Danielle's head hurt. Her back hurt too but it wasn't as bad as the headache that was already building up from where her head had hit the ground. She didn't have much time to think about it, though, as someone already had their hand on her arm, shaking her awake.
"Come on, it's about to start," they were saying excitedly. She didn't recognise the voice and opened her eyes to see a young woman, probably only slightly older than her, grinning in delight.
"Starting?" she asked, confused. She sat up to look around the small waiting room they were in. There was another four people in with them, all of varying ages, and all looking a mixture between terrified and ecstatic, like her new friend.
"Yeah," she declared happily, helping Danielle off the floor. "Can you believe how lucky we are?"
"Lucky?" Danielle repeated. "I don't- where are we?"
The woman shushed her slightly as one of the walls began to rise, bathing them all in a sickly yellow light that reminded Danielle very much of the lights at her university; cheap to install and maintain and the best colour for giving everyone migraines. She leant in closer to the woman. "What's happening?" she asked. "Where are we?"
"So, who are our contestants?" a robotic voice declared. The wall had revealed a long hallway, where a rather chunky-looking robot stood at the other end. "Let's meet them now."
"Contestants?" Danielle asked, still absolutely bewildered as the other people began walking down the hallway like it was the normal thing to do. She grabbed the woman's arm. "Look, I think I'm in the wrong spot," she told her. "Do you know anyone called the Doctor?"
The woman shook her head before leaning in a little closer. "Look, just do as they say," she whispered. "We're all lucky, this could have been a lot worse."
"I don't even know what you mean by that," Danielle hissed but the woman was already following the rest so Danielle jogged to catch up. They all stood in a line, staring at cameras of all things. Were they… they were on a television set, weren't they? What was going on?
"Hi, I'm Janet, and I'm a mom," the woman next to her declared before the camera was pointing at her, also expecting an introduction.
"Oh, um, I'm Danielle," she stated. "I'm-I'm a student, I guess?" She glanced to her side as the camera panned back to the robot. No one else seemed as perplexed as she was feeling at what was happening. She couldn't even remember where she was supposed to be, just that she was sure she should have been with the Doctor, Jack and Rose. Maybe she had hit her head harder than she'd thought.
"Excellent," the robot said, addressing the audience. "Once again our six compatriots are prepared to match their dexterity and courage against a multitude of perplexing games. Welcome to the Crystal Maze."
Danielle's draw dropped. "Wait, what?"
~0~0~0~
Jack was very rarely scared of new situations. If he found himself somewhere that he didn't expect, or didn't recognise, once he'd taken stock of the area and found his exits, he could settle back and enjoy until he could get out. Being naked on television was no exception. It was just another story he could tell over cocktails should he need a story to tell.
The robots seemed harmless enough, but even with his more relaxed attitude, he knew better than to let his guard down too much. The defabricator would be useful if he needed it, but luckily it didn't seem like he needed it right now. All he had to do was try on some new clothes, maybe get a haircut, and enjoy being pampered until either he could get back out the TARDIS or someone came and explained what was going on.
And who could say that he didn't look great in a leather jacket?
"Once we've got an outfit, we can look at the face," the Trine-e robot told him. "Ever thought about cosmetic surgery?"
"I've considered it, yeah," he replied, checking himself out in the full-length mirror behind her friend, the Zu-Zana robot. "A little lift around the eyes, tighten up the jaw line. What do you think?"
"Oh, let's have a little bit more ambition," the robot replied. "Let's do something cutting edge."
Apparently, that 'cutting edge' was to put him in a tennis outfit. He swung the bat in hopes that it would endear him to the outfit. It didn't. "No, I'm just not getting this," he told them bluntly. "It's just too safe. Too decent. And you'd never keep it clean."
"Stage two ready and waiting," Zu-Zana told him and he nodded, stepping in front of the defabricator. They quickly removed his clothes. He really needed to get one of those of his own, it would make a lot of things a lot easier.
"And now it's time for the face-off," she told him and he frowned.
"What does that mean?" he asked. "Do I get to compete with someone else?"
"No, like I said, face off." The robot raised its arms and he was suddenly right in the middle of the trouble he had been trying to avoid by playing along. On one hand she had needles pointing out of each finger, and the other was replaced by a chainsaw.
"I think you'd look good with a dog's head," the other told him, revealing that its hands had been replaced with a saw and some rather vicious looking scissors.
"Or maybe no head at all," Zu-Zana suggested happily. "That would be so outrageous."
"And we could stitch your legs to the middle of your chest."
"Nothing is too extreme. It's to die for."
He sighed heavily. It looked like he would have to make an escape before he found out properly what was going on. "Now, hold on, ladies. I don't want to have to shoot either one of you," he warned them.
"But you're unarmed," one said.
"You're naked."
He smirked, reaching behind him and grabbing the small gun that he kept on him for such precarious occasions. He pointed it at them, raising an eyebrow. If they could have looked surprised, they would have.
"But that's a Compact Laser Deluxe!" one protested. "Where were you hiding that?"
"You really don't want to know," he promised before blowing both of their heads off in quick succession. He had to act fast before someone came to catch him, whoever had put him in the room in the first place he would suspect, but he didn't really need a lot of time. He quickly put his own clothes on, grabbing his manipulator in the process, then set to work on turning the defabricator in the gun he always knew it could be.
"Well, ladies, the pleasure was all mine," he told the broken bodies of the robots as he darted out of the room. "Which is the only thing that matters in the end."
Outside was a large open space in basic metal, with rooms leading off each way that he suspected led to more of the same hell he'd just been in. He quickly set his manipulator to scan the area looking for his best shot at getting back to his friends whilst also finding the elevator away from what was floor 299, judging by the giant numbers above it.
"Where are they?" he muttered, impatiently looking as his wrist as the scan tried to locate any of the little group. It struggled, though, flashing up error after error as it tried to scan areas that were shielded against it. "Where is she?"
He climbed into the elevator as it found the Doctor, but neither Rose or Danielle. He anxiously tapped his foot as it went up and up. Who knows what danger they were in?
~0~0~0~
Danielle's memories had come back thick and fast as they'd moved to the first area of the gameshow, which turned out to be the Aztec Zone, which wasn't even her favourite zone when she'd watched the show as a child. It was full of stone and faded imagery that just looked tacky, just as she remembered it.
They'd just been to Kyoto, Japan. It had started out as a nice trip out to the 14th century, where they'd wandered around looking at all the beautiful scenery and architecture. She and the Doctor had even held hands, not because they were running, but just because they could and neither Jack nor Rose made comment about it. His hand had been so big compared to hers, but she still liked the way he'd threaded his fingers in between hers. She had really been enjoying herself until a rather large, fierce monster had appeared and attacked the area. They'd barely survived but it had been a great adventure.
Then a bright light had filled the TARDIS and, no matter how hard she'd tried, she couldn't keep hold of him any longer. Then she'd woken up on the floor and now she was in the middle of a game show.
She had thought, to begin with, maybe it was a dream but it didn't seem like it. Everything felt off, whereas dreams generally tended to be strange but didn't feel that way.
"Hmm, let's stop here," the robot presenter, who she guessed was supposed to be Richard O'Brien and not Ed Tudor-Pole, told them as they stopped in front of the first door. "It's a two-and-a-half-minute Mental game. Who will be going first?"
It looked at them all expectantly, but no one seemed to be volunteering themselves up. Danielle was sure that the team captain was supposed to offer people up, but perhaps whenever this was, the rules had changed.
She shrugged and raised her hand up. "I'll do it, I guess?" She was surprised by just how relieved everyone looked, which made her stomach feel queasy. Had she made the wrong choice? She'd just wanted to get the game moving so she could find the Doctor. She'd always thought herself a little smart, and she'd always liked puzzles.
"Well done, Danielle," the robot praised, unlocking the door with its finger. "You'll have two and half minutes from the moment I close the door to find the crystal, otherwise you'll be locked in."
Janet placed a hand on her arm. "You're very brave," she told her, which did nothing to calm Danielle's sudden nerves. "Good luck, you can do it."
Now, without much choice, she stepped into the small room. There was nothing inside except a helmet that was hanging from the ceiling by wires. She timidly walked towards it, jumping as the door slammed shut and was locked from the outside.
"You can do it!" the team was calling encouragingly from the other side. She swallowed hard, her hands shaking. Perhaps the helmet was some sort of virtual reality type affair. She could totally do that. She was clever, right?
She grabbed it, acutely aware of the counting clock, and clipped it into place. She wasn't sure what she was expecting – perhaps a visor to appear and show her some rather badly animated scenery where she had to find a way to get the crystal before the time ran out.
She hadn't expected the helmet to whir like it was powering up. Something painful stuck into her temples and her eyes widened as she screamed. The power shot down the wire connecting to the ceiling and straight through her head, causing every part of her to burn like it was on fire. Her knees gave way almost instantly and her hands shot up to the helmet, trying to rip it off. All she could think about was how she was going to die.
"You can do it!" the team continued to encourage. "Find the crystal. You've got a two minutes left!"
She couldn't even remember what the crystal was, let alone that she had to try and find it, but she did her best to turn on her spot on the floor, looking around for something that suggested any sort of crystal to find.
She just wanted the Doctor. She didn't want to die on the floor of somewhere strange and scary. She wanted to get back to her friends, to Jack and Rose, but mainly she wanted him to save her. She wanted to be saved. This wasn't right. None of this was right.
Something sparkled in her vision and she saw it. The glass crystal was sat in the very corner of the room, on the floor, covered in sand. She barely saw it through the white pain coursing through her, but she did, and she gritted her teeth as she tried to crawl over to it. The wire from the ceiling tugged at her head, the helmet gripped her hair tightly, but lying flat on her stomach she managed to wrap her hand around it.
Almost instantly the electricity stopped flowing through her and she collapsed into the dirt, panting heavily and crying pathetically to herself. She wanted to go home. She just wanted to go home.
"Danielle, quickly!" Janet's voice called to her. "You've got seconds left! Get out of there!"
Her self-preservation was the only thing that heard her, but it worked perfectly. She wasn't sure how she'd even made it out of the room, but she was suddenly being praised by everyone around her.
"I knew you were something special!" Janet told her, grinning happily. "We'll win this yet!"
"What-what the hell was that?" Danielle exclaimed, pointing at the door with a shaking hand. "What the hell is going on?!"
"Well, that was the Mental game, wasn't it?" Janet replied softly, trying to soothe her. "They fry your brain until you find the crystal."
"Since when?" she demanded in reply. "What-What kind of sick game is this? Where are we?"
"It's the Crystal Maze, remember?" Janet replied as they headed to the next room. Her voice was kind, like she thought Danielle was a little bit tender around the edges. She wasn't wrong. "We have to gather crystals so we can survive the dome at the end. There are Mental games, like the one you did. Physical games tend to be trying to get free from something, like the roof collapsing in. Then there's Skill, which is how fast you can get away from the rising spikes, and then Mystery which are… well, they're a mystery, aren't they? Have you never watched it before?"
Danielle tried not to throw up and instead directed her fear and anger at Janet. "Yes, I have, but it was nothing like this!" she cried. "Where's the Doctor? I want the Doctor right now."
"You'll see a medic at the end of the show," Janet promised her. "Just keep moving. The more crystals we have, and the more people who survive, the more chance we have that everyone survives."
~0~0~0~
The Doctor was nervous, and anxious, and feeling incredibly guilty. Being back on Satellite 5 and knowing the damage they – or rather he – had caused was horrifying enough, but also Jack, Rose and Danielle were somewhere deep in the slaughterhouse of games and he had no idea if they were even alive.
Lynda – with a 'y' – had been very helpful and he was glad that he could save her from a similar fate, but he refused to stop until he found out what was happening and where they were. Where she was.
He didn't understand it, but all he could think about was if Danielle was alive. Something deep inside told him that she was dead and the only way he could keep the voice quiet was to keep searching, keep looking. Of course he was worried about Rose and Jack, but his palms were clammy just as thought of her being hurt. He didn't even have time to consider the 'Bad Wolf' connection that seemed to have brought them all to the Game Station in the first place. He should have never let go of her hand.
He jabbed and poked at the console on the observation deck that Lynda had brought him to, hoping to get some answers. The doors opened behind them but he barely glanced back.
"Hey, handsome," Jack greeted, giant gun in his hands. "Good to see you. Any sign of Rose or Danni?"
Straight to the point, which would have normally caused the Doctor to retort something sarcastic, but it was very much wanted right now. "Can't you track them down?" he asked.
"They must be still inside the games. All the rooms are shielded," he explained, moving over to his side.
"If I can just get inside this computer," the Doctor muttered to himself. His chest was hurting, he was starting to panic. "She's got to be here somewhere," he muttered to himself.
Jack shot him a look as he took off his vortex manipulator, waiting for him to correct himself. However, as suspected, he was too focused to realise that he'd only mentioned one of the two young women. And he had an inkling who was at the forefront of his mind.
"Well, you'd better hurry up. These games don't have a happy ending."
"You think I don't know that?" the Doctor exclaimed. Jack held his hands up, surrendering to his anger, knowing that it came from a place of panic and wasn't actually directed at him. He held out his manipulator to him.
"There you go patch that in," he instructed, keeping calm despite his own worries. "It's programmed to find them both."
The Doctor snatched it out of his hand and tried his best to plug it in, but nothing seemed to work. Everything he tried was just rejected and all he could think about was the two young charges, people he had sworn to keep safe, being killed by someone's twisted idea of entertainment. What if he was never able to take Rose back home to her mother? What if Danielle…
The console beeped and he growled in frustration. "It's not compatible. This stupid system doesn't make any sense!" he exclaimed angrily. He chucked the manipulator behind him in the hopes that Lynda would grab it before trying to tear off the front end with his bare hands. Jack joined in and, together, they made quick work of it.
Grabbing the manipulator back, he tried again with the inner wiring. "This place should be a basic broadcaster, but the systems are twice as complicated," he told Jack. "It's more than just television. This station's transmitting something else."
Jack, who had joined in on trying to get the system working for them both, looked at him with a frown. "Like what?"
"I don't know," the Doctor replied solemnly. "This whole Bad Wolf thing's tied up with me," he explained. "Someone's manipulated my entire life. It's some sort of trap and Rose and Danielle…" He swallowed hard. "They're stuck inside."
"We'll find them," Jack promised him. "Both of them. They'll be okay."
"You don't know that," the Doctor snapped in reply because, as much as he wanted to believe Jack, he just couldn't. Something deep and dark was happening around him and, when then happened, people he loved tended to get hurt. Rose and Danielle were going to suffer because of him.
The manipulator finally gave them a win, though. "Found them!" he exclaimed happily. "One is on 347, the other's on 407."
Lynda gasped. "That's the Crystal Maze and the Weakest Link!" she exclaimed, horrified. "We've got to get them out of there!"
"They don't sound too bad," Jack offered. Lynda shook her head.
"The-The Weakest Link isn't too bad if she can make it to the end, but if you lose the Anne-Droid disintegrates you," she explained in a hurried tone. "But the Crystal Maze is a series of rooms designed to kill you if you don't find the crystals in time! It's-It's just torture! It's one of the worst ones to be in!"
"This place makes no sense," the Doctor retorted. "Billions of humans sat back, watching their fellow man being killed, all silently hoping it's not you next." He turned, storming out of the room. "I'm going to fix it."
~0~0~0~
Danielle really wanted to know what she had done to deserve being treated like she was. Was it because she had run off with the Doctor, or maybe the fact she was upset her mother didn't seem to care? Was it that chocolate bar she'd stolen when she was six? She hadn't even understood what stealing really was!
She must have done something, though, because this was pure hell. Plain and simple. Each 'task' seemed to be getting worse and worse, and while they had come together as a group and trying to spread the work load, each time someone was battered and bruised they were a little slower, a little less likely to win. It had only been a matter of time before…
Janet had taken the fall. She'd taken the Mental task and had been disintegrated when she'd not found the crystal in time. It was one death too many, and apparently knocked all of their chances of survival down even further.
She wasn't even sure if she wanted to survive at all. She loved running, and saving people, and seeing all the wonderful sights that the Doctor had shown her, but she didn't have it in her to keep being hurt over and over. She was only 19, and incredibly sheltered at that. It was… it was all too much.
"Next, I think, we'll choose a Skill task," the robot host told them and she wasn't sure if that was the best or worst option. "Any volunteers?"
No, of course there wasn't. They'd all, rather quickly, had their spirits squashed and no one wanted to put themselves through the torture of being killed on television. No one wanted to go out like that.
But still, partly because she wanted to get the whole damn show over with, and partly because she wasn't too bothered about keeping going, Danielle raised her hand. If her doing the game meant everyone else could get out then, well, at least that was something.
"Very well. Two minutes on the clock from the moment the door closes," the host told her, as if she wasn't keenly aware of how the game worked. She stepped into the small box of a room and the door quickly was closed and locked behind her.
Immediately she heard the whirring from behind the walls as they powered up and she moved into the middle of the room in the hopes that it would give her more time. She was wrong, though, as a spike immediately shot up from the floor, catching the outside of her foot and scraping right up the side of her leg. She screamed in surprise as another shot out of the ceiling and she had to duck to get out of the way. The spikes didn't detract and another one joined the one on the floor.
"One minute forty-five, Danielle," the robot host said in a tone that wasn't supposed to sound taunting, but it really did. She jumped out of the way of yet another spike, falling to the ground. She screamed again, terrified, as one shot up just next to her.
"How the hell am I supposed to do this in two minutes?!" she shouted out to whoever was listening, although she was pretty certain no one would care. She just tried to find the crystal the best she could, getting poked and sliced open as she did.
She quickly found herself backed into a corner, all of the spikes surrounding her and no way to get back to the door. She couldn't see the crystal, and every thud of a spike appearing rang through her head, ringing in her ears and she wrapped her arms around her legs, burying her face into her knees so she couldn't see what was about to happen to her.
"You're okay, you're okay," she whispered to herself, sniffing heavily as she cried. "You're okay. Everything's okay. You're okay."
She jumped, stifling the scream as loud bang made the walls shudder. That must have been the noise of her being locked in. Another one sounded and she braced herself to be disintegrated.
She never got to go home. She never got to say goodbye. She never got to tell her mum she loved her, or find her father and tell him how much better she was off without him.
Someone grabbed her arms and she screamed again, terrified as she looked up ready to defend herself. Jack stared down at her, eyes searching all over her as he tried to take her injuries in. She sobbed in pure relief as she chucked her arms around him. He hugged her just as tightly.
"What the hell happened here?" he asked and she shook her head into his shoulder, crying heavily. He thought about the robot who's head he'd just blown off and it didn't feel like enough. She was shivering out of pure fright, and this was the woman who had tried to beat him up with his own floor.
It was a horrifying sight, breaking into the room to see her surrounded by spikes and huddled in the corner, waiting to die. He wasn't sure where it had come from, but the fierce urge to protect her at all cost rushed over him and he'd been at her side in a flash. He shifted her so he could cup her face, wiping scorch marks off her temples. What had they done to her to burn her skin like that?
"Danni, we're going to go now, okay?" he instructed, trying to be firm. "We still need to find Rose."
Her brows furrowed. "Rose?" she whispered quietly, like she was afraid to talk. "Is she- Is she here too?"
"She's on another floor," he explained. "Can you stand?"
She nodded, doing as he said. She held his hand tightly and let him lead her through the spikes and out the door, where a very impatient Doctor was waiting.
She had never been so happy to see someone as she was at that moment to see the Doctor. She let go of Jack to run to him, chucking her arms around him and he held her back in return, grateful that she was in one piece.
"Oh, I thought I'd lost you," she sobbed into him. "I thought I was- I thought I was going to die and I didn't know where any of you were."
"I'm sorry," he told her honestly. "I'm so sorry." He placed a kiss in her hair, wondering if it was the right time to kiss her properly, but Jack and Lynda appeared at his side.
"Break it up you two," Jack said, attempting at humour to try and keep them moving. "We've got to get to Floor 407."
"What's Floor 407?" Danielle asked. "Is that where Rose is?"
"We'll save her too," the Doctor promised her. "I'll get you home safely. Both of you."
She wasn't sure what it was, but she believed him completely. She knew that somewhere inside of her she knew that he would try to save them all until his last dying breath. But more than that, she knew that he would try and save her until his last dying breath and she had never felt safer. The whole universe was beautiful, but dangerous and she didn't want to stray from his side for a moment.
She nodded. "Up or down?" she asked.
~0~0~0~
The Doctor held her hand the entire way up to Floor 407, where Rose was apparently being held in a fatal game of Weakest Link. Danielle had grown to really love Rose as her friend over their short time together, but while she might have had a kind heart there was no denying that it was a game that was going to beat her. Every time the floor number changed, counting upwards, she winced in her worry. Everything was going so slow and her brain was still a rush of jumbled emotions and fear that she was struggling to find her rational within it. Everyone was going to die. Rose was going to die.
The Doctor dragged her out of the elevator as if he knew that was going to be a dead weight. She let him go the moment she could to fight with the door that had Rose behind it. Apparently they'd had similar issues getting into her own game. She could remember Jack telling her about it on the way, but it felt like she'd watched it on a television herself. Everything felt so far away.
As they burst into the room, Jack brandishing his giant gun, Rose felt a huge sense of relief at seeing not just the Doctor, but all of her friends. She knew she was going to be safe now, but then the Anne Droid turned.
"Look out for the Anne-Droid, it's armed!" she cried, rushing from behind her podium and towards the Time Lord who was striding towards her.
She hadn't stood a chance. In a flash of light Rose was gone, a small pile of dust in her place. The Doctor froze, horrified. Jack exploded in a mass of pain and anger, rushing over to the Anne-Droid and the crew behind her and demanded some sort of answer, screaming at them although he wasn't sure why.
Danielle, though, stared at where her friend had stood with wide eyes and shaking hands. The whole day's emotional toll fell over her like a lead weight and she couldn't take any more. Her knees gave way, the pain in her chest exploded and she collapsed into a deep, gut-wrenching sob that didn't abate as she was dragged off the floor by security and out of the room.
~0~0~0~
Danielle blinked as she looked up. Somehow, it seemed, she had been sat on a bench in what appeared to be a holding cell. Jack was on one side of her, the Doctor on the other and Lynda on the other of him. She didn't remember how she got there, she tried but it all felt blurry and heavy. There was a security guard stood above them with an earpiece.
"You will be taken from this place to the Lunar Penal Colony," he was saying, but she just slowly looked to her left and right. Both the Doctor and Jack were sat, staring straight ahead, sombre and not acknowledging the man at all. She didn't blame them. He talked way too much.
"There to be held without trial," the guard continued. "You may not appeal against this sentence." Danielle looked back up at him. She really wished he'd just shut up. Their eyes met and he looked more annoyed at them being there than she felt. "Do you understand?" he asked her.
She shook her head slowly. "I really wish you'd stop talking," she replied simply. Her voice felt a little far away, much like her thoughts.
The Doctor shared a look with Jack as the guard moved to leave. Danielle had fallen into a dazed stupor that had angered Jack, but that had taken the Doctor out of his grief and set his mind on one very distinct purpose; save her. He had failed Rose, but he would burn the satellite down before he would fail her as well. It had become very apparent that both men had felt the same way, and without a word spoken between them they had come to agreement with what was going to happen next. And now that Danielle seemed to be coming back to them, it was the best opportunity they were going to get.
"Let's do it."
Jack was quick to his feet. With one punch he took out the guard leaving their cell and used the door to push his way through. He grabbed hold of the top of the frame and kicked the guard to the floor, knocking them out. He and the Doctor then took out the remaining guards on the other side with two punches.
"Bloody hell," Danielle said lowly, looking at the floor where the man who wouldn't stop talking was now laying. She stepped around him. "You've got some moves, Captain."
"I've got plenty of hidden talents, Danni-Girl," he retorted as he and the Doctor grabbed the weapons that had been taken off them when they'd been escorted away from the Anne Droid. The Doctor grabbed Jack's giant gun from his game, while Jack quickly pocketed the rest of his arsenal. "Perhaps I'll get to show you sometime."
"We don't have time right now for your flirting," the Doctor snapped as the foursome headed out to the lift. He took front and centre, large gun pointing at the door as they zoomed all the way up to Floor 500.
Danielle was stood to his side and he took a moment to glance at her. She was looking better. Still exhausted, and timid, but better. "I'm going to get you home," he promised her. She looked up at him.
"I know," she told him with all the faith he'd seen her show him before. She didn't look like she'd even thought to question him and, through his own worry and grief, he smiled slightly. "I don't like the gun."
He wasn't surprised by her declaration. He wasn't too keen on it, either, but he knew it would get done what he needed to be done. Seeing Rose be disintegrated, an innocent girl who had just being trying to save him, who had only been there because of him, had washed away any sense of reservation he had at using all the weaponry at his disposal to find out what the hell was going on, and to stop it.
The doors opened to Floor 500, somewhere Danielle had really hoped she'd never be again. It looked a lot more functional that the last time they had been there. A lot less dead people and a lot warmer, which she had to admit was a plus. The people who were in there all wore smart, office-type clothes and all looked terrified as the Doctor stormed out, giant gun aimed and ready. Jack followed, his own guns held aloft so everyone could see them, and Danielle and Lynda trailed behind, both a little out of their depth.
"Okay, move away from the desk!" Jack commanded with a confidence Danielle wasn't sure she could find at all in their current situation. "Nobody try anything clever. Everybody clear, stand to the side and stay there."
"Oh my god," Danielle breathed, pushing past them all to rush to the desk at the end of the room. Unlike the last time they have been there, which apparently had been a hundred years ago, the room was hosting a large blob of a creature that was stagnating humanity. This time there was something much more horrifying and she couldn't help but stare up at them, eyes wide.
There was a young woman, no older than she was, with bright white eyes and pulled back hair. Wire after wire came out of her in set intervals up and down her torso, with even more coming out of her head. She was talking over them all, making declarations that made it painfully obvious she had no idea they were there.
The Doctor, of course, immediately pointed his gun at her. "Who's in charge of this place?" he demanded as the young woman counted up to a solar flare. "This Satellite's more than a Game Station. Who killed Rose Tyler?"
"Stop it!" Danielle shouted at him and he looked down at her, surprised. "She can't hear you. I don't think she can hear anything." She looked back at her. "I don't think she's aware of anything at all," she whispered.
"She's not far off," one of the staff members chipped in and the Doctor spun around, gun now aimed at them. "Don't shoot!" he begged.
"Oh, don't be so thick, like I was ever going to shoot," he replied before chucking the gun at the man, who caught it, now more baffled than scared. "Captain, we've got more guards on the way up. Secure the exits."
"Yes, sir," Jack replied, setting about his task.
"What do you mean?" Danielle asked. "Who is she? What did they do to her?"
The man looked down at the gun, then back up at the pair. "But I've got your gun."
"Okay, so shoot us," the Doctor snapped. "Answer her."
"She's er…" He looked back down at his arms. He really wasn't comfortable with holding the gun. "Can I put this down?"
"If you want. Just hurry up."
"Thanks," he replied, putting the gun down gingerly on the desk. "Sorry. The Controller is linked to the transmissions. The entire output goes through her brain. You're not a member of staff so she doesn't recognise your existence."
"I'm sorry?" Danielle snapped. She pointed up at the poor woman. "You let some poor woman be strapped into a computer?!"
"She was installed when she was five years old," he explained. "That's the only life she's ever known."
Danielle blinked for a moment. He was saying it like it was a bonus, like he thought it wasn't absolutely horrifying and her blood boiled. "Oh, so that's okay, is it?" she raged. "You can sit there, shirt and tie, letting a fucking girl be a computer because you're just 'doing your job'?"
Jack quickly headed back over to them, sensing something about to happen. He remembered her demanding to know where she was when he'd first teleported her onto his ship; that was her fighting face, her fighting tone. Someone had very much pissed her off and he was very keen on both joining the fight but also making sure nothing happened to her as well.
"Door's sealed. We should be safe for about ten minutes," he explained to the pair. The Doctor nodded once.
"Keep an eye on them," he instructed. "Take Danielle with you."
Jack knew that he was just removing the red-head from the situation before she could get hurt and he was very much in agreement with that idea. Danielle didn't look best pleased but he didn't give her a change to protest. "Come on, Red," he encouraged, already walking over to another door that had caught his eye. She huffed, but followed him over. It had a lock on the side, glowing blue with a handprint on it.
"Jack, what are we doing?" she hissed. "They've-They've got that poor girl trapped up there!"
"And they have a locked door just by her side," he pointed out. "I don't think this is just their cloakroom, do you?"
It wasn't that he was wrong, but she didn't appreciate being torn away from both an injustice or the Doctor's side. But she was also rather curious, and hopeful, and still a bit too emotionally exhausted to fight him too much.
"You're not allowed in there. Archive Six is out of bounds!" one of the staff members called over as Jack reached out to open it. In response he held up the two guns he was carrying.
"Do I look like an out of bounds sort of guy?"
Surprising both of them, the door opened when he pressed his hand against the lock. He, apparently, had clearance to go into the archive. Everything was still so confusing, Danielle felt like she wasn't getting any answers but the sight inside made that all fall away.
The room was bare, white and brightly lit. But standing in the middle was a sight for her very tired, very sore eyes; the TARDIS.
"Oh my god," she said, relieved and almost on the verge of tears. She pushed past Jack and rushed to the door, where she pulled out her key and opened the door as he made it over to her side. Both of them were so happy to see the time machine. Even Danielle, whose mind was still on the poor girl trapped in a computer, had the overwhelming urge to take the TARDIS and fly as far away from Satellite 5 as they could.
Then she caught sight of Rose's jacket, sat on the railings that led to the door. She had obviously just taken it off and flung it on there for their next trip out. And now she wasn't there to pick it up again.
Danielle stopped by it, picking it up and feeling a really deep grief as she held it between two hands. Jack also paused, but let her have a moment and instead headed up to the console.
"You know, Jackie spent a whole year looking for her daughter, thinking she was dead or worse," she told Jack softly. "All the while, Rose was just with the Doctor, she had barely been anywhere at all. All that time passed and all Jackie did was wait." She sniffed. "I'm going to have to tell her," she said. "She can't wait around again."
"I don't think she's going to have to," Jack muttered. He'd not allowed himself to feel too much at Rose's death. He had a lot of practice of pushing stuff back and away until he had time to deal with it. The absolute horror show they had found themselves in meant that he'd needed to keep his head, so his own grief hadn't taken the forefront like it had Danielle. And seeing her shut down through sheer overload of emotions had kept that resolve going.
Now, though, as he looked over the readings the TARDIS had on her monitors, he was starting to think that maybe it had been a better idea than he'd realised to just deny all the bad that had been happening. Maybe, just maybe, that devastation was a bit too premature.
Danielle could hear the hope in his voice and she placed Rose's jacket back where she'd left it. "What do you mean?" she asked. He motioned her over so she could see what he was seeing. She didn't really understand it, but he obviously did. "What does it mean?"
"I think," he started before quickly looking back at her, "and I'm going to need to do some more investigating before I can say for sure. But I don't think Rose is dead."
Danielle blinked. "What?"
He grinned at her. "Give me a moment, Danni-Girl," he said. "I think I'm about to make your day."
~0~0~0~
The Doctor hadn't wanted to send Danielle away. There was a bigger part of him that had wanted to keep her right by his side so he could keep her safe, but he knew he had to ignore it. Seeing her shout at people could be rather entertaining, especially when they deserved it, but he couldn't guarantee that nothing bad would happen to her if she did. He had already lost Rose, if he lost her as well…
Sending her with Jack had been the right choice. The more he saw, the more that was shown to him, the worse it got and he didn't want her to see any of it. He had just wanted to show her the universe, to show her the amazing things he knew were out there and see her curiosity sore. Both she and Rose could see the wonder that even he struggled to see these days, but now he'd lost one and he was going to lose the other.
And, of course, there had been more than what it had seemed. They weren't just games, they were so much more and someone was waiting in the dark, playing the whole human race like they were toys. Something out there that knew him, that he'd probably already met. Someone who, at the very least, had the common sense to be very afraid of him.
The solar flare had given the Controller some time to talk to him, but it ended quickly and she was consumed by the computer again. It was very jarring to watch but it was something he had to dismiss in the face of the overwhelming evidence that he had to stop it. Satellite 5, her masters, all of it. He had to put right what he'd put into motion the last time they were there. He had to take responsibility for his actions.
The door to Archive Six burst open and Danielle rushed out, pulling his attention away from the Controller, immediately concerned. She didn't look panicked, or hurt, though. She had that glow on her face and in her eyes that she'd had when she'd first stepped out of the TARDIS; she had hope.
"Doctor!" she was crying out, coming to a stop as everyone turned to look at her. Suddenly under the gaze of a room, she froze, worrying her hands nervously in front of her.
"What is it?" he asked.
"It's-It's the TARDIS," she stuttered, motioning behind her awkwardly. "She did it. She-She must have been working it out while we were in the games. Jack found it, really, but-but they're not guns."
He frowned. "What aren't?"
"The-The Anne-Droid, the games, they're not guns," she tried to clarify. "They don't kill people. They're-They're not. It's moving people."
Jack appeared next. "It's a transmat beam. Not a disintegrator," he explained for her. "A secondary transmat system. People don't get killed in the games. they get transported across space."
"Rose isn't dead!" Danielle cut in, unable to keep it to herself. "Doctor, she's alive!"
She rushed over to him, chucking her arms around him and he lifted her up, cheering in delight. That was the best thing they could have said. If she was alive, then he could still save her. He could still save them all.
He put her back down and the smile on her face made everything better. The hope that had come back to her was very well deserved, and he could see that passionate fight slowly coming back now that her energy wasn't being sapped by her grief.
And Danielle could see the same in him as well. The anger that had caused him to beat up guards, grab a gun and force his way through to Floor 500 was now being replaced by everything that she had seen in him before. And, for the first time, she didn't hesitate. It was just a quick press of her lips against his, but she couldn't hold it back.
She was back on the flats of her feet before he'd realised what she was doing, stunning him slightly with the affection. "The next question is; where is she now?" she started. "We need to get to her before anything else can go wrong."
She was right, of course, so the Doctor quickly rushed over to one of the many consoles in front of the Controller and sat down, typing wildly.
"Doctor!" the Controller cried. "Coordinates five point six point one."
He quickly typed them in. "Don't," he said. "The solar flare's gone. They'll hear you."
The Controller continued, obviously in pain. "…Point four three four. No, my masters, no! I defy you! Stigma seven seven…"
She screamed, the sound of electricity filled the air until she was gone in a puff of smoke. Her wires fell, dangling down into the void where she had one stood.
"They took her," Danielle breathed, horrified. She looked over at the Doctor, who like everyone else was staring at where she once stood. "Can we save her?"
The Doctor had fought his share of bad people in his time. They spread across all of time and space, of multiple species on multiple planets and in all the time he had learnt one thing; betraying them never ended well.
"We can still save Rose," Jack replied instead. He walked over to the Doctor, sitting in the chair next to him. "We don't have all of the coordinates, but maybe we can use what we have," he explained as he set about his own work. He'd become very adept at hacking systems over the years, even the years he couldn't remember.
They all gathered around him, even the Doctor stood up to watch the ex-Time Agent work. "Who-Who are her Masters?" Danielle asked.
"We have no idea. She couldn't say their name," one of the staff members said.
"Shouldn't? Or couldn't?"
"Couldn't," the Doctor said. "They'd wired it into her brain not to be able to even think it."
"Wow," Danielle muttered. "That's-That's not a great sign."
"Look, use that," the man that had annoyed Danielle so much said as he handed Jack a small disk. "It might contain the final numbers. I kept a log of all the unscheduled transmissions."
"Nice." Jack looked him up and down and an all-too-familiar smile fell on his face. "Thanks. Captain Jack Harkness, by the way."
He held his hand out and the other man shook it happily. "I'm Davitch Pavale."
"Nice to meet you, Davitch Pavale."
"Jack," Danielle scolded. "Rose, remember?"
Sheepishly he set back to work. "Are you saying this entire set up's been a disguise all along?" the other woman asked.
"Going way back. Installing the Jagrafess a hundred years ago," the Doctor explained to them all. "Someone's been playing a long game, controlling the human race from behind the scenes for generations."
Jack held up a small device. "Click on this." The Doctor took it and pointed it at the screens that were sat behind where the Controller had been. They turned on and showed an expanse of space. "The transmat delivers to that point, right on the edge of the solar system."
"There's nothing there," the woman declared.
"It looks like nothing because that's what this satellite does. Underneath the transmission there's another signal."
"Doing what?" Davitch asked.
"Hiding whatever's out there. Hiding it from sonar, radar, scanner. There's something sitting right on top of planet Earth, but it's completely invisible. If I cancel the signal…" He sat back down next to Jack and started typing. A large flying saucer appeared on the screen, right in the middle on the space outside. Slowly, more and more smaller spaceships appeared, surrounding it in clumps until they had spread out beyond the reach of the screen.
"Doctor, what are…" Danielle turned to him only to see the horror on his face. It wasn't a good sign and her heart started pounding painfully in her chest. "Doctor?"
"That's impossible," Jack declared in disbelief. "I know those ships. They were destroyed."
"Obviously, they survived," the Doctor replied.
"Who did? Who are they?" Lynda asked, as confused as everyone else.
"Two hundred ships. More than two thousand on board each one. That's just about half a million of them."
"Half a million what?"
The Doctor swallowed hard. "Daleks."
Danielle's breath caught and she shook her head. "No, no, we saw it die," she said. "We saw it die!" She was shaking, the memories of being trapped under Utah running through her head. "We saw what one of those-those things could do, how- we can't stop half a million of them!"
The Doctor reached out, grabbing her hand. "Don't worry," he told her firmly. "They can't get you here."
She looked at him like he had two heads. "What about everyone else?" she whimpered. "What about Rose?"
They didn't have to wait long. The screen flickered, then there were a group of Daleks on it, Rose stood timidly between them. They were all relieved to see her okay, but the sight of the Daleks curbed their enthusiasm.
"I will talk to the Doctor," one declared.
"Oh, will you? That's nice," he replied, his true sassy self that normally would have had a smile on Danielle's face. He waved. "Hello!"
"The Dalek stratagem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene."
"Oh, really? Why's that, then?"
"We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated."
The Doctor watched Rose wince. He felt Danielle clench down on his hand and it made his blood boil. He remembered what they had done to his home planet, how they'd torn it apart with their lust for cleansing and it made his blood boil. He remembered what it had driven him to and it made his blood boil. No more.
"No."
They all looked down at him, but he kept his eyes firmly on the screen. Even the Daleks seemed a little taken aback. "Explain yourself."
"I said no."
"What is the meaning of this negative?"
"It means no."
"But she will be destroyed."
"No!" He shot up out of his chair. "Because this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to rescue her. I'm going to save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet. And then I'm going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!"
The Daleks all looked at each other them back at the Doctor. "But you have no weapons, no defences, no plan."
He grinned from ear to ear. "Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death?" The Daleks didn't reply and they all knew what that meant; yes, it did. "Rose?"
The blonde looked slightly startled at being addressed. "Yes, Doctor?"
"I'm coming to get you." He held out the remote and turned the screen off. He turned to Danielle. "We're going to save Rose," he promised her.
"We're going to save everyone," she replied just as firmly and he was so happy to know that she was on his side. That she was by his side. He could see it, and for the first time he let that hope of her actually having feelings for an old man like him fuel him. Maybe, just maybe, he could finally end the Time War and prove that he was a good enough man for her. For everyone.
~0~0~0~
*waves* I hope ya'll still here, and that you enjoyed this :)