| Deeper | A Doctor Who Fanfiction | COMPLETE |

Chapter 17

She hated not being armed. It felt as if she were naked.

Rose was clothed in a hospital gown, and as if that weren't enough, her cell was freezing. It had been twenty hours since her capturing. The Istuli were organised species, it seemed. The experiments appeared to be executed twice a day: in the morning and the evening. And in between them, there would be a window of ten hours.

Naturally, the wounds would always get patched up, but even so, Rose felt tired and sick. It had been her third experiment before getting thrown back into her cell. Her left ear was ringing and her hands were shaking. This time around she didn't pass out, which was a bad thing and a good thing.

Bad because the pain was excruciating and it felt like dying. Good because that way she could analyze the layout of the place.

She coughed, a hand to her chest. Was this what her life had come to? Was this the future?

Rose chuckled.

She ran a hand through her hair, tears running down her cheeks. She missed her mum. Tony. Pete. And for the first time in her life, she missed the Doctor. Not the Time Lord, no. The part-human Doctor. The Doctor that had a bit of Donna's kick in his blood. The Doctor that stayed. The Doctor that shouldn't have been. She wished she could hold his hand and fall into his embrace.

The way he talked. The way he smiled. The way he'd rub at the back of his neck and his voice would get higher.

This Doctor had always said he was the same man as the Time Lord. But that was not true. There was something about him, something slightly different.

Or maybe the pain she was inflicted with made her crazy.

Rose wobbled her way to the door, trying to resist the urge to sleep.

„Sally? Brad?"

No reply.

She sat with her back against the door, coughing again. God, at least they could've given them some shoes. It was so cold. So cold.

-

The Doctor ran up and down the conning tower, gathering essentials he might use to accelerate the water jet thrusters of the exosuit he had found on board. The oxygen system of the suit would allow him 50 hours of life support, which the Doctor found enough, and the manipulators would also come in handy. The thrusters however only provided four 1.6 horsepower propulsion, and he needed more.

He placed the items on a nearby table, dismantling the thrusters. The system was easy. But time was tight, so he worked fast.

„Anything he needs, you get him." Pete spoke to a Torchwood doctor. „Save my daughter, Doctor."

-

Ten hours had passed and Rose knew it was time. When she heard a rattle at her door, she stood straight, eyeing her enemy.

„You think you're so much better than us." she said, while the alien forcefully pushed her.

„Walk!"

They arrived back in the medical room and she walked towards the surgery table, but to her surprise, she wasn't led there. Instead, they took her to another section. She looked at the machine in front of her. It was a chair, where she would get strapped on to, and there hovered a teardrop-shaped helmed above her head.

„What...what is this?" she asked, struggling in her seat. „What are you gonna do to me?"

„Shut it, child." Istuli fixed the helmet on her head. Then it took a step back, looking at a chart. „Experiment number 2.3.3.5. Commence."