Guys, guys, guys—we've officially reached the second half of the story! That means (you guessed it) this is going to be a series! I'm so excited to be going on Rey's journey with all of you. Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, followed, and fav'd so far.
Now, without further ado: AKA In Which the Devil is a Chatterbox
"Open fire!"
On Jefferson's command, he and the other guard fired on the Ood. Rey pulled Rose back out of the way, willing herself not to flinch at each impossibly loud bang. An eternity seemed to pass before the gunfire stopped. The Ood were dead, bodies slumped on the floor. Rose stepped over them to grab for the communicator, desperate to make sure the Doctor was still alright.
"Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me?" Static. Neither he nor Ida said a word. "Doctor? Ida? Are you there?"
The computer announced Door 25 open. Jefferson and the guard reacted instantly, guns back up and ready to shoot. Rather than another Ood, it was Danny who burst in. He faltered at the sight of weapons, but didn't stop. "It's me! But they're coming. It's the Ood. They've gone mad."
"How many of them?"
"All of them! All fifty!"
"Danny, out of the way," Jefferson commanded. He gestured with the gun for him to move aside from the door, repeating the order more harshly.
"But they're armed," Danny warned. "They're dan—"
When he still didn't comply, Jefferson physically pushed Danny aside.
"They're able to use the translator interface as a weapon," Rey told him. She was trying to get Rose to let go of the communicator. The Doctor was alive, he had to be. Right now, they needed to focus on surviving themselves and getting out. "One touch and it'll fry your brain like a full breakfast."
This got Jefferson to pause. He turned to ask how she knew this. The other guard wasn't so fortunate. She opened the door and was immediately attacked. Before anyone could react to pull her back, one of the Ood stuck its orb to her forehead. She screamed and jerked, seizing with the current running through her, then fell to the floor.
Jefferson opened fire on the crowd of Ood. Danny flinched back, moving to join Rose and Rey out of the way. Through Jefferson's wrist device, Zach called for a status report. Judging from the harried quality of his voice, she concluded that he was also under attack. "I've got very little ammunition, sir. How about you?"
"All I've got is a bolt gun. With uh… all of one bolt. I could take out a grand total of one Ood. Fat lot of good that is."
"Given the emergency… I recommend Strategy Nine."
Zach paused for a moment, thinking over his options. When he spoke again, he sounded defeated and resigned. "Strategy Nine. Agreed. Right, we need to get everyone together. Rose? What about Ida and the Doctor? And word?"
Rose shook her head, still clinging to the communicator like it was a lifeline. "I can't get any reply, just… nothing. I keep trying, but it's…"
Suddenly, the Doctor's voice broke through the static. Rey breathed out a sigh of relief, forcing her hands to unclench from the fists they'd been balled into. "No! Sorry, I'm fine. Still here!"
"You could've said, you stupid—" Rose let out a loud expletive.
"Whoa! Careful! Anyway, it's both of us, me and Ida. Hello! But the seal opened up. It's gone. All we've got left is this chain."
"How deep is it," Zach asked.
"Can't tell. It looks like it goes on forever."
"The voice said 'the Pit is open,'" Rey repeated in a small voice. Then, is a surer one, she added, "Also, a lot of epithets for the devil." If traveling with the Doctor taught her anything, it was that there was something about burying your fears in humor. Breaking down got you killed. Poking fun calmed her down and kept her alert. "Did anything come out?"
"No. No sign of 'the Beast.'"
"It said 'Satan'," Rose said in a scared voice. The Doctor tried to encourage her to keep it together, but it didn't do much to assuage her fear. "Is there no such thing? Doctor? Doctor, tell me there's no such thing."
He didn't answer her. Or couldn't, rather. "Anything can be real enough if you believe it," Rey told Rose softly. "The existence of a god or devil is no different."
"How can you be so calm?" Rather than hostility, Rose looked at her pleading for a better way to cope. Unfortunately, she couldn't help. There was no secret to her even temper, just a mix of her upbringing, innate personality, and beliefs. She hadn't grown up in an environment or culture that constantly referenced heaven and hell, and she knew far too well that humans could be even crueler than the devils she read about. If she had to choose a label, she would call herself agnostic.
"I guess I just choose to believe differently."
"Ida? I recommend that you withdraw," Zach said. "Immediately."
"But… we've come all this way!" Despite the dangers, she still wanted to continue with the expedition. Rey didn't know if it was brave or foolish. Probably both.
"Okay, that was an order," Zach corrected. "Withdraw. With that thing open, the whole planet's shifted. One more inch and we fall into the black hole. So this thing stops right now."
"But it's not much better up there with the Ood," she protested.
"I'm initiating Strategy Nine, so I need the two of you back up top, no arguments."
There was a screech and a crackle that faded to more static as Ida temporarily turned off her communicator. Rey couldn't help the thread of worry that tugged at her heart. Danny explained to them that Strategy Nine meant opening the airlocks of the base. Only the central hub would be locked down, everything else would be exposed to the vacuum of space. The Ood would be sucked right out and into the black hole like Scooti was.
If they were still in the planet, the Doctor and Ida would be vulnerable. Worst yet, they'd be stranded. There was no way the lift shaft would be able to withstand the pressure change. Staying was suicide; if Ida insisted on continuing, she'd be signing her own death warrant.
The Doctor wouldn't leave her behind. He'd stay with her and try to convince her to turn back. If that failed, he still wouldn't leave her to die alone. And if he was staying, then so was Rey. He'd probably want her to look after Rose, but she found that she didn't care. Where the Doctor went, she went, end of. Even if it meant donning a spacesuit and climbing down to get him.
The line clicked back open. "Rey, were coming back."
She breathed a sigh of relief. Rose's smile was tight, pleased, worried, and a smidge irritated all at once. "Best news I've heard all day!"
The respite didn't last long. Jefferson, looming over Toby with a hard face, released the safety of his gun.
"What're you doing," Rose asked, outraged.
"He's infected. He brought that thing on board. You saw it."
Toby cowered on the floor, unable to defend himself. "Are you gonna start shooting your own people now? Is that what you're gonna do? Is it?" Rose approached him, meaning to stop Jefferson physically if she had to. Rey couldn't see that ending well for anyone.
"If necessary."
"Well then, you'll have to shoot me 'if necessary,' so what's it gonna be?" He paused. She tensed, ready to intercede if necessary. At the very least, she could throw Jefferson off so that Rose could take Toby and run. She trusted Toby about as far as she could throw him at this point, but she also felt entrusted with Rose's safety. If what the Doctor said that time with Dickens was true, than it was because of her that Rose was traveling with them. That put Rose under her responsibility.
"Look at his face," Rose urged, kneeling next to Toby. "Whatever it was, it's gone. It passed into the Ood. You saw it happen. He's clean."
She wasn't so sure of that. Toby looked and acted normal, but there was still the possibility that whatever possessed him in the first place was just lying in wait. It could have buried itself in his subconscious, so deep that even he believed it to be gone.
But she had nothing but her gut to support her theory, and a theory wasn't enough to condemn a man to death. "You can always shoot him later," she offered, ignoring Rose's affronted look. "You have no proof that he's still, how did you put it, 'infected.' Shoot him now and you may as well be shooting an innocent man."
Jefferson hesitated before finally moving away. "Any sign of trouble… It's on your head if he does anything."
Rose let out her held breath. "Are you alright," she asked Toby. He shook, nearly in tears, and his eyes kept flickering back to his hands like he expected the symbols to still be there.
"Can you remember anything," Rey asked.
"Just… it was so angry. It was… fury and rage… death…" He cast a terrified glance around the room before meeting Rose's eyes, urging her to believe him. "It was him. It was the devil."
She softened. "Come here," she beckoned, and pulled him into a hug. With wide eyes, he still looked over her shoulder, expecting the mysterious Beast to come back for him.
Eventually, Rose released him and they got back on their feet. Toby shifted as far away from the group as he could while still being part of it. They waited in tense silence for the Doctor and Ida to make contact so they could reel them back up. "How could you say that to Mr. Jefferson," she asked as the anticipation built. There was less accusation in her voice than expected. Rey took it as a sign of hope that they really had come a long way.
"He's a suspicious man, and men like that feel better when they have something to be suspicious of," she answered quietly.
From what she gathered, the crew had spent over two years living together, improvising and trusting each other with their collective survival. That sort of intimacy would get to anyone, even Jefferson. He would have a hard time shooting Toby, especially after Rose planted that seed of doubt in him. He just needed something to chew on to get through this.
"That doesn't make any sense," Rose complained.
"Think of it like this: he'll be watching Toby. Focusing on him. Better to concentrate that sort of attention on one person than have him start to suspect everyone."
"So Toby's your scapegoat?"
"Toby's alive, which is more that we can say for the Ood."
Rose's mouth shut, her teeth clicking audibly as Rey's comment effectively killed her retort. After a while, she said, "They were trying to kill us," in a quiet voice. She knew what Rose meant. She didn't mean that Toby's life was more important, or that he deserved to live more than the Ood. But Toby was human.
"They're being controlled. Did you know? They're actually a very peaceful species. They're kind, and they show mercy even when they've been horribly wronged." They could've killed Halpen easily, and he would have deserved it. Instead, they changed him and decided to teach him better ways. Maybe not in the most conventional sense, but he was probably much better off as an Ood.
Rose eyed her, obviously studying her. "I really can't tell with you, sometimes," she said.
"Tell what," Rey asked, though she already knew the answer.
"Okay, we're in," Ida said over the intercom. "Bring us up."
Both girls faced forward. Jefferson was at the computer, manning the controls. "Ascension in three… two… one." The mechanism failed with a loud groan. The lights went out all at once, drowning the room in complete darkness.
"This is the Darkness," the Beast growled out. "This is my domain. You little things that live in the light… clinging to your feeble Suns… which will die in the…"
"That's not the Ood," Zach called out through the communicator. "Something's talking through them."
"Only the Darkness remains."
"This is Captain Zachary Cross Flan of Sanctuary Base Six representing the Torchwood Archive. You will identify yourself," he commanded.
"You know my name," the Beast replied.
"What do you want?"
"You will die here. All of you. This planet is your grave."
Toby was nearly having a fit, shaking so hard he was almost vibrating. He kept repeating "It's him, it's him" over and over.
"If you are the Beast, then answer me this: which one," the Doctor asked. "Hmm? 'Cos the universe has been busy since you've been gone. There's more religions than there are planets in the sky. The Archivists… Prodonity, Christianity… Pash-Pash, New Judaism… Sanclar… Church of the Tin Vagabond—which devil are you?"
"All of them."
"What, then you're the truth behind the myth?"
"This one knows me—as I know him," the Beast said almost gleefully. "The killer of his own kind."
"How did you end up on this rock," he asked in a steely voice. There was no acknowledgment of the Beast's statement, which in and of itself was a form of acknowledgment.
"The disciples of the Light rose up against me. And chained me in the pit for all eternity."
"When was this?"
"Before time."
"When does that mean?" He was getting frustrated. Beside Rey, Rose trembled. She was trying to stay strong and brave, but the situation was starting to get to her.
"Before time," the Beast repeated.
"What does 'before time' mean?"
"Before light and time and space and matter. Before the cataclysm. Before this universe was created."
"That's impossible," he denied. "No life could have existed back then."
Rey felt like she had to agree. Even if the Beast was technically not lying—if the theory of the multiverse was correct and he was from some other older universe, or something equally improbable—then how was he trapped? How do you build a prison with no matter?
"Is that your religion?"
"It's a belief," the Doctor replied stubbornly.
"You know nothing. All of you. So small." The Beast addressed them individually, taking mirth in the chance to break them down. "The Captain, so scared of command." Zach. "The soldier, haunted by the eyes of his wife." Jefferson. "The scientist, still running from daddy." Ida. "The little boy who lied…" Danny shuffled uncomfortably on his feet. "The virgin…" Toby turned away. "The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon."
Rey froze. So did Rose. The Beast was talking about Rose—Rose was going to die? No, it had to be lying. She wasn't going to let that happen.
"Doctor, what does that mean," Rose asked in a shaky voice. He told her not to listen, and she wanted to obey. She was about a second away from covering her ears with her hands, but she still couldn't help but want to know more.
The Beast wasn't finished. "And the lost little forgotten girl with no name."
Rey balled her hands into fists at her side. "I have a name," she said firmly.
He chuckled. "But is it really your name? The Black Cat so far from home. You will die here. You will die… and I will live."
The computer, which had been showing the Ood standing collectively as a group, suddenly cut out. The image was replaced by a roaring horned beast before dissolving into static. Rey flinched back, and she wasn't the only one. Everyone in the room with her also jerked away. "What the hell was that," Danny asked in a shaky voice. As if breaking the spell that had everyone in silence, now the crew spoke all at once, talking over one another.
"I had that thing inside my head."
"Doctor, what did it mean?"
"What do we do? Jefferson?"
"Captain? What's the situation on Strategy Nine?"
"Zach, what do we do?"
"What if I can fix it? The black hole, everything true."
"Captain, report."
"We've lost pictures—"
"Doctor, how did it know all of—"
"Did anyone get—"
"What do we do?"
Rey had had enough. Her headache was finally starting to ease up, but all the yelling and panic now was making it come back with a vengeance. She was scared, of course she was scared. The Beast, whatever it was, seemed to know things about without cause. It knew her nickname, it knew that the Doctor was the last Time Lord, it said that Rose was going to die.
Of course she was scared, but being scared wasn't going to help anyone. They could stand around and talk at each other and no one until the oxygen had run out, and it wouldn't do a damn thing.
Marching over to the computer, she tugged out some wires and pressed them together into the communication device's receiver. A loud screech rang out, echoing against the metal walls. It made her want to grind her teeth, but it served its purpose to get everyone else to quiet down.
"If you want voices in the dark," the Doctor said calmly, "then listen to mine. That thing is playing on very basic fears. Darkness, childhood nightmares, all that stuff."
"But that's how the devil works," Danny said.
"Or a psychologist," Rey countered. Compared to some of hers, the Beast was positively tame.
"But… how did it know about my father," Ida asked in a weak voice.
If it had taken over Toby, it could have had access to his memories. Two years was a long time to bond when you only had contact with less than a dozen people and were constantly on the brink of death. Better yet, it could have accessed the mainframe and personnel files. She was pretty sure that the crew must have had psychological evaluations to be cleared for this mission.
The Doctor paused for a moment. "Okay, but what makes his version of the truth any better than mine? Hmm? 'Cos I'll tell you what I can see: humans. Brilliant humans. Humans who travel all the way across space. Flying in a tiny little rocket into the orbit of a black hole! Just for the sake of discovery, that's amazing! Do you hear me? Amazing. All of you. The captain—his officer—his elder—his genius—his friends. All with one advantage: the Beast is alone; we are not. If we can use that to fight against him—"
With a deafening bang, the cable connecting the capsule to the reeling mechanism that snapped. A horrible crashing sound echoed as it fell down the shaft, crushing the capsule beneath. Dust drifted up into the Exploration Deck.
"Doctor!" Rose shouted into the communicator. "We lost the cable! Doctor, are you alright? Doctor?"
"Coms are down," Zach reported with frustration.
"Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me?"
"Rose, it's no use," Rey told her. "The line is dead."
At least Zach confirmed the system was still receiving life signs to her great relief. Her heart had nearly stopped too many times on this trip.
"Say something," Rose begged, still not giving up on getting a response. "Are you there?"
"There's no way out," Zach told her. "They're stuck down there."
"But we've got to get them back."
"They're ten miles down," Jefferson told them. "We haven't got another ten miles of cable." A loud bang at the door reminded them that the Ood were still out there. "Captain? Situation report?"
The Ood were cutting through the door bolts at the control room the same as they were doing down in the Exploration Deck. Jefferson estimated that they had about eight minutes before the door gave way. Zach, who had a security frame, would last a little longer.
Rose took a few deep, shuddering breaths to collect herself. "Right. So we need to stop them—or get out—or both."
"I'll take both, yeah," Danny said sarcastically. "But how?"
"We could turn the lights back on for starters," Rey suggested.
Rose nodded. "You heard the Doctor. Why do you think that thing cut him off? 'Cos he was making sense. He was telling you to think your way out of this. Come on! There's gotta be some sort of power somewhere."
"There's nothing I can do," Zach said bitterly. "Some captain, stuck in here, pressing buttons."
"So press the right ones," Rey told him.
"They've gutted the generators! But the rocket's got an independent supply," he realized quickly. "If I could reroute that… Mr. Jefferson? Open the bypass conduits. Override the safety…" Jefferson obeyed. "Channeling rocket feed. In 3… 2… 1… power."
The lights flickered back on. Rose clapped. "There we go."
"Let there be light," Danny whooped.
"Is there enough power to activate Strategy Nine," Rey asked. Jefferson shook his head.
"Alright, we need a way out." Rose took charge, relegating roles to everyone. She had Zach and Jefferson working on finding an escape route. Danny was set to work on finding a way to stop the Ood. Toby was put in charge of translating anything to do with the Beast and the pit. He said that since it was inside his head the symbols were starting to make sense. Rey still eyed him cautiously, and she saw Jefferson do the same.
She gazed down at the dark shaft. The Doctor was alive, that was all she needed. She knew he would find a way out. Not because she had an unshakable faith in him, but because she had seen him get out of worse with less. If it came down to it, his luck would kick in. His was the opposite of hers. For all she knew, the TARDIS would come crashing out of the sky to save him at the last minute.
In the meanwhile, she went to help Zach and Jefferson. The Doctor had been on the right track about bases being made from kits. In this case, it was a good thing. The schematics that Zach had shown them back in the control room, when he'd assessed the damage from the quake, hadn't been very detailed. She had to fill in the blanks with what she read up on, and having a set design helped. "Try opening junctions 5, 6, and 7, then reroute filters 16 to 24."
"You have a plan?"
She nodded. "And it's a classic." She wanted to take back her earlier comment about mice. If she had known she was jinxing herself, she would have picked a more fortunate comparison.
Danny let out a yelp of excitement next to them at his computer station. "Oh my god! It says yes! I can do it! Hypothetically, if you flip the monitor, broadcast a flare… it can disrupt the telepathy! Brainstorm!"
"What happens to the Ood," Rose asked.
"It'll tank them, spark out!"
"There we are then," Rose said enthusiastically. "Do it!"
Danny shook his head. "No, but… I'd have to transmit from the central monitor. We need to go to Ood Habitation."
Another bang sounded from behind the door. Time was running out. "That's just what we'll do then. Mr. Jefferson, sir! Any way out?"
"Your friend here has a plan."
Rose turned to face her. "The base has a network of maintenance tunnels running below it."
"Ventilation shafts," Rose said with a smile.
"Unfortunately not. The captain will have to manually manipulate the oxygen field for us to breathe."
"I can do that," Zach said over the comm. "I can follow you through the network, create discrete pockets of atmosphere…"
"Right, so we go down, and you make the air follow us," Rose repeated. "By hand."
"You wanted me pressing buttons."
"Yeah—we asked for it—okay. We need to get to Ood Habitation, work out a route."
Rey conferred with Zach while Jefferson started working on getting them physical access to the tunnels. He had Toby and Rose help him pry off a section of the flooring. Zach vented the area directly beneath them first while Rey confirmed the most direct route. She rushed to join the others after sending it off.
Two more banging noises in rapid succession sounded off. It wasn't just the Ood hitting the door, it was them cutting through the locks. Danny typed frantically at the computer, the only person not ready. Rose shouted at him to join them.
"Hold on," he called back. "Just conforming…"
"Dan, you gotta go now," Jefferson urged.
The computer beeped. "Yeah!" He grabbed the chip and ran over to them. "Put that in the monitor… and it's a bad time to be an Ood."
"We're coming back," Rose declared. "Have you got that? We're coming back to this room and we're getting the Doctor out."
"Okay, Danny, you go first," Jefferson decided. "Then you, Miss Tyler, then Miss Rey, then Toby. I'll go last in defense of position. Now come on! Quick as you can!"
She dropped down into the tunnel, landing in a crouch on her feet and knees. It wasn't very pleasant down there, but it was spacious enough that they could crawl without risking getting stuck. There was a musky smell, like rough cotton and water gone tepid.
"God, it stinks," Rose complained. "You alright?"
"Yeah," Danny replied. "I'm laughing. Which way do we go?"
Rey pointed forward. "Just go straight ahead," Zach said. "Keep going 'till I say so."
Toby slid in down behind her. After him, Jefferson had just enough time to make it inside before the telltale sound of the door slamming open told her the Ood had finally managed to force their way into the room. The pace Danny set was a bit slow, but steady. Rose made a joke about his behind. Toby chimed in after her, admiring Rey's. She bristled and resisted the urge to kick out. A single well-aimed blow would crush his nose. Or if she went for the jaw she could knock some teeth out.
"Straight along until you find junction 7.1. Keep breathing. I'm feeding you air. I've got you."
A bead of sweat ran down along her hairline as they reached the specified junction. They may have had air, but there still wasn't any ventilation. The heat and sweat from their exercise and stress was building up, and it was stifling.
"Getting kinda cramped, sir," Danny whined. "Can't you hurry up?"
"I'm working on half power, here."
"Stop complaining," Jefferson said.
"But the air's getting a bit thin," Toby said into the device on his wrist.
Rose sniffed. Her face scrunched in disgust. "Danny, is that you?"
"I'm not exactly happy," he said defensively, wiping sweat off his face.
"I'm just moving the air," Zach narrated. "I've got to oxygenate the next section. Now, keep calm… or it's gonna feel worse."
There was a loud crash from the other end of the tunnel—the Ood were breaking in from Habitation 5.
"Where are they," Rey asked. "How close?"
"Don't know," Zach replied tersely. "I can't tell. I can't see them, the computer doesn't register Ood as proper lifeforms."
"Well that's rubbish." She did some quick calculations in her head on the odds of them catching up before the junction opened. They should have enough time, but it was afterwards that she worried about. No doubt, the Ood weren't just coming from Habitation 5. They would get through every maintenance entrance they could in order to stop them.
"Open the gate," Danny cried. It lowered and he practically threw himself in. The rest followed as quickly as they could.
"Danny, turn left. Immediate left."
Jefferson was crawling backwards, his gun aimed and ready to fire upon any Ood in sight. "Can't you trap them," he asked. "Cut off the air?"
"Not without cutting off yours." There was another bang, muffled, through the communicator as Zach's door grew closer and closer to being forced open. "Danny, turn right. Go right! Go fast, Dan—they're gonna catch up!"
Panic-stricken, he picked up the speed. Jefferson offered to stay behind and maintain a defensive position. "You can't," Rey said sharply. Even with his gun, he stood no match to the sheer number of Ood. All they needed was one lucky touch with the translator orb and he was a goner.
He sat down and righted his gun. "Miss Rey—that's my job. You've got your task—now see to it."
"You heard what he said, now shift." Toby nudged her. She flinched away from him. As calm as she pretended to be, the stress wasn't doing anything for her nerves. Thank god she was covered up; the last thing she needed right now was to have a bad reaction to touch.
Reluctantly, she obliged and moved on, leaving Jefferson behind. Danny and Rose were stuck at junction 8.2 with Danny banging desperately on the gate. Rose tried to get him to stop, telling him it was no use, but he refused to relent.
The gate opened at what felt like a snail's pace, finally allowing them through. She glanced back, hoping to see Jefferson behind them.
"Danny, turn left and head for 9.2. That's the last one," Zach told him. "Jefferson, you've gotta move faster. Move!"
"Mr. Jefferson—"
Toby pushed her forward. "Keep going!"
The gate closed before he could get through. Rey knew the schematics, knew the design of the base. She knew that there was no way to open the gate back up without sucking the air out from where they were. Jefferson was on his own.
A few moments later, Zach's voice sounded from both Toby's and Danny's communicators. "Report… Officer John Maynard Jefferson PKD… deceased… with honours. 43K2.1"
For a moment, the four of them just sat in heavy silence. Rose was fighting tears. Rey tried not to shut down.
"Zach… we're at the final junction," Danny said softly. "9.2. And er… if my respects could be on record. He saved our lives."
"Noted. Opening 9.2."
The gate slid open only to reveal a group of Ood waiting on the other side. Rey grasped the back of Rose's shirt to pull her back while Rose did the same to Danny. "Lower 9.2," she shouted to Zach.
"Back," Danny yelled. "Back! Back!"
"We can't go back," Toby said. "The gang point's sealed off, we're stuck!"
"Rose." Rey indicated to the grating above the other girl's head. It was heavier than it looked, but together they lifted it. Rose went through first, and Rey motioned for Danny to go after her. She followed him, pulling herself up and into the corridor.
"Come on," Rose called down to Toby. He sure was taking his time. "Come on! Toby, get out of there!"
"Help me," he called, scrambling up. "Oh my God—help me!"
Rose and Danny pulled him up through the hole. Rey could see the Ood down in the maintenance tunnels, hot on his heels. To make matters worse, a second group was approaching from the other end of the corridor.
"This way!" Danny ran in the opposite direction. She slammed the grating back down before following him. A few minutes later, they burst through the doors of Ood Habitation, making for the computer. Some of the Ood were still inside, down below in the pen. When they looked up at them, their eyes were the same red as the ones chasing them.
"Get it in," Rose yelled, referring to the chip.
"Danny, get down," Toby urged.
"I'm trying, I'm trying! I'm getting at it—"
Not as slowly as any of them would've liked, the Ood began making their way up the stairs.
"Danny, get that thing transmitting," Rose yelled. Finally, he managed to plug it in. The readings that measured the Ood's telepathic field plummeted down to Basic 0. They grabbed their heads, stumbling and struggling to stay on their feet. In a matter of seconds, they all fell to the floor, limp and brain dead.
The base was silent.
"You did it," Rose cheered. "We did it!"
"Yes," Danny shouted back. They hugged, then Rose threw her arms around Toby and hugged him. Toby and Danny hugged too when she let him go.
Rey gazed sadly at the fallen Ood. "We killed them." She was relieved to be alive, but the crushing guilt made it hard to feel happy. The Ood couldn't help themselves; they had been under the Beast's control. It wasn't their fault and they still had to pay the consequences.
She'd known this was coming, and she hadn't been able to do anything about it.
She grabbed the comm resting next to the monitor. "Captain, the Ood are down. We need to find a way to get to the Doctor and Ida."
"I'm on my way," he said.
They hurried back to the Exploration Deck. Zach was already waiting for them inside, having easily made his way through the now clear path from the command room. Rose headed directly for the comm. "Doctor? Are you there? Ida? Can you hear me?"
"The comms are still down," he told her. I can patch them through the central desk and boost the signal. Just give me a minute."
The mood should have been lighter now that they weren't being chased. Eminent death was no longer looming on the horizon, but Rey's nerves refused to settle. She kept feeling like there was something she'd missed, something she still wasn't seeing.
Zach finished modifying the signal. "Doctor? Are you there? Doctor, Ida? Can you hear me? Are you there, Doctor?"
"He's gone."
Ida's voice was a relief, but her words weren't. "What do you mean, 'he's gone,'" Rose asked.
"He fell. Into the pit. And I don't know how deep it is—miles and miles and miles."
Rey stepped forward to speak into the receiver. "Did he fall, or did he jump?" It was an important distinction. If he fell then he was unprepared. If he jumped, it meant he planned on surviving.
"Both, I guess," Ida said softly. "I couldn't stop him. He said your name…"
Zach pulled the comm away from Rose's numb fingers. She didn't look like she was registering anything, just staring straight ahead. "I'm sorry. Ida? There's no way of reaching you. No cable, no back-up… you're ten miles down… we can't get there."
"You should see this place, Zach. It's beautiful. Well, I wanted to discover things…" Her voice wavered. "And here I am."
"We've got to abandon the base. I'm declaring this mission unsafe. All we can do is make sure no one ever comes here again."
"But we'll never find out what it was," she said desperately.
"Well, maybe that's best."
"Yeah."
"Officer Scott—"
"It's alright," she said unconvincingly. Everyone silently agreed they would pretend not to notice. "Just go. Good luck."
"Thank you." Zach placed the comm back on its hook. "Danny—Toby—close down the feed links. Get the retrotropes online. Then get to the rocket—strap yourselves in. We're leaving.
"I'm not going," Rose announced.
"There's space for both of you."
"No, I'm gonna wait for the Doctor," she said quietly but adamantly. "Just like he waited for me."
"I'm sorry, but… he's dead."
"You don't know him. 'Cos he's not…" A couple of tears escaped and trickled down her cheeks. "I'm telling you, he's— he's not… and even if he was, how could I leave him? All on his own, all the way down there? No. I'm gonna stay."
"Rose…" She turned to face Rey, red in the face and trembling. Her eyes begged for Rey to understand. It was unnecessary—of course she understood. She knew exactly how Rose felt. "He wouldn't want us to stay behind."
"But you want to too," she cried. "You'll get to see him again, when you jump or whatever it is you do, but if I leave I'll—"
Zach shifted in her peripheral vision. She could see a plan form in his mind the second Rose refused to leave with them. "It's the Doctor," she said like that explained everything. In a way it did for Rose. "You know he's alright, and he'll find a way to get out. He wouldn't want you to wait for him in a graveyard like this."
She wondered if she could come back. She would leave with Rose in that rocket because she had to make sure Rose was alright. But afterwards, she wondered if she could come back. Her jumps were still random, but that time in the TARDIS when all she wanted to get away, she had jumped. When she was trapped in the padded room, she hadn't left Nevermore until she wanted to. Maybe if she wanted it desperately enough, she could come back here to the Doctor.
Stubbornly, Rose still refused to leave. Zach ordered Danny and Toby to forcibly hold her in place. The sight of a syringe sent Rey's hackles up so high she just about bolted from the room. Zach slid the needle into Rose, sedating her as she still struggled to get free. She went limp in Danny's and Toby's arms.
"I have lost too many people. I am not leaving you behind," he said steely. Another syringe in hand, he turned to face Rey. "Will I need to sedate you too?"
She shook her head quickly, not taking her eyes off his weapon until he put it away.
He slung Rose's body over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. "Let's get her on board."
The sedative wasn't very strong. Rose began to stir before they even took off. She quickly tried to free herself, but the straps kept her buckled in. "Get me out of this thing," she shrieked. "Get me out!"
"And… lift-off," Zach announced. The g-force wasn't too bad. They barely felt it as the rocket launched into the sky.
"Take me back to the planet," Rose ordered. "Take me back!"
Rey saw her eyeing the bolt gun on the floor. Before Rose could reach for it, she kicked it out of her reach, ignoring the betrayed look it earned her. Zach didn't even turn around, focusing instead on keeping within the gravity funnel.
"Sorry, but it's too late anyway. Take a look outside. We can't turn back. This is what the Doctor would have wanted. Isn't that right?"
Rose turned her gaze outside. The singularity was drawing further and further away. So was the Doctor. "How could you leave him," she asked Rey in a small, sorrow-laden voice.
"You know enough by now to know that when you travel with the Doctor, you do what you're told."
"And he told you to take me away?"
"He would have told me to make sure you were okay." There was a hollow feeling in her chest, right where her heart was supposed to be. She never knew that regret could feel like this: so heavy that it was crushing her, and so stifling she couldn't breathe.
"Don't you have that backwards," Rose asked bitterly.
She blinked. "What does that mean?"
Rose looked away and didn't answer.
Toby started chuckling quietly to himself at first, then louder as no one stopped him. "What's the joke," Danny asked.
"Just… we made it. We escaped. We actually did it."
"Not all of us," Rey said. She wasn't the only one not amused, the others were all solemn as well. It wasn't just the Doctor and Ida they were leaving behind, it was Mr. Jefferson, Scooti, all the Ood. Not to mention all the crew members that were already gone by the time Rey and the others had arrived.
"We're not out of it yet," Zach reminded them. "We're still the first people in history to fly away from a black hole. Toby, read me the stats."
"Gravity funnel holding, sir," he reported, still smirking. "Always holding… Stats at 53, funnel status at 66.5. Hull pressure constant. Smooth as we can, sir. All the way back home. Coordinates set for Planet Earth."
Rose gazed longingly out the window. Given half a chance, she still would choose to go back to the Doctor. Toby eyed her, then fixed his gaze on Rey. She didn't even need to look up to feel it. "What is it?"
"What did it mean when it called you 'the girl with no name?'"
"I don't know," she said with false ease. Slowly, she used her foot to drag the bolt gun closer towards her. The sound of it scraping against the ground echoed in her ears. Impossibly, the others didn't seem to notice.
"Do you think it meant that you're going to lose it? Maybe someone is going to take it from you." He chuckled sadistically.
"A better question might be: did you really think you could get out this way?" That got her everyone's attention. In one fluid motion she kicked the gun up in the air and caught it. Aiming it squarely at Toby, she dared him to try something. "You were very obvious."
"Rey," Rose gasped out sharply.
"She's lost it," Toby denied, trying to convince the others.
"What the hell," Danny asked. "I know Toby can be a jerk, but that's no reason to shoot him."
"That's not Toby anymore," she stated definitively. "Think about it: the Beast said we were going to die, and now it's just letting us go? It doesn't make sense. It could have destroyed the oxygen field, or ignited the base, or destabilized the shields so the next quake caused total collapse. There was no need to reveal itself in the first place unless it wanted us scared. It wanted us to run so it could come with." Even all the theatrics in the Exploration Deck were planned. It chose to reveal that image of the horned beast so they would associate them together, so they'd think it wasn't a formless conscious plaguing them, it was the devil.
She chanced a glance at the screen beside Toby, checking to see how far they'd gotten. They were nearly beyond the pull of the singularity, not even a minute away from leaving being home free.
"She's seriously lost it," Toby said again. "Captain, you can't believe a word she says! Danny? We worked together for years! Rose?" He turned to each person as he personally pleaded to them to listen.
Suddenly, the rocket began to shake violently.
"What happened," Danny asked. "What was that?!"
"What's he doing," Toby yelled. "What is he doing?"
"We've lost the funnel," Zach announced. "Gravity collapse!"
"What does that mean," Rose asked.
"We can't escape. We're headed straight for the black hole!"
But while everyone else was panicking, Rey felt a rush of something like victory. The funnel wouldn't collapse on its own—someone had to have done something to destabilize it. And she knew exactly who would.
Rose glanced out the window. "It's the planet. The planet's moving. It's falling."
She didn't look away from Toby. He changed in front of all of them—his eyes glowing red and black symbols appearing on his skin. "I am the rage," he yelled in the Beast's voice, fast and scared. "And the bile and the ferocity."
"Just do something," Rose screamed.
"I am the Prince and the Fall and the Darkness—"
"It's him," Danny exclaimed. "It's him! It's him!"
"Stay where you are," Zach shouted. "The ship's not stable!" A trail of fire burst from Toby's mouth like he was a dragon. "What is he?! What the hell is he?!"
"I shall never die," it snarled. "The thought of me is forever! In the bleeding hearts of men—in their vanity and obsession and lust— Nothing shall ever destroy me. Nothing!"
"Oh, shut up."
Rey jerked her arm to the side and shot out the front window. The glass shattered, and the sudden pressure change as the rocket's interior was exposed to the vacuum of space threatened to tear the cockpit apart. Her hair whipped in front of her face, and the breath was ripped from her lungs. Everything was shaking; there was no more up or down,
Half-blind, she somehow succeeded in undoing Toby's seatbelt. He was pulled out of the window, body headed straight for the singularity.
"Emergency shield!" Zach's hand slammed down on a button to activate them sealing the hole. Without the funnel to form a safe path, the rocket was still getting dragged into the black hole's gravitational pull. "We can't escape!"
"But we stopped him," Rose protested. "That's what the Doctor would've done."
"Some victory. We're going in."
The rocket spiraled closer and closer. Danny checked the computer screen. By some miracle, the systems were still working despite all the interference. "The planet's lost orbit! It's falling!"
Surprisingly, Rose grabbed Rey's arm. Maybe she wanted some comfort in what she thought would be her last moments, or maybe she was trying to give Rey some comfort instead. Rey herself didn't have the current mental capacity to properly mull the action over. Her mind was blank, but it was far from a blessing. She felt like an exposed nerve or an open receptacle. She was filling up, up, up to the brim and over.
"The planet's gone," Danny told them. "I'm sorry."
"Accelerate," Zach ordered futilely. "I did my best. But hey—first human beings to fall inside a black hole. How about that? History."
She closed her eyes, waiting for impact or loss of consciousness or something…
Nothing happened. The shaking and all the noise stopped.
"What's happened," Rose asked.
Dynamic weight transfer took over, causing them all to lean to one side. But that could only work if there was gravity…
"We're… turning," Zach said, confused. "We're turning around. We're turning away!"
"Sorry about the hijack, Captain." The Doctor's voice over the comm snapped her out of her mind. The TARDIS rotor echoed in the background, and it was the best sound she'd ever heard. "This is the good ship TARDIS. Now, first thing's first—have you got a Rey and a Rose Tyler on board?"
"I'm here," Rose answered quickly. She teared up again, this time from joy. "It's me! We're both here! Oh my God! Where are you?"
"I'm just towing you home. Gravity-schmavity. My people practically invented black holes. Well—in fact, they did. Rey? You alright?"
She nodded, then remembered that he couldn't actually see her. "Yes. But after this you owe me some library time."
A nice stretch of relaxation with a few good books sounded great. He laughed and readily agreed. "In a couple of minutes, we'll be nice and safe. Oh, and Captain—can we do a swap? Say, if you give me Rey and Rose, I'll give you Ida Scott? How about that?"
"She's alive," Zach realized, happier than Rey had ever seen him.
"Yes," Danny cheered. "Thank God."
"Yeah! Bit of oxygen starvation, but she should be alright." More reserved, he added, "I couldn't save the Ood. I only had time for one trip. They went down with the planet." A moment of silence passed while they mourned the dead before the Doctor announced that they were now in clear space.
When they finally did make the exchange, Rose burst through the TARDIS doors and ran straight for the Doctor. They hugged fiercely, him lifting her feet clear off the floor before the dissolved in a giggle fit. Rey entered much more calmly, closing the doors behind her. She watched the reunion fondly, unsure why her chest ached at the scene. It was a happy sight, wasn't it?
He caught her gaze. She looked away quickly and walked over to him slowly. Rose fell silent.
Part of her was angry about the worry he'd caused her and the risks he'd taken. That part eased a little with seeing that he was alright, but it wasn't wiped away completely. She had a feeling that it would always stay with her, refreshed with every uncertainty and insecurity.
He stood still, waiting for her to make the first move. She took her time one part little bit of petty revenge, but she also wasn't sure what to do. Hugs were… well, they were never her thing. She prepared herself for them, and she only recently learned they could feel nice. But even when she was the most relieved, it was never her first instinct to pull someone into a hug.
She took his hand. Just that.
He squeezed back tightly.
"Zach," he called through the comm without letting go. "We'll be off, now. Have a good trip home. And next time you get curious about something—oh… what's the point? You'll just go blundering in. The human race…"
"But Doctor, what did you find down there," Ida asked. "That creature—what was it?"
"I don't know," he admitted, not sounding the least bit upset. "Never did decipher that writing. But that's good! Day I know everything? Might as well stop."
"What do you think it was," Rose asked him. "Really?"
"I think… we beat it. That's good enough for me."
"It said I was gonna die in battle."
Rey turned to her. "It lied," she said plainly. "Haven't you learned? The future is always changing."
Rose smiled and nodded.
"Right," the Doctor said. "Onwards, upwards—Ida—see you again, maybe!"
"I hope so."
"And thanks, boys," Rose called out.
"Have a safe trip," Rey beckoned.
"Hang on, though, Doctor. You never really said… you three… who are you," Ida asked.
"Oh…" He glanced over at Rey and Rose. "The stuff of legend."
He pulled a lever. The rotor rose and fell, and the console let out its signature wheeze as the TARDIS took off.