Chapter 5: The Doctor or the Captain?

"Great. That's the last thing we need." Jack remarked.

"Alright. So the Slitheen have closed off the Parthenon so they could have it all to themselves. Then, they built a network of tunnels underneath it. And deep in these tunnels are hundreds of Slitheen eggs ready to hatch soon. Now they've taken the TARDIS. It doesn't make sense." Rose said.

"Well not to us, but to the Slitheen it makes perfect sense. They need the TARDIS for something." The Doctor remarked.

"But they couldn't have known that the TARDIS would show up. You don't even know where you're going half the time." Jack said to the Doctor. "There's no way they could predict when it would come."

"Excuse you! Nobody pilots the TARDIS better than me." The Doctor snapped back.

"He's got a point." Rose said.

"Hey!" The Doctor said to her.

"I meant about the Slitheen. They couldn't have factored in the TARDIS to their original plan they must have changed it when they saw it." Rose said.

"Whatever they were planning on doing before doesn't matter now. With the TARDIS, they could do anything." The Doctor said.

"But the TARDIS is locked and you have the key." Jack stated to the Doctor.

"Oh no." The Doctor said.

"You don't have the key?" Rose shouted.

"No I have it." The Doctor said. "That only means one thing."

"What?" Jack said very impatiently. He was tired of the Doctor's constant riddles.

"They're going to try and take it." The Doctor said.

Suddenly, the two Slitheen sprung up from the two trap doors in the floor. The Doctor, Rose, and Jack stared at them in fear.

"Alright. Confession time. What are you doing in Athens, in the Parthenon, in 431 BCE, and what have you done with my TARDIS?" The Doctor asked very sternly.

"Well, if you must know." The male Slitheen started to say and then turned to look at his female partner in crime.

"The Slitheen Family was forced to flee Raxacoricofallapatorius some time ago," The female Slitheen said. "Our family is large and massive. We had to spread out to all corners of the universe to escape the Judoon. My husband and I crash landed here in this tiny city."

"We decided to stay awhile." The male Slitheen said. "But we wanted to enjoy our stay."

"So we killed powerful politicians, nobles, and religious officials, and convinced the city to build this nice Parthenon for us to live. We simply covered it up as a statue to their goddess Athena." The female Slitheen said.

"You learned Greek?" Jack questioned.

"It was necessary." The male Slitheen confirmed.

"That's all well and good, but how did you fit into such small humans? I thought your technology could only work with larger bodies?" The Doctor asked.

"We weren't sitting in there comfortably. We had to tuck in all our weight and maneuver around our own organs." The female said.

"What's with all the eggs?" Rose asked.

"What do you think is up with all the eggs?" the female said obviously mocking her. "Why does anyone lay eggs? We wanted children."

"You'd be a terrible mother." Rose said to the monster.

The mother Slitheen growled at her.

"Be patient dear," the father Slitheen said to her. "We need to save them for the children."

The two Slitheen were now done talking and were ready to take action. They started running towards the three people in order to seize them and store them for when their eggs would hatch. The Doctor and Rose stood still panicking. However, Jack still had his Compact Laser Deluxe. He carefully aimed it at the father Slitheen and swiftly shot him dead. The mother Slitheen changed direction. She stopped charging at the Doctor, Rose, and Jack and ran towards her husband who was dead on the floor. She started to weep over his body.

While she sobbed, the Doctor, Rose, and Jack ran back through one of the trap doors, since that was the only way they could escape the Slitheen without the TARDIS. Once the three of them were down the stairs, the Doctor took his sonic screwdriver out again and pointed above at the trap door. As he activated it, the door slammed shut. They were trapped under the Parthenon in a maze of tunnels, but at least they were safe from the Slitheen. Soon enough however, there was a series of large bangs coming from the other side of the trap door.

"She's trying to get it." Jack said.

"Run!" Rose said.

Soon, the Doctor, Rose, and Jack started running blindly through the dark tunnels.

"I can't believe you shot him." The Doctor said to Jack while still running.

"It was the only way out." Jack said.

"You know better Jack. We only kill if necessary." The Doctor said.

"It was pretty necessary. Besides I did those children a favor. You think they would benefit form a father like that." Jack said.

The two boys continued arguing while running in the dark. All Rose could do was listen. She did not dare to intervene. She also had time to think while running in the dark. She heard how The Doctor defended every life. He did not believe in killing. Rose loved that about him. However, Jack saved Rose yet again. Those Slitheen were charging at them and Jack took initiative to save them. Once again, Rose was faced with a choice. The Doctor and Jack were opposite sides of the same coin. She promised herself she'd sort these emotions out when she had the time, yet she could hardly ever find it. So she decided that now would be as good a time as any.

As Rose tried to process her feelings and come to a decision, she, the Doctor, and Jack all ran into a wall and fell down.

"Another door to a secret room?" Jack questioned.

The three time travelers got onto their feet. The Doctor activated his sonic screwdriver, which seemed to light up the area they were in. It also made the rock wall slide open, revealing yet another room with bright white walls, ceiling, and floor.

"How many of these rooms are there?" Jack asked.

No one knew the answer. Upon entering the room, they saw a big blue box at the end of the long room. The TARDIS was found. Suddenly they heard a loud roar behind them. It was the mother Slitheen and she was approaching them fast. The Doctor, Rose, and Jack ran into the TARDIS and locked the doors behind them.

Before they could even catch their breath, the TARDIS started to shake and the three friends fell on the floor. The mother Slitheen was right outside and she was shaking the TARDIS.

"Doctor!" Rose shouted from inside the shaking TARDIS. "That's peculiar." She thought to herself. Why was she calling for the Doctor in the face of danger? Jack was right there as well. She guessed that the Doctor would always be there to save her and she'd known him much longer than Jack. That clearly decided it. Rose had chosen the Doctor. Jack had certainly done more to impress Rose today, but in the end it was the Doctor she wanted to hold when danger arrived at her doorstep. It was the Doctor. It would always be the Doctor. Someday she would tell him how she felt. However, right now, they were going to be killed if the Slitheen managed to get inside the TARDIS.

The Doctor ran towards the TARDIS console, pulled levers, and pressed buttons. Then, the TARDIS started to dematerialize, but the Slitheen was still holding on. The TARDIS rocked around as it flew through the time vortex. The Doctor, Rose, and Jack were stumbling about the TARDIS as it flew. It felt like being in an earthquake. Eventually, the rocking stopped and the TARDIS had landed.

"What's happened? Where's the Slitheen?" Rose asked.

The Doctor simply looked at her and ran outside the TARDIS doors. Jack and Rose followed. They had landed inside the Parthenon again. Upon looking around, the Doctor could only see the body of the Slitheen who was shot by Jack. The one who attacked them was missing.

"She's gone." The Doctor remarked.

"You mean she's…" Jack started to ask.

"Dead." The Doctor said.

"What happened?" Rose asked the Doctor.

"She clung to the TARDIS as it flew through the time vortex. She must have let go while it was shaking and the Time Winds killed her." The Doctor said.

"Now what?" Jack asked.

"Well there are hundreds of Slitheen eggs that are going to hatch very soon and they don't have any parents." The Doctor stated.

"I'm not sure I like where this is going." Jack remarked.

"We're gonna use the TARDIS to bring all the eggs to good families on Raxacoricofallapatorius!" The Doctor said.

Rose smiled. She knew she had chosen right.

So, the TARDIS went to every bright white room in every tunnel under the Parthenon, took every egg, and brought it to Raxacoricofallapatorius. It took hours to transport all of the eggs, but Rose didn't mind. She was happy. She had the Doctor. She had a life with the most remarkable man in the universe. She hoped someday that their relationship would bloom into something more, but that would take time. Rose was willing to spend the rest of her life with him. Travelling the universe didn't matter as long as she could still end each day with a tight hug, and maybe someday a kiss, from her Doctor.