29 – Nothing Left Out

Lilith's tracking abilities had proven uncannily accurate, leading the group to a chamber filled with horror visible to all present. Even she looked vaguely nauseous as she beheld the captive figure, broken and bleeding and barely recognizable as the shy, bookish young man that had appeared in her office ages ago and had shown appreciation for both the admittedly illegal project on her desk as well as the one that worked on it. With a strangled cry of grief, Lilith pelted over to the table and reached a hand down to touch Marius' bruised and bloody face. "Marius..." Marius stirred, groaned slightly, then subsided once more. Fighting back tears, Lilith turned to fumble with the first of the restraints that held him in place. "Marius, wake up..."

After several failed attempts, Lilith clenched her shaking hands and turned to look at the Doctor for assistance. The dark mix of panicked frustration and desperation overlaying something far worse said more than any words and, leaving Lilith to comfort her colleague, he set to work on loosening the bonds, focusing intently on his task so as not to be swallowed by the gloom threatening to overwhelm Lilith's mind. One of us has got to stay sane, he mused, adjusting a setting on the sonic screwdriver when his efforts likewise met with futility.

"Marius, open your eyes. Come on."

This at last elicited a response, Marius slowly opening his eyes and blinking against the sudden glare of flourescent light in his face. He frowned uncertainly, whispered, "Lilith?"

Lilith laughed once in relief, sniffled once and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her coat. "Yeah, that's right," she said, smiling. "I'm here to save you, Marius." She touched his face again, hesitantly at first as if still reluctant to believe what she was seeing. The light that had filled her features at that moment then darkened abruptly as Marius' eyes lost focus and his breathing turned ragged and shallow. Lilith glared back over her shoulder to where Avery waited, snapped, "What are you waiting for? He doesn't look so good..."

Avery then took charge, checking Marius over to make sure that no life-threatening injuries existed. Moving with the swift confidence of a practiced professional, he took the captive's broken foot in his hands and carefully twisted it. Marius came to alertness again at that moment, the pain calling him back as he turned his face into Lilith's hand to muffle a scream. "I'm sorry, Marius. Avery was just setting the foot."

"And there we go! There's the last of them." Stashing the screwdriver back in a coat pocket, the Doctor set to work removing the straps that held Marius in place. "That's more like it - we'll get you out of here in no time."

Looking for a way to make herself useful, Gwen fished a clean cloth and a canteen from Avery's medical bag and used these to soothe Marius' chafed wrists and ankles as well as to wipe away some of the excess blood. She then noticed something a little bit off about the whole scenario, coughed awkwardly, and shot a significant look at Jack. "He's... ah..." Jack nodded understanding and removed his jacket, crossing over to the table and helping to ease Marius into a sitting position so that he could be covered against the chill of shock and sudden public exposure.

Lilith's attention, meanwhile, had turned elsewhere and she scowled as her eyes fell on the band encasing Marius' upper arm. Oh, now that just does it! "One last thing, Doctor. Get rid of it."

"Plastic, hm? Shouldn't be too hard." The sonic device was brought to bear once more, settings adjusted as its owner tried to figure out just why it wasn't working. "What the..."

"What's wrong with this stupid thing?" Lilith grumbled to no one in particular. Marius stumbled over the words, offering an explanation that Lilith barely heard over the pulse of returning anger. The conversation continued on, Avery mentioning something about Marius having been given a strong hallucinogen, and Lilith muttered, "Then we should leave before Ulamo gives us another surprise."

"I don't think he's done with us just yet," Avery retorted, then said something to Jack that Lilith didn't catch. "Oh, that reminds me..." He unslung a long, cloth-wrapped bundle from where it had rested on his shoulder. "Here you go, dear. I think you'll be able to get some use out of it now."

Lilith took the bundle and removed the wrappings, grinning as she hefted the familiar weight of her rifle. "Finally!"

Marius opened his mouth to speak in spite of the glares from the others that told him to save his energy. "Still illegal," he managed, "but it suits you. I'm glad you're alive."

The Field Agent hung the rifle over one shoulder by its strap and gave Marius a soft pat on the cheek. "That goes for you too, kid. You can't die on me now – we need you to live through this, okay?"

Marius gave a weak nod as he was carefully lifted by Avery, relaxing in the professor's watchful embrace. The group then moved on toward their final goal, the darkness settling deeper in Lilith's heart with each step. Make your peace, you sick bastard. I'm coming for you.


Lilith's desire for confrontation was satisfied sooner than the group anticipated. The figure melted into the light just steps away from the exit, clad in the seamless black of Enforcement and watching them calculatingly with eyes of the same deep hue. "Of course it's not that easy," Ulamo said, raising a remote control towards the ceiling. Machinery whirred briefly and all who could looked up to see the ceiling descending rapidly towards them, stopping perhaps a yard above their heads. "That's a rather large and well-placed box, I would say. One would also think that, should you try to kill me, it might fall on all of you. The way it is, and where you all are, there isn't enough time for all of you to move without dying, or even losing a limb." He then turned his attention to Jack, grinning sharply in a manner that put one in mind of an aquatic predator with bloodlust on its mind. "Have you ever died by being flattened, Captain? I assume it's rather—agonizing. Not just the death, but being brought back while still underneath it, a cycle of dying and rebirth. That would hurt."

Marius trembled at the sound of the voice, trying to suppress the all-too-fresh memories that surfaced. Ulamo noticed this as well and grinned even wider. "Now then – who should I play with first?" He glanced over the group, rubbing his hands together like a child in a toy shop. "Three lower-beings...two Humans and a Time Lord, and one who can survive anything. I'll have so much fun with you."

Lilith stepped forward, one hand on the rifle's shoulder strap to steady it in case it would be needed. "You're not going to get a chance."

And here goes nothing, the Doctor mused, feeling the abrupt change in Lilith's mental climate as surely as if he'd been doused with a bucket of ice water. I just hope that she doesn't bring the whole place down around our ears while she's at it.


Lilith breathed a mental sigh of relief when Avery teleported the others out of danger, the ceiling block falling like a grave slab at her back and separating her from her friends and allies. No going back now, she thought, forcing herself to coldly smile in order to cover her own unease. "Are you ready, Ulamo?"

"Ready for what?" Ulamo asked, smirking. "I have yet to see anything that could possibly pose a threat – just a scared half-breed girl and a weapon just as bastardized as she is. I'd be surprised if she could even get it to work."

"Trust me," Lilith growled, "it works." Pulling time to a near-stop, she quickly adjusted the settings on the rifle and brought it to her shoulder. This time the grin was real as her finger eased the trigger back, her mind anticipating the clean, clear shot right between her enemy's eyes. "I've had plenty of times to test it!" Time snapped back into place, flying along with the invisible projectile -

Ulamo lifted a hand, palm in the air between his face and the trajectory of the sonic bullet. The air rippled and shimmered, a faint bruise appearing on Ulamo's skin but otherwise leaving no trace of the shot. "Interesting concept, but it needs some fine-tuning." He waved his hand as if batting a fly away and the rifle tore out of Lilith's grip, flying away out of her reach. "Shall we put the toys away and get down to business?"

"You should have told me that you like to play rough!" Lilith inhaled briefly, focusing her thoughts. "But then again, I should have guessed, what with the torture bench and all. In any other situation, it would be harmless kink and maybe fun..." She stepped aside as Ulamo struck at her with jabbing fingers, phased out of reach of the energy lash extending from his other hand and hit him with a swift kick, hearing the crack of bone in his arm and a grunt of pain as the blow connected. "What were you saying about no toys? Tsk tsk, my friend."

Ulamo dropped to the floor, swept a leg out to knock Lilith off-balance. "Never take an Enforcer at their word, young one. I thought you would have known this by now after having tasted their hospitality!" The pointed fingers struck out again at one specific point on Lilith's chest, the energy behind the strike enough to cause one of the two hearts to shudder in its beat. Lilith coughed in pain and effort but nonetheless rose to her feet once more, barely moving in time to dodge the fist that would have crushed her nose up into her skull. Ulamo scowled in disappointment - "That should have incapacitated you!"

"Two hearts, dear," Lilith retorted. "You've only slowed the inevitable. Here's a lesson for you: if you really must get stuck in a body, try for a Time Lord. Humans are so... limited, wouldn't you say?" Spotting Ulamo attempting to rise, she aimed a well-timed kick at the juncture of the legs and grinned wolfishly when it connected, sending him back to the floor with a hissed curse. "Then again, one might also cast their vote for a form without external genitalia. Near-godlike abilities, yet knocked out of commission by a nice friendly squirrel-tap? Embarrassing, to be sure." She chuckled, then added as an afterthought, "That, Ulamo, was from the citizens of Mondas. They send their regards."

"Cute," Ulamo snarled, clenching his fist. Energies swirled into a node of near-blinding light before being released towards the yet-grinning Lilith, who merely sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. The balled lightning lanced out towards her but was intercepted by an incandescent barrier that crackled as the energy broke over it and dissipated like an ocean wave. The building around them swayed and shivered with the force of the explosion but mercifully stayed upright, and Lilith yawned and inspected her fingernails.

"Oh, was I actually supposed to feel that? I'm sorry, I'm afraid I missed something." Lilith then waved a hand, jerking Ulamo to his feet with an unseen grip. "As fun as this has been, I have better and far more entertaining things to do with my time. Pray the gods are merciful, for you will join them shortly." She reversed the barrier, this time encasing her enemy in a prison that, try as he might, he could not escape. Lilith took a deep breath and closed her eyes, noting the paired beats of dual hearts thrumming in a four-part pattern that she'd thought she'd escaped. Fine. You want me to use my abilities? Watch.

"Ulamo, you have brought shame to your family and to the body of our race. You thought you could run... but nothing can escape us forever. An eye for an eye, for the horrors that you have brought upon the innocent with no one to defend themselves." Ulamo said nothing as each orb first went white with blindness, then bled out into pools of blackened rot. "For the homes and lives you have shattered, each bone in your body is broken." Lilith raised a hand, curled the fingers slightly, and thanked higher powers that she could not hear the grisly snaps and crunches as each of the bones in Ulamo's human skeleton slowly ground to powder. "Your heart in exchange for the dreams and hopes that breathe no more." A gurgling, bloody cough, followed by a slow smile that only threw Lilith's anger into full flare. "And lastly, Ulamo of the line of Ordas, you will burn just as surely as the planets you have destroyed. Thus passes the will of the Exarch through my hand!" Lilith then squeezed her fist closed, filling the room with blinding light.

The moment lasted for what seemed like an eternity as she continued to tighten her focus, yet even as she increased the energy pouring through the barrier she could still sense her captive hanging on to life by the thinnest threads. Where any lesser being under the same stress would have howled in agony Lilith could hear Ulamo's maddeningly calm words: "You'll have to do better than that, Lilith. You're still so young... and untried... but I am older. I have reserves that you can't even begin to fathom."

The memories were all too fresh of the atrocities Lilith had seen played out in Ianto's mind, memories that she'd done her best to bury so as not to lose her carefully maintained control. The pain from Marius still flickered at the edges of her consciousness, and now a new panic set in when Lilith realized that that fragile connection was flickering and fading. "No! He can't die, not now - " The anger burst forth anew, this time causing the concrete beneath her feet to crack with the physical manifestation of raw emotion. It flew through her veins in a fiery rush, rising in her ears in a banshee wail over the percussive beat of war drums, and without a second thought about it Lilith poured this newfound energy out into Ulamo's prison. "You know what? I do too. Burn in hell, bastard!"

"That's more like it. You... would make an... excellent... Enforcer."

There was a final brilliant flash as the tethers connecting Ulamo to the plane of the living severed, and while the barrier prevented his death energy from leaking out, it did nothing to contain the force of the detonation. Lilith felt the tremble and released the barrier surrounding Ulamo, reforming it around herself just in time to be caught by the shock wave and thrown against one of the steel girders supporting the walls and roof. This was the final push needed for the framework to give way, and the roof collapsed with a deafening rumble.