There's really no excuse for my absence...but I must confess that I have lost my inspiration. And it's a sad, sad thing. Even though I have so much drafts and plans for season 3... Anyway, sometimes, a right mood, a review arriving at the right time manages to spark something inside me, and hence how this chapter was born.

I'm deeply sorry for everyone that I let down. And for those few who still hold onto hope, please, enjoy.

The Canine Kingdom Continuation Part 2

In an undescribed part of the Kingdom, surrounded by dark shadows, a man was sitting, hunched over on the cold floor. His long arms were clutching tightly onto his blond greasy locks, pulling at the hair in frustration. The skin on his face seemed to not have been shaved in months – a long, bushy beard surrounded his prominent jaw, extending its path towards the moustache area and sideburns. Throughout his mid-sleeved white shirt, it was impossible not to notice his thin frame - ribs showing from where his robe had been cut, leaving a trail of shredded pieces in its wake.

His body held bruises all over the place – one still to be healed bruise could be spotted in his chest area, affecting his breathing in the process. Every intake of air, taking a lot of effort to perform. Still, the man held on – stubborn and determined.

"I'll not give in. I… cannot give in," a series of wheezing mutterings could be heard coming out of the man's mouth. He kept on repeated them. Like a mantra.

A loud faraway bang momentary spooked the man, forcing him to look up towards the entrance of his cell, listening in. A pair of voices echoed somewhere in the distance, but were too far away for him to decipher what was being said. A frustrated sigh escaped the man's lips. He ducked his head back towards his half-bent knees, taking some ragged breaths in. He could feel the pounding in his head increasing. The diziness starting to overcome him.

"I'll not give in… I cannot let them win," he continued mumbling until the last piece of his consciousness got swallowed by the darkness.

The worry gripped Rose tight like a nasty pair of claws of a Slitheen. Ever since the Doctor had been taken away, she couldn't stop wondering about the words spoken by the guard. "The mutations", they had said. What worried her most, though, was what it meant for the Doctor. Him being a Time Lord, the scientists here would have a feast day – scavenging him by bit of pieces, reveling in the complexity of his physiology.

Rose shuddered from the imagine of such thoughts. The second round of tremors that ran past her body came from somewhere within – an automatic physiological response to a colder weather. She had been feeling chilly for a while now. The thin hair on her forearms had been standing erect for quite some time now, accompanied by goose bumps on her blueish skin.

She kept thinking how should she keep herself warm, but her resources were pitifully scarce. The hay was not helping anymore – soaking up too much of the humid air - and the leftover bloodied clothes were just out of the question.

She shuddered once more, wounding her arms against herself on instinct, when a sudden thought came to her.

Wind.

All this time, she had been feeling chilly because the wind was creating a draught. And draught meant gaps – it could be a tiny one or bigger – but it would be an opening connecting her to the outside world, something she could benefit right now the most. With a renewed sence of enthusiasm, Rose darted her eyes around the cell, searching for anything to meet the eye. Looking up, she trailed her eyes along the walls, looking for a gap, until she spotted one. The upper left side of the wall held a small window. It was a rather narrow, rectangle window-like opening with metal bars dividing it vertically. After getting closer to it for a better look from bellow, it was clear that the window as it was, would not be wide enough to let her slip through but maybe she could do something about those bars and then decide.

Maybe.

Never to give up before trying, she scanned the area for what she had in mind – a solid, waist-high haystack – something that could lift her up to be on the eye-level with the window. With a bit of a struggle, she pushed the pack of hay along the cell floor until it bumped against the surface of the wall. Brushing the dust off her hands, she then proceeded to climb the thing – digging her fingers into the hay and hauling herself up until she was securely on top of it. She reached out for the window sill for balance as she slowly pulled herself up in a standing position, her face peeking out of the window.

A pair of emerald eyes blinked at her from the opening.

Her eyes widened and she leaned back, startled. Her body weight shifed towards the edge of the haystack that she had been balancing on, causing her to wobble on her feet –nearly toppling over in the process – only at the last minute to be saved by a brown-clothed hand that dove through the bars to steady her. She thanked her savior without much thought, and was brought back out of her daze only when the person on the other side of the wall blurted out, rather rudely, "Why did I grab onto her?".

Frowning at the sudden change of heart of her savior, Rose put her focus towards said person while trying to gauge what or who was she dealing with. Peeking out of the window, she could clearly see that it was a who that saved her.

She blinked a few times, confused.

True enough, the person was a young lad. Judging from the first glance, couldn't have been more than sixteen-seventeen years of age – green narrow eyes, full lips, smooth skin, all in all, a neat looking boy, except for the messy black hair and questionable living choices. Considering that… he was hanging by the rope that went directly by the window of her holding cell.

Frowning in confusion, Rose blurted out, "What're you doing?"

The lad startled, as if only now remembering he was not alone, and focused back on her. For a moment there, his eyes seemed to have zeroed in on her and widened with a spark that looked close to the one of recognition, but only lasted a moment, before it got hidden away behind the mask of netraulity. "H-huh?" he answered, somehow shakily.

Rose wanted to ask more but then thought better of it (time was not on her side, she had to act quick) and dropped the subject that didn't even start yet. "You know what? I don't wanna know. Can you get me out of here?"

Her question seemed to put the boy in an awkward position as his right hand slipped a fraction on the rope, making him swing a half-circle before stabilizing his position by the wall.

He swallowed thickly, blinking at her owlishly. "You want me to do… what?"

"Get me out of the cell."

The question seemed to physically pain the boy – his eyes closed tightly shut, forming a couple of deep lines on his forehead. He exhaled loudly. "Why d'you think I'm in any position to do that?"

"Well, you're the one on the rope. On the other side of the wall, so…"

The lad gave her a steady look. "So you thought I could get you out with the rope too." He wasn't asking.

Rose nodded with a grin. "Yep."

The lad groaned with a shake of his head. "Why do all foreigners have to be nuts?" he muttered in a quiet whisper, a rather rethorical question to himself, really.

"The Doctor would say it's a way to have more fun."

The boy put her under a scrutizing look after the last words she spoke, like trying to analyse which part of her didn't have something wrong going on with her.

"Fun is not the word this planet knows of," he remarked in a low voice. "At least not since the fall of the previous King's reign."

"Is there a problem with the current King then?" Rose asked, curious.

"Shouldn't you know better? You foreigners come to this planet for this reason alone , don't you - to meet the Great King of Barcelona?"

Rose frowned at that. Should they?

"Uh, no. Why? What's so special about him?"

A rather humourless laugh escaped the lad. "You're kidding, right? Why d'you come then?"

"Well, we… uh, the Doctor and I, we sort of wanted to see your planet's dogs without noses. But they seem to be gone. Know anything about that?"

"Yeh. They disappeared together with the previous King."

Now that was the information Rose could work with. Disappeared, the lad had said. If something truly unnatural had been going on, among many other things that apparently had gone wrong on this planet, the Doctor and her needed to know.

"What d'you mean disappeared?"

The lad opened his mouth to respond, "It's-"

-but got interrupted by Rose, rather abruptly, when her eyes registered the fabric that the light of the moon illuminated for her to see. Eyes narrowed, she asked, "Hold on. Is that the Doctor's coat?"

Her hand shot out through the bars and grabbed onto the sleeve of the brown trench coat – the move disturbing the balance the lad had onto the rope and making him wobble from one side to another. "What are yo- Hey! Stop it!" He flailed, trying to escape her, yelling out to her to - cut it out- but Rose just wouldn't let go. She was absolutely certain it was the same coat. The same coat Janis Joplin gifted to the Doctor herself.

"Why do you have the Doctor's coat?" Her words sounded a tad accusing when she asked the lad.

"I-…" he hesitated, a sort of 'deer caught in the woods' expression passing through his features. There was something conflicted that passed down his features but then he seemed to shake himself out of it, a stubborn glint settling down on his face. "I don't know what you mean. Now if you'll excuse me-" Shockingly, he swatted at her hand that was still holding onto the coat, making her loose its grip and started to slide down the rope in a hurry. Rose was left gaping at his retreating front before in the last ditch effort her fingers wrapped around the rope and she started pulling it back up.

"What're you doing? Let go of the rope!" he yelled back while trying to fight her off but having difficulties with doing so since he needed two working hands to keep hold of the said rope.

"I'm not letting go until you give the Doctor's coat back," Rose shot back while simultaneously struggling with the sheer weight of the boy on her hands.

He tsked at her. "Look, this's not the coat you think that it is."

"Yes, it is."

"What, does it have the initials on it or something?" he asked with a roll of his eyes, clearly exasperated.

"Yes, it does," Rose gritted through her clenched teeth. The words seemd to freeze the lad, which was all the distraction she needed to gain the upper hand in the rope pulling match between the two. Soon enough she had him where she wanted him – back at her eye level –"Gotcha." She grinned triumphantly, the move which gained a look of utter annoyance in return.

"What d'you want?" he asked her with a sigh. The fighting energy seemed to have disappeared out of him.

Rose licked around her upper lip before answering with an innocent look, her hand extending through the metal bars towards the lad. "The coat, for starters… please," she added as an afterthought.

He hesistated. "I… can't. I need it."

"What for?"

"Mission."

She blinked in curiosity.

"Mission? What mission is that then?"

He closed his eyes, sighing. "Just a mission. You didn't seriously thought I would answer that question, did you?"

He leveled her with a look. Rose held the eye contact before shrugging nonchalantly.

"Well, you could have. Considering it's the coat that you've stolen from us..." she trailed off, then added more quietly, "Among other things."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he replied defensively, eyes narrowing.

"Oh, you know… like stealing identification insignia out of people in broad daylight. I thought that was kinda your thing. No?"

He blinked at her in shock. Emerald eyes widening in a sort of comic way. He quckly averted them sideways in shame. A crease formed on his forehead as his fingers tightened around the rope until they went numb from the force.

"If you know already, then why d'you even bother asking me to get you out?" he asked throught the lump in his throat. "I'm the one who put you here in the first place."

"Yeh," Rose agreed. "And that's why you should be the one to get me out of here, don't you think?"

He seemed to consider it but then he shook his head slowly.

"I… can't."

Rose nodded. Can't say she wasn't expecting that. "Okay then. Fine. Sorry I asked," she said and turned her back towards him, leaning back onto the wall beside the rectangle window.

They stayed in silence for a while. Both of them. Not daring to disturb either one's thoughts, until the shuffling of the Janis Joplin's coat could be heard outside the window – a sign of retreat which Rose was already expecting. Swallowing tightly, but still not turning around, she spoke again, "Our execution time is at four in the morning."

She was met with a silence, which lasted for a while. Finally, after what seemed ages, there was a sound of a loud sigh coming from the lad.

"I don't know why you're telling me this."

Rose shrugged, though, she knew he wouldn't see it.

"I guess I'm just that much of an optimist."

The sound that left his parted lips could only be identified as exasperation.

It wasn't optimism. It was foolishness. Putting faith in something that clearly had no interest in your well being was an act of someone naïve, someone who still didn't have that childish hope beaten out of their system. That's why he disliked foreigners. Their idealized sense of righteousness just didn't fit the current system of Barcelona. And it would stay like that as long as nothing got changed. But Alec could change it all. Finally give the people the freedom they needed. The kind of life they all deserved. And if he had to sacrifice a few people in the process… well, it would be on his head. He could live with the guilt. What he couldn't do was leave this planet continue to rot.

His eyes involuntary trailed towards the opening of the small window, side-glancing at the back of blond hair. True. It was disconcerning. He wished it didn't have to come to this. He wished he could've done more but he only got tonight for checking the perimeter before he had to account for Mr. Shultz tomorrow.

It was a sacrifice he had to make.

At one moment he nearly opened his mouth to wish her good luck, but then again, who the heck does that? Like he already hadn't insulted her enough.

With a miserable sigh, Alec closed his eyes one last time and disappeared down the rope, deep into the night.

Minutes that felt like hours were ticking by agonizingly slow while Rose stayed trapped behind metal bars inside a square like box. Without enchanced sense of time it was impossible to really tell how much time had already passed and how much was only a figment of her imagination. It was driving her mad.

She had thought up at least two reasonably workable escape plans, and the only downside to them was that they both included someone actually coming towards her cell. But of course, from the universe's point of view that meant that, when needed, nobody would be coming anywhere near her cell anytime soon. The dim-lit halls stubbornly continued to stay dead-silent even after her several brief attempts on calling for somebody.

She began to think that she might be really trapped here.

The chilling atmosphere of the cell forced her to keep on moving to produce warmth for her cooled body. So when something finally did flicker in the shadows, Rose barely noticed. Only at the very last moment when her peripheral vision registered something silver shining in the near vicinity, did she finally turn around… and took a few hurried steps backwards. One of the guards was standing just outside her cell, ready to march inside.

"Wh-what did you do to the Doctor?" she asked in a raised voice, her voice shaking a little. "Where's he? I want to see him. What've you done to him?"

There was a click and the metal doors unlocked.

Rose had barely few seconds to act. It was now or never.

With her resolve made, she lunged for the thin rusty metal rod that she previously found among the dirty things on the floor of the cell, spun around and aimed it at the heavily armoured guard who took the remaining steps inside.

Bad luck for him. He wasn't taking Rose alive. Not if she had anything to say about that.

Back held straight, she clutched the rod in her fist, ready to swing it at the first moment of intent of coming near her.

Only that the guard seemed to hold no interest in going further. He simply stood there. Observing her.

Rose frowned, refusing to drop her guard. Was he laughing at her? Underestimating her, thinking she couldn't take him? Maybe she couldn't. But like hell she wouldn't try. Not while the Doctor was still out god knows where, being scanned, probbed or… worse.

She shook herself out of the shuddering thoughts, taking a step forward of her own. "Come on then, big guy. You want a fight? You sure as hell getting one, because in no way I'm going out there with you willingly."

The guard huffed in amusement, a sound seemingly unnatural to a being of that size.

"What's so funny?" she demanded in a raised voice, her eyes kept darting warily at the big guy's frame who started to reach behind his head with his clawed hands. "Stop what you're doing right there!" Extending the rod straight towards the guard, Rose tried to stop him, but he ignored her warning and coninued twisting around.

"Ugh…" a gruttal sound escaped his mouth, leaving Rose bouncing on her heels while her eyes kept darting towards the bars, towards the exist, towards freedom.

"…should be a zipper somewhere…"

The muttering coming from the guard made no sense to Rose as she stopped to watch the guard nearly fold into himself, now both hands behind his back while he seemed to sruggle with… something.

What was his deal anyway?

Thinking it was as good an apportunity as any to use for her escape, Rose inched towards the door, just as the low voice reached her, startling her.

"Hold on! Nearly got…it."

The desperate plea in the voice confused her, if not put her at unease.

Any other time she would have dismissed the thought completely, but something about the possibily of that seemed almost believable, real enough for her stop and stay to confirm.

The figure struggled some more, the visible part of face (mainly the yellow eyes and the mouth) twisting in concentration until something seemed to click and a wide toothy grin appeared on the rough features.

Turning her body towards the alien, Rose slowly started to inch forward, albeit with caution, her hand still holding onto the metal rod, just in case, as she simply asked, "Doctor?"

Silence.

For a moment the cell was dead silent, the struggling of the alien stopping, the air feeling stuffy and uncomfortable while she waited, but just as soon there was a rough exhale of air and the armoured hand moved behind the alien's head for the last time before a bob of unruly brown hair greeted her sight.

She sighed in relief, the rod falling from her hands.

The Doctor was still busying himself with the controls of the mask-like device in his grip when Rose flung herself at the Doctor, holding him by the neck.

"Doctor."

The warm chuckle felt like a balm to her worried sick heart.

"Rose," he breathed out and squeezed her against his firm body.

They separated with matching grins on their faces….the Doctor's face soon transforming into one of pain when Rose punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow," the Doctor yelped, rubbing his sore arm. "What was that for?"

"What was that for?" Rose asked incredulously. "What was that for!?" she asked him, pointing at the mask on the ground. "Gave me a scare. Thought I'd have to fight the thing."

The Doctor hummed in amusement. "Seemed like you'd win."

At Rose's pointed glare, he sobered up.

"I was just going to get in and reveal myself to you, I swear! I just…the, uh, the zipper got stuck and it's hard to talk properly in that thing… it sort of changes your voice."

"Right," Rose deadpanned.

The owlish stare of the Doctor was too good to pass on a good day, but sadly they had more pressing matters to attend to and Rose had to take pity on him, relenting. "Anyway, let's just get out of here."

Leading themselves through the hallways, side by side, the Doctor and Rose scanned the area for the nearest exist they could find, stopping to hide in a corner at the first sound of gruttal voices coming from the guards stationed further inside the prison.

Rose worried her lip at the two guards sitting by the table, a cup in hand, growling among themselves.

Speaking of guards… there was a nagging question in Rose's mind that she still couldn't figure out.

"Doctor? What about the guards that took you? What happened to them?"

"Oh, I tripped one into falling through the trap door and tricked another into locking himself in a cell. Easy. Lucky there was only two of them. Wouldn't have known what to do with the third. " He shrugged nonchalantly.

"Right," Rose agreed, sighing.

As much as impressed she might have been, it wouldn't exactly do much good to them in their current situation. There was no trapdoor in their near vicinity and the guards were located at a fair amount of distance away from the main hallway of the cells.

And there was just no way the Doctor and her held any chance against two of them in handcombat.

They had to somehow evade them.

Shifting her gaze towards the Doctor, Rose zeroed her eyes onto the mask, still clutched in the Doctor's hand.

"That thing…" she began in a soft whisper, catching the Doctor's attention. "How does it work exactly?"

"Hm? Oh. A modelling clay. Bought it from the vending stall back in the market. This mask is but a modelling clay with a holographic chip hidden inside. With a little bit of help from the sonic screwdriver I can literally change the mask's appearance at will. Classy. " He tossed it from one hand to another, emphasizing on the lightness of it.

Rose nodded in understanding. "And we can use it, yeah?"

"Uh, nope. Sorry."

Frowning, she asked. "Why not?"

"The battery died," the Doctor said sheepishly.

"You got your sonic screwdriver for that," Rose pointed out.

"Well the mask is not sonic."

"You just said you can change its appearance at will with your sonic screwdriver," Rose cried out in exasperation.

"Appearance, yes. Not the battery. The battery is not sonic."

Rose just stared at him in bewilderment. "What kind of piece of c-"

"Careful," the Doctor chidded. "Wouldn't want to turn out rude as me."

At the Doctor's teasing smirk, Rose huffed a laugh.

"Okay, so what do we do?"

"Weell, there's always an option to run…" at his words, the growling intensified, followed by a loud smack against the table, the contents spilling all over. "Or not."

"Distraction?" Rose offered.

"Ehh," the Doctor titled his head to the side with a frown. "Wouldn't work on them."

"Then what do we do? We can't exactly continue hiding here foreve-"

"Shh," the Doctor shushed her as the voices started to get closer. "Let's go back to plan B," he said and continued to stalk by the walls of the hallway, his head slighthly poking around the corner to watch the movements of the guards.

"What was the plan A?" Rose hissed in a whisper.

It was a second longer where the large pair of steps moved closer when the Doctor turned towards her with a challenging grin.

"Run."

If there was one thing Alec hated the most in this world, it was feeling responsible for others. And at the moment he had too much such thoughts.

Ever since he left the girl back in her cell, he couldn't stop thinking about her last words filled with hope, with hope that Alec would somehow come through and rescue her.

What a ridiculous thing.

After going down the rope, he gotten to scanning a few more cells but it proved to be futile – the cells were empty and cold, leaving only the strong smell of death which seemed to never leave this place.

He ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

Did he have the wrong place? Did the guard lied to him after all? He didn't seem smart enough to lead him to false information but he guessed you could never be too sure.

Not in this time and age.

He was going through the thick forest that surrounded the prison when a pair of voices put him on alert.

He hid behind a tree, peeking to see a pair of men dragging a clearly unwilling animal through the path inside the forest.

"Come on, you big lump, keep going, we don't have the whole day," one of the men huffed in frustration while the other, walking beside him, with a flask in one hand and a black lash in another sighed in exasperation.

"If you can't handle it-"

"I can!" the man with the leash cried out, urging the struggling animal to move.

"Clearly," the other man said, unimpressed. He tipped his head down to gulp the remaining liquid and after pocketing the flask, turned towards the giant animal, seemingly not intimidated at all by the sheer size or the warning sounds it was emitting.

"It's time for your training lesson, holy deity," he said with a sneer on his face.

A flicker of fear passed down the elephant's eyes as the animal started to struggle with effort at the inching forward man.

The black lash rose in the air, the cries of the elephant echoing through the forest just as a needle flew through the air, getting stuck inside the man's neck.

"What the…"

He swayed on his legs and barely managed to turn around before he crumpled on the foor, his collegue failing to react in time before an identical needle got stuck in his own throat.

Alec lowered the whistle, pocketing it inside his leg pocket as he came forward towards the spooked animal.

The Deity, Alec reminded himself.

The animal gazed at the young lad warily, gauging its intentions. Something seemed to click when Alec stared down into its eyes, gaze unwawering.

A rustling of wings echoed inside the forest as the massive snow white wings unfurled into the opening.

He stood there in awe, watching the Deity standing before him in all its glory.

Rose was sure it was a bad idea.

No, she was absolutely certain that getting separated was nothing sort of a horrible idea.

Once again she was wandering around aimlessly without knowing the Doctor's immediate location. And while no guards seemed to be running after her, that didn't exactly put her at ease, knowing that it could only mean one thing – the Doctor took everyone upon himself.

Sighing, she scanned her surroundings and hurried down the dimly-lit hallway, pressing her back against the wall as she listened for any alerting sounds.

A rattle.

Somehing rattled very near her,making her jump on her feet and look around for the upcoming danger only she then realized the sound was coming from behind her.

More accuratelly, behind the wall she was resting on.

Looking back she could see that it was not just a wall, but rather a well hidden entrance with slidding doors and, of course, a lock on the knob.

She tried it out just in case, but it didn't budge.

Bitting her lip, she pressed her ear to the door, trying to listen in.

More rattling sounds….which were followed by a low growl.

Was something living inside there?

Stuffing her hands inside her pockets, Rose tried to find anyhing that might be able to help her pick the lock.

Distracted by her mission, she failed to notice someone coming up behind her until her mouth was covered to stiffle her yell, hands gripping her roughly down the halls.

The Doctor was just in the process of adjusting a high frequency setting on the sonic screwdriver which, he could only assume, would pose as an annoying sound to the species of whatever aliens the guards were, when a pair of, surprisingly, humanly voices stopped him short.

"Is it down here?" one, a female voice, asked as a pair of steps stopped by a metal doors inside the wall.

A strongbox of sort?

"Yeah," another, low and calm male voice answered.

There was a sound of insignia being pressed against the controls as with a click, the box opened.

Whatever the box contained seemed to be of interest to the pair as the male passed it down to the female, locking the safe aferwards.

"I saw how you flinched at the Emperor announcing the rise in taxes," the female said cassually.

The male sighed. "35% is a lot."

"It is," the female agreed. "But it's not our problem to worry about the wellbeing of the citizens, is it?'' the hint of wariness that could be heard in her voice seemed to put the male into silence for a moment.

"No, it's not," he agreed, his voice sounding calculated in what it was saying. He then added, in a somewhat calm and teasing voice. "That's why I did all the work while you were wasting your time on prattling."

The female laughed in mirth, the pairs' footsteps growing more distant.

"You know, sometimes it makes me wonder. If you're really smart or just cruel."

"Probably both. Let's go. The Emperor is waiting."

The Doctor let them disappear before he came out of his hidding place.

It was high time he regrouped with Rose.

Whatever was happening down here, they should go hand in hand to investigate it together. They always worked best like that, after all.

A slight smile tugged at the Time Lord's lips.

He looked around once more and pushed himself from the wall…

…coming face to face with a tall, lean man pointing a gun straight to his face.

"Oh," he exhaled. "Hello."

The commotion behind the double hardwood doors took everyone's attention inside the wide waiting room.

"…and I really do think you should let me see my lawyer. It's just one call. I promise. One call and I won't have to report you to the Shadow Proclamation. Now, there's no need to growl at me….. I wasn't threatening you! I was just…oh," the Doctor stopped short as he was pushed inside the spacious room, the chandelier falling down low from the ceiling, a big throne, decorated with various sizes and shapes of rubies sitting in the middle, a snow white dog without nose sitting on it (he found one, ha!) while a few steps down, on the carpet on the floor sat his pink and yellow human.

A grin spread on the Doctor's face. "Is this the Emperor's room? Are we meeting the Emperor?" the Doctor cried out in delight.

Rose turned to look at him, tilting her head in one direction.

The Doctor seemed to be oblivious of that, continuing on, "Well then, where is the grand man himself? I can't wait to meet him."

He was nudged on his side by, what he noticed, one of the guards, (the man that caught him having moved towards the throne to stand by the woman standing beside it….who looked familiar….no, the Doctor was pretty sure he saw her somewhere before…ah, that's right, it was the same man and the woman from before, the pair by the safe).

The Doctor was quickly showed onto his knees beside Rose, greeting her nervous chuckle with a wink of his own.

"Told you we'd meet some dogs without noses."

"Yeah, no kidding," Rose muttered under her breath.

Frowing at her, the Doctor tried to speak but was quickly silenced.

"Quiet. The Emeperor will be speaking."

The eyebrows rose into his hairline as the Doctor stared at the woman.

"Good work, Roger," a deep voice, seemingly coming out of nowhere, spoke, silencing the whole room.

"Um…" the Doctor tried again but only got a glare of the woman by the throne in return.

The voice continued on.

"I shall reward you for your results. Kneel," it said.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," the man, Roger was it, bowed and proceeded to come around the throne and kneel right in front of it, right in front of the throne which held no other passenger than the canine sitting on it, with his long tongue peeking out of its mouth.

"No way," the Doctor cried out, his voice breaking in an amused laugh, which soon followed him being hit in the ribs for his insolence.

With back held straight, and head bowed, the man accepted the key on a chain that was put onto his neck by the woman.

The Doctor blinked at the whole display. "Someone is having a good day. The guy just got promoted."

"Yeah. I wonder what that means for us."

The Doctor hummed. "Probably nothing good."

Standing up, the man spared a quick glance towards the pair before averting his eyes and returing to stand by the throne. A cane hit the ground, silencing the room.

"What are their charges?" the voice spoke again as a scroll was passed down to the woman by the throne. She unrolled it and began reading, "The female prisoner has been accussed of theft and illegal tresspassing of the planet Barcelona together with the failure to bring an identification when asked."

Every part of Rose's body itched to disprove of their accussations but knowing how well that ended the last time, she bit her tongue and stayed put. Not without directing a firm glare in the vicinity of the throne, though.

"The male prisoner has been accussed of obstruction of justice, defiance, threats of destruction, harrassment-"

"Oi!" the Doctor cried out from his spot but was quickly shushed.

"-failure to follow the procedure, unauthorised touching and tasting of the property of the planet Barcelona-"

"Oh, come on," the Doctor groaned from the shadows. "Do you have to?"

"-rude behaviour towardess the officials-"

"Well…"

"-and illegal tresspassing of the planet Barcelona together with the failure to bring an identification when asked," the woman finished, rolling up the scroll and handing it to the guard.

The room was silent as everyone waited the sentence of the two prisoners to be announced.

Rose leaned into the Doctor as she whispered. "What're we going to do? Should we try to plead innocent?"

"Well, this lot seems to be hell bent on making crimals out of us, so I don't think that's gonna work. Especially when the Emperor is only but a puppet."

"What d'you mean?" Rose asked, her neck twisting sharply in surprise.

"See that?" the Doctor tilted his head towards the throne. "With tongue that long, there's no way for a clear voice like that to come out of its mouth. At bests it's an intelligent highly trained dog, at worst, it's just a heavily abused animal," the dark tone in the Doctor's voice made Rose frown in thought.

She glanced at the throne, then back at the Doctor.

"So that's just a regular dog, then?"

"Yep."

"But why doesn't it… bark then?"

"It probably had its vocal chords removed."

The pair shared a silent stare.

"The sentences of the prisoners will be now announced," the woman said, a cane thudding against the floor following suit.

"Due to the state of risk these two unauthorised prisoners pose to the wellbeing of the planet Barcelona, the jury ("What jury?" Rose whispered to the Doctor as there was nobody inside the room except for the Emperor, the pair by the throne and a few guards.) has decided on executing the threat at the first hour of down. That is all."

Rose's breath hitched as she cast an alarming glance towards the Doctor.

Before they could as much as try to plead their case, rough pairs of hands seized the duo, forcing them to stand unsteadily on their feet.

"Doctor!" Rose called out as she was being dragged through the room towards the exist.

"Rose! Oi, keep your paws off her," the Doctor tried twisting in the firm grip but his hands refused to budge. He cast a glance towards the throne, furry starting to burn in his blood, when he caught the eyes of the lean man staring at him in a calculating gaze. For a moment he thought he saw something in those eyes but just as quickly, the man averted his eyes, resuming his neutral staring forwards.

Gritting his teeth the Doctor opened his mouth, ready to bargain with them by any means he knew possible (and oh, there was a whole lot in his vocabulary), when suddenly the whole waiting room seemed to shake from the ground up; a series of tremors resonating from somewhere with a closing distance.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The shaking seemed to increase with each passing second, taking attention of the residents of the room.

"What's going on-" the sentence barely managed to leave the woman's mouth before there was a large crash outside, no right into the large wooden doors as it came flying off front its hinges, pieces of plank flying through the air.

The Doctor ducked one such loose plank, using the chaos as a way of distraction to escape the clutches of the guard holding him and rolling out of the way.

He could hear people coughing from the sudden dust in the air but his eyes kept scanning the area for a single person.

"Rose?"

Before he could see her, he heard her delighted yell, "You came!"

Huh, well that was unexpected.

Following the direction of the voice, he weaved through the stumbling bodies of the guards, a couple of them nearly getting a hold of him in the process if not for his quick reflexes.

"Rose?" he tried again and this time got an answer.

"Over here!"

Another couple of steps and he came to an abrupt stop as he came face to face with his pink and yellow human standing right beside a massive body of none other but a Winged Elephant! The sheer size of the animal itself was impressive but nothing compared to the sight of those pearly white wings as they flapped in the air, one strong swing and the nearing guards came tumbling on the ground, the dust following suit.

The Doctor only managed to stay on his feet by the sheer luck of finding the trunk to grab onto, which he later realized had wrapped around his frame to keep him in position.

"What is this?" he asked, bewildered by the turn of events.

"Doctor, come on up." Rose's voice could be heard somewhere further ahead and true enough, the human was actually climbing the thing, turning her body to him in order to urge him to follow.

Still mostly confused the Doctor tried to argue but one quick look behind his back and he was hoisting himself up, with the help of the trunk.

Finding a young lad with a heated frown on his face wasn't one of the things he expected to find once he was on top of the animal but then again, being rescued by the Deity on the verge of their execution also wasn't one of the things he had expected out of this day.

He guessed stranger things had happened to him.

"Who are you?" the Doctor asked with a frown. "Nice save, by the way. And hold on, is that my coat?"

"Doctor, they're getting up!" the urgency in Rose's voice prompted the Doctor into action, getting him ready to take the rains, figuratively speaking, but before he could do that, the boy with his Janis Joplin coat already urged the elephant to rush through the doors.

He only had a second to grab onto something before they were flying through the halls.

They kept crashing into the walls on every turn and on one such turn where the Doctor banged his head against the standing torch, the Doctor yelled out in complain. "Oi, keep it steady."

The boy tsked at him in irriatation. "I don't exactly have a licence for this thing."

"You don't need a licence to drive a vehicle. You learn as you go."

As one guard was running after them with a closing speed, (surprisingly agile for a being of that size and armour) Rose leaned from the side of the elephant and grabbed hold of the nearest vase, throwing it at the alien.

She felt arms circling around her waist as she was hauled up before she could slip.

"Thanks." She smiled at the Doctor in gratitude and then turned her attention to the lad. "And thank you. For coming."

"I didn't do it for you. I just don't like feeling indebted," he muttered under his breath but Rose could have argued if the faint redness on his cheek was really coming from the exercise.

"I'm the Doctor, by the way, and you are?" the Doctor looked at the boy expectedly who in turn only gave him a whitering stare.

"The thief," he deadpanned.

The Doctor's eyebrows rose into his hairline as he grinned in delight. "Well what do you know, we already have something in common."

Rose grinned at their exchange but then, looking ahead, she found them closing in to the dead end and asked her fellow passengers for the direction.

"We go…up," the Doctor declared as they increased their pace, rushing through the massive marble stairs.

They had to shield themselves as the trio smashed through yet another doors that led them into an opening. On the top of the roof.

"Why the roof… why the hell are we on the roof!?" the lad yelled out, his voice betraying a hint of desperation.

"What do you say, don't you lot want to see a miracle bestowed by the Deity?"

Rose furrowed her brows thoughtfully. "I don't really think it's even a real Deity."

"Oi, stop insulting him. Have some faith," the Doctor cried out indignantly.

"I'm not," Rose retorted. "But you can't just wish 'im into being something he's not."

"What a pain in the ass," the lad sighed in exasperation. "Would you two stop bickering and focus on the matter at hand?" the lad huffed, his grip on the elephant tightening as he scanned the area with a wild look.

Anytime now.

Anytime now the guards would burst in through the made-hole towards the roof and they would be done for.

What was he even thinking getting involved in something as mad as this?

It was very unlike him.

"It's called a brainstorm," the Doctor commented casually. "Handy ideas might form while we're at it."

"Oh, yeah? Will it make elephants fly then? Because there's sheer drop down straight ahead and a mob of furious grizzly bears chasing us from behind. We're pretty much stuck."

The silence that followed made the lad turn away from the stunned Doctor, cursing his luck and questionable life choices until with a high pitched yell, the man slapped him on the back. The lad swung around, glaring at the mad man who was grinning from ear to ear.

"But of course! That's brilliant!"

The lad rose an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Doctor, you're not thinking…"

The Doctor hummed happily. "Why're we looking elsewhere when we have a perfect specimen right here."

He patted on the rough skin of the elephant as Rose shook her head, a small nervous smile spreading on her face.

"Of course you are."

"Thinking what?" the lad asked, feeling lost and a sense of doom coming at them any moment now.

The words that spilled from the man couldn't have belonged to a sane person.

"Let's try a bit of leap of faith, shall we?" the Doctor said with a wink and the next moment took the rains out of Alec's hands, steering the animal towards the edge.

"You're not…oh you…nutcase!"

The echo of Alec's voice could be heard as they dived down.

to be continued...

Love you all and it's a pleasure to deliver these chapters to you.