Legion carried them for hours, seemingly doubling back, going around in large circles and then continuing on its way. The ride was extremely uncomfortable. Legion was just barely large enough for Jack and Martha to sit on together, and its protruding bones poked and stabbed at them and made it difficult to sit. Jack held onto to several bones sticking out of the creature's neck, while Martha had a hold of his waist.

Legion continuously flicked its head from side to side, looking around with paranoid alertness. It stopped a few times, sniffed heavily at the air, before hurrying off again. After what felt like ages, it stopped in a small clearing surrounded by a forest of tall, shadowy, dead trees and gave a little shake for them to get off, its long, bony tail touching one of the trees and making it disintegrate.

Jack jumped gratefully down from Legion's back and helped Martha down. Legion gave another, more violent shake like a dog drying off.

"Where are we?" Jack asked, looking around the clearing warily.

"You are safe," Legion replied. "These are the outskirts."

"Outskirts?"

"Far from Him," Legion said. "Far from Legion."

"Well, that's great, but now what? We can't just sit here. We need to find the Doctor," Martha said.

Legion let out a low growl. "He is too powerful."

"Yeah, okay, I'm getting tired of this He stuff," Jack said in annoyance. "Who and what is He?"

"We dare not speak His name," Legion replied.

"I've heard enough of that, too," Jack snapped. "Just give us some answers."

Legion hissed at him. "I cannot."

"If you want us to help then you're going to have to start answering questons," Martha said. "We've been going around blind- literally half the time. We need information."

Legion growled and began pacing the clearing, shaking its head violently, mumbling under its breath, "Cannot... cannot... cannot..."

Martha watched the creature, wondering how it had become that way. There was no denying it was the most ferocious, disgusting creature she had ever seen, but as it paced, all she could feel was pity towards it. Legion shook his head in distress and frustration.

"Legion," Martha said, reaching out a tentative hand.

Legion caught the movement from the corner of its eye and immediately snarled ferociously at her, displaying its sharp fangs and stepping forward threateningly at her. Both Martha and Jack jumped back in alarm. Jack moved in front of Martha and pulled his gun, training it at Legion's head.

The beast growled and stepped away, lowering its head.

"I told you this wasn't a good idea," Jack said, his gun still aimed at it.

"Calm down. It was my fault. I scared him," Martha said, lowering Jack's gun.

Jack gawped at her. "Your fault? Him?"

"I think its a him," Martha said. She looked over to see Legion eyeing them both suspiciously.

"It's an it," Jack corrected dibelievingly.

"What's wrong with you? He's just trying to help us."

"I don't know what its trying to do," Jack said, glancing at it suspiciously, "but I don't trust it."

"Trust?" Legion asked slowly, saying it as though the word were foreign to him.

Jack stared at it for a moment and then looked at Martha. "See?"

Martha turned to Legion. "Don't you know what that means?"

It stared blankly at her.

"Trust is when you can rely on someone or something."

It was silent for a moment, staring with its unseeing eyes.

"Do you understand?"

"Legion does not know this word. You humans have strange words."

"Call me Martha," Martha said. Jack gazed at her like she had worms coming out of her ears.

"Human Martha?"

"No. Just Martha."

"Just Martha."

Martha smiled sympathetically at it and then put a hand on her chest. "Martha."

"Martha."

She nodded.

It sniffed at her. "Martha."

"Are you done?" Jack asked. "This isn't a pet."

"I know that, Jack," Martha snapped, more harshly than she'd intended. She then turned her back on Legion and got close to Jack so that they could speak unheard. "I'm just trying to get him to trust us. If he trusts us, he'll tell us what we want to know."

"It can hear you, you know," Jack said, glaring back at it.

Martha looked over her shoulder. It was watching her intently and she could tell it was listening to every word she said. She looked back at Jack. "Stop calling him it."

Jack rolled his eyes and turned to Legion. "Hey, are you going to answer our questions."

Its leathery face wrinkled into a scowl.

"So we can help the Doctor," Martha added.

Legion huffed, fidgeting and looking around nervously, as though it expected something to jump out from behind the dead trees. "He is Akdevor." As soon as it had said it, it violently flinched and looked around. For a moment, it stayed in its defensive position before turning its eyes to Martha, surprised to not have been punished for speaking His name.

"Now we're getting somewhere," Jack said, folding his arms over his chest. "What is he?"

"I do not know."

"Why'd he take the Doctor?"

"I do not know."

"How are we going to help the Doctor?"

"I do not know."

Jack sighed and rolled his eyes, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Okay... why do you need the Doctor's help?"

Legion hesitated, glancing between Jack and Martha distrustfully. "I need the Doctor."

Jack half-sighed half-growled in annoyance. Martha touched his arm to calm him down. She then turned to Legion. "We know, but why?" she asked gently.

Legion shook its head and suddenly began growling and hissing and howling. It paced, clawing at the ground and whipping its tail as it walked in circles. It stopped abruptly and clawed its head fuiously.

"Legion, stop," Martha said in alarm. "It's alright. Stop."

It looked at her. "I need the Doctor! I need the Doctor!"

"Yes, we know, it's alright," Martha soothed, putting her hands out uselessly. "Legion, calm-"

"Grem."

Jack looked at it, startled. "What?"

Legion looked at the two of them for a moment, its eyes wide with confusion. It began clawing at its head again, sitting down on its haunches. "I do not remember..."

"What does Grem mean?" Martha asked it.

Legion stopped clawing long enough to look at her. "Nothing."

"Then what is it?" Jack asked.

Martha stared at the beast for a moment, at its hideous body and ghostly eyes. "Is that your name?"

"We are Legion. I need the Doctor. The Doctor must help me. We are Legion. We are Legion. We are Legion!" it growled.

"It's alright. It's okay," Martha said.

Jack looked at her. "Why would you think that's its name?"

"Jack... what if he's like the others back in that town? A husk? They can't have always been that way. We saw humans there. I think he's like them and something happened to everything on this planet. They had names. I think Grem is his. I also think he needs the Doctor... because he's remembering."

The Doctor was taken to another completely dark room and thrown to the floor. He was covered in slashes and cuts from the impolite manner he'd been carried in. He had barely started to stand up before he was grabbed again and tossed into a corner and then something cold and metallic clicked around his neck.

He heard several sets of feet retreat, growling wickedly and then disappearing entirely. Fairly confident he was alone, he touched the thing around his neck, frowning as he traced a metal cord back to the wall. He snapped his fingers, the echo short; the room was small and square and darker than a black hole. He touched the metal collar again, feeling around until he found where it opened. He paused, considering opening it and trying to escape, but he wasn't confident that he could do it successfully. He'd want to at least know where he door to his room was before attempting it.

All plans of escape ceased when the door opened (he now knew where the door was) and several footsteps entered the room.

"Excuse me, hello," the Doctor said. "I don't usually complain, but this is terribly uncomfortable." He shook the cord so that it clicked against the wall loudly. "Don't suppose I could trade it in for a pillow?"

There was no answer.

"Some light might also be nice, if it isn't too much trouble."

The footsteps approached and then stopped. Suddenly a presence forced itself into his mind, tearing viciously at his mental barriers. He doubled over and cried out in pain, trying hard to focus his energies on strengthening his barriers and banishing the intruder from his thoughts. It tore and ripped at the barriers with vicious strength, the memories and thoughts that the Doctor had not had time to protect being rummaged through like files and then tossed aside. His mind had been attacked before, but this thing was far more powerful than anything he'd encountered. He realized with sudden horror and fascination that he wouldn't last long and -with great effort- he mounted his own attack. He heard a violent, horrific howl of pain and just as quickly as it had come, the presence vanished, leaving the Doctor panting and exhausted.

The howl had slowly deepened into a low, furious growl. "I have encountered many minds, Doctor, but none so strongly guarded as yours."

The Doctor took in a deep, shuddering breath. "First Tim Lord, then?"

"Indeed."

"Wasn't as easy as you thought it would be, was it?" he said with a laugh, although it sounded a bit hollow.

Akdevor chuckled. "Quite. But it is of no consequence. Your barriers are strong, but not impenetrable."

"Maybe not," the Doctor replied with a little shrug. "What about yous?" With that, he made another assault on Akdevor's mind. To his great surprise, he found no resistance. No giant brick walls, no doors; everything had been (purposefully, he realized) laid out for him to see.

And it horrified him.

Pain, suffering, anger, hate, rage; they swept him up an took hold of him, threatening to steal away anything good in his mind. It was with great effort he fought these away, quickly being pulled into memories. He saw the beginnings of millions of planets, millions of species and in the shadows of all of them he saw Akdevor.

He looked much like the canine-Legion, only much, much worse (everything he encountered on this planet seemed to get worse as he went along, like that saying "there's always a bigger fish). Akdevor's physical appearance was nothing but a puff of thick, impossibly black, wispy smoke, but his appearance was not what was so terrible. It was what the Doctor felt from him; it was evil. There was nothing good in him, not one tiny ounce and it showed in his memories. He saw faces he recognized. He saw the faces of the people in the town, all of them contorted with pain and sorrow. They begged, they pleaded, they cried and screamed and Akdevor laughed until there was nothing left of them or all that remained was hatred.

Horrified, the Doctor pulled away, staring wide-eyed into the darkness; the darkness he now realized was Akdevor. He knew what he was. He was an ancient being that should have died out billions of years ago. His race had been small, traveling the universe and feeding off of the hate and pain of the universe. All that remained was Akdevor.

"First Vour, then?" he mocked with a wicked laugh.

"And my last, apparently," the Doctor said.

"Yes. We are one in the same in this, are we not?"

"We are," the Doctor replied.

"The last of our kinds. How lonely you must be..."

"And what about you? Are you capable of loneliness?" the Doctor asked, honestly curious.

"Not in the same way. Perhaps you can show me what it feels like. Open your mind to me."

The Doctor gasped at another assault, not as bad as the first, but still difficult to fight. They were both tired from the first round. The Doctor could feel him searches his mind, looking for his pain and suffering, but the Doctor had already gathered it all and locked it away; long before he'd met Akdevor.

But he couldn't hide it all.

"You have seen much loss," Akdevor said hungrily as he brought the few painful memories he found to the forefront of the Doctor's mind.

The Doctor re-witnessed the deaths of some of the people he couldn't save like it was happening right there in the darkness all at once. His chest tightened as he felt a wave of anger and sorrow wash over him.

"Yes, so much loss..."

"Get out of my head!" the Doctor yelled, forcing Akdevor from his mind, making him growl angrily. The Doctor held his head in pain from the effort and tried to calm his breathing and frantic hearts.

"You must not fight me, Doctor. You do not want to make this more difficult for yourself. Let me in. All of them do, in the end. Most find it a relief. Perhaps you shall also."

"You're not going to turn me into one of your Legion," the Doctor spat.

"Legion? No. You will be better. Take comfort in this."

A noise suddenly alerted the Doctor of the what had walked into the room earlier. He listened for a moment, trying to figure out what had entered when suddenly his body was on fire as something metallic was jabbed into his side. Electricy (he guessed somewhere between 5,000 to 10,000 volts) coursed through him, making him collapse to the ground and causing his back to arch. He bit back the scream that threatened to burst from his lungs, not wanting to give Akdevor the pleasure of hearing him in pain. He was only vaguely aware of the slightly reptile hand holding the torture instrument, putting the information into the back of his mind for later use.

As pain danced through his muscles and made his convulse and writhe, he felt another mental attack. He couldn't hold in the scream that came with this and was barely able to strengthen his mental defenses before Akdevor was clawing and tearing at them, viciously ripping away at wall after wall. The pain was excruciating, from both his body and mind until finally he passed out, fading into a more comforting blackness.

I'm going to be trying to update every day, but I'm starting to get busy and may not be able to. I will try my best. Comments and critiques are all welcome and appreciated and thank you so much to everyone who is reading. :)