Shy was scared. She didn't have to say it, but it came through in tight shoulders and a back too straight. The other girl's eyes kept racing around the room, too fast for Rose to imagine keeping up with where they fell.

Gav had muttered something about causing damage to his sisters brain, the muttering a habit he had clearly inherited from his father, but Rose had no idea how that damage would show itself-or if it already had.

"They're coming," Shy said, uncrossing her arms and taking slow steps towards the door.

Gav nodded and slid his arms under his father's shoulders and pulled him up until his upper half was off the floor and he could drag him along with ease. The Doctor's head rolled to the side, and Rose could see the wound where Gav had hit him with a glass bottle. The blood had stopped quickly, leaving only a small puddle on the floor and matting the little hair he did have to his head.

Rose wanted to reach out and wipe it clean, to make sure that the Doctor's body was still safe, with no care for the creature that was wearing it-but she didn't. Shy had advised them, with short words and hushed tones, of the dangers of touching his skin. Rose balled up her fists at her side, and drew in a deep breath instead.

"Come on, Rose," Gav said, muscles tightening in his arms as he started to drag the Doctor out but his face showed no strain in his effort.

The hall was empty, it smelled crisp and of the Earth after a rainstorm instead of the darkness that came in with the winter. The familiar hum of the TARDIS was nearly too faint to be heard, despite the fact that Rose strained to ensure it hadn't faded out all together. If the TARDIS was lost, she knew that they would likely not survive.

"Where are we going to take him?" Rose asked, glancing behind her as the lights flickered above their heads. It was like a bad horror movie, she was now living a bad horror movie. "Gav...what are we going to do?"

"I know a room," Gav said, looking past her as his pale face managed to grow a shade lighter. His forehead wrinkled, and he got the far away expression he often wore he was thinking a bit too hard on something.

The air changed. Coldness rushed over them, a wave that had Rose wanting to reach for a coat that wasn't attainable. She shivered against the feeling, a tightness wrapping around her chest as the lights behind her stopped flickering and were extinguished all together.

"Rose," Gav said, looking her in the eye.

He looked so much like his father in the low light, blue eyes reaching out to her, pulling her in. The same eyes that could promise safety and not yet have a plan on how that might be possible. She trusted the Doctor, and she realized in that moment she trusted Gav just as deeply.

"Gav," she said, looking back at the blackness. It moved, crawling across the floor, forming shapes that almost resembled human before melting into formless beings again. It was an ebb and flow that made her mouth go dry and her hands shake at her side.

"Rose, don't look at that," he said, pausing in his pulling. "We're going to be fine. I know a place, a safe place, but we have to keep moving. I know you can do this."

Her heart was working overtime, gravity in the TARDIS seemed to become force she nearly couldn't overcome as she fought to lift her feet and pull herself in his direction. Fear seemed to be pouring out of her and into the air, only to be returned doubled.

"I can," she repeated. She didn't know if he could hear her, but the words made her feet move a little faster and she repeated them.

He began pulling again, Shy moving around him, and digging in her pocket. Shy seemed so far away, hollow, but she looked at Rose and pulled out the sonic and for a moment she was the same loving, compassionate person Rose had come to know.

"Duck, Rose," Shy said, raising the sonic the Doctor had made her and pushing the button with sure fingers.

Rose ducked, and hurried over to Gav's side, though he didn't stop moving.

Rose would never forget the shrieking noise the shapeless beings produced. Her hands rose to her ears, pressing palms over them in attempt to block out the noise. For a moment, a small moment, she felt guilt for bearing witness to what was obvious misery.

Shy didn't retreat, arm held strong, green light at the end of a silver sonic screwdriver never wavering as the noise continued. It should have seemed cruel to Rose, but it only seemed brave at that moment. For a moment, nothing happened, aside from Rose's heartbeat beneath her palms, echoing around in her eardrums. Then, though, the darkness faded, fog rolling away from her again.

"Come, Shy!" Gav said, as light weaved its way back into where it had been forced out moments before.

Shy lowered her arms, turning to them. Her eyes had never seemed so dark, the life in her so far away but still she moved back towards them. Rose was terrified, of what might be wrong with Shy, of how they were going to survive in a TARDIS full of enemies.

She kept pace with Gav though, and kept a watchful eye around them. They might have won for the moment, but she was certain that this fight was far from over.

DW

Rin knew pain. He had suffered it in bits and pieces that had been manageable, and in avalanches of emotions and physical pain that all he could do was hold on and hope to ride out. This fell in between.

He was tied to his chair, the rope a bit too tight. It was digging into his borrowed skin, and he was nothing more than the body he was wearing when it came to his strength.

That wasn't the worst part though. He was cut off, no matter how hard he tried to reach out beyond these walls he couldn't connect with his people. He could still feel them, wispy and far away, but he couldn't speak to them.

When Rin had first opened his eyes, blinking in the brightness, taking in the eyes that stared at him, he had thought it was the Doctor who did this. Or perhaps one of his children, or the woman he was very, very fond of though he didn't speak the words.

It wasn't them though. It was this room. It blocked them out, kept him in this body so he couldn't flee. The others must be near, but so far they hadn't managed to rescue him.

He shifted in his chair, the wound on his head aching fiercely and the pain that came with wearing a borrowed body for too long had set in quite a while before he had awoken.

His mouth was dry, arms stretched behind him, muscles feeling pinched when they were pushed beyond where was comfortable, and he was forced to watch three little people try to come up with a plan to destroy him. Rin wasn't having a day he wished to repeat, but if he made it out in the end it would be worth all of this misery and humiliation.

"I can make him talk," a girl said.

Rin studied the girl, hurrying to pull up memories from files in this mind that didn't belong to him. He was having to relearn after the blow to his head, after blacking out, the memories still fuzzy patches he couldn't access. The Doctor didn't seem to try to stop him, but Rin could still feel him there-probably biding his time.

Shy. Her name was Shy. She had come a long way from curls and tiny outfits, but the Doctor struggled to see her as the woman before him.

"No," the boy said, looking at her carefully. Gav, his name was Gav.

Shy was pale, circles under her eyes seeming to grow by the moment. Her breathing was raspy, and quick and the more he noticed these signs the more the Doctor seemed to stir within him.

"Shy!" he said, though it wasn't Rin in control now. The Doctor pushed him back for a moment and he struggled to regain his control on this body, on the person inside. "Gav, you have to help her!"

Rin was stronger though, lots of practice really, lifetimes in fact. And he would do anything to hold his children again, just as the Doctor was trying to do everything he could to save his own. For a moment, Rin considered letting them go. They could all walk away, without the machine, without his power source. But he couldn't do that. They couldn't go on, chasing him to the ends of the universe while he tried to live a quiet life. They would all have to die.

Shy coughed, and stepped closer, looking at him, and then behind him.

"Shy, "Gav said, softly. His voice was gentle, his hand gentler as it reached out for his sister who was looking more than a little lost at the moment.

Rin felt real fear, for the first time since he had stepped on this ship. He had left her broken, and he was afraid that she might explode and take him down with her.