Reading the journals in spurts while they're searching the room, finding nothing but the cameras in the scrawls, set on different timers accordingly, pointed at specific areas, Theodore sees how Johnathan Bradley sought to continue his attempts at peaking through the negative zone, bringing out of it, the shadow people.
How he brought them out of the negative zone, Theodore didn't find it, but wouldn't be surprised if Johnathan Bradley held it in another part of the building, a buffer, this was where he witnessed the negative zone in its intended glory, this location he picked out, not for the isolation, but the ideal spot for it, as Johnathan Bradley said in his notes that some areas are "thinner" than others, meaning there's less buffer between the zones.
"Still sounds like he's crazy," Lila commented that regardless of the supposed achievements that Johnathan Bradley managed to succeed since he moved into his new profession, if Lila could even begin to call it that, he still sounded like someone who watched one too many movies and had a little too much to drink to go with it.
Maybe illegal drugs, who's to know?
Theodore would've agreed with her assessment, but with what they saw, Johnathan Bradley did what he set out to do, however it gained another question for them to solve.
What will Johnathan Bradley do with these shadows he stolen from the negative zone?
"Wait… call me crazy, but you don't think that it's possible that the person impersonating Al's… well… you know…" Lila haphazardly asked Theodore that if it's possible the unsightly voice that Theodore heard wasn't one of the shadows.
That of the universe, seemingly reaching out to him, knowing that he's telepathic, and the more Theodore thought about it, he wouldn't been surprised at all that the universe wasn't pleased with Johnathan Bradley's intrusion into the negative zone.
Though, seemingly threatening him for something he wasn't responsible for isn't called for, he and Lila didn't know what was going on until now.
Instinctively as he heard it, Theodore grabbed Lila by her waist, pulled her towards the unlit corner of the lab, the loud booming from the shotgun piercing the silence, and Theodore sees an outline of a small shadow, panicking as it ran across the walls, away from the sounds of the shotgun.
Hidden, Theodore overhears the sound of footsteps and sharp breaths as someone fumbled around, looking around.
It's Johnathan Bradley, unsurprisingly, with a shotgun, in his laboratory.
"Where are you?" Theodore heard the crackly voice of Johnathan Bradley, reloading his shotgun as he pursued the shadow.
Guess that answered another question they had about him, he's completely cracked from insanity, at least what Theodore thinks.
Holding Lila close to him tightly, Theodore listened to Johnathan Bradley as he carefully walked around his laboratory, looking for the shadow.
Chewing on his inner lip, Theodore thinks, as he does, his icy blue eyes caught sight of movement beside him, and when his slightly turned his head, he sees the shadowy child knelt beside him, hiding with them from the lurching Johnathan Bradley.
Pondering before seeing how the man's closer to their hiding spots, Theodore then threw his voice to ward the man away, and to his credit, it worked, but having his hearing partially distorted briefly when Johnathan Bradley set off the shotgun near them didn't help.
Lila nearly leapt from the shotgun going off near them, Theodore held her tightly as he held her close, as he sees the man hurrying towards where Theodore threw his voice, and then the man decided to turn on a light.
A large flood light, pointed in the centre of the entire laboratory with Johnathan Bradley controlling it, still wielding the shotgun.
Theodore hit the ground with Lila under him when the shotgun went off again, this time, above the table they hid under.
Clutching her closely and becoming increasingly infuriated, Theodore decided to reach for something closest to him, his large hand slowly moved through the darkness, until he felt something moving towards him, an extra set of tripods Johnathan Bradley kept under one of the tables.
Assuming it was the child, Theodore gently pulled the tripod towards him with his free hand, while keeping his other around Lila, his icy blue eyes narrowed on Johnathan Bradley while he flashed the flood light everywhere in his lab, looking for either the shadows or intruders.
Holding his breath, Theodore counted in his head as he timed the moments that Johnathan Bradley moved the flood light, when the moment struck, Theodore launched the tripod with his enchanted strength, straight at the flood light, shattering it into pieces.
He ducked the moment he heard the shotgun racked and Johnathan Bradley using it once again, causing Lila to moan, "Who is this guy, Rambo?"
Somehow having enough shotgun shells to shoot at everything, no wonder Lila thought they were up against Rambo.
At least he didn't have incendiary ammo or explosives on hand, don't think it'll turn out well for both parties in that regard, in an enclosed space like this.
Nearly bit his inner lip bloody, Theodore did what no one would in his situation, because they're not him, and they'd think he's crazy in trying something like this, but they're in a desperate situation, one they can't wait around and hope that Johnathan Bradley finally runs out of bullets or his shotgun overheats.
Whichever the case may be.
Oh, the things he must do as the Doctor.
Cautiously, Theodore reached out with his telepathy, not to Al, this time, but to whomever intercepted his telepathy before, normally he wouldn't attempt it on account the last time the voice sounded threatening, but in this instance, he couldn't chance it intercepting Al, again.
Rather have that, Theodore's cutting out of the middleman.
"Listen to me, we're not part of this, we want to help you, you understand this, yes?" Theodore tried to reach whoever intercepted his message to Al before, "help me stop him and we can send them back, but we can't get near him without risking our heads!"
Without his ability to cleverly open rifts and simply disarming Johnathan Bradley that way, Theodore isn't risking his health.
Maybe he has healing powers akin to Wolverine, but there's a difference.
Wolverine's a comic book character and he's real, healing isn't instantaneous for him, which is why he'd like not to have to explain to dear brother why he has holes in his chest.
Theodore couldn't wait for the response, as Johnathan Bradley's going through aisles, his shotgun racked once more, and he acted fast, pulling Lila as he led her through the underside of the tables, avoiding Johnathan Bradley.
"Go away!" Theodore heard the man cry out. "Go away! Begone, you devil!"
Sounded like Johnathan Bradley had problems of his own making before he and Lila arrived there and Theodore grew curious as he heard the disheveled man cry out in terror as he's hunting whatever it was that drove him into that state.
Could've been the shadowy child?
Perhaps not, as Theodore saw it disappear the moment the shooting started, again, likely out of fear, as Theodore would've fled, too, if he could.
Hurrying while on all fours, the two fled towards the entrance into the room, hoping to get through it, and run back through the hallways, trying to avoid becoming Swiss cheeses.
They're close to it when a blinding light flashed them, paralyzing them as they struggled to cover their faces, and they heard Johnathan Bradley shout, "The Devil! The Devil's here!"
With the business end of the shotgun pointed at Lila's face, made Theodore's tone of voice quickly change, and he immediately demanded Johnathan Bradley put down his shotgun, else he risked more than just hearing loss.
"The Devil's been after me for weeks! He-he's been whispering in my ears all day and night!" Johnathan Bradley didn't hear a word Theodore said as he kept the business end of the barrel right on Lila's nose, causing Theodore to come up with another plan, if Johnathan Bradley wouldn't listen to him.
If at first, he didn't succeed getting his point across, try, try again, but with a twist… of a knife.
Well, it's a dire situation and they're outmatched, Theodore did what he could with what he had, but by doing so, it broke the blade completely off the handle, as Theodore stabbed it through the top of Johnathan Bradley's foot.
When Johnathan Bradley reflexively kicked his foot, trying to get the knife away from him, that was the point where the blade broke from the handle, much to Lila's dismay.
Still gave Theodore plenty of time to apprehend Johnathan Bradley while he's in shock from the stabbing and his mind hadn't recovered from the point, yet, and he kneed the man in the gut, sending him to the ground while Lila quickly grabbed the shotgun from him after his grip loosened enough that he couldn't hold the shotgun with a tight grip.
Struggling on the ground as he weakly moved his foot in agony, Johnathan Bradley wailed in pain, as Theodore kicked the bright light he used to blind them temporary in anger, leaving them in the dim darkness.
"Enough!" Theodore's voice boomed as he looked down on the man struggling as blood seeped from his shoe. "If you're done wasting mineral and your hearing, I demand that you explain to me, what you've done?"
That tone of voice wouldn't be uncharacteristic for someone like Hammond, but coming from Theodore, it's enough to make Lila stop for a moment when she heard him drop the aloof giant act and turn sharper than the blade he'd broken in Johnathan Bradley's foot.
"I… I unleashed the Devil!" Johnathan Bradley looked up at him, slack on the ground as his face's shrouded by the dim darkness. "I saw him! He exists! The Devil exists!"
Insisting he unintentionally released the Devil from the negative zone, Johnathan Bradley swore that the Devil came for him, so he ran, but the Devil's everywhere, and the Devil won't let him go.
It'd appear that after spending an extended period in isolation that Johnathan Bradley lost a bit of his mind, but he believed that the Devil's after him.
"Why would the Devil be after you?" Lila tried to understand the lunacy the man's going through and he informed her that when he proceeded his studies on the negative zone, he'd taken a picture of one of the universe's secrets, but that secret turned out more than he bargained for, and no amount of pushing back sent the purported Devil back into the negative zone.
Once Johnathan Bradley released it, it won't go back, and now he's afraid for his life, that he unleashed the Devil onto the whole world.
It's about as crazy as some conspiracies that Lila's heard and experienced, but none of it matched this type of crazy, and Theodore ended up asking Johnathan Bradley why he decided this type of science of all things.
"You don't understand. There's a world beyond ours, a world we don't belong, and in that world, the rules of reality don't exist, and in my insistence of studying, I've broken the barrier," Johnathan Bradley pleads with Theodore that his intentions didn't mean to cause this calamity, he only wanted to learn what layers of their world existed, and how it associated with the myth of shadow people.
"How did you bring them into our world in the first place?" Lila wanted to know how the man managed to bring things from the negative zone, only for Johnathan Bradley to tell her that he gotten inspired.
He alleged that the inspiration came from a shadow person that ended up being the Devil himself, using Johnathan Bradley so he may enter their world, tricked him, now he wants to tie up loose ends.
Seeing how unhinged Johnathan Bradley's become become, Theodore bit his inner before asking the man, "How do you send them back?"
If they send back the shadow people, maybe the universe wouldn't torment Johnathan Bradley as its clearly doing out of retaliation for stealing from it and the man revealed that he normally reverses taking their photographs.
"I'm sorry, what?" Lila raised her brow as she hears Johnathan Bradley haphazardly explain how he sent back the shadow people after learning what he could from them.
Gesturing, Johnathan Bradley says that on his cameras, there's a special slot, where he'll take the photo of the shadow person, and put it in.
When he took another picture with the used photo in the reel, it caused a reaction that "resets" the developed photo, made it become a blank slate.
The shadows photographed disappear from the photo, then they disappear from his building.
There isn't time for them to discuss it in depth, Theodore wanted this situation resolved, as he didn't want anymore ringing in his ears from the shotgun.
Forcing him up on his feet, him hobbling as he's trying to avoid his wounded foot, Johnathan Bradley's forced to show them a camera that'll help send back the shadows, though he warned that he tried sending them back before, but he ran into issues.
Namely, one shadow won't go back, the Devil, and Johnathan Bradley's convinced if he shoots the Devil, maybe it'll send him back, but Theodore wasn't going to attempt at deciphering the man's madness.
Remembering the photograph of the shadowy child, Theodore retrieved it from his pocket, and with the camera, followed Johnathan Bradley's instructions.
Loading it into the camera, Theodore called out to the shadowy child, informing it that he's following through, he's sending them home.
As he's about to push down on the button, Theodore felt a phantom tug on his arm, and he looked down to see the shadowy child next to him.
There's whispers, too faint for him to hear, but he briefly heard a panicked, "Don't!"
Recoiling with his finger off the button, Theodore asks what's the matter, only for the shadowy child to respond faintly, "Lies!"
Hearing this, Theodore's ire grew as he pointedly looked down at Johnathan Bradley while he struggled to move.
"What exactly does this camera do?" Theodore questioned Johnathan Bradley.
Struggling, Johnathan Bradley swore that it'll send the shadow people back to the negative zone, but Theodore informed him that he heard a conflicting answer, and it resulted in Johnathan Bradley seeing the small shadowy hands clutching Theodore's arm.
He started panicking, but he couldn't do much as Theodore grabbed him with his free hand, keeping him in place, demanding to know what the camera did to shadow people.
Blood oozed from the top of his foot as he struggled to move it, Johnathan Bradley replied in fright, unable to lie to Theodore anymore, that he developed this camera and others like it as a weapon against the shadow people when he realized they weren't going back to the negative zone like he wanted.
He'd take pictures of them and when he tried sending them back with the original variant, it stopped working, the shadows wouldn't go back to the negative zone, they've become used to his cameras, so he ended up remaking his cameras into weapons that used prior knowledge and simply wiped the shadow people from existence as the universe would in the negative zone.
The shadow people withered and went away in a flash of light, like they would if they were in the negative zone, Johnathan Bradley didn't think much of it because they weren't actual people, far from it for him to show sympathy.
Unfortunately, though, Theodore didn't share Johnathan Bradley's beliefs, and he demanded the disavowed researcher to tell them how to send the shadow people back, but Johnathan Bradley said he doesn't know how, he only had the cameras.
Before Theodore can hoist Johnathan Bradley, the disavowed researcher ended up striking him with a hidden bar he used to hold up a different camera, sending Theodore backwards.
Freed from his grip, Johnathan Bradley rushed to retrieve the shotgun from Lila who kept it away from him, emptying the shotgun the moment she took it from him when Theodore initially knocked it out his hands.
Wobbling due to the pain from the knife still in his foot, Johnathan Bradley targeted Lila, as she used the brunt end of the shotgun as a weapon against him.
Quickly, Theodore recovered from his daze, the shadowy child clung to his arm yet again, tugging on it, urging him, and he turned his attention to Lila.
Rushing towards Johnathan Bradley, Theodore used his long arms to wrap around the man, squeezing him with his strength until the man couldn't move an inch.
He still struggled and Theodore demanded to know how they send back the shadows, once more Johnathan Bradley said he doesn't know how to do it anymore, after they started growing use to his cameras, he couldn't do anything except kill them as the universe did.
"And the Devil, what of it?" Theodore wanted to know why this particular shadow vexed Johnathan Bradley, so, and the struggling man barely moved his arms as he responded.
"Like I told you, I think he came out of the negative zone!" Johnathan Bradley insisted what he said to Theodore's the honest truth.
The Devil came out of the negative zone and tormented him, as punishment for his perversion.
Unable to get any sort of answers from him, Theodore's beside himself, before turning his attention to Lila, asking if she's fine, and she responded that she'll live.
Lila lowered the shotgun as she watched Theodore stronghold Johnathan Bradley in place, this adventure's one of the least comprehensive ones she's been on, and none of it made any lick of sense to her.
Johnathan Bradley stole from the negative zone and the universe, that much she got, but then here comes the bizarre story of the Devil vexing Johnathan Bradley for his sins, make do with that if you will.
Shotgun, cameras, darkness, what kind of adventure would that make for a story?
Well, she should've known better than to mutter that in her head, because as she's watching this insane show unfold in front of her, Lila started feeling a dark presence behind her.
Heavy, foreboding, and she felts eyes firmly on her, that her body wouldn't let her turn her head to see, not that she would, Lila watched enough horror movies.
She wanted to reach out to Theodore, but with the unknown voice that talked to him before, she didn't want the risk of it cropping up in their communications.
It's dark, so Theodore couldn't see her gesturing.
Lila would just run like hell towards Theodore, but something's keeping her in place, her feet like cement blocks, and she attempted to verbally communicate with Theodore, but something prevented her from speaking, too.
Stuck, Lila's forced to watch as Theodore forced Johnathan Bradley into one of the chairs he found, threatening to do worse if Johnathan Bradley attempted to attack them again.
"Lee…laa" Lila heard the whisper in her ear of a voice that came from no one in the room.
Her limbs suddenly animated and she's able to flee towards the surprised arms of Theodore.
Pointing towards where she stood, Lila warned him that there's another shadow in the room with them.
"It's the Devil!" Johnathan Bradley warns them once more, but Theodore wasn't listening to him much anymore, instead using his torch on the spot.
There's a tall dark imposing figure where Lila stood, devoid of features, but Theodore felt the eyes on him immediately, those unseen eyes, filled with hate.
Johnathan Bradley wanted him to use the camera on the Devil, but Theodore couldn't do anything except clutch Lila as there's a sudden change in pressure, he felt his ears popping, and it felt like he'd gone over a tall hill.
It worsened and Lila noticed the air's shifting, frightfully cold, and then they noticed a blackness on the ceiling, a shade of black that permitted the darkness.
Seeing this, it left them confused, unable to process what happened, but then Theodore heard a rumbling voice in his head.
"I… found… you…" he heard the low hiss of a voice unlike anything he heard before.
A bright light enshrouded the room, enough to blind Theodore and Lila, stunning them in place, and it lasted for minutes, with Theodore forced to hunker in place with Lila as they recovered from the blinding light.
His eyes forced closed, Theodore clutched his arms around Lila, her face buried in his chest.
When the nauseating feeling passed, Theodore opened his eyes, and the laboratory's in darkness once more, with one change.
Johnathan Bradley nowhere in sight.
He couldn't escape with the knife blade in his foot, there'd be trail of blood outing where he's going, but he was nowhere in the vicinity, with Theodore checking for him, and as he did, Lila found the bloodied blade from her broken knife, wedged in the ground near the center of the ceiling.
Looking up, Lila sees blood on the ceiling, where Theodore saw the blackness.
As they're processing what happened, Lila immediately grabbed Theodore's arm the moment Al shown up with little fanfare, a mix of surprised and spook on his face.
"Where were you two?" Al asked them where they went, leading Theodore to tell him what'd happen, and Al's miffed as he said that he swore that he had the two on his scanners, but then, they were gone, and he panicked.
He panicked more when he couldn't find them even more when he found that he couldn't move.
Something kept him there and he just now gotten out of his stupor.
"Where are we on the Bradley guy?" Al asks Theodore, leading the aloof giant to point at the ceiling, the blood on it solidified.
"The ceiling ate him?" Al's baffled at the explanation before Theodore reminded him of the unknown voice.
Blinking, Al pondered before saying that he noticed strange little blips on his radar, like someone was coming towards them, and in a brief moment, Al saw the blips, then nothing.
Furrowing his bushy brow as he's thinking about their situation, Al's spurred when he felt something on his scanners, and their eyes locked with movement, something coming towards them.
It's the shadowy child, coming to thank them.
Al helped translate for them and Theodore asked what happened to Johnathan Bradley and through Al, the shadowy child told him that the disavowed researcher made their mother angry.
So, she's punishing him for the deaths of the shadow people.
How, well, what he said about the negative zone, it's not hard to picture what would happen to a man like Johnathan Bradley in the mercy of a vengeful universe.
The shadowy child stayed around to make sure their mother didn't take them, convincing her that Theodore and Lila wanted to help them, not do the same things as Johnathan Bradley.
"So, what now?" Lila asks what they're supposed to do with the loss of Johnathan Bradley.
Al tells her that the universe wants to destroy the entire building and prevent anyone else from getting ideas, so, for their sake, they needed to leave, and fast.
"That I can live with," Lila wanted nothing more than to leave and readjust her eyes to the presence of lights, again.
Nodding, Theodore prepared to leave with them, not before seeing the shadowy child off, and through Al, they thanked him for helping them, which Theodore responded that it's his job.
Tilting their shadowy head, the child tells Theodore that they know he's the Doctor, the universe knows him by heart, and the only reason he's standing here today's because even it knew the importance of the Doctor.
That said, the shadowy child disappeared, as did Theodore and Lila into the waiting TARDIS, disappearing themselves, before the universe unleashed a nightmarish storm that destroyed the building until nothing existed anymore.
Among the rubble, there's subtle movement, and a dark shadow moved among the rubble unimpeded, stopping for a moment to pick up the bloodied broken blade.
"Lee… laa…" it hisses.
THE END