Hello everyone : ) Here's the next chapter : ) Today I honestly have nothing to say, other than a massive thank you to those of you that reviewed the last chapter. The support really does help so please keep it up : )

Other than that, please remember that Doctor Who is not mine.

I hope you enjoy this chapter : )

The Runaway Bride – Part 3

As the elevator descended further and further into the pit, Donna couldn't help but feel uneasy as a growing sense of dread chewed away at her stomach.

Whilst she may have seen many things that she had never imagined she ever would, the Racnoss had really been where it had all began.

So to see the giant spider again... well, it was nerve-racking to say the least.

But she could do this.

Really, she could.

She prayed she could anyway.

She felt a low hum of reassurance flood her mind from the Tardis.

Donna forced herself to be brave as the lift doors pinged open.

She COULD do this.

It would all be alright.

It had been the last time and it would be this time too.

She'd make sure of it.

Donna, the Doctor and Lance all stepped out into the long, dark, dank corridor which was lit up with a dull eerie green light.

Donna could vaguely remember the way to the chamber with the tunnel to the centre of the Earth and the Racnoss, but she couldn't exactly go walking right there could she?

The Doctor MIGHT just notice if she seemed to know where to go right off the bat.

"So where are we then?" Donna turned to the Doctor, "Any idea what goes on down here?"

"Let's find out" was the Time Lord's reply.

Without waiting for an answer, he promptly began walking off down the corridor.

"I doubt Mr. Clements knows about this place. What do you think is above us?" Donna asked for appearances' sake.

"No idea" the Doctor said cheerfully.

Donna's eyes brightened when she spotted the scooters that they had ridden last time.

"Look over there" she patted the Doctor's arm to get his attention, "We have transport!"

The Doctor's eyes fell on the scooters, and a huge grin lit up his face.

"Brilliant!" he cheered, "Come on then Donna Noble! Allons-y!"

The Doctor then dashed over to one of the scooters and hopped on board.

Matching his enthusiasm, Donna got on one too.

Lance looked at them both as if they were insane, before he reluctantly got on one too.

They only managed to get a few yards on the scooters before Donna burst out laughing, the Doctor quickly following her example.

Lance didn't though.

Grumpy sod.

Honestly, Donna had no idea how she could ever have fallen for him.

Not willing to think about that however, Donna decided to just mark it up as a mistake and move on, and that was exactly what she intended to do.

They eventually came to a door which had the words 'Torchwood - authorised personnel only' printed on it, and Donna snorted.

As if the Doctor, or anybody, would listen to them.

So naturally they abandoned their scooters and the Doctor turned the steel metal wheel which opened the door to reveal a ladder.

The Doctor peered upwards and Donna followed his gaze.

She could just about see the tiniest speck of light high over their heads.

"Wait here. Just need to get my bearings. Don't do anything" he told them both sternly.

He then began climbing the ladder.

"Well don't take all day about it. If there is someone behind all this they could be close by" Donna reminded him.

The Doctor nodded in agreement before resuming his climb.

"Donna, have you thought about this?" Lance grabbed her arm, turning her around so they were facing each other, "Properly? I mean, this is serious! What the hell are we gonna do?!"

Donna had to fight hard against the urge to spit in his face.

"Oh shut up, I don't have time to be dealing with cowards right now" she shot at him venomously.

Lance's jaw dropped open in shock, but Donna pointedly ignored him.

Suddenly Lance's eyes narrowed as he worked it, or at least some of it, out.

Donna didn't miss the cold, calculating glint in his eyes.

And immediately she knew.

She knew that he knew that she knew.

She tried to step away from him, but unfortunately, Lance was quicker. Without an ounce of hesitation, he grabbed her by the throat and attempted to drag her off forcefully.

Donna gasped for air and struggled but Lance was behind her, meaning that she couldn't aim her fists with any form of precision.

Lance squeezed tighter against her neck, and Donna rasped and choked for air.

Knowing she had to fight back, Donna reached backward with her thumb and felt her way up his face, until she found his eye socket.

She then proceeded to push her thumb nail into it.

Lance let out a shriek of agony.

Seizing her opportunity, Donna was able to rip herself away from him, whilst Lance clutched at his eye, a tiny trinkle of blood streaming out from under his hand.

Donna didn't even hesitate.

She promptly sprinted off down the corridor as fast as she could.

"You bitch!" Lance yelled in outrage.

Donna heard the sound of heavy footsteps trailing her, so she didn't need to look back to know the bastard was pursuing her.

Thinking quickly, Donna darted into the same laboratory that they had ended up in during the original timeline. The gleaming white surfaces and the bubbling test tubes were exactly the same.

Donna looked around frantically.

If she could just find something she could use to keep him at bay with until the Doctor arrived...

A curse slipped her lips however.

Other than the test tubes, which she knew the Doctor needed to see intact to know about how Torchwood had been manufacturing Huon Particles, she couldn't see anything she could use to attack Lance with.

The sound of footsteps approached the door.

Gritting her teeth, Donna threw herself underneath one of the desks, just seconds before Lance burst into the laboratory.

Donna waited with baited breath, but she was ready to fight if need-be.

"I know you're here!" Lance's voice snarled viciously, "I don't know how you found out, but I know that you know".

Donna closed her eyes, willing to whatever god there was looking down on her not to let him find her.

Despite loathing the man for what he'd done to her, Donna had never quite imagined Lance as the type to turn violent against a woman.

She supposed that old saying was true.

You never can truly know another person or their secrets.

But she was Donna Noble.

The unluckiest one of them all.

And within moments, she heard that dreaded word.

"Gotcha!" Lance cried victoriously.

Snapping her eyes open, Donna saw him crouching near to her hiding place, smirking down at her coldly.

Donna didn't even think.

She simply reacted.

With a powerful crunch, her fist connected with his jaw.

Lance let out a pained 'oomph' and stumbled backwards, before he was sent sprawling to the floor as Donna pushed past him.

Donna hurried around the desk, putting it between herself and Lance.

A minor form of protection, but right now she'd take whatever protection she could.

Picking himself up off the floor, Lance turned to her, eerily calm with an amused glint in his eyes.

Eyes so cold Donna could hardly believe she'd deluded herself into ever thinking she saw love shining from within them.

"Keep away from me" Donna hissed at him.

"Sorry Darlin', no can do" Lance taunted her in a sing-song voice.

Donna's fragile control over herself finally snapped.

Seizing an empty glass beaker off the desk, Donna hurled it at him with all her strength.

"AARRRGGHHH!" Lance screamed as it hit him square in the face, shattering on impact.

Donna watched in horrified satisfication as several shards of glass pierced his flesh and imbedded themselves in his face.

Blood streamed in crimson rivers down his face.

Lance blindly swiped at his own face, turning to rip the glass shards out.

All that served to do was make his injuries even worse.

Howling in pain, he began blundering towards Donna, swinging his arms wildly as if to attack her.

Donna wasn't having any of that though.

He had already inflicted more than enough pain on her heart.

She wasn't about to let him inflict it on her body too.

Gripping the edge of the desk between them so tightly her knuckles turned a ghastly shade of white, Donna pushed it with all her strength.

"Oomph!" Lance groaned as the desk caught him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to stagger backwards.

And unfortunately for Lance, as he took that step backwards, his foot made contact with a small puddle of the man's own blood.

Unable to catch himself in time, Lance's feet flew out from under him, and he fell.

With a sickening thud, the back of Lance's head collided with the floor.

His eyes slid shut and his body stilled.

Lance was out cold.

For one awful moment, Donna feared that she had killed him.

Then she clocked the fact that Lance's chest was still rising and falling, meaning he was still breathing.

A small sigh of relief slipped her lips.

Even though she had wanted Lance punished for his crimes against her, Donna could honestly say that she never wanted the man dead.

Still, if it was the other way around, he probably wouldn't care less.

So in Donna's book, that made her actions justifiable.

At that moment, the door to the laboratory crashed open behind her, causing Donna to whip around in alarm.

She immediately relaxed upon see the Doctor however.

The Time Lord looked at the dishevelled bride, the unconscious groom, and the mess that had once been a pristine laboratory.

His startled eyes fell upon Donna.

"What happened?!" he demanded in horrified bewilderment.

Donna knew he wouldn't be too happy about the violence she had used, but surely he'd understand that she hadn't had any choice.

Lance had tried to strangle her after all.

"It was him, he's part of it! He tried to take me to someone else, the one behind all this!" Donna cried, feigning distress.

She knew that she had been the one to spark all that, but right now she didn't care.

They had bigger fish to fry.

"So you knocked him unconscious?!" the Doctor asked incredulously.

"He tried to strangle me!" Donna defended herself.

The Doctor's shock and anger deflated upon hearing those words.

"Are you alright?" he asked in concern.

Upon seeing her nod, the Doctor knelt down next to Lance's prone form, and checked the man's neck for a pulse.

"Yeah, I'm a little shaken but I'm alright" Donna nodded.

"Good, good. Seems like you were right about him, it was a bit too convenient" the Doctor told her.

"Yeah well, just leave him there, he'll be fine" Donna said uncaringly, before gesturing around at the laboratory's instruments, "I'm more interested in what all this stuff does right now".

The Doctor raised a confused eyebrow.

There was something really weird about Donna's reaction to what had just happened.

Shouldn't she be... well, upset, about the fact that the man she had been about to marry had just tried to kill her?

Most people would be hurt, freaking out, angry that someone that they trusted had in fact been lying to them from the word go, but this Donna woman didn't seem to mind too much.

Shouldn't she be scared witless and crying over having to hurt him to save herself?

And then there were those moments where it was like she was shifting between personalities.

Donna Noble just… didn't make any sense!

In the end the Time Lord was forced to shrug his shoulders however.

Humans.

He never could work them out.

The Doctor looked around at some of the machines, especially the huge tube of bubbling crystal clear liquid, before his mouth dropped open.

"Oh that is beautiful! Stunning!" he beamed in delight, "Particle extrusion!"

"What's it for?" Donna 'asked'.

Inwardly however, she was feeling very nervous.

Donna hadn't missed the way the Doctor had looked at her after all.

She could tell that he was already suspicious.

She knew that she'd have to get better at covering stuff up if she wanted to keep all this a secret from him.

"Brilliant. They've been manufacturing Huon Particles. Because my people got rid of Huon energy, they unravelled the atomic structure" the Doctor explained to her.

"And who are they? You said you're not a Martian, but if you're an alien than what are you?" Donna pretended to ask.

The Doctor sighed, but answered regardless.

"I'm a Time Lord. But never mind that. This lot have been rebuilding them. They've been using the river! Extruding them through a flat hydrogen base so they've got the end result - Huon Particles in liquid form" he beamed, picking up a small test tube full of the Huon Particles.

"And that's what's inside me? Well how did it get there?" she knew she had to ask for appearances' sake.

The Doctor sadly turned his gaze onto Lance's prone figure.

"He made you coffee" he told her gently.

'He made me… oh… he was poisoning me all along?' she 'asked' weakly.

The Doctor grimly nodded once.

Donna let out a miserable - and extremely fake - sigh of sadness.

"I knew it was too good to be true" she said softly.

"I'm sorry" the Doctor offered.

"Why do you think he did it?" Donna asked for appearances' sake.

"I dunno" the Doctor shrugged, "It could be any number of reasons".

"I don't suppose it really matters now anyway. What's important is those Huon Particles" she said, trying to get him back on track.

"The Articles are inert, they need something living to catalyse inside and that's you. Saturate the body and then… HA! The wedding! Yes, you were getting married, that's it! Oh Donna you were right all along! Best day of your life, walking down the aisle, oh, your body's a battleground! There's a chemical war inside! Adrenaline, acetylcholine, WHAM go the endorphins, oh you're cooking! Yeah, you're like a walking oven! A pressure cooker, a microwave, all churning away, the particles reach boiling point, SHAZAM!" he cheered delightedly.

His voice was so loud however that it was starting to hurt Donna's ears, so she was forced to quickly shush him again.

"Shut up!" she yelled.

The Doctor fell silent under her gaze.

"Are you enjoying this?" she asked indignantly.

The Doctor quickly shook his head.

"Good. You better not be. Now tell me, I've had these particles in me for the past six months and I'm alright. How much longer can I last?" she asked.

The Doctor's face darkened.

"A few weeks, tops" he said grimly.

Donna blanched.

If she didn't get them removed soon, she'd be dead before she could even find the Doctor again!

"I won't let it come to that" the Tardis assured her in her mind.

And it seemed as though the Doctor, completely unaware of course, mirrored the ship's sentiments.

"I'll sort it out, Donna. Whatever's been done to you, I'll reverse it. I'm not about to lose someone else. I promise you" he told her with the upmost sincerity.

"I know. That Rose was lucky, to find someone like you" she told him earnestly.

The Doctor looked stunned, before he smiled sadly at her.

"I'm not losing anyone else" he repeated.

And then Donna felt panic shoot through her heart like a metal spike had pierced her chest.

The reason for that emotion was quite simple.

Donna had just heard a voice she had not heard in a very long time.

A voice that still haunted her nightmares to this day.

"Oh, she is long since lost" the Empress of the Racnoss hissed over the intercom.

The back wall of the lab slid upwards and revealed the secret chamber with the enormous round hole in the floor. Donna remembered nearly falling into it all too well.

Hopeful that could be avoided this time around.

"I have waited so long, hibernating at the edge of the universe until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to waken!" the dreaded voice told them.

Donna noted that the walls of the chamber were lined with the armed robots wearing black hoods, but she pointedly ignored them as she and the Doctor examined the hole.

"Someone's been digging… oh, very Torchwood. Drilled by laser. How far down does it go?" the Doctor asked curiously.

"Down and down" the Racnoss rasped, "All the way to the centre of the Earth!"

"Really? Seriously?" the Doctor almost sounded impressed, "What for?"

"The core" Donna suggested.

At least that suggestion was slightly better than Dinosaurs.

"What?" he looked at her in confusion.

"The core of the planet. All that molten lava and stuff. A power supply! Trying to help" she shrugged.

"You... actually, that could be right…" the Doctor turned away thoughtfully.

"Such a clever couple" the Racnoss sneered.

"Only a madman talks to thin air and trust me, you don't want to make me mad. Where are you?" the Doctor demanded to know.

"High in the sky, floating so high on Christmas Night" was the vague reply he received.

"I didn't come all this way to talk on the intercom!" the Doctor barked in frustration, "Come on; let's have a look at you!"

"Who are you with such command?" the Racnoss hissed angrily.

"I'm the Doctor" the Doctor said with his usual confidence.

"Then prepare your best medicines, doctor-man, for you will be sick at heart" the voice sneered.

Almost immediately after those words were spoken, a shimmer of bright blue light filled the chamber, and when it died down Donna saw the creature that still lived in her nightmares.

Red, feminine and as lethal as ever, was the Empress of the Racnoss, the humanoid spider that had tried so hard to kill Donna so very long ago.

Only now, it wasn't long ago.

It was here and it was now.

And Donna was determined to defeat the Empress once again, no matter the cost.

The Doctor gasped at the sight of the creature, completely stunned.

"The Racnoss... but that's impossible, you're one of the Racnoss!" he exclaimed, disbelief colouring his tone.

"Empress of the Racnoss" the crimson spider corrected boastfully.

"If you're the Empress, where's the rest of the Racnoss? Or… are you the only one?" the Doctor asked.

Donna could tell that he was beginning to work it out.

"Such a sharp mind" the alien insect smirked at him.

"That's it, the last of your kind" the Doctor eyed her, before turning to Donna, "The Racnoss come from the Dark Times, billions of years ago, billions. They were carnivores, omnivores, they devoured whole planets".

"Racnoss are born starving" the Racnoss stated coldly, "Is that our fault?" she challenged him threateningly.

"Err… Doctor, look" Donna said, sounding disturbed, pointing upwards.

There, in the web that covered the ceiling, were a pair of feet dangling out.

The Doctor noticed the black and white shoes and grimaced.

"Ah. The mysterious H.C. Clements I presume" the Doctor said mournfully.

"Mm, my Christmas dinner" the Empress cackled.

"You shouldn't even exist! Way back in history, the Fledgling Empires went to war against the Racnoss. They were wiped out" the Doctor exclaimed.

Donna remembered that right about now in the original timeline, she had spotted Lance sneaking up behind their enemy with an axe, and she had attempted to distract the Empress to buy him enough time.

This time however, there was no Lance and there was no axe.

So Donna went with her gut, which was telling her to keep the Empress talking until the glitch in the timeline resolved itself and things got back on track.

Thankfully this moment wasn't an important tipping point.

At least, she hoped it wasn't.

"So go on then. Tell us, because we're dying to know. Those Huon energy particles. What are they for? Why bother getting a man to poison me with them?"she 'asked'.

Unfortunately however, the Empress didn't seem interested in answering any questions when she responded.

"You know, I watched your fight with funny little Lance. It was most entertaining" the spider cackled wickedly.

"Well I'm glad I could provided you with some in-flight entertainment" Donna retorted sarcastically, "Now answer my question!"

"You're quite funny for such a silly little inspect" the Empress cackled.

"Insect?! I'd take a long hard look in the mirror if I were you sweetheart' Donna suggested angrily.

"Oh and you're feisty too!" the alien said, almost sounding impressed.

"Yes I am, so you tell us now what we want to know!" Donna demanded fiercely again.

"Patience" the Racnoss smirked tauntingly at them both, "All shall be revealed at the time of the awakening!"

"Awakening of what?" the Doctor piped up.

The Racnoss bared her teeth at him, before adopting a tone of smooth as silk.

"Unfortunately for you, little doctor-man, I only need the bride. You are disposable" she sneered at him.

"Well, I know what you mean; I am kind of a homeless wonder. But the point is, what's down there? The Racnoss are extinct. What's gonna help you four thousand miles down? That's just the molten core of the Earth, isn't it?" the Doctor wanted to know.

"Do you really want to know?" the alien spider asked, her tone mockingly sweet.

"I really do" the Doctor winked cheekily.

Donna worked hard not to roll her eyes at him.

That was just such a typical response from the Time Lord.

Laughing at the dark until he convinced himself he wasn't afraid anymore.

Hiding behind the face of a clown... well, that was the Doctor all over.

"Well, tough! All I need is the bride!" the spider snapped at him.

Before another word could be spoken, the humanoid spider turned to the robots that lined the chamber's walls.

"Kill this chattering little doctor-man!" she snarled.

The Robo-Forms all raised their guns.

"Don't you dare hurt him!" Donna yelled, her protective instincts over her best friend flaring up inside her.

"No, no, it's all right" the Doctor told her calmly.

"No, I won't let them!" Donna cried.

They had been through WAY too much together for her to let him get hurt.

And beyond that, if he did get shot right now - which was a possibility considering that time was literally being rewritten right now - then the entire world would fall into ruins.

Donna would be damned if she'd let that happen.

She'd lived in a world like that once, and she was determined to stop it from ever happening again.

"At arms!" the Racnoss ordered, ignoring Donna's protests.

The Robo-Forms all readied their weapons.

"Take aim!" she continued.

Every single gun was soon trained on the Doctor.

"Well, I just want to point out the obvious…" the Doctor began before the Racnoss cut over him.

"They won't hit the bride" she gave a dark chuckle, "They're such very good shots".

"Just… just… just… hold on, just a tick, just a tiny… just a little… tick. If you think about it, the particles activated in Donna and drew her inside my spaceship. So, reverse it… the spaceship comes to her" the Doctor said, playing with the test tube still in his hands.

Donna skin tingled and sparkled as she lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Bloody hell!" Donna cried, forcing herself to react like she was shocked, but really it was just to make the Doctor less suspicious.

He wasn't an idiot after all.

Donna knew that he just had to know there was something not quite right about her by now.

"Fire!" Donna heard the Racnoss give the order.

Thankfully, it was already too late.

In a cyclone of blue atoms, the Tardis materialised around the two of them, and the bullets bounced harmless away from the wooden exterior of the police box.

Donna turned to the Doctor with a grin.

"That… was bloody brilliant" she grinned happily at him, delighted that that had worked a second time.

"I know! HA!" he cheered happily.

He quickly made his way over to the console and began piloting them away.

The entire room shook as they fled the chamber.

Donna meanwhile was feeling rather relieved.

Facing the Empress again hadn't been quite as bad as she might have imagined.

At least they'd escaped again at any rate.

The Doctor was rushing around the console and Donna was clinging on for dear life.

"Oh, you know what I said before about time machines? Well, I lied. And now we're gonna use it" the Doctor told her, rather casually.

Donna forced herself to give him a gobsmacked expression.

"It's a time machine?" Donna 'asked' in awe.

"Oh yes!" the Doctor beamed.

"No way! That is just wizard!" Donna cheered too.

The Doctor laughed happily at the word 'wizard'.

"So where and when are we going too?" Donna knew she had to ask.

"We need to find out what the Empress of the Racnoss is digging up. If something's buried at the planet's core, it must've been there since the beginning. That's just brilliant. Molto bene! I've always wanted to see this. Donna - we're going further back than I've ever been before" he beamed at her.

"What… you don't mean... the beginning of the world?!" Donna made her eyes go wide.

All these forced expressions however were starting to get exhausting.

"Yes! Isn't that brilliant?" the Doctor asked her excitedly.

"Hell yeah!" Donna beamed.

Now that the sting of Lance's betrayal wasn't eating away at her, Donna could appreciate this moment for how beautiful it truly was.

Suddenly the engines ground to a halt and the shaking lessened.

"We've arrived... want to see?" the Doctor asked enticingly.

"Definitely!" Donna cheered happily.

Without waiting for any further invitation, she promptly dashed over to the doors and threw them open.

Even a second time, it was a breath-taking sight.

More than that, it was spectacular.

The sun was just starting to shine through rainbow coloured dust clouds and floating chunks of rocks.

It was… magical.

"That is… that is… oh my god" Donna was genuinely lost for words.

The last time she had been a bit unenthusiastic, but this time she could appreciate the beauty of it more.

And it was wonderful!

"Donna Noble, welcome to the creation of the Earth. We've gone back 4.6 billion years. There's no solar system, not yet. Only dust and rocks and gas" the Doctor began to explain before pointing at the sun in the distance, "That's the Sun over there, brand new. Just beginning to burn".

"And let me guess, all these rocks are the earth yeah? Or at least parts of all the planets that will become our solar system?" Donna asked and the Doctor nodded.

"All around us... in the dust" the Doctor said poetically.

"Puts everything else into perspective. It's funny, isn't it? I once thought that my wedding was the biggest thing ever to happen… but compared to this… it's so tiny" Donna smiled thoughtfully.

"No, but that's what you do. The human race. Making sense out of chaos. Marking it out with weddings and Christmas and calendars. This whole process is beautiful, but only if it's being observed" the Doctor told her.

He couldn't help but be impressed by how well see was taking all this.

Oh there was definitely something funny about all this.

Something funny about her.

He just couldn't quite place his finger on it yet.

"So, how does the Racnoss tie into all this?" Donna 'asked'.

"I'm not totally sure yet" the Doctor admitted.

"Do you think the Empress buried something?" Donna asked and the Doctor shrugged.

"I can't see how. I mean, she'd have to do it right now because soon gravity will take hold. Say, one big rock, heavier than the others, starts to pull other rocks towards it. All the dust and gas and elements get pulled in, everything, piling in until you get the…" the Doctor explained before Donna cut over him.

"The Earth" she smiled.

The Doctor nodded.

"So what the real question is... what was that first rock?" he asked curiously.

Donna had no opportunity to reply, for at that moment, a gigantic star-shaped chuck of rock emerged through one of the beautiful blue and purple clouds.

"Oh, look at that" the Doctor pointed at it excitedly.

"Is it the Racnoss?" Donna whispered.

The Doctor nodded silently, before he rushed off back to the console to check some readings.

"Hold on… the Racnoss are hiding from the war! What's it doing?" the Doctor called over to Donna, who had remained back by the door.

She watched as all the rocks and the dust and the clouds of gas all began to get drawn in by the Racnoss Star as if by magnetism.

"Exactly what you said" she replied.

The Doctor dashed back over to her to get a look for himself.

"Oh, they didn't just bury something at the centre of the Earth... they became the centre of the Earth. The first rock" the Doctor realised.

Suddenly the Tardis gave a great lurk forwards, nearly tossing them both out.

"What the hell was that?" Donna demanded as they settled themselves.

In reality she knew of course what it was, but she couldn't let him know that.

"Trouble" the Doctor said grimly.

The Time Lord slammed the doors shut, and a moment later the two of them rushed back over to the console.

The Doctor went straight to the monitor before he let out a groan and rubbed at the back of his head.

"What is it? What's happened?" Donna 'asked' as she rushed to his side.

"Remember that little trick I pulled, particles pulling particles? Well it works in reverse - they're pulling us back!" the Doctor said grimly.

He quickly started desperately hard to try and pilot them away, but there was nothing he could do.

The Tardis was beyond his control now.

"Cheeky cow… can't you do something?" Donna 'asked'.

"Maybe, just let me think… Oh! Wait a minute!" he cried, diving under the console and pulling out a large panel with flashing lights and buttons and wires all over it.

"The extrapolator! Can't stop us, but it should give us a good bump!" the Doctor said gleefully.

With urgency, he began wiring it into the console.

Suddenly the Tardis touched down, just as the Doctor finished plugging the extrapolator in.

"Now!" he cried, smacking the console with his mallet.

The Tardis groaned and lurked again, before everything finally settled down.

"Are you alright?" Donna asked the Tardis in her mind with concern.

"Not exactly but I'll live" the Tardis grumbled back, "Although if he smacks me with that mallet again he might not".

Donna bit down on her lip to contain a laugh.

The Doctor dashed over to the doors and peered out.

Snapping back to the present, Donna followed him.

They were back in the corridors.

Donna couldn't help the wince of annoyance that escaped her.

After all, she knew what was coming next.

And she also knew that despite how much she wanted to, this was a moment that she couldn't afford to change.

"We're about two hundred yards to the right. Come on!" the Doctor shouted, running off.

Donna hurried after him.

"Good luck" the Tardis whispered in her mind.

"Thanks" Donna thought back grimly, "I've got a feeling I'll need it".

She quickly caught up with the Doctor when he suddenly halted, right outside the door leading to the ladder that led up to the Thames Flood Barrier.

Donna mentally braced herself.

She perked her ears, and could just about hear the swish of a cloak coming closer.

Or maybe she was just imagining it because she knew it was soon to happen.

Either way, her nerves were on edge.

Getting kidnapped was hardly a relaxing and enjoyable experience after all.

"Right, what do we do now?" Donna asked, forcing herself to sound calm.

Despite knowing how things had placed out the last time, Donna couldn't help but worry about things changing for the unknown this time around.

And with the Robo-Forms coming for her, Donna was not ashamed to admit she was a little bit frightened right now.

The Doctor had his stethoscope in hand and had it pressed up against the door, obviously trying to hear something on the other side.

Donna had no idea what that could be though.

It wasn't something that she could remember from the original timeline at any rate.

"I don't know! I make it up as I go along! But trust me, I've got a history" the Doctor smirked smugly.

"And chances are it's a terrible one" Donna smirked, knowing that from past - and future - experience, "Hang on though, those particles… what are they actually for?" she asked, closing her eyes as she willed herself to remain calm.

It was due any second now though.

Her kidnapping.

"There's a Racnoss web at the centre of the Earth, but my people unravelled their power source. The Huon particles ceased to exist which means that the Racnoss are stuck" the Doctor said, his back to her, focusing entirely on getting through the door.

Donna whimpered as at that very moment, a hand shot out from behind her and covered her mouth.

Donna didn't even bother to struggle this time around.

She didn't even call out for help.

Donna knew that this had to be done, and if she had to play damsel in distress now to ensure a happier future later, than so be it.

So with that thought in mind, Donna allowed herself to be steered away.

Yay!

Donna finally got her own back on Lance : ) Maybe it was a bit too violent, and I can't really see the Doctor and Donna just walking off and leaving him there, but what else could they do? Ring for an ambulance? Oh well, sometimes the characters just have to do what the story demands of them : )

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this instalment, and please let me know what you thought of this chapter in a review : )

Until the next time, keep on reading : )