The Doctor walked around the main room of the TARDIS. He took out his sonic screw-driver and flipped it in his hands, turning it on and off. He paced up and down and anyone could have mistaken him for a very nervous man. The door opened and The Doctor jumped.
"Ah, Donna! Finally!" The Doctor hurried her inside and told her to sit down. Then he pulled a lever and pressed a few buttons, presumably at random. Donna blinked hard and patted down her red hair, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"Wha- Where are we going?" Donna mumbled as she walked away from the main room towards the kitchen. She brought back four pieces of toast and gave the Doctor his two.
"Ohh, you're gonna love it!" The Doctor grinned mischievously as the TARDIS took off. He listened to the whoosh-whoosh-whoosh and shivered a little. "God, I love that noise," he said and turned around to face Donna, "Don't you?" He smiled again and ran into another room.
'Good Lord, he's a nutter if ever I met one,' Donna thought to herself, 'but do I love him!' She finished her toast and wiped her mouth when he burst back into the room. Donna didn't recognise him at first because it was actually a burst of fluorescent pink and yellow that entered the room. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. He was wearing a ridiculous outfit and holding more ridiculous outfits under his arm
Donna had a confused look on her face. "What are you wea…"
"Leis, embarrassingly coloured shirts and skirts! Well, for you anyway..." he chucked a coconut bra at Donna.
"I am NOT!" She said firmly and stomped her foot. "But…" She walked towards the Doctor and took out a magnificent dress from under his arm. It was purple and white. The top of it was flowery to the waist with silver lines and sparkles. Then it was white with silver running down it and then another strip of purple flowers interlined with more silver. It stopped at the knees and was tied around the neck with a silver ribbon. Donna ran into the next room and came out moments later looking stunning. The Doctor looked up from his screwdriver and screwed up his face for a second then said:
"Perfect! And about time, we're here! Hawaii!" He jumped up and opened the door to the TARDIS. Before stepping out he flung a lei around Donna's neck. He jumped out of his box and landed on pure white sand. There was a lot of noise and commotion and people everywhere. To his right he saw fifteen ft. tall walls of water with little men on them. To his left he saw markets, people, dancers, fire, Captain Jack, fruit stalls, limbo games… Wait!
Donna jumped out too and saw exactly what the Doctor had seen, waves, dancing, markets and a man. Only he and Donna noticed different men. Donna looked at Shaun in his board shorts and holding a beer. Donna completely forgot about the Doctor and walk towards Shaun, she had only met him once before this and they had hit off straight away, it was a shame that she had to leave.
"Temple!" Donna cried out to him. He recognized the voice immediately and almost spilled his beer. When he turned and saw Donna, he did spill his beer. He dropped his drink and ran towards her. They hugged and began talking. He bought drinks and Donna had absolutely forgotten about the Doctor, the TARDIS and time travel. She cared only for the boy and the drink and the music.
The Doctor walked briskly up to Captain Jack and stood right behind him. He was listening to him talk to a couple of Hawaiian dancers.
"Stop it." He said in a firm and short voice. Captain Jack's head shot up, he excused himself from the ladies and grinned. He turned around quickly and embraced the Doctor, who returned his hug.
"Man, where have you been?" Jack held the Doctor at arm's length and looked him up and down, examining him.
"Oh you know," he looked for Donna, nowhere to be seen. 'Oh well, she'll be fine,' he thought, and forgot about her, "Around," he smiled and winked at the Captain. He began to stride off towards a bar manned by three Asian women. "Hello ladies, two er… sunrise specials please," he looked over the bar and there was something odd about it. Captain Jack sat down next to him.
"Oh, how kind. And served by these lovely ladies…" Captain Jack winked at one of the three ladies who blushed in return.
"Stop it," the Doctor said in a faraway type of voice. He needed to know what was so weird about this bar. Something disturbed him about it, something was so out of place and lost, something didn't belong here. He began to get his screwdriver out of his pocket when one of the Asians returned with their drinks. He put it away, 'I'll do it later,' he thought to himself. He took a long sip from the drink… and forgot about the bar, how it seemed lost. All of a sudden it seemed perfectly normal. He wondered what he was fussing about and found he had quiet forgotten.
"So, new companion?" Captain Jack asked after taking a long sip of his drink.
"Ah, yes! D-… wait." He thought very hard for a second. Captain Jack thought he had forgotten something important. Indeed he had. After a moment of very hard thought the Doctor said, quiet loudly:
"Donna!" He nodded and drank again, "Yes, that's it…" Once again the look of deep thought crossed his face. He mumbled under his breath, Captain Jack leaned in to hear as best as he could:
"How could I… she's so… then she left… she wouldn't… but she's not… why can't I… I need to… think… remember…" Jack caught only snippets of his constant mumbling. Then he snapped his head up and knocked his and Jack's drink onto the floor. He jumped out of his seat and walked back a bit.
"Um, ok." Jack knew well enough to play along with the Doctor. He stepped away from the bar with one last wink at the ladies. He walked up to the Doctor and watched him think. He could almost hear the gears clicking in his head. "What's up doc?" Jack said in a slightly irritating voice.
"I'm not… not sure actually," he rubbed his temples hard; trying to remember what had panicked him so much. Something had been so real and so dangerous that he had almost left the island. 'Why would I do that?' he thought to himself, 'Why would I… especially since this island is so nice and comfortable and relaxing, I'd stay here forever if I could…' his thoughts trailed off. "I'd stay here forever if I could," The Doctor said to Jack and he agreed. They went to another bar and bought more drinks.
Donna and Shaun first went to a bar and bought drinks. They had long conversations and laughed a lot. 'Could a place be more perfect?' she thought. Shaun, drinks, sun… Hawaii was brilliant!
"So, Donna, who'd you come here with?" Shaun bought another round of drinks, what was this, round two, three? Then how could it cost so much? 'Never mind that' she told herself.
"Um, I came with… well it's like I've been here forever isn't it?" She added with a laugh. 'Who brought me here again?' A moment's thought. 'It must've been Grandad!' "My Grandad did," she nodded and smiled. Her head was feeling a little bit light and hazy. 'But isn't light headed good? Yes, it's good!' She decided.
Donna and Shaun then left the bar. They wandered the beach, not looking for anything in particular, just for more and more good. Shaun shook hands with a man in board shorts holding a red flag as they left. Donna noticed that he did it very discreetly, but after a second thought she forgot about it.
The Doctor and Jack walked around the beach. Jack had mentioned a surfing competition he wanted to see. When the Doctor asked him why he was interested Captain Jack had no definite answer and after a moment of thought he settled on: "It's just something to do eh?," and they continued. They passed many people on the way there, no one of particular interest. Everyone was so ordinary. There was nothing to be noticed here, nothing out of the ordinary. Everything was so peaceful so… good. The Doctor was more interested in the waves and the trees then the people. Not for any particular reason, just because they were good. He nodded politely to some people and bid a few a polite 'hello.' He was so content until he walked past a red head and a dark skinned boy. The Doctor fell to his knees and clasped his head. Captain Jack knelt beside him, casually, as if this was normal. 'Well, it is, isn't it? For the Doctor anyway,' but then he thought about it again and thought that it wasn't in fact, normal, at all. He held the Doctor by the shoulders and tried to talk to him. But the Doctor was mumbling again, Captain Jack leaned in to listen.
"That was her… she didn't even… something… remember… if it was… but surely not… remember…and him… I need to… remember… Captain… remember…" Captain Jack caught, again, only snippets of his ranting, until it became louder and louder. It was as if he was having a fit. No one gave a second thought or even a concerned glance towards the men on the floor. People walked out of their way to avoid them, but it was still as if they didn't notice them. Jack's head hurt for a moment when he thought about that so he stopped thinking about it. Still, the Doctor's rants got louder and louder until he was speaking at normal volume.
"Remember, remember, remember, remember!" He was still holding his head and grimacing with pain. He grabbed Jack's hand. He smiled flirtatiously until he felt the pressure that the Doctor was squeezing with.
"Hey, loosen up!" Jack yelped.
"Donna! Remember, oh gosh what is it!" Jack thought the man had gone insane, mad even! A mad man with a blue box, Jack thought. He then too felt a searing pain come into his head. But only for a second, only when he thought about the past. He focused solely on the Doctor, just to be safe. The Doctor slowly stood up, still leaning on Captain Jack for support.
"Think about the last time we met!" The Doctor almost yelled it. Jack looked around at the people passing him. Everyone was smiling, chatting, drinking. No one noticed the two men leaning on each other, almost passing out. He smiled cheekily at a bad thought he had for a second. Then he did as told. When was the last time they met? Just trying to think of it caused his brain to overheat. "You see! There is something wrong here! Something stopping us from leaving, stopping us from being free-willed almost," The Doctor still had the burning pain in his head but he slowly got used to it. "Follow me," he said before sprinting off in the opposite direction from which they were traveling. Captain Jack still wanted to see the competition, and whenever he did what the Doctor said his brains ended up burning. He walked briskly after him winking and smiling at pretty much anyone he passed.
When he caught up with him, he was following a red-headed girl holding hands with a dark skinned boy. He still had a pained, confused, troubled, deep-thought expression over his face. Captain Jack leant against a tree, under the shade, while he waited for the Doctor. Before he knew it, he was asleep.
If Donna had been completely herself, she would have noticed a crazed-looking man following her, but unfortunately she wasn't herself, so she didn't notice.
But someone did.
Someone that the Doctor didn't want to be noticed by. And if he had been completely himself, he would have noticed that someone he didn't want to notice him had, in fact, noticed him.
A man in board shorts and holding a red flag watched the Doctor. He was sitting upright, very stiffly. He had a fake, smiling expression on his face and looked very unnatural, whereas everyone else looked completely normal, natural. If the Doctor had been himself enough to notice this, he would have. But it took every single fibre of his being to focus on the red-headed girl. The pain was still there, burning his brain, but not as sharp as before. He was getting used to it. The man with board shorts and a red flag noticed this and held up his red flag. No one around him cared, no one bothered to ask him why, no one even looked at it. At that moment five other red flags shot up in the air and started making their way towards the first red flag. All the owners of the flags sat around a table with the first man.
If the Doctor had been himself enough he would have noticed that every single flag bearer looked identical. If the Doctor had noticed this and scanned him with his sonic screwdriver, he would also have noticed that they had exactly the same DNA. Each man was exactly the same as the next. More so, they were the next. They all watched the Doctor. They shared thoughts without speaking and came to a decision. Eliminate foes. Starting with the easy ones.
If the Doctor had been himself enough he would have noticed that Captain Jack was no longer asleep next to him.
When Captain Jack woke, he was tied to a bed. He took a second to gather his senses. He remembered everything. How the Doctor had freaked out, how his brain had burned, how he flirted with the ladies. How long he had been in Hawaii. Exactly two years. Two years of pointless wandering, pointless chit-chat and pointless drinks. He had only ever meant to come here for a week, two max. He had to pick up someone. Someone had called Torchwood. They were very panicky and stressed. Said something about… about not remembering. Yes, that was it! He called desperately and yelped quietly about his brain burning and the dark creature and then it had gone quiet. There was no final noise, no scream and no breath. It just stopped. Then the phone cut out and Captain Jack had been sent out on the job. This was what he was calling about. This was exactly it. Something was gonna kill Jack, something quick and silent. Wait, no it wouldn't. Jack almost laughed.
All that went through his head in half a second. After that he noticed two things, one was how incredibly dark it was, as if there had never been any light on this place ever. The second was he was upside down. He was tied to a bed, and that bed must have been on the roof. He was looking, if he could see, at the floor and his whole body was facing the floor.
Scary thoughts entered Jack's brain. What was the dark creature, how much pain could it inflict without actually killing him? What would it do when he came back to life? Would he starve for eternity tied to the bed? (A dirty thought entered his mind but it was quickly replaced by more fear). What if there wasn't a floor, or walls. If there was no floor and Jack was released, then he would fall for eternity. Could a man that couldn't die possibly face a worse fate? Of course.
The Doctor walked briskly up to the red-headed girl and pulled her aside.
"Donna?" The Doctor looked into her eyes… and then past them. He was trying to read if she recognized him, whether or not she remembered.
"Yes, Doctor. It's me," Donna placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. That was not the response he wanted. If she hadn't remembered him at all it would have been a lot easier. She turned and walked off with Shaun. They kept talking. 'Try something else,' the Doctor thought. After a minute or two, he quickly moved up to Shaun's side.
"Hello," he was testing how much he remembered. They had met once before, the Doctor could remember if he wanted to but it hurt.
"Oh hello, I'm Shaun," No, he didn't remember. That was good, well not really, but it could be worse.
"Oh hello Doctor! Isn't this place wonderful!?" Donna put her hand on his shoulder again. She talked as if they hadn't met within the hour. She nodded and walked off again. 'Quicker this time,' he thought. He ran up to her straight away, barely three seconds since they had last talked.
"Hello Donna," he said. Before he knew it, she was on the floor holding her head. Crying out in pain. Shaun stood up straight, stiffly and unnatural but the Doctor didn't notice. He was kneeling next to Donna. He had to make sure she stayed like this, as hard as that would be for both of them.
"Good, remember me! Remember when we left the TARDIS ok? You pulled on the dress-" her face eased a bit, "no that is too close to when the effect started, remember seeing Shaun, and leaving me. Remember that I was there; I was always here with you. Remember, how many drinks did you have?" He pulled her up gently so she was facing him, and asked again. "How many drinks did you have at the bar?" She still had her face scrunched up in pain and silent tears fell down her cheeks.
"Two drinks," came a robotic voice from Shaun. He still stood stiffly and had a bored expression on his face. The Doctor noticed it this time. Shaun was definitely not himself. Donna sobbed a little and whispered "six drinks." She held her head and shook a little. The Doctor needed her to stay here, stay in this part of her mind where it wasn't affected. He knew that in a short amount of time the pain would lessen.
"Good, six drinks. Remember all six drinks," The Doctor was holding Donna up. He turned his head from her, every passing moment making it easier to cope with the pain. He looked around the beach; everyone seemed to be under the effect. No one noticed them on the floor, no one cared about anything, but why, why, why? The question kept pounding in the Doctors head. He looked around once more and noticed two things. The first was the bar he had first ordered drinks from. It was stuck to the ground, almost planted. It was as if it had grown from the ground. The Doctor could tell this because of the way it transitioned from sand to wood. The wood started about a foot above where it should have. The sand went up the wall of the bar, unnaturally. It didn't heap, as if the whole island was one big sheet and it had been lifted to form a bar. He made a bet with himself that the three Asians behind the bar were also a part of this big sheet.
The second thing was six men all looking his way. They all wore the same shorts and all had the same face. They were all holding a red flag in their hand. The Doctor was shocked at first, it was quite a sight to see. Then he looked down at their feet. They were connected to the sand just like the bar. He looked at the other people walking past them, their feet weren't connected, they were normal. He looked at Shaun's and sure enough, they were connected. He whipped out his screwdriver and scanned him.
"Bad news Donna, your boyfriends an alien," He laughed for a moment, 'I'm an alien.' Then the Doctor picked Donna up and led her away from Shaun. One reason was to get away from the table of men, but the bigger reason was to watch Shaun's feet. "Ha!" The Doctor proclaimed when Shaun's feet never left the sand but rather the sand came up with his foot. He was a part of the sheet! The Doctor shook Donna and looked into her eyes. He held his screwdriver to her eyes and buzzed. She was still in her right mind. Good. "We have to get to the TARDIS ok?" He said to her before running off, holding her hand. Shaun followed at a leisurely pace. It was creepy. When they reached the blue box Shaun was about 50 ft. behind.
Captain Jack was thirsty. If he could have anything in the whole world it would be a drink. He really wanted a drink. No. He needed a drink. He had never been this thirsty in all his life. He could think of nothing else, his whole mind was filled with the need for a drink. Then he heard something. Something right next to his head. He looked to his right but he couldn't see anything. He blinked hard a couple of times, trying to adjust to the darkness.
With a final sigh he realised he wasn't going to adjust. There was absolutely no light whatsoever in this hole, this cave, this pit. If he couldn't see, he tried to listen. He listened hard and the noise sounded a couple of times. It got louder and louder, slowly moving towards him. Then, with a desperate gasp, he figured it out. It was water, drops of water, falling next to him. Oh if only he could reach one, just one! If it was moving closer, it should eventually land in his mouth. Then a sudden rush of bad thoughts came into his defenceless mind. The first was this: I'm upside down, how can water be falling down when it would have to be going up to land next to me? The second was as so: What if it's not water? What if it's acid or poison or some creature's urine? The third went like this: Could this place fill, flood, over flow? Would I drown, then come back, then drown, then come back…
Thought after thought came pouring into his head and there was nothing he could do about it.
The creature was having fun. Lots of new toys. It had brought one down, down, down to play. It had come very far down. The creature was playing with his mind. It could do anything it wanted too to the boy. It made him scared; It made him think he was upside down. The creature liked that, it thought it was clever. Then the boy scared himself, thought of bad things all by himself. The boy didn't want to fall, but it didn't want to stay. This made the creature laugh and the earth shook. The creature made the boy thirsty. It took over his whole mind and possessed every fibre in the boy's body. The creature could have been mean, but it liked the boy. And it needed the boy. It needed him for one important thing. But all that could wait for now. The creature made the boy hear things, hear water. It drove the boy mad. And that was fun. Then it put more thoughts into his head, all at once. It made the boy's mind scream. And that was fun too.
Donna was flung into the TARDIS. As soon as the door closed the pain in her head stopped. Her brain didn't burn anymore and she was very thankful for that. She went to say this but was interrupted.
"What is it? Where is it? Why is it?" The Doctor paced back and forth. He was fiddling with his screwdriver. Every now and then he would stop pacing and look at it with a very confused expression and begin again. He seemed to want a different answer every time. "It obviously hooks into people's minds. For some it controls them, literally. But everyone is in its power, because everyone is so ignorant to the rest of the world. Nobody notices anything at all. But that's expected of humans isn't it? But this was doubly ignorant. They have been turned to vegetables.
"Oh, and the buildings. Oh… wait…" he scrunched up his face really tight for half a second then jumped into the air. "Yes! The vegetables are the same as the building, but no, let's not call them vegetables because they're not quiet unnatural. Its more as if most of their senses have been turned off. Let's call them victims. Because they are victims of, of... of whomever it is behind all this. The Asians and Shaun and the six men, they work for it. They are the ones that it completely controls," The Doctor talked louder and louder every few minutes. Donna sat back and watched. If she said anything, anything at all, she might make him lose his train of thought. "Programming! It programs them and they act normal and follow the program until something unexpected happens. When I asked that question to you, Shaun didn't expect it. Or the programmer, yes The Programmer, didn't expect it. That's why he went unnatural. Because there was no program for him to follow. And the six men, they were there as life guards and then I started remembering and then they stepped into action. But they were unnatural as well. Well... aha! It was a new program and they were getting used to it. Nothing flows easily the first time. The Programmer got them to watch me and…" He paused for a moment. "Captain Jack, they took him. Oh, that's bad…" The Doctor rubbed his head hard one last time before he dived into another room. He came out with two balls of what looked like alfoil.
"What is that?" Donna pointed to the things the Doctor was holding. When he held them up apart from each other Donna saw that they were like domes big enough to fit a head. The Doctor put one on his head. Donna couldn't help but laugh. The Doctor didn't even smile as he put one on her head to. "Oh come on," she said sarcastically. "No way, I thought this was only in the movies!"
The Doctor stood back and finally cracked a smile. "They don't work exactly the same in the movies though. In the movies it stops aliens from taking over your brain, but in real life it'll give us about a two minute head start. We have to find The Programmer," he nodded and turned to open the door.
"You're calling it The Programmer?" Donna looked at the Doctor in disbelieve. "This is ridiculous," she shook her head a little.
"Yes, yes it is. I've never met anything like this. It totally takes over your mind and rearranges your memory. It controls what you see and don't see and if you break loose of it, it'll fight to get you back under its control," the Doctor had gone serious and looked at her with his big brown eyes.
Donna had one last question that she hadn't asked in fear of the answer. She opened her mouth to begin but stopped. She open and closed her mouth a couple of times in succession before giving up and putting her hands on her hips.
"You look like a fish, Donna," The Doctor said sternly. He had noticed. She decided she had to ask, and then she'd either be relieved or sad, scared, lost… But surely that was better than scared right? Anything, any feeling in the world is better than fear.
"Shaun, what happened to him? Is he alright, will he…" her voice trailed off. From what she had gathered when she was being ushered in the TARDIS he was trying to kill them or something.
The Doctor thought long and hard about this. About a minute and a half later he said "If I'm right, which I usually am, he's not Shaun. Which means Shaun isn't here, he's warm and safe somewhere else," he said reassuringly. Donna smiled at this, she was relieved greatly. "My theory is that The Programmer, when it went into your mind, saw Shaun and how much you missed him and what you'd do if you saw him. Then The Programmer made him and used him to take you away from me," he grabbed her hand, "This time, don't leave me, don't leave my side. If you do, well, don't," he then swung around, still firmly holding her by the hand, and leapt out of the TARDIS. He ran forward this time, not stopping and looking around. He ran away from the ocean, in the opposite direction. The beach had to end.
The Doctor ran towards the heart of the island. Supposedly the heart of The Programmer. He needed to find out why it was here. What it wanted. He ran until he could barely hear the ocean waves crashing. Then he slowed to a quick walk, dodging trees and ant hills. Finally he stopped and looked around. Everything seemed normal when you looked at. But when you focused on it, looked for the detail, that's when you noticed what was wrong. All the tree trunks were formed out of sand, as if the sand grew and turned into a tree. The anthills seemed faultless except for the little black dots that were ants. They had no features, just black bumps running along the sand, never losing contact. The Doctor took out his screwdriver and scanned the air around him. There was definitely something alien here.
"Oh, oww! Doctor, it's… oww!" Donna covered her ears with her hands. The alfoil was slowly losing its effect on Donna. It would take a longer time for it to hook into the Doctor. He could feel the niggle in the back of his head, it was trying. He scrunched up his face, once again, thinking hard. Captain Jack must have been taken to… to somewhere important. Why? Because he was associated with the Doctor. If someone else could go there and let the Doctor follow them. And then he got an idea.
The six men followed the Doctor. So did Shaun. They were watching him, surrounding him. They had formed a circle about 20 ft. away from him and were watching him right now. They shared thoughts, thinking the same thing. Eliminate foes. They would take away the red-headed girl as soon as it had been completely taken over by the creature. They stood stiffly upright, unnaturally tight. All they could do was wait for the girl to give in and then they would take her away. Then there would only be the wanted one. They watched and waited and watched until the boy walked closer to the girl. She was holding her head and crying out in pain.
Weakening.
The wanted one thought for a while before walking right up to her. He put his hands on her shoulders. He held her firmly and she wriggled and cried a bit. They could hear his words.
"I'm going to take your hat off now," The boy said. "You must give in, ok, let the Programmer in," Then he took off the shining silver thing from her head.
She fumbled back a bit but eventually she gave in. She was completely taken over by the creature. All seven men walked towards her. It scared the boy at first but then he ignored them. He looked away from them and smiled. They all grabbed her at the same time and she didn't wriggle or cry anymore. Then the ground started to sink. A hole formed and the seven men and the girl started to fall through.
'Perfect!' The Doctor thought to himself. He watched as his companion and seven other men fell evenly through the hole, then dived after them. It was awkward for a bit as he landed on one of their shoulders. He scrambled around trying to get his footing. Eventually he found his way to the bottom of the hole and stood behind Shaun. He held onto his shoulders and all he could do was wait. They fell and fell. It was a strange sensation. Sand fell down his back and over his head, it was all he could do to not breathe it in. Then the Doctor noticed something else, something interesting. They didn't breathe, the seven men. They were unnatural right now and seemed to not notice the Doctor's presence. That was fine with him, if he could get in unnoticed that would be perfect.
Eventually the falling slowed down to a stop. They had come out at the bottom of the hole and fell a little bit more, but at the same slow pace. They fell through nothing for about seven slow seconds before they landed. All the while the niggle in the back of his head, the Programmer trying to get in his mind, it had grown steadily until they landed. It then had disappeared completely. He was completely in his right mind and free to think for himself. As much of a relief as that was, it also scared the Doctor. If it didn't need to control him then it must be pretty powerful.
It was pitch black. 'As if light has never touched this place,' the Doctor thought to himself.
'It hasn't.' A voice came from inside his mind, answering his statement.
'Oh great, no privacy then,' he thought sarcastically. Then he regretted it.
'None at all,' came the voice. 'You are the wanted one,' Then the earth shook around him and there was a sort of low rumbly noise that was unnatural. The Doctor figured he was laughing. A victorious laugh, as if it had planned everything. As if it already knew the Doctor's death.
The earth shook again. Captain Jack had all his own thoughts now, no interruptions by the dark creature. He was scared, yes, and thirsty but normal thirsty. He hears no noises and sees nothing at all. Captain Jack is completely alone.
'Come on Doctor. Time for one of those spectacular entrances…' Jack thought desperately. 'Don't fail me man, don't leave me here,' he closed his eyes, not that it made a difference. 'Not that it matters, even if I die…' Captain Jack shook his head, trying not to think about that. Then he heard a voice, low and powerful. It didn't make sense but it meant something was happening.
'It hasn't.' it came from inside his mind, yet it wasn't his own thought.
'What, who's that? Can you help me?' Jack thought slowly, as if he was talking to a young child.
'None at all, You are the wanted one' it rung inside his head, the low, deep voice. Still it didn't make any sense. Jack wriggled a bit. He tried for what seemed the millionth time to untie himself. Still no luck.
Ever since he arrived, he made no verbal noises. Truthfully, he was scared to. Something about disturbing this vast blackness bothered him. He just thought it unnecessary. But with the hope that someone might be there, far or near, there might have been hope. Jack took a big deep breath before yelling at the top of his lungs.
"HI THERE!" The initial noise went for eight seconds before Jack closed his mouth. Then it echoed for ages, still clearly audible. Jack figured if it was the Doctor and he did here it, he would know who it was. Jack waited for the two short bossy words in return.
The Doctor reached for Donna's hand and found it. He grabbed tight and didn't let go. He could hear the men moving away, leaving them behind. He fumbled in his coat pockets before pulling out a small pair of goggles. They were ordinary looking, nothing special, but when he put them on he could see perfectly. No green-tinges and no light needed. He clicked his tongue and smiled. He loved these goggles.
'You can't see me,' the voice came again, obviously reading his mind once more. The Doctor swore he heard a little bit of fear, maybe some confusion.
'Why not?' the Doctor said to the Programmer without speaking aloud. 'Wait, who are you?' He held Donna's hand harder still. She was still smiling oddly, under the Programmers effect.
'You don't know who I am, you can't see me,' the voice said bluntly.
'But if I can see you?' The Doctor asked.
'You can't see me,' it replied.
'What are you, I want to help,' The Doctor needed to find a way to make it tell him. He thought if he told the Programmer who he was, it would in return share information.
'You are the Doctor, a Timelord. Tenth in your regeneration cycle. Last of your species,'
'Oh bother. So you know me, now, before you kill me tell me who you are,' The Doctor looked upwards. He had a general idea that it was upwards. At least he thought it was.
'I am not going to kill you. I am going to use you. And if you don't obey me I will kill your friend,' at first The Doctor thought it meant Donna, but then he heard a very faint noise. Barely audible to the unaided ear but being a Timelord, he had super good hearing. Two words that gave him a ton of reassurance, but at the same time gave him another factor to fear.
'Hi there,'
At the same time the Programmer heard it to. 'Yes, I will kill the boy if you don't do what I say. Already I have driven him to near insane. He thinks he's upside down! And he was oh so very thirsty. I can do whatever I want to him, and I will if you don't help me. I will kill him.'
The gears were clicking in the Doctor's head faster than usual. The threat didn't worry the Doctor, he was sure the Programmer didn't know what it was in for. He still needed a way out of it, a way to stop it and a way to leave the island. 'Alright, but I want to know who I'm serving,' and this fooled the Programmer. It suddenly became less formal which made it a lot less scary and the Doctor gained most of his usual confidence.
'Yes! I knew you'd obey me! I am… certainly not "The Programmer". What a terrible name. If I needed a name… wait no!' The Doctor grimaced. He had been so close to getting him to tell his name, but no, it was smart. 'I am everything.' It said.
'Everything everything? Or just this island?' The Doctor walked towards Captain Jack's voice, leading Donna who opened her mouth to say something but closed it again. The cave was brown rock all around and the roof was about two inches above the Doctor's head. His hair brushed against the roof. There was nothing out of place so far he could see. The goggles let him see about five metres ahead. It continued for as far as he could tell. The floor was smoothed out and he noticed to roof was too. As if something had cut it off squarely. It wasn't a tunnel but a big floor. The hole in the roof had closed up. The Doctor walked off briskly towards the voice of Captain Jack.
'Oops better let him know I'm here,' The Doctor thought when the voice didn't reply. He took a big breathe in and filled his lungs. He tilted his head back and yelled at the top of his voice. He knew what his companion was expecting to hear.
"STOP IT!" The two short bossy words lasted about ten seconds coming straight from his lungs before he closed his mouth and took a deep breathe. The words echoed against the floor and the roof, still clearly audible. He smiled and nodded, pleased with his work. He continued his walk, still trying to think of a plan.
'Ok, so what do you want me to do?' He kept looking around. He was sure the voice would kill him, not yet, but he was still scared- just a little- of the seven men lurking somewhere out of vision.
'I want to be forever. I have everything I need, except for a guarantee of eternal life. You can get me this. You can bend time for me,' this took the Doctor as no surprise at all. Everything wants to be immortal. And suddenly ideas poured into his head, defying the voice would be so much easier now that he knew what he wanted. He quickened his pace when he became assured that the whole floor was smooth, nothing to trip on.
After thirty seconds more walking the Doctor heard a familiar laugh. It made him smile and walked even faster, until it was almost a run.
'Ok, but I will need to know where you are,' he was stalling now, talking about anything so that he could just get to the Captain.
'I am everything, the whole island and everyone on it,' it said firmly.
'Why? Why are you everything and everyone?' Again, more stalling, but this time it was important. He needed to find a weak point.
'Ok, I will tell you what I am and in return you give me what I want?' The voice was reasoning, it definitely wasn't stupid. The Doctor felt bad at promising something he knew he wouldn't do, but the more he knew about the voice, the better.
The voice was too distracted to notice the reluctance in the Doctor's thoughts. Good thing too. 'Deal,' another thirty seconds walk in silence while the voice was preparing to reveal its secrets. The Doctor saw something ahead of him. It was a bump on the floor. He ran towards it eagerly.
The voice had lost concentration when it lost formalness and therefore Captain Jack had heard every word exchanged between the two since then. He tried to join the conversation but couldn't. He waited for the Doctor to reply. He was sure he had heard him. He still didn't know how he would get to him though. He was still tied to the roof, with a possibility of no floor or walls. Anyway, he really longed to see the Doctor and the red-haired chic standing there next to him. After a couple of minutes he heard the echoing words: 'Stop it.'
Yes! He had heard him and responded! Perfect. He had to be making his way here now, he just had to be! He listened hard to the conversation. He could tell the Doctor was working out how to defeat it, how to get out of this place. After what seemed an eternity, Jack heard footsteps. Four different feet by the sound of it. He became desperately scared again. What four legged creature was coming for him, what monster was going to kill him painfully, wait for him to come back and do it again and again. What horrible thing with our legs would- Red-headed chic.
Phew, I thought that was the end of me. Jack went to shout out but remembered where the two conversationers were up to with their conversation. 'I will wait till the Doctor finds me,' he thought defiantly.
'Deal,' came the Doctor's voice in his head, loud and clear.
There was a pause of about thirty seconds where the footsteps quickened. Then they stopped dead still as the voice began again. The Doctor couldn't acknowledge him yet, not when he was so close.
'I am an infinite energy. Infinite and conscious. I can change into whatever pleases me and fed on waves, radio waves and brains waves, moon waves, even though humans don't know what they are yet,' the voice sounded a little desperate and a little sad.
'Oh, right. Why do you want eternal life if you're already 'forever'?' The Doctor was a little desperate too, he was getting close to finding out how to destroy the thing. But then another thought crossed his mind, one he couldn't hide from the energy. The Energy. Finally a suitable name.
'The people? Everyone on this island, they are what I feed off of. Mainly. They are completely unharmed, just sort of turned off for a while,' The Energy kept reading the Doctor's mind, still ignoring his first question. 'I do not release them, why would I? They don't age while they are here and let's be honest, they are having fun. Angry, worried and upset brainwaves are the best to feed from. I take all their waves except for the ones that are vital. And my servants? I created them, formed them out of myself. They are me. I especially like the Shaun boy. I took him from your friend's memory. That was clever, if I do say so myself. Now that you know me, give me what I want,' The Energy was getting impatient. But still it hadn't given the one piece of information that the Doctor needed. The vital point that could let the Doctor destroy The Energy. Once again he asked the question.
'Why do you want eternal life if you're already indestructible?' The Doctor winced as he asked it. It was pushing the limits very far. He ventured another step towards the Captain. He could see him clearly, barely a foot away from him. He guessed that he could hear their conversation from the expression on his face. He knew he understood why he hadn't grabbed him yet. He had another pair of goggles in his hand ready to give to Jack. Finally, The Energy gave his answer.
'I am energy from basic matter, but I'm conscious from anti-matter. I have a perfect balance and an overload of either would destroy me. I want you to bend time around me, make it impossible for any of either to enter. Do not back out from your promise, Doctor. Do not disgrace your kind,'
The Doctor shuddered. It was sending him on a guilt trip? Please, there was nothing that could make him feel as guilty as he already did, every single day. He dived down and untied the Captain. He quickly strapped the goggles to his head and pulled him up. Jack stumbled to get his footing. The Doctor remembered how The Energy said it made Jack think he was strapped to the roof. Jack quickly realised that he was on the floor and gripped firmly on the Doctor's shoulder. He looked around for the first time in what seemed to be years and years. He took in his smooth brown stone surroundings for the first time. He looked at the red-haired chic and then, finally, at the Doctor. He smile and winked.
"I knew you'd rock up sooner or later," The Doctor found it so reassuring to hear another voice coming from elsewhere than inside his head.
"Yea, er- wait. We've annoyed it now," Jack felt the same when he heard the Doctor's voice. And it was true, it was annoyed.
'You don't understand. I really need you to do this,' The Energy sounded very deeply annoyed. Suddenly the floor erupted and hot boiling rock bubbled over their feet. It gave of light and practically shone. They jumped and hopped away from it, panic stricken and too scared to think properly. It kept bubbling until they were both out of breath. Then it disappeared with no trace that it was ever there. They were both still perfectly intact, no burns or scolds. The Doctor looked to Donna, she stood there with the same dazed expression on her face she had since they came here.
"It wasn't real," Jack said. Then it clicked in both of their heads. It was messing with their minds. Then the stone of the floor started rising on either side of the men and in between them. Before they knew it they were separated from each other by stone. They were in little prisons of stone. Donna too.
'Do what I ask or I will crush you,' but the Doctor knew The Energy was lying. It needed the Doctor for it to live forever. What it did not need was Jack and Donna. The Doctor had an idea but it was a long shot. If it wanted to play mind games, he would play mind games. He spoke aloud, he wasn't sure why. Maybe it was less scary.
"You won't crush me or my friends, if you do you will never be immortal. And I know that you know that I know how to destroy you now," He paused, checking his words to make sure they made sense. "I can end you whenever I want, but you have to give me a reason not to. If you say that you will kill my friends, well, you couldn't. You'll be dead. You are capturing innocent humans and now members of other species," He paused for a second, but Jack dived in.
"Oh! Someone called me, called Torchwood. They described what happened here and then they just… stopped," Jack was leaning on the wall that was closest to the Doctor. "As if they died,"
The earth shook again and The Energy was laughing. 'Yes, I remember Alex. His mind was too strong for me to feed from and he would have destroyed me. I had to do it you see, plus it was fun,'
Both men shivered when it said that. It was sick and horrible. Good. That made it a lot easier to destroy it. The Doctor felt it searching his brain, looking for something to use to convince him to not destroy him. After half a minute, it found something.
'If you destroy me, all the humans that live on me now, every single one of them will be reduced to nothing. They will fall into the ocean with barely enough brain power to keep them breathing let alone floating, looking, talking, and calling for help. The list of things they couldn't do is endless, Doctor. If you end me, not only will you destroy the biggest power source in the universe but you will kill over half a million humans. Could you live with that on your shoulders?'
And sure enough, that did it. How could he do that? How could he end all those lives, wreck all those families? He held his head on the wall closest to Jack. He heard a noise coming from Jack's prison. It sounded electronic.
"Ha! This thing, The Energy, has been here for millions of years and the last people to land here were you two," Jack's voice sounded excited, "And the person before that was me, two years ago. And the people before that were a family of four going on holiday. That was about three million years ago. The year is… I can't tell, but all the people on this island- beside us three- should be dead," Jack smacked the wall with his fist. He thought that would fix everything.
"What? That's… Fantastic!" The Doctor jumped but he hit his head. He heard Jack laugh. The earth started shaking again.
'You will not end all those lives. I have done those people good, keeping them alive for so long! Please, help me!' It was yelling inside his head. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and switched the setting.
"Alright, all I have to do is press the button on my screwdriver and a blast of anti-matter will be released into the air. You, being a feeding source, will soak it up automatically. The balance will break and you will collapse into yourself. You will implode. And we'll be free. I'll have to grab Donna quickly though, she has no subconscious functions running. How does that sound Jack?" The Doctor was beaming with happiness at his own cleverness.
"Brilliant Sire. On the count of three?"
'NO!' The earth shook more and more.
"One,"
"Two,"
'Stop!'
"Three" both men said at once. The Doctor leaned against the wall that was closest to Donna, ready to grab her, and pressed the button.
A greyish mist came from the end of his screwdriver. It leaked into the walls surrounding them and the floor and roof. The walls disappeared first and the Doctor grabbed Donna round the waist. Captain Jack grabbed his shoulder with a firm grip and their surroundings started burning. Everything was grower fainter and fainter until a loud noise erupted. The voice in their heads' screamed and screamed getting softer and softer. The Doctor could feel the water of the ocean rising up his legs. Donna had flopped into his arms. The Doctor held her up very carefully- if her head went under water for a second she would drown. With a final gasp from the consciousness of The Energy, they splashed into the ocean. They were completely soaked through immediately except for Donna's head. All around them people came crashing down into the water. Their heads submerged one by one and they drowned. It was very quick and generally painless, but it was still horrible to watch.
The Doctor kissed Donna's forehead and swam over to Jack. Jack grabbed his face and kissed him full on the lips.
"Ha! We did it! Yes! Good looking friend you have their by the way," Jack said after doing backflips in the water.
"Thank you," Donna said. She looked around at the two men. They were both smiling and she couldn't help but join them. The Doctor pressed his screwdriver again and the TARDIS came up behind them. They swam in and when they were all in and the door closed the water drained out until the floor was bone dry. The three embraced for a few seconds before falling back on chairs.
They discussed what happened, laughing confidently and pointing out flaws too. One thing that came up was that it could have powered all of Earth for ever. All things aside, they were very pleased that it was over. The Energy was gone and everything was solved.
When the Doctor said this Jack laughed. They had landed now. He clapped the Doctor on the shoulder and said, "No, there are still plenty of things that haven't been solved," He winked at Donna, who blushed, then left the TARDIS.
The Doctor knew exactly what he was talking about. And Donna was soon to find out.