The Ood were still approaching as Rose wrestled with the door when Jefferson finally yelled: "Open fire!" He and the guard who'd been behind the girls started shooting at the Ood. Rose was still clinging to the door handle as she and Lily cringed away from the firing gunshots.

"We're stabilizing." Zach said over Jefferson's wrist comm. "We've got orbit." Lily looked in horror at the now dead Oods, while Rose rushed down to the comm. "Doctor?" She asked desperately and Lily hurried to join her. "Doctor, can you hear me? Doctor, Ida, are you there?"

Lily looked back as the computer said: "Open door 25." "Now it decides to open?!" She asked exasperated while Jefferson and the guard prepared to shoot. Danny stepped through, and jumped.

"It's me!" He yelled, seeing the guns pointed at him. Lily breathed a sigh of relief while Jefferson and the guard lowered their guns. "But they're coming." Danny added warningly, twisting the door handle to shut it completely and Lily's blood ran cold.

"Close door 25." The computer said, while Danny continued: "It's the Ood. They've gone mad." "How many of them?" Jefferson demanded and Danny replied hysterically: "All of them! All fifty!"

"Danny, out of the way. Out of the way!" Jefferson ordered, pulling the younger man away as he began to open the door. "But they're armed!" Danny cried frantically, and Lily looked at him. "It's the interface device. I don't know how, but they're using it as a weapon."

"Mr. Jefferson, I really think you should listen-" Lily began but the computer said: "Open door 25." Jefferson pulled open to door and Lily saw the Ood standing there, raising their interface globes. She shrieked as the Ood in the front raised the interface and placed it against the guard, causing the guard to scream before she fell, dead.

Jefferson began firing at the Ood while Danny flinched behind him, and Lily pulled Rose down. They crouched, Rose cowering against her cousin while the brunette stared ahead as she watched the Ood fall. "It's not even their fault." She whispered sadly. Jefferson finished the last Ood, before coming down to check on the girls.

"Jefferson, what's happening there?" Zach's voice crackled over Jefferson's wrist comm. "I've got very little ammunition, sir." Jefferson reported back. "How about you?" Zach's voice came back frantic: "All I've got is a bolt gun. With er, all of one bolt. I could take out a grand total of one Ood. Fat lot of good that is."

"Given the emergency," Jefferson said, "I recommend strategy nine." Lily frowned. "What's strategy nine?" She asked but Jefferson hushed her as Zach repeated: "Strategy Nine. Agreed. Right," Zach began to order, "we need to get everyone together. Rose? What about Ida and the Doctor? Any word?"

"I can't get a reply." Rose replied, sounding tearful. "Just nothing. I keep trying, but it's-" There was the sound of static before the Doctor replied: "No, sorry, I'm fine. Still here." Lily stared at the comm in annoyance as Rose bit out but with a look of utter relief: "You could've said, you stupid-"

There was the sharp sound of feedback. "I think it knew you were about to say something not nice." Lily commented, while the Doctor said: "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 chasm."

Lily sighed, rubbing her forehead. Things were going from bad to worse the longer they stayed. "How deep is it?" Zach asked, and the Doctor replied: "Can't tell. It looks like it goes down forever."

Lily looked at Rose. "The Ood, the pit." She said urgently and Rose remembered. "The pit is open." She told them. "That's what the voice said." "But there's nothing. I mean," Zach said, "There's nothing coming out?"

The Doctor muttered: "No, no. No sign of the Beast." Rose said in a shaky voice: "It said Satan." "Come on, Rose. Keep it together." The Doctor said to her, before adding: "Lily? Get Lily, what were you going to say earlier?"

But Rose was freaking out and she clutched the comm, asking: "Is there no such thing? Doctor." She begged, asking for reassurance. "Doctor, tell me there's no such thing." Lily reached out to grasp Rose's shoulder, and to take the comm, but Zach interjected: "Ida? I recommend that you withdraw. Immediately."

"But, we've come all this way." Ida protested. "Okay." Zach replied, before he barked: "That was an order. Withdraw. When that thing opened, 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." Ida pointed out and Zach replied: "I'm initiating strategy nine, so I need the two of you back up top immediately, no ar-" There was the sound of static as Ida turned her comms off. "Ida. Ida!" Zach yelled.

"What's strategy nine?" Lily demanded, before speaking into the comm: "Doctor? Doctor?" There was no response, and they stood waiting nervously, before the Doctor's voice crackled over. "Lily, Rose, we're coming back." Rose grabbed the comm again.

"Best news I've heard all day." She breathed in relief. "Lily." the Doctor called, as Jefferson cocked his gun, pointing it at Toby. Lily took the comm as Rose demanded to Jefferson: "What're you doing?" Lily forced her attention to the situation before them, muttering: "Doctor, hang on."

"He's infected." Jefferson said darkly. "He brought that thing on board. You saw it." Rose stopped him. "Are you going to start shooting your own people now? Is that what you're going to do? Is it?" Jefferson looked at her. "If necessary." He replied shortly.

"Well then, you'll have to shoot me if necessary, so what's it going to be?" Rose said flatly, and Lily drew closer. "Look at his face." Rose protested, gesturing at Toby as she knelt next to the terrified man. "Whatever it was, is gone. It passed into the Ood. You saw it happen. He's clean."

"He's not." Lily replied shortly, and Rose glared at her. "Not you too, come on you saw it too! You're starting to sound like the Doctor." Rose grumbled, while Jefferson looked uncertain. "Don't shoot him, but he's not clean. The beast wouldn't leave him that easily." Lily warned.

"And you think we shouldn't shoot him?" Jefferson asked incredulously and Lily narrowed her eyes, glancing down at the terrified man. "Right now, he's human. I'm warning you to keep your eyes on him, though." Lily said simply. Jefferson looked back at Toby, and he warned: "Any sign of trouble, I'll shoot him."

"Are you all right?" Rose asked the poor man as Jefferson walked away. "Yeah. I don't know." Toby stuttered and Rose questioned: "Can you remember anything?" "Just, it was so angry. It was fury and rage and death. It was him. It was the devil." Toby said in fear, and Rose hugged the terrified man. "Come on."

Lily was speaking quietly to the Doctor as she asked: "What do you think?" The Doctor murmured: "I think you're right, but I also agree we can't just kill the man, not when we don't know for certain. There could be a way to save him. Him and the Ood. I don't agree with strategy nine." Ida had explained that strategy nine was to open the airlock, taking everything not in the lock down thrown out into the vaccuum.

"Doctor," Lily began, "the Ood, Toby. They were possessed, but I don't think it's the beast's body. Telepathic link." Lily reminded him, when Ida interrupted. "Okay, we're in. Bring us up." Ida's voice crackled over. Lily frowned. "Doctor-" Lily began but Jefferson cut in. "Ascension in three, two, one." He pressed the button and the power went out. They all stared around wildly into the darkness.

"This is the darkness." The beast's deep voice rang out "This is my domain." The monitor flickered to show the Ood on camera, staring at them. Their voices joined the beast's as he said darkly: "You little things that live in the light, clinging to your feeble suns which die in the-"

"That's not the Ood. Something's talking through them." Zach muttered as the voice continued: "Only the darkness remains." Zach interrupted: "This is Captain Zachary Cross Flane of Sanctuary Base Six, representing the Torchwood archive. You will identify yourself."

"You know my name." The voice replied and Zach demanded: "What do you want?" The voice replied: "You will die here. All of you. This planet is your grave." Toby began to moan in terror: "It's him. It's him. It's him." The others looked about, trying to find a source.

"If you are the Beast," the Doctor interjected, "then answer me this. Which one, hmm? Cos the universe has been busy since you've been gone. There's more religions than there are planets in the sky. The Archiphets, Orkology, Christianity, Pash Pash, New Judaism, San Klah, Church of the Tin Vagabond. Which devil are you?"

"All of them." The voice replied. "What, then you're the truth behind the myth?" The Doctor asked, almost mockingly. The voice replied, and Lily frowned at its words: "This one knows me as I know him. The killer of his own kind."

The Doctor apparently decided to ignore him as he asked: "How did you end up on this rock?" "The Disciples of the Light rose up against me and chained me in the pit for all eternity." The voice replied.

"When was this?" The Doctor asked and the voice answered: "Before time." Lily could almost hear the Doctor frown. "What does that mean?" He asked and the voice repeated: "Before time."

"What does 'before time' mean?" The Doctor demanded and the voice finally elaborated: "Before light and time and space and matter. Before the cataclysm. Before this universe was created."

"That's impossible. No life could have existed back then." The Doctor protested, and the voice asked, amused: "Is that your religion?" There was a pause before the Doctor answered slowly: "It's a belief."

"You know nothing. All of you, so small." The voice said scathingly. "The Captain, so scared of command." Lily's face immediately paled. She could see where the beast was going with this. "The soldier, haunted by the eyes of his wife." Jefferson's eyes widened in panic.

"The scientist, still running from Daddy." Lily heard Ida's little whimper over the comms. "The little boy who lied." Danny swallowed. "The virgin." Toby looked over, his face drawn. Lily would've laughed if the situation wasn't so dire, particularly as the beast said: "The lost girl, so far away from home."

Rose stared at it in fear, while Lily's brow furrowed. Girl-singular. "The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon." Both girls paled. "Doctor, what does that mean?" Rose whimpered, and the Doctor replied in a low voice: "Rose, don't listen."

"What does it mean?" Rose repeated, when the voice continued: "And the clever little girl. You're figuring me out as we speak." Lily swallowed as it continued. "But so lonely, so alone, even when surrounded by those she thinks are her friends."

"Lily, don't listen to him!" The Doctor shouted, but Lily couldn't reply. "You, brave child will also be lost to the man called Doctor, erased by his own hand." Lily's eyes widened. "Doctor…" she whispered, and the voice continued: "You will die and I will live."

The image on the monitor changed, the Ood replaced by a red, roaring, horned beast, before it disappeared. "What the hell was that?" Danny asked, terrified while Toby was looking horrified. "I had that thing inside my head." He said hoarsely, while Rose continued to repeat into the comm: "Doctor, what did it mean?"

"What do we do? Jefferson?" Danny asked frantically and Jefferson spoke into his wrist comm. "Captain? What's the situation on strategy nine?" Danny added panicked: "Zach, what do we do?" and Toby murmured rattled: "The planet, the orbit, the black hole. Everything's true."

"Captain, report." Jefferson demanded. "We've lost pictures, Mister Jefferson." Zach replied, and everyone continued to speak at once. "Doctor, how did it know all of-" Rose was asking as Ida said: ""Did anyone get an anala-" "Jefferson." Zach began. It was beginning to give Lily a headache.

"Stop." The Doctor began, but they all continued. "What did it mean?" Rose asked freaking out. "Everyone just stop." The Doctor tried again, but Danny was crying: "What do we do?" While Jefferson continued to call into his wrist comm: "Report."

Suddenly there was a loud squeal of feedback through the comms, shutting everyone up as they flinched. Lily breathed again as the Doctor snapped: "You want voices in the dark, then listen to mine." He demanded. He added urgently: "That thing is playing on very basic fears. Darkness, childhood nightmares, all that stuff."

"But that's how the devil works." Danny whispered and the Doctor snapped back: "Or a good psychologist." Ida protested: "Yeah, but how did it know about my father?" The Doctor paused for a second before saying: "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."

Lily smiled as the Doctor continued. "Humans who travel all the way across space, flying in a tiny little rocket right into the orbit of a black hole, just for the sake of discovery. That's amazing!" The Doctor cried. "Do you hear me?" He repeated. "Amazing, all of you. The Captain, his Officer, his elders, his juniors, his friends. All with one advantage." He encouraged.

"The Beast is alone. We are not. If we can use that to fight against him-" There was a sharp sound as the Doctor broke off, and Lily watched in horror as the pod cable that had been pulling the Doctor up, snapped right before their eyes.

"Get out!" They heard the Doctor scream, probably at Ida. They watched in terror as the cable fall down, whipping its way down the drill hole, before there was a loud bang and smoke flew up through the chute.

"Doctor, we lost the cable!" Rose screamed desperately into the comm. "Doctor, are you all right? Doctor!" Lily's hands tightened on the console, gripping it so hard her knuckles cracked. "Comms are down." Zach called over, and Lily snapped: "No, really?" while Rose kept screaming: "Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me?"

"I've still got life signs, but we've lost the capsule." Zach informed, and Lily breathed- at least he was alive…for now. "Say something. Are you there?" Rose kept shouting hysterically into the comm while Zach continued: "There's no way out. They're stuck down there."

Lily paled, as if she could go any paler. "But the air- how much oxygen do they have left?" She asked frantically. "Sixty minutes." Jefferson said, while Zach corrected: "Fifty five." Lily turned to peer down the chute, as did Rose.

"But we've got to bring them back." Rose said desperately, and Jefferson sighed. "They're ten miles down. We haven't got another ten miles of cable." There was a loud bang on the door behind them, and they all whipped around, Jefferson pointing his gun at the door.

"Captain?" He called into his wrist comm, and the door banged again sending up sparks. "Situation report." "It's the Ood." Zach replied. "They're cutting through the door bolts. They're breaking in."

Jefferson reported as he checked the door: "Yeah, it's the same on door 25." Jefferson headed back to them as Rose whimpered: "How long's it going to take?" Jefferson replied tightly: "Well, it's only a basic frame, it should take ten minutes."

"Brilliant." Lily muttered, and another bolt was snapped sending sparks on their side of the door. "Eight." Jefferson corrected, and Lily snapped: "Bloody brilliant!" "I've got a security frame." Zach said. "It might last a bit longer, but that doesn't help you."

"Right." Rose said quickly. "So we need to stop them, or get out, or both." There was another bang as another bolt snapped. Danny said sarcastically: "I'll take both, yeah? But how?" He demanded and Lily and Rose paused. "You heard the Doctor." Rose said. "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."

At the men's blank looks, Rose cried in exasperation: "Come on! Lily, think, you're smart, and you know how the Doctor thinks." She ordered, and Lily nodded thoughtfully. "Lights first, we need to be able to see." Lily said, and Rose agreed.

"Right, for starters, we need some lights." She said frantically. "There's got to be some sort of power somewhere." "There's nothing I can do. Some Captain, stuck in here, pressing buttons." Zach said bitterly, and Rose tried to encourage him: "That's what the Doctor meant. Press the right buttons."

Zach snapped, his nerves frazzled: "They've gutted the generators." "What about the rocket? Doesn't it have energy?" Lily asked him, trying to figure something out. There was a pause and Zach murmured: "You're right. The rocket's got an independent supply. If I could reroute that… Mr. Jefferson." He ordered: "Open the bypass conduits. Override the safety."

Jefferson quickly set the gun down and worked at the controls. "Opening bypass conduits, sir." Lily grinned. Zach reported: "Channeling rocket feed in three, two, one. Power." The lights switched on and Rose said ecstatically, clapping her hands: "There we go." Danny crowed: "Let there be light!"

"But we need to figure a way out." Lily said, her lips pursed in thought. Rose turned to Jefferson. "What about that strategy nine thing?" Rose asked, but he shook his head. "Not enough power. It needs a hundred percent." He told her and Rose mumbled: "Alright, we need a way out. Zach, Mr. Jefferson, you start working on that, help Lily. Toby, what about you?" She turned to the man.

"I'm not a soldier. I can't do anything." He said, turning away in disappointed anger but Lily called: "You're the archeologist, and we need that. We need information." She paused to level a look at him. "So show me what you've got. What do you know about the pit?"

"Well, nothing. We can't even translate the language." Toby said, Rose said dejectedly: "Right." "Hold on. Maybe." Toby said slowly. "What?" Lily asked as Rose turned back to him and asked: "What is it?"

Toby hesitated, stumbling through his words. "Since that thing was inside my head, it's like the letters made more sense." "That's a good start." Lily encouraged as Rose ordered: "Well, get to work. Anything you can translate, just anything." Toby nodded and grabbed a pad, beginning to write on it.

She turned to Danny. "As for you, Danny boy. You're in charge of the Ood. Any way of stopping them?" Danny just looked at her. "Well, I don't know." He admitted. "Then find out." Rose suggested threateningly. "The sooner we get control of the Base, the sooner we can get the Doctor out. Now get going."

When he didn't move, she pushed him. "Shift." She ordered as Lily said to Jefferson: "Look up the pipes, ventilation shafts, maybe find some tunnels, anything we can go through to get away." He nodded, and said: "Open junctions five, six, seven. Reroute filters sixteen to twenty four. Go."

As Jefferson worked the controls, Danny, Rose and Lily stood by the monitor where Danny said thoughtfully: "There's all sorts of viruses that could stop the Ood. Trouble is, we haven't got them on board." He began to type randomly while Rose scoffed.

"Well, that's handy, listing all the things we haven't got." Rose said, sounding uncannily like the Doctor. "We haven't got a swimming pool either." "What about using their telepathic nature?" Lily interjected, but Danny shook his head, opening his mouth to speak as he typed.

"Or a Tesco's." Rose continued, and the screen blinked. Lily stared at it as the word 'affirmative' appeared in huge letters. "Oh, my God." Danny said, disbelievingly. "What is it?" Lily asked as she peered at the screen.

"It says yes. I can do it." He cried as he switched the screen to a broadcast flare currently set at basic zero. "Hypothetically, if you flip the monitor, broadcast a flare, it can disrupt the telepathy. Brainstorm!" He grinned at Lily.

"What happens to the Ood?" Rose asked, and Danny replied: "It'll tank them, spark out." Rose smiled, and she said enthusiastically: "There we are, then. Do it!" Danny shook his head.

"No, but I'd have to transmit from the central monitor." He explained. Lily nodded, a plan forming. "We need to go to Ood Habitation." Rose's face fell, but there was another bang on the door and she glanced at it.

"That's what we'll do, then." Rose said hurriedly. "Mr. Jefferson, sir. Any way out?" She called, and Jefferson nodded. "Just about. There's a network of maintenance tunnels running underneath the base. We should be able to gain access from here."

Lily frowned as Rose smiled. "Ventilation shafts." Rose beamed, and Lily cut across: "Maintenance tunnels? But is there air?" Jefferson shook his head. "I appreciated the reference, but there's no ventilation." He sighed to Rose before confirming for Lily.

"No air, in fact, at all. They were designed for machines, not life forms." Rose's face had fallen again, and there was another bang. "Any chance we could extend the oxygen field?" Lily asked. Jefferson shook his head, then paused suddenly, thoughtful.

Zach's voice came over. "I can manipulate the oxygen field from here. Create discrete pockets of atmosphere. If I control it manually, I can follow you through the network."

Lily smiled, clapping. "Brilliant!" She said. "Captain Zach, you're a genius." "Right, so we go down," Rose began to plan, "and you make the air follow us by hand." Lily could almost hear Zach sigh.

"You wanted me pressing buttons." He joked half-heartedly, and Rose chirped back: "Yeah, I asked for it. Okay, we need to get to Ood Habitation. Work out a route." "Please." Lily added jokingly.