Thank you everyone who read the last chapter, and thank you ascab for leaving a review! It was a little scary, not having power/heat during an ice storm. I'm still a little cold, but definitely doing better.
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who
After the shaking stopped, it took Chloe a minute to find their commlink. "We're here!" She said. "Sorry, we're fine. Almost dropped the comm."
"You could've said that earlier," The Doctor scolded.
"The seal opened up. It's gone. All we've got left is this chasm." Ida reported.
"How deep is it?" Zach asked.
"At least 10 miles," Chloe answered.
"But there's nothing? I mean... There's... nothing coming out?" Chloe could feel Ida's eyes on her as she pondered the question.
"No sign of 'the Beast'." she finally said.
"Ida? I recommend that you withdraw. Immediately."
"But... we've come all this way!" Ida protested
"That was an order. 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." Zach snapped, making Chloe grimace.
"But it's not much better up there with the Ood." Ida rebutted.
"I'm initiating Strategy Nine, so I need the two of you back up top immediately, no ar-"
Chloe was surprised when the woman turned her comm off and turned to her. "What do you think?"
"That you were given an order," she commented idly.
"Well, yeah, but what do you think about," she trailed off, motioning towards the pit.
"'I am the temptation'." Chloe found herself quoting, unable to deny even to herself the tugging she felt in her gut, telling her to jump down.
"Why's it still hiding?"
"Because both the prison and the cell is open," Chloe sighed. "He's already out, we just have to get him back in."
"We'd go down to do it," Ida murmured. "I'd go."
"In a second," Chloe agreed. "It's that little intrusive impulse, right? Just echoing over and over again, jump, jump, jump. One of mine even says 'do a flip'." That got a laugh and she considered it a win as she grinned. "But, as of now, we have no way of going down there, so we'd best go back." She reached over and took the comm back before turning it on. "We're coming back now," she announced.
"There's some good news," The Doctor said. "Any sign of the TARDIS?"
"We're still about ten miles too high," she answered regretfully. "Sides, I don't exactly have a key to open it, and my cell got smashed last night."
They stepped into the capsule. "We're in," Ida said. "Bring us up!"
After a few seconds, nothing happened before the lights went out, making the redhead groan. "I don't want to hear this."
"This is the Darkness. This is my domain. You little things that live in the light... clinging to your feeble Suns... which die in the... Only the Darkness remains."
"This is Captain Zachary Cross Flane of Sanctury Base Six representing the Torchwood archive. You will identify yourself."
"Shit, Torchwood, I forgot," she got a look from Ida.
"You know of us?" Ida asked, allowing her to tune out the Beast's voice.
"Considering I apparently help build it, yeah, I'd say I know of y'all."
"Which one? There's more religions than there are planets in the sky. The Archivits... Pordonity, Christianity... Pash-Pash, New Judaism... Sanclar... Church of the Tin Vagabond. Which devil are you?" The Doctor demanded.
"All of them."
"What, then you're the truth behind the myth?"
"This one knows me, as I know him. The killer of his own kind."
"How do you know about that? How did you end up here?"
"The disciples of the Light rose up against me. And chained me in the pit for all eternity."
"Sounds lovely. How recent was this then?"
"Before time."
"What does 'before time' mean?"
"Before light and time and space and matter. Before the cataclysm. Before this universe was created."
"I can hear his mind breaking from here," Chloe muttered.
"No life could have existed back then."
"Is that your religion?"
"It's a belief."
"You know nothing. All of you. So small. The Captain, so scared of command. The soldier, haunted by the eyes of his wife. The scientist, still running from daddy. The little boy who lied... The virgin... And the lost girls, so far away from home. The injured songbird who will fail at everything and the valiant child who will die in battle." She saw red and made a grab for the comm.
"You leave Rose out of this," Chloe snarled. "She shouldn't even be on your radar anymore, Beast. You hear me? I don't fucking care if I fail, leave her alone."
"Chloe, calm down," the Doctor quietly murmured.
"You will die... and I will live."
Everything went into chaos, everyone talking over one another before there was a sharp screeching noise that had everyone going silent before the Doctor talked. "If you want voices in the dark, 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 protested.
"Or a good psychologist. Ask Chloe, she's one."
"I'm a therapist," she grumbled.
"But... how did it know about my father?"
"You know something? We have two advantages over him. One: there are several brilliant humans in this base. Humans, who looked at a black hole, and instead of running away, they decided to land and make base. To gather data and information humanity never thought about ever getting."
"You're not alone," Chloe added quietly. "The captain, his officer, his elder, his genius, his friends. The Beast is alone. We aren't."
"And we can use that to fight against him-"
There was a loud bang, and Chloe immediately pushed Ida out of the capsule, jumping out herself as the cable landed inside of it. She heard the other woman trying the comm before groaning at the static.
Standing up, she brushed her suit off before glancing over. "How much air do you have?"
"Sixty minutes," she answered before pausing. "Fifty-five," she corrected.
"Right, well, I'll do most of this, you just focus on preserving your oxygen. We got the cable, so now I can go down. Feed the line through the drum."
"Abseil," the other woman murmured. "That Rose girl the Beast talked about,"
"My goddaughter," Chloe answered. "The Doctor and I, we travel with her in our ship, and she was asleep when we came by here. I hope she's still asleep."
"I hope she is too."
Chloe ended up needing some of Ida's help, if only just securing the cable around her. "How's it feel?" She asked her, stepping away.
"Good. Hopefully this works," she mumbled, walking over to the edge of the pit. "I…" she trailed off, mouth going dry before she turned around. "Did you know, I'm scared of falling? Like, deathly scared. It was a stupid trust fall thing my brother did, and instead of catching me, he just let me hit the ground. And now this… this is another trust fall thing," she laughed bitterly.
"Are you sure I shouldn't-?"
"No, you wouldn't survive," she interrupted. "Sides… we have to face our fears sooner or later, right? No time like the present!" She forced herself to step back, off of the edge, and…
She wasn't aware she had started screaming until the cable went taunt, causing her to cling to it, eyes squeezed shut. "Chloe, are you okay?!"
"I never want to do that again!" She called back. "The walls, they're the same as up there. I can see about twenty feet down with the flashlight before it goes dark again. Keep lowering me down please."
"Is it really the devil?" Ida asked as Chloe knew that the cable was going to run out soon.
"Unfortunately," she replied. "I don't know if he really is the original or the last of his kind, but… it's certainly real, whatever he is."
"Not something I want to think about." Ida murmured just as the cable jerked her to a halt. "That's it," Chloe shakily removed a hand from the cable and pushed a couple buttions on her wrist. "What does the readout say?"
"Nothing. I'm guessing between thirty to fifty feet though," she replied, very slowly undoing a hook.
"Are you sure this is the right way to go?"
"You bring me back up, and we're going to sit there while you run out of air and the Beast escapes Krop Tor. I have to, Ida." she explained, perhaps a little too bitterly.
"I… I don't want to die on my own."
"No one does," she replied. "But I'll make sure you won't. You have an hour left of oxygen, right? I'll be back, promise." She released another clip, and then another. "You were brought up Neo Classic, right? No devil?"
"Yeah, just, um, the things that men do," Ida answered. "You?"
"I was raised like an early 21st century Christian," she replied. "I hated it all the way. Think that's part of the reason why my parents didn't like me that much. Nowadays, I consider myself Agnostic. I travel because I want to be proven right… or perhaps wrong." She got to the final clip and let out a shaky sound. "Thank you, Ida."
"Don't go!"
"When they get back in touch, which'll be in a minute or so, and when the Doctor asks, can you…" she stopped, trying to ignore how much her head pounded. "Can you tell him I wouldn't've changed it for the world?" With that, she forced the clip to let go, causing her to fall down into the darkness below.
Chloe woke up with glass brushing up against her face.
Blinking, she slowly sat up and took her helmet off, trying to get glass out of the suit. She grasped the radio that was on her suit. "Ida, can you hear me? I've landed in the air pocket." There was just static, making her nod silently to herself.
Suddenly, there was a tremor, causing her to glance up. The rocket, she thought, watching as it slowly left Krop Tor.
Turning away, she walked down the hall, shining her light at the drawings on the walls. "The Doctor and River would absolutely love this," she murmured. "All this history in one place, set before time itself…"
She reached the vases and immediately heard the beast's growl. She didn't even bother to turn towards him as she continued to look at the vases, up until he roared in what she could only assume was annoyance.
"Oh, shut up," she snapped. "If you're expecting some long, one sided speech about how you shouldn't exist, I'm not sorry to disappoint. I will give you one about how much of an idiot you are. Oh, but then again, all of your intelligence conveniently went up into a rocket ship that can get glass blown out with one shot," she glanced up at the rocket, doing her best mental math through the pain. "You think I won't be able to make the sacrifice of the ship, but there's one thing you're forgetting. I don't hesitate when it comes to trusting my allies. You think, that through everything I've seen, all of the death and darkness that follows him, that I don't believe in the Doctor, and that? That, Akatriel*, is your end."
Chloe quickly picked up a rock and slammed it against one of the vases before doing the same to the other. She dropped the rock and ran down the tunnel as fast as she could, a blast of air knocking her right into the TARDIS.
Literally into the TARDIS.
Standing up immediately, she bolted to the console, swearing her fake heart skipped as she saw the telepathic circuits appear before her eyes. Ripping the gloves off of the suit, she slid her fingers in and closed her eyes.
Come on Old Girl, she thought. Let's go get Ida and then save the Doctor.
A sharp sense of amusement and eagerness ran through her, sending a chill down her spine as she could hear the console start beeping and whirling, and judging by Ida's sudden gasp, she had a feeling the ship was trying to fly as smooth as possible.
Can we get both the rocket and the Ood?
Something flashed before her eyes; she could see herself and the TARDIS on Krop Tor, getting the oods, but the rocket was too close to the black hole to fish out, even for the Old Girl.
I see… let's get the Doctor then. Access my memories so you can do whatever the Doctor did with the whole tractor beam thing if you need too.
Another pulse, and she could definitely hear Ida talking. "What is this place?"
"This is the TARDIS, the Doctor's ship. She's sentient and helping me save the others," she answered. "Is there any way to patch through their comms?" she added for Ida's sake. A whoosh of confirmation later and she could hear the humans in the rocket asking what was happening. "Not sorry about the hijack. Now, Doctor, you weren't stubborn, were you?"
"Oi! I'm not the one who jumped down a ten mile hole."
"You're welcome," she snorted before grimacing. "I couldn't get the ood, but I do have Ida."
"She's alive!" Zach exclaimed in disbelief.
"Yes! Thank God."
"And I'm awake," Ida added. "We'd honestly be dead if it weren't for these two, Captain."
Something beeped, and a second later, she could hear the door opening. "Clever girl," she heard the Doctor say.
"I try," she shot back, slowly opening her eyes and grinning at him. "I don't know how to get out."
"You're like a kitten and a ball of yarn. Always tangled up in trouble." He laughed as he reached over and gently extracted her hands. "What happened?"
"I broke the helmet, and then to use the interface I had to rip the gloves," she answered, trying to purposefully dodge the question.
"In the pit," he specified
"I saw an alien, who was red skinned, fifty feet tall, had horns and was chained to various walls." she replied as evenly as she could. "I saw historical paintings and artifacts that would've been amazing to learn about but… it was telling the truth. That was the biggest thing that always made things so much worse. Whatever that creature was, he told the truth and… and it scares the hell out of me."
"It went into the event horizon," he said, squeezing her hands. "It won't be an issue any more."
She wanted to argue, to say she remembers it getting to earth thanks to his son, but… "I should've just stayed in bed," she mumbled, reluctantly pulling her hands away.
The Doctor didn't say anything, instead choosing to turn to the console. "Zach? We're off now. Have a fun trip home. And the next time you get curious about something... oh... what's the point? You'll just go blundering in. The human race…"
"Hang on though, Doctor. You never really said... you two... who are you?" Ida asked, and she risked glancing at the time lord.
"Oh… we're just travelers doing some good in the universe," he replied flipiantly before pulling a lever, causing the rotor to turn on.
If you see something wrong, have a question, or just want to let me know what you think, please, leave a comment!
Akatriel is one of the five names that are considered to be Lucifer's true name before he fell.
