The Game-Chapter 12- Lost Battles?
Chapter 12
Lost Battles?
The guards roused cursing "What the..." The one nearest Rose spotted her instantly. "You!"
Rose took a step back, dropping into a fighter’s stance. "Me." She stated blandly, stepping back, painfully but deftly as the guard swung for her.
"Ohh...I wouldn't do that." The Doctor intoned matter-of-factly. "Last guard that did that, got disciplined by the Visier," he said, stressing 'visier'. He thrust his hands into his pockets casually, hiding the communicator and hand-held scanner as he did so.
Rose ducked the blow "That and I'm quicker than you."
"Hmm...That too..." the Doctor said with a grin, before quirking an eyebrow at the guards. "Are you our...escorts then?"
The guard growled "Could say that."
"I believe just did."
Rose turned to grin at him "Welcome back."
The Doctor grinned back. "Do you know? I've missed talking. Not being able to form sentences is really really really dull" he said, bouncing ever-so-slightly on the balls of his feet. "Of course, still struggling with big long complica...hard words. But still!"
"Sounds like my normal day." Rose grinned, even as the guards cuffed her. "Come on then" She sighed softly.
The Doctor rolled his eyes as one of the guards grabbed his arms and propelled him towards the door. "Back to the manhandling is it?"
Rose shot them a look "They're good at it...got to be good at something right?"
The guard snarled "I can't wait to kill you"
"Hey hey...there will be no killing of Rose!" The Doctor said, scowling at the guard. "Actually...there will be no killing at all. Not if I have anything to say about it. Which, I have an awful lot to say at the moment," he continued, clearly making up for not being able to talk due to the tonic.
"You really don't" The guard muttered.
Rose ignored the guard "Thank god you're back!"
"I reeeeeallly do." The Doctor threw back at the guard, on a roll now with his speech. "I've been unable to say what I've been wanting to say since I got here! And I'm making up for it." He paused and tilted his head to the side in a thoughtful gesture. "Although, some of what I wanted to say is not really relevant now."
The guard looked at The Doctor as if he was something that could be scraped off the ships hull. "If I threaten to break her ribs, will you shut up?" He asked.
The Doctor fell silent for a beat before opening his mouth again. "It would depend if you're just threatening or will actually do it."
"Again." Rose said softly
"Again?"
"Again"
"Ahh....Shall I shut up then?" He asked quite unnecessarily.
"Might help"
"Right." He snapped his mouth shut and threw an impish grin at the guards. "Better?" His grin fell and he frowned. "Oh no, wait, that's still talking...never mind." He stopped talking again, the grin back in place.
"It's the Visier for both of you, then a shared cell." The guard smirked evilly "There are cameras, if you fancy giving us a show." The guard leered at Rose.
The Doctor blinked and frowned at the guard's words. "A show?" He asked in confusion, just refraining from asking if they'd be expecting them to sing and dance.
Rose couldn't hold in a snort "He's as sexually motivated as a spider plant so you'll have trouble."
The Doctor froze, eyes widening dramatically as his jaw fell open. "Wh...What?" he managed to splutter out, his voice squeaking slightly.
Rose let out a shuddering sigh and almost visibly gave up, looking away from the Doctor and sagging in the guard's grip. At the same time the Doctor's eyes were darting back and forth between Rose and the guards, blinking wide eyes and trying to figure out if he was understanding the implications correctly.
Rose watched him for a second, before turning to speak with her captor. " Let him go, you can kill me yourself...I'll make it look good"
"Rose!" The Doctor all but yelled, not believing what he'd just heard her say.
"What? You can help them...me, I'm just prey" Rose's tone carried a ring of hopelessness.
"You are not just prey!" He snapped back. " What's wrong with you?"
" Nothing." Rose responded dully "I distract them, you do what you have to do."
The Doctor frowned at her, before lowering his voice so the guards couldn't hear. "Rose, we have a plan...been through it...there is no distracting from you involved."
"And if I'm with you, who gets to Bree? Who protects you?" Rose demanded.
"The medic gets to your friend." The Doctor rolled his eyes. "I don't need protecting Rose."
"You always did."
He rolled his eyes again and shook his head. "I'm not arguing this point now."
"We don't have time." Rose glanced toward the door.
"The Visier has to proclaim that it's OK to break procedure and to leave you together." The guard muttered.
"Oh of course. Does a lot of proclaiming...the Visier...I presume" the Doctor said loudly, raising his eyebrows.
Rose just chose to roll her eyes. The Doctor shrugged and half smiled at her. "Weeeell, some one has to I suppose."
The door that Rose had stared, wild eyed at was thrown open, and the prisoners shoved through it.
The Visier ignored Rose, except to gesture at her as he spoke "I'm told this, belongs to you?"
"Hmm..." the Doctor quirked an eyebrow at Rose and then turned his attention to the Visier. "Nope," he said simply, popping the 'p' in the middle of the word. "She belongs to herself. I'm not in the business of 'owning' people."
"A shame..." The Visier drawled "I was going to ask you how much it cost."
The Doctor's eyes narrowed and all hint of humor abruptly left his face. "You can't put a price on a living entity," he stated, his voice holding an underlying threat to it.
"We already have." The Visier replied.
"I'm very aware what you think you have the right to do," the Doctor said, his tone unwavering as he leveled a hard gaze at the Viser. "But you don't."
"Your value is higher"
The Doctor shook his head. "No life should be worth more than another."
"Yours always was..." Rose said softly, before her tone changed. She spoke angrily, dangerously to the Visier "I don't know this man!"
"My life is no more..." The Doctor began, his voice sounding slightly frustrated. He trailed off and frowned at Rose, not understanding why she wasn't sticking to the plan...it was after all, a plan that would work quite well...hopefully...as long as certain elements went together at the correct moments. It was definitely better than no plan.
"I believe he was talking to me..." he said, starting to talk in order to stop the beating that was sure to come Rose's way if she continued to talk to the Visier in such a tone.”Unless he's not interested in what I have to say....which is quite a lot at the moment....for a start..." He opened his mouth and held up his index finger, as if getting ready to spout of a very long speech that would probably about everything and nothing all at once.
Rose's anger didn't abate, didn't he realize? She was already dead, he wasn't. Her tone still carried anger and a touch of old pain. "That's our value right, knowing each other? Well I don't!"
"Would you just stop!" The Doctor all but shouted at her, his newly returned voice cracking slightly upon raising it. "There is no value.....because this...” He waved his hand around, indicating the entire complex. "...is going to stop!"
Rose reacted to the shout as if she'd been slapped. "I will not...You are not the boss of me...any more"
"I was never..." The Doctor's mouthed snapped shut abruptly and he looked away from Rose. The stunned look upon his face, caused by her words, disappeared quickly behind an impassive mask.
The Visier's expression had grown bored and he signaled to the waiting guard. "Just throw them in...together."
"Excuse me?" The Doctor's brown eyes snapped to look at the Visier, confusion evident upon his face and in his tone.
"I don't care if you know each other, you will not disobey me"
"Oh? Will I not?" The Doctor's eyebrows rose. "Now that sounds like a challenge if I've ever heard one...unless I'm misinterpreting." He frowned, tapping the side of his head and shrugging. "Brain's still a bit...wonky?....something like that...anyway...as I was saying..."
"Obey me or one of you dies" The Visier grinned "I'll even let you choose which"
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Always with the threats or death and bodily harm isn't it?" He sighed. "Oh fine...I'll be a good little Unknown" he said sarcastically, thrusting his hands in his pockets and looking as non-threatening as possible.
Rose found it in herself to chuckle bitterly "Stranger things have happened"
He turned to look at her again, a look of total ordinance upon his face at her words. "What's that suppose to mean?"
"You behaving"
"I always behave!" He scowled at one of the guards as they grabbed his arm roughly and made to pull him out the room. "I can walk by myself without being manhandled thank you."