Solem closed his eyes, after escorting the frightened and confused bartender to a secure, safe area.

''Don't worry.'' Solem said to him, with his eyes still closed. ''There is nothing to fear.''

Its green eyes were still visible, shining through his eyelids.

The Viridimon's true body emerged from the shadows as it started to encompass the ceiling.

Dust started to fall on to the floor as the ceiling started to crack.

The large, fat green tentacles pushed and pushed against the ceiling, until it rested upon the Viridimon's shoulders.

''What are you doing?'' the bartender cried. ''You're destroying my bar!''

''It isn't your bar anymore, Louic.'' The possessed Peacekeeper said to the bartender. ''It's ours now. And I making an adjustment.''

''An adjustment?'' Louic asked.

Solem opened his eyes, sweating as if he felt the weight of the building resting upon his own shoulders.

''For all of the years I have lived here, under your care...I have never seen the sky.'' he said, gazing up at the ceiling the monster was destroying, his other self, his true self, was crushing with his powerful tentacles.

''I see the memories of others, I see the views of others, I have seen the sky through the eyes of so many others now, but it isn't the same.''

The Viridimon crushed the heavy plate within its tentacles, letting it fall upon the floor first, before pushing it together and crushing it into tiny, black debris and powder.

"I want to see it," Solem and the Viridimon spoke simultaneously at exactly the same time, with exactly the same voice.

Louic coughed as he looked upon the destruction in sadness, seeing the creature pound another layer of the building, and another.

Until rays of moonlight finally found its way through the cracks and shined upon the Viridimon's face.

Louic gazed at Solem's face, who was smiling in awe at the incredible sight of the nocturnal sky, the eternal void of space and beyond, the night and the two moons.

''It's beautiful.'' he whispered as the monster's big, orange eye froze.. ''It's everlasting, dangerous, frightening and fascinating...too much to comprehend...yet so simple...''

Louic was startled by the slow motion of Solem's arm, as he pointed above him at the tiny lights in the sky.

''Tell me, Louic,'' Solem asked. ''What are they?''

Louic saw how the monster's large orange eye gazed above into the night sky, and he did the same.

He swallowed seeing the destruction of his bar, before he refocused his eyes and saw the sky.

''They are stars.'' Louic said with difficulty, not understanding why the creature was so fascinated by such a simple thing.

''Stars...'' the creature now said with its own lips, and Solem closed his eyes.

Louic could still see the faint light of his green eyes beneath his eyelids, forever gleaming as the creature's grip on Solem's mind grew stronger.

''Stars...'' it repeated, gazing with its one orange eye at the dark sky.


''It's going to rain soon,'' the Doctor whispered.

Aeryn felt nothing but a haze of cold wind as she gazed out on to the dark streets, into the silent, dark and abandoned market-place.

But she knew the Doctor was right.

She could smell the scent of rain in the air, coming towards them as dark clouds began to cover the horizon.

''Stay in the shadows.'' the Doctor suddenly said. ''Don't let them see you.''

Aeryn did not need that advice.

They seemed to be everywhere, this dark army of people infected by the Viridimon.

This extension of the creature's mind.

''They are coming...don't let them see you...''

''He won't see me.'' Aeryn replied.

The Doctor looked straight into her eyes with his righteous, dark eyes.

''They won't.'' Aeryn added.


''Where are you, Doctor?'' Solem said, prancing around the dance floor nervously as his growing mind was elsewhere, distracted and busy.

''Who is this Doctor?'' Louic asked.

He had been nervous and hesitant to speak to the man who used to be a small creature he kept in his basement, but it had faded swiftly as he realized his survival was at stake.

''You've been going on and on about this man. Who is he?''

Solem gazed at the sky like the Viridimon, before curiously looking at Louic.

''I don't know.'' Solem said. ''He is a mystery.''

His eyes seemed full of excitement and admiration, and at that point he seemed like an eager child confessing his passions to his parents, hoping they would feel the same.

It made Louic feel uncomfortable.

He had once read bedtime stories to that strange, little creature he kept in his basement as a pet, but he had never expected it to talk back.

Not like this.

''I have only seen a glimpse of his might, of his intellect and wisdom and knowledge...but it is enough for me to like it...''

Louic feared the next look in Solem's eyes, as it lit up bright green, burning Louic's eyes as Solem looked right in them, forcing him to look away.

''I've tasted it...'' Solem said, almost whispering as he looked at Louic, speaking with a low, incredible rumble in the back of his throat.

''...and now I want more...''

Now all of a sudden Louic began to wonder if this Doctor would be the key to his freedom...


They ran through the shadows as slowly the ground beneath their feet started to tremble.

Aeryn's instincts were rattling her senses and she had to control herself from reaching for her useless pulse-pistol, which had no effect on the Viridimon's shielded soldiers.

The Doctor's glasses reflected the pale moonlight as wind blew across his face, messing up his hair.

He stuck his head around the corner and into the street, before he quickly grabbed his glasses and put them back into his coat pocket.

''We need a plan, Doctor.'' Aeryn said as the wind was blowing through the gloomy streets.

The Doctor glanced at the houses around him before he replied.

''I already have a plan.'' he said casually, looking down the street still, before he turned his head to face her.

"You do?'' Aeryn asked.

''Of course I have,'' the Doctor replied. ''Don't you?''

Their thoughts and conversation was cut off by more scream, but no longer distant.

The Viridimon's infection had spread through the settlement faster than they could have anticipated.

Aircraft were flying across their heads, fleeing the upcoming devastation and the march of a thousand possessed souls.

"It's spreading," Aeryn said.

"Let's go," the Doctor said as he listened to the explosions and screams in the distance.

Gunfire pierced the night as the sound of battle drums grew louder and louder.

But it wasn't drums.

It was the sound of hundreds of men, women and children marching in unison.

Their footfalls were the rattling sound of a perfect war-machine.

"Now!" the Doctor shouted.

They ran through the chaos as the settlement's surviving population fled their homes, dropping everything they held dear even as they carried and dragged it through the dark streets.

A crowd of panicking civilians ran through the streets and almost knocked the Doctor and Aeryn over if they hadn't avoided them.

Every home was abandoned as the soldiers marched on.

Everyone shouted at their loved ones to hurry up as the sweat burned in their skin.

"Aeryn!" the Doctor shouted through the chaos of bodies running past them.

All of them were running away from their homes as footfalls drew in closer, dark silhouettes in the moonlight glaring green eyes upon their victims.

The Doctor and Aeryn backed away from the approaching force who howled at the night.

The Doctor helped a man back on his feet when he tripped and fell on to the stones, and he continued fleeing without thanking the kind stranger.

"Run!" the Doctor yelled.

Platoon after platoon marched into the town, spreading the monster's mind across the asteroid, leaving no-one behind to resist its grasp.

Aeryn could now only see glimpses of the Doctor's long, brown coat as he moved with the flow of the crowd of survivors, running into the night as the purple moon gazed down upon them.

Suddenly soldiers appeared out of nowhere, dressed in red uniforms and wearing black visors as they aimed their weapons at the approaching darkness, and the green eyes which pierced through it, infecting as many they could possibly touch.

"Everybody get down!" their leader cried, and the Doctor panicked.

"NO!" he cried, but it was already too late as everyone dropped to the floor.

Red lasers shot from the end of the soldiers' weapons, across the heads of the fleeing survivors.

Aeryn saw how the red fire recoiled and bounced off their telepathic shielding, killing innocent bystanders and destroying parts of the buildings around them as it was reflected towards them.

The survivors ran behind the soldiers, thinking they could protect them, but now the soldiers too panicked seeing their shots had no effect on the attackers.

"Don't shoot!" the Doctor yelled.

Aeryn finally caught up with the Doctor as he rushed towards the man in charge of the town watch.

"We have to kill them!" their leader cried. "There is no other way! Fire!"

The Doctor swiftly turned around to see the soldiers fire upon the infected people once more, then he ducked again when the red lasers recoiled upon a white, yet invisible shield.

"What is this evil?" one soldier cried as he took off his helmet.

Slowly the poison struck from within, turning their betrothed and beloved, their trusted and appointed, their friends and blood, into their worst enemy and impossible nightmare.

"Don't kill them! They're innocent!" the Doctor yelled at their leader.

"Who the frell are you?"

For one split second the Doctor hesitated.

"Doesn't matter!" he yelled. "If you don't stop this now we'll all end up dead!"

"What is your name?" Aeryn asked abruptly, surprising the Doctor for a brief moment.

"I'm Hagros," the man answered.

The Viridimon's soldiers marched forever, slowly, but unstoppable through the dark streets of the settlement, slowly surrounding this last group of survivors.

"Well, listen to him, Hagros!" Aeryn said, supporting the Doctor as she glanced at the marching soldiers. "We've got to get out of here before we all end up like them! They'll infect us. It will turn us into one of them!"

"It? Hagros asked.

"There's something out there, controlling this," the Doctor explained. "Something is out there pulling all the strings and I know what it is!"

"We know how to defeat it!" Aeryn lied. "But we can't do anything if we're dead!"

"We can't run," Hagros spoke. "Whatever it is, the first thing it did was cut off all roads to the spaceport and infect everyone in the area. Everyone who could've fled has done just that."

"We can't run, so we hide," the Doctor spoke.

"Where?" Hagros asked.

"Think," the Doctor spoke. "There must be somewhere where we can evade them. All of us."

"I know a place," he spoke.

"Good!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"But there's no way we can get there without being followed." Hagros added.

"I can fix that," Aeryn spoke and she plucked a few grenades from the soldier who stood nearest to her.

She pulled out the pin and threw it in those final yards between them and the soldiers.

Immediately smoke began pouring out of the grenades, removing the soldiers from their sight.

The Doctor gleamed at Aeryn proudly before he too was beginning to fade away in the veil of smoke.

"Follow me!" Hagros shouted.

Green eyes followed them as they ran through the streets, and Aeryn quickly realized something was running alongside with them, picking out the stragglers and slow runners, the wounded and the old and all those that fell too far back.

"Run!" the Doctor yelled as he ran beside Aeryn.

They soon abandoned the smokescreen and followed Hagros through dark alley-ways and streets, avoiding the moonlight at all times.

He even forced a door open so that they could all move through one house to reach the next street.

They seemed to run forever from the green eyes, until Hagros suddenly spoke.

"It's two blocks from here!" Hagros said. "We have to move quick and silent to make sure they don't follow us! If they see us everything has been for nothing!"

Aeryn saw how the others struggled with bad condition and fear as sweat glistened on their faces.

They were all gasping for breath and clutching their sides, and Aeryn realized they could not withstand this pace much longer.

"If they see us," Aeryn spoke. "We're dead."

They didn't.

It was the Doctor's idea to disable the street lights so they could use the cover of darkness to retreat to Hagros's safe house, or whatever he had in mind, but it didn't turn out to be what Aeryn had expected.

They all entered the house of a seemingly sweet old couple, who offered their house as a sanctuary and fortress for those in trouble.

It was neither of those options, and only a fragile house with weak spots and tactical improbabilities, as Aeryn noted.

"If we all remain absolutely quiet," Hagros said. "They'll never suspect we're here."

"Finally the needle in the haystack works to our advantage," the Doctor noted amused as he entered the dark house.

"Who are you?" Hagros asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor spoke proudly. "And this is Aeryn Sun."

Aeryn wiped the sweat off her forehead and tried to smile politely at Hagros, but she failed miserably without intending to.

"You're Peacekeepers?" Hagros spoke.

"I don't know about her, but I'm definitely a keeper of the peace. You?"

Aeryn narrowed her eyes as she looked at the Doctor.

"That's not what I meant," Hagros said. "Doctor...?"

"Just... the Doctor," the Doctor said. "How many survivors are there in here?"

"My men are counting," Hagros spoke.

"D'you think there are more out there?" Aeryn asked.

"More survivors?" Hagros asked. "Maybe. I don't know, but I fear we are the last."

There were at least more than thirty people searching for a place to sit inside this dark house.

Hagros rubbed his brow.

"And if there are others," he spoke sadly. "I wouldn't know how to reach them."

The Doctor's interest seemed to be suddenly spiked by a strange machine in the corner of the room.

It had been gathering dust over the years, which the Doctor subtly blew away with a gust of wind from his breath.

''You won't be able to defend this place.'' Aeryn said to Hagros, shaking her head.

The Doctor put on his glasses as he analyzed the black, square machine, which was somewhat the size of his chest.

''We won't stay here.'' Hagros spoke.

"So what are you, Hagros?" the Doctor asked. "Military? Town watch? Leader? Mayor? Dominar or Regent?"

"I am," he spoke, before correcting himself. "or at least I was one of the five members of this settlement's community council. Now, as far as I know, I'm the last one."

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said with a mysterious, sad look in his eyes Aeryn could not decipher.

"Leading the town watch into battle was a desperate act, I must admit," Hagros spoke. "But with all options depleted I saw no other way to defend my people."

The Doctor seemed angry, but hesitant, nodding subtly as to approve Hagros's actions, but his mind was thinking something else.

"So you would've killed them all if you had the chance?" Aeryn asked. "All of the infected? Those innocent people?"

"He had no other choice," the Doctor whispered to her.

Aeryn turned around.

The Doctor's glasses reflected the pale light that originated from a small lantern held by Ferril, the owner of the house who approached them through the crowd of people in the large house.

''You don't have green eyes.'' Ferril said, pointing at the Doctor and Aeryn. ''You don't grunt and moan like the rest of those mindless grunts...''

''You have a keen eye.'' the Doctor said, looking at the third eye on his forehead. ''We're allies.''

''And I should just take your word for it?'' the big man with the huge shoulders said.

He was small, but as big as a house.

''Who are these people, Ferril?'' a woman asked who came into the living room wearing her long white night gown.

She seemed absent and light-headed as she gazed outside the windows, which were being baricaded by various men.

''They are friends, Deborah.'' Ferril said, still holding the lantern and gun in his hands. ''Although I'm still not sure about these folks.'

''Lower your weapon.'' Aeryn said, revealing her own weapon as she swiftly pointed it at Ferril.

Her eyes were cold.

''What the frell?'' Ferril said. ''I wasn't even doing anything!''

''Lower your weapon!'' Aeryn cried.

Hagros stood next to the Doctor. Both wished an ending to this conflict.

''Lower your weapons.'' Hagros said. ''Both of you.''

''Slowly.'' the Doctor added.

Ferril looked in anger and fear at Aeryn and her gun.

''Frelling Peacekeepers.'' he said.

''What did you say?'' Aeryn replied.

''Nothing...'' Ferril said.

''What the frell did you just say?!'' Aeryn repeated, clenching her weapon still, pointing it between Ferril's eyes.

''Aeryn!'' the Doctor said. ''Just lower your weapon! And stop saying frell all the time.''

''What?'' Aeryn asked, brought out of concentration. ''Why?''

''Because it sounds ridiculous.'' the Doctor replied.

''Quiet!'' Hagros cried. ''Do you hear that?''

The Doctor quickly grabbed Ferril's lantern from his hands and put it out.

In the sudden darkness, both Aeryn and Ferril lowered their weapons.

The Doctor touched Aeryn's shoulder as they both gazed out the cracks of the windows.

''Do they know we're here?'' a young kid asked. ''Do they know?''

Hagros urged for silence.

The soldiers marched by the house in a moment which felt like an hour.

As they left, the Doctor put the light back on again, and put the lantern down on the table.

''What's going on out there?'' Deborah asked.

Her voice was clean and nice.

Gentle and kind.

As if she was unaware of the threat that was outside.

''Quiet Deborah.'' Ferril said.

He glanced at the Doctor and Aeryn as he clutched Deborah's shoulder softly.

"I don't trust those strangers…" he said to her.

''Is there a parade going on?'' Deborah went on as she tried to glance outside. ''Ooh, I love parades.''

The Doctor looked strangely at the old woman in the white night gown as he turned around, only to bump into an familiar face.

''You were the one in the bar, weren't you?'' the kid asked.

He seemed much younger than he actually was.

''You!'' the Doctor said. ''You were the kid Mairic threatened to execute! In the test!''

''Great performance, wasn't it?'' the kid said. ''I gave the entire test away, that's how bad I was.''

''But how did you escape?'' the Doctor asked, almost ignoring his words.

''I ran.'' the kid answered with fear in his eyes. ''I ran so fast and so long I forgot I was running...I left them...I ran...''

''You were frightened.'' the Doctor said. ''There's no shame in being afraid.''

''But I ran...''

''The one who runs away will live to fight another day...'' the Doctor quoted. ''Come on! Let me show you something!''

He looked around, looking for Aeryn, but she wasn't there.

''Aeryn?''

--

''It's the eyes I fear the most.'' Hagros said.

''Mindless. Empty. Always burning, like their insides are burning in an eternal green fire.''

''It's cold in here.'' Deborah muttered, putting her arms around her as she walked around in circles in the room.

''Why is it so cold?''

Aeryn passed them as the Doctor started talking to someone. She walked towards the other end of the house, where scared and frightened women looked at her with big eyes, wondering if she was going to harm them or say something.

But Aeryn said nothing and turned her back to the women.

And that's where she saw the two children, curled up against each other in the corner.

They tried to run away from Aeryn, but Aeryn swiftly grabbed their hands and pulled the children towards her.

She noticed there was something strange about this frightened kids.

She tugged them closer towards her by their clothing so she could see.

Then she saw their blue, bruised eyes, bloody mouths and the fearful looks in their eyes as they pulled their curled, beaten and painful hands away in fright.

''Who did this to you?'' Aeryn tried to ask, but the children ran away as the cloth slipped through her fingers.

''What are you doing?'' Ferril shouted. ''Leave my children alone!''

''Don't yell at me!'' Aeryn said.

Tough as a nail. Hurt and vengeful.

The women who saw Aeryn now feared her even more.

''Were they your children?'' Aeryn asked.

''This is my house,'' Ferril said. ''I don't have to answer to you. Peacekeeper scum!''

''Do you like to beat your children?'' Aeryn replied. ''Does that make you feel better?''

Ferril growled as he bit his lip.

''You frelling Peacekeeper!'' Ferril cried. ''Always poking into other people's business! I do what I want to do! I treat my children like I want to treat my children! They're mine!''

''Aeryn!'' the Doctor said, bursting in on the two of them.

''Get out of my sight!'' Ferril said. ''Before I do something!''

''Do what?!'' Aeryn cried, not intimidated by the fat man's threats. ''Do WHAT!?''

The old man looked at her with a disgruntled anger only someone like him could pull off as the Doctor dragged Aeryn away.

"Don't, Aeryn," he said to her, as he escorted her past people and towards a strange machine standing in the corner of the living room, next to a dirty, dusty pink old sofa. "He doesn't deserve it."

The kid the Doctor had been talking to was looking from the machine to the Doctor and back again in confusion.

''Did you see that?'' Aeryn said. ''Did you see those children? Did you see what he did to them?''

''Yes, I did.'' the Doctor said.

''You're lying!!'' Aeryn cried. ''You didn't even look at them once!''

''Aeryn,'' the Doctor whispered to her with a kind, but demanding look.

Aeryn's anger now spread to the Doctor.

He must've seen what she had seen, yet he did nothing to punish Ferril.

At a time like this, of course their priorities had changed, but to ignore the children's pains so bluntly…

Aeryn did not understand.

'You remember that plan I told you about...'' the Doctor asked.

''Yes.'' Aeryn said, without looking at him.

''Well...'' the Doctor said as he guided her towards a square, black device on a table in the corner of the room.

Aeryn looked at the machine she stood in front of.

It wasn't important.

Or special.

It was a mundane device.

Something everyone probably had in their homes.

Anyone who could afford it.

''Is this it?'' Aeryn asked. ''A radio?''

An old, ancient device they used to have around to play music.

''On its own, it might not look impressive.'' the Doctor said. ''But...''

He walked to the window and removed a plank from their sight so that they could see.

''Combine this radio...with that tower...''

He pointed into the distance at a radio-tower not far from them.

Aeryn looked at the tower, still not quite getting what he was trying to say.

''...and with this little cassette in my hand...''

The Doctor lowered his hand into his pocket and showed them the disc.

''...and this cassette-player...''

He showed them the player: an old-fashioned gizmo, which was bigger than his hand.

The Doctor waited.

''Anything?'' the Doctor asked. ''Anything at all?''

Still nothing. Aeryn was still clueless.

''Tell me Doctor.'' he said.

The kid stood behind Aeryn, also anxious to know the answer to this riddle.

''The only thing which can effectively penetrate a telepathic field.'' the Doctor started to explain. ''The one thing that can break the Viridimon's psychic defenses...''

He waited again.

His smile started to grow and grow.

''...music?'' the kid said.

''Music.'' the Doctor answered with joy.