A/N: So this is the 7th in the Destiny series, though with this one no prior reading is needed. Here's a summary of the previous story anyway in case it takes your fancy.

The Doctor and Rose set off on their journey to find their missing memory. Whilst in London, Rose's old, ex-con boyfriend, Jimmy Stone, confronts her in a bar. The Doctor saves her, and he decides to punish Jimmy by pretending to abduct him. After the mock abduction, Jimmy is befriended by a redheaded man called Toby, who promises he can kill the Doctor and give Rose to Jimmy.

The Doctor reluctantly visits the hairdressers, but it is revealed the hairdresser attempted to kill Leah without the Doctor and Rose's knowledge. Soon afterwards there is a raid in Torchwood in the middle of night. Jack and Alex are taken, and Ianto is shot. It is discovered that many people were abducted around the world simultaneously, including Sarah's son, Luke. The Doctor soon realises how dangerous the abductors are, and to protect his son and Luke, he reluctantly decides not to interfere after a severe threat. His terminal illness gets worse. Jimmy Stone then appears on the news, claiming the Doctor as evil. In the atmosphere of alien fear, the public accept what he is saying and the Doctor becomes an enemy of Earth.

Despairing at the Doctor's lack of action, Rose leaves in the middle of the night to get to Alex. Finally the sinister Toby comes to attack Torchwood. He takes the Doctor, and destroys Torchwood. He takes the Doctor back in time to the day the abductees were taken using a time manipulator, and keeps him imprisoned, with UNIT now the Doctor's enemies. Toby explains how he was the architect of the events in the Debt, the hairdresser and the imposter in Paroxysmic, claiming himself to be the Doctor's arch enemy. He tortures the Doctor, angry that the Time Lord doesn't recognise him, as he should know who he is. Alex falls ill, and to get him medical treatment the Doctor agrees to admit to the abductions on camera. When Rose arrives,she admits she knows the Doctor has become mentally unstable from his twelve years in solitary confinement. Eventually everyone comes to free them and the Doctor confronts Toby, but with absurd powers he appears to force Jimmy to shot himself, and escapes in a body he's built with the body parts of the abductees. Whilst pursuing Toby, the Doctor sees the Master, apparently under mind control.

Upon reaching the TARDIS the Doctor realises he has to leave Earth and never come back. Everyone, apart from Sarah and Luke, go with him. The Doctor's illness increases in severity, and he loses the use of his limbs. Rose accepts he will have to regenerate with a new face, but before he can, a past version of Jack appears, out to kill Alex. The Doctor takes the bullet and Time Agent Jack accidentally takes Tony with him when he teleports out. The TARDIS crashes, and the Master drags out the semi-conscious Doctor and Rose.

With a new face, the Master tells Rose they're about to find their missing memory, and Rose abruptly has a miscarriage. Rose remembers how after saving the Doctor in Paroxysmic, the Master appeared and forced her to miscarry their previous child. He showed her the future if she were to keep the baby, which was only death and destruction because of being in a massive paradox. Rose allows the Master to kill the embryo, and promises not to tell the Doctor anything about the Master's actions.

The Doctor regenerates into the same body, but there is a huge problem. The Doctor's regeneration was so messed up that he's regenerated with two consciousnesses inside his head - his current one, and his next body's.

It'll be shorter than the others but hopefully lots of fun :D

Chapter 1 - Through the Defences

His hand began to turn warm in her grip. She opened his eyes, just little, and saw the painfully familiar bright golden hue dancing on his skin.

"Yes," she implored. "Yes, come on!"

Suddenly his hand snatched away from her, the golden spiral erupting around his head and hands as he arched back, his arms forced outwards. Rose quickly backed away, curling into the foetal position to try and keep away from the light as it continued to spiral out, the sound almost deafening her. She could do nothing but watch and pray that it would be okay.

It seemed to go on forever. She even had enough time to think about what she'd do if he wasn't the same. What if he got a new face? What if it hadn't worked?

It didn't take her long to decide. Not now.

Whatever his face, she just wanted him to smile at her.

The golden light abruptly stopped, and for a moment Rose couldn't see his face - obscured by the afterenergy. So she remained silent and still, staring at the clouds of gold until they began to dissolve…

"Yes!" she cried in triumph, diving forward to him again, grabbing his wrist to check for a pulse. It was going, strong and normal, attached to a thin body topped with messy brown hair, sideburns and that big pouty bottom lip. She felt compelled to throw herself onto him and kiss each of these things, so she did. She even checked his eyes - both of which remained that beautiful brown - and kissed them too. She kissed his nose, his eyebrows, and even checked his chest hair which was all present, kissing that too.

She then drew back to look at him as a whole, his skin warm and glowing like she hadn't seen for months as he laid there with those bandages on his torso. She quickly pulled them off to reveal the skin was completely healed. The various scars he'd had before were also gone, except his appendectomy scar. For a brief moment she wondered why, but quickly realised that because he'd had his template directly from her she'd probably been the one who'd wanted to keep it.

He looked younger too; about her age. The hair seemed thicker than before, and his eyes were a little bigger. She felt she was obliged to check that the area below had all regenerated fine, and consequently realised that his eyes and hair weren't the only thing that she had unintentionally made a bit bigger.

"Jesus!" she exclaimed, and looked up at him again. "Doctor?"

As if on cue, his eyes flickered open. The size increase had made him look even cuter than before as he stared up at her, blinking in a daze.

"We did it!" she said triumphantly. "Doctor, you regenerated into the same body! Well, mostly, but I swear I didn't mean to make your…"

"Ei'lei'o'mifa miho holah'Solnao," he interrupted quietly, and passed out.

"What? Doctor!" she cried, shaking his shoulder before she quickly forced herself to calm. He was speaking Gallifreyan. He had...

"Post-regeneration sickness," the man completed from behind her. "He just said to you that he couldn't speak Solian."

Rose turned quickly, and met with the man. Only this time she recognised him from her memory...

"Master," she whispered, stepping in front of the Doctor to protect him. "If you lay a finger on him…"

The Master sighed. "I thought we were through that. I'm sorry, but you need my help."

"What!?"

The Master looked at the Doctor, and then back at her. "... Now comes the hard part."

"The hard part?" Rose croaked, unable to even look at the Master. "But…"

"Shut up and listen," the Master interrupted rudely. "His regeneration has been extremely traumatic. He's lost himself."

Rose frowned. "What d'you mean by lost himself?"

"His body has regenerated but his mind hasn't regenerated with it," the Master explained patiently. "His mind is in limbo."

"I don't understand…"

"Oh, come on," the Master moaned, his palm on his forehead. "Okay," he continued, taking a deep breath. "When Time Lords regenerate, they regenerate both their body and their mind. The Doctor has successfully regenerated his body, but his mind did not. He's stuck between two minds. To put it simply."

Rose nodded slowly, taking that in. "So what do we do?" she asked anxiously.

"You need to go inside his mind, find him, and bring him out," the Master told her.

"Inside his mind…" Rose repeated, struggling to even conceive of such an idea. "And that's it? If I don't, what happens?"

"He won't wake up."

Rose swallowed, terrified at that notion. "I've gotta go in then," she concluded.

"It'll be dangerous," he advised her. "The Doctor has many mind defences even when he's comatose. Getting past these will be hard, but it should be made easier by your bond with him."

"What d'you mean?" Rose asked. "Mind defences?"

"The place you'll enter is purely the landscape of the Doctor's mind. His defences will take the shape appropriate to his and your subconscious," the Master explained patiently.

"Like what?"

"Anything from monsters, to games, to giant walls. You'll have to get past all of them before you can reach him - or whatever's left of him."

Rose nodded, swallowing slightly as she tried to disguise her nerves, but somewhat failing.

He was still gazing at her. "Though because the Doctor's having so much trouble in post-regeneration... There is a reason for that. His psyche will have turned what's stopping the regeneration in something very dangerous, perhaps a creature of some kind. It will be trying to stop you getting to his body - it may even try to kill you. If you died inside the Doctor's head that will have absolutely disastrous consequences for him… and also for you."

Rose nodded again, slightly more positive. "Okay. I'm warned."

"I won't be able to communicate with you. I'll keep monitoring you from here. If I sense you're in danger, I'll pull you out. He might sense that you're trying to get in and help you if he can, but that's not a promise. Still want to do it?"

Rose paused, gazing at the Doctor's impassive face. This was it. If she didn't do this, didn't at least try, the Doctor would never wake up. The father of her children; the beautiful alien she was still so painfully in love with. Sleeping forever.

"I'll do it," Rose said, looking up at the Master again.

He nodded. "Put your fingers to his temples."

She did, hardly able to believe she was taking orders from the Master. But surely if he wanted them dead, he would've killed them by now?

It wasn't like she had a choice either way.

The Master stepped up behind her. She tensed slightly. If he noticed that he ignored it, placing his hands over hers.

"Ready?" he asked, his voice somewhere behind her right ear.

She nodded. "Ready."

"Good luck," he said.

Almost immediately the world in front of her began to warped, colours merging into another in some kind of strange hallucinogenic effect. She found it so disorientating she had to snap her eyes shut to block it out as she felt her body begin to lighten and her mind seemingly begin to disconnect with her physical presence…

Then everything inside her eyelids turned a bright, blinding white.

She hit the floor hard, though there was no pain. She felt exceptionally disorientated, and it took a few moments for her to get onto all fours, and then eventually on her feet, blinking hard.

She was standing in a plain white room about the size of the TARDIS console room. There was a single white door placed right in front of her.

Was this it? The Doctor's head? It was a little emptier than she thought...

Suddenly she realised the room was beginning to darken. She looked around for a source upwards, and saw something dark up above that seemed to be getting bigger, and bigger, and…

It was a massive foot, about to squash her.

She barely had any time to think of what to do before darkness consumed the entire room and the foot slammed straight onto her.

Rose woke up abruptly with a high-pitched scream.

She blinked open her eyes, finding herself lying on the floor with the Master knelt over her. There was something warm trickling down from her nose. Blood.

"Well that wasn't a good start," the Master said, blasé.

"There was this giant foot… Oh god I died!" Rose realised, blinking erratically.

"You were lucky you were only at his first barrier, you had a warning shot across the bows. Any further in and you wouldn't have been so fortunate. Maybe I miscalculated this…" he mused.

"No," Rose said quickly. "I'll try again."

The Master looked at her seriously. "Telepathy is an extremely dangerous weapon, Rose. Even more so when involving your delicate, untrained human brain. His defences are designed to scare, hurt, outwit and intimidate intruders enough to make them stop attacking his mind. He might kill you, he can't help it, it's nothing personal. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Rose nodded almost immediately. "Yeah. I wasn't ready."

The Master sighed, helping her back into position. "All right. But don't blame me if you die."

The world began to warp and change once more.

Rose woke up again.

However, this time she got up as fast as she could, running to the door as fast as possible. The room was getting increasingly blacker…

She made it through the door and slammed it closed just before the giant foot crashed down.

She quickly checked the room for threats, but it seemed to be empty. She aprehensive, she stepped forward, but suddenly the floor began to crack below her foot. She yelped in alarm and jumped back, just in time, as the floor fell away down into what looked like a pit of hell. Fire, lava, rocks beneath, leading down into an abyss…

The entire floor fell away, apart from the little circle she was standing on. She froze, utterly paralysed, before something roared. A deep, carnivorous roar, echoing up through the deep. Coming up. Coming for her.

Rose squeezed her eyes shut. "Doctor, help me, Doctor, help me..." she muttered repeatedly under her breath…

Hold on.

Scare and intimidate, the Master had said.

If the Doctor really was here, then he wouldn't let her fall. If she could just believe…

Keeping her eyes firmly closed, she lifted a foot, and stepped forward.

She didn't plummet down.

She opened her eyes and looked down. She was walking on a flat surface, the hell below still there but she seemed to be walking on an invisible surface. It confused her senses so much she had to keep moving, across the room and through the next door. An overwhelming sense of relief overcame her as soon as she passed through, shutting the door behind her.

She checked the room quickly, but there seemed to be nothing posing an immediate threat. In front of her were three doors, sitting there silently. So she took the moment to breath a sigh of relief, leant against the door. She was beginning to hate this.

But she didn't have any choice but to go on.

She hesitated for a moment, not sure which door to pick. Eventually she settled on the left door, it seemed as good as any, before moving forward and grasping the handle.

She threw it open and only just about ducked in time as a long spear flew out with amazing speed, straight where her heart had been half a second ago. It flew across the room and buried itself in the far wall about a foot deep.

She tried the middle next. It opened, she ducked, but nothing came out. After a long, tense silence, she sneaked a peek and saw that the way was clear. She dived through and closed the door behind her, finding herself in yet another room. There was another door on the other side, waiting patiently for her to get there. On the door was written something, but she couldn't read it from here.

She moved forward a few paces, but nothing seemed to be coming at her. She took a few more paces, and suddenly realised with a pang of horror, that she could hear footsteps behind her.

She whirled around, but there was no one there. Just the door she'd come through.

She forward faced again, steeling herself to take another step. The following footsteps sounded again, though this time… Yes, they were becoming louder.

"Doctor, Doctor…" she breathed, turning again and seeing absolutely nothing. "Scare and intimidate," she whispered, strained. "Scare and intimidate… Not real, not real..."

She took another pace. The footsteps followed her, even louder.

She stuck her fingers in her ears, and quickly took three more paces. The footsteps followed, seemingly impervious to her covering up her ears - as though they were inside her head. They were getting louder, and closer…

"Doctor! Doctor! Doctor!" she repeated over and over in a desperate mantra, wishing and praying that he could hear her. She took three more steps. The other steps followed, now so close she was sure whatever they belonged to could reach out and touch her…

The white writing on the door was now clearly readable, written messily:

Don't turn around Rose

Was that him? Was that the Doctor? Or was it another trick? Maybe she had to turn around in this game and the words were trying to trick her…

She refocused on the words. They'd changed.

Please don't turn around

She swallowed nervously. She had no idea what to do. "Doctor, Doctor, Doctor," she whispered repeatedly, starting up in her mantra again. It was comforting more than anything else. It was certainly helping with the fear.

She looked up at the door once more where the words had changed once again.

Trust me

Okay. So there wasn't much choice. Either turn around, or follow the instruction of some weird wall writing.

Well, all things considered, she didn't actually want to look back.

So she took another step forward. She was followed. She braved about four more steps. The footsteps were now impossibly close. By the time she reached the door she could feel cold breath on the back of her neck…

She grabbed the handle and passed through, slamming it shut behind her before she looked up at another black room. It was so dark she couldn't see the next door.

Suddenly there was a loud thud from over head. She looked up, and was nearly blinded by a bright white light directly above her, highlighting her in the room, but the light was so bright she still couldn't see more than a foot in front of her.

She moved to get out of it, but it followed her. She was in a spotlight, and she could hear rustling, squeaking… something was about to find her, she realised. And somehow she knew it wasn't butterflies.

She ran. She couldn't see the door, but it had to be there. She hit the wall and began to run her hands over it, desperately trying to find a handle.

She couldn't find one.

It wasn't there.

"Doctor!" she screamed, not that she thought he would help her, but she always felt better when she yelled it.

Then, whether by sheer coincidence or if he really was with her, her hand clasped down on the handle. She yanked down on it and fled into the next room. As she closed the door behind her hundreds of thuds rained on the wood.

"Please end now," she moaned, but no such luck. Another dark room, and in the middle was a giant mirror, separating her from the exit. There she could see her reflection gazing back at her, looking nothing short of utterly petrified. It looked even more scared than she was.

Just a mirror. She could handle that. She moved forward, and her reflection moved with her. She reached the mirror, and pressed up a hand against it to see if she could pass through.

"RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!" her reflection suddenly screamed like a banshee, her eyes wide and terrified, the inside her her mouth coated with thick blood.

Rose screamed and jumped away so fast she fell back into the floor, her heart beating so fast and hard she thought it might break through her ribs. She gasped in a few breaths, dared to look up again, and saw her reflection lying there as she was, just as a reflection should.

Shaking, she got up and stepped forward again, swallowing hard. This wasn't fun. This wasn't fun.

She had to get through the mirror somehow. But how?

She looked around her, and saw an axe lying on the floor. She grabbed it and held it in both of her sweaty, shaking hands, looking back up at her reflection.

Her reflection's eyes were suddenly so dead and hollow as it stood there, clutching desperately to the axe.

With every bead of courage she could summon, she stepped forward, lifted the axe, and cut it straight into the mirror.

The reflection screamed, but this time it was a scream of primal rage. As she repeatedly hacked her way into the mirror her reflection was screaming, her eyes wide and crazed. With every hit blood was splattering onto her reflection and innards flying, as though she were axing a person.

She snapped her eyes shut, but that didn't stop it. The image was engraved inside her eyelids of herself, murderous and insane. Finally she heard the mirror shatter, her reflection screamed, and she was already through the next door, tears of pure terror streaming down her face.

"I want out," she whined, covering her face with her hands, shaking badly. "Let me out, Doctor…"

"You're okay," a man said.

Rose looked up in surprise, and immediately her tears stopped as she realised who it was.

"Doctor!" she cried, running to him before she realised that something was wrong. He was sitting in the corner in his brown suit, shrouded in a hood, his wrists and feet in thick, heavy chains.

Immediately she stepped back, afraid. "You're not real," she concluded quickly. "It's another trick."

"Rose, it's okay," he said gently. "Don't be scared."

"Stop talking with his voice!" Rose demanded, backing away even more. "Stop pretendin' to be him!"

"It's me, I promise," he insisted. "Please help me."

Her expression softened slightly. "I'm tryin'."

"There's no time to explain. He's got me, he's trying to dominate me."

"Who is?"

"Him," the Doctor stressed.

Rose cautiously stepped forward again, and dared to kneel down in front of him. She couldn't see his face through the hood. She reached up to push it back.

"Don't take it off, please," he asked desperately.

"I wanna see your face," she insisted.

"It's not my face," the Doctor stressed. "It's not like you remember me. Please don't look."

Rose paused, and let her hand drop again. "Okay, I won't look," she promised. "What do I do?"

"I need all the pieces of me to fight him. I'm not strong enough like this."

"Wanna explain that without the fantasy stuff?" she asked seriously.

"When I regenerate, my mind regenerates too. But since I regenerated trying to be the same as before, the next 'mind' was supposed to be erased. But he wasn't erased. He's in here, trying to dominate my head. He doesn't want to die before he gets a chance to live. He won't stop until I'm gone and he can take control. If we can find everything that makes the Doctor, I can fight him."

She nodded, slowly, despite the ridiculous nature of this. "Okay."

"My head has made the fight into a landscape you can comprehend," he continued. "Something you can deal with. You need to search my mind - through my emotions, memories, everything - to try and find the fractured pieces of what makes me."

Rose nodded again.

"Take me with you," he said, almost begging. "Because of the bond we're stronger together."

Rose took his arm, helping him to his feet. The heavy chains refused to budge. He'd have to go with them on. She felt compelled to hug him, though his body definitely didn't feel the same as before.

"God, I thought I'd lost you," she moaned.

"You haven't found me yet," the Doctor reminded her.

She sighed and linked her arm through his. "Why is this never easy?"

"Be no fun otherwise," the Doctor joked.

Rose smiled, looking up at the hood. She could only see thin slits of brown eyes gazing out.

"Are the rooms over now?" she asked.

"Yes, you've made it through my defences," he replied as she opened the final door to the landscape beyond. "Rose Tyler, welcome to my head."