A/N: As per usual, much love and many thanks to all of you lovely viewers! Your feedback is always greatly appreciated ;)

****EDIT: I made some revisions to the Library episodes. To anyone rereading this story, you'll notice the changes.****

Chapter 34: Silence in the Library Part 3

The Doctor continued to work on the terminal while everyone worked on getting as many lights as possible. Rose stood on the side with Donna, keeping a close eye on Rueben as he moved around the room with the group of archeologists. She inwardly twitched again, her nerves not easing up from the unsteadiness.

"You okay?" the redhead asked. "You look a bit shaken up."

"Too obvious?" she replied, crossing her arms over her chest. She sighed and craned her neck, her eyes locked on the ceiling where the sunlight came through. "This place just doesn't sit right with me, that's all. I knew it from the second we came here."

"Didn't really seem like it. But you did say you were distracted from that message you and your husband got."

"Yeah, but now we've got another distraction right now since that little mystery was solved."

Donna frowned in confusion. "What do you mean? Did you find out who sent that message?"

Rose nodded. "Yup."

"Who was it?"

"He's right over there," she answered, jutting her chin up in the direction where Rueben was standing by the desk.

Donna raised her brows. "It was him?" she asked, sounding shocked.

"As it turns out, yeah. Not only that but he comes from the future."

"Obviously, we're in the 51st century like you said, right? That's pretty much the future in my book."

"No, but he's from our future," Rose clarified. "We meet him some time later on."

"I assumed he must have known you two," Donna said. "He was acting kinda familiar with you. So you know who he is?"

Rose shook her head. "Not yet. I knew from the beginning something was off about him and now we know why—he's in the wrong point in the timeline."

"And that's really bad."

"Pretty much. It's bothering me 'cause we don't know who he is and he doesn't look like he wants to let us know."

"Maybe it's dangerous for him to tell you since you haven't met him yet," Donna suggested.

"But he could drop us a couple of hints," Rose said with a shrug. "Not tell us directly if he can't, but a clue or somethin'. He keeps everything hidden in that journal and won't let us take a look. It's…annoying."

Donna placed a hand on her shoulder. "Can you trust him?"

Rose studied the man again, noting how immersed in his duties he was to not be aware of the acerbic staring he was receiving his way. Rueben knew the nicknames both Rose and the Doctor were known by throughout the universe, straightforwardly. He radiated static, the kind of feeling that never sat well with Rose since she's had 'spider-senses'. Granted she would feel sensations as uncomfortable as that when encountering others not in the correct timeline—with the exception of her husband's past lives since they weren't as severe, but still equally compulsory. This was different. Not knowing who this man was making her mind rattle, and she was more than positive that the Doctor was worse.

Trusting him though? His familiarity with them was a bit unnerving. People, one way or another, find themselves trusting the Doctor when in serious situations despite being objective in the first encounter. He emanated it, it was a part of him and his charisma. Complete strangers would trust them and believe them. But this man who knows them in the future was still a stranger to them, and the roles were reversed. Rose didn't know if she could trust him. This man was dodgy, so they would keep their eyes peeled for anything else suspicious.

She recalled Rueben mentioning something about their minds, but she couldn't feel any presence to let him know who he was. Unless Rueben wasn't much of a telepathic. He may have been the one who sent the message on their psychic papers, but a low-level telepathic field was required for that, nothing too noticeable to be picked up. He obviously knew about their bonded marriage like a handful of others did, but it was annoying Rose to the point where she wanted to grab that journal and flip through every page.

It was at that moment that a couple of books started flying off the shelves. One nearly clipped Rose but she quickly dodged it, cursing in the process. "What the hell?"

Turning away from the terminal, the Doctor checked on her. "You okay?" he asked mentally.

"Sure, almost got attacked by a giant encyclopedia."

"What?" He looked around when a few others were abruptly being thrown across the air, more and more.

Donna took cover after two came her way. "Oi!" she yelled. "Watch what you're doing, spaceman!"

"I didn't do that!" he replied, confused. He tried to stop the books from flying around to room, not knowing what caused it, but determined to let it stop before someone got hurt. He ran his sonic over the terminal. A sign that read 'Access Denied' appeared on display again, but on top of it said something different. It said 'CAL'. "What's CAL?" he wondered.

Soon the books stopped flying through the air completely. "You okay?" Donna asked Rose after.

"Fine," she answered. "Having books tossed around is the least of our worries with these Vashta Nerada creepin' about."

Off to the side, both Rose and Donna noticed Miss Evangelista looking stressed out and afraid that something could come hurtling her way. The women exchanged a sympathetic look before walking over to her just as she wrapped her arms around herself for protection.

"Hey," Rose said softly, placing a hand on the young girl's arm. "You alright?"

"What's happening?" she responded fearfully.

"It's okay, it's stopped."

"It's not just those books though, right?"

"Whatever we're dealing with will be found and we'll stop them from whatever they're gonna do, okay? We promise."

"And thanks for offering to help with the lights," Donna added. "That was very kind of you."

Miss Evangelista sighed. "They don't want me. They think I'm stupid, 'cause I'm pretty."

"Don't say that," Rose told her as she rubbed her arm comfortingly. "That's not true."

"Nobody thinks that," Donna put in. "You can be pretty and clever and funny all at the same time."

"No, they're right though," the young girl said with a head shake. "I'm a moron, me. My dad said I have the IQ of plankton, and I was pleased."

Rose continued to rub the girl's arm. "Don't you worry about what the others think of you," she told her gently. "Just be yourself and let it take you places. You're beautiful and clever, we know you are. And deep down, the others know it too, even if they won't admit. Don't think that you're useless 'cause they won't let you help them. You don't need them. You just have to wait for your shining moment," she added with a smile.

A faint one appeared on the girl's face before books began to fly around again. Miss Evangelista ducked and clutched onto Donna's arm. Rose dodged another book before moving away towards the Doctor, who was sitting on top of the desk with one leg under him and one bent up.

"Watch yourself now," he said to her, pulling her close when another book flew over their heads. Once again they came to a stop and the group gathered around in a small circle.

"Have to have eyes on the back of your head with these," Rose said. "Why're they doing that? Is it that girl?"

"It could be," Rueben spoke up.

"She said it was her library. Reckon it wasn't a birthday present from her parents."

"But who is she?" the Doctor asked. "What's a little girl have to do with this place? How does the data core work? What's the principle? What's CAL?"

"Ask Mr. Lux," Rueben said.

He turned to the older man. "CAL, what is it?"

"Sorry, you and your little group didn't sign your personal experience contracts," Mr. Lux replied, recalcitrant and unwilling to cooperate.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Who cares about a bloody contract?" she said irritably. "'S not like it's gonna save your life, which is what we're trying to do."

"Exactly," the Doctor agreed with a reasonable tone as he hopped off the desk to stand directly in front of the man. "Mr. Lux, right now, you're in more danger than you've ever been in your whole life, and you're protecting a patent?"

"I'm protecting my family's pride," the man told him.

"Oh, well that changes everything," Rose said sarcastically with her arms crossed. "Let's just lay down and let the danger move freely around all because of a family inheritance."

"It's my family's library, and they didn't build this place to let some travellers walk around as if they're in command. This is a legacy."

"Well, funny thing is, Mr. Lux," the Doctor spoke up, straightening himself up to look down upon the man. "We don't want to see everyone in this room dead because some idiot thinks his pride is more important than the lives of those around him."

"Then why don't you sign his contract?" Rueben said with a ghost of a smile on his face. Both the Doctor and Rose arched their brows at her, and the man's smile grew. "It's cool, I didn't sign it either. You two really rubbed off on me."

The Doctor eyed him suspiciously, still pondering the idea of who he supposedly was, but brushed it aside for the moment. He'd worry about that later on. He needed to make sure everyone in this room was safe from the creatures hiding in the shadows. "Okay then, let's start at the beginning," he said as he paced around with his hand running through his wild hair. "On the actual day, a hundred years ago, what physically happened?"

"There was a message from the Library," Rueben informed them. "All's it read was 'the lights are going out'. Then the computer sealed the planet, and there was nothing for a hundred years."

"It's taken three generations of my family just to decode the seals and get back in," Mr. Lux said.

"Um…excuse me…" Miss Evangelista spoke up quietly from the side.

"Not just now," her boss told her dismissively.

Rueben bent down to retrieve something from his pack. "There was one other thing in the last message—"

"That's confidential," Mr. Lux interjected.

"I trust these people with my life and with everything," he told him as he pulled out a flat device.

"You've only just met them!" the man protested.

"No, they've only just met me. Totally different."

The Doctor exchanged a look with Rose, who merely shrugged and shook her head. That much they got.

"Um," Miss Evangelista said from the side. "This might be important actually—"

"In a moment!" Mr. Lux snapped.

Rose glared at the man. The poor young girl was trying to help and he saw it as complete tetchiness. She was about to acknowledge the girl and turn around to head in her direction, but Rueben pulled up something on his PDA.

"This is a data extract that came with the message," he said as he showed them the screen.

"'Four thousand and twenty-two saved. No survivors,'" the Doctor read.

Rose frowned. "What does that mean though? It makes no sense."

"Four thousand and twenty-two, that's the exact number of people who were in the Library when the planet was sealed," Rueben explained.

"But how can four thousand and twenty-two people have been saved if there were no survivors?" Donna asked.

"Have no idea," the young man said. "That's what we're here to find out."

"And so far, what we haven't found are any bodies," Mr. Lux mused.

Silence hung over the room after the brief conversation. Rose looked around the area when something came to her attention. "Where's Miss Evangelista?" she asked quietly. "She was here a second ago."

Soon a scream shattered the quietness. Whirling around, the group noticed that an open wall panel leading into another corridor. The Doctor quickly grabbed a flashlight and took the lead as they bolted through the doorway. The open panel was the gateway to a darkened hallway that left the same chilling effect.

Rose's insides shivered when they entered a room which appeared to be some sort of lecture hall. There was an open space in the center of the room with a small amount of light being shone, but what it revealed made her gasp. A tall chair was occupied with a skeleton wearing the same spacesuit as Rueben and his entourage, except this one was ripped and shredded as if a wild animal tore it apart with sharp claws. The surface of the skeleton was white, the flesh seemed to have vanished completely. It wasn't an ancient body. It just happened.

The Doctor came to a complete stop and held out his free arm to keep Rose from approaching. His jaw tightened in anger.

"Oh, my God…" she breathed out in horror, still shaking inside. "It's Miss Evangelista."

"It was," he said grimly. Soon the others came in behind them, the majority of them gasping at the sight and he addressed them with a louder voice. "Everybody, careful! Stay in the light."

"You keep saying that," Proper Dave said. "I don't see the point!"

"Don't see the point?" Rose repeated incredulously.

"Who was the one who screamed?" the Doctor asked, turning his attention to the other man.

"Miss Evangelista," Proper Dave replied.

"Where is she?"

Rueben raised a hand up to press a button on the neck of his suit beside a green light. "Miss Evangelista, please state your current—" He stopped himself when his words echoed and came reverberating back at him from the direction of the skeleton. Everyone else looked shocked and feared the worst, but it was the truth. "Please state your current—

He tried again with a whisper, but the rest of his words fell away when he cautiously reached a hand out towards the collar of the spacesuit and pulled out a piece of it behind the tattered material. It was the same communicator that the rest of the group adorned, the green lights still flickering.

Rueben backed away, looking ill. "It's Miss Evangelista," he confirmed.

"Oh, my God," Donna gasped out, her eyes wide.

"We heard her scream a few seconds ago," Anita pointed out. "What could do that to a person in a few seconds?"

"It took a lot less than a few seconds," the Doctor replied, his eyes moving over the skeleton ghastly.

"What did?"

Before he could answer, a voice rang out and startled everyone. "Hello?"

Rose clutched onto the Doctor's arm while Donna moved closer to them when they recognized the voice. It was Miss Evangelista. It came from her communicator which was odd considering she was supposed to be dead. She was, wasn't she?

"I'm sorry everyone," Rueben whispered, his eyes closing. "This isn't going to be pleasant, but…she's ghosting?"

"She's what?" Donna gasped out.

"D'you mean…speaking before she dies completely?" Rose asked shakily, eyeing the skeleton and feeling her insides turn cold the longer she stared at it, tears brimming.

Rueben nodded mutely. "I'm afraid so."

"Hello, excuse me?" came the sweet innocent voice from the young girl again. "I-I'm sorry, hello? Excuse me?"

"I don't want to sound horrible," Proper Dave spoke up, shifting uncomfortably. "But couldn't we just…you know?"

"This is her last moment…" Rueben replied firmly. "No, we can't. A little respect, thank you."

"Sorry, where am I? Excuse me?"

In the corner of her eye, Rose saw Donna visibly shiver. "But that's Miss Evangelista," the redhead said, still in complete shock.

"It's a data ghost, she'll be gone in another moment," Rueben said softly. His face was full of sorrow. He clicked on his communicator again, his words echoing once more as he spoke into it surprising with a level and calm voice. "Miss Evangelista, you're fine, just relax. We'll be with you presently."

"Data ghost…" Rose drew out before turning to her husband. "What's that?"

He took a deep breath and slung his opposite arm around her shoulders, bringing her close to his chest. "There's a neural relay in the communicator, lets you send thought-mails." He shone the flashlight on the communicator. "That's it there, those green lights. Sometimes it can hold an impression of a living consciousness for a short time after death."

"You mean like a…" Rose frowned and brought a hand up to her temple as she tried to remember the phenomenon she was trying to recall. "A fundamental externalism?"

The Doctor's breath hitched slightly and he rubbed her shoulder. "No," he said softly. "That was something more unique and different than this. With these it's not so much of another lifetime but…more along the lines of just being an after image."

"My grandfather lasted a day," Anita said, a ghost of a sad smile on her face. "Kept talking about his shoelaces."

"But she's in there!" Donna cried, tears welling up in her eyes. "That's Miss Evangelista!"

"I can't see, I can't…" the communicator said. "Where am I?"

"She's just brain waves now," Proper Dave informed. "The pattern won't hold for long."

"But she's still got a thought process," Rose spoke up. "She has to be conscious if she's able to think."

"I can't see, I can't…I don't know what I'm thinking."

"She's a footprint on the beach," the Doctor said gently, squeezing her shoulder. "And the tide's coming in."

"Are the women there?" Miss Evangelista asked. "The nice women…are they there?"

"Women?" Mr. Lux questioned. "What women?"

Donna's breath hitched. "I think…" she drew out slowly, turning to Rose. "I think she means us."

Rose nodded. "She does," she said quietly.

"Are they there?" the voice asked. "The nice women?"

"Yeah," Rueben said into the communicator. "They're here, just hang on a second, dear." She pressed a button then turned to them, nodding to the skeleton. "Go ahead. She can hear you."

"Hello? Are you there?"

Rose pressed her lips together while Donna shook her head in horror, still in disbelief. The former turned to the Doctor and he gave her an empathetic look. "Help her," he whispered.

"She's dead," Donna sobbed, her voice cracking.

"I know. But you can help her. Talk to her."

Rose released her hold around her husband and took Donna's hand, giving her friend a squeeze. "We'll do it together," she said softly.

The redhead shook her head again. "I…can't. I can't do it, Rose. You go. Please."

Rose took a deep breath. She wasn't any more comfortable with this either and understood her friend's uneasiness, but somehow she steeled her nerves and carefully moved forward to stand closer to the skeleton, noting that one of the lights on the communicator had gone out.

"Hello?" the voice asked. "Are the nice women there?"

"Yeah," Rose replied shakily. "Yeah, we're here. Are you alright?"

"What I said before, about being stupid. Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh."

"We won't, Miss Evangelista," she sniffled, feeling a tear stream down her cheek. She wished she could help this poor girl somehow, but knew there wasn't anything they could do. "We promise not to tell them."

"Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh…"

"We won't. You have our word."

"Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh."

The green lights on the neural relay were dimmed and out, the last one the remaining light blinking. The young girl was nearing her end as she kept repeated the same sentence. "She's looping now," Rueben said. "The pattern's degrading."

"I can't think," the voice said, changing her words. "I…don't know, I…Ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream."

Her words kept repeating on a loop like a broken record as Rose raised a hand up to brush away the tears. She felt her husband sending warm waves through their bond.

"Does anybody mind if I… take care of this?" Rueben spoke up. No one objected as he stepped forward to turn off the relay with a click, the lights completely out.

Rose took a deep breath and moved away from the skeleton. She turned around to see Donna with her cheeks still wet from her tears. She immediately went over to the ginger woman and pulled her in a hug. "That was…" she breathed out. "That was horrible. That was the most horrible thing I've ever seen. I'm sorry, I just…I couldn't do it."

"'S okay," Rose told her. "I barely made it through it and I've been around some serious stuff over the years."

The Doctor came closer and placed a hand on Donna's shoulder comfortingly. Rose pulled back from their friend then moved over into her husband's embrace as he began commiserating with her by rubbing her back soothingly. He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head and left his lips there.

"You alright?" he asked mentally.

"I don't ever wanna do something like that again," she replied sadly. "It was…horrible."

"I know. Hopefully you won't ever have to."

Rueben ran his thumb over the communicator before pocketing it. His tone became more firm and dark. "Whatever did this to her, whatever killed her…I'd like a word with that."

His tone matched the hardened expression on the Doctor's face as he and Rose pulled back. "I'll introduce you." Reaching for his wife's hand, they took the lead and rushed back into the room where they came from with the others following them. He let go of her hand and surveyed the area.

"How're we gonna find these Vashta Nerada?" Rose asked mentally. "Are we gonna lure them out of the shadows some way?"

"They can't be lured out, it won't be that simple," he replied. "But there's a way to know if there's a live one hiding and looking to strike."

"And that is?"

"How do you wake up a lion locked up in its cage? I'm gonna need a packed lunch," he added out loud to address the rest of the group.

"Hang on," Rueben said as he moved over towards his pack placed on the ground, crouching down and rummaging through it. The first thing he took out was that TARDIS-shaped journal again.

"I wanna know what's inside that thing," the Doctor muttered.

"Same here," Rose replied before letting her feet take her over to the man to kneel beside him. "What's in that book?" she asked.

"That's confidential," Rueben replied quickly, raising his head up briefly before continuing to search through his bag.

"Yeah, I've heard that too many times today, it's not enough. I can't take the suspense."

"Trust me, I know."

"Then let me take a peek."

Rueben shook his head. "I can't," he said firmly. "I promised you and your husband that I wouldn't."

Rose licked her lips and took a deep breath. This was getting annoying and she honestly didn't care if their future selves made rules for them to not ever let them look inside a battered TARDIS journal if this man somehow found his way into the wrong point in the timeline.

"Well, you should know we're ones known for breaking each other's rules as much as our own," Rose told her.

"Oh, I know that quite well, Miss Jeopardy Friendly," the man said with a snort.

"Who are you, really?"

"Rueben Ochoa—"

"To us," Rose cut in. "Are you a companion? A friend?" She paused when a sudden thought came to her. It was that tiny speck at the back of her mind that was lingering for the last bunch of weeks. She whispered it. "Are you Jenny? Did you end up regenerating after we left you?"

"I'm not Jenny," Rueben replied evenly before raising his voice up once the Doctor came in their direction, standing over them with an inquisitive look.

"Care to share with the class?" he said.

Rueben licked his lips and brought out a metal lunch box, holding it up. "Chicken salad, old family recipe. Knock yourself out."

Both the Doctor and Rose stared long at the man, trying to decode the mystery as to who he was. The longer this went on, the more it annoyed them. "Anything?" he thought to her.

"Nope."

He inwardly sighed. Rose took the box before the Doctor could as he held a hand out to help her to her feet. He flipped the flashlight in his hand and caught it while turning back to the others. "Right, you lot. Let's all meet the Vashta Nerada!"

Minutes passed as the Doctor lay on the floor with his sonic screwdriver out and whirring in the darkness, aiming it along with the flashlight at the shadows as he scanned the area. Rose was standing with the lunchbox in her hands before taking a seat on the floor by him.

The two of them were communicating quietly, sometimes verbally and what looked to be mentally, Donna assumed. It was a habit of theirs to keep things to themselves. She was standing off to the side watching the married couple before noticing the small smile curving at Rueben's lips while observing them. Rose was right earlier when she said something was off with this bloke, despite with the fact he came from the future and apparently knew who they were.

"You really like traveling with them, huh?" the young man asked, catching her off guard a bit.

"More than anything," Donna replied genuinely. "It's the best thing that's happened to me. Before I met them I thought my life was so…small and unimportant. But they've opened my eyes to see how much bigger the universe is and to see everything I've been missing."

Rueben nodded. "Been there before. It never stops being eye-opening."

"Proper Dave," the Doctor spoke up, sitting himself up. "Could you move over a bit?"

The man was standing in front of a small table. "Why?"

"It's important," Rose said. "We need a little more room. Please?"

"Just a little to the side, thanks," her husband added.

Once Proper Dave moved to join the rest of the group the two continued their search, the Doctor returning back to his original position on the floor. He whirred the sonic a few times before rising up and shaking it a bit. He muttered something indistinguishable.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked, kneeling beside him. "Shortening out again?"

"Yeah," he replied as he held it to his ear. "Frequencies seem a little fried."

"Hold on." His wife placed the lunchbox down before reaching a hand in her back pocket to retrieve her sonic then handed it to him.

"Thanks, love," the Doctor told her.

"Maybe one day you'll actually spend some time in fixin' up your own toys before upgrading mine," she teased.

"Can't help that," he said, smirking. "You deserve quality, so I spend as much time as I can to make you have the most top notch tech."

"And you wonder why you're a glutton for being upstaged by me."

He made a happy sound and threw her a wink before using her sonic to peer at the shadows. Donna was still watching them and resisted an eye roll at their usual actions. Aliens in love. She turned to study Rueben again and saw that his smile was even wider than before, if that were even possible.

"You know them," Donna said, making conversation.

"You bet we do, the bunch of us go back," Rueben said. "But…it's far too early. Judging by everything, it's way before…"

"Before what?"

"Too many things." He turned to face her and smiled. "I know you too, you know."

Donna's eyes widened. "What? You do?"

"Not hard to forget you, redzie, we've had some fun times together too," the young man said with a grin, but it soon dropped. "They just haven't met me yet. I sent them a message to come here with me to investigate, but it went wrong and arrived too early."

"How's that possible?"

"Trying to communicate with others when in the vortex is…a little complicated. Especially since it's been a short while since I've last seen them in my timeline."

"Why not give 'em a ring on your mobile if you know them so well?"

"Thing got fried in an accident, had to use the other way. I do prefer the cortex method though, it's like a giant inter-web." He sighed heavily. "They look the same as when I last saw them, only younger. This is the Doctor and Rose way before they met me. Before…too much that I can't even bring up."

Rueben paused after whispering the last sentence, and Donna was able to make out his pain and sadness. She had no idea who he was nor did the married couple currently investigating the shadows right now, but this man apparently knows a lot of what's to come.

"Could you two quiet down?" came the Doctor's voice, sounding a little irritated for a second before calming down. "Trying to work over here."

"So sorry to interrupt," Donna retorted.

"Just ignore him, Donna," Rose said. "He was born rude."

She pinched him in the side and he let out an unmanly squeak, nearly dropping the flashlight. They stared at each other and Donna was positive they were communicating via their minds that time. The Doctor rolled his eyes before returning to the floor.

"And they turn to me and just look right through me," Rueben continued with a sad half smile. "I know I shouldn't let it bother me since I should've seen this coming when we first landed, but…it's hard not to. It shouldn't hurt me, but it does."

"I'm so sorry," Donna told him, placing a hand on his forearm.

Rueben brought a hand up with crossed fingers. "Like peas in a pod, all of us; thick as thieves. It's like…you know when you run into people who you've known for so long, who've shared things with you and were there for you through thick and thin and the worst possible pain and helped make you a better person. Changed your life. But then one day they wake up with no memory or just no idea of who you are and act like you're a stranger when you're far from being that."

"That's horrible. What are you to them? Are you like…" Donna stopped herself when a thought came to her. It was unlikely since the Doctor and Rose said it was impossible—which she believed was wrong—but she was curious. "Are you their...son?"

Rueben chuckled and shook his head. "Not really. But close enough."

"How so?"

He hesitated and flicked his eyes over at the couple, still distracted. Whatever his next response would be was cut off when the Doctor shouted from the other side of the room.

"Okay, we've got a live one!" he proclaimed as he stood to his feet then handed Rose her sonic back. "Thanks, love, that helped." He turned to address the others, his seriousness visible. "You see that darkness, right? Down all those tunnels? Well, it's not what you think it is. Not in the least. It's not shadows, it's a swarm—a man-eating swarm." He crouched down to peer beneath the table again and looked up a his wife. "Chicken?"

Rose pulled out one of the chicken legs from the metal lunchbox and knelt beside him. She held it up and he nodded in the direction of the shadows. The rest of the group gathered around them with their flashlights shining as she tossed the leg into the shadows. By the time it reached the ground the meat was completely gone, leaving only a white bone, cleaned off in barely a second. They gasped.

"Oh, my God," Rose said, imagining the unpleasant similarities of what had happened to Miss Evangelista when she stepped into the shadows.

"Piranhas of the air," the Doctor explained. "The Vashta Nerada. Literally 'the shadows that melt the flesh'. Microscopic beings that live in swarms, thousands strong. Most planets have them but usually in small clusters that weren't threatening. I've never seen an infestation on this scale, or this aggressive. It's strange."

"Wait, most planets?" Rose asked. "You mean these things were on Earth?"

"Not as much but yes," he mused. "They can be found in a billion of other worlds. Where there's meat, there's Vashta Nerada. You can see them sometimes, if you look. The dust specks in sunbeams, for example. They're small and harmless and nowhere near as dangerous as this bunch."

"But if they were on Earth, we'd know," Donna spoke up from behind.

"Well normally they just live on road kill. No one usually sees how road kill deteriorates. They just put a blind eye to it and let nature take its course. What they don't know is what really takes care of it. In small numbers, these creatures show no harm and just float about but in large swarms they could strip any living thing to its bare bones in milliseconds."

"Cheery," Rose remarked, shifting a bit.

"But on some rare occasions," he continued. "It's not just road kill. Sometimes people go missing." His voice dropped. "Not everyone comes back out of the dark once they enter the shadows."

"Every shadow?" Rueben asked, shocked.

The Doctor shook his head. "No. But any shadow."

"So what do we do?"

"Is there a way to get a huge amount of light, like the Sun?" Rose suggested. "These things live in the shadows and so far we've been weeding them out with all these lights. Can we open the dome and let the sunlight in?"

He curled his bottom lip in his mouth. He wished it could be that simple. "It's a very good thought, Rose, but I'm afraid it won't work. The architecture of this planet may seem flexible, but it's not. And with the swarm that's lingering in this place it wouldn't rid them away fast enough. Or not even at all."

Rose sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Then how do we slow 'em down?"

"Daleks—aim for the eyestalk. Sontarans—back of the neck. But Vashta Nerada?" He turned to her and shook his head. "Run. The only thing to do is run."

Response to the guest reviewer: Glad you're enjoying it, thanks a lot ;)