Jack sank to the grating of the TARDIS, his hands clamped to his ears as the Cloister Bell continued its deafening alarm. He knew what it meant, knew what disaster was going to unfold.
His mind flashed back to that future the Chaos had shown him...now it was coming true in a nightmarish reality.
He thought he heard a voice but perhaps he was imagining it. He was totally surprised when the voice turned into a hefty slap.
"Jack!" Gwen snapped and slapped him hard across the face. She was scared and the red light and that awful bell scraped at every nerve.
"Will you shut up!" she screamed at the TARDIS.
The sudden silence was deafening as the bell stopped and the red light faded until the console room was its usual gold and green.
She sighed with relief and turned her attention to Jack who seemed not have responded to the slap. She sat back, unsure of what to do.
It was then that she heard a familiar voice clear its throat. She turned a standing in front of the console was a hologram of a very familiar figure.
"Ah right...Gwen isn't it?" the hologram said.
Gwen frowned, how could a hologram know who was inside the TARDIS. "How did you?" she started to say before she realised she was talking to a hologram. "I'm talking to a hologram."
The hologram for some reason looked slightly uncomfortable, if that was possible. "Actually no, I'm not a hologram..."
Gwen stood up and walked up the ramp, leaving a still insensate Jack. "You look like a hologram?"
The hologram looked slightly perturbed at her words. "How to explain without all the techno-babble...basically I'm information in the form of a non-corporeal bio-created storage unit."
The image frowned when Gwen still looked confused and sighed. "If it makes it easier then I'm a data-ghost."
Gwen went to speak but Jack cut her off. "You downloaded your consciousness into the TARDIS."
The image flickered slightly and began walking down the ramp, its feet soundless on the metal.
Gwen shivered as she felt a rush of cold air; it felt like a ghost had walked past her but now it was closer she could see more detail. There was that spark of something alien in the images eyes, that other-worldly intelligence.
The image crouched down on its haunches in front of Jack.
"Yes, call it a fail-safe, just in case someone gets hold of me that shouldn't. Someone like Davros."
Jack straightened then, a look of anger crossed his face. "So an ancient thing from another universe doesn't count and how long have you been inside the TARDIS."
The image was taken aback by the vehemence in Jack's voice. "I couldn't risk it whilst the Darkness was still inside. I couldn't have that inside the TARDIS's neural inter-face. I had to wait for the right time."
Jack wasn't appeased by the explanation. He stood up and stepped right up to the image, who took a step back.
"The right time...the right time? Six months of death and anarchy and war and you had to wait!"
Jack's voice had risen to a shout and a look of hurt crossed the images face. The look changed to one of anger and the image stepped forward again.
"That's right, six months. Six months of seeing people and planets destroyed and not being able to stop it. Six months of waiting and hoping and then what! My greatest enemy has done the worst thing imaginable. But you know what the worst thing is, this is only temporary. My body even in its current hybrid state won't survive without me. I have to go back, back into that thing!"
The image fizzled and began to break apart before coalescing again.
Jack took in the images angry words and tried to make sense of them...hybrid, what did he mean by hybrid?
"Doctor, what do you mean...?"
His question was stopped short as the image began to fade.
"You have to find the Light Jack, stop the Darkness," the image said in a ghostly whisper as it faded into nothing.
Before Jack or Gwen could comprehend what had happened the TARDIS lurched violently and a familiar voice with an unfamiliar and chilling edge to it echoed around them.
"I know you're in there Captain Harkness. You might as well come out, there's no escape. You will come out and become a part of the new master race."