Authors' Note: On this one I took the setting, the Guado, and the name Auron from Final Fantasy X. Auron rocks.

Thanks for all the reads, follows, and reviews! You guys rock! You make me smile, thanks for the appreciation!

This is where the T rating comes in, so you have been warned for mild violence.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Doctor Who universe, because if I did, David Tennant would be mine, but only on days that end with a "Y." Square Enix owns Final Fantasy X. But, I really think they should make a movie out of it. And cast Christopher Eccleston as Auron.

Chapter Eleven: The Beast Within

Lara's POV

It was time.

"This potion will give you roughly the strength of a fairly sick, feeble Guado or human," Auron said to the Doctor. "You'll have difficulty moving without help. But, you won't actually be sick. You'll still have excellent mental acuity. Assuming the Beast does take possession of you as you predict, we'll take you out of the Farplane and into the room where the exorcism ceremony is performed, the Room of Sanctity. There, the spirit of the Beast will be unable to leave your body, except to go into the urn where we intend to trap it.

The Doctor nodded, then turned to Lara and Billy. "I'll have 24 hours to fight the Beast out of my body. If I succeed, I'll be able to force it into the urn. If I don't succeed, Auron will have to kill me."

"What would happen if you just took another potion after the 24 hours?" Lara asked.

"My body would've learned to metabolize the potion faster," the Doctor said.

"Were the Beast willing to possess anyone less powerful than the Doctor, it may have been easier," Auron added. "With a Time Lord, we have only one shot at this."

"If the Doctor can't send the Beast into the urn, couldn't it just go back to the Farplane?"

Auron began to speak, but the Doctor cut him off. "My life is not worth all of the spirits in the Farplane. If I die in this endeavor, you can find me on the Farplane. But the Beast's spirit will have no tether, and so then will either disintegrate or be forced into the urn."

"We could never ask this of you, Doctor," Auron said, looking sheepish.

The Doctor nodded. "I know, Auron. I am taking this upon myself."

"There is one more thing," Auron said. "I must ask that your human companions remain outside of the Room of Sanctity."

"NO!" Lara said, at the same time Billy snapped, "Why?"

The Doctor looked apologetic. "He's right. In this case, you might be a distraction that we can't afford."

Lara couldn't help it; she began to cry. She saw the Doctor move forward as if to hug her, but Billy got there first, catching her in a bear hug. Instead, the Doctor hugged them both. "I'll be fine," he said happily, though Lara didn't believe him. "Don't worry, in a few hours we'll be back in the TARDIS, just like always."

It seemed to Lara to be no time at all before the Doctor had sat down in a wheelchair, taken the potion, and been wheeled onto the Farplane. She had tried to remind him about happy times, about Rose, but he seemed eager to enter the Room of Sanctity. Lara barely registered that the stairs to the Farplane had turned themselves into a ramp, but simply watched as the Doctor disappeared through the foggy clouds.

Doctor POV

The potion was disgusting. It tasted like a combination of various plants, but he could also pick out a sharp metallic taste, combined with a spongy texture, like mushrooms. He felt it bubble all the way down his throat. He shivered, but felt no different. When he tried to lift his hand, however, he found it extremely difficult. He laid his head back gently on the headrest. It was like being paralyzed, he thought; still, his mind was as sharp as ever.

The Beast was waiting for him. He had barely been wheeled through the clouds and summoned the pyreflies when he felt, immediately, the Beast playing with the edges of his mind. I'm glad I convinced Auron to tell Lara and Billy to wait outside, he thought, they really don't need to see this. It was his last clear thought.

Suddenly, he saw everything through a shade of red. He felt heavy, and yet sharp and keen at the same time. His head began to pound. And he was so angry! He heard himself say, "I am the hatred, and the vile, and the - …" No! This was not him! He made an attempt to shake his head to clear it, and remembered the potion he had taken.

"What is this!" The Beast was roaring. "You are powerless! You have become weak! What is this vile thing you have drank?"

Beast, you have nowhere to go. The Doctor could feel that he was being moved somewhere.

"The Room of Sanctity!? Ha! You think I'll go that easily? Me, the Beast of ages past, the Rage, the Fire…"

Get out of my head. He had stopped moving. The priests had begun chanting near him.

"Never! They won't dare kill you, Doctor, and I shall be free once again! But if they do kill you… if they do, I shall have my revenge! What will the world be without the Doctor? What will happen to your precious Earth then?"

You will never be free. And you will never hurt them. The Doctor was dimly aware that he had stopped moving. Only Auron was with him, now, and two other priests. He was lying on a long, cement slab, with a large urn near his head. Before he could stop it, his hand moved of its own accord, colliding with the urn, though the hit had not been precise. The urn tottered, and was caught by one of the priests, who kept it in hand. The Doctor felt the pain in his hand, but ignored it.

"Weak, weak Time Lord! You think you can save yourself, save them?! You couldn't even save your people!" The flashbacks came, if that's what they were. Images of Gallifrey burning, of a small child screaming, women and children running…

I had to… I had to do it… The chanting continued, as though from far away.

"And so you run, Doctor, you always run! You ran from your people because you were afraid, and then you ran because you were ashamed!"

Get out of my head… I won't let them be hurt… not this time!

"And let's talk about your new companions! The Boy Left Behind, and the Girl of Gallifrey, what future will they have with you?"

You will never hurt them. Girl of Gallifrey…

"Her life would be easier if you were dead, wouldn't it? She never has to know she's Gallifreyan, never has to know what you've done, never has to make the choice."

I don't want that for her…

"You know where this path ends, Doctor. So eager to die that you would run from her, as well. But if you're so eager to die, better get on with it!" His hand shot out again of its own accord, nearly missing his face, then falling limp. It seemed that the Beast had control of his limbs, but the potion had taken away much of his strength and all of his accuracy.

He heard someone say, "Tie him down!" But another voice said, "He must do this on his own." Do what on his own? Surely he should be allowed out of this place. He wanted to see Rose…

"No, Doctor, you must fight the Beast in your head. You mustn't give up." He thought the voice belonged to someone named Auron, though he couldn't think of his face.

The red was blurring most of his vision now. Why is everything red? I am the Rage, and the Burning, and the – NO I'M NOT! I am the DOCTOR! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

"You can't fight me forever," The Beast said. "Convince them to let me out, or you shall die, in the end. And then I shall have my revenge."

Lara's POV

It had been 23 hours and 30 minutes. She had slept a little, though not much. Billy was sleeping now, or, at least, he was pretending to sleep. As the 24-hour mark approached, she had taken to pacing around the room. She'd taken the Rose Serum, of course, but she supposed it only helped with chemical imbalances, not generally anxiety-provoking situations.

When a priest finally popped his head through the door, her head whipped around immediately to face him. "What's happened?"

"He's still fighting," the priest, Tidus, said slowly. The priest looked as though he was fighting sleep himself. His previously perfect blond hair was matted with sweat and disheveled, and there were dark rings around his eyes. His robes were wrinkled and, in one place, torn. "From what I can gather, the spirit of the Beast knows that it may disintegrate for good, but it would rather do so than move to the urn. It considers the Doctor's death to be revenge for whatever the Doctor did to it in the past. The Doctor is putting up a good fight, but not good enough to eject the Beast from his head."

But Lara had already ran past the Tidus, with Billy hot on her heals. The sight she met was horrifying. If Auron and the two priests looked tired and drained, the Doctor looked beyond exhausted. Lara had never seen the Doctor this way before. His shoes had been cast aside some time ago, as well as one of his socks and his suit. The blue shirt underneath was covered in sweat, and what looked like matted blood. It was ripped at the sleeve, so the Doctor's right arm was bare. One of his pantlegs was similarly slashed, and dangled by a thread at the knee. Blood trickled from a small wound on the top of the Doctor's head, and his right eye seemed to be swollen shut. As Lara watched, the Doctor attempted to punch himself in the face, instead tottering backward awkwardly. The Doctor then collapsed back on the slab, motionless. His legs pointed at an odd angle, and his eyes bobbed in every direction, unseeing.

"Doctor!" Lara cried, and ran to his side, pinning his arms to his side.

The Doctor seemed to come out of a deep trance for a second, and his eyes focused on her briefly. "Lara?"

"That's right!" Lara cried. "I have something for-…"

"Look how she weeps, the weak human!" the Doctor roared suddenly in a voice that was not his own, and with surprising strength he shoved her off of him. The shove was ill-aimed, though, and rather than hurting Lara the Doctor rolled off the slab and collided with the floor.

"Is this how he's been for 23 hours?" Billy demanded of the Guados, looking murderous.

"I am the Fire, the Fury, the Rage!" screamed the Doctor.

Auron addressed him calmly, sadly. "He has. We can't tie him down for long. He would use too much of his mental strength to break free of the bonds, and it would distract him from what he needs to be doing. It looks bad, but for a Time Lord all of this damage will heal in a day or two."

Billy was still looking murderous, but the Doctor came to life again, this time in his own voice: "I will fight you! You won't hurt them!"

"Can you just hold him down for a second? I just need him to stay in one place so he can look at something!"

Auron nodded. "We're hoping that those who know him best will be able to calm him, focus him. It wouldn't hurt, at least, not at this point."

"I will never tell her! She will never live like me!" the Doctor was yelling, flailing his arms in the air. The two priests each grabbed one side of the Doctor, draping themselves over him and pinning him to the slab.

"Shhhh!" Lara said to him, putting her hand on his arm once again. His head whipped toward her, and his eyes seemed to focus on her for just a second before he let out a long, pitying cry.

"Rose," Lara said, because it was the first thing she could think of. That was the name of the girl that he was in love with, the TARDIS had said. That was the name of the girl he had seen in the Farplane. The Doctor's eyes snapped back to Lara again, as though scared.

"What would Rose want?" she whispered.

He was silent, and, she realized, listening.

Lara pulled out a small device, placing it flat in her hand and pressing a small button. The visage of a beautiful blond girl arose out of the device.

The Doctor looked murderous. "She, who shall die in battle," he said in the Beasts' low voice.

"But she didn't die in battle!" the Doctor said in his own voice, attempting to jump up triumphantly. He was held down by the two priests, but he only spared them a brief, shocked glance before addressing Lara again. "She didn't!" Now he seemed to be asking for verification, as though he himself was unsure.

"She didn't die in battle," Lara said fiercely, because it seemed to be what the Doctor needed. She honestly wasn't sure what had happened to Rose.

"No, she didn't," the Doctor said, a fierce look on his face. He looked murderous, but he also looked more himself than he had even 30 seconds before. "She's safe, in another universe." He stared through Lara as he said, "And Lara will be safe, too. She will never suffer my fate! She will never open it! NOW GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

At once, it seemed as though a gust of wind filled the room. The Doctor collapsed on the slab, unconscious, and Lara heard Auron slam the top down on the urn with a loud CLANG!

Billy POV

The Doctor had been unconscious for 24 hours, but Auron assured Billy and Lara that he was "just sleeping. He's exhausted. He'll be okay in a day or so." The priests bathed and cleaned him, and Lara provided him with a new suit from the TARDIS. After this was complete, the Doctor looked much better. He had a rather prominent black eye and a cut near his forehead, but the injuries looked much less severe without all the matted blood.

"The potion worked," Auron said. "These are not the injuries that would've occurred had he been at his physical peak. A normal Time Lord could've killed all of us and himself, if he'd wanted."

This was hard to imagine, so Billy chose not to. He had been wrestling with his own demons, actually. He was extremely angry with the Doctor, though he couldn't put his finger on why. The Doctor had done nothing to endanger Lara or himself; in fact, he had ridded the world (and now the Farplane as well) of a great evil. So, Billy chose to keep his thoughts to himself.

It had taken every ounce of persuasion he possessed to convince Lara not to ask about the Doctors' words while he was possessed. "And Lara will be safe too. She will never suffer my fate! She will never open it!" He was referring to the watch, surely. What was in the watch? How would it make Lara "suffer his fate?"

Billy was sure of only one thing, and that was that he didn't want to find out. "Don't you trust the Doctor?" he'd asked her. "Obviously, it was something he didn't want you to know. He must've known that a familiar face would be helpful when fighting the Beast, and yet he still didn't want you around while he did it. Obviously it's something he doesn't want you to know about. And if it's something he's afraid of, it's probably for good reason."

He wasn't stupid enough to think that Lara had put it out of her head, but he did trust her to keep her promise that she wouldn't ask him about it.

He was truly glad when the Doctor woke up. As Auron had predicted, the Doctor's wounds had almost completely healed by the third day, and he was agitated to leave. "But first, you must see the Farplane as it's supposed to be," he added.

The Doctor POV

The Doctor wasn't sure what he had said, or done, while possessed… but he was glad it was over. The Farplane had returned to its former glory. The stairway was full of singing, and he watched as Billy and Lara did the proper amount of staring in wonder at the beautiful sight.

At the top of the stairs, the three were met with thousands of pyreflies, blue, yellow, green and purple. Lara and Billy split off from the Doctor after seeing their loved ones that had passed on. The Doctor recognized one of them as Lara's grandfather.

Once again, the Doctor was faced with the beautiful visage of Rose. He missed her so, so much. He felt a tear slide down his cheek.

Once again, the pyreflies spoke to him. This time, the pyreflies spoke in Rose's voice. "Because you helped us, we will speak to you once again. Do you want to know what happened to Rose?"

"Yes," the Doctor said, feeling another tear slide down his cheek. "She should be alive, though. She shouldn't be here…"

The figure of Rose shook her head. "She is dead according to this universe, and your timeline with her has ended. Therefore, she is here. But there is another answer you seek, I think."

"Lara… Lara Nelson," the Doctor said. "Where did she come from? Is she Gallifreyan? How is she here?"

"We cannot see that which occurs in the world of the living. Isn't there a place you can go to find this information?"

The Doctor shook his head. "The records of the Time Lords were destroyed with Gallifrey. Except in the… the library!" It hit him like a ton of bricks. How could he have been so stupid? The Vashta Nerada had destroyed the library… but as long as he arrived in the time before the Vashta Nerada he should be able to gather at least some information.

"Good!" Rose said, smiling her tongue-touched smile once more. He looked at her one last time, and a final tear slid down his face.

"Doctor?" Rose asked.

"Yeah?"

"Don't be afraid to open your heart again."