own."

"THE DOC-TOR WILL COOP-ER-ATE!"

"No, the Doctor won't."

"IF THE DOC-TOR DOES NOT COOP-ER-ATE WITH THE DA-ALEKS, HIS ASSOCIATES WILL BE EX-TER-MINATED!"

"Like I said before. Go ahead." the Doctor said, winking at Rose. Before anyone could react, the Dalek turned and shot Yuma with a death ray, straight in her chest. She screamed and flung her hands in the air as her skin became luminescent and then she slumped to the ground. She was dead. The Doctor stared at her corpse with horror and then turned back to the Dalek, throwing his hands into the air as a signal to stop. "Alright! Stop! Stop! Don't kill them!"

"THIS IS WHAT THE DOC-TOR IN-STRUC-TED."

"I know what I said, but I didn't think you'd actually do it!"

"WE O-BEY." the Dalek said, mockingly. The Doctor fell silent, his eyes locked on Yuma's body. Everyone else in the group stared at him with either horror or disbelief. "THE DOC-TOR WILL COOP-ER-ATE WITH THE DA-ALEKS."

He had no choice. He reluctantly reached into his coat and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, dropping it to the floor on the pile of weapons the rebels had set down.

I was in a chair. Wait, what? In an office. A plaque on the desk in front of me read 'Seb'. It looked just like every other desk, with a jar of pens and pencils, some assorted paperwork, and even a computer. There was a lamp and a filing cabinet on the back wall, and a bunch of blue curtains to my right. The curtains reached from the ceiling to the floor. On the wall in front of me - behind the desk - was one single painting. It was a circle, with another circle branching off from it. There was a door to the left, but I didn't feel like getting out of the chair to check it out. I was cold. Still. Soon, the door opened and a man slipped inside the room. He wore a tan suit, with a little darker tan tie, and had short brown hair. His smile looked welcoming and genuine enough. "Hello!" he said jovially. He sat in the chair across the desk from me. "Has anyone offered you coffee? No?" he rolled over to the door and cracked it open a bit. "Coffee, please! The good kind; we've got a new one!"

He rolled back over to the desk and put his hands on it, fingers folded together. "Where am I?" I demanded. Seb - I assumed that was his name - looked down at his hands and took a breath. "You know, this is the hardest part."

"The hardest part of what?"

"You have our sincere condolences."

"For what?"

"So, that last thing that happened to you… that actually happened. Erm, now on to business."

"Where. The fuck. Am I."

"Okay, well, you know the place people think they go when they die?"

"What?"

"It takes a bit to… you know, register."

I stared at him in shocked silence and felt hot, wet tears welling in my eyes. He nodded and looked down again. "Yep."

As I started crying, he pulled a file off of one of the stacks of papers on his desk and nonchalantly flipped through it. "Your name's Blue?" he asked. I looked up. His image was blurred from all the tears. "Y-Yes." I managed to stutter.

"And… ooh, this is a unique death. You froze to death from the inside-out?"

"H-How do you know that?"

"I've got your file here."

I stopped crying and shot up to look at the file. "What does that have in it?" I demanded. He seemed like I'd taken him by surprise and kept flipping through the pages. "Well, not much that you'd want to know. Just your life and death."

"Give it to me!" I shouted, snapping my arm out and snatching the file from his hands. He nearly fell out of his chair in his rush to get it back from me and nearly leapt over his desk. When he'd finally wrestled it from my hands I was crying again. I didn't even catch one word. Not one. He straightened out his suit before glaring at me and returning to his seat. I was still standing, my face in my hands and sobs racking my body. After a moment, his expression softened and he reached up to pat me on the hand. "Yes, I know how hard it is. Don't worry, it's alright."

"Where am I?" my voice was a whisper and Seb had to lean in to hear what I was saying. "Oh, that. Welcome to the Nethersphere! It's got a lot of names - the afterlife, the Promised Land, all that rubbish - but I personally like the Nethersphere."

"What?"

"It's where you go when you… well, you know."

He got up from his seat after securing my file in one of his desk drawers and walked to the window, gently pulling me along with him. "Here." he said, whipping open the curtains. I felt him hand me a tissue and wiped the tears away from my eyes before I looked out the window and promptly started bawling again. You're such a baby, Blue.

I tried to stop. I couldn't. Seb only stood there silently and occasionally patted me on the shoulder in an attempt to comfort me. I shivered. "Why i-is it s-s-so cold?"

"Oh, that. Well, let's see how to explain this… when you die, you're still conscious, it's just that you're dead. So, you feel whatever happens to your body while you're dead. For instance - fairly urgent question - do you know if you're being cremated?" Seb wondered, whipping out an iPad. I shook my head and kept sobbing into my hands. Outside the window was a huge city. And I mean huge. Bigger than London, or New York. Probably bigger than every capital city in the world combined. And there was something strange about it… it didn't seem to have a skyline. It looked to me like it just curved up and the whole thing was a big globe, and we were in the middle of it. "I'll put you down as a 'yes', then. Just to make sure."

He looked out the window along with me and smiled to himself. "That's my flat, over there." he said, pointing to one of the countless buildings. When he saw that wasn't helping, he instantly put on a melancholy face and nodded somberly. "Right. Come along, then."

He lead me to a door. The door had windows with the same design as the painting in Seb's office - the one large circle and the smaller circle branching off of it - and it smoothly slid open. We walked out onto a balcony where we could see the city stretching out below, in front, and above us. "Is this s-s-some s-sort of glo-o-obe?" I stuttered, not being able to speak normally what with the sobs choking me up. Seb smiled at me. "Yep! Well, it's a sphere, but there isn't really a difference. Unless, of course, there is, in which case I would be wrong."

"S-s-so I'm d-dead?"

"To put it bluntly, yes. But don't think of it as death. Think of it as… more life."

"What?"

"Think of it like babies. Imagine babies had little telephones inside the womb and they could call their little baby friends with them. They think life is only nine months long. Out they pop, and they think it's all over, but it's really just more life, and they never talk to the other babies ever again. Sort of like that."

"What?"

"Oh, that is my favorite metaphor, but it rarely gets the job done."

I looked away from him and back out at the quite overwhelming city. "Erm, another… important question. Have you ever killed anyone?" Seb wondered, rocking on the balls of his feet once or twice. I looked at him. "What?"

"Well, it is an urgent question. We have down here that you've travelled with the Doctor and worked for Torchwood. I only know of one other person who's ever done that, and we can't manage to get him down here." Seb chuckled.

Jack.

"D-do you mean people as in people, or people as in aliens and people?"

"Erm… yes."

"What?"

"No? Alright."

Suddenly I saw images flashing in front of my eyes. Getting tossed around the TARDIS like a ragdoll. The Master's cruel, horrible face looming above me. Puella getting beaten to a bloody mess. The Doctor in his injured state. The Master beating Rose. I screamed, and Seb seemed to panic, flailing his hands about and shushing me. "Sorry, sorry, please keep it down!" he begged.

I snapped back to reality and looked at him with wide, scared eyes. He nodded and realized what had happened. "Right. Yes, flashbacks will be quite common at this stage. It seems like you've got some nasty memories in that noggin of yours, yeah?"

I swallowed bile and he pulled something up on his iPad before handing it to me. I was shaking like hell and could barely read the words flashing in red on the screen. "Pesky emotions. I never really liked them. You could get rid of all that… fear. All you need to do is press that button right there and they'll all be gone. You won't have to worry about them anymore. I'll leave you alone with your decision." Seb said. He patted my back one more time and turned on his heel to stride off of the balcony and back into his office, leaving me to stare down at the words. There was only one word I could make out: "DELETE". Delete what? My emotions. Oh…

My finger hovered above the button that I had to press as I debated with myself more. No emotions sounds like a good deal.

No, emotions are what make you stronger.

Yeah, but I won't have to feel fear anymore.

Yeah, but you won't feel anything else, either.

That's better than this.

This is better than nothing.

Now, the button just felt like a burden. I was anxious about my decision. I looked around the balcony and sat down in one of the plush chairs that sat around a nice table. I set the iPad on the table and took a deep breath, looking around at the city. Meanwhile, the button kept staring at me, flashing on and on… "DELETE… DELETE...DELETE…" Suddenly, even more images flashed before my eyes: Me and the Doctor talking in the library in the TARDIS, Rose comforting me when I first met them, me and Owen chatting, Jack giving me a hug, Ianto and his coffee, Tosh helping me with the computers, even Gwen inviting me over so I wouldn't have to stay at the Hub. The feeling of happiness washed over me, leaving me with a warm, cozy feeling. How could I get rid of this? But then the images of the Master came back, leaving me in cold sweat. Focus on the good stuff.

So scared. So, so scared.

But there's been good stuff.

Yeah... But still.

C'mon, do you really wanna get rid of the happy stuff?

Not really.

That settled it. I wasn't gonna press the button. Not at the price of the good stuff. That's when Seb walked in. "Made a decision yet?"

"I can't press that button. Yeah, my life's been pretty messed up, but there's been bright spots." He frowned a bit and said, "I'm sorry to hear that." Then he flicked through my file a bit more. Than his eyes widened. "Oh. That complicates things."

"What?" I cried.

"Well, there's a way to bring you back to the living world."

"Send me back, then!" I cried.

"Well, it's hardly up to me, is it? No, I dunno if it's gonna work. We'll just have to wait and see." He said. I sighed with aggravation. "Is-is that normal?"

"What?"

"Being able to be brought back."

"Oh, no. No, that's very rare. Good for you, though. Although, I must say, there's not a good chance."

"W-What?"

"Unless you've got someone extremely clever with you, there's not much of a chance that you'll be brought back."

I sighed with relief. "Thank God."

"Wait, you do have someone who can save you?"

"Yeah."

"Who is it?"

I looked at him. "Why d'you want to know?"

He shrugged and took the iPad from me, tapping it a few times. "Sometimes we can contact people outside of the Nethersphere. Sometimes they contact us."

"Oh." I said. He didn't make eye contact with me. "His name is the Doctor." I said finally. Seb nodded and typed something on the iPad. "The Doctor… good, good."

"D'you know him?"

"No."

I studied him carefully. If he was lying, he was good at it. "So, how clever is this Doctor, anyways?"

"He's really, really smart. He's brilliant."

I hesitated before continuing. "Do you know the Time Lords?"

"Yep."

"He's the last of them."

Seb finally looked up, seemingly shocked. "You're kidding."

"No." I said, looking out over the city. Seb stood in shocked silence and closed the iPad. "I don't doubt he'll be able to bring you back."

He sounded disappointed. I wondered if that had anything to do with the emotions thing.