The Doctor narrowed his eyes.
"What's he talking about? Is this his trump card? Really? Without Serpine around, the Book of Names is as good as ours," Valkyrie said. The Doctor shook his head.
"No...no it's not."
"What?"
"It can't be. It's what he wants you to think, he wants you to get closer."
"And then?"
"I don't know. But I do know that he's got something planned...he always does."
"Right. The embodiment of all knowledge." The Intelligence laughed.
"Do I really have anything planned? Do you know for sure? She could simply step up to the book and destroy this form. I'd have to take another, and the Hollow Men are waiting around another corner. She could surely get the book in time."
"Well, that's not suspicious at all. I'll take my chances over here," Valkyrie said carefully. The Doctor, meanwhile, was confused. This was too easy. Far too easy. Skulduggery was dealing with Serpine, and he and Valkyrie were left alone with the Intelligence. Was this really all he had planned? It was eating at him, making him think. He had to think.
"What's wrong, Doctor?" The Intelligence asked scathingly.
"I don't understand. What am I missing?! Why is it this easy?! It's never this easy! Never!"
"Complex minds fail to understand simplicity, Doctor. And your mind is more complex than most. Over a thousand years of knowledge and experiences. Nothing's ever been simple for you, has it? For one who deals with time and space, simplicity is a foreign concept. A mind such as yours can only understand complexity. The greatest way to confuse someone who thrives on solving the most complex of problems is to present them with a problem that is so utterly simple. Do you take the Book, Doctor? Or do you wait?" The Doctor's expression grew from angry to furious. Valkyrie looked at him, and then back to the book.
"But you, Valkyrie, are much less predictable. You are a simple human, who expects simple problems, and the solution for dealing with you is the exact opposite as the solution to dealing with the Doctor." As he spoke Valkyrie and the Doctor heard a scream.
"Skulduggery!" She shouted.
The skeleton flew back into the room on a trail of purple vapor. Serpine laughed.
"I don't understand! Why don't I understand!" The Doctor wailed. Everything seemed so cut and dry, but he couldn't believe it was all that simple. For him, there were always hidden layers, more complexities, more mysteriousness underneath the mysteries he'd seen and solved.
"Doctor," the Intelligence said, snapping the Time Lord out of his thoughts.
"Do you know what we intend to do with the Faceless Ones?" He asked. The Doctor glared at him. Valkyrie clenched her fists and fired a flaming punch at Serpine. Purple vapor absorbed the blow, the explosion of flame being muffled by it. Skulduggery took the opportunity to get up and tackle Serpine to the ground. Valkyrie shot past the Intelligence, using the air to push herself, eager to help take down Serpine. She used air to clamp Serpine's hands at his sides as Skulduggery punched him again and again. The Doctor looked at them and then back to the book.
"I don't get it," he mumbled.
"We intend to use the Faceless Ones to destroy this world, Doctor. Or are you still confused by the simplicity I present you with?"
"Yes. I know about your whole destroy the world scheme, but then what, I wonder? Then what?"
"We intend to destroy everything and everyone you've tried to save. You will watch as you take the Faceless Ones to planet after planet, and watch as they burn all you know and love to the ground. This shall be my revenge, Doctor. I will not only destroy everything and everyone you've worked so hard to protect, but I will make you do it. The Faceless Ones will do the dirty work, but you'll have served the entire universe up on a silver platter." The Doctor's eyes burned with fury.
"No...it won't happen. You're not the only one with a plan."
"The seal is almost completed its work. You have no chance." Behind the Intelligence, Serpine was laughing as Skulduggery delivered punch after punch. And then the Doctor saw it. Hatred. It was always about the hatred. It had always been. The hatred of a madman was the most dangerous weapon of all. The Doctor knew that well. When one succumbed to the fury within, they were a danger to everyone they loved, the everything they held dear. The Daleks worshipped it. They were blind. Blind as Skulduggery was, brutally punching his foe, driven solely by revenge and hatred and anger. He'd snapped. Everyone has their breaking point, the Intelligence found Skulduggery's.
"Skulduggery! Stop!" The Doctor shouted. Hollow Men poured from the corner. Valkyrie was caught off-guard, and found herself on the ground and at the mercy of the Hollow Men.
"You did what you had to do out of necessity. You slayed your kin, but you did so for a greater purpose. Look how much anger you have. What about Skulduggery, a man who had no greater purpose, a man who was shaped into a gear in the machine of war? How deep must his hatred be, both for his enemies and himself?" The Intelligence said arrogantly. The Doctor knew he was right. He fancied Skulduggery as someone very similar to himself, but his nature was a darker thing than the Doctor could ever have imagined.
"Skulduggery!" This is their plan! Stop it! They want you distracted!" The Doctor got no reply. The Hollow Men began to converge on him. Skulduggery kept wailing away.
"This isn't you! You're being manipulated, driven! Look at Valkyrie! Look at me! Look at Serpine! Decide, here and now, what is more important!" The Doctor cried out. Skulduggery's fist wavered.
"I'm not you. I put myself together, brought myself alive, all because I was a madman, and in more ways than one. I was angry, and I still am. Anger made me. I can't run from my demons, Doctor. I can't be like you. I could never be like you."
"You don't have to! Valkyrie is in danger, and so am I! Right now, the only one who can save the universe and all the universes beyond is you!"
"Don't you have a plan?"
"It's useless if I can't get the book!" The Hollow Men advanced on the Doctor, who found himself pinned against the wall. Valkyrie staggered back, knowing that one more blow from a Hollow Man would knock her out. Her mind was a scrambled mess. She couldn't focus on her magic. Serpine pointed his hand at Skulduggery, who, in a desperate move, turned it towards the Intelligence. The Doctor grinned.
"That won't work, skeleton," the Intelligence scoffed.
"Oh, but it did! Oh, but it has! Because Skulduggery wasn't pointing at you, was he? Oh no. it is so much more. This is brilliant! This is lovely! What a lovely, lovely man he is! Oh, this is going to hurt so much in a few seconds, but it's still absolutely brilliant! And do you know why? He was pointing it at me."
The Doctor screamed and writhed.
"NOT AGAIN! MY TWO HEARTS! FISH FINGERS AND CUSTARD! I COULD REALLY USE SOME OF THOSE!" The Intelligence snarled.
"Stop this, Serpine!"
"The damn detective-" Skulduggery silenced him with a punch to the face.
"Oh, do shut up. I'm already cheated out of revenge, so the least you could do is let me savor yet another brilliant, last-minuted plan that really shouldn't have worked in theory but ended up saving the world." The Intelligence motioned for the Hollow Men to converge on Skulduggery. He backed up, but they'd catch him eventually. He kept Serpine's hand squarely pointed at the Doctor, who was rolling on the ground and saying something about Alonzo. The pain must have been making him loopy. However, now wasn't the time to feel bad. All Skulduggery could do was wait for Valkyrie to get the Book of Names and for the Doctor's plan to work. He waited, hoping that the Doctor could hold out a little longer. He did. The case opened, the Book of Names was revealed, and in that moment, Valkyrie Cain was the only person in the entire universe who could save everything.
OKAY, NOW THINGS ARE GETTING INTERESTING. THERE'S NOT AS MUCH TALKING ABOUT THE PASTS OF OUR TWO PROTAGONISTS, BUT I'LL GET TO THAT LATER. ALSO, ALLONS-Y, ALONZO!