Chapter Fifty-Six

A sharp crack whipped through the air and broke the terrified silence that lingered as the Beast faded from their minds. Jack surged forwards and barrelled into the Doctor, sending them tumbling back onto the railing as the heavy metal cable shot through the air where the Doctor's body had been. The clatter it made hitting the sides of the elevator shaft as it went down was overwhelming, made worse by the echo it created feeding back to them, a rising crescendo that pressed in against the Doctor's ears, squeezing his skull. Before the noise stopped, a plume of dust mushroomed out of the shaft and set Rose and Scooti coughing, ducking their heads to try and get away from it.

Mickey scrambled over Jack and the Doctor, grasping at the radio. "Zoe, can you hear me? Are you all right? Zoe!"

The crackling hum of the radio remained unbroken.

"Comms are down," Zach said, voice trembling minutely as he checked the computer. "I've still got their life signs but we've lost the capsule. There's no way out. They're stuck down there."

Jack muttered a curse in the Doctor's ear, peeling himself off him and sitting back on his heels, eyes dark as he looked down at him. The Doctor remained on his back, stomach sore from where Jack's shoulder had hit him, fractured wrist throbbing, and he looked up at the rocky outcrop of a ceiling above his head. Zoe was trapped at the mouth of whatever the door contained and he didn't know how to get to her. Nausea slicked his mouth, eyes shutting on a sigh, his worst imaginings come to life.

"There's got to be more cable," Rose protested. "Scooti, where's extra cable?"

Spitting a mouthful of dust onto the grating, Scooti wiped at her red eyes. "We don't have any. We lost it in a tremor six months ago. That's all we had."

"She'll be fine," the Doctor said, dully, rubbing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stave off the headache that was brewing. "Zoe is smart and resourceful and it's not the first time she's been trapped somewhere. She'll be fine."

Quiet doubt swam on Jack's face, his hand falling to rest on the Doctor's knee. "Course she will. Ida too. They'll both be okay."

Uncertain silence pulled between them and the Doctor kept his eyes closed, hoping that it was all a horrible dream. His faith in Zoe's abilities were without question but they had no idea what they were up against, and the Beast knew his name: his true name. A shudder worked its way through him, muscles tightening around his mouth, grasping tightly hold of his mental shields and building them up. He wasn't sure it was enough to keep the Beast out, not if it had buried itself deep enough into his mind to find his name without leaving devastation in his neural pathways, but it made him feel a little better.

"What was that?" Scooti asked, words cracking in her mouth. "How did it –? What the hell was that?"

"I don't know," Rose said, shivering. "I felt...I could feel it in me. I felt cold an' dirty."

"Me too," Jack agreed. "It knew about Gray. It knew I'd taken my memories out. How did it know that?"

"Stop it," the Doctor ordered, eyes snapping open. He sat up on his elbows and glared at them. "Come on now. We've met telepathic creatures before. All it did was slip into your mind and pluck out the things that you feel most afraid of. Jack, we all know you're worried about why you wiped your own memories so it wouldn't be a stretch for the Beast to pick up on that and play on it. The same with what it said about Zoe. It's playing on our basic fears and by panicking like this, we're letting it win."

Mickey hesitated. "But –"

"We're not those secrets that he told us." Forcing himself to his feet, the Doctor shook the fear and worry of Zoe's predicament from him and focused. "We're not those things that we keep close to ourselves. We're better than that. We're all here because we just like to discover things. Everyone of us is an explorer at heart, not those things that the voice said. So hold onto that: hHold onto the fact that we're explorers, pioneers – brave men and women doing what others only dream of, okay? The Beast is alone, but we're not. If we can use that to fight against him then we're all going to get out of here alive and well, okay?"

Rose pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, forehead turned down in a frown. "But what about Zoe? We can't leave her down there an' without the TARDIS, we can't get to her."

"She was prepared for this situation," the Doctor said with a calm he didn't feel. "Thanks to Jack making her work on her upper-body strength in the gym, she's more than capable of climbing up out of the shaft. She'll be okay."

Rubbing at his chest, Jack nodded. "She's good at the rope climbing. She hates it but she's good at it. The Doctor's right. She'll be okay. We need to focus on us at the moment because that –" he jabbed a finger towards the door. "– is going to be a problem."

A line of heat grew on the door, a blowtorch trying to cut its way in, the odd, tentacled head of an Ood visible through the window.

"Shit," Mickey said. "What the hell do we do about them?"

Scooti fumbled with her communicator. "Captain? We've still got Ood trying to get to us down here. How are things with you?"

"Not great," Zach replied. "They're cutting through the door bolts and breaking in."

Mickey pushed the sleeves up his jacket and grabbed hold of the cattle prod, turning it within his palms and testing the electricity. "How long do we have?"

"It's a basic frame," Scooti said with a shake of her head. "It wasn't built for keeping things out because we might've had to evacuate this area quickly. Maybe...I don't know, ten minutes?" A bolt snapped open and she jumped. "Or, you know, eight. Eight sounds more realistic."

"I've got a security frame," Zach told them. "It might last a bit longer but that doesn't help you."

"Right," Rose said, rubbing a hand over her face and promising herself that she would yell at Zoe later for putting herself in danger, or she would tell Jackie and let their mother yell at her instead. "We need to stop them or get out or both."

"Both, I choose both." Jack grunted as he heaved a heavy box from its position and forced it up against the door. "Any ideas how?"

"Doctor?" Rose turned on her heel to address him, her stomach sinking when she saw the expression on his face as he gazed down into the deep shaft. "Doctor!" He jerked and looked around at her. "Ideas?"

"Er –" her stomach sank. "Strategy Nine? Toby, you said that maybe it was time for Strategy Nine, what's that?"

"No can do," Zach said before Toby had a chance to answer. "The Ood are way too close to you for me to consider venting them out."

"I'm sorry, what?" His face rippled with anger. "Strategy Nine is the wholesale slaughter of the Ood population? What sort of backwards, colonial-esque plan is that?" He shook his head and huffed. "Never mind. I don't actually want to know. But we're not doing that at all."

"God," Jack muttered. "It's like the Grifari ship all over again just with the devil instead."

"Okay, since Strategy Nine is the stupidest idea to ever stupid, we're goin' to do somethin' else," Rose said, clapping her hands together and looking around. "Right, okay, for starters we need some lights. There's got to be some sort of power somewhere. Zach, power?"

"There's nothing I can do," he said, annoyed. "The systems are down. All I can do is work with what I've got and that's not a lot. Some captain I am stuck in here pressing buttons."

Toby straightened from where he was helping Jack move boxes. "Captain, the rocket."

"Come again?"

"The rocket's got an independent power supply," Toby told him. "I should know because you make me check it every time there's a problem. If you can get into the rocket's systems and then reroute it, you can –"

"I can help, yes!" Excitement shone through Jack's voice. "Nicely done, Toby! Scooti, open the bypass conduits and override the safety."

Scooti nodded. "Aye, captain. Opening bypass conduits now."

"Channelling rocket feed in three, two, one –" a small shiver rolled through the base beneath their feet. "And...power."

"Brilliant!" Rose grinned and punched Toby lightly on the arm, his mouth curling into a bemused smile. "Well done, Toby! An' thank you, captain. All right, we've got power but we still need a way out. Scooti, Zach, you start workin' on that."

The Doctor watched Rose, a shadow of a smile passing across his mouth, and he turned to Zoe to share his delight only for it to falter when she wasn't there.

"Now, Toby, what about you?" Rose asked. "You're the archaeologist, so what do you know about the pit? What the hell's my sister facin' down there?"

"I don't know anything, that's the whole problem," he replied, pale skin faintly marked from his possession. "I've been trying to translate the language ever since we found the first piece but it doesn't match any language known in the archives. I can't even –" he blinked and trailed off. "Wait. Maybe – since that thing, whatever it was, was in my head, it's like – it's like the letters are making more sense."

"There you go." Rose reached out and squeezed his arm, smiling. "That's what you need to do then. Translate anythin' you can get your hands on. Doesn't matter what it is, anythin' could be important." She turned on her heels again and faced Jack. "An' as for you –"

His eyebrows raised. "Yes, boss?"

"You know the most about the Ood," she said. "How do we stop them?"

"No idea." Her hands settled on her waist and she arched an eyebrow. "But I'll get to work on it. Sir, yes, sir." He threw her a small salute and she bit down on her grin. "Mickey, I may need your help with this."

Mickey gently bumped shoulders with Rose as he passed. "Bossy."

"Shut up," she grinned.

"What about me?" Rose turned to find the Doctor standing behind her, hands in his pockets. "You've got something for me to do?"

"Yeah, this." She stepped into his space and slipped her arms around his torso, hugging him. His arms immediately wrapped around her, holding her close, one hand cradling the back of her head as they shared their worry for Zoe. "D'you really think she's goin' to be okay?"

His hold on her tightened. "I have to otherwise I wouldn't be able to keep breathing."

She pressed her nose into his shoulder and breathed in him, finding comfort in the familiarity of his smell. "The Beast...d'you think it really is the devil?"

"I think it's something very powerful and like nothing we've ever seen before," he said, pulling back a little to look down at her, using his thumb to wipe away the smudges of mascara beneath her left eye. "But, no. I don't think it's the devil."

"What did it mean when it said..." she trailed off, uncertain, her eyes glancing to the side to make sure no one was listening. "It called you the killer of your own kind. What did it mean by that?"

The Doctor's stomach twisted, bands of panic compressing his chest, and his palms trembled on her back. "Nothing. It meant nothing. It was just playing on an old fear of mine. Hardly the most original thing it could've said."

Her features softened into a gentle smile where both Zoe and Jackie peeked out from behind it, the similarity striking. "It was talkin' about Gallifrey?"

His mouth turned dry, each heart beat a painful stab against his chest. "Yes."

"I don't know what happened in the war but I know it's wrong about you," Rose said. "It's not your fault what happened to your people. Don't listen to it."

Her kindness swept over him and he wanted to laugh. He wanted to take her by the shoulders and shake her until her belief in him fell from her eyes and she saw him for what he truly was and left him.

"Rose –"

Jack appeared at his back, arm sliding around his waist and the other around Rose's shoulder. "Sorry to interrupt this hug that I definitely want to be a part of but I think we've got a plan. Fair warning, it's about as cobbled together and hopeless as the majority of our plans so I think it might actually work. One word: brainstorm."

"We're supposed to call 'em mind maps now," Rose told him.

"No, not that, I mean an actual brainstorm," Jack said. "It was Mickey's idea. He was talking about how we should just block the Beast from communicating with the Ood like we can't talk to Zoe and it hit me, if we broadcast a flare on the right frequency then we might be able to disrupt the telepathy and knock the Beast out of their minds. Of course, this all depends on the Beast adhering to actual universal constants and we don't know if that's true or not but it's the best chance we have. What do you think?"

"I think you're speakin' Greek," Rose said. "Doctor?"

"Theoretically, it could work," he said. "It definitely won't affect the Beast but it might shake its control of the Ood. It'll be like turning them off and then turning them back on again."

"Then let's do that," she said. "What do we have to do?"

"You haven't told them the bad part yet?" Mickey appeared from the side, wiping his dirty hands on his trousers. Jack huffed and waved his fingers at him to get on with it. "Scooti says that the Ood are all linked to the central monitor in Ood Habitation an' if we want to broadcast anythin' to them then it needs to be from there."

"Ood Habitation," Rose repeated. "As in the room that's blocked off by possessed Ood with lethal weapons."

"That's the one," Jack said, cheerfully. "Fortunately, we've found a way around that too because why go through something when we can go under it?" Both the Doctor and Rose looked down. "Maintenance tunnels."

"You mean the airless maintenance tunnels?" The Doctor asked. "Those ones?"

"Those very ones," he replied. "Zach, would you like to tell them what our plan is?"

"I'm going to manipulate the oxygen field from here," Zach told them. "By creating pockets of atmosphere in the tunnels and controlling it manually, I can follow you through the network via the computer here. You're going to need to stick close together, and it'll be a tight squeeze but I think we can do it."

"Do we all need to go?" The Doctor asked. "One or two people could move quicker than all of us combined. How's the door holding up against the Ood?"

Scooti rushed passed them with a sheet of metal and a welding gun. "Not good. Really not good at all."

"All for one and one for all," Jack said. "Anyone who stays behind might end up dead and I'd like to keep the body count low."

"Agreed," the Doctor replied, eyes sliding to Danny's dead body. "All right then, I guess this is what we do."

Rose whacked her fingers against his chest and turned from his arms, pointing at them each in turn. "Yes, yes, yes, yes. This is it. This is our plan. It might not be a good plan but it's ours an' I did ask for it. So, team –" she paused and cocked her head. "Gang, fam, group." She looked over her shoulder to the Doctor. "I see your problem now. It's really difficult."

He grinned. "I did tell you."

"Anyway," she continued. "We're goin' to go down into the maintenance tunnels an' make our way to Ood Habitation that way. Zach's goin' to make sure nothin' happens to us, right, Zach?"

"I'll be keeping a close eye on everything from here," he assured them. "I've got you all covered."

"Thanks, captain," Toby said, gratefully.

"Okay, Zach, we need to get to Ood Habitation," Rose said. "Work out a route for us. Everyone else...let's just get ready."

"I need help getting the plating up," Jack said, crouching. "Shame we don't have the screwdriver."

Mickey and Toby crouched to give assistance as Scooti finished welding the plate onto the door, buying them precious extra time just as another bolt gave way. She fell back from the door with a curse, dropping the still-hot welding gun at her feet, sucking her burnt fingers into her mouth.

"We need to go," she said. "They're almost through."

The sound of heavy grating scraping across the ground made the Doctor's jaw ache, the metal pushed firmly to one side. Jack laid himself flat on the ground and sucked in a deep breath before sticking his head into the hold, the cold air that Zach was pumping into the tunnel pricked painfully at his skin. His eyes swept the area and he tested the atmosphere, nose twitching at the taste of it, before he let the rest of his body fall into the tunnel, clattering inside as he tested the initial stages of their plan. The metal was bitterly cold beneath his hands and he lifted his palms from it, blowing on his fingers.

"It's clear," he called back to them. "Get a move on."

"Make space," Mickey said, helping Scooti into the tunnel. "Scooti's coming down."

Rose jiggled her knee anxiously as she waited, refusing to enter the tunnel until everyone else was inside, stumbling when the Doctor gave her a polite shove before scrambling in after her. He grunted, annoyed at the limited space, forced to bend his long limbs into an awkward position to be able to drag the plating back over them to give them a few more seconds. Above their heads, the heavy, rushing step of the Ood echoed around them as they breached the drilling area, and Rose yelled out for Jack to move. Her trainers kicked him in the back as she started moving but he waited, eyes fixed above him, moving only when the Ood appeared in his vision, hands tugging on the plating.

"Doctor, c'mon," Rose called over her shoulder. Twisting, he grunted in pain when he rested his weight on his wrist and she paused. "You okay?"

Planting his good hand on her behind, he gave her a shove. "I'm fine, just move."

"We spend too much of our times crawlin' through these sorts of places," Rose grumbled, knees already aching. "Why do they never make maintenance tunnels human sized?"

"These were made for robots, not people," Scooti explained. "And stop complaining, you're using up the oxygen."

She laughed. "Yes, ma'am."

Jack snorted from the front of the group, regretting pulling on his coat as they left the TARDIS. He didn't want to leave it behind, his pockets filled deep with things that he might find useful, but it weighed him down and pressed the heat tighter against him. Mickey seemed to be faring only a little better, his forehead glistening with sweat as their combined body heat swiftly warmed the narrow tunnels, but at least he wasn't muttering to himself like Toby whose constant repetition of I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine was beginning to grate on Jack's nerves.

"At least you're not wearing a stola this time," the Doctor said to Rose, the only one of them not seeming to feel the heat or the discomfort though, beneath his jacket and coat, he was beginning to sweat: He hated sweating. "That's a positive."

"There's the Doctor I know an' love," she said with a breathless laugh. "Always lookin' on the bright side of things."

"That's me, Mr Positivity." He grimaced. "Actually, no, don't call me that."

"Whydo you all talk so much?" Scooti complained. "Do you ever shut up?"

Mickey wiped at his forehead. "Now look who's complainin'."

The Doctor ducked his head and laughed, looking once more for Zoe to share the humour with, only to be sharply reminded of her absence. He pushed the worry away and kept crawling, his eyes on Rose's rear end. It was difficult to move within the tunnels as it was a tight fight for five fully-grown humans and one Time Lord; they kept bumping into each other in their haste. The Doctor found that he kept kneeling on his coat – a constant problem when crawling through tunnels and vents he had discovered – so he grabbed the hem and tucked it up under his arms, wrist screaming in agony.

"God, it stinks," Rose said moments later, partly to spite Scooti and partly because the smell was burning her nose. She glanced behind her at the Doctor. "You all right? Your wrist holdin' up okay?"

"It only hurts when I put weight on it or, you know, think about it." He heaved himself forwards, forehead connecting with her hip. "But when Zoe hears about what happened, I want you to tell her I dealt with the pain in a very manly and noble fashion."

Jack scoffed from the front of the group. "You think she's going to believe that?"

"What does that mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like." He stopped at a junction and swallowed, his mouth tacky with dried saliva. "Zach, we've reached a junction. Which way do we go?"

"Just go straight ahead," Zach replied, checking the layout. "Straight on until you find junction seven-point-one. All of you need to keep breathing. I'm feeding you air. I've got you."

Scooti laughed, sweat dripping from her skin onto the floor. "You remind me of those stupid meditation tapes that Toby listens to, captain. Breathe in and out, you are one with the universe."

"Hey, Scooti?" Toby said, scowling. "Fuck off."

"Learn to take a joke, Tobes," she replied. "It'll make you nicer to be around."

"Children," Zach chastised before the Doctor could. "Enough bickering. There's not enough oxygen to snipe at each other."

"It's Toby, not Tobes," he muttered under his breath, Scooti's jaw tightening in response.

"Enough," Jack said sharply, dragging himself into a sitting position, bracing his foot against the wall opposite, slumping down as he was too big to sit comfortably in the tunnels. "We're at seven-point-one. I would like to take this time to thank whoever clearly marked the panelling in these tunnels. It's actually been very helpful."

"I'll make a note to send thanks to the manufacturers when we get out of here," Zach said with a dry smile. "I just need you to hold on for a few seconds while I aerate the next section."

Toby winced as he tried to work out a growing cramp in his calf. "Can't you hurry up?"

"I'm working on half power, here."

"The next person who complains is going to get my foot in their face," Scooti threatened.

"Hold on," Zach said with the first hint of impatience he had shown all day. "Moving the air takes time and a lot of care. Now, keep calm or it's going to feel worse." A loud bang echoed through the tunnels and the Doctor shifted to peer behind them. "Nobody panic but the junction in Habitation Five's been opened. It looks like the Ood are in the tunnels."

"Well, open the gate," Scooti exclaimed.

"Where are they?" Jack asked. "Are they close?"

"I don't know. I can't tell because I can't see them. The computer doesn't register Ood as proper life forms."

"That was a stupid idea," the Doctor said, annoyed. "And incredibly short sighted of you."

"Yeah, I didn't design the computer system, Doctor," Zach replied as the gate slid up. "Move now, quickly does it."

Jack pushed through as soon as there was enough space for his body to fit under the door, glancing behind him to make sure that Mickey and the others were quick on his heel. Zach was snapping instructions into the tunnels – left then right, move faster – and he crawled as quickly as he could, conscious that if he slowed down for even a moment, someone might pay the price. Resisting the urge to look back and check on Mickey, he kept his eyes forward, frustrated with the slow pace they were making.

"Can't you trap them?" Scooti asked, face splotchy with exertion, the emergency lighting casting a pale glow over her. "Cut off the air or seal a door in front of them?"

"Not without cutting yours off," he explained. "Jack, turn right. Go right, and go fast. They're going to catch up."

The Doctor crawled on his elbow and searched through his pocket with his good hand at the same time. "Jack!"

"What?"

"Do you have anything non-lethal but powerful enough to slow down the Ood in your pockets?" His fingers scraped across a small box of matches, his yo-yo, a loose tampon, and another half-eaten jelly baby. "I've got nothing. Rose, move."

"But –"

"Don't argue, just move," he said, impatiently. "I've got an idea, or at least half of one and can't be worrying about you at the same time."

She huffed, annoyed, but did as she was told.

"Doctor," Mickey called back to him. "We've got a pack of gum, a roll of copper wire, an' some chapstick."

He considered his options. "What flavour gum?"

"Tutti Frutti."

Rose grimaced. "Jesus, why?"

"I like the flavour," Jack said. "It's packed full of chemicals and feels a little like an acid trip every time I pop one in."

"Rose, chew the gum for me," the Doctor requested. She groaned loudly but put two strips into her mouth and started chewing quickly. "Pass the wire back."

Toby took the wire from Mickey and extended it back. "What are you going to do?"

"Haven't decided yet but I'm going to do it really well." Unable to work and crawl at the same time, he paused in the middle of the tunnel and set to work. Rose called out for him, chastising and panicked all at once. "Keep moving. I'm right behind you."

"You'd bloody well better be," she threatened, spitting the chewed up gum into her hand and passing it back to him. "I'm not explainin' to Zoe why she's a boyfriend down when she gets back."

The Doctor appreciated the silence that fell as the sound of knees and hands hitting the ground faded in one direction but approached him for another. Hunched over in the tunnels, wrist singing in pain, he unrolled the copper wire and stuck it in place with the masticated gum, wiping Rose's saliva off on his jacket. Working under pressure was nothing new for him, and he found it pleasantly relaxing, keeping his thoughts off their dire situation and Zoe's radio silence and the fact that he needed to pee as he pinned the wire over head and set his phone down next to it.

"Doctor, I've got to open eight-point-two by closing eight-point-one," Zach said, cutting into the silence so abruptly that it startled him. "You've got to get past the junction. Now move. That's an order!"

"I don't take orders," the Doctor said, twisting himself onto his stomach as the Ood rounded the corner, eyes gleaming red, fingers working away at the screen. "And I need a few more seconds and then we'll have time."

"Doctor –"

"Hurry up," Jack yelled down through the tunnel.

"Stop nagging," he yelled back, pressing his tongue to the edge of his teeth and amplifying a sonic blast from the phone, running it through the copper wiring. "Honestly, cluck-cluck-cluck."

The sonic waves caught on the wire and created a thin shield that would hold only for a minute or two at the most. The first Ood to touch it was pushed back, hands clamping down around its twisted grey ears, tentacles going taut with pain. Pleased with his efforts and unwilling to linger, he scooted back and flipped over onto his hands and knees, bidding goodbye to another handset, wondering exactly how annoyed Zoe was going to be when she realised he needed a new one.

"Doctor, I need to open the gate, moving faster would be better," Zach urged.

"Open it." The Doctor twisted around a corner. "I'm serious, open it. I'm not human. My body can survive with less oxygen for longer, so open it."

"I need to shunt the air first."

"Zach." He heard Rose cut across them, the echo of her voice stretching back to him. "Do what he says. He knows what he's doin'."

"Thanks."

"Shut up an' move."

"You sound just like your mother sometimes."

Mickey barked a laugh and the Doctor felt the oxygen beginning to thin. Over the centuries he had grown used to Earth's atmosphere – 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% other assorted gases – even though it was vastly different to what he was supposed to breathe. Gallifrey's atmosphere was different, thinner, which was the reason Gallifreyans had two hearts. Breathing in thinner air reminded him of the burnt orange skies and silver-leafed trees that he was never going to see again, homesickness sweeping through him. He rounded a corner and Mickey was there grabbing him by the upper arms, dragging him forwards as Jack yelled for Zach to lower the gate that nearly came down on his foot.

"Idiot," Mickey said into his hair.

The Doctor grinned against his shoulder. "Only sometimes."

"The Ood?" Toby asked, eyes darting fearfully back at the closed gate. "What did you do to them?"

"Created a small sonic shield with the contents of Jack's pocket and my big old brain," he said, leaning against Mickey as he righted himself. "I don't know if I've mentioned it but I'm very clever."

"Exceptionally modest too," Jack added.

"Don't forget dashingly handsome," he grinned.

"Only if you squint," Mickey said.

"Oi!"

"Will – you – please – move?" Zach asked, exasperation seeping through him. "I swear, you four are the slowest group of people I've ever met in my life. Always having to stop for a chat and some flirting."

"It's called likin' each other," Rose said, moving forwards on her hands and knees.

"It's called being annoying," Toby groused.

Scooti rolled her eyes. "You'd know all about that, wouldn't you?"

"Jack, turn left and head for nine-point-two, that's the last one," he instructed. "Doctor, your sonic shield thing is working. They're stuck behind it. I'm going to start venting the oxygen out of there. That'll take care of them."

"You don't need to kill them, captain."

"It's us or them and I'm choosing them."

"Zach –"

"We're at the final junction," Jack interrupted. "Nine-point-two."

"Copy that," he said. "Opening nine point two."

The door hissed open. Jack turned towards it only for adrenaline to rush through him. He reeled back with a cry of alarm, an Ood crawling its way towards him. A flash of Mickey above him blocked his vision before Rose and Toby were yanking him back out of the way, losing his shoe in the process to Mickey's hand. He resurfaced from amidst the group to find Mickey slamming the heel of his shoe down on top of the Ood's head.

"Tentacles," Scooti cried. "Go for the tentacles."

With a hesitant flick of his wrist, Mickey slapped the toe of the shoe against the quivering tentacles and watched in dumbfounded fascination as the Ood turned slate grey and a high-pitched cry quivered from its mouth. It toppled back on itself and he used his feet to push its body back behind the gate. As soon as it was clear, Rose yelled for Zach to lower the gate again.

"Now we're trapped," Rose said, breathlessly, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "What now?"

"Maybe not," the Doctor replied, twisting until he was lying on his back across Rose, Scooti, Toby, and Jack. "Give me a second."

Above their heads was a broad sheet of metal held in place with bolts. His earlier glance at the interior map of the maintenance tunnels indicated that they should be in the corridor outside of Ood Habitation, which meant that there was breathable air above them. Resting his weight on his back, he lifted his legs and braced his feet against the sheet, pushing against it until it buckled. He felt the strain running through his muscles, settling in his knees, and he pushed harder and harder until the entire panel popped free, clattering to the ground above them. Fresh, recycled air swept into the tunnel and washed across their skin as the heating cables Zach had turned off so they didn't burn their skin off as they crawled fell into the tunnel like thick, writhing snakes.

Rose pulled herself from beneath him and stuck her head through the whole. "It's clear. Let's go."

The last one out of the tunnel, Jack sealed the grate behind them. "Where are the Ood? Zach, I don't have eyes on the Ood."

"They're converging on your location and quick," he replied. "Get moving now. I can't keep the doors locked for long."

"Ow, ow, ow, careful," the Doctor complained, wrist against his chest as Scooti brushed up against him. "I'm delicate right now."

"It's a sprained wrist," Mickey said, dismissively. "It's not goin' to kill you."

"It's fractured,thank you very much, and I'll remember this next time you complain about a headache."

Mickey flipped him off only to jump when, behind them, the door burst open and Ood spilled into the corridor, climbing over each other in an attempt to reach them. Grabbing his good hand, Mickey pulled him into a run and they rushed into Ood Habitation where they slammed the door shut and pressed their backs against it, Scooti grabbing various items to jam up against the door as Jack fumbled with his pockets for the computer trip, Rose urging him along with unhelpfully increasing pressure. Toby cried out as the door was flung open, sending the Doctor, Mickey, and Scooti tumbling down the steps in a tidal wave of confused limbs.

Rose grabbed the nearest item – a reusable water bottle with the faded Torchwood logo stamped on it – and slammed it into the tentacles of the nearest Ood, dropping it to the floor. Spinning beneath outstretched arms, she used the flat of her palm to incapacitate the next one even as she felt the burn of their glowing orb brush against her ear, death missing her by a hair's breadth as the Doctor swung his legs out from the ground and knocked the Ood to the floor.

"Jack, hurry!"

Scooti scrambled to her feet and pushed Toby out of the way, tearing a length of wiring from the wall and looping it around the Ood's neck, strangling it until it stopped moving. Jumping into the fray, Mickey grabbed an Ood that was surging towards Rose and ducked under its orb, shoving it down the stairs into the benched room, grunting when grey hands pulled him into the midst as the Doctor slammed an elbow back, trying to shake them from his body.

"Now," Jack cried.

He hit the return key on the computer and the result was instantaneous: the Ood dropped their orbs and clutched their heads, crumbling to the ground in pain, twitching and writing on the spot as the red faded from their eyes, forcing the Beast from their minds.

With a wince, Rose stepped over a pair of twitching legs, her ribs aching, and she stumbled over to Mickey who grasped her in a hug even as he reached for Jack and kissed him, their bodies tangled together. The Doctor leaned against the railing, throbbing wrist clasped to his chest, eyes averted from them as worry for Zoe filled him once more.

"You did it," Rose laughed from within her dual embrace, kissing Jack's cheek with a grin. "We did it!"

Shaking, Scooti lifted her comm to her mouth. "It's over, captain. The Ood are...they're not possessed or whatever any more. We've done it."

There was a beat before Zach responded with relief heavy in his voice. "I'm on my way."

"Meet us in the drilling room," the Doctor said, already making his way back up the stairs. "We need to get Zoe and Ida back up now."

Getting back to the drilling room was significantly easier when they were able to move through the base upright, Scooti leading the way with a cattle prod clasped in her hands just in case the Ood showed further signs of possession. The Doctor brushed Jack's fussing touch off his wrist, able to deal with the pain for as long as he had to, not wanting to pause to have it dealt with, ignoring the way his friend clucked his tongue disapprovingly but fell back to Mickey's side. By the time they reached the drilling room, Zach was there, relief painted across his face as he took in Scooti and Toby before checking on the rest of them.

"Good to see you all in one piece but we can celebrate later," he said. "I've patched the comms through the central desk and boosted the signal. We can try and reach them now."

The Doctor hurried forwards and lifted the radio to his mouth, hope burying itself between his hearts. "Zoe, are you there? Zoe, Ida, can you hear me? Are you there, Zo?"

There was a burst of static and a crackle as the radio settled before Ida's voice reached them.

"...down into the pit," she said. "We hope to find whatever's causing this but the likelihood of our return is slim as we only have fifty-six minutes of oxygen remaining. We wish you all the best and hope that we'll see you again soon. This is Ida Scott and Zoe Tyler, signing off."

"What is that?" Rose asked. "What's she saying?"

Scooti flapped her hand. "Shut up a second. I think...is that an automated message?"

"This is Ida Scott to anyone who can hear me." The message looped in on itself and began to play from the beginning. "The cable to the lift has broken and the surface of the elevator shaft is too smooth for us to climb up. Zoe and I have agreed that the best course of action is to go down into the pit. We hope to find whatever's causing this but the likelihood of our return is slim as we only have thirty-nine minutes of oxygen remaining. We wish you all the best and hope that we'll see you again soon. This is Ida Scott and Zoe Tyler, signing off."

The Doctor's hearts sank. "She's gone."

"No, she's still alive," Mickey argued. "She's just gone down into the pit like a complete fuckin' idiot. We can get to her."

"We don't know how far the pit they described goes down," Zach said, gently. "And there's no way we'd be able to reach them in the time their oxygen allows us. I'm sorry. I really am. But Ida and Zoe are dead."

"No." The word whipped out from Rose and cracked in the air. "You don't know my sister. She's not dead. This isn't how she dies. Not like this."

"Right now, we need to begin the evacuation process," Zach told them. "Toby, get the rocket up and running. Scooti, begin emergency shutdown of the base. You four, we've got space on the rocket and I'm not leaving anyone else behind. I've lost too many people today and I'm not about to lose you too, so if you've got stuff to get, get it now."

"No," the Doctor breathed. "I'm not leaving."

"Doctor –"

He lifted his head and stared at his friends. "You are though. Get on the rocket with Zach, get to safety. Once you're free of this place, the Vortex Manipulator should start working again and you can get home to Jackie. Tell her...tell her what happened here. And tell her...tell her I'm sorry that I couldn't keep Zoe safe."

"We're not leaving you behind," Rose said, eyes shining with tears, her hand slipping into his. "That's absolutely not goin' to happen."

"Either we all go or none of us go," Mickey told him. "An' there's no sense in you dyin' here, mate."

His mouth twisted. "I can't leave her. Even if she's...I can't leave her alone here. I promised. I promised her I'd never leave her alone again. I can't break that promise."

"Doctor..." Jack hesitated, hand slipping into his pocket, thumbing a small tab between his thumb and forefinger. "We have to go. If there's a chance Zoe's alive then we need to get off this place and figure out what to do, like she did with the Game Station. We need time so we need to take ourselves out of this time so we can have it."

He rubbed his face, exhaustion and grief clinging to him. "It doesn't work like that. You know that. We're already part of events. We can't leave and come back. Zoe was able to do what she did because she was out of the time stream of events, that's all. Had she been there with us, it wouldn't have worked."

"I'm sorry," Jack told him. "And I understand if you can't forgive me for this."

The Doctor's eyebrows twitched together in confusion before Jack's hand whipped out, coming in on his injured side so that the Doctor wasn't able to stop him, and he spread a thin circular membrane over the skin beneath his ear. Confusion gave way to anger before the Doctor's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he dropped, Jack stepping forward to catch him before he hit the ground.

Rose stared at him, mouth open and eyes wide. "What did you do?"

"He'd kill himself waiting for Zoe to come back up that shaft," Jack said, grunting as he heaved the Doctor's lax body over his shoulder. "And I'm not losing any more friends today."

"He's goin' to be fuckin' furious," Mickey warned him. "We're goin' to have to restrain him."

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit," Rose swore. "What about Zoe?"

A shadow passed across Jack's face. "We'll come back for her. There's got to be a way to save her but we need time to think. Now, please, don't make me knock you out too. Let's get to the rocket."

"I..." she hesitated, gut churning with indecision even as Mickey's hand curled around her elbow. "It feels like I'm leavin' her to die."

"You're not," Mickey told her, the guilt she felt reflected on his face, a reminder that she wasn't the only one who loved Zoe. "It's like Jack said, we need time. So let's go get some time."

Zoe, she thought as she allowed Mickey to pull her away from the drilling platform. Forgive me.

Twenty-three minutes earlier

Ida grunted as she lost her footing, her foot slipping down between a small crevice in the rubble, ankle twisting violently, and she pitched forward. Bending down to tug on the cable wire that had snapped off from the station and whipped a deep line across the ground, Zoe lunged for her, catching her before her ankle snapped under the weight of her body. She hissed in pain and held tightly onto Zoe's shoulders as she was pulled upright, the full extent of their situation slamming into her.

They were trapped ten miles beneath the surface with a dangerous and powerful telepathic creature looking to escape from its prison that they had inadvertently opened. The situation up on the base was just as bad, if not worse as they had the possessed Ood to contend with, and Ida found herself beginning to fray from the pressure, fumbling her way to sit down on top of the rubble, keeping her eyes turned from what remained of Mr Jefferson's body. The impact against the top of the elevator shaft and burst his body open, blood and organs exploding open, and Ida had only kept hold of the contents of her stomach through sheer strength of will. Zoe had been forced to pull what remained of him down, dragging him over the rubble and swiftly burying him beneath rocks. Streaks of dark blood created a path across the detritus and her stomach heaved again.

Pulling in a deep breath, she looked up and peered through her own reflection on Zoe's helmet to find her companion pale yet comfortingly calm.

"Careful," Zoe said, helping her free her ankle, resting the heel on her thigh. She tested it gently, articulating the joint, listening for the hiss of pain that came. "It's not broken but you've definitely buggered it up. There's nothing I can do for it, we're going to have to hope that your boot contains the swelling."

"I'm okay," she said, breathless from the pain. "Any luck with whatever you were doing?"

Amusement lanced across her face.

"I was checking the strength of the cable, not that it does us much good," Zoe said. "If the bottom had snapped off we could climb back up but I'm not sure how to get it up again. The walls of the lift shaft are too smooth as well, which means climbing back up is out of the question. It looks like we're stuck down here until we're rescued." She made a sound in her throat, annoyed and faintly disgusted. "God, I hate waiting to be rescued. I don't make a very good damsel. Now Jack, he's excellent at it because he's always so thrilled when someone turns up to rescue him, like he forgets that we love him."

"Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?" Ida asked, head pounding. "Brevity is the soul of wit and all that."

"But life without art and only matter is a dull thing indeed," Zoe replied, a small smile curling on the corners of her mouth. "Sorry. I didn't always used to talk this much. But I think the Doctor's been rubbing off on me. He goes on and on at times but he's an old man, I suppose he's allowed."

"Old?" She laughed even though it hurts. "He's younger than I am."

"He's really not," Zoe told her, standing up and looking around. "I don't mind being the one to say it but we're in a spot of bother. There's no way out, no way to communicate with the others, no food, no water, and a concerning lack of oxygen. On the bright side, we'll run out of oxygen before those things matter so there's that. I've got about sixty minutes left on my tank. You?"

Ida checked. "The same. Even without everything happening up there, there's no way they'd be able to mount a rescue mission in that time. We're stuck here."

"Not stuck," she said, offering her hand. Ida took it and wrapped her arm around Zoe's shoulders as they made their faltering way down the rubble. "There's still a way out, though god only knows where it leads."

"Down the chasm," Ida said. "That's not really a way out though, is it? It's more a way in."

"It's not here though," Zoe replied. "And I don't like the idea of sitting around for sixty minutes for either a rescue or death. Since we're up against the wall with this, I say we go down. What do you think?"

She swallowed. "That voice –"

"Belongs to something," Zoe interrupted, readjusting her grip. "I want to find out what, don't you?"

"I do." A heavy sigh left her, unsurprised by her decision, and she looked at the cable on the ground. "If we use this cable, we might be able to adapt the drum that's disconnected from the lift and feed the cable through it."

Zoe bobbed her head. "You want to abseil down."

"It's either that or jump."

"We don't actually know how far it goes down," she said with a nod. "Besides, I do enjoy a spot of abseiling, not that I do it often."

"And we're running out of air with no way back," Ida continued. "It's the only thing we can do. Even if it's the last thing we ever achieve."

"You don't have to persuade me, I'm onboard with the idea," Zoe said. "Anyway, this isn't going to be the last thing we do. I've had my back against the wall a couple of times now and I've always managed to find a way out. We'll get through this and find a way back. I don't know how yet but we will. My family's up there, and there's not a chance in hell I'm leaving them like this." Her mind turned to Jackie who was home on Earth and the thought of her never hearing from any of them again made her stomach turn. "Come on. We need to adapt this drum. You good to walk?"

"I'll manage," Ida said, wobbling when Zoe released her, grunting her pain when it lanced up her leg, managing to limp to where she needed. "See, I'm managing."

"You're doing something all right," she agreed before turning her attention to the cable. "You deal with the drum. I'll get the cable together."

It was difficult pulling the cable out from under the rubble, the strain running through her shoulders and back as she moved rocks as swiftly as she was able, the physical labour helping to keep her mind off whatever danger her friends were facing. She trusted each of them to get through the day in one piece but she hated not being there with them. It was one thing to make the decision to stay beneath the surface when there was still a way out, but being cut off from them was agony. The reminder of the Game Station and those years spent without any way to contact the Doctor or Jack sliced through her like a hot knife, burning and piercing, and she yanked the cable free, falling over onto her behind as she did so.

Laughing to herself, as the only other alternative was to weep, she picked herself up, gathered the cable, and hurried over to Ida.

Threading the cable around the drum took time and used up oxygen that Zoe worried they didn't have. A quick check of her oxygen tank told her that she was down to forty-three minutes. She bit down on her tongue, resisting the urge to ask Ida to speed up as she would rather the task be done properly than quickly. Eventually the cable was wrapped around the drum and they each grabbed a side. Ida's ankle forced them to set a slow pace before they sealed the drum to the ground with a drill from the emergency repair toolkit rescued from the capsule.

Her gloved hand smacked against her visor as she tried to wipe the sweat from her forehead, and she grumbled. "I hate space suits."

"Try not to think about it," Ida recommended. "It'll drive you mad if you focus on it."

"That's assuming I'm not already mad."

"I do have my doubts about that," she said, startling a laugh from Zoe. "One of us needs to stay here in case the others re-establish contact. There's no telling if we'll have communication ability down there."

Zoe peered down the shaft. "I'm going to go with no."

"You should stay," Ida said. "This is my mission, my work, I need to see what's down there."

"Oh, absolutely, yes, I agree." She pulled back from the edge and turned around. "Except for the part that I don't. We have no idea what's down there, but we know it's dangerous. I have a lot of experience with dangerous things. But this cable is strong enough to hold both of us. If we set up an automated message, we can let the others know what's going on. All I need is my comm unit and maybe five minutes."

Ida hesitated, glancing down into the pit before she nodded. "Agreed."

Carefully prying the secondary comm system off her wrist, Zoe struggled to create a looping message as her fingers were too bulky for the fine work that was needed. It took her far longer than she wanted before she handed it over to Ida.

"Here," she said. "Record the message. I'm going to get hooked up."

"You don't want to say anything?"

Want swept through her even as she shook her head. "We don't have enough time for everything I want to say. Not that it matters. They know I love them. And the know me. They'll understand why I'm doing this."

She turned her back and tried not to listen to Ida as she recorded the message only for her voice to break as she spoke directly to Scooti, the sound of her tears slipping through into Zoe's helmet. Erasing the message, she started again, recording a brisk, professional message that kept the emotion from her voice. Silence fell between them as Zoe double checked her makeshift harness and Ida wrestled her emotions under control.

"It's done," Ida said. "Can you help me with the cable?"

"Course," Zoe replied. "Arms up. We're going to have to brace ourselves against the wall and feed the cable out ourselves. I've unspooled the entire length so if you lose your grip – well, please don't lose your grip. I'm pretty confident in my ability to keep myself attached but holding two people up on my own is going to be difficult."

"I won't lose my grip," she told her. "I used to go rock climbing with my dad when I was younger until he couldn't do it any more. I know what to do."

Zoe nodded. "Good."

Looping the wire around her waist, threading it through the loops that were supposed to hold tools, she clasped the descender in place and tested it by running it up and down an arm's length of the cable. Her experience with abseiling was more limited than she wanted Ida to know but she knew the basics for, when one was friends with Jack Harkness, the occasional extreme sports activity was bound to happen as he liked the adrenaline rush and enjoyed having company at the same time. The same feeling of nausea she got every time she approached a long drop swirled in her stomach as she and Ida stepped on the edge and looked down into the pit.

Vertigo hit her and the world tilted unpleasantly.

"I'm not afraid of the height, I'm afraid of the fall," Zoe muttered to herself, rubbing her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "And I shouldn't be afraid of the fall because I'm attached to a cable. Therefore, there's nothing to be afraid of."

"I wouldn't be afraid of the fall either," Ida said. "It's the impact you should fear."

Zoe stared at her, annoyed. "Is that supposed to be helpful right now?"

"Sorry," she apologised. "I don't like heights either."

"I never have," Zoe said. "Right from when I was kid. Yet I always seem to find myself in situations like these. I suppose it's my own fault. I could've had an easier life with less danger and heights but here I am. You ready?"

"No," Ida admitted. "You?"

"Not really." She flexed her fingers in her gloves and rolled back onto her heels, exhaling slowly to calm her nerves. "All right, here I go." She didn't move. "Any second now."

Ida watched her. "Do you want me to give you a push?"

She choked on her laughter. "No, I don't, but thank you. I'm just afraid. It's funny. I'm actually less afraid of whatever's down there than this bit."

"It's very human," Ida said, shifting her weight off her sore ankle. "To be afraid, I mean. It's part of our genetic heritage, back to the time we were primates in the trees. It's our body's way of testing us, making sure that we're ready to reach the next branch."

"I feel like this sensation every time there's a big change," Zoe told her. "It's funny, I suppose, but I've never actually been very good with change despite how much it happens in my life. I don't really choose the changes for myself, it's sort of chosen for me. I suppose the last time I properly made the decision, I was – blimey, I was seventeen and the Doctor asked me to travel with him."

Ida's gloved hand found hers. "Together?"

"Together," she agreed.

Slowly and carefully, they turned so that their backs were to the pit. It helped not seeing the dark abyss directly and Zoe focused on kicking the cable over the side so that it was there for them to grab on the way down. On the count of three, they tightened their grip on the cable and leaned back over the edge, Zoe's heart pounding in her chest. Her foot felt as though it was glued to the edge and she had to wrench it back, forcing it down into the shaft even as her body shook with fear, cold sweat absorbed by her body sleeve.

Eyes squeezed tightly shut, she and Ida made their way over the edge and began to walk down the side. The wall was surprisingly smooth and her boots struggled to find traction against it but she kept her eyes shut and thought of the Doctor's smile: The long dimples on his cheeks, the crease of the lines around his eyes, the fall of his hair over his forehead, and the way it warmed her all the way through. Slowly, her heart rate started to calm and Ida's voice broke through, speaking into her helmet.

"We're doing it," she said. "You're okay."

"I'm fine," Zoe lied. "Let's just keep going, smooth and steady. I'll feel better the longer we keep doing this."

They kept the comm open between them and the sound of Ida breathing helped keep Zoe calm, reassured that she wasn't alone. It was easy to keep her eyes on the wall, her head torch and that of Ida's the only light around them as the light from the gravity orb was swallowed hole by the darkness. Slowly, her heart rate slowed and the fear began to leave her, a tune building in her throat until she was humming to herself.

"What is that?" Ida asked after a few minutes of listening to her. "That tune you're humming?"

"Sorry, I didn't realise I was doing it." She kept her eyes locked on the wall in front of her instead of turning to her new friend. "It's just something I'm trying to get right on the piano at the moment. It's proving a bit difficult; although, that's my own fault as I'm not practising as much as I should. Do you play an instrument?"

"No," Ida said quietly. "My dad wanted me to learn but I was always more interested in science."

"I didn't learn until I was about twenty, I think, I forget." Zoe ignored the growing pain in her stiff fingers that were clamped tightly around the cable. "I like it though. It's soothing."

"Music tends to be," she replied, hesitation chasing the ends of her words. "What do you think it was? That thing? The Beast?"

Zoe remained silent. She had been successful at not thinking about the Beast given the need to find a way off the surface and then Jefferson's body and everything else but the long journey into the pit towards the Beast seemed like the appropriate time to turn her thoughts towards it.

Hybrid.

Aberration.

Monster in the making.

It wasn't the first time she had been called a hybrid. The werewolf in Scotland had looked her in the eyes and called her that as well. At the time, she had thought it was simply period-appropriate racism but now, hearing it from a creature whose telepathy seemed to be incomprehensible, she was uncertain. It had certainty plucked at her biggest fear: The idea that she was slowly becoming something monstrous, that her decisions around Jek and Lumic were the start of a slippery slope she didn't know how to stop.

"I don't know," Zoe said, finally.

"Do you think it really is the devil?"

"I don't know, maybe," she said, uncertain. "I've seen all sorts of things over the years: Aliens wearing skin suits, creatures within metal armour, rips in time and space, a big head in a jar, and universes pressed alongside our own. I don't want to call anything impossible these days but the idea that this thing is the devil we know? I'm just not sure."

"It knew things..." Ida trailed off, helpless and afraid.

Her foot slipped on the surface of the wall, jerking her against the cable, and Ida cried out a warning, grabbing tighter hold of the cable to stop them both from falling. Zoe quickly regained her grip, heart slamming against her ribcage at the near miss.

"Sorry," she apologised, swiftly. "Shit, sorry."

"It's okay," Ida said, voice shaking and it took them a moment to find their matched pace again. "I don't understand how it knew the things it did."

"There are so many species that are telepathic, it's probably one of them," Zoe said, working through her theories out loud. "Even the Ood are and it's not like you consider them to be anything more than a slave race." Ida sniffed, hearing the censure. "The thing is though, stories tend to have this sort of recurring causal narrative throughout time and space. I've seen it time and time again. Like on Earth, you'll have variations upon a theme: Dozens of different tellings of the same story, different names and settings, but the story's the same at the heart of it all. I reckon it's the same thing with the devil. I mean, look at Earth: You've got Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Mephistopheles in the same group. They all play against the same theme of personal evil, eternal suffering, and all that jazz."

"Except none of those have spoken to us," Ida pointed out.

"I'm pretty sure the Catholic Church disagrees about that, they think the devil is in everything." Her mind drifted to Reinette and wondered what her wife would think when faced with a creature claiming to be the devil. "But the point I'm getting at is that this story of evil and a – I don't know – a personification of it, a character that we pour the essence of it into, appears in so many of the myths and legends of hundreds of millions world."

"What are you saying?"

"All stories have an element of truth to them," Zoe said. "Take the Doctor, for example. He's been made into stories on various planets, his name scattered throughout the mythology of thousands of cultures and he's not a god or a devil. He's just someone who travels and sees the universe and helps people when he can. So this story of the devil, if it's not truth then perhaps it's a moral based on a truth."

"Then that implies that there was once a person or a creature that the stories are based on," Ida replied. "That maybe the idea came from somewhere, like here."

Zoe shivered. "Maybe."

"But if this is the original, does that make it real? Does that make it the actual devil, do you think?"

"Don't know," she said. "Maybe, in a way. Truth becomes twisted over time. It never takes long before you lose the facts as it passes from person to person. You've met the Doctor, you know that he's just a man with a lot of intelligence and that sets him apart sometimes on the worlds that we visit. Every now and then, he's mistaken as a supreme being. By claiming him as a god, it's a way for those people to make sense of his existence."

Ida huffed, almost amused. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Or, perhaps, in this case, any sufficiently advanced intelligence."

"Clarke's First Law," Zoe said with a smile. "And I think that this creature must be very powerful, very advanced, and very ancient. It said it existed before time, which I don't really understand how that's possible, even if it's true. So if when and where it's from~A is confusing, then it makes sense that our ancestors transformed it into something like the devil. At the end of it all though, it's still a living creature like the rest –"

I am like nothing you have ever seen before, Zoe Tyler.

Ida screamed, short and sharp, jerking so violently that she dropped the cable. In her own surprise, Zoe lost her grip and they were plummeting, falling through the darkness as the Beast laughed around them. The cable snapped taut and they were both yanked to a violent stop, their bodies crashing into each other before they hit the side of the wall. Zoe wrapped her legs around Ida's to keep them together, stretching an arm above her to hold onto the cable as spots danced in front of her eyes and her body ached. There was blood in her mouth, her teeth having bitten her cheek on the fall, and she swallowed it back.

"That was rude," Zoe said when she found her breath. "Who are you?"

You know who I am. You know what I am.

"I know what you claim to be," she replied, meeting Ida's eyes and tightening her legs around her, reassuring. "Forgive me if I take it with a pinch of salt though."

You should not exist. A hybrid, brought into existence on the edges of a mistake.

You are unnatural.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked. "A hybrid, of what exactly?"

He hasn't told you. He's afraid of what it means. Not that it matters now. You're going to die today, Zoe Tyler. Your bones will lie here for eternity. Your life will fade to nothing and you will leave the universe without pressing your fingerprints upon it.

Her breath was thin and reedy in her throat. "You're trying to scare me. It won't work."

You're already scared.

"Exactly," she replied. "I'm already scared, which means that you're not trying to frighten me. You want something from me. What is it? What do you want?"

You'll see. Soon, you will all see.

His voice faded from their minds and Zoe slumped, shaking violently, Ida's hands clumsily gripping at her.

"What was that?" Ida asked, breathless with fear. "Why did it talk to you?"

"I don't know," she said, her mind turning on the words He hasn't told you. He's afraid of what it means, knowing there was only one he the Beast could be referring to. "But it doesn't matter. We're at the end of the cable. There could be miles and miles to go or only a few feet. There's no way of knowing."

"It's down there," Ida said. "That creature. We should go back up."

"We won't make it with the oxygen we have left," Zoe said, checking her panel. "I've got eleven minutes. You?"

She checked her stats. "The same."

"Our options seem to be either stay here and run out of oxygen or unhook ourselves and hope that it's just a few feet to the ground," she said, tongue darting out to wet her dry lips. "We've made it this far. Let's go a little further."

"He said you were going to die here," Ida reminded her. "We should just – I don't know. I don't know what we should do but I don't want to die. I want to see Scooti again. I want to meet her mums and have a house with her somewhere."

"I know," Zoe said, gently. "We can't go back, we'll die before we get to the top. We can't stay here, we'll die as well. We can only go down where we might die. That's only our real option. Either way we look at it, we've got eleven minutes left. That's all the life we get. How do you spend it?"

Ida made a sound in her throat, a horrible, wrenching sound, as she struggled with her fear, and Zoe worked her jaw, closing her eyes against the Beast's words, desperate to know what was happening on the station.

Being out of contact with the others was hellish, filling her with tension and anxiety and worry. Nothing Yatta had taught her about managing those feelings was enough to break through her fearful spiral. The choices were clear to her: Stay and die or fall and hope that she was able to do something useful in the last few minutes of her life. It was easier than she thought it would be to accept that she was going to die, that in an hour from now she would be nothing more than a corpse in the dust of Krop Tor, because if she died trying to help the people she loved then she was was ready to do so.

Any one of them would do exactly the same in her position.

"Okay," Ida said. "Let's go down."

Zoe opened her eyes and stared at her. "Yeah?"

"We're going to die anyway," she said with a small laugh. "May as well die doing something interesting, right?"

"Ida Scott." A smile stretched across Zoe's face as she unwound her legs from Ida's waist and placed her hands on their clasps. "I knew I liked you."

Together, they fell into the darkness.