Victoria slammed her hand on the door in fear and frustration as her sonic did nothing to help them escape the approaching Ood.
"Open fire!" Mr. Jefferson yelled, beginning to shoot the Ood alongside the other security personnel. Rose and Victoria flinched back as sparks flew from the guns, trying their best to not get burned or hurt. As Mr. Jefferson and his personnel held fire, they managed to stop all the Ood before they could reach them thankfully.
"We're stabilizing…" Zach's voice broke the silence following the gunshots. "We've got orbit."
"Oh god, the Doctor," Victoria gasped, realizing that they must have felt the shaking. She rushed back down the stairs to the communicator, Rose close on her heels. "Doctor?" she asked, holding her breath, her worry beginning to grow. "Doctor? Ida? Are you there?"
"Doctor, can you hear me? Ida? Are you guys okay?" Rose asked, grabbing the communicator.
"Oh god, what if something's happened to them," Victoria said, grabbing Rose's free hand tightly.
"No, they're okay. The Doctor always has a plan," she shook her head, obviously trying to convince everyone. Opening her mouth to respond, Victoria was cut off by the scream of Mr. Jefferson's personnel and gunshots. However, the gunshots ended almost as quickly as they started.
Mr. Jefferson walked over to them, raising his wrist communicator up. "I've got very little ammunition, sir. How about you?"
"All I've got is a bolt gun. With uh… all of one bolt. I could take out a grand total of one Ood. Fat lot of good that is," Zach cursed.
"Given the emergency, I recommend Strategy Nine," Jefferson responded grimly.
"Strategy Nine agreed. Right, we need to get everyone together. Victoria? Rose? What about Ida and the Doctor? Any word?" Zach asked, and Victoria tightened her grip on Rose as she lifted the comm up.
"We can't get any reply, just... NOTHING, we keep trying, but it's…" Rose was cut off by static.
"No! Sorry, I'm fine. Still here!" the Doctor's voice broke through as relief washed over her.
"Oh thank god. You gave us a heart attack," Victoria laughed into the comm.
"Anyway, it's both of us, me and Ida. Hello! But the seal opened up. It's gone. All we've got left is this chasm," he responded.
"How deep is it?" Zach asked.
"Can't tell. It looks like it goes on forever," he said, and Victoria feel Rose.
While speaking into the comm, she looked at Victoria with worry. "'The pit is open'. That's what the voice said."
"But there's nothing… I mean…" Zach said, dumbfounded. "There's... NOTHING coming out?"
"No, no. No sign of 'the Beast'," the Doctor explained.
"It said 'Satan'," Rose said in horror.
"Rose, it'll be fine," Victoria tried to comfort her, even though it was starting to make her nervous.
"Come on, Rose. Keep it together," the Doctor said, but Rose shook her head, even though he couldn't see her.
"Is there no such thing?" she asked, waiting for a reply. "Doctor? Doctor, tell me there's no such thing."
"Ida? I recommend that you withdraw. Immediately," Zach said, and Ida immediately responded.
"But... we've come all this way!" she exclaimed, obviously upset by his decision.
"Okay, 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 ordered.
"But it's not much better up there with the Ood," Ida said after a moment.
"I'm initiating Strategy Nine, so I need the two of you back up top immediately, no argument," Zach said, followed by static.
"Doctor? Ida?" Victoria asked into the comm, worried that something had happened. They stood in silence, waiting for a response. After a minute, the Doctor's voice finally came back through the comm.
"Vie, Rose, we're coming back," he said, and the two girls let out a relieved sigh. Victoria glanced over to Rose and shared a large grin.
"Best news I've heard all day," Rose said before handing Victoria the comm.
"I'm glad you both are okay," she said into the comm softly. She went to say more but was cut off by Mr. Jefferson cocking his gun at Toby. "Mr. Jefferson! What are you doing?" Rose called out in horror, setting the comm down.
"He's infected. He brought that thing on board. You saw it," he said, inching closer to Toby.
"Are you gonna start shooting your own people, now? Is that what you're gonna do? Is it?" Rose asked angrily.
"If necessary," Mr. Jefferson said curtly.
Rose gave him a look while kneeling next to Toby. "Well then, you'll have to shoot me 'if necessary, so what's it gonna be? Look at his face. Whatever it was, it's gone. It passed into the Ood. You saw it happen. He's clean."
Victoria watched with bated breath, worried that Mr. Jefferson would actually shoot Rose. "Any sign of trouble... I'll shoot him," he said before walking away.
She knelt down on the other side of Toby, who was on the verge of tears as Rose asked him if he was okay. "Yeah, I… Dunno," he stuttered out, trembling terribly.
"Do you remember anything at all?" Victoria asked softly.
"Just... it was so angry. It was... fury and rage... death…" he said, looking around the room paranoid. "It was him. It was the devil."
Rose immediately leaned over and hugged him. "Come here," she said, trying to comfort him. Victoria stayed to the side, watching as Rose calmed Toby down.
After taking a few calming breaths, Victoria stood up, having decided that she should ask if anyone was hurt or needed anything.
Danny shook his head. "All we can do right now is wait for the Doctor and Ida. There's not much here we can do at the moment."
Rose soon came and stood with the three of us as they waited for them to reach out. "Okay, we're in. Bring us up," Ida said.
"Ascension in three… two… one…" Mr. Jefferson counted down, and Victoria grabbed Rose's hand with a smile. It quickly fell, however, as all the lights in the room went out.
"This is the Darkness. This is my domain," a deep voice said over the comm as the screen began to flicker on the computer to a picture of the Ood.
"You little things that live in the light... clinging to your feeble Suns which die in the…" it continued to say but was cut off by Zach's voice.
"That's not the Ood. Something's talking through them," Zach said.
"Only the Darkness remains," it said, and she tightened her grip on Rose's hand in fear.
"This is Captain Zachary Cross Flane of Sanctuary Base Six representing the Torchwood archive. You will identify yourself," Zach ordered through the comm.
"You know my name," it said slowly.
"What do you want?" Zach asked harshly.
"You will die here. All of you. This planet is your grave," it said, causing Toby to whimper. Victoria turned around to see Toby staring at the screen in terror, cowering away.
"It's him. It's him. It's him…" he muttered over and over in fear.
"If you are the Beast, then answer me this: which one? Hmm? 'Cos the universe has been busy since you've been gone. There's more religions than there are planets in the sky. The Archivits... Pordonity, Christianity... Pash-Pash, New Judaism... Sanclar... Church of the Tin Vagabond - which devil are you?" the Doctor asked, not seemingly impressed by the voice.
"All of them," it told him.
"What, then you're the truth behind the myth?" the Doctor questioned.
"This one knows me - as I know him. The killer of his own kind," the voice said, fear growing deep in Victoria's bones.
"How did you end up on this rock?" the Doctor asked, ignoring the voice.
"The disciples of the Light rose up against me. And chained me in the pit for all eternity," it explained.
"When was that?" the Doctor inquired.
"Before time."
"What does that mean?" the Doctor asked, exasperated.
"Before time," it said again.
"What does 'before time' MEAN?" the Doctor asked, becoming very irritated.
"Before light and time and space and matter. Before the cataclysm. Before this universe was created," the voice explained, and Victoria shook her head.
"But that doesn't make any sense," she whispered to Rose.
"That's impossible. No life could have existed back then," the Doctor said, adamantly against what the voice was saying.
"Is that your religion?" it asked him, and the Doctor hesitated for a moment. "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," it said, making Mr. Jefferson shift uncomfortably.
"The little boy who lied…" it said, causing Danny to stiffen "The virgin…" the voice spoke, directed at Toby "The scared, confused girl, unsure of what the future will bring and who she'll become. Running from her past, one that she can't even seem to remember," it said. How could it know about that? How could it understand how I was feeling, what I was struggling with? "And the lost girl, so far away from home. The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon," the voice said, this time directed at Rose, making Victoria's blood run cold. She felt the blonde stiffen, so she tightened her grip on her free hand.
"Doctor, what does it mean?" Rose asked into the comm, beginning to freak out.
"Rose," he said quietly. "Don't listen to it."
"What does it mean?" she asked again.
"You will die... and I will live," the voice called out, changing the video that was on the screen.
"What the…" Victoria gasped, taking a step back as we all stared at the image on the screen. The video of the Ood had changed to that of a gigantic, red-horned beast roaring.
"What the hell was that?" Danny asked with a tremor in his voice.
Toby looked at the screen in horror. "I had that thing inside my head."
"Doctor, what did it mean?" Rose cried out this time, her voice going up a pitch in fear.
"What do we do? Jefferson?" Danny asked, looking over to the man in question.
Mr. Jefferson raised his comm to his mouth and asked, "Captain? What's the situation on Strategy Nine?"
"Zach, what do we do?" Danny repeated in fear.
"What if I can fix it?" Toby said, looking at the screen. "The black hole, everything's true."
"Captain report," Mr. Jefferson said, waiting for Zach's response.
"We've lost pictures-" Zach responded, but Victoria couldn't hear the rest over everyone talking.
"You guys, please. We can't get anything done by talking over top of one another," she tried to say but was talked over. She understood that everyone was scared of what was happening, hell, even she was scared. But talking over one another wasn't going to help anyone in the slightest.
All of a sudden, a loud screeching noise sounded through all the comms, causing Victoria to cover her ears in pain. "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," the Doctor said.
"But that's how the devil works," Danny said, shaking his head.
"Or a good psychologist," the Doctor retorted.
"But... how did it know about my father?" Ida asked, hesitant to believe him. After a moment, the Doctor responded.
"Okay, but what makes his version of the truth any better than mine? Hmm? Cos I'll tell you what I can see: humans. Brilliant humans. Humans who travel all the way across space. Flying in a tiny little rocket into the orbit of a black hole! Just for the sake of discovery, that's amazing! Do you hear me? Amazing. All of you. The captain, his officer, his elder, his genius, his friends. All with one advantage. The Beast is alone. We are not. If we can use that to fight against him-" the cable holding the shaft snapped right in front of them, cutting the Doctor off.
They all watched helplessly as the cable continued to fall, before a loud crash echoed back to them, followed by a large cloud of dust. "Doctor?" Victoria asked into the comm, her heart feeling as if it were in her throat. "Doctor, can you hear me? Are you okay?"
"Their comms are down," Zach told them after a moment.
"Doctor?" she cried out, ignoring Zach in hopes that they'd hear.
"I've still got life signs, but... we've lost the capsule," Zach said.
"Oh god," Victoria said, lowering her hand in shock.
"There's no way out. They're stuck down there," Zach's voice broke the silence, and Victoria felt Rose grab her shoulder.
"But we've GOT TO bring them back," Rose stressed, but Mr. Jefferson shook his head.
"They're ten miles down. We haven't got another ten miles of cable," he explained just as something banged on the door behind us.
We all turned around quickly to see what happened.
"Captain? Situation report," Mr. Jefferson said into his comm. After a few moments of silence, Zach responded with a sigh.
"It's the Ood. They're cutting through the door bolts. They're breaking in."
"Yeah, it's the same on Door twenty-five," Mr. Jefferson told Zach, and she felt Rose grab her hand and squeeze it.
"How long's it gonna take?" Rose asked.
"Well, it's only a basic frame, it should take ten minutes," he said, just as another bang sounded. "Eight."
"I've got a security frame, it might last a bit longer, but that doesn't help you," Zach told them, and Victoria began looking around.
"Right. So we need to stop them, or get out, or both," Rose said.
"I'll take both, yeah? But how?" Danny asked.
"We need to get the lights back on somehow. We need power. You heard the Doctor before, you need to start thinking, coming up with a plan," Victoria said, releasing Rose's hand to walk around the room.
"There's nothing I can do. Some captain, stuck in here, pressing buttons," Zach explained with a sigh.
"Ohh," Rose said, turning to point at Victoria. "That's what the Doctor MEANT: press the right buttons."
"They've gutted the generators!" he exclaimed, realizing what he had to work with. "But the rocket's got an independent supply. If I could reroute that... Mr. Jefferson? Open the bypass conduits. Override the safety…"
Mr. Jefferson walked over to the computer and began pushing buttons. "Opening bypass conduits, sir."
"Channeling rocket feed. In 3... 2... 1... power," Zach counted down, and the whole room began to smile as the lights came back on.
While clapping, Rose said, "There we go!"
"Okay, now…" Rose said. "What about that Strategy Nine thing?"
Mr. Jefferson shook his head, looking back at her. "Not enough power. It needs a hundred percent."
"All right, we need a way out. Zach, Mr. Jefferson, you start working on that," Rose told the two men, managing to make Victoria smile through her worry.
Seeing Rose taking charge, burying away her fear to do what needs to be done. She was proud of Rose, she was so strong. Victoria watched as she knelt down in front of Toby and began to question him, so she went over to where Danny was standing. "You're in charge of the Ood, right? Is there a way to stop them?"
"Well… I don't know," he said, shaking his head.
"Can you look and find out? We'll never be able to leave with all the Ood trying to stop us," Victoria asked. While nodding, Danny walked up to the computer and started to get to work. She patted him on the shoulder as she walked over to where Rose was standing, overlooking the shaft, and stood next to her.
Neither said anything, Victoria just sat her head down on her shoulder and looked down in silence. She wished they could do more to help. She didn't like just watching from the side, not being able to do anything. She just felt so useless, especially with the Doctor ten miles underneath all of them. She took her head off of Rose's shoulder and turned around to look at the progress the others had made. "Open junctions five... six... seven…" Mr. Jefferson said as another bang resonated in the room. "... reroute filters sixteen to twenty-four. Go."
"There's all sorts of viruses that could stop the Ood. Trouble is, we haven't got them on board," Danny said, shaking his head, piquing Victoria's interest.
"Is there something we can manufacture here on the base? Maybe more like a signal than an actual virus?" she asked, looking at him just as the computer began to beep and 'affirmative' lit up the screen.
"Oh my God. It says yes! I can do it! Just like you said! Hypothetically, if you flip the monitor, broadcast a flare... it can disrupt the telepathy! Brainstorm!" he exclaimed happily.
"Good work, Danny," Victoria smiled.
"What happens to the Ood?" Rose asked.
"It'll tank them, spark out!" he told them, causing Rose to grin.
"There we are, then! Do it!" she said, causing him to lose his smile.
"No, but…" he said, shaking his head. "I'd have to transmit from the central monitor. We need to go to Ood Habitation."
"Is there any way for us to get there?" Victoria asked.
"Mr. Jefferson, sir! Any way out?" Rose questioned, approaching him.
"Just about... there's a network of maintenance tunnels running underneath the base. We should be able to gain access from here," he told them, causing Rose to grin.
"Ventilation shafts," she said.
"Yeah, I appreciate the reference, but there's no ventilation. No air, in fact, at all. They were designed for machines, not life forms," he said, shaking his head. Zach's voice cut through, saying
"But, I can manipulate the oxygen field from here. Create discrete pockets of atmosphere... if I control it manually... I can follow you through the network."
"Right, so we go down, and you make the air follow us. By hand," Rose summarized.
"You wanted me pressing buttons," Zach said jokingly.
"Yeah, I asked for it, okay, we need to get to Ood Habitation, work out a route," she told him.
"The shaft entrance is right under Victoria's. Once you're in, I'll tell you where to go," Zach's voice called out again after a moment. Rose and Mr. Jefferson came and stood by Victoria, but Danny continued to type furiously into the computer.
"Danny!" Rose yelled out to him, urging him to hurry up.
"Hold on! Just conforming…" Danny muttered, still working quickly.
"Dan, you gotta go NOW!" Mr. Jefferson called out to him just as another bang came from the door. "Come on!"
"I got it!" he exclaimed, pulling an orange computer chip out of the computer. "Put that in the monitor... and it's a bad time to be an Ood!"
Rose looked over at Victoria and said, "We're coming back. Have you got that? We're coming back to this room and we're getting the Doctor out." Victoria grinned at her, thankful for her positive thinking.
"Okay, Danny, you go first, then Miss Tyler, then Miss Jones, then Toby, I'll go last in a defensive position. Now come on! Quick as you can!" Jefferson ordered, and they began dropping into the tunnel one by one. As I landed, I was greeted by a not-so-pleasing smell, and so were Rose and Danny.
"God, it stinks. You all right?" Rose asked, and he nodded.
"Yeah, I'm laughing," he told her as Toby landed behind Victoria. "Okay, Zach. Which way do we go?"
"Just go straight ahead. Keep going 'til I say so," he said, just as Mr. Jefferson fell into place behind Toby. Nodding to himself, Danny quickly began shuffling down the shaft.
"Not your best angle, Danny," Rose said, not impressed by having to look at Danny's butt, causing Victoria to snicker.
"Oi, stop it!" Danny called out.
"I dunno, it could be worse," Toby said from behind me. Victoria blanched at his words, and from where she was, she could see Rose do the same.
"Did you not see me kiss the Doctor earlier? What is wrong with you?" she asked as they continued to move as quickly as we could. Thankfully, no one talked after that as they kept moving. It was Danny's voice that broke that silence.
"Straight along until you find junction 7.1. Keep breathing. I'm feeding you air. I've got you," he told us, and a few moments later they got to the junction.
"We're at 7.1, sir," Mr. Jefferson said into his comm as they all tried to catch their breath.
"Okay, I've got you. I'm just aerating the next section," he told them.
"Getting kinda cramped, sir... can't you hurry up?" Danny asked.
"Danny, stop talking. He's doing the best he can," Victoria snapped, feeling slightly winded.
"Stop complaining," Mr. Jefferson agreed.
"Mr. Jefferson says to stop complaining," Rose relayed to Danny, even though they were barely a few feet away.
"I heard," Danny nodded.
"He heard," Rose told Mr. Jefferson.
"But the air's getting a bit thin," Toby said into his comm, causing Rose to roll her eyes.
"He's complaining now!" she told Mr. Jefferson who nodded.
"I heard," he said as Danny wiped the sweat off his brow. Rose's face immediately screwed up as she looked at him in disgust.
"Danny, is that you?"
"I'm not exactly happy," he tried to defend himself. Zach started talking again, saying, "I'm just moving the air. I've got to oxygenate the next section. Now, keep calm... or it's gonna feel worse."
"He's right. We have limited airflow here, we need to conserve our breath. So please, for the love of God, please stop talking," Victoria said harshly, taking a deep breath. No one said anything else, but a loud banging came from behind them.
"What was that?" Danny asked as Rose asked Mr. Jefferson the same thing.
"What's that noise?" Toby questioned as Mr. Jefferson watched the tunnel closely.
"Captain, what was that?" Mr. Jefferson asked.
"The junction in Habitation Five's been opened - it must be the Ood. They're in the tunnels!" he warned us.
"Well, open the gate!" Danny exclaimed.
"I've gotta get the air in!" Zach told him, and from the sounds of it, he was working as fast as he could.
"Where are they? Are they close?" Rose asked.
"Don't know, I can't tell, I can't see them... the computer doesn't register Ood as proper life forms," Zach explained, causing Rose to through her head back in despair.
"Whose idea was that?" she asked while Danny got progressively more frightened.
"OPEN the gate!" Danny roared into his comm, just as the gate began to open.
"Danny, turn left. Immediate left," Zach ordered, and Danny did just that.
"The Ood, sir - can't you trap them? Cut off the air?" Mr. Jefferson asked, and Victoria looked back to see him crawling backward so he could shoot if necessary.
"Not without cutting off yours," Zach explained.
"Danny, turn right. Go right! Go fast, Dan - they're gonna catch up!" he told them, and they tried to pick up the speed.
"I'll maintain defensive position!" Mr. Jefferson declared, stopping where he was.
"Mr. Jefferson..." VIctoria whispered, looking back at him in horror.
"You can't stop!" Rose exclaimed, but all he did was shake his head and aim his gun.
"Miss Tyler, Miss Jones, that's my job. You've got your task - now see to it," he told the girls.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Jefferson. Thank you," Victoria said before pushing Rose to move. "Come on, guys! We need to move!"
It didn't take much longer to reach the next junction, so Danny quickly called out to Zach on his comm. "8.2. Open 8.2. Zach!"
"I've got to aerate it," Zach explained,
"OPEN IT NOW!" Danny growled into the device, and Victoria glared at him.
"You telling him to move faster isn't going to do anything," she snapped at him.
"Jefferson... I've gotta open 8.2 by closing 8.1. You've GOT to get past the junction, now MOVE. That's an order, now MOVE!" Zach told us, waiting to hear a response from said man. In the distance, Victoria could still hear the sound of his gun, knowing that he wasn't going to move.
"I'm gonna lose oxygen, Jefferson, I can't stop for your dramatics!" Zach called out as the firing stopped. The junction began to open, and Danny quickly continued moving. "Come on!"
"Danny, turn left and head for 9.2. That's the last one. Jefferson, you've got to move faster. Move!" Zach ordered, and Rose stopped in front of me to call out for Mr. Jefferson. Toby pushed Victoria into Rose, telling her to keep moving. She swallowed roughly as she listened to Zach and Mr. Jefferson talk over the comm.
"Regret to inform, sir... I was a bit slow. Not so fast, these days," he told Zach, and Victoria bowed her head slightly as they kept moving.
"I can't open 8.1, John. Not without losing air for the others," Zach apologized.
"And quite right too, sir. I think I bought them a little time," Mr. Jefferson said, sounding pleased by the accomplishment.
"There's nothing I can do, John. I'm sorry," Zach whispered into the comm, and Victoria could feel tears begin to well in her eyes.
"You've done enough, sir. Made a very good captain under the circumstances. I ask, if you can't add oxygen to this section... can you speed up the process of its removal?" he asked Zach.
"I don't understand. What do you mean?" Zach questioned, and she could hear Mr. Jefferson take a deep breath.
"Well... if I might choose the manner of my departure, sir... lack of air seems more natural than... well... let's say... death by Ood," he said. "I'd appreciate it, sir."
"God speed, Mr. Jefferson," Zach told him.
"Thank you, sir," Mr. Jefferson said before the room when quiet. As they continued shuffling, Victoria could hear Rose sniffle slightly in front of her.
"Report... Officer John Maynard Jefferson PKD... deceased... with honors. 43K2.1," Zach announced as the four of them sat in silence, having reached the final junction.
"Zach... we're at the final junction. 9.2. And er... if my respects could be on record. He saved our lives," Danny said into his comm.
"Noted. Opening 9.2," Zach said, his voice still solemn. As the door began to rise, they were greeted by a large group of Ood. Victoria tried to bite back a yelp of surprise as they scrambled backward.
"Lower 9.2. Zach, lower it!" Rose exclaimed as Danny ushered them farther back.
"We can't go back! The gang point's sealed off, we're stuck!" Toby exclaimed. Victoria watched Rose, noticing that she was looking upwards.
"Come on!" she said, pushing a grate that was above her head up. She was the first to exit, and Victoria ushered Danny to go before her. She grabbed onto the edges, and the two helped pull her up into the corridor.
Victoria looked back in horror to see that Toby hadn't followed right behind her. "Come on! Toby, come on!"
"Toby, get out of there!" Rose called, and they watched as Toby scrambled to grab onto the edge of the grate.
"Help me! Oh, my God - help me!" he exclaimed as a group of Oods began to enter from one side of the corridor. Together they pulled Toby out the shaft and ran through the free door in the corridor.
"Hurry up!" Zach's voice called out as they rushed into the Ood Habitation room. Danny ran up to the computer and pulled out the orange computer chip he pulled earlier.
"Get it in!" Rose exclaimed as Danny struggled to get the chip into the computer. "Transmit!"
"I'm trying! I'm trying! I'm getting at it-" Danny said as he frantically tried to get it in. Victoria grabbed Rose's hand as she looked back at the Oods that were approaching them.
"Danny, get that thing transmitting!" she said, just as he managed to push it into the computer. The reading quickly dropped down to Basic zero, causing all the Oods to drop to the ground, grabbing their heads in pain.
"You did it! We did it!" Rose grinned at Danny.
"Yes!" he exclaimed as Rose pulled him into a hug. She did the same for Toby before pulling Victoria into a tight hug. After pulling away, she grabbed the comm.
"Zach, we did it. The Ood are down. Now we've gotta get the Doctor," she told him with a grin.
"I'm on my way," he said.
"Come on," Victoria said, grabbing Rose's hand, pulling the girl with her as she ran for the observation deck. When they got there, Zach was waiting for them, but Victoria ran straight for a comm. "Doctor? Doctor, are you there? Ida?"
"The comms are still down. I can patch them through the central desk and boost the signal. Just give me a minute," Zach said, and Victoria reached out for Rose's hand again, beginning to feel anxious.
Rose squeezed her hand and watched as Zach typed at the computer furiously. "Okay, they should be good to go now," he said, looking up from his work.
"Doctor? Are you there, Doctor? Ida? Can you guys hear me? Doctor?" Victoria called out, gripping the comm tightly, waiting for a response.
"He's gone," Ida responded. It felt as if she couldn't breathe, as if someone had stolen all the air in her lungs.
"What-what do you mean 'he's gone'?" she asked, choking on her words.
"He fell. Into the pit. And I don't know how deep it is - miles and miles and miles," Ida explained, and Rose pulled the comm out of Victoria's hands. She was fighting off tears as best as could now.
"But... what do you mean 'he fell'?" Rose asked, her voice breaking.
"I couldn't stop him. He said to tell you both he was sorry. And then he said your name, Victoria. He told me… He told me to tell you that he loved you," Ida whispered.
It felt like her heart stopped as Ida said those words. Victoria glanced over at Rose, to see Zach pulling the comm out of her hand to talk to Ida. She could barely pay attention to their words, her thoughts only on the Doctor, and how he was gone. She reached her hand into her pocket and gripped her watch, finding a familiar comfort in it. It felt warm in her hand as if the essence inside was reaching out.
"I'm declaring this mission unsafe. All we can do is make sure no one ever comes here again," Zach said, drawing Victoria out of her thoughts.
Unfortunately, Ida was stuck down in the pit, and there was no way for them to get her back. "But we'll never find out what it was," Ida said, and Victoria watched as Zach shook his head.
"Well, maybe that's best," Zach told her.
"Yeah," she agreed absentmindedly.
"Officer Scott-" Zach began to say, but Ida cut him off. "It's all right. Just go. Good luck."
"Thank you," Zach told her before placing the comm back into the slot. "Danny - Toby - close down the feed links. Get the retrotopes online. Then get to the rocket - strap yourselves in. We're leaving."
"I'm not going," Rose said, shaking her head.
"Rose, there's space for you. For both of you," Zach said, looking over at Victoria. She stayed quiet, uncertain of what they should do. She didn't want to give up on the Doctor, not by a long shot. But the Doctor also wouldn't want them to stay, he'd want them to try and survive.
"No, I'm gonna wait for the Doctor. Just like he waited for me. Us," she said, glancing over at Victoria.
"I'm sorry, but... he's dead," Zach said gently, causing Victoria to flinch.
"You don't know him, he wouldn't just leave her. Us. 'Cos he's not...I'm telling you, he's- he's not... and even if he was, how could we leave him? All on his own, all the way down there? No. We're gonna stay," Rose said, choking back tears as she gestured between Victoria and her, and Zach nodded.
"Then I apologize for this. Danny, Toby, make her secure," Zach said, and the two men grabbed ahold of Rose.
"What are you doing to her?" Victoria asked, grabbing ahold of Zach's arm, but he ignored her. "Zach, let her go! What are you doing?"
"No - no! No! No! No! Let me go!" Rose yelled, trying to fight the two men off. "Get off me! I'm not leaving!" Zach pulled out a needle and stuck it in her arm.
"What did you give her?" Victoria asked harshly, watching as she drooped in Danny's arms.
"Just a sedative, she'll wake soon enough. Now, are you going to come with us, or do I need to sedate you too?" he asked, holding the needle up for her to see.
"Trust me, I want to stay just as much as she does," Victoria snapped, staring at Rose's limp body. "But I'm not going to fight you."
"Good. I have lost too many people. I am not leaving you both behind. Let's get her on board," Zach said, leading her to the ship. She followed behind, looking around the base solemnly, stepping over the bodies of the Ood. The ship was on the other side of the base, meaning they had a long walk.
"Did that one just move?" Toby asked, pointing at one of the Ood lying by the wall. Victoria took a step back, startled by that Ood opening its eyes and looking straight at her. It blinked a few times before it sat up.
"The telepathic field, it's reasserting itself," Danny told them.
"Well," Victoria said, looking at the men in front of her, hoping they'd walk faster. "It just looked me in the eyes, so if we could move a bit quicker, that'd be great."
Zach nodded, ushering the others. "Move it! Get to the rocket! Move!"
Victoria sat in the seat beside Zach as Rose, Danny, and Toby took the back row of seats. She clipped her seatbelt in slowly, looking out the window at the now-abandoned base. "Everyone strapped in?" Zach asked, looking around at each of us. Rose was still asleep, but thanks to Toby, she was secure.
"Good. Dislocating B-Clamp - C-Clamp - raising blue nitrates to maximum. Toby, how's the negapact feed line?" he asked, flipping buttons on the console.
"Clear! Ready to go, sir. For God's sakes, get us out of here!" Toby responded, and Zach nodded.
"Captain... I think we're gonna have a problem passenger…" Danny said, getting their attention. Victoria turned around and watched as Rose began to stir.
"Keep an eye on her," Zach ordered Danny.
"Wait... I'm not… Victoria?" Rose started to fight her harness.
"Rose, it's okay," Victoria tried to calm her down.
"I'm not going anywhere! Get me out of this thing! Get me out! Victoria! We've got to go back!" she shouted, tugging at her seatbelt.
"And… liftoff," Zach said, and the rocket began to shake as the engines started. As they flew off the base, the three men began cheering, but Victoria looked down at the base with tears in her eyes.
'I'm sorry, Theta,' she thought, fearing the tears begin to well again. 'I love you.'
"Take me back to the planet!" Rose exclaimed, grabbing the bolt gun from beside her and aiming it at Zach. "Take us back!"
Zach didn't look back, continuing to push buttons on the console. "Or what?"
"Or I'll shoot," Rose threatened, and Victoria turned back to look at her in horror. She couldn't believe Rose was threatening someone with a gun.
"Rose," Victoria whispered, looking into her teary eyes as the gun trembled in her hand slightly. "Put the gun down, the Doctor… He would hate to see this. I don't want to leave any more than you do, but we don't have a choice now."
She looked Victoria in the eyes before drooping back into her seat, lowering her arm in the process.
"She's right, it's too late anyway. Take a look outside. We can't turn back. This is what the Doctor would have wanted," Zach said, and Victoria looked out the window once more, watching as they flew away from the black hole.
They sat in silence, only the sound of the engine and buttons being pressed filled the air. Behind Victoria, quiet, maniacal laughter began to come from Toby. "What's the joke?" Danny asked, causing her to turn around.
"Just... we made it. We escaped. We actually did it," he explained, and Rose gave him a look.
"Not all of us," Rose said, and Victoria turned back around to look out the window.
"We're not out of it yet. We're still the first people in history to fly AWAY from a black hole. Toby read me the stats," Zach ordered.
"Gravity funnel holding, sir. Always holding," Toby responded, looking at the screen behind Victoria's head. "Stats. at 53, funnel status at 66.5. Hull pressure constant. Smooth as we can, sir. All the way back home. Coordinates set for Planet Earth."
"It doesn't make sense. We escaped, but there are a thousand ways it could've killed us. It could've... ripped out the air or... I dunno, burnt us, or anything. But it let us go. Why? Unless it wanted us to escape…" Rose thought out loud.
She had a point. The fact that they had survived felt somewhat off. "Hey, Rose, do us a favor. Shut up," Toby snarled.
"Almost there. We'll be beyond the reach of the black hole in 40... 39…" he said, looking away from Rose and back to the screen.
Suddenly, the ship began to shake rapidly. Victoria reached out, struggling to get a grip on the window. "What happened? What was that?" Danny cried out.
"What's he doing? What is he doing?" Toby asked. She turned around as best as she could to look at Toby.
"Who is doing what, Toby?" Victoria asked, beginning to grow suspicious.
"We've lost the funnel! Gravity collapse!" Zach called out, and she let out a strangled gasp.
"What does that mean?" Rose called out.
"We're falling back into the black hole," Victoria told her, and she could see the fear in her eyes. She turned around to look out the window, but the sight of Toby had captured her attention. Victoria stared in mute horror as the strange symbols covered his skin and his eyes turned bright red.
"-falling," Rose said, turning back around. She pushed herself as far away from Toby as possible as he looked at them with an evil grin.
"I am the rage," the deep voice from earlier said through Toby.
"Zach! Victoria! Do something!" she cried, and Victoria reached into her pocket, looking for her sonic.
"And the bile and the ferocity," Toby continued to say. I am the Prince and the Fall and the Darkness."
"It's him! It's him! It's him!" Danny yelled.
"Stay where you are! The ship is unstable," Zach said, looking back at the chaos in the back.
"What the hell!" Rose cried out, moving back to avoid the fire that flew out of Toby's mouth.
"What is he?! What the HELL is he?!" Zach shouted, looking between controls and Toby.
"Rose! The gun!" Victoria called to her, nodding at the gun within her reach. "Shoot the window! Now!"
"I shall never die! The thought of me is forever! In the bleeding hearts of men - in their vanity and obsession and lust-" Toby continued to say, thankfully not paying attention to any of them on board.
"Go to hell," Rose growled, pointing the gun at the front window. Air immediately began to get sucked out of the whole, and Victoria pointed her sonic at his seatbelt and unlocked his buckle.
Toby's body flew out of his seat and was sucked out of the ship in a matter of seconds, roaring the whole way. "Emergency shield!" Zach yelled, pushing buttons to call up the said shield. It moved quickly and covered the whole in the window.
"We've still lost the gravity funnel. We can't escape the black hole!" Zach said, looking at the data on one of the screens.
"But we stopped him. That's what the Doctor would've done," Rose said, and Victoria looked back at her with a sad smile. She reached out and gripped her hand tightly. She was right, this is exactly what the Doctor would have done if he were here.
"Some victory. We're going in," Zach said.
"The planet's lost orbit! It's falling!" Danny said, looking at the monitor behind her head. Letting go of Rose's hand, she turned around to look out the window. Victoria covered her mouth in horror as she watched the planet get sucked into the black hole.
If there had been any chance of the Doctor or Ida being alive, it was gone now along with the planet. He was really gone. "The planet's gone. I'm sorry," Danny said softly.
"Accelerate. I did my best. But hey - first Human Beings to fall inside a black hole. How about that? History," Zach said as they got closer to the black hole.
"I'm glad I got to have you as a friend, Rose. You know that?" Victoria asked, preparing for the impact.
"You too-" Rose cut herself off as the shaking stopped.
"Zach, what's going on?" Victoria asked looking over at him.
"We're... turning. We're turning around. We're turning away!" he exclaimed, and they all stared out the window in shock as the ship began moving away from the black hole.
"Sorry about the hijack, Captain. This is the good ship TARDIS," the Doctor's voice broke the silence, and Victoria felt tears of relief spring in her eyes.
"Now, first thing's first - have you got a Victoria Jones and Rose Tyler on board?" he asked, and she looked around to Rose with a giant grin on her face.
"We're here, Doctor! We're here!" they cried out, laughing with each other in happiness.
"I'm just towing you home. Gravity-schmavity. My people practically invented black holes," the Doctor explained as they moved further away.
"Well - in fact, they did. In a couple of minutes, we'll be nice and safe. Oh, and captain - can we do a swap? Say, if you give me Victoria and Rose - I'll give you Ida Scott? How about that?" he asked, causing Zach and Danny to let out whoops of happiness.
"She's alive!" Zach laughed.
"Yes! Thank god!" Danny exclaimed.
"Yeah! Bit of oxygen starvation, but she should be all right," he said before growing a bit quieter. "I couldn't save the Ood. I only had time for one trip. They went down with the planet."
"Ah! Entering clear space - end of the line - mission closed," the Doctor said, and Victoria squeezed Rose's hand again.
"We're going home," she told her friend, smiling at her in relief. She closed her eyes, relieved to know that they would be home soon.
"Thank you," she said over her shoulder to Danny and Ida, who were waving at them goodbye. She pushed open the door to the TARDIS to see the Doctor standing at the console still in the spacesuit.
Victoria ran up the ramp and pull the Doctor into a tight hug, so relieved. She pulled back and looked him in the eyes. "I told you I'll always come back for you," he told her softly.
"Oh, I love you," she told him before reaching up and kissing him. It was short but contained so much emotion, it nearly brought her to tears.
"Oi! As much as I love seeing you two together, and really, don't get me wrong, I love seeing it. Don't hog him," Rose said, with a laugh, running up to stand beside Victoria. She laughed, feeling content. She watched with a smile as the Doctor pulled Rose into a hug, giggling at seeing one another again.
Laughing, Victoria pulled Rose into a hug as the Doctor pulled the spacesuit off to reveal his brown pinstriped suit. "I'd say we're good to go. What about you two?" the Doctor asked, looking at them.
"Yeah, I'd say we're good," she said, walking over to the Doctor's side.
"Zach? We'll be off, now. Have a good trip home," the Doctor said, connecting to the crew's ship.
"And the next time you get curious about something- oh... what's the point? You'll just go blundering in. The human race…" he said.
"But Doctor, what did you find down there? That creature - what was it?" Ida asked.
"I don't know! Never did decipher that writing. But that's good! The day I know everything? Might as well stop," he said, trying to change the topic.
"What do you think it was? Really?" Rose asked quietly.
"I think... we beat it. That's good enough for me," the Doctor said, but Rose shook her head.
"It said I was gonna die in battle," she said, looking up at the Doctor.
"Then it lies," he told her, very confident.
"It said it would live, but look where it ended up," Victoria added, knowing it would reassure Rose.
"Right, onwards, upwards - Ida - see you again, maybe!" the Doctor said as he turned back to comm.
"I hope so," Ida told them.
"Thanks, boys!" Rose called out.
"Yeah, thank you!" Victoria repeated, wanting to show her appreciation.
"Hang on though, Doctor. You never really said... you three... who are you?" Ida called out, just as the Doctor grabbed a lever.
"Oh…" he said, looking between Victoria and Rose. "The stuff of legend." He pulled the lever, and Victoria threw her arms around each other their necks, glad to be back. But there was something else she had on her mind: her pocket watch.