"Going live in 3 minutes."

I woke up to find myself lying on a platform that looked like a theatre stage.

Several doors opened in my mind, my mind flooded with knowledge of an art I once knew by heart. A voice familiar and not whispered, 'Dance or die.'

"Where am I?"

A man with fluffy blonde hair and sad blue eyes came up to me, "You must be my partner's replacement." He looked into my refocusing eyes, "Transmat scrambles your head a bit. Some amnesia. What's your name?"

"...Marion."

I didn't know what situation I'd found myself in, it was better to be safe than sorry later.

"Marion. Just remember to do what the android says, don't provoke it. The android's word is law."

I wrinkled my brow, something weird was going on.

The man helped me stand, "We've been paired together for the semi-finals, can you dance or sing?"

I swallowed a refusal, "Dance."

I tensed as he replied, "Excellent."

Something about him made me feel tense, something familiar about his features but I couldn't put a finger on it.

"Contestants, places."

I looked around to see an android at the centre front of the stage and behind it several cameras on an automated metal arm that seemed to track the other contestants movements.

"You are live on Channel 34. Dance or Die."

Then I remembered we had just come from Traken. Then something glowing white caused each one of us to fade away, taken straight from the TARDIS.

'Beware' something whispered and then all I could see was golden light behind my eyelids.

I gasped.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, "We got number 34, I don't know if that's lucky or not."

"I believe we make our own luck."

Each contestant pair went before the android, each given a prompt that was then judged by a wall of screens that were 'the audience'.

"What's your name?" I turned toward my partner.

"Dennis."

"Well Dennis, let's try our best."

When it was our turn, an old lullaby tune came up. I hummed along and Dennis looked at me with a look of relief.

"You can sing this one since you are familiar, I'll dance."

As I sang 'if I go into the woods tonight, there's sure to be a big surprise…' Dennis hopped around the stage energetically as if he were being chased by bears. I suppressed a giggle as I finished off the song with, "...because they are tired little teddy bears."

"Standby for audience votes."

Dennis fidgeted beside me, "The pair with the lowest votes will have to do a solo battle against each other in the next round."

The votes were out and we were the lowest.

It all became frighteningly clear what kind of game this was when after the current rounds solo battleist lost, the loser was vaporised.

"Is she dead?"

"Vaporised, didn't you know?"

I shook my head. My thoughts going out to the Doctor, Mickey and Jack wondering how they fared in their own games.

Dennis let out a wry chuckle, "It's all in courtesy of Bad Wolf Corporation."

I stretched at the side preparing myself to dance in a way I hadn't in the longest time. Preparing for our solo battle, a song would play and we would either dance or sing. My voice was mediocre, but dance was embedded in my soul. Thankfully I'd kept up with my stretches each morning, even within the TARDIS where mornings and evenings sometimes felt the same.

I looked down at my soft leather boots, I wouldn't be able to go completely on pointe but perhaps I could achieve a partial. I tested it out as I waited for our turn and it was satisfactory. I took deep breaths trying to calm my beating heart, I would not allow myself a panic attack now. I could feel the thrum of my heart but I counted in my head, observant of my surroundings counting all the red things I saw until I felt my heart and breathing even out.

It was our turn.

I knew someone was messing with me as the famous strings of the Nutcracker's DANCE OF THE SUGAR PLUM FAIRY came subtly.

I came from the side of the stage in a plie.

Angled my body toward the audience of screens.

As the music rose slowly I did my best bourree steps forward imagining as if I were dancing upon the surface of a clear pond, each step a small drop from a fountain nearby.

My head and eyes turned toward the direction I was moving.

I readied myself for the arabesque, feeling the muscles in my legs tighten as committed to stand upon one leg while the other raised behind me. I was grateful that the skirt allowed for the movement.

Next, I readied my upper body for the pique manege, focusing on the movement around the whole frame of the stage continuously moving until reaching the other side of the stage with a small coupe jete. Darting out with a quick jump before darting to the edge of the stage with the Chasse. My breath let out, my arms arched above my head.

Applause from the screens caused me to break my focus and I fell back into a relaxed first position.

The votes came in.

I watched as the android pointed its gun, Dennis let out a whimper just before a beam shot out turning him to dust.

I won the round.

"Poor Dennis."

There was something off about the vaporisation beams too. I just couldn't put my finger on it.

Those who passed were given water before they directed us back onto the stage after a five minute break. I had continued doing small stretches, careful not to strain anything in preparation for whatever was to come.

By the time finals came around it was just me and two others, battling it out in one grand finale song.

A small ironic chuckle came from me as I heard the Carmen Suite begin.

I knew I had to pull out all the stops.

I gazed at my crimson garb and wondered if Sexy foresaw this, of course she did.

Taking deep breaths I prepared myself to harmonize with the song when I could not remember the exact words as I closed my eyes and opened them imagining I was Carmen.

I took a risk and started with my hand behind my back, my head to the side back to the audience. Preparing myself for a quick jump out to the centre of the stage, wary of the other contestants who were not making much use of the large area. My arms above my head as I started the quick bourree forward as my gaze looked straight into the screens, my hand out towards them as if I were daring them to join me in the dance.

Another quick jump, my eyes staying upon each audience screen keeping them as my targets of the dance. Arching back before turning slowly and leaning forward upon one leg, my arm slowly swept out toward the audience before going upon my hip and commenced the famous dance of seduction. Finishing it with my leg up in the air before I spun and did a quick pique manege. My ending position with a hand reaching out towards the screens and the other upon my hip.

I did the performance of my life and I won; but not without the cost of a several lives.

I found myself back in the TARDIS. I dropped to my knees as the anxiety I had been pushing back raised its ugly head, my hand clutched at my chest and I choked out sobs. My head falling to rest upon the metal grating surrounding the TARDIS's heart. Waves of comfort surrounded me like a warm hug until my sobs quieted and I rose to my knees. I wiped the tear tracks away with the back of my hand.

"I need to find the Doctor."

I walked on shaking legs to the console, and patted her once I got there.

"Do you have eyes on them, Sexy?"

The TARDIS's monitor changed from a screen with some sort of scan running to one that showed the boys in some sort of jail, alongside a young woman that from Mickey's eyes he was enamoured with.

"Thank goodness they are safe." I let out a relieved sigh. "Ok I need to find that book, I'll be right back Sexy."

I ran down the TARDIS's hallways until I reached the observatory where all the manuals and more informative books were held. I went straight toward one of the couches that I often would curl up on with TARDIS manuals, guides to different star systems or anything else that caught my fancy.

"Ah hah!" The book had fallen underneath the couch, I held it up in victory before running back to TARDIS central.

I turned to the pages I had marked with a sticky note, in order to ask the Doctor about later.

"I knew there was something wrong with the vaporisation rays. It didn't smell right." I felt a bit sick to my stomach but I shook my head, "If it had been what it seemed then the smell would have been worse, like burnt hair, but it wasn't. Instead it smelled like metal, like a teleport beam."

The TARDIS let out a small ding, and I looked up at her screen to see more in depth schematics of each type of ray.

"Do you know where they were transported?"

The TARDIS's screen changed back to her scanning screen but the image upon it was familiar.

"Satellite 5."

I paced in front of the console, "So that means there's a possibility that those zapped are still alive. We just need to find out where they were transported to. Where are the boys now?"

The screen showed Jack with a big gun, Mickey holding the blonde girl's hand and the Doctor with a determined look as they all ran into an elevator.

"So they are heading our way. Wherever here is."

A couple minutes later Jack ran in only to pause when he saw me at the console, "Rose!"

He came my way picking me up and swinging me up in a hug.

"The Doctor thought you were gone. They couldn't find a Rose…" He paused as he let me down and saw my sheepish grin. "Oh you clever girl."

"I don't know how clever it ended up being in this situation."

Jack hugged me, "You need to go to him, he's going mad."

I ran from the TARDIS to see the Doctor standing over a group of people full of anger.

"Doctor!"

He shook and then slowly turned as if he couldn't believe it, "They said you were gone."

"I was in the TARDIS."

I walked toward him only to be surprised when he scooped me up into his arms holding me tight.

As I held him, I saw Mickey over his shoulder and let out another sigh of relief.

"I'm glad you are all safe."

Mickey almost blushed, "Thank goodness to Jack's hidden guns."

"Hi." The young blonde, by Mickey, waved and I waved back still very much attached to a big eared man who wouldn't let me go.

I leaned back and searched out his eyes that had been closed for a moment. As soon as he opened them they were focused on me.

"So catch me up."

The screens around us went fuzzy and one of the people in the blue room spoke up to the Doctor, "That would be a solar flare. They interfere with the broadcast signal."

The Doctor let me go to focus on the screens while I wandered to stand below the pale being hooked up to the computer systems.

Her sightless eyes that held so much pain as she rattled off numbers until she suddenly called out for the Doctor.

"Doctor!"

He came to my call. He stood close by as if making himself aware that I was still there by proximity.

"I'm here."

"Can't see. Blind, so blind. All my life blind, all I can see are numbers. But I saw…you are here."

"What do you want?"

Somehow I felt as if the being hadn't been just calling out to the Doctor.

"Solar flares are hiding me, they can't hear me. My masters listen but they can't hear me now! The sun she's so bright."

"Who are you masters?" The Doctor's brow was furrowed like a heavy ridge above piercing eyes.

"The name is forbidden. They watch. They control my thoughts…I had to be careful…I knew you could find me. They've been hiding in the dark space. Watching and shaping the Earth, so many years…they wait and grow in numbers they are so strong now."

"Do they go by any other names? Something not forbidden, something you can tell us." I was trying to help her narrow her jumbled thoughts down.

"They speak of you, how they fear the Doctor." Then she was back to reciting numbers and the next solar flare would be 2 years too late.

"Doctor there was something we, the TARDIS and I, figured out. The vaporizer rays aren't what they seem. They are all wrong, they are another form of the transmat ray."

"The people didn't get killed in the games, then?" Mickey piped up, "That's good news right?"

"Depends on where they were beamed to." I looked worriedly up at the Controller.

"Doctor, coordinates 5.6.1…"

"They'll hear you!"

The Controller shook her head and continued giving them, "434…No! My masters I defy you! Sigma 77."

An agonising painful scream echoed in the cavernous room as the Controller was transmitted away.

"They took her." The Doctor stared at the spot where the pale woman had once been.

One of the workers from before handed a thick manual bound paper to Mickey who was helping Jack navigate the systems, "Here you can use this. I took a log of all un-scheduled transmissions."

I looked to the Doctor, "So was it all part of a master plan, the Jagarfass and the games?"

The Doctor nodded, "Someone has been playing the long game. Controlling the human race behind the scenes for generations."

"Found it!" Mickey shouted and Jack gave the Doctor a remote that turned the monitor back on. Upon the screen was the Milky Way galaxy in all its wonder but no ships or destination for the people to have been beamed to.

"There's nothing there."

I looked at the woman at the side, "Haven't you heard of cloaking devices?"

"Rose is right. This satellite not only sends out the transmit signals but another signal beneath hiding whatever is out there." Leaning forward, "But if we cancel the signal we should…"

Large flying saucers appeared on the screen. Their designs had large bubble-like patterns on their rims that reminded me of something not that long ago.

"That's impossible. I know those ships." Jack looked in shock at the screen, "They were all destroyed."

"Obviously they survived."

"Who did? Who are they?"

I nearly jumped when the soft spoken voice appeared over Mickey's shoulder, the blonde woman smiled softly as her eyes peered curiously at the above screen.

"200 ships with 2000 on each. That's just about half a million."

"Half a million what?" Mickey looked scared. He'd never seen the Doctor this angry before, but I had.

"Daleks."

A virtual screen appeared above our heads with Daleks demanding to speak with the Doctor.

I walked over to Jack's side and leaned down to whisper in his ear, "What would we need to do to save the maximum lives?"

"A miracle."

I pulled him out of his seat and pulled him toward the TARDIS. I caught the Doctor's eye briefly and gave him a wink.

His lips pursed but he gave a subtle nod in return.

We were in the TARDIS's 'junk drawer' as the Doctor liked to call it, but truly it was a world on its own. Large mounds of parts to who-knows what kind of machinery stretched out as far as the eye could see.

Jack looked at me, "Tell me what you couldn't say out there."

"There has to be a way to shield the base, or at least some of it until the Doctor has a better plan."

"Their shields were crap."

"As I expected. It might seem impossible but I thought we'd look here."

We dug through the piles, me with only the vaguest idea what to look for and Jack with more direction but a hopeless expression.

I paused after I had assembled a small cluster of items that looked possibly useful.

Jack barely glanced at it, "Junk. Most misc parts to a ship's engine prototypes we don't have access to and the other is part of a food fabricator."

He stood from the piles with a yell, "If only…"

I looked at him, "Finish that sentence Jack."

"If we had an extrapolator, maybe just maybe we could create some sort of weapon with it later. But that's a huge But, we'd have to find it first."

"What does it look like?"

"A boogie board or small surfboard about yay big." He spread his hand about a little over half a metre in length, "With four to six nubs on top."

I was surprised he didn't make a joke about nubs, he must be pretty scared.

Of course with Daleks on the way anyone would be scared.

"A lego surfboard, got it." I muttered and looked through the pile I was looking through this time focusing on items of similar length and description.

After a bit the Doctor ran in, "What are you two up to?"

Just I did I looked up to catch something hovering several hundred feet above our heads.

"Jack!" I shouted, "Is that it?"

I pointed to the device.

"What?" The Doctor followed my pointing and his features shifted. "Fantastic!"

Thanks to a very tall ladder, the Doctor got the extrapolator.

"Missiles incoming!"

Jack, the Doctor and I held tightly as the TARDIS was hit and rocked precariously.

"The extrapolator is working! We've got a fully functional forcefield. Try saying that when you're drunk." Jack chuckled.

"Doctor what are we going to do?"

The Doctor had the look, the one I feared might consume him.

"Daleks have the answers. Let's go out and meet the neighbours."

I looked back at Jack, "The force field will hold?"

"Against almost anything."

"Great."

My sarcasm wasn't lost on Jack.

"Best I could do, sweetcheeks."

"Enough chinwagging," the Doctor swung open the door only to get a chorus of 'EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!'s, their blasts fell short due to the bubble surrounding the TARDIS and the Doctor.

I looked out at the Doctor and beyond to see over a hundred Daleks.

"You know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek homeworld? The Oncoming Storm. You might have removed all your emotions but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one spark left and that's fear."

I looked at the Doctor and worried.

I'd seen the storm before at the Vault and it nearly destroyed his goodness.

I felt a flutter of emotion that I'd come to recognize as the TARDIS reaching out, her song and his had grown strong in my head again. I walked back towards her, my hand upon her side.

"So tell me how did you survive the Time War?"

"I thought the Time war was just legend." Jack looked back at me before offering his arm. I took it and we followed the Doctor.

He introduced us to the Dalek leader, the Emperor of the Daleks.

"You destroyed us Doctor. The Dalek race died in your inferno. But my ship survived falling through time, crippled but alive."

"I get it." The Doctor was frustrated, I could see it even while my mind was distracted with trying to decipher what the TARDIS was trying to communicate to me.

"DO NOT INTERRUPT! DO NOT INTERRUPT!"

The Daleks sounded all around.

"You've forgotten. I'm the Doctor and if there's one thing I can do it's talk…"

The TARDIS's emotions were getting more urgent in my head but I was having a harder time filtering them.

I jumped when the Doctor shouted.

"So if anybody's going to shut up, it's you!"

His voice echoed in the grand chamber, several 'young' Daleks rolled back frightened.

The Storm had arrived in their midst.

"Okie dokie where were we?" The Doctor's too wide grin was on his face but his eyes were piercing.

The Emperor went on about how they hid, how they controlled the Earth.

I got a sick feeling in my stomach.

"Centuries past and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth, harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed; they all came to us."

I covered my mouth and Jack put his arm around my waist as he brought me to the Doctor. The room seemed to swirl around me, before the Doctor's words brought me back.

"They are insane. Driven mad by their own flesh. They hate their own existence and that makes them all the more dangerous."

I slipped my hand into the Doctor's, reminding him he wasn't alone anymore. He may still have a storm inside him, but he had me.

We shared a long look and I could feel the rage, the self-loathing and the tiniest bit of pity. I sent back my assurance, my care and I let him see just a bit of my heart that I kept hidden. His eyes widened and I swallowed nervously, only to feel his hand tighten around mine.

"We are going."

Back in the TARDIS the Doctor leaned his head against the door, while I leaned my back against it, both of us taking the barrage of mad voices behind it together. I held his hand through it all. I wondered if he could feel the way the TARDIS's song seemed to caress our ears almost in a way a mother would pat her child on the head.