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VI.

Oh, fantastic. She really should know better than attempt to use any gadget she got from the Doctor-- it only led to trouble.

"You," the alien repeated, "where did you get that device?"

Ianto turned to look at her sharply. "What is he talking about?"

Rose looked at her mobile, then to Ianto and the alien. "This?"

"That thing?" Ianto said. "But that's just an ordinary mobile!"

"She deceives you!" the alien rumbled, waving a fist in her direction, "She has technology far beyond what your planet is capable! Where did you get that, little girl?"

"It's-"

"She's nothing, she's not important!" Ianto said, stepping in, with a look there Rose glimpsed before he turned back to face the alien. Rose thought it might be panic.

"If she does not speak then we will dispense with all these formalities and set straight to invasion-"

"No, I'll speak!" she said. Stepping forward, she took a deep breath. "I'll speak!"

"Who are you?" The alien demanded.

"Rose." She said, "Rose Tyler."

"How did you come upon such a device?"

"I didn't come upon it, it's mine."

"You lie! I do not believe a lower lifeform like you can possess such technology!"

Ianto sidled up close to her. "Tell him, Tyler!"

She shot him a look but complied, though she stalled for time. "All right, I'll tell you."

"Go on!"

Rose straightened her back. This felt familiar. "You really want to know?"

"Yes!" the alien hissed, at the same time Ianto said "Don't aggravate him!"

"Alright, this thing here? It was a gift from a Time Lord." She didn't expect that reaction, as if she'd just dropped a bomb in the middle of their ship. It helped her hands stop shaking. "That got your attention, didn't it?"

Rose had counted to forty before the alien hissed: "Nonsense."

"You don't seem to think so."

"Those are just random words." he rumbled at Rose, as if she'd just offended him in some way, "Time Lords were a higher life form - why would they deign to speak to your kind?"

"Well, one of them was awful fond of the human race."

The alien sneered. "Time Lords no longer exist. They were defeated by their own arrogance!"

Rose had suspected that but she never actually thought she'd have that confirmed. "By the Daleks you mean?" she said. Again, there was that ripple. It seemed the Time War was as devastating here as it was back home. Suddenly there were words pouring out of her, a rhythm in the speech she'd heard done so many times."If you think we're such 'lower beings' you have to ask yourself--"

"Kivon," Ianto supplied.

"Kivon, how could a human know about Daleks or Time Lords, or the last Great Time War?"

Kivon didn't speak. In fact, he looked hesitant, as if he'd chewed off more than he'd bargained for. "You know nothing about what you speak of!"

"Don't I?" Rose said, narrowing her eyes. "And how do you really know we're as technologically backwards as you think we are? You didn't even know I had this," she said, yanking her arm up and showing him her mobile. Kivon jumped back as if she was about to shoot him, "until I used it. How do you know we don't have similar weapons like..." she rummaged through her mind, trying to find something, a weapon the Doctor had talked about, "sonic blasters or... a... demat gun?"

The red of Kivon's skin paled to an almost pinkish color. "You have no such weapons."

"Really? Now who's blustering?" The smile she flashed him was all teeth. "You know what else too? Your invasion's illegal!"

"By whose law?" Kivon asked, glaring at her.

"According to the conventions of the Shadow Proclamation." Rose glared at Kivon. "Now we're going to give you a choice, you leave our planet alone or we will be forced to take drastic action!"

Kivon only continued glowering at her.

"You have less than an hour to decide." She gestured to the tech in front of her to pull the kill switch. She met Kivon's glare with her own as the screen went blank.

"Are you mad?" Ianto roared moments after Kivon vanished from the screen.

"I think so," Rose croaked. Her hands were shaking and her throat had gone dry. "I really think so."

"And you've dragged the whole planet with you!"

"'Least I bought us some time!" she snapped. "I think we have less than an hour but we can still have time to get up all the weapons, right?"

He glared at her but answered. "Yes but it's not enough time-"

"Then we better work faster, don't we? How are the weapons? What are our weapons?"

"We've several powerful energy weapons, but the laser cannons aren't working, something's jamming the signal," Darrell answered after looking at Ianto askance.

"We better hope the hour's enough then," Rose said, mouth dry. "How 'bout UNIT, can they help?"

"They've got the UNIT HQ contained," Ianto said, frowning. "They've managed to seal off the President too. We're all pretty low on resources."

"We have to think of something then, some way to bluff them or scare them away."

"Swordfight?" Mickey suggested.

"What?" Ianto asked.

"Er," Rose looked around at the room, the surviving members of Torchwood, techs and soldiers with guns. "I don't think anyone here knows how."

"What are you talking about?" Ianto interrupted.

"Nothing," Rose said then turned to Ianto. "Hang on, how come they didn't jam our signals or whatever?"

"We have a dampener," one of the techs beside Ianto answered. "It's not strong and it could only accommodate the size of this room. They can't track us while we have it on."

"And how long can we have it on?" Jake asked, pushing his way to the center.

Rose didn't like the way Ianto and the tech exchanged glances.

"An hour, less than that," Ianto answered for the tech. "The bombing set our energy stores back."

It wasn't enough. Rose knew the type of evil alien overlord Kivon was, and they were not usually known for patience. It was like the more technologically advanced they were the less they had time for waiting around. "Right, we can't stand around moaning and groaning here, we have to use our most powerful weapons."

All eyes turned to her.

"Our minds."

They all looked at her as if she'd gone daft. It wasn't exactly the reaction Rose was hoping for.

"That's your plan?" Jake hissed beside her, "think the aliens to death?"

"'Course not!" she said, "I meant we use them. Think our way out of this, c'mon, you lot are supposed to be the brightest minds in Britain! There has to be some way we can weather this!" There was shuffling in the corners, so she pointed to the techs. "Right, you lot are assigned to the energy problem." She pointed to another group clustered around monitors. "And you to the weapons things. Ianto, can you think of some way to contact the President? Confirm she's not aboard the ship somehow?"

He looked at her dubiously. "I suppose I could work on that."

"Good, thanks."

"And what'll you do?" Mickey asked.

Rose tried not to wince. "I'll try to stall Kivon."

"That's your plan?" Jake repeated.

"If you got a better one, I'd love to hear it. No, seriously, Jake, I'd love to hear a plan," she said, looking at him hopefully.

But instead of boldly taking the situation in hand Jake shrugged and nodded to her. "If we die I'll at least know who to blame."

"Gee, thanks."

*



UNIT


"Anything, Major?" President Jones asked.

"Nothing, ma'am still static." Edwards said, his eyebrows drawn together. "Whatever he's done, Kivon's effectively locked us in."

Diane continued to tap away on the keyboards. "I've tried everything at this end too."

Without preamble the center screen came to life. Kivon loomed down on them.

"Who is this girl?" he rumbled at them, as another screen opened to show a blonde girl, holding up a mobile.

"Rose Tyler?" President Jones said in surprise. "What do you want to know about her?"

"Who is Rose Tyler?" Kivon rumbled again. "Where did she get that device?"

Edwards frowned. "What, the mobi-"

"Why do you want to know?" Diane asked, standing up.

Kivon sneered. "It does not concern you to know."

"Rose is one of my people," Diane said, crossing her arms. "That makes it my business."

He growled something that didn't translate then pointed at Rose Tyler's phone. "How did she come upon this device?"

"She didn't come upon it, it's hers."

It wasn't the answer he wanted it would seem, because he moved forward until his whole face filled he screen. "Who is she!"

"She came from the Void," Diana said, voice like ice, "a companion to an alien known as the Doctor." There was no reaction to that. "According to the files he was what was called a Time Lord."

There was something interesting with the way Kivon's face grew darker. The man beside Kivon came forward and said something loud enough for the speakers to pick up, something that sounded like 'Ka Faraq Gatri'. Whatever the word was provoked a reaction from Kivon and he barked something and suddenly the screen cut away to darkness.

"What was that about?" Edwards wondered.

"I don't know," President Jones said, "but I think it has something to do with Pete Tyler's daughter, Rose."

*


In the end, time and choice were taken from them. The screen flickered again as ideas were tossed around and another faction worked on something. Darrell was saying something: "we could fool them into thinking we got our weapons online, put together enough of an energy surge--"

The screen opened again.

"We found nothing on your world that could stop us," Kivon announced. "We will start our invasion."

"What?" Rose cried, standing up. She knew Kivon was the type to be impatient, but this was too soon. "Why?"

"You could not possibly have come through the Void," Kivon said harshly. "You could not possibly know the Ka Faraq Gatri!"

Ka Faraq what? "Well, you're wrong, I did come through the Void," she said. She pointed at Mickey and continued "so did he! We're not from this world, haven't you figured it out already?" What the hell was the Ka Faraq Gantri? Was it Gantri? Why didn't the translation software translate that? Dammit, she missed the TARDIS-

"You are spinning a web of lies, Rose Tyler, and belittling our capabilities!"

It had something to do with the TARDIS, right? Now what was it? What about the TARDIS? "I'm not spinning anything and I'm not the only one doing the underestimating, Kivon."

"You do not even know who the Ka Faraq Gatri is!" Kivon said with a triumphant snarl.

A person! A person, of course! "'Course I know who he is, he also goes by another name you know," Rose said, smile too sharp, heart beating too fast. She's praying and hoping, aware of the stares behind her back, the stakes. "He's called the Doctor. The Daleks called him the Oncoming Storm and that's who you're really afraid of isn't it? Not only superior technology but the Doctor. The Ka Faraq Gatri."

Kivon didn't move, his too green eyes narrowed into slits. Rose held her breath. Was that it? Was that enough? Whatever confidence that was bolstered by those precious few seconds vanished when Kivon let out a barking laugh.

"You are amusing," Kivon said. "The Time Lords are gone. Even the Ka Faraq Gatri could not withstand the inferno he created. And because of your impudence your world will burn."

"No!" she shouted.

Kivon paused. "What?"

This was her world now. This was the world that gave her back her father and a chance at a new family. This was the world the Doctor had entrusted to her and suddenly the fear turned into fury. This was her world and she'd be damned before she let aliens like Kivon destroy Earth. "I said no."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You heard me," she growled. "Easy language, English. One syllable."

"There is nothing you can do, Rose Tyler, but watch as your world burn."

"You'll try." Rose moved forward, made sure they saw her clearly, "I told you, we're not defenseless and this invasion's illegal."

"Your weapons are useless--"

"Keep telling yourself that, Kivon." Rose raised her mobile, just the way she saw the Doctor raise the sonic screwdriver a million times to fend off an enemy or open a locked door. "One press on my device here and I can power up one of our most powerful weapons, blast you clean out of the sky."

"You are lying!"

"Are you so sure about that?" She bared her teeth. "We gave you a chance, a warning, that's more than most civilizations would give you."

Kivon kept glaring. "We will not leave-"

"Your loss," Rose snarled, "I warned you, I press this button and the weapon powers up. Are you staying or leaving?"

"We will not be threat-" He roared in alarm as Rose pushed a keypad and her phone lit up. "What are you doing?"

"Powering up one of our main laser cannons, it's building up to critical mass and at any moment you'll go kaboom." She nodded at him. "Go on, scan for energy readings or whatever it is you're up to."

Kivon swiveled around and seemed to be ordering his crew about. There was a series of rumbles and clicks spoken so fast the translator couldn't keep up, but when he swiveled back the snarl had turn into a cold smile. "You were bluffing, there is nothing in our sensors--"

A lieutenant jumped forward, "Critical mass, Lord Kivon!"

"What, didn't I tell you?" Rose said. "Critical mass, laser cannons and your ashes burning in our atmosphere." Kivon continued to glare at her. "You can still escape. Come out of this alive." They matched glares. Rose proceeded to press another button. "Your loss--"

"We withdraw!" Kivon shouted. "We withdraw!"

"Then do it."

Kivon snapped a few words, glaring at Rose and then another screen came to life, a radar. The ship was moving, rising from its orbit. Kivon threw one last filthy look at her and vanished from the screen altogether as the ship went past the moon, Mars, the asteroid belt and continued on far, far away.

It was the beyond part that started the shouting and the jumping. Her arm hurt but she couldn't put it down, and she was still staring at the screen where Kivon's red face had been. The spell was only broken when Mickey came bounding next to her and grabbed her in a bear hug shouting over and over, "You did it! You did it!"

Jake grabbed her too, not pulling her away from Mickey but hugging her at the same time. Ianto came over next. "How did you know?" he shouted over the din, "how did you know we'd have plan B up by then?"

"I didn't," Rose said faintly, "I bluffed."

Ianto was probably lecturing her but she didn't know. By that time she'd already fainted.

*


On to Part VII

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